Question - 575

Identify the person and the object.

Answer: Maurice Wilkes, the pioneering British computer scientist who recently passed away, and EDSAC, the first practical stored-program computer. Anand, matti tapaninen, Manix, and Dinesh got it. Nice work.

Question - 574

Which organization's logo?

Answer: Wikileaks. Dinesh, matti tapaninen, Anand, v.chandrashekar, Krithi, mekie, Iam, Divya Shankar, and bhawsheel got it.

Question - 573

What social/art project? (courtesy: Meki)

Answer: The Heidelberg Project -- an outdoor art project in Detroit, Michigan that seeks to transform inner-city neighborhoods. Divya Shankar and Krithi got it. Excellent crack.

Question - 572

What do these painting allude to? (courtesy: Meki)

Answer: Norman Rockwell's paintings depicting the "four freedoms" espouse by Franklin D. Roosevelt: Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Dinesh, matti tapaninen, Krithi, and Divya Shankar got it. Nice job.

Question - 571

Identify the elevated gentleman.

Answer: Hiram Bingham, the explorer who publicized the existence of the Inca city Machu Picchu. Ameya, Dinesh, matti tapaninen, and Mihir got it. Nicely done.

Question - 570

Identify. (courtesy: Meki)

Answer: A young Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband Michael Aris. matti tapaninen, Krithi, tsp, kapinjal, Ameya, Dinesh, Mihir, and Anand got it.

Question - 569

What is being depicted? (courtesy: Meki)

Answer: The ongoing Serengeti highway project that has drawn criticism for disrupting one of the world's greatest migrations. Dinesh got close, but it was a tough one. Below is a map of the proposed highway.

Question - 568

What curious incident?

Answer: A border dispute broke out between Costa Rica and Nicaragua where a territorial claim was made by citing Google Maps. Ameya, Krithi, Jaggi, and matti tapaninen got it.

Question - 567

Connect.

Answer: The only winners of both the "Best Play" Tony award and "Best Picture" Oscar. From top left (clockwise): A Man For All Seasons, My Fair Lady, Amadeus, and The Sound of Music. Dinesh, matti tapaninen, and Krithi got it.

Question - 566

This astronomical phenomenon has been used to explain what event? (click on the picture to see the animation)

Answer: The Star of Bethlehem had been conjectured (by Kepler, among others) to be caused by the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The gif image above shows the night sky as it appeared looking south from Jerusalem on Nov. 12, 7 BC, 6 PM to 9:30 PM (via Wikipedia). Dinesh, matti tapaninen, Piyush Singh, and Jaggi got it.

Question - 565

Connect (the three black-and-white pictures to the one in colour).

Answer: Bob Dylan's "video" for his song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" which inspired the name of the 60's radical left group, Weather Underground (logo in red). Ameya, Dinesh, and Iam got it. Nicely done.

Question - 564

What historic but anti-climactic event?

Answer: Zenyatta (after 19 straight wins) finally loses in her last race. Dinesh, Vetti, and mekie got it (Hirak too, if he was using some racing jargon that I don't get).

Question - 563

Identify and connect.

Answer: The War of Roses, depicted in Shakespeare's Henry VI (top left) and now continued as a sporting rivalry - cricket (Yorkshire v. Lancashire), football (Manchester Utd. v. Leeds Utd.) and rugby. mekie, Anand, Firebringer, and matti tapaninen got it. Well done.

Question - 562

Connect to an engineering concept?

Answer: Van Eck Phreaking - a way to spy on electronic displays by detecting their electromagnetic radiation, popularized by Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. mekie, Krithi, Divya Shankar, and Dinesh got it. Awesome crack.

Question - 561

Why is this store now part of rock music folklore? (Hint: it has something to do with the blanked-out part of its name)

Answer: Bono (aka Paul David Hewson) of rock legends U2 got his stage name from this hearing-aid store in Dublin named Bonavox. matti tapaninen, Krithi, Divya Shankar, Dinesh, AJ, Hirak, Iam, and Renuka got it.

Question - 560

Whose journey?

Answer: The journey of Aeneas, a Trojan who became the ancestor of the Romans, as recounted in Virgil's Aeneid. matti tapaninen, Divya Shankar, and Hirak got it. Nice crack.

Question - 559

Identify the game.

Answer: The game is Craps. Firebringer, Hirak, Krithi, and Divya Shankar got it right, even down to the obvious pun. Well done.

Question - 558

Connect.

Answer: The connect is Toutatis, a Celtic God (bottom right) worshiped in Gaul and Britain, popularized by the exclamation "By Toutatis" in Astrix comix (top). The asteroid, 4179 Toutatis (bottom left), is named after him. Iam, Dinesh, Firebringer, and Hirak got it.