QUIZ 63

IDentify The Moment ?? and its context


ANS > Chief of Staff Andy Card whispering in George Bush's ear abt 9/11 attacks cracked by @sathm @idlee_amin  Satish and  Deepak

Clear Stream Of Reason - Pranavi Ravichandaramuda

 By far one of the best from the scribblings of  Pranavi

Are You Ever Late To School, Boy?

It is true that we (read 'me') don't often give a conscious thought about people who don't seem interesting or exciting. As life moves on the fast lane, that circle contracts to include only my daily acquaintances, friends and family.
I'm dreading the day when it will contract further to include only my own self.

I remember seeing a little boy near school. It must be a week since then. It was around 8.30 in the morning and we were getting down from the auto.
He was one of those poor souls who stand near places which see a regular crowd everyday - in our case, the students of the school- and distribute, nay, thrust pamphlets at people who go by.
What pamphlet he held, i will never know. I saw him at a distance - he was in colour dress, a boy of about 10 years of age. Before i could near him or get a proper look at him, there was a scramble for lunch bags, my auto-mates (no, they're not robots) started towards school and i marched along, with just a backward glance.

A train of thoughts kept me company through the day.
What was he doing there at that time? Didn't he have school? Did he even have a school to attend? He couldn't have been distributing pamphlets part-time, i realized. No school, not even the government ones permit kids to wear colour dress to school. I could but come to one conclusion - the boy didn't attend school.

My rather selfish mind tried to come up with rosy alternatives lest i drown in pity. May be he bunked school that day. Or may be he did have the chance to attend school, but found it too boring - i could empathize with that. But then, a kid with his background had more compelling reasons to study than us, the lazy dilettantes. Education, to him, was not an advantage, a qualification. Education was his way out of poverty and misery.
The selfish mind partly succeeded in distracting me with this particular question: How pertinent was 'Ars Gratia Art' to my brethren from poorer and less privileged backgrounds? Could they afford to say 'Art for Art's sake?'

I digress. The final, and the most plausible conclusion about the boy is that he didn't get his shot at formal education. He probably skipped school to earn some extra money for his family- The sad tale of countless other youngsters in my glitzy, 'shining', 21st century India.
In what way are they less entitled to education than us?
Oh, to hell with those slogans of 'education ain't everything'. It ain't everything, it ain't anything much actually, but without it, there's a very good chance that my progeny could be watching his progeny distributing pamphlets.
Remember, it's not education that's being denied to them - it's a solid, dependable chance to upward mobility in the society.


All said and done, i could do nothing to help that boy but feel guilty over the next few days. Guilt stemming from the blatant inequality between us, the boy and me.
I never saw him again.
I placate myself saying he probably joined school after that. Know what? That really soothes the armchair activist in me.
  

quiz 62

IDentify the logo ?
ANS > M Night Syamalan's Night Chronicles , cracked by Satish 

QUIZ 61

IDentify who ?

------

post ur answers as comments below

or tweet it to @bsherly or @constantinum

Ans: Shane warne, former Australian international cricketer cracked by Satish,Chandrashekar.V, Kaushik, Aishwarya govindarajan, & Drongo 

From twitter @MSRMsundaram @sathm @RGambhir @ikarthik

 

QUIZ 60

What is depicted in this statue ? 

-----

ANS > Legend of Manuneedhi Cholan Cracked by Fruit and  @idlee_amin

QUIZ 59

IDentify who this kid is ??

-------------------------

ANS Tom Cruise's daughter Suri Cruise cracked by @benly ,Dhruv , Satish 

Scientific facts to answer for some of ur Y's: Y can't ornaments be made with pure gold? What is the purity(in %) of 22 carat n 18 carat gold???

    Ornaments could be made of pure gold, but would get easily pressed out of shape. This is because gold is a soft metal, though it is heavy.

