Quiz week 26 (London 2012 countdown)

Answers Will Be Given Next Week... Meanwhile Drop Down Your Answers... PS: DON'T POST YOUR ANSWERS AS ANON

Week 2 in the London 2012 countdown

This week: preparation and all the pre-olympic stuff : bid, venues, logos, campaign et al


1) On 6 July 2005, the final selection was announced at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. Moscow was the first city to be eliminated, followed by New York and Madrid. The final two cities left in contention were London and ________. At the end of the fourth round of voting, London won the right to host the 2012 Games with 54 votes, defeating ______'s 50.
But the celebrations in London were shortlived.
Fill in the blank and why didn't London celebrate?



2) Connect: North Greenwich, St James and the City of Coventry.



3) This stadium got its name due to its resemblance to a metal and due to its shape. Identify the venue.

4) Why is there some redundancy with the naming of this Olympic venue?

 

RAS Syndrome?

5) Connect.

6) What connects these Olympic venues :

• Dorney Lake
• Hadleigh Farm
• Lee Valley White Water Centre
• Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy

7) The guy wearing #254 won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. All right...but what's he doing in this set?

8) This is London's logo for the bidding process. What was the inspiration for the shape of the multi-colour widing through the text?

9) You must know who this is. Something on the head of this was inspired by a certain thing that is a very integral part of London. That thing got its name from a part of London, shown in the map. What?

10) This is from the 2012 new year celebrations in London. The first song to be played after the Big Ben's chimes (at around 58 seconds in this video) is from a certain award winning movie that is a recurring theme in this year's Olympics. The movie is based on a true story of the two athletes in the picture. Which movie?

11) Which company is missing in this list ? What is this list?
Coca-Cola, McDonalds, GE, Panasonic, Acer, Atos, Omega, Visa, P&G, Samsung, ______



12) This is British Airways Airbus A319 aircraft that carried the Olympic torch from Athens to London. It is named after a winged beetle known for its conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. What is it called?

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Quiz week 25 (London 2012 countdown)

Answers Will Be Given Next Week... Meanwhile Drop Down Your Answers... PS: DON'T POST YOUR ANSWERS AS ANON

this week: 12 Questions about London  #london2012countdown



1) XY is sometimes mistaken for ZY, the next Y upstream. A popular urban legend is that in 1968, Robert McCulloch, the purchaser of the old ZY that was later shipped to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, believed that he was in fact buying XY. This was denied by McCulloch himself and has been debunked by Ivan Luckin, the vendor of the Y.
X,Y,Z please.

2) What could have got its present name from the Sanskrit word for darkness/ignorance/indifference or the fact that it was the meeting point of 2 rivers, one of them river Isis ?

3)  Which nickname came about due to the cylindrical shape of these tunnels?

4) What is this monument was erected in memory of?

5)  In questioning, Sarjeant said he had been inspired by the assassination of John Lennon in December 1980, and the attempts on the life of President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. In particular he noted the ease with which Mark David Chapman had become famous after killing John Lennon. A friend said that at the time of John Hinckley, Jr.'s attempt on the life of President Reagan, Sarjeant had said "I would like to be the first one to take a pot shot at _________". The police found that Sarjeant had written "I am going to stun and mystify the world. I will become the most famous teenager in the world."
At whom did Marcus Simon Sarjeant fire six blank shots as the person  rode down The Mall to the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 198 ?




6) Queens consort, the wives of Kings, traditionally wore the Crown of Mary of Modena, Queen of King James II. By the beginning of the 20th century, that small crown was in a decrepit state. A new European-style crown, flatter and with more arches than was traditional in British crowns, was manufactured for Queen Alexandra, consort of King Edward VII. A new crown, more akin to traditional British crowns, was manufactured for Queen Mary, consort of King George V, who was crowned in 1911. The final new consort's crown in the 20th century was manufactured for Queen Elizabeth, consort of King George VI, who along with her husband was crowned in 1937. All three consorts' crowns in turn included the _______. The crown is now on display along with the other British Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.
FITB.



