Mega-Whats 2013
Semifinal 1
Arun Hiregange & Kiran Vijayakumar
?

Written Round
- 5 questions
- 10 points each; no negatives
?

Identify the person in this spoof that
was titled something like ―Worst
Mastermind Participant‖.
W1

These artifacts are all carved out of the
same object. Name it.
W2


W2

Brazil nut fruit

W3


These are some of the 40 fibre glass
sculptures installed in Kingston upon Hull in
2010 to mark the 25th death anniversary of
their librarian from 1955 to 1985. Name
him.
W3

Philip Larkin
From Toads:
Why should I let the toad work
Squat on my life?
Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
And drive the brute off?

What connects:
- wearing special gloves containing stinging
bullet ants, in the Satere Mawe tribe in the
Amazon
- creating scars like crocodile skin on the body, in
parts of Papua New Guinea
- going walkabout, in Western Australia
- vision quests, among native North Americans
- jumping over a herd of cattle, in the Hamar tribe
of Ethiopia
and many more.
W4

Rites of passage for adulthood

Who, speaking about whom:
―When my first marriage was ending, I was
kind of down, and _______ said, ―Come on up
to Aspen‖ and taught me how to ski. We
would ski from 9 to 2, play tennis for two
hours, then be in the gym for two hours—
and she showed me what she was doing
with weights. We did this for a week. Not
many people who are No. 1 and No. 2
competitors would do that.‖
W5

Chris Evert about Martina Navratilova

Clockwise
- 18 questions
- +10 / -5 on the pounce
- +10 on the pass
?

This is the motto of positivism: L’amour
pour principe et l’ordre pour base; le progrès
pour but ("Love as a principle and order as
the basis; progress as the goal"). The
members of a military coup of 1889 were
great admirers of the founder of this
philosophy and used two bits of it in
something that was adopted soon after the
coup. What are we talking about and whose
philosophy did they admire?
1

The words ―order and progress‖ from
Auguste Comte‘s words, in the Brazilian flag

Whose wrote this poem and what was
he justifying:
Say not of me that weakly I declined
The labours of my sires, and fled the sea,
The towers we founded and the lamps we lit,
But rather say: In the afternoon of time
A strenuous family dusted from its hands
The sand of granite, and beholding far
Along the sounding coast its pyramids
And tall memorials catch the dying sun,
Smiled well content, and to this childish task
Around the fire addressed its evening hours.
2

R L Stevenson, whose family
(father, grandfather, uncle etc.) had
designed a large number of Britain‘s
lighthouses

One carries a long oar, representing the
river's navigability. One touches the Papal
coat of arms, since it is the largest river
closest to Rome. One sits on a pile of
coins, a symbol of the riches America might
offer to Europe. The fourth‘s head is draped
with a loose piece of cloth. What was the
fourth and what did its depiction signify?
3

The river Nile in
Bernini‘s fountain of
the four
rivers, shown like
this because its
origin was unknown
at that time

Identify the common line that has been
blanked out at the end of each stanza.
Not a believer inside the mosque, am I
Nor a pagan disciple of false rites
Not the pure amongst the impure
Neither Moses, nor the Pharaoh
____________________________
Not in the holy Vedas, am I
Nor in opium, neither in wine
Not in the drunkard`s intoxicated craze
Neither awake, nor in a sleeping daze
____________________________
In happiness nor in sorrow, am I
Neither clean, nor a filthy mire
Not from water, nor from earth
Neither fire, nor from air, is my birth
____________________________
4


Not an Arab, nor Lahori
Neither Hindi, nor Nagauri
Hindu, Turk, nor Peshawari
Nor do I live in Nadaun
____________________________
Secrets of religion, I have not known
From Adam and Eve, I am not born
I am not the name I assume
Not in stillness, nor on the move
____________________________
I am the first, I am the last
None other, have I ever known
I am the wisest of them all
____________________________
4

Bulla ki jaana maen koun

Who is Nitish Kumar paying his respects to
during a trip to East Champaran district in
Bihar, where Gandhiji had started his
satyagraha?
5

