Question - 427

This is the cover of a French comic book. Something depicted fictionally in this book inspired people to simulate it in reality and it is now gaining popularity. What?

Answer: Chess boxing came into being thanks to this comic. The sport alternates rounds of chess and boxing and an opponent can be beat in either sport. Truly weird stuff. The boxer's gloves in the foreground serve as a clue. Anand, P, Debasish, Kaushik, anon, Schmetterling, Raghu, Shweta, Aparna, Rajesh, Rithwik and Abhinav Kadambi got it. Well done.

Question - 426

Identify this woman who has been called the most kissed woman of all time.

Answer: She is L'Inconnue de la Seine (the unknown woman of the Seine). More precisely, this is the death mask of an unknown woman that a doctor made because he was taken with the beauty of her features. This rather macabre image was quite famous in Paris's bohemian circles and was used as the model for Resusci Anne, the CPR training mannequin (thus the "most kissed" part). Kamal Rathi, Kaushik, Meenakshi, Mekie, Krithi, Vetti, Raghu, Ajinkya, Aparna, Schmetterling, Anand, Iam (sorry for the disappointment), Adi and Amresh got it. Well done.

Question - 425

The paintings are by the artist A and are titled simply as the professions of the men depicted. There is a theory that the artist used the scientist B as his model for both paintings . Both A and B were contemporaries hailing from the same small city and that has led some credence to this theory. Further, a controversial theory suggests that B produced the optical device shown in the last visual to help A in his paintings. Identify the visuals and the people involved.

Update: Several correct responses but I will let it stay one more day with a hint. Both A and B are from the city of Delft in Netherlands.

Answer: A & B are Vermeer and Leeuwenhoek (remember him from high school?). Though there is little facial resemblance, there is a theory that Vermeer used Leeuwenhoek as a model for his paintings. Also, Leeuwenhoek supposedly designed a camera obscura for Vermeer to use. This is an example of a controversial theory (Hockney-Falco thesis) that suggests that the realism in the paintings of the Old Masters could have only been made possible by means of artificial aid from optical instruments. Kaushik, Ajinkya, Iam, AJ, Schmetterling, Anand, Karthik, Shweta, Adi & Amresh got it. Well done.

Question - 424

Identify the movie from the poster.

Answer: The movie is Late Shift, a made for TV movie about the messy struggle between Jay Leno and David Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as the host of the Tonight show. After all these years, there is now again a controversy regarding the host of the Tonight show with Leno fighting it out with Conon O'Brien. Krithi, Hari, Ramki, Schmetterling, Raghu, Ajinkya, Rajesh K, Jaggi, nice try, Manix, rajesh, Amresh, Kaushik, Shweta, Iam and rajeev got it. Well done.

Question - 423

Identify the jewelery. Only two people have ever worn it. Identify the more famous of the two.

Answer: The diamond in the necklace is the Tiffany yellow diamond, the largest yellow diamond to have ever been discovered. It was worn on only two occasions - once by Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse (wife of some politician and chairwoman of the Tiffany ball) and on the publicity stills of Breakfast at Tiffany's by the divine Audrey Hepburn. Amresh, Schmetterling, Ajinkya, Krithi, Iam, Anand, Hari, Aparna, Kaushik and Rajesh K got it. Well done.

Question - 422

The first visual shows a famous cartoon. The second visual parodies the two most prominent characters associated with the first cartoon and is drawn in the same style as the cartoon. Identify all and the etymological connection.

Answer: The cartoon is the yellow kid, from Richard F. Outcault's Hogan's Alley. The two characters are Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolf Hearst. Their papers ran the cartoon and were known as yellow kid papers. Soon, the name yellow journalism came to mean the papers' practice of taking sensationalism (even down to fictionalized stories) and profits as priorities in journalism. anon, Mitun, Kaushik, Hasan, Schmetterling, Raghu, rajesh, nice try, Amresh and Ajinkya got it. Well done.

Question - 421

This is a screen shot from a film. Identify the character highlighted.

Hint: Only 2 correct replies so far. The film is Italian and the question is etymological.

Answer: The movie is Fellini's La Dolce Vita and the character is an annoying photographer named Paparazzo from whose name we get the word paparazzi. Fellini supposedly took the name from a dialect of Italian in which it describes an annoying noise like the buzzing of a mosquito. Raghu, Rajeev, Anand, v.chandrashekar, Kaushik, rajesh, Amresh, Ramji, Ajinkya, Karthik and Arvind got it. Well done.

