QFI Meeting on June 8, 2014 by Jayadev and Swaroop

transcript

QFI Meeting

Jayadev and Swaroop

8th June 2014

Format

• 4 sets (15 in each set) of infinite bounce/pounce

• +10 on the bounce

• +10/-10 on the pounce

• 4 written rounds

• +5 per right answer, no negatives

• All odd numbered questions are bad

• All even numbered questions are worse

• Hope you have fun!

Google doodles

Written round

10 questions

EXCHANGE SHEETS

ANSWERS

• First World Fair

• Winter Olympics 2014

• First free elections in Poland

• Ustad Allah Rakha

• Prague

• First broadcast of Star Trek

• Franz Kafka

• Dorothy Hodgkin

• Rachel Carson

• Counting day (May 16th)

INFINITE BOUNCE

Set One

• There have only been three women chief

guests at the annual Republic Day parade in

New Delhi.

• Two were from Asian countries, while the

other was from Europe.

• Name all three.

And the answer is…

• Queen Elizabeth II (1961)

• Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1974)

• Yingluck Shinawatra (2012)

Connect

• The part of a logarithm that follows the

decimal point

• The part of a floating-point number that

represents the significant digits of that number

• A Latin word meaning “makeweight”

• Mantissa

• Previous members of this list include lions,

boys in various avatars, a pepper, an orange, a

leopard, a rooster, a dog and some computer-

generated creatures.

• What list is this?

• What is the latest entrant?

• Three – banded armadillo

• FIFA World Cup mascots

• “I chose the town of ______, which is located on the line of centrality half-way between the mountains and the sea; this allowed me to avoid both the sea mists which are a frequent feature of Masulipatnam and the clouds with which high mountain peaks are often crowned.”

• “______ is a fairly sizeable Indian town (...) There are several families of French merchants living in _______.”

• Whose words? What did he do? Fill in the blanks.

• Pierre Janssen

• He discovered Helium during a Solar Eclipse

using spectral data

• Blank is Guntur

• Newtoy, Inc. was founded in 2008 by brothers Paul and David Bettner, formerly with Ensemble Studios.

• Their first game was an online iOS chess game. This was followed by their second game, a hugely popular variant of scrabble.

• In 2010, the company was acquired by Zynga, after which they released their third game, based on Hangman.

• What is the current name of the company, also a take on the names of their games?

• Zynga with Friends

• The games were Chess with Friends, Words with

Friends and Hanging with Friends.

• This is the picture of a cabin next to a famous

“kettle-hole” pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

• The pond was formed by

retreating glaciers 10,000-12,000 years ago. It

covers an area of 61 acres and has a maximum

depth of 31 m.

• What is the name of the pond?

• Who once lived in this cabin? (Pictured is a

replica of the cabin)

• Walden

• Henry David Thoreau

• This entity was so named because it was first

discovered in a solid mineral.

• This was in contrast to related entities, one of

which was discovered in plant ashes, and

another which was known to be abundant in

animal blood.

• What entity?

• Lithium, from lithos (stone).

• Leucas zeylanica, commonly Ceylon slitwort is a small plant with white flowers native to Tropical Asia.

• In India, this flower is largely found near the southern part of the Western Ghats. It is used for Ayurvedic purposes and in Onam decorations.

• Until the 1990s, this flower grew in abundance in a particular location lending its name to the place.

• Name the place/flower.

• Thumba, the locations of TERLS

• Built in the mid-1990s, this is located near

Malampuzha Village in Kerala, and covers an

area of 1.5 acres.

• In stark contrast to its northern counterpart,

this is a lesser-known site, though

conceptualized by the same person.

• What?

• Nek Chand’s Rock Garden in Kerala

• Rope is a 1948 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on a play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton

• The story revolves around two young students, Brandon and Phillip, who strangle to death a former classmate in their apartment. They commit the crime as an intellectual exercise; they want to prove their superiority by committing the "perfect murder".

• Their idea for the murder was inspired by conversations with their prep-school housemaster who taught them the intellectuals concepts of Nietzsche.

• Which real-life incident was it inspired by?

• The murder of Bobby Frank by Leopold and

• A possibly apocryphal story mentions X, a

person from this area, using a Y to illustrate

the Christian doctrine of the Trinity while

spreading Christianity in this region.

