Concluded

Sustainche today was surprised in receiving substantial help in fully understand Germany’s National Strategy for Sustainable Development. The Federal Government was handed over a report prepared by a team of international experts reviewing the present German National Strategy for Sustainable Development. Well, to make it short: The expert team does not consider the strategy to be a strategy, not to mention that they can’t recognize a comprehensive and cross-cutting vision for the future, which they deem necessary until the year 2050. Sustainche is not surprised to reading something as strong as this ! 

Sustainche fully agrees that the document For a Sustainable Germany is far away from what he personally would consider being a vision. A well-known vision is for example when United States President John F. Kennedy in 1961 announced that until the end of the decade Americans will walk on the moon and will safely return to Planet Earth … which – by the way – is perfect objective formulation.

For Polar Bear Sustainche a vision is more than a technical description of individual isolated pieces; it is rather a mosaic of nicely designed, comprehensive and cross-cutting objectives and full of positive energy and joy which makes people say: WOW, YES, we want to discover this unknown territory ! Sustainche is sure that if Christopher Columbus would just have told his comrades how to technically build a ship to cross the great ocean, they would have never ever arrived in America … which at that time they thought to be the Indies ! “If you want to realize a vision, you need to implant a GREAT wish deep in the heart ! Only than the entire universe will provide support”, Sustainche thinks and Aristotle would add: “The whole is more than the total of its individual pieces.” 

So, we return to joy and happiness … which seems to be a major problem in Germany … . Of course, we know that Polar Bear Sustainche has a very special understanding of happiness; this includes simply to ‘zivej’ … However, Sustainche knows that also some human mammals perceive that gross national happiness (GNH) is more appropriate than gross national product (GNP) to describe the quality of life. The term gross national happiness (GNH) was coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization, soon after the demise of his father, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. It signaled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan’s unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Gross national happiness is the unifying vision for Bhutan’s five-year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans of the country. While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of gross national happiness (GNH) are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance. “How nice !” Sustainche is happy  

Germany’s National Strategy for Sustainable Development does not know words like joy and happiness. This is although ‘quality of life’ is indeed mentioned ! However, what is understood as to be quality of life ? The indicator areas outlined are: Economic prosperity (gross domestic product per capita and growth – of course !), Mobility (Is it … ?), Farming (Bravo !), Air quality (Yes !), Health (Wow … hunting smokers !), Nutrition (Yeah !) and Crime (Burglaries in homes … hmmm … strange Germans; do they think that quality of life is improved if there arrives only one bandit per year in your home ?). “This is a rather technical perception, isn’t it”, Sustainche wonders. 

In a widely cited study, ‘A Global Projection of Subjective Well-being: A Challenge to Positive Psychology?’ by Adrian G. White of the University of Leicester in 2007, Bhutan ranked 8th out of 178 countries in Subjective Well-Being, a metric that has been used by many psychologists since 1997. In fact, it is the only country in the top 20 “happiest” countries that has a very low gross national product (GNP). 

By the way: “Happy” Germany is ranked 35th … “GNP” Germany is ranked 4th …

Hello everyone

You will find that the geographyalltheway website has conveniently become a subscriber site in the past 2 days so you cannot access it for the moment. Therefore leave the homework where you need the website.

:real man-made interior:

This is my favorite place in the world.

:diner 29, historical landmark:

Or will be, until this Tuesday, when legislation goes into gear in Virginia that means that I can’t smoke inside of Diner 29.

:ashtray in diner 29 - rectangle:

I’m sorry. I like to have my smoke and my coffee after a long trek into Fairfax County.

:but don't i look so beautiful and happy?:

Seriously, though. With Big Tobacco VA out of the picture, where can I smoke cigarettes?

Wikipedia says:

Michigan

Wyoming

Kansas

Oklahoma

Missouri

Texas

Missouri

Mississippi

Alabama

South Carolina

Indiana

Kentucky

and

West Virginia.

What? That leaves us happy smokers only thirteen states to happily smoke in. This is filthy communism!

Apparently others feel the same way:

:whoa:

Back off my happiness, US of A!

(Props to Daniel K for research and photos)

I’m pretty sure I never picked up a copy of The New Yorker before last weekend. I’m kind of proud of that.

Of course, I realize that’s not too far off from the proud ignorance that reinforces the East Coast elitist disdain for the rest of the nation. So I read an issue at the library. It was pretty interesting. I particularly liked this article about Hollywood’s expert accent coach.

I also read the New York Review of Books, or tried to. I like books, after all, and since I live in New York I’ve tried to become less suspicious of any publication that insists on making the city’s name part of its own. But I did not really need to spend my Saturday reading a review about a book about Emerson’s thoughts about crafting sentences. During the few paragraphs I did read, I was filled with the overwhelming feeling that I had turned the page on this subject before.

I’ve still never read The Atlantic, but there’s always another Saturday.

One last snobbish anti-snobbery note: After reading this bizarre meditation on campus bicycles during class last week, I was delighted by this Slate criticism. I’ll let that suffice for my own unimpressed reaction, other than to say that I love the phrase “literary minstrel routines” and dislike Mencken’s “On Being an American” for the same reasons. The faux-wonder thing is only bearable when it’s precocious and, though many of them would disagree, I do not think old men earn a second adolescence just because they once accomplished something meaningful.

All in One

The project explores how new forms of habitable infrastructure might be extrapolated from a geopolitical agreement – in this case, materializing architectural form from the legal interstices of the Oslo Accords.
The result is a fantastic example of architectural speculation: genuinely massive – and impossibly cantilevered – bridges used as transport links, aerial housing, and skyborne agricultural complexes, all in one.

[

While clearly defying security protocols, as the "continuous enclave" and its network of bridges cross through sovereign Israeli airspace, these structures would link the dispersed islands of infrastructurally underserved territory now under Palestinian control.
From Ramos's own project description:

This thesis takes a formal approach to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by studying mechanisms of control within the West Bank. The occupation of the West Bank has had tremendous effects on the urban fabric of the region because it operates spatially. Through the conflict, new ways of imagining territory have been needed to multiply a single sovereign territory into many. It is only through the overlapping of two separate political geographies that they are able to inhabit the same landscape.

One might say that these bridges present us with the staple as geopolitical form.

"The Oslo Accords," Ramos continues, "have been integral to this process of division."

By defining various control regimes, the Accords have created a fragmented landscape of isolated Palestinian enclaves and Israeli settlements. The intertwined nature of these fragments makes it impossible to divide the two states easily. By connecting the fragments through a series of under- and overpasses, the border between the two states has shifted vertically.

In the following cross-section, you can see the internal stacking of the space – an inhabited borderzone that weaves through the lower atmosphere.

To my mind, the project avoids the most obvious and expected pitfall of such an approach – which would be to suggest, naively, that architecture can, in and of itself, lead to a more thorough and lasting peace in the region, as if the entirety of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be eradicated if only they had better architecture.
Ramos instead uses the Oslo Accords as a kind of spatial source-code from which unanticipated structural forms might be extracted.
For those of you who have read Delirious New York, it's as if the Oslo Accords have been turned into a geopolitically active 1916 Zoning Law. That law, of course, established spatial guidelines – for instance, enforcing setbacks for buildings, leading to an era in which skyscrapers rose up like ever-narrowing ziggurats – from which the buildings of Manhattan would then be shaped.
As Koolhaas himself writes, in the wake of the Zoning Law architects would "have to carve the final Manhattan archetype from the invisible rock of its zoning envelope in a campaign of specification."
In Ramos's project, that "invisible rock" consists of disputed territorial claims hovering virtually over the geography of the West Bank. The distinct new form of spatiality "carved" from that rock is the bypass.

Again, from the project description:

One feature of the Oslo Accords is the bypass road which links Israeli settlements to Israel, bypassing Palestinian areas in the process. These are essential to the freedom of movement for the settlers within the Occupied Territories. Extrapolating on the bypass, this thesis explores the ramifications of a continuous infrastructural network linking the fragmented landscape of Palestinian enclaves. In the process, a continuous form of urbanization has been developed to allow for the growth and expansion of the Palestinian state. Ultimately, this thesis questions the potential absurdity of partition strategies within the West Bank and Gaza Strip by attempting to realize them.

