Question for Dec 22-Gaurav Kane

Identify the artist

Question for Dec 21

What does the map depict ?

Question for December 20, 2009

This is from a famous web-comic. Just tell me what it is talking about (click for the full size)

Right-Wing Activism

When James O'Keefe was at X university, he started Y magazine, whose motto is "veritas vos liberabit", after he was fired from the college newspaper. Y attempts to counterbalance "that which its staff perceive as a predominant orthodoxy of Social Liberalism and Political Progressivism of the professors and staff at the university" (quote from Wikipedia). Y is known for giving out awards like "Liberal of the month".

After leaving X, O'Keefe began working with pro-life activist Lila Rose. He came up with the idea for her to pose as an underaged pregnant teenager seeking help from Planned Parenthood and taping the exchanges. This led to Planned Parenthood losing much funding in Tennessee and California.

In July and August 2009, O'Keefe partnered with Hannah Giles and used similar tactics against another organisation, Z. After the videos were publicised, Z's participation in the 2010 United States census was terminated. Barack Obama, who once acted as an attorney for Z, stated the video content was "certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated."

Identify X, Y and Z.

Question for December 18, 2009

X is an indoor game played a a set of discs (called Y) lying on a flat surface. Players use a larger disc to press down on the smaller disc and send it into flight, the objective being to land the disc on the opponent's disc, and ultimately inside a pot or cup. While played by both adults and children initially, it later came to be regarded as a children's game, but made a comeback in 1955 in Cambridge University. Today, the game is run by the English Association for X and the North American Association for X. In modern day usage, the name of this game has come to be associated with pointless activity. Identify the game.

Car & Car

Today's question is regarding automotive history, namely two early cars that had an immense influence on car design and production.


X (shown above) was the first automobile having a petrol-powered internal combustion engine that entered production. Its main selling point was practicality and ease of use, as exemplified famously by a road trip taken in it by the wife of the inventor of X.


Y (shown above), on the other hand, became famous for bringing automobiles to the masses. Y was the first automobile mass produced on assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts. It also remained in production for almost 20 years.

The companies started by the inventors of X and Y are very much in the automotive scene even today. Identify X and Y, or at least their inventors.

Question for Dec 16th, 2009

X is a form of fiction that got its name because of the involvement of companies like P&G, Colgate Palmolive and Lever Brothers. Each part of X typically ends on some sort of cliffhanger. The earliest popular instances of Xs are The Coronation Street in UK and Guiding Light in USA, the longest X, that began in 1937 and ended just a few weeks ago, in 2009. Id X.

Question for December 15

X was born to a Parsi family in Navasari, Gujarat. His father was the first businessman in a family of Parsi Zoroastrian priests. X joined his father's business soon after graduating from the Elphinstone College in 1858. In 1868, he started his own trading company with a seed capital of Rs. 21,000. In 1869, he acquired a bankrupt oil mill in Chinchpokli, converted it into a cotton mill and renamed the mill to Alexandra Mill. He sold the mill two years later for a healthy profit. Thereafter he set up a cotton mill in Nagpur in 1874. He christened it Empress Mill on 1 January 1877 when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. He devoted himself to bringing to fruition four of his key ideas: Y, a world class learning institution, a one of a kind Hotel and a hydro electric plant. Only one of the ideas became a reality during his lifetime. The Taj Mahal Hotel was inaugrated on the 3rd of December 1903.

Identify X and Y. Bonus points for identifying what the other 2 ideas led to.

The original prince...

He was famous for his riches. An Indian cricketer, his invention changed cricket from being a predominantly one-side game.

The prince amongst batsmen. Who was he and what did he invent? What else is famous and currently named after him?

Question for Dec 13

The first recorded kidnapping of Bill in modern times was accomplished only a week before the X-Y football game 1953. A group from West Point snuck onto the Annapolis grounds and kidnapped Bill. Bill was finally returned back to Y under orders from President Eisenhower.

Inspite of a truce being made between X and Y, the kidnappings have continued (the last of which being in November 2007). All the instances of Bill being kidnapped by groups from X have taken place in November-December, just week(s) prior to the X-Y football game, which is traditionally the last regular season game played in Division 1-A football.

