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 - 544

Identify.

Answer: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, along with Divya Narendra - co-founders of ConnectU and part of the Facebook-origins story. Srivats, mekie, Divya Shankar, and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 543

Identify and connect the two people on the left.

Answer: Recently minted Nobel laureate Robert Edwards - who pioneered in vitro fertilization - and Louise Brown - the first "test-tube baby" - pictured alongside her own "naturally-conceived" baby. Divya Shankar, Matti Tapaninen, Shravan, mekie. anon, and Dinesh got it. Well done.

Question - 542

This cartoon (allegedly) depicts the origin of what commonly used phrase?

Answer: The phrase is rule of thumb. According to Wikipedia, the cartoon satirizes British judge Sir Francis Buller for allegedly ruling that a man may beat his wife, provided he use a stick no thicker than his thumb. Matti Tapaninen, mekie, Jamie, Firebringer, Dinesh, and Anirudh Patil got it right.

Question - 541

What French expression originated from this piece of art? (Aside: the expression may resonate with many quiz/trivia aficionados)

Answer: The expression is Le Violon d'Ingres or Ingres's Violin. It refers to a hobby or pastime that one excels at. It is a reference to the French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres who was also an excellent violin player. Matti Tapaninen, Vetti, tsp, Dinesh, and Hirak got it right. As Hirak points out, the expression did not really originate with this piece of art.

As most of you would have noticed, the blog updates have been non-existent this last month and sporadic for a good while before that. I am having difficulty finding good questions consistently and would like to take a break from the blog for a while. If any of you are interested in running the blog in the meantime, please let me know. If no one comes forward, I am hoping to return to the blog after a hiatus. Those of you who would like a notification when the blog does resume, please leave an email ID in the comments section of this post. Of course, I won't publish the comments but might use your IDs if I want to launder some money I inherited from a Nigerian relative. Since you can't be too careful with the bots, leave your ID as "name AT domain" or in some such format.

Its been great fun and I loved running the blog. I am still as into quizzing as ever and if you are in the bay area, do check out our monthly "Bay Area quiz club" meetings (send me an email if you would like to know when/where the club meets).

For now, I leave you with one more geeky farewell/question.

Question - 539

What is shown? The red square in the middle is text blanked out by me.

Answer: This is the 3-D logo of Wikipedia unraveled and spread out. The red square is the distinctive 'W' in English. The N/A in the image represent the hole in the logo. Ramki, Devadutta D Ghat, tsp, Iam, Krithi, Anurag, അവസ്ഥാന്തരങ്ങള്‍, nitinsunny and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done.

Question - 538

Identify the place.

Answer: A dry Niagara falls (the American side). Civil Engineers dammed the river that fed the falls while they strengthened the cliffs and the river bed against erosion. Mekie, Jaggi and Raghu got it. Well done.

Question - 537

Identify the man in the center of the picture.

Answer: Hayao Miyazaki, God of animation. Kamal Rathi, Raghu, Shravan, Jaggi, Anurag and tsp got it. Well done.

Question - 536

What are these? A particular combination of the engravings found in these (and other such) stones is very familiar to us in the modern technological world.

Answer: These are Jelling stones, stones erected by Harold Bluetooth in memory of his parents. Two of the runes present in these stones combine to give us the symbol for bluetooth technology. Two anons cracked it. Well done.

Questioin - 535

Connect the woman to the practice shown in the first visual.

Answer: The first visual shows a bunch of people being sprayed with DDT as a "health" measure against malarial attack. The second visual shows Rachel Carson whose revolutionary Silent Spring outlined the dangers of DDT and gave birth to the environmental movement as we know it today. Kamal Rathi and Jamie got it. Well done.

Question - 534

Who are these people?

Answer: These are the Marx brothers with their mother. tsp, v.chandrashekar, anon, matti tapaninen, Kamal Rathi, anon, Raghu and nice try got it. Well done.

Question - 533

Connect the two visuals.

