"Trade Winds"

Q: What are 'trade winds'?

W: 'Trade Winds' are persistent and warm moist winds that blow westward from the high pressure zones between 30 degree North and 30 degree South latitude towards the doldrums or the intertropical convergence zone at the equator. They are called Northeasterlies in the Northern Hemisphere and Southeasterlies in the Southern Hemisphere. These winds were first termed as 'Trade Winds' because they used to help the sea-merchants in sailing their ships as the direction of the trade winds remains more or less constant and regular. There are variations in the weather conditions in different parts of trade winds.

Mobile Phone

Q: Who invented the mobile phone?

A: The Chicago police department in the 1930s pioneered the use of a form of mobile telephone (two way radio) to stay ahead of prohibition gangsters. The mobile phone or the cellular phone as we know today was invented by Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola. It was used for the first time in 1973 in a demonstration call, which was made by cooper to his rival Joel Angel, the head of research at Bell Laboratories. The frequency switching system that allows cell phones to work was invented in the 1930's by Hollywood beauty Hedy Lamarr. The Bell Laboratories built a prototype cell system by 1977 which was tested by two thousand selected customers.

world's first Encyclopaedia

Q: Who compiled the world's first encyclopedia?

A: In all probability, the first encyclopaedia was compiled by the Greek philosopher Plato's nephew, Speusippus, who recorded his uncle's ideas on mathematics, natural history and philosophy in about 348 BC. Speusippus also included Aristotle's lecture notes in the encyclopedia. The Chinese, on the other hand, claim that the Yongle Canon or Yongle Dadian, compiled between 1403 AD and 1407 AD and running to more than 11,000 books, was the world's first encyclopedia. The whole work was too vast to print, hence only two manuscripts were made.

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The prototype of the modern encyclopedia was Ephraim Chamber's Cyclopaedia published in 1728 while the first English language encyclopaedia was the Encyclopaedia Britannica published in 1768 which became available on the Internet in 1999. The Encyclopaedia Americana was the first multi-volume encyclopaedia which was published in thirteen volumes between 1829 and 1833 in the United States and had expended to thirty volumes by 1919.

Escimos

Q: Who are Eskimos?

A: Eskimos are a Mongoloid race native to the Arctic coasts of Greenland, North America and north-east Asia. They are believed to have crossed the Bering Strait from Asia in about 200 BC. The Eskimos, who speak dialects of the Eskimo-Aleut language family, have preserved their cultural identity to a remarkable degree. Many of them still live by hunting and fishing using traditional skills to exploit the unyielding Arctic environment. Seals, fish, walrus and whales re hunted for food, fuel and clothing. Travel on land is by dog-sledge and on the water by kayak or Umiak, a skin boat. During hunting expeditions, temporary igloo shelters are sometimes built, but the basic home, in which the Eskimos live in small communal groups, is made of sod, driftwood and stone. Tents of hide or sealskin are used in the summer. The traditional Eskimo religion draws heavily on rich folklore. In Greenland, many Eskimos have adopted Christianity. Shamanism is also practised.