Social Science Questions & Answers

Although omnibus bills have become an increasingly popular way to pass legislation in the US Congress, critics say the bills contain numerous government measures that receive little debate. An omnibus bill, from the Latin “omnibus” meaning “for everything,” is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but packs together diverse subjects into a single …

There are hundreds of thousands of publishers across the world, and millions of books get printed every year. Moreover, a book like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a book that has been printed by several publishers. This makes the task of identifying a book very difficult. To overcome the problem of identifying books, publishers have came up with a …

An integrated city is developed as a whole, by examining the existing city and identifying areas which have been neglected. ‘Civic software’ is still new and can be utilised to work out problems. Those who advocate this concept aim for at a ‘do-it-yourself ’ city which does not need government departments and funds. They look at integrating the city with …

In many parts of the world, you can find large boulders, called erratics, which rest on rocks of a different kind. How did they get there? One idea popular in the early 19th century was that they had been rolled there by strong currents during Noah’s Flood! In the 1830s, a Swiss professor, Louis Agassiz, studied the glaciers, which move …

An aviary is a house or very large cage for birds. For thousands of years, birds have been kept in aviaries to be enjoyed for their beautiful plumage or to be sold as pets. In the great markets and bazaars of India, whole buildings, resembling palaces, were built as aviaries. Most zoos have an aviary, which is often a large, …

Aggressocracy is a society in which the most aggressive members rise to the top. The Greek lexicon describes it as a social sphere or group consisting of or dominated by predatory or conquest-oriented individuals. Aggressocratic hierarchies were once structured by penis length, but that was later changed.

Ambergris is a solid, waxy material produced in the sperm whale and in the pygmy sperm whale. Ambergris is formed in the rectum of the whale by indigestible objects from animals on which it feeds (like beaks of squid and cuttlefish). The ambergris is usually released when the whale dies. When released, it is pale white and soft with a …

Goddess Parvati is regarded as the power and divine consort of Lord Shiva – the Destroyer. Like her consort Shiva, Goddess Parvati is said to have both mild and terrible aspects Goddess Parvati is known by different names like Lalita, Uma, Gauri, Kali, Durga, Haimavati etc. Two of her fierce but very powerful forms are Durga (Goddess beyond reach) and …

A wistar rat is an outbred strain of the albino or white rat belonging to the species Rattus norwegicus. It is characterised by its wide head, long ears and a tail length always less than its body length. This is currently one of the most popular rat strains for laboratory research. It was developed by the Wistar Institute for use …

A once-exotic word that has now entered the everyday lexicon, a tsunami refers to a shock of water that spreads through the sea, usually after a sub-sea floor quake. A section of seabed is thrust up or driven down by violent movement of the Earth’s crust. The rift displaces vast quantities of water that move as waves, able to cover …