Quotes and Questions 32 - 2 Dec 08

For the answers to the questions, visit my SLCN blog here

Quotes

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
George Orwell

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.
Robert Burns

Questions

1) In 1922, this inventor approached Lenin with a strange looking box featuring two protruding antennas. By moving his hands near the antennas, this man could create sounds of varying pitch and volume. The "aetherphone", appeared in a number of widely publicized and critically acclaimed concerts throughout Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, and is immortalized in the songs of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, the movies The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Thing, and the opening theme from The Outer Limits. Name the inventor or the more widely used name of the aetehrphone.

2) Gold leafing vehicles isn't new - the Egyptians mastered the technique more than 3000 years ago and Tutankhamen's chariot was decorated with gold leaves. Gold plating your car is however, new and a sure-fire way to differentiate your ride. London-based Alchemist created a unique 24-carat gold and platinum-leafed what for the recent MPH Prestige and Performance Motor Show at London's Earls Court? The car, also features seven diamonds in its bodywork.

3) The show- "Batboy the musical" was inspired by a story from what publication?

4) Van Gogh sliced off part of his ear, his left one, after an argument with this man. Thinking he would find him at a brothel, he went there to present it to him. Not finding him there, he gave it a prostitute named Rachel. The man with whom van Gogh had the argument, was once a stockbroker, and later on became a leading post-impressionist painter. His style paved the way to primitivism as well. He spent nine weeks painting in Arles, Vincent Van Gogh, in 1888. He died at age 54. Who was he?

5) When he graduated from high school in 1917, he chose journalism instead of college and spent seven months as a newspaper reporter. While driving a Red Cross ambulance in Italy in 1918 he was severely wounded by shrapnel. Who was he?

6) In an interview with H.G. Wells, Stalin said "Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." To keep scientists firmly in his grasp, and research constantly focused on harming his enemies, Stalin created a type of labor camp where the great minds of the USSR were indefinitely detained to work on scientific projects for the state. Inmate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn gave the camp a t title, based on Dante's description of hell: the "First Circle". Due to the practice of attributing research there to well-known Russian scientists, many of the masterminds behind Russia's cold war scientific breakthroughs will remain lost to history. What was the labor camp called?

7) Inspired by an unflattering baby photo of himself, what cartoon character did Bob Clampett create in 1942? Originally, started out as an aggressive, mean-spirited, pink-feathered bird named Orson who tormented two cats based on the popular comedy team Abbot and Costello. He went on to become the first Warner Brothers cartoon to win an Oscar.

8) Members of Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club first staged the parade of roses in 1890. Since then the Parade has been held in Pasadena every New Year's Day, except when January 1 falls on a Sunday. This exception was instituted in 1893. this "Never on Sunday" policy was instituted why?

9) When two bodies that hold electrical charge are in proximity, they create an electric field – a phenomenon Theremin used in the 1920s to create the Radio Watchman, a device that was able to identify the approach of the human body using a sensor. Theremin invented and patented the motion detector at the request of Lenin, and dedicated the early part of his career to exploring applications of the amount of electrical charge able to be held by a body. What is this phenomena called?

10) What civil rights leader did Dorothy Parker leave the bulk of her estate to?

11) Elvis was in 33 films, and his favorite "King Creole," which was filmed just before he entered the Army in 1958. He also won 3 Grammy's in what category?

12) Who said: "I'm the President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more broccolis"?

13) Although it first appeared in comic form in 1996, it really became a huge hit with the release of a 27-episode television series and a collectible card game where they could duel like their favorite characters. Some duelists have paid thousands of dollars for a single card on auction web sites such as eBay. What is this called?

14) This London club's sole requirement for membership is "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities"; beards are absolutely forbidden. The club engages in activism to assuage discrimination as well as competitive facial hair tourneys, and has inspired the foundation of transatlantic and Scandinavian counterparts. The club declares itself to be at war with a society that demands people choose "the bland, the boring and the generic";[ a club chant includes the proposition that being kissed by a smooth face is akin to "meat without the salt" What is the club called?

15) The worlds first were gas powered contraptions were erected in 1868 to make it easier for ministers of parliament to reach the house of commons. They were controlled by a lever operated by a police constable. One month later they exploded causing injury to several policemen. It took half a century before Britain put trust in them again. What are they?