Mood Indigo General Quiz 2012 Final

Conundrums mood indigo 2012
omniscience

the general quiz

Final
conducted by
j. ramanand

mood indigo 2012 || j ramanand || conundrums – the general quiz || final

Results
8 team final

The quiz was won by Abhishek (IIM
Indore) & Suraj (XLRI, Jamshedpur)

2nd place: NIT, Calicut

3rd place: IIT-H+BITS Pilani


Gratitude

Harish Kumar
Aditya Gadre
Other QMs
Mood Indigo Organizers


Format 5 rounds

one (6)
two (16)
three (1)
four (16)
five (7)

Round 1
written
+5 each
+5 bonus for getting 5 or more

people in scientific
nomenclature of organisms


Carabid beetle
“Agra ________”

“In reference to the markedly developed
(biceps-like) middle femora of the male”


Jumping Spider
“Bagheera _____”


Horsefly
“Scaptia _____”

Discovered in 1981, when she was born.
Named because of the golden part of the
abdomen


Isopod (a crustacean)
“Cirolana _____”
Found off the coast of Zanzibar


Bacteria
Discovered in the stratosphere by an ISRO
balloon
“Bacillus isronensis”
“Bacillus aryabhata”
“Janibacter _____”

Described in a paper by Jayant Narlikar et al.


Lower Keys Marsh Rabbits
“Sylvilagus Palustris _____”
Named for the funding by the corporation that
he runs


Arnold Schwarzenegger
Rudyard Kipling
Beyonce Knowles
Freddie Mercury
Fred Hoyle
Hugh Hefner


Round 2
passing
1→8
10 points each


The Washington Post awards these ratings.
These are most often seen on entries in a Post
column called “Fact Checker" run by the
Pulitzer-winning journalist Glenn Kessler. This
blog checks facts on various topics, and has
been particularly busy during the US
Presidential elections. Both sides fib a lot, and
so these ratings are awarded depending on
the extent to which they have been
'economical with the truth'.

In what units are these facts rated?


Pinocchios


The MoM, Eng v Ireland, 2011 World Cup

Adam Gilchrist v India, MCG Boxing Day Test,
Dec 2007

Matthew Hayden v India, MCG Boxing Day
Test, Dec 2007

SCG, 3rd day of Test v India, Jan 2012

NFL referees, New York Jets v Miami Dolphins,
Oct 2012


Sporting pink for cancer awareness


From “2010: Odyssey Two” by Arthur C. Clarke

Dr. Floyd (talking about HAL's demise in the first
book): “Dr Chandra informs me that, in tech
terminology, HAL became trapped in a X-Y loop”

X: American scientist, author, the son of a
Nobel Laureate in Physics

Y: German mathematician


Douglas Hofstadter, August Moebius

Answer behind this
Click to see


What is this Qantas 737-800 plane, first
revealed in November 2011, nicknamed?


The Movember Plane, in support of the
Movember initiative in which men wear
moustaches to draw attention to men's
health issues.


Both the colour and the association with
Oriental empires spread from the popularity of
the product produced by an Austro-Hungarian
company at the end of the nineteenth century.

The product was named after one of the most
famous jewels ever.

It is said that the Oriental references echoed
the fact that the principal raw material came
from mines in Siberia.

What product?


Pencils. The popularity of the Koh-i-Noor pencil
lead to other brands such as the Mongol and
the Mikado.


“Reduplication” is a linguistic phenomenon
defined in one source as:
“a morphological process in which a root or stem or
part of it is repeated”

This phenomenon is seen commonly in many
language families, and is often used in
languages like English, Romance languages,
Persian, African languages, East Asian, and
South Asian languages.

What has all this got to do with a lady named
Vaishali who runs a pickle business from Pune?


The film “English-Vinglish”. The protagonist's
role is inspired from this lady, director Gauri
Shinde's mother.


In the early 2000s, which consumer product
was boycotted in some countries such as
Egypt after rumours that it was named after a
leader that they opposed, and its logo was a
modified form of a symbol that they hated?


