Questions from Trivia Night @ Purdue

I thought that there is absolutely no quizzing here in the USA. But I found out that there is something called the National Trivia Association that conducts quizzes throughout America. But quizzing here is a lot different than quizzing back home. There no such things as 'college level' quizzes. The quizzes (or trivia) as these people call it, are held in pubs, restaurants and bars...
I went to one such restaurant where NTA had organized a quiz. The questions were ok, but mostly fact based. Most of them were related to the US (history, people etc) which I found pretty tough..But I managed to find an American team-mate and we managed a humble tenth place amongst 30 odd teams.

Here are some of the questions :

1. Which rockstar is named(or nicknamed) after element with the atomic number 80.
2. How old was Boris Becker when he won his first ever Wimbledon title?
3. What career record of Babe Ruth did Sammy Sosa break?
4. Which country did Lennox Lewis represent at the 1988 Olympics?
5. The name of which famous race-track in the US comes from the name of a famous battle fought during the American War of Independence.
6. In poker, what poker hand follows 'four of a kind'?
7. There are only 13 American cities that play all the four major games (American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey). Name 10 of them!
8. Which city located in Syria is considered to be the oldest city in the world?
9. In which year was the Micheal Jackson 'thriller' video released?
10. Which American state borders all the five great lakes?
11. The Inca civilization is said to have thrived on which mountain range?
12. Will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo are three members of this four member band. Who is the fourth?
13. Identify these people :






(No connections or something...just identify..LOL..but it was tough...I didn't know Sheldon Cooper's real name!)

There was an audio round(name the song title)...10 songs...I was able to identify only 4 :
Feel Good Inc. (Gorillas), Wake me up when September ends(Green Day), Skater Boy (Avril Lavigne) and New Divide (Linkin Park)

Quiz of the day

Identify and connect.

1. This company, which originally started off as a metal workshop, was founded in 1912 by Tokuji Hayakawa in Tokyo. The name of the company comes from the name of one its initial products, the Ever -______ mechanical pencil. Today, the company is known for a different range of products altogether. Identify the company.

2. This company headquartered in Newbury, England, is Britain's third largest company and the largest company in terms of revenue in its particular sector. The name of the company is an acronym of voice data ______. Identify the company.

3. This company was established in 1919 in Shanghai by Cornelius Vander Starr, who was in fact the first westerner to sell ____ to the Chinese. The company was forced to move out in 1949 as Mao Zedong led the advance of the Communist People's Liberation Army to Shanghai. It is now headquartered in New York.

4. This company is a provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting.Its three lettered name, comes from the Gaelic word meaning 'oneness'. Identify the company.

Enjoy.....

1. An easy connect...

2.  With which sea creature would you associate the terms Porpoising and Spyhopping ?

3.  A highly prestigious trophy…

4.  What does this picture signify  ?

5. Identify....

Ole....Ole....Ole....The Spanish Armada Conquers Africa,,,,

1. Identify the sportsman and his remarkable achievement.

2. Connect

    Telstar, Tango, Azteca, Etrusco Unico, Questra, Tricolore, Fevernova, Teamgeist.

3. Identify the famous personality.

4. What does this map depict ?

5. Connect:

    Standard Oil of New Jersey, Standard Oil Company of New York, Standard Oil of California, Gulf Oil,   

    Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo Persian Oil Company.

6. What is common between these players ?

      

   

                                  

Ole....Ole....Ole....The Spanish Armada Conquers Africa,,,,

1. Identify the sportsman and his remarkable achievement.

2. Connect

    Telstar, Tango, Azteca, Etrusco Unico, Questra, Tricolore, Fevernova, Teamgeist.

3. Identify the famous personality.

4. What does this map depict ?

5. Connect:

    Standard Oil of New Jersey, Standard Oil Company of New York, Standard Oil of California, Gulf Oil,   

    Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo Persian Oil Company.

6. What is common between these players ?

      

   

                                  

First quiz of the monsoon season....

