Question - 529

Identify the objects in the first two visuals. They are to be housed on top of the mountain shown in the third visual.

Answer: The clock of the long now and the Rosetta disk, both endeavors by the Long Now foundation that aspires to be a very very long term cultural institution (sort of like the foundation in Asimov's works). The clock is supposed to run for at least 10,000 years and is to be housed on the peak of Mt. Washington in Nevada. Jamie and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done.

Question - 528

Identify the dude and the other personalities he is posing with. His website features many many more such pictures.

Answer: Chade-Meng Tan, a Google employee that every famous person visiting Google's HQ takes a picture with. His official title there is a Jolly good fellow (that nobody can deny). tsp, Raghu, Karthik and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done. Check out his picasa page here.

Question - 527

Patron saint of which religion?

Answer: The Vitruvian dude aka the dude Vinci, his dudeness, duder or el duderino if you aren't into the whole brevity thing is the patron saint of dudeism, the slowest growing religion in the world. Check out their website - they even let you get ordained. Ameya, tsp, Matti Tapaninen, Raghu, Pranav, Anirudh Patil, Manix, AJ, Rajeev, Arvind, Adi, IamAbides, Ramki, Kamal Rathi and Keshav got it. Well done. Please treat yourself to a White Russian.

Question - 526

Who is the guy to the left? What are they doing?

Answer: Steve Wozniak is playing Segway Polo. Rajeev, Kaushik, tsp, Ameya, Matti Tapaninen, Jamie, AJ, Krithi, nice try, Karthik, Raghu, anon, Anand, Vetti, Manix and Hirak got it. Raghu thinks Woz looks like Vijay Mallya. Well done all.

Question - 525

Satellite view of what?

Answer: The Nazca lines in Peru. Matti Tapaninen, Ameya, Kaushik and tsp got it. Well done.

Question - 524

Connect the men on the left to the respective events on the right.

Answer: The men are General Yamashita and Captain Ernest Medina. The events are the Manila massacre by the Japanese troops in 1945 and the My Lai massacre by the American troops in 1971. The specific connect I was looking for is the notion of command responsibility also known as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard. The doctrine states that a supervising officer is responsible for the crimes committed by those under his/her command. Read Matti's answer for more details. Matti Tapaninen and an anon gave the answer I had in mind. Mekie, Krithi, Jamie and Manix got partly there. Well done all. Also check out this wiki link for a massacre described by George Fernandes as India's My Lai.

Question - 523

Painter and subject?

Answer: Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter. tsp, Raghu, Iam, anon, Ramji, Krithi, Arvind, Matti Tapaninen, Mekie, Vetti, Anirudh Patil and Manix got it. Well done.

Question - 522

What is the latest addition to this ignominious list?

Answer: LeBron's The Decision joins the long list of pithy named heartbreakers that the city of Cleveland has endured in its sports. Shown are The shot, Red Right 88, The fumble and The drive. Raghu, Rajesh K, Vetti, Arvind, Rajeev, Manix and anon got it. Well done.

Question - 521

What is the occasion for these (highly edited) ads?

Answer: Greenpeace ads in response to the world leaders' less than impressive showing at the Copenhagen climate conference 2009. Akshay, Kaushik, Sreekanth, Matti Tapaninen, Raghu, Krithi, Mekie, Vetti, mysore, Hari, Anand, Ramki, tsp and Ramji got it. Well done.

Question - 520

What is blanked out by the red question mark?

Answer: The uncanny valley - the graph shows the likability of robots/automatons as a function of their resemblance to humans. As they approach too close to us for comfort, their likability suddenly dips in the region that has been termed the uncanny valley. Ameya, White Jack and Black Lagoon, Karthik, Vetti, AJ, Jaggi, Raghu, nice try, Krithi and Sreekanth got it. Well done.

Question - 519

Who is being commemorated in these cartoons?

Answer: Gary Gygax, the guy behind Dungeons & Dragons and the father of role-playing games in general. Many understandably went for Ingmar Bergman. I had the comics tag as a disambiguating hint for that reason. In the future, be sure to check the question tags for occasional hints. Hari, Jaggi, Raghu, White Jack and Black Lagoon, Adi, tsp, nice try and Sreekanth got it. Well done.

Question - 518

What is this the ad for?

Answer: Very creative ads for the gross Man vs. Wild. Pranav, Akshay, Mekie, Adi and Kar295rocks got it. Well done.

Question - 517

The dog shown inspired a famous character and was behind the name of an even more famous character. Identify the dog and the characters.

Answer: The picture shows George Lucas with his Alaskan Malamute named Indiana. Its name inspired the name of Indiana Jones. Chewbacca, the furry navigator of the Millennium Falcon was inspired by Indiana's habit of sitting in the passenger seat while Lucas drives. Rajeev, Akshay, Matti Tapaninen, Kaushik, Ramki and Paragbm got it. Well done.

Question - 516

Identify what this directed graph represents.

Couple of clarifications:

• The node with multiple languages in the bottom right is no different from the other nodes. I was too lazy to draw a separate node for each of them.
• Not all languages are represented, i.e., the graph is non-exhaustive.

Answer: The phrase Its all greek to me and its equivalents in other languages to denote incomprehensibility. I think this question needs a bit more work. Ajit Oke, tsp and Mekie got this one. Well done.

Question - 515

First visual is the map of an awesome concept (one of 3 such things in the US. Name all for brownie points). Unfortunately, it is now more famous for giving rise to a meme (like the one in the third visual) because of the guy in the second visual. Identify all.

Answer: The map is the trail of the Appalachian trail, one of the triple crown of American long distance hiking along with the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Mark Sanford, the S. Carolina governor tried to conceal his trip to Argentina to visit his mistress by lying that he was hiking on the Appalachian trail. This has given rise to the euphemism of hiking to mean cheating on one's spouse. The blanked out word in the last word is hiking. Manix, Raghu Kainkaryam, Krithi, Ramji, Akshay, NJ, Mekie, anon, Anand, Hirak, Rajesh K, Karthik, Jamie, Arvind and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 514

Identify the bulletin whose cover is shown.

Answer: The bulletin of the Atomic scientists. The Doomsday clock was invented as the cover art for the first ever issue and the board has maintained the clock ever since. I just finished reading Watchmen and hence the question. Arvind, Ramji, v.chandrashekar, Anirudh Patil, Anand, Matti Tapaninen, Raghu Kainkaryam, Mekie, Krithi, Iam, Akshay, Vetti, Manix and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 513

What resulted?

Answer: Andres Escobar's own goal for Colombia against USA during the 1994 FIFA world cup. It supposedly led to his assassination 10 days later when he was shot dead at a Colombian night club. The goal led to the heavily favored Colombian side eliminated in the first round and is said to have caused huge gambling losses to the drug lords in Colombia. Ramji, Arvind, nice try, v.chandrashekar, Anand, Matti Tapaninen, anon, Raghu Kainkaryam, Adi, Akshay, niru, Ramki, Vetti and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 512

Today's question is courtesy Manix. Connect the two visuals.

Aside: I was away on a vacation all of last week and hence the inactivity. Expect (reasonably) regular updates from now on.