BCQC Questionable Intelligence (Mar 2014) Finals

questionable intelligence . BCQC. 2014 . ramanand@gmail.com
Questionable
Intelligence
The March Open Quiz
Finals
16th March 2014
J. Ramanand

Prizes by

1: Quips (3)
2: Questions (10)
3: Queries (8)
4: Qonnect (1)
5: Quests (10)
6: Quandaries (8)
7: Quiescence (7)

Quips
3 questions
Written
+5/0
Identify things depicted in
पुणेरी cultural iconographic
style*
*artist refuses to be identified

Though frequently ruled illegal, these
hoardings are popular among local politicians
whose supporters leave no stone, font, or
gawdy colour untouched in their effort to show
their loyalty on the said politician’s
birthday/victory/routine bowel movement.
In the next slide, identify the 1911 achievement
by the person at the left.

14
Dec
1911
दादा… हार्दिक शुभेच्छा

“Puneri Patya” or “Pune Boards” are
irreverent, sarcastic, and attention-grabbing
announcements made to the public. These are
made to stick and hurt.
In the next slide, identify a sport with a rule
that seems out of place with its macho ethos.

Please come with one
handkerchief in your singlet.
Do not spill any blood on the
floor. We are not the Red Cross.

“Hou de kharcha” or “Let there be
expenditure” is a Marathi internet meme that
celebrates the victory of desire over good
sense, of credit over debit, of attitude over
certitude. A rhyming ‘punch line’ is usually part
of the arrangement.
In the next slide, identify the entertainment
vehicle which sunk a few ships.

One queen
of beauty,
one king of
booty
होउ दे
खर्च !

Answers

Answers
1. Roald Amundsen, 1st to the South Pole
2. Wrestling; a “bloodrag” handkerchief must
be carried by wrestlers to mop any blood
cuts
3. “Roop ki Rani, Choron ka Raja” – such delay.
much over budget. so flop. wow.

Questions
10 Qs
Infinite Rebounds
One-finite Pounce
+10/0
A -> H

A tale from the 1980s.
Also in the fray were:
Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil
John Hurt and Bhakti Barve
If they lost, who won?
1/10
Image: Wikipedia

Answer
Ben Kingsley and Rohini
Hattangadi
(the casting of Gandhi and
Kasturba in Attenborough’s
film)

In 1950, Fred Titmus (later to become an English
Test off-spinner) played his first game at Lord’s.
Before the match, a announcement was made:
“Ladies & Gentlemen, a correction to your scoreboards: for
“F.J.Titmus”, read “Titmus, F,J”
Why was this announcement made?
2/10

Answer
The convention was that for amateur players,
initials (and honorifics such as “Mr.”) were
applied before the name, while for professionals,
they were largely referred to by surname and
initials after the name. Titmus was a professional.

It’s not very difficult to identify and tell apart
these two varieties. Usually, this is done by
comparing a particular body part.
An anecdotal method to identify each, that
children often hear of, is that the body part
roughly resembles the shape of the geographical
entity associated with each variety.
What?
3/10

Answer
African and Asian/Indian elephants, whose ears are
said to resemble Africa and Asia/India respectively.
Image: Wikipedia, kimpluscraig.com

While it’s not very clear why this is done in an
anti-clockwise fashion, popular internet
explanations trace its roots to the following
fact(oid)s:
• Objects in the universe orbit anti-clockwise
• Blood circulates anti-clockwise
• Electrons circulate around the nucleus anti-clockwise
• Planets revolve around the sun anti-clockwise
• Earth’s rotation around its axis is anti-clockwise
What?
4/10

Answer
Why Muslims circumambulate the
Kaaba in an anti-clockwise manner

Some examples of people taking (or not
taking) advantage of an exclusive rule:
Benjamin Disraeli: brandy with water
Gladstone: Sherry and beaten egg
Stafford Cripps: water
James Callaghan: tonic water
Geoffrey Howe: gin and tonic
Gordon Brown: Highland spring water
What rule?
5/10

Answer
Alcohol is not officially allowed in the chamber
of the House of Commons in Britain, except for
the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Budget Day.

