CULTURAL QA 01-2024-27 All the BELOW QA are from Quora digest to me on 27-01-2024.
Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers .Compiled and posted by R. Gopalakrishnan, on 27-01-2024 Q1 Whyhas Sri Lanka historically never been a part of India despite its proximity tothe Indian sub-continent? A1 Dr.Balaji Viswanathan, History buff6y The last kingof Sri Lanka, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha of Kandy, was born in Madurai and died inVellore - both in India. The present Sri Lankan flag comes from his dynasty - Nayaks of Kandy -and thatdynasty is closely related to the Nayaks that ruled Madurai and Thanjavur. That is just one of several examples. For most of itshistory, Sri Lankan dynasties were closely tied to the various Indian dynasties- of Tamil Nadu, Odisha and possibly Bengal. The culture of that country is also closely tied toIndia’s. However, being a large island, Sri Lanka also retained afair amount of political autonomy. In general, islands at the tip of large continents - thinkEngland at the tip of Europe, Japan at the tip of Eurasia and Sri Lanka at thetip of India - have been able to borrow the cultural elements of themainland while still retaining their independence. The reason is that islands of that size are hard toconquer. You need a large number of ships to bring sufficienttroops into the island. This is not sustainable. At the heightsof Chola empire, their navies could control Sri Lanka. But, once the navalpower weakened, Sri Lanka once again got back its autonomy. Q2 Whatdo you know that most people don’t? A2 ShalinSheth,M.S in Civil Engineering & Structural Engineering, University ofHouston (Graduated 2019)5y I'll tell you a fact which will make you question yourintuitive power: If you manage to wrap a cylinder around the Eiffel Tower,the air inside the cylinder will outweigh the weight of the tower itself! Gustav Eiffel, the manbehind the design of the monument, was an absolute genius. The Eiffel Tower's design is actually inspired by thebiological structure of the femur (the human thigh bone). He was once researching the structure of the femur andrealized that the connection, or the joint, between the femur and hip bone ismade up of many minute fibre like material called the trabaculae, which arewoven in a criss cross pattern. So basically, they involve a lot of airgaps in between them rather than the actual bone material. In layman's terms,there's material only where you need it to be, i.e, only where the forces areactually acting. Eiffel used this concept in designing the trusses (the X shapedcomponents of structures) used in the tower which, if you look more closely, hasa lot of holes. This significantly reduces the weight of the structure asyou can leave the rest of the space empty…. The femur bone is one ofthe many naturally nano engineered structures from which structural engineersderive inspiration.Imagine the amount of steel which appears to be used in the construction;that still weighs less than the air surrounding it. This particularbranch of structural engineering is called biomimetics. Sources: An interestingfact about the Eiffel Tower Q3 Whatis the funniest joke you've been told that you still think about to this day? A3 Ace Adams,OPD at Walmart (company) (2021–present)Fri A man is driving downthe road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes into the monastery and asks the monks if hecan stay for the night. They graciously accept and shelter him for the night,and even help fix his car. Ashe’s trying to fall asleep, he hears a very strange sound. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, butthey say “Sorry, we can't tell you, you're not a monk.” He’s disappointed, buthe thanks them anyway and heads out. Years later, he breaks down in front of the same monastery,and once again, the monks take him in for the night. He hears the same strangesound, he asks again what it was. They tell him the same thing they told himbefore: “Sorry, we can't tell you, you're not a monk.” At this point, the man says “Alright, I’mdying to know. If the only way I can find out is to become a monk, then how doI become a monk?” The monks tell him “You must travel the earth and countevery blade of grass and every grain of sand there is. Return to us with thesenumbers, and you will be made a monk.” Determined, the man sets off to his task. Decades later, hereturns to the monastery. He tells the monks “I have traveled the earth and found theinformation you requested. There are 145,236,687,353 blades of grass and246,243,379,574,475,133 grains of sand on the earth.” The monks reply“Congratulations, you are now a monk. We will now lead you to the source of thesound.” They lead him to a large, ornate wooden door. The source ofthe sound is right behind this door. He reaches for the handle, only to find it is locked. He says “Very funny.May I have the key?” The monks provide the key, and he opens the door, only tofind that behind the wooden door is a large, elaborate stone door. He demands the key tothis door as well, only to find a large, intricate silver door behind it. Behind the silver door is another door, made of gold. Behindthe gold door is another door, made of ruby. Behind the ruby door is anotherdoor, made of sapphire. The process goes onfor several more doors, made of emerald, topaz, and amethyst. Finally, the monkstell the man that he has reached the final door. He’s relieved to have finally reached the end. He unlocks the finaldoor, and pulls it open, amazed to finally find the source of the strangenoise. What was it? Sorry, I can't tell you. You're not a monk. Q4 Whatis your best joke about corruption? A4 PaulBarends, says things Updated 6y An influentialindustrialist and his friend, a government minister, are at a reception. The industrialist askshis friend: “Can I ask you a favor?” “What can I do foryou?” answers the minister and the industrialist continues: It’s my youngest kid. He’s27 now and still hanging around at college. Drinking and pranking with his nogood buddies. Too lazy to even look for a job. Wouldn’t you be able to findsomething for him? ” “Sure!” answers theminister: “How about I makehim assistant-secretary with a salary of 10,000 euros per month?” The industrialist: “That’s way too good for him. He has tolearn to put some effort in it, you see?” “Then how about department headwith a monthly pay of 6,000 euros?” says the minister. “Still too good. Hehas to learn to appreciate money. What I want for him is to start at the bottomand receive a 1,200 euros wage just like everyone else. It has to be the kindof job where you have to work hard to prove yourself before you get a raise ora promotion.” the industrialist explains. “Sorry!” says the minister: “In that case there is nothing I can do foryou I’m afraid.” “Why not?” asks the surprised industrialist. “For such jobs you need to pass exams first.” theminister answers. Q5 Doyou know a joke about a father and his son? A5 Andras Lu,Jan 20 While reading an article last night about fathers and sons, memories came flooding back tothe time I took my son out for his first beer. Off we went to our local pub only two blocks from home. I got him a Guinness.He didn't like it, so I drank it. Possibly too strong a taste, so I bought him a Worthington's, he didn't like thateither, so I drank it. Possibly something lighter? I thought he might like a local lager. He didn't. Idrank it. Something sweeter? He didn't like Woodpecker cider. I drank that too. In desperation, I got him a single malt. He totally refused it. What could Ido but drink it! By the time I realized he just didn't like to drink, Iwas so flaming drunk Icould hardly push his pram back home. -- 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/662066617.838120.1706362050854%40mail.yahoo.com.
