Quiz at Mensa India AGM

1. The (Last) Resort Quiz
Mensa India AGM – Retreat
20 Oct 2013
Shrey Goyal

2. Organic dung paper, products and packaging

3. At Elrhino, we make handmade
paper from elephant and rhino
dung, plant fibres and other
recycled waste including cotton
rags
One elephant produces up to 100
kg of dung daily, enough raw
material to produce 1500 sheets
of A4 size paper. There are about
7000 wild elephants and 2500
domestic elephants in Assam. And
then there are rhinos!
Deriving value from waste
3

4. Design is kept as relevant as
possible, with locally sourced raw
material and all crafts/techniques
in use being based on local
practices and skills.
Elrhino paper is not ‘just’
paper; it is the story of the
forest and the enormous value
of every element within it

5. The paper is made by hands, with minimal machine intervention.
Rural youth, men and women both, transform into expert crafts
persons
A minimum capital investment of Rs 5 lakh will allow local
entrepreneurs to set up paper making units.
Human, rather than machine-based technology makes the
process accessible at the grassroots

6. Harvesting trees for paper is expensive, energy intensive and
unsustainable
Elrhino paper is tree-free, hand crafted and organic,
contributing to a sustainable world

7. These forests are home
to the majestic
elephant and the Great
(Indian) One-Horned
Rhinoceros
This year (2012) alone,
Assam lost more than
30 of its 2000 rhinos
to poaching and
floods.
In Assam alone, 280
elephants were
reported killed
between 2005 and

8. •Significance, awareness
generation among global
young
•Man-animal conflict
reduction
•Resource contribution to
conservation projects
CONSERVATI
ON
•Preservation of an
ecosystem
•Conservation of green
•Promotion of green
processes
•Local resourcing
SECURITY
CARBON
OFFSET
•Livelihood
•Enterprise
•Skills development
•Women’s
empowerment

9. 9

10. 10

11. GROUND RULES
1. The Quiz Master’s word is final!
2. Infinite Bounce format shall be followed.
3. Guesses are appreciated.
4. Try not to help the other teams.
5. Additional hints if all teams agree.
6. For any other queries, kindly refer to Rule 1.

12. Which 2005 book (fiction) has 13 chapters
numbered:
1000
2000
5000
10000
50000
100000
200000
500000
1000000
10000000
100000000
1000000000

13. “Q&A” by Vikas Swarup
“Slumdog Millionaire” also acceptable as the
book was also re-released under that name in
the wake of the Oscar-winning film

14. On 20 March 2003, the surprise military invasion
of Iraq began without a formal declaration of war,
under the US codename Operation Iraqi Liberation,
the UK codename Operation Telic, and the
Australian codename Operation Falconer.
The US operation was hastily renamed “Operation
Iraqi Freedom”. Why?

15. OIL

16. The most modern and luxurious facilities of the
time were on offer, including electric elevators, a
swimming pool, a squash court, a Turkish bath, a
gymnasium with a mechanical horse and
mechanical camel, staterooms and first-class
facilities to rival the best hotels on any Continent, a
six-story, glass-domed grand staircase, leading to
the finest cuisine, and, if one desired a more
intimate atmosphere, the chic Palm Court and
Verandah restaurants, and the festive Café Parisien.
Why were these services discontinued all of a
sudden on 10 April 1912?

17. They were
aboard the
Titanic

18. Commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in
1931, it was made by Stanley Morison and Victor
Lardent.
It
Morison had
was
written
commissioned
an
article
after Stanley
criticizing the
newspaper for being badly printed, and its creation
was supervised by Morison with the help of Victor
Lardent from the advertising department of The
Times. After one year, it was released for commercial
sale. It is now used all over the globe. The answer lies
here!

19. Times New Roman

20. Methane mega-bubbles cause immediate loss in
buoyancy. If the bubbles are big enough and
possess a high enough density they can also
reach out higher into the atmosphere and tinker
with applications of Bernoulli’s principle as well.
Recently found explanations for?

