Jul 31, 2012

Q.670

Eight of them have changed (again). These are named after Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj, Ramabai Ambedkar, Bheem, Prabuddha, Panchseel, Kanshiram, Mahamaya, and Jyotiba Phule. These are part of an ever-continuous game of political merry-go-rounds. What has changed?

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This day last year: Q.304

Jul 30, 2012

Q.669




This government department functions under an Act of Parliament that was created in 1962; hence it is commemorating 50 years of the Act. As part of this, this stamp was released to mark the contribution of this department to the country.

Which department? Image: Indianstampghar.com

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This day last year: Q.303

Jul 29, 2012

Q.668

In July 2012, Pranab Mukherjee was elected the thirteenth President of India. In an article, the Economic Times of India noted:
"Mr Mukherjee has never been a Congress president or PM. But his decades of activity in critical all-round roles make his exit both a structural and generation shift.

With him, the last of the Congress triumvirate - along with Rao and ____ - who formed the core team of Indira/Rajiv regimes bows out."

The other person referred to above had, like Mukherjee, held positions as Union Minister for Defence as well as Finance, before becoming President of India . Who?

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This day last year: Q.302

Jul 28, 2012

Q.667

The Olympic Week (7/7)
"Transport for London" is the government body that governs and manages various London transport systems. To mark the Olympics, they issued a map honouring three hundred and sixty one top sportspeople. Called the "Olympics Legends Map", it was designed by Alex Trickett and David Brooks.

This is a map of something iconic to London, in which the principal entities have been replaced by these sportspeople's names. What map?

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This day last year: Q.301

Jul 27, 2012

Q.666

The Olympic Week (6/7)
India is sending its largest ever contingent to the Olympics, with an 80+ member squad. The chef de mission for the squad is a former Olympian - a hockey player from the famed village of Sansarpur who won the bronze medal with the Indian team at the 1968 & 1972 Games. He also led the national team on several occasions.

But for some reason, he hasn't showed up at the Games yet, plunging the squad into unwanted controversy. Who is this?

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This day last year: Q.300

Jul 26, 2012

Jul 25, 2012

Q.664

The Olympic Week (4/7)
From a business angle, Telefónica Europe (the telecom company that uses the brand name "O2"), the British retailing group Sports Direct, and Ricoh (the Japanese electronics company) will suffer a loss of a certain kind during the London 2012 Olympics. This will be restored once the Games end.

What loss and why?

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This day last year: Q.298

Jul 24, 2012

Q.663

The Olympic Week (3/7)
The participation of Philipine van Aanholt, Liemarvin Bonevacia, and Reginald de Windt (all from Curacao), Fawaz Al Shammari, Md. Al-Azemi, and Ali Md. Al-Zinkawi (all Kuwait) and Guor Marial (South Sudan) in this year's Olympics will be quite unusual. In doing so, they will join the squad of Olympians to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics from the former Yugoslavian countries, and two sportsmen from East Timor in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

What is unusual about their participation?

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This day last year: Q.297

Jul 23, 2012

Q.662

The Olympic Week (2/7)
The second in our series marking Olympics week





This is how the medal for the Summer Olympics will look like. On the obverse (front) side, you can see a representation of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. On the reverse side is the logo of the London 2012 Games, a set of lines that symbolises "the energy of athletes and a sense of pulling together", and the River Thames.

All these medals will have purple ribbons. This is to commemorate another 2012 event. Which event?

Image: Wikipedia

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This day last year: Q.296

Jul 22, 2012

Q.661

The Olympic Week (1/7)
As the sporting world counts down to the 2012 London Olympic Games, this week of Infinite Zounds has seven questions on the topic. On your marks?

Given the history and drama that athletes like Spyridon Louis, Dorando Pietri, Abebe Bikila, the Marathon is one of the show-piece events of any Olympics, and the London Games will be no different. As is traditional, the Men's Marathon will be the one of the last medal events on the closing day.

But what other tradition will the 2012 Marathon not follow?

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This day last year: Q.295

Jul 21, 2012

Q.660

As part of an initiative to provide easier financing for startups and other small businesses in the US, the Obama Administration passed a bill to 'jumpstart' such companies.

The acronym by which the act is known is an apt nod to what it seeks to encourage, and could also be stretched to read as a compliment to someone who is usually an inspiration to many startups.

What's the acronym?

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This day last year: Q.294

Jul 20, 2012

Q.659

An integral part of the Wimbledon tennis tournament for the last many years, Rufus went missing for a few days during the two weeks of this year's tournament. He was in a car when he was kidnapped (which may not be, technically, the best term to describe his misfortune).

Rufus was found a few days later and was able to resume duties at Wimbledon once again. He usually goes to work in the mornings before and evenings after play.

Who is he and what does he do?

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This day last year: Q.293

Jul 19, 2012

Q.658




Like any surface in a top sport, the livery of a Formula One car is prime property to place a brand or advertisement. The Lotus F1 team carries a lot of names on its cars, including an anti-dandruff product.

For the 2012 British Grand Prix in July, the car took on one more name (masked by a splotch of yellow in the above image - click to see a bigger image): that of an upcoming film. A vehicle from the film was also on display during the GP.

Which film?

