Inquizitivity

#38: Banana Split-Pea Soup

2009-07-30T10:24:00.008-04:00

What's the common denominator?

Cracked by Vinz. Andy Warhol it is.

Warhol initiated the so called Pop Art Movement with his huge and colorful silk-screen renderings of Coke bottles and Campbell Soup cans that got very popular.

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79809

Velvet Underground & Nico released their album with the print of a banana designed by Warhol on the cover. Sometimes referred to as the Banana Album. Early copies of the album invited the owner to "Peel slowly and see". Peeling back the banana skin revealed a flesh colored banana underneath.A special machine was needed to manufacture these covers and MGM paid for costs expecting a boost in sales of the album due to the Warhol cover art. Reissued vinyl editions of the album do not feature the peel-off sticker; the original copies of the album with the peel-sticker feature are extremely rare collector's items.

#37: Universal Message

2009-07-14T15:37:00.005-04:00

Cracked by Vinz and Rithwik!

http://www.physics.utah.edu/~cassiday/p1080/lec06.html

#36: Post-humous Commemoration

2009-07-14T13:07:00.003-04:00

Identify

Went uncracked. Sir Rowland Hill who proposed British postal reform and the first postal stamp the Penny Black. The stamp was released on the 200th anniversary of his birth

#35: GEB.EBG-GBE.BEG

2009-07-10T14:56:00.005-04:00

Connect the images

Cracked by Rithwik, Vinz & Shrey!

#34: Tiger Woods

2009-07-10T10:08:00.005-04:00

Identify this noble man

Cracked by Shrey, Vinz and Rithwik!

Jim Corbett, the avid conservationist/hunter of maneaters

#33: Aurally fixated upon a null retentive

2009-07-02T13:25:00.004-04:00

Easy one for the long weekend - connect the time magazine covers

Sigmund Freud. Cracked by Vinz!

#32: Playing Cat and Mouse?

2009-07-01T14:48:00.004-04:00

Identify and Connect

Cracked by Shrey!

Fred Quimby, William Hanna, Joseph Barbera who gave us some good childhood memories in the name of Tom & Jerry

#31: Spring to Life

2009-06-30T00:49:00.003-04:00

Identify

Cracked by Vinz!!

Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone National Park. The Hayden Expedition in 1871 named this spring because of its beautiful coloration, and artist Thomas Moran made water-color sketches depicting its rainbow-like colors. The sketches seemed exaggerated and geologist A.C. Peale returned in 1878 to verify the colors. Grand Prismatic discharges an estimated 560 gallons per minute.

#30: Synthe-size does matter (reposted)

2009-06-24T22:33:00.022-04:00

Connect the three audio clips (Sorry about the audio playback issue on the previous post)

The connect went uncracked. Nice job Rowan for recognizing 'A Clockwork Orange' theme music on Clip #1.

The answer is Wendy Carlos. She is the first composer to make use of a synthesizer on a music album. Clip #2 is from her album 'Switched on Bach'

She also composed music for 'The shining' horror flick and Clip #3 is the theme from the same.

Most of her popular works were recorded on the moog synthesizer. The artist's first couple of recordings were released under Walter Carlos. Carlos underwent sex reassignment surgery and the first release credited to her as 'Wendy' was Switched-On Brandenburgs (1979).

#29: Monkey Business

2009-06-23T10:07:00.005-04:00

Connect

Cracked by Shrey, me, Rowan and Vinz

Jane Goodall's website online

http://www.lessonsforhope.org/index.html

#28: Who wants to be a millionaire?

2009-06-22T10:58:00.004-04:00

Identify the advertising campaign

Cracked by me, Ramki and Vinz!

The Zimbabwean written by Zimbabwean journalists in exile, ran an ad campaign using thousands of worthless Zimbabwean bank notes. With inflation so out of control that a trillion-dollar banknote can't even buy a loaf of bread, they came up with the genius idea of plastering them across billboards and posters, offering free tear-away trillions with information on The Zimbabwean. Headlines like, "It's cheaper to print this on money than paper" "Thanks to Mugabe, this money is now wallpaper" and "Fight the regime that has crippled a country" were printed onto the bills and were also sent via direct mail to South Africa's top corporate executives. The Zimbabwean government, had already slapped a 55 percent "luxury" tax on the newspaper, and was also accused of torching of a Zimbabwean delivery truck.

