General quiz set

1. AWESOME MIX#1

3. CLOCKWISE
• +10 on a direct
• +10/-5 on a pounce

4. Q1
• In 2016, US army spokesperson Wayne Hall
confirmed that X would actually have been
eligible for back pay in those years he was
“inactive” from regular military service.
• Confirming the calculation from an
anonymous reddit user, Hall confirmed the
latter's theory, though he said that there were
a wide variety of variables on the amount X
was due, with some estimates being over $3
millions.
• Who is X? And what am I talking about?

7. Q2
• It has been in the Archaeological Survey of India’s
‘reserve collection’ for decades and was put on
public display at the Fort Museum in Fort St
George complex in Chennai a few years ago.
• Placed in an air tight wooden-glass showcase, it
is surrounded by six bowls of silica gel to regulate
humidity and absorb moisture. Appropriate
temperature is maintained by round-the-clock air
conditioning. Human sensor enabled LED lighting
is used around the showcase and the lights turn
on only if there are visitors around.
• Made out of pure silk, some portions of it are in
tatters owing to age, and it is considered to be
the only one of its kind in the country.
• What is put on display, and why is it unique?

9. Only surviving Indian flag on 15 august
1947

10. Q4
• In December 2003, a guy called Jack created an
ASCII version of the 1999 sci-fi movie The
Matrix.
• In 2005, it was reported that this file had
created a particular record. However, the news
source assumed that it would not hold the
record for long given the low interest.
• But, as of January 24, 2016; it still held the
record, which was now over 4,419 days.
• Which record?

13. World’s oldest (still active) torrent

14. Q5
• Tuvalu, with an area of 26 sq. km is a tiny
Polynesian nation located in the Pacific ocean.
• In 1980s, when the International Tele-
communications Union handed over certain rights
to Tuvalu till 2048, probably nobody realised that
they had stuck a gold mine.
• In 1998, Idealab, a Californian company signed a
deal with Tuvalu for $50 million. This money
allowed Tuvalu to finally join the UN.
• Which rights does Tuvalu have, which earns it
10% of the country’s GDP, all in form of payments
from Hollywood, Liverpool FC, U Stream, etc.?

16. Rights to the domain .tv

17. • Q6.
• In 1969, a guy named Forrest "Frosty" Myers
had an idea to set up the first ever museum of
modern arts at a particular location.
• He received contributions from John
Chamberlain and Forest Myers among others.
• However, the most iconic and controversial
contribution was that of Andy Warhol.
• Where was this museum set up? And
according to Warhol, what was his image a
depiction of?

20. The Moon (Apollo 12)

21. • Q7. On August 6, the Congolese Civil Society of South Africa
organized an event at the South African Museum in Cape
Town entitled ”The Missing Link: Peace and Security
Surrounding _______ .”
• Such was the secrecy that Winston Churchill drew attention
to Canada for doing the same thing but made no mention of
the Congo. The impact on DRC has been largely invisible to
the wider world. But in the local community, it was fully
apparent. The locals understood the repercussions of what
was happening. Shinkolobwe, a town in DRC was among the
worst affected.
• Locals reported bizarre cases of illnesses and horror tales.
Reports talk of patients with sudden bleeding and brain
matter being vomited out. What exactly was this secret
role?
•

23. • They provided Uranium to the US to build the
atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
Shinkolobwe was the mine which provided the
enriched Uranium.

24. • Q8. The Scientific American talking about a very famous
and iconic scene in a movie, starring one of the most
famous portrayals of a character, explaining that a specific
type of injury may look very bad but is very rarely fatal:
“It has two options: it either breaks through the back of the
orbit or follows the path of least resistance. If the object
enters with enough force, it can exit the back of the orbit,
as the bone is relatively thin there. If the force is lower
however, the path of least resistance is directed by the
bony brain anatomy. A small diameter object would enter
the orbit, pass through the superior orbital fissure, follow
grooves in the sinuses, and enter the brain underneath the
frontal lobes, near the cerebellum and close to the brain
stem. If treated quickly, partial to complete recovery
describes most of these cases.”
• Which scene?

