CULTURAL QA 05-2024-11 All the BELOW QA are from Quora digest to me on 10-05-2024.
Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers .Compiledandposted by R. Gopala krishnan, on 10-05-2024 Q1 How was life in the Soviet Union for a teenager? A1 Elena Gold, Born in the USSR.Writing a book about Russo-Ukrainian war May 3 Thisstory might sound phantasmagorical to a westerner – but anyone who lived in theUSSR in its late years will just smirk and nod. “So, the year is approximately 1980. Andcommunism has either already won, or is about to win,” starts his trip down thememory lane Dima Belousov. “I come home from school, and there is a noteon the table: "Dima!I am standing in the queue to buy bananas. Our number is 1278. Lunch is on thetable. Eat and then go straight to the vegetable store! Dad.” Youprobably need some explanations: Bananas weren’t available in the USSR. Like,never. Whenhigh-in-demand items were brought for sale, people formed queues already whengoods were being offloaded. Queueswere so long that people were writing numbers on hands with a pen. “That day my father worked the second shift.I, in turn, left a note for my mother, who worked the first shift, and went tostand in the queue. Bythe way, you were only allowed to buy 1 kg of bananas per person. Queuingto buy bananas was such an important task, they let my father leave his shiftearly. So that we could buy an extra kilogram of bananas. Thequeue was going painfully slowly. It was already 7:30 pm. In 30 minutes, thevegetable shop would close. Peoplein the queue were starting to worry — everyone knew that by tomorrow, at theopening, there would be no bananas for sale to the public. The exotic fruitwould be sold to the friends and acquaintances. Thepeople in the queue came up with the demand: the store has to stay open untilthe last banana! Agroup of activists was formed to present an ultimatum to the management of thestore. The management, naturally, tells them to get lost. Itshould be noted here that just weeks earlier in Togliatti there was a strike ofbus drivers, which was reported by all sorts of BBC, Radio ‘Free Europe’ andother “enemy voices”. The city officials then got a spanking. Hereyou go. The queue keeps getting more and more inflamed… The crowd calls tosmash the store to smithereens. Immediately— like in 20 minutes — officials from the Communist party committee arrive.Having assessed the situation, they give instructions that the crowd and me, inparticular, desire: “The store stays open until the last banana!” Wegot our “1 kilo of bananas per person” around midnight. Mom, dad, and me — 3kilograms. 3 kilograms of wooden fluorescent green bananas. Itshould be noted here that my parents bought bananas once before — so they wereexperienced purchasers of bananas. Westuffed these green pods into felt boots and put them in the closet to ripen.Some days passed. And, lo and behold, my parents took out the yellow, ripe,tasty bananas from the cupboard! Andhere I am, a 12-year-old boy, going out into the street with an exotic bananain my hand and a smile wider than my shoulders. Isee a neighbor, a lady about 35 years old. “Dima, what are you eating?” “Aunty Sveta, this is a banana. Didn’t you buysome? We were standing in the queue together.” “But these bananas were green and wooden!” “They were not ripe. They, like greentomatoes, also need to get ripe.” “Damn!” said aunty Sveta. “And we stood inline for 8 hours, came home at 1 am, tried it: it was like an astringentlytasting piece of wood in our mouths.” We decided that bananas shouldn’t beeaten raw, so we boiled them. They turned into some kind of whitish paste.Tasted disgusting. We poured it into the toilet. And it turns out, bananas arereally like this!!! Dima, will you please let me try a piece?” Ihanded her the banana. She leaned over, carefully took the tip into her mouth,took a bite... Her face lit up, she whispered: “Holymoly! What idiots we are, but who knew...” Thisis how a 35-year-old woman tasted banana for the first time in her life.” That’slife in the Soviet Union for you, in a nutshell. Q2 What is the stupidest animal in the world? AshleyBaker,Lives in New Jersey (2018–present)23h Theostrich, a flightless bird native to Africa, is often considered one of thedumbest animals in the world due to its limited cognitive abilities andreliance on basic instinctual responses for survival. Ostrichesare known for their supposed habit of burying their heads in the sand whenthreatened, but this is a myth. In reality, when an ostrich senses danger andcannot run away, it flops to the ground and remains still with its head and neckflat on the ground as a misguided attempt at camouflage. This strategy isineffective against most threats. Moreover,ostriches have the largest eyes of any land animal, yet their brain is smallerthan either of their eyeballs. This anatomical feature provides them withexcellent visual acuity but is an indicator of their limited