CULTURAL QA 01-2024-25 All the BELOW QA are from Quora digest to me on 26-01-2024.
Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers .Compiled and posted by R. Gopalakrishnan, on 26-01-2024 Q1 What is the eating habit of themaned wolf? A1 Gary Meaney,author of Zoology's Greatest Mystery (2022)Oct 15 The maned wolf. Despite the name, it isn’t really a wolf; rather, its closest cousin is the bizarre bush dog of theAmazon Rainforest. Ironically, the bush dog and maned wolf are physicalopposites - whereas the former is stocky and stubby, the latter walks on legslike stilts. This lanky build allows it to stride above the long grasses of theSouth American savannahs it roams. The maned wolf differs from both its namesake and itsrelative the bush dog in its social habits. It doesn’t live in a pack, butrather prefers to lead a solitary life. Sometimes a male and a female will pairup and patrol an expansive shared territory, but even still they’ll seldomcross paths intentionally. They mark the boundaries of this territory with anextremely strong-smelling urine. Due to a pyrazine - atype of chemical - maned wolf urine smells exactly like cannabis! In fact, years ago, the scent hadpolice scouring a zoo in search of who they assumed were illegal smokers. Thishappened in Rotterdam, of all places… Now to address your question. Maned wolves aren’t fussy about what they eat. Many small animals fall prey to them: anything from insects to armadillos. However, they are the mostherbivorous of all the world’s dog species. Yes, uniquely amongcanines, the majority of their diet is made up byplant matter! Indeed, in some cases, upto 90% of the diet is represented by a single green fruit: the wolf apple. In Brazil, they callit the fruta-de-lobo or lobeira. A close relative of tomatoes and aubergines,it abounds year-round in the tropical grasslands of South America. The peel and seeds of thewolf apple are stuffed with a variety of toxic chemicals collectively termedglycoalkaloids. These compounds are harmless to the maned wolf, but arethought to be potent enough to kill the maned wolf’s worst enemy: the giantkidney worm. Infection by this gruesome parasite can spell certaindeath for the canine, but their favourite fruit may just be the antidote. Giant kidney worms begin their life as waterborne eggs, whichare eaten by aquatic earthworms. The eggs hatch inside the earthworm, and thebaby parasites flock to their host’s blood vessels and begin growth. Theearthworm is then eaten by a fish or frog, which in turn is eaten by a manedwolf. Having reached their final destination, theworms take on their adult form, growing to up to a metre in length! They layeggs in the maned wolf’s urine, but fatally destroy its kidneys in the process. Giant kidney worms can also infect domestic dogs, along witha bunch of other mammals. On occasion, even humans can contract them! The wolf apple has another fascinating importance - one thatbenefits not only the maned wolf, but the whole savannah ecosystem. For reasonswhich are not particularly well understood, maned wolves often defecatedirectly onto the nests of leafcutter ants. If you’ve read previous answers ofmine, you may know that leafcutter ants are masters of agriculture - theycultivate their own underground gardens of fungus. The fungus grows nutritious“gongylidia” which the ants harvest to feed their larvae. Maned wolf dung providesthe perfect fuel for the fungal crops. The ant colony immediately sets to work carrying it insidethe nest, where they use it as fertiliser. The fungus cannot digest the seeds,so the leafcutter ants first discard these and leave them in a refuse pile withthe rest of their waste. Thisorganic debris provides a fertile substrate: the seeds germinate, and soon, abeautiful new wolf apple plant has sprung up where once there was none. This is an answer about the maned wolf, but it is also ananswer about wolf apples, giant kidney worms, earthworms, fish, frogs,leafcutter ants, and fungi. There’s nothing more beautiful to me than the interconnectednessof nature. If but one link in the chain is removed, the system falls intodisarray. That’s exactly why we need to protect these species. Q2 Do you know a joke about aveterinarian? A2 ChristineHennig,9h A man comes home fromwork one day and discovers that his dog is unconscious. He rushes the dog to the vet. The vet examines the dog andthen says, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but your doghas died.” The man refuses to believe this. He says to the vet, “I can’tbelieve my beloved dog is dead! It’ can’t possibly be true! Aren't there anytests you can give him, just to make sure?” The vet says, “OK, I’ll do a test.” He brings a cat into the exam room. The catslowly walks around the dog, sniffs it, and then looks at the vet and meows. The vet says, “The test turned out just as I suspected. Your dog is dead.” The man says, “I still can’t believe it!! Can’t you doanother test?” So the vet brings in alarge black dog.The dog sniffs the man’s unconscious dog, looks at the vet, and says, “Woof!” The vet says, “Again, the testshows that your dog is dead. I’m so sorry, but you’ll just have to face it.” The man says, “OK, I guess you’re right. I believe you. Itwas just hard for me to face that my long time companion has died. Well, howmuch do I owe you?” The vet replies, “Youowe me $500.” The man says, “500?? You’re charging me $500 to tell me mydog is dead?” The vet replies, “No, I’m charging you $50 to tell youyour dog is dead. The $450 is for the cat scan and the lab test. Q3 Is inhaling helium from a balloonsafe? A3 C StuartHardwick, Award-Winning Scifi Author, Analog regular Updated 10mo Yes and no. Inhaling a lungful of pure helium has the exact same effecton your oxygen supply as holding your breath after exhaling. By itself, taking a single breath ofhelium can’t really hurt you. There is, however, a critical difference. When you hold yourbreath, carbon dioxide starts to build up in whatever gas is in your lungs andin your blood.You cannot detect oxygen, but your body is highly sensitize to carbon dioxide,as even a fairly modest buildup can be toxic. So as CO2 builds up, you feel an urgent need to breathe,which eventually you can no longer resist, like