Sphinx - The General Quiz (Finals)

SPHINX – THE
GENERAL QUIZ
(FINALS)
RULES
•BOUNCE:
•Answer on your first guess — I give you 10
points. Answer wrongly — You will be
mocked. Remain silent — I will let the
question walk away from you unscathed
•POUNCE:
•Answer on your first guess — I let you pass
10 points richer. Answer wrongly — I attack
and steal 5 points. Remain silent — You can
try it on the bounce
•All Questions unless otherwise indicated are
on Pounce.
•Quizmaster can summon fearsome Greek
monsters
Q1. CONNECT
I spy with my little eye
An answer on the next slide
A1.
Lietmotifs
Q2. D’ACCORD
The drag experienced by supersonic objects
is strongly related to the wing span. As a
result, very short span and thin rectangular
wings were used in early supersonic aircraft,
which however didn’t provide enough lift at
low speed (i.e. during take-off and landing).
To avoid compensating for this with large,
fuel guzzling engines, Dietrich Kuchemann
suggested a “slender delta” concept which
would generate the required lift at low
speeds. This alternative, however, required
that the aircraft be heavily angled or “nose
high” during landings and take-offs. This
lead to which comic aircraft design feature?
A2.
Q3.
Inspiration?
(Artist is sufficient)
A3.
Arcimboldo’s Vertumnus
Q4.
An apocryphal origin of this phrase:
appears to arise Queen Elizabeth I was
pleased by a poem by Edmund Spenser. She
told her treasurer to pay him one hundred
pounds. However, the treasurer differed,
stating that this sum was too high,
prompting her to respond “Then give him
what is reason”, implying reducing it to a
reasonable sum. Offended, Spenser
responded with the following rhyming
quatrain:
“I was promis'd on a time,
To have a ______ ___ __ _____:
From that time unto this season,
I receiv'd __ _____ ___ ______.”
A4.
I was promis'd on a time,
To have a reason for my rhyme:
From that time unto this season,
I receiv'd nor rhyme nor reason.
Q5. HOMAGE / REFERENCE?
<Video>
A5.
Alfred Hitchcock - Birds
Q6. MY LOVE…
The lander that
accompanies the ESA’s
Rosetta probe (designed
to land on the Comet
Churyumov-
Gerasimenko) has been
named X. This name
originates from X Island
on the Nile where an
obelisk was found and
used along with the
Rosetta stone in order
to decipher
A6.
Philae
Q7. PRATCHETT?
The term X arose from the chorus of a song by
G. H. MacDermott and G. W. Hunt around the
time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
We don't want to fight but by _____ if we do

We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got
the money too
We've fought the Bear before, and while we're
Britons true
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.
The phrase "by _______" was used to avoid

