CULTURAL QA 09202414 Onam General QA –Base Quora QA-Compiled
Q2 What is the most ridiculous tax a country has ever had in history? KR: All over the world such stupid taxes are /were in force. 1. Bachelor Tax Remaining single might be your choice, but the state of Missouri in the United States imposes tax on bachelors (single man), which was first imposed way back in 1820. This tax is levied at $1 every year on unmarried men between 21 years and 50 years. Interestingly, Bachelor Tax was once imposed by many other countries as well – including Germany, South Africa and Italy, among others – and has now been abolished by many of them. 2. Pet Tax Towards the end of year 2017, the Punjab government announced imposing tax on the owners of different domestic animals. Two categories of taxes are defined: First, Rs 250 per annum will be charged from the owners of dog, cat, sheep, pig & deer. Second, Rs 500 per annum will be charged for elephant, cow, camel, horse, buffaloe & bull. 3. Blueberry Tax The blueberry tax is levied to stop over-harvesting of the fruit which in-turn helps the vegetation to thrive. As production of wild blueberry is one of the most important agriculture industries in Maine, this tax is levied to protect the industry. In Maine (a state of the United States), tax on production of blueberries is levied at one-and-half penny per pound. 4. Ice Block Tax Arizona levies tax on bulk purchase of ice (i.e. ice block). But surprisingly, on the other hand, purchasing ice-cubes is totally exempt from tax. So, if you visit Arizona in the future, make sure you opt for ice-cubes to save money. 5. Jock tax Jock Tax is levied on the income of a professional athlete. Many countries in the United States like California tax the income earned by a professional athlete in the city/state other than his home city/state. So, while focusing on their practice and training sessions, at the same time athletes have to take care of their taxes as well. 6. Pumpkin Tax As soon as one hears “Pumpkin” the festival of Halloween comes to the mind. But did you know that in New Jersey (United States) though pumpkin is a tax-exempt food, but if it is “painted, varnished or cut and sold as decorations,” then it becomes liable to sales tax. 7. Tattoo Tax People get inked to express their opinion, beliefs etc & although many countries make services provided at tattoo parlours exempt, this is not the case in Arkansas. Since 2002, the state of Arkansas levies sales tax @ 6% on inking services provided by various tattoo studios/ parlours. 8. Hat Tax The Hat Tax was introduced by the British government for the period 1784 to 1811 on men’s hat. It was based on idea that a man who owns a large number of expensive hats is very rich as compared to a poor man who might have just one cheap hat or nothing at all. The aim was to earn revenue simply based on a person’s relative wealth. 9. Toilet Flush Tax To keep a check on water-consumption, Maryland imposes tax on toilet flushing excess than the allowed limit at $5 for each month (which comes to $60 for a year). The money collected through Toilet Flush Tax is used for the development of Maryland’s sewage treatment system. 10. Cowardice Tax During the 10th century, to raise money for fighting wars, kings used to levy “Cowardice Tax” on the people who chose not to fight for any reason (including cowardice/ fear). This tax was first levied by King Henry I & was relatively low, but later King John increased the tax rate by 300%. (With inputs from income tax experts, research reports and government sites) ------------------------------------------------ Q5 What facts about Switzerland do foreigners not believe until they come to Switzerland? KR All the write up is true but swiss has so many better points. So I have added hese. Switzerland is a mountainous destination that we have all heard and dreamed about. This small, rugged European country, known for its irresistible chocolate, sturdy mountain cheese, and breathtaking beauty, has so many things to offer. Some of them you already know about. But what are the things you do not know? Here is some fun, quirky tidbits about Switzerland to help you see that it is much more fascinating than you ever thought. It may inspire you to fulfill a lifelong dream and plan a trip to Switzerland. 1. Cheese Please! Cheese in Switzerland If you like your cheese, then you will be happy to hear that Switzerland is home to 450 varieties, ranging from extra hard to soft, with crazy-hard-to-pronounce names like Sbrinz, Mutschli, Formaggini, and Tomme Vaudoise. The Swiss even have proof of how fantastic their cheese is: Out of 2,615 products entered from 22 countries in 89 categories, the Swiss took the first prize this year at the World Championship Cheese Contest. 2. Foreigners at Home in Switzerland Oftentimes, when visiting or living in foreign countries, you feel like you stick out like a sore thumb with your different appearance, heavy accent, or complete lack of knowledge of the language. But in Switzerland, foreigners compose about 23% of the population! So go ahead and join the Switzerland foreigner club. 3. Marry Late in Switzerland Once you pass the age of 20, graduate from college, and have an income, the pressure from the parentals about grandbabies and gossip from the aunts about your dating life may increase. But maybe you just want to live life calmly at your own pace! So if this is one of your woes in life, just go to Switzerland where later marriage is commonplace. The average marriage age for men is 31.8 and 29.5 for women. 4. Swiss Drink Their Own Wine It's always kind of lame when the quality food or drink a country is known for producing never actually stays within the borders. However, only about 2% of Switzerland's wine leaves the country. The Swiss produce about 200 million liters of wine per year and consume almost all of it themselves. Since it never goes too far, you can always count on a good homegrown drink and good company. In 2015, the average Swiss drank 56.5 litres of beer and 36 litres of wine. 5. The Swiss are Used to Many Languages Because Switzerland has such a diverse population, it has declared four national languages: French (20.4%), German (64%), Italian (6.5%), and Romansh (just a little over 1%). Just one more reason to feel comfortable as a foreign visitor or resident—it's perfectly acceptable to not understand what someone says to you, because nobody understands everybody! 