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Mega-Whats 2015
The 6th National Open Quizzing Championships
Conducted by
The Karnataka Quiz Association
Est. 1983
Set by
Arun Hiregange and Kiran Vijayakumar
The Rules
1. +10/-5 on the pounce; +10 on the bounce
2. No part points available on the pounce
The Design
Three rounds:
I. Clockwise  18
II. Written  5
III. Anti-clockwise  18
Clockwise
1
What is this cartoon depicting? And what
does it seem to be presaging?
#
1
Ambedkar’s leaving the Law Ministry over
the failure to implement the Hindu Code
bill.
Depicted Ambedkar as Siddhartha
(Buddha) well before his conversion.
2
This is the last plane built by an aviator
who is considered by his countrymen to
be the first man to fly, rather than the
Wright Brothers. He named the aircraft
after this beautiful and delicate looking
insect. Name either.
2
#
2
Demoiselle / Damsel fly (built by Alberto
Santos Dumont).
3
What later caused President Barack
Obama to quip, "We donated a $60 million
helicopter to this operation. Could we not
afford to buy a tape measure?"
#
3
After Osama Bin Laden was killed, they
needed to measure his height (which was
an abnormal 6’ 2” for an Arab) as one of
the confirmations that it was really him.
As they forgot to get a tape measure, a
marine lay down next to him to
approximate his height.
4
This is the 200-year old Shar Harahamim
or Gate of Mercy Synagogue, the oldest in
Mumbai, near a once thriving Jewish
neighbourhood in Mumbai. Which railway
station is named after it?
4
#
4
Masjid (it used to be called Juni Masjid).
5
In Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, before their
relationship blossoms, Catherine Heathcliff
scorns Hareton Earnshaw's primitive attempts at
reading, saying, "I wish you would repeat _____
_____ as you did yesterday; it was extremely
funny!”
She is referring to a ballad about the Battle of
Otterburn, which involved the Duke of
Northumberland, Henry Percy (of Hotspur fame).
Be a comedian and fill the blanks.
#
5
Chevy Chase.
6
The image shows a close-up of the central
figure of a particular sculpture that has been
acclaimed for its depiction of human agony.
However, a famous 19th century scientist
who made a lot of comparative studies of
anatomy as part of his work was not
impressed, and is said to have objected to
this depiction, saying that the bulging
eyebrows are physiologically impossible.
Name the sculpture and the scientist.
6
#
6
Laocoon and his Sons. Charles Darwin.
7
On the left is a French pastry in a butterfly shape,
sometimes called elephant ears, French hearts,
shoe-soles or glasses. Its name in French comes
from the leaves that it resembles. On the right is
a French cake, made in a traditional rectangular
mold, which resembles a bar of gold. Another
theory says that the cake became popular in the
Bourse district of Paris surrounding the Paris
stock exchange. Name both. Their names end in
the same letters, indicating their French origin.
7
#
7
Palmier. Financier.
8
Nepal is the only country in the world with a
certain distinction. If you allow territories,
then Chatham Islands (a territory of New
Zealand) can be added to the list. Some
countries that have a related distinction,
though not as unique, are Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Venezuela.
That’s an almost exhaustive list. So what
makes Nepal unique?
#
8
45 minutes offset from the hour with
respect to GMT.
9
There are a few thousand cases of
leprosy in the USA, and is most
concentrated in southern states like
Texas & Louisiana rather than northern or
coastal states as shown in the map. Why
is this?
9
#
9
They are also the areas with a higher
concentration of Armadillos, which can
carry leprosy.
10
In 1973, a local hero (shown on the next slide) was
playing a teenage heartthrob. This would prove be
the first occurrence out of an exhaustive set of
four. Local hero was declared the winner after a
match winning serve. However the heartthrob
disputed it. Local hero became an even bigger
hero when he agreed to replay the point. But no,
this didn’t prove to be a turning point and local
hero did go on the win the match. Identify both
and what was the first occurrence of?
10
#
10
Roger Taylor. The first of only 4 defeats
suffered by Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon.
11
This is a small, freshwater fish which is
popular with anglers because of its
readiness to feed. Even inexperienced
anglers find it easy to catch. What
adjective derives from this fish?
11
#
11
Chub  Chubby.
12
“I was working for General Electric at the time, right after
World War II , and I saw a milling machine for cutting the rotors
on jet engines, gas turbines. This was a very expensive thing for
a machinist to do, to cut what is essentially one of those
Brancusi forms. So they had a computer-operated milling
machine built to cut the blades, and I was fascinated by that.
This was in 1949 and the guys who were working on it were
foreseeing all sorts of machines being run by little boxes and
punched cards. ______ was my response to the implications of
having everything run by little boxes. The idea of doing that, you
know, made sense, perfect sense. To have a little clicking box
make all the decisions wasn't a vicious thing to do. But it was too
bad for the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs.”
Who about what?
#
12
Kurt Vonnegut about Player Piano.
13
If the first to discover a moon of this
planet was X, the second was Y and X-Y
has discovered a further eight, identify
the planet, X and Y.
#
13
Cassini; Huygens. (Cassini-Huygens and
Saturn.)
14
In his manifesto regarding “declaration of
revolutionary war”, a self declared Field Marshal
wrote, “The name ______ is taken from the word
______ and we define its meaning as a body of
dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep
and loving harmony and partnership in the best
interest of all within the body.” His assumed
name was derived from the Swahili word for
“prophet” and the name of the leader of the
Amistad slave rebellion. The two blanks are
similar. Who & what did he found?
#
14
Symbionese
(Liberation Army).
Mtume Cinque.
