Question - 686

There is an age-old legend about this English town X. The rhyme in the first visual is one example of this legend. A famous writer used X as a nickname for another city in the magazine shown in the second visual. This nickname came to refer to the city itself in the early 20th century and even now, there are many shops in the city with this name. Shown in the third visual is one such famous one. X is also famous in another context. Identify X.

Aside: Sporadic updates shall be the norm for a while since things are a bit crazy at work.

Question - 681

Nothing special about the car but where (just after a rain) is this shot taken?

PS: I am traveling for the July 4 long weekend. I won't have any updates till after America is 235 years old.

PPS: This reminds me of a very bad cryptic clue I saw once - "235? (5)". Any guesses?

Answer: Utah's Bonneville salt flats - the terrain here is perfectly suited for attempting land speed records. Mekie, Jamie, Arpit, Siddarth Pai and Krithi got it. Well done. The answer to the cryptic clue is usage.

Question - 674

Where is the light coming from? The base is surrounded by plaques like the one shown on the right.

Answer: Imagine Peace tower that Ono erected in Lennon's memory in Iceland. The aurora borealis was hopefully a clue. As is the plaque in Tamil :) Raghu, Barry Belmont, Krithi, Ramki, Siddarth Pai, Krishna and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 666

What is the controversy around the logo? The place in the first visual can serve as a hint.

Answer: Iran claims that the logo for the 2012 Summer Olympics subliminally reads Zion and hence are threatening to boycott the event. The place of course is Zion national park. Question dedicated to the intrepid souls that hiked Angels landing this memorial day. Raghu, Divya Shankar and Dips got it. Krithi points to another controversy related to the logo. Well done all.

Question - 662

Identify him.

Answer: Robert Stroud aka the birdman of Alcatraz. Raghu, Matti, Ameya, Iam and Krishna got it. Well done.

Question - 628

Connect an aspect of the central figure of the painting in the bottom left to the other three images. In the top left, the circled portion is relevant to the connect.

Answer: The painting is Liberty leading the people by Eugene Delacroix. Lady liberty is wearing the Phrygian cap, a cap that is similar to the one that freed slaves wore in ancient Rome. Especially after the french revolution, that cap has come to signify freedom and is also called the Liberty cap. The other 3 pictures show formations called liberty caps due to their structural similarity to the Phryigian cap. The visuals are liberty cap peak of Mt. Rainier, liberty cap mushroom and the Liberty cap dome next to Nevada falls in Yosemite (this is the reason I posted this question). Raghu, Siddharth Pai, Saket, Divya, giantamoeba, Krithi and Iam got it in varying degrees. Well done.

PS: One of the people who answered surprised me considering how that person has never been to Yosemite and how that person ditched a group of people who had all planned a trip to Yosemite solely for that person's sake.

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 - 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.

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 - 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 - 525

Satellite view of what?

Answer: The Nazca lines in Peru. Matti Tapaninen, Ameya, Kaushik and tsp 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 - 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 - 313

Where is this viewpoint (the ridge in the foreground) located? Who is it named for and why?

Answer: This is the John Ford overlook point in Monument Valley. It is named after the American director John Ford who set many of his westerns (The Searchers for example) here. Karthik, Iam, Rajesh, Krithi and Mohan got it. Well done.

Question - 311

When and where has this picture been taken?

Answer: This is the Trinity test site in New Mexico after the explosion of the first ever atomic bomb. The people looking on include Robert Oppenheimer (the one in the hat) and General Groves (the one in the far right). Karthik, Srivats, Mohan, Raghu, Iam and Hirak got it. Well done and apologies for denying you your daily fix (as Hirak puts it).

Question - 307

Satellite image of what famous location?

Answer: This is the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one of the largest temple complexes in the world. The temple is supposed to be a representation of Mount Meru with the five towers symbolizing the five peaks and the moat symbolizing the ocean. Srivats, Raghu, Iam, Rajesh and Manix got it. Krithi came close but went with the other famous Khmer temple in Thailand. Well done. Here is the link to a recent National Geographic article on one of the plausible causes for the downfall of the Khmer civilization.

Question - 299

The relic shown in the second visual is located atop the mountain shown in the first visual. This mountain is sacred to almost all major religions of the world. According to Islam, this relic is the remnant of a certain person's descent to earth and thus named for him. The geographic feature in the third visual is also named for the same person. Identify all visuals.

Answer: The mountain is Adam's peak in Sri Lanka also known as Sivan Adi Padam. The relic on top is shaped as a footprint which various mythologies attribute to various religious figures (Siva - Hinduism, St. Thomas - Christianity, Adam - Islam, Buddha - Buddhism). According to Islamic myth, Adam did a penance on one foot for 1000 years at this location to atone for his eviction from the garden of Eden. After the penance, he traveled via the Adam's bridge shown in the third visual into Idnia and then beyond. I had always wondered why the sand bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka was called Adam's bridge (also known as the infamous Ram Setu). Now I know. Srivats, Raghu, Hari, tsp, Mekie, Krithi (way to go appa), Ramki, Iam and Arun got it. Well done.

Question - 289

Identify the city.

Answer: Duckburg in the state of Calisota (California + Minnesota). The tower with the dollar sign is that of Scrooge McDuck, the world's wealthiest duck. Raghu, Hari, Anirudh Patil, tsp, nice try, anshul, rajeev, Trevor Burnham and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 287

Where is this marker located? What is the significance of the number on it?

Answer: This is the end of the Trans-Siberian railway at Vladivostok. The number on the marker is the distance the trail travels from Moscow to Vladivostok. Srivats, Schmetterling, Hari, Iam, Renuka, Raghu, Vetti, Swapnaa, Adi, Rajesh and Anshul got it. Well done.

Question - 286

This is the zoology department at a very famous university. Why is the statue the way it is?

Answer: The statue is that of the poor zoologist Agassiz whose fate it is to be buried head first at the entrance to the department in Stanford University. His statue fell off the pedestal during the notorious 1906 San Francisco earthquake and it has been left as such as a memorial to the event. Vetti, Iam, Anand, Renuka, Srivats, anon, Schmetterling, Adi, Hirak and Rajesh got it. Well done.