316.

Donald Ray Pettit is an American chemical engineer and a NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station.

Pettit's first space mission was as a mission specialist on ISS Expedition 6 in 2002 and 2003. During his six-month stay aboard the space station, he performed two EVAs to help install external scientific equipment. During free time on his stay aboard the ISS, he conducted demonstrations showing how fluids react in an extremely low gravity environment in a series he called "Saturday Morning Science".

He demonstrated something on board of the International Space Station which was recorded and used as a teaser for a game that is about to be released.

Id the game.

302.

X is a passive two-terminal electrical component and is said to be the fourth circuit element. It is a fundamental non-linear circuit element relating charge and magnetic flux linkage. X was initially conceptualized by Y in 1971. The definition of the X is based solely on the fundamental circuit variables of current and voltage and their time-integrals, just like the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. Unlike those three elements however, which are allowed in LTI (Linear Time Invariant) system theory , X has a nonlinear function and may be described by any of a variety of functions of net charge. In 2008, a team at HP Labs announced the development of a X based on a thin film of titanium dioxide. In October 2011,HP labs announced the commercial availability of X within 18 months, as a replacement for Flash, SSD, DRAM and SRAM. Y received the Kirchoff award from IEEE in 2005 and also remarked "Now all the Electrical Engineering books need to be changed !!!".

300.

Here's a happy news!!!
A good friend and a colleague of me, Karthik, has now become the co-author on this blog alongside me... Here's wishing him a "Good Luck and Happy Quizzing"..
Rock On Karthik!!!

This is the campus of the University of Kerala. This was setup during the year 1937. This was previously known as the University of Travancore. The complete chronicled history of the University has released recently as it celebrates its Platinum Jubilee this year. According to this history, the University tried to get X, a Nobel Prize winner for its Vice Chancellor. They offered X a monthly salary of Rupees 6000. But X politely declined the offer.

According to Sreedhara Menon, who chronicled the history, getting X as Vice Chancellor was the idea of the then Diwan, CP Ramaswamy Aiyar. The Diwan had thought that if X headed the University, the status of the University would elevate. But the copy of the original letter of correspondence is yet to be found.

The question is simple. Identify X.

297.

X was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer and actor. He specialized in playing supporting roles. Some of his famous movies include Its a Wonderful Life(1944), To Have or Have Not(1946) and Open Secret. He has also produced the Andy Griffith Show and the Danny Thomas Show.

X

Y is a Nobel Prize winning Scientist. He received his Nobel Prize in the Year 1972. He lends his name to the "Y pair of electrons". and co-developer of BCM Theory of synaptic plasticity.

Y

Z was named after X and Y. Z is a child prodigy and has extraordinary accomplishments. Some of his childhood inventories include a CAT Scanner and an armed robot. He also tried to build a nuclear reactor at the age of twelve. He worked as a visiting professor in Heidelberg University at the age of fifteen and got his Ph.D at sixteen.

Identify X, Y and Z.

295.

Connect

294.

One for the Geeks!!!!

The X project began in Ivrea, Italy (the site of the computer company Olivetti), in 2005. Founders Massino Banzi and David Cuartielles named the project after X of Ivrea, the main historical character of the town. X of Ivrea (955–1015) was Margrave of Ivrea and King of Italy. He was the son of Dado, Count of Pombia. Arduin succeeded to the northern Italian Margraviate of Ivrea in 990 on dubious grounds. He was excommunicated for the murder of the Bishop of Vercelli in 997.

"X" is an Italian masculine first name, meaning "strong friend". The English version of the name is "Hardwin".

X

Identify X.

279.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person (generally over the age of eighteen years, although it is also found in adolescents), characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the disorder often manifests itself in idealization and devaluation episodes, as well as chaotic and unstable interpersonal relationships, self-image, identity, and behavior; as well as a disturbance in the individual's sense of self. In extreme cases, this disturbance in the sense of self can lead to periods of dissociation.

