Question - 459

Connect the two events.

Answer: The original tea party at Boston Harbour and the modern tea party movement protesting increased government spending. The already easy question was made even easier because I forgot to edit the second visual. Ramki, Raghu, Prachi, Matti Tapaninen, Schmetterling, Manix, Ramji, Hari, Iam, Shravan, Mekie, Karthik and Adi got it. Well done.

Question - 458

Today's question is courtesy Matti Tapaninen who asks you to identify all and connect.

Answer: Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Monroe all find mention in the 1972 Kinks song Celluloid Heroes. Pavan identified many of the people but didn't get the connect. Well done.

Question - 457

What is the blanked out caption?

Answer: "On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog" - a cartoon in the New Yorker by Peter Steiner that became enormously popular. Trevor Burnham, Ramji, Matti Tapaninen, JW, Krithi, nice try, Aparna , anon, Hari, Rajesh K, DrDate and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done.

Question - 456

Identify the guy in the middle.

Answer: George A. Romero, (grand) father of the zombie movies. Krithi, Kamal Rathi, Matti Tapaninen, Manix, Nihar, Hirak, Rajeev and DrDate got it. Well done.

Question - 455

Who he? Identify the events portrayed.

Hints: Not many tries yet. He is the (indirect) namesake of a US city. The two events portrayed took place about 16 days apart and mark the beginning and end of an event. George Washington often draws parallels with him.

Answer: This is the Roman dictator Cincinnatus who is indirectly the namesake of Cincinnati. He was asked to become the dictator of Rome during wartime by the Roman senate. Giving up his life of farming, he assumed dictatorial powers. He won the war in 16 days and immediately relinquished his power to return to farming. George Washington's refusal to serve a third term as president often is compared to his actions. Ramki, Matti Tapaninen, Jaggi, anon, Kamal Rathi and DrDate got it. Well done.

Question - 454

Today's question is courtesy Rajesh K. Connect these works (not an exhaustive list).

Answer: The novels are Andromeda Strain, Gulliver's travels, Don Quixote and the Scarlet letter. They all employ a literary technique called the False document. By quoting extensively from sources that appear to be factual but in fact are not, such novels invite the reader to suspend his/her disbelief more so than usual. Aparna and Rajesh were the only ones to get it. Great job.

Question - 453

Connect the three images from (the viewer's) left to right in that order.

Hints: Not many attempts. I guess the question doesn't give much to work with. The best hint I can give is that the last visual got an Ig Noble prize (unjustifiably in my opinion).

Answer: These are the three longest running scientific experiments in the world. They are in order the Oxford electric bell (which has been ringing continuously for 160 years now and works on electrostatic principles), the Beverley Clock (which has been ticking since 1864 and derives its energy from atmospheric pressure and temperature variations) and the pitch drop experiment (which was set up in 1927 and demonstrates that pitch while looking solid really is a high viscosity liquid). Since the pitch drop experiment has been running, 8 drops have fallen and it can be a very existential experience to watch the experiment live during work hours. I recommend it to all of you. Jaggi, Matti Tapaninen, Adi, Rahul Trivedi (who worries his own research is slated to join the list) and Nihar got it. Well done all.

Aside: I accidentally pressed the comment reject button and only a quick print screen saved the names of the people who had answered. Blogger has no way of undoing a reject apparently.

Question - 452

Connect.

Answer: The guy on the left is Clarence Long, the original Marlboro man. He was the highlight of a great ad campaign that transformed Marlboro cigarettes from a woman's cigarette brand to a macho brand. The guy on the right is Lance Corporal James Miller whose close-up photograph became famous during the Iraq War in 2004. He has been dubbed the Marlboro marine. Hari, DrDate, Matti Tapaninen, Rithwik, V.Chandrasekhar, Karthik and Ramki got it. Well done.

Aside: I accidentally pressed the comment reject button and only a quick print screen saved the names of the people who had answered. Blogger has no way of undoing a reject apparently.

Question - 451

The animal shown in the bottom plays an important part in Japanese mythology where they are believed to be reincarnations of the warriors who died in a major battle in Japanese history. As such these animals are revered in Japanese culture and this has led to an interesting biological phenomenon. What?

Answer: These are Heikegani crabs also known as Samurai crabs for the resemblance of their shells to human faces. Fishermen often throw these crabs back into sea if they are caught. This has led to those crabs whose shells more strongly resemble human faces surviving more often resulting in an artificial (or) unnatural selection process. Manix, Rajesh, Adi, DrDate, Matti Tapaninen, Aparna, Hirak, Iam and Swapnaa got it. Well done all.

Question - 450

Today's question is more of a personal indulgence and is probably not a quiz question in the strict sense. Nevertheless, I wanted to spread the word and ergo the question - Identify the work from which these scenes are taken.

Answer: HBO's crime drama The Wire. It has gotten rave reviews with more than one critic calling it the greatest television series ever made (link) but for all this has never been quite popular. I thoroughly love the show (especially seasons 1, 3 & 4) and couldn't resist the question. Rajeev, Matti Tapaninen, Hirak, Manix and Rajesh K got it. Well done all and WATCH IT.

Question - 449

Identify.

