Sunday, January 6, 2008

Odyssey Open Quiz 2008 - Registrations Open

Dear All,

The registrations for the Odyssey Open Quiz 2008 (Jan 26th 2008, Music Academy, Chennai, Team of Three, Open General Quiz) is on - please note that the registrations this time is online only and there is no need to go to the stores to collect and submit the forms.

To register your team please go to this link and register -
http://www.odyssey.in/quiz2008/index.html

Please note that you will have to carry a print out of the confirmation that you receive from the Odyssey Leisure store as a proof of entry.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Questions from the quiz on Dec 16th

Q: Alex Tew lay on his bed in his family home in Cricklade, Wiltshire brainstorming about his financial problems. He already had an overdraft, which was sure to multiply at university, and he felt his poverty was reflected by his lack of decent, or matching, socks. The first thing he wrote in his pad was "How can I become a millionaire? What was the result of his brainstorming?

A: Million Dollar Page

Q:It is a popular folk dance of Bihar and Orissa. Since masks form an important feature of this dance it is called '_____', which means mask. All the performers hold swords and shields while performing. The stages are decorated and brightly lit by torches, lanterns and flickering oil lamps. The musical instruments used are the Dhol (a cylindrical drum), Nagara (a huge drum) and Shehnai (reed pipes). It is interesting to note that the entire body of the dancer is engaged as a single unit. Which dance?

A:Chau

Q: Tambalacoque or Calvaria major is a long-lived tree in the family Sapotaceae, endemic to Mauritius. It is valued for its timber. In 1973, it was thought that this species was dying out. There were supposedly only 13 specimens left, all estimated to be about 300 years old. The true age could not be determined because Tambalacoque has no growth rings. It was widely believed they became extinct because of their unique method of propagation. Although not all agree with this hypothesis what was widely believed reason of their so called extinction?

A: Dodo were supposed to be responsible for their polination

Q: This literary technique has its origin in the conventions of ancient Greek and Roman drama where a god was introduced by means of a crane to decide the final outcome. The Greek tragedian Euripides was notorious for using this plot device as a means to resolve a hopeless situation. This term / phrase nowadays describes an unexpected or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation. What phrase?

A:Deus Ex Machina

Q: This city is about 500 years old. The first name of the settlement, according to the compilers of the first edition of the district Gazette, was Khanpur Shansi after an individual of the Jat caste called Khan Shansi who founded 11 villages in the region. Later, the tribe "Gujjar" occupied the land. They reached such dominance that the town came to be known as _______________, which means "Land of the Gujars". In present day too, the Gujars form the majority population of the city. Which city?

A:Gujranwala

Q:When the eight Vasus visited Vashishta's ashram with their wives, one of the wives took a fancy to Kamadhenu and asked her husband to steal it from Vashishta. He stole it with the help of the others, and was cursed by Vashishta to be born in the world of men. The seven Vasus had their curse softened to be liberated from their human birth as soon as they are born, but the last Vasu, due to his being instrumental in the theft, was cursed to endure a longer life on the earth, though the curse is softened so that he becomes one of the most illustrious men of his times. How were they born and who was the last VASU born as?

A:The sons of Ganga and Bhisma

Q: When Kalale Nadadur Varadaraja Iyengar discussed his venture with others, he had to face the wrath of skeptics who warned him of his 'misadventure' and predicted the newspaper's doom. He was, however, supported in his venture by an editor of a Kannada newspaper and by a former Joint Director of Information. Ignoring the skeptics, he published the first issue of Sudharma on July 14, 1970 from a location called 'Ganapathi Totti'. The paper is currently published out of a press in the Ramachandra Agrahara locality of Mysore. What is so special about this newspaper?

A:Sudharma is the only Sanskrit newspaper of India

Q:It was invented in 1924 by ________ Cardini. Cardini was an Italian restaurateur and chef in Tijuana, Mexico. He was living in San Diego but working in Tijuana to avoid the restrictions of Prohibition. When a 4th of July rush depleted the kitchen's supplies Cardini made X with what he had. What did he invent?

A:Cesare Cardini invented the Cesare Salad

Q:Founded in 1874 they are one of seven original members to have never won the Premier League. They were originally known as Christ Church. The club got their namebecause they moved to so many different playing fields and headquarters in their early existence that it was suggested that the club should change its name to _______ ___________, and in 1877, the name came into being. What?

