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.

1. Identify random dude below.

2. What is this the logo for?

3. Who’s gone missing?

Connect the occupants of the boxes that have been blanked out. The red ones connect a little more obviously and directly than the blue ones, but they all connect beautifully to the same thing.

(You can click on the image to see it in its full-size glory.)

Only visakasimhan and to an extent, cluelessanon, reacted correctly.

Click “more” for the answer.

All of these elements were found at the Ytterby quarry near Stockholm in Sweden. The red group comprises Ytterbium, Yttrium, Erbium and Terbium which were all first found there and directly named for Ytterby. The blue group contains three elements associated with Ytterby – Gadolinium (named for Gadolin who discovered it), Holmium (named for Stockholm) and Thulium (named for Thul, an ancient name for the Nordic countries).

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.

The event is the La Coubre explosion in Havana harbour in 1960, which killed 75 people. A memorial service for the dead was attended by Che Guevara, and during the service, photographer Alberto Korda took a photo of him which in a cropped and modified form was called “Guerrillero Heroico” (“The Heroic Guerrilla”) and became the most famous image of Che that we have today.

The guys at the bottom are Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Jim Fitzpatrick and Gerard Malanga. Feltrinelli copied and distributed thousands of versions of the photo and was responsible for its fame, but he made Korda unhappy as Korda had given him the image for free under the belief that he wouldn’t use it for personal gain, which is what he eventually did. Malanga and Fitzpatrick made their own versions of it which gained fame to an extent.

The Gerard Malanga version. Malanga had been an assistant to Andy Warhol and he tried to make money by forging a work similar to Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe picture, then passing it off as an original Warhol.

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.

All these are names of Apple products – Newton, Mighty Mouse, Lisa, Macintosh, AirPort, Time Machine (the DeLorean from the movie Back To The Future) and Time Capsule.

Seeing ur proactiveness in maintaining this blog, i have finally decided to abandon my sloth, eliminate the deep hollow in my couch and start posting..my first question, one off really nd a very simple one,

As usual, Connect

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.

The connect is Google. The book in pic 1 is where the term “Googol” was suggested for 10^100, from which Google got its name. The second is the logo for Google’s new mobile OS, “Android”. The blank in the passage is “Googleplex”, which is also the name of Google’s headquarters. The passage is from Douglas Adams’ H2G2. The inspiration for the name of both Googleplexes is the number Googolplex, which is 10^googol.

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?

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

ANSWERS

1.  Brett Lee. The female voice is, of course, Asha Bhosle. The song is called “You’re the one for me”.

2.  French midfielder Samir Nasri, who recently (at the time of writing) moved from Olympique Marseille to Arsenal.

3. This scene from “The Pursuit of Happyness” has a cameo by the real Chris Gardner, on whose life the movie is based. Will Smith looks back towards the man as he passes.

Chris Gardner Cameo

4. Bobby Riggs, who in 1973 claimed that the women’s game was rubbish and boasted that he could beat the top women’s player (Billie Jean King) even at his then age of 55 – and promptly lost.

5. Senator Henry J Hyde, chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2001 till his death in November 2007. He is the man after whom the Hyde act in the India-US nuclear deal is named.

2. His first professional club was St. Johnstone. He then moved to Sunderland and from there to Rangers where he had a very successful spell. In 15 years at Rangers he scored 355 goals in 418 games. Nicknamed “The Judge” who is he, currently the Asst Coach at Rangers?

3. He began his career as a reporter for Barnet Press and the Sheffield Morning Telegraph. He was then hired by the BBC and started presenting the Match of the Day. He is Britain’s favorite commentator and his popularity soared when BBC introduced the “Mini X” desktop toy. In Shevchenko’s first season at Chelsea, he said “Sheva can’t hit a barn door with a banjo for Chelsea”. Other things he says includes “That tackle was so hard, it hurt his entire family”. Who? (Ob, X is his name..)

4. Some of X’s most famous comments were made during the 1999 UCL final. Just before the first goal, he said “Can Man Utd score?? They always score.”. And again, just before the winner was scored, he said “As things stand, we’re going into extra time with the golden goal hanging like a massive shadow over this final, unless Ole Gunnar Solksjaer can conjure up another”. And of course, Solksjaer obliged.

Another memorable quote came in 2002, when 16 year Y scored against Arsenal to snap their unbeaten streak and X said “Remember the name. Y!!”. Y is now a very famous player in his own right. ID X and Y.

5. Connect qns 1-4.

6. This man was one of the finest bowlers of all time with the best bowling average among all bowlers who’ve taken more than 200 wickets. In a test match at Headingley against England, he took 7 wickets in the second innings despite a broken thumb and batted one handed through the match. He once said to David Boon, “David, if you don’t get out, I’m going to have to come around the wicket and kill you.” Who?

7. This game arose as a military game. It represents the 4 divisions of the army and strategy is the key. What game.

8. Harold Abrahams enters Cambridge in 1919 and completes the Trinity Great Court Run. Eric Liddell sees running as a way of glorifying God. At their first meeting, Liddell wishes Abrahams well and then defeats him in a race. Abrahams then hires a trainer to help him defeat Liddell. Anyway the two compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and Abrahams wins the 100m. Plot of which movie?

9. Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Porto, Real Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Marseille, Lyon, PSG, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, PSV, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munchen. What’s common?

10. This was used for marking trees and cattle and ranch boundaries in America. However the Nelson Company promoted it as a sport. It really caught on when Sports Illustrated wrote an article about this in it’s June 1980 edition. What?

-Bounce

PS: encrypt your answers using the rot13 cypher..go to www.rot13.com