Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Question - 219

Identify this legend (the one with the ball in his hand). You can work out the answer even if you have only a passing similarity with the game like I do.

Answer: This is the lakers legend Jerry West whose iconic dribbling silhouette forms the logo of the NBA. Arvind, Shweta, Iam, Raghu, Avinash, Manix, Sinndhuja, Srivats, Vetti, Vijay, Rajeev, Adithya and Keshav got it right. Well done.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Question - 218

Identify the billionaire and her pet millionaire.

Answer: This is the notorious "mean queen" Leona Helmsley and her dog Trouble to whom she left $12 million dollars in her will. Iam, Swapnaa and Vetti got it. Well done.

Question - 217

Connect the visuals.

Answer: The visuals are the Gila monster, the only venomous lizard native to the United States. It takes its name from the Gila river basin in Arizona where they were once plentiful. Srivats, Anshul and Iam got it. Well done.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Question - 216

The place in the third visual gets its name from an event related to the one shown in the second visual. The second visual shows the transfer of power of the place shown in the first visual. The name of the place in the third visual is famous in a different context. Identify all.

Answer: The fort is Alhambra in Spain. The painting depicts Boabdil, the last moorish king of Alhambra handing the fort over to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Legend has it that after being exiled, Boabdil while crossing the place shown in the third visual sighed loudly looking at his lost kingdom. The place has come to be known as Puerto del Suspiro del Moro (the pass of the moor's last sigh). Salman Rushdie's novel takes its name from this piece of legend. Iam, Johnny Walker, Srivats, Keshav, Vetti, Shreya and Rajesh got it. Well done.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Question - 215

After yesterday's s***ty question, this should be more straightforward. Connect the three visuals.

Answer: The visuals gave rise to the phrases "Jumping the shark", "nuking the fridge" and "jumping the couch". They all refer to that tipping point when a favourite TV show (resp. movie, celebrity) has horribly and unalterably changed for the worse. Rajeev, Mekie, Srivats, Keshav and Iam got it. Well done.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Question - 214

Connect all the visuals. The bottom left visual shows the results of a border dispute (the borders prior to and after the dispute are shown using a color code).

Answer: The birds are Guanay Cormorant, the most important producer of Guano. The map shows the War of the pacific between Chile and the joint forces of Bolivia and Peru was primarily over Bolivian attempts to tax Guano harvesters of Chile. The extreme right shows a Guano mine and the person is Colonel Bat Guano from Dr. Strangelove. Swapnaa and Shweta were the only ones to get this. Bravo.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Question - 213

The event shown in the first visual was one of the earliest and most notorious of its kind. It inspired the movie shown in the second visual. A term that arose from this event has now come to be associated with a cult-like group. A symbol of this cult can be seen in the third visual. Identify all.

Answer: The first picture is from the Hollister riots, an event blown out of proportions by yellow journalists. An article about this in the Life magazine inspired the Brando movie The Wild one. When asked about the unruly behaviour of the bikers, the American Motorcycle association attributed it to the "one-percent" of unruly bikers. Outlaw biker gangs snatched that phrase and started referring to themselves as "one-percenters". A 1% patch is visible in the biker vest in the third visual. Many of you identified the event but only a few got the term correct. Shweta, Adi, Vetti, Avinash, Hirak, Swapnaa, Srivats and Iam got it. Well done.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Question - 212

Explain the significance of the two events shown.

Answer: The color of the smoke signifies the election of a new Pope by the College of Cardinals. Black smoke means deliberations are still going on while white smoke denotes the election of a new pope. Anshul, Vijay, Rajesh K, Vetti, Mekie, Raghu, Keshav and Avinash got this one. Well done.

Question - 211

The first sculpture is designed as a hugely magnified version of the second visual. Identify both and the location of the sculpture.

Answer: This is the Atomium in Brussels built for the 1958 world fair. It is a model of the body centered cubic crystalline structure of Iron magnified some 165 billion times. Srivats, Vetti, Anshul, Iam, Schmetterling and Rajesh got it. Well done.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Question - 210

The man in the top left visual is connected to the other four visuals. Identify all the visuals and the connections. Do try to connect all the visuals to the top left rather than just identify the overall theme.

Update: I might have made the question too obscure. So here are some hints - the connect is a work authored by the man in the top left. The man in the top right is a psychoanalyst obliquely related to the work. If you are familiar with the work, the top middle visual should give a big hint. The man in the bottom right is an ancient Roman satirical poet.

