Of Sunny Loins and Ponce de Lions

Balaji Srinivasan

Bay Area Quiz Club

06/24/2012

In 2004, Sunny Leone was part of the “No more Bush girls” campaign against George Bush. What did the porn actresses in the campaign do to show their support?

And the answer is..

No.. More… Bush..

From awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr, ID these two :)

And the answer is..

Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir at Yosemite.

Picture from Paramount Pictures’ 100th anniversary celebration. ID the couple at the top.

And the answer is..

Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw from “Love Story”

Wimbledon coming up. Last yearWho wore this “fashionable” dressAnd attributed it to being a fan of Lady Gaga?

And the answer is..

Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Russian Ark was a 2002 historical drama, directed by Alexander Sokurov. It was filmed entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum. The characters in this film include Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and the nineteenth century French traveller, Marquis de Custine.

The film was featured at the Cannes film festival.

What was unique about this movie?

And the answer is..

The film was a 96 minute movie, taken entirely in one single 96 min steadycam sequence shot, officially making this the longest single shot in the history of cinematography.

Who is Rajiv Gandhi visiting at the hospital?

And the answer is..

Sasikala

In 1989, a Jayalalitha & Sasikala’s car was hit by a lorry. Rajiv Gandhi rushed to see them at the hospital.

In his Nobel prize acceptance speech, he said: “Coming as I do from India, a land which gave birth to civilization in ancient times, where much of the earlier tradition and wisdom guides actions even in modern times, the philosophy of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," which means “the whole universe is one family,” must dominate global efforts to protect the global commons.”

Who?

And the answer is..

Prof. Rajendra Pachauri of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel peace prize with Al Gore.

He was no stereotypical mathematician. He was urbane, witty, wealthy and (literally) entitled. At his 1926 doctoral exam, the mathematician David Hilbert is said to have asked but one question: “Pray, who is the candidate’s tailor?” Hilbert had never seen such beautiful evening clothes.

This polymath threw many social parties in his Princeton house, and once, someone posed the “Fly and the train” problem. He quickly came up with the answer. When asked how he did it, he succintly said, “I just summed the series”!

Who?

And the answer is..

John von Neumann.

Who are these men posing with their families? The men who followed them a few months later

became very famous.

And the answer is..

Apollo 10 astronauts with their families, 1969.

The dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing was made by the Apollo 10 mission. Thomas Stafford ( left right of globe), John Young ( right left) and Gene Cernan (top), were the first to fly the lunar module in lunar orbit, and descend to within 47,000 feet of the Mare Tranquillitatis. This test mission paved the way for Neil and Buzz in a few months.

The men of the Zaraniq tribe, on the west coast of Yemen, have a truly unique tradition, ___ (a sport). Famous throughout Yemen for their speed, strength and courage, the members of the Zaraniq tribe are the world’s only professional ___.

The origins of ____ can be traced back to ancient times, but the tradition was almost completely forgotten, until recently, when Zaraniq members began practicing it once again. ____ events take place during local celebrations like weddings, and at the al-Khamis, an annual festival that marks the end of the palm season, and are always accompanied by singing and dancing.

And the answer is..

Camel Jumping.

A terrific actress, she once played her grandmother in a film. She has been acting for over 45 years, though she made her mark with a landmark movie in 1965. ID this lady seen with her father here.

And the answer is..

Geraldine Chaplin.

He was one of the most influential writers of the past half-century. In his short and meteoric career, he wrote 121 short stories and 45 novels. His work was successful during his lifetime but has grown exponentially in influence since his death in 1982.

On Feb. 20, 1974, he was hit with the force of an extraordinary revelation after a visit to the dentist for which he had received a dose of sodium pentothal. He suddenly experienced what he called, with a nod to Plato, anamnesis: the recollection or total recall of the entire sum of knowledge. He claimed to have access to what philosophers call the faculty of “intellectual intuition”: the direct perception by the mind of a metaphysical reality behind screens of appearance.

