Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Question #463
Connect
Answer
(Quoting from Shrey) : “While JFK was serving in World War II, his boat was hit by a Japanese destroyer and his crew was stranded in the Solomon Islands. They were found by two natives, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, and Lieutenant Kennedy carved this Coconut shell with a message and gave it to them to deliver to the PT base at Rendova so he and his crew would be rescued. He later had the coconut shell encased in wood and plastic and used it as a paperweight on his desk in the Oval Office, and it can now be seen at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum”
Question #461
Guy on the left was a believer in X, and donated a lot of money for its research. However, X (and consequently the old guy’s dreams) was ripped apart by the 3 guys on the right. Complete answers welcome, but keywords will do I guess.
Answer :
McDonnell Douglas and his belief in ESP were shattered by James Randi and his associates, Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards.
Question #460
X was a system developed by the Soviets. While the date of its creation (and its continued operation) are still in question, X is perhaps an apt summary of the sheer insanity that prevailed during the height of the Cold War.X is a textbook doomsday machine, designed to operate long after the Soviet Union had perished in a nuclear strike. By using an array of sensors to detect a nuclear strike, X would “automatically” launch missiles in response(where though, is beyond me). It is as yet unknown if this system is fully automatic or semi-automatic (huge difference, that).
If X really exists, I guess the Mayans knew what they were talking about after all.
X = ?
Answer:
The Dead Hand
Question #459
Answer :
Inspired the Bild Lilli dolls, which in turn was the basis for Barbie.
Question #456
First customers of a rather old product (X)-
Well, the guys on the left werent direct customers, but an earlier model of what they frequently used had X in it. In 2010, the makers of X launched a viral marketing campaign which had a rather kick-ass goalkeeper named Victor.
X = ?/Company that made X = ?.
Answer :
Gorilla Glass. Do try to get one past Victor! (He’s as good as the product though :P)
LVC 4 – Question 6
What is being described?
Trained at : Castle
HP : 48, 60 (Elite)
Attack : 9, 14 (Elite)
Armor : 0
According to the history given, these crazy guys undid Charlemagne’s work in reuniting northern Europe.
Answer : Berserker
Cracks from Shrey Goyal, Mithilesh and Varun Karthik.
Also, Shrey Goyal cracks the LVC on this one!
LVC 4 – Question 3
Have done my homework on this one. Connects to only a single person. Neat interpretation of clues required.
Lone crack by Varun Karthik. Brilliant stuff, maga!
So here’s the funny thing. I was looking for a question that would connect to Stanislaw Ulam. Quite accidentally, as Varun Karthik’s answer shows, it does connect equally well to John von Neumann. Since it was the general funda I was going for, I grant him full points on this one.
Varun’s answer – ” Image 1: Poster of the Movie “Monte Carlo”. Image 2: British Mathematician John Conway. Image 3: Archimedean spiral
Connection: Professor John Von Neumann
The name Monte Carlo method, a class of mathematical algorithms was coined by John Von Neumann.
John Conway is currently the John von Neumann Chair of Mathematics at Princeton University.
John von Neumann and Archimedes both worked on approximation of the value of Pi.
Archimedes developed the polygonal approach. John von Neumann was part of the team who used computer for the first time to approximate the value Pi.”
Answer : Same interpretation of clues. Except, John Conway also worked on cellular automata (Game Of Life, for example), which was something pioneered in parallel by Ulam and von Neumann. The Monte Carlo method was also co-discovered by Ulam and von Neumann. Ulam is also credited with the Ulam prime number spiral.
Intricate Ramblings 