A: Bolton Wanderers

Q: It is a short river in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Its name derives from the Native American word "Missi-Tuk", which translates to "great tidal river" and it lies to the north of and flows approximately parallel to the Charles River. Name this river that has a long history of industrial use and a continuing water quality problem?

A: Mystic River

Q: Paul-Ferdinand __________ was a French physician most famous for treating "X" during his last weeks in Auvers-sur-Oise. He was a great supporter of artists and the Impressionist movement. In fact, he himself was an amateur painter, signing his works "Paul van Ryssel", referring to his birthplace "Ryssel", and this is the Flemish name of Lille. Who?

A:Dr. Gatchet

Q: When Louis XIV of France wanted to build a new palace to be located in the French countryside in Versailles, Louis's Minister of Economy, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, was appointed to construct the facility and display various new technologies in the new palace. One of the technologies to be presented was glass. What resulted?

A: St. Gobain Glass Company

Report on the quiz on Dec 16

QM: Priyambad Pattanayak

Format: Infinite bounce with one written theme round and one written RG (relative grading) round.

Thumbs Up:

• Pat stepped out of his MELA/SPENT comfort zone and ventured into the natural sciences, history, language, cuisine, folk art and mythology
• Variety, variety, variety. Visuals, audios, videos, dry - room for everything
• An enjoyable, crackable quiz with a little something for everyone

Thumbs down:

• Some cribs about the quiz being a little too heavy on the Greek myth front were overheard. The QM's defence is that this was only in the written theme round, and not in general.
• Somewhat skewed points structure, especially in the theme and RG rounds. Contact Ravi M for a full explanation :-)
• Two Coco Chanel questions in the RG round?!!

Memorable moments/questions: Wong kar wai question, silver bullet funda,chau, trainspotting visuals funda

Standings:

1st: Nitish, Dhaji, Archana, Latheesh
2nd: Diwakar, Sudhir Pai, Anil
3rd: Raghu, Bharath, Ravi M and one more person

A keenly contested quiz, with the teams that ended up on the podium alternately taking over the lead from each other. Ms. Coco Chanel gave Nitish & co. a surge, and unlike GWB's surges this one seemed to actually work. Pat was in full form, right from installing codecs which seem to have rendered my laptop useless (kidding!) to introducing Wong Kar-wai to the hapless quizzers of Hyd. Watch this space for the "Best of..." questions from "The Return of the Quiz".

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Quiz on the 16th of December

In the mists of time, when the world was young, and Evil did not walk the face of all the lands, the Hyderabad Quiz Club was formed. Month after month, it was the last bastion against the arrayed forces of Boredom and Ignorance; where men were real men, quizzers were ravening despos, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were figments of Douglas Adam's imagination. And we were treated to one good quiz after another. Ere long, November happened, and no quiz came around.


And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend, legend became myth, and for two months The Quiz passed out of all knowledge and memory. Until when chance came, it ensnared a new quizmaster. The Quiz came to the creature Pattanayak, who took it deep into the verdure of Chikoti Gardens. And there, it consumed him. The Quiz brought to Pat unnatural long night-outs. For countless months, it poisoned his mind. And in the gloom of Pat's apartment, it waited. Darkness crept into the Hyderabad quizzing world. Rumor grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and The Quiz perceived its time had now come.


But, soft! what light through yon window breaks? It is Bhubaneswar, and Priyambad is the sun. And he comes back to us now, at the turn of the tide, not to mention after a strenuous attempt at CAT, to conduct the December edition of The Quiz. The cry goes around that the exam didn't go so well, so the quizmaster is quite intent on roasting unsuspecting quizzers on the spit of interrogation to get back at those evil paper setters. Pat has ranged the Outer Worlds on a chariot drawn by his trusty steeds (who answer to the names of Google, Wikipedia, IMDB and Raghu) in the Quest for the Definitive, Cult question of the Millenium, and rumour has it that he has finally acquired this Brahmastra.


So be there if you want to watch Priyambad unleash one missile after another, it will be the perfect ending for 2008.

