Question - 684

Which religious denomination does this man belong to? He holds the head wear of his religion in his hand.

Aside: Updates have been sporadic this month. I will try to be more regular.

Question - 683

This is a new fad. What are they doing?

Question - 665

Identify the women in the painting. Connect one of them to the second visual. The connect is slightly tangential.

Answer: The painting is that of Orpha, Ruth and Naomi from the Book of Ruth. Orpha is the given name of Oprah Winfrey whose friends found it too hard to pronounce it and changed it to Oprah. Orpah literally means turning back in Hebrew and Oprah turned her name backwards to name her production company Harpo. The picture is of course Harpo Marx. Question marks the conclusion of the wildly successful Oprah show and I was hoping the tags would help with the tough visuals. Krishna is the only one to get it. Bravo.

Question - 653

Identify the man. To the right is a poem he wrote.

Answer: This is Major James Abbott, a British colonial officer stationed in India after whom the city and district of Abbottabad are named. You might have heard about this town in the news recently. Deepanshu, nice try, Kapinjal Chowdhury, Divya Shankar, Siddarth Pai, Matti, Raghu, Hari, arpit, anon, Divya, Krishna and Mekie got it. Well done.

Question - 635

Identify the man. Something named for him has been in the news for the past 3 weeks.

Answer: Rolf Sievert, the man after whom the unit of dose equivalent ionizing radiation is named. In the news after the Japan nuclear accidents. This was a toughie and only Matti and Raghu got it. Great job guys.

Question - 617

This year's winner at what famous event?

Answer: The Sapporo snow festival. Jaggi and Krithi got it. Nicely done!

Question - 615

Connect through a term. The left-most person in the black-and-white picture is important.

Answer: The term is "bunga bunga" now popularized by the parties hosted by Silvio Berlusconi (top right). One of the earliest references to this term was in the Dreadnought hoax perpetuated on the British Admiralty by a team consisting of Virginia Woolf (left-most in the B/W pic and top left played by Nicole Kidman in The Hours). Sribharath, matti tapaninen, Abhishek, mekie, and Dinesh got it.

Question - 614

Identify and connect.

Answer: The character Bane (left) in the upcoming Christopher Nolan movie Dark Knight Rises will be portrayed by Tom Hardy (right). Ameya, Hari, matti tapaninen, cobra 2020 fan, Kate Spartan, and Iam.

Question - 612

What does this map depict? (Note: "It" is measured on a 10-point scale)

Answer: The Democracy index, which measures the state of democracy in 167 countries. Deepanshu, mekie, and Saket got it. Well done!

Question - 605

What was this curious event?

Answer: Tulip mania. The figure charts the price of tulip bulb contracts showing the tulip bubble burst dramatically in February 1637 (as Dinesh pointed out, a history-of-the-day question courtesy Wikipedia). Ameya, Dinesh, and Kaushik got it. Great job.

Question - 604

What is this? (via: Manix)

Answer: Internet traffic from Egypt during the January revolution. Sameer Gauria, Shyaps, Saket, arvind, and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 603

Connect (non-exhaustive).

Question - 588

What are they doing?

Answe: NORAD tracking Santa. Rajesh K, Dinesh, Iam, Manix, Hari, and mekie got it. Well done.

Question - 582

What curious location for the starry symbology?

Question - 581

Fill in the blanks with a public phenomenon.

Answer: Percent of people in those country who paid a bribe . Dinesh, mekie, Jaggi, Krithi, and Vetti got it. Nicely done.

Question - 577

What amazing discovery?

Answer: The sensational, and now disputed, discovery of microbes in Mono Lake, CA, that switched Phosphorus for Arsenic in their DNA. matti tapaninen, NJ, Jaggi, Dhruv, AJ, mekie, IamAlwaysDemethylated, Dinesh, Mihir, Divya Shankar, and Hari got it. Nicely done.

Question - 576

What is the significance of the highlighted spot?

Answer: The spot marks the location on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama on DEcember 1, 1955, where Rosa Parks sat when she was asked to move to the back of the bus. Dinesh, illiteratepoet, matti tapaninen, Divya Shankar, and Manix got it. Well done.

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 - 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.