7) How is 30 St Mary Axe (formerly the Swiss Re Building) informally referred to?  With 41 floors, the tower is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, and stands on the former site of the Baltic Exchange building, which was severely damaged on 10 April 1992 by the explosion of a bomb placed by the Provisional IRA.



8) What does this (heavily edited) plaque in London Zoo commemorate?

9) The logo of what changed from the one on the left to the one on the right in 2003?

10) Which famous character is missing from this list:  Gregory House, Basil the Great Mouse Detective, Sherlock Hound, Danger Mouse, Sexton Blake, Carland Cross and James Black (Case Closed) ?



11) At a young age, this guy worked as a miller in Clacton but in 1834 he moved to London where he began selling groceries in Stepney. He set up something that is now all over London. His establishment has a dress code policy and has turned away several people who it believes are not dressed appropriately. These include a soldier in uniform, a scout troop, a woman with a mohican hair cut, a 15 stone (95 kg) woman and FC Shakhtar Donetsk's first team for wearing tracksuits.
 

12) _______  was originally three houses: a mansion overlooking St. James's Park (called "the House at the Back"), a townhouse behind it located at _____ and a cottage next to _____. The townhouse, from which the modern building gets its name, was one of several built by the person below between 1682 and 1684. Identify.

This painting now hangs in _________ inside the front door.

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Quiz week 23 (themed week 3)

Quiz Week 23

Please do leave your answers as comments.
This is a themed week with all the answers vaguely leading to a theme. Get the theme to get a special mention when we give the answers.
There was a request to make it very simple. Here is an attempt at that.  I have also tried to make the questions short.


1) This two word term originated in racing; as an entity that was not known to gamblers and thus was difficult to place betting odds on. What?



2) This is one of the most iconic sculptures in Hampi - the statue of Ugra Narasimha. But the statue itself was not meant to be an angry Narasimha. The Narasimha became ugra(angry) when a part of the original statue fell down. What fell down?
If it helps, whatever fell down is now in a nearby museum. 


3) They were invented in 1704 for use in watches by Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, Peter Debaufre, and Jacob Debaufre, who received an English patent for the idea. Originally natural ____ were used, such as diamond, sapphire, ruby, and garnet. In 1902, a process to make synthetic sapphire and ruby was invented by making ______ much cheaper.
_____ are advantageous due to their high accuracy, very small size and weight, low and predictable friction, including good temperature stability, and the ability to operate without lubrication and in corrosive environments.
What?


4) What are these?


5) Here's this week's hard question:



Mr.____ was conceived by Dr. Richard Moriarty of Pittsburgh to help children learn to avoid ingesting poisons.

Why did Dr. Dr. Richard Moriarty want to choose an alternative to the original label for poison?



6) The original name of this Disney Princess is Badroulbadour (Arabic بدر البدور, badru l-budūr, "full moon of full moons") in the One Thousand and One Night's 'tale of the enchanted lamp'. But the guys at Disney gave her a different name.

What name?


7) Connect Gujarat, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Lakshadweep (exhaustive).



8) The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious, in order to ruin the recipient by the cost of its maintenance. In modern usage, it is an object, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered to be without use or value.
Ironically, some of Thailand's highest civilian awards are also named with the same phrase.
Identify the phrase.


9) slightly used but still...
X is the first nuclear reactor in all of Asia. The characteristic “blue glow” of nuclear reactors is due to Čerenkov radiation. Nehru was highly impressed with its beauty and he decided to name the reactor as X, after mythical damsels. Identify.

 10)  In 1833, the company's father, founded an import business to sell seashells to London collectors. When collecting seashell specimens in the Caspian Sea area in 1892, the founders realised there was potential in exporting lamp oil from the region and commissioned the world's first purpose-built oil tanker, the Murex (Latin for a type of snail), to enter this market; by 1907 the company had a fleet. 
X's logo is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world.
The company's official name is Koninklijke Nederlandsche ______ Maatschappi.
i) Which company are we talking about?
ii) Based on what creature is their logo designed?
iii) What were the colours of the logo meant to relate to?




