CULTURAL QA 02-2023-13 BEING A COMPILATIONTHERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Willwhite people globally still be around in the 22nd century? A1 Claire Jordan, Degree in biology andfolklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary on newspaper Tue There will be pale pink people for as long as there arepeople. The genes for pale skin are recessive,so even if we all blended together and had a generation who were all light tomid brown, a lot of themwould be carrying genes for pale skin, and every time two people who werecarrying pale genes got together, on average a quarter of their children wouldbe pale. Q2 Whatis the most frustrating thing about being a doctor? A2 Tiny Nair, Cardiologist at PRSHospital, Trivandrum22h I am a doctor, well trained, capable.Apatient comes with a heart attack. What can I do? Nothing. The patient needsadmission, blood tests, ECG, Echocardiogram, Troponin. If a heart attack is confirmedby these tests, he needs an angiogram and an angioplasty. If propertreatment is given ‘on time’ his chance of recovery is extremely high, comparedto what it was 50 years back. Look at the graphbelow. (Heart Attack Deaths over time)But I am helpless. Unless I have a team of nurses, doctors, technicians,Intensive care unit and a cath lab; I can offer you no good.You may be amazed by the string of my degrees and my white coat, but as asingle person I can offer you very little. The cost of settingup a health-care facility, a modern cardiac care centre runs into crores ofrupees. They are put byable and intelligent businessmen who are obviously not doing it for charity.So, the cost escalated. A huge leap at a big cost. Private hospitalsare too costly, government too crowded. So both places, access is difficult,despite different challenges. Today, there are very clear ways and means, drugs anddevices, interventions and surgeries available to save a life.But the system in place doesn’t allow it for everyone to use. Unfortunately, formost people, the doctor is the face of medical treatment. ‘Doctor, can the charges be reduced?’ ‘The costs are too high’. ‘The medicines aretoo expensive’. ‘Can I come and see you at home instead of the hospital?’ ‘Only last month I had an echo done. Whyagain? It is so costly?’ I wish Ihad the answers. I don’t. Most doctors don’t. By the way, if youare thinking, ‘Why not Government force the private hospitals to lowercharges’, the answer is clear. They would wind up and find some other lucrativebusiness. The sufferingpatient and the frustrated doctor would still have no respite. A ‘hassle free’,‘no-questions-asked’, ‘all-encompassing’, ‘universally accepted’ and‘affordable’ health insurance is the only answer. My note- a QA whichI appreciate much being sincere and open minded. Rare doctors will write inthis manner. However even in health insurance there is co-payment, even if 80000-00 is sanctioned the person will get around 55000-00. Q3 Whatis it that 99% of India's people don't know? Do you know why plants and shrubsare grown along national highways and various roads? A3 Curious-Brain, Answered by GopalGupta Feb 11 If you think it isto enhance the beauty or increase the number of trees, then friend, its use ismuch more than that. These shrubs or plants are usually thickets that blockthe glare of the headlights. If thesebushes were not there, one could be confused whether they are traveling on theother side of the highway or on a wrong path, which may result in an accident. In addition, thebushes perform another function. These bushes have sharp leaves andthorns which prevent the animals from moving from one side to the other, thusthey avoid accidents. This applies toIndia and some other countries, although I don't know about other countries. Q4 Whatis special with the Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway? A4 Emma Robin, lived in China for awhile9h Jakarta-BandungHigh-Speed Railway, a high-speed railroad linking Jakarta, the capital ofIndonesia, and Bandung, the fourth largest city, is the first high-speed railroad in Southeast Asiaand the first high-speed railroad project of China's high-speed railway to landoverseas with a full system, full elements and full industrialchain. As the first high-speed railroad in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, theYawan high-speed railroad will give a strong impetus to create a "Yawanhigh-speed railway economic belt" in the areas along the line. Thesuccessful implementation of Yawan high-speed railway project has set a newrecord of pragmatic cooperation between China and Indonesia, and will set a newbenchmark for the cooperation between the two countries in various fields,especially in the field of infrastructure and production capacity. In recent years, China and Indonesia have been expandingtheir cooperation fields and deepening their cooperationpattern, from "three-horse-driven" to "four-wheel-driven",and the completion of the Yavan high-speed railway has formed a "two-wayrun" between China and Indonesia to seek development and prosperity. "The Yawan Express RailLink is a "bridge of happiness" and a "road to prosperity"between China and Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest archipelagiccountry in the world, and the "high-speed railway to the doorstep"will not only greatly improve