CULTURAL QA 01-2024-29A All the BELOW QA are from Quora digest to me on 29-01-2024.
Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers .Compiled and posted by R. Gopalakrishnan, on 29-01-2024 Q1 What are some remarkable factsabout Switzerland? A1 LorianFlint, Machiavellian at heart3y Switzerland hasenough bunkers to fit all of their population in the case of a nuclear war. Swiss army pilots never go to supersonic speeds duringtraining. Because Switzerland is so small, it's impossible not to violate theborder of another country while flying so fast. This is because they wouldcross into the borders of another country if they went supersonic. Swisschocolatiers developed techniques to make chocolates with edible gold. If the Swiss wantto block off the country, they can do it with very few soldiers, because thetunnels and many highways have steel tubes that can be raised at the touch of abutton to block access. Trees that were planted long ago, in the event of invasion,would be cut to land across roadways, making roads impassable. Many companies employ people to do things likebookkeeping that could easily be automated. As a society, the Swiss have decided that low unemploymentbenefits everyone enough to make it worthwhile employing those people. Voting ismandatory. The average marriage age for Swiss men is 31.8 and29.5 for women. On the other hand, the divorce rate in Switzerland is about43%, and the average age for Swiss women to have their first child is 30.4years, which makes them the oldest women in Europe to do so. Switzerland is oneof the countries that own the most guns, however also has one of the lowestcrime rates. Q2 Why don't firemen use salt waterinstead of drinking water for extinguishing fire? A2 JonMixo, I plan for Emergency Preparedness in a number of industries.8mo In addition to some of the excellent answers alreadygiven there’s: Saltwater wouldseriously contaminate the areas around the fire - I take it that you have never seenthe aftermath of a suppressed fire, questioner, as there’s a LOT of water usedin most cases and since it’s freshwater there are no efforts to remediate it.However if salt or brackish water is used the damage to the landscaping andsurrounding structures, vehicles and equipment would be substantial. Theenvironmental damage could be significant - Thousands or tens thousands of gallons couldcreate serious ecological damage to an area that freshwater will not. In timespast that might have been overlooked; however in today’s environmentallyconscious and litigious society that could prove costly. There are farfewer fires overall - One of the reasons that city fire departments adoptedemergency medical service programs (EMS) in 1970s was that overall fire safetytraining and things like smoke detectors cut down the number of fires that theycould respond to. Most fire departments these days respond to medical calls,chemical spills, and vehicular accidents more so than fires making the costs ofadopting a saltwater system too costly for a minimal need. Saltwater canbe injurious to human beings - Firefighters are exposed to a number of toxinsand pathogens on a daily basis. It’s difficult to see how their employers ortheir respective unions would look kindly at the added problems and costs ofexposure to high pressure saltwater for years on end. Their insurers certainlywouldn’t appreciate it. IF freshwater becomes scarce enough to make firefightingseriously have to change what they use to fight fires it seem more likely thatthey would look towards chemical suppression foamsof sometype or treated grey water as a replacement for potable drinking water. Q3 Do ghosts really exist? A3 ManishRaj Sharma,CEO and Chief Training Analyst at MRS Training Services (2013–present)Oct28 There is a village called Ranshi, approximately 90 kmfrom the city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, where looks are quite deceiving. The village may have an unremarkable appearance to it;nothing that will stop you in your tracks, and those unaware may think that’sthe reason why this place doesn't get too many visitors. The reason is not the humbleappearance of the village. It’s something darker. It is said that people are afraid to visit this village. Andthe reason is a well. In this village, there is a stepwell, famously knownas the Bhoot Baavdi orBhoot Baoli. It is believed that the well was theresult of a combined work by humans and a spirit. Well, it is widely believed that thespirit did most of the construction work. Well, who is here to argue thatclaim? This story isof the time when Ranshi village was under the rule of Thakur Jai Singh. Back then, Ranshi village was apart of Jodhpur. One night, onhis way to Jodhpur, Thakur Jai Singh stopped by a nearby pond for a water breakfor himself and his horse. In the dark ofthe night, Thakur heard a sound coming from an area with some bushes.It was a spirit asking for water! The fact that the pond was so nearby, Thakur Jai Singhwondered why the spirit couldn’t just go and get himself some water and quenchhis thirst. Turns out, the spirit was carrying a curse that didn’tallow him to drink water on his own. Outof the kindness of his heart, Thakur Jai Singh got the spirit some water andeven shared his food with him. And instead of thanking him like peoplenormally do, the spirit instead told Thakur that he wanted to wrestlehim! It willtake us forever to see the sense in this but let’s go on with the story. The wrestling soonensued and Thakur Jai Singh easily defeated the spirit, who finally apologised. The spirit asked him forgivenessand told him that he would do anything. Taking this opportunity, Thakur Jai Singh told the spirit to construct a stepwell right in frontof the palace in Ranshi. The spiritagreed but with a condition – the workers can work during the daytime and he(the spirit) would work a hundred times the amount of work during the night,but on one condition. Thakur Jai Singh was not to mention aword about this meeting with the spirit and the well construction to anyone. In case Thakur broke hispromise, the stepwell would never get completed. The entire village was flabbergasted by the speed,with which the stepwell was nearing its final stage. And just when things weregetting too interesting for the residents too, Thakur JaiSingh’s wife pressed him for information, and he couldn’t keep this secret fromhim. Lo and behold, the construction stopped right then and there. It is said thatthe step well was supposed to be 200 feet deep and have more features. But itwas left unfinished. There are many versions to this story.Keep smiling. Keepshining, Q4 What is the scariest flag to seeflying on a ship? A4 LiamCrowleigh, Sailor for over 40 yearsUpdated 4y The scariestflag flying by itself on a ship would be the ‘yellow jack’. In alphabetical marine signalling it stands for theletter “L” (Lima) but if flown by itself it means ‘contagiousdisease on board’, ‘plague’ or ‘cholera’ (yellow fever + death hence yellow andblack). Seeing a boat flying just this flag it would be a goodidea to stay far away from it and to go upwind from it and unless you’re amedical professional, not to go on board. Q5 What's your favorite stupid joke? A5 VictorKogo, student Updated 5y There's this old priest who got sick of all the peoplein his parish who kept confessing to adultery. One Sunday, in the pulpit, he said, "if I hear onemore person confess to adultery, I'll quit!" Well, everyone likedhim, so they came up with a code word. Someone who had committedadultery would say they had "fallen". This seemed to satisfy the old priest and things wentwell, until the priestdied at a ripe old age. About a week after the new priest arrived, he visited the Mayor ofthe town and seemed very concerned. The priest said, "youhave to do something about the sidewalks in town. When people come into theconfessional, they keep talking about having fallen." The Mayor started to laugh, realizing that no-one had told the newpriest about the codeword. Before the mayor could explain, the priest shook anaccusing finger at the mayor and said, "I don't know whatyou're laughing about, Your wife fell three times this week." -- 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/1549849467.1388331.1706533012001%40mail.yahoo.com.