Thus creating what Ramos calls bypass urbanism, or a self-connected maze of new territories in the sky.

There are any number of other directions such a project could go, but I'm particularly excited by the idea of applying this same sort of analysis to other conflict zones, elsewhere, all over the world.
Of course, the precedents for this are many. After all, what is the Berlin Wall but a piece of architecture pulled from the dreamscape of international legal infrastructure?
In fact, I'm reminded here of Rupert Thomson's under-appreciated recent novel Divided Kingdom – especially because the basic premise of that book was at least partially inspired by Rem Koolhaas's own student thesis project, Exodus, or The Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture. As Koolhaas wrote:

Once, a city was divided in two parts. One part became the Good Half, the other part the Bad Half. The inhabitants of the Bad Half began to flock to the good part of the divided city, rapidly swelling into an urban exodus. If this situation had been allowed to continue forever, the population of the Good Half would have doubled, while the Bad Half would have turned into a ghost town. After all attempts to interrupt this undesirable migration had failed, the authorities of the bad part made desperate and savage use of architecture: they built a wall around the good part of the city, making it completely inaccessible to their subjects.

The Wall was a masterpiece.

The U.S.–Mexico border would seem an obvious place for any investigation of "bypass urbanism" to begin; just today, the New York Times looked at the decaying after-effects of the Dayton Accords and their spatio-sovereign impact on the future of Bosnia; and Lebbeus Woods has long explored the architectural effects of political separation, from Paris and Berlin to Israel and Sarajevo, seeking out those fissures wherein geopolitics exhibits its own peculiar form of spatial tectonics.
But what new kinds of space might we yet extract from territorial agreements between, say, India and Pakistan over Kashmir, or Turkey and Greece over Nicosia – or, for that matter, what strange infrastructures might we build in Baarle-Hertog, what pavilions inspired by the Akwizgran Discrepancy, and how might most interestingly extract architecture from the international date line?

[Image: From The Continuous Enclave: Strategies in Bypass Urbanism by Viktor Ramos; view larger].

Designer : Viktor Ramos via [BLDGBLOG]

I went to high school in the early 1970s, mostly in Alaska. We had hippies up there, but it was hard to tell them from rural residents who weren’t native. The antiwar stuff was more a matter of fashion for most kids, but we had some who were serious about it. Along with that were the population fear mongers, anti-pollution freaks, climate change folks, and dopers. Oh yeah — climate change meant fearing global cooling.

Some things weren’t really a problem. Population, as Crichton shows, was already on the decline. Protests against the “population bomb” were utterly misplaced. The anti-war folks were generally correct, but I’m not really sure they had that much do with our the US actually leaving SE Asia. We lost on the ground, and I simply don’t believe some of the bogus recriminations about how we lost it here first. We never should have been there in the first place, so if that’s the case, we should be protesting again.

Pollution was an issue, and still is, but Crichton is completely wrong about pharmaceuticals — they have already been shown a serious danger. Industrial pollution we are reducing, not a moment too soon, and not nearly in enough places. And Chernobyl is hardly a non-issue. I sincerely hope we learned our lesson there. Nuclear technology is hardly that safe. It can be done, but most governments tend to lavish such things with neglect. Only rarely do people in power actually care about their fellow humans, so we can expect more disasters, such as Yellowstone.

But the new fear of global warming was never anything but pure hogwash, an attempt at watermelon politics: green is the color you see, but it’s pure red murderous communism inside. It remains a profit seeking, fear mongering power grab, and humanity be damned. Instead, it seems the old fears of ice ages were accurate. But that doesn’t mean burning petroleum isn’t harmful on the scale we now do it. It may not kill us all, but the long term effects are dismissed by the heedless masses.

Still, I am much more concerned with something deeper. All of the above would never be an issue if we simply lived by God’s Laws. It’s the moral pollution which will kill us first.

Time Allowed : Two Hours                                Maximum Marks : 150

1. About 50% of the world population is concentrated between the latitudes of
(a) 5°N and 20°N
(b) 20°N and 40°N
(c) 40°N and 60°N
(d) 20°S and 40°S

2. A rectangular plot of lawn has dimensions `x’ and `y’ and is surrounded by a gravel pathway of width 2m. What is the total area of the pathway?

(a) 2x + 2y + 4
(b) 2x + 2y + 8
(c) 4x+4y+8
(d) 4x+4y+16

3. After consolidating his power, Balban assumed the grand title of
(a) Tute-i-Hind       (b) Kaisr-i-Hind     (c) Zil-i-Ilahi    (d) Din-i-Ilahi

4. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                             List II
(Climatic conditions)                             (Reasons)
A. Madras is warmer than Calcutta     1. North-East Monsoon
B. Snowfall in Himalayas                     2. Altitude
C. Rainfall decreases from                   3. Western depressions
West Bengal to Punjab
D. Sutlej-Ganga Plain gets                   4. Distance from sea
some rain in winter                           5. Latitude
A    B    C    D           A    B    C    D
(a) 1    2    4    5        (b) 4    5     1     3
(c) 5    2    4    3        (d) 5    1     3     4

5. The economic and monetary union of 15 European countries is proposed to be made by 1999. But the currencies of two countries, franc, have already the same value and circulate freely in both the countries. The countries are
(a) France and Switzerland
(b) Switzerland and Luxembourg
(c) Luxembourg and Belgium
(d) France and Belgium

6. The average rate of domestic savings (gross) for the Indian economy is currently estimated to be in the range of
(a) 15 to 20 percent      (b) 20 to 25 percent
(c) 25 to 30 percent      (d) 30 to 35 percent

7. The tendency of a liquid drop to contract and occupy minimum area is due to
(a) surface tension         (b) viscosity
(c) density                    (d) vapour pressure

8. The pituitary gland by virtue of its tropic hormones controls the secretary activity of other endocrine glands. Which one of the following endocrine glands can function independent of the pituitary gland ?
(a) Thyroid                   (b) Gonads
(c) Adrenals                 (d) Parathyroid

9. The average monthly income of a person in a certain family of 5 is Rs. 1000/-. What will be the monthly average income of a person in the same family if the income of one person increased by Rs. 12000/- per year ?
(a) 1200/-                    (b) 1600/-
(c) 2000/-                    (d) 3400/-

10. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                              List II
A. Butler Committee           1. Jallianwala Bagh
Report                                     massacre
B. Hurtog Committee           2. Relationship between
Report                                    the Indian States and Paramount Power
C. Hunter Inquiry                3. Working of Dyarchy as  laid down in the Mont
Committee Report               – agu-Chelmsford       Reforms
D. Muddiman                       4. The growth of education  in British India and potenti
Committee Report                -alities of its further progress
A   B   C   D         A   B   C   D
(a)  3   2    1    4     (b) 1    4   2   3
(c)  2   1    3    4     (d) 2    4   1   3

11. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                              List II
A. Deccan Traps               1. Late cenozoic
B. Western Ghats              2. Pre-cambrian
C. Arayalli                         3. Cretaceous Eocene
D. Narmada-Tapi              4. Cambrian
alluvial deposits              5.Pleistocene
A   B   C   D           A   B   C   D
(a) 3   5    1   4       (b) 3    1    2   5
(c) 2   1    3   4       (d) 1    4    2   5

12. The number of industries for which industrial licensing is required has now been reduced to
(a) 15      (b) 6      (c) 35      (d) 20

13. Which one of the following is a vector quantity ?
(a) Momentum        (b) Pressure
(c) Energy               (d) Work

14. Oxygen transportation in a human body takes place through
1. Blood.       2. Lungs.      3. Tissue.
The correct sequence of transportation is
(a) 1, 2, 3     (b) 3, 1, 2      (c) 2, 1, 3     (d) 1, 3, 2

15. The characteristic ordour of garlic is due to
(a) a chloro compound
(b) a sulpher compound
(c) a fluorine compound
(d) acetic acid

