QUES: The Puget Sound Convergence Zone is an important feature of Seattle's weather. In the convergence zone, air arriving from the north meets air flowing in from the south. Both streams of air originate over the Pacific Ocean; airflow is split by the Olympic Mountains to Seattle's west, then reunited to the east. When the air currents meet, they are forced upward, resulting in convection. Thunderstorms caused by this activity are usually weak and can occur north and south of town, but Seattle itself rarely receives more than occasional thunder and small hail showers. The Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm in December 2006 is an exception that brought heavy rain and winds gusting up to 69 mph (111 km/h), an event that was not caused by the Puget Sound Convergence Zone and was widespread across the Pacific Northwest.

From where do the two streams of air come?
What is the answer?
ANS: Pacific Ocean
QUES: Ancient and medieval Hindu texts identify six pramanas as correct means of accurate knowledge and truths: pratyaksa (perception), anumana (inference), upamana (comparison and analogy), arthapatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances), anupalabdi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) and sabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts) Each of these are further categorized in terms of conditionality, completeness, confidence and possibility of error, by each school . The various schools vary on how many of these six are valid paths of knowledge. For example, the Carvaka nastika philosophy holds that only one (perception) is an epistemically reliable means of knowledge, the Samkhya school holds three are (perception, inference and testimony), while the Mimamsa and Advaita schools hold all six are epistemically useful and reliable means to knowledge.

What school believes none of the pramanas are correct?
What is the answer?
ANS: unanswerable
QUES: Birds have featured in culture and art since prehistoric times, when they were represented in early cave paintings. Some birds have been perceived as monsters, including the mythological Roc and the Maori's legendary Pouakai, a giant bird capable of snatching humans. Birds were later used as symbols of power, as in the magnificent Peacock Throne of the Mughal and Persian emperors. With the advent of scientific interest in birds, many paintings of birds were commissioned for books. Among the most famous of these bird artists was John James Audubon, whose paintings of North American birds were a great commercial success in Europe and who later lent his name to the National Audubon Society. Birds are also important figures in poetry; for example, Homer incorporated nightingales into his Odyssey, and Catullus used a sparrow as an erotic symbol in his Catullus 2. The relationship between an albatross and a sailor is the central theme of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which led to the use of the term as a metaphor for a 'burden'. Other English metaphors derive from birds; vulture funds and vulture investors, for instance, take their name from the scavenging vulture.

When were birds represented in early cave paintings?
What is the answer?
ANS:
since prehistoric times