Question - 420

Today's question is courtesy Rajeev. Connect the 6 images.

Hint: Four correct replies so far. I will let it stay another day with a hint. The connect is television related and quite topical.

Answer: The visuals are in order Led Zeppelin's Album IV cover, the character 8 from "Battlestar Galactica", the 15 puzzle, a sixteenth note, Jim Carrey's movie "The number 23" and the 42 puzzle from HHGTTG (this was in fact the 42nd question on the blog). The numbers 4,8,15,16,23 and 42 form one of Lost's most prominent recurring themes. The much anticipated final season of Lost premiered on Feb 2nd. Ajinkya, Manix, Raghu and Amresh got it. Well done.

Question - 419

Connect the images in that order.

Answer: William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell contains the line "if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite". Aldous Huxley (2nd visual) described his experiences while taking the psychedelic drug Mescaline in a book titled "Doors of perception" taken from Blake's work. The band Doors (3rd visual) took its name from Huxley's book. This turned out to be a popular question. Raghu, v.chandrashekar, Iam, Vetti, AJ, Karthik, Manix, Ajinkya, Rajesh, Amresh, Kamal Rathi, Rithwik, Anand, Hasan, Rajeev, Arvind, Prachi, Hari, Jaggi, Mekie and Divya got it. Well done.

Question - 418

Identify both.

Answer: The event depicts the meeting of Alexander the great with Diogenes of Sinope, a philosopher who made a virtue out of extreme poverty. He lived his life in a tub (seen behind him in the painting) and denounced all worldly possessions. Alexander, having heard a lot about Diogenes met with him and asked if there was any favor he might do to him. Diogenes famously replied "Stand a little less between me and the sun". Kaushik, Amresh, Ameya, anon, Krithi, Ajinkya and Rahul got it. Well done.

Question - 417

What does the cartoon spoof?

Answer: The cartoon is about Disney's acquisition of Marvel. So Marvel's beast (a X-men character) is being laid off in favor of the beast from "Beauty and the Beast". Adi, Ajinkya, anon and Mekie got it. Well done.

Question - 416

Identify man and instrument.

Hint: Only 2 hits so far. The instrument is famous not for its contribution to music but for its contribution to war.

Answer: No further correct responses despite the hint. This is comedian Bob Burns playing a musical instrument of his own devising (from stove pipes and a whiskey funnel) called the Bazooka. He used it often in his shows and GIs borrowed the name for their rocket launchers due to the structural similarity. Iam and Prachi got it even before the hint. Well done.

Question - 415

The lady is shown portraying a famous character from a famous opera. Her aria towards the end of the opera is particularly famous. Identify character, opera and a related phrase.

Answer: The character is Brunhilde from Richard Wagner's famous opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen". The opera concludes with a 10 minute long aria by her and she is typically portrayed as a fat woman with helmet, spear and shield. Her character is supposed to have given rise to the phrase "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" which is a very standard sports cliche especially in American sports. Raghu, AJ, Iam, Rajesh and Ajinkya got it. Some people went with Lady Godiva which will be a future question for sure. Well done all.

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 - 413

Identify the monument that has become a shrine of sorts for a certain group of people who have taken to leaving small pieces of tokens of remembrance here. Also, connect it to a famous apocryphal phrase.

Answer: This is the memorial of the British cyclist Tom Simpson atop Mont Ventoux, one of the steepest sections of Tour de France. He had taken a fatal combination of alcohol and amphetamines which led to severe dehydration during the race. He collapsed once and supposedly said "put me back on my bike" (this is likely untrue) to the bystanders. He collapsed again in a short while and died. Anand, Mekie, Arvind, Ramji, Ajinkya, anon and Karthik 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 - 411

The first picture shows the very last visit paid by the woman in the picture to the place that made her famous. The second visual might act as a clue for what this place is. Identify the woman and the place.

Answer: The woman is Miep Gies, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during WWII. The second visual shows the bookcase behind which was the secret entrance to the room where Anne Frank and her family were hiding. Gies was remarkably modest about her role and has always insisted that there were many greater heroic deeds performed by others during WWII. She is also a Wallenberg fellow and passed away last week. Amresh, Hasan, Mekie, Iam (I hope you didn't mean the woman was Anne Frank), Anand, Ajinkya, Arvind, Manan and an anon got it. Well done all.