11) Connect

 

12) The work was initially done by  the person shown below which gave the structure its popular name.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh

This person rebuilt and decorated the interiors of the structure.

Jassa Singh Ahluwalia

  

What?



Right. I guess that would do. Now connect.

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Quiz Week 13

Answers May Be Given Next Week... Meanwhile Drop Down Your Answers... PS: DON'T POST YOUR ANSWERS AS ANON

This week's questions are mostly from the prelims of the rather boring kurukshetra open quiz. Though the questions were superb and of a high standard, a boring auditorium and a visibly tired quizmaster made even guys at the first row fall asleep. Also, the quiz started at about the time it was scheduled to end...
So here's whatever we could remember from that evening.

1) You must have probably heard of the BRIC economies. Economists like Robert Ward are of the opinion that the next set of emerging economies are South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia and Egypt. The economies that are part of this group are considered to be very promising because they have reasonably sophisticated financial systems, controlled inflation, and a soaring young population. By what term are these economies collectively referred to as?

2) Who got his Nobel prize for this contribution?

all right, I confess...I am feeling very lazy

3) This part of the brain is named after the creature. What is its name?

on the left is the part of the brain

4) This is a board game called 'You're hired' . A certain trademarking attempt was denied in 2004 because of it. What was trademark attempt for? (I think the question was something along these lines)

5) 1 star  = "worth a stop",
    2 stars = "take a detour,"
    3 stars = "justifies specific dedicated journey". 
What are all these?


6) Disinterested to blacken out. This phenomenon that this cartoon parodies is probably the best explanation to whose charisma?
(I don't think this is how the question was...it was framed in such a way that it was pretty hard ; only guy in the entire hall knew the answer).

7) In the summer of 1981, Mark Ellingham, just graduated from Bristol University, was travelling around Greece and couldn’t find a guidebook that remotely met his needs. It was here that he met Martin Dunford, who was in Greece teaching English at the time. On their return to the UK, in a bid to avoid getting ‘real jobs’, Mark, Martin and a small group of writers set about creating their own guidebook series; a series that aimed to combine a journalistic approach to description with a practical approach to travellers’ needs.
What began thus?


8) Why did this sandwich shop and cafe suddenly witness a huge surge in popularity in 2010?

9) These were powerful bombs that were used in Vietnam and Afghanistan.The nickname given to the nose or the entire bomb itself is also a cricket term. What?

10) X, who died in 1976 is said to have made more profit out of murder than any other woman since Y.  Identify X and Y.


Part 2 should be up shortly.

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Quiz Week 9

Answers Will Be Given Next Week... Meanwhile Drop Down Your Answers... PS: DON'T POST YOUR ANSWERS AS ANON


1) Extremely simple question,so do not use google for this one alone.

  The band was originally conceived by Jimmy Page and Chris Dreja after their original group, the Yardbirds, broke up so Page and Dreja put together a new band called the "New Yardbirds" to fulfill the commitment.
  This band consisted of Page on guitar, bass player John Paul Jones, drummer John Bonham, and a then-unknown vocalist by the name of Robert Plant.
  After playing the Scandavian shows, the group decided to change its name. Referring to the group's membership, Keith Moon( of ‘The Who’) had said, "With that lineup, you'll go down like a X.“
  The band decided to drop the letter 'A' from the first word to ensure that the word was pronounced “____" and not “_____“.

X pls.

2)A random Trivial fact made into a question,but very workable indeed,

As we all know,Sir Robert Badenn Powel started the Scouting and Guiding Association long ago in the Brown Sea Island.
When he passed there were other Guys who took on the prestigious post of the world Leader of the Scouts and Guides.
The Post is currently held by a Great and Fine young Man(I'm Truely a fan of his),
the youngest to hold this post,
also the youngest Brit to Scale Mt.Everest.
This Guy is truely popular round the Globe,and according to Wiki,known atleast to 1.5 Billion ppl.
His Peculiar Food Habits and his famous antics see him made fun of,
You really should have got it by now.
Who?