George Orwell

Identify the plant and
what the head-dress
(which the foliage
resembles) is made of.
6

The casuarina plant‘s leaves look like the
cassowary‘s feathers, in fact its name comes
from the Malay name for the bird: kasuari

Shown here are the second and third
instances in an exhaustive list of three. What
was the first and in what way did it differ
from these two?
7


7

Jack Nicklaus was the first
He put on the green jacket
himself, whereas the club
chairman assisted Nick
Faldo and Tiger Woods
(these are the only 3
people to have won the
Masters in consecutive
years)

This is a detail from a
doorway, showing two people making
offerings to the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
Identify both people and their offerings.
Zoomed views follow.
8


Zoomed view 1:8


Zoomed view 2:8

Emperor Justinian offering a model of the
Haga Sophia and Constantine the Great
offering a model of Constantinople
(on a gateway to the Haga Sophia)

Specifically what caused this death?
Who rushed him to the hospital in vain?
9

He was hit and killed by George
Stephenson‘s Rocket

Portuguese neurologist Egaz Moniz gets a
bad rap for the Nobel prize that he won in 1949
for developing lobotomy as a solution for certain
mental disorders.
Sadly, what is not known so well is that he had
been nominated for the Nobel prize twice earlier
for an X-ray based procedure which is commonly
in use to this day. Moniz performed the first of
these in 1927 in Lisbon.
What procedure?
10

(Cerebral) Angiography

Connect the
two paintings.
11

Dali‘s The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which
Can Be Used As a Table which refers to
Vermeer‘s The Art of Painting

This explains how to do something that
relates to gang wars of the 1970s. An impromptu
execution in 2012 prompted this description:
―akin to cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a
church‖. What incident?
12

Serena‘s crip walk

The first lines of which famous poem
were first printed with the title ―Stanza of
Anglo-Saxon Poetry‖ in a periodical for
private amusement in the mid 1800s?
Use the second line of that stanza and name
the part of this contraption pointed to here.
13


13

Jabberwocky
Gimbal

14


The previous slide shows a photograph
and a couple of sketches of men who held
very important positions in the Ottoman
Empire over centuries. These depictions
show something common to all these
men, which wasn‘t an affectation or a fad
but a physical necessity for such people.
Who am I talking of and why was it a
necessity?
14

The eunuchs who used to run the harem
Because they had been castrated at a young
age, they had low testosterone levels
leading to weak bones, hence the need for
canes and walking sticks

This city's "green liver", was in a state of
deterioration in the mid-1970s. Though it
had been designated a National Historic
Landmark in 1962, at the start of the
1980s, the city lacked the financial resources
to restore or even to maintain it. But in the
early 1980s, an idea was hatched to stage a
free event there and feed back profits from
merchandising, television, and video rights.
What resulted?
15

Hidden
in this
famous
painting is
said to be a
self-portrait.
Whose and
in what
form?
16

Michelangelo
depicted himself as
the skin of St.
Bartholomew in The
Last Judgment

Explain the
connection.
17

Baldric / Baldrick

All possible theories of what?
- A corruption of a phrase meaning third street from
Chepesyde to the great thoroughfare from London
Bridge to Bushop Gate
- From the three implements that a local company
bore in their arms
- From the two things most used by the Worshipful
Company of Merchant Taylors
- A game in which children stand in two rows, each
person holds hands with the player opposite her. The
last pair forms an arch with their hands. Then the
other players pass under the arch and re-form the two
rows
18

Threadneedle St. in London

Anti-clockwise
- 18 questions
- +10 / -5 on the pounce
- +10 on the pass
?

