2. RULES AND REGULATIONS
The quiz is going to be a relatively short one, with 48 questions in total.
There will be two rounds: two dry rounds, each of 16 questions, and two written
rounds, one of 10 and the other of 6 questions. The details regarding the written
rounds will be given when they come.
For the dry rounds, bounce and pounce rules apply. +10/-10 on the pounce, +10/0
on the bounce. The pounce window remains for 30secs after I complete reading the
question. Please raise your hands, all answers will be checked at the end of the
pounce window.
Please refrain from using your cellphones.
4. 1.
Type designer Hoefler & Co. recently
released a font called Operator, which is
specifically aimed at X. The aim of the font
is to make it easier for X, and as such
things like braces, brackets and
punctuation marks were focused on. The
font as a result makes it easier to identify
the likes of l, I or 1 by using colors for
characters used most frequently by X.
Give me X.
7. 2.
Earlier this month, an ancient Greek statue by the name Grave Naiskos of an
Enthroned Woman with an Attendant made headlines for apparently depicting an
ancient X. Conspiracy theorists say that the structure is too narrow to be a jewellery
box and the woman’s eyes are focused on the centre of the ‘lid’ like a/an X. Sceptics
claim it to be a wax tablet used by ancient Greeks for writing, but theorists say that
this could be the Oracle of Delphi – which in ancient Greece connected priests with
super natural beings who passed along advanced technology and information.
What was X?
10. 3.
X’s rule or X’s law is an internet adage that states – as an online discussion grows
longer, the probability of comparison involving Hitler or Nazis approaches 1 – that is,
if an online discussion goes for long enough, sooner or later someone will compare
someone or something to Hitler or Nazism.
In December 2015, the creator of the law, after whom it is named, cited several
articles on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, for their Nazi and
Fascist comparisons.
X?
13. 4.
Unknown to most people, the villains in X all have distinct characteristics,
behavior and even names. :
1. Blinky the red chases you.
2. Pinky the pink positions itself in a set way and sometimes chases you
along with Blinky.
3. Clyde the orange moves in a randomized fashion.
4. Inky the blue tries to ambush you.
Villains in what?
16. 5.
Parking spaces at University of California,
Berkeley are highly coveted, with spots
usually costing $1,500 a year. But the
university has decided to make it a practice
to offer a special category of people an extra
perk : a free lifetime permit to park in the
highly coveted parking spaces.
What do you need to do to get an NL permit
at UCB?
17.
18. ANSWER
Get a Nobel Prize. 72 Nobel Laureates come from the campus, and the
campus offers the coveted parking spaces near the central campus to Nobel
Laureates.
19. 6.
Long question ahead. Pretty interesting anecdote too.
X came to Y and said, “We’ve done a good job fabricating these motherboards for you. Why
don’t you let us assemble the whole computer for you, too? Assembling those products is
not what made you successful. We can take all remaining manufacturing assets off your
balance sheet, and maybe do it for 20 percent less too.” The analysts at Y thought this was
a win-win. The process continued until Y outsourced everything to X except its brand. Then,
in 2005, X announced the creation of its own brand of computers. In this Greek tragedy
tale, X had taken everything from Y and applied it for itself.
X has now become a major player in its market, and has entered into many successful
collaborations, most famously with Lamborghini in 2006.
22. 7.
X was a CIA project launched by the Directorate of Science and Technology, which in
the 1960s intended to use Y to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies. In an hour-
long procedure, Y’s were implanted with a microphone, a small radio transmitter and
a thin wire. This would allow Y to record innocuously and transmit sound into its
surroundings. Victor Machetti, a former CIA officer, claimed that X cost about $20
million.
The first mission was to eavesdrop two men in a park outside a Soviet compound,
but the Y was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately.
Give me X. (the name of the project.)
25. 8.
As fun as X may be, it wasn’t designed for entertainment. Although X has existed in
its physical version since the 1700s, the digital version had a far greater aim: it was
teaching mouse fluency by stealth.
The intention was that X would get a generation of computer users still most familiar
with a command-line input to teach themselves how to drag and drop, without
realizing what they were doing. Many other games introduced along with X had
similar motives, from making the idea of left and right clicking second nature to
fostering speed and precision in mouse movement.
What is X?
28. 9.
The inventor of X, Japanese chiropractor and
acupuncturist Dr. Kenzo Kase, claims that the
elastic tape reduces pain and supports muscles
without restricting movement like other traditional
sports tapes. According to the website of X, the
tape microscopically lifts skin and channels away
moisture.
