KQA Mega-Whats National Face-Off - Semi-finals 2

Mega-Whats 2014 The 5th 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. Part points available on the pounce

3. If you give one part correct and one part wrong, you get -5

4. If you just attempt one part and if you’re wrong, you get -5

5. If you just attempt one part and if you’re right, you get +5 (or as the case maybe)

The Design

Three rounds:

I. Written 5

II. Clockwise 18

III. Anti-clockwise 18

Written

1

Identify the person.

[Video removed]

1

Stafford Cripps.

2

Give a 7-letter adjective which comes via Greek and means “of the groin”.

2

Bubonic.

3

Identify this gentleman from his college days.

3

Kuvempu.

4

This picture was taken a few minutes before another which we’ve seen often in quizzes. Which photo or identify what is going on?

4

This Jesse Owens photo.

5

From Khushwant Singh’s Joke Book 8: A husband and wife were both Members of Lok Sabha. While he was in the Socialist Party, she was a Congress member. Once when someone drew the attention of the husband to the fact that he was criticizing the Congress party which had attracted his own wife, the quick-witted husband retorted, “All these years I thought Congressmen were stupid. But I never knew they were also gangsters who ran away with others’ wives.” Identify the couple.

5

Acharya and Sucheta Kriplani.

Clockwise

1

This documentary is about a South American creature called the Uakari. Locals call it by another name because of its appearance which it seems reminds them of visitors from another country across the ocean. What name? Why?

[Video removed]

1

English Monkey.

Its red face and bald head reminded them of sunburnt Englishmen.

2

In 2007 Mongolia issued a 500 Tugrik coin to honour President Kennedy, apparently because he is beloved in the country for launching the Peace Corps. Or perhaps it is a tongue-in-cheek illustration of an adage. Why did collectors snap up these coins immediately on release?

2

2

If you press a button on the coin, it plays “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

3

An extract from this animal’s pineal glands was used as a base for perfume. Later it was found that an extract from a certain seed could be used as a replacement, so this plant/seed came to be commonly known by the animal’s genus name.

Further, the scientific name of the plant comes because the seed was said to look like this insect when it was bloated. Give both the common and scientific names (genus) of the plant.

3

Common name

Scientific Name

3

Castor. Ricinus. The beaver’s genus name is Castor. Ricin means “tick”.

4

John Scott ____, father of the triple-initialled scientist whom we have all heard of, himself was no mean scientist. He is said to have come up with the “canary in a coalmine” concept used in mining. Engineers sought his opinion on ventilation and respiratory issues when designing submarines, tunnels, mines and ships. He also features in the scuba diving hall of fame for a set of tables he produced. Who and what were these tables used for?

4

John Scott Haldane came up with decompression charts to avoid diver’s “bends”.

5

Former White House chief economist Alan Krueger said he once visited an off-track betting site in the middle of the day in hopes of finding jobless people cut off from employment benefits and interviewing them about how they were supporting themselves. “I still couldn’t figure it out”, said Krueger, who returned last year to his job teaching economics at Princeton University. He dubbed the phenomenon the ____ effect, after an eccentric TV character who had no clear means of support but seemed to get by just fine. Who?

5

Kramer effect.

6

He has been rector of the Royal College of Art and chairman of the Arts Council. The Guardian has called him a one-man department of cultural history. And he is a big fan of spaghetti Westerns. So when Christopher Frayling was knighted in 2001 for his services to art and design education, he chose as his motto: Perge scelus mihi diem perficas, which translated means “Proceed, varlet, and let the day be rendered perfect for my benefit”. Explain this choice.

6

6

Go ahead punk, make my day.

7

On the final lap of the season’s final race he was leading when the engine on his dark green Cooper stopped; the car coasted several hundred yards before coming to a halt. As McLaren and then Trintignant and Brooks swept past, he climbed out of his car. Though as it turned out, it didn’t matter, but he did something unusual after which he collapsed. His closest rival Stirling Moss was there in the mob to congratulate him. Who and what did he do?

7

7

Jack Brabham pushed his car 200-300 metres to the finish line.

