Daily Question 17

Tough one, courtesy Arun.

Connect


















Oedipus Rex.

1) Sophocles, the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived to the present day. Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles.
2) Pier Paolo Pasolini, who made a movie Oedipus Rex in the 60's
3) Igor Stravinsky, a sketch by Picasso, when they were working together on Pulcinella in 1920. Oedipus Rex was an opera by Stravinsky.
4) Tom Lehrer, the American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 60s.
5) P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional composer invented by musical satirist Peter Schickele. He made Oedipus Tex, an oratorio which follows the adventures of Tex ("you may have heard of my brother Rex")

Cracked by Ajay.

Daily Question 16

Hello World! Due to Srivats' unavailability, I will be moderating the blog for the next couple of days.

Todays question, courtesy me.

Connect the following sets of pics - current affairs. Sets 1-4 form an exhaustive list with a certain theme. Sets 5 and 6 alone, together, are connected by the same theme. All 6 together form a list, connected by the same theme i.e. each set points to 1 item in the list. Some pics are directly connected, some are one step removed. Full fundaes for points.

Set 1 :









Set 2 :










These two are considered the best examples of _______ ______.

Set 3 :




Φ = Power
θ = Angle between normal and direction
A = Area of Source
Ω = Solid Angle

Set 4 :









Set 5 :









Set 6 :









And for an oblique clue, and for brownie points, put fundaes on this flow chart courtesy Uncyclopedia.

















Connect - Secret Service Code Names of the Obama family and the Joe and Jill Biden

1) Ronin - Person with no master in feudal Japan. Renegade - a Christian or Knight with no allegiance (used as synonyms)
Thin Lizzy Album - Renegade
Rage against the machine album - Renegade
Renegade = Barack Obama
2) Leon Battista Alberti , Leonardo Da Vinci - Renaissance Men
Renaissance = Michelle Obama
3) Formula for Radiance (light)
Radiance = Malia Obama
4) Citizen Kane - Rosebud
Rosebud Faberge Egg
Rosebud = Sasha Obama
5) Kevin Garnett - currently at the Boston Celtics
Celtic Football Club
Celtic = Joe Biden
6) Island Capri, Italy
Ford Capri
Capri = Jill Biden

(All members of the same family always have code words starting with the same letter)

And for brownie points
Humourous take on Sarah Palin's performance vs Joe Biden for the Oct 2nd Vice Presidential Debate.
















Cracked only by Arun, with brownie points.

Daily Question 15

Connect - from Arun






Downfall - the movie

Throughout 2008 a number of clips from Downfall, especially the scene where Hitler finally realises the war is lost, have become viral videos . The original soundtrack in German remains but the clips have now been anachronistically subtitled in English to reference current events in sport including the chrushing of Galatasaray by Fenerbahce on November 9th 2008, Collingwood Football Club and Manchester United Football Club, in music such as American Idol, North American and Australian politics, Mac versus PC debates, eBay and online gaming. Other popular Downfall themes are the Labour Party's defeat in the Glasgow East by-elections,Taoiseach Brian Cowen's reaction to the vote on the Lisbon Treaty, Barack Obama's speech in Berlin, Adam Sandler comedies, the Dragonball film and Team GB's medals win over Australia.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVPttoCT6c&feature=related

Went uncracked again... Are these too difficult?

P.S. Vishal will take over moderatorship of the blog until Monday. Tuesday onwards, yours truly should be back.. :)

Daily Question 14

Connect this band from Down Under to the theorem represented in the other pic. Sorry for the early question, got a killer exam tomorrow.




Danica McKellar



Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years. The Aussie hip-hop act The Winnie Coopers take their name from the iconic character.
She is also co-author of the Chayes- McKellar-Winn theorem, which she proved during her undergraduate days at UCLA.

Went uncracked. Exams compounded by the vagueness, i guess..

Daily Question 13

Unlucky 13. Another connect. This one from Peregrine





Andy and Larry Wachowski, writers/directors of the film The Matrix, required the principal actors of the film to read three books prior to the start of filming, including Kelly’s 1995 book Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World. The other two were Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard and Introducing Evolutionary Psychology by Dylan Evans.

1 is Jean
2 is Kevin
3 is Dylan

Cracked only by Arun and Vishal... exam fever, i guess.

Daily Question 12

Put fundaes... from Aruns 'not-so-screwed-up-anymore-cos-its-been-replaced' keyboard...



Forrest Custer Smithson (September 26, 1884 - November 24, 1962) was an American athlete, winner of 110 m hurdles at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

There is a wide-spread story about Smithson winning the gold medal while carrying a Bible in his left hand (ostensibly to protest against the decision to run the 110 m hurdles final on a Sunday). At first, none of the 110 m hurdles heats nor the final were scheduled or planned to take place on Sunday. The story was not mentioned in the newspapers. This story is probably based on a picture published in the official report, which may have been taken during the final.

Cracked by Vishal, Tempo, Champu and Peregrine

Daily Question 11

Identify, and tell me why this bug is important in the context of...well, to be vague, .... the arts.

Be specific, be very very specific.



The Dim Effect is a natural phenomenon in which nature mimics art. The example after which this was named is Megaceras briansaltini, a rhinoceros beetle which displays the same unique horn structure as the blue rhinoceros beetle Dim from A Bug's Life (1998). The horn on Dim was rendered for a more child-friendly appearance, a shape that had never been seen before in nature or even in art. The first such horn structure in nature was seen in M. briansaltini eight years later in 2006.