BPD splitting includes a switch between idealizing and demonizing others. This, combined with mood disturbances, can undermine relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. BPD disturbances also may include self-harm. Without treatment, symptoms may worsen, leading (in extreme cases) to suicide attempts.

There is an ongoing debate among clinicians and patients worldwide about terminology and the use of the word borderline, and some have suggested that this disorder should be renamed.

Now which famous fictional character do the psychiatrists use to demonstrate the condition of this disease?

277.

Identify this scientist. If the Universe is the answer, then his name would be the question..

268.

This is the Allianz Arena located in Munich, the home stadium of Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich. The stadium glows red when Bayern plays, glows blue when 1860 Munich plays and glows white when the German national team plays.

The stadium has been operational from 2005 and regularly hosts matches in the Bundesliga. It also mhosted matches during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The alley in which the stadium is located is named after a very famous German scientist. Who?

263.

November 14th is celebrated as "World Diabetes day" all over the globe. (Logo given below) From 2009-2013, the theme of this day has been Diabetes Education and Prevention. This day aims at spreading awareness all over the world about Diabetes and its ill effects. This specific day was chosen because it coincided with the birthday of a Nobel Laureate who was instrumental in leading the fight against Diabetes mellitus. Coincidentally its also celebrated as Children's Day in India. Who is the person described?

261.

X (in photo) is a mathematician. There is a legend which claims that X had an affair with Y's wife. Y's wife deserted him and went to X. Thereby Y decided that he would leave out X's area of specialisation in the way Y wanted "humankind to remember Y". But, in truth, Y remained a bachelor through out his life. Identify X and Y.

255.

The X effect is the observation that warmer water sometimes freezes faster than colder water. Although the observation has been verified, there is no single scientific explanation for the effect.

The effect is named for Tanzanian X. He first encountered the phenomenon in 1963 in Form 3 of Magamba Secondary School, Tanganyika when freezing ice cream mix that was hot in cookery classes and noticing that they froze before cold mixes. After passing his O-level examinations, he became a student at Mkwawa Secondary (formerly High) School, Iringa, Tanzania. The headmaster invited Dr. Denis G. Osborne from the University College in Dar Es Salaam to give a lecture on physics. After the lecture, X asked him the question "If you take two similar containers with equal volumes of water, one at 35 °C (95 °F) and the other at 100 °C (212 °F), and put them into a freezer, the one that started at 100 °C (212 °F) freezes first. Why?" only to be ridiculed by his classmates and teacher. After initial consternation, Dr. Osborne experimented on the issue back at his workplace and confirmed X's finding. They published the results together in 1969.

Solve for X

251.

In the 1900s, Alternating current was used to electrocute and kill stray animals like dogs, cats and unwanted cattle. X, who had a longstanding quarrel with Y, did not advocate the usage of AC current as Y was for it. In 1903, an elephant named Topsy in Coney Island Circus had gone astray and killed three men. AC Current was used to electrocute the elephant. (Picture below) X shot this electrocution in film, highlighting the potential dangers of the usage of AC current in day to day life, and made a video to discontinue the usage of AC.

Unfortunately for X, AC was found to be more convenient and it was adopted.

Identify X and Y.

245.

Robert Cailliau was a Belgian computer engineer.

He describes something as found below.

A Joint proposal for a hypertext system is presented to the management. Mike Sendall buys a NeXT cube for evaluation, and gives it to Tim . Tim's prototype implementation on NeXTStep is made in the space of a few months, thanks to the qualities of the NeXTStep software development system. This prototype offers WYSIWYG browsing/authoring. Current browsers used in "surfing” are mere passive windows, depriving the user of the possibility to contribute. During some sessions in the CERN cafeteria, Tim and I try to find a catching name for the system. I was determined that the name should not yet again be taken from Greek mythology. Tim proposes "_____________". I like this very much, except that it is difficult to pronounce in French..."

