November quiz

Dinesh
Raghu &
countless Internet
blogs
• This theory is not backed by any historical
records but is deemed plausible. In the days
before electricity, the rooms below the decks
were completely devoid of any lighting. Even
oil lamps presented a fire hazard and hence
were avoided. But sailors often had to travel
above and below the decks and this practice
supposedly arose to facilitate this movement.
In modern times, this practice has occasionally
been used by military pilots involved in battle
scenarios involving nuclear weapons. What
practice is it?
• Sailors wearing eye patches so that one eye
always has night vision. They can switch the
patch to expose the covered eye when going
below decks.
• Early aircraft pilots used to do this too when
flying at night to avoid losing vision as a result
of flying over brightly lit cities
• Nuclear explosions can cause flash blindness
and eyepatches can keep at least one eye
functioning.
• In the northern hemisphere, weather patterns
are such that this side of any mountain is
generally the coldest, iciest and most
formidable to climb. The founders of this
company chose this name to reflect their
extreme dedication to their mission. For their
logo, they chose a stylized interpretation of
one of the greatest big walls (rock faces that
require multi-pitch climbing often lasting
several days) of the world. Identify the
company.
• North face
• This controversial and gimmicky choice beat
out Mahmoud Ahmedinejad for the honor.
The image was made using Mylar panes of
which 6,965,000 pieces were ordered from a
company after they were sworn to secrecy
and made to sign a confidentiality agreement.
The image also featured a visual pun in which
a streaming video is buffering with 20:06
minutes of playtime remaining. What are we
talking about?
• Time Person of the Year in 2006 – You
Connect
• Mark Sanford’s famous disappearance in June 2009
to visit his mistress in Argentina when the governor
of South Carolina couldn’t be contacted for 4 days.
He attempted to cover it up by saying he was hiking
the “Appalachian trail”. This has given rise to a meme
when “hiking on me” has become an euphemism for
“cheating on me”.
• Appalachian trail is one of three long distance hiking
trails in the US (with Pacific crest trail and
Continental divide trail). Its approximately 2200 miles
long and goes from Georgia to Maine.
• And Tango Makes Three is a 2005
children’s book written by Peter Parnell
and Justin Richardson. The book is based
on the true story of Roy and Silo, two
penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo.
• According to the American Library
Association, this is the most challenged
(requested to be banned/removed from
libraries) book for 2006,07,08 and 2009.
• In Missouri, parents had the book moved
to the non-fiction section.
• In Illinois, parents asked schools not to • Why all this controversy over a
lend the book out of their libraries without
children’s book?
parental permission.
• ACLU (American civil liberties union)
advised the Board of Library Trustees that
unrestricted library access to the book in
public libraries is protected by the first
amendment.
• Roy & Silo were a male-male pair.
• Zoo keepers observed them trying to hatch a rock that resembled an egg
and gave the pair a real egg (from another penguin pair that couldn’t
hatch the egg) to hatch. Roy and Silo hatched and raised the young chick
(Tango).
• After 6 years of paired behavior, they parted in 2005. Roy is single while
Silo now has a female partner.
• There is extensive documentation of homosexual behavior in penguins
and almost all other species of animals and birds but in the past, there has
been significant observer bias in reporting these.
• He is a prolific mountain climber who is the first to climb all 58 of
Colorado’s 14ers (mountains above 14000 ft) solo in winter. He has
climbed Mt. Denali, Mt. Kilimanjaro and plans to climb Mt. Everest soon.
His autobiography, which he published in 2004, is titled Between a Rock
and a Hard Place.
• Who is he?
• Aron Ralston, the subject of Danny Boyle’s 127 hours.
• While canyoneering near Moab, Utah, he was pinned against the canyon
wall by a dislodged boulder. He hadn’t told anyone of his hiking plans and
knew no one will be looking for him. After 5 days of struggle, a severely
dehydrated and disoriented Ralston amputated his pinned hand using a
dull blade after first breaking his arm bones with a chockstone. He then
rappelled down a 65 foot wall and hiked 8 miles back to civilization.
• Historically, these have been associated with colors and the
table depicts the mappings for some of the Asian cultures.
What significance does this mapping have?

