Useless Questions

1. This Italian dessert typically made from sponge finger biscuits, espresso coffee, mascarpone cheese, eggs, cream, sugar, Marsala wine, cocoa, and rum, means "pick-me-up" metaphorically, "make me happy,"), a reference to the two caffeine-containing ingredients, espresso and cocoa. Which cake? (A clue for people who are not foodies like me: think cadbury)

2. In 1900, André ______ published the first edition of a guide to France to help drivers maintain their cars, find decent lodging, and eat well while touring. It included addresses of things like gasoline distributors, garages, tire stockist , and public toilets. As motoring became more widespread, a rating system was developed which gave stars to restaurants. This grading system went on to become the ultimate recognition a restaurant could aspire for in Western Europe and is used by gourmets worldwide. What is this grading system called?

3. ISO 3103 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization. What does it specify? George Orwell had spent some of his time doing the same thing, as in standardizing the same thing.

4.Which Bollywood movie was based on Stephen King's story Quitter's Inc?

5. Fill in the blanks to get the name of a novel

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O ____ ___ ___
That has such people in't!"
These lines are taken from The Tempest.

6. X and Y were rivals in a sport for a long time. After retirement X came up with Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grill machine which went on to earn $100 million in sales since 1995. Now Y who had defeated X to become the world champ has come out with a brand called Real Deal grill to rival X's product. Id X and Y

7. Who now owns the Marquis de Sade's legendary castle at Lacoste, France, where he indulged in the atrocities attributed to him?

8. If we should be remembering Radhanath Sircar a Bengali mathematician, today, what would it be for? Our former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was of the opinion that Mr. Andrew Scott Waugh was unfairly giving credit to his former boss and instead Sircar should be bestowed with the honour. What did Sircar do? ( Clue coz the questions are too wild: think of brands of spices)

9. Which capital city's name means "the hills of Impala" the antelope?

10. X is an English Mathematician working on number theory at Princeton. His areas of specialization include arithmetic of elliptic curves with complex multiplication. His most famous mathematical result is that "all rational semi stable elliptic curves are modular"; which is a way of proving Y. A special case of Y was first stated by Abu Mahmud Khujandi in the 10th century. Y is named after a French mathematician who felt that the margin of his copy of Arithmetica of Diaphantus was not wide enough. Id X and Y.

11. Originally published as a monthly limited series from 1986 to 1987, it was later republished as a trade paperback, which popularized a particular format. To date, it remains the only book of its genre to win a Hugo Award, and is also the only book of its kind to appear on Time Magazine's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present." It is set in 1985, in an alternative history United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The title of the book is derived from the phrase Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?, from Juvenal's Satire VI, "Against women", often translated as "Who watches the ______?"

12. This iconic scientist has a penchant for courting controversies. In his autobiography, Avoid boring People, he describes his academic colleagues as "dinosaurs", "deadbeats", "fossils", "has-beens", "mediocre", and "vapid". . THe was quoted as saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" as "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really." These quotes attributed to him drew attention and criticism from press in several countries and was widely discussed on CNN, the BBC, several papers, peers and by civil rights advocateshe common perception was that he was claiming a link between race and intelligence with the BBC stating that "he claimed black people were less intelligent than white people" Name this scientist who was in news for all wrong reasons during the last months of 2007.

13. It’s a phenomenal instrument, one of those freaks of nature that come very rarely in a hundred years. Clear and penetrating it has a brilliant, metallic timbre and yet remains warm, with a gorgeous romantic sheen, an unforced, open throated quality that.." says conductor Richard Bonynge. What is he talking about?

Sorry for the tough ones

Try to crack'em