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What is an Orca?
If you have seen the movie Free Willy, you would be able to instantly recognise an Orca. Willy is an Orca or a killer whale. Orcas (Orcinus orca) are mammals classified under the order Cetacea. Though they are called killer whales, they belong to the dolphin family. Like other whales and dolphins, they, too, come up to the surface to take in oxygen. Orcas can be found in all the oceans of the world. Orcas are found in pods which is the collective term for these animals like ‘a gaggle” for geese or ‘school’ for fish....
Where is the Tower of Babel?
The ‘Tower of Babel’ is a structure that is mentioned in the Bible in the Old Testament in Genesis. The Biblical account describes how the descendants of Noe who migrated from Armenia towards Babylon (in Mesopotamia) decided to build a city and a tower whose architectural excellence would make them famous. But, God caused confusion by confounding their tongues, so that they did not understand each other’s speech. Slowly they moved away from that place and they ceased to build the city....
What is Mad Cow Disease?
In 1996, doctors detected 10 cases of a rare and fatal human brain disease in Britain and they diagnosed that it was probably due to eating beef from animals with “mad cow disease”. Scientifically, this cow disease was termed bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE while the disease affecting humans was termed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). The disease caused panic in Europe both among people eating beef and the farmers who were selling it. The European Union, which is the administrative body and includes all countries in Europe, responded immediately by banning imports of British beef....
What are Go-Go Boots?
Ever seen rock stars or movie stars strutting about in calf-length boots? Well, these calf-length boots were the rage at one point of time. Discotheques at Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York saw young women dressed in thigh high skirts to show off these boots called Go-Go boots. The Go-Go boots had its origin with the original ankle-length boots with pointed toes and inch-high heels worn by Cowboys in the American mid-West. Cowboys needed these boots for riding, and to ensure they don’t bitten by scorpions or snakes when they were walking on the desert undergrowth....
What are Q-Tips?
Everbody has used this product at some time or other in some form or other. Sometimes it is used to clean the wax from your ears, and sometimes to clean dust from delicate instruments. Many kick themselves for not patenting it when they knew about it. So what are Q-Tips? It is such a simple silly thingummy – a piece of thick plastic or cardboard with cotton wrapped at each end! Q-Tips are today, a registered trademark of Chesebrough-Ponds, Inc, USA....
What are Dry Clouds?
It is that time of the year when all of us look to the sky, waiting for the first drops of rain to fall on our faces. We wish the monsoon would come soon. But for people who live in polluted cities like Delhi or Tokyo, there’s some bad news. Israeli scientists have discovered that air pollution may actually stop rain from falling. To know how pollution may prevent rain from falling, it is necessary to know how and when rain falls....
What is Cloud Seeding?
There was a time when a farmer would sit out in his field, watching a lonesome cloud float away, taking with it the last hope of a much-needed burst of rain. As humans take control over more and more natural processes – not necessarily for the betterment of civilisation – rain too seems to have finally been leashed in. Just like a farmer throws seeds on ploughed land to harvest plants, clouds can also be seeded with chemicals to induce rain!...
What Kind of Creatures are Sharks?
Sharks can be found in every ocean of the world. To many people, there’s only one kind of shark: the man-eating white shark of the movie Jaws. They think sharks are ruthless predators that attack anything they come across. Sharks are sometimes thought of as primitive creatures as they have been in existence for million of years. In fact, sharks are very intelligent. They have a fantastic sense of smell and hearing as well as good vision in low light conditions....
What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is an artificial international language created by Dr Ludovic Lazarus Zamenof between 1877-85. Zamenhof, who grew up in Warsaw, Poland, was convinced that a common language would be necessary to resolve many problems as language barriers helped to aggravate problems between nations. Zamenhof realised that none of the major European languages, French, German, English, Spanish, Italian and Russian could be made universal as they were all difficult languages to learn. The difficulty in mastering grammar would put native speakers at an advantage with respect to those who did not speak them fluently....
What Kind of Horses did Knights Ride?
In 1066 AD the Normans (people who came from Normandy in Europe) conquered England and introduced feudalism in England. Feudalism was a system of contract where society was divided into four classes: royalty, barons (noblemen) and bishops, knights (a title or a rank) and lastly peasants. Merchants and artisans were placed just above the peasants. From 1066 to about the 14th century, feudalism developed across Europe. There were no professional armies at that time like we have today....