Answer: The man in Alan Moore, the author of the graphic novel Watchmen. The other visuals are the Galle crater in Mars (which looks like a smiley and was included in the novel as part of the recurring motif), Rorshach of the inkblot test fame (after which a character in the novel is named), Ramases II (after whom another character is named), Juvenal (who wrote quis custodiet ipsos custodes or Who watches the watchmen after which the series is named). This work along with The Dark Knight Returns redefined the genre of graphic novels. Swapnaa, Rajesh, Rajeev, Iam, Keshav, Srivats and Johnny Walker got it. Well done.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Question - 209

What two word phrase connects the three visuals? (The logos in the middle together constitute one visual).

Answer: The "seven sisters". The visuals are the Pleiades (seven sisters in Greek mythology, also a star cluster with seven bright stars), the seven erstwhile big oil companies (some have merged together now) and the seven northeastern Indian states which are given this nickname due to their geographic and cultural similarities. Another famous "seven sisters" which I couldn't find a way to pictorially depict is the group of seven historically women's liberal arts colleges - Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar and Wellesley. Rajeev, Adithya, An0n, Shweta, Johnny Walker, Mekie, Raghu, Keshav, Rajesh K, Srivats, Vetti, Iam, Hirak, Swapnaa, Rajesh and an Anon got it. Well done.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Question - 208

These two men have been to a place no one else has ever been to. The equipment they used to accomplish this was designed by one of the men in the picture along with his father. Identify both and their achievement.

Answer: The men are Lt. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard. To date, they are the only two to have been to the deepest point in the earth's crust (the challenger deep in the Mariana trench). Their mission was undertaken in the bathyscaphe Trieste that Jacques Piccard built with his father Auguste Piccard. Srivats, passer by, Iam, Anshul, Rajeev and Avinash got this. Well done.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Question - 207

The visual in the top is the satellite view of this landmark. The visual at the bottom is a still from a recent movie that pays homage to this landmark. Identify both landmark and movie.

Update: No correct responses for this one. So here are some hints. The movie at the bottom is Cars and the background of the bottom visual (those 6 or so tower-like thingies) is drawn to look like the landmark shown in the top visual. The landmark in the top visual is named for and made entirely of a classic American automobile. I will let the question stand with hints for another day.

Answer: The landmark is the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. Passer by, Mekie, Shreya, Iam, Swapnaa and Keshav got this. Well done.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Quesiton - 206

Visual in left is the last known survivor of a subspecies and is named after the person on the right. Identify both.

Answer: The bird is Martha, the last known specimen of the passenger pigeon named after Martha Washington, the first first lady of the United States. Supposedly, they were so numerous that flocks measured 300 miles by 1 mile in size during migration. However, we managed to kill every last one of them in a span of 20 or so years. Vetti and aptly enough passer by (the pigeon gets its name from the French word passager meaning to pass by) got this one. Well done.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Quesiton - 205

Today's question is courtesy Iam. What is common to A, B & C? D is a picture that Iam took of a painting of A. Sorry about the bad angle. I understand the painting was hanging a bit too high on the wall.

Answer: The connect is Volcanic caldera. The pictures are Santorini Islands in Greece, Crater lake in Oregon and Yellowstone national park. All of these are located in/above volcanic calderas. Shweta, Mekie, Rajesh, Adi, Swapnaa and Vetti got this. Well done.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Question - 204

Today's question is courtesy Swapnaa. The first map shows the original boundaries of this group. The boundaries were slightly modified later as shown in the second map. The visual at the bottom is the flag of the group. Identify. (The absence of the water body whose name is blanked out in the first visual from the second visual is incidental and not important).

Answer: The map and the flag are that of the Iroquois confederacy which originally had five tribes (Mohawk, Oneida, Onandaga, Cayuga and Seneca) till the addition of Tuscarora in 1720. Iam, Anon, Rajesh, Vetti, Shweta and Divya got it. Well done.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Question - 203

The visuals at the top show the start and end points respectively. The picture at the bottom shows the competing teams. What event am I referring to?

Answer: It is the Oxbridge boat race. Some of you went for the Harvard-Yale race. This is possibly the oldest college rivalry of any kind. Anshul, Rajeev, Shweta, Adithya, passer by, Srivats, Iam, Mekie, Vetti, Rajesh K, Vijay, Schmetterling, Keshav, Rajesh and Swapnaa got this. Well done.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Question - 202

This question is courtesy Manix. What does the map represent?

Answer: This is the corruption perception index published by Transparency international which measures the "degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians". Srivats, Raghu and Shreeranjani got it. Well done.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Question - 201

Today's question is courtesy Swapnaa. The clues are in chronological order. Connect them. The person in the first visual is not very well-known. So, as an aid in googling, let me tell you his first name is Horatio.

Answer: The visuals are Horatio "good roads" Earle, the Lincoln Highway and Eisenhower. These visuals represent the chronological evolution of the U.S Interstate system. Earle inspired the Lincoln Highway which was the first road across the U.S and Eisenhower in turn was inspired by the Lincoln Highway to enact the National Interstate and Defense Highways act of 1956. Iam, Shweta, Ragu, Vetti and Avinash got it. Well done.

