Social Science Questions & Answers

It’s music to a dog’s ears, literally. ‘A Very Silent Night’ is a CD recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear. It was recently launched in New Zealand. It’s not to be confused with the Christmas hymn Silent Night, Holy Night.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. Its current monarch is King Bhumibol Adulyadej, or King Rama IX, the ninth king of the Chakri dynasty. The king has reigned for more than half a century, making him the longest reigning Thai monarch. He is recognised as the head of state, head of the armed forces, upholder of Buddhism and of all other …

“Reality TV” sounds like an oxymoron; there can be no precise definition of the term. For what it is worth, MSN Encarta defines reality shows as programmes that present real people in live (though often deliberately manufactured) situations and monitors their emotions and behaviour. The audience assumes that the action is taking place in an unscripted scenario where people react …

It’s widely known that Thor is the Norse God of Thunder. But now, Thor is also the first ship made of ice-cream sticks that will sail to the UK from the Netherlands. This new-age Viking ship is built with 15 million recycled ice-cream sticks which are glued together. It was created by stuntman Robert Mc-Donald along with his son and …

To chicken out is to stop doing something because of fear or lose courage while doing something. Sometimes, it is also used to ask a person, “Are you chicken?” or even as “Jack chickened out…”. The chicken is a timid bird, which also gave rise to ‘chicken-hearted’.

Some Orchestras may contain as many as 90 musicians. To make sure they keep time, the conductor uses a baton or hand motions to give the orchestra the correct tempo, or speed. The conductor also interprets the composer’s music.

Unlike other license numbering systems, defence vehicles have a unique numbering system. The numbers are registered by the ministry of defence in New Delhi. The first (or the third) character is always an arrow pointing upwards. The next two digits (or the two preceding the arrow) signify the year in which the defence department procured the vehicle. The next is …

Recently, sailors on the nuclear submarine that sank in the Baltic Sea were isolated from rescue workers as their radio set got damaged. Luckily their radio operators knew the Morse code and were able to communicate by knocking on the sides of the ship. There are many explanations for what the words stand for: Save Our Souls; Save Our Ship; …

Precycling is a form of waste minimisation. It involves reducing the use of outer packaging and instead opting directly for what’s inside. This would involve buying things loose instead of opting for a pre-packaged product, bringing your own container to the store and shopping for locally-produced things. The rationale is to accumulate less waste.

Nerdic is the language used by technology geeks and is also referred to as ‘geek speak’. The language has words as bizarre as dongle and mashup. It’s considered the fastest growing language in Europe because a 100 words were added to it in the last 12 months. Some of its words are borrowed from English but don’t have the same …