6. Watch It! It's thanks to the Swiss that we have the handiness of clocks on our wrists. When Calvinists banned jewelry from use in 1541, goldsmiths and jewelers in Geneva brainstormed the invention of watches, since a functional timepiece was acceptable. Since then, it has proven to be one of the most successful industries of the country, reaching the present status as Switzerland's fourth largest exporter. The Swiss know how to give quality variety. 7. Switzerland is Home to Adventure Switzerland is home to 208 mountains over 3,000 meters high. What does that mean? Plenty of hiking adventures and places to go be a hermit! A beautiful experience that any in-shape hiker will love is the Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route, a 12-day classic Alpine trek that will bring you straight to the well-recognized Matterhorn. 8. The Swiss Love their Chocolate Switzerland is internationally known for its high quality chocolate. But do you know just how much chocolate is made there? Between the 18 Swiss chocolate companies, 172,376 tons of chocolate were made in year 2012. Residents help that number by eating approximately 10kg of chocolate annually. As a reference, get this: there were 200,000 tons of steel used in the construction of the World Trade complex. Talk about a lot of chocolate! 9. Take a Hike Niesenbahn is the longest continuous-cable funicular in Europe, functioning since 1910. You can ascend to the summit of the Neisen mountain in about 30 minutes with the coolest ride out there. It may seem precarious but is really quite safe. And even better, the world's longest stairway with 11,674 steps, is right alongside the track—so if you really do want to take a hike, you can. 10. Can you Read Helvetica? When you use fonts in Microsoft Word, you don't usually think about where they come from. But the widely used sans-serif typeface of Helvetica Font actually originates from Switzerland! In 1957, Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffman designed this neutral and convenient font. Good thing it wasn't one of those crazy wingdings. 11. Live Long and Prosper in Switzerland Switzerland proudly claims the highest percentage of people over 100 in Europe. In 2012, it had the second highest life expectancy after Japan. This extended lifetime is probably in large part affected by the cleanliness of the air, the abundance of walking trails, and the availability of high-quality health care. 12. Grand Slam Roger Federer is only one example that the Swiss know how to achieve success. In his years of playing, he has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles, earning him the position as the most successful men's tennis player...ever. 13. Cantons United Switzerland is comprised of cantons instead of states. There are 26 of these little "corners" squeezed into the small landlocked country, divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau, and the Jura and surrounded by five countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Liechtenstein. The close to 8 million citizens are mostly concentrated in the plateau. It's only fitting though, since the Swiss motto is "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" or "One for all, all for one." 14. Birthplace of the Red Cross This 97 million volunteer program was founded in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland where its headquarters still remain today. The Red Cross flag is simply a color switching of the Flag of Switzerland, showing proud Swiss roots. 15. Is it Swiss? We use "Swiss" in our vocabulary more than we realize. But are these items really from Switzerland? Let's check it out: Swiss Steak: This name does not actually refer to Switzerland, but instead to the process of "swissing", which refers to fabric or other materials being pounded or run through rollers in order to soften it. Niesenbahn -longest continuous cable funicular in EuropeSwiss Army Knife: In 1891, these really were manufactured originally for the Swiss Army. However, the general term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by US soldiers after World War II due to the difficulty they had in pronouncing the German name. Swiss Miss: This is an American brand of hot chocolate that simply uses the Swiss Alps as part of its branding to show that this hot chocolate is perfect and portable for cold temperatures and active situations. Also, some say that its flavor is reminiscent of Swiss milk chocolate. Swiss Cheese: Another term that is generically applied to the family of holey cheeses that simply resemble Emmental cheese from Switzerland. Once again, it is not actually from Switzerland but rather produced in America and Canada. Swiss Chard: The word "Swiss" was used to distinguish chard from French spinach varieties by 19th century seed catalogue publishers. Although it is native to the Mediterranean region, its scientific name was determined by Swiss botanist Koch and so the name honors his homeland. K RAJARAM IRS 14 9 24 ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: 'gopala krishnan' via iyer123 <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 14 Sept 2024 at 19:42 Subject: [iyer123] CULTURAL QA 09-2024-14 To: Iyer <[email protected]> CULTURAL QA 09-2024-14 Onam General QA –Base Quora QA-Compiled Q1 What is the funniest lawyer joke you've ever heard? A1 Marc Wilson, Lives in The United Kingdom (1957–present)Thu A ship sinks and three men are together in a lifeboat; a priest, a marine biologist and a lawyer. After several days floating aimlessly, they see a small island… but they don't seem to be getting any closer to it. They decide that someone needs to get into the water and tow the boat. There are some ominous-looking triangular fins in the water. The biologist says that he thinks they're not a particularly agressive species, so he climbs into the water and starts to swim — but the sharks