XQZ

Navratna

2007-07-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I doubt many of you have been waiting with bated breath for the resumption of this quizzing blog. Those of you who have, owe this posting to one man alone - no, it's not me - it's

Mr. " I KNOW YOU'RE SEEING THIS, SO BE WARNED. UPDATE THE BLOG OR BE WARNED INFIDEL
:)" Varma.

Of course, after he was so persuasive (and polite - did you see the smiley?), how could I refuse??

I do apologize, however, for keeping all of you waiting so long. I can't promise to return to regular updates - I'm a delicate stage in my PhD at the moment. I can also say that when I do (return), they won't necessarily be 'hard to google' questions. However I do miss quizzing, and the cat and mouse game between quizzer and quizmaster. So, in the words of Arnold, .... oh, wait, we have a question about that! Well, here are the answers to Set Nine.

If you're new to XQZ, check out the first posting Ground Zero for an idea of how this quiz blog works. Your can always try answering the previous sets and sending in your rating of them. But for now,

The answers!!

9.1
It's degrees of separation. Kevin Bacon is famous for 'Six degrees of Kevin Bacon' - i.e., you can connect any Hollywood star, dead or alive, to Kevin in 6 steps or less. Will Smith starred in the movie Six Degrees of Separation, which was partly based on the life of David Hampton, who is the conman shown in the first photo.

9.2
It used to be that camel jockeys were kids, because they were light and wouldn't slow down their mounts in the camel races. Obviously there was a bit of hue and cry raised over this child exploitation, especially since the children used to be starved to make them as light as possible. So, moving with the ages, they have started using robot jockeys instead, with Qatar in fact completely banning using child riders.

9.3
Unfortunately this question is no longer completely correct. It was a list of famous directors who had multiple Oscar nominations but no wins. However, with Martin Scorsese having won the award for The Departed, this no longer quite holds. The others are:

Robert Altman (5 nominations, received an honorary award in 2006)
Stanley Kubrick (4 nominations)
Federico Fellini (4 nominations)
Alfred Hitchcock (5 nominations)
(Martin)
Ingmar Bergman (3 nominations)

9.4
He won the Nobel Prize for Physics. While unusual by today's standards, it can be understood if one reads the words that Alfred Nobel used while setting up the Prize:

... shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; ....

9.5
Ooh, Green Patches !! Well, the idea here is that all the portions in green were bought by the United States. The major one in the middle was the Louisiana Purchase (530 million acres (828,000 sq mi or 2,100,000 km²) of French territory in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre (7¢ per ha); totaling $15 million or 80 million French francs), Alaska was of course known as Seward's Folly ($7,200,000 at about 1.9¢ per acre; Jeffrey Archer based a book on the Alaska treaty/lease called 'A Matter of Honour') and there's Gadsden Purchase and a few cessions. Well, if I had known that somebody had made this map, I wouldn't have had to go to so much trouble!

MSQ: Umm, looks like I goofed up a little here. Turns out there are several times he used the phrase.... or something approaching it. What I had in mind was The Running Man, but you can see the full list here.

9.6
War of 1812, and believe it or not, it was the Canadians! There's even a hilarious song about it:

And the White House burned, burned, burned.
And we’re the ones that did it,
It burned, burned, burned.
While the president ran and cried,
It burned, burned, burned.
And things were very historical,
And the Americans ran and cried like a bunch of little babies WaWaWa
In the war of 1812.

9.7
The connection is 'The Treaty of Paris'. All these conflicts were resolved by a treaty signed in Paris - which is why, in a quiz, if you are ever asked for the name of a treaty, when in doubt, go with Paris (or Versailles, which is now, after all, a suburb of Paris :) ). The last pic is for the European Coal and Steel Community, the forerunner of the EU.

9.8
Weird, eh?

9.9
The Dalai Lama, Jake LaMotta, Jesus Christ, Howard Hughes, and Bob Dylan. See the connect yet? No? All right - they all had biopics directed by Martin Scorsese. Ha! You can't escape me, Martin! I'll make a question out of you yet!

9.10
Jules Verne. Lovely parade, wasn't it?

Till next time, my friends!

The Eight-fold way to the Truth (which is out there, somewhere....)

2006-02-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

Hi,
Welcome to XQZ. Since it's long overdue, and since Hrishi's been haunting my nightmares :), I've decided to go ahead and post the answers to set Eight. Hopefully I'll soon get around to including the names of the people who got them right. In the meanwhile, you can entertain yourself by trying Set Nine, and by writing in and rating this set and previous ones, both on Quality and Toughness. The rating scheme is described in the first posting Ground Zero.

If you're new to XQZ, check out the first posting Ground Zero.
for an idea of how this quiz blog works. Your can always try answering the previous sets and sending in your rating of them. But for now,

To the answers!

8.1
Bill Gates. Easy, but wierd.

8.2
The Old Man of the Mountain. Unfortunately, despite attempts to stabilise it, it collapsed a few years ago.

8.3
The answer is 'microsoft' - note the small 'm'. The extract is taken from the cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer, which was written after Microsoft came into existence, so Gibson wasn't the first to think of it, but it's probable that the company hadn't yet hit big time.

8.4
Ghost in the Machine.
a) cover of album by The Police
b) British philosopher Gilbert Ryle, who coined the phrase as a derogatory way of referring to Descartes' idea of mind-body dualism. dualism. The phrase was introduced in Ryle's book, The Concept of Mind, written in 1949. The phrase was meant by Ryle to emphasize that mental activity is of a different category from physical action, and that their means of interaction are unknown.
c)Arthur Koestler, who wrote a book by the same title, focussing on mankind's movement towards self-destruction, particularly in the nuclear arms arena. One of the book's central concepts is that as the human brain has grown, it has built upon earlier more primitive brain structures, and that these are the "ghost in the machine" of the title. Koestler's theory is that at times these structures can overpower higher logical functions, and are responsible for hate, anger and other such destructive impulses. His book is said to have inspired the Police album.
d)Rene Descartes
e) Sci-fi B-film in which a killer gets absorbed into the power network.... fun.

8.5
Shibboleth. The Ephraimites could not pronounce the 'sh', and said 'sibboleth'.

UUBQ answer:
Rotate 13: rotate the alphabet by the 13. Has the advantage that the decryption and encryption algorithms are the same.

8.6
Major William Martin of the Royal Marines, the 'Man Who Never Was'. No one knows who he actually was, but he was given the name of Major Martin and his body was dumped in to the sea with misleading information that led the Germans to believe that the Allies would invade the Balkans and Sardinia. In fact, the Allies invaded Sicily, the smoothness of the operation being in no small part due to the misinformation spread by 'Martin', in 'Operation Mincemeat'. The extent to which the British paid attention to details in order to make the body look like that of a genuine Major who died at sea is incredible.

8.7
These two awareness ribbons are:
Pink: Breast Cancer
Puzzle piece: Autism

8.8
Robert Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch, and Jeffrey Archer, who based his novel 'The Fourth Estate' on the lives of these two media barons.

8.9
These ladies were all Mahesh Bhupathi's partners when he won various mixed doubles Grand Slams. Of course now you can add Martina Hingis (2006 Australian Open) too. The ladies are:

1)Elena Likhovtseva (2002 Wimbledon)
2)the very lovely Daniela Hantuchova (2005 US Open)
3)Ai Sugiyama (1999 US Open)
4)Mary Pierce (2005 Wimbledon)
5)Rika Hiraki (1997 French Open)

8.10
Tiananmen Square, 1989. This photo is of the unknown hero who stood in the path of the approaching tanks, and refused to move aside. As some articles point out, though, there were in fact two heroes there - the man, and the tank driver who refused to run him over.

That's it for now. Don't forget to write in and rate the Q&As.

Cheerio!

Across the seven seas

2006-01-02T15:53:00.000-08:00

Heyya,

It's answer season once again, after ages. I usually include the names of the people who got the right answers, as well as some of the more entertaining guesses, but for now you'll have to settle for the bare facts. I'll hopefully get round to updating it later.