The tape went mainstream when 50,000 rolls of
the tape were provided to athletes at the Beijing
Olympics, who flaunted it out in the open. X has
now been widely adopted by many athletes
across various domains.
What is X?
31. 10.
Put Funda.
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge : Every August until a cure.
WIRED : Remember, it’s all just prelude.
Tinder : Thank you for swiping right.
HBO : All men must Oculus Rift.
34. 11.
Haneefah Adam, a 24 year old master’s graduate from Nigeria, created the
Instagram account X to “create an avenue to make modest outfits for dolls,
because I haven’t really seen one before.” The official collection has a World
Culture collection featuring Venetian Muse, Tribal Beauty, Maiko and Inuit
Legend, but as yet no doll like X.
So, what makes X special? (part of its name reflects the same.)
37. 12.
Reuben Mattus started the business in the 1920s as a child of 10 after he and his
widowed mother stepped off the boat in America. However, Reuben struggled quite a
bit with marketing his product. “I prided myself in being a marketing man”, said
Reuben. “If you’re the same like everybody else, you’re lost.”, and so resulted the
name X.
Reuben was inspired by Jewish history. “The only country which saved the Jews
during World War II was Denmark, so I put together a totally fictitious Danish
sounding name and had it registered.”, Mattus says. “X doesn’t mean anything, it
would attract attention, especially with the umlaut.”
40. 13.
The X, also known as Clarus the X, is a bitmap image first introduced by Y. It was
originally created in 1983 as part of the Cairo font by Susan Kare as the glyph for “z.”
That image was later chosen for the Page Setup print dialog box, though it needed to
be slightly redrawn because the original Cairo dog did not proportionally fit the Page
Setup dialog box. This modified version became the image famously known as the
X. The X was also used on the configuration pages of Y printers.
The term “X” was first coined by either Scott Zimmerman or Ginger Jernigan. Mark
“The Red” Harlan named the X “Clarus” as a joking reference to Claris, Y’s office
software unit at the time. The sound she makes is “Moof!”
X and Y?
43. 14.
This is Hannah Steller photographed by her
older brother, Dustin Steller. The photo was
originally uploaded to iStockphoto in
August 2005 as a result of which, it made
her immensely popular all over the world.
How/what is she known as?
46. 15.
The Independent, one of Britain’s most iconic
newspapers, earlier announced this month that it
would stop its print editions and would go completely
online. The Independent on Sunday will be
particularly missed, as it often delivered headlines in
now iconic front-pages.
In 2006, a particular edition was guest edited by X,
as part of his campaign Y, with Damien Hirst
designing the front page. The Independent also went
on to pledge half of all the paper’s revenue to Y.
Give me X and Y, which achieved considerable
success through a number of brand partnerships.
49. 16.
After going out on a hunting trip with his dog in the
Swiss Alps, a Swiss engineer, Georges de Mestral,
discovered that his pant legs and his dog’s hair
were covered in burrs from the burdock plant. As an
engineer, he naturally began to wonder how exactly
the seeds stuck so effectively to his pants and his
dog. He then examined the burrs under a
microscope and discovered that they had very tiny
hooks which allowed the seeds to catch on to
things like which have tiny loops.
What did Georges de Mestral thus invent?
53. RULES
There is a common theme to all the ten questions in this round, which is a business related
one. (if it helps)
This will be a written round, please number your answers and write them neatly and legibly.
At the end of the round, teams will be given 30 seconds to check their sheets and the sheets
would then be exchanged among the teams.
Each question fetches you +10. If you get all the questions correct, you get a bonus +10.
A scoring slab exists for each pair of questions: +50, +40, +30, +20, +10.
A team is allowed to go for the overall theme for one attempt per slab.
Each attempt, if incorrect, would carry a consistent -10 across all slabs.
54. 1.
Augsburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, which was a Free Imperial City for over 500
years. Augsburg is Germany’s third oldest city, being founded by the Romans as
Augusta Vendelicorum, named after the Roman Emperor Augustus. Augsburg
was the home of two patrician families that rose to great prominence internationally,
replacing the Medicis of Florence as Europe’s leading bankers.
X is most well known among Germans as X the Rich and is the most famous
resident of Augsburg. In the 14th century, X had an almost monopolistic hold on the
European copper market and a decisive influence on European politics, successfully
negotiating to secure the election of Charles V of Spain to become Holy Roman
Emperor.
55. 2.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 ft) long and 50
centimetres (20 in) tall, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of
England concerning X, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England,
and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
The tapestry consists of some fifty scenes with Latin tituli, embroidered on linen with coloured
woollen yarns.. In 1729 the hanging was rediscovered by scholars at a time when it was being
displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral. The tapestry is now exhibited at the Musée de la
Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, Normandy, France.