16. The head of the military department under the recognized central machinery of administration during Akbar’s reign was
(a) Diwan           (b) Mir Bakshi
(c) Mir Saman    (d) Bakshi

17. The January isotherm taken as a basis for dividing India into tropical and subtropical zones is
(a) 21°C      (b) 18°C      (c) 12°C      (d) 15°C

18.If QRS is an equilateral triangle and QTS is an isosceles triangle and x = 47°. then the value (in degrees) of y will be
(a) 13   (b) 23   (c) 33    (d) 43

19. “….. They are people of yellow complexion, oblique eyes, high check bones, sparse hair and medium height.” The reference here is to
(a) Nordic Aryans    (b) Austrics    (c) Negroids    (d) Mongoloids

20. What is the correct sequence of the descending order of the following States in respect of female literacy rates as per the 1991 census ?
1. Mizoram       2. Kerala       3. Goa         4. Nagaland
Choose the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 2, 3, 1, 4     (b) 2, 1, 3, 4     (c) 2, 3, 4, 1   (d) 1, 2, 4, 3

21. The tail of a comet is directed away from the sun because
(a) as the comet rotates around the sun, the lighter mass of the comet is pushed away due to the centrifugal force alone
(b) as the comet rotates, the lighter mass of the comet is attracted by some star situated in the direction of its tail
(c) the radiation emitted by the sun ‘exerts a radial pressure on the comet throwing its tail away from the sun
(d) the tail of the comet always exists in the same orientation

22. Corpus lutcum is a mass of cells found in
(a) brain     (b) ovary     (c) pancreas   (d) spleen

23. Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A) : The sponsor and the most prominent figure of the Chisti order of Sufis in India is Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.
Reason (R) : The Chisti order takes its name from a village Chisti in Ajmer.
In the context of the above two statements, which one of the following is correct ?
(a) Both A and Rare true and R is the correct explanation ‘ of A
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
(c) A is true but R is false
(d) A is false but R is true

24. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                   List II
(Minerals)                         (Typical areas of occurence)
A. Coal                                1. Bhandara
B. Gold                                2. Karanpura
C. Mica                               3. Hutti
D. Manganese                     4. Nellore
A   B   C   D       A   B   C   D
(a) 1    3    2   4   (b) 2   3    4   1
(c) 3    4    2   1   (d) 2   1    4   3

25. In which one of the following countries will the no confidence motion to bring down the government passed by the legislature be valid only when the legislature is able to find simultaneously a majority to elect successor government ?
(a) France     (b) Germany    (c) Italy    (d) Portugal

26. In the series POQ, SRT, VUW,—— , the blank space refers to
(a) XYZ       (b) XZY       (c) YXZ       (d) YZX

27. The sum of which of the following constitutes Broad Money in India ?
1. Currency with the public.
2. Demand deposits with banks.
3. Time deposits with banks.
4. Other deposits with RBI.
Choose the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 and 2              (b) 1, 2 and 3
(c) 1, 2, 3 and 4      (d) 1, 2 and 4

28. A smooth inclined at an angle θ A body starts from rest and slides down the inclined surface. The time taken by the body to reach the bottom is

29. “A graduate at 18, professor and associate editor of the Sudharak at 20, Secretary of the Sarvajanik Sabha and of the Provincial Conference at 25, Secretary of the National Congress at 29, leading witness before an important Royal Commission at 31, Provincial legislator at 34, Imperial legislator at 36, President of the Indian National Congress at 39 a patriot whom Mahatma Gandhi himself regarded as his master”. This is how a biographer describes
(a) Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
(b) Mahadev Govind Ranade
(c) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(d) Bal Gangadhar Tilak

30. Which one of the following is an active component of oil of clove ?
(a) Menthol                     (b) Eugenol
(c) Methanol                   (d) Benzaldehyde

31. Consider the map given below
The river shown on the map is
(a) Irrawaddy   (b) Mekong   (c) Chao Phraya.    (d) Salween

32. Which one of the following was NOT proposed by the 73rd constitutional amendment in the area of Panchayati Raj ?
(a) Thirty per cent seats in all elected rural local bodies will be reserved for women candidates at all levels
(b) The States will constitute their Finance Commissions to allocate resources to Panchayati Raj institutions
(c) The Panchayati Raj elected functionaries will be disqualified to hold their offices if they have more than two children
(d) The elections will be held in six months time if Panchayati Raj bodies are superceded or dissolved by the State government

33. According to the latest census figures sex ratio in India is
(a) declining     (b) stable     (c) increasing    (d) fluctuating

34. The most reactive among the halogens is
(a) fluorine      (b) chlorine      (c) bromine      (d) iodine

35. Which one of the following organisms is likely to show the highest concentration of DDT once it has been introduced into the ecosystem ?
(a) Grasshopper     (b) Toad      (c) Snake    (d) Cattle

36. There are three drawers in a table. One contains two golds coins., another two silver coins, and the third, a silver coin and a gold coin. One of the drawers is pulled out and a coin is taken out. It turns out to be a silver coin What is the probability of drawing a gold coin, if one of the other two drawers is pulled out next and one of the coins in it is drawn at random ?
(a) 37.5%         ( b) 50%       (c) 62,5%     (d) 75%

37. Who among the following was associated with supression if Thugs ?
(a) General Henry Prendergast      (b) Captain Sleeman
(c) Alexander Burnes                    (d) Captain Robert Pemberton

38. The Alamatti is on the river
(a) Godavari      (b) Cauvery      (c) Krishna    (d) Mahanadi

39. Which one of the following States of India has passed a legislation (in 1996) making the maintenance of one’s parents mandatory ?
(a) Kerala     (b) West Bengal         (c) Maharashtra       (d) Himachal Pradesh

40. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I (Events)                             List II (Results)
A. Morley Minto Reforms                 1. Country-wise agitation
B. Simon commission                         2. Withdrawal of a movement
C. The Chauri-Chaura incident           3. Communal Electorates
D. The Dandi March                          4. Communal outbreaks
5. Illegal manufacture of salt
A    B    C    D             A   B   C   D
(a) 3    4     5     2         (b) 4    1   2    3
(c) 2    3    4     5          (d) 3    1   2    5

41. P is 30 km eastward of O and Q is 400 km north of O. R is exactly in the middle of Q and P. The distance between Q and R is
(a) 250 km      (b) 300 km        (c) 350 km        (d) 250 X (km)^1/2

42. The Poona Pact which was signed between the British Government and Mahatma Gandhi in 1934 Provided for
(a) the creation of dominion status for India    (b) separate electorates for the Muslims
(c) separate electorate for the Harijans           (d) joint electorate with reservation for Harijans

43. Which one of the following was used as a chemical weapon in the First World War ?
(a) Carbon monoxide    (b) Hydrogen cyanide   (c) Mustard gas    (d) Water gas

44. Proportional representation is NOT necessary in a country where
(a) there are no reserved constituencies
(b) a two-party system has developed
(c) the first-past-post system prevails
(d) there is a fusion of presidential and Parliamentary forms of government

45. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer
List I (Committees)                                                  List II (Chaired by)
A. Disinvestment of shares in  Public Sector Enterprises   1. Rajah Chelliah
B. Industrial Sickness                                                     2. Onkar Goswami
C. Tax Reforms                                                             3. R. N. Malhotra
D. Reforms in Insurance  Sector                                      4. C. Rangarajan
A    B    C    D           A    B    C    D
(a) 1    4     2     3       (b) 4     2    1     3
(c) 4    1     2    3        (d) 1     3    4     2

46. Alpha-keratin is a protein present in
(a) blood              (b) skin            (c) wool       (d) eggs

47. Which one of the following is paramagnetic in nature?
(a) Iron        (b) Hydrogen       (c) Oxygen         (d) Nitrogen

48. When three coins are tossed together the probability that all coins have the same face up is
(a) 3          (b) 6          (c) 8         (d) 12

49. Which one of the following factors is responsible for the change in the regular direction of the ocean currents in the Indian Ocean ?
(a) Indian Ocean is half an ocean                (b) Indian Ocean has Monsoon drift
(c) Indian Ocean is a land-locked ocean     (d) Indian Ocean has greater variation in salinity

50. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                      List II
A. Surat Split                             1. 1929
B. Communal Award                 2. 1928
C. All Party Convention             3. 1932
D. Poorna Swaraj  Resolution     4. 1907
5. 1905
A     B     C   D        A    B     C     D
(a) 4     3     1    5    (b) 4     3     2      1
(c) 2     5     4    1    (d) 1     4     2      3

51.

