The Lone A

The Answer to the earlier Conection question is Max Payne , a third-person shooter computer game developed by the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, produced by 3D Realms and published by Gathering of Developers in July, 2001 .

The links

• 
  The Valkyr drug is a military performance enhancer that turns its users into adrenaline-charged killers who experience hallucinatory images of death.
• Project Valhalla is the government-funded conspiracy that developed Valkyr to enhance the combat effectiveness of US soldiers.
• The computer network in the military base is named Yggdrasil.
• The Aesir Corporation, mentioned frequently in the game and the primary source of the Valkyr drug.
• The nightclub Ragna Rock is a play on the word Ragnarök.
• DEA agent Alex Balder, Max's partner, was shot by an assassin.Alex is killed by his partner BB. In norse myth Baldur's death is set up by Loki, god of chaos and deception, just as BB deceived Alex and Max.
• Alfred Woden's surname (the evil mastermind in the game) refers to Woden, the Anglo-Saxon version of Odin.
• Max meets Woden and the Inner Circle in the Asgard Building.
• Jack Lupino's (the psychotic devil worshipping villain) surname refers to the Fenris Wolf, Lupino being a reference to the Latin name for wolf, Lupus.

The game's allusion to the norse myth was not intended to downcast the legends and heros (with almost all the terms being related to the villains) ,but rather to reinstate their iconic status .
The game's and character's name itself was a pun on a common economic indicator known as the maximum pain theory, casually referred to by investors as "Max-Pain".

A lone Q

I allude this question to Mr.Kaushik Ramajayam who runs an excellent quiz blog .There have been some modifications made though and a lot more details have been included . Hope u enjoy .

So lets begin,


The Valkyries of Norse mythology were warrior-women who watched over battlefields, 'choosers of the slain' who took those who died with valor to Valhalla.



Valhalla was the afterlife of those selected by the Valkyries. From then on, they spent their days fighting and their nights feasting, every morning finding their injuries completely healed so they could spend another day fighting. Ultimately, those who populated Valhalla would fight for the Norse gods in their wars.

Yggdrasil was the tree that connected the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.

Odin

Frigg

Tyr

Thor

The Aesir

Aesir ,the primary pantheon of Norse gods.




Ragnarök, the Norse apocalypse,is a battle between the Aesir and the giants that results in the death of many deities and the rebirth of the world.

Balder (or Baldur) a figure in the Norse mythology was killed when a sprig or arrow of mistletoe was shot or thrown into his chest, by Loki, god of chaos and deceptionWoden is the Anglo-Saxon version of Odin , one of the chief Norse deities.

Asgard was the Norse realm in which the gods lived.

The Fenris Wolf is a large wolf bound by the gods, but it will eventually grow to large for its bonds and escape during Ragnarok.

Now the question is , apart from the Norse mythical connection what links the above list ?

I ll give you a clue : The link in question in a way owes its origin to a common economic indicator known as the "maximum pain theory".

Road Map to Connecticut

1. A slightly weak but interesting one all the same.

"bah humbug" is a phrase which was often used by Ebenezer Scrooge, the protoganist in the Charles Dicken's novel A christmas carol.

Through the looking glass is ofcourse the sequel to Alice in wonderland written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson more popularly known to us by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

Pope John Paul II the second's real name was Karol Józef Wojtyla.

The connection of course is the name 'Carol'.

2.Wolverine

Mahindra and Mahindra in association with Renault had recently launched The Logan.Now if u r familiar with marvel comics ,the name Logan first brings to mind the X-men hero Wolverine.Born James Howlett,Wolverine is one of the Xmen ,guys with the x gene in them which gives them special abilities.A mutant, Wolverine possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound. The near unbreakable metal alloy adamantium bonded to his skeletal system gives him his razor-sharp retractable claws.He is portrayed on screen by the actor Hughe Jackman in the 'X-men" films .the first 2 of which were directed by Brian Singer.

3.Spiderman

The amazing Fantasy #15 ,1962 issue gave us the comic super hero Spiderman.