The Bayeux Tapestry and seals and coins issued in that age are possibly just contemporary
depictions of X, and no authentic portrait of him has been found yet. X was sometimes also
known as X the Bastard, for obvious reasons.
56. 3.
Long question again. Interesting anecdote, yet again.
Nervous of driving through tunnels possibly weakened by the 2009 L’Aquila
earthquake in the highway between the region and Rome, X instructed his
motorcade to take a winding route through the mountains. He stopped for a break at
a village named Antrodoco, and was repeatedly bowled over by the villager’s
warmth and hospitality. X was so enchanted by the village that when the mayor told
him that they suffered from high unemployment and complained of a lack of tourism
in the area, X went on to promise to help the village by converting a historic palazzo
into a luxury hotel and setting up a water bottling plant.
Who is X, who, unfortunately, wasn’t loved pretty well by his own people?
57. 4.
Wealth or The Gospel of Wealth is an article that X wrote in June of 1889, that
describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper middle-class of self-
made rich. X proposed that the best way of dealing with the new phenomenon of
wealth inequality was for the wealthy to redistribute their surplus means in a
responsible and thoughtful manner. As a result, the wealthy should administer their
riches responsibly and not in a way that encourages “the slothful, the drunken, the
unworthy”.
X applied the principle to his life in a big way, founding many educational institutions
and funding numerous philanthropic causes.
58. 5.
Though he ascended the throne after Russia formally ended Tsardom in 1721, X is
often referred to as a Tsar, and his official title was by the Grace of God, X,
Emperor and Autocrat of All of the Russias. He is also known as Saint X, the
passion-bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church and has been referred to as X the
Martyr. This makes X the wealthiest saint in human history, though his canonization
was a subject of much debate for most of the late ‘90s.
Who is X?
59. 6.
The Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary was started in 1881 by Harriet E Giles and
Sophia Packard in Atlanta, Georgia, for the upliftment of African-Americans. At a time
when they were seeking for donations, Giles and Packard met X at a church
conference in Ohio. X’s was so impressed by Packard’s vision that he settled the
debt on the property. X’s wife and her parents, longtime activists of the abolitionist
movement, were also supportive of the school and in 1884, the seminary was
officially renamed to the Spelman Seminary and later the Spelman College, in
honour of Laura Spelman, X’s wife.
60. 7.
X, also known as Commodore X, was an American business magnate and
philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping, best known for building
the New York Central Railroad. One of the richest Americans in history, X was
described as such by historian H. Roger Grant, especially after the Erie War when X
essentially cornered the market:
Contemporaries, too, often hated or feared X or at least considered him an
unmannered brute. While X could be a rascal, combative and cunning, he was much
more a builder than a wrecker, being honourable, shrewd, and hard-working.
61. 8.
Spread over 8.77 acres and built in the shape of a butterfly, Y is an amalgam of
Mughal and European architecture. The entrance hall of the palace, a dome with an
entrance hall beneath with symmetrical wings at fifty-five degree angle, is its
outstanding feature. It has 36 rooms including a zenana and is located to the
northwest of the India Gate, New Delhi. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for X,
after most important princely rulers in British India were inducted into the Chamber of
Princes in 1919.
X, unknown to many, is also one of the few Indians to be featured on the cover of
TIME magazine, dated February 22, 1937.
Give me X and Y. Part points apply.
62. 9.
X (1280 – 1337) was the tenth emperor of the Malian Empire, who had his throne at
Timbuktu. X commanded a fortune in excess of $400bn, four times the current
richest person in the world. X was a devout Muslim and in 1325, made a pilgrimage
to Mecca. X was so rich that he generously gave gold to the poor he met along the
way at Cairo and Medina, and built a mosque each and every Friday.
However, X’s activities devastated the economies of the cities through which he
passed, with the sudden influx of gold devaluing the metal for the next decade. This
is the only time in recorded history that one man directly controlled the price of gold
in the Mediterranean.
63. 10.
The X Motor Company is a division of the Ford Motor Company that sells luxury
vehicles, primarily in North America and the Middle East. Founded in 1917 by Henry
M. Leland, a former manager of the Cadillac division of General Motors, X was
named after Leland’s hero, for whom he cast his first presidential vote in 1864. Ford
purchased the company in 1922, and it continued to operate as a separate company
until the early 1940s.
What is X?
65. 1.
Augsburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, which was a Free Imperial City for over 500
years. Augsburg is Germany’s third oldest city, being founded by the Romans as
Augusta Vendelicorum, named after the Roman Emperor Augustus. Augsburg
was the home of two patrician families that rose to great prominence internationally,
replacing the Medicis of Florence as Europe’s leading bankers.
X is most well known among Germans as X the Rich and is the most famous
resident of Augsburg. In the 14th century, X had an almost monopolistic hold on the
European copper market and a decisive influence on European politics, successfully
negotiating to secure the election of Charles V of Spain to become Holy Roman
Emperor.
67. 2.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 ft) long and 50
centimetres (20 in) tall, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of
England concerning X, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England,
and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
The tapestry consists of some fifty scenes with Latin tituli, embroidered on linen with coloured
woollen yarns.. In 1729 the hanging was rediscovered by scholars at a time when it was being
displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral. The tapestry is now exhibited at the Musée de la
Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, Normandy, France.
The Bayeux Tapestry and seals and coins issued in that age are possibly just contemporary
depictions of X, and no authentic portrait of him has been found yet. X was sometimes also
known as X the Bastard, for obvious reasons.
69. 3.
Long question again. Interesting anecdote, yet again.
Nervous of driving through tunnels possibly weakened by the 2009 L’Aquila
earthquake in the highway between the region and Rome, X instructed his
motorcade to take a winding route through the mountains. He stopped for a break at
a village named Antrodoco, and was repeatedly bowled over by the villager’s
warmth and hospitality. X was so enchanted by the village that when the mayor told
him that they suffered from high unemployment and complained of a lack of tourism
in the area, X went on to promise to help the village by converting a historic palazzo
into a luxury hotel and setting up a water bottling plant.
Who is X, who, unfortunately, wasn’t loved pretty well by his own people?
71. 4.
Wealth or The Gospel of Wealth is an article that X wrote in June of 1889, that
describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper middle-class of self-
made rich. X proposed that the best way of dealing with the new phenomenon of
wealth inequality was for the wealthy to redistribute their surplus means in a
responsible and thoughtful manner. As a result, the wealthy should administer their
riches responsibly and not in a way that encourages “the slothful, the drunken, the
unworthy”.
X applied the principle to his life in a big way, founding many educational institutions
and funding numerous philanthropic causes.
73. 5.
Though he ascended the throne after Russia formally ended Tsardom in 1721, X is
often referred to as a Tsar, and his official title was by the Grace of God, X,
Emperor and Autocrat of All of the Russias. He is also known as Saint X, the
passion-bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church and has been referred to as X the
Martyr. This makes X the wealthiest saint in human history, though his canonization
was a subject of much debate for most of the late ‘90s.
Who is X?
75. 6.
The Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary was started in 1881 by Harriet E Giles and
Sophia Packard in Atlanta, Georgia, for the upliftment of African-Americans. At a time
when they were seeking for donations, Giles and Packard met X at a church
conference in Ohio. X’s was so impressed by Packard’s vision that he settled the
debt on the property. X’s wife and her parents, longtime activists of the abolitionist
movement, were also supportive of the school and in 1884, the seminary was
officially renamed to the Spelman Seminary and later the Spelman College, in
honour of Laura Spelman, X’s wife.
77. 7.
X, also known as Commodore X, was an American business magnate and
philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping, best known for building
the New York Central Railroad. One of the richest Americans in history, X was
described as such by historian H. Roger Grant, especially after the Erie War when X
essentially cornered the market:
Contemporaries, too, often hated or feared X or at least considered him an
unmannered brute. While X could be a rascal, combative and cunning, he was much
more a builder than a wrecker, being honourable, shrewd, and hard-working.
79. 8.
Spread over 8.77 acres and built in the shape of a butterfly, Y is an amalgam of
Mughal and European architecture. The entrance hall of the palace, a dome with an
entrance hall beneath with symmetrical wings at fifty-five degree angle, is its
outstanding feature. It has 36 rooms including a zenana and is located to the
northwest of the India Gate, New Delhi. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for X,
after most important princely rulers in British India were inducted into the Chamber of
Princes in 1919.
X, unknown to many, is also one of the few Indians to be featured on the cover of
TIME magazine, dated February 22, 1937.
Give me X and Y. Part points apply.
80. ANSWER
X – Mir Osman Ali Khan of Hyderabad
Y – The Hyderabad House
81. 9.
X (1280 – 1337) was the tenth emperor of the Malian Empire, who had his throne at
Timbuktu. X commanded a fortune in excess of $400bn, four times the current
richest person in the world. X was a devout Muslim and in 1325, made a pilgrimage
to Mecca. X was so rich that he generously gave gold to the poor he met along the
way at Cairo and Medina, and built a mosque each and every Friday.