In light of these kidnappings, Team Bill (see visual) was formed. Team Bill is a group from Y who volunteer to take care of Bill and transport Bill to and from events.

Identify X,Y.

Question for December 12-Gaurav Kane

In 1888, Ludwig X also known as the oil king of Baku died of a heart attack. Some European newspapers,however, erroneously reported the death of his brother Alfred X in their newspapers.

Reading his own premature death, Alfred was distressed to find himself condemmed as a munitions

maker, the 'the _______ king', a merchant of death who made a huge fortune by finding new ways to maim and kill. He eventually re wrote his will which led to what?

What happened next? (For bonus points, identify the blanked out word)

Question for Dec 11 - PS

Connect the following 3 images:

1)


2)



3)

Question for December 10th, 2009

Who/what is #1 on this list? The list is ordered and not exhaustive.

7.




6.





5.




4.





3.






2.





1. ?

50 and 500

Today's question is a double bill (or whammy depending on how you look at it!). They are unconnected except for this month being the 50th anniversary of X and this year the 500th anniversary of Y.

X was a lecture given by a famous scientist to the American Physical Society meeting in Caltech, Pasadena, CA in 1959 which is widely considered to have given birth to the field of nanotechnology. Although the scientist in question was very popular in his field, his seminal contributions being in the 40s, he didn't then enjoy the public status he achieved after his nobel prize in the 60s and a famous autobiography in the 80s. In the lecture, which was only cited 7 times till the 70s but is now found in the first paragraph of numerous nanatechnology papers, he described possibilities like computers that wouldn't fill entire rooms and all the information of the world on a small slab of material as well as nano-assembly and robots in the blood stream, which are still just dreams.

Y was a famous emperor who presided over the most glorious period of his dynasty. Coronated in 1509, he expanded his empire in size, repulsed attacks from Timurid invaders and was a great patron of the arts. His capital, in ruins today, is a world heritage site and his legacy is claimed by many language groups. Much information about his reign comes from Portuguese travellers. Timmurusu was to him what Kautilya was to Chandragupta Maurya.

Enjoy finding the scientist in X and Y!

Question for Dec 8, 2009

Connect the following images. Provide not just the answer, but also the connections.

Question for Dec. 7th, 2009

Today's question is regarding a 125 year old industry/business - X. It is essentially a delivery system, taking "items" from one point to another. But there are some surprising facts about X that make it one of a kind:

• More than 175,000 to 200,000 "items" get moved every day by an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 "operators".
• The service is renowned for its punctuality, and according to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every 6,000,000, statistically equivalent to a Six Sigma rating.
• There are only three layers of management.
• The unique ID for an "item" involves a simple color coding system.
  

Identify X, as usual.

Question for Dec 6th, 2009

In the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1878, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (a Conservative) gave a speech in which he referred to W. E. Gladstone (a Liberal) as a - "sophisticated rhetorician inebriated by the exuberance of your own verbosity".
In India, we have (most probably) heard the same words in a completely different context. Identify its use.

Question for December 5

He is a politician, entrepreneur, real estate and insurance tycoon, bank and media proprietor and a sports team owner. He is the proprietor of three analogue television channels, various digital television channels, as well as some of the larger-circulation national news magazines. Together these account for nearly half the country's market. He also wrote the anthem for the sports team that he owns. He has a very successful business career though funding sources have always been a bit fishy. Of course he had his share of legal problems. He said of his legal problems, "I'm the universal record-holder for the number of trials in the entire history of man -- and also of other creatures who live on other planets."

On his entering politics he said,

"----- is the country I love. Here I have my roots, my hopes, my horizons. Here I have learned, from my father and from life, how to be an entrepreneur. Here I have also acquired the passion for liberty.

I have chosen to enter the field and become a public servant because I do not want to live in an illiberal country, ruled by immature forces and by people who are well and truly bound to a past that proved both a political and economic failure."

Who am I talking about?

King of the world

"He changed the world of sports and went on to change the world.... He would become the most recognized face on the planet"

During a famous fight he kept asking his oponent, and I quote, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... What's my name?"

