Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Daily Question 48

Connect




1989 Valvettiturai massacre

1) Iconic image of My Lai massacre
2) George Fernandes
3) Indian Peace Keeping Force

1989 Valvettiturai massacre happened on 2nd and 3rd of August 1989 at a small coastal town called Valvettiturai, in Jaffna peninsula, in Sri Lanka where approximately 64 minority Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were killed by the soldiers belonging to the Indian Peace Keeping Force.George Fernandes, who later served as defense minister of India 1998-2004, called the massacre India’s My Lai.

Cracked by Vishal and Peregrine... at last :P

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Daily Question 47

Easy one for today, after the string of uncracked questions

1 said about X... He is Y. This was mostly due to 2. X also served as
the partial inspiration for Z, the main reason 3 is remembered.


X? Y? Z? 1,2,3?





1 ezra pound
2 leaves of grass
3 Bela lugosi
X walt Whitman
Y America
Z Dracula

Uncracked... again :(

Monday, December 29, 2008

Daily Question 46

Connect





The Constitutions of Clarendon

1 - Double Jeopardy
2 - Thomas Beckett assassination
3 - Clarendon palace ruins

The Constitutions of Clarendon were a set of legislative procedures passed by Henry II of England in 1164. The Constitutions were composed of 16 articles and represent an attempt to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and curb the power of the Church courts and the extent of Papal authority in England.

Thomas Becket, then the Archbishop of Canterbury (1162–1170), resisted Henry II's Constitutions, especially the clause concerning "criminous clerks." Becket claimed no man should be placed in double jeopardy. As a result, Henry II exiled Becket and his family.

Went uncracked. Sriram identified the film, though.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Daily Question 45

Hello, and seasons greetings to all followers of this blog. Your regular blogmaster is back with his daily questions today onwards.

Vishal, who has done a wonderful job, seems to be incapacitated today, and will post the answer to yesterdays question once he returns

As for today, simply connect





Famous victims of Pan Am Flight 103

Paul Avron Jeffreys, former bass player with the UK group Cockney Rebel, was on the flight with his new wife Rachel, en route to their honeymoon celebration.

Another victim was poet Joanna Walton, main lyricist of Robert Fripp's 1979 Exposure album.

Jonathan White, aged 33, the son of actor David White (who played Larry Tate on Bewitched), was also killed.

Went uncracked

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Daily Question 44

Today's question courtesy Jojo, courtesy Reader's Digest.

What's common between the following people?



All have famous quotes attributed to them, though they are not actually their quotes
Kirk- "Beam me up scotty"
Marie Antoinette (from the film) - "Let them eat cakes"
Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca - "Play it again, Sam"
Sherlock Holmes - "Elementary, my dear Watson"

Uncracked

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Daily Question 43

A US Postal stamp from 1934. Whats blanked out?

(This question is eminently googleable, so please don't do that)









Answer - Whistler's Mother. Check out the Wiki page for more details.









Cracked by Arun.

Daily Question 42

Great to be back. Merry Xmas everybody.

An exhaustive list.


























Answer -

List of all known incarnations of Agrajag that were killed by Arthur Dent in the H2G2 series

* A rabbit, killed by a flint stone, skinned and made into a bag to carry interesting stones
* A housefly, swatted at and killed with the above bag
* A newt, stepped on
* An oyster, eaten raw
* A cow, eaten as a fillet steak
* A fish, caught by Arthur, but he then decided he didn't like and left on the side of the plate
* A flea, picked from his hair
* An ant, stepped on
* An old man, died of a heart attack from seeing Arthur appear out of thin air during a cricket match at Lord's
* A bowl of petunias, converted by the Improbability Drive from a nuclear missle, and crashed into the surface of Magrathea
* A man, hit by a bullet during an assassination attempt on Arthur in Stravomula Beta
* A bat-like creature, died while attempting to extract revenge from Arthur in the Cathedral of Hate

Went uncracked. Thought that was an easy one, it is Question 42 after all.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Daily Question 41

What eet ees?


Also, your regular blogmaster (read:Srivats) is taking a short sabbatical from the blog beginning tomorrow, uptil Sunday. Vishal has kindly agreed to be your daily quizmaster during this period.

Answer -
A Melody Road in japan

In Japan, Shizuo Shinoda accidentally scraped some markings into a road with a bulldozer and drove over them, and realised that it was possible to create tunes depending on the depth and spacing of the grooves. The Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute, which had previously worked on infra-red lights to detect dangerous road surfaces, refined Shinoda's designs to create the Melody Road. They used the same concept of cutting grooves into the concrete at specific intervals and found that the closer the grooves are, the higher the pitch of the sound; while grooves that are spaced further apart create lower pitched sounds.