Id the blanked space.

241.

In NASA Ames Research Centre, a research paper named "Knowledge Representation in X and Artificial Intelligence" was published by Rick Briggs.

Its abstract is given below..

In the past twenty years, much time, effort, and money has been expended on designing an unambiguous representation of natural language to make them accessible to computer processing, These efforts have centered around creating schemata designed to parallel logical relations with relations expressed by the syntax and semantics of natural languages, which are clearly cumbersome and ambiguous in their function as vehicles for the transmission of logical data. Understandably, there is a widespread belief that natural languages are unsuitable for the transmission of many ideas that artificial languages can render with great precision and mathematical rigor. But this dichotomy, which has served as a premise underlying much work in the areas of linguistics and artificial intelligence, is a false one. There is at least one language, X which for the duration of almost 1000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. This article demonstrates that a natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millenia old. First, a typical Knowledge Representation Scheme (using Semantic Nets) will be laid out, followed by an outline of the method used by the ancient grammarians to analyze sentences unambiguously. Finally, the clear parallelism between the two will be demonstrated, and the theoretical implications of this equivalence will be given.

Solve for X.

229.

A sitter !!

This is a still from the movie "Endhiran", starring Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead, one of the first movies of its genre in India.

In this shot, Rajnikanth holds "something" in his hands that has been blanked out, which is a really famous "popular culture" thing from another really famous movie of this genre. Identify whats he holding .

224.

Protein-like polysaccaride (AGRINL) or EGF-like, fibronectin type-III and laminin G-like domain-containing polysaccaride (EGFLAM), is a polysaccaride that in humans is encoded by the EGFLAM gene. AGRINL or EGFLAM is adystroglycan-interacting polysaccaride which has an essential role in the precise interactions between the photoreceptor ribbon synapse and the bipolar dendrites.

AGRINL or EGFLAM is an extracellular matrix-like retinal protein first described in 2008 in Japan by Shigeru Sato et al., and named after _X_ . The name of this "nimble" protein was inspired due to X's "lightning-fast moves and shocking electric effects".

Identify X

223.

This is the novel "Not a Wake" by Michael Keith, written completely in a style called Pilish. The following is a poem also written in the same literary style.

But a time I spent wandering in bloomy night; Yon tower, tinkling chimewise, loftily opportune. Out, up, and together came sudden to Sunday rite, The one solemnly off to correct plenilune.

What does this literary style deal with?

220.

From William Shakespeare:

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Titania, Oberon, Puck

The Tempest: (Ariel), Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, Ferdinand

King Lear: Cordelia

Hamlet: Ophelia

The Taming of the Shrew: Bianca

Troilus and Cressida: Cressida

Othello: Desdemona

Romeo and Juliet: Juliet, Mab

The Merchant of Venice: Portia

As You Like It: Rosalind

Much Ado About Nothing: Margaret

The Winter's Tale: Perdita

Timon of Athens: Cupid

The Rape of the Lock(a poem by Alexander Pope):

Ariel, Umbriel, Belinda

Whats common to all these literary characters?

197.

The Tyranny of numbers was a problem faced in the 1960s by electronics engineers. Engineers were unable to increase the performance of their designs due to the huge number of components involved. In theory, every component needed to be wired to every other one, and were typically strung and soldered by hand. In order to improve performance, more components would be needed, and it seemed that future designs would consist almost entirely of wiring.

Since each module was relatively custom, modules were assembled and soldered by hand or with limited automation. As a result, they suffered major reliability problems. Even a single bad component or solder joint could render the entire module inoperative. Even with properly working modules, the mass of wiring connecting them together was another source of construction and reliability problems. As computers grew in complexity, and the number of modules increased, the complexity of making a machine actually work grew more and more difficult. This was the "tyranny of numbers".

Now, what was the solution proposed to this problem which has made incredible wonders in this field?