#27: The boys who cried Vixen

2009-06-19T10:28:00.007-04:00

Connect

Cracked by Rowan, Vinz and Ramki.

The answer:

The pairing of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with a new composition, Wolf Tracks, by French composer Jean-Pascal Beintus, is the result of the commitment of artists, technical experts, world leaders and arts patrons from many countries. The project was conceived by the Russian National Orchestra and developed under the artistic direction of Kent Nagano.

Recordings are being made in several languages. For the English version, Sophia Lauren (Peter and the Wolf), Bill Clinton (Wolf Tracks) and Mikhail Gorbachev (introduction and epilogue) contributed their time, and each designated a charity to receive their royalties: Loren to the Magic of Music, an arts program for youth; Clinton to the International AIDS Trust; and Gorbachev to Green Cross International, an environmental charity.

The recording received a 2004 GRAMMY, the first ever awarded to a former U.S. President, or to a Russian orchestra.

#26: Deep Blue

2009-06-17T14:10:00.006-04:00

Some of the images are creations by the artist whereas some others are tributes.

Who's the artist and what's his contribution to the world of art (or shall we say colors)? Need specific answer

Cracked by Vinz and Rowan. Credits to Ramki for getting Yves Klein. International Klein Blue is a shade developed by the French artist. All of Klein's matured works feature this monochromatic shade. He also did a couple of performance art pieces (a type of proxy art) where he had people roll, walk and do various movements on blank sheets of canvas with their bodies coated in paint to generate his pieces of art.

The objects in the images above are all in International Klein Blue (IKB). The purse is by Coco Chanel, the stamp was released by the French government to comemmorate the artist. The violin is a tribute to the artist and the other pictures are works by Klein

#25: Creme de la Cream

2009-06-15T13:05:00.003-04:00

ID the person

Cracked by Rowan and me. Noel Godin is popular for his pie antics on famous personalities who fit the bill for "bad people" per his definition. Bill Gates was one of his victims

Here's an interview excerpt

http://www.whisperedmedia.org/Godin.html

#24: Identify this location

2009-06-15T11:03:00.007-04:00

Cracked by Vinz. Shrey and Ramki got close. The ceremonial south pole was what I was looking for but nevertheless all three responses get points for "localizing" correctly to the south pole region

The south pole station is built on a massive chunk of ice that drifts a little bit constantly. Hence the geographic south pole keeps on shifting over time. Each new year a new geographic south pole marker is placed with a different design. Here are a couple of them

http://attractions.uptake.com/blog/south-pole-markers-2317.html

The ceremonial south pole on the other end is on a fixed spot on the chunk of ice is never moved.

#23: Lost and Found

2009-06-12T09:44:00.004-04:00

Simple one for the weekend. This image created a media frenzy about something very recently. Identify

Cracked by Rowan/me/Ramki/Vinz and Shrey. The image was speculated as that of the lost city of Atlantis but turned out to be ship tracks. On a lighter note, relationships in Atlantis were very platonic so civilization perished lol

#22: When and where?

2009-06-11T09:06:00.005-04:00

Cracked by Vinz, Mridulgreenwold, me and Ramki

Here's an article from BBC that was published about Peter Norman (the Australian silver medalist) that's really heartwarming

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7674157.stm

#21: Connect the two images

2009-06-09T10:25:00.003-04:00

Went uncracked. The location of the Hoover Field Airport is where the Pentagon stands now

#20: Identify and Connect

2009-06-08T13:27:00.004-04:00

Went uncracked

The first image is the Klingon insignia from Star Trek. The second image is of Marc Okrand the creator of the fictional language. The third person is Dr Lawrence M. Schoen is the founder and director of the Klingon Language Institute.

#19: What's Brewing?

2009-06-05T09:31:00.005-04:00

Cracked by Vinz!!

Irn-Bru prononced Iron Brew is the most popular soft drink in Scotland outselling Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It's considered "Scotland's other National drink". Only two people know the formula and Robin Barr is one of them.

#18: Connect the movie posters

2009-06-04T17:07:00.008-04:00

Cracked by Vinz, Chithananda and me

#17: What's common to these?

