BAQC_Aug2016_GeneralQuiz

Bay Area Quiz Club
August 2016 General Quiz
Vinod Viswanath
14 August 2016

Rules
• 8Q written round (lone wolf)
• 3 points per question
• Add the points of each member
• If there are uneven number of people per team, teams
will count one of their scores twice, etc.
• 48Q infinite bounce
– good old bounce rules: if a question goes unanswered, next
question goes to the next team
• 10 points per question unless specified
• Pounce?

8Q Lone Wolf
 3 points per question
 Add the total points of each member for team total
 If there are uneven number of people per team,
teams will count one of their scores twice, etc.

Question 1
• Lionel Fielden, the first Controller of Broadcasting was
talking to Viceroy Linlithgow after a banquet.
• The name of his agency, which began on an
experimental basis for two years in 1930, suggested
Fielden, was rather bureaucratic.
• The Viceroy, rising to the bait, agreed it was a
mouthful. “___ _____ _____,” mumbled the Viceroy
after serious prompting by the broadcaster.
• “The very thing!” exclaimed Fielden, “and what
beautiful initials!”
What were they talking about?

Question 2
• It was developed in the 1970s by Japanese chiropractor
Kenzo Kase.
• Unlike earlier methods, it is placed in a variety of
patterns, and is pulled to differing degrees of tension
to create the desired effect.
• One of its uses is to reduce swelling in a joint, by
creating an area of low pressure where fluid can move
and drain.
• Some believe it provides stimulation to skin cells that
affects pain pathways—similar to rubbing a spot that
hurts.
What did Dr. Kase invent?

Question 3
City of Boulder Community Transit
Network which services the University of
Colorado, Boulder runs 6 routes:
____, _____, _____, BOUND, DASH, BOLT.
FITB

Question 4
• It’s one of the highest rated “improv show” on HBO
with just script outlines and no actual dialog written
upfront
• It was started as a one-time project and developed into
a full-blown series
• Apparently HBO did not like the title of the series, and
suggested a few alternate names – Best Foot
Backwards, Half Empty, Regrets Only
• Series revolves around the protagonists many faux pas,
issues with social expectations and annoyance at
people’s behavior
Which series?

Question 5
• Euler and Robert Hooke were the only major
scientists who supported X’s theory, although
Benjamin Franklin was a public and vocal
supporter.
• An alternative theory by Newton was held to be
true in the 18th century, and only Y’s experiment
in 1803 persuaded scientists to believe X.
• Feynman often said that all Quantum Mechanics
can be gleaned from carefully thinking through
the implications of Y’s experiment.
X’s theory? X? Y? Y’s experiment?

Question 6
• In New Jersey and Oregon, this perfectly normal daily
activity is illegal.
• Laws were passed against the activity mostly in
response to a fear of self-immolation.
• However, these laws are surprisingly popular with
citizens, and any mention of repeal has always been
met with fervent opposition.
What are we talking about?

Question 7
• Which is the only Muslim character played by
Dilip Kumar?

Question 8
Blanked out are two novel titles. Name the titular
characters. Name the titles for bonus point

Answer 1
AIR (All India Radio)
For 2 years, it was Indian State Broadcasting
Service

Answer 3
HOP, SKIP, JUMP, BOUND, DASH, BOLT.

Answer 5
X: Christian Huygens and Wave theory of light
Y: Thomas Young and Double Slit experiment

Question 6
• In New Jersey and Oregon, this perfectly normal daily
activity is illegal.
• Laws were passed against the activity mostly in
response to a fear of self-immolation.
• However, these laws are surprisingly popular with
citizens, and any mention of repeal has always been
met with fervent opposition

Answer 7
Prince Salim, Mughal-e-Azam
[Thanks to Rajiv Rai for (painstakingly) confirming this]