immediately head for the boat, so he clambers back in. After a while, the priest says: “God will provide" and climbs into the water. Again, the sharks head for the boat, and he escapes by a hair. Finally, the lawyer says: “Leave it to me" and gets into the water. The sharks head for the boat, but he stays in the water, despite the others urging him to climb aboard. Expecting carnage, the two in the boat are amazed when the sharks form two ranks and escort the boat to the beach. The biologist says “That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen! I'll get a major paper out of this!” The priest says “It's a miracle!” “No,” says the lawyer, “Just professional courtesy.” Q2 What is the most ridiculous tax a country has ever had in history? A2 Silk Road, Physics/History Connoisseur, AI Machine Learning.8h Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, England had this thing called the Window Tax. The idea was, the more windows you had, the richer you were, so you should pay more. But folks back then weren't too keen on forking over their hard-earned cash. So, what did they do? They started bricking up them windows. Imagine living in a house with barely any natural light? Dark, damp, and downright depressing.Wasn't just the poor folks who suffered either. Even the fancy lords and ladies had to sacrifice a few windows to save a few shillings. Some buildings ended up looking like they'd been in a brawl, with mismatched bricks and boarded-up holes where windows used to be. The tax collectors weren't too happy about this, either. They had to go around counting windows, which wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Some folks would get creative, trying to trick the taxman with fake windows or those hidden ones. The Window Tax actually ended up hurting public health. With less sunlight and fresh air, diseases like tuberculosis spread like wildfire. The classic case of unintended consequences. Eventually, the Window Tax got repealed in 1851, but its legacy lives on. You can still see bricked-up windows on old buildings in England, a reminder of a time when the government tried to tax the very light out of people's lives. Q3 What are the new medical breakthroughs or new technologies that is changing old medical procedures? A3 Tiny Nair,Cardiologist at PRS Hospital, Trivandrum1y In early 1900 in England, people used to sprinkle ninhydrin powder over the door lock before they left home. If a thief tried to break-in, they would have ninhydrin powder in their hand. Ninhydrin reacted with sweat and produced a rather permanent red colour. Check the suspects hand, and the thief would be caught ‘red-handed’. Catching a rogue cancer cell hiding somewhere among the 37 trillion healthy ones, standing shoulder to shoulder, is not that easy as catching a thief. But now scientists have found a way to catch the cancer-cell literally red-handed. They are called tumour markers Tumour Markers are either fragments of cancer cells, their products, their secretions; but coming from a rogue cell, it is different from a healthy product. Tumour markers are promising in replacing painful biopsies sometimes in the future. Already many are in clinical use but search for others are on. Time is not far away when a drop of blood, just about another anxious 15 minutes, and you would know if you have cancer anywhere in the body. But till that comes true, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, avoid excess sunlight exposure and maintain a health body weight by a good diet. Remember, smoking, alcohol, excess UV exposure and obesity are correlated with most preventable cancers. Right now, investing in a better Lock is preferable to looking for a pair of red hands in the crowd. Q4 What is your favorite bad joke? A4 Prafull Ambekar,21h Three blondes decide to go hunting... While in the field, they stumble across a set of tracks. The first one exclaimed, "Oh, look! Deer tracks!" The second one said, "You dummy, those are moose tracks." The third one chimed in and said, "You're both wrong. Those are the biggest bear tracks I've ever seen!" They started arguing about who was right and who was wrong. After about an hour they decided it was moose tracks... And that's when the train hit them. Q5 What facts about Switzerland do foreigners not believe until they come to Switzerland? A5 A Anar Suleyman, travelled to over 30 countries in Europe, Asia and MENA2y I lived in Switzerland for one year. As a foreigner I can tell: Do not flush toilet after 10 PM in Geneva. Keep it for tomorrow. Otherwise police will knock your door after 15–20 minutes. You do not need a car in Geneva, it can be additional burden. Public transportation is well organized. If you do not offer your place to elders on public transportations you will be fined. Although tap water in Switzerland is safe to drink still many people buy large bottled waters from markets for daily usage at home. It is very green. Unlike many other countries they keep parks as natural as possible (without pavements). I knew a British man with a master's degree in engineering from one of UK's top universities who worked as a bartender in Geneva. He said that he could not find such well-paid job in the UK. Do you want to guess his salary? Although Geneva is very safe city almost every month, I heard the news that a teenager had died in a tram accident. About toilet flush that worries many. It is has not happened to me personally but I knew people who had been complaining about it. It is not the law but rules set up by landlords. You will not be arrested or fined by police, you will just be warned. For some people it is a myth and for some it is reality. -- To go to your groups page on the web, login to your gmail account and then click on https://groups.google.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iyer123" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iyer123/1339694790.4991791.1726323127493%40mail.yahoo.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iyer123/1339694790.4991791.1726323127493%40mail.yahoo.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZooKMFW0ZBPp%3Dmd2q5qBt_11UM8YRfEgvkrSvqyUkVPoMg%40mail.gmail.com.
