Quriozity 1.1 - Mains - The Engineers' Day Quiz, NIT Silchar

QURIOZITY 1.1
– The Engineers’ Day Quiz
MAINS
Quizmasters:
Aveek Baruah & Sandipan Goswami
(Organized by Research Promotion Cell, in association with ISTE Students’ Chapter, NIT Silchar)

According to legend, the sage Vishvamitra through tapasya acquired the
power to create a whole new universe. When he set out to create a new
universe it aroused consternation in Indra. However, he continued and after
creating a copy of our universe, he started creating people, the first being
Trishanku whom he decided to send up to rule his new universe. Indra stopped
his progress. That is how Trishanku ended up suspended head down in mid-air.
The X river was born out of the saliva dripping from his mouth.
X is a river unlike any other in India. As its Hindi name suggests, it is the only
cursed river and it is believed that touching its water would ruin one’s plans.
There’s hardly any development along this river. People around this river just eat
dry fruits because cooking food would require water.
Id the river X

Karmanasha river
(situated in Uttar Pradesh, a tributary of Ganga)

It is a folkway that traces its roots back to West African Dahomeyan Vodun, an
ancient set of practices closely associated with religion that has evolved into
multiple branches. It originated specifically in the kingdoms of Fon and Kongo on
the continent's western coast. The Fon kingdom is known to many anthropologists
as the "cradle of X." The religion centers on spirit worship and most likely evolved
from worship of ancestors and animals.
The areas of Africa where X began were trafficked heavily during the slave-trade
period, which helped transmit the religion to the Americas, and especially Haiti.
Much of X’s "black magic" image in the West may be attributed to an 1884 book
called "Haiti or the Black Republic" by S. St. John, which described the religion as
black and evil, but was largely inaccurate. The commercialization aspect came
only into the picture in America in 1930s
Prominent among all are the African, Haitian and Louisiana versions of ‘X’ .

X, from the local language meaning “shepherd’s hill”, is a ruined city in the
state of Telangana, India, near Hyderabad, which from the mid-14th century
until the end of the 17th was the capital of two successive kingdoms. At
that time, India had the only known diamond mines in the world, hence
region is universally famous for the mines that have produced the world's most
famous and coveted gems, including the Hope Diamond, The Eye of the Idol
(aka the Nassak Diamond) and The Koh-I-Noor diamond.
During the Renaissance and the early modern eras, the name “X" acquired a
legendary aura and became synonymous for vast wealth. The fame it
acquired through being the center of the region's legendary diamond
industry was such that its name remains –
• according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a synonym for 'mine of wealth,
advantages or happiness‘
• gemologists use X to denote a diamond with a complete (or almost-complete)
lack of nitrogen

P. D. Sharma was the first Indian to get airmail pilot’s licence and
flew between Karachi and Lahore. P D Sharma’s family had nine
pilots. He and his father were instrumental in getting his wife, Sarla
Thakral, enrolled in the Lahore Flying Club.
What first in was then achieved by Sarla Thakral in the year 1936?

Vantablack is a substance made of carbon nanotubes. Its name
comes from the term ‘Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Arrays’. It was
developed by scientists at Surrey NanoSystems, UK after two years
of R&D and unveiled at Farnborough International Airshow on 14th
July 2014. Previously NASA had developed a similar substance that
could be grown at 750 °C, but Vantablack can be grown on
materials that cannot withstand higher temperatures.
Aesthetically, its being called “…the closest thing to a black hole
on earth…”. It is envisioned to increase the absorption of heat in
materials used in concentrated solar power technology, as well as
military applications such as thermal camouflage.
What is the USP of Vantablack?

In the 1940s, a graduate student at the University of Illinois
named Arthur Galston was working on a way to make
soybeans grow faster, and he was having some success with
something called 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid. However, he
discovered that when applied in large quantities, it would
cause the plant to die.
Beginning in 1965 vehemently lobbied his colleagues and the
government to stop using something, which had roots in his
graduation thesis.
What was the infamous invention?

