Question - 468

Memorial for what?

Answer: This is Buddy Holly's memorial near the site of his plane crash (the day the music died). Shibin azad, Nemani, Karthik, Matti Tapaninen, Rajesh K, Rithwik and v. chandrashekar got it. Well done.

Question - 467

Identify the building.

Answer: The Pennsylvania paper & supply company's tower featured most prominently in the opening credits of The Office. paragbm, Nemani, Sumit, Mohan Phadnis, Raghu, Jaggi, Karthik, hotmanoj, NJ and Rajeev got it. Well done.

Question - 466

Identify him. This one is probably a bit too geeky even by my standards.

Answer: The man is British mathematician and physicist Roger Penrose. He is standing on a floor tiled with an aperiodic tiling pattern that he discovered in the 70s. While it is trivial to tile a space with periodic tilings (square tiles for example), Penrose found a family of aperiodic tiles that have no translational symmetry. Raghu, Rajesh, hotmanoj and Amresh got it. Well done.

Question - 465

The pictures show two of the most famous events of this kind. Identify the events.

Answer: The answer I was looking for was the "Last Spike" - an event marking the end of construction of a railway when they get some celebrity to drive the last spike in. The two visuals show the construction of Grand Trunk Pacific railway and the Canadian Pacific railway. Mohan Phadnis, Nemani, Jaggi, Adi, Krithi, Matti Tapaninen and hotmanoj got it. Well done.

Question - 464

This is a child's doodle. What did this inspire?

Answer: John Lennon's son Julian drew this and called it Lucy in the sky with diamonds. At least, that is the excuse the fab four came up with for writing a song about acid. Anirudh Patil, Nihar, Avi, Adi, Rajeev, Nemani and Krishnan got it. Well done.

Question - 463

Identify the event and the associated memorial.

Answer: The sinking of the Greenpeace ship The Rainbow Warrior off the coast of Auckland by agents of the French government. While originally planned as a sabotage, it resulted in the accidental death of a photographer named Fernando Pereira. There was a major fallout between the French and New Zealand governments and this event went a long way towards shaping New Zealand's policy on nuclear weapons. Krithi, Matti Tapaninen, Prachi, Karthik, Mohan Phadnis, 2lrbl, Schmetterling, Corina and Rithwik got it. To the QM's intense delight, Iam guesses incorrectly. Well done.

Question - 462

What is happening here?

Answer: Dorando Pietri, an Italian marathon runner in the 1908 Olympics marathon who repeatedly collapsed during the finishing stages of the race. He was helped up by the officials each time and finally crossed the line to win the gold. However, the American team protested this external aid and got him disqualified. The resulting press made him very famous. Krithi, Manix, Pavan, Rohit, anon, Adi, Arvind, Rajesh, anon, Iam, Matti Tapaninen, Hirak, Mohan Phadnis, Nemani and Rithwik got it. Well done.

Question - 461

This is another attempt at a tangential connect similar to Q444. Identify each of the images and the central theme connecting them. The connect isn't exhaustive (only a few items left out though) and some images connect to the theme more tangentially than others.

Hint 1: The connect isn't related to Greek mythology (at least not directly).

Hint 2: The connect is movie related.

Hints on how each visual connects to the theme (from top to bottom, left to right): Her lineage, his (not dubya's) nickname, the custom, the ferryman (slightly vague), the company, the story that inspired the movie, her Greek name and a generic term for the characters.

Answer: The visuals are Sophie Neveu from Da Vinci's code, Karl Rove with the Bushes, the practice of Sati, Charon the boatman from Greek myth, the BMW Oracle that won the America's cup in 2010, a scene from 2001: A space Odyssey, Persephone from Greek myth and Phoebe and Ursula from Friends. The connect I had in mind was that these are the names of some of the programs in the Matrix trilogy. The connects are as follows: Sophie Neveu is a descendant of Jesus through the Merovingians, Karl Rove was nicknamed the Architect, Sati is straightforward, Charon inspired the trainman character, BMW Oracle is owned by Larry Ellison of Oracle, 2001 (novel & the film both) was inspired by a short story called the Sentinel, Persephone is obvious and the Buffays are twins. Iam, Pavan, Rajesh, Jaggi, Karthik and Mohan Phadnis got it. buckingfastard identified most of the visuals before the hints. Well done all.

Question - 460

These are the two most famous examples of what?

Answer: The answer I was looking for was Kill Screen - the name given to a level in a video game beyond which it is impossible for any player to proceed due to fundamental programming flaws or design oversights. They are most often found in the early arcade games (Pac-man and Donkey Kong shown here) where register overflow errors were the frequent culprits. The Pac-man kill screen is especially famous with even a $100,000 reward for a player who can get past this level. Mekie, Iam and Hari got the answer I had in mind while Adi and Schmetterling went with more generic connects. Well done.

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.

Question - 439

Identify the building.

Answer: This is the latest incarnation of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. buckingfastard, Raghu and Krithi got it. Well done.

Question - 438

A trilogy that he wrote has led to the design of the flag shown. Identify him and the flag.

