Apr 30, 2014

Q.1308

Based on a guest question by Vaibhav Bajpai | contribute questions

Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Altay and Primorsky Krai are four Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for gambling in Russia. Russia has proposed a fifth such SEZ aimed at making a particular region economically independent as it is facing a huge fiscal deficit.

Which region?

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This day last year: Q.943

Apr 29, 2014

Q.1307

The American rapper Wale is expected to release his fourth album in the 2nd half of 2014 - it's called "Album About Nothing". With which famous entertainer (not known to be a musician) will be he collaborating on this?

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This day last year: Q.942

Apr 28, 2014

Q.1306

The world of Virtual Reality headsets came into mainstream prominence with the acquisition of the American company Oculus VR by Facebook. The Japanese tech giant Sony also announced its own VR headset project.

The project's name comes from the Greek god of dreams, but many people are likely to think of a character from a famous film series that fits in with the same world. What is the name?

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This day last year: Q.941

Apr 27, 2014

Q.1305

This type of beer was only produced in Europe, until the first American version was made available for sale in Jan 2014. Brewed by residents at the St. Joseph's Abbey, what type of beer is this?

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This day last year: Q.940

Apr 26, 2014

Q.1304

Except for a little 1 km stretch, this Indian state had no railway connectivity. In 2014, it gots its first real train service, with railway lines and a passenger train from Harmuti (in Assam) to Naharlagun, which is very close to the state's capital.

Which state's capital is thus (almost) on the railway map of the country?

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This day last year: Q.939

Apr 25, 2014

Q.1303

In 2008, Liverpool-born Andy Burnham became the British Secretary in charge of Culture, Media, and Sport. This was the 3rd appointment to the post in 8 months, as a result of which the opposition did not waste any time pointing out the need for stable management, using some examples.

Mr. Burnham, in response, remarked in passing: "Mr. ____ ____ is probably a fine example to everybody in Government of stability and making the right decisions for the long term". Why is he unlikely to repeat this statement in April 2014?

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This day last year: Q.938

Apr 24, 2014

Q.1302

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is the former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan and the leading candidate in the 2014 Presidential elections of that country. What personal quirk associated with him seems to have happened due to reasons ranging from the insistence of Western newspapers, a misinterpretation at a news conference, or because of his own choice as he is sufficiently westernized to see the need for it?

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This day last year: Q.937

Apr 23, 2014

World Book and Copyright Day 2014 - a quiz!

We're hardly anything without books. We grossly under-rate their importance to us (as we do air, water, and human companionship). So it's nice to have a World Book and Copyright Day to celebrate this almost universal love for books. People say books are in danger: we don't think so, they are just evolving.

Anyway, on the occasion of this Day, here's a little book quiz based on TIME magazine's 2007 list on the 10 best books of all time. We're sure you have your own take on such lists, but that shouldn't prevent you from taking this challenge on. Go on, identify as many of them as you can. Tell us, via our Twitter or FB page, how much you got. Keep reading!




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Q.1301

A guest question by Vaibhav Bajpai | contribute questions

An artist's works were first revealed in 2013 when a hacker infiltrated email accounts of his family members. An institute in Dallas, Texas is hosting an art exhibition from April to June 2014, titled "The Art of Leadership" displaying the artist's portraits of renowned world leaders. One of his paintings is a portrait of Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh (shown below).

Who is this artist?

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This day last year: Q.936

Apr 22, 2014

Q.1300

Considered India's best demographer (a person who studies population statistics), Ashish Bose passed away in April 2014. In an article in the 80s, he coined the acronym "BIMARU" that came to stand for the lack of development in North India at that time.

What did the acronym stand for?

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This day last year: Q.935

Apr 21, 2014

Q.1299

In April 2014, India's I&B ministry announced the country's National Film Awards for films from 2013. "Ship of Theseus" was voted the Best Feature Film of the year. One of its lead actors is Neeraj Kabi, whose performance as a non-violent Jain monk was much lauded.

Kabi also appeared in a new TV project that aired on Rajya Sabha TV, an Indian channel, beginning from Mar 2014, that portrays the events during one of India's most significant political chapters in its modern history. What project, and what role does he play?