Ariel. The then Israeli PM was Ariel Sharon.


This is Rhianna (no, this is the right spelling).
As a writer, her primary contributions have
been to fantasy video game scripts, including
Prince of Persia.

She will be inheriting something, once the
inevitable happens. She is already co-writing a
BBC series based on it.

What?


Discworld. She is Terry Pratchett's daughter.


There are only three instances of this.

Green: Earth Day, April 2008: Somewhat like
the Iwo Jima photograph

Black: ?

Silver: September 2011: Tribute in Light
memorial


TIME magazine covers not to have a Red
border.

Black: September, 2001


James Cisco is a meteorologist with the US National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and credited with
coining the nickname that 2012's Hurricane Sandy was dubbed with.

He wrote:

“The winds from Sandy will be incorporated into a hybrid vortex
[...] should settle back toward the interior Northeast through
Halloween, inviting perhaps a ghoulish nickname for the cyclone
along the lines of 'Frankenstorm,' an allusion to Mary Shelley's
Gothic creature of synthesized elements."

However, given some of the hurricane's attributes, some NASA
scientists said the name ought to be tweaked by prefixing a phrase.

What?


“Bride of
Frankenstorm” since
Sandy was a female
name in the list of
Atlantic hurricanes.


This is a distributed key-value data store that Jay
Kreps, an engineer at LinkedIn, invented.

Of the choice of name, he writes:

“I thought, 'that sounds like a distributed system'. I don’t
know whether it is nerdier to be reading _____ or to be
wondering what kind of consistency protocol ____ uses
when keeping all his pieces up-to-date, but regardless, the
name stuck.”

What's this project called?


Project Voldemort

“I should probably also mention how it got its name,
since that is something I got a lot of questions about. I
wanted to come up with a name that was distinctive and
a little self-deprecating (projects shouldn’t take
themselves too seriously). At the time I was reading the
last Harry Potter book, and Voldemort had split himself
into many pieces each of which had to be destroyed to
kill him. I thought, “that sounds like a distributed
system”. I don’t know whether it is nerdier to be reading
Harry Potter or to be wondering what kind of consistency
protocol Voldemort uses when keeping all his pieces up-
to-date, but regardless, the name stuck.”


Bush House was the iconic headquarters for the BBC
World Service for over fifty years. In 2012, the lease ran
out and the BBC moved out.

It also had a literary connection: an author, who was
briefly part of the Eastern Service (and reportedly
hated his time there) was inspired by some of the
rooms (including a canteen) and included them in one
of his best known books.

Which author, and which book?


George Orwell, 1984
An example is the dreaded Room 101


Europe defeated the US on a thrilling last day
of this year's Ryder Cup. On that day, all team
members had donned similar clothes: navy
blue sweaters and white shirts. The sweaters
had some lettering on it too.

Earlier, the US team had planned to wear blue,
but after Europe captain José María Olazábal
made a request, they generously deferred to
the Europeans.

Why this choice?


A tribute to Seve Ballesteros (who died last
year), with whom the outfit was associated.


In Sept 2010, the artist Jitesh Kallat
unveiled an art installation at the Art
Institute in Chicago, on the 9th
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This
consisted of some words in five
colours.

This is a reference to something that
happened exactly 117 years ago.

What?

Why these colours?

Images: Timeout Chicago,
Newcity.com


From Swami Vivekananda's speech to the
Parliament of Religions on Sept 11, 1893

Colours from the then five-colour Homeland
Security Advisory System


What is the significance of this 2009 prize
winning essay by Clara Ma, a 12 year old:

“____ is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind.
It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder
what surprises life will throw at me that day. ____ is such a
powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are
today. When I was younger, I wondered[...]”


The Mars rover was named “Curiosity” after
Clara Ma's prize winning entry.


In 2012, Nike (which is not an Olympic sponsor)
launched its “Find your Greatness” campaign
that featured amateur sportsmen around the
world (in places like Jamaica, Ohio, Qatar,
Nigeria, and Norway).