21. Bermuda Triangle

22. The IOR is a successful and profitable bank, and has
invested ~$10 billion in foreign companies. In 1968, their
key financial advisor began laundering a prominent crime
family's heroin money (taking a 50% cut) through the
bank, and it was also involved in financing right wing
terror groups during the 1970s. A class action suit was
filed against the IOR by 300,000 Holocaust victims for their
role in financing concentration camp loots.
However, almost no arrests or legal action have ever
taken place, mainly due to diplomatic immunity. Some of
these incidents have also been featured in a prominent
hollywood film.
How is the IOR commonly referred to as?

23. The Vatican Bank
The Institute for Works of Religion (Instituto per le Opere di
Religione – IOR), and the Papal banking scandal was featured in
The Godfather Part III

25. Introduction of Toilets on Trains in
Indian Railways

26. A tavern near Elmsford, New York was popular with the officers of
the Revolutionary soldiers of Washington and Lafayette. The
American troops preferred whiskey or gin, the French preferred
wine or vermouth. All enjoyed a bit of brandy or rum. Sometimes
late in the evenings, somebody came up with this idea in the spirit
of camaraderie... A soldier stole a rooster from the tavern owner's
neighbour, who was believed to be a Tory supporter of George III of
the United Kingdom. The rooster was promptly cooked and served
to the customers, with the feathers used to adorn the drinks.
The toasts accompanying this meal were "vive le
____" and hence the name.

27. Cocktail

28. “X was a phenomenon at that time, and what was
I? I was a non-entity. The press turned me into a
life-sized monster. I have a fourth degree black
belt in martial arts and all these plus points
became my negative points.
I would go to hospital regularly to see X. For 3, 4
years, I did not get any work. I had a wife to
support and was jobless. I did Z grade films at that
time. I struggled for six years after that accident
and only after that did people start coming
forward to work with me.”
Identify X. Any guesses for the speaker?

29. Amitabh Bachchan’s Coolie Accident
Puneet Issar is the guy who punched
him.

30. Based on the novel Rarahu ou Le
Mariage de Loti (inspired by
Kalidas’s
Abhijnanashakuntalam),
Léo
Delibes wrote an opera called
____, with a protagonist called
Lakshmi, the name of which
went to inspire which brand?

31. Lakmé
From the character Lakmé
(French for Lakshmi)

32. The ______ line is a 10-km long defensive line built
during the second World War in Switzerland, named
after _____ due to their apparent similarity.

34. He called his friend Krishna Menon, the then
Defence Minister, and requested him to send an
infantry division from Delhi. He had already got
permission to use the cavalry force of the Jaipur
56 regiment. Finally 2,000 camels, 4,000 horses
and 8,000 troops were used, many of them
soldiers on loan from the Indian Army.
What is the context?

35. The Battle scene in Mughal-E-Azam

36. Collectively known as ???
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me
My Angry _____
My ____ Was My Village
The Little ____ _____ That Could
The Woman Who Loved to Make _____ Happy
Because He Liked to Look At It
I Was There In The Room

37. The Vagina Monologues
•
•
•
•
•
I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me
My Angry Vagina
My Vagina Was My Village
The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could
The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas
Happy
• Because He Liked to Look At It
• I Was There In The Room

38. Whose works/ What’s missing?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
__________________________________
The End of Imagination
The Cost of Living
The Greater Common Good
The Algebra of Infinite Justice
Power Politics
War Talk
An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire
Public Power in the Age of Empire
The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations
with _____
• The Shape of the Beast: Conversations with _______

