CULTURAL QA 12-2023-26 All the below QA are from Quora DIGEST to me on 26-12-2023.
Selected quora answers generallyinteresting are included .Still they need not be 100%correct answers. Compiled and posted by R.Gopala Krishnan, 80, former ITS on 26-12-2023. Q1 Is life really unfair? A1 Aashish Kumar Dimri, News and PoliticalAnalyst3y Childhood: When Ratan Tata was young , his parents Naval Tata and SooniTata went through a divorce that really impacted him and his younger brother.His parents remarried and he faced a kind of unwanted ragging from others. [1] Youth :When he was growing up, his father wanted him to be anengineer;while he was interested in being an architect. It impactedrelationship between father and son. Love: Hewas all set to marry his sweet heart; but her parents did not liketheir daughter to relocate to India; they both got separated.[2] Job: Hehad to face lots of opposition for his out ofbox business ideas . Although, he worked hard at various levels- shop floor tovarious department. Leadership:When he took leadership of this great company; there were many whowere sceptical as he was seen as inexperienced. Well, there were already manyrenowned business leaders around- Ajit Kelkar, Rusi Modi, Nani Palkivala andDarbari Seth. [3] Tussle :He had to take on many business rivals all hislife and also once known friends. [4] But: Childhood:Navajbai Sett, his grand mother raised him and his younger brotherwith earnest love. He always credits her for showering him and his brother withutmost love and care. Youth: Itwas Navajbai Sett, his grand mother ;who supported him to changehis engineering stream and thus he graduated in architecture from CornellUniversity. Love: He does not regret his bachelorhood and enjoys his privacy with dignity and prosperity. Well, Ratan Tata ispassionate about his life - flying , driving , pets and flora and fauna. Job: He never treats any job as inferior. No wonder, any legitimate work enriches his knowledge. One may find himeasily intermingling with global elite to common citizens.[5] Leadership : He is among the most respected global icons across the world. Powerful political and business leadersto common citizens all admire him . No wonder, JRD Tata found him as a worthysuccessor to lead Tata Sons.[6] Tussle: Well, it is very difficult to destroy good will earned him. He always gives importance to good will (and dignity)to wealth, power or publicity.[7] Conclusion: When life is sweet say thank you and celebrate ; when it is bitter ,say thank you and grow : Quotation Q2 Are there any facts that are extremelyscary to know? A2 Anthony, Studied at Haki (One Piece power)(Graduated 2019)Updated 3y In 1997, 14 year old Nathan Zohnerpresented his science fair project to his classmates, seekingto ban a highly dangerous chemical from its everyday use. The chemical in question? Dihydrogen monoxide. Throughouthis presentation, Zohnerprovided his audience scientifically correct evidence as to why this chemicalshould be banned. He explained that dihydrogenmonoxide: Cancause severe burns while it’s in gas form Corrodesand rusts metal Killscountless people annually Is commonly found in tumors, acidrain, etc. Causes excessive urination andbloating if consumed Zohneralso noted that the chemical is able to kill you if you depend on it and thenexperience an extended withdrawal. He then asked his classmates if theyactually wanted to ban dihydrogen monoxide. And so 43out of the 50 children present voted to ban this obviously unsafe chemical. However…thischemical isn’t typically considered toxic atall. Infact, dihydrogen monoxide is simply an unconventional name for water. Nathan Zohner’s experiment wasn’t alegitimate attempt to ban water, but instead an experiment to get arepresentation of how gullible people can really be. Also, all ofthe points that Zohner used to convey his point were 100% factually correct; hejust skewed all of the information in his favor by omitting certain facts. One journalist eventually dubbed thisevent as ‘Zohnerism’, where true facts are used to mislead people towards falseconclusions. Andthis occurs a lot more often than you think, especially when politicians,journalists, etc., use proven facts to persuade people into believing falseclaims. The factthat people can mislead, and be misled so easily, is highly unsettling. My note- I have selected this QA for themeaning of the word‘Zohnerism’ Q3 What capital cities of the world werepoorly chosen? A3 Susanna Viljanen, Knows Finnish14h Helsinki, Finland. TheWhite City of North is extremely beautiful and nice place, but Finland is a serious case ofpost-glacial rebound Thecrust of the Earth is rising and sea is retreating after the Ice Age. Helsinkiwas originally founded in the mouth of river Vantaa, providing a harbour forboth seabourne traffic to abroad and riverbourne traffic to inland. A goodsite, huh? Within merely 100 years, the crust ofthe earth had risen so much that the mouth of the river Vantaa had evolved intoa waterfall, effectively cutting the riverbourne traffic inlands off, and thesea fjard (Vanhankaupunkinselkä) had become so shallow it wasdangerous to navigate for oceangoing vessels. So thetown was moved to the current place in 1628. But the post-glacial rebound isstill very much present, and the seabed rises up 50 cm each century. Not only does Helsinki gain new land each year, but also fairways get shallower, harbours, piers andjetties rise up, straits between the islands get narrower and shallower, andsome straits get un navigable completely. Moreover,Helsinki has been founded on a cape, and it is an awful cul-de-sactraffic-wise. FortunatelyHelsinki has good public transport, and car is not really needed in the city. The main freight harbour was moved toVuosaari ten years ago, and nowadays only passenger ferriesand leisure boats use the four old harbours any more. The riseof the earth’s crust is perfectly observable in one human life. It is very much evident in the archipelago - and it is the strongest inOstrobothnia, where earth can rise for one metre in a century. Q4 If the Earth is round, why are housesbuilt on a flat foundation? A4 Silk Road,10h A flatplane on a round Earth would cause the edges to hang over, causing a lack ofbalance and structural stability. “If the Earth is round”? OKflat earther, Earth isdefinitely round, and there's a lot of evidence to prove it. For example, you can't see the North Star from theSouthern Hemisphere, because it's hidden by the Earth's