Enigma School Quiz 2013 - Finals

ROUND ONE

INFINITE POUNCE+10/-5

1.In the year 2000, Bill Cinton signed an order, which benefited most of the world and the way the world used this particular service offered by the USA.

Until 2000, this service was offered with a certain glitch, which was rectified thanks to this order.

What am I talking about?

And the answer is…

GPS.

The US initially deliberately allowed the world access to an imprecise version of GPS, which Bill Clinton decided to change.

2.The origin of this phrase is said to have come from a Native American tradition. The tradition involved two warring tribes disposing their _________ under the roots of a white pine, after coming to an agreement and agreeing to peace.

What is this phrase?

To bury the Hatchet.

Ivan Pavlov.

4.This is a word given to someone who assists the huntsman during a hunt for foxes and other quarry, and is responsible for helping the hunter keep his hounds organised while in the field. He or she rides along the side of the hunt, gives the hounds orders, and encourages them to pursue particular quarry. Another derived word is now a commonly used political term referring to a politician with a similar duty.

What’s the word ?

This is a video of a musician, playing a very popular theme/music, in the style of another musician.

Identify the song and the style.

The Darth Vader song (The Imperial March) in Beethoven’s Style.

7.Dr Clanet and his colleague David Quere were studying the trajectory of bullets when they made their sporting discovery.They used water and plastic balls with the same density as water to "simplify the problem".Dr Clanet described this path as a "snail-shell shaped trajectory", with the curvature increasing as it travels.Because the point of impact was 35m from where it mattered, more of this spiral trajectory was visible. So the apparently physics-defying sharp turn was actually following a naturally tightening curve.This approach eliminated the effects of air turbulence and of gravity and revealed the pure physical path of a spinning sphere.

The results have been published in a paper titled The spinning ball spiral in the New Journal of Physics

What am I talking about?

Roberto Carlos’ wonder goal

8._____ is a meat preparation, where the meat is placed on a spit and may be grilled for as long as a day. Shavings are cut off the block of meat for serving, and the remainder of the block of meat is kept heated on the rotating spit. Although it can be served in shavings on a plate, _______ also refers to a sandwich or wrap.

Sales of ________ went through the roof after Z, playing X makes a reference to it in Y. This is now known as “The Z Effect”.

Fill In The Blank.

Shawarma

10.Greg Parker is a retired American highway maintenance worker from New York. Greg Parker has a been doing something for over 15 years that has led to him gaining notoriety and has since led to AP banning reporters from approaching him for quotes about happenings in the public.

Why did AP ban reporters from asking him for quotes?

The Most Quoted Man in The News

He has been quoted at the ‘Average Man’ in the street in over 100 articles by almost all newspapers in the US.

This has finally led to AP banning reporters from approaching him.

11. Where would you find this set of signatures?

The back-case of the original 1984 Macintosh

12. These peculiar creatures are known to withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, pressures about 6 times stronger than pressures found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than would kill a person, and the vacuum of outer space.

They can go without food or water for nearly 120 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce.

Known to be one of the most complex of all polyextremophiles, what are these micro-animals called ?

Tardigrades/Water bears/Moss piglets/Elephant worms.

13. In 1928, Cedric Gibbons supervised this design by printing the design on a scroll. In need of a model, Gibbons was introduced to Mexican film director and actor Fernandez. Reluctant at first, Fernandez was finally convinced to pose.

Then, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Gibbon’s design in clay and cast it in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it.

What is this all about ?

And the answer is ...

Oscar Statuette.

14. This is The Guardian’s write-up on which superhero?

Name: _______Age: Mid-20s, or thereabouts.Appearance: A mysterious black-clad superhero, taking on the Taliban one school at a time.Cool, a superhero. What's his superpower? Oh dear. First of all, ______ is a woman.A female superhero? So her superpower must be the ability to show off, like Scarlett Johansson in that poster for The Avengers. Not quite. ______ is a master of Takht Kabaddi, a martial art that uses books and pens to defeat her enemies.You mean figuratively? She beats her foes with intelligence? No, she literally just clonks them around the head with books and pens.In one episode, a villain's plan to destroy London and Paris with a giant robot is scuppered by his inability to get a European visa.

The Burka Avenger.

15. How would you connect the following ? Mother Nature (a globe) Scribble (an origami-esque cat) Power Pup (a superhero dog) Will (a caricature of William Shakespeare) Bosgrove (a butler) Kairu the Dolphin The most famous of them all, Clippy.

And the answer is …

Microsoft Office Assistants.

ROUND 2

Written Round. +10

The Presidential Set

This a set of photographs of Barack Obama at various iconic locations on various dates. Identify the place or occasion.

Written Round+10

The Presidential SetAnswers

This a set of photographs of Barack Obama at various iconic locations on various dates. Identify the place or occasion.

Nelson Mandela’s prison cell in South Africa.