• Y rose to become a national symbol when

militias from the area adopted it around the

18th century.

• X and Y?

• X – St. Patrick

• Y – Shamrock

• It is said that, when James I was about to enter

the city, re-conquering it from the Moors, this

creature landed on the top of his flag.

• He interpreted it as a good sign and after he

conquered the city, he did something.

• What was the creature and what did he do?

• Which city?

• He added a bat to the coat of arms of

Valencia. This is why Valencia CF and Levante

UD still have a bat in their crests.

• This is the only island to be divided among

three different (recognized) countries.

• One of the countries is entirely located on the

island, while the other two countries have

administrative divisions on the island and

elsewhere.

• Which island? Which are the countries?

• Borneo

• Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia

• VR Gopala Menon, an ardent devotee used to accompany Thirumeni Eashwaran Namboothiri, to Sannidhanam of the Sabarimala Temple every day.

• He would stay there by himself even when the temple was closed, singing hymns praising the lord.

• Later, when Devaswom Board was formed, it is believed that he was asked to move out. He eventually died at a tea estate at Vandiperiyar.

• When Thirumeni Eashwaran Namboothiri heard about the passing away of the Mr. Menon, he was deeply saddened and did something to remember Mr. Menon by, thus starting a long tradition.

• What?

• He sang Harivarasanam before closing the

temple doors at night.

• As of 2013, there were slightly less than a

thousand of these all over the world.

• Italy had the most, with 49, followed closely by

China (45) and Spain (44).

• India stands 7th on the list, with 30 of these all

over the country.

• What?

• UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Statues/Monuments/Sculptures

Written round

10 questions

Part points wherever applicable

Exchange sheets

Answers

• Dmitri Mendeleev

• Nataraja statue at CERN

• Oliver Cromwell

• Ted Williams

• Headquarters of Lloyd’s

• Stevie Ray Vaughan

• Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice

• James Dean

• El Cid

• John Muir

INFINITE BOUNCE

Set Two

• X diplomacy is a form for cultural diplomacy practiced by the People’s Republic of China through building and donating Xs in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the South Pacific.

• The construction of Xs is financed depending on the project with some given as gifts; paid for through low interest, concessional loans; built in partnership with both China and the host nation taking on different construction responsibilities.

• Id X.

• Stadium Diplomacy

• Shahid, a taxi driver, wanted to name his first child after a great sportsman who had visited his island nation. However, the child was female, and his wife refused to bestow an odd name upon her daughter.

• Their second-born was a boy, and Shahid enthusiastically named him after his idol. This was revealed by the son in 2012, incidentally while being interviewed by his father’s idol.

• Who was the son?

• Sunil Narine, supposedly named after

Gavaskar.

• Kullottonga Chola II, was a staunch devotee of Lord Siva Natraja at Chidambaram. He continued the reconstruction of the center of Tamil Saivism that was begun by his ancestors.

• However Kullottonga II was also enchanted by the Jain courtly epic, Jivaka Cintamani an epic of erotic flavor, whose hero, Jivaka, combines heroics and erotics to marry eight damsels and gain a kingdom.

• In order to wean Kullonttonga Chola II from the heretical Jivaka Cintamani, his chief minister did something. What?

• His chief minister, Sekkizhar wrote Periya

Puranam.

• Paracerceis sculpta is a marine isopod native to the Pacific Ocean. Males of this species are found in three forms – Alpha, Beta and Gamma.

• The Alpha males are physically larger and more powerful than the Beta and Gamma males.

• As a result, the Beta and Gamma males use alternate strategies to ensure that they are also able to enter the harem and mate with females.

• What strategies are employed by each of these?

• [IMAGE]

Gamma, Beta and Alpha males (L-R)

• The beta males mimic females and enter the

harem.

• The gamma males mimic juveniles and enter

the harem.

• Canola oil derives its name from Canada and

ola (meaning oil). This was not the name

under which it was initially marketed.

• Why was the name changed?

• Canola oil is made from seeds from modified

Rape plants. The Rapeseed Association of

Canada wanted to avoid the negative

connotations of rape and hence chose the

name Canola oil.

• The images on the next slide show two custom-

made units from Panavision, which will be used in

the coming months for a particular purpose.

• The units are named X and Y, after two famous

‘vehicles’, and photos of these units were released

in early April 2014.

