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 19 (THEMED)

Themed week 1

This new blogger layout and interface is not good at all. Not as if the earlier one was good but the current version is much more uncomfortable. Anyway, this is a themed week, where the answers of each individual question are connected by a theme. Some of them may lead to the theme directly while you may have to do a little manipulation for a few. The names of those who get the theme within a week will have their names appearing at the end of the post due to which it is recommended you don't post as anon.
The answer has been posted below the post as a bulk.


1) In 1995, owner Abe Pollin announced he was changing the team's name because Bullets had acquired violent overtones that had made him increasingly uncomfortable over the years, particularly given the high homicide and crime rate in the early 1990s in Washington, D.C. The final straw was the assassination of his longtime friend, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. A contest was held to choose a new name for the team and the choices were narrowed to the Dragons, Express, Stallions, Sea Dogs, or ________.
The change generated some controversy because Washington is a predominantly African-American city and _______ is a rank in the Ku Klux Klan.
Fill up those blanks with the same word.

{main theme hint: nobody knows for sure which ____ but it is speculated that it is the scrivener and manuscript seller}


2) In 2006, anti-virus company Sophos discovered a computer worm known as "W32/Hoots-A", which sends a graphical image with the letters "O RLY?" to a print queue when it infects a Windows-based computer. The  image macro is based on a photo taken by nature photographer John White, which he posted to the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.animals in 2001. According to White, the expression in the photo was due to the creature panting to cool off, similar to a dog.

What is the creature we are talking about?
{main theme hint: the birthday present}


3) This is a genus in the legume family and comprises of around 280 flowering plants. The yellow legume seeds of these plants, were popular with the Romans, who spread the plant's cultivation throughout the Roman Empire. Their name derives from a Latin word and was given with regard to the fact that many found that the plant has a tendency to ravage the land on which it grows. The peas, which appear after the flowering period, were also said to be fit only for the consumption of savage creatures. The beans beans are commonly sold in a salty solution in jars (like olives and pickles) and can be eaten with or without the skin.

Identify the genus.
{main theme hint : double meaning }


4) The plot is a light-hearted tribute to Al Jolson's film The Jazz Singer. The title and climax a song written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg for the 1936 Warner Bros. feature-length film The Singing Kid. Identify what all this about and then, the name the lead character bills himself.

 {main theme hint: the jazz singer }



5) The origin of this phrase is  from the general custom in some cultures, of a warrior adding a new item to their head-gear for every enemy slain or in other cases from the custom of establishing the success of a hunter as being the first to bag a game bird. An example of the use of these can be found in the traditional cultures of the Meunitarris of Alberta; and the Mandan people (present-day North and South Dakota). Identify the phrase.
{main theme hint: the epidermal covering }



6) Identify the album which was later re released. The title track tells of a lover waiting all alone by the telephone for the object of their desire to call.

 {main theme hint: square root}



7) Consider an equilateral triangle ABC and let S be its incircle. Let AD be the median from A , D lying on BC. What is the resultant geometrical figure ?
{main theme hint: let B lie on the origin with C on the positive X axis and A in the first quadrant. }


Right. Thats all. Hope it wasn't too hard.

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Quiz Week 15

A few announcements first...
During my class 10 board exams, I remember spending a considerable amount of time making questions for my daily sports quiz. Since I did somewhat well in those exams, I will probably make a few questions this time around too...but won't spend too much time .

 Aadithya was supposed to prepare this week's set and he began well, but it looks like he's busy. I hope he completes that set.

And most importantly, this blog has done something in 13 or 14 weeks that some dude named Sachin Tendulkar has not been able to achieve in about a year... We've hit a century of questions!
So hurrahs ! 


ANSWERS AT THE END OF THE POST
1) Sometime in the 13th century, when the Indian poet and singer Amir Khursaro was playing the Pakhawaj pretty hard, it broke into two. He picked up the two pieces and continued playing. He went on to explain that it 'spoke even when it was broken'. One of the several theories for the origin of what?



2) This lady did something in 1942 that prompted a new rule to be created. 

These two men did quite the opposite of what she did.

What was the rule?


3)  This Iron Maiden concert is in a cultural center in Bali. This 11 storey entertainment complex was supposed to be surmounted by something which if completed would be the largest of its kind in the world. The project came under criticism because a few groups beleived that it would destroy the harmony in the island. Tell me the name of the complex.

 

What you can see there now

4) What did he introduce during the Crimean war so that his soldiers felt warm ?

 

5) Could not find the video...anyway, these two speeches started something called the yngwen re in China. So, what is yngwen re? 

6) This Australian singer was named after the city she was born in. After every performance in London, she would come to the Ritz hotel (or is it the Savoy Hotel?) for dinner. A french chef invented something new for her and named it after her. What did he create?

7) These are witty statements which convey a lot of meaning with just few words. They probably get their name from this famous example :
Philip of Macedon: "If I enter _________ , I shall raze Sparta to the ground."
Ephor the Spartan: "If."
There are plenty of other examples of these in history. What are these called?



8) These two videos depict a certain new year's eve Buddhist tradition that is popular is Japan. A bell is rung 108 times to chase the 108 temptations in order to achieve Nirvana. But X couldn't resist the temptations and was bound to a stone. So, identify the creature X (anime).