the convenience of transportation, speed up theflow of people and logistics, and increase the happiness of local people, but alsoform a large number of localized industries, expand employment, enhance theoverall competitiveness of Indonesia, effectively drive the emergence of neweconomic growth points in Jakarta and Bandung, and contribute to thedevelopment of the "Land of a Thousand Islands". This will createdevelopment opportunities for the "Land of a Thousand Islands". While demonstratingthe vitality of "China-built" and boosting the economic developmentof both China and Indonesia, the Yawan Express Rail Link (YHR) demonstrates to the world the greatattractiveness of the Belt and Road Initiative. Under the premise ofmutual benefit and win-win situation, the Yawan Express Rail Link can seeklonger-term common interests and achieve common development. From thehigh-quality construction of "One Belt and One Road" to thecontinuous deepening of China-Indonesia cooperation mechanism, the YawanExpress Rail Link has created a model of mutual benefit and win-win situationand a model of common development for large developing countries, playing abeautiful music of harmony and coexistence, vividly interpreting the conceptand value of mutual benefit and win-win situation. The Yawan Express Railwayhas made the circle of friends of the Belt and Road bigger and bigger, thenumber of good partners has gradually increased, the quality of cooperation hassteadily improved, and the road to development has become wider and wider. Q5 Howdid humans start speaking? Which language did they start with? A5 Mats Andersson. Professional Translatorat Self-Employment (1991–present)Tue Many mammals communicate via sound.Prairie dogs, for instance, can communicate meanings like “human in red shirtapproaching from the west”. The question iswhen we can call it speech. How much more complex does it have to be? Chimpanzees have several dozenways of expressing various things; they employ a variety of combinations ofsounds and gestures. What it seems likeno animal does is grammar and syntax, where units of sound are modified andplaced in different orders to carry different meanings (although we might bewrong; we still don’t know what dolphins are saying). Manyresearchers believe Neanderthals had language; they haveengaged in coordinated activities and transmission of information that seemimpossible to do without language. They also had much of the same genetics aswe do that underpins speech. In that case, speech was probablyalready present in our common ancestor some 500,000 years ago (the date isquite uncertain). As for the how, there’s a mutation in the FOXP2 gene,a brain structure called Broca’s Area, and other anatomical odds and ends; it’squite obvious that once we started to be able to communicate better, this gaveus a huge advantage. But it’s a fair bet that we have always communicated asmuch, and as well, as our anatomy allowed; when it comes to the exact pointwhen the sounds we made were complex enough for the label speech, that isbasically a matter of when we choose to say it was. As for the first language, it’s long extinct.Only 10 years ago, it seemed like humans had started out in a relatively smallarea in or near present-day Ethiopia, in which case it would make sense thatthere was one first language; today they are leaning more towards the speciesarising in a bigger area all over northern Africa, which means it’s not certain that people from opposite ends of the area wouldunderstand each other. In the absence ofwriting, a language undergoes so many changes in 200–300 years that it becomes,for all purposes, a completely new language, and we are talking here about atime span 1,000 times greater. Anyway, the first band of Homo Sapiens that left Africa,some 40,000 years ago, quite likely all spoke the same language.This means that all languages outside Africa are descended from that language;it is virtually impossible to imagine that humans ever forgot how to speak andhad to invent it from scratch again. But as above: it changed beyond recognition over a handful ofcenturies, and crucially, in different directions in different geographicallyisolated groups, until we got the roughly 6,000 languages we have in the worldtoday. Q6 Ifa father deposits 8 lac rupees in cash at a time to his son's savings account,then does the son have to pay any income tax? A6 Prasanna Bhalerao, I have someknowledge about Indian Finance and Tax laws Feb 11 Gifts between first blood relations - cash or kind - areexempt from gift tax or income tax. However, thereceiver has to pay tax on any income earned on the gift. For example, the sonmay invest the money in a bank deposit or stock market and earn money via interest or capital gains.That amount is taxable. Q7 Whatis the difference between a toilet and a bathroom in England? A7 Claire Jordan, Degree in biology andfolklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary on newspaper30m A toilet is this-ora room which contains one of these and (usually) a sink (aka washhand basin),or a public room with a row of cubicles containing these, plus sinks, andsometimes urinals. A bathroom is a room which contains a bath and/or ashower, a sink and, usually but not always, a toilet. Let nobody mockAmericans for the twee euphemistic names they