Vague, i know... Aravind got it, though... Nice one :)

Daily Question 10

A fairly convoluted one from Arun

Connect the first two images to the woman in the third.





1 - Elisabetta Gregoraci
2 - Sweeping Curves device
3 - Joshna Chinappa

Connect is Queens Park Rangers.

Gregoraci - Briatore
Sweeping Curves Device - shown before F1 races - license for it owned by Formula One Licensing BV which is a Group company. The Group companies are subsidiaries of Formula One Holdings (FOH) on whose board sits Bernie Ecclestone among various others.
Joshna Chinappa - first to benefit from Mittal Champions Trust - an initiative by Amit Bhatia, Mittal's son in law. He is also the vice chairman in QPR.

Cracked completely only by Vishal. Tempo got halfway there, though.

Daily Question 9

Something unusual in this scene (or to be precise the scene right after this) from a famous sitcom. What's unusual?

Question by JoJo

in the next scene, the man takes the ring from Robin and actually proposes to his girlfriend at the table behind them
to quote wiki "During a flashback wherein Robin thinks Ted is proposing to her, it turns out the ring belongs to another couple. That on-screen proposal is real. As explained in a DVD special feature, the real couple were friends of someone in production and were brought in to be extras specifically as a scheme for the man to propose to the woman on-set. For rehearsal takes of the scene, two actors played out the engagement with a prop ring, then for the real take the man from the real couple delivered the "it's mine" line and really sprang a surprise proposal on his startled girlfriend with the genuine ring."

Cracked by Vishal, Vibhu, Arun, Samaadhi and and anonymous quizzer (yes, still).

And in response to Srirams unpublishable comment, wasnt too hard, as demonstrated by it being cracked by people who've never seem HIMYM in their lives. Sorry dude, u didnt make the cut on this one.

Also, check Samaadhis commment for an interesting, and very plausible, theory.

Daily Question 8

Returning to connects, blame Samaadhi for this one.






The answer is 'White Flag'.....

1st pic Denethor and the stewards of Gondor had a white flag as their standard.

2nd pic from Forrest Gump, the scene with Forrest and lennon on the Dick Cavett Show, discussing the origin of Lennons anthem Imagine. Now, on April fools day 1973, Lennon and Yoko started a fictional country called Nutopia based on the philosophy expounded in Imagine. Nutopia's flag is white.

3rd is pic of Mullah Omar and Taliban's flag was completely white.

4th is Dido whose biggest hit is, of course, 'White flag'

Went uncracked. A first for this blog. Blame Samaadhi

Daily Question 7

This one from Aruns screwed up keyboard.

Identify (many, many clues in the picture)



An anagrammed version of Harry Beck's iconic Tube Map design of the London underground.

I specifically wanted 'anagrammed'. No credit for just mentioning the London underground.

Cracked by Sriram, Raytracer, Tempo, Vishal, Samaadhi, Aravind, Vignesh, Alva, Vinayak, Arbit and an anon quizzer. Seriously dude, why anon?

Daily Question 6

As a break from connects, identify :P

This one comes from Sriram



Audioslave Nation

Cracked only by Mathew, Samaadhi, Arbit, Arun, Vinayak and Raytracer. Rather simple one, I thought... Endsem fever?

Oh, and btw, Vishal came painfully close, and much as I would like to give him points, I can't.

Daily Question 5

Once again, connect the four images. They form a list, by no means exhaustive, but certainly the most well known examples of their kind. This should be a slightly more challenging question after yesterdays sitter.






Pics :
1) Alamillo Bridge, Seville, Spain
2) Cinderella
3) Pic about William Tell
4) Film Othello

Connect : Operas by Gioachino Antonio Rossini

1) Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)
2) La Cenerentola (Cinderella)
3) Guillaume Tell (William Tell)
4) Otello, ossia Il Moro di Venezia (Othello, The Moor of Venice)

Cracked by Amith, Vishal, Vinayak, Tempo, Peregrine, Raytracer, Kaballah, Arbit, Kaushik and Arun. Samaadhi had an interesting and vague answer that came nowhere close.

Daily Question 4

Connect the first 4 visuals. Once again, for extra brownie points, tell me how the girl in the 5th visual fits in. :)







This is basically a modification I made to a question sent in by Alva.

Quoting Amith;

The connect is 'Rosie the Riveter'.

1. A real life 'Rosie the Riveter'

2. 'Rosie the Riveter' memorial at Marina Bay Park

3. J. Howard Miller's poster for Westinghouse, which was widely mistaken to represent 'Rosie the Riveter'

4. A screenshot of the game 'Bioshock'.
The game features a character named Rosie who is armed with a rivet gun.

5. Jane Withers
Quoting wiki - "In the 1960s, Hollywood actress Jane Withers gained fame as "Josephine the Plumber," a character in a long-running and popular series of television commercials for "Comet" cleansing powder that lasted into the 1970s. This character was based on the original "Rosie" character."

Pretty easy one, i guess... Cracked by Arun, Samaadhi, Sriram, Arbit, JJ, Aravind, Vignesh, Vishal, Vinayak, Peregrine, Amith, Kaballah, Kaushik and an anonymous quizzer.

Bonus to Arun, Samaadhi, Sriram, Arbit, Aravind, Vignesh, Vishal, Vinayak, amith, kaballah and Kaushik

Double Bonus to Vishal for pointing out that Norman Rockwell made a Rosie the Riveter cover for the Saturday Evening Post. :)