• Hint?
• These colors were associated with cardinal directions (NESW
and center). Thus, the various geographical features lying in a
given direction get named after these colors

– Red sea: South of Turkey

– Black sea: North of Turkey
– Huangho (Yellow river) : Central china
– Huangshan (Yellow mountain) : Central china
– Golden horde : Army of the central mongols
– Belarus (literally white russia) : Westward from Mongolia
– Qingdao (Green island) : a city on the east coast of China
• A legendary contract agreement

• What’s the reason behind the

weird stipulations?
• Van Halen was one of the first bands to have huge
productions taken into secondary and tertiary markets. Since
these markets don’t have experience hosting such big
concerts, the band wanted to make sure the hosts read the
entire contract. So they slipped in weird clauses and insisted
that they be met.

• PS: I don’t know about the KY Jelly.

• St. Ambrose is one of the 4 original Doctors of the
Church and was the Bishop of Milan in the 4th
century. Ambrose displayed a kind of liturgical
flexibility that kept in mind that liturgy was a tool to
serve people in worshipping God. He maintained that
liturgical practices should not become a rigid entity
that is invariable from place to place. When
Augustine of Hippo came to Milan from Rome, he
observed that the Milanese church does not fast on
Saturdays unlike the church in Rome. However,
Ambrose refused to be drawn into the controversy
and his resolution of the problem is famously
remembered today. What did he do?
• His advice to Augustine
– When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
• My friends, each of you is a single cell in the great body of the State. And
today, that great body has purged itself of parasites. We have triumphed
over the unprincipled dissemination of facts. The thugs and wreckers have
been cast out. And the poisonous weeds of disinformation have been
consigned to the dustbin of history. Let each and every cell rejoice! For
today we celebrate the first, glorious anniversary of the Information
Purification Directive! We have created, for the first time in all history, a
garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom secure from the
pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thought is a
more powerful weapon than any fleet or army on Earth! We are one
people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk
themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion! We
shall prevail!“
– Where will you find these words?
• Apple’s famous 1984 ad – these are the words that “Big
brother” is speaking in the background.
• Anya Major is the athlete in the ad and she also starred in an
Elton John music video.
• This is the largest of its kind in the world. The centerpiece is
the Ericcson Globe in Stockholm, the largest hemispherical
building in the world. Three other parts are located in
Stockholm itself at distances of 2.9 Km, 5.5 Km and 7.6 Km
from the Ericcson Globe. The 4th part is just outside of
Stockholm in the city of Danderyd, 11.6 km from the globe.
The next parts are respectively 40, 73, 143 and 229 kms away.
Other parts also exist, the farthest one being 950 km from the
globe and is housed in the town of Kiruna above the Arctic
circle. What is this?
• Sweden solar system – the largest
scale model of the solar system with
a scale of 1:20 million.

• There is also a Bangalore solar

system in the works headed by a
group of students from Srishti
school of Art, design and
technology.
• Scorecard from a unique match. Explain
• Only forfeiture in the history of test cricket.
• SA vs England – 5th test at the Centurion. SA were 155/6 when
rain intervened and washed out days 2,3 and 4. Hansie Cronje
and Nasser Hussain made a deal for SA to bat till they get to
250 and then declare. England would then declare at 0/0
(since only 2nd innings can be forfeited according to the rules)
followed by Cronje’s forfeiture.
• England won by 2 wickets with 5 balls remaining. SA had
already taken an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series and won
the series 2-1
• It later emerged that a bookie had approached Cronje and
asked him to ensure that the game would end with a result.
• A wave equation describes how disturbances travel through a membrane.
These propagation modes are always linear combinations of certain
fundamental modes called eigenfunctions. The eigenfunctions in turn
depend on the shape of the membrane, its physical properties and
boundary conditions.

The L-shaped region formed by 3

unit squares is an interesting
example since it is one of the
simplest geometries for which no
analytical solution is possible.
Numerical computations are
necessary and this is complicated
by the singularity in the non-
convex corner.

