Saturday, May 8, 2010

Question #66

Greek Mythology. He is the origin of an English word which means something that is mockingly out of reach. A chemical element which due to its difficulty of isolating the pure metal from the ore also got its name thus. Who is being depicted in the image below?

image

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Question #65

•Myths say this strange looking animal X was created by a Buddhist monk X at a mountainous village in Y. X ate a cow and a goat at the village. Urged by his followers to perform a miracle, he joined the head of a goat to the bones of the cow and created this divine animal.

•The myth gave this animal the status of the national animal of Y.

•There are four subspecies: A, B, C and Y.

•A recent census estimated the number of the A subspecies to be at only 1000. Its divine association did not protect it from hunters who kill it for its delicious meat.

Solve for X, Y and A. What are the other two subspecies?

image

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Question #64

What is so special about what he is saying? What is this effect known as?
Went uncracked!
Answer: The McGurk Effect which demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception. In this video, a visual /ga/ combined with an audio /ba/ is heard as /da/. Try closing your eyes and play the video again!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Question #63

This is a zoomed in view of something. This was in the news recently for some obvious reasons. What is the hoopla all about?

image

Answered correctly by Nazar, vish and buckingfastard.

Answer: New Delhi in Islamabad. Kolkata in Bay of Bengal. Won’t they have a hoopla?

4458291669_cdd71708e4

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Question #62

He provided scientists with an extraordinary window into the human brain and the nature of memory. Who is he? What is so special about him?

image

Answered correctly by Nihar, indian and mak

Answer: Kim Peek. The man who could recite whole books by heart but could not button his own shirt. He suffered from the Savant Syndrome.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Question #61

Connect.
This question is a modified version of a question asked in our college's Inter Hall Quiz event. No originality claimed

Ans: These are Computer Chess. Deep Blue, Deep Thought, Junior and Hydra

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Question #60

What product developed by Sisi Yuan, Yiwu Qiu, Lei Zhao, Qiulei Huang, Lijun Zhang and Weihang Shu is being shown in the image below?

image

 

Answer: Fresh Code, Graphing the freshness level of food.

Answered correctly by all who tried.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Question #59

Identify the fourth club and connect.



.









Ans: Portsmouth FC

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Question #57



Answered by all who tried.
Ans: The book is 'Fire in the Valley' on which the movie- 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' is based.
The rivalry between Gates and Jobs

Monday, March 22, 2010

Question #56

Where in India might you find this brand of confectionary?
image

Answered correctly by 5 people!

Answer: Tihar Jail

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Question #55

Connect

Ans: Deep Vein Thrombosis also known as Economic Class Syndrome

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Question #54


The Y Effect is a British and Japanese analogy for the economic success of the United Kingdom's finance industries, especially those in the City of London. The point of this analogy is that a national and international institution can be very successful even if they lack strong native competition.
London's financial industry saw tremedous growth in the 1980s but has been dominated mostly by foreign companies, especially American investment banks, rather than British firms.
The analogy has also been used in the business discourse of Japan, whose financial markets and other parts of the economy had not substantially opened up to foreign competition.

Identify Y.
Answered correctly by Mak and vish
Ans: Wimbledon Effect

Friday, March 19, 2010

Question #53

In the midst of World War II he calculated, on the basis of positional probability, where enemy submarines might surface. Although he was merely a pawn, he helped "checkmate" the enemy. Who is he?
image

Answered correctly by Nihar, Mridul and mak

Answer: Reuben Fine

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Question #52

That is 3/4ths the logo. What is missing?
image

Answered correctly by all who tried.

Answer: This is the logo of One Laptop per Child. The laptop is missing.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Question #51

After enough of sports and entertainment, its time to get bizzy.
Connect. Not Exhaustive

Cracked by vish.
Ans: These are companies acquired by Microsoft. Clockwise from top left, Aquantive, Groove Networks,     Farecast, Powerset and Placeware. 

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Question #50

Something about what is written on the right is very special to the fellow on the left (You might see him wearing that on his arm which I have blanked out). This is also used on some cellular telephones to gain access to hidden menus etc. What is it that connects all three?
image imageimage
Answered correctly by aviralshrivastava.
Answer: 786

Monday, March 15, 2010

Question #49

Identify the device shown in the video. Why did it became so popular?





Ans: Its Kuo Cheng Hsieh's device to catch bank robbers by ensnaring them in a net. He won the Ig Noble Prize in Economics (2007) for this innovative device.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Question #48

OK. So, Indians are very passionate about cricket. Here is another cricket question. Who is the fellow below? And why is he famous/infamous?

HINT: Even Tilak Raj or Malcolm Nash would be in awe of him.

image

Answered correctly by vish and aviralshrivastava.

Answer: This is Bert Vance. He conceded 77 runs in an over! You might consider looking up here for an interesting account of the incident.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Question #47

No, this isn’t Photoshop. What is it? Give funda.
image image
Answered correctly by Vish
Answer: Quoting Vish.
Philippine's Flag. The one at the bottom is the usual flag. If the red is displayed at top it means the country is at war.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Question #46

It is said that the world’s first computer programmer was a woman. She was an apprentice to Charles Babbage and was a daughter of Lord Byron. Who is she?
Hint: A computer language is named after her.

aklfsd

Correctly answered by 10 people.

Answer: Ada Lovelace.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Question #45

This type of bat has been in news recently and you will see more of it very soon.
What is this bat known as?


Cracked by Utsav, sattepesatta, Arun Mallya, Nazar.
Ans: It is known as "Mongoose bat" made specially for T-20 cricket. Matthew Hayden is supposed to use this bat in IPL 2010

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Question #44

Movie buffs, this one is for you.