Agent Orange
(a deadly herbicide used in Vietnam war)

Contrary to popular thinking, the animal in the X logo is actually a Red
Panda. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, the red panda is native to the
Himalayas and western China. Many assume that the animal in the X logo is a
fox, yet X is actually the nickname for the rare panda species. Eating mostly
bamboo, it is currently classified as "vulnerable" by IUCN because of it's dwindling
population.
Logo of which product X?

"It was a mistake," said Microsoft's co-founder of the famous "three finger salute" in
an interview. "We could have had a single button, but the guy who did the IBM
keyboard design didn't wanna give us our single button." "Why, when I want to
turn on my software and computer, do I need to have three fingers on _____, ____,
and _____?" asked David Rubenstein, Harvard Campaign co-chair. "Whose idea
was that?"
Bill Gates explains that the key combination was designed to prevent other apps
from faking the login prompt and stealing a password. "We were able to experi-ment
with a lot of stuff, but more on the software side than the hardware," he
said, after admitting that pressing three buttons to log in to a computer amounts
to a design flaw.
People ranting about what?

The X effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when consumers place a
disproportionately high value on products they partially created.
Official experiment results on the X effect were first published by Michael I. Norton
of Harvard Business School, Daniel Mochon of Yale University, and Dan Ariely of Duke
University in 2011. Their experiments demonstrate that self-assembly impacts the
evaluation of a product by its consumers. The experiment result suggests that when
people use their own labor to construct a particular product, they value it more than
if they didn't put any effort into its creation, even if it is done poorly.
X is a Swedish manufacturer and furniture retailer, which sells many furniture products
that require assembly.

What is significant about these items of clothing, which once belonged to an extremely
famous Indian person?

Sari worn by Indira Gandhi on the
day of her assassination

Due to the small size of Vatican city, all embassies to the Vatican city are
located in Italy, according to numerous treaties signed between Italy and
the Vatican City State.
As a result, what unique distinction is held today by Italy?

Italian embassy is the only embassy
in the world that is housed on its
own soil

In Hindu mythology, X was a woman, whose horoscope showed that her first
husband would die and leave her a widow. To avert this, X's family married her
to a goat and then killed the goat to fulfil the destiny and assumed that she
could now go ahead and marry a human.
X later married a prince Y, but in the most dramatic fashion the secret about
X’s first marriage to the goat came out. Y and his brother were furious at X’s
family for not telling that she was a widow. To avenge this, Y and his brother
imprisoned all of X’s male family, and since killing was against Dharma, he
starved them to death by giving only 1 fistful of rice for the entire clan
everyday. The clan decided that the entire fistful of rice will be used to keep
the youngest brother, Z, alive so that he can take revenge on Y later. Z’s dying
father, during his last days, told him to take the bones from the dead body
and make something which would always obey him.
Later Z successfully used this instrument to extract his evil plan of revenge.
ID Z, and what did he wield?

Z = Shakuni, whose dice always
obeyed him
(X= Gandhari Y=Dhritarashtra)

The name of this small town literally means, in Sanskrit, “angular sun”.
It’s most distinguishing feature was built in 1250AD by King Narasimhadeva I of
Eastern Ganga dynasty, to commemorate his victory over Tughral Tughan Khan in
1243AD. It is shaped like a huge chariot on 12 pairs of wheels, pulled by seven horses.
According to local folklore, Narasimhadeva I had hired a chief architect called Bisu
Maharana to build the temple. After a period of twelve years, the workforce almost
finished the construction but they failed to mount the crown stone. The impatient
king ordered the temple to be finished in three days or the artisans be put to death.
At the time, Bisu Maharana's twelve year old son, Dharmapada arrived at the site.
Bisu Maharana had never seen his son, as he had left his village when his wife was still
pregnant. Dharmapada successfully proposed a solution to mount the crown stone.
But, the artisans were still apprehensive that the king will be displeased to learn that a
boy succeeded where his best artisans failed. Dharmapada climbed onto the
temple and leapt into the water to save his father and his co-workers.
What is being described here?