cognitiveabilities. Ostriches also lack complex social structures and exhibit aggressivebehaviors towards each other for no apparent reason. Their approach toparenting is questionable as both males and females take turns incubating theireggs but often leave the nest unattended. Anothercontender for the title of the dumbest animal is the flamingo. These birds arefamous for their vibrant pink color and peculiar one-legged stance but lackcognitive abilities beyond basic survival instincts such as feeding, mating,and avoiding predators. Their feeding habits are inefficient and expose them tovarious risks while their distinctive one-legged stance does not serve anysignificant purpose. Flamingos also display a lack of adaptability as they arehighly dependent on specific habitats and any change can cause entire flocks toperish. Q3 What are some amazing facts about airplanes? A3 Mamta, I've been to Lakshadweep on the smallestbudget. Wed Hereare some fun and interesting facts about airplanes that can blow your mind. Evernotice that airplane windows have a small hole in them? That's actually calleda "breather hole" and helps regulate air pressure to prevent thewindow from fogging up or cracking. Turbulencemight feel scary, but it's actually just a normal part of flying. In fact,modern airplanes are designed to withstand even severe turbulence, so there'sno need to worry! Everwonder why airplane lavatory doors have a small hole in them? It's actuallythere to allow flight attendants to unlock the door from the outside in case ofan emergency. Believeit or not, airplanes can fly faster than the Earth rotates! That's why flightsfrom west to east are typically faster than those going in the oppositedirection. Well,airplane travel has always been fun to me. I always enjoy it more than merelyexperiencing a journey to my destination. Q4 Why do we experience fewer technical problems with thehuman body compared to a car, even though it is more complex? A4 Ken Saladin, Former professor ofhistology (microscopic anatomy)18h Thehuman body, and all living organisms, have self-maintenance and self-repairmechanisms collectively called homeostasis. Cars don’t. Homeostasis is one ofthe defining characteristics of life. Forexample, when a human DNA molecule breaks, there is a DNA damage response (DDR)in which enzymes go to work right away to fix it. If a car engine belt breaks,the car can’t fix it by itself. Vigorousexercise tears up the fine structure of muscle cells. Nuclei are transported tothe sites of damage and it’s repaired within 24 hours or so. Long or heavy useof car seats will eventually produce tears in the upholstery. Those tears won’tfix themselves. Q5 When Shri Krishna returned after the Mahabharata war,Rukmani, filled with anger, asked him many questions?Why? A5 Chauhan Babu Nath,17h Everythingelse was fine in the war. But why did you support the killing of pious peoplelike "Dronacharya" and "Bhishma Pitamah"?? “Shri Krishna” replied. It is true that bothof them followed religion throughout their lives. But one “sin” committed by them destroyed all their “virtues”. Whatsins was that?? When"Draupadi" was being dissected in the crowd. Then both of them werealso present there. Being elders, they could have stopped Dushasan. But they did not do this. Due to this one sin of them,all their other religious activities fell short. And"Karna" was famous for his charity. No one left his door emptyhanded. Why you did not help in hisdeath?What was his mistake?? Heydarling! You are telling the truth. He was famous for his generosity and neversaid no to anyone. But when Abhimanyu was lying on the ground injured in thebattlefield after defeating all the warriors. he asked for water from Karna. Therewas a pit of water near where Karna was standing. But Karna did not give waterto the dying Abhimanyu. Therefore, the "virtue" he had earned throughcharity throughout his life was destroyed. Later, the wheel of his chariot gotstuck in the same pit and he was killed. HeyRukmani! Often such things happen. Whensomething wrong is happening around humans and they do nothing. They think thatthey are not guilty of this “sin”. Ifthey are not in a position to help then they can tell the truth that theycannot do anything. But they don't even do that. By not doing so, they alsobecome equally guilty of that "sin". Mynote- Yesterday in a QA the same author had answered about providing loin cloth to a sanyasin by Droupati,which was noted by God and while she was undressed LORD provided her with cloth. But what I readearlier was when LordKrishna had a cut accidentally in a finger, Droupadi torn a piece of cloth from her saree, and tied hiswound. I forgot to add my note yesterday. Theauthor’s writing has a lot of grammatical mistakes, though well studied. Icorrect them as far as I can, and post them, for the subject matter. -- 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/1637878391.888537.1715417778334%40mail.yahoo.com.
