Ashoka Q Thing- The General Quiz [Finals]

FINALS
I ’ M P R O B A B LY V E R Y H U N G R Y R I G H T N O W.

RULES
35 Questions
Infinite Bounce (No negatives, full points on pass)
Pounce (if no team objects)

1
Something designed by Apple Records creative director Kosh, an iconic artwork shot in
August 1969, has come to the help of Kolkata Traffic Police in its efforts to instil public
safety awareness among the youth. The advertisement asks passers-by, "If they can, why
can't you?"
As part this awareness campaign, more than a hundred such hoardings and posters hit
the city streets. The idea was thought up to attract the attention of the youth who often
failed to exercise proper public safety awareness.
What did Kosh design?

O H N O E S , A N S W E R S
A R E C O M I N G !
: O

2
The X is a tongue-in-cheek award for unusual or trivial achievements in scientific
research. In the past, prizes have gone to homoeopathy research, development of a 'gay
bomb', the effect of viagra on curing jetlag, and the five-second-rule.
The ceremony held at MIT/Harvard includes people throwing paper rockets on stage,
which are cleaned up by the Keeper of the Broom. Contestants are booed, and it closes
with, “If you didn't win a prize — and especially if you did — better luck next year!”
Roy Glauber from Harvard, was the Keeper of the Broom until 2005.
What is X and why did Glauber have to excuse himself from the ceremony?

A N S W E R
The Ig Nobel prizes
Glauber had to be in Sweden

3
X's laws are a set of laws made by a science fiction author/lungi-wearing gentleman
regarding the possibilities of prediction:
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost
certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into
the impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Who is X?

4
The Trip Advisor page shows X’s location, and also shows 219 reviews for the mountain
resort, of which 144 are overwhelmingly positive. A sample –
“Reached by funicular railway, X has all the advantages of being secluded amongst
nature, while having attractions including the Kunst Museum and Mendl’s Patisserie close
at hand. Famed for its staffs’ meticulous attention to detail and commitment to the
wellbeing of its residents this hotel proves to be the perfect retreat - you’ll never
experience anything quite like X”
(pic)

5
X has an illustrious board of Directors, including former SecState Henry Kissinger. In
2015, its valuation was set to top $10B.
X’s meteoric rise to fame can definitely be attributed to Y, who drew upon a ‘fear of
needles’ to paint a human picture about how amazing X was in a market that had
stagnated for over 80 years. Y became an iconic figure and has been compared to Steve
Jobs and Mark Zucky.
Most famously, X and Y stressed on how 1 drop of blood would be sufficient for their
work.
X and Y?

A N S W E R
Theranos
Elizabeth Holmes

6
Under Armor was founded by Kevin Plank in the University of Maryland in 1996. It's
known for apparel, shoes and accessories for sports and fitness. Plank found that
although they were getting good sales and a lot of customers, they had one major
problem - underarmor.com was taken.
Since they couldn't afford to buy the existing domain, they made a decidedly un-
American move and changed their name to something similar (which had a domain
available.)
What did they do?

A N S W E R
They used the British spelling

7
X, deriving from the Hebrew
word meaning Radiance, was
founded by Richa Kar.
It is the largest e-commerce
company of its kind in India.
X?

8
The X soundtrack surprised industry observers by selling 2,300 copies (in 2014) on audio
cassette, making it the year's second-biggest seller on tape.
Interestingly, similar predictions are being made for something related to X (in 2017).
X?

9
In Kangathei, there's a dialect spoken by 30,000 tribesmen. People born here are given
their names in the local dialect, but often take on additional Christian names and
surnames reflecting the dialect/region.
Mangte is a family name.
Chungneijang, in this dialect, means 'Abode of wealth'.
Historically, people taking on Christian names tend to pick names from religious texts.
What does this give us?