The predominant languages spoken in the areas marked A B, C and D are respectively
(a) Brajbhasha, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Awadhi
(b) Awadhi, Maithili, Bhojpuri and Brajbhasha
(c) Brajbhasha, Awadhi, Bhojpuri and Maithili
(d) Maithili, Bhojpuri, Brajbhasha and Awadhi

52. The number of students in two sections, A and B having different heights is shown in the following Table

The ration of the number of students of a particular height in Section A to that in Section B is the maximum for the height of
(a) 1.55 m        (b) 1.60 m        (c) 1.65 m     (d) 1.71 m

53. The canal-carrying capacity of Farrakka is
(a) 75,000 Cusecs             (b) 70,000 Cusecs
(c) 40,000 Cusecs             (d) 35,000 Cusecs

54. The Prime Minister of which one of the following countries is chosen by the ruling prince from a slate of three candidates put up to him by the President of France ?
(a) San Marius     (b) Liechtenstein     (c) Malta        (d) Monaco

55. One of the important agreements reached in the 1996 Ministrial Conference of WTO refers to
(a) commerce in Information Technology
(b) Multilateral Agreement on Investment
(c) Multi-fibre Agreement
(d) exchange of technical personal

56. Which one of the following has the highest fuel value?
(a) Hydrogen       (b) Charco      (c) Natural gas       (d) Gasoline

57. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                      List II
A. Chittagaon Armoury raid      1. Lala Hardayal
B. Kakori Conspiracy               2. Jatin Das
C. Lahore Conspiracy              3. Surya Sen
D. Ghadr Party                         4. Ram Prasad Bismil
5. Vasudeo Phadke
A    B    C    D          A    B     C     D
(a) 3     4    1    5       (b) 4     3      2     5
(c) 3    4     2    1       (d) 2     4      3     1

58. Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched?
(a) Teak                : Jammu and Kashmir
(b) Deodar            : Madhya Pradesh
(c) Sandalwood     : Kerala
(d) Sundari            : West Bengal

59. Which one of the following is cultivated by transplanting seedlings ?
(a) Maize      (b) Sorghum      (c) Onion      (d) Soyabeen

60.The places marked A, B, C and D in the map are respectively

(a) Rift valley region, Chattisgarh plain, Rain shadow region and Chotanagpur plateau
(b) Chattisgarh plain, Chotanagpur plateau, Rift valley region, and Rain shadow region
(c) Rift valley region, Chattisgarh plain, Chotanag-pur plateau and Rain shadow region
(d) Chattisgarh plain, Rain shadow region, Chota-nagpur plateau and Rift valley region

61. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:

List I (Crops) List II (Geographical conditions)

A. Barley                       1. Hot and dry climate with poor soil
B. Rice                          2. Cool climate with poorer soil
C. Millets                      3. Warm and Moist climate with high attitude
D. Tea                           4. Hot and Moist climate with rich soil
A    B    C    D          A    B   C   D
(a) 2    4     1    3      (b) 3    4     1   2
(c) 2    1     4    3      (d) 3    2     4   1

62. The world’s fastest computer has been able to perform (as of Dec. 1996)
(a) 10⁶ operations per second     (b) 10⁹ operations per second
(c) 10¹² operations per second    (d) 10¹⁵ operations per second

63. The Basque separatist organization is active in
(a) Russia      (b) Cyprus      (c) Portugal     (d) Spain

64. The following table shows the per cent change in the amount of sales (in rupees) at different retail stores in a given neighborhood market in the period 1993 to 1995:

If the sales at Anshu store amounted to Rs. 8 Lakhs in 1993, then the amount of sales (in lakhs of rupees) at that store in 1995 was
(a) 7.92        (b) 8.00      (c) 8.80     (d) 9.68

65. The planet mercury is revolving in an elliptical orbit around the sun. The kinetic energy of mercury is greatest at the point labelled

(a) A      (b) B      (c) C     (d) D

66. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I              List II
A. Gupta            1. Badami
B. Chandella     2. Panamalai
C. Chalukya      3. Khajuraho
D. Pallava         4. Deogarh
A     B    C    D        A    B    C    D
(a) 4      3    1     2    (b) 4    2     3     1
(c) 2      3    4     1    (d) 3    4     1     2

67. Consider the map given below
The places marked A, B, C and D in the map are respectively known for the cultivation of
(a) groundnut, ragi, tobacco and sugarcane
(b) groundnut, sugarcane, ragi and tobacco
(c) ragi, sugarcane, groundnut and tobacco
(d) ragi, groundnut, sugarcane and tobacco

68. The film The Making of the Mahatma has been directed by
(a) Peter Ustinov             (b) Richard Attenborough
(c) Shyam Benegal          (d) Mira Nair

69. “From Aceh in the far northwest to Torres Strait in the east is 5000 miles, almost as far as from London to Baghdad. The archipelago has 14,000 islands, some mere equatorial rocks, others some of the largest in the world.” This description best fits
(a) West Indies      (b) Japan      (c) Philippines     (d) Indonesia

70. Human Development Index comprises literacy rates, life. expectancy at birth and
(a) Gross Domestic Product per head in the US dollars
(b) Groos Domestic Product per head at real purchasing power
(c) Gross National Product in US dollars
(d) National Income per head in US dollars

71. A major health mission carried out in 1996 was
(a) war against leprosy              (b) small-pox eradication
(c) pulse polio immunization      (d) popularisation of oral rehydration therapy

72. If the numbers representing volume and surface area of a cube are equal, then the length of the edge of the cube in terms of the unit of measurement will be
(a) 3      (b) 4        (c) 5        (d) 6

73. Which one of the following statements regarding Asokan stone pillars is incorrect ?
(a) These are highly polished
(b) These are monolithic
(c) The shaft of pillars is tapering in shape
(d) These are parts of architectural structures

74. State funding of elections takes place in
(a) U.S.A. and Canada       (b) Britain and Switzerland
(c) France and Italy            (d) Germany and Austria

75. Which of the following places are known for paper manufacturing industry ?
1. Yamunanagar     2. Guwahati     3. Shahabad          4. Ballarpur
Chose the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1, 2 and 3       (b) 1, 2 and 4       (c) 1, 3 and 4       (d) 2, 3, and 4

76. Consider the following graphs

The behaviour of a fictitious stock market index [comprising a weighted average of the market prices of a selected list of companies including some multinational corporations (MNC’s) over a 15 day period is shown in the graph. The behaviour of the MNC’s in the same period is also shown in the second graph. Which one of the following is a valid conclusion ?
(a) MC’s fell steeper in the period depicted
(b) Share prices of every non-MNC company soared by over 5% on the 12th day
(c) Government announced a policy disfavouring MNC’s on the 11th day
(d) Whatever be the reason favouring market revival on the 12th day, it appears to be relevant only to non-MNC companies

77. Which one of the following pairs of composers in different languages and their works on the Mahabharata theme is correctly matched ?
(a) Sarladasa      Bengali
(b) Kasirama      Oriya
(c) Tikkana        Marathi
(d) Pampa          Kannada

78. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                                                   List II
(Commodities exported from India)                   (Countries of destination)
A. Iron Ore                                                         1. Russia
B. Leather goods                                                 2. U.S.A.
C. Tea                                                                 3. Japan
D. Cotton fabrics                                                 4. U.K.
5. Canada
A    B    C     D           A    B     C    D
(a) 5     1     2     3       (b) 3     1     4     2
(c) 1     5     4     3       (d) 3     4     1     2

