GENERAL KNOWLEDGE Pt. XIII

February 21st, 2012 by maureen | No Comments | Filed in Maker

 

What is the coriolis force?

The Coriolis Force is an important element in meteorology. It” acts on the atmosphere and is caused by the rotation of Earth, which rotates on its own axis from west to east with an angular velocity of 15 degree per hour and gives rise to an apparent force called Coriolis Force or geostrophic force. It acts at right angles to the wind vector, to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. It was first postulated by a scientist named Coriolis.

What are t-rays?

T-rays stand for terahertz radiation. It is used to scan airline passengers for explosives and illegal drugs. The rays are particularly effective, as they can see through clothing, paper, leather, plastic, wood, and ceramics. They don’t penetrate as well as x-rays, but they also don’t damage living tissue. They can read spectroscopic signatures, detecting the difference between, say, hair gel and an explosive.

What is the scopes trial?

The Scopes Trial brought about a prosecution in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. The prosecution was of a high school biology teacher who taught the theory of evolution. The teacher, John T Scopes, was accused of having violated the Butler Act, a Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools because it contradicted the account of creation in the Bible. The press dubbed it the Monkey Trial because, according to popular belief, evolution meant that humans had evolved from monkeys. The defence argued for the scientific validity of evolution and against the constitutionality of the Butler Act, but it did not deny that Scopes had broken the law. He was convicted and fined 0, but the verdict was later reversed on technical grounds by the Supreme Court. The Butler Act remained on the books until 1967.

When was the kite invented?

The exact date and origin of the kite is not known but it is believed that they were flown in China more than 2,000 years ago. The earliest written account’ of kite flying was in about 200 BC when the Chinese general Han Hsin of the Han dynasty flew a kite over the walls of a city he was attacking to measure how far his army would have to tunnel to reach past the defences. Calculating this distance correctly, his troops reached the inside of the city surprised their enemy, and were victorious. Kite flying was eventually spread by traders from China to Korea, and across Asia to India.

Which country has the highest male-female ratio?

The male-female ratio is the proportion of males to females in a given population at a specified stage in life e.g. at conception, at birth and at any chosen stage between birth and death. This is usually expressed as the number of males per 100 females. Qatar has the highest ratio with 187 males to 100 females. However, the ratio for the entire world population is 101 males to 100 females. Qatar’s high male-female ratio is mainly on account of large immigrant labourers staying without families. In Qatar, the ratio goes up to 284 males to 100 females for the population above 65 years on account of aging male immigrants and comparatively higher average mortality rate for females.

Why is earthing necessary for electrical appliances?

As it’s a safety factor, earthing is essential and mandatory. It’s an electrical connection between the exposed metallic parts of an electrical appliance or installation and the earth, regarded to have zero potential. Proper earthing provides an alternative and easy path for leakage or faulty current to flow. It ensures that any exposed conductive part of the appliance does not reach a dangerous level of potential or voltage that endangers the life of the user. A proper earthing system should have least electrical resistance, good corrosion resistance and ability of dissipating high faulty current.

What is ethical fashion?

Ethical fashion involves taking into consideration the various people involved in making a piece of clothing. For instance, even as one buys a pair of jeans, not many think about the farmers who grew the cotton that went into creating the material, the workers (mainly from poor countries) who helped sew the jeans, the various chemicals used on it and the economics of production. Ethical fashion involves creating clothes that don’t adversely impact people or the environment.

What is the fenian movement?

The Fenian Movement or Fenians is a secret revolutionary society organized in 1858 in Ireland and the United States to achieve Irish independence from England by force. It was known variously as the Fenian Brotherhood, Fenian Society, Irish Republican Brotherhood, and Irish-American Brotherhood. The famine of the 1840s brought to a crisis Irish discontent with English rule, culminating in the abortive Young Ireland uprising of 1848, led by William Snpth O’Brien.

What is project blue beam?

Project Blue Beam is a conspiracy theory about a supposed project whose purpose is to create an artificial Second Coming, in order to control people. As per the alleged theory, the new world order’s purpose is: 1. To abolish all Christian and traditional religions in order to replace them with a one-world religion based on the cult of man. 2. To abolish all national identities and national pride in order to establish a world identity and a world pride. 3. To abolish the family as known today in order to replace them with individuals all working for the glory of the new one-world government. 4. To destroy all individual artistic and scientific creativity to implement a one-world government, one-mindset.

What is the priory of sion?

The Priory of Sion is a very obscure group whose presence has not been established with concrete evidence. Papers relating to their existence were found in 1975 at Paris Bibliothhque Nationale, which named Da Vinci and Isaac Newton among its Grand Masters. According to the most popular theory, it is believed that the priory started out as an administrative wing of the Knights Templar. They had something (though it’s not very clear what it is) that gave them immense power and authority, even over the Pope. The most accepted answer among scholars is that they had documents written in the years Christ walked the Earth, which gave evidence that He was married to Mary Magdalene.