Answer 8
Leave it to Psmith
Meet Mister Mulliner

Infinite Bounce
 48Q infinite bounce
 good old bounce rules: if a question goes unanswered,
next question goes to the next team
 10 points per question, unless said otherwise
 Some questions are written

Choose a Question
Geography (1) List It (1) Science (1) Word Origins (1)
Women Pioneers (1) History (1) Sports (1) Entertainment (1)
Evolution (1) Comics (1) Peters (1) Hit Me (1)

Choose a Question
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40 41 42
43 44 45 46 47 48

• Pounce?
• We’ll go with the majority opinion
Rules

Question 1 : Hit Me 1
• This would’ve been the fixed and evenly divisible
version, as opposed to the more accepted variable
version
• It would carry forward all the names and traditional
practices from the variable version (with 2 exceptions)
• Business and industry would benefit from the simpler,
more “rational” version
• Sir Sandford Fleming (of the Standard Time fame) was
the first president of the league promoting the simpler
version
• All efforts along this line were abandoned after the
plan failed to get approval from the League of Nations

Answer 1 : Hit Me 1
International Fixed Calendar
Year day: December 29 or January 0
Double Sunday: Last day of the year and first day of the year
were both Sundays
Leap day: June 29
Back
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Question 2 : Entertainment 2
• The earliest version of these was mechanical and hand-
driven, discovered in a wreck off the Greek island
Antikythera.
• The first modern version, run by clockwork mechanism, was
built in 1704 in England, and one of those models were
gifted to Charles Boyle, the 5th Earl of ___.
• Opening credits of Game of Thrones depict the locations
pivotal to that episode or season on a modern version of
this instrument.
• The climactic fight scene in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) is
played out with one of these instruments in the background
(pic on next slide).

Answer 2 : Entertainment 2
Back
Orrery

Question 3 : Peters 2
Till late 19th century some churches in the US would hang a
pinewood slab on the door with a comb hanging from a string.
Why?

Answer 3 : Peters 2
Discrimination against Blacks
A person could enter the church only if his or her skin was lighter
than the pinewood and if they could run the comb through their
hair without it snagging
Back

Question 4 : Comics 2
Who are the fantastic
rotund rogues?

Answer 4 : Comics 2
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
They were two fictional characters, a supervillain duo appearing
in comic books published by DC Comics who were primarily
known as enemies of Batman (in the 1940s).
Back

Question 5 : History 3
• The original survived many attacks including poison thorns.
• It was eventually destroyed by King Pushyamitra in 2 BC.
• King Shashanka destroyed it in 600 AD.
• Every time it was destroyed, someone would bring up a new
one.
• The one currently seen at the site was cared for by the British
archeologist Alexander Cunningham, after the previous one
died in 1881.

Answer 5 : History 3
Mahabodhi tree at Bodh Gaya
Back

Question 6 : Geography 3
WRITTEN QUESTION
Arrange these cities West to East, by Longitude.
Santa Barbara, CA
San Jose, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Fresno, CA
Reno, NV
Carson City, NV

Answer 6 : Geography 3
Back
San Jose, CA 121.88 W
Reno, NV 119.81 W
Fresno, CA 119.77 W
Carson City, NV 119.76 W
Santa Barbara, CA 119.70 W
Los Angeles, CA 118.24 W

Question 7 : Women Pioneers 1
• Kaal Mogra (Chaulmoogra) oil with lemon juice was used as both a
curative (orally) and palliative (applied to skin) solution for this
disease, in native customs in India.
• This African American researcher developed a process to isolate the
active component of this oil (ethyl esters of the fatty acids) during
her Masters thesis work, in University of Hawaii.
• She fell ill during this research, and died, aged 24, before she could
publish her findings (1916).
• In 1918, 78 patients with this disease were released from Kalihi
Hospital having been cured because of injections from her research.
It remained the main method for treating this disease until the
1950s.
What disease? Who’s the researcher?