• What purpose? What are the names of the units?

• [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

• Cameras for filming Star Wars VII

• Death Star and Millennium Falcon

• The city was perched on a high steppe plateau and needed direct access to the harbor below it. Before the construction of X, winding paths and crude wooden stairs were the only access to the harbor.

• In 1837 the decision was made to build X, and it was constructed between 1837 and 1841 by and English engineer named Upton.

• What 142-meter long structure are we talking about?

• Odessa Steps (or) Potemkin Stairs

• In the 1700s, the French called it hautbois, a

compound word literally translating to ‘loud

woodwind instrument’.

• The current spelling adopted into English was

derived from the Italian transliteration of the

same French word.

• What are we talking about?

• Oboe

• One apocryphal story involves the Emperor and his wife, Elisabeth of Bavaria.

• Obsessed with maintaining a minimal waistline, the Empress Elisabeth directed the royal chef to prepare only light desserts for her, much to the consternation of her husband.

• Upon being presented with the chef's confection, she found it too rich and refused to eat it. The exasperated Emperor quipped, “Now let me see what ‘_____’ our chef has cooked up.” It apparently met his approval and has since been known by its present name.

• What dish?

• Kaiserschmarrn

• The son of Leo III and Maria, Constantine V

was the Byzantine emperor from around 741

to 755 AD.

• His detractors and rivals called him

Copronymus, referring to a supposed ‘accident’

that had occurred when he was a child.

• What happened, or why did the call him that?

• He had supposedly pooped while being

baptized.

• Copronymus literally means shit-name.

• The name of which smartphone-based service

gets its name from an acronym formed using

the names of six mythical heroes ?

• Shazam (formerly Captain Marvel) comes

from Solomon, Hercules, Achilles, Zeus, Atlas

and Mercury.

• In the Icelandic version, he was called Trevor Delgrome, while in the Dutch version he was called Marten Asmodom Vilijn.

• Others such as the French, Norwegian and Swedish versions all have different names for him.

• What was he called in the English version?

• Why was the name changed in non-English versions?

• Tom Marvolo Riddle

• In order to make the name an anagram of a

phrase that meant “I am Lord Voldemort”

• Trevor Delgome - Eg er Voldemort

• Marten Asmodom Vilijn - Mijn naam is

Voldemort

• Tom Elvis Jedusor - Je suis Voldemort

• The term alludes to the tenacious, thorny desert plant, prickly pear.

• The plant has a thick, thorny skin that conceals a sweet, softer interior. The cactus is compared to a set of people, who are supposedly tough on the outside, but delicate and sweet on the inside.

• What term?

• What set of people?

• Sabra

• Refers to Jews born in Israel post-1948

• A recent statement gave the following as reasons for something – “… very low productivity, growing indiscipline, critical shortage of funds, lack of demand for its core product ….. large accumulation of liabilities”.

• It also added that “…. suspension of work will enable the company in restricting mounting liabilities and restructure its organisation and finances and bring in a situation conducive to reopening of the plant….”.

• What was being talked about?

• Hindustan Motors stopping production of the

Ambassador

• According to Henry Chadwick, the letter ‘S’

was used for ‘sacrifice’ and hence not available,

so he decided on doing this.

• Those unaware of Chadwick’s motive have

speculated that it may have originated from

the name of Matt Kilroy, a 19th century pitcher

who raised the prominence of X.

• What are we talking about ?

• Using the letter ‘K’ to denote strike-outs in

Baseball

Stamps

Written round

10 questions

EXCHANGE SHEETS…

ANSWERS

• Baron Edmund Rothschild

• Jessica Ennis

• Ashfaquallah Khan and Ramprasad Bismil

(Kakori conspiracy)

• Sherlock Holmes

• Adventure of the Six Napoleons

• Rialto bridge and St. Mark’s Square in Venice

• Akkineni Nageswara Rao

• Kudu

• Oryx

• Bessel

• Hercules cleaning the Augean Stables

• Baba Kanshi Ram

INFINITE BOUNCE

Set Three

• The official name of this country translates to

‘Oriental Republic of _______’, quite

surprising considering that it is located in Latin

America.

• Which country?

• What was the reason for this odd name?

• Uruguay

• It was the country located to the east of the

Uruguay river.