saying "by Jesus". However, due to this song,
the word X (a derivative of the blank) acquired a
totally different meaning. X?
A7.
Jingoism / Jingo
Q8. HINDU-BUDDHIST BHAI
BHAI
The Avatamsaka Sutra uses the metaphor of X’s Y to
describe the interconnectedness and dependent origin
of the universe (highlighted in Buddhist philosophy) in
the following paragraph:
“Far away in the abode of X, there is a wonderful Y
which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such
a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions.
In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the
artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye"
of the Y, and since the Y itself is infinite in dimension,
the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels,
glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful
sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these
jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will
discover that in its polished surface there are reflected
all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not
only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one
jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there
is an infinite reflecting process occurring.”
X’s Y?
A8.
Indra’s Net
Q9. ONCE A DUKE, ALWAYS A
DUKE
In the 1952 Olympics, ________'s Josy
Barthel won gold in the 1500m. Since it
hadn’t been expected that this country
would win a medal in the Olympics at all,
the band hadn’t been provided the score
for this country’s anthem and as a result
had to improvise a few bars of a fake
anthem. Which country suffered this
piece of silliness?
A9.
Luxembourg
Q10.
On May 26, 1947, the FBI issued a
memo stating "With regard to the picture
X, [redacted] stated in substance that
the film represented rather obvious
attempts to discredit bankers by casting
Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so
that he would be the most hated man in
the picture. This, according to these
sources, is a common trick used by
Communists. [In] addition, [redacted]
stated that, in his opinion, this picture
deliberately maligned the upper class,
attempting to show the people who had
money were mean and despicable
characters." Which iconic movie?
A10.
It’s a Wonderful Life
Q11. FIDELITY…
Boeing had need for testing a certain
“service” that various airlines nowadays
offer on their planes. To test their ideal
design, they needed to simulate an aircraft
full of people. However, since it was
patently impossible to ask several people to
sit still for days while data was being
collected, they needed an alternative.
Potatoes because of their chemistry,
dielectric properties and water content were
discovered to be a good enough
approximation of human beings’ response
to this “service”. As a result, rows and rows
of potato sacks were used to emulate a full
airplane. What “service” is this that would
be affected by the presence of people?
A11.
In-flight WiFi
Q12. TRIPLE CENTURY?
According to the Greek historian
Herodotus, X’s first attempt to bridge
the Hellespont for his invasion ended in
failure when a storm destroyed the flax
and papyrus cables of the bridges. In
retaliation, X ordered the Hellespont (the
strait itself) whipped three hundred
times, and had fetters thrown into the
water. In what must have pleased X to
no end, his second crossing was
successful. Which arrogant king?
A12.
Xerxes I
Q13. CONNECT
A13.
Streisand Effect
Q14.
X’s famous tomb has never been
opened, despite its surrounding
complex having been discovered in
1974. It is believed that the tomb
contains an entire underground
kingdom and palace, complete with a
ceiling mimicking the night sky, with
pearls as stars. The tomb is also
believed to be encircled with rivers of
mercury due to the ancient belief that it
could bestow immortality. Ironically, it is
believed that X died at 39 due to his
habit of ingesting mercury pills to attain
immortality. Whose famous, unopened,
underground tomb is being talked
A14.
Qin Shi Huang
Q15.
When Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars
was released in Japan around 1964, the
prominent Japanese film critic Yodogawa
Nagaharu said: “spaghettis are thin and
meagre” and instead gave the genre of
Spaghetti Westerns an alternative name,
which has stuck in Japan. What
alternative?
A15.
Macaroni Westerns
Q16. ANTARES
From 1976 through 1989, Andy
Hildebrand was a research scientist for
Exxon Production Research and
Landmark Graphics, a company he co-
founded to create the world's first
stand-alone seismic data interpretation
workstation. Hildebrand specialized in
seismic data exploration, using sound
waves and advanced signal processing
to map the underground. However, his
invention was eventually used for
another highly controversial purpose.
Which invention?
A16.
Autotune
Q17.
In the Prose Edda, a tale states that two
children by the names of Hjúki and Bil who
were once walking from the well Byrgir
carrying on their shoulders the pole Simul
that held the pail Sæg between them when
the moon, Máni took them from the earth,
and they now follow Máni in the heavens. It
is believed that this is a Norse attempt to
explain the moon’s craters. However, this
tale in turn has (according to one theory)
supposedly inspired something far more
mundane that is familiar to many
youngsters. What did this tale supposedly
inspired? HINT: Look at the children’s
A17.
Jack and Jill
Q18.
Id Woodcut and
Artist
HINT on next slide

HINT: Artist’s comment on this: Some
of the builders are white and others
black. The work is at a standstill because
they are no longer able to
________________. Seeing as the climax of
the drama takes place at the summit of
the tower which is under construction,
the building has been shown from above
as though from a bird's eye view.
A18.
MC Escher’s Tower of Babel
Q19. JESUS…
Who about what: "It never dawned on
me that Lewis Carroll was commenting
on the capitalist system. I never went
into that bit about what he really meant,
like people are doing with the ____‘s
work. Later, I went back and looked at it
and realized that the _____ was the bad
guy in the story and the _______ was the
good guy. I thought, Oh, shit, I picked
the wrong guy. I should have said,
'_______________.' But that wouldn't have
been the same, would it? "
A19.
John Lennon “I am the Walrus”
Q20.
The idea of historical contingency implies
that small random events may cause history
to change course, resulting in different
outcomes. For example, apocryphally, Louis
XIV was born only because a freak
snowstorm forced his father to seek shelter
at his estranged wife’s chateau. This idea
was also pondered by Blaise Pascal in his
Pensées, “________’s ____, had it been
shorter, the whole face of the world would
have been changed”, with the idea that the
Roman Republics’ civil wars would’ve been
avoided if _______’s _____ had been shorter.
Who and what famous appendage of theirs?
A20.
Q21. BEAUTIFUL WORLD
Which singer, famous for adding hidden
tracks and easter eggs in his albums,
cynically added a hidden message track
Outro Message which consists of 28
minutes of silence after which he says
“No, I’m not doing one on this album”?
A21.
Robbie Williams in Sing When You’re
Winning
Q22.
During the Battle of Cer (15–24 August
1914), a Serbian aviator encountered an
Austro-Hungarian plane while
performing a reconnaissance mission
over Austro-Hungarian positions. The
Austro-Hungarian pilot initially waved
while the Serbian pilot reciprocated. The
follow up to this friendly banter led to
what distinction being garnered by this
incident?
A22.
First ever recorded dogfight
Q23.THE ARTICLES STATE
THAT…
Bahamas and Gambia are the only two
nations with what distinction? Hint: The
distinction troubles no-one but
extremely fussy, pedantic, obsessive
compulsive writers or people in charge
of advising governments on procedures,
protocols, titles and names.
A23.
These are the only nations whose names
officially begins with “The”
Q24. NOT QUITE MODERN
MAJOR GENERAL
During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Admiral Chester
Nimitz sent the following message to Admiral Halsey
“TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD
FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVENTY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS
TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS”
The beginning and the end of the message was

