Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Queuriest - VII

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QUEURIEST - VII
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
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1. Sitter (Flier?) to start off. Which bird features on the flag of Papua New Guinea? Clue: Milton flies!
*

2. What's dentinology the study of? If you know the answer, then definitely you are a dentinologist!
*

3. If beauty is measured in Helens, what is measured in dols?
*

4. Which English author's middle name was Klapta? Yeah, out of three...
*

5. Charles Dickens: Mystery of Edwin Drood :: Douglas Adams: _________?
*

6. What would you have if you had diastimia? Don't grin so much, it's not that evident if you don't!
*

7. Which rock star is nicknamed after a hearing-aid? Maybe he lives on the edge....
*

8. Where would you find the Mountains of the Moon?
*

9. Which country has the Internet domain extension .il ?
*

10. Who or what is a Hoosier? Clue: Mr. Jones!
*

------------------------------
Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloody hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires...
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From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Jan 31, 2003 4:13 pm
Subject: Queuriest - VII

Welcome to episode 7 of Queuriest.

sorry for the long delay. (for excuse, please refer answers to previous episode :-) ...and hope none of you have developed queuriest-withdrawal symptoms! ;-) just kidding...

no google-bashing this time around. but hope that does not mean less responses . ( i've noticed whenever i google-bash, more replies pour in! ). be good.

luv
thomas


ANSWERS
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From: "SonOfDelphi"
Date: Fri Feb 7, 2003 6:43 pm
Subject: Answers to Queuriest - VII

hi there!

34 responses in all.

low-scoring affair all-round. average score was 3. = questions tougher?

Quote of the Episode: Who needs google?! by Shom Biswas.

luv
thomas

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QUEURIEST - VII
Keep Guessing - Johnnie Guesser
-------------------------------------------------------

1. Sitter (Flier?) to start off. Which bird features on the flag of Papua New Guinea? Clue: Milton flies!
* Bird of Paradise. Many got real specific with Kumul.
The clue made it pretty obvious I guess. I wonder if this is the only flag with a bird on it...

2. What's dentinology the study of? If you know the answer, then definitely you are a dentinologist!
* It's the study of collections and/or their naming.
Answers varied from knowledge to morality. The clue was a dead give-away? just kidding...this was answered correctly only by a handful...

3. If beauty is measured in Helens, what is measured in dols?
* Pain is measured in dols
Ugliness was a common response.

4. Which English author's middle name was Klapka? Yeah, out of three...
* Jerome Klapka Jerome.
Sorry for the error in the question where it was Klapta instead of Klapka. Was a tip of the slinger...No, it was not an anti-google measure (google corrects it automatically! i checked)

5. Charles Dickens: Mystery of Edwin Drood :: Douglas Adams: _________?
* The Salmon Of Doubt.
Mystery of Edwin Drood was the unfinished novel of Charles Dickens, when he died.
Prasenjit Sengupta said that Salmon Of Doubt was in fact completed by DA and it is due to be released this year
QM: I believe the book being released is only a collection of pieces by the author. It is named so after the Salmon Of Doubt, an unfinished story by DA about Dirk Gently I think.

6. What would you have if you had diastimia? Don't grin so much, it's not that evident if you don't!
* Diastimia is the gap between your front teeth.
Not too many dentists in here?
OK...now you may GRIN! ;-)
that it had something to do with teeth was universally worked out.

7. Which rock star is nicknamed after a hearing-aid? Maybe he lives on the edge....
* Bono (Paul Hewson) of U2
Definitely he lives on The Edge, U2's guitarist! Aerosmith/Steve Tyler was a popular guess 'cos of the Living on the Edge song interpretation of the clue. A googly?
PS: Boss (Headphone)--> Bruce Springsteen
QM: also accepted though it's a different story!

8. Where would you find the Mountains of the Moon?
* Africa.
Ruwenzori mountain-range between Uganda and Congo was referred to as Mountains of the Moon by Ptolemy 'cos these had snow.
had some answers about them being referred to in a Grateful Dead song also...many answers mentioned palm/knuckles also...