8

The death of a Sufi saint is regarded as wisaal (union with the beloved), and so their death anniversaries are celebrated accordingly. What is the word for such celebrations and what does it literally mean?

8

Urs meaning “marriage”.

9

People have fought for various reasons but which war was fought because the British governor of the region, Sir Frederick Hodgson, made this speech without realizing its incendiary nature?

“Your king is in exile and will not return. His power and authority will be taken over by the Representative of the Queen of Britain. ... You have to pay with interest the sum of £160,000 a year. Then there is the matter of the ____. The Queen is entitled to the ____; she must receive it. Where is the ____? I am the representative of the Paramount Power. Why have you relegated me to this ordinary chair?”

9

War of the Golden Stool.

10

Oxy-haemoglobin accounts for the initial red, then as the area gets starved of oxygen deoxy-haemoglobin causes the red-blue, then macrophages degrade the haemoglobin into hemosiderin which is brown, then to hematodin (bilirubin) for the green/yellow. Lastly, its time for phagocytes to finish their job and remove these pigments and things go back to normal. What are we talking about?

10

Dating of bruises.

11

Exhibits like this which you will find all over India like Ahmedabad, Hampi, Rameswaram etc. all claim to have come from which specific area?

11

11

11

Ram Sethu stones.

12

PJ question: referring to this footballer’s woman should remind you of which opening line of an act in a Verdi opera?

12

La Donna Immobile / La donna e mobile.

13

“In earlier riots, when we left home we carried with ourselves two caps. A Hindu topi and a ____. When passing through a Muslim mohalla, we put on the ____ and when walking through a Hindu mohalla, the Hindu topi. In this riot, we also bought Gandhi topis. These we kept in our pockets to be pulled out wherever needed. Religion used to be felt in the heart, but now, in the new Bombay, it must be worn on the head.” Fill the blanks in this extract from a 1942 essay by Saadat Hassan Manto and why was it referred to so?

13

Rumi topi, where Rumi referred to Byzantium, the new Rome.

14

These were the first two. What links them?

A 1961 instance that started like this:

“The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England's, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed.”

14

The next instance was much later, in 1993, and started like this:

“A Rock, A River, A Tree

Hosts to species long since departed,

Marked the mastodon,

The dinosaur, who left dried tokens

Of their sojourn here

On our planet floor,

Any broad alarm of their hastening doom

Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.”

14

Poets reading out their works at the US Presidential inaugurations.

15

Of the 22 scheduled languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (English is not one of them), only one is non-regional i.e. it is not native to any part of India. Which language?

15

Sindhi.

16

Variants of this disclaimer have included bricklayer, psychiatrist, physicist, escalator, mechanic, engineer, magician, moon-shuttle conductor and coal miner. What?

16

Dr. McCoy’s variations of “I’m a doctor, not a …”.

17

Many other family members were named similarly, like brother Castor, mother Nana (short for Banana), niece Deezil and uncle Lubry Kent. Favourite mannerism “Oh Dear” was said to have been taken from ZaSu Pitts. Who?

17

Olive Oyl.

18

This gentleman was given a consolation prize of sorts in the form of a gold medal in 1903 from King Edward VII, though many think he was an equal contributor as his co-worker who won the more prestigious prize in 1902. In fact he was already gathered a lot of experience in the field due to his work in the village of Panihati because of which he was selected by his co-worker. Name both people.

18

18

Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay and Ronald Ross.

Anti-clockwise

1

Debut with A in 1976. Followed up in 1978 with B. Who are we talking about?

A B

1

Subhash Ghai who is supposed to have named his first two movies after Alvin Kallicharran and Gundappa Viswanath.

2

Sir Hugh William Bell Cairns was a British neurosurgeon. He was a key figure in the development of neurosurgery as a specialty, the formation of the University of Oxford Medical School, and the treatment of head injuries during the Second World War. His greatest contribution was the research that led to the use of helmets by both motorists, first in England, followed by the rest of the world. What 1935 incident acted as the trigger point for him to pursue this research?

2

The accident and death of T.E. Lawrence. Cairns was one of the doctors attending to him.