Answer 7 : Women Pioneers 1
Alice Ball, Leprosy
Back

• The problem was originally posed by ancient geometers (the
exact origin is hotly debated, but the problem was well known
to ancient Indian, Persian, and Greek mathematicians).
• Ferdinand von Lindemann proved the impossibility of solving
this problem by proving the transcendence of π in 1882.
• Many mathematicians since then have provided elegant
approximate solutions, including Ramanujan and Gardner.
• In 1897, state of Indiana tried to pass a legislation called the
“Indiana Pi Bill”, which claimed a solution to the original
problem, and along the way implied π=3.2 (it was struck
down).
• The problem is often used as a metaphor for trying to do
something impossible.
Which problem are we talking about?

Answer 8 : Hit Me 4
Squaring the Circle
Back

Question 9 : Sports 1
• This event is considered one of the toughest events in sport,
not just in its category. Only 14 participants have successfully
finished the event within the requirements, out of more than
1000 since 1986.
• There are 5 stages to the event, each to be completed within
12 hours. Proof of completion of each stage is collecting a
page from 9 to 11 books hidden along the way.
• The terrain is particularly treacherous, surrounded by three
maximum security prisons.
• James Earl Ray (MLK’s assassin) escaped from one of these
prisons in 1977, and in 55 hours (comparable to the 60 hours
of the event) managed to finish less than 10% of the
requirements.
What event are we talking about?

Answer 9 : Sports 1
Barkley Marathons (100 miles)
Back
Potential entrants must
complete an essay on
"Why I Should be Allowed
to Run in the Barkley", pay
a $1.60 application fee,
and complete other
requirements subject to
change. If accepted, an
entrant receives a "letter
of condolence."

• In the mid 1970s certain scientists employed by the US
Department of Energy claimed they were looking for either
'bare bottoms' or 'naked beauties' to help them with their
research.
• The search was serious and they finally found one in 1978.
• Today there is an entire factory called the beauty factory that
produces a large number of these bottoms for research
purposes.

Answer 10 : Peters 1
• Bottom and beauty were the two names in
contention for one of the third generation quark
flavors, the one code names ‘b’.
• Researchers at the Fermilab were searching this
quark, and because it was difficult to be
produced in its undisguised form (they always
came as a quark-antiquark pair) they claimed
they were looking for either ‘bare bottoms’ or
‘naked beauties’.
Back

Answer 11 : Comics 4
Jean-Paul Sartre
Back

Question 12 : Science 3
• This disease was originally known by this Greek name which
literally means “waste away”, given how the interiors of the
dead appeared upon post-mortem [Hippocrates].
• A more common name was derived from the same meaning,
and was widely used until the cause and spread of the disease
was well understood.
• One of the oldest diseases known to humans, there are signs
and effects of this in Egyptian mummies.
Name the disease, the Greek name, and the more common
English name. No part points.

Answer 12 : Science 3
Phthisis
Consumption
Tuberculosis
Back

Who, talking about what? X? Y?
I wanted X to hide in Y’s nostril and then have a sneezing fit. The Parks
Commission [sic] of the Department of Interior was rather upset at this
thought. I argued until one of their number asked me how I would like it if
they had Y play the scene in X’s nose. I saw their point at once.
One of the early drafts of the screenplay was titled , “The man in
Y’s nose”. Eventually, the Parks Department refused filming in
the park, forcing the speaker to build what he wanted on the
sets of MGM.

Hitchcock about the Mount Rushmore scene in
North by Northwest
X: Cary Grant
Y: Lincoln
Back

• In several European languages, these structures are known
after the Roman Emperor Vespacian.
• They were used to sell a material useful in tanning.
• Launderers also needed the material as a source of ammonia
to clean and whiten woolen togas.
• Vespacian, in a bid to improve tax revenue, instituted a tax on
the buyers of this product.
• Sections of society were outraged at this, but Vespacian
brushed them aside saying “Pecunia non olet”
What structures?

