Researched and conducted by

Balasubramanyam Pattath

Many thanks

Acknowledgements

Gokul S

Aastha Mathur

Stephen Fry

25 Questions

Questions 1,5,10,15,20,25 are starred to resolve ties

In cases of starred questions having 2 parts, both answers need to be correct to qualify for the star

8 teams get through to the finals

Blanks are indicative and unless specified, surnames will suffice.

Look out for italicised phrases, emboldened words and inverted commas as they are clues.

No googling or other unfair practices pls.

All the best.

1* ______ ______ literally "waves of

nightingales", (alternately Indian or Punjabi banjo) is a string instrument from India and Indian and Pakistani Punjab which evolved from the Japanese taishōgoto, which likely arrived in South Asia in the 1930s.

FITB, the first word being the name of the bird shown and the second word meaning wave.

Bulbul Tarang

2 It is sometimes called the Chrysanthemum Dog,

a name that originated in England because of the dog’s face resemblance to the beautiful flower because its hair grows outwards from the centre of the face. Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Brooke Shields have been some of the popular owners of this breed whose name means lion dog.

Which breed, the name of which also serves as a pun on a variant of the phrase ‘I’m not kidding’?

Shih Tzu

3 Competitors can use only the ‘equipment’

provided by Fennolingua. Competitors can choose the equipment that fits best to his/her hand or looks the nicest. There are two opposing camps who constantly debate whether heavier or lighter provides an advantage.

What championship am I talking about?

Mobile Phone Throwing Championship

4 The name comes from two words meaning

disgusting and smooth. Usually rare in its own universe, it is based on a species which has also been deemed endangered due to rampant conversion of its lowland forest habitat into farm lands and is dubbed the “panda of the plant world” as well as corpse flower.

What name?

What species?

Vile(disgusting) Plume(smooth)

Rafflesia Arnoldii

5* Who are the only two Americans to have their

birthdays observed as national holidays?

George WashingtonMartin Luther King Jr.

6 Somebody wanted to “look like a bulldog“ for a

certain portrayal. Who for which portrayal?

Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone; The Godfather

7 The program is a collaboration between the

Dutch National Police and raptor training company Guard From Above. It uses the abilities of trained eagles to prevent privacy and security issues arising out of the use of something that is now becoming quite popular and was first used unsuccessfully in India by Francescos' Pizza of Mumbai.

What are the eagles being trained to do?

To catch drones

8 ___________ syndrome is a psychiatric factitious

disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves. The syndrome's name derives from Baron ___________, a literary character loosely based on the German nobleman Hieronymus Karl Friedrich. In 1785 German-born writer and con artist Rudolf Erich Raspe anonymously published a book in which a heavily fictionalized version of Baron tells many fantastic and impossible stories about himself.

FITB

Munchausen Syndrome

9 This originated when enslaved labourers working

in sugar beet fields in the Dominican Republic who were connected to one another by a chain strapped to their ankles had to walk in such a manner so as to drag one leg.

What form of entertainment?

Dominican Merengue

10* For the first four days of production, the cast and

crew were put under a movie boot camp comprising eight films whose tone was to be emulated in the 2008 movie; these were King Kong, Citizen Kane, Cat People, Stalag 17, Black Sunday, A Clockwork Orange, Heat and ______ ______.

FITB.

For which movie?

11 Their names are based on a pun on an 18th

century coffin maker. X is clearly a homage to Indiana Jones and Y was an inspiration of Tom Selleck from Magnum P.I.

Identify X and Y

Image in next slide

Chip n Dale from Chippendales

12  A company named Biomatiques Identification

Solutions has introduced a technology in Tirupati. This is quite apart from RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) ear tags, neck tagging with transponders, branding using hot iron or freezing methods, paint and tattoos which pose health hazards. This has been launched along the lines of the Digital India initiative of the Central government.

What technology and intended for?

UID, Retina Scans for Cows

13 A 90 minute movie was made in 2009 as a

response to oft used remarks by critics, the description of which is: “The most boring movie ever made.”

What was it titled?

Paint Drying

14 Pictured is a battacchio, commonly used instead

of doorbells, mounted on the doors of houses. When struck, the battacchio produces a loud smacking noise, though little force transfers from the object to the person being struck, thereby producing a lot of effect with little effort.

The name of what style in entertainment is derived from the English for battacchio?

Slapstick

15* When they were first brought in for the job, they

were largely made up of students working part-time. By the 1920s, those in New York City were known worldwide, but were not well-liked due to their reputation as "sardine packers". In ‘Bugs Bunny Hurdy Gurdy Hare(1950), Bugs performs a similar action and says “I used to work on the _______ from Times Square to Grand Central”

What job?

Subway Pushers/Oshiya

16 A mnemonic to remember tibialis

posterior, flexor digitorum longus, posterior tibial artery, tibial nerve, and flexor hallucis longus, the order of the tendons from anterior to posterior at the level of the medial malleolus just posterior to the malleolus is also a critical plot point in a famous 1963 movie.

What mnemonic?

Tom, Dick and Harry, The Great Escape

17 The origin of the phrase has been attributed to

the appointment by Conservative Prime Minister Robert Cecil of his nephew, Arthur Balfour, as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1887. The phrase carries a positive connotation as well as one hinting towards a dash of nepotism.

Which phrase?

Bob’s Your Uncle

18 Who, with the help of Mark Twain in 1904,

graduated from Radcliffe College and became the first person in a list to earn a bachelor’s degree?

Helen Keller

19 X is an award-winning co-executive chairman and

national creative director of Ogilvy & Mather India. His recent book’s name is a play on the capital of Hell.

Name the book.

Pandeymonium

20* X recreating an image of Y.

Give X and Y

Image in next slide.

Ai Weiei Recreating Aylan Kurdi

21 Charles Assissi writing for the Mint:

I am not suggesting here that all of the content... is rubbish. There is some compelling content. But the hype around it and the overwhelming amount of nonsense that has infiltrated the portal offers a strong case to give up...There is no easy way out, but to read more and listen in to livelier, deeper conversations.

If that sounds like hard work, then turn to ..., a “monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers”, as described by the globally acclaimed statistician and author of Black Swan, Nassim Taleb.

What ‘monstrosity’ is he talking about?

TED Talks

22 This phrase means

that people will move to communities that offer better amenities at better costs, and they will move away from communities that offer less desirable amenities at higher costs.

Which phrase?

Vote With Your Feet

23 Its function has been debated for over a century. In the

19th century, Charles Darwin’s explanation of sexual selection is widely but not universally accepted. In the 20th century, Amotz Zahavi argued that it was a handicap. The American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer tried to show, from his own imagination, the value of the spots as disruptive camouflage in a 1907 painting. He was roundly criticized in a lengthy paper by Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote that the placement of the blue hues were strategically done to blend and not obliterate with the blue sky.

What am I talking about?

The Peacock’s Train

24 A report on Notre Dame football players in 1952

by Life magazine drew a lot of public attention and led to an inclusion in other contact sports which has now become a standard. The report highlighted a prominent bodily absence caused through injury which was prevented during the 1920s using cotton, tape, sponge, or small pieces of wood but was soon abandoned as it was too cumbersome and reduced focus.

What was included as a necessary accessory in contact sports?  

Mouthguards; The players did not have incisors

25*  A study by George Washington University

scholar Javier Lesaca finds that scenes from western action movies like American Sniper, and graphic first-person footage which mimics the style of violent, popular video games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty are used, ditching the grainy monologues that had become a characteristic.

What am I talking about?

ISIS Videos

Cutoff for the open Quiz prelims was 10,Highest was 15