Answer: Jackson Pollock aka Jack the Dripper. He had a rather unique painting style which has been extensively documented by photographer Hans Namuth. Rahul Trivedi, Pavan, Mitun, Arvind, Karthik, Krithi, Raghu, Matti Tapaninen, Jaggi, Rajesh K, DrDate, Mekie, Adi, Rajeev (who chose to go with Ed harris instead:)), Ramji, anon and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 448

Connect the event to the group.

Answer: The painting shows the mutiny on the HMS Bounty. The mutineers settled in Pitcairn islands where their descendants (numbering around 40 or so - all descended from the handful of English mutineers and the Tahitian women they took with them) still live. Arvind, Adi, Nihar, Matti Tapaninen and Karthik got it. Well done all.

Question - 447

Who is this? What phrase owes its etymology to a feature of this painting?

Update: Many correctly identified the person but no one got the phrase I am looking for. It is not a nickname of the man in the painting. Rather, the phrase is derived from a feature of this and other paintings of this man and in fact was uttered by him in connection with his portraits. It is now idiomatically used in all kinds of situations (and not just in reference to him).

Answer: The person is Oliver Cromwell as was correctly identified by Matti Tapaninen, Pavan, Nihar, anon, Rithwik, Krithi, Hirak, Adi and DrDate. Cromwell wanted his portraits to not cover up his facial blemishes and was known to have instructed a painter to paint his face as it is "warts and all". This phrase has now come to mean taking something as a whole and not concealing the unattractive parts. Adi, Matti Tapaninen, Pavan and DrDate got the etymology right as well. Well done all.

Question - 446

Identify the novelist.

Answer: The cover shows a very rare photograph of the notoriously reclusive J.D. Salinger with his daughter Margaret A. Salinger. The title is an obvious reference to Catcher in the Rye. DrDate, Karthik, Matti Tapaninen, Krithi, Arvind, Rajesh, Vetti, RIJO P, Renuka, Ramki, Nihar, Abstract Randomness, Raghu and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 445

Identify.

Hint: Several correct responses so far. The answer can be worked out from the visual.

Answer: Bob Young and Marc Ewing - the founders of Red Hat Linux. While a student at CMU, Ewing always sported a red hat and he named his first company after it. The rest as they say is history. Raghu, Shravan, Matti Tapaninen, Karthik, Iam, Rajesh, Arvind, Renuka, Nihar and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 444

Today's question is slightly different. This being a Friday, this question will stay up for a couple of days and I have tried to make it a bit heavier than the usual questions. The five visuals have a connect but each visual is interesting enough to make a question by itself. So, identify each and connect.

Update 1: The five images form an exhaustive connect. More hints tomorrow night depending upon the response.

Update 2: Many identified the visuals but no correct connects so far. Almost all went with Gold as the connect but that isn't what I had in mind. More hints: The relevant portion of the images are as follows - the location(loosely speaking) of the event, the main object in the myth, what the woman is most famous for, the nickname of the man and the element featured prominently.

Answer: The visuals are 1) the US team that won the miracle at Lake Placid lighting the Olympic torch for the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Olympics, 2) a painting of the Sword of Damocles story, 3) Diablo Cody who won the Oscar for Juno, 4) Jill Masterson in an iconic scene from Goldfinger where she dies of skin asphyxiation from being completely covered in Gold and 5) Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha. The images point to Utah, Sword, Juno, Gold and Omaha - the code name for the beaches in the Normandy landings on D-day. Rajeev, Matti Tapaninen, Ajinkya, Raghu, Iam and Rajesh got the complete connect after the hints while Krithi and Pavan identified all the visuals correctly. Well done all.

Question - 443

Both pictures show the same location. Identify this spectacularly inaccessible place. This place also served as an inspiration for a novel and a movie. Name both.

Answer: This is Mount Roraima tepui in Venezuela. The inaccessibility of the place inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to place his Lost World on top of this mountain in a world where dinosaurs still survive. The recent Pixar movie Up which is itself inspired by Doyle's work is set in a landscape very similar to the one in this tepui and its surrounding areas. Raghu, Divya, Karthik, Pavan, An0n, Ramki, Iam, Ajinkya, Hari, Mekie, Mainak and Adi got it. Well done.

Question - 442

Today's question is courtesy Sriram. Connect the man, the movie and the place.

Answer: The connect is Four seasons. It is Antonio Vivaldi's most famous piece, the movie is called four seasons and the place is the luxurious Four Seasons hotel in New York. Matti Tapaninen, An0n, Prachi, Rajeev, Raghu, Karthik, Ajinkya, Manix, Jaggi and Rajesh got it. Well done.

Question - 441

Reunion of what event?

Answer: These are the surviving members of the first all-women Chipko movement near Reni village. Madhura, Arvind, @MeeN, Iam and Ramki got it. Well done.

Question - 440

Identify the man in the red shirt. Update: Again, the answer can be worked out from the visual.

Answer: Richard Feynman was sufficiently geeky to sketch his famous Feynman diagrams on the side of his van. Raghu, Ramki, Rajesh, Ramji, Madhura, Arvind, Anand, Karthik, Rajeev and Manix got it. Rithwik thinks the shirt is a bit too tight. Well done all.