Finals: The online version

THE SWINGING BALL

This substance is a white, crystalline solid in its pure state. It is often used in mixtures with plasticizers.

Its name stands for Research Developed _________

What is this substance?

RDX (Research Developed Explosive)

Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-livingtransparent nematode. It was the firstmulticellular organism to have its wholegenome sequenced. It is famous for its use inscientific research.

It is also famous because it was found alive inpetri dishes in aluminum canisters in a lockerin Texas on April 28, 2003.

Why?

These worms survived the re-entry and subsequent crash of Space Shuttle Columbia.

John Henry Anderson (1814–1874) was a professional magician, born in The Mearns, Scotland.

Anderson is famous for a lifetime of successful performances of the bullet catch illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at them.

He is also famous for another first in the field of magic.

What?

To pull a rabbit out of a hat

In 1931, when M. K. Gandhi visited London toparticipate in the 2nd Round Table Conference,this famous person wanted to meet him. ButGandhi declined the offer as he had neverheard of him or seen his work. However, onlearning that the person originally came from apoor family in London’s East End, Gandhireceived him. His first question to Gandhi wasabout his attitude to machinery. JournalistLouis Fischer describes it as an encounter‘between toothless and toothsome smiling’.Which person?

Charlie Chaplin

Purushottam Nagesh Oak (2 March 1917 – 4 December 2007), commonly referred to as P. N. Oak, was an Indian writer, notable for his Hindu-centric brand of historical revisionism. Oak's "Institute for Rewriting Indian History" issued a quarterly periodical called Itihas Patrika in the 1980s.

Oak claims that Christianity was originally a Vedic religion following Krishna and claims that Christianity was originally known by either the names Chrisn-nity or Krishna-neeti

In a 13 page pamphlet titled 'Was Kaaba a Hindu Temple?', Oak derives a claim of a "Vedic past of Arabia" based on an inscription mentioning the legendary Indian king Vikramāditya that Oak claims was found inside a dish inside the Kaaba.

In his book X: The True Story, Oak claims that X was originally a Shiva temple and a Rajput palace named _______ seized and adopted as a tomb.

What is X?

Taj Mahal

These started around 1950’s for revenue generation as a simple profit sharing agreement between Indian Railways and some private companies . western railways generated 26 lakhs in 2001 and 19 lakhs in 2010 but collection plummeted to RS 1.71 lakhs in 2012. As train frequency improves there is now little hope for their survival . What are we talking about?

Coin-operated weighing machines

Excerpt of a famous editorial of “The Sun.” FITB. Virginia,

Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.

All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a _____________. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no _________s! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Santa Claus

X is a war memorial located at Hyde Park in London.

It says: “They had no choice”

Who is it dedicated to (or) What is the name of the memorial?

To animals killed in war Beneath the main header, "Animals in War", the memorial

has two separate inscriptions; the first and larger reads: "This monument is dedicated to all the animals

that served and died alongside British and allied forcesin wars and campaigns throughout time"

The second, smaller inscription simply reads:"They had no choice"

Upon the rear or outside of the memorial are these words: "Many and various animals were employed to support British and

Allied Forces in wars and campaigns over the centuries, and as a result millions died. From the pigeon to the elephant, they all played a vital role in every region of the world in the cause of human freedom."Their contribution must never be forgotten."

If this was in 2001, what is it now?

The Wikipedia logo

This water-stained owned by Wallace Hartley

violin was sold for $1.7 million in an auction. Some people claim that the violin played last the Christian hymn “Closer to Lord, my thee” while others say that it played a happy song.

Significance?

The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in Southwest Asia south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and in the east, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia. The Levant does not include Anatolia (although at times Cilicia may be included), the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper. The Sinai Peninsula is sometimes included, though more considered an intermediate, peripheral or marginal area forming a land bridge between the Levant and northern Egypt.

How was this in news this year?

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, better known as ISIS

Shiva Keshavan (born August 25, 1981) is a five time Olympian and the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympic Games. He set a new Asian speed record at 134.3 km/h (83.5 mph) after beating the previous record of 131.9 km/h (82.0 mph) and won gold medal in Asia Cup 2011 at Nagano in Japan. In 2012, he set a new Asian track record at 49.590 seconds.

He has been flagbearer for India at the Winter Olympics in 1998, 2002 and 2010, but was unable to do so in 2014.

Why?

India was suspended by the IOC and played under Independent Olympics Athletes

RNB Research is a global market research company, headquartered in New Delhi, India. RNB Research operates through its own offices in 15 cities across 10 countries - China, Egypt, GCC, India, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Thailand & Vietnam.

RNB Research specializes in qualitative and quantitative custom market research. It has experience in most major sectors, particularly consumer products, media, retail, financial services, food and beverages, technology, telecommunications and internet research.

In an Indian context, why was this in news in 2014?

(Hint: Chanakya)

News 24: Today’s Chanakya was the only exit poll that predicted 330+ seats for NDA, making it the most accurate exit poll.

(No part points)

“The major thing that cost him very heavily was a fracture of the cervical spines C1 and C2. When you have fracture at C1 and C2, the blood supply at the brain gets cut off because the vertebral artery gets damaged immediately,“

Who said this? About which incident?

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhanaabout the death of Gopinath Munde

This incident happened as a result of the decision of the case TusharArun _____ vs State Of Orissa & Ors on 26 November, 1996

UP Governor Romesh Bhandari, federal ministers Chaturanan Mishraand Janeshwar Mishra, and UP Congress chief Jitendra Prasad, together with a host of Congress leaders and the city mayor, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, were present at the spots while hundreds of people watched from the banks of the well known confluence of there rivers - Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.

