The KISS Quiz

Udatta, 2012

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This Quiz, like Wikipedia, is released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Share-alike license. Most of the content has been shamelessly pilfered from there anyways….

Literature9%

Entertainment13%

Arts6%

Pop-Culture17%

Business8%

Sports5%

History8%

Animal Kingdom3%

Food and Drinks6%

Etymology5%

Science6%

Culture14%

Literature

Entertainment

Arts

Pop-Culture

Business

Sports

History

Animal Kingdom

Food and Drinks

Etymology

Science

Culture

India26%

Asia-Pac4%

Middle East5%America

18%

Latin America2%

Europe21%

Africa6%

No-Geo18%

India

Asia-Pac

Middle East

America

Latin America

Europe

Africa

No-Geo

These graphs have been generated by a random number generator , using a Microsoft software

Believe them at your own peril….

Please keep the answers simple

Kekule: Each question has vague and suspicious links to preceding and succeeding questions.

Scoring: 1 point apiece

If you get more than 7 correct, a bonus of 5.

NMT, AMPS, TACS, C-450, RTMI, TZ-801, TZ-802, TZ-803

All of these gradually got replaced by what generic, short and nightmare causing (to certain quarters) term?

1

Writer of this comic book series – Dial H - is a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics, a serious Socialist who ran for Parliament in 2001 and has a first name derived from the Cockney rhyming slang for “mate”.

Just give me the Cockney rhyming slang for mate.

2

The Shanghai World Financial Centre building – the second tallest building in the world today (?)

By what name do locals refer to this skyscraper?

3

4

Which idea, first tried out a on a bitch named Esmeralda, came about when Frank Gerowwalked into a blood bank that had started putting liquids in plastic bags as opposed to glass bottles, and “felt” a striking similarity?

5

6

You may encounter them on Taiwanese streets, where they are known by the commodity

they peddle. So what are these beauties referred to as?

A fast growing phenomenon in Kerala, they are called the X gangs. Those who hire their services give them a X. Mostly in their twenties, they roam around on motorbikes or ill-maintained Indian SUVs. They are ferociously protective of their territories, fight on the streets, and operate 24/7. The state is now teeming with them. They have also started subcontracting part of the X to college students.

7

Dr. Anu Vaidyanathan

Runs a company named PatNMarks – an IP consulting firm.

Computer Science Faculty at IIT Ropar and visting faculty in IIM A.

Professional in which unlikely (for her) sport?

8

Oscar Pistorius aka “The fastest man on no foot!”. He is also referred to by which “cinematic title”?

9

22 questions

2 points apiece

(part points at my discretion)

Francesco Coltelli, a Sicilian fisherman of the 17th century has two main claims to fame. One is for the fact that he is supposed to have invented/improvised Gelato and is often called “The father of Italian gelato”

The other more important contribution, with far-reaching impact in the worlds of arts, literature, politics, philosophy , music, paintings, and what-have-you-not (possibly in an oblique way, quizzing as well), pertains to something that he did in France in 1686 (and named after the last major historian of the ancient age who brought to light going-ons during the reign of the emperor Justinian)

What? 1

Explain how this distribution pattern of the two chimpanzee species came about.

2

3

In the late 18th century, the king of Mewar started a private postal system that was hugely successful in providing postal services in a region infested with murderous thugs and dacoits.

What unique and intuitive feature did the wise king incorporate into the service to ensure its success?

4

Nripendranath Chakravarty~ 1975

Puneet Gupta ~ 2010

The two Indian gentlemen below continued the grand tradition of something that was started by the duo on the left in 1958.

They are the only two Indians in quite a long list, but it is quite possible that this number is revised upwards as the wheel of time rolls on….

6

In March 1917, this German heavy aircraft make, capable of crossing the English Channel began bombing London directly causing widespread damage.

The aircraft became a feared household name.

What was its name? What other “havoc” did it precipitate?

7

He died at the age of 33 in 2004.

Analysis by doctors seemed to indicate that the reasons of his death harked back to an incident almost 14 years in the past. That incident had resulted in a hospitalization.

For a brief period of time, an important crossing in Delhi, marked today by a Vibhor Sogani creation, was named after him.

Which incident? And what is the name of Vibhor Sogani’s creation?

8

The ancient town of Modena is now best known as "the capital of engines", since the factories of the famous Italian sports car makers Ferrari, De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Paganiand Maserati are, or were, located here.

Why culinary artifact, made traditionally from a reduction of pressed Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes, which is subsequently aged for a minimum of 12 years in a battery of seven barrels of successively smaller sizes, each made of a different wood - chestnut, acacia, cherry, oak, mulberry, ash and juniper, originates from Modena?

9

In Bali, the indigenous peasant class has a naming system in which there are only 4 first names:

Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut.