1. In which movie did Dolby Digital Surround Sound make its debut ?

2. Identify the personalities and and their feat.

3. Which is the only indian organisation to be a part of the FIFA 2010 World Cup sponsors ?

4. Why is this restaurant unique ?

5. Who is the youngest player to have scored an international goal ?

6.  Identify this famous personality and why is he in news ?

7. Name the organisation that had the following logo originally before adopting a new one.

 

Quiz of the day - 9th April 2010

Q.1) This was one of the biggest April fool pranks in recent years. This pic was posted on the organization's website. Identify the organization that has supposedly been acquired by the Walt Disney company...

Q.2) Identify this organization that came into the news recently due to a controversial video released by them.

Q.3) Identify this device which was first patented in 1879. (Modern day versions of this device look totally different!!although the essential components are similar...)

Q.4) Blue origin (logo in pic) is one of the few companies that have ventured into the business of commercial space travel. Which business tycoon is the owner of this venture?

Q.5) This painting titled, "Awaiting the reply" depicts which iconic event that involved two relatively unknown locations : Follhummerum Bay in Ireland and the Newfoundland village of Heart's Content in North America?

Q.6) In a recent interview, X remarked : “I was right out of college, spending a summer at home. I had an Apple II, so I took my brother out into the parking lot of our old high school and made him run, jump and climb, and that video was the basis for Y.”

Identify X and Y.

Bizarre @ IIMB

Here are the questions of Bizarre from the house of Derek O'Brien and Associates. The questions follow the predictable pattern of other O'Brien quizzes - short questions with tricky answers. Enjoy!!!!

Q.1) Which is the most highly used liquid in the pharmaceutical industry ?

Q.2) Which city has largest deployment of rooftop solar water heaters in India?

Q.3) We all know what a blog is...but what is a flog?

Q.4) In 1846 what was sold to Maharaja Gulab Singh for a sum of 7.5 million rupees?

Q.5) Whose motto is "the capitalist tool" ?

Q.6) Identify the company from this latest advertisement.


Q.7) According to the ad agency veteran Al Ries, what is the most important thing for a product in relation to marketing?

Q.8) Everyday, the world listens to this 1.8 billion times. What?

Q.9) What are the Arabic names for Spring and Autumn?

Q.10) What are the Blue Ocean strategy and the Red Ocean Strategy?

Q.11) What is the first Chinese company to be a sponsor at the Olympic Games?

Q.12) In this year's republic day parade, 12 people from Maharashtra represented their state in the tabluex. What was common between those 12 people?

Q.13) This tourist city whose literal translation means 'Younger Daughter's Town' was presented as a dowry to the younger daughter of Rukmangada, the chief of Sakrepatna. It is also known as the land of coffee. The main headquarters of the Indian chain, Coffee Day is also located here. Name the place.

Q.14) According to new government regulations, what is to be done with the carcasses of big cats after they die?

Q.15 ) Which famous Indian company did the first finance minister of Pakistan co-found?

Q.16) Which was the most pirated book in the world in 2009? (In fact, this book holds the record for more than 5 years in a row)

Q.17) Identify the singer...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjFH6yZ8LIA.
(Im sitting in office right now...so i decided to paste the link rather than download it, convert it and upload it..)

Q.18) Who are the T-shirt sponsors for the Manchester City football club?

Q.19) Which indsutry in India is the largest harvester of solar energy?

Q.20) What device did Adam Smith use to explain the division of labour in his landmark book, The Wealth of Nations?

Q.21) After Saffron, which is the most expensive spice in the world?

Q.22) Which train (as in a group of trains) is the fastest in the fleet of trains currently operating under the Indian Railways?

Q.23) We all know what is monopoly. But what is monopsony?

Q.24) Identify the logo.



Q.25) What is the title of this book? (six blanks)\




Q.26) What is the significance of this place?





(The questions from the Corporate Quiz in my next post...)