Created by Stan Lee the amazing webslinger had the alter ego Peter PArker who worked as a press photographer at the 'Daily Bugle' newspaper which had Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson as the Editor in Chief.Among his many deadly supervillains 'Venom' would rank as one ofthe most dangerous.Initially a parasitic alien life form ,venom infects Edward 'Eddie' Brock a fellow press photographer and rival to Peter Parker and becomes the supervillian.

4.Tin tin.

Pablo is a character from The Adventures of Tintin series of classic comic books written and drawn by Hergé. He is a native of the fictional country of San Theodoros and lives in the capital Los Dopicos.Tin Tin's dog snowy is called Milou in the french version and Struppi in the german version.The first Tin Tin comics appeared in Le Petit vingtième, the weekly children's supplement to Le Vingtième siècle newspaper while Herge was its editor.Charles de Gaulle once famously said "Actually, you know, my only international rival is Tintin. We are the little fellows who refuse to be had by the big fellows. People don't notice the resemblance because of my stature."

5.The Battle of Thermopylae pass.

A personal favourite.In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC, an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian Empire at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the Persians for three days in one of history's most famous last stands.Thermopylae means "hot gateway" in greek.Ephialtes was the local who betrayed the greeks by helping the persians penetrate the pass.around 1300 greeks of which about 300 were spartan warriors fought against King Xerxes' 1/2 a million men.The Spartans assembled at full strength a year later and led a pan-Greek army that defeated the Persians decisively at the Battle of Plataea, ending the Greco-Persian War and with it the expansion of the Persian Empire into Europe.

The film 300 is based on this historic stand off.

6. This one has some magic in it.

These are the friends of 'Peter Rabit' created by Helen Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943), an English children's book author and illustrator.

Now have the sir name in mind.J.K Rowling was the First Person to become US dollar billionaire by writing books.Brain Charles Lara HAd the word 'Wizard' written on his bat and Thomas Alva Edison was of course the 'Wizard of Menlo Park.'
answer Harry Potter

CONNECTICUT

So here is my first attempt at connection questions and i give u a full set on them.

1.connect

i "bah Humbug"

ii Through the looking glass

iii Pope John Paul II

2.connect

i Mahindra - Renault

ii James Howlett

iii Adamantium

iv Bryan Singer

3.connect

i "Amazing Fantasy #15",1962

ii Edward Brock

iii Joseph Robertson

4.connect

i Los Dopicos

ii Milou / Struppi

iii Le Vingtieme Siecle

iv Charles de Gaulle's "only international rival".

5.connect

i "hot gate way"

ii Ephialtes

iii 1300:500,000

iv Plataea

6.connect

i Hunca Munca,Squirrel Nutkin , SAmuel Whiskers

ii First Person to become US dollar billionaire by writing books.

iii Brian Lara

iv Thomas Alva Edison

Time for Change

Over the last couple of weeks i have gone through some of the other quiz sites online and came to painfully realize that many questions which i had in my armoury were in fact direct rip offs from other sources.

There is very little one can do to check for the authenticity and uniqueness of these 'type set' questions and therefore i have decided to change the format a little bit. Ungettable one liners are not worthy to be asked for quizzes , so i therefore have made a conscious effort to bring in something new.A quiz ought to have a certain 'charm' in it .It must be something worth to cherish . And it is this which i seek to achieve.

As i said i came across some seriously good quiz blogs run by some former and current IITites and was clearly bowled over.Surely nothing i churn up would be nearly as good as the stuff they put up, still i now have something to raise my sights to.Do file in ur comments as and when u like.

Also due to the 'mind blowing' response i ve had for my previous posts , i have decided to include answers encoded in my posts from here on. hope the change in style will be taken well by the readers.

Answers to SET 4

1.google
2.'Jama' means Friday.In arabic i guess.
3.Walt Disney of Donald Duck
4.Leon Trotsky
5.Madan Lal

Answers to SET 3

1. Idi Amin
2.He was the Greek who convinced the Trojans to take the woden horse into their city.
3.R. S. Owens Company which makes the oscar statuettes
4. Alexander Woollcott
5. This is the window through which one mister Lee Harvey Oswald got a shot at President Kennedy on november 26 th 1963.