Who is he? What did he want his opponent to call him and what had the opponent called him?

Reader Question

This question is courtesy Anuj.

Mix and match – Identify the people and also what the 4 of them
achieved in pairs which is unique.

Bonus: Identify the grounds where the unique feat happened.

Question for Dec 3

Identify X.

Question for December 2-Gaurav Kane

Which famous sports celebrity often refers to his ethnic make-up as “Cablinasian” (a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, (American) Indian,and Asian). He is one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter African American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch.

Question for Dec 1 - PS

Farrokh Bulsara was born on Thursday September 5th 1946 on the small island of Zanzibar. At the age of 8, he went to boarding school in St. Peter’s, a public school in Panchgani, a beautiful hill station near Poona. At the age of 17, Farrokh and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. He went on to earn a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College. Due to racial abuse he had suffered in his early teens, he legally changed his name to X in 1972. In April 1970 he met Y.

Y is an accomplished scholar. He studied astronomy and physics at Imperial College in London. He then proceeded to study for a PhD degree, also at the Imperial College London departments of Physics and Mathematics, and was part way through this PhD programme, studying reflected light from interplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. And then he met X, and discontinued his PhD program.

Epilogue:
- Eventually, on 23 November 1991, X made the the following announcement to the press:

Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors, and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue.

A little over 24 hours after issuing the statement, X died on 24 November 1991 at the age of 45.

- Eventually Y went on to earn his PhD in Astrophysics in 2007 and is currently the Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. Announcing Y's appointment, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Board, Sir Malcolm Thornton said:

"On behalf of the governing body of Liverpool John Moores University, I am delighted to announce that Y will be the new Chancellor of LJMU. Not only is Y an icon in his own sphere but he is a real academic star as well. He perfectly embodies the 'can do' attitude of LJMU; he is going to be a great Chancellor for the students and a wonderful figurehead for the University."

Identify X and Y. (Question partly inspired by today being the World AIDS day.)

Question for Monday, November 30th

X was a movie based on a 1998 graphic novel. A.O. Scott of the New York Times described it as "about as violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid". Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times that "unless you love violence as much as a ___, Quentin Tarantino or a video-game-playing teenage boy, you will not be endlessly fascinated." Roger Ebert, in his review, gave the film a two-star rating, writing, "X has one-dimensional caricatures who talk like professional wrestlers plugging their next feud.".

X has been spoofed in various media, and spawned off a very popular internet meme. Skits based upon the film have appeared on Saturday Night Live and Robot Chicken and both 20th Century Fox and Universal have released (or are planning to release) spoofs of the movie.

What's X? What is/are the blanked out word(s)?

November 25- Sativa and Indica

Fig:1

Fig: 2

The pictures above are pop culture and taxonomic references to X. X was used millenia ago in Central and South Asia from where it spread to be popular around the world. Morocco and Latin America are its largest producers. The United States has the most lucrative market for X, which prompted activities as described in Fig: 1. These activities involved hybridising the Sativa and Indica types to obtain a new type which is short like Indica and hence suited to growing indoors but retains many desirable properties of Sativa. The per capita consumption of X is highest in some Pacific Island nations. Identify X, and as a bonus, Fig: 1.

Question for Nov 24, 2009

Connect the following.

Faye Dunaway (1976, 1981); Marlon Brando (1954, 1996); Charlton Heston (1959, 2001); Laurence Olivier (1948, 1980); Roberto Benigni (1998, 2002); Halle Berry (2002, 2004); Liza Minnell (1972, 1988).

The list is neither exhaustive nor in order. Also, the years shown are only examples, there can be other years as well for some of them.

Question for Nov. 23rd - Dev

Identify X and Y.

X was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who in 2003 received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour. X is considered to be his masterpiece.

X is an iconic monument, which is mostly famous for its Y, the design for which involved one of the earliest uses of computers in structural analysis, in order to understand the complex forces to which it might be subjected. The parts of Y were all created as sections of a sphere.

Among other things, X also houses the largest mechanical tracker action organ in the world, which has over 10,000 pipes in it.