This was not a standalone experience for him. He continued to have psychedelic visions, hearing voices, prophetic dreams etc. At one point he felt that he had been taken over by the spirit of the prophet Elijah. He wrote more than 8000 pages of his experience.

Last year, this work was edited and finally published, 950 pages, called “Exegesis”.

ID the author.

And the answer is..

Philip K. Dick.

“The Yes Men” consider themselves to be a “culture jamming” group. They try to create awareness about social issues. They plan elaborate hoaxes, host fake websites and make fake announcements that often shed light on real issues.

One of their most famous “pranks” was when Andy Bichlbaum appeared on TV in 2004 as a spokesman of the company X. He announced that the company was going to be liquidated, $12 billion in assets was going to be cashed, and the proceeds would go to Y.

The prank cost the company X almost $2 billion in market cap.

ID X and Y.

And the answer is..

Dow Chemical, Bhopal victims.

John Bellingham, was businessman from Liverpool. As a result of a dispute with some Russian Businessmen, Bellingham had been imprisoned in Russia in 1804 accused of owing a debt. He had been held in various prisons there for the next 5 years. Throughout all of this time he had pleaded with the British authorities for assistance in fighting his cause for justice. He believed that they had not given his case sufficient attention.

Bellingham was finally released and returned to England in 1809 a very bitter man. He felt deep resentment against the British authorities and immediately set about seeking financial compensation from them for his suffering and loss of business. Once again, however, Bellingham felt that he was being ignored. He petitioned the Foreign Secretary, the Treasury, the Privy Council, the Prime Minister, even the Prince Regent, but all to no avail.

So, what did he do?

And the answer is..

He thought the only way he could get his day in court was by shooting the Prime Minister.

Hence, he shot and assassinated Spencer Perceval, the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated.

What has been blanked out?

And the answer is..

Put funda.

And the answer is..

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon.

After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.” However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon.

The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29.

He was one of the British generals during the American war of Independence. He is stamped in US history as the general leading the British troops who surrendered to the American force, symbolically ending the war.

He surrendered to General Washington and the French commander on 19 October 1781, after the Siege of Yorktown.

He returned to Great Britain in 1782.

Tom Wilkinson played him in the movie “Patriot”.

Who is he? We know him in an entirely different context.

And the answer is..

Lord Cornwallis, Governor General of India.

- Defeated Tipu Sultan in Mysore war.

Arthur Wellesley, brother of Richard Wellesley (Governor General of India), led the British forces in the fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.

This was saw the death of Tipu Sultan during the Siege of Srirangapatnam. Wellesley was the one who confirmed the death of Tipu Sultan, checking his pulse.

Wellesley became the Governor of Srirangapatnam and Mysore.

But, Tipu Sultan was not his major conquest. He is known for defeating a person much more popular. Who?

And the answer is..

Napoleon.

Wellesley became the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

He went on to become the Prime Minister of Britain in 1828.

Celebrated journalists Alister Doyle and Paul Salopek are coming up with new units of measurement to explain complex and often intangible concepts in media.

The X unit is something that indicates how much international aid a country is likely to get when it becomes a personal cause of a high profile celebrity.

Unit Y is the amount of global attention Y commands across all media over the space of a day. Using a tool like Google Insights for Search, compare a given search term to Y and measure how small a fraction of Y any given issue or cause merits. ID X and Y.

And the answer is..

X – Jolie.

Y – Kardashian.

This photo was taken on June 6th. No points for guessing the big object infront of the sun. But ID the little object whose transit is shown in small circles.Hint - Total time for the transit is just nine tenths of a second.

And the answer is..

Hubble space telescope.

By astrophotographer Thierry Legault.

Thierry had to determine where on Earth he would have to be, and at precisely what time he would need to aim his camera skyward in order to capture the image — two conditions that led to his being in Queensland, Australia on the morning of June 6th.

There, at 11:42:25 local time, shooting at ten frames per second, he captured a total of nine images of Hubble as it zipped across the face of the Sun.

He was a legislator in Athens in 7th century BCE. He was responsible for creating one of the first written set of laws.