This made the IOC mad as it was yet another
example of Nike's clever strategy that just fell
short of ambush marketing.

What was in the campaign that slyly
associated itself with the Olympics without
overtly saying so?


All the places were called London or associated with
London.


Round 3
Connect


+30/-10


+20/-10


+15/-5


+10/0


Hosts of TV Quiz Shows
Set 1: Sue Barker (“A Question of Sport”), John Humphries (“Mastermind”),
Groucho Marx (“You Bet Your Life”), Magnus Magnusson (“Mastermind”),
Hamid Sayani (“Bournvita Quiz Contest”)

Set 2: Jeremy Paxman (“University Challenge”), Govinda (“Jeeto Chappad
Phad Ke”), Chris Tarrant (“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”) UK), Bamber
Gascoigne (“University Challenge”), Victoria Coren (“Only Connect”), Anne
Robinson (“The Weakest Link”)

Set 3: Tom Berenger (“Hollywood Squares”), Stephen Fry (“QI”), Regis
Philbin (“…Millionaire?” (US)), Alex Trebek (“Jeopardy!”), Ameen Sayani
(“Bournvita Quiz Contest”)

Set 4: Amitabh Bachchan (“KBC”), Suriya (“KBC” (Tamil)), Sourav Ganguly
(“Dadagiri Unlimited”), Shah Rukh Khan (“KBC”, “Paanchvi Paas…”),
Neena Gupta (“Kamzor Kadi Kaun”), “Siddhartha Basu (“Quiz Time” et al.)


Round 4
reverse passing
8→1
10 points each


Bru Exotica is a range of premium coffees from Bru. There are three
versions, denoting where the source is from. Two are Bru Exotica –
Colombia and Bru Exotica – Brazil. The third is named for a geographical
feature, where Bru claims the coffee is cultivated “under the shade of
banana trees”. What's the third name?


“Kilimanjaro”


The reason Frank Neuhauser was often sought for his autograph
was because he was the first winner of something in 1925, where
he won a bike, some gold, and a trip to the White House.

That experience also began a life-long associated with the
'gladiolus' flower: he was greeted with bouquets of gladioli at
home after his win, and raised them later in life.

What was he the first winner of? Image: Washington Post


America's first Spelling Bee. He spelled
“gladiolus” to win the contest.


On the next slide, you will see a special edition
Monopoly board that was created in 2012, with
support from Google, who sponsored the first
1000 boards. This is named after a person who
once theorised about ways to win at
Monopoly. He played the game with William
Newman, who has co-designed this special
edition set.

Who is the person?


What do these symbols stand for?


Geological Periods:

Pre-Cambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian,
Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic,
Jurassic, Cretaceous, Paleogene, Neogene


"The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) was
directed by George Stevens & tells the story of
Jesus Christ. The person who played the lead
role as Christ is, arguably, best known for two
famous screen appearances. In both, he is
battling spiritual antagonists.

Who? (and name any one film)


Max von Sydow

The Seventh Seal, The Exorcist


Abbe Gosset of the
Catholic University of
Louvain introduced
them to each other. The
first image is earlier in
life, the second after
their reunion in the 80s.

Identify both.


Georges Remi aka Herge and Zhang Chongren
(Tchang Tchong Jen).
The character of “Chang” in the Tintin comics
was based on the latter.


This hereditary post remained in the Sanson
family of Paris from the 17th to the 19th
century. It began with Charles Sanson in 1684,
and passed to his namesake son.

The third in line Charles John Baptiste Sanson
was only 6 when his father died, and so the
day-to-day duties were conducted by Francois
Prudhomme until the boy became 20.

The last Sanson to hold the post did so until
1847.

Which post?

Executioner of Paris.


Though most people know him for his
somewhat dreamy short stories, he was also a
illustrator for The New Yorker, producing
covers and other sketches for the magazine.

This despite being near blind. Who?


James Thurber, who wrote stories such as
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”.