Much to everybody's surprise, there was a somewhat lukewarm response from the locals, though city mayor Rita Bahuguna Joshi attributed it to the "lack of publicity". And went on to say: "Well, if it had been declared a holiday, perhaps there would have been much greater participation of both schoolchildren and men and women."

But for the presence of two United Front government ministers and a few local Samajwadi Party leaders, it remains a largely Congress dominated show.

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who was earlier stated to be coming for the ceremony, eventually dropped the programme. "He had not only told me when I met him on October 2 last year that he would come, but I had also received a written confirmation from him in this regard later. I am not aware why he chose to call it off.

Which incident?

Immersion of Gandhiji’s ashes at the Sangamwhich were earlier kept in a locker at the main branch of SBI, Cuttack

X did not want to take up a particular responsibility. Finally, he says what changed his mind was a meeting with the then Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, who had called him to his parliamentary office. “It was hard to say no to the Prime Minister,” he says. And, the rest, as they say, is history.

Like his father, X is not overtly religious but he “prays” every morning to “no one in particular” before he leaves for his office.

Who is X?

Introduction to themes in his shows always had a certain pattern. Who was this person? And FITB.

(No part points, as a person identifying just one of the two means that it has been googled)

1. Aurat

2. Lal Qila

3. _________

4. Dharti Ma

Person: BR Chopra, Blank space: Samay

Introduction in show Nikaah: Main aurat hoon

In Bahadur Shah Zafar: Main Lal Qila hoon

In Mahabharat: Main Samay Bol raha hun

In Visnu Puran: Main Dharti Ma hoon

(Long story) Source : The TOI Liz Calder was a close friend of Salman Rushdie. In

fact, for almost three -and-a-half years, she had stayed as the lodger in a small house in which Rushdie lived with his first wife, Clarissa. Calder would sleep at night in the room in which Rushdie wrote his first novel, Grimus, by day.

Unknown to him, she would sneak looks at the manuscript. She was promoted from the publicity department at the publishers Victor Gollancz and became an editor just as he finished 'Grimus'. When it was done, she published it and so his first novel as an author was also her first novel as a publisher.(continued in next slide)

Then in 1986, Calder left Jonathan Cape, the publishing house where she was working, and became one of the founders of a new publishing house, X, just as Rushdie was giving the finishing touches to his new novel, The Satanic Verses. As Rushdie describes it in his recently-released memoir, 'Joseph Anton' (in which he writes about himself in the third person), "Because of their friendship, there was an assumption that he would follow her. His British agent was the highly respected Deborah Rogers, also a close friend of Calder's. Deborah quickly agreed with Liz that 'the new Rushdie' would go to X for a modest fee, as the new publishing house couldn't afford high advances. Andrew Wylie (his agent in the US) told him that if he accepted a low figure in the UK, it would ruin the book's prospects in the US. After much hesitation, he agreed...The sweetheart deal was cancelled, Liz and Deborah were both deeply hurt... His love of his chosen friends had sustained and nourished him, and the wounds his actions had inflicted, even though they were justifiable in business terms, felt humanly wrong.“

Liz came to feel that she had dodged a bullet. If she had published the 'Satanic Verses', the ensuing crisis, with its bomb threats, death threats, security expenses, building evacuations and fear would very probably have sunk her new publishing venture right away." Instead, X flourished and eventually went on to discover an obscure, unpublished author who had been previously rejected by 12 publishing houses. The author's name was Y. The rest is publishing history.

X and Y please?

Connect:

2015 is the connect. Declared as year of light and year of soil by the UN General Assembly.

Quiz Kids, a popular radio and TV series of the 1940s and 1950s, was created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan.

The premise of the original show involved Kelly asking questions sent in by listeners and researched by Eliza Hickok and Rachel Stevenson.

One of the notable ex-Quiz Kids is the Nobel Prize-winning biologist James D. Watson. Others include actor and dialect coach Robert Easton, legendary Hollywood acting coach Roy London, producer Harve Bennett, poet Marilyn Hacker, Mayo Clinic Chief of Staff Richard Sedlack, and actress Vanessa Brown (deceased).

The Quiz Kids not only spawned a host of quiz shows starring both extraordinary and ordinary people, but also gave rise to the now more-popular term “X," first applied to the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies “X", and later to several cabinet members in the Kennedy Administration.

What is X?

Whizkids

The highest cricket match was played at the Everest Base Camp at a height of 5,165 m. It was played between Team X and Team Y.

What is X and Y?

Tensing and Hillary

This image of Tony Immoos is a 2010 snapshot of the location of a famous 1996 image. Which image?

Bliss. The default desktop image of Windows xp. Called as the most viewed image of the past decade.

After the murder of the captain of a ship Heartsease by Eskimos in 1612, a practice was born, which is followed even today almost all over. What practice are we talking about?

Flying the flag at half mast as a mark of respect to the deceased.

X was put up for auction in 1915 by the Antrobusfamily following the death in World War I of the only surviving male heir. Cecil Chubb's interest in the local area led to him attending the sale, with him bidding and purchasing Lot 15 on a whim for £6,600 (about £461 thousand / €587 thousand / $759 thousand today) as he wished to avoid the X being acquired by someone overseas. It is also speculated that he bought the stones as a present for his wife, only for her to be less than pleased with his new purchase.

He gave X to Great Britain on 26 October 1918. X?

Stonehedge