Question for 22nd November

Completed in the late 17th century, X is a work of art renowned for its colossal size , the effective use of light and shadow, and the perception of motion.
Although originally named differently, for much of its existence, X was coated with a dark varnish(only recently removed about 50 years ago) , leading to the name by which it has been commonly known.
In 1715, when it was moved to a different location, X was down-sized. This resulted in the loss of two characters on the left-hand side of X.
Identify X - bonus points for giving its complete original name !

Question for November 21st, 2009

An old favourite of mine...

Though far apart in their political thought and philosophy, these two people (or rather, their namesakes) were made inseparable by a literary piece of work. Identify them.

Question for November 20

The South China tiger or South Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), also known as the Chinese, Amoy, or Xiamen tiger, is a subspecies of tiger native to the forests of Southern China and is the most critically endangered of any living tiger subspecies. In 2001, Chinese Zoologists tried something very unusual to address the depleting population of the tigers. In fact, what they tried is commonly used to address something related but completely different problem in humans. Though, even in humans that is not the only use, it is often used to help football players cope with high altitudes in South America. What did they try?

Hint: It helps footballers by improving their blood flow.

Textured, anyone?

Although X had been known to be used for various purposes in China in the 2nd century BC, the first use of X as Y dates back to the 6th century AD, in early medieval China.

X dare not be used as Y if it had on it the names of sages.

Y now-a-days comes in varieties of thickness, colors and smells.

X and Y, please?

Question for Nov 18 - PS

Here's another Time Person of the Year themed question.

As we all know, "Time Person of the Year" (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ..., has done the most to influence the events of the year.

The Person of the Year title has often been conferred upon a group of people, for example the Whistleblowers in 2002, represented by Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom; Coleen Rowley, FBI; and Sherron Watkins, Enron (Kiran's question from a few weeks ago).

Today's question: identify the largest group of people were conferred the title, and the year and the reason.

Bonus points for also identifying the second and third largest group of people that were conferred the "Time Person of the year".

Question for Nov 16

History is written by the victors, but what of those who called in sick that day? Or those who opted not to play? What of the individual who performed one small act that set in motion a great, grand tumult of actions that changed history?

Consider X (the assassin in the visual), a 19-year-old Serbian student, whose actions on the morning of 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, ignited the conflagration of World War I, making him unwittingly one of the most influential people in 20th century history since he was indirectly responsible for sparking the chain of events that led to both World Wars, the Cold War, the rise of Communism , and other problems that continue to be an issue to this day.

X, too young (at the time of the assassination) to receive the death penalty, died due to tuberculosis, while serving the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison. At the time of his death, X weighed around 40 kilograms, weakened by malnutrition, blood loss from his amputated arm, and disease.

X, Trigger of the 20th Century.

Identify X.

Reader Question

X is most commonly known by the name of its class, although there are more than 1500 varieties that come under this class. X is the most common organism used as a genetic model for studying various human diseases including neurogenerative disorders like Parkinson's, Huntington's and Alzeimer's disease. About 75% of known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of X and 50% of its protein sequences have mammalian analogues. Its entire genome was sequenced in 2000 and many people have won Nobel Prize based on research using X as a model. Another reason why it is a preferred model in genetics is that it's easy to breed (the female of the species lays 500 eggs that can develop in 8 days) in a laboratory setting. X is considred as a serious agricultural pest and is the main reason why you can't carry fruits on international flights.

Name X.

(Question submitted by Varsha)

Question for November 15-Gaurav Kane

X has been included by Time Magazine as one of the world's most influential people for the year 2009.

Allegedly when X was a twelve year old kid in the slums of General Santos city, he ran away from home after his drunken father killed and ate his beloved dog. This left X with some unresolved anger issues which undoubtedly helped in his career choice.

X is the most famous person from his country. In his native country, X endorses among other things, brands of socks,gin, health food, vinegar, a vitamin supplement for fighting roosters, and a kind of karaoke microphone.

There is a drop in crime in his country when he is broadcast on TV. On Nov 14 2009, In the strife-torn southern part of his native country, troops fighting Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants silenced their guns to watch him on TV on from the trenches. (definitely should be a nominee for the Nobel Peace prize next year :) just my take...)

Who is X?