What is the underlying principle? And why, according to sociologists, did this system arise?

10

• It is said that Banabhatta's X, contains the earliest reference to Y

“Under this monarch, only the bees quarreled to collect the dew; the only feet cut off were those of measurements, and only from Ashtâpada one could learn how to draw up a __________ ”

X, Y?

11

The black patches that you see in these buildings is caused by a fungus called the Baudoiniacompniacensis. It is also called the Angel’s Share fungus.

Why Angel’s Share?12

13Who is the odd man out?

Give me two reasons.

Human beings are members of a whole

In creation of one essence and soul.

If one member is afflicted with pain,

Other members uneasy will remain.

If you've no sympathy for human pain,

The name of human you cannot retain!

14

the entrance to the Hall of Nations of the UN building in New York

A method of eating the creature on the left led to the naming of the artifact on the right.

15

Most Japanese public bath-houses –the sentos – do not allow people with tattoos to enjoy their luxurious comforts.

Why?

16

“the gun-toting lady in the silk scarf, dangly earrings, bright lipstick and high heels” - Che

17

The 600 odd inhabitants of Kini island today are mostly descendants of the original 167 settlers who “arrived” here by way of Rongerik and Kwajalein.

Referring to Biblical stories which they had learned from Protestant missionaries, these 167 original settlers were compared to "the children of Israel whom the Lord saved from their enemy and led into the Promised Land” and despite repeated promptings and at least seven retakes, their chieftain, King Juda confined his on-camera remarks to, "We are willing to go. Everything is in God's hands.“

So which UNESCO World Heritage site did these 167 original settlers come from?

18

Where?

What?

19

20

A Miyazaki project which never got off the ground, as he never got permission.

Someone else’s in a round-about sort of way, and in a very different format did get off the ground, and became a world wide phenomenon. Whose?

• This annual classical music festival is held at the little known town of Vadhnagar in Gujarat, home to the legendary ____ ____ sisters (it cannot be fully ascertained if they were twins as many make them out to be)

It is said that they brought back a Raag Deepak induced “burning” Tansento health by their singing of the “Malhar” raag but when invited to sing in Akbar’s court, they committed suicide, as they belonged to the very conservative Naagar community.

Give me the name of the sisters/festival.

21

One of the most famous unintentional “product placements” in cinema came to an end in 2010, after 49 years, as a media company decided to emphasize the word “International” in the name of a publication it had taken over.

What was the placement format? Which publication?

22

Same rules as Round 2

Carmen: You're not very tall, are you?X: Well, I, uh, I try to be. Carmen: Not bad looking. Oh you probably know it. (while twirling and biting a lock of her hair)X: Thank you.Carmen: What's your name?X: Reilly. Doghouse Reilly. Carmen: That's a funny kind of name. X: You think so.Carmen: Uh, uh. What are you? A prizefighter?X: No, I'm a shamus.Carmen: What's a shamus?

1

“Nohkalikai Falls, Cherrapunjee” by Pankaj Kaushal. Why was this suddenly in the news in early May 2011?

2

• In many African countries, Wabenzi was a term used to refer to members of the new, and more often than not, corrupt, ruling class who superseded the colonial regimes.

• Why Wabenzi?

4

• Operation X , was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes.

This derives ultimately from a phrase in the Book of Isiah in the bible :

They will beat their ______ into ___X____and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. — Isaiah 2:4

5

• During the time of Saladin, the Muslim families of Goudia and the Nusseibeh, were assigned specific responsibilities. Inexplicably enough, this arrangement has persisted into modern times and the descendants of these families continue their family tradition.

• What arrangement?

7

• His achievements included:

– Role of ATP in muscular activity

– Folic acid (Vitamin B9) synthesis

– Development of Methotrexate – one of the very first chemotherapy agent

– Discovery of Hetrazane – used by WHO for filariasis treatment

– Discovery of the world’s first tetracycline antibiotic, Aureomycin

• Any one of these achievements should have been enough to guarantee him a professorship at Harvard. But he was a foreigner, a reclusive, nocturnal, heavily accented vegetarian who lived in a one-room apartment downtown, befriended only by other nocturnal recluses.

8

9

10

While some say that these names that you see on the map refer to the names of mistresses of one Christian de Castries, others say that they merely represent the alphabets.

That aside, layout of what?

• The earliest pan European student exchange program was called the “European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students”. This has since been replaced by the Socrates program and the Lifelong learning program.

• How was this program more popularly known as?

11

Sahyog (co-operative)

Darshani (on-sight)

Muddati (time-bound)

Jokhim (conditional)

Jawabi (acknowledgement)

are considered the main (but non exhaustive) variants of what?