However, X’s activities devastated the economies of the cities through which he
passed, with the sudden influx of gold devaluing the metal for the next decade. This
is the only time in recorded history that one man directly controlled the price of gold
in the Mediterranean.
83. 10.
The X Motor Company is a division of the Ford Motor Company that sells luxury
vehicles, primarily in North America and the Middle East. Founded in 1917 by Henry
M. Leland, a former manager of the Cadillac division of General Motors, X was
named after Leland’s hero, for whom he cast his first presidential vote in 1864. Ford
purchased the company in 1922, and it continued to operate as a separate company
until the early 1940s.
What is X?
85. THE TEN RICHEST MEN IN
HISTORY
1. Mansa Musa ($400bn)
2. John D. Rockefeller ($340bn)
3. Andrew Carnegie ($310bn)
4. Tsar Nicholas II ($300bn)
5. Mir Osman Ali Khan ($230bn)
6. Jakob Fugger ($221bn)
7. William the Conqueror ($209bn)
8. Muammar Gaddafi ($200bn)
9. Henry Ford ($199bn)
10. Cornelius Vanderbilt ($185bn)
87. 1.
X is a result of a fork on Mambo, on August 17, 2005. As Mambo was a
trademark of Miro International, the creators of X started a website called
OpenSourceMatters (OSM) to distribute information to the software
community. Project Lead Andrew Eddie called for community input to
suggest a name, and the name X was finally chosen on September 22.
X is the anglicized spelling of a Swahili word meaning all together or as a
whole, which also has a similar meaning in Amharic, Arabic and Urdu.
90. 2.
These four students from NYU’s Courant Institute are working on perhaps the
world’s first distributed social network. Their software allows you to host a personal
web server or ‘pod’ where all your photographs, personal information etc., are stored
on your computer and not a centralized server, thus ensuring greater privacy. What
is the name of the new social network?
Image follows.
94. 3.
Last Wednesday, a Qantas Flight of QF73, travelling from Sydney, Australia to San
Francisco, California was the venue for the first ever X. The Sydney community of X
and the Australian airline Qantas teamed up to bring the latest iteration of X – Ideas
that Travel. Aboard the flight were Jo Burston, CEO and founder of Rare Birds,
Michael Biercuk, experimental physicist and director of the Quantum Control
Laboratory, Marita Cheng, CEO and founder of 2MAR Robotics, and Jeremy
Howard, CEO and founder of Enlitic, along with a host of tech entrepreneurs, startup
founders and all around amazing people doing great things with their lives.
First ever what?
97. 4.
X recently showed off a version of Y that eliminates cash, and replaces it with special
cards that can be scanned on a handheld banking unit to make purchases and pay off
debt. X claims that now cash would be replaced by a scannable card that can be
used for all transactions on Y. Cards now come with codes that can be scanned in
order to complete a transaction.
X and Y, please.
100. 5.
Simon Oxley designed the X, alongside the white bird Twitter used (before they
received a proper logo) as part of a usual routine of cranking out images for iStock.
Y saw it, and wanted it, presumably under the notion that it can represent how
complex code combines to create peculiar things, much like the X, which is a
combination of two different animals. However, X was never named by its creator,
Oxley, this was done by the CEO of Y, Chris Wanstruth.
103. 6.
X is a Central American country and is the most populous state in the region. The Y,
is the currency of X, and is possibly the only currency in the world named after a
bird. In ancient Mayan culture, Y’s tail feathers were used as currency. Y is also the
national bird of X, prominently featuring on X’s flag and coat of arms.
Give me both X and Y.
106. 7.
Aktarer Zaman is a 22-year-old New York-based programmer who founded a website
named Skiplagged. Skiplagged specialises in providing dirt-cheap flights for
passengers (an example given is a flight from Raleigh to LaGuardia, which usually
costs $239, but is only $94 on Skiplagged). The only condition is that passengers
travel without checked-in baggage.
How does Skiplagged work?
107.
108. ANSWER
Hidden City Flights : Basically if you want to book a flight from A to B, you
book a flight from A to C and then get off at B.
109. 8.
Almost all cultivated versions of X, until the 17th century, were purple, contrary to its
present colour. The modern day version did not arrive until growers in this country Y
took mutant strains of the purple X and gradually developed them into the sweet,
pulpy version that we have today. Some say the reason that the mutant straints
became popular in Y was because it was felt to be a tribute to the emblem of the
Royal House and the struggle for Y’s independence.
112. 9.