Try your luck at Set Nine - the long overdue set 8 answers will be up shortly. Also, don't forget to write in and rate the questions and answers. the rating scheme is described in the first posting Ground Zero.

So here are the answers!

7.1
They are raising money for the First Amendment Project

7.2
Katrina (oldie by now)

7.3
a) Stranger in a Strange Land
b) Number of the Beast
c) Fear of the Dark

a. Alexander the Great
b. Brave New World
c. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
d. The Prisoner
e. Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
f. Where Eagles Dare
g. Seventh Son (of a Seventh Son)
h. Genghis Khan
i. The Wicker Man
j. Lord of the Flies
k. Phantom of the Opera

They are all Iron Maiden Songs.

7.4
Pele

7.5
The snakes slit their tongues on the sharp blades of grass, resulting in forked tongues for snakes.

7.6
Jack the Ripper (Incidentally, From Hell is a Johnny Depp movie about Jack the Ripper)

7.7
Freud on cocaine

7.8
James Chadwick, who discovered the neutron.

7.9
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, God of the Rastafarians (Ras Tafari - check his name again).

7.10
Grateful. It's the Cherry Garcia, named after Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead (Thus, Deadheads.). The black cherries were after he died. The recipe belongs to Ben and Jerry's, an ice cream company.

Adios, amigos!

Set Nine

2005-09-25T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hey, what do you know.

I'm back in the game.

Welcome back, after a really looooong hiatus, to XQZ. I've now broken most of my promises, and can't really make any new ones EXCEPT

XQZ will continue. It will survive. And you can look forward to more questions - I just can't tell you when they'll be up :). But they will come.

IITK will be sending a team to Nihilanth - this year at IIM Cal, so everyone, wish them luck.

All three quizzing blogs - Quizzical Expressions, African or European, and XQZ have been on a bit of a break for some time, but Shanth recently revived African or European, so check it out.

For those of you who are new to this, please check out the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

I'm about to loose you upon the questions, but first, a couple of points. First, I apologise for two thngs about this set - (a) It's a little America heavy, but that's a perhaps inevitable result of my environment and the fact that I haven't read the news in months. (b) It's a little easy, even though it's picture heavy.

The second point is a happier one. Somewhere among these questions - I'm too lazy to determine exactly where - lies the hundredth question of XQZ. It's a landmark of sorts, long overdue, but it's here. It's not the last question because previous sets have occasionally had more than 10, even if you don't count the bonii.

Well, that's about it. Onward!

9.1

Connect the following pictures :

9.2

What's the story behind this picture?

9.3

Identify and Connect the following people. It's not a proper connect, nor necessarily an exhaustive list, but these men have something in common.

9.4

Nils Gustaf Dalén made developments in acetylene chemistry to get a very bright light, developed safe storage methods, and then engineered a special valve that was controlled by the sun, so that the resulting buoys would only operate at night, prolonging their life to about a year. To a rugged coastal area like Scandinavia, these mass-produced long-lived minimal maintenance buoys were a significant boon to safety and livelihood. His most important invention was the sun valve which made the AGA lighthouse possible. Dalén was blinded in a gas explosion accident. How were his contributions recognized?

9.5

Connect the green regions on the map. Hawaii is not shaded green. Technically, I could add two more regions as well, but I won't.

**Commercial break**
Mandatory Silly Question - Besides using it in the Terminator movies, which other Schwarzenegger film boasts of the famous line, "I'll be back" ?
**We now return to our regular programming**

9.6

This is a silly question, but an interesting fact. These days, the US tends to interfere a lot in other countries, but way back in the day, the US was once attacked.... and the White House was burnt. (!!). Who did it?

9.7

Connect the following
(At first I thought of screwing all of you by just giving you the pictures and letting you figure out the wars, but I figured that that was too mean. So I'm telling you which wars they are, which makes this an easy question, but pay attention to the pictures - you may see them again in some quiz some day)

Waterloo

Crimean War (This is actually the Charge of the Light Brigade)

Spanish American War (That's Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders)

(Sorry, no hints on this one)

9.8

The word originally meant "that which comes" or "that which happens" and was used in reference with the three Fates, the three sisters who determined the fate of each person. It started its progression to its current meaning possibly around the time when 'Macbeth' was written. What is the word?

9.9

Identify and Connect these people. It's easy, but the list is not exhaustive. Also, these pictures are not in order.

9.10

These are images taken from a performance marking the 100th death anniversary of which famous person?

Don't forget to write in and rate the questions of old sets.

Auf Wiedersehen, Kameraden.

Set Eight

2005-09-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Once again, welcome to another page of questions at XQZ. First, the - you know, I wonder how many of you actually read the intro. I guess I should include a series of personal insults and then see who respond. Oh well. For those of you who are new to this, please check out the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

In other news, Shanth has continued his series of intriguing and very hard to google questions. Please do check out African or European. In yet more news, Set Seven is still up for grabs, so please do send in your answers, as well as the ratings for previous sets - thank you, Kaushik and Shanth, for being so regular with your feedback, but I'd appreciate it if you other people would also chip in so that I get a more balanced viewpoint. Also do write in and tell me if you feel that the distribution of questions is tilting too much one way or the other.

But you're impatient now. Very well. After a long time, this set contains several picture questions. They are still amenable to googling, but try to resist that temptation as far as possible. You appreciate the answer more if you wait for it :)
Any way -

En avant!

Set Eight

We start with a easy one:

8.1
This fly was named after a person for his contributions to Dipterology (the science of flies). Who?

8.2
Name this marvel of nature, about which statesman and orator Daniel Webster once said, "Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

8.3
Fill in the blank, and name the book from which this extract is taken.

Her destination was one of the dubious software rental complexes that lined Memory Lane. There was a stillness, a hush. Booths lined a central hall. The clientele were young, few of them out of their teens. They all seemed to have carbon sockets planted behind the left ear, but she didn't focus on them. The counters that fronted the booths displayed hundreds of slivers of _________, angular fragments of coloured silicon mounted under oblong transparent bubbles on square of white cardboard. Molly went to the seventh booth along the south wall. Behind the counter a boy with a shaven head stared vacantly into space, a dozen spikes of _________ protruding from the socket behind his ear.

8.4
Identify and connect these pictures. The first three are perhaps more relevant, but the other two are also useful.

8.5
Fill in the blank with a word, which has come to denote any word used as a catch-phrase or codeword among a select group:

Then the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. Whenever one of the fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead would say to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" When he said, "No," they said to him, "Then say __________," and he said, "_________," for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites fell at that time.

*Commercial break*

Usual Useless Bonus question

It's a silly question, but it occured to me and I didn't know the answer straight away, though it can actually be worked out quite easily. We all use ROT13 a lot, but why is it called ROT13?

*We now return to our regular programming*

8.6
E. Montagu noted that this man was the only man ever to join the Royal Marines after he was dead! He had a fiancée named Pam, and when his body was recovered, they found a photograph of her and love letters. They also found a set of keys, theater stubs for a recent performance, a statement from his club for lodging in London, and so forth. His careless nature was revealed in his overdue bills, a replacement identification card to replace the one he lost, an expired pass to Combined Operations HQ that he forgot to renew, and an irate missive from a bank manager from Lloyds Bank for an overdraft of £17 19s 11d.

Who was he, and why was he important?

8.7
If a red ribbon stands for awareness about AIDS/supporting AIDS patients, what are the following for?

8.8
Identify and connect these three pictures:

8.9
Identify these lovely ladies and connect. It's not a superficial connect, but it is a simple and nice answer.

8.10
My personal favourite, partly because I put in such a lot of work editing the pic, partly because it's a touching moment.

Identify this place. The photo has been heavily Photoshopped, but the man visible in the picture is doing something ....

Till next time, kameraden.

Six Degrees

2005-09-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13. If you've been here before, well, it's time to let the cats out of the bag again, so here are the answers:

6.1
Guy Fawkes, the man who trie to blow up the British parliament. Guy Fawkes day is still celebrated, and is immortalised in the rhyme:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Shanth googled this.