Two terms, representative of the
subjects, from the world of art entered the
vocabulary of European printers soon after
large-scale printing came into existence.
With the advent of computers, these terms
were soon used in a technical sense at Xerox
PARC and continue to be used today, even
more so, with the proliferation of mobile
devices. What terms?
1

Portrait and Landscape, used as
―orientations‖.
1

This term came into prominence in 1978 and
stems from the Latin for ―glass‖ because glass
containers were an integral part of the process.
There are controversies surrounding the
development of the concept associated with the
term — moral aspects of it, credit for its
development etc. Another closely associated term
is used in the colloquial sense and derives from a
type of glass container, that was supposed to be
used for the process. In reality, such containers
are not used normally for the process. Identify
both terms.
2

In vitro fertilization. Test-tube babies.2

A silk-screen portrait of the Huangshan
Mountains started it. The response was a T-
shirt with a red, white and blue, peace
emblem flag and the words ―Let It Be‖. What
3-word term would you associate with this
exchange?
3

Ping Pong Diplomacy.3

While being selected for this job, he was
asked what he would like to charge for the job.
He replied, ―Not a single penny I need. By the
grace of God, I have all things and quite happy
with my life. But I have one reservation, that on
every page I will write my name and on the last
page I will write my name along with my
grandfather‘s name.‖ This was his way of paying
tribute to the person who taught him the art. His
wish was granted and he completed the job in 6
months using 254 pen-holder nibs in the process.
Who and what job? A specimen of his work can
be seen here.
4


4

Prem Behari Narain Raizada
(Saxena) who was the calligrapher for the
Constitution of India.
4

It was developed in 1966 under a team
led by Charles Baldwin. The following
attributes were considered for the design
that is still used: (i) striking in form in order
to draw immediate attention (ii) unique and
unambiguous, in order not to be confused
with others in use (iii) quickly recognizable
and easily recalled (iv) easily stenciled (v)
symmetrical, in order to appear identical
from all angles of approach and (vi)
acceptable to groups of varying ethnic
backgrounds. What are we talking about?
5

Biological hazard / Biohazard symbol.5

This 2-word term, familiar to many
quizzers, was coined by Lord Byron in a
letter describing John Keats: ―Such writing is
a sort of ____ ____ — he is always frigging his
imagination. I don't mean that he is
indecent but viciously soliciting his own
ideas into a state which is neither poetry
nor any thing else but a Bedlam of vision
produced by raw pork and opium.‖ What
term meaning ―to engage in intellectually
stimulating conversation/activity with little
or no practical purpose‖?
6

Mental masturbation.6

X itself is a X, not in English, but in
French. Originally, it was used to refer to the
artifact shown here. Another meaning was
given to X in English in 1871. One might
expect the French to have used the same
word since it‘s already a perfectly good
word, but one would be wrong —
instead, it‘s ―mot-valise‖. Solve for X and
identify the person who gave it the new
meaning.
7


7

Portmanteau. Lewis Carroll.7


What ―contributions‖ or ―extensions‖ to
an artwork (nearly three-quarters of a
century after the original) are these?
1993 – South African born artist Kendell
Geers at a show in Venice.
1993 – Musician Brian Eno at MOMA. He
admitted that it was only a ―technical
triumph‖ because prepared in advance.
1999 – Swedish artist Björn Kjelltoft at
Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
2000 – Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi, two
performance artists, at Tate Modern (failed).
8

Urinating in Marcel Duchamp‘s
Fountain.
8

During the 1948-49 Ranji Trophy, playing for
Maharashtra against Kathiawar at Pune, B.B.
Nimbalkar made 443 not out, at the time second
only to Don Bradman‘s 452 not out as the record
first-class innings and currently fourth-highest of
all-time. Bradman sent a personal note to
Nimbalkar saying that he considered Nimbalkar‘s
innings better than his own. It remains the
highest score and the only quadruple century in
Indian first-class cricket and also the highest by a
cricketer not to have played in Test Cricket. Why
was Nimbalkar not able to beat Bradman‘s
record?
9

With the total standing at 826 for 4 at
the lunch interval, Kathiawar‘s
captain, Pradyumansinhji
Lakhajirajsinhji, conceded the match to
prevent embarrassment on the part of his
team.
9