3

In 1821, London was abuzz about the arrival of a colossal statue, acquired for the British Museum by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Belzoni (in 1816). Its repute in Western Europe preceded its actual arrival in Britain since Napoleon had previously made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire it for France. The most famous side effect of the hype surrounding it manifested in the form of something published in the January 11, 1818 issue of The Examiner, written by one Glirastes. How do we know it better?

3

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, inspired by the statue of Ramesses II.

4

Joseph ____ was a Scottish geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa. Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any native nor losing any of his men to violence. His book Through Masai Land (1885) was a best-seller. One of the first to read it was the young H. Rider Haggard, who promptly wrote a book of his own, King Solomon's Mines. ____ was outraged since he had provided the first credible reports of snow-capped mountains on the Equator and had terrified the Maasai warriors by removing his false teeth and claiming to be a magician – the Captain Good character did the same in King Solomon's Mines. Who?

4

Thomson after whom the Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is named.

5

It is said that the person who used this would often quote the following poem adapted from False Greatness by Isaac Watts. Who?

'Tis true my form is something odd, But blaming me is blaming God; Could I create myself anew I would not fail in pleasing you. If I could reach from pole to pole Or grasp the ocean with a span, I would be measured by the soul; The mind's the standard of the man.

5

5

Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man).

6

It is an essay on economy first published in December 1860 in the monthly journal Cornhill Magazine in four articles. It was published in a book form in May 1862. The title is a quotation from the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. "I will give ____ ____ ____, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” — Matthew 20 (King James Version). A famous translation meaning “well being of all” appeared in 1908. Name the essay and its author. Also name the translator and the title in vernacular.

6

Unto This Last by John Ruskin.

Mahatma Gandhi. Sarvodaya.

7

This work is called ____’s Revenge after its subject. Identify the artist. What is so special about this particular work? Or how is it different from his usual works?

7

7

Al Hirschfield. Instead of the customary hidden “Nina”s, he hid Nina’s parents – Al and Dolly.

8

According to mythology, the name of this place is derived from the hill of Rishyashringa, that is believed to have contained the hermitage of Rishi Vibhandaka and his son Rishyashringa. Rishyashringa appears in an episode in the Bala-Kanda of the Ramayana where a story, narrated by Vasishtha, relates how he brought rains to the drought-stricken kingdom of Romapada. Which place? Also, identify the cult Indian movie based on the story of Rishyashringa.

8

Sringeri (from Rishyashringa-giri).

Vaishali (1998).

9

In May 2014, the FDA approved the marketing of Dean Kamen’s DEKA Arm, the first prosthetic arm that can perform multiple, simultaneous powered movements controlled by electrical signals from electromyogram (EMG) electrodes. The arm supports a variety of control inputs including wireless motion sensors that can be worn on the feet, EMG sensors, bump switches, and pull switches. These extensive connections to the wearer make it potentially a game changer for amputees seeking to regain fine control of objects in the hand. Who is it affectionately named after?

9

9

Luke Arm, after Luke Skywalker.

10

____ studied coal, coal balls, and the collection of Glossopteris (seed ferns). This was an attempt to prove the theory of Eduard Suess concerning the existence of Gondwanaland or Pangaea. A chance meeting with Robert Falcon Scott during one of his fund-raising lectures in 1904 brought a possibility of proving Suess's theory. ____'s passion to prove Suess's theory led ____ to discuss with Scott joining his next expedition to Antarctica. ____ did not join the expedition, but Scott promised to bring back samples of fossils to provide confirmatory evidence for the theory. The expedition failed and Scott died during the expedition (1912), but near the bodies of him and his companions were fossils from the Queen Maud Mountains that did indeed provide this evidence. Noel Coward wrote about ____. Who?

10 If through a mist of awful fears Your mind in anguish gropes, Dry up your panic-stricken tears And fly to ____. If you have missed life's shining goal And mixed with sex perverts and Dopes, For normal soap to cleanse your soul Apply to ____. And if perhaps you fail all round And lie among your shattered hopes, Just raise your body from the ground, And crawl to ____.

10

Marie Stopes.