Question : How do we best know these eigenfunctions of the L-

membrane?
• The MATLAB logo – a stylized combination of
the first two eigenfunctions.
• This verse is frequently quoted at the remembrance services
for fallen soldiers.
• The epigram is said to be written by Simonides to honour the
Greek who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.
• However, it has become widely known after a similar verse
was engraved on the 2nd division Memorial at Kohima that
marks those fallen in the Burma campaign during the second
world war. The verse is attributed to one John Maxwell
Edmonds.
• What’s the verse?
Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by
That faithful to their precepts here we lie
• This one-day-in-a-year service began in 1955 and was the
result of a misprint in a phone number placed in a newspaper
ad by Sears. The program has used a variety of media
including telephone hotlines, radio and television. Since 1996,
they have a major presence in the internet. The program
relies on volunteers to make the service possible and the
team typically receives more than 12000 emails and more
than 70000 phone calls from more than 200 countries. What
service is this?
• NORAD tracks Santa.
• Paul Hewson was born and brought up in Dublin where he was part of a
surrealist street gang called Lypton Village. As part of the gang, he had
several nicknames : first he was Steinvic von Huyseman, then just
Huyseman, then Houseman, then X vox and finally just X.
• X vox is a slight modification of the name of a hearing aid shop in the
neighborhood. Hewson supposedly got the nickname because he sang so
loudly it seemed like he was singing to the deaf. X didn’t like his nickname at
first but came around to it when he learnt that the name of the shop
translates to good voice in Latin. Identify X.
• Bono – He and I have both been Time’s
Persons of the Year.
Reverse Round
• Barbe-Rouge (Redbeard) is a Belgian comic book series very popular in Belgium, France and
the Netherlands. They have as yet not been published in English. The main characters are
– Redbeard – the captain of the pirate ship Black Falcon
– Eric Lerouge – adopted son of Redbeard. A nobleman who dislikes piracy but is forced
to adopt the lifestyle for various reasons. Blond haired even though his surname is “the
red”
– Tripod – so called for his wooden leg and walking stick. An inventor & geographer.
Speaks the classical languages fluently.
– Baba – an escaped slave of African origin.

• How are they better

known?
• They are the inspiration behind the pirates of
the Asterix universe.
• This was supposedly created by Judah
Loew ben Bezalel, the chief rabbi of
Prague in response to the killing of
the Jews by Rudolf II, the holy Roman
Emperor in the late 16th century. The
Rabbi created this out of the mud
from the banks of the Vlatva river. He
brought it to life with magic and set it
upon the gentiles. The Emperor
begged Rabbi Loew to destroy it,
promising to stop the persecution of
the Jews. This he did and it’s remains
are supposedly stored in the attic of
the Prague synagogue. Legend has it
that it can be restored to life again if
needed. What is it?
• The Golem – a fixture in
many D&D games.
• Strongly recommend
Bartimaeus Trilogy by
Jonathan Stroud. The
Second novel revolves
around a golem.
• Pagliacci – the opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

– In Watchmen, Rorschach compares the joker to Pagliacci.

– A common quip : “The perennially depressed Groucho
Marx is the only one Groucho Marx can’t cheer up”. A
similar joke is often said about Pagliacci.
– In The Untouchables, Robert De Niro playing Al Capone
cries during the opera
– The Seinfeld episode “The Opera” has tons of references
to the opera.
• This is considered one of the best covers of all time and the
caption is based on a pop phenomenon that was engulfing the
world at that point.
• Climax from a big budget 1980s movie. What’s
special about the move?
• Movie is Harikrishnans. The climax has Juhi Chawla’s
character picking one of Mammootty or Mohanlal to
be her lover based on a coin toss!!! Different endings
were shot to be screened in different parts of Kerala
based on which of the two mega-stars were more
popular there. There were plans for a third ending to
be released in “neutral” areas with SRK getting the
girl but they didn’t materialize.
• Connect the locations and the man.
• Pink Floyd were finalizing their recording of Shine on in the studios when
an overweight and not entirely sensible Syd Barret walked in replete with
shaven head and eyebrows. The drugs had so ravaged him that he didn’t
even realize that the song being recorded is about him - "Remember when
you were young, you shone like the sun“ and "You reached for the secret
too soon, you cried for the moon".
• The locations are Mono lake and the Warner Bros studio were the famous
cover picture was taken.
• Arthur C. Clarke’s back of a postcard story. What is it about?
• Earth's flaming debris still filled half the sky when the question filtered up to Central from the Curiosity Generator.

"Why was it necessary? Even though they were organic, they had reached Third Order Intelligence."

"We had no choice: five earlier units became hopelessly infected, when they made contact."

"Infected? How?"

The microseconds dragged slowly by, while Central tracked down the few fading memories that had leaked past the Censor Gate,
when the heavily-buffered Reconnaissance Circuits had been ordered to self-destruct.

"They encountered a - problem - that could not be fully analyzed within the lifetime of the Universe. Though it involved only six
operators, they became totally obsessed by it."

"How is that possible?"