3) Two unrelated questions.
i) In ancient Rome, there used to be there kiosks at the intersection of three roads to provide information to travelers (but they were most often ignored). This is the most accepted etymology of which word in English?

ii) There are some places that lie exactly on the border of three different states i.e. point of intersection of the boundaries of three states. What are such  places called?

{9th week, 3rd question, 3x3=9...you get it no?}

4) What connects A and B?

A

  

B

5) The colour of this ship was invented by X who served the British Royal Navy during World War 2. He noticed that a certain ship of this mauve-grey colour had disappeared from view during dawn. He realized that he could camouflage ships quite efficiently, especially when the sun was nearer the horizon and thus had an entire fleet painted this colour.

X later held the post of the First Sea Lord. He was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republic Army when the IRA planted a bomb in his fishing boat. 

Identify Admiral X and the colour.

the colour of the hull

6) This was probably one of the first broadcasting that was strong enough to leave the planet. Though the picture clarity wasn't all that good, it was strong and reached most of Earth and hence must have traveled quite a bit beyond the atmosphere. So, if ever aliens were tuning in, this guy would probably be the first human they would see. 

So basically, what did the broadcast contain? 

7) Swamiye Sharanam Aiyyappa...
Hariharasanam is Yesudas' masterpiece. One of the reasons this song is so popular apart from superb lyrics and tune and KJY's heartfelt rendition is the percussion, the mridangam especially. Who plays the mridangam?

8)This car's brand name in English denotes a sport but is actually derived from the German name for a warm, swift Atlantic ocean current.
In the U.S and Canada, the car is sold as 'Rabbit' and is one of the world's largest selling cars. Name the model and the brand.

ANSWERS
1

1) Sitter indeed,It was to be Lead Like a Zepplin,then Became Lead Zepplin ,but then they feared wrong pronounciation and changed it to Led Zepplin.
2
2) Bear Grylls \m/

With All Due respect

3
3) i) The word is Trivia 

   ii) Tri State Area (remember hearing this in Phineas and Ferb ?)
4
44) The Trans Siberian Railway connects (literally) Moscow and Vladivostok. Those are the railway stations of the two cities.
5

5) Mountbatten Pink...named after Louis Mountbatten
6

6) Hitler's speech at the 1936 Olympics. There is a mention of this in the movie Contact and the Carl Sagan book with the same name. 

Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRD-tO7jV9U  for the scene in the movie
7
7) T V Gopalakrishnan
8

8) Volswagen Golf
NFS Yeah!!

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Quiz Week 7

Answers Will Be Given Next Week... Meanwhile Drop Down Your Answers... PS: DON'T POST YOUR ANSWERS AS ANON
1)“When the Spanish arrived in America and ultimately conquered the Aztecs, they erected Christian churches on top of the pyramids.

Eventually their whole colonial city was built over the Aztec one. In the 20th century, many colonial buildings were demolished and modern structures raised on the existing historic foundations.

The __________  will uncover our roots.”

 -Estaban, a Mexican visionary and architect.

The stunning ___________ in the middle of Mexico City is designed to get around height limits on new buildings in the capital.(There is a rule over there according to which no buiding can exceed more than 6 or 7 storeys)

FITB AND PUT FUNDA   

This is where it is to be built.

          1) Earthscrapers !                 

2) Identify the caricaturist and the subject of the caricature. 

2) Trichy Shankaran who was conferred the title of Sangitha Kalanidhi this season

3) Here are photos of three different people when they were younger than what they are now. Connect the three. Hard.

The young girl. Not the Swamiji.

3) Hema Malini, Trisha and Sudha Raghunathan are the brand ambassadors of Pothys
4) This Brazilian football club is named after an explorer who ventured no where near Brazil nor had anything to do with football. Who is it named after and why?

4) Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama was initially a rowing club founded by a group of Portugese. It was the 400th year of Vasco Da Gama's historic sailing to India and hence the name
5) An easy one to go along with Quiz Abyss' first video question.
Identify the lecturer in this video.

