2014 Nov 30th - Q121

"Throughout the year, retailers would often record poor sales, and only in the holiday season would they receive considerable profits. By virtue of old accounting practices, red ink was used for denoting negative amounts in the record book, while black ink was used for the positive amounts."

The previous paragraph shows a plausible explanation for a phrase, which recently crossed-continents to the UK. What phrase?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Black Friday

2014 Nov 30th - Q120

What Chinese government practice, existing for the past two millennia, is finally going to stop, according to their Government spokespersons? The practice can be connected to the following picture.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Monopoly over Salt - the image shows the proposed Dandi March Memorial, to be made in Dandi.

2014 Nov 28th - Q119

The TIME magazine said on the 26th of November, that Narendra Modi was leading on its poll for the annual TIME Person of the Year, ahead of Vladimir Putin and the Ferguson protestors. Who was the last Indian to be crowned Person of the Year by the magazine?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Mahatma Gandhi - infact, he has been the only Indian to receive the title so far.

2014 Nov 27th - Q118

In 2009, Barack Obama had his first subject, after being elected as President of the USA. The subject was Courage, who was raised in California. Across the years, Obama's other subjects have been Apple, Cider, Peace, Liberty, Cobbler, Gobbler and Popcorn. Recently, his subject in this action was Cheese, from Ohio. Generally, all his subjects are Breasted White. What are these subjects, and what does Obama do to them?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The turkeys involved in the annual National Thanksgiving Presidential Pardon

2014 Nov 25th - Q117

In the movie Big Hero 6, the protagonist Hiro, with few of his older brother’s classmates, are taken to the house of their slacker colleague Fred. As Fred seemed to be an imbecile, the gang is shocked to see that he lived in a mansion, with a personal butler. Fred gives them a quick-tour of his place, and points to a portrait of his family on the wall, which is shown in the next slide. What is unique about this painting?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Stan Lee’s animated cameo - Big Hero 6, loosely based on a Marvel Comics series of the same name, featured Stan Lee’s cameo as Fred’s father in the portrait. Stan Lee appears once again in the movie, during the end-credits.

2014 Nov 25th - Q116

If you were given options to go for Oba and Eba, Tiba Tuque and Esquindim, or Vinicius and Tom, what would you most likely be doing?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Voting for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 Mascots names

2014 Nov 24th - Q115

Shown is the logo of the soon-to-start FIFA Club World Cup 2014, to be held in Morocco. What feature of Moroccan architecture is the orb [or the coloured sphere] on top of the logo meant to resemble? 

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Zellige terra cotta tilework

2014 Nov 23th - Q114

These mammals are a very common heraldic symbol in Iberia, representing primary towns of the former Crown of Aragon. Currently, two teams in top-flight Spanish football possess this in their logo, and both teams are of the same city. One of these, recently, planned to alter their logo by raising the forelimbs of the mammal. Though it was a small change, apparently, this resulted in an American company suing the football club.

Name the mammal, the American company, and the sued football club.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Valencia CF, sued by DC Comics, for alledgedly "copying" the Bat logo [of Batman] - this seemed absurd as Batman was established around twenty-years after Valencia got the Bat in their logo. Sevilla is the other football club.

2014 Nov 19th - Q113

If the Korean news agency Yonhap is to be believed, South Korea has planned to raise five-hundred billion dollars from the public sector for a certain cause. This is to be done without raising taxes. For what cause is the five-hundred billion dollars being collected?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> For a possible unification with North Korea.

2014 Nov 18th - Q112

In 1962, Herbert A. Baker filed a patent for the 'instrument', whose patent diagrams are shown in the picture below. Though it was then a failure, this 'instrument' made a come-back in 2003, thanks to Chinese inventor Han Lik. Name the 'instrument'. Also, what four-letter word can be used to describe what a person is most likely to do with the 'instrument'?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Electronic (or e-) cigarettes. The term is 'vape'.

2014 Nov 18th - Q111

The basic layout consists of multiple triangles, connected in a weaving pattern inspired from the Torres Strait Islander population, who used coconut palm leaves for the pattern, as shown below. Connecting and passing through these triangles are dotted curves, resembling the Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal legends. The weaving also forms few fish, representing the Dhari [pictured below], a Torres Strait Islander headdress.

What has been described in the previous paragraph?

The weaving pattern on coconut leaf

The Dhari headdress

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The G20 Australia logo

2014 Nov 17th - Q110

Shown in this video, released by Otherlab, is the research taking place in DARPA's Maximum Mobility Manipulation (M3) program, supported by the National Science Foundation. 

