2006 quizzes

  1. Raghu's Arbit Quiz
  2. Raghu's Alphabet Soup
  3. Adi's Puzzle Quiz
  4. Raghu's Lost Quiz
  5. Raghu's Session Ender

 

Lost Quiz by Raghu Kainkaryam

To view the answers select the coloured line that you see. The text is of the same colour as the background

  1. Identify X.

    Daniel Handler originally came up with X as a pseudonym to use rather than placing his real name on the mailing lists of extreme right-wing organizations he was researching for his novel The Basic Eight. When Handler began writing a series of children's books, he decided to use the name as both his own pen-name and the name of his narrating character. The X character in the books is a former theater critic who has charged himself with the task of researching and writing the sad story of the Baudelaire orphans. He traced their movements and collects evidence relating to their adventures, but apparently never meets Violet, Klaus, or Sunny in person. As the series progresses it becomes increasingly clear that X had known the late Mr. and Mrs. Baudelaire well for many years through their connections to the secret organization V.F.D.

    X = Lemony Snicket

    A Series of Unfortunate events books

  2. Connect (exhaustive) :

    Quincy, Massachusetts
    Springfield, Illinois
    Fremont, Ohio
    Staunton, Virginia
    Northhampton, Massachusetts
    West Branch, Iowa
    Hyde Park, New York
    Independence, Missouri
    Abilene, Kansas
    Boston, Massachusetts
    Austin, Texas
    Yorba Linda, California
    Grand Rapids, Michigan; Ann Arbor, Michigan
    Atlanta, Georgia
    Simi Valley, California
    College Station, Texas
    Little Rock, Arkansas

    Presidential Libraries.

    John Quincy Adams-Quincy, Massachusetts
    Abraham Lincoln-Springfield, Illinois
    Rutherford Hayes-Fremont, Ohio
    Woodrow Wilson-Staunton, Virginia
    Calvin Coolidge-Northhampton, Massachusetts
    Herbert Hoover-West Branch, Iowa
    Franklin D. Roosevelt-Hyde Park, New York
    Harry S. Truman-Independence, Missouri
    Dwight D. Eisenhower-Abilene, Kansas
    John F. Kennedy-Boston, Massachusetts
    Lyndon B. Johnson-Austin, Texas
    Richard Nixon-Yorba Linda, California
    Gerald R. Ford-Grand Rapids, Michigan; Ann Arbor, Michigan
    Jimmy Carter-Atlanta, Georgia
    Ronald Reagan-Simi Valley, California
    George H. W. Bush-College Station, Texas
    Bill Clinton-Little Rock, Arkansas

  3. The Word P ?

    P derives from the Middle English form for the popular name of the Hospital of St.Mary of Bethlehem which has been in London since 1247 and is the oldest psychiatric hospital in the world .
    Conditions here were consistently dreadful, and the care amounted to little more than restraint. Violent or dangerous patients were manacled and chained to the floor or wall. Some were allowed to leave, and licensed to beg. The Hospital became famous and infamous for the brutal ill-treatment meted out to the insane.In the 18th century people used to go there to see the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the "show of P" and laugh at their antics, generally of a sexual nature or violent fights. Visitors were permitted to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the inmates.

    In the early modern period it was widely believed that patients discharged from the hospital were licensed to beg. They were known as Abraham-men or Tom o' P. They usually wore a tin plate on their arm as a badge and were also known as P Beggars. In William Shakespeare's King Lear, the Earl of Gloucester's son Edgar takes the role of a P Beggar in order to remain in England unnoticed after banishment.

    Bedlam

    From the Bethlem Royal Hospital.


    The noise was "so hideous, so great; that they are more able to drive a man that hath his wits rather out of them"'

  4. Name Z.

    Z is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal. The photograph was extremely popular, being reprinted in hundreds of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time. Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank) did not survive the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) became celebrities upon the publication of the photo. The picture was later used by Felix de Weldon to sculpt the USMC War Memorial, located adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, D.C.

    Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

    It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. See Image

  5. Connect (exhaustive) :

    Barry Sanders (2000) Detroit Lions
    Dorsey Levens (2000) Green Bay Packers
    Eddie George (2001) Tennessee Titans
    Daunte Culpepper (2002) Minnesota Vikings
    Marshall Faulk (2003) St.Louis Rams
    Michael Vick (2004) Atlanta Falcons
    Ray Lewis (2005) Baltimore Ravens
    Donovan McNabb (2006) Philadelphia Eagles
    Shaun Alexander (2007) Seattle Seahawks

    Madden Curse.

    They all appeared on the cover of NFL Madden Football video game from EA Sports and had some misfortune the following season.

    Barry Sanders - unexpected retirement
    Dorsey Levens - cut by team, retired
    Eddie George - crucial fumble in playoffs
    Daunte Culpepper - losing record, knee injury
    Marshall Faulk - ankle record
    Michael Vick - fractured calf, losing record
    Ray Lewis - broken wrist, out for season
    Donovan McNabb - sports hernia, losing record
    Shaun Alexander - foot fracture

  6. What is W ?

    W is a form of torture. It is used to obtain information, coerce confessions, and for punishment and intimidation. W consists of immobilizing an individual and pouring water over his face to simulate drowning, which produces a severe gag reflex, making the subject believe his death is imminent while ideally not causing permanent physical damage.

    Was in the news a lot lately (Bush Administration).

    Waterboarding.

