Category Cities

What are the terms which start from ‘Pink’?

Pink noise

The pink noise is a steady background sound. They help calm one and filter out distracting noises such as people talking or the sound of cars. It uses a consistent frequency or pitch. This can also be defined as random noise having equal energy per octave, and thereby having more low-frequency components. Hence most people perceive it as being even or flat. Pink noise is often used to test Loudspeakers.

Pink city

The city of Jaipur is the most colourful city in Iulia. It is fondly called the ‘Pink City’ due to the colour scheme of its buildings: a shade of pink. The city acquired its pink colour during the reign of Maharaja Ram Singh. Back in 1876, the king had the city painted pink, a colour associated with hospitality to welcome the Prince of Wales (later King Edward II) to the city. Ever since then, Pink City gets a fresh coat of paint every 10 years.

Pink slip

The termination notice given to an employee is known as the pink slip. It was originally an American practice to attach a note of discharge along with the pay envelope given to an employee. The Oxford dictionary included the word in 1915.

Pink-headed duck

An elusive bird, the Pink-headed duck is a large diving duck that is believed to be extinct since the 1950s. The species was found in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The duck was hunted for its unusual plumage. It had a long slender neck, a dark body, a peaked pink head and a pink bill. It lived in marshlands and built its nest in high grass. It is said to have eaten water plants and molluscs. The last confirmed sighting was in 1949.

Pink dolphin

The most popular of river dolphins found in the Amazon river, the Pink dolphin is a very intelligent, friendly and social creature. They eat crabfish, river fish and even turtles. They can turn their heads 180 degrees. An endangered species, it is being threatened by the increase in river traffic and pollution.

Pink eye

A viral infection of the inner lining of the eyelids and the white of the eye, Conjunctivitis is a very contagious disease. Also called Pink eye, you get conjunctivitis when the conjunctiva gets irritated because of allergies or infection. The thin dear tissue that lies over the white part of the eye is called the conjunctiva. The affected person has watery, itchy eyes and develops sensitivity to light. The disease can spread easily through direct contact with eye by eyes or by sneezing or coughing.

Pink Panther

A series of comedy films, the Pink Panther features an inept police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseaus. It was originally played by Peter Sellers and more recently by Steve Martin. The Pink Panther is a large pink diamond which is so called because a flaw in its centre resembles the image of a panther. The films gave birth to the Pink Panther animated character which has its own series of cartoons.  The first of those series, The Pink Phink, won the 1964 Academy award for Best Animated Short film.

Pink Floyd

An English rock band formed in London in 1965, Pink Floyd is considered the greatest progressive rock hand of all time. With their highly philosophical lyrics, extended compositions and unique sonic experimentations they created a niche for themselves in the music industry. Their albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975). Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) are very popular. The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. These albums along with Wish You Were Here are among the best-selling albums.

Pink

The stage name of an American singer-actress Alecia Beth Moore, Pink has won several Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards. She is hailed for ‘a strong signature voice and a literally acrobatic ability on stage’. ‘Lady Marmalade’, ‘Get the Party Started’ and Trouble’ are some of her most popular songs.

Pink chocolate

You have heard about dark and white chocolate. But what is pink chocolate? Also known as ruby chocolate, pink chocolate was launched by Swiss cocoa giant Barry Callebaut in 2017. This chocolate has a reddish-pink hue and a fruity berry-like flavour. It’s not as sweet as milk chocolate. It has no food colour or berry flavour added to it. Its pink colour comes from a powder extracted during the processing and is claimed to be the first new natural colour for chocolate since Swiss food company Nestle introduced white chocolate more than 80 years ago. Pink chocolate is made from the Ruby cocoa bean, a new type of cocoa bean discovered by Barry Callebaut. These beans are found in different regions of the world including Brazil, Ecuador and the Ivory Coast in Africa. They’re completely natural and not genetically modified. Its unique attributes were unlocked through an innovative process that took 13 years to develop.

Pink lake

Picture this. A lake that is pink in colour. Lake Hillier in Middle Island, in the Recherche Archipelago off Australia’s south coast, has water that resembles a strawberry milkshake. It is a shallow lake with brilliant pink water that is nearly opaque and highly salty. It is about 1.6 km long and about a third as wide. At first, it was thought that the algae that grow in the Lake were responsible for creating the pink colour. But now that this theory has been disproved. Why the lake has pink water remains a mystery.

Picture Credit : Google 

What is special about Bundelkhand village?

One village in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region is an oasis. Wondering how that is possible? Find out…

Bundelkhand, spread over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, is one of India’s most water-scarce areas. But one village here is a lush-green oasis.

Jakhni village in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh revived traditional water conservation techniques about a decade ago when it was hit by a drought. As a result, the village now has 32 wells, 25 handpumps and four ponds, all of which are brimming with water. While the groundwater level was below 24 m earlier today it is at 2.5-3 m. Many of Jakhni’s inhabitants who had left in search of water and better livelihoods, have now returned due to the remarkable turnaround. All this has been achieved by undertaking certain measures.

The inhabitants built bunds (called med bandhi) around every farmland to contain rainwater in the field itself, which in turn helps retain soil moisture for a longer time. The villagers also planted trees alongside these meds. This concept, known as med-par-ped, contributed to the rise in the water level.

Zero water wastage

They adopted the ‘zero water wastage principle every single drop of water is utilised. Small drains were constructed, each drain being connected to a house. All the wastewater from the houses gets collected at a pond and is used in the farms.

The residents replenished their ponds by desilting them and removing encroachments. They dug furrows around them and planted shrubs there. Similarly, they trenched their wells and stopped dumping garbage there.