The picture shows a Suzu, which is a Shinto bell containing pellets that create sound, when the bell is shaken. It is used in musical ceremonies, and in front of the entrances of Shinto shrines.
The 'structure' of what, is inspired from the two?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Baymax in Big Hero 6 - for a "huggable, inflatable robot", that is Baymax, the development team of the movie took a research trip to Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, where they got a look at "soft robotics", using inflatable vinyl. Baymax's head was given its shape, from the suzu bell.

2014 Nov 16th - Q109

On 25th December 1984, the given artists met up at Sarm West Studios, Nottingham, London; and recorded a certain song. Now, many artists, thirty years later, are meeting up at the same studio to record a version of the same song. Give the names of the group - the old and the new one - and name the song.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Band Aid; Band Aid 30 - the song is "Do they know it's Christmas?"

2014 Nov 16th - Q108

This is the screen-captured FIFA 15™ specs for Tim Weise, a German who played as goalkeeper for 1899 Hoffenheim, from May 2012 to January 2014. Since January, he has been a free agent. Allegedly, Hoffenheim did not renew Weise's contract, as his body was viewed as not suitable for professional football. Recently, Weise officially retired from football to take up another career. What?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> WWE - he was given a contract, in September, to join the NXT division. Apparently, with his bulked-up body, Hoffenheim found him unsuitable for football.

2014 Nov 14th - Q107

In this year's G20 summit in Brisbane, the Australian government, led by Tony Abbott, has made sure to keep a certain topic out of the agenda. Due to this, around two-hundred protestors buried their heads in sand, in a New South Wales beach, as shown in the picture. The Australian government's inaction over what topic caused these protests? Also, identify the beach. 

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Climate change talks - the beach is the Bondi Beach.

2014 Nov 13th - Q106

The cover of the November-December 2014 issue of the Wonderland magazine. Simply identify the person.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Taylor Swift

2014 Nov 13th - Q105

In the APEC summits, it is a tradition for the meeting world leaders to pose for a group photograph, wearing the traditional attire of the host country [of the summit]; like in the 2008 summit in Lima, where the leaders posed for the camera in the traditional ponchos. 

At this year's summit, held in Beijing few days ago, the head of states wore the attire as shown in the picture. Traditionally called the Zhongshan Suit, how is it more commonly known?

For the look of the suit, many on the Internet compared it to something else, that is specific to a certain franchise. What was it compared to? OR Fill the blanks in the cartoon. 

Note: The cartoon reads - "I went all the way to China and all I got was this stupid ____ ____ shirt".

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Mao Suit - after Mao Zedong. The blank reads "Star Trek", with the attire being compared to the classic Star Trek jacket.

2014 Nov 12th - Q104

The 2014 movie Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, has few days ago, released minimalist-styled promotional posters around the world. Various posters were displayed in different capital cities. Identify the cities indicated in the two following posters.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Madrid and Mexico City respectively - Madrid is indicated by the Peurta de Alcalá, or the Alcalá Gate; Mexico City is shown by the Angel of Independence statue.

2014 Nov 12th - Q103

Almaty, the ex-capital of Kazakhstan and a contender for hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics, is often called the "southern capital of Kazakhstan". In an institute here, in 1969, Klim Ivanovic _________ and Svetlana Ivanovna __________ had developed few photographic plates. One of these plates seemed to be under-developed, with a tiny splotch of light in the centre. Considering it defective, Svetlana was about to discard the plate, when she thought against it and kept it back with all the plates. The fact of Svetlana not having discarded the plate, has proved effective.

How has it proved effective? OR give the surnames of the two. 

Svetlana, left, and Klim, with the photographic plates

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The surnames are Churyumov and Gerasimenko, in reference to the blanks - the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is named after the two. Although the two astronomers were initially researching on comet 32P/Comas Solà, when they returned to Kiev, after calculations, the splotch on the "defective" plate turned out be a new comet altogether - the 67P comet. Recently, for the first time in history, the Philae probe of the Rosetta Orbiter mission has landed on the comet.

2014 Nov 12th - Q102

The characters [and their design] shown in the picture were given a green light by LEGO recently, and is to be sold in markets by late 2014. Who are these characters OR where do we come across them?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Howard, Amy, Bernadette from The Big Bang Theory - the other characters are there too. In related news, the voice-actor for Howard's mother, Carol Ann Susi died recently.

2014 Nov 11th - Q101

In 2009, the online retail firm Alibaba, adopted this day to serve "baresticks". This year, Alibaba earned more than $8 billion on this day. Give the date when this day is celebrated annually - since 2009 - and what is it called?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> November 11 and "Single's Day" - 11th November was chosen as it was easy to remember, and because it resembled single sticks [a metaphorism for singles]. "Baresticks" is a common term for singles, and "Double 11" has been trademarked by Alibaba.