CALO, an acronym for Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes, was an AI
project that aimed to integrate numerous AI technologies into a coherent whole. The
name was inspired by the Latin word calonis, which translates to soldier’s servant.
The CALO effort has had many major spin-offs: Social Kinetics, an application that
offers personalized intervention and treatment strategies; the Trapit project, an
intelligent web scraper and news aggregator; Desti, a personalized travel guide;
and X – which is by far the most notable spin-off of CALO.
What is X, whose creator was accused of war-profiteering when X made its debut on
products marketed by them?
115. 10.
The term X Peak first appeared in an XKCD comic, and is a comic exaggeration of
the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that for optimal learning, you need a specific
level of arousal – not too low, not too high.
The comic goes on to state that it “..was discovered in the late ‘80s. The cause is
unknown, but somehow a BAC between 0.129% and 0.139% confers superhuman
ability”. The comic also goes on to state that it is a “delicate effect of careful
calibration”, and chances to mess things up are high – as what happened to a
product which released in 2000, created by a company of which X was the CEO. The
product was dubbed by PC World as “one of the worst tech products of all time.”
116.
117. ANSWER
The effect is called the “Ballmer Peak”, and the product was Windows ME.
118.
119. 11.
In early 2012, X was looking for a brand makeover and had already brand
consultants Wolff Olins and work was well under way. This was when chairman and
founder Chet Pipkin returned to the Chief Executive role, bringing with him a
personal passion for the idea that drove the rebranding – “it’s all about people.” The
nine-dot star person in the logo was then named Pip, which stands for People
Inspired Products.
122. 12.
Apple has always been a company that claims that their products are flawless, and
when a problem pops up, they usually come up with a workaround rather than
actually addressing the problem. In 1980, when the Apple III was released, the
computer had numerous hardware problems, mainly arising from its inability to
dissipate heat, as Steve Jobs did not want to include fans or air vents. The problems
were so severe that users reported that their computers became so hot that the
chips started getting dislodged from the board, causing the screen to display garbled
data or their disk to come out of their slots. BYTE wrote that “the integrated circuits
tended to wander out of their sockets”, and this resulted in a quick workaround
issued by Apple, much like how they handled the “Grip of Death” issue.
What was the workaround?
123.
124. ANSWER
Apple suggested that users lift the computer six inches in the air and then
drop it down so that the chips would resettle on the board, thereby making
the computer work again.
129. 14.
The Vasa (or Wasa), is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship was
built on the orders of the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, as part of the military
expansion he initiated. However, the Vasa foundered and sank after sailing about
1,300m into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. For a long time, the reasons behind
the sinking were unknown, and the two teams that worked on the construction of the ship
– a local, Swedish team and a Dutch team led by master shipwright Henrik Hybertsson,
kept trading blame at each other.
However, in 1961, when the ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull, archaeologists
made a startling discovery which put both teams to blame, that they claim is the reason
behind the sinking.
What did they find?
130.
131. ANSWER
They found four rulers used by the workers – two turned out to be based on
the Swedish feet (12 inches), and two to be based on the Amsterdam feet
(11 inches). Thus, the Vasa was built asymmetrically, causing it to sink.
132. 15.
X is a popular injectable drug, which is measured in terms of mouse units. According
to a particular reference on Medscape : the dose of X is expressed in mouse units.
One unit is equal to the amount that kills 50% of a group of 18- to 22-g Swiss
Webster mice when injected intraperitoneally.
The human lethal dose (LD) X is estimated at approximately 3000 units.
What is X, which has the ability to reverse time?
135. 16.
X is an independent R&D biotech company established in 2013 by Google
and Arthur D. Levinson with the goal of combating aging and associated
diseases.
X is also is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached and often not fully
processed cotton. It may contain unseparated husk parts, for example. The
fabric is less coarse and thick than canvas or denim, but it is still very cheap
owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance.
139. ABOUT THIS ROUND
Science Sparring Society is a humble take on Fight Club, and the round would
feature questions on great rivalries in science.
All of the questions will have two part answers, featuring both an X and a Y. Part
points are on offer, except when noted.
Written round, answers will be checked at completion of the round.
140. 1.
The backdrop to this rivalry was the Franco-Prussian War, so nationalist sentiments most
likely exacerbated their feud. By the 1870s, X shifted his attention to specific diseases
instead of general processes like fermentation and putrefaction. As it happened, he
focused on anthrax, a disease also studied by a young German doctor named Y.
Initially, this overlapping interest didn’t cause problems. Y focused on identifying and
isolating the microbes responsible for the illness, while X was looking into immunization.