Jeanne Baret was a member of Louis Antoine de
Bougainville's expedition on the ships La
Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769.
Jeanne Baret joined the expedition disguised as a man,
calling herself Jean Baret. She enlisted as valet and
assistant to the expedition's naturalist, Philibert
Commerson, shortly before Bougainville's ships sailed
from France. According to Bougainville's account, Baret
was herself an expert botanist.
With this expedition, what first in history did Jeanne Baret
achieve?

First woman to circumnavigate the
globe

In 1890, the U.5 Congress decided that the
celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus'
discovery of America should be centered in
Chicago. Daniel H. Burnham, architect of the first
"skyscrapers," was hired. Burnham was chiefly
concerned at the lack of participation by America's
civil engineers. He called on them to provide some
distinctive feature, something to fill the relative
position in the World's Columbian Exposition that
was filled by the 984 foot Eiffel Tower at the Paris
Exposition in 1889. Mere bigness was not what was
wanted but something novel, original and daring.
At one of his speeches, seated in the audience was
George Washington Gale ____, Jr. , a Pennsylvania
bridge builder. Inspired, he built something for the
World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which was
later considered his magnum opus, and now can
be found all over the world. What?

Ferris Wheel
(by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.)

X is the center of Tibetan exile in the world. It was formerly known as Bhagsu.
Following the 1959 Tibetan uprising there was an influx of Tibetan refugees who
followed the 14th Dalai Lama. His presence and the Tibetan population has
made X a popular destination for tourists, including students studying Tibet. The
headquarters of Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan government in exile)
are in X.
During the shooting of the movie Rockstar in X, Tibetan flags appeared in the
footage along with banners espousing Tibetan freedom, which were later
censored by the CBFC, leading to protests.
Id the place X.

Dharmshala, in Himachal Pradesh

Frank Miller
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – inspired from Frank Millers run on
Daredevil, from Raphael’s psi weapon, sensei named Splinter to the
villain clan ‘The Foot’
 Samurai Jack – inspired by Frank Miller comic ‘Ronin’
 Robocop 2 – screenplay by Frank Miller
 The Wolverine – based on the comic miniseries by Frank Miller and
Chris Claremont
 Batman v. Superman – partly based on Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark
Knight Rises’ graphic novel

__________ are coming to nine more nations
to improve computing for all generations.
So we’d like to say our Hellos
to our new global __________ fellows:
Kia ora to our New Zealand mates,
where getting on-line will have shorter waits.
Kumusta to new friends in the Philippines,
a better way of computing is what this means.
Hallo to all the folks in Norway
Speed, simplicity and security are coming your way.
Hej Hej to the people in Denmark
Built-in virus protection will be your new computing benchmark.
To Mexico and Chile, Hola we say
Tons of apps and free automatic updates are starting today.
And in the coming weeks -- very soon, you’ll see --
__________ will be in Belgium, Spain and Italy.
__________ are easy to share, manage and use,
With lots of shapes, colors and sizes to choose.
Stay safe with your data stored in the cloud,
A smart pick like __________ will make your mom proud.
When __________ in these countries alight,
We hope our new global friends find some computing delight.
Written by David Shapiro, director of _______ marketing in a famous tech giant.
FITB, or identify the tech giant. (all blanks are same)

On 28 December 1885, 72 Indian lawyers, academics and
journalists gathered at Goculdas Tejpal Sanskrit College and
Boarding House, at Gowalia Tank in Bombay. The meeting was
scheduled to be held in Pune, but due to a plague outbreak,
was shifted to Bombay.
Thus inadvertently, it became the site to what important event?