Time: 16th of December, 2007, 10:00 am

Venue: Vasavi Hall AC Auditorium, Opp Sensation Theatre, Khairtabad.

Directions: From Khairatabad while going towards Lakdi ka Pul, right opposite the Sensation theatre near IIMC

Prizes : Gift vouchers from Odyssey Bookstore.

Entry Fee: Rs 25 per person. Free for school students.

Contact: Nitish at 9885679460 or Priyambad at 9948453388. Please also drop a mail to quizhyd@gmail. com in case you intend on coming for the quiz


(PS. Thanks to Ludwig for the creative inputs)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Report on the quiz on 14th October

QM: Rohit Chopra

Format: Infinite bounce with AV rounds in between.

QM Caveat: Pop culture quiz and pop culture quiz it was...

Thumbs Up:

• A question on Danny Trejo - Holy Cow - Cracked by urs truly :)
• Good crackable questions
• Ent, ent and ent :)
• Kiddo was all at sea

Thumbs down:

• Ent, ent and ent :(
• A round on Album covers
• A round on cover songs
• Kiddo was all at sea but still managed to win


Memorable moments/questions: Borat, Breath Analyser, Handcuffs, Danny Trejo(;), Bunker 13 – The bad sex award, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Some Frank Zappa Album cover - and yes Raghu cracked it.

Standings:

1st: Sudhir and Kiddo
2nd: Priyambad,JK and Neerad
3rd: Raghu,Diwakar and Rahul


Sudhir and Kiddo comfortably defeated the team comprising Priyambad,JK and Neerad.The team of Raghu,Diwakar and Rahul finished third with some good answers as well. Despite being an out and out entertainment quiz, it had some nice general questions as well. Hope the future quizzes are more balanced.

Questions from the quiz on 14th October

Here are some of the questions from the quiz on the 14th of October done by Rohit.

1. On September 27, 2007 there was a four-page advertisement in The New York Times. The advertisement primarily spoke about this country’s many natural resources and its general growth in glowing terms. This advertisement preceded the official visit of the President and his diplomatic entourage and was part of a greater PR campaign including the release of a book “________ Nuclear Disarmament: A Global Model for a Safer World.” This was seen as a reaction of what the country’s politicians believe was a propaganda war against them. What was the reason?



Ans : They were largely reacting to the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”

2. This started with an innocuous upload of a simple 1 minute 8 second video by one of the supporters of Barack Obama on to youtube using a unique way of showing Hillary Clinton as an authoritarian and a “Big Brother figure” who wanted to use acts such as “Gun control” etc to control America and the world. As is the case in the online world, a quick parody to this parody was uploaded by Hillary supporters on to youtube in a matter of days. This got into a rather interesting mud-slinging match between both candidates supporters. What was being used to create the parody in the first place?


Ans : The TV commercial – Apple 1984

3.The symbol is remarkably simple; silver lettering on a circular black band that encases four segments. The image has its origins in World War I, when the certain Luftwaffe planes were painted in two distinctive colours, affording the pilot a view through his propellor of blue and white segments. This inspired the stylized design we now recognize. Which logo ?


Ans BMW logo

4. These earlier versions caused discomfort for people with slightly larger frames. That changed in 1862, when W. V. Adams revolutionized the device with the invention of adjustable ratchets. An Adams ____ consisted of a square bow with notches on the outside that engaged with a lock mechanism shaped like a teardrop. Several years later, Orson C. Phelps patented a version of the _________that placed the ratchet notches on the inside of the square bow. What am I talking about?


Ans : Handcuffs

5. First used and developed in the 1930s for "The Thief of Baghdad," The credit for development of this is given to Larry Butler - nominated for five academy awards, winner of two. The technique has had a slight shift in name due to the higher luminance value of ______. What technique heavily used in recent films am I referring to?


Ans : The Blue screen now which is now replaced by the green screen

6. The ancient Greeks recorded the use of the willow bark as a fever fighter. The leaves and bark of the willow tree contain a substance called salicin, a naturally occurring compound similar to acetylsalicylic acid. What did this eventually evolve into?


Ans : Asprin

7. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorder. The wrist bones of the 3-foot-tall creature, technically known as Homo floresiensis, are basically indistinguishable from an African ape or early hominin-like wrist and nothing at all like that seen in modern humans and Neanderthals, according to the research team led by Matthew W. Tocheri of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.Why was there so much interest in this creature?


