Social Science Questions & Answers

Most birds build their nests of twigs, grass, feathers and bracken. Some prefer ready-made nest sites like tree holes, which they then line with a soft bedding material for the young chicks. The western magpie, however, a bird of Australia and New Zealand prefers to use rather more robust materials. It is particularly fond of pieces of metal, such as …

The War of the Pacific is a war that took place in the western region of South America from 1879 to 1884. The war was fought between Chile and Peru on one side with Bolivia on the other side. The war is also called Saltpeter War (Saltpeter is a mineral) because the main reason of the war was to win …

The Tate is an art gallery originally titled the National Gallery of British Art. It is situated on Millbank in Pimlico, London. It was founded in 1897 by Henry Tate with money earned from his sugar refineries. It was initially a collection of British art, concentrating on the works of Victorian painters. It later expanded to include foreign art and …

In freestyle motocross, when the rider is in the air, it is termed `Big Air’. Superman seat-grab is considered a regular trick in which, when the rider is in the air (18 m is the minimum suitable height for performing this trick), puts one hand on the handle bar and other grabs the seat of the bike, and extends the …

Subprime lending, also called ‘BPaper’, ‘near-prime’ or ‘second chance’ lending, refers to the practice of giving loans at interest rates above the prevailing market rates because of their low credit status and increased risk due to either a limited credit history, or histories of payment delinquencies, chargeoffs or bankruptcies. Subprime lending includes mortgages, credit cards and car loans. It is …

The Soul of Shaolin is a popular Chinese play based on martial arts. It was staged during the Beijing Olympics. It is due to begin on Broadway in January 2009 and will have the distinction of being the first Chinese theatrical event to appear on Broadway. The show portrays the life of Hui Guang, who is separated from his mother …

The smallest country in the world is the Vatican City, which is less than one square mile in area, and is completely surrounded the city of Rome. The Vatican City has its own national anthem, stamps, newspaper and radio station, and has a population of just under a thousand people.

The theory was the brainchild of psychologist Stanley Milgram who wanted to find the answer to the small-world problem. So in the 1960s, he conducted an experiment by mailing a packet to 160 people in and around Omaha, Nebraska, that needed to reach a broker in Boston. The findings showed that these letters reached the broker in five to six …

In 1939-1940, a brutal invasion and occupation by the Soviet Union decimated Estonia. But in 1991, after several years of aggressive political manoeuvring, bold demonstrations and large singing protests, where thousands of Estonians gathered publicly in an effort to end decades of Soviet occupation, Estonia declared its independence. The revolutionary songs they created anchored Estonia’s non-violent struggle for freedom.

The pawnbrokers’ symbol is three spheres suspended from a bar. The three sphere symbol is attributed to the Medici family of Florence, Italy, owing to its symbolic meaning of Lombard. This refers to the Italian province of Lombardy, where pawn shop banking originated under the name of Lombard banking. The three golden spheres were originally the symbol which medieval Lombard …