10
X is an organisation based in the Netherlands with offices in over 40 countries (including India). Despite their stated goal of
working for the environment, they've done a pretty bad job of it. Patrick Moore, a founding member who left X, has been
critical of their stances for being unscientific.
Numerous controversies surround X:
Destroying stores of GM crops in Australia
Forgetting to edit a press release that included, “[FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]”
Protection rackets with polluting companies by taking bribes to stop attacking them
Damaging the Nazca Lines, a UN world heritage site, during a 'protest'
X lost their FCRA license in India last year and had their bank accounts frozen after tax evasion and financial mismanagement.
X?

11
______ - Barker
Belka - Whitey
Strelka - Arrow
Pchyolka - Little bee
Mushka- Little fly
Chernushka - Blackie
Zvyozdochka - Starlet
Veterok - Little breeze
Ugolyok - Little coal

12
X is a book that gets its name from a point in the story where the protagonist misinterprets a
part of a children’s poem and keeps picturing children playing in a field near the edge of a
cliff, and him saving them when they start to fall off.
Between 1961 and 1982, X was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the
United States. In 1981 it was both the most censored book and the second most taught book
in public schools in the United States.
Poem:
Gin a body meet a body, Comin thro' the ___,
Gin a body kiss a body, Need a body cry?
ID X.

A N S W E R
Gin a body meet a body, Comin
thro' the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body, Need a
body cry?
The Catcher in the Rye

13
"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story
by Richard Connell. It was published in Collier's Weekly on January 19, 1924.
It features as its main character a big-game hunter from New York, who falls off a
yacht and swims to an isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by a
Cossack aristocrat. It is considered by many to be the paradigm example for the
man vs man plot archetype.
In 1976, Hayes Noel, a stock trader, Bob Gurnsey, and author Charles Gaines were
discussing Gaines' recent trip to Africa and his experiences hunting buffalo. This
partially resulted in them trying to recreate the experience of hunting, leading to the
creation of what in 1981?

14
An incident occurred on the night of 18 July to 19 July 64 in Rome. The problem
started at the SE end of the Circus Maximus in shops selling some goods. It
destroyed three of fourteen Roman districts and severely damaged seven. A
popular phrase puts the blame on X, who was probably the scapegoat used by
the people. X, in turn, blamed the Christians and ordered them crucified, burned,
or put to the dogs.
In contrast to the rumours, X actually paid for the relief effort from his own funds,
personally took part in the search and rescue operations, and opened up his
palace to shelter the homeless. Besides, the instrument associated with X was not
in existence in 1st century Rome.
Give the phrase associated with X/the event.

15
Officially known today as the Primorsky Stairs, the Odessa steps were originally
known as the Boulevard steps, the Giant Staircase, or the Richelieu steps. The
stairs are the formal entrance to the city of Odessa from the sea.
The commonly used name comes from a movie by Sergei Eisenstein with an
historic montage shot on these steps. This sequence has later been replicated in
various other movies, including The Godfather, Untouchables, Star Wars Episode
3 and Brazil.
Which movie gives the commonly used name?

16
When Europeans first encountered turkeys in America, they incorrectly identified
the birds as a type of guineafowl. Guinea-fowl were also known as turkey fowl
because they were imported to Central Europe through Turkey. The name turkey
fowl, shortened to just the name of the country, stuck as the name of the North
American bird.
In Turkey, though, the turkey isn’t called that, but has a name which refers to
India. What is it called in Turkey?

17
The Mars Climate Orbiter was a 338 kilogram (750 lb) robotic space probe launched by
NASA on December 11, 1998 to study the Martian climate, atmosphere, surface changes
and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor '98 program.
However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was lost. The
spacecraft encountered Mars at an improperly low altitude, causing it to incorrectly enter
the upper atmosphere and disintegrate.
The failure, an engineering error, was believed to be a ‘mixup’ which NASA has been
careful to avoid ever since. What happened?

