Random Questions 05/Apr/2009

Answers posted in a week on the blog

Q1. This building was constructed as the new headquarters of the Standard Oil company of Indiana ( which later became AMOCO). The structure of the building is very similar to the WTC and was the tallest marble clad structure when it was built. It was initially sheathed entirely by 43000 slabs of Italian Carrara Marble. But the architecture team had made a mistake as the marble was very light. In later years they had to resurface the entire building with marbles from Mount Airey at a cost of $80 million(almost half the cost of the building itself). Which Building is it?


Q2. Prior to 1994 , the engine displacement made up the first three digits and the last letter indicated the type of Chassis/Engine. Post 1994 , The three digits still stand for the Engine Displacement while the digits are prefixed with the Class of the vehicle rather than the type of engine. What am I talking about?

Q3. This company’s first product was the Yubiwa Pipe , a finger ring that would hold a cigarette allowing the wearer to smoke the cigarette down to its nub while also leaving the wearer's hands free. The company however entered into a totally different field for which it is now known after the owner visited a business show in Ginza. Which Company?

Q4.It is a village on the shore of a well-protected bay of the Sea of Okhotsk. The settlement was founded by the Russian-American Company in 1843 and the highway through this place was the shortest route from Yakutsk to the Pacific Ocean and was used for shipping furs from the heartland of Yakutia.It was one of the centres of the Yakut Revolt against Lenin's government. Which Place?

Q5. A branch of the Punjab Police specializing in Counter-Terrorist operations and VIP security duties, as well as acting against serious crime and performing high-risk operations which can't be carried out by the regular police. It was formed in 1998 as a counterterrorism unit, but over time its duties expanded to VIP escort. Created based on an order of the then Punjab Chief Minister , this unit got immense criticism early 2009. What is the branch?

Random 5 - Part 2

1.During late July , early August 2007 , Boston Celtics traded 5 players ( Al Jefferson , Ryan Gomes , Gerald Green , Sebastien Telfair , Theo Ratliff) and two first round draft picks for a 10 time All-Star from Minnesota Timberwolves. Who was the person who was traded and what is special about this trade?
2.Cyberjaya is a planned township which arose out of a study by Management consultancy firm McKinsey for Multimedia Super Corridor. The IT city is located in a district that is more famous for hosting a worldwide event. Which district?
3.This event was called digital Boston Tea party. The hexadecimal value of 3,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640 was published on the net and most sites publishing these numbers were given a cease and desist order by the Advanced Access Content System. The general public responded by publishing this number on all sites and forwarding the number by mail, which is seen as the digital medium’s Boston tea party. What was this number?
4.The origins of this process is generally credited to Rabbi Yaacov Deyo of Aish HoTorah. The process as a single word is a registered trademark of Aish HoTorah , while the seperated two word usage is generic. The first event took place at Pete’s Café in Beverly Hills in late 1998. What is it?
5.The wall along the entrance to this place holds hand written letters by M.G.Ramachandran, M.S.Subbulakshmi , R. Venkataraman ,Giani Zail Singh and a few others along with the picture of the founder and Giani Zail Singh opening the place in 1983. An Idol of Mahaveera celebrating his 2600 anniversary and an Idol of Lord Ganesha for celebrating the first anniversary can be found along the hallways of this place. Which place in Chennai – would you find these?

Random 5

Answers in a week.

1. This is a statement by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg about Lilly Ledbetter and her professional life.

Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber’s plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. For most of those years, she worked as an area manager, a position largely occupied by men. Initially, Ledbetter’s salary was in line with the salaries of men performing substantially similar work. Over time, however, her pay slipped in comparison to the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter was paid $3,727 per month; the lowest paid male area manager received $4,286 per month, the highest paid, $5,236

What is Obama's connection to this?

2. The lady in the middle of this picture was the homecoming queen in high school. She left 3M when she was denied a request to move to the headquarters. Who is this lady who recently wanted to ensure her company got some frigging breating space to kick some butt?


















3. How do we better know Guddu Rao , a Brahmin Madhwa who stayed in a single bedroom house in West Mambalam with Lyricist Vaali and actor Srikanth?

4. This mascot is based on the Royal Bengal Tiger. What is its name?

















5. Jorge Cauz recently wrote about an initiative in his blog

"We are not abdicating our responsibility as publishers or burying it under the now-fashionable 'wisdom of the crowds',We believe that the creation and documentation of knowledge is a collaborative process but not a democratic one,experts would sit alongside the encyclopaedia entries and the official material would carry a '---------- Checked' stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content.

What is the new initiative?