General Quiz...

Hi friends

This quiz I compiled out of the news I managed to read in the last few weeks. It may actually be boring, so please bear with me.

1) "This is the end game of the end game. Checkmate already happened on the 29th of March" says Tendai Biti. What is he talking about?

2) The name of this country comes from the Taino word for the entire island of Hispaniola, Ayiti, which reportedly means "Mountainous Land." The French staked their claim on the entire island based on the settlement of Tortuga and Gonave Islands by French pirates in the 15th and 16th centuries. During the French colonial period, the colony earned the name “La Perle des Antilles” ("The Pearl of the Antilles") due to its economic importance. It is one of the most impoverished nations on earth and the least-developed in the Americas, largely due to political instability and repeated episodes of violence. It now ranks 146th of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index (2006). It is the only country in the Americas on the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries. Which country am I talking about?

3) This term is more commonly used as a political metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents or campaign contributors. This usage originated in American English with reference to gifts of salted ____ in a ____ by slave-owners to their slaves. Which term?

4) "This is a really big deal. A Peabody is like an Oscar wrapped in an Emmy inside a Pulitzer. It's the Turducken of awards", said the famous comedian X on winning the international Peabody Award for excellence in radio and television broadcasting . Who is X?

5) "I was worried I wasn't going to make it... I was pinned down by sniper fire at the Burbank airport", was how Y put her visit to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. Who is Y and what was she jokingly referring to in that statement?

6) "Enough is enough", said Z, father of C, stating that he will not pursue further legal action following the jury's ruling in the inquest into the death of his son and a very famous English lady. Who are Z and C?

7) "P's great career therefore ended with a virtual performance, something sad but inevitable", says Leone Magiera, P's longtime pianist and conductor, revealing that P lip-synched his final public performance at the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Who is P?

8) October 10, 2006 was declared "___ ______ Day" in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star. The actor has paid more visits to the country than any other major Hollywood star and spends hours on end with fans in the country. His public relations tour of Japan last spring to promote one of his action flicks included a trip on the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo, during which he had his photo taken with more than 100 fans. During that trip, he told the press he wanted to shoot the next installment in the action series in Japan. The Association noted that he is the first Hollywood star to receive this honor. Who is this jumpy star?

9) During the 2008 Democratic Presidential primary election, a prominent member of the Democratic party labeled Hillary Clinton's tactic of using negative politics against rival Barack Obama as the "Tonya Harding" option. I gave out the name as I felt it would make things easy. The question is - Who is Tonya Harding and what is her claim to fame/infamy?

10) This movie is a 2008 short film by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders. The film explores Qur'anic motivation for terrorism, Islamic universalism, and Islam in the Netherlands. The film's title comes from the Arabic word which is used to describe "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial". Which movie is this?

11) A particular 10 seconds of the French folksong "Au Clair De La Lune" recorded on April 9, 1860, was in the news recently. This was declared to the oldest recording of a noise/voice ever made. This recording predated the 19 recordings that Edison made in 1878 (These were the olsest ones so far). Edison and his associates created the recordings to study a particular noise, and the Edison National Historic Site in New Jersey has stored themso far. What did Edison record?

12) This logo had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston. The creator of the logo, Gerald Holtom, says about it "I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad". He persuaded the campaigners that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. And this baby was born! Question: How do we know this symbol better? (It is shown below)

13) Gun fu is the style of sophisticated close-quarters gunplay seen in Hong Kong action cinema and in Western films influenced by it. It often resembles a martial arts battle played out with firearms instead of traditional weapons. It may also be described by other terms such as bullet ballet or gymnastic gunplay. Question: This director originated this style in the Hong Kong film "A Better Tomorrow" in 1986? He continued to make several classic heroic bloodshed films, all featuring gun fu, and all starring the same leading man. That hero, wielding a gun in each hand became an iconic cinema image around the world. Who is the director and the famous hero?


14) “Russia will take steps aimed at ensuring its interests along its borders”, said Sergei Lavrov, the present Russian Foreign Minister. Why was he threatening this way?


15) “I really feel very sad the government demonizes me. I am just a human, I am not a demon”, said X about the way the Chinese government has been treating him for the last 50 years. Who is he?


16) This 79-year-old British physicist posited the existence of a subatomic particle nicknamed "the God particle" 40 years ago. He now says its discovery will come within two years and says in jest, “I'll just have to ask my general practitioner to keep me alive a bit longer”. Who is this?

Hope you enjoy the quiz. Answers will be posted in the comments section in a few days. Please do not reply to it in my mail or anything. I will inform when the answers are put up.


Varun.