Public toilets
Vespasiani (Italy), vespasiennes (France)
“Money does not smell”
Back

• X was on the phone with his sister Deborah who had just
graduated law school and was joining the Navy Judge
Advocate General’s corps.
• She was going to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to defend a
bunch of soldiers.
• X took that information and wrote down most of his story on
cocktail napkins while bartending at the Palace Theater on
Broadway.
What came out of this? X?

Aaron Sorkin
A Few Good Men
Back

Question 16 : Evolution 1
This is an economic theory with more general examples:
• Uncontrolled human population grown leading to
overpopulation
• Aborting female fetuses in preference of male child leading to
imbalance of gender ratio
• Mis/over-use of antibiotics leading to antibiotic-resistant
strain of bacteria
• Evolutionary selection to switch from eating mature plants to
seedlings, leading to depleted food resource

Answer 16 : Evolution 1
Tragedy of the Commons
A situation within a shared-resource system where individual
users acting independently according to their own self-interest
behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting
that resource through their collective action.
Back

• Bristol-Myers created this
product in 1978 and ran it for
7 years.
• It sourced a special ingredient,
whose manufacturer refused
to be identified with this
product.
• The brand name was partly
named after a common way of
dispensing the special
ingredient.
Name the product (brand) and
the special ingredient.

Body On Tap
with 1/3rd Budweiser
beer
Back

Question 18 : List It 3
WRITTEN QUESTION
In Asia, which letter do a maximum number of country names
start with?
List them. 2 points per country.

Answer 18 : List It 3
• Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste,
Turkey, Turkmenistan
1 pt per country if you got all these 5 instead:
• Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Saudi Arabia,
Sri Lanka; or,
• India, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia
Back

Question 19 : Word Origins 2
• This phrase is used to refer to a topic that is lateral to or
different from the topic at hand
• A non-repetitive version of this phrase is often used in lieu,
although it really refers to a topic that is related (albeit
peripherally) to the topic at hand
• The French version of this phrase is a special move in a board-
game, where it refers to an action on a lateral angle from the
main move.
Give me both the English and the French phrases.

Answer 19 : Word Origins 2
By-the-by
En passant (Chess)
Back

What sport do these terms belong to? #kolstylz
DUFFEK TURN
SMOKER
SPRAYING SKIRT
PEELING OUT
QUARTERING

Answer 20 : Sports 2
Kayaking
Back

The hippos in these images appear to be sweating blood. What
exactly are they doing?

Oily secretion with a reddish hue that acts as a
sunscreen and antiseptic.
Back

WRITTEN QUESTION
How many types of punctuation does English have?
List them. 1 pt. per each.

14
• Apostrophe
• Brackets
• Colon
• Comma
• Dash
• Ellipsis
• Exclamation mark
• Period/full stop
• Guillemets (angle brackets)
• Hypen
• Question mark
• Quotation marks
• Semicolon
• Slash/stroke/solidus
Back

WRITTEN QUESTION
Arrange these cities North to South, by Latitude.
(5 points for the extremes, 5 for the rest)
Estcourt Station, Maine
Northwest Angle, Minnesota
Sumas, Washington
London, England
Paris, France
Brussels, Belgium

Back
London, England 51.51 N
Brussels, Belgium 50.85 N
Northwest Angle, Minnesota 49.23 N
Sumas, Washington 49.00 N (49th parallel)
Paris, France 48.86 N
Estcourt Station, Maine 47.46 N

• Erroneously attributed to Lenin, it is a pejorative term used to
describe people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose
goals they do not understand, who are used cynically by the
leaders of the cause.
• The two-word term was originally used to describe Soviet
sympathizers in Western countries.
• A 2010 BBC radio documentary lists among ____ _____ of
Stalin, several prominent writers and artists including H G
Wells, Doris Lessing, G B Shaw, Paul Robeson.
What term?