However, it wasn’t long until Y and his followers started finding faults in X’s work.
Supposedly, when X organized a meeting to address his critics, the rivalry was
exacerbated by a simple case of mistranslation. When X said “recueil Allemand”
(“German work”), someone translated it to Y as “orgeuil Allemand” (“German
arrogance“). Over the next years, a game of one-upmanship would develop between the
two, each one eager to show up the other.
X and Y, please?
141. 2.
Because the Earth is roughly spherical, every flat map distorts our planet one way or
another. The most popular version is the X version, created by Flemish cartographer
X in 1569. It’s been widely used for centuries, and preserves directional bearing,
presenting rhumbs (imaginary lines that cut all meridians at right angles) as straight
lines, thus making it a useful tool for navigation. However, there are a few major
misconceptions regarding the X projection, such as Alaska being as large as
continental USA or Greenland being roughly the same size as Africa.
One of the best alternatives to the X projection was presented in 1974 at a
conference in Germany by Y, though well after the discovery of an identical map
made by James Gall in the 1800s. Notably, the X version made Europe look larger,
and Y claimed that this harmed the world’s perception of developing countries.
142. 3.
In mathematical logic, the theory of infinite sets was first developed by X. Although
his work has become a thoroughly standard fixture of classical set theory, it has been
widely criticized by mathematicians and philosophers. X’s theorem is that there are
sets having cardinality greater than the (already infinite) cardinality of the set of
whole numbers.
Y was a German mathematician and X’s most outspoken critic, and was quoted as
saying, “God made the integers, all else is the work of man.”, and did considerable
work in finitism, the philosophy that accepts the existence of only finite
mathematical objects.
X and Y, please.
143. 4.
The Italian anatomist and physician X was one of the first to investigate experimentally the phenomenon
of what came to be named "bioelectrogenesis". In a series of experiments started around 1780, X,
working in the University of Bologna, found that the electric current delivered by a Leyden jar or a rotating
static electricity generator would cause the contraction of the muscles in the leg of a frog and many other
animals, either by applying the charge to the muscle or to the nerve.
The noted Italian physicist Y repeated X’s experiments at the University of Pavia, and obtained the same
results. However, he was not convinced of X’s explanation. He noted that since applying the bimetallic
probes to the nerves leading to the muscles, only, would also cause a contraction, the model proposed by
X could not be true, and a long controversy started. Y proposed the alternative hypothesis, that external
electricity was generated by the contact between two kinds of metal. He claimed that the frog muscle
worked only as a detector of the small differences in external electrical potential external; a kind of foil
electroscope, so to say. What Y then invented to prove the same went on to become a landmark scientific
discovery.
X and Y, please.
144. 5.
The Bone Wars, also known as The Great Dinosaur Rush, refers to a period of
intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history,
marked by a heated rivalry between X and Y. Though they both made massive
contributions to paleontology, both used under-handed methods to out-compete the
other.
Their rivalry was born when X presented his reconstruction of his then crowning
achievement – the Elasmosaurus. Y publicly humiliated X when he pointed out that
X put the dinosaur’s head at the wrong end. Nowadays, we are all familiar with
dinosaurs with very long necks, but back then, this was not common, and X
assumed the long end to be the tail.
Who were X and Y, X also being a founder of the Neo-Lamarckism school of
thought?
145. 6.
The rivalry was never really between X and Y, but rather between their life-changing
creations. The men created their own versions only a few years apart (X was first, in
1955). There were some key differences between the two: X’s version was injected,
while Y’s was administered orally. X’s version was used initially but was then
replaced by Y, though it has not been conclusively proven that Y’s is more potent
than X’s. People have argued that Y’s version could actually cause an infection if it
wasn’t weak enough, causing the US government to switch back to X’s version.
Who were X and Y?
147. 1.
The backdrop to this rivalry was the Franco-Prussian War, so nationalist sentiments most
likely exacerbated their feud. By the 1870s, X shifted his attention to specific diseases
instead of general processes like fermentation and putrefaction. As it happened, he
focused on anthrax, a disease also studied by a young German doctor named Y.
Initially, this overlapping interest didn’t cause problems. Y focused on identifying and
isolating the microbes responsible for the illness, while X was looking into immunization.
However, it wasn’t long until Y and his followers started finding faults in X’s work.
Supposedly, when X organized a meeting to address his critics, the rivalry was
exacerbated by a simple case of mistranslation. When X said “recueil Allemand”
(“German work”), someone translated it to Y as “orgeuil Allemand” (“German
arrogance“). Over the next years, a game of one-upmanship would develop between the
two, each one eager to show up the other.