Image: Rich Jones/Wikimedia Commons

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This day last year: Q.292

Jul 18, 2012

Q.657

Being a Mormon, he was obliged to serve two years serving the Mormon faith by helping to spread its word. This brought him to England, where he was asked to train other preachers. He was young and didn't know if he could train other leaders.

He soon found out he was rather good at it. Who?

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This day last year: Q.291

Jul 17, 2012

Q.656




(Click to see a bigger picture)

This cool poster was commissioned by a Hollywood production house to celebrate its hundredth anniversary. DKNG, the design firm, came up with this design, consisting of icons depicting a hundred of its best films.

Which studio?

(Image: DKNG Studios)

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This day last year: Q.290

Jul 16, 2012

Q.655

Wafaa was a 2008 Hindi film thriller that had reviewers gleefully reaching out for the phrase "highly forgettable". It was largely marketed as being the comeback vehicle (tank?) of a former star. A crime thriller, the story was about a woman bumping off her husband and dealing with the consequences.

Both the leads (i.e. the actors playing the wife and the husband) have been in the news in mid-2012; the movie's plot now evokes irony and tragedy in equal measure.

Who are these actors?

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This day last year: Q.289

Jul 15, 2012

Q.654

TIME Magazine's July 16, 2012 issue caused more than the average flutter in India, with a cover story on its Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dubbing him "The Underachiever". However, this was the cover page only in the Asian edition.



This was the cover for the European edition. Who does everybody love to hate?

Image: TIME.com

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This day last year: Q.288

Jul 14, 2012

Q.653

Among the five, the first three are lucky enough to have names. The first one (known since 1978) is called "Charon", a boatman of the dead in Greek mythology. The next two were found together, in 2005, and are called "Nix" (the mother of "Charon" and the goddess of night) and "Hydra" (the mythical nine-headed serpent).

The last two have the eminently boring identifiers of "S/2011 (134340) 1" and "S/2012 (134340) 1", denoting when they were found. "S/2012 (134340) 1" was located in July 2012.

What are these five?

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This day last year: Q.287

Jul 13, 2012

Q.652

Count Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees died in Scotland in June 2012. A socialite and author, he was considered to be quite a 'character' and ladies man. In 1960, while working at the College of Arms, he collaborated with another author on the latter's fiction book (published in 1963). He even inspired some elements in the book, lending some of his bon vivant ways to that book's hero. He also coined that hero's family motto.

Which beloved fictional character did he thus influence?

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This day last year: Q.286

Jul 11, 2012

Q.650

At the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, what will be common to the squads of Liechtenstein, Belarus, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and the Russian Federation, but perhaps not Switzerland?

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This day last year: Q.284

Jul 9, 2012

Q.648

Something is common to the way all these photos have been shot. All these were posted online on a Google+ page between April to June 2012. So what's special to the way they've been taken?





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This day last year: Q.282

Jul 8, 2012

Q.647




The Flying Wallendas are a family that have been indulging in crazy acts for about a century. Examples include trapeze acts without safety nets, human pyramids, and other high-wire acts. Nik Wallenda, a seventh-generation Wallenda, thought nothing of getting into safer professions such as accountancy or feeding sharks. Here he is, successfully crossing something in June of 2012 by walking a tightrope.

The authorities in charge of the place were at first opposed to the idea, not wanting to encourage such stunts, but finally gave in. Over what did he walk?

Image: Brendan Bannon/The New York Times

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This day last year: Q.281

Jul 7, 2012

Q.646

What unusual fact connects the song "Keh Ke Lunga" from "Gangs of Wasseypur - I" with songs such as:
  • "Chokra Jawan Re" - Ishaqzaade
  • "Dhan Te Nan" - Kaminey
  • "Ek Lo Ek Muft" - Guru
  • "Doli Mein Bithai Ke Kahar" - Amar Prem
  • "Yeh Raat Yeh Chandni Phir Kahan" - Jaal

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This day last year: Q.280

Jul 6, 2012

Q.645

The company redesigned the logo for its main product and revealed it in early 2012. This was co-designed in partnership with a design firm called Pentagram. The exercise began with the question by Paula Scher of Pentagram: "your name is ____. Why are you a flag?".

This eventually led to a change in the core element of the logo, something that's been around for almost two decades. Which logo?

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This day last year: Q.279

Jul 5, 2012

Q.644




This is a photo of Liu Yang with her husband in tranquil, domestic settings. With which divine vessel (nothing to do with her kitchen) was she associated with for thirteen days in June 2012?

Image: Xinhua/China.org.cn

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This day last year: Q.278

Jul 4, 2012

Q.643

Atlassian is an Australian software company. In 2005, they began holding internal innovation days that became a popular example of the 'hackday' concept. These 'Days' were named after a company in an unrelated business area, because the whole concept had to be conceptualised, created, and coded in a day.

In May 2012, the other company, though flattered, asked Atlassian to stop using this name.


Which is this other company?

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This day last year: Q.277

Jul 3, 2012

Q.642

What is common to these superstars, seen in this visual?





Images: Wikipedia

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This day last year: Q.276

Jul 2, 2012

Q.641

This graphics image format was introduced by CompuServe in 1987, and thus is completing 25 years this year. It uses LZW compression and is one of the few file formats to support animation. Which format?

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This day last year: Q.275

Jul 1, 2012

Q.640

This 1981 Oscar winner for Best Picture is being re-released in Britain this year in July - the reasons are obvious. Which film is this?

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This day last year: Q.274