Useful Idiots
Back

• Officials in Death Valley National Park put out notices asking
their visitors to stop carrying out a cliché statement about the
temperature in the park.
• They claimed their maintenance staff was overwhelmed
cleaning out sidewalks and debris strewn across the parking
lots.
• Ironically, it was the National Park folks who in an attempt to
boost publicity, originally put out this cliché message in a
widely watched video
What is this practice, that could have been passed off as a
natural by-product, if the park was geo-thermally active (which it
isn’t)?

Answer 25 : Hit Me 2
Frying an egg on a hot rock, and serving it sunny
side up
Back

• This term comes into this sport from an Italian phrase which
literally means “to trip up (by putting a leg forward)”.
• The Italian form was used in wrestling to mean a trick or
“tripping up”.
• The term came into this sport via the Spanish form (because of
a famous Spanish practitioner).
• The French form influenced the English spelling, where since
1855 at least, it has taken the broader meaning of “getting an
early advantage”
Give the term and sport. Bonus points for the Spanish practitioner.

Gambit, Chess
gambetto (Italian), gambito (Spanish), gambit
(French)
Ruy Lopez de Segura
Back

WRITTEN QUESTION
Order these mountains by the distance of their peaks from the
center of the Earth.
Mt. Everest, Nepal
Mt. Cotopaxi, Ecuador
Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Mt. Chimborazo, Ecuador
Pico de Orizaba, Mexico

Mt. Chimborazo, Ecuador 6384.4 km
Mt. Cotopaxi, Ecuador 6384.1 km
Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania 6384.0 km
Mt. Everest, Nepal 6382.2 km
Pico de Orizaba, Mexico 6381.5 km
Back

What effect are these statements an example of?
Alternatively, put funda.
• You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
• You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
• You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your
advantage.
• While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to
compensate for them.
• Your sexual adjustment has presented problems for you.
• You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when
hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
• You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements
without satisfactory proof.
• You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
• At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are
introverted, wary, reserved.
• Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.
They are named after certain tests given by an entertainer, businessman,
politician, and a notorious hoaxer.

Answer 28 : Hit Me 3
Barnum effect (after P. T. Barnum)
Or Forer effect
Observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to
descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored
specifically for them but are, in fact, vague and general
enough to apply to a wide range of people.
Also explains widespread acceptance of astrology, fortune
telling, aura reading, etc.
Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A
classroom demonstration of gullibility. Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology, 44, 118-123.
Back

From a description by Megasthenes:
The greatest city in India ruled by Sandrocottus, is that which
is called Palibothra, in the dominions of the Prasians, where
the streams of Erannoboas and the Ganges unite, the Ganges
being the greatest of all rivers, and the Erannoboas being
perhaps the third largest of Indian rivers, though greater than
the greatest rivers elsewhere; but it is smaller than the
Ganges where it falls into it.
What’s the Indian name of the river that was corrupted
into the name Erannoboas?
What’s its current name (also a synonym, dating back to
at least 5th century AD)

Hiranyabahu
Son (shoNa, Sone)
Back

• This sport dates back to at least 15th century, and originated in
Sussex, southern England.
• It may have been an ancestor to cricket, baseball, and
rounders, and is often called “cricket in the air”.
• It was traditionally played by milkmaids, who used one of
their “work tools” X, as a “wicket”.
• The teams were either all female, or mixed gender.
• The name is a portmanteau of this X and an instrument used
in the game.
• It makes an appearance in Samuel Johnson’s dictionary as a
game played by driving a ball from X to X.