This “reform” committee headed by Meghnad Saha was set up in
1952.
In a preface to its report (1955), Jawaharlal Nehru wrote:
“They represent past political divisions in the country. Now that
we have attained Independence, it is obviously desirable that
there should be a certain uniformity […] and this should be done
on a scientific approach to this problem.”
What was the committee’s main recommendation?
6/10

Answer
Choosing the Saka calendar as
the unified national calendar

Users of these devices, which have caught on in the last couple
of years, are called ‘vapers’. Manufacturers are willing to
customize them, leading to a niche segment of enthusiasts.
What are these devices?
(L-R: made from a Atari joystick, the MoFaux, steampunk
version, skull-tipped)
7/10

Answer
e-cigarettes (these
kinds are called
‘personal vaporisers’)

Known by his initials, “D.A” got into politics after the death of
his elder brother “D.M”. D.M wore a brown (uttariya-like)
shawl to symbolize the millet crop “kurakkan” (most of us
know this as “ragi”).
D.A. also adopted it, as have his four sons, who have also
joined politics.
What is their surname?
8/10

Answer
Rajapaksa
D.A. is Don Alwin
His sons are
Chamal, Mahinda,
Basil, and Gotabaya

Carlo’s family was a great mix of art and
engineering.
His father Giovanni was an architect and
sculptor.
Carlo was acclaimed for furniture designs.
He wanted his sons Rembrandt to become an
engineer and the other son to become an artist
(the exact opposite happened).
Rembrandt became famous for his animal
sculptures (seen on the right). Some of his work
was used by his more famous brother. Who?
Image: Wikipedia, Christies
9/10

Answer
Ettore Bugatti, creator of
the Bugatti automobiles.
The elephant design was
used for the Bugatti Royale.
Image: Wikipedia

This shade of colour is named after him
because, in the 1940s, he observed that
ships with this colour seemed to be less
obviously seen during twilight hours.
(Later experiments showed this to be
incorrect, and if anything, the colours
could make things more obvious)
Who?
10/10

Answer
Lord Louis Mountbatten
(Mountbatten Pink)

Queries & Quandaries
16 Qs
Written Attempt: 15/-5
Direct & Pass: 10/0
School quiz-style Passing (starting from direct)
Pick 1 from 16 topics
Team last in passing picks for direct

In April 2013, Guan Tianlang, a 14 year old
Chinese golfing prodigy became the youngest
player at the Augusta Masters.
During the competition, he also became the
first-ever player in Masters history to be
penalized (one stroke) for something (this
decision was widely criticized). It was put down
to inexperience, as it could not be put down to
age.
What for?

Answer
Slow play – taking too long to play a
stroke.

Hans Redl played for the Austrian Davis
Cup team in 1937, and then Germany
until 1939.
He served with distinction during
WWII. Despite suffering injuries, he
returned to play for Austria from 1948 till
1955.
What change was made to the rules of
tennis on his account after his return?
Images: shootingparrots.co.uk
TENNIS

Answer
He lost his left arm and could only
serve by placing the ball on the racquet
before tossing it in the air. This would
violate the “don’t hit the ball twice”
rule, which was modified to allow this
form of service.

E.W.Barton-Wright studied various arts in the
Orient, which he combined into his own style in
the 1890s. This was illustrated in magazine
articles. This received an unexpected boost in
popularity thanks to a passing mention
elsewhere.
The cover of a recent compilation of these
articles with a more catchy title is seen on the
next slide. Fill in the blanks.

Image: IvyPress

Answer
Bartitsu was a mash-
up of many arts such
as Jujitsu and
Fencing. In “The
Empty House”,
Holmes says he used
“Baritsu” to defeat
Moriarty.

The Ganjifa is a game involving playing cards. It was popular
in parts of India including Maharashtra.
It consists of round playing cards with elaborate paintings:
suits and different grades of cards as in other playing card
sets.
The Mughal variant was quite popular, with 96 cards (8
suits). A Hindu version (with 120 cards) emerged, especially
associated with the town of Savantwadi in Maharashtra.
What was depicted on these cards?

Answer
Dashavataram figures
Image: dollsofindia.com

This is Vogue’s 2013 September issue, devoted to the future of fashion.
This resulted in some
online commentators
being critical of a
company’s tie-up with
Vogue to make what
fashionable?

Answer
Google Glass. It prominently
features Google Glass as a
fashion accessory

The Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. It is particularly known for being the best example of
something in it named after a nightingale.
Hear the sound, and explain what is going on, and why this is
so created.
[Audio removed]

Answer
Nightingale Floors, which squeak by design
when someone walks on them. Serves as a
warning when someone approaches the inner
chambers.

Del Kathryn Barton won Australia’s
highest art award, the Archibald
Prize, in 2013.
This features a portrait of a 1981
graduate from Sydney’s National
Institute of Dramatic Art. One of his
first notable performances was in
1984, when he enacted the role of
arguably one of Australia’s greatest
villains.
Who, and what role?
Image: Australian.com.au

Answer
Hugo Weaving, who
played the role of
English Test captain
Douglas Jardine in
“Bodyline”.
The artwork is
called “Hugo”.
Image: trumpercricket.blogspot.com

Some apartment buildings in the USA boast of having
some of the slowest elevators in the world. That has
resulted in some people hacking them to make them
more efficient. (video removed)
Why are these elevators so slow?