39. Arundhati Roy
and her first novel,
The God of Small Things

40. State Bureau Order No. Five
Bureau Director, Ye Xiaowen
July 18, 2007
Article 1: These measures have been formulated.. ..to regulate the management of ____
____ affairs.
Article 2: ____ ____ should respect and protect the principles of the unification of the
state...
Article 4: Applicants to be ___ ____ who have any of the following conditions may not be
permitted...
Article 5: ___ _____ should carry out application and approval procedures. The application
and approval procedure is: the management organization at local level should submit
applications for ____ to the local affairs departments at the level of people's government
above county-level; once the people's government above county-level has made
suggestions, the people's government....
Article 7: Once an application for a ___ ____ has received approval, the corresponding local
Association shall establish a _____ guidance team; the management organization at that
level shall work under the said team; No group or individual may without authorization
carry out any activities related to searching for or recognizing _____ _______.
...
Article 9: Once recognized, the ___ ___ shall be reported the provincial or autonomous
regional people's government department for approval...
..
..
Article 14: These measures shall be implemented from September 1, 2007.

41. Reincarnating Buddhas
State Bureau Order No. Five
Bureau Director, Ye Xiaowen
July 18, 2007
Article 1: These measures have been formulated.. ..to regulate the management of Buddhas Reincarnation
affairs.
Article 2: Reincarnating Buddhas should respect and protect the principles of the unification of the state...
Article 4: Applicants to be reincarnating Buddhas who have any of the following conditions may not be
permitted...
Article 5: Reincarnating Buddhas should carry out application and approval procedures. The application and
approval procedure is: the management organization at local level should submit applications for
reincarnations to the local religious affairs departments at the level of people's government above countylevel; once the people's government above county-level has made suggestions, the people's government....
Article 7: Once an application for a Buddha's reincarnation has received approval, the corresponding local
Association shall establish a Buddha search guidance team; the management organization at that level shall
work under the said team; No group or individual may without authorization carry out any activities related
to searching for or recognizing reincarnating Buddhas.
...
Article 9: Once recognized, the reincarnated Buddha shall report to the provincial or autonomous regional
people's government department for approval...
..
..
Article 14: These measures shall be implemented from September 1, 2007.

42. 9. Identify

44. Princess Irina of Russia sued MGM in
1932 for libel after the release of
Rasputin and the Empress, which
insinuated that the character Princess
Natasha had been raped by Rasputin.
What “trend” in Hollywood films
did this start?

45. The All-Persons-Fictitious
Disclaimer
All characters appearing in this work are
fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.

46. Significance

48. What’s so special about
these gentlemen? [What’s
in the bags?]
Extra Points if you can tell
me where they work?

49. They are the only people who know the
results of the Oscars beforehand. (The
bags contain the prized envelopes.) They
are
from
PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC), the official auditors for the
Oscars, who certify the voting process
amongst the Academy members.

50. Taking his own daughter Revati, Kakudmi went to Lord Brahma in
Brahmaloka which is transcendental to the three modes of material nature,
and enquired about a husband for her. When Kakudmi arrived there, lord
Brahma was engaged in hearing musical performances by the Gandharvas
and had not a moment to talk with him. Therefore Kakudmi waited, and at
the end of the musical performances he offered his obeisance’s to Lord
Brahma and thus submitted his long-standing desire. After hearing his
words, Lord Brahma, who is most powerful, laughed loudly and said to
Kakudmi, “O King, all those whom you may have decided within the core of
your heart to accept as your son-in-law have passed away in the course of
time. Twenty-seven catur-yugas have already passed. Those upon whom
you may have decided are now gone, and so are their sons, grandsons and
other descendants. You cannot even hear about their names.”
An excerpt from the 9th Canto of the Srimad
Bhagawatham throws light into a very famous complex
scientific concept. Identify the theory?

51. Time Dilation

52. There were 5213 cases of this “disease”
recorded among Union soldiers during the first
year of the Civil War. The term was coined by
Johannes Hofer in 1688, for a condition suffered
by Swiss mercenaries in France and Italy, and
British military doctor Robert Hamilton noted
that it could be cured by simply talking about
the patient’s family and hometown.