  7. The Term Q ?

    Laissez-faire is short for "laissez faire, laissez aller, laissez passer," a French phrase meaning "let do, let go, let pass." from the French diction first used by the eighteenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference. It is used interchangeably with the term Q which was originally introduced in the English-language world in 1774, by George Whatley, in the book Principles of Trade, which was co-authored with Benjamin Franklin. Classical economists, such as Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and David Ricardo did not use the term, but only with the advent of the Anti-Corn Law League did the term receive much of its present meaning.

    Free Market.

  8. Who is S ?

    The Zakhov Mission is an espionage detective novel written by the Bulgarian-born author Andrei Gulyashki in 1959. The protagonist of The Zakhov Mission is Avakum Zakhov, a Bulgarian counter-espionage operative, who foils a sabotage ploy in a small Bulgarian village close to the southern border (i.e. with Turkey or Greece). Avakum Zakhov was intended as a Bulgarian version of Sherlock Holmes : a solitary bachelor, who enjoys the rainy weather, loves to smoke his pipe by the fire, and solves detective mysteries by keen observation and deductive reasoning.

    The book spawned a series of Zakhov books, which became best-sellers. The first four books of this series have also been translated into many languages, including English, and provided the inspiration for the popular Bulgarian television series The Adventures of Avakum Zakhov.

    The most famous book by Gulyashki was Avakoum Zahov vs. S published in 1966. Who was the villain S in the book ?

    Bond .. James Bond.

  9. What invention ?

    Inoue Daisuke invented this in 1971 but never bothered to patent it, losing his chance to become one of Japan's richest men.

    Daisuke languished for years in international obscurity. But in 1999, Time Magazine astonishingly called him one of the 20th Century's most influential Asians, saying he "had helped to liberate legions of the once unvoiced: as much as Mao Zedong or Mohandas Gandhi changed Asian days, Daisuke transformed its nights."

    Daisuke was presented the Ig Nobel Peace Prize at Harvard University for his invention. The committee cited him for "providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other". He received a standing ovation after calling himself the "last samurai". These days Daisuke makes a living selling, among other things, an eco-friendly detergent and a cockroach repellent for his invention.

    Karaoke.

    Japanese for "Empty Orchestra".

  10. Identify K.

    K was a mortal woman in Greek mythology. The daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, she boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children, seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two (Apollo and Artemis). Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, Artemis killed her daughters. A devastated K fled to Mount Siphylus and turned into stone as she wept.

    Element 41 in the periodic table is named after K and is a shiny gray metal that takes on a bluish tinge when exposed to air at room temperature. Its properties are almost identical to Tantalum, which appears below it in the periodic table.

    Niobe / Niobium. See Image

  11. What is U ?

    Around 1900, seven brothers named U (family name) emigrated from Italy to the United States. They eventually settled on the West Coast in Berkeley, California and became machinists. The brothers created an aircraft manufacturing company in Berkeley called U Bros., which remained in business until 1976, although their product line changed over the years.

    In 1925, as a result of a crash of one of their planes in 1921 en route between Yosemite and San Francisco, the company turned its know-how in making hydraulic aircraft pumps to the making of a new kind of deep well agricultural pump. They revolutionized the pump industry by designing the most efficient pump of the era and received a Gold Medal at the California State Fair in 1930 for their new design.

    In 1948, brother Candido used the company's expertise in pumps to develop the product for his son who had contracted rheumatoid arthritis in 1943 at the age of 15 months. U Bros. marketed this product with a lot of success. In 1968, Roy, a grandson of one of the original U brothers, created the first outdoor version of the product. Manufacturing remained at the original Berkeley factory until 1976 when it was closed and moved to southern California.

    The trademarked U name is commonly misused to refer to any type of this product, and can thus is considered a genericized trademark like Xerox, Aspirin etc.

    Jacuzzi. See Image

  12. The term is possibly derived from the Russian for 'quickly'. Russian soldiers occupying France after the Napoleonic Wars would frequently demand that French civilians serve their food quickly, shouting the word that evolved into the neologism at the restaurant. It has come to represent a style of cooking that involves using fresh, (usually organic) ingredients to produce delicious, and nutritionally healthy recipes.

    Bistro.

  13. What product ?

    This product was originally manufactured by the Shulton Company that was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz. Schultz was interested in maintaining a colonial framework for those products and chose a nautical theme. Thus, sailing ships, in particular colonial sailing ships, were used as a trademark. The original ships used on the packaging were the Grand Turk and the Friendship. Other ships used on include the Wesley, Salem, Birmingham and Hamilton.

    Old Spice See Image

  14. Identify W.

    W is a for-profit educational institution specializing in adult education, with campuses located throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1976 by Dr. John Sperling. In early 1970’s, at San Jose State University in California, Sperling and several associates conducted field-based research to explore teaching/learning systems for the delivery of educational programs and services to working adult students.

    Since 1976, W has grown considerably, producing more than 171,000 alumni. In 1989, W was recognized as the first U.S. university to offer course work online. As of October 2006, W has an estimated 280,000 students attending via the various methods of going to school. W, originally, was based out of California. Later its main campuses were moved to its present location.

    In September 2006, W agreed to pay $154.5 million over 20 years for the right to put its name on the Arizona Cardinals' new NFL stadium, in Glendale, Arizona. This is where the 2006 BCS Bowl game is set to take place.

    W is a notable purveyor of E-mail spam.

    University of Phoenix. See Image

  15. The first and possibly only father son pair to win Pulitzer Prizes for reporting are: Malcolm Johnson and Haynes Johnson. The later won for reporting on the civil rights struggle in Selma, Alabama. The father got the award for his expose series of 24 articles which appeared in the New York Sun which formed the basis for a classic movie.

    On the Waterfront.