Answer: The connect is the ongoing trial of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's war crimes and him presenting Naomi Campbell with blood diamonds during a party hosted by Nelson Mandela in 1997. The movie is of course Blood diamond. Karthik, Ameya, Krithi, Anand, anon, Arvind, Matti Tapaninen, Hari, Vetti, Mekie, nice try, Hirak, Kamal Rathi, Mihir, Raghu, Rajesh K and Nitin Sunny got it. Well done.

Question - 532

Shown is a town on the pacific coast in the state of Oregon. X was commissioned to write a magazine article on a major ecological problem that this town faced. His article never got published but what did the research X did on the topic result in?

Hint: This question has garnered all of 0 hits so far. His article was title "They stopped the moving _____" and the ecological problem mentioned is actually visible in the picture.

Answer: The city is Florence, Oregon where the famous Oregon sand dunes are located. Their erosion and inward march into the city were studied by Frank Herbert for a newspaper article. He based his Dune universe and its desert ecology on his findings from this study. Hari, Mekie, Arvind, Krithi and Nitin Sunny got it. Well done.

Question - 531

Shown are some members of a famous club. Which club?

Answer: The RNA tie club - 20 members one for each amino acid with an additional four honorary members representing each nucleotide. The club's stated aim was to solve for the RNA structure and to understand how it builds proteins. Kamal Rathi, Matti Tapaninen, Mekie, anon, Rajeev, Ramki, Ramji, Arvind, Raghu and Hirak got it. Well done.

Question - 530

Who is next in this list?

Answer: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, India's leading bowler in cricket (don't believe me? Check out Jeopardy). He just became the most capped player in the history of test match cricket. Colin Cowdrey, Sunil Gavaskar, Allan Border and Steve Waugh were the record holders before him. Mihir, Rajesh K, Anand, AJ, anon, Rajeev, Jaggi, Jamie, v.chandrashekar, Arvind and Ramki got it. Well done.

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.

Question - 511

Today's question is courtesy Anand. This is a picture taken in 1956. What is being loaded onto the plane?

Answer: This is the very first computer hard disk which had a massive 5 MB storage. Shravan, Raghu, Krithi, Aravind, Jamie, v.chandrashekar, Karthik, neuron.spike, Arvind, iamtheicebox, sumo_ftb, Renuka, Adi, Kaushik, Aaslesh, Akshay, Matti Tapaninen and Nihar got it. Well done.

Question - 510

Where is this located? What does it signify?

Answer: The sculpture is called the Broken Chair and is located opposite the Palais de Nations in Geneva and is a reminder of the tragedy of landmines. Economics Reader, Matti Tapaninen, Ramji, Vetti, sumo_ftb, Krithi, Arvind, anon, tsp, Adi, Anand, Shravan, Aaslesh, Swapnaa, Jamie, Karthik, neuron.spike, Hari, Anshuman, Jaggi, Kaushik and Akshay got it. Well done.

Question - 509

The device shown in the left was invented in the mid 18th century and is used to store static electricity. To increase capacity, multiple devices are often coupled as shown. Benjamin Franklin gave a certain name to this assembly based on its similarity with the group shown on the right. Identify the device and the name.

Answer: The device is the Leyden jar and its arrangement resembled a battery of cannons from which we get the word battery for any charge storage device. Karthik, Akshay, Anand, Krithi, Iam, Hari, Govind Paliath, Rajesh K, Vetti, Arvind, Adi, Jaggi, Jamie and paragbm got it. Well done.

Question - 508

Whats the significance of the score?

Answer: Nadia Comaneci's perfect score was displayed as 1.00 since the scoreboard wasn't equipped to display a 10.0. If I had waited a couple of days, I could have had a nice connect between this and the Isner-Mahut scoreboard. Akshay, Mihir, RV, Jaggi, Hirak, anon, Mekie, v. chandrashekar, Jamie, Rajesh K, Karthik, Arvind, Ramji, escapist, tsp, anon, Mainak, Manix, Vetti, Ramki, nice try, Kaushik, Iam, NJ, Firebringer, Shravan and Anand got it. Well done all.

Question - 507

Today's question is courtesy Manix. What product is this ad for?

Answer: The ad is for Xerox 914 photocopied which recently celebrated its 50th birthday. Mekie, Jamie, Anirudh Patil and Swapnaa got it. Well done.

