Carpe 08

Sorry about the absence. Lets see if we can get this blog rolling again! Some arbitly chosen questions from Carpe 08.

1. The verbs here are conjugated differently. An underlying motive is to shorten the conjugated form of the verb by deleting one or more intermediate vowels and replace ‘slow’ consonants with consonants that can be pronounced faster. However, the word can be understood even after a surprising number of vowels have been deleted. The specific context of the word also helps disambiguate it in practice. What are we talking about here?

2.  What are the following rules about?

# Rule one, befreind others wisely.

# Artycle II, Section I, Paragraph VIII is about the sharing of the spoils.

# Artycle II, Section II, Paragraph I states whoever first spots the quarry could choose the best pistol for themselves.

# Every crew member is to have an equal share.

# Any man who falls behind is left behind.

What is this the formula for?

3. The license agreement of this software states among its various clauses as follows:

“You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.”

Which software?

4. What formula is this?

Answers in a couple of days.

Pikchas.

by Sinnerman

1. Identify random dude below.

2. What is this the logo for?

3. Who’s gone missing?

Boom.

 

by Sinnerman

In the aftermath of this event….

… the man below created an iconic work…

… versions of which were made by the following men…

Identify the work being described and the man in the second photo who created it.

Click “more” for answers.

Connect

by Sinnerman

Simple enough. Seven images, connect all of them with a two-word phrase.

Click on each image to magnify. The last three photos are all generic, there is no need to identify specific places, people or events.

Click “more” for answers.

Arbit Macht Frei

Or, the Arbit Question Makes You Free. With apologies to Auschwitz survivors.

by Sinnerman

Connect the two images and the lines below them (with credits for image 1 to the guys over at NITT, specifically Sunil)

‘And are you not,’ said Fook leaning anxiously forward, ‘a greater analyst than the __________ Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?’
‘A five week sand blizzard? You ask this of me who has contemplated the very vectors of the atoms in the Big Bang itself? Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff.’

Click “more” for the answer.

General Quiz

1. Olympic, Britannic, __________.

ID the blank and put funda.

2. American Cotton Oil Company, American Sugar Company, American Tobacco Company, Chicago Gas Company, Distilling & Cattle Feeding Company, Laclede Gas Light Company, National Lead Company, North American Company, Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, U.S. Leather Company, United States Rubber Company, X.

Again, ID and put funda.

3. Prior to the release of the recent hit movie X, the producer Y was sued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This led to Y making an important change. What exactly happened?

4. Bernard Lagat (1500), Alberto Contador(Tour de France), Alain Bernard(Swimming 100m Freestyle), Usain Bolt(100m), Cat Link V(1998,westbound). What is common? <the list is non exhaustive>

5.  X is India’s largest company in it’s field. It’s products enjoy a 45% market-share in India and 5% of global exports. The company is currently growing at a steady rate of 10% every year. It has achieved the distinction of being the first Indian Company to break the monopoly of similar Chinese products in the US market, besides pioneering sales in countries such as U.K, Germany , Belgium , Holland etc. As of 2007, it had a turnover of over 1 billion rupees. Which company?

6. British-1599
Danish-1616
Dutch-1602
French-1664
Swedish-1731

What?

7. “If youth, throughout all history, had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and,possibly, do it practically; you wouldn’t constantly run across folk stoday who claim that “a child don’t know anything.” A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put amystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport.”

Something special about this extract from a book. Whatitis?

8. X is a classic theme in world literature, art, and film. It was an archetypal character of medieval romances, where typically knight-errants would come to alleviate the situation. The Emprise de l’Escu vert à la Dame Blanche (founded 1399) was an order which had X as it’s theme. The movie Ingagi had X as it’s theme. What is the theme X?

9. The character X usually wears a snow suit with a tightly drawn hood. Hiss lines are all muffled, and he is often used to get words, including “shit”, past the censors. His death and resurrrection was a frequent theme of the series. Spontaneous combustion, Michael Jackson have been causes for his death. He has also died on numerous occasions for the good of other people like once for the sake of the Jews, once to stop satan etc. “Oh my God, they killed X!” “You bastards” is a usual catchphrase upon his death.  Who is X?

10. Abortion, Advocacy groups, Business and Economy, Drugs, Education, Entertainment, Gambling, Games, Government, Health, Illegal or questionable, hacking, search engines and portals, url translation sites, web hosting, tastless, racism, job search,shopping. Again, a non exhaustive list.
What is this..

11.  2007 - “Gerald began — but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them “permanently” meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash — to pee.”
2006 - “Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you’ve had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean.”
2005 – “As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual.”

These 3 extracts have something in common. What?

12. If explanations about their achievements become too longwinded, the speakers are interrupted by the cries of Miss Sweety Poo (or Sweety-Poo), a little girl who repeatedly cries out “Please stop. I’m bored” in a high-pitched voice. Throwing paper airplanes onto the stage was a long-standing tradition but this was changed in 2006 due to security concerns. In past years, Roy Glauber has swept the stage clean of the airplanes as the official “Keeper of the Broom”. In 2005 however, he was not able to do his job because he was traveling to stockholm to claim an award. What are we talking about?

13. An experiment conducted at MIT gave the following result. Specific gravity of X – 1.0. Specific gravity of Y – 1.6. X<Y. QED. What?

14. From 1955 to 1979 (except for a six month gap in 1976), the first letter of the name had a number of stars printed in or around the letter. The legend claims that this was either a rating that the Chief creative officer of the magazine gave to the person on the cover based on certain criterion. Another rumor was that if the stars were inside the starting letter of the magazine’s name, the Chief Creative Officer was intimately involved, while if they were outside, he was not. In reality, the stars, which ranged in number between zero and twelve, were solely used to indicate the domestic or international advertising region for that particular printing.

Put funda.

15. Mercedes Gleitze was the first British woman to swim the English channel on 7 October 1927. Some doubts were cast on her achievement when a hoaxer claimed to have made a faster swim only four days later. To silence her critics, Mercedes Gleitze attempted a repeat swim on 21 October in the full glare of publicity. Although she did not complete the second crossing, a journalist for The Times wrote “Having regard to the general conditions, the endurance of Miss Gleitze surprised the doctors, journalists, and experts who were present, for it seemed unlikely that she would be able to withstand the cold for so long. It was a good performance.” He also found something and said, “Hanging round her neck by a riband on this swim, Miss Gleitze carried X, which was found this evening to be in perfect condition”. X was then launched in England and attained great success. X was taken to the Mariana Trench by Jacques Piccard at 1960 and was stil in working condition when it was brought back and also was carried by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on their successful climb of Everest.  X?

Audio-Visual Quiz

by Sinnerman

Total arbit questions. Mix of stuff from college quizzes and some never-seen-before (!) originals.

1. An old question, from KS ‘08 if I remember right. Identify the male voice.

2. This man has been in the news recently. Who?

Who?

3.  What is special about this particular scene? No credit for IDing the movie.

4.  A legendary character in the world of sport. Name this person. (This has to be the easiest of the lot)

ID

5. This man himself is not too famous, but his name has been thrown around a lot in recent times, especially in the Indian media. Identify him and why has his name been taken so often?

Click “more” for answers

The first question

By SocKrates

In 1900, André ______ published the first edition of a guide to France to help drivers maintain their cars, find decent lodging, and eat well while touring. It included addresses of things like gasoline distributors, garages, tire stockist , and public toilets. As motoring became more widespread, a rating system was developed which gave stars to restaurants. This grading system went on to become the ultimate recognition a restaurant could aspire for in Western Europe and is used by gourmets worldwide. What is this grading system called?