use for these things, because“toilet” is just as much of a euphemism. It’s a corruption of toilette, which really means combingyour hair, putting on make-up etc. And “lavatory” means a place to wash in. The onlynon-euphemistic name for it is “shitter”, or possibly “cludgie”. Q8 Whatperson destroyed their entire life by making one simple mistake? A8 Deepesh Pareek, Writer at Quora Wed Satyendra Dubey, ayoung engineer from Bihar In 2002, Dubey was working as a project director for theNational Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on a road construction project inBihar. He discovered that there was rampant corruptionin the project, with contractors siphoning off public funds and using substandardmaterials to build the road. Dubey reported the corruption to his superiors and tothe Central Vigilance Commission, a government agency tasked with investigatingcorruption. However, instead of being praisedfor his honesty and integrity, Dubey was threatened and harassed by hiscolleagues and superiors, who were part of the corruption network. Feeling that his life was in danger, Dubey wrote a letterto the Prime Minister's Office, detailing the corruption in the NHAI projectand asking for protection. However, his letter was leakedto the corrupt officials, and on the night of November 27, 2003, Dubeywas shot dead by unknown assailants. Dubey's deathsparked a national outrage and led to a public outcry against corruption inIndia. However, despiteseveral high-level investigations and promises of justice, no one has ever beenheld accountable for his murder. This is how onesimple mistake - in this case, reporting corruption and trying to do the rightthing - can have devastating consequences for someone's life. His bravery andsacrifice continue to inspire anti-corruption activists in India and around theworld. Even a seemingly small one, can have significant andlasting consequences on a person's life. My note- I have included this item, for the sad end a trueperson has to face in a corruptive world. Q9 Whichcompany makes the best dark chocolate in India, Amul or Dairy Milk? A9 Shaunak Bhattacharjeee, SoftwareEngineer | Traveller | Foodie8h Asking whichcompany makes the best dark chocolate is like asking which restaurant servesthe best biryani. There'sno “one answer fits all" in this regard. It depends from person to person,depending on their preferences. If you were to ask me, I personallyprefer Lindt when it comes to dark chocolates, but I don't like them too bittereither. 70% cocoa content is the threshold for me. If I were to comparebetween Amul and Dairy Milk — the most widely available chocolate brands inIndia, Amul enjoys an edge over Dairy Milk. I have always felt that Dairy Milkmixes a lot of other stuff in their chocolate. Even though it is the mostpopular chocolate brand in the country, it doesn't taste like real chocolate. Amul, on the otherhand, is a lot smoother and tastes more like chocolate. Their milk chocolatesare sweeter than Dairy Milk's, in my opinion, and taste much better thanCadbury Bourneville. The 55% cocoa content dark chocolate by Amul is myfavourite. There are 90%, 95% and even 99% cocoa content sold by Amul, which Ihaven't dared to try because they taste too bitter. Q10 Today,trains in the UK have a driver cabin in the front and back of the train so thatwhen a train can easily depart stations after arriving - it takes about 20minutes. What would the process have been with steam trains? A10 Jon Wisbey, long term enthusiast Tue There were two waysof doing things. Normally thelocomotive would be detached from the front of the train on arrival, it wouldthen run around the coaches, be re-attached to the front ready to take thetrain out again. This wasn’t a long process and a train could be turned aroundin 10–15 minutes. However In the 1880’s The Great Eastern Railway faced aproblem with a large number of suburban commuter services arriving at theLondon Liverpool Street terminus in a short periodof time during the ‘rush hours’ (7.30–8.30am and 5–6pm). As Liverpool Streetonly had a limited number of platforms they devised a system (later called‘jazz’) where as a trainarrived a second locomotive would be ready in a holding spur and as soon as theincoming train stopped, the new loco would run in and couple up to theend of the train. Thearriving engine would be uncoupled and the train would be ready to leave a fewminutes later. This could be done in as little as 3 minutes, withthe arriving loco following the train out of the platform and onto the spurready to take out the next arrival. This system was so fast and efficient thatother companies soon followed the idea and it remained standard practice forpeak hour suburban trains up until the introduction of electric and dieselmultiple units. My note- Irecollect seeing an engine reversing area in katpadijunction. The engine was taken to this round area which stands on axile.Just by forcibly rotating the axil (mechanically probably) the engine wasreversed. Then it was connected in the opposite direction. All the above QA are from Quora website on 17-02-2023 Quora answers need not be100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala Krishnan, 79years, on 18-02-2023 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1949638538.2347223.1676723713944%40mail.yahoo.com.