2014 Nov 11th - Q100

On the recent 25-year anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, a group of young protestors, wielding sledgehammers, smashed parts of this wall - as shown in the image. One of the protestors reportedly said : "It doesn’t matter how high the barriers will be, they will fall. Like the Berlin Wall fell - the ___________ wall will fall." When complete, this wall will be around 550km longer than the Berlin Wall - to which it is commonly compared. Which wall?

The recent smashing of the barrier segment

A view of the wall

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The Israeli West Bank Barrier, sometimes called the "Wall of Apartheid".

2014 Nov 10th - Q99

This is Harald Jaegar, once a commander on the Bornholmer Straße Border Crossing. Now 71, what was his most important deed in his patrolling career?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> He opened the Berlin Wall

2014 Nov 10th - Q98

Gone Girl is a newly-released mystery thriller movie, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. The story is about a man, Nick Dunne, who is convicted for being involved in the disappearance of his wife. It turns out that this was all a ploy, by his wife Amy Dunne herself, when she comes to know of an affair Nick has with a younger woman. The movie is based on the book of the same name, written by Gillian Flynn.

There have been many theories, on whether Flynn got inspiration from a well-known similar disappearance in the 20th century. Whose disappearance? - name the husband and wife both.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Agatha Christie and archaeologist Archie Christie - when Archie wanted to file a divorce, with him being in love a woman Nancy Neele, Agatha Christie disappeared, and was found ten days later in a hotel, under an alias.

2014 Nov 9th - Q97

The Bath Film Festival is an annual film festival, established in 1991, by the Bath Film Society. This year's film festival will be held on the 13th of November. In the forty-two films being shown in this 10-day festival, seventeen of them will be given a censor rating 'F'. The Society got inspiration for this rating, from four Swedish cinemas which, last year, gave an 'A' rating to films that passed a certain Alison Bechdel Test.

What is the rating 'F' given for? How can films pass the Bechdel Test?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> 'F' is given to the films that are certified "feminist". According to the Bechdel Test, movies that had women [at least two] who talked about anything, excluding men, were given an 'A'.

2014 Nov 9th - Q96

A reference to what? OR fill the blanks.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The Force Awakens - the recently revealed the title of Star Wars : Episode VII. This was apprently met with a negative review, with questions such as "Where was the Force in the prequels?".

2014 Nov 8th - Q95

This is the new customised-Snoo [Snoo is the Reddit logo] of the sub-reddit page for India. Who/what does this represent, connected to something recent?

Note : the logo is cropped.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Vishwanath Anand, in relation the Word Chess Championships

2014 Nov 8th - Q94

This was how Associated Press reporter Robert Geiger started off his April 15, 1935, dispatch : “Three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer’s tongue, rule life in the X-Y of the continent — if it rains.” This is the first usage of X-Y to denote a certain series of natural [and man-influenced] disasters in the 1930s. 

For the 2014 sci-fi movie Interstellar, a dystopian and apocalyptic Earth is shown. The setting of Earth [ravaged and destroyed] was inspired by the X-Y disasters. X-Y?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Dust Bowl, a series of dust storms in the 1930s in the United States.

2014 Nov 8th - Q93

"I really want to clear my life so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community. I feel like I'm not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life, so that way I can dedicate all of my energy towards just building the best products and services."

Who said this, when asked about his trademark grey t-shirt, in a recent press conference?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Mark Zuckerberg

2014 Nov 7th - Q92

On Benaras Hindu University professor KK Mishra's account: In the 17th century, when Mughal Emperor Aurabgzeb was on his binge of destroying temples, he was notified by his soldiers, of an old Hanuman temple in a Varanasi village. The idol of Hanuman in this temple was unqique, as it was black in colour. When the Mughal soldiers arrived, the villagers fought back valiantly, and forced the soldiers to a beating retreat. The village got its name after this victory.

Now, 450 years later, the village has got a 'second victory', according to its villagers. The temple is still called, literally, "the temple of the Black Hanuman". Name this village, and what is this 'second victory'?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Jayapur - ''Jaya" meaning victory - the 'second victory' is Narendra Modi's adoption of Jayapur, under a new scheme wherein MPs of both houses, identify a village and try to develop it.

2014 Nov 7th - Q91

What do the following make up?

☞ The Elves from Mirkwood

☞ The Men from Lake-town

☞ The Dwarves from Iron Hills

☞ The Orc from the Misty Mountains, with the Wargs

☞ The Eagles from the Misty Mountains

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The Five Armies in the 'Battle of the Five Armies' in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. The movie, The Hobbit : The Battle of the Five Armies, is set to release next month.