6.2
Kermit the Frog, from Sesame Street.

Shanth (googled)

6.3
This is the infamous Polish Plumber.
To quote from the BBC & Wikipedia: "The "Polish plumber" became a catchphrase of the French "No" camp during the referendum on the EU constitution. It was first used by Philippe de Villiers and opponents of the European Constitution as a symbol of cheap labour coming in from Eastern Europe as a result of the Directive on services in the internal market during the EU Constitution referendum in France in 2005.

It was then featured in a poster by the Polish tourism board in response to what was perceived as negative rhetoric against Poland. "I'm staying in Poland - do come over (in great numbers)," says the new ad on the Polish tourist board's website for French visitors.""

Shanth (googled) got it.

6.4
At 3 was the Sony Walkman, and number 2 was the first modern telvision remote(!), the Zenith Space Command.

Shanth (googled) (For shame, Shanth, take a guess! That's better than googling everything!)

6.5
Largest two manmade islands in the world. Actually, I'm wrong there - in 2004, the Crown Prince of Dubai announced the construction of the Palm Deira which would be the largest of the three. Dubai is also planning to make a set of islands that resemble a map of the world.

(Googled by Shanth)

RSBQ answer:
Inscriptions on the edges of British coins.

The mottoes are from England, Scotland and Wales.

(Googled by Shanth)

6.6a Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, Bullfighting.

Cracked by Googleshanth and by Varun, who remembered Hemingway and the sport, but had to search for the book.

6.6b
The UN peacekeepers

Hurray for Hrishikesh! This is Hrishi's first foray into XQZ (at least, answering the questions) and he got it! (Shanth and Google again!) Kaushik thought they were a Canadian Hockey team.... heheh.

6.7
Clippy, the annoying paper clip (Office Assistant) that gave users advice in Microsoft Word.

Shanth (without Google's help! hurray!). Kaushik got it straight off. Hrishi came close with Excel's Merlin, but that's the wizard. Varun thought it might have something to do with ET - nice funda, so you get a virtual chocolate (The first!).

6.8
Telesur.

(Shanth with Google - maybe I should abbreviate it to SWG). Kaushik succumbed to curiosity and googled, but modestly refused to claim points :)

6.9
The connection is director Terry Gilliam. The pictures are of:

Jabberwocky (Jabberwocky)
The Quest for the Holy Grail (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Hunter S. Thompson's logo (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)
The Brothers Grimm (The Brothers Grimm)

Shanth, again without Googling - well done! However, you missed the Brothers Grimm.

6.10
The slaying of King Duncan by Macbeth. Macbeth was the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor. Interestingly, the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, is from Glamis castle.

Shanth - got it by a wild guess and then confirmed by Google. Kaushik took a wild guess and stuck with it. Hrishi also recognised Macbeth, but went for his defeat.

Don't forget to send in your ratings of the questions. Adios, and don't forget to check out sets Seven and Eight!

Set Seven

2005-09-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

From across the seven seas I bring you this quiz set. First just the regular reminder: If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

Secondly, a quick glance at my posting schedule revealed to me that I have kept my promise to post an average of a question a day.... though my frequency could be better I guess.

Thirdly I'd just like to remind you to visit Shanth's and Kaushik's quiz blogs for some excellent questions. They are definitely more consistent in question quality than I am!

As a fourth point, I invite you, Dear Readers, to go over the past sets of questions whose answers are already posted, try them without looking at the answers if you haven't already done so, and to then please send in your ratings of the questions. Questions are rated on the basis of Quality and Toughness. The rating system is discussed in the first posting Ground Zero. Hopefully after enough of you have responded, I'll be able to publish a list of the Top 13 questions (so far).

As a fifth - what are you waiting for? Go check out the new set!

En avant!

Set Seven

7.1
Starting this month, authors ranging from Stephen King to John Grisham will auction the right to name a character in one of their upcoming novels. On Sept. 1, eBay Giving Works went live with the electronic auction. For the next 25 days, anyone with an Internet connection can bid 24 hours a day to insert names into their favorite writers’ heads. King says the highest bidder will get to name a character in a new zombie novel he describes as being “like cheap whisky ... very nasty and extremely satisfying.” Cult comic author Neil Gaiman will let his top buyer select the name for a gravestone. Andrew Sean Greer promises the winner may choose the name of a “coffee shop, bar, corset company or other business in another scene,” but only “should it suit the author.” Other authors include Amy Tan, Lemony Snicket, Nora Roberts, Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Dorothy Allison, Peter Straub, ZZ Packer, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Ayelet Waldman, Andrew Sean Greer and Karen Joy Fowler.

Why are they doing this?

(With thanks to Sean for bringing this to my notice.)

7.2
Fill in the blank:

_______, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma.

7.3
There are two parts to this question, both with the same answer - so think of them as two different paths to the same destination. Here's the first path:

Connect:
a) Gershom, the son of Moses.
b) 666
c) Achluophobia

The second way is to identify and connect these pictures:

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.

7.4
In 1962 his country's government declared him a national treasure so that he could not be lured away to work abroad for higher fees.

(With thanks to Shanth for making me accidentally dig this up.)

7.5
Legend has it that while the amrita/amrith was being taken to heaven, some drops fell on the ground - specifically on kusha grass. Garuda quickly whisked it away, but X came out, and desperately trying to get some amrita, licked the blades of grass. What happened? (Note: X is not one person/thing, but rather a collection)

7.6
Name the person whose three letters start with the following phrases:

1. Dear Boss
2. I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip....
3. From hell

7.7
"...exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person...You perceive an increase of self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work....In other words, you are simply normal, and it is soon hard to believe you are under the influence of any drug....Long intensive physical work is performed without any fatigue...This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant after-effects that follow exhilaration brought about by alcohol....Absolutely no craving for the further use of _______ appears after the first, or even after repeated taking of the drug..."

Who talking about what?

7.8
This Nobel Prize winning scientist was well known for his modesty and shyness and, the story goes, became a Physicist because of it. He applied to do Mathematics at Manchester, was interviewed for Physics by mistake and was too self conscious to mention it. However, impressed by the interviewer he decided to shift to Physics.

(Thank you, Shanth, for your serendipitous inspirations.)

7.9
Born Lij Tafari Makonnen, hailed by Marcus Garvey as a Messiah, he is God incarnate for a certain religion. Ironically, though, he himself never believed in the religion, being a devout member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Name the person and the religion.

(Once again, Shanth, thank you!)

7.10
And my personal favourite in this set:

Name the recipe, fill in the blank.

Makes 1 ________ quart

A couple of Deadheads in Maine sent us a postcard with a name for a new flavor. They left the recipe up to us. We got to work with some fresh Bing cherries and threw in the chocolate flakes as a last minute inspiration.

* 1/4 cup shaved plain chocolate (we prefer Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate candy bars)
* 1/4 cup fresh Bing cherries, halved and pitted (you may use canned cherries, but be sure to drain the syrup)
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
* 1 cup milk

1. Place the shaved chocolate flakes and the cherries in separate bowls. Cover and refrigerate.

2. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.

3. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

4. After the ice cream stiffens (about 2 minutes before it is done), add the chocolate and the cherries, then continue freezing until the ice cream is ready.

Customary Vague Hint:
This recipe was first made in 1987. For a month after Aug 9 1995, the ice cream was made with black cherries.

Happy Labor Day, compadres.

Five Golden Rings

2005-09-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome, welcome, to my 'umble abode. This week, we look at yet another set of solutions. Don't forget to rate the questions after you have read the answers, and don't forget to try out Set Seven, which is just up. The rating of questions is discussed in the first posting Ground Zero. Do send in the ratings, even the ones for previous sets, so that I can compile a Top 13 list. For now, look at the answers to Set Five, and you might ask your roommate to save you from severe head trauma in case you start banging your head on the wall too much. Or with a hammer.

Excelsior!

