General Quiz-6

Mail the answers to batty_bharath@yahoo.co.in. Answers will be put up in a week

1. United States Patent 6152797. In the ‘Object and advantages section’ of the patent:

It is an object of the present invention to provide tetrahedral or octahedral modules that snap together at adjoining faces so that the octahedral or tetrahedral modules won't slide relative to each other.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide tetrahedral or octahedral modules would be durable and reusable.

It is still yet a further object of the present invention to provide tetrahedral and octahedral modules that come in contact with each other over a maximal amount of surface area, thus distributing stress more evenly and resulting in a stronger structure.

It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide modules not based on the 90° angles of most modules. In the modules of the present invention can be found these angles: 600°, 120°, arc cosine(1/3)--approximately 70.5°, and arc cosine(-1/3)--approximately 109.5°.

What am I talking about?

2. A study was conducted by the Pontificate Centre for Culture in 1992. After the study published its results, the then Pope John Paul II expressed regret at how things had been till that date and carried out a major decision. What was the study about and what did the Pope do?

3. Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement. Jackson Pollock has commented: "...look passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for.”

This is the reason for a practice that Pollock follows. What?

4. The Conquered Lorikeet is a species of parrot that became extinct 700-1300 years ago. It was named by David Steadman, as a wordplay on ___________. Its range was from the Cook Islands to the Society and Marquesas Islands.

What was its scientific name?

5. The word X (as used in Y) a language puzzle that has never been satisfactorily accounted for. A fairly old and widely-used word, it refers to a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity. Those who used the word, including most early students of language, assumed that it was the same word as referred to the insect. They thought that this particular meaning had probably been inspired by the obvious similarity between these human gatherings and the X’s social nature.

One possibility is that it comes from the Middle English word _____, which means "a prayer" or "a favor“ . In England, a dialectal form of this word, referred to "voluntary help given by neighbors toward the accomplishment of a particular task .

6. X was the first service uniform registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The tight costume forced Y to bend at the knees, not the waist, when serving drinks in a manoeuvre known as Z. There was usually a seamstress for each Club to maintain the fit. To avoid rumors, the Club Manager had only two responsibilities for the Y, floor service and weigh in. Before every shift the Manager would weigh in each Y as they could not gain or lose more than one pound.

Genuine X in good condition have sold for over $10,000. The only two on public display are in the collections of The Smithsonian and the Chicago History Museum.

7. X, Chief __________to the Cabinet Office (c. 1988 – March 2006) served under the premierships of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, but retired a few months after the Blairs moved in to Downing Street.

At a cost of about £100 a, X was said to be of considerably great value. In June 1995, X went missing. On 25 September 1995, the Prime Minister's press office announced his apparent death. Upon his return, X issued a statement through the civil service stating, "I have had a wonderful holiday at the Royal Army Medical College, but it is nice to be back and I am looking forward to the new parliamentary session.”

8. The origin of the band name was described by Brian Downey in an interview in the 2007 DVD Live and Dangerous: The band's lead guitarist Eric Bell, who was a fan of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, bought a copy of The Dandy comic after seeing Eric Clapton depicted reading a copy of its sister publication The Beano. Bell suggested ________, the name of a robot character from the comic which was in turn named after the nick for _________. Lynott liked the idea, but while arranging a gig at a Dublin venue over the telephone, the venue owner assumed that '_____' was actually '______' due to Phil's strong Dublin accent. The band turned up to find themselves advertised outside the club as '_______' and the name stuck.Identify the band.

9. X went on to solve the Sphinx's riddle: "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?" To this X answered "Man." Distraught that her riddle had been answered correctly, the Sphinx threw herself off the side of the wall. His reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx's curse was kingship and the hand of the queen, Jocasta.

10. It weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a waistline of 33 feet, and is about 800-1000 years old. In February 1998, a local company took cuttings from the Major Oak and began cultivating clones of the tree with the intention of sending saplings to be planted in major cities around the world. The purpose was to provide a focal point for an Internet-based study of the Major Oak, its history.

What is it famous for?

Ciao......

ANSWERS GENERAL QUIZ-5

1 .During the 2004 U.S presidential elections there were allegations of data irregularities and systematic flaws especially in Florida. Diebold, the company manufacturing the voting machines tightened its security after it was revealed that a simple virus can hack its electronic voting machines. But however months later a hacker broke their lock. How did he do it?

The advertisement contained the image which was an exact replica of the key to the electronic voting machines.


2 . Helen Duncan (1897 – 1956) a scottish woman, during World War II. In Portsmouth, she indicated knowledge that a warship had been sunk. Because this fact had been kept from the public, the British Admiralty chose to attempt to discredit her. She was arrested and eventually charged at first __________, she was jailed for nine months. Winston Churchill was less than impressed with the whole thing and eventually repealed the___________Act in 1951.

WITCHCRAFT


3. X is a catchphrase and proverb used in discussing economic inequality. William Harrison said, in an October 1, 1840 speech, " I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the government are directed to the purpose of making X.