As paddy and lentils require a lot of water, the villagers decided to grow more vegetables like brinjal, spinach, coriander and mustard-crops which can grow on soil moisture. Jakhni is today one of the best sources of fresh vegetables in Bundelkhand.

Called ‘Jalgram’*, Jakhni has become a role model to surrounding villages. There are plans to establish an environment university in Jakhni as well as a research centre for indigenous conservation methods.

Picture Credit : Google 

1000 trees are presently ‘walking’ down the streets of the Dutch city of Leeuwarden

1000 trees are presently walking down the streets of the city of Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Or rather, the indigenous trees planted in big wooden containers are being lugged around by volunteers. The idea is to let people experience a greener and cleaner alternative.

The unique initiative has been launched as part of the art project ‘Bosk, envisaged by architect Bruno Doedens and his collaborator, the late Joop Mulder.

The trees will keep moving around the city till August 14, after which they will be planted across the city. The idea emerged from Doedens 2021 essay Planet Paradise. The essay questions the relationship of humans with the natural world.

Bosk means forest in the local Frisian language. The move is an attempt to raise awareness about climate change. The trees are being moved by thousands of volunteers and roads are closed when the trees are walking. The trees rest on the weekend.

It all started in the month of May, when volunteers started moving the trees in huge wooden containers. After starting their journey, the trees first stopped at Stationsplein. outside Leeuwarden’s train station.

Whilst the trees aren’t moving, seating areas are provided between the trees to let the people experience life when there is more green cover. Around 60-70 varieties of native trees such as maple, oak, elm, willow, alder, and ash are planted in the wooden containers.

QR codes have been given which lets one know the details such as the species name, its lifespan, soil type, and so on. The city gardening team gets an alert whenever water is required by the tree. A soil sensor alert has been provided for this.

 The trees will get their permanent home in the city after 100 days. The trees will trundle down these roads until August 14 and will later be planted across the city where the greenery is limited.

Picture Credit : Google 

Gotham, the Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, are among the many nicknames of which American city?

New York City is known by many nicknames—such as “the City that Never Sleeps” or “Gotham”—but the most popular one is probably “the Big Apple.” How did this nickname come about? Although uses of the phrase are documented in the early 1900s, the term first became popular in the 1920s when John J. Fitz Gerald, a sports writer, started a column about horse racing called “Around the Big Apple.” However, it wasn’t until a tourism campaign in the 1970s that the nickname came to be synonymous with New York City.

The most populous city in the U.S. also goes by the name Gotham, which was first used by Washington Irving in an 1807 issue of his literary magazine about the legends of an English village named Gotham.
New York City is frequently shortened to simply “New York”, “NY”, or “NYC”. New York City is also known as “The City” in some parts of the Eastern United States, in particular New York State and surrounding U.S. states. Other monikers have taken the form of “Hong Kong on the Hudson” or “Baghdad on the Subway”, references in different cases to the city’s prominence or its immigrant groups.

 

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As it was a centre of the cotton industry in the 19th Century, which city in England was earlier nicknamed Cottonopolis?

Cottonopolis was a 19th-century nickname for Manchester, as it was a metropolis and the centre of the cotton industry.

Early cotton mills powered by water were built in Lancashire and its neighbouring counties. In 1781 Richard Arkwright opened the world’s first steam-driven textile mill on Miller Street in Manchester. Although initially inefficient, the arrival of steam power signified the beginning of the mechanisation that was to enhance the burgeoning textile industries in Manchester into the world’s first centre of mass production. As textile manufacture switched from the home to factories, Manchester and towns in south and east Lancashire became the largest and most productive cotton spinning centre in the world using in 1871, 32% of global cotton production. Ancoats, part of a planned expansion of Manchester, became the first industrial suburb centred on steam power. There were mills whose architectural innovations included fireproofing by use of iron and reinforced concrete.

The number of cotton mills on Manchester peaked at 108 in 1853. As the numbers declined, cotton mills opened in the surrounding towns, Bury, Oldham (at its zenith the most productive cotton spinning town in the world, Rochdale, Bolton (known as “Spindleton” in 1892) and in Blackburn, Darwen, Rawtenstall, Todmorden and Burnley. As the manufacturing centre of Manchester shrank, the commercial centre, warehouses, banks and services for the 280 cotton towns and villages within a 12-mile radius of the Royal Exchange grew. The term “Cottonopolis” came into use in about 1870.

The commercial centre of Cottonopolis was the exchange’s trading hall. The first of Manchester’s exchanges was built in the market place by Sir Oswald Mosley in 1727 for chapmen to transact business. It was subsequently re-built three times. Thomas Harrison built an exchange in the Greek Revival style between 1806 and 1809. After it opened, membership was required and trading was not restricted to textiles. Its early members were the owners of mills and warehouses, but later business was conducted by their agents and managers. Harrison’s exchange was enlarged between 1847 and 1849 by Alex Mills. After a visit in 1851, Queen Victoria granted the exchange the title the Manchester Royal Exchange. The third exchange, designed by Mills and Murgatroyd, opened in 1874. It was built in the Classical style with Corinthian columns and a dome. The Royal Exchange was lavishly re-built by architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope in 1914–21 and at the time had the largest trading room in the world. Its vast hall was 29.2 metres high and had an area of 3683 square metres. The exchange had a membership of up to 11,000 cotton merchants who met every Tuesday and Friday to trade their wares beneath the 38.5-metre high central glass dome. It was badly damaged in World War II and ceased operation for cotton trading in 1968.

 

Picture Credit : Google