it or not (in almost everycase) you gulp a breath, the crisis passes, and you go your merry way. BUT…if it’s alungful of helium all that CO2 is building up in, and if when you finally can’t takeit and gulp a breath, it’s another breath of helium you gulp…now you’re in real danger. As I said, your body can’t detect oxygen, and you just washedaway all the CO2 it was trying to get rid of. As far as your body is concerned,you’ve just taken a nice deep breath of clean fresh air. But if you sucked inmore helium—it doesn’t contain any oxygen. You are very likely within secondsof passing out. Now, if you just sucked some helium out of a balloon,you might fall over and hit your head, or in an extremely unlikely case, falland become entangled and suffocate, but most likely, the helium in a balloon ismixed with air to stop you doing that, so you’ll just feel rather woozy andthink better of your party trick But if you drew that breath through a regulator or pipefitted to a helium tank, you are in all probability about to die. You’ll passout. You’ll keep breathing. You’ll keep washing out the CO2 with each cleanbreath, and your body won’t know anything is wrong. As your tissues consume thelast of the oxygen, your heart rate and respiration and blood fly willaccelerate as they would at the start of exercise, and then they’ll stop. Dead. Humans can’t detect a lack of oxygen, only an excess of CO2. People die all the time in confinedspace accidents in which they climb down a ladder or set of stairs into a tankthat’s been purged with nitrogen, and if they realize at all that they are passingout, it’s too late to climb back out. My note- I watched anews item in TV recently-In Chennai airport a helium balloon used for advertisement nearby got detached and fell on therun way and not detected for a long time. Somebody just by incidence detected the green white balloonafter some time and it was removed and destroyed with safetyprecautions. Fortunately noaircraft landed on the runway avoiding serious accident Q3 What is your most loved joke ever?Even if you remember it now, you can't control your laughing. A3 PaoloLucchesi,10h Premier league soccer match. A man looks for where to sitin the packedstands. Suddenly he sees a vacant seat, approaches the man sitting next to himand asks, "Excuse me, isthat seat free?" The man turns to look at him with flushed eyes, and in avoice broken with tears he replies, "Yes, it'sfree... it was my wife's place, and now she's gone, she's gone..." "Excuse me, I didn't mean to..." "You see, soccerwas our great passion, the thing that united us. We always came to the stadiumtogether, and together we rejoiced and hugged each other when our team scored,together we despaired when our team conceded a goal, but we were together.... I used to always come with her, andnow instead I have to come alone..." "But you couldcome with a friend, a relative..." "Damn them, they're all at the funeral." (Sorry for the not-so-goodtranslation) Q4 Why did Neil Armstrong leave abracelet apparently on the moon for his dead daughter? He didn't haveauthorization to do that. Weren't all items brought into space supposed to beokayed by NASA? A4 SamanthaWallace,Research Scientist11h The bracelet was not lefton the moon for Armstrong's deceased daughter. This is a common myth that has beendebunked by Armstrong himself and his family. According toArmstrong, the bracelet was actually a Personal Preference Kit (PPK) item that he had brought with himon the Apollo 11 mission. PPK items were personal items that astronauts wereallowed to bring with them on their space missions, and they were not required to be approved byNASA. The bracelet in questionwas a small piece of fabric with a few strands of hair from Armstrong'sdaughter, Karen,who had tragically passed away in 1962 at the age of two from a brain tumor. Armstrong had carried this itemwith him on all of his space missions as a way to honor and remember hisdaughter. During the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong leftthe PPK bag containing the bracelet in the Lunar Module as a personal memento.He did not leave it on the moon's surface, as it was not a sanctioned itemto be left behind. In an interview with NBC in 2012, Armstrong'sson Mark confirmed that the bracelet was not left on the moon and that hisfather had brought it back with him to Earth. So, while Armstrong did bring a personal item with him to themoon, it was not left there for his daughter. It was simply a personal mementothat he carried with him on his historic journey. Q5 Are there any jokes about religionor other religions that you find funny despite being religious yourself? A5 StevenBurton, Author Jan 19 The Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Pope are in a meeting inRome. The Rabbi notices an unusually fancy phone on a side tablein the Pope's private chambers. "What is that phone for?" he asks thepontiff. "It'smy direct line to the God!" The Rabbi is skeptical, and the Pope notices. The Holy Fatherinsists that the Rabbi try it out, and, indeed, he is connected to God. The Rabbi holds a lengthy discussion with Him. After hangingup the Rabbi says. "Thankyou very much. This is great! But listen, I want to pay for my phone charges."The Pope, of course, refuses, but the Rabbi is steadfast and finally thepontiff gives in. He checks the counter on the phone and says, "All right! The charges were100,000 Lira. ($56)" The Chief Rabbi gladly hands over a packet of bills. A few months later, the Pope isin Jerusalem on an official visit. In the Chief Rabbi's chambers he sees a phone identical tohis and learns it also is a direct line to God. The Pope remembers he has an urgent matter that requires divine consultation andasks if he can use the Rabbi's phone. The Rabbi gladly agrees, hands him thephone, and the Pope chats away. After hanging up, the Pope offers to pay for the phonecharges. This time, theChief Rabbi refuses to accept payment. After the Pope insists, the Chief The Rabbi relents andlooks on the phone counter and says: "1 Shekel 50! ($0.42)" The Popelooks surprised: "Why so cheap!?" The Rabbi smiles: "Local call." -- 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/736335741.728614.1706249570797%40mail.yahoo.com.