• What word, used to refer to an innumerable

number of entities derives from Greek word

for “milk-like”?

• Galaxy

• The only galaxy the Greeks knew was the

Milky Way galaxy and since it looked like

somebody had spilt some milk in the sky, the

called it “Galaxy”

• A renowned anatomist from the 16th century, a lot of his work was on the structure of the middle and inner ear.

• He was the first to accurately describe the working of the cochlea and other parts of the inner ear.

• Apart from his work on the ear, he also studied the anatomy of the teeth, and discovered the adrenal glands.

• Who?

• Bartolomeo Eustachi (Eustachius), after whom

the Eustachian tube was named

• Most historians agree that the terms originated in the Vietnam war.

• As the story goes, infantry soldiers would navigate by bearing (compass direction) and would measure distance by pacing. In order to keep track of distance, one or two "nominated" soldiers would count their paces.

• The soldier would keep track of each 100 meter "lot" by moving the gas regulator on the rifle, one mark. After moving it 10 marks, the soldier would then indicate movement of 1000 meters by lifting the rifle and rewinding the gas regulator with a movement of the thumb, resulting in an _______.

• What term?

• Klick to denote 1 kilometre

• The Latin word sagma referred to a pack-saddle, and gave its name to an officer charged with transportation of supplies in 13th century France.

• In later times, the term began to be used to refer to butlers. Today, the same term is used for specialized professionals in a certain field related to the food and beverage industry.

• What term?

• Sommelier

• KAL007 was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul. On September 1, 1983, the plane was shot down by a Soviet interceptor. All 269 passengers and crew aboard were killed.

• As a result of the incident, the United States altered tracking procedures for aircraft departing Alaska. The interface of the autopilot used on airliners was redesigned to make it more ergonomic.

• In addition, the event was one of the most important single events that prompted the Reagan Administration to do something. What?

• Following this, the United States allowed

worldwide access to the Military’s GNSS

system, today known as GPS.

• The Maori call it Te Punga, meaning ‘the anchor’.

• The Javanese names for it translate to ‘raking hut’ or ‘the granary’.

• The Tswana people of Botswana call it Dithultwa, meaning ‘two giraffes’.

• What do English-speaking nations call it?

• What did the ancient Indians call it, based on an incident involving two quarrelling sages and a king?

• Southern Cross or Crux

• Trishanku

• The current Minister of Railways is D. V.

Sadananda Gowda.

• Which politician from the same state as Mr.

Gowda was the previous Minister of Railways?

• Mallikarjun Kharge

• The images on the next slide represent two different types of distance measures.

• While standard Euclidian distance uses the L2 norm, these distance measures use the L1 and L∞ norms instead.

• The first system is given certain names based on its resemblance to something else.

• The second system is known as Chebyshev distance, after the famous Russian mathematician. It is also called by another name, as something we all know uses this distance measure for its operations.

• What are the two systems? [IMAGES]

[IMAGE]

• Manhattan Distance or Taxicab Distance

• Chessboard distance (kings in chess move this

• X is a Scandinavian word meaning “Divine

Strength”.

• Y was a name coined by a consulting company.

They had been instructed to find a name which

began with a letter from either the top or

bottom of the alphabet and was phonetically

memorable, of no more than three syllables and

did not have an offensive meaning in any language.

• What did X & Y merge to form?

• Gavage is a French term used to refer to

methods of force-feeding, usually on ducks and

geese for producing foie gras.

• In certain West African countries, the same

word is used to refer to a related practice,

widely condemned by human rights activists.

• What practice is this?

• Why is it practiced in these countries?

• Force-feeding young women in order to make

them fatter, as Mauritanians consider obesity

desirable in brides.

The word ____

literally means “shore”

or “coast”, describing

the appearance of the

vegetation found in the

____ region as being

akin to that of a

coastline delimiting the

sand of the Sahara.

• Sahel

• Masherbrum

• _________

• Broad Peak

• Gasherbrum II

• Gasherbrum I

• What does this list represent? What is missing?

• The list of tall peaks in the Karakoram range,

as represented in the Great Trigonometric

Survey of India.

• The missing one still retains its name – K2.

• What name is given to this type of mate in

Chess because the image is evocative of a

piece of military clothing ?

• Epaulette mate

• The image on the next slide shows the

Kyocera Stadium, with the logo of the football

club whose home ground it is.