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This day last year: Q.934

Apr 20, 2014

Q.1298

In February 2014, the Indian designer Rahul Mishra became the first Asian to win this international fashion prize. To qualify for the prize, a designer must enter a clothing collection made from at least 80% merino wool; Mishra's fabric added silk to wool.

Which company awards this prize?

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This day last year: Q.933

Apr 19, 2014

Q.1297

Guest question by Aniket Khasgiwale | contribute questions

In 2002, when PWC's consulting arm was being spun off, it was announced that it will be called "Monday," drawing a variety of interesting comments. However, the name change never happened as IBM bought the consulting business.

PWC is again in the news for its quirky renaming of a consulting firm which it acquired in 2014. What is the new name of this consulting firm (with a 100 year history) that has been acquired?

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This day last year: Q.932

Apr 18, 2014

Q.1296

Currently, this country's flag is blue, with four stars (red with a white outline) and containing the flag of another nation on its top left. Its Prime Minister has announced a referendum (sometime in the next couple of years) on changing it, preferably to include something more representative of the country, such as a silver fern (but may be not a black cap).

Which country?

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This day last year: Q.931

Apr 17, 2014

Q.1295

Based on a guest question by Vaibhav Bajpai | contribute questions

In a fictional world of surprisingly realistic economics, "House Rules" constitute free-form regulations for managing money. They constitute a range of creative ways to inject new funds into the economy thus making them closely aligned with those of actual financial markets.

After decades of existence, the company known for driving this artificial economy has turned to crowd-sourcing for debating 10 such rules for their usefulness like "Free Parking", "Frozen Assets", "Cash Advance", "Property Boom" etc. The top entries will find their place in the new draft of regulations in 2015.

How do we know this fictional world of surprisingly realistic economics in the real world?

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This day last year: Q.930

Apr 16, 2014

Q.1294

15 April 2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the tragic Hillsborough incident, when 96 Liverpool supporters were killed during an FA Cup semi-final versus Nottingham Forrest at Hillsborough. To mark this incident, all English Premier League matches on the weekend of 13-14 April observed a minute's silence.

But why did all these matches start a full seven minutes late?

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This day last year: Q.929

Apr 15, 2014

Q.1293

"Inam" is a Tamil film directed by Santosh Sivan, and released in March 2014. The movie ran into trouble with some groups soon after its release, leading to its producer voluntarily withdrawing it from theatres.

The film's poster shows a blood-stained fingerprint which is in the shape of the film's main subject. What shape?

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This day last year: Q.928

Apr 14, 2014

Q.1292

In March 2014, physicists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced finding evidence that pointed to the existence of 'gravitational waves', which supports the 'cosmic inflation' theory which postulates events in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang.

The Economist newspaper headlined its article about this announcement: "_____ flexes its muscles". What was the blank, and why?

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This day last year: Q.927

Apr 13, 2014

Q.1291

Based on a guest question by Rajib Phukan | contribute questions

In Mar 2014, news of this unusual 'strike' drew attention when a group of Ukrainian women appealed for it against Russians. The practice of this kind of 'boycott' is over two millennia old, first noticed in "Lysistrata", a comedy about Greek women during the Peloponnesian War. Something similar also took place in Japan in Feb 2014, with a group of Japanese women using it to protest against the possible election of a Tokyo governor.

What is this?

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This day last year: Q.926

Apr 12, 2014

Q.1290

In Feb 2014, Nicholas Ashton (also curator of the British Museum) announced the results of research the age of something that he had co-discovered at the English archaelogical site of Happisburgh. They had thus found the oldest imprint of human metatarsals outside Africa.

This is a complicated way of saying he had found the oldest traces of what?

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This day last year: Q.925

Apr 11, 2014

Q.1289

Tim Draper is an American venture capitalist who, in Feb 2014, began collecting votes for a proposal to split the US State of California into six smaller states, to make them more effective and governable. Four of these proposed parts are North, South, West, and Central California.

Of the other two, one gets its name from the famous Californian region that Draper comes from, and the other is the name of the US's third President. What are these proposed names?