What is dragon’s triangle?

The Dragon’s Triangle is at the polar opposite of the Bermuda Triangle. Both triangles are located at 35 degrees west and 35 degrees east latitude and longitude which means if you were to start out at the Bermuda Triangle and travel straight through the centre of the Earth, you would come out at the Dragon’s Triangle. This dangerous ocean triangle has reportedly claimed hundreds, if not thousands, of ships, airplanes, and submarines since it was first written about in the 13th century. This is a result of bad oceanic conditions or maybe something more mysterious.

What is bear bile farming?

The Chinese practice of extracting bile from captive bears for use in traditional medicinal products is called bile farming. Many animal welfare groups decry this as inhumane. Bear bile has been prized in the traditional Chinese medicine community for thousands of years. It’s got a reputation as being a sort of wonder drug, and its active ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), is believed to cure a number of ailments — everything from cardiac illness to impotence, according to the Humane Society of the United States. As an unhappy consequence, more than 10,000 bears are currently held in captivity on bear bile farms in China today, according to the Animals Asia Foundation.

What is guano?

Guano is accumulated dung or excrement and remains of seabirds, bats and seals found along certain coastal areas and caves. It’s found mainly on the coastal islands of Peru, Africa, Chile and the West Indies. It contains about 6% phosphorus, 9% nitrogen, 2% potassium and moisture. Guano is found mixed with feathers and bones and used mainly as a fertilizer. Bird guano is comparatively a better fertilizer than bat guano found in caves and seal guano, accumulated on islands off north-western Peru. Since the global reserves of phosphorus will only last another 30 years, the use of guano as a fertilizer is gaining importance.

What is coriolis force?

Coriolis Force occurs whenever a rotating body moves along a curved path. Hence, two rotary movements (rotation on its axis and precession about a line) are necessary conditions. Whenever a vehicle in motion takes a turn, the wheels rotate about their axis and the entire vehicle, including the wheels, goes round the bend, resulting in Coriolis Force. This is the most common occurrence of this force.

What is the principle of a voltage stabilizer?

A voltage stabilizer is an electro cal appliance used to feed constant voltage current to costly electrical gadgets like ACs and computers, and protects them from damage due to voltage fluctuations. A voltage stabilizer works on the principle of a transformer, where the input current is connected to primary windings and output is received from secondary windings. Whenever there is a drop in incoming voltage, it activates electromagnetic relays which add to more number of turns in the secondary winding, thus giving higher voltage which compensates for loss in output voltage due to drop in incoming voltage. When there is rise in the incoming voltage, the reverse happens, and, thus, the voltage at the output side remains almost unchanged.

What is haarp?

HAARP

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India Among the Leaders in the Food Sector

February 19th, 2012 by maureen | No Comments | Filed in Maker

India is the world’s 2nd largest producer of food next to China, and has the potential of being the biggest with the food and agricultural sector. With India’s food production likely to double in the next decade, there is an opportunity for large investments in food and food processing technologies, skills and equipment, especially in areas of Canning, Dairy and Food Processing, Specialty Processing, Packaging, Frozen Food/Refrigeration and Thermo Processing. Fruits & Vegetables, Fisheries, Milk & Milk Products, Meat & Poultry, Packaged/Convenience Foods, Alcoholic Beverages & Soft Drinks and Grains are important sub-sectors of the food processing industry. Health food and health food supplements are other rapidly rising segments of this industry.

India is the 2nd largest vegetable and 3rd largest fruit producer in the world

India will register the highest increase in rice production in the world over the next 10 years, as per the US Department of Agriculture. India’s annual rice production would increase by 16.3 million tonnes (mt) by 2016, from 91 mt now.

India ranks second only to Japan in inland sector fish production. India produces about 6.57 million metric tonne fish every year.

Spices exports will cross US$ 1 billion in the current financial year and touch US$ 10 billion by 2017, according to V J Kurien, chairman, Spices Board. Of the world’s total annual spice trade of 850,000 tonnes, India accounts for 44 per cent in quantity and 36 per cent in value

India aims at doubling marine exports including that of tuna fish to US$ 4 billion by 2012; 53 per cent of the marine exports comprise of shrimps.

Food Processing

The growth of food processing sector has nearly doubled to 13.7 per cent during the last four years, according to the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai, who added that India has set a target of growing at 20 per cent by 2015.

A dominant segment of the food industry, food processing is estimated to be worth US$ 70 billion with a 32 per cent share. It comprises agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandries, and plantation. Experts estimate the industry GDP at 6-8 per cent with value addition of food products to increase from 8 per cent to 35 per cent by the end of 2025.

