Question for Feb. 9th. - Dev

X is a phenomenon that is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. Despite its size and density, X is not visible from satellite photography because it consists of very small pieces, almost invisible to the naked eye, and most of its contents are suspended beneath the surface.

X is especially harmful to the wildlife and ecosystem of the area where it resides.

What is X?

Question for Feb 8, 2010 - PS

X was born on May 14, 1970 in Denver, CO and raised in Jerusalem. He came to MIT for his Masters and co-authored several papers in algorithms and complexity theory, one of which led to the startup, Y, that he became famous for. In the Fall of 1997, X got the idea of writing a business plan based on his thesis work and entering it in MIT's $50K Contest. He lost the contest, but nonetheless formed the company Y the next year. Y is a Hawaiian word meaning smart or intelligent. While Y is hardly a household name, it handles about 15% of all Internet traffic today.

In September, 2001, he was on American Flight 11 on his way to meetings in California when his plane was hijacked.

The award given to the best student-authored paper at the premier computer science conference, ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) is named after X.

Identify X and Y.

What's the phrase?

X refers to a dilemma first described by Garrett Hardin and published in the journal Science in 1968. Typical solutions to X include government regulation and privatization.

Ostrom, the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, in her work has showed that X was not a given whenever people shared resources, which had no owners or were publically owned, and that resources can be successfully managed by groups using it and without government regulation or privatization.

X has relevance to varied fields like that of economics, pshychology, game theory, sociology and etc.

What's the phrase that X is a placeholder for?

Question for Feb 4

X is a phrase originating from cricket. The visual provides a pictorial description of the origin of the phrase. The first recorded use of the phrase is commonly credited to Geoffrey Boycott whilst commentating on England's 1990 tour of the West Indies. The phrase is also the name, or part of the name, of several online cricket forums and at least two fanzine-type cricket publications.

The phrase has also been used in other sports commentary. For example in football it is commonly used to describe a cross or pass which is delivered into the area in front of the goalkeeper and behind the last line of defence.

Identify X.

Question for 3rd Feb, 2010

One of the famous papers in computer science/programming is Edsger Dijkstra's 1968 paper X Considered Harmful. An alternative viewpoint is presented in Donald Knuth's Structured Programming with X which analyzes many common programming tasks and finds that in some of them X is the optimal language construct to use. Frank Rubin published a criticism of Dijkstra's paper in the March 1987 CACM where it appeared as 'X Considered Harmful' Considered Harmful. The May 1987 CACM printed further replies, both for and against, as '"X Considered Harmful" Considered Harmful' Considered Harmful?. Dijkstra's own response to this controversy was titled On a somewhat disappointing correspondence.

You have probably encountered X if you have learnt any kind of computer programming. What's X?

350 years of X- February 2nd

On 28 November 1660, a group of scientists including Robert Hooke formed a "College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning", which would meet weekly to discuss science and run experiments. On 15 July 1662, a Charter was signed which created from the group, X. X is arguably the oldest of its kind in existence.

Identify the three pictures and connect them to X.

Question for 1st February

X is a character from a play written in the late 16th century, and was involved in a profession that the majority thought was sinful. X and his community (who were minorities) were repeatedly insulted by the majority and this served to antagonize X against them, especially Y, who is one of the main protagonists of the play. Initial depictions of the play potrayed X as a straight villian and Y as a man with honour. However, starting from the 19th century, a tradition of playing X more sympathetically evolved, and X was frequently shown as a more complicated character who was justified in seeking revenge against Y. For example, a 2004 movie based on the play starring Al Pacino developed the character and settings to show how X's community was abused by the majority population. Indeed, one of the more poignant passages of the play is a famous speech by X (speech edited for this question):

"Hath not we eyes? Hath not we hands, organs; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases as you are? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

Identify X.