5.1
It's Milo Minderbinder, from Catch 22. Remember, everyone has a share in the Syndicate.

Shanth answered this, though he needed G-help pinning down the character.

5.2
Bruce Murrie's business partner was Forrest E. Mars of Mars, Inc. chocolate fame, and the product was.... M&Ms!

Einsteinophile got this, and it was googled by Shanth.

5.3
This arbitrary condition was included in the technical portion in order to make sure that the technical portion had been read thoroughly. If they went backstage and found the bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones removed, as specified, then they could rest easy that everything technical had been taken care of. If the bowl wasn't there, or if the brown ones had not been removed, then every technical detail would have to be double-checked again, to ensure that no damage resulted to their expensive equipment.
Pretty smart, eh?

5.4
The company was French Connection; the ads, the FCUK campaign.

Kaushik answered this without hesitation. People, you should go to their site and check out the history of their ad campaign - it's really something!

5.5
Da Da Da Daaaa!. The opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony gave the BBC their audio 'V' morse signal.

Kaushik had the idea but the wrong piece. He should have remembered H2G2 :). Kaushik's 'close but no cigar' answer actually helped Shanth pin the right one down.

5.6
In God We Trust, the motto on US coins.

Kaushik and Shanth both cracked this quite easily.

5.7
Banana Republic. You should find some oblique references in Tintin and the Picaros. Incidentally, it's also the name of a clothing store.

Once again, Shanth and Kaushik both answered this.

5.8
Zoroastrianism is the religion, and this is often quoted as evidence of a common origin in Central Asia.

Shanth nailed it, and made this very interesting comment: "Zoroastrianism or the Parsi relegion. I've always found this interesting, because the Aryan tribes which migrated to India were constantly warring with each other, yet nowadays, in the age of relegious (sic) terrorism and extremism, there is hardly any anti-Parsi movement among the Hindu right."

5.9
It's Nessie, the beloved Loch Ness monster. Kaushik caught Nessie (hidden as 'Nessi' in the scientific name), as did Shanth.

5.10
During Ragnarok, Fenrir will devour Odin, the chief of the Scandinavian Gods. Vidar, Odin's son, will avenge his death by slaying the wolf. Not a very exciting answer, but it's lovely mythology, though, isn't it?

Shanth ended up with a different answer.... I'm not sure from where. I'd appreciate it if you could tell me your source so that I can compare and correct if necessary. But I'm reasonably sure of my answer.

5.11
As for the bonuses... well the connect for the first three is M&M - it's the answer for the second, it's in the question for the third, and Milo's company is called M&M enterprises to make it seem like there's more than one person in charge.
In Britain, showing the 'V' sign with your fingers with your palm facing towards you instead of away, as it should be done, is equivalent to giving the finger. The urban legend behind this is quite interesting - click here to read a detailed investigation of an imaginative, but wrong explanation. Still, thanks to Arthur for bringing it to my notice. So the connection for 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 is 'fuck'. Van Halen had an album called 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge', which is again an urban legend about the origin of the word. Shanth got the first connect, and Kaushik found the second - well done!

Hope you enjoyed the bonuses. Remember, write in and rate the questions. Set Seven is up, so give it a shot.

Adios, amigos!

Hex set

2005-08-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

This set took an awful long time to put together. Thankfully Kaushik finally put up the quiz Qs he had promised. It's a beautiful set that he put together, and I really didn't mind that I got screwed by them :). This set is under a bit of a curse, and isn't as good as previous ones, but it does have some interesting info. Let me get the regular routine out of the way, and then onwards.

"Hello, and welcome to XQZ. If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13."

En avant!

Set Six

6.1
Cynical Britons often call him the only man to go to Parliament with honourable intentions. His face inspired the mask in the graphic novel "V for Vendetta" (now a movie starring Natalie Portman)

6.2
Who sang this song?

It's not that easy being green;
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold...
or something much more colorful like that.

It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.

But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree.

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.

Hint:
He used to interview nursery rhyme characters.

6.3
Identify this picture: it's a person who has caused much concern in France and other West European countries.

6.4
PC Magazine released a list of the top 100 most important/influential gadgets, toppped by the Apple Powerbook 100. What devices fell in spots 2 and 3? (Taken from Nihilanth Lone Wolf finals)

1. Apple Powerbook 100 (1991)
2.
3.
4. Motorola Startac (1996)
5. CDI mechanical mouse (1970)
6. Casio QV-10 digital camera (1996)
7. US Robotics Pilot 1000 (1996)
8. Diamond Multimedia Rio 300 (1998)
9. Atari 7600 (1977)
10. Tivo Series 1 (1999)

6.5
What are The Palm Jumeirah and The Palm Jebel Ali, and what record will they hold when completed?

*Commercial break*

Random silly bonus question (RSBQ), unconnected with other stuff:

Connect:
1. "An ornament and a safeguard"
2. "No one provokes me with impunity"
3. "I am true to my country"

*We now return to .... Hex set.*

6.6
"____________ is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honour."

Fill the blank, give the person who said it and the book.

6.6
In 1957, Lester B. Pearson (who later became the PM of Canada) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in defusing the Suez Crisis through the United Nations. The selection committee claimed that Pearson had "saved the world". He also made another longlasting contribution, colloquially known today as the blue helmets. What? (Thanks to Edward Wilson-Ewing for this information.)

6.7
The Dot, a robot, The Genius, jigsaw puzzle/logo, a globe, a cat and a dog.
One more item belongs to this group. What?

6.8
Its name means Television of the South. Its advisory council is formed by many international and regional intellectuals, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, poet Ernesto Cardenal, writers Eduardo Galeano and Tariq Ali, newspaper editor and historian Ignacio Ramonet, free software pioneer Richard Stallman, and actor Danny Glover. What is it, and who is its prime supporter?

6.9
Connect the following pictures:

6.10
This is a picture of Duncan's Hall, in Glamis castle. What does it commemorate?

The Sign of Four

2005-08-27T00:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Set Five

2005-08-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

Though still not balanced, this set features some interesting information - in fact, for a couple of Qs, the question is probably more interesting than the answer! I have an exam to prepare for, so things will slow down for a few days. Enjoy these in the meanwhile. Don't forget to try the bonus.

But first, a message from our sponsors:
"Hello, and welcome to XQZ. If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13."

En avant!

Set Five

5.1
Who held all these posts? The mayor of Palermo, the assistant governor general of Malta, the vice-shah of Oran, the caliph of Baghdad, the imam of Damascus, and the sheik of Araby.

5.2
Hershey (of Hershey's Chocolates) had a partner called William Murrie. His (William's) son Bruce, was briefly the partner of another businessman, and their names (those of Bruce and his business partner) were together immortalised how?

5.3
This band Van Halen pioneered the way for the modern "Rock and Roll Show" with their extensive use of the concert technical contract rider. Although contract riders had existed before, Van Halen's use of them to specify the band's "wish list" (stage, production, transportation, personal requirements, etc.) was new and established a standard practice that is now used routinely throughout the music industry. As one of the first major bands with a full stage show to appear in many smaller cities, Van Halen had an extensive set of technical and logistical requirements including power availability and stage construction details that a venue had to comply with. Many venues in these markets had not previously dealt with such a large-scale show, and were not equipped to handle Van Halen's massive stage and light show, sometimes resulting in damage to the band's equipment and the venue. The band's demands were not limited to technical issues: their now infamous contract rider specified that, among other personal needs, a bowl of M&M candies, with all of the brown ones removed was to be available in the band's dressing room. This requirement was listed with the technical portion of the contract. Why?

5.4
The founder and CEO of this UK company, Stephen Marks, hired Trevor Beattie to make the brand 'front of mind' with customers. Beattie saw an acronym used by the company while sending faxes between their UK and Hong Kong offices, and this inspired one of the most controversial (and famous, and successful) advertising campaigns of the nineties. Which company?