Stoolball
Back

In his book ‘The God Delusion’, Richard Dawkins advances an
argument for atheism that he calls the “Ultimate ______ ____
Gambit”, in reference to Fred Hoyle’s famous comment about a
______ _____ assembling itself by chance after a tornado in a
junkyard.
Hoyle’s argument appealed to the improbability of evolution,
and Dawkin’s argument appeals to the improbability of God.
FITB

Ultimate Boeing 747 Gambit
Back

In Cornish mines in the 18th century, pumps were installed to
drain floodwater. When working at full capacity, the could drain
38,000 gallons of water for every 24 bushels of coal that
powered them.
This led to a phrase which means quick and fast action, without
stopping, often used in the context of talking.
What’s the phrase?

Nineteen to the dozen
(38000 gallons per 24 bushels of coal)
Back

Reverse List it:
Connect (not exhaustive):
Transylvania, Sylvania, Forgottonia, Deseret, Lost Dakota,
Absaroka, Sequoyah.

US states that almost became… well, states!
[Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That
Never Made It by Michael J. Trinklein]
Back

She said during an interview in 1964,
"We started from Burma in 1943 after our father died, and we trekked
alternately through wilderness and hundreds of villages, surviving on the
generosity of people, for we were penniless, with no food and few
clothes. Occasionally, we met British soldiers who provided us with
transport, found us refuge and treated our blistered feet and bruised
bodies and fed us. By the time we reached Dibrugarh in Assam, our group
had been reduced to half. Some had fallen ill and been left behind, some
had died of starvation and disease. My mother miscarried along the way.
The survivors were admitted to the Dibrugarh hospital for treatment.
Mother and I had been virtually reduced to skeletons and my brother's
condition was critical. We spent two months in hospital. When we
recovered, we moved to Calcutta".
She had to quit her schooling to support her family because her
mother's salary as a nurse was not enough to feed a family of four. She
was 19 years old in 1957 when she got her first big break, and was
immortalized by a Qamar Jalalabadi song set to O P Nayyar music.
Bonus: Name the movie.

Helen
Howrah Bridge
Mera naam chin chin choo
Back

For years, scientists and philosophers (of the arm-chair kind, or
otherwise) have pondered on one of humankind’s great
evolutionary question: Why do humans _____________?
Some of the theories answering this question are:
• It helped them expend less energy
• It helped them carry more food
• It helped them control their temperature better by reducing
the amount of skin directly exposed to the sun
What was this great evolutionary question?

Why did humans walk on two legs?
Back

WRITTEN QUESTION
Black Heritage Stamp Series, is both the oldest and longest series
of stamps issued by USPS. Started in 1978 with a stamp featuring
the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, 2016 saw the 39th stamp issued
featuring Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. There are 14 women in this list. FITB.
[1978] Harriet Tubman
[1985] Mary McLeod Bethune
[1986] <first to win a case against a white man>
[1990] Ida Wells
[1995] <aviator>
[1998] Madam C J Walker
[2000] Patricia Harris
[2005] Marian Anderson
[2006] <Mammy>
[2007] <jazz_singer>
[2009] Ana Julia Cooper
[2011] Barbara Jordan
[2013] <tennis_player>
[2014] <congresswoman>

Back
[1978] Harriet Tubman
[1985] Mary McLeod Bethune
[1986] Sojourner Truth
[1990] Ida Wells
[1995] Bessie Coleman
[1998] Madam C J Walker
[2000] Patricia Harris
[2005] Marian Anderson
[2006] Hattie McDaniel
[2007] Ella Fitzgerald
[2009] Anna Julia Cooper
[2011] Barbara Jordan
[2013] Althea Gibson
[2014] Shirley Chisholm

• She was an anthropologist, sociologist, educator, and writer.
• She was the first female anthropologist in India.
• She was a prolific writer, and most known for a critical analysis of
the Mahabharata, treating the protagonists of the book as historical
figures rather than mythical ones.
• Her father worked for the Burma Cotton Company, and named her
after a river, also called ‘The Road to Mandalay’, because Kipling.
• She was also the first woman to get a driver’s license in Pune!
Name her, and the critical treatise on the anthropology of
Mahabharata

Irawati Karwe
Yuganta (the end of an epoch)
Back

Name the journal

What word owes its origin, from the 14th century, to the Italian
phrase meaning “40 days”.
[Hint for those who can use it: There’s a Urdu/Telugu word
corrupted from the word in question, which gives its name to a
locality in Hyderabad.]