X and Y, please?
149. 2.
Because the Earth is roughly spherical, every flat map distorts our planet one way or
another. The most popular version is the X version, created by Flemish cartographer
X in 1569. It’s been widely used for centuries, and preserves directional bearing,
presenting rhumbs (imaginary lines that cut all meridians at right angles) as straight
lines, thus making it a useful tool for navigation. However, there are a few major
misconceptions regarding the X projection, such as Alaska being as large as
continental USA or Greenland being roughly the same size as Africa.
One of the best alternatives to the X projection was presented in 1974 at a
conference in Germany by Y, though well after the discovery of an identical map
made by James Gall in the 1800s. Notably, the X version made Europe look larger,
and Y claimed that this harmed the world’s perception of developing countries.
151. 3.
In mathematical logic, the theory of infinite sets was first developed by X. Although
his work has become a thoroughly standard fixture of classical set theory, it has been
widely criticized by mathematicians and philosophers. X’s theorem is that there are
sets having cardinality greater than the (already infinite) cardinality of the set of
whole numbers.
Y was a German mathematician and X’s most outspoken critic, and was quoted as
saying, “God made the integers, all else is the work of man.”, and did considerable
work in finitism, the philosophy that accepts the existence of only finite
mathematical objects.
X and Y, please.
153. 4.
The Italian anatomist and physician X was one of the first to investigate experimentally the phenomenon
of what came to be named "bioelectrogenesis". In a series of experiments started around 1780, X,
working in the University of Bologna, found that the electric current delivered by a Leyden jar or a rotating
static electricity generator would cause the contraction of the muscles in the leg of a frog and many other
animals, either by applying the charge to the muscle or to the nerve.
The noted Italian physicist Y repeated X’s experiments at the University of Pavia, and obtained the same
results. However, he was not convinced of X’s explanation. He noted that since applying the bimetallic
probes to the nerves leading to the muscles, only, would also cause a contraction, the model proposed by
X could not be true, and a long controversy started. Y proposed the alternative hypothesis, that external
electricity was generated by the contact between two kinds of metal. He claimed that the frog muscle
worked only as a detector of the small differences in external electrical potential external; a kind of foil
electroscope, so to say. What Y then invented to prove the same went on to become a landmark scientific
discovery.
X and Y, please.
155. 5.
The Bone Wars, also known as The Great Dinosaur Rush, refers to a period of
intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history,
marked by a heated rivalry between X and Y. Though they both made massive
contributions to paleontology, both used under-handed methods to out-compete the
other.
Their rivalry was born when X presented his reconstruction of his then crowning
achievement – the Elasmosaurus. Y publicly humiliated X when he pointed out that
X put the dinosaur’s head at the wrong end. Nowadays, we are all familiar with
dinosaurs with very long necks, but back then, this was not common, and X
assumed the long end to be the tail.
Who were X and Y, X also being a founder of the Neo-Lamarckism school of
thought?
157. 6.
The rivalry was never really between X and Y, but rather between their life-changing
creations. The men created their own versions only a few years apart (X was first, in
1955). There were some key differences between the two: X’s version was injected,
while Y’s was administered orally. X’s version was used initially but was then
replaced by Y, though it has not been conclusively proven that Y’s is more potent
than X’s. People have argued that Y’s version could actually cause an infection if it
wasn’t weak enough, causing the US government to switch back to X’s version.
Who were X and Y?
160. EXTRAS…
48 years ago when Kalanthan Koya opened Ameen Juice Shop at Moideen Mosque
Jn, Calicut, it was probably Calicut’s first juice shop. He opened KPK Fruit and Cool
Bar in Mananchira in 1980, and later opened shops at Kidson Corner and Stadium
Jn.
KPK Fruit and Cool Bar came up with a juice made of ‘Njaalipoovan’ banana, frozen
milk and sugar — the first customers were a set of guys watching X Cup in a shop
next door. When asked the juice’s name, he just cooked up a name and said, “X
Shake”.
What was X, now popular across the state?
162. EXTRAS…
X is the third-richest Malayali in the world, with a net worth of about Rs. 13000 crore.
Having lost his father when he was 10, X discontinued college to become an interior
designer at Thrissur where his father once ran a small business. One day in 1976 his
fortunes changed when he met Brig Gen Suleiman Al-Adawi from Oman in the lobby
of a Kochi hotel. The general invited him to Muscat where the duo founded an
interior design firm with a bank loan of 3,000 riyals. Thus started X’s business
journey, who made headlines a few years back for doing something peculiar at the
Sree Krishna Temple at Guruvayur.