Boiledbeans

Drama! Intrigue!! Geekiness!!!

April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Like the Deep Purple song...

—srikanth @ 20:20

Identify and connect:

Cracked by: varuns88 , Dibyo , sidsen , RajT , Tathagata Chatterjee , sandesh , Prasad , Keerthi Kiran M , yaksha , shashank and BiGFooT.

varuns88, Dibyo, sidsen, RajT, Tathagata Chatterjee, sandesh, Prasad, Keerthi Kiran M, yaksha, shashank and BiGFooT

Show Answer

(1) is a depiction of the legend that Archimedes used giant reflectors to construct a heat ray and burn ships with it from a distance. Many scientists doubted the veracity of this and one, Ionis Sakkas, took it upon himself to check whether it is possible. (2) is a photo of his attempt.


Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Spreads Light

—devadutta @ 20:23

Fill in the two blanks to get an acronym..

___________ ____________

Cracked by: BIGFoot, jayanth and shashank

BiGFooT, jayanth and shashank


Monday, April 28, 2008

Don't...

—srikanth @ 18:12

[audio:http://www.boiledbeans.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/8570e42ab8205e0c18d2bf2a5c55ec89.mp3]

What is the this news bulletin’s claim to fame ?

Identified by: pratap , Dibyo , Keerthi Kiran M , Atul Mathew , Rohan , Arun Krishnamoorthy , shivathilak , priyananda , yaksha , and RajT.

Complete answer by: Rahul, varuns88, Tathagata Chatterjee, Sandesh, udupendra, jayanth, duriel, Ginkgo100, and Ajay Parasuram.

And piezocake is just weird.

pratap, Rahul, Dibyo, Keerthi Kiran M, Atul Mathew, varuns88, Rohan, Arun Krishnamoorthy, shivathilak, Tathagata Chatterjee, Sandesh, jayanth, priyananda, duriel, udupendra, Ginkgo100, yaksha, Ajay Parasuram and RajT

Show Answer

This is an Orson Welles-directed rendition of War of the Worlds on CBS radio on Halloween day, 1938. Millions of viewers didn’t hear the first part of the program, and hence missed the disclaimer that it was fictional. They panicked thinking the martians were actually invading, and much hijinks followed. Hear the complete show at The Internet Archive.


Monday, April 28, 2008

Phase shift

—srikanth @ 08:27

Greetings, Sol-revolvers.

Due to synchronization issues we’re changing the time at which new questions will be moderated and posted (for a short while).

Questions will be be posted/moderated every morning Indian Standard Time. The new question should be live by about 1000 IST each day. That is at 0430 UTC/GMT, and 2130 PDT.

In case this is inconvenient for you, just leave us a note as a comment to this post.


Sunday, April 27, 2008

It's like a grapefruit.

—srikanth @ 10:01

What is the (alleged) connection between the creature in (1) and the strange-looking pattern in (2)?

Clue: We’ve been here before.

Cracked by: BiGFooT , shivathilak , Sandesh , varuns88 , Tathagata Chatterjee , priyananda , yaksha and pratap.

BiGFooT, shivathilak, Sandesh, varuns88, Tathagata Chatterjee, priyananda, yaksha and pratap

Show Answer
  1. The conus textile

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Stone, evolved.

—devadutta @ 10:45

Whats happening here? and what is it popularly known as?

oh, btw, that’s Downtown Manhattan..

Cracked by: udupendra , varuns88 , srichand , pratap , jayanth , bobo , Dibyo , Sandesh , Vinay and Rahul

udupendra, varuns88, srichand, pratap, jayanth, bobo, Dibyo, Sandesh, Vinay and Rahul


Friday, April 25, 2008

How many inches is that?

—devadutta @ 09:44

Connect

Hint: See subject line

Cracked by: Ajay Parasuram , jayanth , udupendra , duriel , Sridhar C , Dibyo , svgreatest , pallavi , Atul Mathew and varuns88.

Ajay Parasuram, jayanth, udupendra, duriel, Sridhar C, Dibyo, svgreatest, pallavi, Atul Mathew and varuns88


Thursday, April 24, 2008

Busy, busy, busy

—srikanth @ 09:37

Legend has it that (1) was describing a “special” form of (2) to (3) as a lark (possibly hoping to fire off (3)s imagination and get him to write a book). After (1) and (3) died, (4) wrote a novel about it that turned out to be one of his greatest hits.

Identify 1, the special form of 2, 3 and 4, and also name the novel.

Cracked by: udupendra , manubhardwaj , Anon , Dibyo , Ginkgo100 , Sandesh , duriel , varuns88 and Mo.

udupendra, manubhardwaj, Anonymous, Dibyo, Ginkgo100, Sandesh, duriel, varuns88 and Mo

Show Answer

Irving Langmuir was describing a fictional form of ice to H G Wells when the latter visited G.E. Wells wasn’t particularly impressed by the whole thing, but Kurt Vonnegut was there at the time, and heard the description. After Langmuir and Wells failed to publish the idea, he took it and based the novel Cat’s Cradle around Ice-Nine. (Water crystallizes when it comes in contact with Ice-Nine)


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Fast!

—devadutta @ 09:56

Jet plane routes from Tokyo-LA and back.

Why are the routes different?

Cracked by everyone! duriel , teju , Ginkgo100 , pratap , manubhardwaj (nice find :) ) , Dibyo , varuns88 , shivathilak , Sandesh , shyam , Vinay , yaksha , Ganesh Prasad , Tathagata Chatterjee and shashank.

duriel, teju, Ginkgo100, pratap, manubhardwaj, Dibyo, varuns88, shivathilak, Sandesh, shyam, Vinay, yaksha, Ganesh Prasad, Tathagata Chatterjee and shashank


Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Seriously, dude, calm down.

—srikanth @ 11:02

A court statement made by (1) during a hearing three years ago claimed that someone, say X, made some very very obnoxious statements involving (2)s and (3).

What am I talking about? Identify (X), (1) and (3). Don’t bother with (2), it is just a representative of its species.

Cracked by: udupendra , varuns88 , shashank , priyananda , Arun Warrier , Dibyo and Vinay.

udupendra, varuns88, shashank, priyananda, Arun Warrier, Dibyo and Vinay

Show Answer

X- Steve Ballmer