Long Awaited Quiz Club Meet

22 Feb 2008Nikhil Raghu

Siddharth Agarwal

Question 1

• He appears on the Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century list. A picture of this person won a World Press Award, and also appeared in LIFE Magazine’s “100 Photos that Changed the World”. Numerous rumours have sprung up as to the man's identity and current whereabouts, but none are backed by hard evidence.

• Some say that he was killed in June 1989. Some others say he might be still alive.

Question 1 (Hint)

• British tabloid, the Sunday Express, named the man as Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old student; however, the veracity of this claim is dubious.

Answer 1

Tank Man/The Unknown Rebel

Question 2• Many banks in post-Renaissance Europe issued

small, porcelain "borrower's tiles" to their creditworthy customers. Like credit cards, these tiles were imprinted with the owner's name, his credit limit, and the name of the bank. Each time the customer wanted to borrow money, he had to present the tile to the bank teller, who would compare the imprinted credit limit with how much the customer had already borrowed.

• Which colloquial term comes from something to do with this practice?

Answer 2

• To be broke• If the borrower were past the limit, the teller

“broke” the tile on the spot.

Question 3

• Lewis Carroll was a mathematician. From Alice in Wonderland:

• “Let me see: four times five is 12, and four times six is 13, and four times seven is [14]--oh dear! I shall never get to 20 at that rate!”

• Explain how this can be right. (The quote has been slightly modified.)

Answer 3

• Multiplication in different bases (in AP) – after 19 comes 1A, 1B and so on

Question 4

• Identify.

Answer 4

• Kurt Cobain’s suicide note

Question 5• This scientific law has caught the attention of poets and

philosophers and has been called the greatest scientific achievement of the 19th century. Engels disliked it, for it supported opposition to Dialectical Materialism, while Pope Pius XII regarded it as confirming the existence of a higher being.

• “If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against X, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.”

Question 5 (Hint)

• It is said that “there are almost as many formulations of this as there have been discussions of it.”

Answer 5

• The Second Law of Thermodynamics

Question 6

• Which is the first non-pornographic film since the fall of the Soviet Union to be banned in Russia?

Question 6 (Hint)

• The movie was released in 2006

Answer 6

• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Question 7

• Connect (think tech):– Several places in British Columbia, Canada– Rivers in the American West– Big cats– Suburbs in Auckland, New Zealand– Falcons

Question 7 (Hint)

• Alliterating animals

Answer 7

• Origins for codenames for different software or hardware products– Windows– Intel– OS X– Firefox– Opera– Ubuntu

Question 8• Maths: why exactly is this page of this book by

Diophantus, this translation of which was published in 1621, famous? The part that makes it famous is missing from the image.

• The part said: “Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis fas est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi. Hanc marginis exiguitas non caperet.”

• The questions on the page are related to Pythagoras’s theorem.

Answer 8

• Fermat’s Last Theorem – his statement in the margin.

Question 9

• The concept of “breaking the fourth wall” is found today in several video games and a few anime. What does “breaking the fourth wall” mean?

Question 9 (Hint)

• The term “breaking the fourth wall” originated, and is also found, in theatre

Answer 9

• When the fictional characters interact directly with the player/viewer, through the story or even physically (e.g. placing the controller on the ground to proceed in Metal Gear Solid)

Question 10

• Music: The following list is almost exhaustive. Connect.

Question 10Aleister Crowley (occultist)Mae West (actress)Lenny Bruce (comedian)Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)W. C. Fields (comedian/actor)Carl Gustav Jung (psychologist)Edgar Allan Poe (writer)Fred Astaire (actor/dancer)Richard Merkin (artist)The Vargas Girl (by artist Alberto Vargas)Huntz Hall (actor)Simon Rodia (designer and builder of the Watts Towers)Bob Dylan (singer/songwriter)Aubrey Beardsley (illustrator)Sir Robert Peel (19th century British Prime Minister)Aldous Huxley (writer)Dylan Thomas (poet)Terry Southern (writer)Dion (singer)Tony Curtis (actor)Wallace Berman (artist)Tommy Handley (comic)Marilyn Monroe (actress)William S. Burroughs (writer)Stan Laurel (actor/comedian)Richard Lindner (artist)

