Social Science Questions & Answers

Zorbing is an extreme adventure sport involving a ball made of PVC, also called the zorb. The person, or persons, in case of ‘group zorbing’, gets inside and the ball is closed. The ball is then rolled down a hill, and it picks up speed as it goes. There are two ways to zorb: one involves getting wet and one …

Windfall tax is what’s imposed on windfall gains, an abnormal increase in the profits of any organization in the normal course of its business due to certain circumstances. An example would be the increase in the price of oil over the world. In this case, the oil exploration and production (E&P) companies will make huge gains if they sell oil …

The VIX is calculated and disseminated in realtime by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). It’s a weighted blend of prices for a range of options on the S&P 500 index. The formula uses a kernelsmoothed estimator that takes as inputs the current market prices for all out-of-the-money calls and puts forth front month and second month expirations. The goal …

Farming indoors is not a new concept, per se, as greenhouse-based agriculture has been in existence for some time. Numerous commercially viable crops (e.g., strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, and spices) have seen their way to the world’s supermarkets in ever increasing amounts over the last 15 years. Most of these operations are small when compared to factory farms, but …

Vedic literature is the sacred literature of the Hindus. Its four main works are the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. Each Veda contains collections of hymns called Samhitas, most of which were composed by unknown holy men as long as 4,000 years ago. Ancient Vedic wisdom is recorded on palmleaf books.

Urban mining is the European fancy name for the process of making money out of garbage using sophisticated machinery. Urban mining is the process of reclaiming precious and minor metals from old electronic equipment. With the soaring price of metals, such recycling of previously mined metals is lucrative — 1 tonne of ore from a gold mine produces just 5 …

The strange thing about lemmings is the way they, apparently, commit mass suicide. These grey or reddish-brown rodents look like mice, but are slightly larger. They live in large areas of the northern world, including Alaska, north-west Canada and Scandinavia. But, in fact, only the Scandinavian lemmings stampede in such a suicidal manner. Now and then thousands of them travel …

‘Dralion’ is an entertainment show produced by Montreal-based company Cirque du Soleil Inc, well known for its circus-based dance dramas. The show ‘Dralion’, which has already toured different parts of the world, is currently located at Sydney and been seen by seven million people. It’s main theme is to project human life as an integral part of nature, and, specifically, …

This is a bridge across Hangzhou Bay off the eastern coast of China. It links the municipalities of Shanghai and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. It’s the longest transoceanic bridge in the world although it does not have the longest cable-stayed main span. The bridge is 36 km long with six expressway lanes in two directions. The construction started on June …

The greatest number of jumps achieved is 177737, Gary Stewart at Huntington Beach, California, USA on 25-26 May 1992. Ashrita Furman of Jamaica, New York, USA set a distance record of 24.125 km 14.99 miles in 5 hr 33 min on 25 May 1991 in Seoul, South Korea