According to the ‘India Food Report 2008′, investments to the tune of US$ 23.5 billion are in the pipeline to be made in the food processing industry over the next three years. The opportunity for growth is huge when seen against the fact that while a mere 1.3 per cent of food is processed in India, nearly 80 per cent of food is processed in the developed world.

Significantly, processed food exports have increased from US$ 6.98 billion in 2002-03 to US$ 20.51 billion in 2006-07, recording a whopping 193.83 per cent growth rate. To realise India’s potential in this industry, the Government has set an investment target of US$ 25.07 billion by 2015 to double India’s share in global food trade from 1.6 per cent to 3 per cent, increase processing of perishable food from 6 per cent to 20 per cent and value addition from 20 per cent to 35 per cent.

Food Retail

The domestic food retailing market is estimated to be worth US$ 6 billion with large sections of the retail industry getting organized. Changing lifetsyles, increased spending powers, disposable incomes and changing consumer tastes are soon expected to change the face of the food retail market in India.

Interestingly, happy Indians are buying chocolates like never before – chocolate sales grew 15 per cent, to US$ 300.82 million (36,000 tonnes) in 2007.

Dairy sector

According Dairy India 2007 estimates, the current size of the Indian dairy sector is US$ 62.67 billion and has been growing at a rate of 5 per cent a year.

With the domestic dairy sector slated to cross US$ 125.34 billion in revenues by 2011, FMCG majors are now trying to develop niche categories to milk in the money. Significantly, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have already announced plans to enter the milk-based beverage segment in India. Probiotic dairy products maker Yakult Danone India, having invested US$ 34.09 million in setting up a dairy product manufacturing facility in Haryana, will pump in an additional US$ 25.05 million over the next 3-4 years to expand its presence and market its product ‘Yakult’.

Fruit juices and drinks

The US$ 1.80 billion carbonated drinks category are expected to face the heat of the rising competition this summer from categories falling under the health umbrella. At present, these categories are juice and juice-based drinks, energy and sports drinks, malted beverages, probiotic drinks and bottled water.

The fruit drinks segment is ripe for plucking. At US$ 300.67 million, the juice and juice drink category is among the fastest growing segments of the approximately US$ 2.38 billion packaged beverages category. While fruit drinks as a category is growing at 18-20 per cent, carbonated soft drinks are growing at 6-8 per cent.

Wine and Beer

All eyes are on the Indian wine market which is on the threshold of its first major milestone – crossing the one million cases mark in 2008. In the next 50 years, India’s growing wine industry is likely to challenge the supremacy of traditional wine-making countries, according to a report on the state of the industry titled “The Future of Wine”. The market for wine in India is growing at over 25 per cent per year. Most global wine majors have already set up shops in India:

couraged in these parks. The first five such parks would be set up in Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and the North-East region in the first phases.

For more detail on Suppliers in India log on to http://www.bizxchange.in

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What Else Is Changing In The 21st Century?

February 17th, 2012 by maureen | No Comments | Filed in Maker

Police talk changed to code in the 1920′s because of the scarcity of radio channels. Police had to get on and off the air quickly. It was also thought codes would provide privacy. Not anymore. In fact, the differences in local codes cause confusion. For example, an Independence, Missouri police dispatcher used plain English – instead of 10/33 – when radioing the Highway Patrol that one of their officers was down. To the highway Patrol 10/33 meant traffic backup. In 2006 the Department of Homeland Security asked law enforcement agencies to voluntarily talk in plain English, but some still use “double talk”.

In plain English, a study done by 2 researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that women have become less happy than men. In spite of the progress brought by the feminist movement 35 years ago, women’s happiness has been declining over the past 3 decades, while men’s happiness has remained stable or slightly increased. The study took into consideration women’s age, marital status, labor force participation and whether they had children. Although the study found that the unhappiness gap covered all demographics, further research is necessary to find out why. And why aren’t men less happy? Perhaps because of women.

There are more than 100 million men and women using electric bicycles in China – about 4 times the number using private cars. Although E-bikes are also popular in Europe, they’re just catching on in the U.S. About 200,000 sold in 2008. E-bikes have a small motor and a throttle. By law they can’t have more than 1 horsepower or go faster than 20 mph on motor power. E-bikes range in price from a few hundred to more than ,000. They’re supposedly for customers wanting comfortable, green transportation – but in a down economy E-bikes make going up hill easier.

Boston Beer Co., maker of Samuel Adams beer, teamed with Weihenstephan, the renowned German brewery, to make a new beer. The 2-year project resulted in a yet unnamed beer that will be 10% alcohol instead of the usual 4%-7% and be bottled with a cork instead of a metal cap. It will also be brewed following Germany’s purity law, allowing only 4 ingredients – water, malt, hops and yeast. When it’s released in 2010, the 2 brewers hope their premium, craft beer will win over more wine and spirits drinkers. That may depend on what’s brewing economically.

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