Oliver Hardy (actor/comedian)Karl Marx (political philosopher)H.G. Wells (writer)Sigmund Freud (psychiatrist)Max Miller (comedian)The Petty Girl (by Artist George Petty)Marlon Brando (actor)Tom Mix (actor)Oscar Wilde (writer)Tyrone Power (actor)Larry Bell (artist)Dr. David Livingstone (missionary/explorer)Johnny Weissmuller (Olympic swimmer/actor)James Dean (actor) Issy Bonn (comedian)George Bernard Shaw (playwright)H.C. Westermann (sculptor)Albert Stubbins (soccer Player)Lewis Carroll (writer)T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia")Shirley Temple (actress/humanitarian)Albert Einstein (physicist)Bobby Breen (singer) Marlene Dietrich (actress/singer)Diana Dors (actress)

Question 10 (Hint)

• Some more on the list:– Sri Yukteswar Giri (guru)– Sri Mahavatar Babaji (guru)– Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (guru)– Sri Lahiri Mahasaya (guru)

Answer 10

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles

Question 11• This famous Pulitzer-winning book initially met

with a largely positive critical reception, at least for the first few years after its publication. However, later, realist critics attacked the book for its unrealistic and factually incorrect elements, such as the position of the star Riegel. The book was also derided as “embarrassingly narcissistic, psychologically simplistic, and overly sentimental”. Today, it is considered less significant than some of the Nobel-winning author’s other works.

Question 11 (Hint)

• This book is not a full length novel

Answer 11

• The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

Question 12

• Godwin’s Law states that “as an online discussion goes longer, the probability of a comparison with ________ approaches one.” Fill in the blank.

Answer 12

• Nazis or Hitler

Question 13

• This rock band was named after one of the members saw something in his house. The band felt that the name symbolized the band well. However, they were unaware of the fact that the name was also slang for bisexual. Due to this connotation, the band was not invited to several concerts in its early days. Name the band.

Answer 13

• AC/DC

Question 14• This word derives from two Greek words, one meaning

"other," and the other agora, meaning “gathering place” (especially the marketplace).

• In times past, it was common to do one's chatting at the marketplace. Some of the topics discussed were clandestine in nature and when people spoke about them, for fear of being punished, they would speak indirectly. That is to say, they would speak about one thing in such a way as to intimate the actual information to the listener. Thus, the persons discussing clandestine matters were said to be speaking of "other things" in the marketplace.

• Identify the word.

Answer 14

• Allegory

Question 15

• This inscription is bilingual – Greek and Aramaic.• The inscription reads: “Ten years (of reign) having

been completed, King Piodasses [this name is not the name by which he is commonly known] made known (the doctrine of) Piety to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world…”

• Identify the king.

Question 15 (Hint)

• The inscription continues: “[snip]…other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily.”

Answer 15

• King Ashoka

Question 16• In Thomas L. Friedman’s 1999 book The Lexus

and the Olive Tree, the following theory was presented: “No two countries that both have X had fought a war against each other since each got X.” This is known as the “Golden ______ Theory of Conflict Prevention”.

• There are a few exceptions, though:– U.S. vs Panama in 1989– NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999– The Kargil war

• Identify X.

Answer 16

• McDonald’s

Question 17

• Which word that literally means “the spirit of the times” is also the name of something from Google?

Answer 17

• Zeitgeist

Question 18• X was assembled through the joint work of Michael Lang, John

Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld. It was Roberts and Rosenman who had the finances, and who placed the following ad in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal under the name of Challenge International, Ltd.:

• “Young men with unlimited capital looking for interesting, legitimate investment opportunities and business propositions”

• X was originally a profit-making venture, aptly titled “X Ventures".• The four founders behind X Ventures made Warner Brothers an

offer to make a movie about X, which was eventually directed by Michael Wadleigh and edited by Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese.

• The site of X was at Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York.

• Identify X.

Answer 18

• Woodstock

Question 19

• Who said this with regard to the Jews versus the Nazis: “…the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs…”

Question 19 (Hint)

• An Indian

Answer 19

• Mahatma Gandhi

Question 20

• This was a creation in 1956 by a person named Jacques Plantard, a pretender to the French throne. The idea was to place him as the last surviving member of an ancient monastic order, thus establishing his pedigree and his claim to the throne of France.