Question - 506

All that remains of this once (in)famous site is a stone pillar (first visual) to mark its location. The second visual is a model of how this site might have looked like. Which site?

Answer: The Rashomon gate which inspired the short story which inspired Kurosawa's famous film by the same name. Debasish, Jamie and Akshay got it. Well done.

Question - 505

The structure shown in the second visual (the one with the white arch) is in front of a famous landmark and is built to commemorate the event shown in the first visual. Identify and connect.

Answer: The first event is the 1923 finals of the FA cup at the Wembley stadium dubbed the "White horse" final. The bridge in front of the stadium is called the white horse bridge to commemorate this. Ramki, anon, Matti Tapaninen and Shibin azad got it. Well done.

Question - 504

Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about soccer but I had to have a soccer question to mark the occasion. This concept was developed by the man in the first visual and refined further by the men in the second and third visuals. The footballer in the fourth visual is its most famous exponent. What are we talking about?

Answer: The concept is Total football. The men are Jack Reynolds, Rinus Michels and Johan Cryuff. Aravind, Ramji, AJ, White Jack and Black Lagoon, v.chandrashekar, Raghu Kainkaryam, anon, Karthik, Krithi, Ramki, anon, imitator and Matti Tapaninen got it. Well done.

Question - 503

What similar event is about to happen in the two visuals?

Answer: These are two occasions when unix time reached interesting landmarks - 1000000000 and 1234567890 respectively. Kaushik, Jamie and Adi got it. Well done.

Question - 502

Today's question is courtesy Krish. Identify the blanked out portion of the first visual. For bonus points, connect the answer to the second visual.

Answer: Bibendum is the Michelin man. In the French version of Asterix in Switzerland, the man holding the chariot wheel is the logo of the oil company Antar. It was replaced by the Michelin man in the English translation. Obelix says in the next panel, "Call me fat! Did you see HIS spare tyre?". Priceless!!! Karthik, White Jack and Black Lagoon, Anirudh Patil, Semisimplicity, Kamal Rathi, Lt Col Shankar, Jamie, anon, Krithi, Pranav, Hirak, AJ, Manix, Adi, Mainak and Ramki got it. Well done.

Question - 501

Identify the artist.

Question - 500

Matti Tapaninen wants you to identify what this is and who it is named for.

Akshay M. R. wants you to identify what the ad is for.

Vateez didn't really send this as a guest question but I really like the question. Identify this place.

Answers: 1) Vespasian - a street urinal named for the Roman emperor. Anon, Jaggi, Krithi, Kamal Rathi, Rajesh K and Jamie got it.

2) The ad is for Guinness. Akshay, anon, Jaggi, Krithi, Kamal Rathi, Rajesh K and Jamie got it.

3) Kowloon walled city. Jaggi and Kamal Rathi got it. Well done all.

Aside: Yaay!!! Finally got to number 500. Thanks to all who have contributed to the blog. Send in any comments and questions you have.

Question - 349

Connect.

Aside: I found out sometime back that we missed a question and so here it is - Question 349. Also, I was thinking we can have a guest question marathon to commemorate the 500th question. Please (re)send your questions/suggestions/gripes to me in the next couple of days.

Answer: The visuals are Ostrich, twinkie, King Kong and Chewbacca. These are names of bizarre legal defense strategies. The Ostrich defense is another name for the idiot defense and seems to have thrown some of you off. The Chewbacca defense is a South Park invention but the others are from real life. White Jack and Black Lagoon, Raghu Kainkaryam, Rajesh K, Manix, Iam, Arvind and Jamie got it. Brownie (twinkie?) points to Krithi for a valiant if surreal attempt that would have done Bunuel himself proud. Well done.

Question - 499

What is this?

Answer: This is a political cartoon parodying the redrawing of legislative districts in Massachusetts during an election in 1812 to align more favorably with party affiliations. Its resemeblence to a salamander made the cartoonist term it a gerrymander and the name stuck. Kamal Rathi, Ameya, Akshay, anon, Matti Tapaninen, Vetti, Jamie (you must have known the etymology too, right?), anon and Kr!sh got it. Well done.