Quarantine from quaranta giorni
Locality in Hyderabad is Koranti/Fever Hospital
Back

• It literally means “a knot” and this stems from the practice of
binding inscribed palm leaves using a length of thread held by
knots.
• It is also a word used for books, and the script used to write
them.
• It was widely used to write Sanskrit in Tamil-speaking parts of
South Asia until the 19th century.
• Malayalam is a direct descendent of this script as is the
Sinhala alphabet.
• Mon, Lao, Javanese, Khmer, and Thai are either direct or
indirect derivations.
What?

Grantha Lipi
Back

Question 42 : Comics 1
• It started in 1935 in a single panel appearing as a flower girl at
a wedding, mischievously stewing the aisle with banana peels.
• It was a successor to Henry, the mute little boy.
• Marjorie Buell the creator explained:
“I wanted a girl because a girl could get away with more fresh stunts that
in a small boy would seem boorish.”
• The comic ran until 1984 and was translated into more than
38 languages.
• At her peak in the 1950s, she towered over Times Square,
broke down gender stereotypes, and was read by millions in
comic books and newspapers around the country.

• He called it “the interpretation of a friendly mleccha”, and in
the foreword hoped that although primarily intended for
Westerners, it may also be of some interest to Indian,
Pakistani, and Sinhalese readers.
• He was somewhat embarrassed about the florid title of the
book, and blamed Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” for inspiring it:
“On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
They Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.”

A L Basham’s “The Wonder That Was India”
Back

In a letter to his rival Robert Hooke, X remarked:
“What ___Y___ did was a good step. You have added much
several ways, & especially in taking the colours of thin plates into
philosophical consideration. If I have _____________________
Hooke was a hunchback, and, erroneously, in a few
interpretations, the line above is treated as a sarcastic remark.
X, Y, and the blanked out sentence.

X: Isaac Newton
Y: Descartes
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the
sholders [sic] of Giants.”
Back

• Miriam E. Benjamin was an African-American school teacher
and inventor from Washington, D.C.
• She was the second black woman to receive a US patent
• Her patent was for a piece of furniture that would reduce the
expenses of hotels by decreasing the number of waiters and
attendants, and would add to the comfort of guests.
• The invention was a big hit in both hotels and restaurants.
• It was eventually adopted by the US House of Representatives
and was a precursor to a widely used system on airplanes
today.
What was the invention?

Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels
Back

• Her thesis work at Cambridge led to the discovery of something so
fundamental, her advisor Antony Hewish shared a Nobel prize for it
with Martin Ryle.
• She was the first to observe and precisely analyze these objects,
which have short and regular rotational periods (just like
lighthouses).
• The periods are, in some cases, so accurate, they rival atomic clocks
in keeping time.
• Subsequent observations of these objects were used to indirectly
confirm the existence of gravitational radiation (late 1970s).
What did she, Anthony Hewish, and Martin Ryle discover?
Bonus: Name the researcher.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Radio Pulsars
Back

• This mostly Commonwealth phrase means taking liberties at
the expense of others, or to be unreasonable.
• It is often confused with a closely sounding expression which
means to mock, tease, ridicule, or scoff.
• It is also not to be confused with another term, made
indefinite by an article, and refers to a particular act of
excretion.
What phrases are we talking about?

• Taking the piss -- be unreasonable
• Taking the piss out of – mock, scoff, etc.
• Taking a piss -- urinating
Back

BAQC_Aug2016_GeneralQuiz

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to BAQC_Aug2016_GeneralQuiz

Similar to BAQC_Aug2016_GeneralQuiz (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (19)

BAQC_Aug2016_GeneralQuiz