• Which city is the stadium in? (or identify the

club).

• Till 15th June, what is this stadium going to be

used for?

• [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

• The Hague (ADO Den Haag)

• Hockey World Cup

Nicknames/Aliases

Written round

10 questions

• He was originally named David Dwight but

later his mother reversed his name. His

nickname is thought to be an abbreviation of

his last name.

• What was his nickname ?

• Which cricketer, formerly contracted to the

Mumbai Indians franchise is nicknamed “The

Doctor” ?

• Andre Romelle Young once said to Jimmy

Iovine, a record producer, “Man, it's one thing

that people steal my music. It's another thing

to destroy the feeling of what I've worked on.”

This led Jimmy Iovine to do something.

• How do we better know Andre Romelle

Young?

• Which state of the USA is nicknamed “Green

Mountain State” ?

• His father worked in the Opium Department

of the Indian Civil Services. He was born in

the east Champaran District of Bihar.

• He took his name from a river flowing through

Suffolk county in England. Who?

• If Sheikh Mujibut Rahman was Bangabandu and

Chitta Ranjan Das was Deshbandu, who was

Dinabandu?

• The Dieri people of South Australia said that it

was "Kootchee", an evil spirit creating a large

fire. The Gunditjmara people of western

Victoria called it "Puae buae", meaning "ashes".

• What do we call it?

• Who once called himself “The Fred Astaire of

Karate” ?

• Which Jazz musician’s nickname comes from a

Romani word meaning “I am awake”?

• What term refers to people born within a

certain area of London covered by "the sound

of Bow bells" ?

Exchange sheets

Answers

• He was originally named David Dwight but

later his mother reversed his name. His

nickname is thought to be an abbreviation of

his last name.

• What was his nickname ?

• Ike, Dwight D Eisenhower

• Which cricketer, formerly contracted to the

Mumbai Indians franchise is nicknamed “The

Doctor” ?

• Dwayne Romel Smith

• Andre Romelle Young once said to Jimmy

Iovine, a record producer, “Man, it's one thing

that people steal my music. It's another thing

to destroy the feeling of what I've worked on.”

This led Jimmy Iovine to do something.

• How do we better know Andre Romelle

Young?

• Dr. Dre

• Which state of the USA is nicknamed “Green

Mountain State” ?

• Vermont

• His father worked in the Opium Department

of the Indian Civil Services. He was born in

the east Champaran District of Bihar.

• He took his name from a river flowing through

Suffolk county in England. Who?

• George Orwell

• If Sheikh Mujibut Rahman was Bangabandu and

Chitta Ranjan Das was Deshbandu, who was

Dinabandu?

• C F Andrews

• The Dieri people of South Australia said that it

was "Kootchee", an evil spirit creating a large

fire. The Gunditjmara people of western

Victoria called it "Puae buae", meaning "ashes".

• What do we call it?

• Aurora Australis

• Who once called himself “The Fred Astaire of

Karate” ?

• Jean-Claude Van Damme

• Which Jazz musician’s nickname comes from a

Romani word meaning “I am awake”?

• Jean “Django” Reinhardt

• What term refers to people born within a

certain area of London covered by "the sound

of Bow bells" ?

• Cockney

INFINTE BOUNCE

Set Four

• The word has an unknown origin and was originally used as a term for a short knife or dagger.

• It subsequently transferred over to a variety of digging tools and subsequently to this plant since digging tools were used in the cultivation of this plant.

• What plant and what word?

• Spud

• Potatoes

• A 2003 poll by Channel 4 sought to determine

the “100 Greatest Sexy Moments” in cinema

over the ages.

• The poll was topped by a scene from the

1960s, featuring a then 26 year old actress.

• Which scene, which movie?

• Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in Dr.

• On February 22, 1681, Charles II granted a land charter to X as repayment of a debt owed to his father who was an admiral.

• X wanted to name the land “New Wales” or Y, a word meaning woodland. However, Charles II decided to name the land, “X’s Y”. X was embarrassed at the change, fearing that people would think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant.

• Identify X and the piece of land

• William Penn

• Pennsylvania

• The story goes that this raga was composed by Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar. His composition is one of the few songs in this raga.