79. The concept of Public Interest Litigation originated in
(a) the United Kingdom     (b) Australia      (c) the United States     (d) Canada

80. The length, breadth and height of a room are `l, `b’ and `h’ respectively. The perimeter of the ceiling expressed as a percentage of the total area of the four walls is
(a) 100 h        (b) 100/h        (c) h          (d) h/100

81. What is the average fat content of buffalo milk ?
(a) 7.2%        (b) 4.5%        (c) 9.0%      (d) 10.0%

82. If the Prime Minister of India belonged to the Upper House of Parliament
(a) he will not be able to vote in his favour in the event of a no-confidence motiom
(b) he will not be able to speakon the budget in the Lower House
(c) he can make statements only in the Upper House
(d) he has to become a member of the Lower Hose within six months after being sworn in as the Prime Minister

83. M. C. Setalvad, B. N. Rao and Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer were distinguished members of the
(a) Swaraj Party
(b) All India National Liberal Federation
(c) Madras Labour Union
(d) Servants of India Society

84. The tribal population in Andaman and Nicobar Islands belongs to the
(a) Australoid race           (b) Caucasoid race
(c) Mongoloid race          (d) Negroid race

85. Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R)
Assertion (A) : The reservation of thirty-three per cent of seats for women in Parliament and State Legislatures does not require Constitutional amendment.
Reason (R) : Political parties contesting elections can allocate thirty-three per cent of seats they contest to women candidates without any Constitutional amendment.
In the context of the above two statements which one of the following is correct ?
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
(c) A is true but R is false
(d) A is false but R is true

86. Which one of the following dances involves solo performance ?
(a) Bharatanatyam           (b) Kuchipudi
(c) Mohiniattam               (d) Odissi

87. What is the correct chronological sequence of the following ?
1. Wood’s Education Despatch.
2. Maeauley’s minute on education.
3. The Sargent Education Report.
many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total number of the elected members of the Assembly. As at present (1997) the expression “population” here means the population
as ascertained by the,
(a) 1991 Census     (b) 1981 Census    (c) 1971 Census     (d) 1961 Census

88. The group of small pieces of rock revolving round the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are called
(a) meteors      (b) comets     (c) meteorites     (d) asteroids

89. Which one of the following is used as an anti-freeze for the automobile engines ?
(a) Propyl alcohol      (b) Ethanol     (c) Methanol       (d) Ethylene glycol

90. Seven persons P, Q, R, S, T, U and V participate in and finish all the events of a series of swimming races. There are no ties at the finish of any of the events. V always finishes somewhere ahead of P. P always finishes somewhere ahead of Q. Either R finishes first and T finishes last or S finishes first and U or Q finishes last. If in a particular race V finished fifth, then which one of the following would be true ?
(a) S finishes firsts
(b) R finishes second
(c) T finishes third
(d) R finishes fourth

91. Which one of the following scripts of ancient India was written from right to left ?
(a) Brahmi               (b) Nandnagari
(c) Sharada             (d) Kharoshti

92. Which one of the following techniques can be used to establish the paternity of a child ?
(a) Protein analysis
(b) Chromosome counting
(c) Quantitative analysis of DNA
(d) DNA finger printing

93. In the earth’s direction of rotation is reversed , what would be the IST when it is noon at the International Date Line?
(a) 06.30 hrs     (b) 05.30 hrs      (c) 18.30 hrs      (d) 17.30 hrs

94. Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and Jos Remos Horta who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize are known for their work for the cause of
(a) East Timor      (b) Gautemala      (c) Bosnia      (d) Barunda

95. In the Presidential election in India, every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a State shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total number of the elected members of the Assembly. As at present (1997) the expression “population” here means the population as ascertained by the,
(a) 1991 Census       (b) 1981 Census     (c) 1971 Census      (d) 1961 Census

96. In India, inflation is measured by the
(a) Wholesale Price Index number
(b) Consumers Price Index for urban non-manual workers
(c) Consumers Price Index for agricultural workers
(d) National Income Deflation

97. Which one of the following stars is nearest to the Earth?
(a) Polaris       (b) Alpha Centauri     (c) Sun     (d) Sirius

98. Consider the following
1. Saxena, David, Jain and Kumar were District Collectors at places P, Q, R and S respectively in 1970
2. In 1972 they were transferred. Saxena and Jain interchanged places. Kumar and David also interchanged places.
3. One year later in 1973 they were again transferred such that David and Jain interchanged places and Saxena and Kumar were also interchanged.
What should be the next round of transfers so that all the four persons could have been posted at all the .four places ?
(a) Interchange Saxena and David as well as Jain and Kumar
(b) Interchange Saxena and Kumar as well as David and Jain
(c) Interchange David and Kumar as well as Saxena and Jain
(d) It is not possible for all the four persons to have been posted at all the four places

99. The medieval Indian writer who refers to the discovery of America is
(a) Malik Muhammad Jayasi       (b) Amir Khusrau
(c) Raskhan                                (d) Abul Fazl

100. Which one of the following conditions is most relevant for the presence of life on Mars ?
(a) Atmospheric composition
(b) Thermal conditions
(c) Occurrence of ice caps and frozen water
(d) Occurrence of ozone

101. Which of the following are/is stated in the Constitution of India ?
1. The President shall not be a member of either House of Parliament.
2. The Parliament shall consist of the President and two Houses.
Choose the correct answer from the codes given below :
(a) Neither 1 nor 2      (b) Both 1 and 2
(c) 1 alone                  (d) 2 alone

102. The following are the major oilseeds produced in India
1. Sesamum      2. Mustard.    3. Groundnut     4. Soyabeen
Which one of the following is the correct sequence of the descending order of the quantity of their production ?
(a) 1, 2, 3, 4     (b) 3, 2, 4, 1     (c) 2, 4, 3, 1      (d) 3, 4, 2, 1

103. A girl is swimming on a swing in sitting position. When the same girl stands up, the period of swing will
(a) be shorter
(b) be longer
(c) depend on the height of the girl
(d) not change

104. The famous dialogue between Nachiketa and Yama is mentioned in the
(a) Chhandogyopanishad                (b) Mundakopanishad
(c) Kathopanishad                          (d) Kenopanishad

105. Consider the geographical details given in the following figure

The point marked by A in the above figure indicates a country in
(a) North America        (b) South America
(c) Europe                    (d) Asia

106. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                     List II
(Functionaries)                           (Oaths or affirmations)
A. President of India                    1. Secrecy of Information
B. Judges of                                 2. Faithful Discharge of Supreme Court Duties
C. Members of                             3. Faith and Allegiance to Parliament the Constitution of India
D. Minister for the Union              4. Upholding the Constitutetion and the law
A     B     C    D         A    B    C    D
(a) 3    4      1     2     (b) 4    3     2     1
(c) 3    4      2    1      (d) 4    3     1     2

107. In the map shown in the given figure, rivers labelled as 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively

(a) Kosi, Gomati, Ghaghara and Gandak
(b) Kosi, Ganga, Gomati and Ghaghara
(c) Gandak, Ganga, Gomati and Ghaghara
(d) Teesta, Gomati, Ghaghara and Kosi

108. The major component of honey is
(a) glucose      (b) sucrose      (c) maltose     (d) frustose

109. Arteries supplying blood to the heart are called
(a) carotid arteries          (b) hepatic arteries
(c) coronary arteries      (d) Pulmonary arteries

110. Milindapanho is in the form of a dialogue between the king Menander and the Buddhist monk
(a) Nagasena          (b) Nagarjuna
(c) Nagabhatta       (d) Kumarilabhatta

l l l. In which one of the following countries are 75 percent of seats in both Houses of Parliament filed on the basis of first past-the post system and 25 per cent on the basis of Proportional Representation system of elections ?
(a) Germany        (b) Italy        (c) France     (d) Russia

112. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                           List II
A. Moplah revolt             1. Kerala
B. Pabna revolt                2. Bihar
C. Eka Movement           3. Bengal
D. Birsa Munda revolt     4. Awadh
A     B     C     D         A     B     C     D
(a)1      3      4     2     (b) 2      3     4      1
(c)1      2      3     4     (d) 3      4     1      2