Ans : The creature resembled the hobbit

8. Numbers, pattern, trick, technical, full body, bounce, football are all types of what ?


Ans : Types of ball juggling

9. He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head ___________, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly - Who on whom?


Ans : Captain Hastings on Hercule Poirot

10. Aniruddha Bahal is the founder and editor-in-chief of Cobrapost.com. He has worked for India Today and Outlook and is also the co-founder and former CEO of Tehelka.com, the news website. While at Tehelka, he exposed match-fixing in international cricket, titled "Fallen Heroes". He also exposed the corruption in Indian defense procurement, more popularly known as “Operation Westend.” He even wrote a book which was an espionage thriller which got some attention in international press. In 2003 for this outstanding contribution to literature he was conferred a rare literary award for an Indian. What is the name of the book and which award?


Ans : Bunker 13 – The bad sex award

Monday, October 8, 2007

Questions from the quiz on 16th September

Here are some of the questions from the quiz on the 16th of September done by Sudhir and Lathish.

1. X was an ancient Greek poet in the second half of the 1st century BCE. He was the author of short elegiacs, some of which are preserved in the Greek Anthology, e.g., "Crown of Meleager". He also composed an epitaph for Sappho in which he stated that she died of natural causes and was buried in her homeland. Cicero (Oratore, III, 50 and de Fato, 2) described him as a brilliant epigrammist but sometimes too fond of imitation.He, along with Philo , Strabo, Herodotus, and Diodoros collaborated on Y. Over the centuries, Y has been subjected to a lot of criticism from historians all over the world on account of the bias of the authors. Identify X and Y.

Answer: X =Antipater, Y = Seven Wonders of the World

2. X put down his Speed Graphic camera onthe ground, so that he could pile rocks to stand onfor a better vantage point. He nearly missed the shotin doing so. Realizing it, he quickly swung uphis camera, and snapped the photograph without usinghis view finder. Ten years after this, he wrote "Iswung my camera and shot the scene. That is how thepicture was taken, and when you take a picture likethat, you don't come away saying a great shot". Whatwas being captured on camera here?

Answer: Joe Rosenthal describing the photo of the soldiers raising the flag at Iwo Jima

3. Actinomycetes are a type of filamentous bacteria found in soil which thrive when conditions are damp and warm. However when dry conditions prevail, these form spores/cysts. Upon contact with moisture (which acts like an aerosol) these spores burst open resulting in what?This phenomenon is named after the fluid that is supposed to be flowing in the veins of Greek Gods.


Answer: Smell of wet earth after the rains

4. Origin of this phrase is from a puppet show character of the 17th century based on his Italian counterpart, Polichinello. Though it was a popular show upto the 19th and early 20th centuries, its popularity declined due to factors including political incorrectness; for instance the protagonist who was a baby murdering wife beater was depicted as self-satisfied and pleased with his evil deeds. He is considered synonymous with pleasure or pride due to the show's storyline which has him calling out "that's the way to do it" in a gleeful voice each time he murders another victim.

Answer: Pleased as punch

5.It was expression used by highway men or robbers in England in the 17th century. When these robbers held up stage coaches, they would shout _______ & _________. By X they meant that they wanted the coach not to move and by Y they meant, the passengers should hand over all their valuables to them.

Answer: Stand and Deliver

6. "Buzzing Hornets", "Bitten Heroes", "Bitten and Hisses", "Be On Edge“. Simply Connect!!!

Answer: Names used by Benson and Hedges on their F1 Cars in countries where tobacco advertising is banned.

7. According to the Middle English dictionary entry for noumpere, the predecessor of X, which came from the Old French nonper (from non, "not" + per, "equal") meaning "one who is requested to act as arbiter of a dispute between two people"--meaning that the arbiter is not paired with anyone in the dispute.

Answer: Umpire

8. Where is this pic from?



Answer: The original oceans 11


9. What did this pic inspire?




Answer: The US Democratic Party's election symbol


10. Connect






Answer: The first is a move in basketball called "Alley Oop" which derives its name from a cartoon strip that is featured in the second visual.