10th Anniversary of 9/11, at the 9/11 Memorial in New York.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Obama seeing his Nobel Peace Prize medal for the first time.

G8 leaders watching the UEFA Champion's League final in 2012.

Shwedagon pagoda in Myanmar.

Marthin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech’s 50th Anniversary.

Rosa Park’s iconic bus.

ROUND TWO


1. Rahman performing where in 2010 ?

The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo.

2. The following is extracted from the article “X finally toppedby Y!” dated August 21, 2013:

“Y bumps X from the top spot in a recent survey by ComScore.It is noted that X has been No. 1 since April 2008. While Y’snumbers have fluctuated, reaching the No. 2 or No. 3 positionoccasionally, but never making it to the top.

The boost comes shortly after Y’s purchase of the very popular

blogging site Z in May.”

X, Y, Z?

X – GoogleY – Yahoo!Z – Tumblr

3. Coined by Dr. Howard J. Bennett in a Letter to the Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine on October 30, 2003 – this condition is intended to denote a generalized headache usually arising from reading gigantic volumes of books sitting uninterrupted for long hours of time.

The condition is named after a certain institution in a highly popular series of modern literature, which most of have undoubtedly read. What is this condition?

Hogwarts Headache.

4. Space Oddity is a song written and performed by David Bowie and released as a music single in 1969. It is about the launch of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut; its title alludes to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It made news world over when it was first recorded. It was recorded in a certain manner or in a certain place, which made it one of a kind. What was unique about the song?

The first music video to be recorded in space.

5. ''India is like a historic father of the project,'' Paolo Giubellino, CERN spokesperson said on a certain momentous occasion in July 2012.

But the very next day, Milan K. Sanyal, the director of the prestigious Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta wrote to CERN expressing his indignation on behalf of the Indian scientific community and demanding credit for something.

P.M. Bhargava, director of the CCMB, backed up the demand saying – “I believe it is a deliberate omission; this is not the only such case.”

What was the omission about ? What was the demand ?

Capitalizing the B in ‘Higgs boson’, because ‘Boson’ was coined as a tribute to Satyendranath Bose.

6. This is a picture of Shell’s oil refinery, who is protesting against Arctic drilling?

Greenpeace vandalizing Shell’s refinery to protest against arctic oil drilling.

7. Norway has an excellent recycling program which handles the waste generated in Norway. But this has led to a unique problem of Norway not having enough waste for its thermal electricity power generators.

To fix this problem, what did Norway resort to, or where does Norway source its waste from?

It imports waste from Sweden. It buys tons of waste every year from Sweden.

8. The following names are examples of aptronyms. What is an aptronym?

• Usain Bolt – Jamaican Sprinter• Russel Brain – Neurologist• Margaret Court – Tennis Player• Jim McGovern – Politician• Bob Rock – Music producer• Scott Speed – Nascar racer

Aptronyms are names that are suited to a person’s character.

9. Identify this cricketer and tell me why is he holding up this sign which reads: ‘YEA VIV TALK NAH’

Denesh Ramdin of the West Indies cricket team responding to criticism against him from Viv Richards after scoring a century.

10.The following is an excerpt from a 1924 article:

“… could not explosives even of the existing type be guided automatically in flying machines by wireless or other rays, without a human pilot, in ceaseless procession, over a hostile city, arsenal, camp or dockyard”

These are Churchill’s words. What did Churchill describe over 80 years before they came into regular use?

Drone Warfare.

11.The __________ is a semi-organized group of English cricket fans which arranges touring parties for some of its members to follow the English Cricket Team on overseas tours. The group was given its name by the Australian Media during the 1994 to 1995 test series in Australia, reportedly for the fans’ audacity in travelling to Australia in the near certain knowledge that their team would lose, and the fact that they kept on chanting even when the English were losing badly.

Due to their popularity and regular attendance they were sometimes called England’s unofficial 12th man.

Barmy Army.

13.Who is a faceboother?

Someone who changes his/her profile picture repeatedly

14.X is an English professional boxer who made his debut on 30 November 2012. His first match was against American boxer Richard Dawson on a points decision. X has a one hundred percent record in boxing. X has his own show in which he challenges the legends of various adventure sports. Although he was more widely known for his contribution in a different sport which he played for the majority of his life. Id X

Andrew Flintoff

15. Where would you find this motif and what is it describing?

Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination; At his memorial.

ROUND ONE


2.Catull is an old style serif typeface designed by Gustav Jaeger for the Berthold foundry in 1982.

It was used in a very iconic logo, which has thus been seen by millions of people.

Google Logo

3.As of 2008, the engineers have been using the NX CAD software suite to model the elements. The software allows the parts to be optimised by way of mould flow and stress analysis. Prototype moulds are sometimes built before the design is committed to mass production. The ______ is heated to 232 Celsius until it attains a dough-like consistency. It is then injected into the moulds at high pressure, and takes approximately 15 seconds to cool. The moulds are permitted a tolerance of up to two micrometres, to ensure the _______ remain connected. What is the process that is being described here?All of the blanks are not the same.