Question - 410

What event is being shown? Identify all.

Answer: Prometheus is stealing fire from the Gods (in this case, Zeus and his er.... companion Ganymede) to give to mankind. As a reward, he was chained to a rock and had his liver eaten everyday by a giant eagle. Raghu, Iam, raklodramA, Kaushik, anon, Manix, Amresh, Rajesh and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done.

Question - 409

The two pictures were taken some years apart. The railroad car in the second picture was moved to align it to the exact same spot it is in in the first picture. On what occasions were the two pictures taken and why the insistence on the exact alignment?

Answer: The pictures show the armistice of WWI and WWII. During WWI, the Germans surrendered to Ferdinand Foch and the agreement was signed in his own railway carriage. Hitler, ever mindful of historical symbolism, insisted on reenacting the same scene when accepting the French surrender during WWII. Kaushik, Manix, anon, Iam, Raghu, Amresh, Ramji and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done.

Question - 408

This painting depicts the landscape described in a famous poem. The object in the center (slightly to the left) is now famous in its own right. Identify the poem and the object.

Update: Looks like the visual gives very little to work with. Still more hints below and apologies for the bad visual.

Hints: The poem is from the 19th century but the object in the center forms the central theme of another work of literature (by a different author) from the 20th century. The poem is about the journey of a character towards the object in question. The 20th century work expands this quest into a vast epic that combines many other elements to the story line. The object in question is a tower alright but the work is not LOTR. The original poem is by (highlight to see) Robert Browning


Answer: The poem is "Childe Roland to the dark tower came" by Robert Browning. The title itself comes from Shakespeare's King Lear. Stephen King was inspired by this poem to come up with his magnum opus, the Dark Tower series in which a titular character named Roland undertakes an epic quest to reach a dark tower. I haven't read any of the books but some of my friends who are Stephen King fans swear by them. Raghu, Renuka and Mekie got it. Well done.

Question - 407

The person in the first portrait is more famously remembered through the caricature in the second visual. In fact, the lead actor in the movie whose poster is shown in the third visual was chosen for his resemblance to the caricature. Who is this guy who has a bunch of medical symptoms named after him?

Answer: Baron Munchausen is the guy in the first visual whose caricature by Dore shown in the second visual became very famous. The poster is from Terry Gilliam's "Adventures of Baron Munchhausen". He is famous for his outlandish tales and has given its name to the Munchhausen syndrome, a kind of psychiatric disorder where patients feign illnesses to attract the attention of others. Siddhartha, Kaushik, Rithwik, Raghu, Trevor Burnham, Mekie, Jaggi, Amresh, Rajeev, Kamal Rathi, anon, Karthik, AJ and Shakuni got it. Well done.

Question - 406

Identify both men.

Answer: The men are Walt Disney and the legendary space architect Werner Von Braun. I posted the question for Von Braun but apparently with Walt Disney he made some educational videos for television. Debashish, Kaushik, v. chandrashekar, Arvind, Kamal Rathi, Ramki, Rajesh K, Hirak, anon, Iam, Krithi, Amresh and Raghu got it. Well done.

A special dry question

He is a brilliant academic who disproved all the theories of his advisor Professor Emeritus Zekowsky. He is the Arthur C. and Caroline J. McCallister Distinguished Chair Professor and Anderson Faculty Scholar, and the Director of the Center for Computational Research and the National Institute of Dynamical Physics. He is the recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize of the Netherlands, the National Science Foundation Presidential Investigator Award, the Exceptional Achievement Medal from the International Society of Engineers, the Pi Gamma Tau Industry Excellence Professorship, the National Medal of Engineering, and the Medal of Honor from the Royal Academy of Scientists. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Advanced Dynamics, the Journal of Nano-Particle Computation, Physik-Publication and several other journals, and on the advisory boards of many industry consortia. He holds honorary doctorates from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Tsing-Chua Beijing University and the Universidade de São Paulo, among others. Who is he? Google away, people.

Answer: Professor Brian S. Smith of PhD comics. Kaushik, Mekie, Anand, Raghu, Arvind, Soubhagya Jena, Vetti, Chithananda, Karthik, Hirak, Amresh, Ramki and Rithwik got it. Well done.

Question - 405

Connect Identify the two images.