113. The Sixth and the Eighth Five Year Plans covered the period 1980-1985 and 1992-1997 respectively. The Seventh Five Year Plan covered the period
(a) 1987-1992          (b) 1986-1901
(c) 1985-1990          (d) 1988-1994

114. Recommended daily intake of proteins for a moderately active women is
(a) 30 g       (b) 37 g     (c) 40 g     (d) 46 g

115. In a group of travelling in a bus, 6 persons can speak Tamil, 15 can speak Hindi and 6 can speak Gujrati. In that group none can speak any other language. If 2 persons in the group
can speak two languages and one person can speak all the three languages, then how many persons are there in the group?
(a) 21        (b) 22        (c) 23        (d) 24

116. Which one of the following edicts mentions the personal name of Asoka ?
(a) Kalsi                             (b) Rummindei
(c) Special Kslinga Edict     (d) Maski

117. Consider the map given below

Of the four shaded areas in the map, that which is characterised by hot dry summers, mild and moist winters and seasonal reversal of winds is the area labelled
(a) 1        (b) 2         (c) 3         (d) 4

118. In the following quotation,
“WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA,
having solemnly resolved to
constitute India into a Sovereign Socialist Secular
Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens
JUSTICE, social, economic and political ;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity ; and to promote among them all;
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and the integrity of
the Nation ;
In our Constituent Assembly this `X’
do hereby adopt, enact and
give to ourselves this Constitution.”,
`X’ stands for
(a) twenty-sixth day of January, 1950
(b) twenty-sixth day of November, 1949
(c) twenty-sixth day of January, 1949
(d) None of the above

119. Examine the following statements regarding a set of balls
1. All balls are black.                     2. All balls are white.
3. Only some balls are black          4. No balls are black.
Assuming that the balls can only be black or white, which two of the statements given above can both be true, but cannot both be false ? Choose the correct answer from the codes given
below :
(a) 1 and 4              (b) 1 and 3
(c) 2 and 3              (d) 2 and 4

120. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                               List II
A. Rashtriya Mahila Kosh         1. Empowerment of  women
B. Mahila Samriddhi                  2. Education for women’s equality
Yojna
C. Indira Mahila Yojana            3. Promotion of savings among rural women
D. Mahila Samakhya                  4. Meeting credit needs of the poor women
Programme
A    B    C    D           A    B    C    D
(a) 3    2     1     4       (b) 1     3    4     2
(c) 4    3     2     1       (d) 4     1     2     3

121. The following map shows four of the sixteen mahajanapadas that existed in ancient India

The places marked A, B, C and D respectively are
(a) Matsya,Cedi, Kosala, Anga
(b) Surasena, Avanti, Vatsa, Magadha
(c) Matsya, Avanti, Vatsa, Anga
(d) Surasena, Cedi, Kosala, Magadha

122. A boy standing at the point `O’ in the given diagram, throws a ball three times with the same force, but projecting it along different inclinations from the ground. The results of the throws have been plotted in the diagram. Which one of the following is a valid conclusion ?

(a) The Larger the initial inclination, the longer the throw
(b) The Larger the height reached, the longer the throw
(c) The Larger the height reached, the shorter the throw
(d) The larger the initial inclination, the greater the height reached

123. In the Mahayana Buddhism, the Bodhisatva Avalokitesvar was also known as
(a) Vajrapani            (b) Manjusri      (c) Padmapani      (d) Maitreya

124. Daily weather map showing isobars is an example of
(a) Choropleth map   (b) Isopleth map    (c) Chorochromatic map   (d) Choroschematic map

125. Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A) : Wilful disobedience or non-compliance of Court orders and use of derogatory language about judicial behaviour amount to Contempt of Court.
Reason (R) : Judicial activism cannot be practised without arming the judiciary with punitive powers to punish contemptuous behaviour.
In the context of the above two statements which one of the following is correct
(a) Both A and Rare true and R is the correct explanation of A
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
(c) A is true but R is false
(d) A is false but R is true

126. Schemes of (i) Urban Micro-Enterprises, (ii) Urban Wage Employment and (iii) Housing and Shelter Upgradation are parts of
(a) Integrated Rural Development Programme
(b) Nehru Rojgar Yojana
(c) Jawahar Rojgar Yojana
(d) Prime Minister’s Rojgar Yojana

127. A boat which has a speed of 5 km/hr in still water crosses a river of width 1 km along the shortest possible path in 15 minutes. The velocity of the river water in km/hr is
(a) 1     (b) 3       (c) 4       (d) (41)^1/2

128. A survey was conducted on a sample of 1000 persons with reference to their knowledge of English, French and German. The results of the survey are presented in the given
Venn diagram. The ratio of the number of the persons who do not know any of the three languages to those who know all the three languages is

(a) 1/27      (b) 1/25         (c) 1/550           (d) 175/1000

129.The silver coins issued by the Guptas were called
(a) rupaka      (b) karshapana       (c) dinara      (d) pang

130.Which one of the following countries is the largest producer of fuel wood in the world ?
(a) Indonesia       (b) Russia       (c) India    (d) China

131.Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R)
Assertion (A) : The emergence of economic globalism does not imply the decline of socialist ideology.
Reason (R) : The ideology of socialism believes in Universalism and globalism.
In the context of the above two statements which one of the following is correct ?
(a) Both A and Rare true and R is the correct explanation of A
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
(c) A is true but R is false
(d) A is false but R is true

132.The contribution of India’s small scale sector to the gross turnover in the manufacturing sector since 1992 has been of the order of
(a) 40%      (b) 34%     (c) 30%     (d) 45%

133.The working principle of a washing machine
(a) centrifugation       (b) dialysis     (c) reverse osmosis      (d) diffusion

134.Consider the figures given below

In the given sequence of figures, the figure that would logically appear at Sl. No. 5 is

135. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I (Author)                            List II (Text)
A. Varahamihira                          1. Prabandha Chintamani
B. Visakhadatta                           2. Mrchchha-katikam
C. Sudraka                                  3. Brhat-Samhita
D. Bilhana                                    4. Devi-Chandraguptam
5. Vikramankadeva-charita
A    B     C    D           A     B    C    D
(a) 3   4      5     2       (b) 3     4     2     5
(c) 5   3      4     1       (d) 1     3     5     2

136. One will NOT have to pass through the Suez Canal while going from Bombay to
(a) Alexandria      (b) Suez    (c) Port Said      (d) Benghazi

137. The Dinesh Goswami Committee recommended
(a) the constitution of state level election commission
(b) List system of election to the Lok Sabha
(c) governmental funding of parliamentary elections
(d) a ban on the candidature of independent candidates in the parliamentary elections

138. Which of the following come under Non-plan expenditure ?
1. Subsidies
2. Interest payments
3. Defence expenditure
4. Maintenance expenditure for the infrastructure created in the previous plans
Choose the correct answer using the codes given below :
(a) 1 and 2      (b) 1 and 3      (c) 2 and 4       (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

139. The sequencing of the entire genome (the totality of all genes) of an organism was completed in 1996. The organism was
(a) albino mouse    (b) yeast   (c) human being    (d) plasmodium vivax

140. Which one of the following was a corporation of merchants in ancient India ?
(a) Chaturvedimangalam     (b) Parishad
(c) Ashtadikgaja                 (d) Manigrama

141. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                     List II
A. Malaria                1. Bone marrow
B. Filaria                   2. Brain
C. Encephalitis          3. Muscle
D. Leukaemia           4. Lymph node
5.Blood cells
A    B    C    D         A     B     C     D
(a) 5     3     2    1     (b) 5      4     2      1
(c) 4     3     5    1     (d) 5      4     1      2

142. National Income is the
(a) Net National Product at market price
(b) Net National Product at factor cost
(c) Net Domestic Product at market price
(d) Net Domestic Product at factor cost