Formation of Indian National
Congress (INC)

Gadadhar Chattopadhyay was a famous mystic of 19th-century India.
According to his followers, Gadadhar’s parents experienced supernatural
incidents and visions before his birth. In Gaya his father Khudiram had a dream in
which Lord Gadadhara (a form of Vishnu), said that he would be born as his son.
His mother was said to have had a vision of light entering her womb from Shiva's
temple. At one time, he was priest at Dakshineswar Kali Temple and then onwards
became more contemplative. He occasionally even dabbled in Islam and
Christianity. One his most prominent monastic disciples was Narendranath Dutta.
How do we famously know Gadadhar and Narendranath?

Ramkrishna Paramhansa and Swami
Vivekananda

X was established in 1994 by Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of
India. The parent company was formed in 1955 as a joint-venture of the World
Bank, India's public-sector banks and public-sector insurance companies to
provide project financing to Indian industry. X is headquartered in Vadodara,
and is counted among the Big Four in its field.
In 2000, X became the first of its kind in India to list on the New York Stock
Exchange and in 2012, along with Airtel, X became the only other Indian brand
in ‘Top 100 global brands’
X is now headed by Chanda Kocchar as its CEO.

X was one of the most religious businessmen in the Hindi film
industry and there are many stories of his donations to religious
institutions. He even had a free 24-hour langar for pilgrims at
Vaishno Devi and brought out numerous cassettes of devotional
songs. X was especially devoted to Lord Shiva and somehow
incorporated the Trishul, symbolic of Lord Shiva, into his
enterprises.
ID X, or his claim to fame.

Gulshan Kumar/T-Series
(The ‘T’ stands for Trishul)

The term X is derived from clan that once ruled in the South, the
Cholas. Rajatarangini a tenth-century literary work by Kalhana,
states that the X from the Deccan was introduced under the royal
order of Kashmir. The first X were front covering, tied at the back
with four strings. This type is still common in state of Rajasthan. Pre-
Christian era paintings of Maharashtra and Gujarat are considered
the first recorded examples of X.
X is now very common in India, southern Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh

What is this person’s cricket connect in India?

Raghuramaih Trophy
(played out every year between Lok Sabha
and Rajya Sabha)

Dakhma, also known as "Cheel Ghar" in Hindi and "Tower of Silence" in English, is
a circular, raised structure built such that the topmost part is exposed to the sun
and to scavenging birds. The towers, which are fairly uniform in their
construction, have an almost flat roof, with the perimeter being slightly higher
than the center. The roof is divided into three concentric rings.
The earliest reference to the ritual exposure comes
from Herodotus (Histories i.140), where the historiographer describes the rites to
have been secret.
Once such tower can be found
in Malabar Hills, Mumbai.
Who uses these towers and for
what purpose?

Death rites of Parsee/Zoroastrian
people

Paul Winchell was an American ventriloquist, actor, and
comedian. He was famous for creating Oswald the cartoon
character, voicing Tigger in Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh films and
his ‘Jerry Mahoney’ ventriloquism act.
Winchell was also interested in
medicine and was a pre-med
student at Columbia University
and with Dr. Henry Heimlich
(inventor of Heimlich
maneuver), patented his most
famous invention.
Which invention?

X is a fictional group of people appearing in the Y
stories. In modern life, the X are an invitation-only
society founded in 1934 who only award membership
and the accompanying customary "Irregular Shilling" to
eminent Y scholars. Isaac Asimov and Neil Gaiman are
both members. Honorary members include Harry S.
Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The group convenes
for a fancy dinner once a year, and hosts other Y -
oriented activities open to the public.
X?

Yucca brevifolia is a tree-like plant
species belonging to the genus Yucca
native to southwestern North America in
the states of California, Arizona, Utah,
and Nevada.
What is the common name of this plant,
and its music connection?