• The aarohanam and avarohanam are Sa Ri Ga Dha Ni Sa and Sa Ni Dha Ga Ri Sa respectively.

• Identify the raga or explain why it was named so. [AUDIO]

[AUDIO]

• Niroshta (literally without lips)

• Called so because of the absence of Ma and Pa

in the scale, ensuring that the notes can be

sung without using the lips.

• In Orson Scott Card’s ‘Speaker for the Dead’ ,

X is a world colonized by Portuguese

Catholics from a Brazilian settlement.

• They decide upon the name X , because it is

the Latin/Roman name for Portugal.

• Id X.

• Lusitania

• He was originally introduced as an infant character in The Eternal Lover, appearing along with his parents.

• In his youth, he returned to Africa and took up a name that meant ‘killer’. He later rescued an Arab girl, was separated from her, and then married her in the end.

• In some cinematic adaptations, he was replaced by an adopted son called ‘Boy’, with a certain difference in plot from the original material.

• Who? Why was he replaced in the movies?

• Korak, the son of Tarzan

• The films did not want to show Jane as having

been pregnant and given birth to a child, as

that would have led to censorship. This led

them to create an adopted son in the

storyline.

• Opponents of last month’s coup in Thailand have adopted this gesture as a symbol of resistance to the military takeover. Pictures of protesters displaying this gesture have gone viral on social media. According to an op-ed on the Bangkok post,

• "Right now, there is no heroine like _____ to lead the anti-coup crowd. The military does not want to quell the movement to the point that one is produced. It has seen how former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra could lead her party to election victory in less than 50 days. It does not want to see 'a girl on fire' leading the protests.”

• What gesture?

• Three fingered salute from Hunger Games

• The name of this organism’s genus,

Connochaetes, comes from the Greek words

meaning “beard” and “mane”.

• Which ungulate?

• Wildebeest

• It must be a gelding with an even temperament and strong, draft horse appearance, be at least four years old, stand at least 18 hands at the withers when fully mature, and weigh between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds.

• In addition, each horse must be bay in color (a reddish-brown coat with a black mane and tail), have four white stocking feet, and a blaze of white on the face.

• Qualification for what?

• Budweiser Clydesdales

• The images on the next slide depict coins

issued by a particular Indian king, showing

some facets of his life.

• Which king?

• What do each of the coins represent?

• [IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

• Samudgagupta

• Ashwameda (horse sacrifice)

• Samudragupta playing the veena or the lyre

• Movies are normally filmed and played back at 24 fps, producing the illusion of motion.

• The retina captures and holds an image for one-tenth of a second after we see it before processing the next image. If we see a light flash every tenth of a second or less, we perceive it as continuous.

• Early movies were produced at low framerates and therefore caused a _____ effect.

• What term originated thus?

• ‘Flicks’ to refer to movies

• The currencies (current or former) of several Nordic nations share the same etymological root X.

• Furthermore, each of these was divided into 100 units (similar to the Indian paisa), and these smaller units also had similar names derived from Y.

• One theory states that traditionally, the value of an X was equal to a 100 Ys, and that gave rise to these names.

• What are X and Y?

• X – Crown (e.g., Danish krone, Swedish

krona)

• Y – Gold/gold coins (e.g., eyrir from Aurum)

• “I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody. And "________________" was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there. I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know? It was also hands across the water, which I'm still conscious of. 'Cause they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids from there do. And that to me is very important for the future of the race.”

• Quote about what?

• Paul McCartney on Back in the U.S.S.R

• At the 2004 Olympics, this event started and

ended at places with historical significance.

• The start was the site of a historic altercation

from ancient times, while the finish was a

location with a significant sporting history.

• What were the start and end points?

• Start – Marathon (where the Battle of

Marathon was fought)

• End – Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first

modern Olympics in 1896.

• Nepeta cataria is a short lived plant native to Europe. Nepeta cataria is cultivated as an ornamental plant for use in gardens.

• Nepetalactone, extracted from the plant is a mosquito and fly repellent. It is also known for its attractant qualities to butterflies and other creatures.

• The reason we know this plant is primarily due to its use as a recreational substance. Only 2/3rd of the population is affected by the plant.

• What plant?

• Catnip

THE END.

That’s it for now.

QFI Meeting on June 8, 2014 by Jayadev and Swaroop

Entertainment & Humor