Answers to SET 2

1.Alexander the Great.
2. AIDS .Gay Related Immuno Deficiency .
3.The first is Charles Lindberg.U can see the 'Spirit of Saint Louis' behind him.The second is ?Jim Mollison.The former was the first to fly solo across the atlantic from West to East.The latter was the first to fly across the atlantic from East to West.
4.Bernard Shaw
5.The Kremlin

Answers to SET 1

1. Walt Disney.
2. i DeBeers
ii Rolling Stones
3. The battle of Thermopylae between the greeks and the persians
4. Aspirin
5. This is what Angelina Jolie said of her being lara croft the tomb raider.

# SET 4

1. It was started as a research project in Stanford University and was created by a few Phd. Candidates.Its staff then included a former neurosurgeon and also a rocket scientist.And another person had the job title 'spiderman'.Which company are we talking about?

2. What does 'Jama' stand for in Jama Masjid?

3. Who remarked what as " a combination of all the people I ever disliked " ?

4. Lev Davidavich Bronstein was born in Ukraine in 1979.He was a disciple of Karl Marx and joined The Social Democrats but was imprisoned for his revolutionary activities.He escaped from prison and reached England by means of a forged passport that used the name of his jailer.How do we bwtter know him?

5.Who bowled the first bowl of the first over of the first match of the first Cricket World Cup?

# SET 3

1. He declared himself King of Scotland ,arch enemy of Israel, and wanted a war with a neighbouring country to be settled by means of a boxing match between the two heads of states with Mohammed Ali as the match refree.Who?

2.In Dante's Divine Comedy, a person called Sinon suffers the greatest punishment - being held permanently between Satan's jaws. What had he done to deserve this punishment?

3.Which company makes these statuettes , and name their most famous product ?

4. "All the things I really like to do are either immoral,illegal or fattening.",who said these?

5. What is this window's claim to fame?

How to Answer

I realize i haven't mentioned any method for the readers to answer the quiz questions.
Well, to make sure your answers are not overseen by the next person ,you could go to the link www.rot13.com .get your answers encrypted and post them as comments.
Answers will be posted every week.


Thank You

# SET 2

1.

Numerous theories, to include poisoning and a malarial relapse, have been proposed as the cause of his death on a June afternoon in the palace of King Nebuchadrezzer II. What is known for certain is that following a banquet and drinking party hosted by his friend,about a week before, he fell seriously ill and took to bed. Despite (or perhaps because of) self-medicating himself with Hellebore, a small plant that was alternately used as a cure-all and a poison, his condition worsened. He lost the ability to move, except for his right arm, and could barely speak. When it became apparent that his death was at hand, his kith n kin filed in to pay their last respects. One asked him to whom he wished to bequeath his lands,to which he replied "Kratisto" (to the strongest) .

2.

This deadly disease was previously referred to as GRID.Identify the disease and expand GRID.

3.

Identify these two great aviators and the connection.

4.


Turning down Sam Goldwyn's offer to buy the screen rights of his plays,he said ,"The trouble Mr.Goldwyn ,is that you are interested only in art and iam only interested in money."Who?

5.

Identify this Parliament building.

# SET 1

1.
In 1923, he left Kansas and boarded a train to California with $40 in his pocket. When a fellow passenger asked him about his intentions, he said ‘I’m going to direct great Hollywood motion pictures’ . After seeing ‘The Jazz Singer’ he wrote to his brother : "I think this is Old Man Opportunity rapping at our door. Slap a big mortgage on everything we’ve got and let us go after this thing in the right manner" . In 1938, he received honorory degrees from both Harvard and Yale universities, and also accepted an award from the League of Nations. He started the ‘Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow’ .Who is he.

2.
Identify the brands associated with the following adlines

i. "A diamond is forever"

ii."Perception. Reality."

3.

The following place was witness to one of the most historic millitary stand offs . Identify the place and the incident .





4.
On August 10, 1897, a chemist called Feliz Hoffman discovered the world’s first synthetic drug. Name the drug.

5.
" I'll make it real simple, I'm a 36-C. In the game, she's a double-D. In the movie, she's a D. We split the difference...."
Who is talking about whom?