143.Which one of the following is NOT a principle of “Panch-sheel” ?
(a) Non-alignment
(b) Peaceful Co-existence
(c) Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty
(d) Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs

144. During a flight from Delhi to Tokyo the following are the landing airports
1. Hongkong       2. Hanoi      3. Taipei.     4. Bangkok.
The correct sequence of the landing at these airports during an onward journey is
(a) 1, 2, 3, 4    (b) 4, 2, 1, 3     (c) 3, 4, 1, 2    (d) 4, 1, 2, 3

145. Antigen is a substance which
(a) lowers body temperature
(b) destroys harmful bacteria
(c) triggers the immune system
(d) is used as an antidote to poison

146. The number of times in a day the Hour-hand and the Minute-hand of a clock are at right angles is
(a) 44     (b) 48      (c) 24     (d) 12

147. The Badami rock inscription of Pulakesin I is dated in the Saka year 465. If the same were to be dated in Vikrama Samvat, the year would be
(a) 601      (b) 300       (c) 330       (d) 407

148. The Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) was introduced in the Budget of the Government of India for the year
(a) 1991-92        (b) 1992-93
(c) 1995-96        (d) 1996-97

149. Which one of the following is present in the largest amount in terms of per cent by mass in the earth’s crust ?
(a) Silicon                (b) Oxygen
(c) Carbon              (d) Calcium

150. Match List I with List II and select the correct answer:
List I                                                  List II
(Hazardous industries using                    (Located at)
child labour leading to the filing
of a public interest petition in the
Supreme Court)
A. Glass Industry                                1. Moradabad
B. Brassware Industry                         2. Marakpur
C. Slate Industry                                 3. Ferozabad
D. Handmade carpet Industry              4. Mirzapur
A     B     C     D          A     B    C    D
(a) 3      1     2      4      (b) 1      3    4     2
(c) 3      1     4      2      (d) 1      3    2     4

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GEOGRAPHY FACTS

Alaska

More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.  

Amazon

The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world’s oxygen supply.

The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.  The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Antarctica

Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.

Ninety percent of the world’s ice covers Antarctica . This ice also represents seventy  percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, ice.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil

Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

Canada

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ‘ Big Village.’

Chicago

Next to Warsaw , Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world. 

Detroit

Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Damascus, Syria

Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.  

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles’ full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula — and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.

New York City

The term ‘The Big Apple’ was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930’s who used the slang expression ‘apple’ for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time – The Big Apple.

There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin , Ireland ; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy ; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ohio

There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio , everyone is manmade.

Pitcairn Island

The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.

Rome

The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome , Italy in 133 B.C.  There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia

Siberia contains more than 25% of the world’s forests.

S.M.O.M .

The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican.  It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert

In the Sahara Desert , there is a town named Tidikelt , Algeria , which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.

Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island . There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Spain

Spain literally means ‘the land of rabbits.’

St. Paul , Minnesota

St. Paul, Minnesota , was originally called Pig’s Eye after a man named Pierre ‘Pig’s Eye’ Parrant who set up the first business there.

Roads

Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A : 1%, in Canada : 75%

Russia

The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia . It reached a depth of 12,261 meters (about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles). It was drilled for scientific research and gave up some unexpected discoveries, one of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen – so massive that the mud coming from the hole was boiling with it.

United States

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls

The water of Angel Falls (the World’s highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls .

I have always said , you should learn something new every day.

Unfortunately, many of us are at that age where what we learn today, we forget tomorrow.

But, give it a shot anyway.

Since the early 1970s I’ve been concerned about carbon emissions.  I think what started to crystallise this concern in my mind was reading a brilliant book one winter in London. Murderous Providence: A Study of Pollution in Industrial Societies was written by Harry Rothman. For the first time someone challenged that comfortable feeling shared by many who grew up through the 1950s and 1960s. Many of us were greatly impressed by the wonderful scientific and technological achievements that characterised the post war boom and the 1960s.  Despite the Cold War, for many these were times of immense confidence. Technology would solve all the problems, the Green Revolution would feed the world’s poor and we’d all live happily ever after. Clearly this hasn’t come to pass.

As the century progressed is became increasingly evident that some of the technological decisions we were making were having an increasing impact on our atmosphere. Our use of Hydrofluorocarbons was found to be associated with a hole developing in the ozone layer, most markedly over the Antarctic. Photo chemical smog became a dangerous feature of cities, increasingly reliant on internal combustion engines for transport. Our dependence on fossil fuels was increasingly criticised both for it’s fundamental unsustainability and because reliance on them was leading to a build up of green house gases and changing the composition of our atmosphere. As with the Hydrofluorocarbons skeptics argued that the concentrations were so small they couldn’t have a significant effect. We noticed increasing deforestation and loss of natural carbon sinks and an alarming growth in the Sahara desert that had clear anthropogenic causes.

Now with advanced climate science at our disposal the existence of anthropogenic global warming is accepted by scientists across the world as a reality. Sadly, a small group of skeptics and deniers have been given undue prominence by the media. This had had serious consequences amongst a general public that is understandably under educated on climate science.

After posting several comments on Global Warming recently, I came across some additional comments on the Floating Life Blog, maintained by a former collegue

He wrote:

You should also note that I can sympathise at least with Greg Sheridan’s dilemma (see yesterday’s entry) when he says: “I do not know whether the science that says we’re all doomed if we don’t de-carbonise the economy is true. Neither does anyone else.” Sympathise but not entirely agree, as I do think the odds are that the IPCC is more than likely right. Yes, we are talking about something which by definition cannot certain until after it has happened, and I probably won’t be around to see it. But Margaret Thatcher’s last line makes as much sense now as it did in 1990 when a great deal less was known on the subject.

I don’t think the government has done a good enough job of explaining the issues at stake, or what their ETS is actually meant to achieve. That is a shame. (New Zealand passed its own ETS the day before yesterday. Did anyone notice?) On the other hand there is much clear material on the Department of Climate Change website.

My opinions aren’t worth a lot. Lord May of Oxford is much better informed.

He also offered this YouTube clip from Lord May

What Did You Say?

Yes, that’s right, Grendel. I said “Homework for Monday.” Don’t worry, though. My students LOVE getting last minute homework assignments that have to be done over the weekend…even if it IS a holiday weekend! Trust me.

Mmmm...I Love Homework!

Oh, come on, Connor! That’s the oldest line in the book…”the dog ate my homework!” Puh-lease! Besides, we do a lot of homework on our blogs, so unless you’re going to start chewing on computer cables find something else to gnaw on!

Now, on to your assignment! It involves some research, but I’ll provide you with the websites to read which should make this much easier. First let’s start with our guiding question for this activity:

Why is McTeach so excited?!

Using the following websites, write a one-sentence answer and post it here as a comment. Got it? Excellent.

First website: The Picture Show Blog – Freeze Frame

Second website: Palmer Station

Third website: South for Summer

Oh please, that's so easy...

…even a dog could figure it out!

Alright, George, take it easy. At least give them time to look over the websites I so painstakingly put together. Then they can add their comment to this post and tell us what they think the answer is.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Can’t wait to see you on Monday!!

everyday
a hurdle of sadness

we muscle ourselves over it
deepbreathing
fierce-eyed
flexed
determination hijacking our bones
tenacity holding our hopelessness for ransom

though it is the same ache
the specifics differ

it may appear first thing
while sharp bright lines
slice through the dark meat of night

it may live in the warm light of a pizza joint
at 8th and dekum
golden glow that recalls snow
solstice
and the gloveless man at the bus stop who made you cry
not because he did anything violent or angering
but because his hands and head
must have been
so cold
and it hurt you
to think about
how long he had been waiting
not to mention
the heartbreak of bus stops
in general

it may surface in a song
one you thought you could play again or
never realized was on your don’t play list
in the first place
until it enters your gut
with the weight of lead
lyrics about
being nineteen
or
pups in the pantry
or
love in this club

it may embed itself in back porch concrete
radiant with combustion of summer sun
or in a bike lane on the way home
the one where you said
hey wanna go on a date in november?
you might discover
no geography or season is safe

Speak of Australian history, and outside of Australia, about the only thing that comes to mind is “penal colony.” While it is true that the initial settlement of Australia was for this purpose, even on the first ships, more than half of the “settlers” were soldiers and officers. However, though this first step in settlement was to have an impact on the formation of the country, the current population and character of Australia were more solidly established by huge floods of immigrants during the big gold rushes of the 1800s and following the two World Wars. Today, less than one percent of the population can claim any convict heritage.