Update: Apologies for the misleading question. Just realized that the answer I had in mind is completely untrue. I have changed the question accordingly. If you wasted time looking for the non-existent connect, I apologize. If you found a good connect, let me know :)

Answer: The visuals are "The blue marble" and "The pale blue dot". Carl Sagan convinced the Voyager program to take the second picture which shows earth from an astronomical distance. I had some vague idea that Sagan made a comment connecting the two visuals. My bad. Kaushik, Raghu, Krithi, Mekie and Amresh got it. Well done.

Question - 404

Identify the building in the foreground.

Answer: This is the Hiroshima peace memorial also known as the Atomic Bomb Dome. It is the closest building to the hypocenter of the atom bomb that survived at least partially intact. Kaushik, P, Ramki, Mekie, Krithi, Rajesh K, Chithananda and Rithwik got it. Well done.

Question - 403

What is happening? Identify as many as you can.

Answer: Greg Ritchie, David Boon, Jeff Thompson and Craig McDermott are loading kegs of beer to keep them company on the plane trip from Australia to England for the Ashes. There is an unofficial championship of sorts among Australian cricketers as to who consumes the most beer on these trips. Boon supposedly drank 54 cans of beer on one of these trips. Raghu, Rajeev, Debasish, Kaushik, Swapnaa, anon, Krithi, Arvind, ameen, Rajesh K, Anand, Renuka and Mihir got it. Well done.

Aside: Since there was no update yesterday, there will be 2 questions today (402&403). Next update is on Sunday night.

Question - 402

Connect the three images. The person on the left contributed to the motto on the right which in turn is responsible for the visual on the right.

Answer: King Louis XV once famously said "Après moi, le déluge" (after me, the deluge) which the 617 Squadron of RAF (famously known as the dam busters) adopted as their motto. The last image is the breach of the Eder dam as part of Operation Chastise. Mekie, Raghu, Debasish, Kaushik, anon, Krithi, Renuka + Anand and Karthik got it. Well done.

Question - 401

Who? Picture from where?

Answer: This is Nyla, wife of the "Nanook of the north". This is a film made in 1922 by Robert Flaherty and is considered the very first documentary. ameen, Debasish, Prachi, Kaushik, mekie and aji got it. Well done.

Asides: Blog readers erupt in thunderous ovation after the amazing pun in Q400 dawns on them. Read comments for more and feel free to leave further praises.

Question - 400

The most persistent version of this urban legend connects a work of the man in the bottom right with one of the other 3 people shown. Which legend is this and what (really bad) reason does the QM have for asking this question?

Answer: Herbert Von Karajan, Akio Morita and Norio Ohga were all associated with the development of the CD. The run length of CDs being 74 minutes is attributed to one of these men's desire to include the entire 9th Symphony of Beethoven (which runs for 74 minutes in some renderings) in a CD. The story is almost surely false but has endured nonetheless. Karthik, Mihir, Raghu (no, not the reason I was looking for), Iam and Hirak got it. Well done.

Aside: No one got the (bad bad) reason for this question being the 400th. Keep trying, folks.

And the answer is: CD is roman for... (how awesome am I?)

Question - 399

What does the sculpture symbolize? Where is this scene most commonly seen?

Answer: The sculpture shows an eagle eating a snake while perched atop a cactus. According to legend, the early Aztecs witnessed such a scene which they took to be a vision on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco and proceeded to found the city of Tencochtitlan in that spot. This symbol is now present in Mexico's flag and coat of arms. Ramki, Mekie, Prachi, Raghu, Hari, Iam, Karthik, Hirak and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 398

Identify him.

Answer: Chuck Norris - the West's answer to Captain Vijayakanth. He can divide by 0, order a big Mac from Burger King and can slam a revolving door. Arvind, Raghu, Iam, Hirak, Hari and Srivats got it. Well done.

Question - 397

Connect the visuals.

Answer: The man is Slartibartfast from Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (the visual is from the movie). The location is a fjord in Norway. In the books, Slartibartfast is a planet designer who wins special awards for his delicate work in the Norwegian fjords. Mekie, Adi and Raghu got it. Well done.

Question - 396

Sketch of what?

Answer: This is the model of the spaceship serenity in the cult TV show/movie firefly. Raghu, Manix and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 395

Connect all the images. Also, identify the especially famous item that is missing from this collection.

Answer: These images are the elephant and donkey of the Democratic and Republican parties, Uncle sam, the Tammany hall tiger and Columbia (a personification of the US). Though they can all be connected as US political symbols, the particular connect I was looking for was that they were all drawn by Thomas Nast, the legendary US cartoonist. He is partly responsible for the now familiar depiction of Santa Claus as a bearded rotund man. Santa Claus was the famous missing item I was looking for. AjithP, Iam, Renuka + Anand got the connect I had in mind while Hirak and Hari went with other connects. Well done all.