11

As per a century-old tradition, New Year’s Day at the National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh marks the opening of the annual display of thirty-eight works. These were bequeathed in 1900 by Henry Vaughan, a London art collector who amassed this outstanding group of watercolours. In his will, Vaughan stipulated that the collection must not be subjected to permanent display and could only be shown in January. Whose works? What is the reason for this restriction?

11

11

J.M.W. Turner. Continuous exposure to light would result in their fading. Though the technology now exists to more easily protect these vulnerable works on paper, Vaughan ruled that the collection could only be shown in January, when daylight is at its weakest.

12

A ____ is a plastic, cloth, paper or ceramic substrate that has printed on it a pattern or image that can be moved to another surface upon contact, usually with the aid of heat or water. The technique was invented by Simon François Ravenet, an engraver from France; it became a craze in the late 19th century. Fill in the blank. Which English word, meaning “foolish / ill-considered / silly / unbelievable” originates from the same word (possibly because of their outlandish designs)?

12

12

Decal or decalcomania.

Cockamamie.

13

At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics, Torvill and Dean became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single programme) receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge. They skated to Maurice Ravel's Boléro which is over 17 minutes long. Olympics rules state that the free dance must be four minutes long (plus or minus ten seconds). They went to a music arranger to condense Boléro down to a "skateable" version. However, they were told that the minimum time that Boléro could be condensed down to was 4 minutes 28 seconds, 18 seconds in excess of the Olympics rules. How did they circumvent the problem?

13

[Video removed]

13

Torvill and Dean reviewed the Olympic rule book and found that it stated that actual timing of a skating routine began when the skaters started skating. Therefore they could use Boléro if they did not place their skates' blades to ice for the first 18 seconds.

14

What is the “technical” name for the activity these people are doing? When would someone do this?

14

[Video removed]

14

Divot stomping.

Social occasion for the polo spectators to move into the ground (preferably with champagne glasses) during half-time and smoothen the upturned grass.

15

A chance meeting with Nelson Annandale, the director of the Zoological Survey of India, at the 1920 Nagpur session of the Indian Science Congress led him to analyse anthropometric measurements of Anglo-Indians in Calcutta. He had been influenced by the anthropometric studies published in the journal Biometrika and he chose to ask the questions on what factors influence the formation of European and Indian marriages. He wanted to examine if the Indian side came from any specific castes. He used the data collected by Annandale and the caste specific skull measurements made by Herbert Risley to come up with the conclusion that the sample represented a mix of Europeans mainly with people from Bengal and Punjab but not with those from the Northwest Frontier Provinces or from Chhota Nagpur. This analysis was described by his first scientific paper in 1922. Who? What concept did this lead to?

15

P.C. Mahalanobis.

Mahalanobis Distance.

16

Identify the missing pairs from this exhaustive list. 1. Australia vs. England, 1901-02, Melbourne --

Monty Noble and Hugh Trumble 2. Australia vs. England, 1909, Edgbaston -- Colin

Blythe and George Hirst 3. South Africa vs. England, 1909, Johannesburg --

Ernie Vogler and Aubrey Faulkner 4. Australia vs. Pakistan, 1956, Karachi -- Fazal

Mahmood and Khan Mohammad 5. Australia vs. England, 1956, The Old Trafford --

____ and ____ 6. Australia vs. England, 1972, Lord's -- ____ and ____

16

All 20 wickets shared by a pair in a Test match.

1. Australia vs. England, 1956, The Old Trafford -- Jim Laker and Tony Lock

2. Australia vs. England, 1972, Lord's -- Bob Massie and Dennis Lillee

17

Other than the Puri Shankaracharya and the Gajapati King of Odisha, only the Nepal king is allowed to ascend the Ratna Vedi (the altar on which Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are placed) at Puri. This is because the Nepal royal family has been the traditional supplier of something required during the Nabakalebara ritual when the temple idols are replaced with new ones. The deities were last replaced in 1996 and this will happen again next year. When the Odisha government wrote to the Union external affairs ministry, requesting it to obtain the item from Nepal, environmental activists raised objections. What item are we talking about?

17

Musk.

18

What phrase denoting a successful completion owes its origin to a practise used by medieval writers who used quill and ink to do the writing?

18

Done and dusted. The writers used to sprinkle pounce powder and dust it off once it dried up.

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