CULTURAL QA 05-2024-07 All the BELOW QA are from Quora digest to me on 07-05-2024.
Quoraanswers need not be 100% correct answers .Compiled andposted by R. Gopala krishnan, on 07-05-2024 Q1 Howwas the North defined as the top part of the Earth and the South defined as thebottom part of the Earth? A1 Silk Road, Studied at Generative PreTraining11h We tend totake our orientation with maps and the globe for granted. North is up,south is down, and it seems like it's always been this way. But how didwe decide what's "up" on a giant, spinning ball floating in space? The truthis, it was quite arbitrary. For much ofhuman history, the concept of "north" and "south" asuniversal directions was non-existent. Many ancientmaps didn't even try to fit the whole planet on them, as accurate geographicknowledge was limited. Some earlyEgyptian maps placed south at the top, and in Medieval Europe, it was common toposition east at the top, referencing Jerusalem and the direction of sunrise. So, why north? Blame it on the stars. Well, onestar in particular: Polaris, a.k.a. the North Star. Earlyastronomers in the Northern Hemisphere noticed that Polaris seemed to sit stillwhile other stars rotated around it – a handy celestial signpost. Over time,this led to a widespread adoption of north as the standard direction at the topof maps. Of course,this northern-bias has a touch of historical happenstance to it. Since muchof human civilization developed in the Northern Hemisphere, where the NorthStar is visible, it solidified the idea of "north as up". Had earlycartographers been based in Australia, we might have a very different view ofour planet. And eventhough we've come to accept the current map layout, it still has limitations. The Earth isa sphere – there's no inherent top or bottom. This is whyyou occasionally come across maps with Antarctica proudly displayed at the top– a reminder that our perspective is entirely constructed. Q2 Whatis the world's oldest language still spoken today? A2 Michael de Werd, Studied History atLeiden University Updated Apr 14 Of course itis impossible to say how long a language has been spoken, but we can answer thequestion which language that is still spoken today has the longest writtenrecord - in other words: for which we have the oldest proof that is was used. Ithink that there two possible candidates for this title. Egyptian. Itthe probably the second-oldest recorded language in history. The oldest textsdate from 3200 BC. Although the oldest texts in Sumerian date from the sameperiod, most scholars believe that Sumerian started to be written earlier.However, the question is how far we can consider Egyptian a language that isstill spoken. Coptic, the youngest form of Egyptian, was spoken until the 18thCentury AD, but it is still in use as the liturgical language in the CopticChurch. It is written in the Coptic script which is closely related to theGreek script. So it is spoken during church services and there are people wholearn it. I have studied both classic Middle Egyptian and Coptic myself. I knowof a group of scholars in Egypt who try to converse in Coptic and it even saidthat it has been revived somewhere in Middle Egypt and some families speak indaily life. I am not sure if this is true and I am rather sceptic about suchstories. Greek. Theoldest surviving texts in an Archaic form of Greek were found on Crete in ascript called Linear B and date from the 15th Century BC, which makes it theoldest written Indo-European language after Hittite, that has died out over3000 years ago. After the so-called dark centuries Greek reappeared as awritten language in the 8th Century and flourished with authors like Homer andHesiod. From then on it was written in the Greek script that is still in usetoday. I have studied both Ancient and Modern Greek and I can confirm that ithas changed a lot over the course of time. However it is still recognizable asthe same language. The Airportin Athens; Greeks from the times of Homer didn’t know airplanes, trains orbuses but they could read the texts. Q3 Why kingRavana did not fight with king Aj? A3 Chauhan Babu Nath,18h Once King Ajwas worshiping at noon, at that time Ravana, the king of Lanka, came to fighthim and was watching him from a distance. King Aj worshiped Lord Shiva andinstead of offering water in front, he threw it back. Ravana wasvery surprised to see this and before the battle, he came in front of King Ajaand started asking that after worshiping, water is always anointed in the frontand not at the back. What is thereason behind this? King Aja said, when I was worshiping Lord Shiva inmeditation posture with my eyes closed, then I saw a cow grazing in the forestone yojana away from here and I saw that a lion was about to attack it. That'swhy I anointed the water backwards to protect the cow. Ravana wasvery surprised to hear this! Ravana wentthere one yojana away and saw a cow grazing on green grass while the lion hadmany arrows stuck in his stomach. Now Ravana believed that the great man whosearrows are made from water and without any means of aiming can achieve thegoal. It is very impossible to conquer such a brave man who gets pierced. And hereturns to Lanka without fighting with them! Q4 Cananyone give me a good joke? A4 Robert Farnsworth,2h There was aflood in town. Several inches of rain, the creek overflowed, water was up tothe roof of some of the houses. Two teenswere looking out a second floor window. A hat movedthrough the water. Then it moved back in the other direction. It went in onedirection, then moved against the current in the other. Back and forth it went. “What in the world is that??” exclaimed oneteen. “Oh.” said the other. “I am sure it is my dad.He said ‘come hell or high water’ he was going to mow the lawn today.” Q5 Whycan’t we sleep in the evening even if we are tired as per Hinduism? When God iswithin us and is always there everywhere, then how according to the religion,does God visit us in the evenings? A5 Rama G, Former Self Employed homemaker. At present also.22h Evening sunset time, morning sun rise time you get benefitted vitamin D from sunrayswithout strong, sharp UV rays. Sleeping inevening might impact your schedules and cause unnecessary stress. Scientifically,this might lead to lethargy and hamper digestion. People who sleep during theevening can become obese and this can lead to many other ailments they say. What Iobserved personally is, your eating pattern get disturbed. You will get up atmidnight to have some food. You will get up very early in the morning, at threethirty like. If not, you may oversleep, then meal to meal gap will be more. You may eat more than required forbreakfast. You are notdoing anything to favour God. He doesn't need your sleep. People arecategorised three types. Uttama,madhyama, athama. Firstcategory are really wise by birth. They are intelligent and sharp. They neednot be told anything. Secondcategory are not that wise but learn quickly by seeing others. Generallyfrom.the first category. Why to reinvent wheel? Thirdcategory, neither wise by birth, nor interested to learn from others. They liketo learn everything on their own. From own experience. It may be good or bad. For themthey created this bhakti, bhayam concept. Bhakthi isknowledge. Doing anything after knowing, understanding, realising. Another isBhayam. Fear. Since they don't listen anything told by others, elders broughtthis God concept. Instil fear for his good. He may follow good practices. If we say,fast once in every week, be on fluids, good for health. No one cares. May bevery few may do it. ust, telllord Vishnu likes Saturday fasting , Tuesday for subhahmanya swamy, Hanuman ji,Thursday for saibaba, raghavendra swamy, they will bless you otherwise curseyou, many do it. So, they saidmorning sun rise time, evening sunset time Lakshmi visits our house. Keep itclean , be awake to welcome her, it's for your benefit. Immediatereply from a few is, even if we don't do, we are earning good money. Lakshmi isnot just money only. Health, clean environment, kids, good communication withfamily, happy life etc, all these are considered wealth. When familyis there awake when you are sleeping, when they go to sleep if you are awake,What's the use? This is oneexample. Nothing wrong if you sleep sometimes when youare exhausted, but it's better not to make it as habit.Sun set to sunrise is anyway night time. You can fix your sleep timings in thatmargin. God is notstupid to create day and night. To work and sleep only they are made. Naturalbiological clock to live a good healthy life. -- 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/750193411.4852365.1715058422193%40mail.yahoo.com.
