Question - 690

Identify the area between the curves.

Question 689

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

Question - 675

Today's question is courtesy Matti. Whose POW card is this?

Answer: Gunter Grass,the German Nobel laureate whose membership in the Waffen-SS during WWII was revealed after almost 60 years. Arpit, Karthik, Krithi, Siddarth Pai and Deepanshu got it. Well done.

Question - 648

Identify the painter.

Answer: Abbott Handerson Thayer - the man who studied and wrote about protective coloration in the animal kingdom which eventually led to the concept of military camouflage being used in WWI. Siddarth Pai, Krithi, Jamie, Divya and Divya Shankar got it. Iam did not. Well done.

Question - 634

Sorry for the late update. A question symbolic of how my week has been. Identify.

Answer: This is the wreckage of Gary Powers's U-2 spy plane - the one that the Soviet shot down and the US denied ever existed. Matti, Jamie, Krithi, Siddarth Pai, Kaushik and Divya Shankar got it. Well done.

Question - 623

Today's question is courtesy Matti Tapaninen. Shown here is the start of what major event of the late 20th century?

Answer: The visual shows the British garrison in Falklands surrendering to the Argentinian forces thus starting the Falklands war. Ameya, Jaggi, Karthik and Siddarth Pai got it. Well done.

Question - 556

Identify the location and its significance.

Answer: The site of the Battle of the Red Cliffs, which served as the precursor to the era of the Three Kingdoms in China - described in the Chinese epic, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". mekie and Dinesh got it (though I still don't get Dinky's "Stannus occulus" reference).

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 - 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 - 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 - 416

Identify man and instrument.

Hint: Only 2 hits so far. The instrument is famous not for its contribution to music but for its contribution to war.

Answer: No further correct responses despite the hint. This is comedian Bob Burns playing a musical instrument of his own devising (from stove pipes and a whiskey funnel) called the Bazooka. He used it often in his shows and GIs borrowed the name for their rocket launchers due to the structural similarity. Iam and Prachi got it even before the hint. Well done.

Question - 406

Identify both men.

Answer: The men are Walt Disney and the legendary space architect Werner Von Braun. I posted the question for Von Braun but apparently with Walt Disney he made some educational videos for television. Debashish, Kaushik, v. chandrashekar, Arvind, Kamal Rathi, Ramki, Rajesh K, Hirak, anon, Iam, Krithi, Amresh and Raghu got it. Well done.

Question - 404

Identify the building in the foreground.

Answer: This is the Hiroshima peace memorial also known as the Atomic Bomb Dome. It is the closest building to the hypocenter of the atom bomb that survived at least partially intact. Kaushik, P, Ramki, Mekie, Krithi, Rajesh K, Chithananda and Rithwik got it. Well done.