    The two terms 'dense' and 'hard' do not mean the same. Gold has high density, over two times that of iron, because it has high atomic weight.(Au-196.966569g/mol). Hardness can be easily demonstrated by 'scratch' test -Scratch testing involves the use of needles verified as having certain levels of gold and low-grade acid solutions corresponding to each karat level. By treating the pieces with acid and comparing scratches from the needles, the tester can confirm what kind of gold is contained in the piece.

     A steel knife cannot cut glass, but a diamond tipped steel knife could, because diamond is harder than glass n steel is not. Gold is easily scratched. Haven't we seen goldsmiths assessing the purity of gold by rubbing it against a whetstone. and examining the scratch?

    Carat has two meanings: first it is a unit for weighing precious stones. It is almost equal to 200mg. This is based on the old European practice of weighing precious stones using the seed of a bean pod somewhat similar to 'Manchadi'.(in Tamil)    

   Second, carat is a measure of purity of gold. 24 carat means 100 % gold but cannot be used to make ornaments. To make jewelry suitable for wear and tear, gold is blended with copper, silver and sometimes nickel to harden it. The carats tell you how much other metal has been added.

• Nine carat gold is 9/24 parts gold by mass, or 37.5% gold. This means that 62.5% of the jewelry is another metal.

• Fourteen carat gold is 14/24 parts gold by mass, or 58.3% gold. This means that 41.6% of the jewelry is another metal.

• Eighteen carat gold is 18/24 parts gold by mass or 75% gold. This means that only 25% of the jewelry is another metal.

• Twenty-two carat gold is 22/24 parts gold by mass or 91.6% gold. This means that the jewelry has only 8.4% other metal. Twenty-two carat gold jewelry is the most expensive as it is nearly pure.

Thats all folks, A scientific fact thus explained.

More to be continued............. . :)

QUIZ 58

What is the context ??
--------------

 ANS > Student protesters attacking Prince Charles car cracked by @idlee_amin

Quiz 57

 

Who is this person featured in Times Magazine cover???

Ans: Kenneth Branagh, known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, cracked by @idlee_amin

------------------------

Post your answers as

1) comments below, stating your Name/Blog/twitter handle

or

2)Tweet ur answers to @constantinum/ @bsherly

QUIZ 56

Who is commemorated here ??

----------------------------

ANS > Wlillam Shakespere at Westminster Abbey London

quiz 55

IDentify who ?? and what is her claim to fame ?? 

------------------------

ANS > Marilyn vos Savant, Homo Sapien with a Highest IQ cracked by @benly and  Kaushik

Scientific facts to answer for some of ur Y's: Y does boiling milk overflow but boiling water does not???

Water is a simple chemical substance which boils in higher temperatures. When it is heated, steam forms n rises in the form of bubbles n they break off as they reach the water upper surface. When water is boiled, the dissolved oxygen gains thermal energy, becomes light, comes to the top as a bubble and bursts to go into the atmosphere. The evolution of gases are significant until most of them are removed. At extreme temperatures they tend to evaporate but never overflow.

 

     But in the case of milk, its not a simple liquid. Its a colloid containing water, protein, sugar n fat(casein). When milk is boiled, fat being lighter than water, floats as a creamy layer on the top, n the dissolved gases move to the surface of the liquid in the form of bubbles. But they cannot burst to the atmosphere easily because of the layer of fat. 

 

 

 

   Further heating push the fat layer due to the kinetic energy of the rising bubbles. They cannot burst since the pressure inside the bubble is less than that of the outside. When the fat layer surpasses the vessel walls, it results in the overflowing of milk.

   The overflowing of milk can be reduced by heating at medium n a steady temperature.

Thats all folks, A scientific fact thus explained.

More to be continued............. . :)

QUIZ 54

IDentify the place ??

------------------------

Post your answers as

1) comments below, stating your Name/Blog/twitter handle

or

2)Tweet ur answers to @constantinum/ @bsherly

Ans: Uraniborg ,astronomical observatory operated by Tycho Brahe

None cracked dis quiz