Question for Nov 14, 2009

This term was first used in its current context in a Wired magazine article in 2004. However the statistical concept has been studied since at least 1946. The term has also been used in the insurance business for many years. The term is now used in online business, mass media, micro-finance, user-driven innovation, social network mechanisms, economic models, and viral marketing.

An Amazon employee once described it as follows: "We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.". What term?

Sartorial Elegance- November 13th

Connect the pictures below -

While the first picture is known for notoriety, the latter two are/were famous and fashionable.

Question for Nov 12, 2009

Connect the following people together (list neither exhaustive nor ordered):
Ellis Achong, Saqlain Mushtaq/Sonny Ramadhin*, Clarrie Grimmett, Bernard Bosanquet, Jack Iverson, Sarfraz Nawaz
* There is some debate on which of the two should be on this list.

Quiz Question for 10th Nov 2009

Link the following pictures :

Question for Nov. 11th - Dev

What is X?

X is included in the flag of Mozambique and its coat of arms, an acknowledgment that the country's leaders gained power in large part through the effective use of X. It is also found in the coat of arms of Zimbabwe and East Timor and the flag of Hezbollah. Western cultures, especially the United States, have seen X most often in the hands of nations and groups the United States condemns; first the Soviet Army, then its Communist allies during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Xs were sold both openly and on the black market to any group with cash, including drug cartels, dictatorial states, and terrorist organizations.

The inventor of X (also X's namesake) was recently awarded the prestigious Hero of Russia award. He designed X after being wounded fighting the Nazis during World War II.

Question for November 9th, 2009: Connect the following

The audio at this link: http://research.rutgers.edu/~ishanic/quiz

Question for November 8

What does this map depict?

Indian art form?

The ephemeral nature of its creation is thought to be a metaphor for the impermanance of life in Hindu philosophy. It is one of the most commonly found art forms in India and is known by different names in different parts of the country.

What am I talking about?

Question for Nov 5

Analogy:
The X Effect

Points of the Analogy:
1. The analogy links the economic success of _____'s financial services industry (especially around _____'s capital city) to the success of X.
2. The basis of the analogy is that X is highly successful despite the lack of strong native competition.
3. The analogy is typically used to spark a debate over whether domestic ownership of an industry matters if foreign ownership and increased global competition (as a result of easing foreign ownership restrictions) benefit the host economy.

Example of Usage:
The analogy is used in discussing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in India.

Identify X.

Hint: The colours in the visual hint to X.

Question for November 4 - Kiran

X is a specific term used for a person performing a specific act. It is derived from a practice followed by English policemen to alert fellow officers and/or public of a crime. The term X also made it to TIME magazine's 'person of the year' list in 2002 and was collectively represented by Cynthia Cooper of WorldComm, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Sherron Watkins of Enron. It is debatable whether people assume the role of X for personal glory or in the interest of the public.
What is X?

Reader Question

This question is courtesy Anuj. Table representing what?

Question for November 3-Gaurav Kane

Identify X and Y:

The name X is a cognate of Aryan, and means "Land of the Aryans"

As the New York Times explained at the time,

"At the suggestion of the Y Legation in Berlin, the Y government, on the Y New Year, March 21, 1935, substituted X for Y as the official name of the country. In its decision it was influenced by the Nazi revival of interest in the various Aryan races, cradled in ancient Y.

Question for Nov 2 - PS

X (1931-1987) was an American painter, filmmaker, record producer, author and public figure. He founded the visual art movement called as pop art. Among his accomplishments are designing iconic American products such as the Campbell's Soup cans, and Coca-Cola bottles. In the mid 1960s, X adopted and helped found the band Velvet Underground. Influenced by X, David Bowie recorded a song called X for his 1971 album Hunky Dory. The X Museum, one of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, is dedicated to X's life and artwork, and is the largest American art museum dedicated to a single artist, holding more than 12,000 works by the artist.

X is most famous for coining the widely used expression "Y" (a phrase, not a single word).