A N S W E R
Americans, being Americans,
mixed up the Imperial and
Metric units

18
The term X is a Spanish farewell that can be literally translated as ‘Until the viewing’ and
means ‘See you later’. This term with added word ‘baby’ was used in the popular hit song
from 1987 "Looking for a New Love" by Grammy Award Winner Jody Watley, where it was
already famous.
X is popular today because of Y.
When Y was translated into Spanish, a new phrase had to be found as the effect of the
phrase X would be lost on the Spanish audience.
Phrase X and Y?

19
X was born in Pune district. His father, Vinayak, was a post office employee and his mother
was Lakshmi. At birth, he was named Ramachandra.
X was given his name because of an unfortunate incident. Before he was born, his parents had
three sons and a daughter, with all three boys dying in their infancy. Fearing a curse that
targeted male children, young Ramachandra was brought up as a girl for the first few years of
his life, including having his nose pierced and being made to wear a nose-ring. It was then
that he earned the nickname X (literally "Ram with a nose-ring"). After his younger brother
was born, they switched to treating him as a boy.
Who is X?

20
Which institute for higher learning, formerly a school for gifted youngsters, is located at
1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, New York?
The institute serves as a training ground for ‘special’ youngsters and has a which is a
Latin phrase meaning "changing [only] those things which need to be changed“.

21
X was born as a Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati to a poor family in Andhra. Her striking looks
brought her unwanted attention and she was married off at a young age. Her new family
treated her badly and she ran away.
She entered the film industry as an extra and eventually gained notoriety for her role X in
the movie Vandichakkaram.
X was found dead in her apartment in 1996, apparently having committed suicide.

22
A is a 1957 novel by Alice Rosebaum, her fourth and last, and considered to be her magnum
opus. Both A and B - published in 1943 - are popular books that have received mixed
reactions.
Paul Krugman alluded to an oft-quoted quip by John Rogers in his blog: "There are two
novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and A. One is
a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes,
leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real
world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
Philosopher Mark Kingwell, described B as "[Rosenbaum's] best work – which is not to say it is
good."
Allan Bloom has referred to the novel as being "hardly literature," one having a "sub-
Nietzschean assertiveness [that] excites somewhat eccentric youngsters to a new way of life."
Both A and B are often quoted in ironic attempts to appear intellectual.
Give A and B.

2 3
This comic panel from
Transmetropolitan depicts
the hero Spider Jerusalem,
who begins the series living a
peaceful hermit’s life in the
woods.
This appearance only lasts for
about 5-6 pages, and was
never intended as character
design but as homage to
someone else.
Who?

24
Theodor Geisel and his publisher, Bennet Cerf, had a bet. This resulted:
a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good,
green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see,
so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you
Explain.

25
X is a confection manufactured by the Italian Ferrero. In 2000, the parents of three
children in the United Kingdom who died after choking on ___ campaigned for the
products to be withdrawn from the European Union. At least six children worldwide
have died from choking on the ___.
X cannot be legally sold in the US, as a non-nutritive object is considered embedded
in the confectionary. In India, and in many other countries, only an altered version of
X is sold.
In Europe they have become a minor cult phenomenon among adults; There is even
a thriving collector's market for ___.
Just an FYI, X taste really good. What is X?

26
In his 2001 undergraduate commencement address, X university president William R.
Brody said about the name: "Mark Twain wrote about this university: 'A few months ago I
was told that the X University had given me a degree […] I believed they were perfectly
competent to run a college as far as the higher branches of education are concerned, but
what they needed was a little help here and there from a practical commercial man. I said
the public is sensitive to little things and they wouldn't have full confidence in a college
that didn't know how to spell the name ___.' More than a century later, we continue to
bestow diplomas upon individuals of outstanding capabilities and great talent. And we
continue to spell ___ with an s."
Milton Eisenhower, a former university president, once spoke at a convention in
Pittsburgh where the Master of Ceremonies introduced him as "President of ___."
Eisenhower retorted that he was "glad to be here in Pittburgh."
X?