2009-06-04T13:40:00.003-04:00

Cracked by Vinz

#16: Identify the venue

2009-06-02T12:35:00.007-04:00

The venue was home to famous acts like the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie etc and was considered as a holy place for underground rock music. It closed down in Oct 06 much to the disappointment of thousands of people with a final performance by Patti Smith. There's a high end fashion store at that location currently. Identify

Cracked by Shrey and Vinz. CBGB it is!!

#15: Connect the landmarks to a common theme

2009-06-01T18:35:00.017-04:00

(located in Poland)

(located in Turkey)

(located in China)

Cracked by Vinz! Great job

A. Kolumna Meteorologiczna Fahrenheita that was unveiled at Gdansk, the birthplace of Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit in honor of the scientist. The column inside the display case indicates the temperature both in Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.

B. Library of Celsus built in honor of Tiberius Julius Celsus at Ephesus. Mis-spelt or referred to as Library of Celsius by many

C. The watercube at Beijing has a shell whose structure is based upon efficient utilization of space as in the case of bubbles. A problem studied by Lord Kelvin and only improved 100 years later by means of a better solution by two researchers at Trinity College, Dublin - Denis Weaire and Robert Phelan. Famously known as the Kelvin Problem

The connect - temperature scales

#14: Picture Puzzle

2009-06-01T10:13:00.011-04:00

Identify this tourist spot where people mysteriously seem to defy gravity on photographs.

Cracked by Vinz and Deepjyoti Deka. Mystery Spot, CA has buildings built at odd angles because of the terrain and the optical illusion results are much more dramatic on camera. Publicity rumors and urban legends include anti-gravity spots, alien fields and many more to explain the pictures

An exam of a good quiz

2009-05-29T10:14:00.009-04:00

Exams and Quizzes are synonyms as we all know. It's interesting to note that I've hated the former kind all my life and continue to do so. As of late the only type of annual exams that I've been appearing for are of the physical kind and I hate them as well. I detest being probed and peered into and the results are disappointing on these too and I thought final exam scores in school were the only thing that sucked LOL.

The word quiz on the other hand is mostly used in the context of trivia related matters in India. I didn't hear of such a thing as a pop quiz in school. I gave my first pop quiz while attending school for my masters program. Anyway coming back to the topic of trivia, I used to love quizzing until I was in 5th grade. I had an awesome memory and I had a spot for every bit of information in some corner of my brain and it was effortless to memorize something new. I must admit though that there wasn't much of an effort to connect facts and put them together and as one can expect, a lot of it has vaporized over the years.

I sort of lost interest in trivia with a change of school, new friends, new priorities and it wasn't until about a year back that I started to regain an avid interest in being more aware of the world around. The technique of "memorizing" (if I may use that word) had changed drastically and I started to connect facts and put them together naturally and gradually expand a chain of information from what I've gleaned from my readings.

A look at the world map for example explains a lot of things. The conflict of several decades in the DRC (formerly known as Zaire aaah!) is a good example. The region in Africa that we know today as the Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in natural resources and it has seen colonization by the Belgians under King Leopold II followed by a power struggle involving several nations (Uganda/Burundi/Rwanda/Angola - by virtue of being immediate neighbours aah! with support from Zimbabwe, Namibia). There's a lot of facts that interconnect on this topic and the following article is a good read: http://www.globalissues.org/article/87/the-democratic-republic-of-congo. It becomes apparent at the end of the reading as to why this region has had a bloody past. One also gets to know some amount of geography, demand for certain materials and their applications apart from historical facts and last but not the least, human behavior seems appalling too and makes fodder for a philosophical discussion.

Once we have a good background on a subject, it's easier to follow news stories or learn new facts from various sources and build up on existing information that we are already aware of and that's the best way to acquire knowledge. There's no instant results and as long as we continue to learn, there's an infinite amount of information around us.

Coming back to the topic of how a good quiz question is framed, I came across a post by Shrey Goyal -- http://shrey-knows.blogspot.com/2009/05/that-quizzy-feeling.html

Shrey maintains a blog that makes good reading and the above post broaches on the topic of what constitutes a good trivia question. Now that's what I call an exam of a good quiz. There's sheer delight in attempting good trivia questions and even if we fail to crack a question, there's a thrill in learning a good connect that helps us remember facts. Now that's the true spirit of quizzing folks

#13: What's the "minimum" common denominator?