Manufacturing Lego Blocks

4.This is a conversation between Calvin and X in a Calvin and Hobbes spinoff comic stripCalvin- Hey what's with the same T shirt X, you can afford some nice clothes, you know!X- I just like the way it looks Calvin. Nice clothes don’t interest me. See despite my success I'm still a normal everyday guy.X- Also marketing department says I’m branded this way and can’t change.Give me the name of the spinoff

Calvin and Jobs

5."It's very hard and tiring for all of us, because the country and my city Madrid worked a lot to make it happen so many times. We feel that we deserve it. I was disappointed because we felt that we were in a good position. All the country was very involved.

I felt that after a lot of years working, I don't know if it's 100% fair that we go out at the first qualification when our opponents haven't been in that position as many times.“Whose words ?

Rafael Nadal, on Madrid losing out on the bid to host the 2020 Olympics.

6. This is a movie still from an upcoming movie. Who is this movie based on?

John F. Kennedy

7.In 1997, three Yemeni men, sued NASA for ownership of ___________. They claimed that it was inherited by them from their ancestors over 3000 years ago.

They filed a lawsuit in a Yemen court, and demanded that all operations in __________ be suspended until a court verdict.

"It's a ridiculous claim," NASA news chief, chuckling. “____________ is a property of all humanity, not two or three guys in Yemen."

8.Kailashgiri is a famous hill-top tourist destination in Vizag. This year, they introduced a number of measures to promote tourism in the area.

One of these eye-catching measures, was inspired by Hollywood.

What was this measure?

• A Hollywood style ‘VUDA - KAILASHGIRI’.

What are these cross-sections of?

Golf Balls

9.

This is a screenshot of the website ‘canyoufindit.co.uk’. This website was set up in September with an open challenge to all British citizens to crack the code. A similar challenge last year has had only 170 successful solutions out of 2.3 million.

Whose challenge was this or what were British winners eligible to work for If they cracked the code?

A chance to work for the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) of UK.

Which will offer them a chance to work with the MI6.

10. This is an author describing the inspiration for his book. ID the author and the book.

“I have been asked to tell how I came to write ______________. Well, I like animals, and it would be odd if I failed to write about them. Animals are a weakness with me, and when I got a place in the country I was quite sure animals would appear, and they did.

A farm is a peculiar problem for a man who likes animals, because the fate of most livestock is that they are murdered by their benefactors. The creatures may live serenely but they end violently, and the odor of doom hangs about them always

As for ______________ herself, I had never paid much attention to spiders until a few years ago. Once you begin watching spiders, you haven’t time for much else—-the world is really loaded with them. I do not find them repulsive or revolting, any more than I find anything in nature repulsive or revolting”

EB White - Charlotte’s Web

11.In 2012, Mattel’s Hotwheel’s released a new car as a part of the 247 cars it released that year.

This car was launched to commemorate and immortalize ____________ and is a 1:64 scale model of _____________.

It is a die cast model but does not include things like cruise stage, chute or sky crane rig like the original. But the plastic mould shows the many tools like a drill, cameras and a laser. FITB.


Curiosity

12. A unique project has been started by a Russian percussion group called ETHNOBEAT from Irkutsk Technical University where they tour to a particular location to record a sound which they believe cannot be reproduced elsewhere.

The group owes the project to an incident where the wife of one of the drummers, had previously fell down when they were touring there, producing an intriguing musical sound during impact.

Where is the recording done?

Baikal Lake.

13. Initial regulations stated that packages sent via the U.S. Parcel Post Service (began on January 1, 1913) could not weigh more than 50 pounds.

In Feb 1914, Mr. and Mrs. Pierstorff were responsible for a rather bizarre post from Grangeville, Idaho to Lewiston, Idaho. The justification for this was penury.

On 13 June 1920, this practice was officially forbidden in public interest, after many other such instances. What peculiar trend was this ?

Sending children by the postal service, because it was cheaper than rail travel.

14. Charlemagne, also known as Charles The Great, was the King of the Franks (France) from 768, the King of Italy from 774, and the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

He was called “The Father of Europe” as his empire united western Europe for the first time since the roman empire. Charlemagne died in 814 after having ruled as Emperor for just over thirteen years.

How do we know him better?

Depiction on the King of Hearts card.

15. This track, recorded by Hans Zimmer is a choral arrangement of a theme from The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack.

However, this track is not a part of the original album and was released almost a month after the movie’s release.

What is the purpose behind its recording?

Intended to raise funds for the victims of 2012 Aurora Shooting incident.

The track is called “Aurora” and contains all the melancholic parts of the original TDKR soundtrack.

Enigma School Quiz 2013 - Finals

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