Valerie Solanis, the founder and only member of Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM) shot to fame by nearly killing X by firing 3 bullets at close quarters. The incident inspired X to come up with the memorable quote: 'In the future, everyone will get their Y'. X's comment and the insight it expressed emerged from his own fascination with media and celebrities. The phrase Y is often used in reference to figures in the entertainment industry and other areas of popular culture. "X"ian is often used as a synonym for Y. In 1986, X had a short-lived MTV television series, X's Y, featuring celebrities, artists, musicians, and designers.

Identify X and Y.

Question for Novermber 1st

Y is a "fact" about X. Identify both X and Y.

One of the earliest known references to Y appears in a letter written in 1754 by the English antiquary William Stukeley. It appeared in the Ripley's Believe It or Not!'s cartoons from 1930s and Richard Halliburton's 1938 book Second Book of Marvels makes a similar claim. Y has achieved an urban legend status sometimes even appearing in school textbooks. Arthur Waldron, has speculated that the belief might go back to the fascination with the "canals" once believed to exist on Mars.

William Pogue spotted X with binoculars, but said that it wasn't visible to the unaided eye. U.S. Senator Jake Garn claimed to be able to see X with the naked eye, but his claim has been disputed by several U.S. astronauts. Ed Lu, Expedition 7 Science Officer, said that, "it's less visible than a lot of other objects. And you have to know where to look.".

Question for October 31st

Decipher the image above. Click on the image for a larger view. Dark green indicates before 1820s, then shades of green through various decades of 19th century, yellow 1900s and 1920s, brown 1940s and 50s, light red 60s and 70s and dark red 80s. Black means "not yet" and grey-"no data".

Question for October 30, 2009

In an episode of the chat show, Friday Night, Saturday Morning, X and Y engaged in a debate with Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark, on the topic of Z. Throughout the debate, Muggeridge and Stockwood ignored X and Y's claims that Z was about the abuse of faith rather than faith itself. According to Y, the bishop started with a sermon addressed to the audience, and in the first three or four minutes, had brought in Ceausescu and Zedong, without making a single point about Z. He then accused X and Y of making a mockery of Mother Teresa, and was "smug and patronising" all through-out. The audience, however, appeared to be on the side of X and Y, especially when X noted that they would have been burned at the stake 300 years ago for Z. The Bishop, though, was particularly upset at the use of crucifixion, forgetting the fact that it was used as a traditional Roman punishment.

Both, X and Y, were later extremely disappointed with Muggeridge and Stockwood for engaging in cheap pot shots instead of making serious points. X was especially disappointed in Muggeridge, claiming that his reputation had plummeted in his eyes, while Y claimed that Muggeridge preferred to simply have a contrary opinion than no opinion at all. X felt that Z was "completely intellectually defensible" and claimed to have enjoyed the debate. This was apparently Douglas Adams' favourite bit of television, and he felt it was rivetting.

Identify X, Y and Z.

Question for Oct 29th 2009 - Hari

Connect.

1.

2.

3.

Question for October 28th

Hi,
I thought the order for posting was supposed to be Anshul, Ishani and then me, Dev and so on..... but somewhere along the line looks like something got messed up. Anyhow, decided to squeeze in a post :)

The exact origin of X is disputed. Its growth may be traced across three different North American countries, and Russia. In 2002, Tamás Vicsek of the Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary along with his colleagues analyzed 14 videos of X , developing a standard model of the behavior of X (published in the September 12 issue of Nature) . He noted that, once started, it usually rolls in a clockwise direction at a rate of about 12 m/s (40 ft/s).
It gained worldwide prominence, and its official name, during the 1986 FIFA Football World Cup.
Identify X.

Pinakin

Question for Oct 27th. - Dev

Identify the famous personality in the following two pictures:


Some helpful facts:

• He was an accomplished actor, filmmaker, musician and academy award winning composer.
• Born four days before Adolf Hitler. Both Hitler's persona and his persona had a common thing, making them instantly recognizable. Can you guess what that thing was?

Question for October 26

What does this map show?

Question for Oct 25th

Hello people,
Apologies for being more than 24 hours late in posting the question. :-)
You will have time till tomorrow night to reply with an answer.
--
In July of 1714, during the reign of Queen Anne, the X Act was passed in response to the merchants and seamen petition presented to Westminster Palace in May. A prize of £20,000 was offered for a method of determining X to an accuracy of 30 miles.