27
In the first few years of its production, the X was available in grey, green, blue, and red.
Green was available for the touring and town types, and Landaulets. Grey was only
available for the town type, and red only for the touring type.
By 1912, all X were being painted midnight blue with black fenders.
A policy that is often cited about the X was not really relevant except for a short period
around 1914.

A N S W E R
“Any customer can have a
car painted any colour that
he wants so long as it is
black.”
Ford’s Model T policy

28
Claude Shannon (1916 – 2001) was a mathematician, electronic engineer, and
cryptographer known as "the father of information theory". Shannon is legendary in
most of the fields he worked in.
One of his experiments was in 1950, when he created a magnetic mouse that could move
around a maze of 25 squares. The mouse was designed to search through corridors until
it found a target. If placed in unfamiliar territory, it was programmed to search until it
reached a known location and then it would proceed to the target, adding the new
knowledge to its memory, thus learning. This mouse, named X for its ability to solve the
maze, may have been the first artificial learning device of its kind.
What is X?

29
A split infinitive is an English-language grammatical construction in which a word
or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, comes between a marker ('to')
and the bare infinitive form of a verb. As the split infinitive became more
common in the 19th century, some grammatical authorities sought to introduce
a prescriptive rule against it. However, most modern English usage guides have
dropped the objection to the split infinitive.
The most famous example of a split infinitive in popular culture comes from the
opening sequence of which 1966 television series?

31
The Year Without a Summer was 1816, in which severe summer climate
abnormalities caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C,
resulting in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere. It is believed
that the anomaly was caused by a combination of an historic low in solar activity
with a volcanic winter event.
In July 1816 "incessant rainfall" during that "wet, ungenial summer" forced X, Percy
Shelley, John William Polidori, and their friends to stay indoors for much of their
Swiss holiday. They decided to have a contest to see who could write the best
story in a certain genre, leading X to write ___, and Lord Byron to write "A
Fragment", which Polidori later used as inspiration for something else.
X?

32
• Van Halen was known for touring with truckloads of equipment - Nine 18-
wheeler trucks, for example. They also had very detailed contracts, famously
including a line that required, among other food: “M&M’s,(WARNING:
ABSOLUTELY NO BROWN ONES).”
• The clause was apparently justified at a Colorado concert. What
happened/why did Van Halen ask for the removal of brown M&M?

A N S W E R
The presence of brown M&Ms
despite mention in the
contracts was a sign that due
diligence had not been
carried out.
At the Colorado concert, the
stage had not been set up to
specifications and caved in,
causing damages amounting
to $80,000.
To verify contract fulfilment

33
Henrietta Lacks (1920 – 1951) was an African-American woman from Virginia. In 1951,
she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and during the treatment, samples of her
tumour were isolated for research without permission. These cells would eventually
become the HeLa cell line, a group of cells that did not die after a few generations,
and considered an enormous boon to medical research.
Today, the HeLa line is ubiquitous in scientific research, but the first major success
from them was X's discovery, to combat Y, 'the most frightening public health
problem' after WW2. According to a 2009 PBS documentary, Y was America's
greatest fear apart from the atomic bomb. Franklin D. Roosevelt founded an
organisation which went on to fund X's work.
Famously, when X was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent, he
replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?".
X and Y?

34
On being asked about X, Y replied that it was the result of a lot of discussion. An
ad manager said that three relationships were important – mother/son,
girl/mother-in-law, and boss/employee. This was the basis for the first product,
titled ‘washroom’. This was successful.
The same team that created ‘washroom’ went on to create X, which achieved
cult status.
X?

35
A back cover is a term used to refer to a listing of all the works of a specific artist,
or all the books, records etc of a specific publisher, including works that are no
longer available. In the case of a band, this would include all their albums prior to
the publishing of the cover listing. Sometimes, it can also informally refer to the
works themselves.
Storm Thorgerson was a legendary designer who decided to take the term rather
literally, and came up with an iconic photograph.
What photograph AND for whom?

Ashoka Q Thing- The General Quiz [Finals]

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