9. Which country has the Internet domain extension .il ?
* Israel is the correct answer...and .ps is Palestine...
Iceland and Ireland were common guesses

10. Who or what is a Hoosier? Clue: Mr. Jones!
* Resident of Indiana.
Mr.Jones supposed to remind you of Indiana Jones. Lots of you worked it out as farmer (from Animal Farm - Mr.Jones? ) good work though incorrect.
Can anybody tell me where a Moonraker is from? I don't know the answer myself.
+I : Buckeye - Ohio, Lett - Latvia, Carioca - RioDeJaneiro

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Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloody hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires...
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The scores (in chronological order):

1. Indraneel Sikdar - 2 (DA has written plenty of other books)
2. Shashi Thutupalli - 3 (congrats on dentinology)
3. Shashi Shekar - 1 (go to the dentist ok, but why?)
4. Prasenjit Sengupta - 4 (it's coming out this year? yay!)
5. Shiraz - 7 (no it was not an anti-google measure)
6. Mamatha Balasubramanian - 1.5 (nice guesses)
7. Vinay Sriganesh - 0 (I think IM rocks too)
8. Arjun Siva - 4 (first to crack diastimia)
9. Prakash Pillai - 5 (nice effort)
10. U Damodaran - 5 (sorry I don't know the origin either)
11. Vijay Krishnan - 4 (are you from calicut?)
12. Raghav Narayanan - 3 (nice work)
13. Sourabh Issar - 1(keep guessing!)
14. Rahul Chattopadhyay - 6 (solid effort)
15. Shom Biswas - 2 ( Thanx for the compliments man! and sorry the clues misled you! ;-) never mind!)
16. TalonX the Surreal - 2 ( What's not! )
17. B. Sreeram - 4 (Sreeramnesia! )
18. Bhaskar Singh - 4.5 (native of indiana expected)
19. Arun Prashanth - 2 (Both great answers!)
20. Ranjith - 4 (Keep on answering...)
21. Minhaj Alam - 2 (use the clues!)
22. 666 - 2 (Beast, what thy name? ;-)
23. Anand Sivashankar - 3 (cool show dude)
24. Mahesh Nair - 5 (can't give it for missing tooth)
25. Bharat Jayakumar - 3 (Stellarantagonophile maybe?)
26. KrisSriram - 3 (some answers not specific enough)
27. Ian Anderson - 8 (Tull the first one!)
28. Debashree Mitra - 3 (dictionary ok i guess)
29. Prithwiraj Mukherjee - 1 (thanx for enlivening the quiz!)
30. Syam Prasad - 4 (hotPOP next time!)
31. Sivaramakrishnan - 3 (Have u read 3 Men on the Bummel, the sequel?)
32. Kamal - 5 (solid effort)
33. Biswabijoy Sen - 3 (Keep guessing! Outrageously..u r welcome!)
34. Partha Sengupta - 3 (Boss was great work)


--------STATS ----------------------------------------------

Funnest! -
Pestering neighbour on Hoosier
A Know-it-all on Dentinology
Cheek pain on Diastimia
Go to a dentist on Diastimia
hmmm on Mountains of the Moon.

Ridiqulest!
Mystery of Columbia on Doug Adams
"Hoosier means nothing actually. It can be used as a substitute word depending on the situation. It is basically a Hoosier word!" on Hoosier.
Blue teeth! on Diastimia


Guessest!- nice guessing
Study of quizzes on Dentinology
Stain on teeth on Diastimia
Study of unusual words on Dentinology
GK Chesterton on Jerome K Jerome

* Most popular wrong answer: Ireland/Iceland on .il
* All questions were answered
* Ian Anderson tops the quiz with 8 points
* Average score : 3
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Friday, February 10, 2006

God From The Machine

A calque is an expression introduced into one language by translating it from another language. For example, "'superman' is a calque for the German 'Übermensch'".

An interesting calque that I came across recently was "deus ex machina" meaning "god from the machine". For the trivially inclined, it is a calque from Greek to Latin! It refers to the use of supernatural plot elements in works of art to explain things or solve seemingly unsolvable problems.

We have all seen and experienced this in Hindi movies where towards the climax, when the helpless widow is with the villain..and the situation is hopeless.... the wind starts blowing all of sudden and prayer-bells start ringing and suddenly the villain is knocked down... as a result of the lady-in-distress's or her child's praying in a temple!

That's deus ex machina in play.

Friday, February 03, 2006

On Deja Vu

déjà vu (French: "already seen") describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously.

jamais vu (French: "never seen") refers to explicitly not remembering having seen something before. The person knows it has happened before, but the experience feels unfamiliar.

presque vu (French: "almost seen") means almost, but not quite, remembering something.

(Content based on Wikipedia)

Easy Pie

A rhyming mnemonic that enables one to recall "pi" to several decimal places:

Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
In mystic verse
And magic spelling . . .

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Lizard

Another poem on the lizard. Do I really like lizardsso much?

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THE LIZARD
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I play the waiting game
Patience’s my middle name
Eyes unblinking
Hope unsinking
I know the prey will come my way.

Not heeding the Medusa stare
Comes the fly with haughty air.
Turn to stone
Its flesh and bone
Soon I’ll have had my way.

- Thomas Jay Cubb


Notes
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1. According to Greek mythology, Medusa was a Gorgon who could turn you into stone with a look. The hero Perseus conquered her and cut off her head by looking at her reflection.
2. For my tongue has gone its way?