12

• Suhura Ismail is Ethiopia’s “Businesswomen of the year” and is a highly respected entrepreneur in that part of the world. Ms Ismail owns an airline company “Suhura Airlines” but her business empire is founded not on cheap air-tickets, but on the 30,000 to 40,000 kilograms of “cargo” ferried daily on a fleet of 40 trucks that she owns, from highlands of eastern Ethiopia, around Awaday.

What is the basis of Suhura Ismail’s business empire? 13

…… is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.

Who about what?

14

What “concept” was probably first implemented by the Annalakshmi JanathaRestaurant in Singapore’s Chinatown?

And in which Delhi establishment, named after an important pass in Himachal, would you encounter something similar?

15

An excerpt form Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, 77 A.D. translates thus:

After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, GnaeusPompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of

a _____(a phrase)______; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.

16

Amongst the many uncommon musical instruments used

by this “group” include: 17

The Cimbalom

The Chapman Stick

Airpoles

The Tubulum and The Drumbone

The Shaker Gong

• Play is free, is in fact freedom.• Play is not “ordinary” or “real” life.• Play is distinct from “ordinary” life both as to locality and duration.• Play creates order, is order. Play demands order absolute and

supreme.• Play is connected with no material interest, and no profit can be

gained from it.

As enshrined in a 1938 book by Johan Huizinga, these are the five principles of “play” .

Which group of like-minded people on the internet take their name from the title of this book?

18

Mr. Aris Kindt was convicted for armed robbery and sentenced to death by hanging.

He was discussed in the 1999 novel The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald, and plays a significant role in Laird Hunt's 2006 novel "The Exquisite.“

“Where” would we have encountered Mr Kindt?

20

The Tower of Qabus was built in the eleventh century by a king whose body was supposedly suspended in a glass casket at the top of the tower.

In the early part of the 20th

century, few Westerners had seen the tower located in the spectacularly remote Golestanregion of Iran.

Enthralled by this description and determined to overcome the difficulties enroute, which classic of travel literature (according to some critics : what Ulysses is to the novel between the wars, and what The Waste Land is to poetry,) was written by one Robert Byron?

21

Discover magazine once remarked that it was quite possible for a postal letter to be addressed to this person using only the names of his discoveries and for this letter to be easily delivered!!!

Who would the letter have been addressed to?

22

10 Questions

Points: - +3/-2

Once the question is completed, I will provide a 10 sec window to all teams to decide if they want to answer the question or not.

If you want to answer, then raise your hand and WRITE down the answer.

Identify the animal in this Da Vinci painting entitled “Lady with an _______”

1

Children all over the world play cook and imitate the culinary practices of adults, in however crude a manner.

What is this practice called in Japanese, which is incidentally, also the name of a restaurant in Delhi?!

2

While it is instinctively associated by us with the Mughals, it’s foundations

were actually laid by Praversena II in about 100 AD.

Praversena had built a cottage to facilitate his frequent visits to the

hermitage of a local saint named Sukarma Swami, at the northeastern corner of a lake, and had given it the name meaning "Abode or Hall of Love”.

The cottage felt into disuse but in turn lent its name to the surrounding locality.

Locate and Name this original, which later did give rise to many spin-offs.

3

Cyanoacrylates were invented in 1942 by Dr. Harry Cooverand Fred Joyner of Kodak Laboratories during experiments to make a transparent plastic suitable for gun sights.

Although not appropriate for the gun sights, they did find that cyanoacrylates possessed another interesting property which led to this invention being converted to a useful product – still very much in use. What?

4

What got coined when Robert Kemp, a playwright and journalist, wrote in 1948: ‘Round the _____ of official drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before … I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!’.

5

This small city located on the Delhi-Shahranpur highway has three main claims to fame:

– Setting for a Ruskin Bond short story

– Providing the inspiration for the plot of Madhuri Dixit’s comeback movie

– Night-halt for Lord Krishna while trying to negotiate a truce between the Kauravas and the Pandavas (from which it probably derives its name)

6

It originated as a patent medicine around 1876 by Dr. Augustin Thompson of Maine. Thompson claimed that it contained an extract from a rare, unnamed South American plant, which had supposedly been discovered by a friend of his, Lieutenant _____ who had used it as a panacea.

Today in addition to being the state beverage of Maine, it is also a slang term meaning courage, nerve, or vigour.

What are we discussing?

7

They are not longThe weeping and the laughterLove and desire and hateI think they have no portion in us after We pass the gate. They are not long, ___ ____ __ ____ ___ _____Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream.

- Ernest Dowson (1896)

8

Strategic sea corridor with considerable Chinese influence starting from Hainan Island and

extending till Bab el Mandeb. By what “fashionable” name is this corridor more popularly referred to?

9

One theory says it originates from the large number of dairy farms in the region which was the cause for much happiness, other theories say that it is so because cheese moulds sold in the region were shaped like one.

What? 10

Thanks