This refers to government spending intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for political support, either in the form of campaign contribution or votes. It involves funding for government programmes whose economic or service benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers. Public projects and agricultural subsidies are the common examples. …

The term pop art is short for popular art. It emerged from the pen of English critic Lawrence Alloway in the late 1950s to describe what he viewed as a contemporary attitudinal shift in subject matter and techniques of art. Beginning in England in the mid-1950s and America in early ’60s, pop art focussed on everyday objects rendered through an …

यहां है विष्णु भगवान का मत्स्य अवतार। सदियों पुरानी आस्था का प्रतीक है मच्छयाल का तीर्थ। यह आस्था आज भी दृढ़ विश्वास का प्रतीक है और दूर-दूर से श्रद्धालु यहां आकर शीश नवाते हैं। मत्स्य अवतार मानकर यहां विशेष पूजा-अर्चना की जाती है। बैशाखी पर यहां तीन दिन मेला भी लगता है। मान्यता के तौर पर लोग पूजनीय मछली को …

∼ Priya. N

Pixie dust is a fictional substance, that is pictorially represented as a trail of a sparkling substance that follows mythical creatures such as pixies and fairies. It’s also called fairy dust.

Philematology is the study of kissing, what it means and its place in various cultures. It is the subject of a new book ‘A Compendium of Kisses’ by Lana Citron, an actress and stand-up comic. Citron talks descriptively about the light cheek-brushing to the French smooch to the ‘olfactory kiss’ or the rubbing of noses. The study includes observations by …

Philanthropy etymologically means “the love of humanity”, in the sense of “what it is to be human”, the essence of our humanity. In modern practical terms, it is “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life” – balancing the social-scientific aspect emphasized in the twentieth century, with the long-traditional and original humanistic core of the word’s ancient coinage. …

Pansori is a folk art which has lasted since the 17th century in Korea. Singers sing and gesture according to the beats of the traditional Korean drum, tambour. Pansori consists of 12 episodes and is based on classical literature. It typically takes a few hours to complete a Pansori performance. Most young Koreans don’t go out to see it now. …

Thailand zoo officials, in an attempt to get pandas to mate, used videos of other pandas mating and ‘sexercise’ to teach them the ropes. The pandas were an import from China, where officials devised these methods to help its national animal reproduce. Zookeepers are putting pandas, especially males, at the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Centre in Sichuan province through …

Paleolibertarianism is a school of thought within American libertarianism associated with the late economist Murray Rothbard, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It is based on a combination of radical libertarianism in politics and cultural conservatism in social thought and opposes a libertarianism which advocates “freedom from bourgeois morality, and social authority.” Austrian economics, anti-federalism, opposition to war, Misesian libertarianism, …