Monday 16 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–474

A guessable one for the day.

What

What world-famous structure, designed and built by architect George Wittet in the Indo-Saracenic style, currently stands at this location, which is seen before the construction in this photo from 1905?

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

***

Eight answers, and all but one are correct. This is indeed the place where the Gateway of India would be built!

Thursday 12 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–473

A very easy one for today.

Who

This newly-unveiled statue in Tokyo shows agricultural scholar Hidesaburo Ueno, a noted contributor to Japanese society as a professor at the University of Tokyo, with his pet. Identify the canine.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

***

Eleven replies, and all of them correct. This is indeed Hachiko, the dog who waited for his dead master at the train station for 10 years!

Wednesday 11 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realm–472 [NSFW/NSFL]

A connect, after quite some time.

1. a. The profession itself does not matter. Concentrate on the disease.

Plague doctor

b. Losing consciousness for a short span of time.

Fainting

c. Focus on the profession, please.

Palestinian beekeepers collect honey at a farm in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip...Palestinian beekeepers collect honey at a farm in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, April 9, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: SOCIETY)

d. The emotion matters

Connect these to a single person. Chances are that you won’t need a hint, but if you do, here’s an event:

Massacre

You may also consider a number of this event’s namesakes as hints.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

***

Three replies from two people, and both guys are correct! The connect is indeed St Valentine, whose day is coming up soon. Valentine is the patron saint of not only love but plague, against fainting, beekeeping, epilepsy and affianced couples, amongst other things. The photo is one of the several Valentine’s Day massacres that have taken place over the centuries.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–471

Another workable one for the day

Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah 7

The photo above is that of the Dugway Proving Ground, a US Army facility in the state of Utah. On October 15, 1991, an an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray was detected over it.

As Wikipedia puts it: “The particle was traveling very close to the speed of light—assuming the particle was a proton, its speed was only about 1.5 femtometers (quadrillionths of a meter) per second less than the speed of light, translating to a speed of approximately 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 9951c. At that speed, in a year-long race between a photon and the particle, the particle would fall behind only 46 nanometres, or 0.15 femtoseconds (1.5×10−16 s); or one centimetre every 220,000 years.”

It also adds: “The speed of the particle, if it was a proton, is so high that it would experience relativistic time dilation by a factor of about 320 billion. At that rate, the particle could have travelled for the entire duration of the universe's existence while experiencing less than 16 days subjective time.”

Surprised scientists gave it a name that many may see as a nod to the Higgs-boson. What’s the name?

***

Two answers, and Ali seems to have not had the patience to read the full question. Santanu is correct, though. This is indeed the Oh-My-God particle.

Monday 9 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–470

A workable one.

What

The photo above shows something created by E A Johnson in 1965 at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, United Kingdom. Quite ahead of its time, the concept was soon adopted by air-traffic controllers in the UK, and remained in use till the 1990s. Today, a large chunk of mobile phone users encounter this technology regularly.

This was the first example of what? And it’s really easy to work out from the image, despite its quality.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

***

Three answers, and all correct! This is indeed the world’s first touch screen.

Sunday 8 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–469

A relatively easy one for the day.

When

As most people know, Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo created the famous characters of Asterix and Obelix. At the peak of their creativity, they churned out albums of these beloved characters at a rate of one every six months. However, after Goscinny’s death in 1977, Uderzo brought out albums at an increasingly slower rate, till transitioning to retirement.

These days, Uderzo still does the occasional sketch, depending on a situation or to highlight something. The sketch above falls in the above category. On what specific occasion, or as a tribute to whom, was it drawn?

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

***

One answer again, and Abhinav Vaid has nailed it. This is indeed Uderzo’s tribute to the “Charlie Hebdo” cartoonists after the terror attack on their office.

Thursday 5 February 2015

QR–Cure–Quizzing Realms–468

Aaaand we are back after nearly a week!

Who

This image is of the cover of a book whose name, as well as that of the author’s, is amply clear. Kerry Wendell Thornley, a United States Marine, wrote the manuscript of this book in 1962, but it was lost. It was rediscovered in the 1990s, and printed for the first time only then. The story is about “a disgruntled marine who defects to the Soviet Union”.

The interesting thing about the book is, Thornley based this book on a fellow marine. The book turned out to be the first to be written about or based on this individual, and a full year before he gained global notoriety. Identify this marine.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

***

Ali has the only answer, and he is correct! The marine is indeed Lee Harvey Oswald, who would would go on to kill US President John Kennedy in 1963, a full year after the the book was written.