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This day last year: Q.924

Apr 10, 2014

Q.1288

A guest question by Ashutosh Bapat | contribute questions

A micro-financing institution lends small amounts of money to small businesses at cheaper interest rates. Often, they raise money in the form of bonds, which are tradable loans. Though, these institutes deal with money, they are not banks, which enjoy more freedom when it comes to accepting deposits. At the onset of the 2014-15 financial year, an Indian micro-financing institution, was granted a banking license by RBI. Which institution?

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This day last year: Q.923

Apr 9, 2014

Q.1287

Based on an idea by Prasanna Narayanan | contribute questions

The Red Road Flats were constructed in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 60s, and were meant to provide low cost housing. At one time, these were one of the highest buildings in Europe, and controversial for everything from the nature of the construction to the high rates of crime in the area.

Partly demolished in 2012, a proposal was made to demolish the remaining flats on 23 July, 2014, which was dropped after public protests. If it had gone through, why would have millions of people watched this demolition in a live telecast?

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This day last year: Q.922

Apr 8, 2014

Q.1286

In the early part of 2014, this Hindi language film (which released in Jan 2014) was ranked the worst movie on the online movie database IMDB. This was partly attributed to a concerted effort by voters from Bangladesh to give it a bad rating, as they were upset by claims made by the film that their country was born out of a war between India and Pakistan in 1971 (instead of crediting a Bangladeshi independence struggle).

Which film?

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This day last year: Q.921

Apr 7, 2014

Q.1285

A guest question by Vaibhav Bajpai | contribute questions

The Italian company Luxottica sells fashion accessories such as Ray-Ban and Oakley. It signed a deal in March 2014 with a technology product maker that could pave the way for a new market in smart wear. As part of the deal, the company will be designing, developing and distributing new versions of the product from the technology company.

Which technology product?

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This day last year: Q.920

Apr 6, 2014

Q.1284

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will contest elections from the Vadodara constituency in Gujarat. Since 1991, this seat has always been won by the BJP (except in 1996).

The winner of the 1991 election rode a political wave and a cultural phenomenon, that swept India a few years before; both were associated with the temple town of Ayodhya. If one of these waves was the Ram Mandir agitation, what was the other phenomenon, and who was this MP (a lady)?

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This day last year: Q.919

Apr 5, 2014

Q.1283

The social media site Twitter was 'banned' in Turkey for a bried period from March to April 2014. During this ban, otherwise routine pictures released by the Turkish football club Galatasaray of the team's players warming up before a match were interpreted as a sign of protest against this ban.

What did these pictures show?

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This day last year: Q.918

Apr 4, 2014

Q.1282

A guest question by Sameer Dharur | contribute questions

Renowned wildlife and marine photographer Justin Lyons' 2014 interview to Australia's Channel 10 was the subject of much discussion among enthusiasts of the field. In this he spoke of an event from 2006:

"I panned with the camera as it swam away and I didn’t know it had caused any damage. It was only when I panned the camera back that I saw him standing in a huge pool of blood. It was a jagged barb and it went through his chest like hot butter. He calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying.' And that was the last thing he said."
What incident is being referred to?

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This day last year: Q.917

Apr 3, 2014

Q.1281

Forbes magazine loves to make lists of people - the Midas List is one such, which was first announced in 2011. 2014 list's featured Jim Goetz as #1 and Marc Andreessen as #2. What is this list about, and what specific business event propeled Goetz to the top?

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This day last year: Q.916

Apr 2, 2014

Q.1280

In 1914, the baseball teams New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox played at this Southern Hemisphere venue. In 2014, the first two games of the US Major League Baseball series were held there. This required the location's remarkable transformation into a baseball diamond without affecting the hallowed centre.

What is this famous ground?

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This day last year: Q.915

Apr 1, 2014

Q.1279

see last week's quizletter

A guest question by Vaibhav Bajpai | contribute questions

In March 2014, the Godmother of Punk, Patti Smith joined hands with the Icelandic singer Bjork for a benefit concert titled "Let's Protect the Park" in Iceland. The concert was a protest against the Icelandic government's proposed changes to conservation laws for construction of new dams and power plants. The concert was also associated with the premiere of a 2014 film shot extensively in Iceland.

Which epic movie's premiere was associated with the concert mentioned above?

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This day last year: Q.914