Answer: Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a trilogy about terraforming Mars. The three books were Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars reflecting the changes the planet undergoes as time goes on. The colors have since been adapted into a (unofficial for now) flag for the planet. Kamal Rathi, Ajinkya, Bharath, anon, Matti Tapaninen, anon, Krithi, Karthik, Rajesh, An0n, Adi, Kaushik, Arvind, buckingfastard, Arun Mallya and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 437

Identify the lady. The answer is workable from the image.

Answer: This is Eleanor Thornton, secretary of mistress of Lord Montagu, a British politician and an avid motorist. Montagu created a mascot called The Whisperer for his beloved Rolls Royce using Thornton as the model. A variation of this mascot called The spirit of Ecstasy has adorned all Rolls Royce models since 1911. reeju, Matti Tapaninen, AJ, Abhra, Prachi, anon, Krithi, Jaggi, Rajesh K, Karthik, Iam, Paddy, anon, Arun Mallya and Krishnan got it. Well done.

Question - 436

Logo of which organization? Which now common phrase owes its etymology to this symbol?

Answer: This is the logo of the Pinkerton detective agency the members of whom served as a kind of private militia. The agency was employed by many industrialists to infiltrate and keep a check on labour unions including the Molly Maguires, a case that was fictionalized in the Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear. The logo gave rise to the term Private eye for a detective. Kaushik, Karthik, Matti Tapaninen, Arvind, Raghu, Ajinkya, Iam, Abhra, Rithwik, Ramji, v. chandrashekar, Adi, Rajesh, the novice and Hari all got the agency right. Some got the etymological connect I had in mind as well. Well done.

Question - 435

Identify the (in)famous photograph.

Answer: This is the final and most famous photograph in a series of photographs of fairies taken by two girls in Cottingley around 1917. Many mystics including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took the photos to be real and took it as proof of the existence of fairies. The girls maintained that the pictures weren't fake for the longest time. Kamal Rathi, Ajinkya, Karthik, Kaushik, Mekie, Raghu, Reeju, Hirak, nice try, Pavan, Manix and Prachi got it. Well done.

Question - 434

Today's question is courtesy Anand. Identify the three occasions and connect.

Answer: All 0ccasions involve US in a sporting event against a country that the US is in war with (officially or unofficially). The events are the Miracle at Lake Placid in the 1980 winter Olympics, US vs Iran in the 1998 World cup and the recent Twenty20 match between US and Afghanistan. Ajinkya, Arvind and Rajesh got the connect right while many others had the events right. Well done all.

Question - 433

Identify the guy in the middle and the occasion.

Answer: This is Nikita Khrushchev who once took off his shoe and started banging on the table to attract attention at the United Nations general assembly. Krithi, Hirak, Manix, Ramji, Rajesh and Pavan got it. Well done.

Question - 432

This is an exhaustive list. Connect.

Answer: The people are Winston Churchill, Raoul Wallenberg, William Penn, Hannah Callowhill Penn, Mother Teresa, Marquis de Lafayette and Kazimierz Pulaski. These are the only people to date who have been conferred the honorary citizenship of the United States. Kaushik, Rajeev, Bharath, Anshul Kharbanda, Adi, Hari, Rajesh, Ajinkya, Swapnaa and Aparna got it. Well done.

Question - 431

Whose tombstone is this?

Answer: Ok, this one is embarrassing. Apparently, this isn't his real tombstone and the question is also a repeat as Debasish points out. It would have been a singularly appropriate tombstone for George Carlin and his seven dirty words routine. Debasish, Karthik, Kaushik, Divya, Anand, Schmetterling, Iam, Amresh, Manix, Krishnan, Arvind, Shweta, Hirak, Rajesh, Bharath, Rajeev, Krithi and Matti Tapaninen (by mail) all got it anyway. Well done all and apologies for the inaccurate question.

Question - 430

Identify man and object labeled A.

Hint: Few correct responses so far. The man is shown with the invention he is famous for. The object labeled A is a famous dummy which was used in place of an actual human being because the machine got too hot for any human subject to be used.

Answer: This is John Logie Baird posing with his first television. The incandescent bulbs used made it too hot for any human being to be used as a test subject. Instead, Baird used a ventriloquist's dummy named Stookie bill as the test subject. The first images of Stookie bill (there are no pictures from Baird's experiments. These images are recreated now by rebuilding Baird's setup) look rather like the guy from the Saw movies. Karthik, Saswata Das, Ajinkya, Jaggi, Amresh and Venkatakrishnan got it. Well done all.

Question - 429

Where is this? Why does it look the way it does?

Answer: This is the "meeting of the waters" when the sandy Amazon river meets the black waters of the Rio Negro. For some 6 km, the two rivers run side by side without mixing due to differences in water temperature, speed etc. I came to know of this in an excellent documentary on the amazon called Amazon: Super River. Kaushik, Mythreyi R, Iam, Krithi and Ajinkya got it. Well done.

Question - 428

What is happening?

Answer: This is Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church in 1517 sparking the Protestant reformation. Ramki, Raghu, Ajinkya, Mohan Phadnis, v.chandrashekar, Kaushik, Hirak and Bharath got it. Well done.

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.