April 29, 2011

Bgyan -11


Compossed a small quiz after a long time...give it a shot. p.s send your answers to praneeth82 AT Gmail Dot com and I will send you answers, please don't post your answers as comments

1. The invention of this popularly food item is credited to John Montague, Fourth Earl of XYZ. It is believed that Montague liked it because he could eat it without getting grease on his fingers from meat, making it a suitable snacks to eat while playing cards. Which food item am I referring to


2. In 105 when Ts'ai Lun, a courtier in the Chinese imperial court, redefined and popularized the process of mixing tree fibers and wheat stalks with the bark of mulberry tree, then pounding them together and poring the mixture on to a woven cloth to create this product. Chinese dynasties conspired to keep his invention secret and it was until the start of 7th century that the techniques to make it began to appear in Japan and Korea. With the capture of Chinese merchants by Arab soldiers during the Battle of Talas in 751, the knowledge of making it soon spread across the Arab world, and in Europe in Moorish, S early in 12 the century...Identify the product

3. When Christopher Columbus arrived in Americas in 1492 he was struck by the locals indulgence in an unfamiliar habit. The Mayans had been consuming this since the first century B.C.E. The mayans thought their foreign visitors divine , the indigenous Arawaks offered Columbus and his men some of the product - who immediately threw them away. One member of the crew, Rodrigo de Jerez, was not as skeptical, through, and tasted it. Back home, his newly acquired habit frightened his compatriots so much that the inquisition put him in jail. Which product was offered to Colombus by Mayans?


4. In the 15 the century korea was drought plagued realm, and King Sejong wished to levy a land taxes based on an assessment of each farmers potential harvest. What was invented to collect this tax


5. In 1902 American president Theodore Roosevelt went on a bear hunting expedition in Mississippi that led to the invention of perhaps one of the most iconic product in history. Hot Collier, a former slave and prodigious huntsman, was charged with organizing the chase.In order to provide Roosevelt with a cleat shot, Collier and his hounds tracked down a bear and drove it to the stand where the president was waiting . However, when collier arrived with the bear, Roosevelt had left for lunch. In the ensuing confusion the bear attacked one of the hunting dogs. Collier simply knocked it out with his rifle and tied it to a tree. When Roosevelt returned a short while later he was impressed by Collier's feat, but refused to kill the defenseless bear.

The episode gained widespread media attention, and in Nov 1902 the Washington Post ran a series of cartoons, initially featuring Roosevelt and an adult bear tired to a tree. Inspired by drawings, Morris and Rose Michtom - two shopkeepers from New york created which famous product



April 20, 2011

Fast Bowling and Chewing Gums

At Warwickshire, Dermot Reeve noticed that his bowlers somehow had the ability to keep the ball swinging far longer than any team they faced. Dermot Reeve was initially clueless on the reason though. By process of investigation and elimination he finally figured out the reason was that the player incharge of polishing and keeping the ball clean was  chewing extra strong mints that produced saliva which, when applied to the ball for cleaning purposes, enabled it to shine and swing for longer. Slowly the word spread across other cricket countys and  chewing gums played a crucial role in fast bowling