Q1. Rudolf was a German inventor and mechanical engineer born in Paris. Due to financial difficulties, he started working at his father’s workshop, who was a leather goods manufacturer. He received a scholarship from the now Technical University of Munich, which he accepted despite his parents’ wishes. He is renowned for his eponymous invention that rivalled the steam engine in the late 1890s, and exists worldwide in a more improved form today.
What is his invention or what is his last name?
Q2. One evening in 1966, on his drive back home in London, Ken Aston was thinking about an incident in a game of football he was officiating. He made a brief stop at a traffic signal. Inspired by what he saw at the signal, he came up with two of the most fundamental aspects to the game, still followed in each and every match.
What did Ken invent?
Q3. In the early 1950s, Sir Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of an alcoholic beverage company, attended a shooting party (hunting) in Wexford. There, he got into an argument about the fastest game bird in the world, and failed to find an answer in reference books. A few years later, recalling this argument, he invited Norris (pictured) and Ross, who were fact-finding twins, to settle pub arguments as a novelty promotion.
This is the origin story of which organisation that is now a multimedia brand agency, that still publishes annual books of such facts?
Q4. Born in New Jersey in 1858, this fictional character performed in the opera as a contralto (whose vocal range is the lowest) at La Scala, in Italy, and later at the Imperial Opera of Warsaw, Poland. She later became an escort to King of Bohemia, before moving to London, where she crossed paths with one of the world’s greatest detectives. The detective considered her as his foremost adversary, and later, fondly referred to her as ‘The Woman.’ Hired by a criminal mastermind to distract and outwit the detective, she is killed for having gotten to close to the detective.
Who is ‘The Woman’?
Q5. In a landmark court case fought on behalf of the Maori tribe of New Zealand, in 2017, the Whanganui river was accorded some rights to aid in its preservation and conservation. Citing this as an example, Indian courts also accorded the same rights to the rivers of Ganga and Yamuna, thus making the pollution of these rivers illegal.
What status/rights were these rivers given?
Q6. The Bundeswehr (pictured) are the German Armed Forces, and operate under the federal government. In the 1970s, a rule stating that all military personnel should have short hair, was lifted. In keeping with the trends of that time, many soldiers started sporting long hair. Germany’s NATO allies were angered by this decision, and there was an unofficial pejorative nickname that made its rounds, for the Bundeswehr. It was a pun on a branch of the military, and the fact that the men had long hair.
What was the nickname?
Answers
A1. Diesel, The Diesel engine
A2. Yellow and Red cards
A3. Guinness World Records
A4. Irene Adler
A5. Personhood/ Human Rights
A6. The German Hair Force