15
This piece by a Czech composer has the
name of a profession in its title. Due to the
fact that it is used as an introduction or
‘screamer’ in a particular field of
entertainment, the piece’s original title is
usually forgotten and it is associated with
another profession (or that field of
entertainment). Get both: the actual title and
what it is associated with nowadays.
#
15
Entry of the Gladiators. Now used as
circus or clown entrance music.
16
A world record being broken. By whom?
And what is the weight being thrown,
named after a common kitchen appliance
because of how it looks?
#
16
Kettle Bell. Hafthor Bjornsson, who plays
The Mountain in Game of Thrones.
17
Driving X: 1 X
Cleek: 2 X
Mid Y: 3 X
Y X: 4 X
Y: 5 X
Spade Y: 6 X
Y Z: 7 X
Pitching Z:8 X
Z: 9 X
On the left are the terms used until the 1940s, when
the numbering system on the right was formalized.
What are X, Y, Z? Perhaps knowledge of a particular
genre of P.G. Wodehouse stories will help.
#
17
Iron; Mashie; Niblick.
18 “By day I would be the genial, white-coated Dr. _____, but at
nightfall I would exchange my white coat for my motorbike
leathers and, anonymous, wolflike, slip out of the hospital to rove
the streets.” In 1962, he took a residency at UCLA, where he
became a regular at Muscle Beach and set a California state
weightlifting record with a 600-pound power lift: “I was known as
Dr. Squat,” he says, “which rather pleased me.” And he continued
to motorbike, riding solo and loaded with amphetamines as far as
the Grand Canyon, stopping only for gas. One day, a patient
paralyzed from the neck down and blind from neuromyelitis
optica heard he was a biker, and asked to come along for a ride;
with the help of weightlifting friends, he abducted her from the
hospital, strapped her against his own torso, and rode up and
down Topanga Canyon.
18
Identify this person.
#
18
Oliver Sacks.
Written
1
Identify this British TV series from its
theme music.
1
Inspector Morse.
Composer Barrington Pheloung utilises a
motif based on the Morse code for
"M.O.R.S.E."
2
In 1929, the book publisher George Macy founded
The Limited Editions Club (LEC), an imprint tasked
with publishing finely illustrated limited editions of
classic books. In the years to come, Macy worked
with artists like Matisse and Picasso, and
photographers like Edward Weston, to produce
books with beautiful illustrations on their inner
pages. Sometimes The LEC even turned its design
focus to other parts of the book. Identify this book
from its1946 edition created by Clarence P.
Hornung.
2
2
The History of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.
3
Identify the movie.
3
Helvetica.
4
His love of the Baltimore Colts were
featured in the December 13, 1968 issue
of LIFE. Entitled "My Colts, Verses and
Reverses", the issue includes his poems
and photographs by Arthur Rickerby.
Featured on the cover is Dennis Gaubatz
with the following description. Who?
4
“Look at Number 53,
Dennis Gaubatz,
that is he,
looming 10 feet tall
or taller
above the Steelers'
signal caller...
Since Gaubatz acts like
this on Sunday,
I'll do my
quarterbacking Monday."
4
Ogden Nash.
5
Seems, a company based in Tokyo, is now
manufacturing fire alarms intended for use by the
deaf, who can’t hear the wail of conventional smoke
detectors. According to researchers at Japan’s Shiga
University Medical School, who tested a wide range of
potential wake-up odors (among them rotten eggs,
banana, coconut milk, and peppermint), a jet of ______
jolts hearing-impaired sleepers awake in less than
two minutes. The nose-searing punch of allyl
isothiocyanate is so distinctive that ______ is the base
for these fire alarms. What base?
5
Wasabi.
Anti-clockwise
1
When this art work began its residency at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007,
curator Gary Tinterow hung the following
three paintings alongside in the gallery.
Which art work? New York Times’ Roberta
Smith used the tagline of a 1978 movie
sequel as the title of her review of the
show. Identify the tagline.
1
By Francis
Bacon
1
By Winslow Homer
1
By John Singleton Copley
#
1
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the
Mind of Someone Living by Damien Hirst.
Just When You Thought It Was Safe (from
Jaws 2).
2
As part of the 100th anniversary
celebrations of a brand, this world record
breaking model was unveiled on March 8,
2015 at Chicago. Now touring across
various American cities, it is the largest
measuring cup ever made. Identify the
brand.
2
#
2
Pyrex.
3
Don Quixote contains stories that do not directly
involve the two main characters, but which are
narrated by some of the picaresque figures
encountered by Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
during their travels. The longest and best known story
is El Curioso Impertinente (The Impertinently Curious
Man), which is read to a group of travelers at an inn,
about a Florentine nobleman, Anselmo, who becomes
obsessed with testing his wife's fidelity, and talks his
close friend to attempt to seduce her. The friend’s
name has survived in various languages and denotes
someone who obsessively seduces and deceives
women. What?
#
3
Lothario.
4
During the early part of the twentieth
century, complimentary tickets used in
the theatre business were often referred
to by a nickname, after a person. Such
tickets traditionally had holes punched
into them to prevent them from being
resold. Which person?
4
#
4
Annie Oakley.
5
Multiple theories about which bird?
1. Referring to King John, who in honour of his patron saint
St. John, frequently used the device of an eagle. The
sprig of broom initially shown in the bird's beak, broom
being a symbol of the royal family of Plantagenet.
2. Referring to the name used for a 17th century mace; with
later confusion arising by assuming this term is related to
the old Low Dutch word lefler, meaning spoonbill.
3. It being a cormorant, the sprig in the mouth being a
particular type of seaweed, thus implying that the bird's
appellation comes from the sprig.
(In short, the bird which appears to have originally been
intended to be an eagle is now officially a cormorant.)
#
5
Liver bird.