The Ghost from the Grand Banks

Complexity can arise from the simplest of things. What is this particular variant called?

NTPC Electron 2009 Delhi Round - Review

NTPC Electron was held this time around amidst a significantly larger participation from various colleges in and around Delhi. Although the number of engineering colleges was still few (around 4), there were still 48 teams from Management colleges, ensuring nearly double participation as compared to last year.

The QM was Ramya Mudaliar of 3XUS. Keeping in mind that last year’s event (Read review here and here) was a pretty run-of-the-mill business quiz, the expectations were not very high. But the quality of the quiz surprised quite a few and was highly appreciated by everyone. The prelims consisted of 25 questions which were mainly on business, current affairs and entertainment. Decently workable and interesting, and the kinds where you feel like kicking yourself upon hearing the answer.

The finals were short, with 3 direct-and-pass round and 2 buzzer rounds. The standard of the quiz was impressive, and most questions got the appreciation of the finalists as well as the audience. Although it started off as an evenly fought quiz, one of the teams from IMT Ghaziabad ran away into an unassailable lead after a few rounds.

High Points of the Quiz: Quality Questions, Great hospitality on the part of NTPC and PMI with free food and snacks, very good prizes, listening to NTPC's anthem.

The not-so-good part: Although both NTPC and 3xus were very professional in organizing the event, the only sore point was the refusal to disclose answers and cutoff prior to the start of the finals.

Finalists: 2 teams from IMT Ghaziabad, 2 teams from FMS, LBSIM and NSIT (Abhinav Ghosh and yours truly).

Teams to Qualify for the National Round: Both teams from IMT Ghaziabad and NSIT.

Some questions from the Prelims

1. ID the machine whose patent diagram was shown.
Bowling Pin Setup Machine

2. Company started in the 1930’s by a small time entrepreneur who saw an advertisement of a cigarette brand while itching for a smoke in a Bombay restaurant.

3. While Kishore Kumar won 5 filmfare awards for best male playback singer between 1980 and 1985, who won the 1981 Filmfare for best male playback singer?

4. First used in Kerala in 1982, machine consists of a control unit and processor. Utilizes a unique ID number to count and store the details. A red LED lights up after storing complete. Give funda.

5. Video of Dancing Queen, from Mamma Mia. ID the person with long hair playing the piano.

6. Launched on 26 July, 2009, certain tradition is followed in association to these ‘things’. Some Korean person was the protagonist of one such launch as well. What was launched and what is the tradition?

7. Started by James Crossley in the 1850’s after finding sailors/seamen suffered from acidity.

8. Prancing horse: Ferrari :: Running Horse: _________

9.'Its just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. It is not a fact. It’s an opinion. It is not a declaration. It’s a dare.’ What follows?

10. Connect















11. ID Person and why was she in news?

Q. Connect: (funda will do)

Hint - Indian freedom movement...........(hoping leftmost pic seems obvious and well known)

One Shot

Who's the person to the right? Give me all three if you feel like it. :-)

Answer: Thats Paul Wolfowitz to the right. Colin Powell to the left. Schwarzkopf in the centre.
Cracked by SaiG, Mrinalini, Paritosh, Partha, Shuleo, Roshan, prez, Crazyunltd, Sanchit Juneja, Saakshi.

Bill Gates 20 years from now? Hmmm...

Who's this and what does he do?

Answer: Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google.
Cracked by Navin Pai, Sai G, and my_space.

Flying bull, anyone?

This is a sculpture designed by X and is called Y. It is said to be representative of Z & A, both of which are figuratively represented in the sculpture. Give me everything.

Answer: Y: What you see might not be real, X: Chen Wenling, Z:Bernie Madoff, A: The NYSE Bull.

Source: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/a-sculptors-bully-revenge-against-madoff/
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/a-sculptors-bully-revenge-against-madoff/
Answer: Cracked by parth, paritosh, Sudhakar Gupta, Ankita, crazyunltd, mit. Crack almost completely by Navin Pai, myspace and CQC.

Mythical Connect

Identify the first image and connect the two.

Cracked by Pravin Sharma, brilliant answer!!!

Answer - The first pic is Amphisbaena and it was spawned from the blood that dripped from the Gorgon Medusa's head as Perseus flew over the Libyan Desert with it in his hand.

Connect

Answer: Cracked by Kuldeep.

The first pic is of Diogenes of Sinope, a philosopher, who is shown walking around town with a lamp in the daytime, trying to find an honest man. The Diogenes project (or Wizards project) was conducted by Paul Ekman, to study the ability of people to detect deception. The few people who were able to detect lies with very high accuracy were labelled "Truth Wizards". The second pic is of Monica Raymund, who plays Ria Torres (a natural or Truth Wizard) on the TV show "Lie to Me". The show is inspired by the work of the Dr. Ekman.

Peer-reviewed

Tell me what you know about this. Or more precisely, from where can I download the paper whose partial abstract is shown below?

Answer: This is one of the papers generated when the 'Emergency Button' on the right-bottom of the PHD comic strip is clicked.

Points to Arnab, achals, crazyunltd and avneeth.

Headless Man !

Identify the woman, and the guy subjected to some brutal MS-Paint editing.

Answer :



Funny man Rowan Atkinson and 'Hindu' wife Sunetra Sastry.