padding to disrupt cryptanalysis, however, in the
final message the ending was not removed, forcing
Halsey (commander of Task Force 34) to read “Where
is Task Force 34? The World wonders”. Halsey, who
had until that point been pursuing a Japanese Carrier
group, thought the message was a biting criticism of
his actions and immediately turned around in a futile
attempt to help US forces fighting in Samar as part of
the same mission. What reason linked to the literary
world was the cause for Halsey’s reaction?
A24.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd
Q25.
Which internet law is named after the
creator of the first wiki? The law states:
"The best way to get the right answer on
the Internet is not to ask a question, it's
to post the wrong answer.“ (last name is
sufficient)
A25.
Cunningham’s Law
Q26. OUT, DAMNED SPOT!
In various parts of Japan, one would
frequently find fist-sized orange balls
(called bohan yo kara boru) with the
clerks behind bank counters and
convenience store counters. However,
these balls are never for sale – indeed,
the company selling them tends to keep
a low profile and legitimate users are
given this purchasing information by the
police. What are these balls used for
instead?
(Picture on next slide)
A26.
They are anti-crime paintballs –
intended to mark a robber fleeing from
the scene for easy arrest
Q27.
What does the caution sign cheekily say?
A27.
Q28.
Isaac Asimov imagined the ________ _____
as a fictional device for his Robots that
sounded technically advanced but was
practically impossible. As a professor,
Asimov realised this inherent flaw and
hence was deliberately vague about the
technical details of a ________ _____, except
to say that it involved an alloy of Platinum
and Iridium. However, one of his chief
reasons for using a ________ _____ was to
add an Achilles Heel to his robots, meaning
that very simple, everyday devices could
have been used to destroy rogue robots.
This reason was forgotten subsequently
(after Caves of Steel) and was also not
employed by various other science fiction
franchises (notably Star Trek) that used the
idea of ________ _____. FITB.
A28.
Positronic Brain
Q29.
In Chamula, Mexico, the Tzotzil Indians
are fiercely divided on a question of
religious doctrine. Their sacred drink
pox is supposed to cleanse the soul; the
more pox one drinks, the greater the
purification. However, local elites
(wielding economic and political power)
have convinced the faithful that pox
should be drunk with X or Y, that are
supposed to induce burping, releasing
evil from the soul. Whether X or Y is the
reason for this divide. X & Y?
A29.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi
Q30.
X was one of the most popular games
that shipped automatically with another
product Y. However, X was last seen in
the 2001 version of Y. Although it was
believed that this was due to legal
issues, it was instead revealed that the
future versions of Y did not come with X
as while porting from 32-bit to 64-bit, X
displayed crippling problems. Since X
had been licensed from a third company
and the code contained no comments, X
was removed instead of doing all the
hard work of debugging it. X? (no points
A30.
Q31.
Lohengrin is a German opera composed