This English term of Indian coinage may
have been inspired by a Biblical character. In the
generally accepted sense, it refers to a type of
criminal intent. Though the Indian Penal Code
does not use the term, there are multiple sections
which deal with similar behavior. The term will not
find a mention in most of the English dictionaries,
but has been used heavily in the media in recent
times. TIME magazine first mentioned it in 1960
describing it as one of the ―social problems
undreamed of in Mahatma Gandhi‘s philosophy‖.
What term?
10

Eve-teasing.10

From a Ramachandra Guha column: ‗… in 2000 the
Government decided to issue a new ―revised‖ set, guided by the
following principle: that there would be a hundred volumes, each
of 500 pages. The edifice painstakingly created by Swaminathan
and his team was dismantled; and the entries now ―remixed‖
according to the new specifications. In the process, the
illuminating prefaces written to the original volumes have been
dropped. Also missing are the maps and illustrations. The cross-
references, so carefully prepared and so indispensable to
scholars, have been rendered meaningless.‘ The original had 99
volumes: 90 volumes, each with a long preface written by the
editor, setting the material in context; 7 supplementary volumes
later added to incorporate material that had come in too late for
inclusion in the original series; and authoritative Subject and
Person indexes. What ‗edifice‘ is Guha talking about here?
11

The Collected Works of Mahatma
Gandhi (CWMG).
11

This farm is located within Prince
Edward Island National Park, Canada. It was
designated a National Historic Site of
Canada in 1985 and remains a popular
tourist attraction. What is its name? Or
identify its claim to fame—stemming from a
visit here before the turn of the twentieth
century.
12


12

Green Gables. It inspired the popular
Anne of Green Gables novels by Lucy Maud
Montgomery.
12

Connect.13

The English word ―mandarin‖ originates
from Sanskrit ―mantrin‖, meaning ―minister
or counsellor‖ and originally meant an
official of the Chinese empire.
The characters here are Tantri the Mantri
and Mandarin from Ironman.
13

A Synchrotron is a type of cyclic particle
accelerator originating from the cyclotron in
which the guiding magnetic field (bending the
particles into a closed path) is time-
dependent, being synchronized to a particle
beam of increasing kinetic energy. Edwin
McMillan constructed the first electron
synchrotron in 1945, although Vladimir Veksler
had already (unknown to McMillan) published the
principle in a Soviet journal in 1944. Show here is
a schematic for one of the most famous
specimens. What did it inspire?
14


14

The logo of CERN.14

In a September 26, 1956 Daily Mirror
article, William Connor (under the byline Cassandra)
attacked this person: ―He is the summit of sex — the
pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything
that he, she and it can ever want. … this
deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-
plated, scent-
impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-
flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love has
had the biggest reception and impact on London since
Charlie Chaplin arrived at the same station, Waterloo, on
September 12, 1921.‖ The response was a telegram:
―What you said hurt me very much. ____‖, followed by a
libel suit. After a court victory, he repeated the phrase
again. Who? What phrase?
15

Liberace. ―I cried all the way to the
bank.‖
15

Steve Wilhite recently won a Lifetime
Achievement Webby Award in recognition
of a 1987 invention. According to him, the
original pronunciation deliberately echoes
an American peanut butter brand and the
employees of the company where he
worked would often say ―Choosy developers
choose ____‖, spoofing this brand‘s television
commercials. It had a fair share of limelight
in 2012 for being ―a tool with serious
applications including research and
journalism‖. What?
16

GIF. It was Oxford Dictionaries USA
Word of the Year 2012.
16

What is the occasion?
<Video removed>
17

Jackie Robinson Day. It is held annually
in Major League Baseball to commemorate
the day Jackie Robinson made his major
league debut – April 15.
If you noticed, all players had the jersey
number 42.
17

Designed by Colin Archer and used
between 1893 and 1912. Means ―forward‖ in
the local language. Now housed in this
museum shown here. What are we talking
about? Also identify the two most famous
names associated with it.
18


18

Fram, the ship used by the Norwegian
explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald
Amundsen (and Otto Sverdrup and Oscar
Wisting).
18