Winter QoTD #12

The word X originates from Greek Mythology:

Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete, fell in love with Theseus, a Greek hero who came to Crete to slay the Minotaur who lived in a subterranean Labyrinth. Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of yarn which he unwound as he entered the Labyrinth. This particular instance of Ariadne giving Theseus a ball of yarn marked the use of X in its current meaning. After slaying the Minotaur, Theseus followed the thread back to the entrance of the Labyrinth, rejoined Ariadne, and successfully escaped Crete.

If Hansel and Gretel’s trail of breadcrumbs weren’t eaten by birds, we would have a completely different word for the current meaning of X. Id X.

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Question 10, Winter League 2022

The discovery of this material is attributed to the ancient Egyptians, however its first discovery in both China and America was in a river. Nearly all of this material came from meteorites, and there is believed to be enough of this material inside the Earth to coat the entire surface with a layer that’s over one feet thick.

Normally chemically unreactive, this material does react with halogens and cyanide solutions. You also possess a small amount of this material, both inside and outside your body.

What is the material?

Summer Mini-League 2, Question #1

X is originally named after a real estate developer, and has worked 12 different occupations. X has a younger brother and also a few Guinness World Records to his name.

The first appearance of X to the public was with a large monkey, at a construction site, avoiding hazards and dangerous heights. X was a carpenter at this time.

X is also featured in cartoons and films, and has played both the good guy and the bad guy at times. X’s arch-nemesis is one of the most recognizable villains and has kidnapped X’s lover.

Who is X?

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The faster you answer, the more points you get! Second question of the Summer Mini-League 2 goes up at 6 PM today!

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Summer Mini-League 1, Question #2

This character, X YZ, was one of the first characters to appear under a popular franchise of movies. The character was once given a memorable misnomer as Z of Y by a god in accordance with paternal naming customs of the god’s culture.

X is commonly associated with love or obsession. Y and Z are both associated with heat, and both burn, albeit at drastically different temperatures. 

Identify the character. Brownie points for pointing out the god.

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Third question of the Summer Mini-League 1 goes up at 12 AM tonight. Make sure you have a WordPress account for commenting the answers.

Summer Mini-League 1, Question #1

In 1624, a Dutch ship arrived at the foot of lower Manhattan, where colonists set up a town New Amsterdam, named after Holland’s largest city. 

By 1664, New Amsterdam fell into the hands of the British, who renamed it New York in honour of the Duke of York. However, in 1673, the Dutch regained control of New York from England and renamed it ‘New X’, its official name for about a year, to honour the Prince of X, William III, from the Netherlands. 

However, the Dutch faced defeat and returned the island to England after about a year.

As a famous New York Times journalist put in a podcast back in 2009, New York “was the B X before it was the B Y.” An irony considering the popular idiom around Ys and Xs.

Identify X and Y? Brownie points for identifying the irony.

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Winter QoTD #2

The legend says that to the south of 3 holy caves nestled in the Western Ghats, grew seven special seeds. These had traveled across deserts and seas inside a hermit’s turban, from M___ to M___, smuggled past Turks to be grown in a quaint hill town. This town became the first recorded Indian settlement to cultivate this seed and the mountain range surrounding it is now known by the hermit’s name. Who was the hermit and what are the names of the two places starting with M?

Comment on this question to answer.

Summer’14: QoTD#57

An India question for the day!

Connect:

Summer’14: QoTD#52: History

74 sculptors and architects are rumoured to have competed for designing this tomb.

Which Victoria Cross recipient’s tomb is this?

Summer’14: QoTD# 51

A tech question for today!

X is one of the oldest language translators. It was developed by a search engine that was once competition to Google.
Y bought the search engine and X along with it and currently neither the search engine nor X are used.
X derives its name from a fictional character that translates languages in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Identify X and Y

Summer ’14 : QoTD #50 (India)

[With this, the count reaches 50 questions for the summer. Yay! Thanks for the support. Keep coming to the blog!]

X was first issued in 1975. This first issue featured the image of an extremely important building in India, albeit without the Indian flag. A bare flagpole was depicted instead, since the photo of the building that the artist worked with was clicked at night – when the flag was down.

However around 1980, the design was changed and the building was now depicted with the Indian flag adorning the flapole.

The design was again changed in later years, with a lake that was depicted in front of the building in earlier versions, getting removed.

From 2005 onwards, X also started bearing the year of issue on it.

147 mm by 73 mm in size, what is X?