Answers to Dry Round of 10th June '05

The winner for this was Arun with a perfect 10. Congratulations!!!

And now, time for the answers -

1. World of business. What are known as "Babyflots"?
Ans: After the break up of USSR its national carrier Aeroflot was broken in to many smaller airlines which were known as Babyflots.

2. This company started as a rubber works company in 1898 and took on the name of the town in which it was setup in the 1920s. After WWII, the rubber company took a majority shareholding in the Finnish Cable Work. The recession of the 1990s forced the company to
focus on a different market and it became a household name even in India. What is the Company and which is its major product line?
Ans: Nokia. GSM Mobile Handsets.

3. Sitter. Identify this Indian corporate bigwig. While at Oxford, he played piano to accompany Einstein's Violin.
Ans: Russi Modi

4. What significance do these people or phrases have :

* Chester Carlson
* Otto Kornei
* Paul Selenyi
* 10-22-38 ASTORIA

Ans: Xerox. Carlson and Kornei found a paper by a Hungarian physicist called Paul Selenyi, on which they based their invention. 10-22-38 ASTORIA was the first phrase reproduced (on a glass slide coated with lycopodium powder) on October 22, 1938 in Astoria, NY. Carlson and Kornei just used the date and the place for testing this invention.

5. Connect J.D.Salinger's Catcher in the Rye with John Lenon.
Ans: Mark Chapman. Lenon was shot by Mark Chapman, who, of course, was inspired by Salinger's book.

6. What is the sub-genre of ancient British Ballad where a human helps a ghost to find peace, called?
Ans: Grateful Dead

7. In music, what is the Mel Tillis Syndrome?
Ans: When a person stutters whilst talking but not while singing.

8. This chief of the Chiricahua Apaches was actually called Goyahkla or "One Who Yawns". He once attacked some Mexicans who called out in Spanish to their patron saint for aid. Goyahkla liked the good saint's name so much that he started calling himself after the saint. After surrendering to Gen.Nelson A.Miles of the U.S. Cavalry, he went on to appear in Buffalo Bill's wild west shows. He died aged 80 when he fell off his horse, literally "dead drunk". What is he better known as ?
Ans: Geronimo

9. In ancient Rome, one out of every ten Roman soldiers who were convicted of mutiny were executed. What English word, meaning "Destroy" comes from this practice ?
Ans: Decimate

10. Which movies title comes from a William Burroughs story about people who supply medical instruments to outlawed doctors who can't obtain them legally? The movie had nothing to do with this but the director liked the name and obtained permission to use it.
Ans: Blade Runner