Answer
Sabbath elevators for observant Jews whose faith
prevents them from operating electric devices.
These stop at all floors, making them very slow.
Hacks like these let people who’ve missed the
regular elevators to mess with the Sabbath
elevators.

A well-worn story, especially told during the days of the
Soviet Union, was that Karl Marx, supposedly an admirer of
this person, offered to dedicate a volume of Das Kapital to
him.
This person politely refused, the story goes, to respect his
wife’s Christian views.
(In reality, no such offer was made, though there was
correspondence between these two.)
Who?

Answer
Charles Darwin

Upon his death, Osama bin Laden was buried at sea:
- to ensure that his final resting place did not become a
memorial of sorts
- it would be hard to find a US-friendly nation to accept the
remains
This mirrors another incident in 1962, when the remains of a
person were scattered in the Mediterranean because the
country where he died did not want him, and did not want a
memorial to come up.
Which person?

Answer
Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who was
captured and executed by Israel.
Image: Wikipedia

The Reserve Bank of India has been trying to increase
the life of rupee notes in India. Among their many
directives have been to discourage banks and people
from stapling notes, scribbling on them etc.
They admitted that a specific directive (issued in 2008
and reiterated later) had been a failure, and that this
was a problem specific to one major region.
What?

Answer
Practice of putting notes in garlands
during weddings and other functions
in North India

In every Swedish election, a small, yet significant number of
people vote for Kalle Anka as a protest against available
options. Though not officially affiliated to Kalle Anka, the
Kalle Anka Party has been around for the last decade, as a kind
of protest joke.
Kalle Anka is a popular icon in Scandinavia, and his show on
Christmas Eve is a national tradition.
How do we better know him?

Answer
Donald Duck

This is a still from “Major Chandrakanth”, a 1966 Tamil film by
K.Balachander. The man in the middle, the actor Sunderrajan who
played the title role, is even today called ‘Major’ Sunderrajan.
The actor on the left is A.V.M.Rajan, who plays the Major’s son and a
negative character.
How was his character’s name reused a few years later?

Answer
The actor Shivaji Rao was given
the name “Rajinikanth” by
K.Balachander from this
character’s name.

Satyajit Ray’s film “Shatranj ke Khilari” has an animation scene in
its opening minutes that summarises the situation of Awadh in
1856 (images on the next slide).
Ram Mohan, the animator, says:
“The animated scenes were essentially political cartoons and Ray
was very clear about how he wanted these visualized.
He suggested the _____ _____ style for the character designs and
the limited, staccato movement of the cut-out animation inserts
one saw in ___ ____ shows”.
a. The style: a form of artistic style
b. An entertainment show
What were the inspirations?

Answer
a. Company Drawing
b. Monty Python

Connect
Images: voxpopvanguard.wordpress.com,
mymusicmoviesandmutterings.blogspot.com, the
hitchcockproject.wordpress.com

Answer
Joseph Conrad books
“Nostromo” – the spaceship in Alien
“Lord Jim” – Amitabh’s character and
narrative arc in Kala Patthar resembles
“Lord Jim”
“The Secret Agent” – Sabotage is based on it

"____ of Benares" is a documentary made in 2002 by Nasreen
Munni Kabir, a noted author and film-maker on subjects of
Indian film and culture. But for many years. the
documentary could not find a distributor in India and hence
was never released. In 2010-11, she was working on another
biography and mentioned this movie to the subject of that
biography.
Being a great admirer of the first, the second person put in a
word with Sony and the film got released in 2011 in India.
Who are these two people?

Answer
Bismillah Khan, A.R.Rahman

Qonnect
4 slides
Non-exhaustive set
Written
+25/00
+20/-5
+15/-5
+10/00

+25/00
1/4

+20/-5
2/4

+15/-5
3/4

+10/00
4/4

Answer
Types of diplomacy
Sauna, Dollar, Gunboat
Cricket, Ping-Pong, Shuttle
Panda, Track-II, Guerilla, Cheque Book
Tin Cup, Summit, Cowboy

Quests
10 Qs
Infinite Rebounds
One-finite Pounce
+10/0
H -> A

The story goes that Adrian, a writer, had never even
solved a crossword, but he became the first to set
crosswords for The Times.
He became a pioneer of the cryptic crossword style.
His son became a reporter and an MP.
Most of us have probably read his daughter’s works, who
clearly inherited her father’s talents.
Who is this daughter?
1/10

Answer
Anthea Bell, who along with
Derek Hockridge, translated
books like Asterix into English.

