Question - 669

A famous depiction of which practice?

Hint: Few hits so far. There is a famous Greek myth related to the animal in the sculpture.

Answer: Bull leaping. The statue is called the Minoan bull. Matti and Iam (but of course) got it. Raghu answered a lot closer to home. Well done.

Question - 616

What is inscribed on this object?

Answer: The Code of Hammurabi. Saket, Iam, Manix, Royan, matti tapaninen, and Dinesh got it. Nicely done.

Question - 593

Connect.

Question - 587

What is this interesting object?

Answer: The Rosetta stone. Divya Shanker, Anand, Manix, ReedArmOwl,v.chandrashekar, Anirudh Patil, Hari, and matti tapaninen got it.

Question - 582

What curious location for the starry symbology?

Question - 545

What does this (non-exhaustive) collection of symbols represent?

Answer: The symbols are part of the Hobo code (made famous recently by the Emmy-winning drama, Mad Men). Divya Shankar, mekie, Jamie, Dinesh, and Iam got it right. Nicely done.

Question - 414

Which flower is this? How is a stylized depiction of this flower famous?

Answer: The flower is a lily and a stylized depiction of the flower (as shown here) gives the famous fleur-de-lis (lily of the valley). This symbol is most commonly associated with the French royal house and shows up in all kinds of other places like, for example, the logo of the New Orleans Saints. NJ, Prachi, Schmetterling, Karthik, Iam, Arvind, anon, Mekie (who identified it as an iris which Wikipedia tells me is equally correct) and Ajinkya got it. Well done.

Question - 412

One possible theory for the origin of a now commonly used symbol is that it is derived from anglicizing the dominant lines of this ancient symbol. Identify both symbols (the ancient one shown and the modern one derived from it).

Answer: This symbol of egyptian mythology is commonly known as the eye of Horus. Since the dominant lines of the symbol look like an R crossed with an X, this is cited as one of the possible origins of the prescription symbol Rx. Hasan, Rajesh K, Raghu, Mekie, Rithwik, Vetti, Krithi, Amresh, Ajinkya, Arvind, Kamal Rathi, anon (partly) and Karthik got it. Well done.

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.

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 - 81

What does the tattoo signify?

Answer: This is a configuration from Conway's "Game of Life" called the glider. This is the hacker emblem for the free software and open source community. Anirudh Patil and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 37

Seal of which movement?

Answer: The Spanish inquisition. Iam, Divya, Ashwin and Rajesh got it right. Well done. I was a bit under the weather yesterday and didn't get around to posting the question. Regular updates will resume tonight.

Question - 21

Today's question is courtesy Mekhala.

Answer: These are the semaphores for N and D. ND stands for nuclear disarmament and the Peace sign derives from these semaphores. Yours truly, Iam, samrat and hirak got it. Well done. I will post today's question after a couple of hours or early in the morning.