City names trivia

I recently joined a local quizzing group and, thanks to my superstar teammate, even managed to win one of the events! So enthused by that, and trying to be a good member of the quizzing community, I decided to try and pull out some questions of my own..

1. The name of this historical city, and a modern tech hub, can be traced to a stone inscription dating back to the 9th century CE which refers to the city as, literally, the “City of Guards.”
   On the other hand, a popular anecdote states that the name derives from the phrase, the ”Town of Boiled Beans”, in the local language, this name having been given by a 11th century king after a poor old woman served him boiled beans there.
2. This capital city, almost perennially in news these days, dates back to at least the 8th century CE. Although there is some contention about the etymology of its name, the most widely accepted translation is “God’s gift”. The city lies about 80km from a much more ancient holy city whose name in turn translates to “Gateway of the god(s)”.
3. This city encompasses over 260 islands, one of which is the most densely populated island in the world. It is also home to one of the deepest natural maritime ports in the world. Its name literally translates to “Fragrant Harbour” referring to the fact that fragrant wood products and incense were once traded there.
4. These two capital cities in Africa, less than 1700 miles apart, have exactly the same name, and for exactly the same reason, except in two different languages: one in English and the other in French.
5. This capital city is believed to have been established around 870 CE. Its name translates to “Bay of Smokes”, supposedly because of steam from the hot springs in the region. The first settler of the city is said to have decided the location of his settlement by dumping his high-seat pillars into the ocean when he saw the coastline and then settling where the pillars came to shore.

Hell hath no fury..?

When Mass Effect was released late last year, there was a lot of hype created about its, uhhhh, ’steamy’ scenes. Of course, anyone who cared to play the game, or even search through youtube, would have found out fairly quickly that there was hardly anything to that hype. But apparently that ‘anyone’ didn’t include Cooper Lawrence and Fox News who went on to trash the otherwise wonderful game..

Well, while people have come to expect no less than such sensationalism from Fox News, Lawrence is finding out the hard way that messing around with the gaming community can be very costly! Her new book on Amazon is being completely trashed by angry gamers. Even after Amazon removed a lot of the negative reviews, they just can’t keep up with all the new ones being added! This image should give some idea of what’s going on.. Power to the people!!

Shocked and Awed!!

I was way too sleepy last night, after watching Tendulkar’s fantastic innings, to wait around for Nadal’s match. It was a foregone conclusion anyway.. or was it?!

The underdog story is alive and well at Australian Open 2008 after unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wlfried Tsonga disposed of Spaniard Rafael Nadal with an emphatic 6-2 6-3 6-2 win.

This is why I love this game! No matter how good you are.. One bad day, and you’re done. Until next year of course!

Courier mentioned while interviewing Federer after Blake’s match that if he hadn’t won that match, he ran the risk of losing his #1 spot to Nadal, assuming he went on to win the championship. Fortunately for Federer, he won and Nadal has lost so there is no danger to his supremacy, at least for the next few weeks, but the fact that Nadal has managed to come so close to him, closer than anyone else has managed so far, shows how little there is between these two. That and the fact that Nadal still has the better of Federer in head-to-head.

I may be sounding like Nadal is dead or totally done for.. Of course he isn’t! Just wait for the clay court season to start! And in the meanwhile, tonight’s Federer vs Djokovic match is going to be absolutely magical!!

The European Dominance

Amritraj made an interesting comment in the Federer-Blake match, (which btw is turning out to be yet another classic!)..

In the last 3 Grand Slams, all the semi-finalists have been European. The last non-European was Roddick in last year’s Australian Open. Can Blake repeat that?

Even more interestingly, 2 people featured in every one of those 3 semis last year. One of them was, of course, Federer. The other one was the young Serb, Djokovic. I’ve never seen him play, but from all that I’ve read about him, he is destined to be the next big thing in men’s tennis. If and when the Federer-era ends, Djokovic-Nadal battles are going to be very interesting to watch!

This cannot possibly be good!

A picture says thousand words.. that and the fact that I’m no financial analyst!

 As I type this, the SENSEX is at 15,914.32, meaning it has lost almost 4921 points since Jan 11, or slightly over 23% in a matter of 10 days. Is the end nigh?

Did someone say bubble?

A little old, but still a very interesting collection of quotes over the years..

Even a broken clock is right two times a day.  By proclaiming a bubble every year, everyone can say they “called it.”

http://redeye.firstround.com/2007/10/this-year-i-mea.html

Toyota expected too much of Ralf

No doubt Toyota has struggled to produce a remotely competitive car in their 6 years, and that despite having one of the biggest budgets in F1, but for someone believed to have been earning the second highest salary among all the F1 drivers, I really don’t think it’s too much to expect that he’ll extract something out of the car, or motivate the team to design a better one! Perhaps he should have looked at what his elder bro did with Benneton, or what Alonso did with Renault.

“In such a group, the pressure to succeed becomes larger, especially if so much money flows and, at the same time, so little comes out,” Schumacher said. 

Anyway, Toyota was going to be the next big thing in F1 when they entered in 2002. Wonder how long they can go on before the management finally pulls the plug.

Team boss Tadashi Yamashina was even quoted recently as saying he had two years to deliver wins for Toyota, but the Japanese clarified that this is a personal ultimatum rather than one that threatens the entire team