by Richard Wagner. It tells the tale of a
wronged woman Elsa, who is rescued by
a mysterious Knight of the Swan after
her brother, a Duke, is (unknown to
anyone else) turned into a swan by an
evil witch. This opera inspired the name
for King Ludwig’s New Swan Stone or
Neuschwanstein Castle. However, this
opera is more famous for something
completely different. What?
A31.
Here comes the bride
Q32.
The Eiffel Tower was tremendously
unpopular among 19th Century French
artists who claimed that its ugly profile
destroyed the beauty of Paris. The
newspaper Le Temps published a protest
signed by Charles Gounod, X, Alexandre
Dumas, Charles Garnier and many
others. The famous author, X, was so
disgusted by the tower that he often ate
lunch in the restaurant at its base, not
out of preference for the food but
because it was only there that he could
avoid seeing its otherwise unavoidable
A32.
Guy de Maupassant
Q33.
The following is a list of episodes of the first
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series
broadcast on BBC Radio 4:
 Fit the First (8 March 1978)
 Fit the Second (15 March 1978)
 Fit the Third (22 March 1978)
 Fit the Fourth (29 March 1978)
 Fit the Fifth (5 April 1978)
 Fit the Sixth (12 April 1978)
 Fit the Seventh (24 December 1978)
 Fit the Eighth (21 January 1980)
 Fit the Ninth (22 January 1980)
 Fit the Tenth (23 January 1980)
 Fit the Eleventh (24 January 1980)
 Fit the Twelfth (25 January 1980)
What is the literary allusion behind these episode