Rise of the Ogre is an autobiography about the band X, ostensibly
written by the four band members in collaboration with musician
and official scribe Cass Browne. The book is 304 pages long and
extensively illustrated. The book details the life-stories of the band-members;
it contains previously unknown secrets of the band, such
as future plans of a movie. Rise of the Ogre has also been released
as the world’s first audiobook singles.
Which band?

The name of which Indian condiment, that can be used
either as a dip or a salad, is a derivative of the Sanskrit
word X, meaning black mustard, and Y, meaning sharp
or pungent?

The _________ biscuit consists of
currants squashed and baked
between two thin, oblongs of
biscuit dough. Popular with British
consumers as a snack for over
150 years, the _________ is
conventionally consumed with
tea or coffee.
The biscuit was named after the
Italian leader _________, who had
made a popular visit to South
Shields in England in 1854. FITB.

The Look of Silence is a 2014
documentary film directed by
Joshua Oppenheimer. It is a sequel
to which 2012 film, whose name in
the native language is Jagal,
meaning “Butcher”, and was
directed by an anonymous
individual, along with
Oppenheimer?

This famous painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais
depicts and is named after which literary character from
which famous work?

Men of War is the name of several American comic
book series published by DC Comics. For the most
part, the series was an anthology comic featuring
fictional stories about the American military
during World War II.
A panel by Irv Novick from the "Star Jockey" story
from issue #89 of DC Comics' All-American Men of
War (Feb. 1962) forms part of a dream sequence in
which fictional World War II P-51 Mustang pilot
Johnny Flying Cloud, "the Navajo ace", foresees
himself flying a jet fighter while shooting down other
jet planes.
This panel served as the primary inspiration for which
famous work of art?

Hakarl is an Icelandic delicacy consisting of a particular
creature which has been cured with a fermentation
process and hung out to dry for four to five months.
Andrew Zimmern described the ammonia-rich smell of
the dish as reminding him of “some of the most horrific
things I’ve ever breathed in my life”; Gordon Ramsay,
after eating hakarl on his show The F Word as a
challenge, spat it out.
Considered an extreme food and an acquired taste,
hakarl is made from the rotten meat of which animal?

In September 2013 Psychrolutes marcidus was
voted the "World's Ugliest Animal", based on
photographs of decompressed specimens, and
adopted as the mascot of the Ugly Animal
Preservation Society, in an initiative "dedicated to
raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more
aesthetically challenged children".
What is the common name of this creature?

What is this list about? Also FITB.
Uttam Kumar (1967)
Satindra Bhattacharya (1974)
Subhrajit Dutta (2009)
Abir Chatterjee (2010-2012)
Sujoy Ghosh (2013)
…X… (2015)

Actors who have played Byomkesh
Bakshi in cinema
X – Sushant Singh Rajput

Which literary classic derives its title from the blanked-out portion of
Thomas Gray’s poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
___ ____ ___ _______ _____'s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Far From the Madding Crowd
by Thomas Hardy

This book, first published in 1974, is a work of philosophical fiction,
the first of Robert M. Pirsig's texts in which he explores
his Metaphysics of Quality.
The book sold 5 million copies worldwide. It was originally rejected
by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according
to the Guinness Book of Records.
The title is an apparent play on the title of the book Y by Eugen
Herrigel. In its introduction, Pirsig explains that, despite its title, "it
should in no way be associated with that great body of factual
information relating to orthodox ___ ________ practice. It's not very
factual on ___________, either.“
Which book are we talking about?

The Transformers: The Movie is a
1986 animated feature film based on
the animated TV series by the same name.
Set to a soundtrack of synth-based
incidental music and hard-driving metal
music, composed by Vince DiCola, the
movie has a decidedly darker tone than the
television series, with detailed visuals in Toei
Animation's typical anime film styling, and
like G.I. Joe: The Movie, Decepticon villains
that are more menacing, killing without
hesitation. The voice of Unicron in the film
was given by X, and this marked the final film
role for X. Who is X?

Quriozity 1.1 - Mains - The Engineers' Day Quiz, NIT Silchar

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