curvature. You can also see the Earth's shadow on the moonduring a lunar eclipse, and it's always round. And ofcourse, we have satellites and astronauts that have taken pictures of the Earthfrom space, and they all show a spherical planet…etc Now, webuild houses on a flat foundation because the Earth is so big that itscurvature is very small over short distances. TheEarth has a radius of about 6,400 kilometers, which means that itscircumference is about 40,000 kilometers. Thatmeans that for every kilometer you travel along the surface of the Earth, youonly go down about 8 centimeters. That'sless than the height of a soda can. Soover the distance of a typical house, the curvature of the Earth is negligible. You wouldn't notice any difference if you built your house on a flat ora curved foundation. We also build this way because it'seasier and cheaper to do so. Building a curved foundation wouldrequire more materials and more complicated engineering. It would also make it harder to fitfurniture and appliances inside the house. And there's no real benefit to building a curved foundation, because itwouldn't affect the stability or comfort of the house. The only reason to build a curvedfoundation would be to match the shape of the Earth, but that's not necessaryor practical. TheEarth is round, but houses are built on a flat foundation because it doesn'tmatter and it's simpler. Q5 Do you have any examples of dictators thatactually did their country good? A5 Health Daily Advice,18h There’squite a few. If you are from the West, some of these might shock you. If youare not, well, enjoy the ride :) Number 1: Muammar Gaddafi. Gaddafiwhen he was a lot younger. Quite handsome, right? Gaddafi is often portrayed as a bad guy, and asRonnie put it “the mad dog of the Middle East” But thatis in fact, not true. Let’stake a look at some of the luxuries that Libyan citizens had during his rule 1:Free electricity.2: Free housing. 3:Free healthcare. Not only free healthcare, but the best free healthcare inAfrica and the Arab world. 4: Ahigh GDP per capita for two decades before the West started sanctioning Libya. 5: Aportion of the money made from oil sales went directly into the bank accountsof Libyan citizens. 6: Ifhealthcare in Libya was not sufficient, the state would finance the entire tripto a foreign hospital. Icould go on and on, but those are just six things. Alsothis Libyahad the highest rating on the Human Development Index in Africa while Gaddafiruled it.So while he might be portrayed as a bad guy, he wasactually a really good leader. Number 2: Lee Kuan Yew Ayoung Lee Kuan Yew Lee.Kuan Yew was the Prime Minister of Singapore for three decades. In those threedecades, he transformed the undeveloped city state, which hadno natural resources, not much land area and a small army, into a shining example of adeveloped country. But he did this with many challenges facing him, likethe multiculturalism of Singapore. The population was a collection of Malays,Chinese, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Indonesians and many more ethnic groups. While hedid implement dictatorial measures, such as muffling the press, outlawingprotests and arbitrarily detaining people, he still holds thetitle of “The Least Brutal Dictator in History”. He did not kill a single person during his three-decade-longrule. Torture was not implemented either. Beforehe took the mantle of leader, Singapore was nothing more than a collection ofplastic houses and shanties. Look at Singapore now. Quitethe success story, isn’t it? Number 3: Park Chung-hee ParkChung-hee. Slick haircut, right? ParkChung-hee didn’t exactly come to power by democratic means. He made himself leader in amilitary coup. But unlike many leaders of military juntas, he was not aselfish blowhard who worked only to enrich himself. Instead, he enriched his country, South Korea. Hedeveloped South Korea’s banking sector, business sector, and enriched thecountry with a policy of export-oriented industralization. To giveyou some perspective, when he came to power, the GDP per capita in South Koreawas a miserable 59 dollars. When his rule ended, it was 1,000 dollars. Unfortunately,he was betrayed and assassinated in 1979, before he could do any more good toSouth Korea. And as abonus, he defended South Korea from communism. Number 4: Qaboos bin Said al Said, or Sultan of Omanfor short. Lookingquite dashing in a military uniform there. When he took power way back in 1970,Oman was the poorest country in the Arab world. Now,it gained the nickname of “The Switzerland of the Middle East”.All thanks to this man. Oman, like many other Arab countries,is rich mainly due to oil exports, but added to that, Omanalso has a developed banking and finance sector. Hence the nickname. Oman also serves as one bignegotiating table, due to its policy of military neutrality. In 1970, Oman had just three or fourschools. Now it has over a thousand, and a few universities,the most famous one being named after him. Also in 1970, the average GDP percapita in Oman was 345 dollars. Now, it is 15,000 dollars. Qaboos still rulesOman, and continues to improve it. While other Arab countries constantlysquabble, Oman quietly sits and looks by, enjoying its wealth. Number 5: Thomas Sankara ThomasSankara. Humble military uniform. Sankara achieved many great thingsduring his short rule. Heordered the planting of million upon millions of trees, in order to preventdesertification. He lowered his own salary, and ridthe government of most of its corruption, which was a giant problem. He connected the country viaroads, and built housing for the citizens of his country. He made itself-sufficient in farming. And he saved the country from French dominance. He renamed the country from UpperVolta, its colonial name, to Burkina Faso. He composed the nationalanthem, and designed the flag of Burkina Faso. Unfortunately, he was killed in amilitary coup, which was, predictably, sponsored bythe French. It installed a brutal dictator who impoverished the country and wasa puppet of the French. So, those were the top five dictators who did theircountry good. EDIT:After some research, I came to the conclusion that Lee Kuan Yew had in fact notrigged elections. Even the fiercest critics of his don’t say that he did. I amsorry to spread that misinformation around. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! -- 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/2081275430.2098301.1703571308102%40mail.yahoo.com.