2009-05-28T14:51:00.008-04:00

The connect was minimalism (in music, architecture and art). Cracked by Vinz

The first picture is of Philip Glass a known composer of minimalist music.

The building is the famous German Pavilion in Barcelona, Spain by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe

The painting "Black Square" by Kazemir Malevich is one of the famous paintings of the minimalist movement

#12: Connect the images

2009-05-27T13:51:00.003-04:00

Cracked by Shrey and Vinz. The connect is the Ballets Russes or The Russian Ballet

Sergei Diaghilev (A) was the founder (not the director) of the Ballets Russes. He commissioned Pablo Picasso (B) to paint the curtains of a few of the plays and one such play was "Le Train Bleu". Coco Chanel (C) collaborated on the same project and designed costumes for the artists. The last picture (D) was one of the posters for the ballet company performances.

#11: What's the connect?

2009-05-26T14:05:00.002-04:00

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

Identify (A) (B) (C) (D) and arrive at the connect

Cracked by Shrey and Vinay!

Quoting Shrey - "Ernest Hemingway (A), Vinvent Van Gogh (B) and Oscar Wilde (C), all devotees of the Green Fairy, or Absinthe, the highly alcoholic, and somewhat controversial beverage. L’Absinthe (D), by Edgar Degas, shows the 19th century view of absinthe addicts as sodden and benumbed"

#10: What's your score?

2009-05-26T09:17:00.003-04:00

(A)

(B)

(C)

Identify the woman in (A) and commemorated on the US stamp (B)

The assessment methodology that she developed was popularized by (C)

Identify (A) and (C)

Dr Virginia Apgar who devised a test for determining the condition of new borns and Dr Joseph Butterfield who championed the methodology and gave it the eponym APGAR score. Awesome job Shrey

#9: Identify and Connect

2009-05-23T09:56:00.002-04:00

(A)

(B)

(C)

Identify (A) (B) (C) and connect

A - Bar at the Folies bergere by Edouard Manet
B - Liane De Pougy one of the famed dancers at the legendary dance hall
C - La belle (Carolina) Otero the most famous one among the dancers - popular belief has it that the twin cupolas on top of the Ritz Carlton at the French riviera were modeled after her bosoms

Cracked by Shrey!!

#8: What's the theme connect?

2009-05-22T08:56:00.002-04:00

Cracked by Shrey. Great job!

#7: Connect the following album cover art

2009-05-19T16:14:00.001-04:00

Cracked by Shrey Goyal and Mithilesh. Storm Thorgerson

#6: Identify the formula and where it was used

2009-05-19T16:11:00.001-04:00

Cracked by Shrey, Rowan and Mithilesh.

Quoting Shrey: "Recipe of a Martini: 3.5 shots of gin and half a shot of vermouth over 4 parts H2O3 (water cubed = ice), finished off with three stirs (the 3×360°)

Parker ran an advertising campaign in the early 1970s, simply showing a hand using a Parker Pen to write the 'mathematical' formula on a piece of paper, after which they received numerous inquiries by chemists, mathematicians, and physicists, asking for the meaning of the formula. But then, who ever heard of a martini without an olive?"

#5: Where on Earth?

2009-05-19T10:42:00.002-04:00

The famous area has

This on the West Side

(A)

This on the East Side

(B)

Identify (A) and (B) and name the famous avenue

Cracked by Shrey Goyal and Vinz. Merci beaucoup pour l'explication, monsieur Goyal :)

#4: Design Ideas for what?

2009-05-18T11:09:00.001-04:00

The Indian Rupee Symbol...Cracked by Shrey Goyal

#3: Connect

2009-05-15T06:53:00.003-04:00

(A)

(B)

(C)

Went uncracked.

A. Bo Derek
B. Barney
C. Buddy Holly

Bo/Barney/Buddy are the names of the "first dogs"

Bo - Barack Obama
Barney - George W Bush
Buddy - Bill Clinton

#2: Solve for A & B

2009-05-14T17:49:00.003-04:00

(A)

(B)

The pizza margherita was created as a tribute to Margherita of Savoy. Basil, Tomato and Mozzarella are symbolic of the Italian flag colors. Cracked by Rowan

#1: What are we talking about?

2009-05-14T15:31:00.004-04:00

Kopi Luwak it is :)

Cracked by Su-on-the-road, Rowan & Vinz