27. • Q8
• Milton Bradley was an American game pioneer
credited for launching the board game industry
with the creation of The Checkered Game of Life
in 1860.
• Prior to the creation of Life, he was a successful
lithographer whose major product until then
was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln which saw
very high sales owing to Lincoln’s immense
popularity.
• Why did this record selling lithograph see a
sudden slump in sales, in spite of Lincoln
winning the 1860 elections?

29. Lincon grew a beard

30. • Q9. Sudden cardiac arrest is a sudden failure of the
heart to pump blood around the body when it
unexpectedly stops beating regularly. It usually
strikes without warning at anytime, anywhere, and
can affect anyone, even if they appear healthy.
• Driven by the tragic death of Marc Vivien Foé in
2003, a group of 36 individuals were called for a
meeting on 5th June this year for learning how to
recognise and respond to an SCA, including
emergency steps, performing CPR, and how to use a
defibrillator. This was deemed necessary despite
the presence of about 600 medical staff and 32 in-
patient clinics because these individuals are the
official in charge and the first respondents in case of
any incident. Who are these people?

32. FIFA World Cup referees

33. CONNECT
• Written round
• +10 on each correct answer, bonus 10 for full
house
• +10 for the connect
• Exhaustive list

34. • 1.
• In the Marvel comics issue Thor # 301 published
in 1980, Thor has to revive Odin and other
Asgardians after Ragnarok by using the powers
of the other Gods.
• Everybody gives him their powers willingly,
except for Shiva, who is defeated by Thor.
• This storyline enraged Indian readers across the
globe, and Shiva was actually revealed to be X in
disguise, which would be a far more believable
storyline. Who is X?

35. • 2.
• Mark Singleton makes the controversial claim
that this is relatively a modern practice that
developed in the 20th century invented by
Patinidhi Pant, the Rajah of Aundh, despite the
Rāja's explicit claims that the this was already a
commonplace Marathi tradition in his book.
• Most writers disagree, as there is evidence that
it was performed by Shivaji and Marathi yogi
Ram Das.
• Which twelve step process is this?

36. • 3.
• X are twin Vedic Gods, sons of Saranyu, a
goddess of the clouds. They symbolise the
shining of sunrise and sunset, appearing in the
sky before the dawn in a golden chariot,
bringing treasures to men and averting
misfortune and sickness.
• Depicted with heads of horses, they are the
vaidyas of the Devas and first prepared
the Chyawanprash formulation
for Chyawan Rishi at his Ashram on Dhosi Hill.

37. • 4.
• In one of the stories for the origin of Lanka, the
rishi Narada convinced X to destroy the tip of the
Mount Meru in a show of his strength.
• Garuda protected Meru for almost a year, but he
became tired and rested for a while. At that
moment, X toppled the summit of Meru and
threw it into the ocean. The resulting landmass
became Sri Lanka.
• Incarnation of the primary life-force in every
living being, who is X?

38. • 5.
• Probably the oldest “quiz-master” in history, X
was the very first human being to achieve a
certain “milestone” in life, making him the God
of that particular “milestone”
• Due to a curse by a Bramhana, X is worshipped
in very few temples, the most famous is located
at Thiruchitrambalam in the Thanjavur district
of Tamil Nadu.
• Who?

40. • 1.
• In the Marvel comics issue Thor # 301 published
in 1980, Thor has to revive Odin and other
Asgardians after Ragnarok by using the powers
of the other Gods.
• Everybody gives him their powers willingly,
except for Shiva, who is defeated by Thor.
• This storyline enraged Indian readers across the
globe, and Shiva was actually revealed to be X in
disguise, which would be a far more believable
storyline. Who is X?

41. Indra

42. • 2.
• Mark Singleton makes the controversial claim
that this is relatively a modern practice that
developed in the 20th century invented by
Patinidhi Pant, the Rajah of Aundh, despite the
Rāja's explicit claims that the this was already a
commonplace Marathi tradition in his book.
• Most writers disagree, as there is evidence that
it was performed by Shivaji and Marathi yogi
Ram Das.
• Which twelve step process is this?