2014 Nov 7th - Q90

Rob O'Neill, 38, is currently a motivational speaker, and was - until a few years ago - a member of the USA's SEALs. In his 16 year career, O'Neill was decorated fifty-two times, took part in more than four-hundred combats, and fought in four seperate war zones. He was a member in the team that rescued Richard Phillips during the Maersk Alabama hijacking - later depicted in the movie Captain Phillips.

Early November this year, he was confirmed by the special operations community blog, Sofrep.com, and his father Tom O'Neill, as for doing a certain deed. What deed?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> He shot Osama Bin Laden in Operation Neptune Spear, at Abbottabad.

2014 Nov 6th - Q89

On 3rd November 2014, this family estate tried to bring in a case to the English Supreme Court, about a certain family member's creation. According to the case filed, the estate claimed that people who wanted to use the creation, must pay a fee. But the Court refused to hear the case, stating that the creation was open-source, since June 2014.

The case started last year, when the estate sued a company Pegasus, for releasing an unofficial version of this creation. This eventually lead to Pegasus' favour, and resulted in the open-sourcing of this 19th century creation in June 2014. 

Give funda, or what is the creation?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Sherlock Holmes - the Doyle Estate claimed that all authors willing to publish Sherlock Holmes-based works, must pay a fee to the Estate. They sued Pegasus for publishing a collection of Holmes stories, written by contemporary authors, and titled In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon. Now, Sherlock Holmes is in public domain.

2014 Nov 6th - Q88

This person [on the right], named ____ Christopher LaBeouf, recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. During the talk, when Ellen asked him of his talents, he replied, : “I can apparently bag groceries pretty well”. Give his first name.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Alex, from #AlexFromTarget - he became popular on the Internet, after a picture of him in Target, bagging groceries, was published online. His "cutie looks" gained him a booming 50,000 followers on Twitter in few days.

2014 Nov 6th - Q87

In May 2014, Russia and China signed the deal for a $400 billion gas deal, with Gazprom. In this, $70 billion was to be for constructing pipelines in both territories, making it the largest construction project in the world. This partly helped in establishing Vladimir Putin as the Most Powerful Person in the world, according to Forbes, this year.

In the same month, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in an interview, said that Russia hopes to create such cooperation to both the East and the West, and remarked that, just like the ______-______ _____ in Russia's coat-of-arms, the country looks to both sides.

Fill in the blanks with the name of a common vexillologic and heraldric symbol.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Double-headed Eagle

2014 Nov 5th - Q86

How are the following three connected?

☞ Peter Sunde ran for European Parliament in May 2014 with the Piraattipuolue, a registered political party of Finland. Days later, on 31st of May, he was arrested in a rural area - Oxie - in  Malmö.

☞ Gottfrid Svartholm was extradited to Denmark, on 27 November 2013, where he was charged with violences such as infiltrating the Danish social security database and driver’s licence database. On October 31st, 2014, he was sentenced to three-and-half years in prison. 

☞ Frederik Neij, in early November 2014, was caught by the Thai police force, who were executing an Interpol warrant, while Neij was crossing the border from Laos to Thailand. Apparently, he was wearing the same shirt he wore from his arrest warrant, published in 2010.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Co-founders of Pirate Bay - following a police raid on their servers in 2006 May 31st, the police issued warrants for the three arrests. Piraattipuolue stands for "Pirate Party".

2014 Nov 5th - Q85

Nielsen SoundScan, a sales-tracking system, started recording the weekly sales of albums since 1991. This week, which album became the fastest-selling album since The Eminem Show released 12 years ago? Also, name the artist with the most number of albums that sold more than million copies in a week, and the artist with the fastest-selling album since 1991 [when the tracking began].

Note : All data as of the US survey.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Taylor Swift's 1989 is this week's album. The artist with the most number of albums sold more than a million in a week is also Taylor Swift, with Speak Now, Red and 1989. The fastest selling album, with more than two millions sold in a week, is *NSYNC's No Strings Attached.

2014 Nov 5th - Q84

A segment of a recently-released Burberry ad, originally of four minutes. Identify the young boy in the video clip.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Romeo Beckham - the ad is titled "From London with Love".

2014 Nov 5th - Q83

November 4th 2014, 'classifieds' section of The Times. Get the full name of the blanked out celebrity.

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> Benedict Cumberbatch

2014 Nov 4th - Q82

Condé Nast, a mass media company [behind Wired, Golf Digest, New Yorker, Teen Vogue among others], has moved 175 employees, as of this week, to their new headquarters. 3000 employees will be stationed in this new quarters by early 2015.

Kids Creative, China Center and General Services Administration have also been leased space over here - where is this place?

[Highlight blank after arrow for the answer] 

=> The One World Trade Center building - it is currently, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.