Aside: Answers to Question-200 are up as well.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Question - 200

For the 200th question, I tried to do something different and made it a cyclic connect of the answers to the previous 9 questions. Some of these connects are a stretch while others are relatively straightforward. In fact, there are surely multiple ways to connect some of these visuals and there is no one correct answer. So feel free to make them as convoluted as you want. I have put the relevant portion of each of the previous 9 questions in today's visual.

Answer: The connect are as follows:
Pentagon Papers to Rosemary's baby: The papers along with the watergate scandal sunk the Nixon administration. In a rather lame attempt to save Nixon, his secretary Rose Mary Woods claimed that she accidentally erased parts of the watergate tape in an episode that has been nicknamed "Rosemary's boo-boo" by the press.

Rosemary's baby to Beatles: There are at least two strong connects. The movie was shot in the same building where John Lennon lived and was gunned down. Another connect: Polanski's wife Shannon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson who claimed to have been inspired by a Beatles song.

Beatles to Warhol: The common poster of the Beatles in Warhol's style. Another connect is Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" concept vs Beatles' "We are more famous than Jesus".

Warhol to Sandburg: Marilyn Monroe. Warhol made a famous painting of her. Sandburg was a close associate of Monroe and was supposed to read the Eulogy in her funeral but couldn't do so because of illness.

Sandburg to Hemingway: The face of E.T in the movie is modelled after them.

Hemingway to Franco: Hemingway's For Whom the Bells toll is about the Spanish civil war in which Franco played a pivotal part.

Franco to Dali: Despite his anti-war stance, Dali was openly supportive of Franco's fascist regime in Spain much to the dismay of the other surrealists.

Dali to Fibonacci sequence: The ratio of successive Fibonacci numbers approaches the golden ratio. This ratio features extensively in Dali's works (for example, in The Sacrament of the Last Supper).

Golden Ratio to Pentagon Papers: In a pentagon with unit side length, the diagonal length is the golden ratio, a fact which caused the ancients to attribute mystical properties to the pentagram.

There are some other ways to connect these and also some connects between the non-successive questions as well. Rajeev and Hirak attempted and partially answered the question. Very well done.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Question - 199

The second visual shows a common motivating example of the work of the man in the first visual. The third visual is an obscure but quite innovative use of the same work. Identify the man and the work he is most famous for.

Answer: The man is Leonardo of Pisa, more popularly known as Fibonacci. The second visual shows how a rabbit population evolves according to the Fibonacci sequence if, as Rahul Trivedi put it, they are left to do what they do best. The third is an abacus-like device used by Incans called the Yupana which is based on the Sequence. Rajeev, Rahul Trivedi, An0n, Raghu, Schmetterling, Hirak, Adi, Rajesh, Avinash, Shweta and Swapnaa got this. Well done.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Question - 198

This one is an old chestnut but a favorite of mine. Connect the visuals.

Answer: The first is an art piece by Salvador Dali and the second is Death's head Hawkmoth. The poster of the movie Silence of the Lambs shows the death's head moth but with the skull mark replaced by the Dali piece. Mekie, Kr!sh, Rajeev, Adi, Keshav, Anon, Rahul Trivedi, Anshul, Swapnaa, Shweta, Rajesh and Vetti got this one. Well done.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Question - 197

Identify the person appearing in all three visuals.

Answer: This is General Francisco Franco of Spain, possibly the only politician to have a political career after WWII despite associating with both Hitler and Mussolini. A little bit of communist hatred got you a long way in the cold war days. Shweta, Vikrant + Keshav and Manix got this one. Well done.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Question - 196

Since yesterday's question didn't generate many responses, I am inflicting more of the same upon all of you. Connect these visuals.

Answer: The connect is Ernest Hemingway. The visuals are Kilimanjaro, Joe Dimaggio, Running of the bulls in Pamplona and the Metallica album Ride the Lightning. The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a short story collection by Hemingway. Joe Dimaggio is a central character in the Old man and the sea. Spanish bull fights feature prominently in many of his works including Death in the afternoon and The sun also rises. The Metallica album Ride the Lightning has a song For whom the bells toll based on the Hemingway novel of the same name. Mekie + Raghu, Hirak, Keshav, Rajeev, Rahul Trivedi, Manix and Shweta got this one. Well done.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Question - 195

The last three visuals clue to the most famous works of the person shown in the first visual. Identify him.

Answer: This is the American poet Carl Sandburg. Most of his poems are about the city of Chicago (second visual), he wrote a series of children's stories called Rootabaga stories (third visual) and wrote a biography of Lincoln that won a Pulitzer prize. Hirak was the only one to get this. Bravo.