Question - 394

What, possibly apocryphal, event is being portrayed here?

Answer: Archimedes about to be killed by a Roman solider during the Battle of Syracuse. Apparently, he was engrossed in some problem and asked the soldier not to "disturb his circles". Debasish, Karthik, Arvind, v.chandrashekar and Hirak got it. Raghu and Iam went with the wrong ancient mathematician. Well done all.

Question - 393

Today's question is courtesy Ramki aka Sriram. Identify him.

Answer: This is Wikipedia's cofounder Larry Sanger who has since left it and gone on to found Citizendium. His main grouse is that Wikipedia lacks credibility since anyone can edit its articles. ajaalgujaal and Srivats got it. Well done.

Question - 392

Today's question is courtesy Adi. Connect the image on the sides to the one in the middle in two ways (one way is easy, the other a bit obscure).

Update: As Adi suspected, it turned out to be a hard question and so he has helpfully sent a hint too (the pic at the bottom). Let me add that the guy on the right is a movie character from a famous sci-fi movie. You can connect visuals 1 and 3 to the clue in the bottom.

Answer: The images are R2D2 from star wars, a patent for an android and the character Roy Batty from Blade runner. The first connect is android (both R2D2 and Roy Batty are androids). The deeper connect is that while R2D2 is a droid, Roy Batty is a Nexus-6 model. Droid and Nexus are cellphones by Motorola and Google which both run on the android OS. Manix, Hirak and Iam got the first connect but no one got the second one. Well done all.

Question - 391

Identify him (in the news now).

Answer: This is USC linguistics professor Paul Frommer who developed a new language for the Na'vi race in James Cameron's Avatar. Srivats, Hari, Corina, Schmetterling, rishabh and Manix got it. Well done.

Question - 390

Connect the 3 images (not an exhaustive list). I asked this question in the quiz club many years ago. So, this might be a repeat for some of you.

Answer: The common theme connecting the pictures is mistranslation. The first picture is Michaelangelo's Moses who is depicted with horns. This is due to a mistranslation of the Exodus by St. Jerome. The original described Moses as having light rays radiating from his head which was translated as him having horns. The second visual is the slipper scene from cinderella. The original french tale had Cinderella wearing fur slippers which got mistranslated as glass slippers in English. The last graph is a curve called the witch of Agnesi. My math teacher told me it was because the curve looked like the outstretched arms of a flying banshee but the more mundane truth is that the curve of Agnesi got mistranslated from Italian to English as the witch of Agnesi. Ramki, P, Iam and Hirak got it. Chandra had a great try. Well done all.

Question - 389

What phenomenon gets its name from the controversy surrounding this picture?

Answer: The house belongs to Barbara Streisand and the picture was taken as part of a study on erosion of the California coastline. Streisand sued to have the photo removed from the web and the resulting popularity made the picture far more famous than it originally was. Since then, the Streisand effect has come to refer to this kind of negative publicity resulting from censorship. Mrinalini, Rithwik, P, Manix, Iam (who has moral & other issues in answering the Q), mysore, and Sweta got it. Well done all and to set the record straight, Iam asked this question in the quiz club a while back.

Question - 388

Identify him and the place where the photograph has been taken.

Answer: This is Thomas Hunt Morgan, a pioneering geneticist who introduced the now ubiquitous drosophila melanogaster aka the fruit fly into genetics research. The picture is taken in the famous "fly room" in Columbia university. P, AC&amp, Krithi, Manix, Chandra and Iam (if you believe him) got it. Well done.

Question - 387

This painting is a part of a larger painting. Identify that and the funda behind this panel.

Answer: This is a panel from Michaelangelo's terrific The Last Judgement. In this painting, Michaelangelo himself is being judged by St. Bartholomew and judging by the flayed skin, Michaelangelo didn't have high hopes for his after life. Srivats, P, Hari, Raghu, Vetti, chandra, karthik, Ramki and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 386

Sorry about the late post. The first 3 visuals show some of the more fanciful structures that have been associated with an annual event the logo of which is shown in the last visual. Which event is this?