In 1915, the Antrobus family of Cheshire auctioned
an estate in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK. “On a whim”,
Sir Cecil Chubb bought it for his wife for about 6600
pounds.
She didn’t care much for it.
In 1918, he gave it to the United Kingdom with a few
conditions.
What?
2/10

Answer
Stonehenge
Image: Wikipedia

“The Living Room Sessions Part 1” by Pt.
Ravi Shankar won a Grammy for World
Music.
This has the maestro playing 4 ragas: 3 of
them are Malgunji, Khamaj, and Kedara.
The 4th was created in tribute to a friend and
occasional musician. Who?
6/10

Answer
Raag Satyajit, for Satyajit Ray

In 2000, the director of “Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar” was
publicly humiliated by Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai after an
alleged insult to Shivaji.
How was this incident used in a visual sense for an
acclaimed 2013 film?
8/10

Answer
Poster of “Shahid” which
shows the protagonist’s
face blackened. The
director of both these
films is Hansal Mehta.

The first meeting was held from 1st Aug-8th Aug 1907
The location was Brownsea Island, off the south of England.
Such a relatively remote place was chosen to keep the press
away, as the organizer was a famous person.
There were 20 participants The organiser’s aim was to test a
few experiments, which would form the basis of a book in 1908
It began with a hoot from a “kudu” horn (made from an
antelope’s antlers), owned by the organizer.
What was this the first of?
4/10

Answer
Boy Scout camp (it was organized by
Robert Baden-Powell)

Joe Arpaio is a sheriff in Arizona and calls himself “America’s
Toughest Sheriff”.
He is controversial for many of his jail policies, such as:
Serving only food collected as surplus from other places
Banning possession of magazines such as Playboy
Moving men to tents in an open yard during summers
He is perhaps best known for creating an unusual version of
handcuffs and underwear for jail inmates, which he also sells
as memorabilia at fund-raisers.
What is this version?
5/10

Answer
He makes prisoners wear pink handcuffs
and pink underwear.

Members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian
denomination, have had legal trouble in many countries when
laws or customs collide with their beliefs.
In India, three children were expelled from a Kerala school for
refusing to do something. The case eventually found its way to
the Supreme Court, which ruled the children’s fundamental
rights had been violated, and directed their re-admission.
What did they refuse to do?
7/10

Answer
Sing the national anthem

This is the Coat of Arms of an organization.
The motto “Nullius in Verba” literally translates from Latin as “In no
words” (or “nothing in words”).
Which organization, and how does this group want the motto to be
interpreted?
3/10

Answer
The Royal Society, a British scientific organization.
The motto is used in the sense of “don’t take anyone’s
word for it”, implying verification of facts without
deferring to authority.
Image: Royal Society’s website

Though the following were blamed
The Devil
Steam from trains
The electric telegraph
Guano-based fertilizers
the real culprit was an organism called ‘Phytophthora infestans’
What event?
9/10

Answer
Irish Potato Famine

Each pair denotes the first and last
location in a category. These are the
4 most prominent categories. What?
10/
10

Answer
First and last match venues of Sachin Tendulkar
in various forms of cricket
Tests: Karachi, Mumbai
ODIs: Gujranwala, Dhaka
T20s: only 1 match at Johannesburg
Domestic First Class: Bombay, Lahli

Quiescence
7 Qs
Written
+10/-5

In recent times, the fourth day after
Thanksgiving in the USA is the biggest online
shopping day in that country. What is the two-
word marketing phrase for it?
1/7

Identify the book (poster is from the film
adaptation)
2/7

This is a Sri
Lankan remake
of which film?
3/7

A detective series –
who is the detective?
4/7

What fashion concept are both these cartoons
referring to?
5/7

In 1992, on which show did Sinead O’Connor
controversially tear up a photo of the then Pope?
6/7

Appearing once a week, what phrase was used to
describe comic strips such as these:
7/7

Answer
1. Cyber Monday
2. Tuesdays with Morrie
3. A Wednesday
4. Thursday Next
5. Casual Friday
6. Saturday Night Live
7. Sunday comics/strips/funnies

Finals End
I quiz-blog at Infinite Zounds
J. Ramanand

BCQC Questionable Intelligence (Mar 2014) Finals

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (20)

Ähnlich wie BCQC Questionable Intelligence (Mar 2014) Finals

Ähnlich wie BCQC Questionable Intelligence (Mar 2014) Finals (17)

Mehr von Ramanand J

Mehr von Ramanand J (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

BCQC Questionable Intelligence (Mar 2014) Finals