The Mostly General Quiz

Set by Sachin Deshpande

32 Questions on Passing + 8 Questions written round

1

“ The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation–if I may use that biological term–that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.

This process of ______ __________ is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in.”

What term fills up the blanks? Which economist coined it?

Creative Destruction, coined by Joseph Schumpeter

2In 2004, the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta probe on an audacious mission to chase down a comet and place a robot on its surface. For nearly three years Rosetta had been hurtling through space in a state of hibernation.

What was the two word tweet which came up on the Twitter account on , after the probe woke up? One which probably served as introduction to coding for most.

Hello World

3Who is Rahul Bhattacharya talking about ?

“Some careers burst like the glitter of magic tricks, not frequently but unforgettably. Every now and then there is proof. ____ ________ once opened the bowling and batting in the same Test match. He played a Test match before he played a Ranji match, and when he played a Ranji match he smacked a double century. In his second Test he carted 14 runs from the first over. Seventy-one in no time, Davidson and Meckiff and Benaud and Kline taken to the cleaners. In 1964-65 he hit 192 against England in Madras and 525 in the series. Between 1959 and 1967 ____ _______ played 18 Tests for India, and then he left.”

Budhi Kunderan

4“ I first called it Amardas. Amardas happens to be one of the gurus of the Satnamis, and they all protested that it can't be named after their guru. Then I called him some other Das, that was another guru. So finally I said X can't be a guru and it was not. The original story has no name, he's just Y.”

Who is the speaker ? And what is XY ?

Speaker - Habib Tanvir

XY – Charandas Chor

5

“This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written. After all, I undertook to tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story and I leave it to you as to how well I succeeded. I also undertook another task, but I won't tell you what that was lest l spoil the story for you.

It is a curious fact that innumerable readers have asked me if I wrote this story. They seem never to remember the title of the story or (for sure) the author, except for the vague thought it might be me. But, of course, they never forget the story itself, especially the ending. The idea seems to drown out everything -- and I'm satisfied that it should.”

Who is the speaker ? What is the short story in question ?

Isaac Asimov speaking about ‘The Last Question’

6In 2009, the Italian Government decided to revive the plans to build a bridge across the narrow strip of sea which separates the eastern tip of Sicily and the western tip of Calabria, called the Messina Bridge. The strait is characterized by strong tidal currents. This project had been taken up a number of times before and abandoned every time.

What idiom has this stretch of water given rise to ?

Between Scylla and Charybdis

7“ A few days later the video from behind the goal was shown in Holland. If I had the opportunity to watch it back? I think I’d have given a red card. But in the match I was convinced I made the right call. It was difficult to judge what happened, because I followed the ball. I thought: it was going to be a goal. A bit later I recognised the collision. I went to my assistant Mr. Valentine, a very good referee from Scotland, and asked him if he saw something I missed.”

What infamous incident is the referee Charles Korver talking about ?

The collision between Patrick Battiston and Harald ‘Toni’ Schumacher.

8ID the first two speakers in the conversation which happened in 2013.

9Before the Candy Crush saga, there were Guitar Hero and Rock Band, games that in their day were as huge as Candy Crush. What was the company which developed these games, a one word name which had obvious musical connotations? The company ended up being sold after a few years, for fifty bucks and a pile of debt.

Harmonix

10Connect (Not Exhaustive)

Orphan Initialisms - All these acronyms do not stand for anything now.

11.What two word term has been blanked out, used to simplify real-world logic requirements so that they can be implemented using a minimum number of physical logic gates?

Karnaugh Maps

12.Who talking about what recurrent theme in his works?

“It all started, of course, with a childhood memory of being unable to resist the temptation to pull away ___ ________. We all did it, we all fell for it. In fact, I was told by a professional player that he actually saw it happen in a college game at the University of Minnesota. The Gophers were leading by a good margin, everyone was enjoying himself, and the man holding ___ _______, like the kids in the neighborhood, could not resist the temptation to pull it away. I wish I had been there to see it.”