Answers:
1) Tabla
2) longest oscar speech (approx 7 minutes) which prompted a 45 seconds limit.
3) garuda wisnu kencana
4) Cardigan
5) urge to learn English
6) peach melba
7) Laconic
8) Spiritomb

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Quiz week 12

Many of these week's questions are based on contributions.

1) When X was busy attending to his parents, a visitor knocked at his door. X told the visitor that he was busy attending to his parents. He threw a brick and asked the visitor to stand on the brick and wait for him. And that's how the visitor got his name.
Identify the visitor and X.

Answer: The visitor was Panduranga Vittala. Pundalika (X) told him to 'Vittal'  (wait here in Marathi)

2) Connect

Answer: Sunrise : the Elvis album, MK Kalaignar Karunanidhi and Hitachi which literally means sunrise. 

3) The making of this Tamil movie involved transporting huge chariots from Chennai to Kurukshetra in Haryana. The war scenes had real soldiers from the Indian army charging on horseback and on the back of elephants. Name this movie which starred two of South India's greatest heroes.
Answer: Karnan(1963)

4) Connect

No one in specific in the third picture.


Answer: Barbie's friends who were introduced to keep with the times - a Hispanic, Baywatch and an African American.

5) Connect.

Answer = These are what Steve Jobs and Wozniak mortgaged to start Apple - a Volksvagen van and a programmable calculator respectively.

6) Which historic battle was fought on this narrow coastal pass, whose name literally means 'the hot gates' ?

 

where the road is was where the coastline was

Answer = Thermopylae, where the Battle of Thermopylae was fought. This battle, as you know was the inspiration for movies like 300 and the 300 spartans.

7) Connect. Or rather, who is missing?

 

Answer: A R Rahman. A relatie of these legends appeared in the ads for Union Bank of India which had the slogan 'Your dreams are not yours alone'.







8) This Biblical incident is the origin of which phrase?

Answer = Passing the mantle.
ANSWERS POSTED.

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Quiz Week 8

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

Be sure to check this space this weekend...there could be something.....
An other Blog author - "As it turned out there was nothing :|".

1. A nice and simple way to start the first set of 2012.
Baseball diamonds are historically laid out with home plate on the western side of the field, so that the afternoon sun would not be in batters' eyes. As a result, a left-handed hurler's throwing hand would be on the ______ side of his body when on the mound. This gave birth to a famous sporting term. The term please. 

straight ahead is West

1) Southpaw

2. What was named as a pun on the scientific name of this wild creature?

2)Sylvester from looney tunes - from Felis silvestris , the scientific name for the wild cat.


3.Street food has been around in India for quite some time, from the mid 19th century. 

During the 1860's a certain event in another nation led to a few rivers being blocked, which in turn affected the supply chain of a certain commodity which they imported from another nation, which was the leading exporter. Even the manufacturing had stopped in that nation because of this. So, Gujarati traders here took advantage of the opportunity and started working late at night in accordance to the international market and sell their goods. By that time, the traders were hungry and had nothing to eat, and everyone at home would be asleep. That is when the street food vendors came up with something to feed these hungry people and make more money as well, because they were basically using the leftover veggies. What did they do? (Well the situation still is the same now. These people still use only leftovers to make it :P) 

3) Pav Bhajji ! Source : this

4) Connect the places marked on the map. Although this was done hastily, all of the places are marked fairly accurately.

4) This is where The Hindu is published — Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Madurai, Hubli, Kochi,Kolkata, Mangalore, Tiruchirapalli, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Mohali and Allahabad.

5) Crackers like these are often refered to as X ( atleast in several Western countries) . The word X is also a term in Harry Potter, Star Wars and American football. Anyway, when moisture develops on the tubelike things in an X, these firecrackers dont explode properly.
This is the origin of a certain cliche...which one?

Standard Fireworks crackers are awesome
...but there are some crackers of other companies
which don't burst after contact with moisture

5) Damp squib

6) What does Calvin say? Whom does he quote?

6) "Because its there" -  'the most famous three words in mountaineering' which was uttered by George Mallory when asked why he wanted to climb Everest.


7) This week's hard connect. A hint if no one gets this in the next 4 days.

This picture is just to complete the list
and is not as specific as the first two

7) A Big Sorry to the Non-Indians.  Nonsense. Carnatic music has a worldwide fanatic following.
. Muthuswamy Dikshithar was named after Muthukumaraswamy of Vaitheeshwaran Kovil.

Saint Thyagaraja was named after Thyagaraja, the main deity of Thiruvarur.

Shyama Krishna was the nickname given to Shyama Shastri. 

So the connect would be the naming of the Trinity,

8) X is theorized to serve one or more of the following functions :

• altering and providing buoyancy 
• focusing sound waves 
• provide protection to the snout

X was initially mistaken to be something else which gave Y (which uses X for the above functions) its name. Humans use X in cosmetics,ointments and lubricants.

Serve us with the name of the mammal Y and if you can, X.

8)The animal is the Sperm Whale and X is spermaceti which was mistaken as sperm. 

Ambergris is different. 

Look at our earlier Quizzes Here.

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