43. Surya namaskara

44. • 3.
• X are twin Vedic Gods, sons of Saranyu, a
goddess of the clouds. They symbolise the
shining of sunrise and sunset, appearing in the
sky before the dawn in a golden chariot,
bringing treasures to men and averting
misfortune and sickness.
• Depicted with heads of horses, they are the
vaidyas of the Devas and first prepared
the Chyawanprash formulation
for Chyawan Rishi at his Ashram on Dhosi Hill.

45. Ashwini Kumaras

46. • 4.
• In one of the stories for the origin of Lanka, the
rishi Narada convinced X to destroy the tip of the
Mount Meru in a show of his strength.
• Garuda protected Meru for almost a year, but he
became tired and rested for a while. At that
moment, X toppled the summit of Meru and
threw it into the ocean. The resulting landmass
became Sri Lanka.
• Incarnation of the primary life-force in every
living being, who is X?

47. Vayu

48. • 5.
• Probably the oldest “quiz-master” in history, X
was the very first human being to achieve a
certain “milestone” in life, making him the God
of that particular “milestone”
• Due to a curse by a Bramhana, X is worshipped
in very few temples, the most famous is located
at Thiruchitrambalam in the Thanjavur district
of Tamil Nadu.
• Who?

49. Yama/Dharmaraj

50. Connect
• Divine fathers of the Pandavas
(and Karna)
• They brought to life the Pandavas and
Karna after being invoked through a
hymn given by the Sage Durvasa.

51. ANTICLOCKWISE

52. • 10. Anna Hill , a North-Carolina based
photographer, felt like cosmetic ads were so
overly manipulated and plastic looking that
they might as well be advertising ‘X’.
• So she took that idea and ran with it,
producing a series of ads that make ‘X’ the
beauty product.
• One of the taglines were - "Immortalize Your
Beauty. No one will ever know…as long as
you never let anyone see you in person
again.“ What is ‘X’ ?

56. Adobe Photoshop

57. Q11. Philip Verheyen was a Flemish surgeon, anatomist
and author. In 1675 Verheyen went on to study
theology with the intention of joining the clergy. It was
at this crucial juncture that an illness resulted in the
amputation of his left leg rendering him unfit for the
clergy. He dissected and drew pictures of his own
amputated leg, discovering X and giving it its iconic
name.
• Frédéric Chopin was a famous Polish composer and
pianist, who in his deathbed requested his sister
Ludwika preserve his heart. She saw to it that the heart
was preserved in a hermetically sealed crystal jar filled
with an alcoholic liquid smuggling the assemblage into
Poland, hiding it under her cloak in order to elude the
attentions of Austrian and Russian inspectors.
• What is X? And why did these two stories come back
to limelight a few weeks back?

59. • X: Achilles’ heel
• Plot of 2018 Man Booker Prize “Flights” under
the title Bieguni by Olga Tokarczuk

60. • Q12.
• In the second innings of the 4th test
match of a series in 1956, Aussie batsman
Jim Burke scored 22 runs of 102 balls.
Though this isn’t spectacular, he did
something none of the other Aussies
could do in the test match.
• What did he do? (or rather, NOT do)

62. Only player in the Aussie side who escaped
Jim Laker in one of the innings. It refers to
the match when Jim Laker got 19 wickets
and his was the only one taken by
somebody else.

63. • Q13. While we may have made this mistake the
most while solving MCQs, this has led to far greater
damages in history.
• In 1999, NASA lost $125 million Mars Climate
Orbiter because due to this happening as a result of
lack of coordination between NASA and Lockheed
Martin, which made the engine. They apparently
had not learnt from a similar incidence involving a
helicopter a year back, this time poor coordination
between NASA & European Space Agency.
• This mistake also may have been the cause of
Columbus’ well-charted journey to Asia landing him
in the Bahamas. Which mistake?