• The hoax was finally exposed in 1984, yet several conspiracy theorists still believe it is real.

Question 20 (Hint)

• Among these conspiracy theorists are authors.

Answer 20

• The Priory of Sion

Question 21

• The word X comes from the Greek word meaning “sand tray”. Originally, columns of pebbles were laid out on the sand for the same purpose as X.

Answer 21

• Abacus, from abax

Question 22• In 2001, a book was published alleging that this major company

acted to provide the Third Reich with facilities to help Nazis track down the European Jewry. It includes internal reports that admit that these made the Nazis far more efficient.

• One extensively quoted report said: “In military literature and in newspapers, the importance and necessity of having in all phases of life, behind the front, an organization which would remain intact and would function with ‘Blitzkrieg’ efficiency … was brought out. What we had been preaching in vain for years all at once began to be realized.”

• The company has virtually never offered a rebuttal. It is in business as of today.

• Identify the company.

Answer 22

• IBM

Question 23

• This phenomenon is used to describe the failure of a sitcom by an actor following massive success on an ensemble show. Shows specifically cited regarding this are Watching Ellie, Bob Patterson and Listen Up!

Answer 23

• The Seinfeld curse

Question 24• The person pictured in the stamp

was a Persian Islamic mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer. He was born around 780 in Khiva, Uzbekistan and died around 850. He worked most of his life as a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

• The modern term “algebra” is derived from a book he wrote, Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala.

• The term “algorithm” comes from the Latinization of his name.

• Who is he?

Answer 24

• Muhammad bin Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

Question 25• Complete the list (quite non-exhaustive):• 1940s– RCA Victor’s EP records

• 1960s– 8-track and 4-track cartridges

• 1970s to 1990s– Betamax– LaserDisc

• 2008– ?

Answer 25

• HD-DVD

Question 26

• X is believed to appear on several historical maps. However, it actually appears only on one map, The Lenox Globe (c. 1500). It is still unclear how this notion got established in popular belief.

• However, a pictorial representation of X has been found on many historical maps.

Question 26 (Hint)

• X is used to denote dangerous or uncharted territory.

Answer 26

• “Here be dragons”

Question 27

• This tool is alleged to be so named because it was used to perform menial labour assigned to blacks in the US. Thus the name is alleged to have racist overtones.

• However, this etymology is almost certainly false, because the name was in use a full three centuries before the pejorative term.

• In fact, the tool is so named because of its peculiar shape. What am I talking about?

Answer 27

• Crowbar

Question 28• This religion/cult was founded by Anton LaVey in 1966. Its teachings are

based on individualism, social Darwinism, self-indulgence, and "eye for an eye" morality, with influence from Friedrich Nietzsche, while its rituals and magic draw heavily from occultists such as Aleister Crowley.

• It claims to be so named because the root word is Hebrew for adversary, and that it claims to be adversaries of mainstream behavior which they define as "herd conformity", seeing it as stifling to individuality, creativity, and progress.

• It is considered a “Left-Hand-Path” religion, in contrast to religions like Christianity, which are “Right-Hand-Path”.

• The religion’s “sins” include stupidity, self-deceit, counterproductive pride, and lack of aesthetics.

• The name of the religion is criticized as being “deliberately confrontational”, with it being purely for shock value.

• June 6th, 2006 marked a congregation in Hollywood, California of this religion. This celebration was by invitation only and limited to 100 attendees.

Answer 28

• Satanism

Question 29• The code of honour of this group was, according to Sir

Thomas Malory:– To never do outrage nor murder– Always to flee treason– To by no means be cruel but to give mercy unto him who

asks for mercy– To always do ladies, gentlewomen and widows succour– To never force ladies, gentlewomen or widows– Not to take up battles in wrongful quarrels for love or

worldly goods• This group might have had from 12 to 150 members,

according to different reports.

Answer 29

• Knights of the Round Table

Question 30

• The derivation of this word comes from the fact that in ancient times, at an intersection of three streets in Rome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might or might not be interested in it.

Answer 30

• Trivia