Answer: The structures have all been erected in the past years as part of the burning man festival that takes place annually in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. The participants say the festival is an experiment in community, self-expression and self-reliance. Ramki, Mihir, Mekie, Krithi, Srivats, Hirak, P, umang, Iam, Swapnaa, Corina and the Jayaramans got it. Well done.

Question - 385

Identify both.

Answer: This is Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. Srivats, Hari, P, Ramki, anon, Hirak, Karthik, Corina and v.chandrashekar got it. Well done.

Question - 384

What's the story behind the cartoon? Brownie points for identifying everyone.

Answer: This is a lithograph made in memory of Mel Blanc, the legendary voice actor for a bunch of well-known Warner Bros animated characters. The characters are Tweety bird, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn leghorn, Daffy duck, Bugs Bunny, Porky the pig and Pepe Le Pew. Rajeev, P, Hari, Jaggi, nice try, Chandra & Swapnaa, jollyrover, Ramki, rishabh, Hirak, Corina and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 383

The guy on the right made the chart on the left for a specific reason. Who is he and what is the chart for?

Answer: The guy is Alfred Mosher Butts, the inventor of Scrabble. The chart shows a frequency analysis study that he conducted on various sources such as the New York Times to decide the point value for the various tiles. I hope it wasn't too obvious from the visual that he is sitting on a bunch of scrabble tiles. P, Karthik, Srivats, Hirak and Rajeev got it. Well done.

Question - 382

This phrase originated from the device whose operation is illustrated in the first visual. The most (in)famous example of this phrase is associated with the woman shown on the right. Identify the woman and the phrase.

Answer: The phrase is "Deux ex Machina", literally "God from the machine. The device shown is a mechane which was used in Greek theater to lower Gods on to the stage. Since the Gods usually appear out of nowhere and were often used by Greek playwrights to resolve thorny plot issues by appealing to their supernatural powers, the term has since come to mean a plot device that appears out of the blue and solves seemingly insurmountable difficulties. Euripides notoriously used the machine to lower Medea (the woman on the right), a mere mortal , onto the stage. Prachi, P, Srivats, Corina and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 381

This term's origin can be traced to the movie whose poster is shown in the upper right. It may have been used to refer to the man in the left though he rejected the term. The scene in the bottom right can be taken as a clue to the term. What term?

Answer: The statue is that of the famous surfer/swimmer Duke Kahanamoku (look him up in Wiki. Very interesting guy), who introduced surfing to the world. The movie is Gidget, one of the first surf culture movies which spawned several sequels and TV spin-offs. The screen shot is of course from Pulp fiction. The term I was looking for was Big Kahuna. Kahuna is a Hawaiian word that means a healer. In the context of surfing, the big kahuna is the best surfer on the beach. The term traces its origin to the movie Gidget where Cliff Robertson is nicknamed that. It might have been used to refer to Duke though he rejected it since he knew its original meaning. The Hawaiian burger joint from where the burgers come in that famous scene from Pulp Fiction is the Big Kahuna. A couple of you had other equally valid (except for the oblique Pulp fiction bit) connects. Raghu, Hirak, Rajesh K, Keshav, Mrinalini, Krithi, Ramji, Iam and P got it. Well done.

Question - 380

Connect the man on the right to the event on the left. There is a slightly obscure technical term that owes its origin to the connection. Brownie points if you get it too.

Answer: The painting depicts the last day of Pompeii before it got buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Pliny the Elder who was a naval officer in a nearby area at that time attempted to sail into Pompeii both to observe the eruption directly and to help some friends who were stuck there. He met his demise in the city that day though not due to any effect of the volcano. The common assumption is that he had a heart attack while in Pompeii. In volcanology, eruptions of a certain degree of violence are characterized as Plinian in his honor (Krakatoa was an ultra-plinian). Hari, Srivats, Mekie, P (great answer for the technical term), Corina and Manix got it. Well done.

Question - 379

The man on the right made the notes shown on the left. He has been called the "most famous unknown actor in the world". Who is he and what are the notes for?

Answer: The notes are for the famous "Dawn of man" sequence that opens Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dan Richter, the man who played the lead ape (moon watcher) is also the choreographer of the scene. In the right, he is shown reenacting the famous scene when he throws a bone up in the air and it transforms into a spacecraft (called the longest flash-forward in movie history). The quote about him being the world's most famous unknown actor is due to Arthur C. Clarke. Karthik, Hari, Arvind, Mrinalini, Jaggi, Corina, Srivats and P got it. Well done.