There are three Melody Roads; one in Hokkaido, another in Wakayama (where, at 40km/h, a car can produce the Japanese ballad "Miagete goran yoru no hoshi wo" by Kyu Sakamoto), and a third in Gunma, which consist of 2,559 grooves cut into a 175 meter stretch of existing roadway and when driven over at 50 km/h, produce the tune of "Memories of Summer"

Went uncracked.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Daily Question 40

Connect the two pics. The first is a specific flying maneuver




Missing man formation

The missing man formation is an aerial salute performed as part of a flyover of aircraft at a funeral or memorial event: typically in memory of a fallen pilot. The missing man formation is often called "the missing man flyby".

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_man_formation

The Red Baron was the first recorded pilot to be honoured in this fashion.

Went uncracked

Monday, December 22, 2008

Daily Question 39

Just identify what is going on in these two pics. (A request : Please do not use an image search for this question, its rather googlable)



Swearing on the Horns

Swearing on the Horns is a farcical oath that was traditionally given to visitors at various pubs in the London suburb of Highgate during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The oath consists of a series of statements read by a clerk, confirming one's dedication to merriment and debauchery; those being sworn in would agree to each statement, kiss or salute a set of horns, and be entered in a logbook for posterity. The proceedings were typically overseen by the landlord—referred to as the Master, the Father, or the Host—often dressed in formal costume, such as that of a barrister. In some houses, an "initiation fee" of money or drinks was required in addition to the oath; in others, the fee could be paid to bypass the ceremony altogether. Participants were then awarded the title of "Freemen of Highgate".

Went uncracked

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Daily Question 38

Imitation is the best form of flattery, they say.

This is a question lifted straight out of todays General Quiz at MoodI, hosted by Avinash Mudaliar. It was a great quiz, the only possible complaint being the absence of infinite bounce. (Although that crib might be attributed to the fact that your blogmasters frustration at finishing dead last in the finals of the quiz, and basically performing atrociously.)

Connect.




Bobby Jindal

First is Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby Brady on the Brady Bunch.
Piyush Jindal was born on June 10, 1971 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Punjabi Indian immigrants Amar and Raj Jindal, who had recently arrived for Raj to attend graduate school at Louisiana State University.According to family lore, Jindal adopted the name "Bobby" from the character Bobby Brady after watching The Brady Bunch television series at age four. He has been known by that name ever since—as a civil servant, politician, student, and writer—though legally his name remains Piyush Jindal.

New Orleans hornets are a Louisiana based team, and Bobby jindal is the governer of Louisiana

Raghav answered, but no credit, since he was my team-mate in the quiz.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Daily Question 37

The pic is from a movie inspired by the legend of A. This particular scene is inspired by a very famous painting B. A was famous for his outlandish and unbeleivable tales, so much so that there is now a disease C named after A. A,B,C?

Question sent in by JoJo



A : Baron Munchausen
B : The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)
C : Munchausens Syndrome

Cracked by Vishal and Kaushik

Friday, December 19, 2008

Daily Question 36

Connect. Simple one for today.

Question sent in by Vishnu





Virginia Woolf

1. Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours". She won Best Actress Oscar for the role.
2. A Scene from the Liz Taylor & Richard Burton starrer " Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
3. The Dreadought Hoax pulled by the Bloomsbury Group on the Royal Navy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreadnought_hoax
Virginia Woolf's the one on the extreme left.

Cracked only by Vishal and Arun

Also, an announcement : Tomorrow onwards, this blogmaster will be tied up at MoodI. So, the blog questions (and answers to the previous questions) will be posted at around midnight each day for 4 days, commencing tomorrow.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Daily Question 35

Connect





NightHawks, by Edward Hopper

Pic 1 is Roger Brown's Puerto Rican Wedding (1969). The cafe in the lower left corner is clearly an imitation of nighthawks

Pic 2 is the cover of the album American idiot by Greenday, featuring the song Boulevard of Broken Dreams. The best known visual quotation of Nighthawks is Gottfried Helnwein's painting Boulevard of Broken Dreams (1987), widely sold as a poster, which replaces the three diner patrons with American pop culture icons Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean, and the attendant with Elvis Presley.



Cracked only by Vishal... Strange, like he mentioned, I thought it was a pretty easy one.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Daily Question 34

Connect to a historical figure




Jack the Ripper

At the time of the murders, a theatrical version of Robert Louis Stevenson's book Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was being performed. The subject matter of horrific murder in the London streets drew much attention, even leading the star of the show to be accused by some members of the public of being the Ripper himself, although this theory was never taken seriously by the police.

The Ten Bells, a Victorian pub in Commercial Street that had been frequented by most of Jack the Ripper's victims. It also features in the movie From Hell, starring johnny depp

Cracked by Vishal, JoJo, Raghav and Arun

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Daily Question 33

Connect







References in the opera part of bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Beelzebub

Scaramuccia

Mozart, who wrote marraige of Figaro

Basmala is an Arabic language noun which is used as the collective name of the whole of the recurring Islamic phrase bismi-llahi ar-rahmani ar-rahimi. This phrase constitutes the first verse of every "sura" (or chapter) of the Qur'an (but one). It is the origin of the word Bismillah in the song

Fandango dancers

Cracekd more or less by Vishal, Arun, Peregrine and Raghav