To solve the X problem, Y produced 4 versions of Z. These were later named H1, H2, H3 and H4. H1 was a giant sized Z but H4 was only 13 cm in diameter. Captain Cook used a copy of H4 in voyage of three years, which ranged from the Tropics to the Antarctic. On returning he remarked that it had been "our faithful guide through all the vicissitudes of climates".

What is X Y and Z.
--

10 to 16 million years old

It evolved millions of years ago. Philosophers have tried explaining it for over 2000 years and science may finally have an explanation.

Certain experiments have concluded that it may just be an "automatic response to a situation rather than a result of concious strategy".

Although it may seem uniquely human, that may only be because of the changes that have happened over millions of years. In others it occurs too, however in forms that maybe confusing and difficult to identify.

What's it?

Question for Oct 23

X, is a company owned and operated by the Government of Karnataka. The company was started by (Maharaja) Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar in 1937. In 1962, X was selected to manufacture Y for Z. X is the only company in India authorised to produce Y. Y is supplied in vials having volumes of 5 ml, 7.5 ml, 20 ml, 50 ml and 80 ml. A 5 ml vial can be used for about 300 people. Y is also exported to countries like Turkey, Papua New Guniea, South Africa, Denmark and many more.

Although X manufactures many products (besides Y), and has a lot of customers for those other products, X's business is highly dependent on Z (its major customer). When X supplies Y to Z, the company's turn over, which is around Rs 9 crore a year, shoots up to around 13 crore with an over all 44 per cent increase in it's annual turnover. These figures are quoted from a Times of India edition of this decade.

Identify X,Y,Z.

Hint for X: The visual shows the logo of X.

Question for October 22-Gaurav Kane

Identify X

X was born in Pontiac, Michigan, to Armenian-American parents. He graduated from Pontiac Central High School with honors in 1945, at the age of 17. He then enrolled at the University of Michigan Medical School, from which he graduated in 1952. In 1991 the State of Michigan revoked X's medical license and made it clear that given his previous actions, he was no longer permitted to practice medicine. Between 1990 and 1998, X assisted in the deaths of nearly one hundred people, according to his lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. On March 26, 1999, X was charged with first-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance to Thomas Youk.

The Michigan jury found X guilty of second-degree homicide. The judge sentenced X to serve a 10-25 year prison sentence and told him: "You were on bond to another judge when you committed this offense, you were not licensed to practice medicine when you committed this offense and you hadn't been licensed for eight years. And you had the audacity to go on national

television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you. Well,

sir, consider yourself stopped."

Terminally ill with Hepatitis C, which he contracted while doing research on blood transfusions in Vietnam,X was expected to die within a year in May 2006. After applying for a pardon, parole, or commutation by the parole board and Governor Jennifer Granholm, he was paroled on June 1, 2007, due to good behavior. He had only spent 8 years and 2 1/2 months behind bars rather than the predicted 10–25 years

Question for Oct 21 - PS

Below is a set of images that are ordered and exhaustive (the second image is missing).

Identify what the images represent.

A)

C)

D)

E)

F)

Quiz question for October 20th

This equation is sometimes called "The Green Bank equation", "The Green Bank Formula" or often erroneously called "The Sagan equation" (after the astronomer and SETI proponent Carl Sagan). The main purpose of the equation is to allow scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors that determine N.

In a 2003 lecture at Caltech, Michael Crichton, the science fiction author, stated:

The problem, of course, is that none of the terms can be known, and most cannot even be estimated. The only way to work the equation is to fill in with guesses. As a result, [it] can have any value from "billions and billions" to zero. An expression that can mean anything means nothing. Speaking precisely, [it] is literally meaningless...

It has made many appearances in popular culture. It is cited in Michael Crichton's Sphere, it appears in the Electronic Arts game Spore, it is mentioned multiple times in Carl Sagan's science fiction book Contact and this equation was mentioned by Howard and detailed by Sheldon in an episode of the The Big Bang Theory.

What's the equation about? Bonus points for identifying the parameters. As always, creative answers get most points :).