13In 1934, on being given an opportunity to participate in the Amateur Night at the Apollo theatre, this girl went with plans of dance. But on seeing the main act – the Edwards Sisters, who she thought was the “the dancingest sisters around”, she quickly made a decision to sing.

Who was the girl?

Ella Fitzgerald

14Who’s seen here, holding a demo copy of his single 'Head Over Heels In Love’?

The single peaked at No. 31 in the UK charts, but climbed to No. 10 in Germany.

Kevin Keegan

15In the Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, there used to exist a memorial slab for a certain E. Lennox, whose profession was mentioned as ‘meal man’ or corn merchant.

A writer visited this memorial in 1841, but the evening light hampered his reading abilities. What was the result of this visit, seen in one the writer’s most famous works?

The writer was Charles Dickens and the tomb was of Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie.

In the fading evening light of Edinburgh, Dickens read ‘meal man’ as “mean man”, thus getting the idea Ebeneezer Scrooge.

16James Brudenell was a colourful character. An Earl himself, he was thrown out of the army in 1834 for "reprehensible conduct". In 1841 he was acquitted of killing one of his former officers by a jury of his peers, despite clear evidence to the contrary, causing the Times to say, "that there was one law for the rich and another for the poor".

Later on, as a cavalry officer, what did he lead his troops into ? One which probably occurred due to miscommunication in the chain of command.

He led the Charge of the Light Brigade

Written Round

8 Questions on origin of Names. Bands (4) and US Sports teams (4).

2 Points per correct answer

1. They changed their name from Traffic Jam to their current version in 1967 and have retained the same ever since.

2. Who changed their name due to a supposed clash with Johnny Devlin and the Detours?

3. Which band’s name is a reference to either hobos waiting for trains or the Jazz Musician Charlie Parker?

4. Although it is widely speculated that the name was a reference to their wild stage act, it actually was the nickname of a friend of the band members. Which band?

5. Which sports team’s name pays a tribute to the nickname of its earlier location – Minneapolis ?

6. Which NHL team are named after a song referencing the Missouri city out of where they are based, which has been covered by almost all jazz musicians of note ?

7. Which now defunct team are named after Boeing's efforts on building faster than sound airplanes, which was later canceled ?

8. What NBA team name was chosen to reflect both the ruggedness of the Pacific Northwest and the start of a major league era in the state ?

1. Status Quo

2. The Who

3. The Yardbirds

4. The Animals

5. LA Lakers

6. St Louis Blues

7. Seattle Supersonics

8. Portland Trailblazers

17.While Wolfram Alpha lists the answer to one part of this answer to the question asked as 11 m/s, it says that there is insufficient data to answer the other part. This data insufficiency holds good even if the user specifies which of the 47 continental species he is inquisitive about.

What is this all about?

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

African or European?

18This was a program which maintained databases of Anonymous FTP host directories. The author originally wanted to call the program "archives" but had to shorten it to comply with the Unix standard of assigning short, cryptic names.

Therefore he renamed it by dropping letters, which caused the subsequent name being thought of as a tribute to a fictional character, which in turn influenced the naming of similar programs.

What first does this program hold? What did the author end up calling it as?

The program ended up being called Archie. It is considered the world’s first search engine.

The other early search engines were named after Archie characters like Jughead and Veronica.

19Sometime in the late 1920’s, For what reason did Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV and his mother Queen Kempananjammanni sell costly diamonds, ornaments, gold and silver plates of the royal family of Mysore in Bombay ?

To provide seed capital for the KRS (Krishnaraja Sagara) reservoir project.

Since the outlay for the dam exceeded the state budget, they sold their valuables in the market

20X

Y

Solve for X and Y

X – Iznogood and Y – Raja Hooja

21This musical instrument has many theories regarding its name. One says that it may derive from the Latin for rod, referring to the wooden jacks that rest on the ends of the keys. Another theory is that the device is named so as it was mostly played by young women, or from its sound, which is like a young girl's voice. A further view is that the name comes as it accompanied hymns in honour of Mary.