5.5
On July 20 1941 a BBC campaign (around the V for victory and freedom idea) was launched with a message from Churchill for occupied Europe. Douglas Ritchie of the BBC European Service, suggested an audible V using the morse code rhythm - three dots and a dash. What was used? It was used as the call-sign by the BBC in its foreign language programmes to occupied Europe for the rest of the war.

5.6
Extract from a letter in 1861 from Secretary Chase to James Pollock:

"... You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition."

Pollock submitted some designs, and in another letter in 1863, Secretary Chase replied:

"I approve your mottoes, only suggesting that on that with the Washington obverse the motto should begin with the word OUR, so as to read OUR GOD AND OUR COUNTRY. And on that with the shield, it should be changed so as to read: __ ___ __ _____."

Fill in the final famous phrase.

5.7
The original example of this was Honduras, where the United Fruit and Standard Fruit companies dominated the country's key banana export sector and support sectors such as railways. The United Fruit Company was nicknamed 'The Octopus', for its willingness to involve itself in politics, sometimes violently. For example, in 1910 the company hired a gang of armed toughs from New Orleans to install a new president when the incumbent failed to grant the company tax breaks. The newly installed Honduran president waived the company's taxes for the next 25 years. The company's dominance in Honduras, as well as other Central American countries like Guatemala, led Pablo Neruda to write a poem titled La United Fruit Co. in Spanish. This political situation led to a phrase used to describe Honduras, but now used to describe a country with a non-democratic or unstable government, especially where there is widespread political corruption and strong foreign influence. What phrase?

5.8
In Hindu mythology, the devas are the good gods, while the asuras are the evil demons. Where would you find the daevas as demonic, and the ahuras as good?

5.9
The earliest known reference is from the Life of St. Columba; it describes how in 565 Columba saved the life of a Pict who was being attacked by a strange wild animal. In 1975, Sir Peter Scott, one of Britain’s best-known naturalists, announced that the scientific name of the animal would henceforth be Nessiteras rhombopteryx. What am I talking about?

5.10
In a certain mythology, the dwarfs forge the chain Gleipnir ("deceiver" or "entangler"). It appeared to be only a silken ribbon but was made of six wondrous ingredients: the sound of a cat's footfall, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, bear's sinews (meaning nerves, sensibility), fish's breath, and bird's spittle (which explains why these things are not found today). This chain is then used to bind the wolf Fenrir (Note: inspiration for Fenrir Greyback in HP6?). However, it is preordained that Fenrir will escape during the battle at the end of the world. Who will Fenrir devour at that time?

5.11
Here's an extra bonus: there are connections between questiosn 5.1 and 5.2, and also between 5.3 and 5.4, and you could say that in fact 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 are connected and that 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 are vaguely connected. Try and figure out the connections!

Don't forget to write in and rate the previous Q&As!

Auf Wiedersehen, Kameraden.

The Key of Three

2005-08-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

The Truth is Out There. The Answers are Right Here. Welcome to another answer session at XQZ. Don't forget to rate the questions after you've read the answers - see the posting Ground Zero to understand the rating system. Now see What Lies Beneath.

3.1
Gung Ho is indeed the answer... giving the Mandarin words made it easier, but it's funny, isn't it, how such a typical American phrase came from China? Of course, come to think of it, chopsuey came from the States....

Kaushik and Shrey figured this out.

3.2
Lance Armstrong is correct - these are some of the teams he has cycled with and won prizes with - however, he won the Tour de France only with the US Postal Service and the Discovery Channel.

Kaushik dredged the murky depths of his memory to get the answer with a great guess. Shrey and Corpsed got this too. And we have a tentative but correct answer from Einsteinophile.

3.3
Heheh... this is Elbonia from Dilbert. Incidentally, Scott Adams has another comic (currently shelved) called Plop, which is all about Elbonians.

Kaushik knew this one, and Shrey remembered the Dilbert connection, and Corpsed just couldn't rest without knowing the answer, so he took a little help, but yeah, they got it.

3.4
E.T. the Extra Terrestrial!

Kaushik got this in one, as did Corpsed.

3.5
Well, if the President's plane is called Air Force One, then his helicopter would be called.... Marine One.

Heheh, nice name, Kaushik. "Mr. President" is pretty cool. Shrey got this but wasn't sure. Corpsed tried Air Force Two - right idea, but wrong kind of military.

3.6
The company is Raytheon (light of the gods), and their inventive employee created the microwave.

Kaushik figured the microwave, but not the company. Corpsed got this, though very modestly admits to having some help. Good going though.

3.7
These highly incestuous companies belonged to the aeronautics/aerospace industry.

The original list is given below:

1912 Glenn L. Martin forms the Glenn L. Martin Company, and the Loughead brothers form the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company.
1915 William Boeing takes lessons from Mr. Martin.
1916 The Loughead brothers form the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company. Martin merges with the Wright company to form the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company. Jack Northrop works for Loughead. William Boeing starts the Pacific Aero Products Company.
1917 Martin splits off from Wright-Martin to become the Glenn L. Martin company again. William Boeing starts the Boeing Airplane Company.
At some point D.W. Douglas works as chief engineer at the Glenn L. Martin company.
1920 D.W. Douglas starts the Davis-Douglas company (which became the Douglas company in 1921, and in 1928, the Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc.). At some point Loughead closes.
1923-26 Jack Northrop works for Douglas.
1926 Loughead is restarted with the new name Lockheed, which is pronounced the same way, but is spelt in a simpler manner. Nothrop returns to work for Lockheed.
1929 Northrop leaves Lockheed to start a company which is subsidiary to another, but which is named after himself.
1930 L. R. Grumman starts Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co. .
1932 Jack Northrop returns to Douglas, runs a subsidiary.
1933-38 J.S. McDonnell is chief engineer at the Glenn L. Martin company.
1938 Jack Northrop starts his own company Northrop Aircraft, Inc. .
1939 J.S. McDonnell starts McDonnell Aircraft Corp..
1961 Martin merges with another company (the American-Marietta Company), changes name to Martin-Marietta.
1967 McDonnell merges with Douglas to form the McDonnell Douglas Corporation
1994 Northrop merges with Grumman to form Northrop-Grumman
1995 Lockheed merges with Martin-Marietta to form a company called Lockheed-Martin
1996 Boeing merges with McDonnell-Douglas
1998 Lockheed-Martin abandons attempt to merge with Northrop-Grumman.

Nobody got this (though Corpsed gave a pretty good answer using car companies), but you can bet that not many people know this.... I had to dig a lot to get the entire timeline - so go ahead and use it in your quizzes :)

3.8
In the game Pac-Man, the Pac-Man has to run from the monsters.... unless he eats the special stuff, in which case he can eat the monsters. In the Pac-Man defense, the company which is under threat of a hostile takeover starts a hostile takeover of the company that is trying to buy it.

A beautifully short and sweet answer by Shrey.

3.9
This was the first time that the famous Moore's Law (which deals with the further miniaturization and large scale integration of computer chips) was mentioned in print. Intel had lost their own copy of the magazine and offered this reward to get another. For a few days, librarians in America had to lock their cupboards very securely to prevent the theft of copies!

Kaushik got this, we had a great guess by Shrey, and an extremely confident reply from Einsteinophile.

3.10
Heh.... Corpsed thought it might have something to do with the DPS MMS clip (heheh), but no.... I have no idea how you guys figured it out... anyhow, this lens was used to film the segments of 2001: A Space Odyssey that were supposed to be from HAL 9000's point of view.... also, this lens was shown as HAL's lens (remember that glowing red light?).

Shrey and Einsteinophile figured Kubrick, I don't know how.... and Einsteinophile even managed to pinpoint Space Odyssey.... amazing.

Nice going, guys.... remember, there's no buzzer, no time limit (well, kinda) and no negative points, so go ahead and guess! Till next time. I had better start work on Set Five!

Sayanora.

Set Four

2005-08-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

My first posting from the States! Woo! The Fall term has not started yet, so the place is relatively quiet, I have not yet started classes, and I do not yet know the quizzing scene. However, I have you, my devoted readers, so here are the latest set of questions. Just a reminder first -

"Hello, and welcome to XQZ. If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13."