"We do not know: we must never know. But if those six operators are ever re-discovered, all rational computing will end."

"How can they be recognized?"

"That also we do not know; only the names leaked through before the Censor Gate closed. Of course, they mean nothing."

"Nevertheless, I must have them."

The Censor voltage started to rise; but it did not trigger the Gate.

"Here they are:________________________"

• King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn.

• Taken to even more extreme lengths is the 6-word story

Longed for him, got him, Shit – Margaret Atwood

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time – Alan Moore

For sale: Baby shoes, never worn – Ernest Hemmingway

• Petrichor is a term coined by two Australian
researchers I.J. Bear and R.G. Thomas for an article in
Nature in 1964. It is also supposed to be the fluid
that flows in the veins of the gods in Greek
mythology. However, the authors used it as the name
of the yellow organic oil that yields a certain scent. In
the article, the authors show that the scent derives
from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry
periods, whereupon it is adsorbed by clay-based soils
and rocks. In a follow up paper, the researchers
showed the oil retards seed germination and early
plant growth thus preventing the seeds from
germinating during dry weather. What scent ?
• That earthy divine smell you sometimes get
after a rain shower.
• Still from a short film. Significance?
• Luxo Jr. is the first film to be produced by Pixar. It is
the source of the hopping desk lamp included in
Pixar’s corporate logo.
• Some members of a selective list. What is the list?
• The RNA tie club
– A 20 member club with one for each amino acid and 4
honorary members, one for each nucleotide.
– A group of scientists who shared ideas on DNA encoding
and protein synthesis.

ALA : George Gamow

LEU : Edward Teller
GLY : Richard Feynman
PRO : James Watson
TYR : Francis Crick
VAL : Sydney Brenner
• Significance of the ball?
• This is the ball that Barry Bonds hit for his record breaking
756th home run. Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball
in an online auction for $752,467 and threw its fate to the
public through an online auction. Choices included submitting
it to the baseball hall of fame unaltered, submitting it after
affixing an asterisk to it and launching it into space. The
asterisk option won out. Cooperstown also accepted the ball
with the asterisk.
• Shown is the first and so far only album by an Irish pop group
formed by Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh. The first track is
The Coin toss and the includes such songs as The Sweet spot,
Rain stops play, Meeting Mr. Miandad ending with The end of
the over. Band/album?
• The Duckworth-Lewis method.
• Connect the place, book and what the people are
doing.
• Trainspotting – an actual hobby for many. The novel gets its
name from an incident in the disused Leith central station.
The gang uses the station as a toilet and once they encounter
a drunk who asks them if they are trainspotting.
• 2nd Danny Boyle Q and I don’t even like Slumdog.
• While the Pandavas were in exile, Jayadratha saw Draupadi in
the forest one day and fell in love with her. He tried to abduct
her back to his kingdom but the Pandavas came to know of it
and chased him down. He was defeated in battle and brought
in front of Yudhistra. Draupadi requested that he not be killed
for she did not want to widow Dushala. Instead, Bheema
humiliated him by shaving his hair off and leaving just 5 spots
of hair as they would for a slave in those times.
• To avenge his humiliation, Jayadratha did penance towards
Lord Shiva and asked off him the boon to defeat the Pandavas.
Shiva granted him instead the ability to defeat all the
Pandavas (save Arjuna) in battle for one day.
• How did Jayadratha make use of this boon?
• Jayadratha closed the flanks of the Chakra Vyuha once
Abhimanyu entered it. None of the other Pandavas were
able to follow him into the formation because of the boon.

• Arjuna and Krishna were lured away from the battlefield

that day by the Samsaptakas who were led by Susarma.
These warriors had challenged Arjuna to a “kill or be
killed” duel previously and Arjuna had accepted it.
• This commonly used word has two distinctly
different meanings. Historically, it has been used
to mean “an account of something happening”
and is derived from the Latin word historia
(same root as history). The other meaning of the
word probably derives from the fact that the
buildings in the Middle Ages were often
decorated with rows of painted windows/walls
that narrate events from the bible (ex. Birth of
Adam etc. at the Sistine Chapel).
• What is the good word?
• Story
– A narration of an event
– Different levels of a building

• In medieval times, any narrative art was called

a story. In tall buildings such as churches,
multiple stories were painted one above the
other leading them to be called multi-storied.
When tall buildings with multiple floors
evolved architecturally, they were called multi-
storied as well.