names?
A33.
Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll
Q34.
The Methuen Treaty was a military and
commercial treaty between Portugal and
England signed in 1703 as part of the
War of the Spanish Succession. It
confirmed the Portuguese support to the
Austrian claimant to the Spanish throne.
The terms of the Treaty allowed English
woollen cloth to be admitted into
Portugal free of duty. In return,
Portuguese wines imported into England
would be subject to a third less duty
than wines imported from France. Due
to these commercial terms, what
product provides the treaty’s alternate
name?
A34.
Port Wine Treaty
Q35.
Some employees at Warner Brothers used to
get lost commuting from Southeast US to
Hollywood due to a confusing junction in
New Mexico. This was because Route 66,
which lead into California angles slightly to
the right after passing downtown X,
paralleling the river. Just after the X Country
Club (depicted rather prominently), it
makes a left turn to approach the crossing
of the Rio Grande. However, people would
instinctively miss this turn and go on to the
right, ending up in the New Mexico
boondocks. This led to an inside joke at
Warner Bros. which led to the origin of what
A35.
“Should have made a left toin at
Albukoykee”
Q36.
Which football competition has featured
teams such as the Karachi Koalas,
rUNSwift, Mostly Harmless, Austrian-
Kangaroos, The Three Musketeers,
UPennalizers, BORG, WrightEagle among
many more? HINT: The inaugural edition
was held in 1997 in Nagoya, Japan.
A36.
Q37. CHAPOORS AT NO. 42
Who is this speaker launching his
Recession Party in 2009? <audio clip>
A37.
Jaspal Bhatti
Q38.
The TRPV1 receptor is a neural receptor
protein in human skin. Also known as
the capsaicin receptor, it works in the
detection and regulation of body
temperature. Thus, it reacts with pain to
the stimulus of capsaicin (chilli),
temperatures >42OC and acids.
However, presence of alcohol reduces
this temperature threshold to 34OC.
What everyday problem does this last
fact cause?
A38.
This is why spirit alcohol applied on
wounds causes burning sensation (as
the body’s own temperature triggers the
receptor)
Q39.
The creation mythologies of which culture are
termed as the Five Suns mythos? According to
this, there had been four worlds or “Suns”
before the present universe. These 4 worlds
were destroyed due to the following reasons
(chronologically):
1. Everyone gets eaten by Jaguars.
2. Everyone is turned into monkeys and then blown
away by a huge hurricane
3. A brooding, grief stricken “sun” answers people’s
prayers for rain to end an enormous drought with a
downpour of fire until the earth is burnt to ashes
4. The “sun” is tricked into believing her love for the
people to be fake and hence cries blood for 52
years, drowning everybody
Which culture?
A39.
Aztec Culture
Q40.
A ________ was a medieval unit of time.
The movement of a shadow on a sundial
covered 40 __________ in a solar hour,
which however was 1/12th of the day’s
length, and since the length of the days
was variable, was not equivalent to the
modern hour. FITB.
A40.
A moment
Q41.
The Seinfeld episode “The Contest” is
considered to be one of the most
famous episodes. It tackled a highly
controversial topic without using the
word __________ throughout its
broadcast, instead settling for
euphemisms such as “Are you still
master of your domain?”. For this
achievement, the episode was awarded a
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding
Individual Achievement in Writing in a
comedy series. So, what was the contest
about?
A41.
Who could abstain from masturbation
the longest
Q42.
In 1940 Raymond Lemaire and Richard
Stewart founded a company based in
Honolulu named Service Games. In 1951,
they moved the company to Tokyo to
develop and distribute coin-operated
jukeboxes, games, and slot machines.
Within a few years, Service Games began
importing these machines to American
military bases throughout Japan. In 1954,
David Rosen, an American officer in the Air
Force formed Rosen Enterprises, and by
1965, Rosen Enterprises grew to a chain of
over 200 arcades, with Service Games its
only competitor. The two companies then
A42.
SEGA Enterprises
RULES
Written Round: 6 questions, +10 each
Each question is a riddle
Clues are scattered within this riddle
There is some amount of wordplay
All answers lead to a real life personality
Q1.
What you see, I did it all in reverse,
Wished I to fly or my vessel submerse,
Foiled by time, but not my grinning girl,
The last dinner had I; being too cerebral.
Bastard I was, servant in many realms
Died I in the ex-dauphin’s arms
Q2.
When born my mother wished me to
Bake,
Fated instead I was many hearts to
break.
Briefly a Yankee I wed, took I not his
name,
For itchy and touchy was I with my fame.
Men loved me, with preference for my
hair,
That it was fake, they weren’t aware.
Q3.
Krishna’s slave, I worshipped laterally
Championing everyone, unequivocally
Shiva recorded my every move
unfailingly
Out of a train and the warring peace
To the colour blue and securing Indian
release.
Much more than avuncular, for big and
small,
Ate I very little, and wore nought at all.
Q4.
Little was I, if some you believe,
But the biggest slice did I thieve.
Success I found everywhere I turned
But in the Iberian peninsula I first burned
The north-eastern cold turned my tail
Until unable was I to ably prevail
Outed I was by a ducal boot and an engine
of steam
A hundred days alone for my resurrected
dream.
Q5.
Serbian my origin, humble my end
‘Gainst a ruthless enemy my honour to
defend.
I earned my prestige the hard way,
No whacky car to make it child’s play.
My Warden never stood on no Cliff top
And a magnetic name was my sole sop.
Q6.
Murderer of an innocuous salesperson
am I,
McCarthy’s witch hunt I criticized on the
sly.
I saw too far while grinding extremely
fine,
If I saw from the bridge, the fault ain’t
mine.
I played far and I played near,
My Pulitzer I held quite dear.
XCHG
Q1.
What you see, I did it all in reverse,
Wished I to fly or my vessel submerse,
Foiled by time, but not my grinning girl,
The last dinner had I; being too cerebral.
Bastard I was, servant in many realms
Died I in the ex-dauphin’s arms
A1.
Leonardo da Vinci
Q2.
When born my mother wished me to
Bake,
Fated instead I was many hearts to
break.
Briefly a Yankee I wed, took I not his
name,
For itchy and touchy was I with my fame.
Men loved me, with preference for my
hair,
That it was fake, they weren’t aware.
A2.
Marilyn Monroe
Q3.
Krishna’s slave, I worshipped laterally
Championing everyone, unequivocally
Shiva recorded my every move
unfailingly
Out of a train and the warring peace
To the colour blue and securing Indian
release.
Much more than avuncular, for big and
small,
Ate I very little, and wore nought at all.
A3.
Mahatma Gandhi
Q4.
Little was I, if some you believe,
But the biggest slice did I thieve.
Success I found everywhere I turned
But in the Iberian peninsula I first burned
The north-eastern cold turned my tail
Until unable was I to ably prevail
Outed I was by a ducal boot and an engine
of steam
A hundred days alone for my resurrected
dream.
A4.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Q5.
Serbian my origin, humble my end
‘Gainst a ruthless enemy my honour to
defend.
I earned my prestige the hard way,
No whacky car to make it child’s play.
My Warden never stood on no Cliff top
And a magnetic name was my sole sop.
A5.
Nikola Tesla
Q6.
Murderer of an innocuous salesperson
am I,
McCarthy’s witch hunt I criticized on the
sly.
I saw too far while grinding extremely
fine,
If I saw from the bridge, the fault ain’t
mine.
I played far and I played near,
My Pulitzer I held quite dear.
A6.
Arthur Miller

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SPHINX – THE

We don't want to fight but by _____ if we do

The phrase "by _______" was used to avoid

HINT on next slide

The beginning and the end of the message was

Lohengrin is a German opera composed

What is the literary allusion behind these episode

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