Considered one of the best
examples of the work of Piet
Mondrian, this art piece is
named after two things:

1. a street
2. a type of music related to
jazz

From MoMA's description:
“These atomized bands of
stuttering chromatic pulses,
interrupted by light gray,
create paths across the
canvas suggesting the city's
grid, the movement of traffic,
and blinking electric lights, as
well as the rhythms of jazz.”


“Broadway Boogie Woogie”


One of the fairy tales of the 1992 Olympics was the bronze medal
win of the Lithuanian Basketball team. A team was hastily put
together after the Soviet Union's dissolution, but they hardly had
any money to fund practice and uniforms. Help arrived from an
unexpected direction, from a group that had nothing to do with
the sport until then. Who? (one more image on the next slide)


Mario Miranda cartoon figures were used to
depict the customers.


The Grateful Dead


The painter Henri Matisse was fond of keeping birds.
One of them was even used as a model by a friend of
his. Who was the friend, and more importantly, how
was it immortalised?

Images: http://lisawallerrogers.wordpress.com, Henri Cartier Bresson


The friend was Pablo Picasso who created a
lithograph called “La Colombe” (Dove) which
was adopted by the World Peace Congress as
its emblem of peace. He developed the theme
further in many other drawings.


This is Suman Sridhar, whose Bollywood forays include
a remix of “Khoya Khoya Chand” (“Shaitan”) in 2011
and “Muskanein Jhoothi Hai” (Talaash) in 2012.

She has a long-standing musical collaboration with
someone who was also in the news in 2012. (Some may
say, given his name, only somewhat victoriously.)

Who?

Image: nh7.in


Jeet Thayil. Called “Sridhar/Thayil”, she sings
his poetry while he strums the guitar and does
some vocals.

He was nominated for 2012's Booker for his
work “Necropolis” and won some other
literary awards.

Image: b69.in


Film critic Roger Ebert's audio commentaries
for films such as Citizen Kane and Dark City
have often been listed in the best
commentaries of all time.

To what other use have they been put to?


Roger Ebert lost his voice after being operated
for thyroid cancer. A company called CereProc
created a speech synthesis model for him that
could speak in his voice. For this, they used
samples from his audio commentaries.


The Swahili word for “blessing”

+

The Arabic for “handsome” or “good”

+

Swahili for “to bend”; those Luos who
converted to Islam


Barack Hussein Obama


Michael Bierut, a design consultant about a logo
made by a company:

“They’ve eliminated the common element, the vertical stroke, so
it’s only the horizontals that differentiate the two letters. I think it’s
a nice balancing act — the idea of tradition with this serif font and
modernity with the missing parts of the letters, asking your mind’s
eye to fill in what’s not there.”

(The image shows the only other time something like this has
been made by the company)


“Yaadein” was an experimental
film by Sunil Dutt: experimental
for being a one man film. On two
occasions, there is the presence
of other people.

One one occasion, we hear and
see the silhouette of a lady (both
Nargis Dutt).

The second happens when Sunil
Dutt visits a restaurant.

What method was used to
indicate other customers?


Round 5
Buzzers
+10/-5
in case of a negative, other
teams attempt the answer for
+5

7 questions with a linking
theme


1. Fill in the blanks:

You ain't been blue; no, no, no.
You ain't been blue,
Till you've had that ____ ____.
That feelin' goes stealin' down to my shoes
While I sit and sigh, "Go 'long blues".


“Mood Indigo”

From the lyrics to the song.


This is the flag of which region in the South of
Africa which was independent from 1854 to
1902?


Orange Free State


What is the segment in blue commonly
referred to as?


The Green Line


The US President lives in the White House.
Where does the South Korean President stay?


Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae)


The German physicist Johann Ritter called
them “oxidising rays” and then “chemical
rays”. How do we know them today?


Ultra-violet rays


Aedes aegypti, the vector for diseases like
dengue is also known as the ______ mosquito.
What?


Yellow-fever


Which story?


The Red-Headed League

[The underlying theme for the buzzers was
VIBGYOR – not in order]


Conundrums
feedback?
ramanand@gmail.com

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Mood Indigo General Quiz 2012 Final

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