Monday, June 01, 2009

What's Happening?

When I began this blog, I had planned to post quizzes regularly. That idea got kind of lost along the way. So here's a quick set of 10 questions, based mostly on current events. Take a shot.

1. Miguel Muñoz Mozún was the first to achieve this feat in 1960. On 27th May 2009, Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola became the 6th person to do so. What?

2. It made its debut on May 25, 1992. On April 26, 1999, it began broadcasting in HDTV, becoming the first show of its kind to be shot in high definition. It regularly featured Ross the Intern and Tom Green. Its theme music, "Kevin's Country" was composed in 1992. Recurring segments include “99 Cent Shopping Spree” and “Teenage Wasteland”. It ended on 29th May 2009. What?

3. X is the only company that supplies Y in vials having volumes of 5 ml, 7.5 ml, 20 ml, 50 ml and 80 ml. Only one man in the company knows the formula for making Y - its quality control manager. And he does it behind a secure, locked door and alone. It is estimated that over 400m people have come in contact with Y, in 2009 itself. X and Y please.

4. There have been many instances of suspect nomenclature for virus outbreaks such as the recent case with H1N1 being called Swine Flu. A similar outbreak in 1918 affected an estimated 500 million people, or one third of the world's population (approximately 1.6 billion) at the time. Also called La Grippe, it originated in continental US, BUT was named after X, a neutral country in WWI, which had no special censorship for news against the disease and its consequences. Hence the most reliable news came from X, giving the false impression that X was the most—if not the only—affected zone. Identify X.

5. Recently, AT&T came under fire for offering free texting services and instructions on how to send blocks of text messages, at certain events in Arkansas. While this would seem like a good strategy normally, it is said to have skewed a recent event unfairly. What happened?

6. Started by Jack Dorsey in 2006, recent events such as “Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN” and “I Was Here Before Oprah”, have catapulted it to worldwide fame. What?

7. The first of its kind was opened in Boat Quay in 1992 by an American Investor. Current CEO Mohan Mulani persuaded the owner to let him buy into the company in 1993. Today, there are over 30 all over Singapore. Nick Leeson, of Barings Bank fame, was one of its famous patrons. Identify.

8. Ahmadabad, Kanpur, and any three out of Noida, Patna, Assam and a combination of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Khandh. What connects these places in the context of 2010?

9. A recent sale, held by in Paris the auction house Néret-Minet Tessier, featured many items that have become synonymous with this person’s performance, including his top hat (which sold for about $4,500) and a white sailor suit with a striped shirt and a too-small jacket (which fetched about $8,000). A Paris court had ordered the sale, which was expected to raise about $420,000, to pay for debts left by X when he died in 2007. Who?

10. Google's interface is available in 116 languages, but some of them are extinct, artificial or invented languages. Among the invented languages are Bork, Bork, Bork!, Elmer Fudd and X. X was conspicuous in its absence from something recent. It was first devised by James Doohan. Gilgamesh, Hamlet, Much Ado about Nothing are the three books published in this language. What’s the good language?