53. Nostalgia

54. ____ ____ was a scientific belief prevalant amongst ancient
Greek Scientists and philosophers around the 4th century
BC.
The ___ ___ Society (also known as the International ____
____ Research Society) was founded by Englishman Samuel
Shenton in 1956, and later led by Charles K. Johnson, who
based the organization out of his home in Lancaster,
California. After Johnson’s death in 2001, it weakened and
decentralized, but there are recent attempts to create a
more unified and worldwide movement.
Johnson claimed the United Nations
supports the belief through their flag.

55. Flat Earth

56. "I took a beach chair down to the beach and sat down.
And I’m thinking, How the hell am I going to pull this
off? I was just thinking to myself, What do I need? Well,
the first thing I need is some sort of code. And the only
code I knew of was Morse code. You know, I had to
learn that in the Boy Scouts when I was a youngster.
And I was thinking, [singing] ‘dit-dit-dit, daaah-daaahdaaah, dit-dit-dit’. Remember what that is? That’s SOS.
Dit-dit-dit was S. I stuck my four fingers down into the
sand and for whatever reason I pulled them to myself.”
This is a chap named Joe Woodland
speaking. What did he go on to
invent?

57. The Barcode

58. The _____ ______ theory states that
_____ ______s are short in times
when general consumer confidence
and excitement is high, meaning the
markets are bullish. In contrast, the
theory says _____ ______s are long in
times of fear and general gloom,
indicating that things are bearish.
Fill in the blanks.

59. Skirt Length

60. In 1276, a statute was passed in England applying this term
to events that occurred prior to 1189, the year in which
Richard I ascended the throne. In 1832, this definition was
abandoned as a legal term, but common use has prevailed.
The implication of the phrase is that the subject referred to
is, or can be regarded as, indefinitely ancient. The phrase is
one of the few cases in the English Language where
the postmodifier is an adjective.
Modern historians often criticize the use of the term as a
view of contemporary conditions as without history.
What term/phrase?

61. Time Immemorial

62. This cricketer was considered as perhaps
the greatest all rounder of his time. In all,
he took 1,109 first-class wickets with a
bowling average of 10.32 He was also a
fine batsman (4,140 first-class runs with a
batting average of 14.12, an average
which was very good for the time!!). He
retired from cricket in 1863 at the
relatively early age of 37 as a result of
rheumatism . In later years, among other
things, began selling cricket equipment in
Leamington Spa. He was posthumously
selected as Wisden Cricketer of the Year
in 1913, 50 years after his retirement
from first-class cricket. Identify him.

63. John Wisden

64. Where have you seen him?
Extra points for the name!

65. Colonel Sanders

66. The first such group was
formed by Dr. Madan Kataria
in 13th March, 1995, at a park
in Mumbai. Now a worldwide
movement.
What?

67. Laughter Yoga

68. When an American counterpart asked him who
the best Indian in the profession was, he
flashed back, "I am." The second, third, fourth,
fifth best man on the job? He continued to
repeat, "I am."
His most famous work can be seen as a 10-feet
high bronze statue at the Symbiosis Instt., Pune;
on a commemorative postage stamp, and on
Aircrafts (not any longer though). His other
works can be seen on boxes of paint, and a TV
Series. Extra points if you can name all these.

69. R.K. Laxman

70. "The Bone Church“, a new poem by Stephen King,
is the story of an ill-fated jungle expedition told by
a man in a bar. King has written the poem
exclusively for ____.
His relationship with ___, which goes back to 1983,
can be see in the protagonist of Salem's Lot, a
struggling young author with a resemblance to his
creator, who confesses at one point, that
sometimes when he’s lying in bed at night, he
fantasizes about ____ featuring him… “Waste of
time. They only do authors if their books are big on
campus….”

74. Thank You!

75. LVC

85. • Centaur
• Renault
• Georgia
• Comic
• Gothic
• Baskerville
• Courier
• Arial
• New York (Mac) • Trebuchet