On to the queries! Excelsior!

Set Four

4.1
Al-Yemen means right hand. Why did the country get this name?
(Courtesy the American Museum of Natural History)

4.2
Robert Klark Graham (1907-1997) was an American businessman who made a lot of money by developing shatter-proof plastic eyeglass lenses, and who later founded the Repository for Germinal Choice. What did the Repository do/hold?

4.3
This race is organised by the New York Road Runners Club, and in 2004 it held its 27th edition. From 1999 to 2003 it was dominated by Australian Paul Crake, who still holds the record, being the only one to have run the race in less than 10 minutes. In 2004 the winner was Rudolf Reitberger from Austria. It is an invitational race. What is the race course/path?

Paul Crake is shown below.

4.4
After X achieved national stardom, he offered to produce Waylon's first records. Though neither of the first two recordings had much success, it was the beginning of a short but influential friendship with the rockabilly legend. X asked Waylon to join his touring band playing bass guitar, an offer Waylon accepted despite the fact that he did not know how to play bass. They embarked on a nationwide tour riddled with difficulties, including a tour bus without heat that repeatedly stalled in the cold weather.

X, Y, and Waylon were supposed to take a plane ride from Iowa. Waylon gave his seat to Z, who had a cold and desperately needed rest. After Waylon gave up his seat, X had jokingly told him that he hoped the tour bus would stall. What was Waylon Jenning's reply?

4.5
Identify and connect. I'm hoping this connection is the only one that exists between the following people, but I can't guarantee it. The list is NOT exhaustive.

4.6
Connect Feyd Rautha from Dune, and

4.7
Comic question! Hardcore comic book question. Captain America's indestructible shield was created in an unknown hither-to unreplicated process. What did Dr. Myron MacLain create when he unsuccessfully tried to replicate the process?

4.8
Connect the following terms/what do they have in common?
Back-end, Bankmail, Bon-voyage Bonus, Golden Parachute, Goodbye kiss, Gray Knight, Greenmail, Killer Bees, Lobster Trap, Pension Parachute, Poison Pill, Safe Harbor, Scorched-earth Defense, Selling the Crown Jewels, Shark Repellent, Standstill Agreement, Trigger.

4.9
In front, the shoes bear her name. On the back, one pair has 5.01, 5.02, 5.03 and 5.04 inscribed on the side of heel. Whose shoes are we talking about?

4.10
It is one of the most bizarre and improbable organisms on the planet. It produces no leaves, stems or roots but lives as a parasite on the Tetrastigma vine, which grows only in primary (undisturbed) rainforest. Only the flower or bud can be seen; the rest of the plant exists only as filaments within its unfortunate host. The blossom is pollinated by flies attracted by its scent, which resembles that of carrion. Which plant?

I'm sorry if the distribution is a little unbalanced. Hopefully once I get into a rhythm here both the frequency and the balance of questions will improve.

See ya later, alligators!

A Second Solution

2005-08-03T02:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome, welcome, to another answer session at XQZ. If you're new to this quiz blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

The truth awaits.

2.1
You know, I really wish the Academy had accepted him. The artist is Adolf Hitler. Cracked by Corpsed. Now say that fast ten times :) Oh, wait, Shrey got it too!

2.2
Croquet! Interestingly there is a move in croquet known as the roquet. Corpsed and Shrey strike again! Akshat open his account!

2.3
The diagram shown was associated with phrenology. The cat's got this one.

2.4
No twist to this tale... it is indeed Aryton Senna car wreck. Full points to everyone.

2.5
Think outside the box... a beautiful answer from everyone. I'm afraid I don't know if Bono was involved in particular. The box in this case referred to the box formed by the square of dots, and the fact that the lines drawn would have to project out of it. Neat, eh?

2.6
Kaushik had the right idea but the wrong genre.... the map showed a small, but rather famous, Gaulish village.... home to Asterix and Obelix.

2.7
The year was the clue here, and Corpsed and Shrey latched on immediately. It was the first modern Olympics.

2.8
Direct from Kaushik we have the answer - the Jaipur Foot, the easy to make and highly reliable prostethic leg.

2.9
I'll have to double check my answer, but unless I'm sorely mistaken, the answer is Alaska. Just Alaska, you see, there is a chain of islands (Aleutian?) which cross the 180 degrees meridian, putting them farther East and West then any other part of the USA. The International Date Line is crooked precisely because of these islands (as well as because of part of Asia).

2.10
Beautiful answers from everyone - it was indeed to represent the deaths due to poverty.

Don't forget to write in and rate the questions, on Quality and Toughness.

Sayanora.

Set Three

2005-08-02T03:48:00.000-07:00

The questions this time are on average rather long, and are not necessarily framed well, but are about interesting things (well, most of them are). Persevere and ye shall discover new knowledge.

Set Three

Dent's daughter

3.1
This unofficial motto of the US Marine Corps is an abbreviation for the Mandarin Gongye Hezhoushe, or industrial cooperative. The term was used in China, starting in 1938, to refer to small, industrial operations that were being established in rural China to replace the industrial centers that had been captured by the Japanese. The phrase was clipped to the initial characters of the two words, which formed a phrase meaning "work together." This clipping became a slogan for the industrial cooperative movement.

Enter Lt. Col. Evans Carlson, US Marine Corps. Carlson was a military attache in the US embassy to China in the late-30s. In China, Carlson reported on both the operations of the Chinese army in the field as well as the country's industrial capacity and was favorably impressed by the industrial cooperatives. When he returned to the States and the US entered WWII, Carlson was appointed commander of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion. Recalling his time in China, Carlson chose ___ __ as the motto for his elite battalion and by late 1942 was widely adopted throughout the Marine Corps as an expression of spirit and "can do" attitude. What is the phrase?

3.2
Connect Motorola, the US Postal Service and the Discovery Channel.

3.3
It is an extremely poor, fourth-world Eastern-European country that has recently abandoned Communism. Most of the nation is covered with waist-deep mud, which the residents use to build houses. Much of the economy is mud-based. The country is also at war with its neighbour.

Most of the natives have beards, even the females, and wear tall grey hats and black mittens. Their technology is very outdated, and includes tin can telephones, and giant slingshots (instead of airplanes). The natives are commonly portrayed as idiotic and backward. For many years the country has been mired in a civil war between the left and right-handed citizens, although the war was mostly bloodless, as the people did not realize they were allowed to use weapons.

The country's government is a dictatorship, run by a right-handed Fidel Castro-esque military strongman who strives to crush the lefties. Another tyrant briefly deposed the President and made himself dictator, turning the country into a tourist hotspot by making prostitution and gambling not only legal, but mandatory.

The national bird is the frisbee. In order to attract tourists the country openly lies in its promotional videos, and claims to host five of the seven wonders of the world. Which country is it? (Taken from Nihilanth Lone Wolf quiz)

3.4
I am a 3 feet 6 inches tall character created by Carlo Rambaldi. In the film my voice was that of Debra Winger and Pat Walsh and I was played by two dwarfs, Tamara De Treaux and Pat Bolton. My eyes were modelled on those of Einstein, Hemingway, and Carl Sandburg and my film won four Oscars in 1982. Who am I? (Thank you, Hrishi!)

3.5
Identify this helicopter (I mean, what is it called? Again from the Nihilanth Lone Wolf Quiz)

3.6
Two former college roommates Laurence K. Marshall and Vannevar Bush, along with scientist Charles G. Smith, founded the American Appliance Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1922. The company's first product was a gaseous rectifier, called the ________ ("light of the gods"). The company changed its name to ________ in 1925.

In World War II the company manufactured magnetron tubes for use in radar sets, and then complete radar systems. In 1948 they began to manufacture guided missiles.

They are responsible for the Sidewinder, Maverick, Patriot and Tomahawk Cruise missiles. However, quizzers might know them for one of their employees, who took their magnetron business in a new direction. Which company? (The blanks are the same.)