I especially roll my eyes when Americans jump on the “it was penal colony” thought. To this I respond, “Do you really think it’s just a coincidence that England started sending prisoners to Australia almost immediately following their loss of their colonies in North America?” Most folks respond with, “Oh, yeah. That’s right. Prisoners were sent here, too,” though some are stunned to find out that the Thirteen Colonies had acted as a dumping ground for Britain’s prisons long before Australia was charted by Captain James Cook.

Of course, back in those days, being poor or disagreeing with the government could land you in prison, so being a convict wasn’t always an indication of poor character. Lots of folks transported to North America and later to Australia were simply down on their luck, and they became useful citizens in the new colonies.

That said, some of those transported were thorough-going rotters. However, the folks who were mass murderers or criminally insane were not mixed in with the pickpockets hard-luck cases. Really dangerous convicts were sent to remote prison facilities, usually on islands—such as Tasmania. Sarah Island—an island within an island, situated at the edge of Macquarie Harbor near the mouth of the Gordon River—was home to one such facility.

Fifteen-acre Sarah Island was the first penal facility in Tasmania. Established in 1822, this settlement was for the worst criminals or for those who had escaped other facilities. The convicts worked in the surrounding forest, cutting trees for boatbuilding. Treatment was harsh and escape was nearly impossible.

The facility at Sarah Island only operated until 1833, at which time the convicts were transferred to the more progressive prison at Port Arthur. The island was then taken over and renamed Settlement Island by men known as piners, who were hunting for Tasmania’s valuable Huon Pine.

Today, all that is left are a few ruins of the structures built by the first convicts to arrive on the island.

Ruins on Sarah Island

So I’m reading Geography VSI by John A Matthews and David T Herbert and trying to dig the three core concepts of the discipline: space, place, and environment.

Space: where, and in relation to where else — maps;
Place: somewhere with boundaries;
Environment: the natural environment.

Matthews & Herbert offer a whiff of the meaning surrounding these geographical concepts, but I’m aware of accessible academic texts devoted to exploring them in depth. Not sure of the road ahead beyond these 181 pages, though. So for now, just looking to build some basic lexis and taste the juice.

I hoof the idea of geography as a metaphor — the investigative explorer and investigative exploration as a defining concept of human cultural evolution. We can each be geographers, members of geographical communities, with the world defined and united by humankind’s exploration — of our hearts and neighbourhoods, of peoples and planet, of the wider cosmos and universe.

A History of the Universe is my own personal expedition.

source

Geographers like a good map, diagrams too. It’s the whole ‘colouring in’ kind of thing with which we’re supposed to be so ennamoured.

So imagine my joy when I see this from the BBC News website.

I find this kind of stuff (from David McCandless) fascinating and even if you’re not a geographer it turns out you just might too:

(click to enlarge).

Here’s another:

Of course it’s important to remember that neither ‘facts’, data or their presentation are neutral. They have been produced in ways that are important to how we should consider what they tell us. They communicate multiple messages by what they include and exclude and by comparisons made and not made. Like other forms of communication they can be powerful and a tool of the powerful.

This map of ‘The Queen’s Dominions at the end of the nineteenth century” is no exception in which British colonies are marked in Red. Do you think the indigenous population saw the world in this way?

Images like this one and those above often tell you as much about the lens through which someone sees the world as what they see. What do you see?

By using Sheppard Software’s learning games, you will gain a permanant mental map of the world, its continents and geography. This knowledge is the key to learning more about the wonderful world around you.

This year our class did Amazon projects in pairs. We did 5 different parts of the project : The Amazon river, The Rainforest, Culture and Maps, Threats to the enviroment and then we could choose our favourite animal that lived in the Amazon. Me and my partner chose 3 animals the jaguar, the cockatoo and the boa constrictor. Our teacher gave us folders to put our projects into. We went to the computer room a lot for a about one month. I think the best project was done by my best friend and her partner.

If you intend to BCP spatial data out of SQL Server with the intention of using BULK INSERT/BCP to deploy data to another machine you must ensure both are the same platform. You cannot BCP OUT data from a 32bit instance and BULK INSERT into a 64bit instance with spatial data.

It works fine for standard datatypes; float, int, varchar etc. This may also be an issue for other binary based data but I have only tested this with spatial (geography) data.

Some churches use the Myers-Briggs Types Indicators as a way of quickly helping people to think reflexively about themselves and the way they interact with others. Glen talked about it here with a useful commentary that a good deal of what these types describe is actually patterns of sin (the series continued with part 2, 3 and 4).

Recently I also came across this from Tim Chester – the 4 G’s:

1. God is great – so we don’t have to be in control

2. God is glorious – so we don’t have to fear others

3. God is good – so we don’t have to look elsewhere

4. God is gracious – so we don’t have to prove ourselves

Then, this week, in a lecture as part of a geography course there came this stinging critique of those involved in a certain practice of ‘participatory geography’ which went like this:

People who do this kind of active, involved with marginalised communities, geography are “narcissistic Samaritans” in which the researches are driven by a need to be needed which turns what is supposedly about serving people into an exercise of buttressing the ’server’s’ sense of worth and identity, under the guise of self-effacement.

It reminded me of a personality type profile I’d heard before, one of the types from the Enneagram – there is an official website here.

The particular type it reminded me of was type two who have a need to be needed as a way of dealing with these things:

Basic Fear: Being unworthy of being loved
Basic Desire: To be loved unconditionally
Temptation: To manipulate others in order to get positive responses
Vice/Passion: Pride (specifically, Vainglory, the love of one’s own goodness)

Very briefly then these are the suggested types (follow the links for much more detail):

Ones are motivated by the need to live life the right way, improve oneself and others, and avoid anger.

Twos are motivated by the need to be loved and appreciated and to express your positive feelings towards others.

Threes are motivated by the need to be productive, to achieve success, and to avoid failure.

Fours are motivated by the need to understand your feelings and to be understood to search for the meaning of life, and to avoid being ordinary.

Fives are motivated by the need to know everything and understand the universe, to be self–sufficient and left alone, and to avoid not having the answer or looking foolish.

Sixes are motivated by the need for security, to feel taken care of, or to confront your fears.

Sevens are motivated by the need to be happy and plan fun things, to contribute to the world, and to avoid suffering and pain.

Eights are motivated by the need to be self–reliant and strong, to make an impact on the world, and to avoid being weak.

Nines are motivated by the need to keep the peace, merge with others, and avoid conflict.

You can do a test here or download a pdf with a super quick test.

Conclusion

In some ways each of these represents a sort of personality ‘idol’ with particular associated sins (Pride, Greed, Deceit, Envy, Fear, Gluttony, Lust and Indifference) conceived in the broadest sense. Still as Tim Keller remarked in a talk at the Gospel Coalition, “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry“:

Here’s an interesting thing: in the business world the idol is profit, in the artistic world the idol is self-expression. So in the business world they say, “Sure express yourself, as long you’re not going to lose money”. In the artistic world you express yourself and if you make money it’s an insult: “you’ve sold out”. “Now you’re like those people over there in the financial world” and you see their idolatry. They sell out for money, but you’ve sold out too.  You’ve sold out to self-expression. What’s so great about self-expression? It’s an idol. Do you see the idols in your vocational field? Do you see the idols in your city?

Well, the idols of type two seems to be those for this particular field of geography. Now, how does the gospel confront them…? Seems like it would be helpful for me to think about it as Tim Chester has with the 4G’s and connect together the  fullness of God in Christ with the lacks that motivate the personality types.

I’d be really interested to know if you have heard of the enneagram? What do you make of it?