65. Conversion of units
• NASA screwed up conversion between metric
and American system of conversion
• Columbus miscalculated the circumference of
the earth when he used Roman miles instead
of nautical miles

66. • Q14.
• In 2009, a group known as the “Yes Men”,
with some help from London design firm
Kennedy Monk, made their own brand of
mineral water called B’eauPal.
• Interestingly, B’eau-Pal comes with an
ingredient list that boasts the bottle contains
dichlormethane, carbon tetrachloride, and
chloroform.
• What is special about this mineral water
brand?

69. Water from the Bhopal gas tragedy

70. • Q15.
In 1740 in Stockholm, Christina Johansdotter
murdered her friend’s infant daughter. Afterwards,
Christina freely admitted to her crime and pleaded
guilty when she stood trial.
Interestingly, such murder of infants had become so
widespread in Sweden that King Gustav III even
considered replacing the death sentence with life in
prison for female child murderers.
What was the oddly religious reason for this series of
infanticides?

72. To commit suicide
• 18th century Sweden witnessed the rise of a bizarre
phenomenon of suicide-executions, where suicidal
individuals committed capital crimes in order to
receive the death penalty, namely murder. Because the
killing of an adult would not always lead to execution,
these suicidal people (mostly women) killed children,
as the punishment for infanticide was, invariably,
death. As strange as it may seem, the reason for this
peculiar wave of suicide-executions was a religious one
– during those times, the church strongly advised
against suicide and taught that suicides go directly to
hell. Murder, however, no matter how heinous it was,
could be absolved through confession and repentance

73. • Q16.
• The fraction of people with a certain attribute today is
about the same as it was during the Ice Age, according
to data from prehistoric cave paintings.
• Looking at 507 samples from 26 caves in France and
Spain, Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond at the
University of Montpellier, France, deduced that 23% of
them had the attribute X. In the general population
today about 12% have this attribute, though
populations vary considerably, between 3 and 30.
• The reason for the constancy of the fraction across
30,000 years suggest that X gives people a minor upper
hand in aspects like combat.
• What is X?

75. Left handedness

76. • Q17.
• J M Coetzee’s global reputation rests on his literary
output, for which he received a Nobel Prize in 2003.
Before he embarked on a career as a scholar and writer,
he was in the 1960s a ____________ in the early years
of the industry.
• This experience, while short, was vital for the
development of Coetzee’s writerly project. His former
career involved him at the frontiers of its development,
wherein he created a specific kind of poetry. Coetzee
never published these results, but edited and included
phrases from them in poetry that he did publish.
What’s the specific kind of poetry, which included
select words from a set vocabulary and repetitive
lines?

77. EXAMPLE
Sad spade join the entropy,
Raddled deference order the song,
Daily hell pluck the fauce
Assured paraclete sweeten the taste
Inchdate shard imagine the dubliette,
Tetchy watch loosen the detritus,
Looser perigree mirror the hell
Farouche catechumen want the megrim

79. Computer poetry
• In the mid 1960s Coetzee was working on one of
the most advanced programming projects in
Britain. During the day he helped to design the
Atlas 2 supercomputer destined for the United
Kingdom’s Atomic Energy Research Establishment
at Aldermaston. At night he used this hugely
powerful machine of the Cold War to write
simple “computer poetry,” that is, he wrote
programs for a computer that used an algorithm
to select words from a set vocabulary and create
repetitive lines

80. • Q18.
• Douglas Martin, Bruce Weber, Paul Vitello and William
Yardley are employees of The New York Times who
have a very specific job: to write biographical articles,
and not publish them.
• There are over 1700 such unpublished articles about
various such personalities, but their identities are a
closely kept secret till publication. Alden Whitman in
the 1950s used to conduct interviews with people for
such articles, but they were never told the real reasons
for these interviews.
• Ironically, the article about theatre critic Mel Gussow
was published in 2005 before the articles he wrote
about Harold Pinter and Elizabeth Taylor were
published. What are these articles?

82. Obituaries for people who are still
alive
• These are collected so that when they die, the
obituaries can be published immediately.