0.5 point for getting the right connect and 0.5 point for cracking the second part.

1/2 points to Utsav and vish
Answer: The answer I was looking for was "Women who have won Academy Award for Best Actress as well as Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. The 4th being Sandra Bullock who won both these awards in the same year.Even Nicole Kidman has won Oscar as well as Razzies but she didn't win razzies for the Worst Actress"

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Question #43

Easy one. Antagonist and Protagonist?

 image image

Correctly answered by Aviral and Subhodeep.

Answer: Logorama

Monday, March 8, 2010

Question #42

For cricket freaks


As I said I was looking for a very specific answer. Correct answer by vish
Answer: They are the first/only  person to score centuries for 2 different countries in tests and ODI's respectively. The person on the left is Kepler Wessels who scored century for Australia and SA and the one on the right is Eoin Morgan who scored century each for Ireland and Bangladesh.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Question #41

They are talking about a very famous holy war.Name it and give funda.


Cracked correctly by vish and Arun Mallya.
Ans: They are talking about the famous editor war, i.e holy war between Vi(m) and Emacs.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Question #40

She became famous after winning a famous lawsuit against the inheritance legislation of her community in the Supreme Court. Who is she?image

Cracked correctly by Mridul, Rahul and RIJO P.

Answer: Mary Roy, mother of Arundhati Roy

Friday, March 5, 2010

Question #39

This game is a variation of chess. What is it known as? Also identify the two new pieces.



Cracked by Vish, Drakejuyal, iamayush and Sourav Ray
Answer: Quoting iamayush "This is called " Capablanca Chess " . The two pieces are the "Archbishop" (Left), which is Bishop + Knight , and the "Chancellor"(Right) , which is Knight + Rook". It was introduced by Jose Raul Capablanca to reduce the number of drawn games.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Question #38

What is this strange looking device? What can it do?

HINT: It violates one of the very fundamental laws of physics - conservation of energy and hence cannot exist in reality (though a device which much less powerful than this one does exist and was probably the inspiration for this one)

Answered correctly by Vish and Aviral

Answer: Pinch from Ocean’s 11 where it is used to blow off the electricity of a whole city for 30 seconds. It has been inspired by the Z-Pinch though its capabilities/power are far more than the real life device

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Question #37

Identify the logo. This logo has also inspired a well known bicoloured logo. Which logo?
identify

Answer: This is the Square and Compass logo of a Master Mason. It has inspired the famous Superman logo.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Question #36

This isn’t about eating bananas. But it is about something else. What? Give funda.
HINT: If you were to think of the American counterpart to this award, you might want to think of a red coloured fruit atop a film reel.

Identify
Cracked correctly by the novice, Harsh and sattepesatta
Answer: The Golden Kela Awards. Awarding the worst in Bollywood. The American counterpart: The Golden Raspberry Award also known as "The Razzies".

Monday, March 1, 2010

Question #35

Happy Holi to all our esteemed visitors. Here is today's question.

This is a photograph of two brothers X and Y who started Z in Wichita Kansas. They borrowed around $600 dollars from their mother to start Z.


This is how Z looked when they started out. Since Z had only as much space for 9 characters, the last 3 letters had to be named after how the building looked. Can you identify X, Y and Z?


Correct answers by Mridul, sattepesatta and the novice
Answer: Dan and Frank Carney who started Pizza Hut

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Question #34

Identify. Why is it so special?


Correct answers by iamayush and aviral

Answer: This is the post office at Dakshin Gangotri in Antartica. It is the first Indian post office located outside India. 

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Question #33

Sitter for tech geeks.
Identify him and the thing he is holding in his hands.


Ans: Its K R Shridhar holding "Bloom Box"

Friday, February 26, 2010

Question #32

What?

Cracked by aviralshrivastava
Ans: Dextrocardia, a congenital defect in which the heart is situated on the right side of the body, is a very rare disorder and is believed to occur to 1 in 12000 people.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Question #30

Identify.
Hint: It took a man 13 years more to achieve the same feat she had achieved.
Cracked by all who tried!!
Answer: Quoting iamayush: "This is Belinda Clark , who scored the first double hundred in ODI's against Denmark , in December 1997 ."

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Question #29

He is the co-founder of a well known company of Swedish origin. Identify him.
Cracked correctly by The Novice
Answer: Ruben Rausing, co-founder of Tetra Pak. Notice he is holding Tetra Pak products in his hands!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Question #28

Simple one.
X was first built by American Bantam in Butler, Pennsylvania for US Army Quartermaster Corps.

There are many explanations of the origin of the word X
It has been said that it carried the designation "GP", which phonetically became the word X

Many, suggest that soldiers at the time were so impressed with it that they informally named it after "Y the X", a character in the Popeye cartoons.

Identify X and Y.

Correctly answered by everyone. Highlight to view answer.
Answer: X = Jeep Y = Eugene

Monday, February 22, 2010

Question #27

He won 5 olympic medals for swimming. But he is better known for another reason. Who is he and what is his other claim to fame.


Cracked by Kaushik and SLG.
Answer: As quoted by SLG "Johnny Weissmuller.
He was a terrific actor and was famous for his role of 'Tarzan' in films,probably he played it best."

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Question #26

What is so special about them? It is for that very specialty that you will find them together somewhere else too. Where?




Complete Answer by Kaushik although Anish and Sourav Ray's answers were partly correct.

Answer: The Emu and the Kangaroo can be found on the Australian coat of arms (and hence on Baggy green too!). The reason they are there is because they can't walk backwards (signifying progress).