Quiz 17

This set was contributed by Sreeram. Please send in your attempts to sreeram.b.iyer at gmail.com or leave them as comments on this post.

1. Who in 1769 became the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the world and has the largest of the Solomon islands and a common flower named after him ?

2. In 1923, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, an ardent nationalist and historian wrote a controversial book, expressing ideas like the concept of a superior Nordic race, and the establishment of an authoritarian state which embraces both socialism and nationalism . The title of the book was the first use of a famous phrase in its current form. Which phrase?

3. Masherbrum, ______, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I.What is the missing entry ?

4. Australia were expected to win the 1992 cricket World Cup but were eliminated in the first round. An interesting banner that appeared in the crowd, read : "Germany - 1989, Russia - 1991, Australia - 1992 :Disappearing ______". Complete the quote.

5. This commonly used English phrase was first recorded in the 1932 Hemingway novel "Death in the Afternoon" . Hemingway was using a loose translation of a Spanish phrase which described the final sword-thrust in a bull-fight; the instant where the matador kills the bull. Which English phrase?

6. Penguin published a compilation titled "The truth about --- ---- : 400 facts about the world's greatest human" in last November. The subject of the book has now moved the court against Penguin, even though the contents of the book are well-known stuff that is freely available online. Who is this person ?

7. Which West African country existed for three years from 1967 and1970 between declaring its independence and being re-absorbed by Nigeria ?

8. The phrase "Illegitimi non carborundum" was used as a motto by US General Joe Stillwell during WWII. It is a mock-Latin aphorism (one created by directly translating English words into Latin) which gained popularity in the US during this era. Barry Goldwater, a US Senator and Presidential candidate hung a board with this phrase, inside his office. What was the English translation?

9. In 2007, Wikimedia Foundation which runs the Wikipedia appointed Mike Godwin as their legal counsel. Godwin is best known for the Godwin's law which states that as an online discussion (in messageboards, mailing lists, usenet etc) grows longer, the probability of something happening approaches one. What ?

10. What movement/organization has as its basis the Russell-Einstein manifesto issued in 1955 and signed, among others, by Max Born, Linus Pauling, Linus Pauling, Hideki Yukawa and of course Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein ?

11. In 1979, at the age of 21, he murdered a Turkish journalist named Abdi Ipecki and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He escaped from jail a few months later but resumed his life in a Turkish prison in 2000. As of date, he is still living out the sentence for the murder of Ipecki. Who ?

12. Rumour has it that "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was originally called by a slightly different name. The Pentagon supposedly changed it because, using it could have had embarassing consequences.What was the original name ?

13. The Trans-World Airlines flight 800 crashed near New York in 1996, killing 230 people. There was a conspiracy theory going around that the reason for crash was friendly fire and it was being covered up by the US government. Pierre Salinger, a former White House secretary, claimed, stupidly, as it turned out, a few months after the accident that he had proof the conspiracy theory was true. This incident led to the coining of a term "Pierre Salinger sydrome". What does one with this syndrome do ?

14. This European capital city was founded by Suleiman Pasha in 1614. The popular explanation for its name is that Pasha named it after an Asian city in memory of his conquests there. The Asian city is now the capital of a country in the middle-east. Wikipedia debunks this story and claims that the name of the European was in use at least half a century earlier. Which are the two cities?

Scores:

Charles Lewis 12

The Kid 8

The Human Samurai 7

Praveen 6

Arun 2.5

Vijay Krishnan-3

Answers:

1. Louis Antoine de Bougainville

2. The Third Reich

3. K2/Godwin Austen. These peaks were originally named as K1, K2, K3, K4 and K5

4. Borders, referring to the Australian captain Allan Border who himself was having a hard time

5. The moment of truth

6. Chuck Norris. See http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/ to see the stuff that he is capable of.

7. Biafra

8. Don't let the bastards grind you down

9. A comparison involving Nazis or Hitler

10. Pugwash

11. Mehmet Agca who spent the intermediate years in an Italian jail for the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II

12. Operation Iraqi Liberation which has the unfortunate acronym OIL

13. Believe what you read on the internet (which was how Salinger got his proof)

14. Tirana from Teheran