Quizzes at IIM Bangalore

They say that Bangalore is the intellectual capital of the country. Justice was made to this fact by two stunning and highly entertaining quizzes at the Indian Institute of Management this weekend. The first quiz was simply titled "the Corporate Quiz". The quiz was only for corporates. This was my first ever foray into an out and out corporate quiz. Our team sounded like a formidable one (Oracle + Texas Instruments) but didn't live up to its name! LOL!!! The quizmaster was Mitesh Agarwal, popularly known as the practising quizmaster(remember, he won the ACM Bangalore quiz last week). The prelims were absolutely fantastic...TQC Style workoutable questions. But the final was a lot geeky and meant for pure bred corporate quizzers. I was left absolutely clueless in most questions. There were 30 questions in the prelims with 19 as the cutoff. We got something around 13.

The second quiz was titled, "Bizarre", an Open Business Quiz organized by Derek O'Brien and Associates and conducted by Derek himself. Derek is a strict guy and very specific about his rules. The quiz started bang on time. Unfortunately, Derek did not allow me to participate competitively (even though i pleaded to him personally)since I was late by 5 minutes and I did not possess 2 other team-mates. Anyway, I spent my time enjoying the quiz as a third person and it was one hell of an experience. The quiz was absolutely fantastic! The best thing about the O'Briens' quizzes are that they are totally logical. These guys focus on common sense more rather than out and out thoroughbred knowledge. And that is what I like about them. Quizzing needs to transform from a geeky activity to a fun activity. I hope we manage to produce more like the O'Briens who can take this form of popular quizzing to the masses.

Judging from a purely cognitive point of view, the entire quiz was damn easy. But the questions were damn tricky as well. After attending the entire quiz, I was sure as hell that if team Blitzkrieg had participated in this quiz, it could have easily come 2nd or 3rd. (and won ourselves a few lenovo laptops and some 70k prize money :) ). The finals were conducted at the amphitheater and Derek was at his scintillating best. The quiz was amazing fun. (I am repeating this again and again to give justice to this event :D). I really enjoyed the parts when Derek snubbed those ultra-geeky quizzers on stage who wanted to boast off their knowledge by saying stupidly weird things when the answer was oh-so-simple.

Quizzing is not all about asking questions and answering them. It's also about entertainment, fun and something which everyone can enjoy...

I'll put up all the questions on my next post...

ACM Bangalore Computer Quiz 2010

Quizzing is indeed one of my passions. I justified this fact by finding for myself a quiz in my very first days at Bangalore :). It was the inaugural ACM Bangalore Computer quiz. They plan to hold it annually now. Thinking that computer quizzes were my forte, I went to the Taj Residency(another reason for attending the quiz) to take part in this quiz. However, the level of the quiz proved to be way over my head. In fact, I had just managed to get 2 questions correct in the 20 question prelims (the cutoff was 10). However, the final round proved to be relatively easier and I knew the answers for quite a few questions. It was an open quiz. Most of the finalists were famous (in the Bangalore quizzing circle) quizmasters themselves! Here are some of the questions...


Q1. What unique feat connects Chorme, Droid and Nexus One?

Q2. Who recently said, "The "//" after the colon in Web addresses, was unnecessary. "

Q3. Which famous personality credited with the development of a file system in Linux was convicted for the murder of his wife?

Q4. If Firefox:Gecko and Safari:Webkit then IE: ________

Q5. Jane Silber will become the CEO of which company in March 2010?

Q6. _______________ is a neologism that posits a form of repetitive strain injury caused by the frequent use of the thumb(s) to press buttons on PDAs, smart phones, or other mobile devices

Q7. J. Allan Toogood a _____ programmer once said, "God is Real, unless declared integer." Give the funda.

Q8. Developed by Ludicorp, a Vancouver-based company, this service emerged out of tools originally created for Ludicorp's Gmae Neverending, a very famous MMORPG. Identify the service.

Q9. what is the claim to fame of the V838 Manocerotis (as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope)?


Q10.What is the claim to fame of this music album by ABBA?


Q.11 Identify the product.




Q12. Who is the person and what is the claim to fame of this device?


Q13. What is this? ("Give the funda"- in the words of that quizmaster)



Q14. What is this device and what's special about this?



Q15. Who is he and what is his claim to fame?


Q16. Connect...









Q17. Intel recently posted a $10,000 bounty on eBay for someone who could provide it a copy of teh April 19, 1965 edition of the Electronics Magazine. Why?

Q18. Connect/Explain.