In 590 BCE, Grecian authorities held a celebration to commemorate his hard work. Unfortunately, he died from suffocation due to audience members tossing hundreds of coats and shirts on top of him, a common custom from the time performed to show respect.

Who?

And the answer is..

Draco.

Sebastian Barry’s novel “On Canaan’s side” has just won the 2012 X prize for historical fiction. The X prize, founded in 2010 is given to novels that are set at least 60 years in the past. The prize money, 25K pounds, makes it one of the biggest literary awards in U.K.

X is an author who is considered the originator of historical fiction, with his novel “Waverley” in 1814 (he published Waverley anonymously, as he wanted to maintain his name as a poet and not as a novelist). Waverley’s background is the Jacobite uprising in 1745.

ID X.

And the answer is..

Sir Walter Scott.

This painting, titled “Shah Jahan and Dara Shikoh” is a miniature copied by X.

This is one of about 25 Mughal miniatures that he copied. It is known that several collections of the drawings were on the art market in the 1650s when he is thought to have copied them, and that X was an active collector.

Mughal miniatures were known as “Suratse teeckeningen” or “drawings from Surate”, in the country that X lived.

ID X.

And the answer is..

Rembrandt.

The 1992 dream team consisted of possibly the greatest players of all time. One player in his prime was left out. It was suggested for a long time that he was left out because Michael Jordan didn’t want him in the dream team.

A new NBA documentary this month finally confirms these speculations that Jordan and Pippen had threatened not to be a part of dream team if that player was also picked.

One of the main incidents leading up to this was the 1992 Eastern Conference Championships, where this player led his team off the floor before the buzzer, without congratulating the Bulls.

Who was this player?

And the answer is..

Isiah Thomas of Detroit Pistons.

What has been blanked out?

And the answer is..

Connect:

Chill, Everplaces, Gentlemint, GetVega, Mogujie, Meilishuo, Fa Xian, Design:Related, Gtrot, Hunuku, I wanna Nom, Kulisha, Manteresting, Minglewing, Pingram, Woxihuan, Huaban, iCaitu.com, Pinspire, Reclip, Singterest, SparkRebel, Sworly, Tailored, TheComplete.me, Thinng, Trippy, Usabilla, Wanderfly, Juxtapost, VisualizeUs, ImageSpark, Glimpse, Snatchly.

And the answer is..

Clones of Pinterest.

Statues of no limitations

Written round12 Questions

+5 for each answer

The covered statue is of Shakespeare. Why was this covered in Oct 2011? (statue at Stratford-upon-Avon)

And the answer is..

Protesters in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, covered signs and statues featuring Shakespeare to protest over a film called "Anonymous," which premiered at the London Film Festival. The film suggests that the world famous playwright was not the true author of his works and was barely literate.

ID X. "It is known by locals as the statue of three lies--the inscription claims X as the founder of the University, when in fact he was just a contributor; the inscription also says the Institution was founded in 1638, when in fact in was 1636; and finally, the statue does not depict a true likeness of X."

And the answer is..

John Harvard.

ID this statue found in Graphisoft, Budapest

And the answer is..

Steve Jobs

And the answer is..

Starving Irish statues, from the Famine memorial, Dublin

Memorial for Irish Potato Famine

And the answer is..

Little mermaid statue in Copenhagen

(Little mermaid was written by Hans Christian Anderson from Denmark)

And the answer is..

A bronze statue of Franz Kafka sitting on the shoulders of a headless, limbless man stands in the city of Prague. It represents a dream that he had, which is described in one of his earliest short stories, “Description of a Struggle,” published in 1909, six years before The Metamorphosis.

ID this statue in Palayoor, Kerala

And the answer is..

St.Thomas, the largest statue of St. Thomas in the world, and depicts the boat landing where he arrived in India.

And the answer is..

Yuri Gagarin

And the answer is..

Edmund Hillary

And the answer is..

Anne Frank

And the answer is..

Florence Nightingale statue in Japan.

And the answer is..

A giant statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret

As seen in the TV series “Lost”

ID this statue in Laurinska street, Bratislava

And the answer is..

Paparazzo statue