3.7
The small letters refer to people. The capital letters refer to companies with the same name as the people who started them. Identify the companies involved, except for company I.

1912, x forms company X, and the b brothers form a company.
1915 c takes lessons from x.
1916 b brothers form company B. X merges with W to form company W-X. d works for B. c starts a company.
1917 X splits off from X-W to become X again. c starts company C.
At some point e works as chief engineer at X.
1920 e starts company E. At some point B closes.
1923-26 d works for E.
1926 B is restarted with new name F, which is pronounced the same way, but is spelt in a simpler manner. d returns to work for F.
1929 d leaves F to start a company which is subsidiary to another, but which is named after himself.
1930 g starts G
1932 d returns to E, runs a subsidiary.
1933-38 h is chief engineer at X.
1938 d starts his own company D.
1939 h starts H.
1961 X merges with another company, changes name to I.
1967 E merges with H to form E-H
1994 G merges with D to form G-D
1995 F merges with I to form a company called F-X
1996 C merges with E-H
1998 F-X abandons attempt to merge with G-D.

3.8
In the world of hostile takeovers, what is the Pac-Man defence?

3.9
David Clark, a British engineer, was given a reward of $10,000 by Intel for giving them a well-preserved copy of one of the 1965 issues of Electronics magazine. Why?

3.10
In 2004, a person attempted to auction a Cinerama 160 degree Fairchild-Curtis lens, with a reserve price of $150,000. To the best of my knowledge the reserve was not met, and so the item was not sold, but why the high price? Why was this lens famous?

Be imaginative. Don't be afraid to guess! Send in your answers, and also your ratings of previous questions.

Au revoir.

One Solution

2005-08-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

So here we are once again. All men search, for what, some do not know.... but quizzers search for what some do not know. Moral: watch your punctuation. Here are the answers to Set One.

1.1
Project Blue Book was the last official US Air Force investigation into UFO sightings. Corpsed beamed down the right answer, but Kaushik and Shrey got lost in the crop circles.

1.2
Building (usually skyscrapers),
Antenna,
Span (includes Bridges and Arches)
Earth (natural geological formations like cliffs).

Balloons and Aeroplanes won't work as they aren't fixed structures, and thus don't conform to the idea of BASE jumping. Shrey pretty much cracked it, missing only Span. We got some really innovative answers, but my personal favourite was Corpsed's 'Buildings.... And Suitably Elevated places'.

1.3
A perfect four line description of guerilla/guerrilla tactics. Kaushik and Shrey made decisive strikes, but Corsped rambled in muddy political waters.

1.4
The date was intended to mislead, but all that was in vain as Kaushik and Shrey saw through my deception. Sniff. It is indeed 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. In 1937 it referred to the aerial bombing of cities, which was a relatively new tactic, and also chemical attacks.

1.5
Ever heard of Mountain Dew? Though I'd really like to try out Corpsed's Janx Spirit Stew :). Mountain Dew was a euphemism for illegally brewed alcohol/whisky - aka moonshine.

1.6
Milkha Singh. No cigars for anyone.

1.7
'We're more popular than Jesus now,' said John Lennon. Shrey got the person, though not the line.

1.8
Somewhat ironically, Kaushik guessed Leonardo da Vinci, and Corpsed inspired by the da Vince code, and very astutely noting the crosses in the keys, guessed the Opus Dei, but the keys are the Keys of Peter, the keys to the Kingdom, and the reason you should be hitting yourself on the head is the name written below the shield, which I thought of erasing, but didn't.... it's Giovanni Paolo II.... better known as Pope John Paul II. Each Pope has his own coat of arms. Heheh... I think I can hear you banging your heads on the walls.

1.9
Unfortunately, both Kaushik and Corpsed overshot themselves this time. It's nothing to do with Operation BlueStar, but it is the annual cleaning of the tank (not a lake, Shrey, but excellent try) outside the Golden Temple.

1.10
A hesitant but very smart guess by Kaushik, and confident one from Shrey.... the 1984 climb was the first ever by an Indian woman - Bachendri Pal. In fact, you can see her standing right in the centre of the group.

Don't forget to write in and rate the questions!

Till next time, amigos!

The Zero Point Solution

2005-07-31T14:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to XQZ. If you're new to this quiz blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

Sorry for the delay in posting the answers to Set Zero - as usual I left my packing till the last moment. The answers for Set One should be up by tomorrow (local time), and Set Three will be up the day after that, I guess.

Don't forget to rate the questions after you've seen the answers. For details on the rating system see the post called 'Ground Zero'.

Solution Zero

0.1
The missing word is urn, and these words are found on that most holy of sports objects, the urn containing the 'ashes of English cricket'. What was burnt to get the ashes? Well, that question is still open - it has variously been said to be a ball, bail, or even a veil (someone's mother-in-law's).
Kaushik cracked this with a wild guess, Corpsed got the right word but the wrong idea - he thought a leetle too deeply.

0.2
These words are found on the India Gate in Delhi. The Gateway to India is in Bombay. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is at India Gate, but the words are engraved on the Gate itself. The common error here was mixing it up with the Gateway to India - but Kaushik came close.

0.3
These are the words you will find on the Kohima memorial, near a cemetery where lie the dead soldiers who fought to stop the advance of the Japanese into India during World War II.
And a bingo for Corpsed and Shrey.

0.4
The pictures are of Larry Ellison, Batgirl and Pythia. Ellison is the CEO of Oracle, Batgirl lost the use of her legs after being shot, and reinvented herself as the omnipotent computer expert Oracle, and Pythia was the priestess of Apollo, who acted as the Oracle at Delphi. The connection is the word/name Oracle.
Kaushik grand slammed this after a little checking to get the Batgirl connection. Corpsed recognised Pythia, but failed to see the common thread.

0.5
The pictures are of Carl Lewis and Al Oerter, who each won track and field gold medals in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympics. Lewis did it in the long jump, Oerter in the discus throw. The crucial word is 'same event', as there is one other person (Paul Elvstrom) who won individual golds in four consecutive Olympics, but in different events.
No one got this exactly right, I'm afraid.

0.6
The odds were for who would die in the 6th Harry Potter book, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'. They (the bookies) stopped accepting bets after they realised that a large amount of money was being placed on one character, and that all the bets came from the town in which the novel was being printed. :)
Kaushik had the right idea but the wrong book - Corpsed and Shrey hit it bang on though.

0.7
The slope is known as Henman Hill, after Britain's long-time best-hope to win Wimbledon. But now it has acquired another possible nickname - Murray Mound, after an enterprising Scotsman.
Corpsed and Shrey do it again!

0.8
Heheh.... the wood-pulp mill is the clue here.... it's the nokia.
And it's ..... Corpsed and Shrey!

0.9
These are the famous Satanic Verses, as it is supposed to be Satan who misled Muhammed into including them. Realizing his mistake, Muhammed later removed them.

0.10
These paintings are by a former Nobel Prize winner. Gao Xinjiang was the first winner for the Nobel Prize in Literature to come from the People's Republic of China. Actually he's in exile. He won in 2002, and his most famous novel is Soul Mountain.

I'm typing this sitting in my sister's house in the UK. I'll post details of the trip later - look out for them at my other blog. This is your last chance to solve Set One, and don't forget to look out for Set Three. And please do send in the ratings.

Adios, Amigos!

PS 0.0
Kaushik and Shrey cracked this in one... it's a Douglas Adams / Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference. I won't spoil it for you. Read it and find out. :) Must say though that I hadn't known about the quote.

Don't forget to spread the word to those who may be interested!

Set Two

2005-07-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to XQZ. If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

The answers to Set Zero will be up tomorrow (Friday). I'm leaving the country on Saturday morning, and will try to post Set Three (and the answers to Set One) from my sister's place in the UK. After that I'm afraid there will be a hiatus until I make my new home away from home a bit homely. But it might be shorter than I expect, so keep watching this space!

To the Questions!

Set Two

Picture, picture, in the blog.....

