The Sign of Four
Once again, we descend into the murky depths of..... an XQZ answer session. Not everyone seems to have noticed Set Five is up. Well, it is, so go ahead and answer sets Five and Six. You have a few days - The answers to Five won't be up until Set Seven is done. But let's see what everyone posted for Set Four.....
4.1
When you stand in Africa and face Mecca, Yemen lies on your right hand. Hence the name. Adi got this with some G-help.
4.2
The Germinal Repository was indeed a sperm bank, but not with just any old sperm - these troopers were from men of outstanding IQs. See, Graham felt that stupid people were breeding too much, so he created this elitist sperm bank to create intelligent children. Initially it was supposed to have Nobel Prize winners for donors, but only one or two of them actually donated. So then he settled for high IQs. Later on the apparent connections with eugenics and 'master races' gave the institute a bad rep.
Kaushik got the eugenics angle, but missed the details; Einsteinophile had a Brave New World angle. Varun said sperm (okay, may be you could've been a little specific). But welcome, Kohli, welcome.
4.3
Unfortunately, this question had been asked by Adi and me during a Passwords competition, so a few people recognised it. However, as planned, Kaushik thought the race was outside a penitentiary.... see, Jedi mind tricks do work. The real answer is that the race is up the stairs of the Empire State Building. Varun got this, as did Akshat, Corpsed and Adi ;).
4.4
Waylon Jennings jokingly replied (with an answer that would haunt him later): "I hope the plane crashes." The plane did indeed crash. Y was Ritchie Valens, Z was J. P. Richardson, and X was Buddy Holly.
Kaushik and Adi got the answer, but the significance of whom X was required a little googling. Nice going, though.
4.5
Sting, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Bono, George Michael, Boy George, Paul McCartney and David Bowie. All these artists (and many more) played during Band Aid, which was the 1984 precursor of Live Aid.
I don't think anyone recognized Boy George, at least at first. Kaushik got the right time period but wrong concert. Akshat couldn't get all the singers, but named the concert. Adi couldn't believe I'd give something this obvious. It happens, man, it happens.
4.6
The answer will Sting you. Sorry, bad pun. Feyd Rautha was played by Sting in David Lynch's movie adaptation of the the sci-fi classic Dune; Sting was the inspiration for the look of the comic book character Constantine from the comic Hellblazer. Adi did this with a little more G-help.
4.7
Snikt! Snikt! It's adamantium, the virtually unbreakable metal which make up Wolverine's claws. Googled by Adi. Corpsed went for Wonderwoman's hand bands, but that's DC comics.
4.8
They are all defenses that companies can employ against a hostile takeover.
4.9
Yelena Isinbayeva, the first woman to clear 5.00 metres in the pole vault, is the answer. Incidentally, she's already cleared 5.01m. Einsteinophile cleared this question with equal ease. Corpsed wasn't as confident but managed it all the same. Kaushik opted for the .... triple jump?!? Akshat realized who the person was, but the name slipped past him. Good try though. Adi got this too after googling. His first choice had been the Statue of Liberty...:(
4.10
It is the largest flower in the world, the bizarre Rafflesia flower. Adi got this with a google; Corpsed overshot and went for the corpse carrion plant, aka the Titan Arum. The Titan Arum also smells like rotting meat, and is pollinated by flies and beetles; however, to the best of my knowledge it is not a parasite like Rafflesia. The Rafflesia is wide and is a single flower; the Titan Arum is tall and is an unbranched inflorescence. Whatever. They both smell.
That's it for this time. So, send in your ratings of the questions (see the first posting for the rating system). Send in your answers of Sets Five and Six. Send your love, appreciation, sympathy, and any money you have. I'll try to speed up on Set Seven. Have fun.
Ciao, people.
4.1
When you stand in Africa and face Mecca, Yemen lies on your right hand. Hence the name. Adi got this with some G-help.
4.2
The Germinal Repository was indeed a sperm bank, but not with just any old sperm - these troopers were from men of outstanding IQs. See, Graham felt that stupid people were breeding too much, so he created this elitist sperm bank to create intelligent children. Initially it was supposed to have Nobel Prize winners for donors, but only one or two of them actually donated. So then he settled for high IQs. Later on the apparent connections with eugenics and 'master races' gave the institute a bad rep.
Kaushik got the eugenics angle, but missed the details; Einsteinophile had a Brave New World angle. Varun said sperm (okay, may be you could've been a little specific). But welcome, Kohli, welcome.
4.3
Unfortunately, this question had been asked by Adi and me during a Passwords competition, so a few people recognised it. However, as planned, Kaushik thought the race was outside a penitentiary.... see, Jedi mind tricks do work. The real answer is that the race is up the stairs of the Empire State Building. Varun got this, as did Akshat, Corpsed and Adi ;).
4.4
Waylon Jennings jokingly replied (with an answer that would haunt him later): "I hope the plane crashes." The plane did indeed crash. Y was Ritchie Valens, Z was J. P. Richardson, and X was Buddy Holly.
Kaushik and Adi got the answer, but the significance of whom X was required a little googling. Nice going, though.
4.5
Sting, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Bono, George Michael, Boy George, Paul McCartney and David Bowie. All these artists (and many more) played during Band Aid, which was the 1984 precursor of Live Aid.
I don't think anyone recognized Boy George, at least at first. Kaushik got the right time period but wrong concert. Akshat couldn't get all the singers, but named the concert. Adi couldn't believe I'd give something this obvious. It happens, man, it happens.
4.6
The answer will Sting you. Sorry, bad pun. Feyd Rautha was played by Sting in David Lynch's movie adaptation of the the sci-fi classic Dune; Sting was the inspiration for the look of the comic book character Constantine from the comic Hellblazer. Adi did this with a little more G-help.
4.7
Snikt! Snikt! It's adamantium, the virtually unbreakable metal which make up Wolverine's claws. Googled by Adi. Corpsed went for Wonderwoman's hand bands, but that's DC comics.
4.8
They are all defenses that companies can employ against a hostile takeover.
4.9
Yelena Isinbayeva, the first woman to clear 5.00 metres in the pole vault, is the answer. Incidentally, she's already cleared 5.01m. Einsteinophile cleared this question with equal ease. Corpsed wasn't as confident but managed it all the same. Kaushik opted for the .... triple jump?!? Akshat realized who the person was, but the name slipped past him. Good try though. Adi got this too after googling. His first choice had been the Statue of Liberty...:(
4.10
It is the largest flower in the world, the bizarre Rafflesia flower. Adi got this with a google; Corpsed overshot and went for the corpse carrion plant, aka the Titan Arum. The Titan Arum also smells like rotting meat, and is pollinated by flies and beetles; however, to the best of my knowledge it is not a parasite like Rafflesia. The Rafflesia is wide and is a single flower; the Titan Arum is tall and is an unbranched inflorescence. Whatever. They both smell.
That's it for this time. So, send in your ratings of the questions (see the first posting for the rating system). Send in your answers of Sets Five and Six. Send your love, appreciation, sympathy, and any money you have. I'll try to speed up on Set Seven. Have fun.
Ciao, people.
posted by Rare Hand Axe at 12:16 AM
3 comments
