Question 689

Today's question is by Matti Tapaninen. Who used this ticket?

Question - 682

Today's question is courtesy my brother Rajesh. What fiscal connection do these gentlemen share? This is an exhaustive list.

Question - 678

Who really won the election?

Question - 650

What is happening here?

Answer: Obama retaking his Presidential oath for the second time because he spoke a word out of sequence the first time around. Krithi, Rajesh K, Jamie, Matti, Divya, Divya Shankar, Krishna, Karthik and giantamoeba got it. Well done.

Question - 647

Who wrote this to whom?

Answer: A young Fidel Castro writing to FDR. If only FDR had given him the twenty dollars....Divya, Iam, Krithi, Divya Shankar, Matti, Trooper, Siddarth Pai, Saket, Jamie, Rajesh K, Deepanshu, Hari, Krishna and Kani got it. Well 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 - 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 - 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 - 582

What curious location for the starry symbology?

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 - 572

What do these painting allude to? (courtesy: Meki)

Answer: Norman Rockwell's paintings depicting the "four freedoms" espouse by Franklin D. Roosevelt: Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Dinesh, matti tapaninen, Krithi, and Divya Shankar got it. Nice job.

Question - 570

Identify. (courtesy: Meki)

Answer: A young Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband Michael Aris. matti tapaninen, Krithi, tsp, kapinjal, Ameya, Dinesh, Mihir, and Anand got it.

Question - 568

What curious incident?

Answer: A border dispute broke out between Costa Rica and Nicaragua where a territorial claim was made by citing Google Maps. Ameya, Krithi, Jaggi, and matti tapaninen got it.

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 - 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 - 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 - 471

What is happening?

Answer: A culture jamming group called The Yes Men have made a habit of pretending to be spokespersons for corporations and appearing on various shows to make shocking confessions and announcements on behalf of these corporations. Here, Andy Bichlbaum, a member of the group is posing as a spokesperson for Dow and fully accepts responsibility for the Bhopal disaster. Nemani, Karthik, Matti Tapaninen, Mekie, Raghu, hotmanoj and Hari got it. 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 - 374

National Lampoon, a famous humor magazine ran this mock ad satirizing this particular incident. This resulted in a legal action from Volkswagen claiming unauthorized use of its trademark. What is the incident being satirized?

Answer: The chappaquiddick incident involving Sen. Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne when Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and then left the scene of the accident. Mary Jo died in the accident and the fallout of the incident was a huge factor in Ted Kennedy not running for president in 1972. Even as late as 1980 when he finally did run, he wasn't quite able to live this one down. Jaggi, v. chandrashekar, Srivats, Raghu, Schmetterling, Rajesh K, Corina, mekie, Arvind, Manix, Mrinalini, Krithi, Debasish, guessthelogo, Arvind, P and Ramji got it. Well done.