2.1
He was rejected twice by the Academy of Arts in Vienna (1907–1908) for "lack of talent"—which he resented deeply—he did not try to find a different job or learn a profession. He was told he should become an architect, since he had some flair for painting buildings. He worked as a struggling painter in Vienna, copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists (there is evidence he produced over 2000 paintings and drawings before World War I). Here are two of his paintings. Who was he?

2.2
The picture shows the ground on which a certain sport or game is played. Which game/sport? (Credit for this question goes to Aditya Kumar)

2.3
With which pseudoscience (which is also a protoscience) is this diagram associated?

2.4
What is shown here?

2.5
A standard lateral thinking question is: Consider nine dots laid out in a square grid. Without taking your pen off the paper, draw four straight lines such that each dot lies on at least one line. Management consultants used this problem to illustrate to companies that some problems required innovative thinking and the recognition of unconscious assumptions. The solution to the problem is shown below. What now common English phrase was coined by the consultants to describe the solution and this way of thinking?

Random

2.6
The National Geographic is renowned for its attention to detail and the veracity of its maps and articles. However in its May 1977 issue, which featured the Celtic world and its history, one of the maps was inaccurate on one small count. None of the readers complained though. Why?
(Once again, credit to Hrishikesh Varma)

2.7
Which venture in 1896 was financed by the sale of souvenir stamps and medals and the donation of money by a wealthy businessman called Georgios Averoff?
(And again, thank you Mr. Varma)

2.8
It costs only $28, and was created for the first time some time in the late 1960s by sculptor Ram Chandra and Dr Pramod Karan Sethi. There are at least 72,000 users in India alone, and it is also popular in war torn countries like Afghanistan, Rwanda and Cambodia. What is it?

2.9
In terms of Longitude, to which states do the Easternmost and Westernmost points of the United State of America belong?

2.10
During the opening of the Philadelphia concert in this year's Live 8 concert, Will Smith led the combined audiences of London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Barrie in a synchronised finger click at a rate of one click every three seconds. What did it represent?

Salut!

Set One

2005-07-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to XQZ. If you're new to this blog, please see the first posting Ground Zero in order to learn the basic rules of this quiz blog. Remember to use rot13.

The solutions for set Zero haven't been posted yet (they'll be posted after 4 - 7 days), so feel free to send in your answers.

One extra point - while rating the questions you are free to suggest ways of improving them so that they are more interesting.

On to the questions:

Set One

Dire Straights

1.1
Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book were official USAF investigations of what unnatural phenomenon?

1.2
BASE jumping is the sport of using a parachute to jump from fixed objects. "BASE" is an acronym that stands for the four categories of objects from which one can jump. What are the four categories?

1.3
The enemy advances, we retreat. The enemy camps, we harass. The enemy tires, we attack. The enemy retreats, we pursue. What is Mao Tse-Tung describing?

Fill in the blanks

1.4
Fill the blanks (Use phrase): It was first used by the London Times on 28 December, 1937 of that year, "Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean, waged as it would be with all the new _______ __ ____ ___________?"

1.5
Fill in the blanks. All the blanks are the same and consist of a phrase of two words:
There's a big holler tree down the road here from me
where you lay down a doller er two.
When you come round the bend and when you come back again
There's a jug full of good old __________.
Oh they call it that old ____________ and them that refuse it are few.
I'll shut up my mug if you fill up my jug with some good old _____________.
(Seen this at a couple of quizzes)

1.6
Complete (Olympics) - Otis Davis, Carl Kaufmann, Malcolm Spence, ________.
(Credit for this question goes to Hrishikesh Varma)

1.7
Fill up the blank with a sentence and tell me who spoke these lines:
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. __________________________ ; I don't know which will go first - rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
(Once again by Hrishikesh Varma)

Picture that

1.8
Whose coat of arms was this:

1.9
What is going on here?

1.10
The women in this picture are about to start on an expedition to climb Mount Everest. This climb was on the 20th anniversary of another famous climb made in 1984. Who made the climb in 1984?

Salut!

Ground Zero

2005-07-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my quiz blog.

First off I’d like to thank my friend Kaushik, who partially inspired me to put this together. He runs a quiz blog of his own called Quizzical Expressions – the link is also there in the sidebar.

This quiz blog is meant for both experienced collegiate quizzers as well as people who have just finished school and are graduating into the big bad world of college quizzing. As a result, some questions will be easy, some will be tough; some will be well-known standard questions – and some will be new. Do tell me if you think the balance is shifting too much one way.

I intend to post an average of one question a day – which means I could post three questions and then not post for three days and so forth. As I’ll be leaving the country in a week’s time, and won’t be settled for about a month, I’m going to try and post five weeks’ worth of questions in the next few days.

Let me lay down the rules.

Rules and Requests

1. You can post answers using the comment feature. As a courtesy to other readers, please encode your answers using rot13. This means – go to www.rot13.com , type your answer in the space provided, press ‘Cypher’ and then copy-paste the resulting encrypted message into the comment section of my blog and post it. That way your guesses cannot be seen by other readers unless they decrypt it using the same process, and nobody’s fun is spoiled.

2. The answers will typically be posted after 4-7 days. I haven’t yet decided on a rhythm. After the answers are posted, you are invited to rate the questions. Each question will have a specific question number, so just give the question number and then a Quality Rating (QR) on the scale of 0-5, with 0 being a bad question and 5 being a good question. Remember, good and bad are not the same as easy and tough. A tough question can be bad if it is too obscure and of interest to no one. A tough question can also be good – I’ve been to plenty of quizzes where no one could answer a particular question, but once the quiz master laid out the answer, everyone applauded. Some answers are just beautiful. So keep that in mind while rating the questions. Every now and then I’ll announce what the top rated questions are : ).
I also would like you to rate the questions on their Toughness (TR), again on a scale of 0-5, with 0 being easy and 5 being tough. So your comment would look like this:

QNo. 0.0. QR 2.0 TR 4.2

3. Try to answer the questions without googling. However, there is no strict rule against it – and after all, I can’t stop you. But a common courtesy is that when you google part of answer, you acknowledge it while posting the answer. The community of web-quizzers respects honesty as much as knowledge.

4. Rule number four…. Well I actually can’t think of anything. I’ll let you know if that changes. On to the questions!

Set Zero

Treasure Hunt

Where would you find these words:

0.1.
When Ivo goes back with the ___, the ___;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the ___, the ___;
And the rest coming home with the ___.

Had to remove a word to keep it from being obvious. All the blanks are the same word.

0.2.
To the dead of the Indian armies who fell honoured in France and Flanders. Mesopotamia and Persia, East Africa, Gallipoli and elsewhere in the near and the far-east and in sacred memory also of those whose names are recorded and who fell in India or the north-west frontier and during the Third Afgan War.

0.3.
When you go home tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today.

Identify and Connect:

0.4.

0.5

Random

0.6
The odds were:

The Hero: 16/1
The Hero’s male friend: 6/1
The hero’s female friend: 10/1
The hated teacher: 7/1
The beloved headmaster: 1/5
The ex-girlfriend: 11/2
The hated schoolmate: 22/1

Odds for what?

0.7
How is Aorangi Park, which lies in the grounds of the All England Club, better known?

0.8
This animal is called a sable/marten in English. However, let its name in the local language be X. Due to its abundance near a river, the river got the same name X, and then the river gave it to a town near the river, and the town/river gave it to a wood pulp mill nearby, and the mill company grew.... into what?

0.9
“These are exalted Gharaniq whose intercession is to be desired" - translation from Arabic. The verses comprising this sentence are said to have been added to the 53rd sura of the Qur'an entitled Surat-annajm, The Star (53:19ff) in order to acknowledge the validity of the goddesses al-Lat and al-'Uzza and Manat. Tradition goes on to say that the verses were later withdrawn and denounced. What phrase was coined to describe these words?

0.10
These paintings were done in ink on rice paper. The artist, is however, more famous for something else. Who is the artist?

Question Zero

0.0 Why is my blog address basethirteen ?