5) Dr Sengai Podhuvan

6) The mathematics version of Rajinikanth I guess....Rajinikanth is all this during his sleep.


“Uncountably Infinite” was a phrase coined to explain the intelligence of X.
X can get to the other side of a Möbius strip.
X actually disproved the clause: "X cannot prove that this clause is true".
X knows the real value of log(-1)
When X breaks a magnet he ends up with two monopoles
X can understand income tax.
X once created an axiomatic system that was both consistent and complete

And so on...Just tell me who is X. Actually X is only a subset of Srinivasa Ramanujam. Some of Ramanujam's works are so awesome that Rajinikanth would actually have to think for 10 seconds before declaring it obvious.

6) Gauss. Do visit http://www.gaussfacts.com/ 


7)A simple question ,nevertheless a nice question
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E2 Class ,was a class of 0-6-0T steam locomotives designed by Lawson Billinton, intended for shunting and short distance freight trains.

Though it was retired long ago, as a result of the association with the __________this minor class of tank locomotives rank as one of the best known steam locomotive classes of all time.

7) Thomas the tank engine
8) The first cricketer to have done what?

Will provide a hint to this if no one gets this in the next 3 or 4 days.

8) Adam Parore , the first cricketer to climb Mount Everest 

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Quiz Week 5

Answers Will Be Given Next Week... Meanwhile Drop Down Your Answers... PS: DON'T POST YOUR ANSWERS AS ANON

1) These are some of the works of one of the greatest caricaturists of all time. He did something once which became hugely popular and several of his works contained such gags. His caricatures were even used by the US Army to train bomber pilots.

Self Portrait

Now tell me what do the numbers beside his name in his signature indicate.

Answer : These are  Al Hirschfeld  caricatures and the numbers beside his name in his signature indicate how many times the name of his daughter, Nina, would appear  somewhere in the background.

2) LVC (long visual connect). Not exhaustive.

Answer: Captain Claw Cheats

3)So what would connect these 4??

•Van Gough’s Starry Starry night.

•Chiyoaya Co operation.

•A drawing  of clifton suspension bridge drawing.

•An island called Santorini ,Greece

Answer: Google Reverse Image search. These are the 4 pictures that greeted the visitors. Removed for some reason now.


4)This motor sport which essentially comprises of a series of timed stunts done in a predetermined order owes its name eventually to the Hindi word meaning ‘Ball House’. What is this sport called?

WHAT IS THIS SPORT CALLED??

Answer = Motorkhana


5)Kristina Rei has had 100 injections at a cost of £4,000 to inflate her lips to unnatural proportions after being bullied at school for her appearance.Kristina says her lips were too thin when she was 15 and hence the decision.


She decided that big lips were the way to beauty and hence this happened.

The big lips were a result of trying to look like someone.
The question is whom did she wanna resemble??

Answer = jessica rabbit

6) This is one of the biggest bloomers in advertising ever. Just tell me the caption that's blackened out.

Answer = Nothing sucks like an electrolux!


7) Which product was named in honour of the runner wearing 11?

Answer = Vibram fivefingers Bikila named after Bikila who won the 1960 Olympic marathon running barefoot.

8) A common myth is that the controls of X are inspired by the names of the inventors. The story goes like they invented X and gave the design to Y to use in his products. They wanted Y's products to contain their name on it. However Y did not want to do that and offered them millions of dollars to NOT have their names on his product. These inventors were not happy. So that was when Y came up with the idea of naming the controls of X after their names.

However the truth is that X was invented much later by another company, who used it in their own products. What is X? Who is Y, who featured in that story?
Answer:
There were 4 bros..lowel, max, hiram and norman Goldberg. invented car AC.
gave design to Ford..he offered 3million dollars
they said they want 2 million but their name has to be put on the car..The Goldberg AC or something, which ford did not agree
so he gave them 4million and he named the controls as HI, NORM, LOW and MAX

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