ID this instrument, depicted in the Vermeer painting next slide

A Virginal – possibly due to its connections with young women (virgins) and the Virgin Mary

22These are optical illusions, although tourist guides and drivers tend to say otherwise. The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon. Without a horizon, judging the slope of a surface is difficult as a reliable reference is missing. Objects one would normally assume to be perpendicular to the ground (trees) may be leaning, offsetting the visual reference of the observer.

What are these optical illusions commonly known as?

Magnetic Hill or Gravity Hills. These are the places where the vehicle seems to defy gravity and move uphill when stopped.

23In 2002, the Hindustan Times managed to trace a 77 year old man who had all but disappeared for 43 years, for a story they were working on called the Dare Bare Indians. Attached here in is the man’s reply (pic).

The newspaper then went on to say ‘ We would not like to disclose where he resides. We respect his wish to remain oblivious & have thus, not gone deep into the matter.’

Who was the man in question?

Kawas Nanavati

24A golden nosed gentleman was on his deathbed due to an urinary infection caused by ‘placing civility before health’ at a banquet thrown by the Baron of Rosenberg. He then bequeathed his observations made over a period of many decades to a provincial schoolteacher saying “Let me not seem to have lived in vain.”

Who were the two people in question? What did the observations lead to?

The golden nosed gentleman was Tycho Brahe and the schoolteacher was Johannes Kepler.

The observations led to the discovery that planets moved in elliptical orbits and not circles, leading to the formation of Kepler’s laws.

25Nirad C Choudhari writing about Nehru in the Illustrated weekly of India in 1953, said "In other words, there cannot, properly speaking, be a successor to Nehru, but only successors to the different elements of his composite leadership".

This prompted a flurry of reactions from the readers. One reader said that there were two worthy candidates in Bengal itself. One who ‘has shown a spirit of sacrifice in leaving his lucrative practice to lead the troubled and mutilated state of West Bengal’, and the other being the constructive and eloquent leader of the parliamentary Opposition.

Id both.

Dr B C Roy and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

26When the winner of X, Yolande Fox, informed the Catalina bathing suit company that she would not appear in a swimsuit in public unless she was going swimming, the company broke with its sponsorship of X and instead started Y, whose winner in turn participates in Z.

ID X, Y and Z

X – Miss AmericaY – Miss USA

Z – Miss Universe

27Where are these features seen? Not exhaustive

• Mark of the Wheel of Law on soles of feet or palms of hands• Webbed fingers and toes• Arms that reach to the knees when standing• Tuft of hair or third eye between the eyebrows• A bump on the top of the head known as ushnisha which symbolises wisdom and

spirituality and attainment of enlightenment.

Representations of the Buddha

28

What long running battle ended in 2003 with one of the parties agreeing to make their version with a tail which rises more or less vertically, skin which is more scaly and bigger eyes ?

Lacoste and Crocodile

29The painting described below is famous for its role in one of the 19th century’s most infamous libel suits.

“In this a boat slips across a glass-still Thames River, manned by a ghostly passenger. Behind the watercraft looms a tall, wooden overpass. Its silhouette is dark against the deep blue sky; a spray of golden rockets fizz on the horizon. Shadowy figures huddle on top of the bridge, perhaps to watch the fiery spectacle”

Which artist known for his musical naming conventions ? Name the Painting also.

Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge by James Whistler

30.

Founded in 2008 by Jimmy Levine and Andre Romelle Young, what company describes itself has having effectively brought the energy, emotion and excitement of playback in the recording studio to the listening experience and credits itself with introducing an entirely new generation to the possibilities of premium sound entertainment ?

Beats by Dr. Dre

31In Barcelona in 1992, he finished second to Linford Christie in the 100m and Michael Marsh in the 200m.In Atlanta in 1996, he finished second to Donovan Bailey in the 100m and Michael Johnson in the 200m.

Identify this perennial bridesmaid, who also is the only Olympic medalist of the southern African nation he belongs to

Frankie Fredericks

32.

Who is the painter of the artwork shown here?

Al Feldstein