In 1821, Percy Shelley argued that in his England, "the promoters of utility" had managed to exasperate at once the extremes of luxury and want. X; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism.
The phrase X was also very famously quoted in a movie. Give me the name of the movie and the phrase.

X- The rich richer and the poor poorer Movie is Rajnikanth's latest Sivaji

4.
Fill in the first blank

'Why does a chicken cross the street?

5. During Perestroika, they began to feature leaders of the Soviet Union. Easily Mikhail Gorbhachev was the largest, then Leonoid Brezhnev, Nikita Khruschev, Josef Stalin and the puniest Vladimir Lenin.

But in recent times the largest Gorbhachev has been replaced with Vladimir Putin, then comes Boris Yelstin, Mikhail Gorbhachev, Josef Stalin and then the Vladimir Lenin. Explain.

A matryoshka doll or a Russian nested doll

6 X are non-structural details that make up letters and symbols. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968 book The Origin of the X is now broadly accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first brushed onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating X.

In print, Y are more typically used for headlines than for body text. The conventional wisdom is that X help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. In typography, a Y is one that does not have the small features at stroke endings. Y have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online.

X- Serif Y-Sans-Serif

7 In "From the Ruins of the Reich", Douglas Botting claims the term originated among black GIs in occupied Germany when the occupying soldiers sometimes slept with German war widows; getting sex he didn't deserve so she could feed her children.Whats is the not so famous word but used ubiquitously?

This question is not meant to offend anyones sentiments.... just for the sake of quizzing.... Motherfucker

8 Moghal-e-Azam (1960)
Taj Mahal (2005)
Sohni Mahiwal (1984)

What connects these three films?

Indian films that were screened in Pakistan

9 The first person who claimed to be X was the Brazilian businessman José Roberto Penteado. When Penteado started to get media attention, including an offer to be in a Volkswagen commercial, a 25 year old Hungarian man named Péter Guzli came forward as the real X.
Guzli took the photo on November 28, 1997, and was also responsible for the initial edit. He edited the image for a few friends, not realizing it would spread so quickly. He first provided the original undoctored photo and several other photos from the same series as proof to a Hungarian newspaper. Later on, the show Wired News examined the evidence and confirmed that Guzli was the real X. What are we talking about?

The tourist guy, also known as the accidental tourist ,WTC Guy, or tourist of death, is an Internet phenomenon consisting of a photograph of a tourist that has appeared in many photoshopped pictures after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

10 What is the name of this rather commercial painting/cartoon?

"The last breakfast" ---the characters are the mascots of kellogs cereals.

Ciao
Bharath

General Quiz-5

Here is the next edition as usual.. Mail the answers to batty_bharath@yahoo.co.in ... Please refrain from googling or wikiiing ... Answers will be put up in a week...

1 .During the 2004 U.S presidential elections there were allegations of data irregularities and systematic flaws especially in Florida. Diebold, the company manufacturing the voting machines tightened its security after it was revealed that a simple virus can hack its electronic voting machines. But however months later a hacker broke their lock. How did he do it?


2 . Helen Duncan (1897 – 1956) a scottish woman, during World War II. In Portsmouth, she indicated knowledge that a warship had been sunk. Because this fact had been kept from the public, the British Admiralty chose to attempt to discredit her. She was arrested and eventually charged at first __________, she was jailed for nine months. Winston Churchill was less than impressed with the whole thing and eventually repealed the___________Act in 1951.




3. X is a catchphrase and proverb used in discussing economic inequality. William Harrison said, in an October 1, 1840 speech, " I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the government are directed to the purpose of making X.

In 1821, Percy Shelley argued that in his England, "the promoters of utility" had managed to exasperate at once the extremes of luxury and want. X; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism.
The phrase X was also very famously quoted in a movie. Give me the name of the movie and the phrase.


4.
Fill in the first blank



5. During Perestroika, they began to feature leaders of the Soviet Union. Easily Mikhail Gorbhachev was the largest, then Leonoid Brezhnev, Nikita Khruschev, Josef Stalin and the puniest Vladimir Lenin.

But in recent times the largest Gorbhachev has been replaced with Vladimir Putin, then comes Boris Yelstin, Mikhail Gorbhachev, Josef Stalin and then the Vladimir Lenin. Explain.



6 X are non-structural details that make up letters and symbols. The explanation proposed by Father Edward Catich in his 1968 book The Origin of the X is now broadly accepted: the Roman letter outlines were first brushed onto stone, and the stone carvers followed the brush marks which flared at stroke ends and corners, creating X.

In print, Y are more typically used for headlines than for body text. The conventional wisdom is that X help guide the eye along the lines in large blocks of text. In typography, a Y is one that does not have the small features at stroke endings. Y have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online.


7 In "From the Ruins of the Reich", Douglas Botting claims the term originated among black GIs in occupied Germany when the occupying soldiers sometimes slept with German war widows; getting sex he didn't deserve so she could feed her children.Whats is the not so famous word but used ubiquitously?

This question is not meant to offend anyones sentiments.... just for the sake of quizzing....

8 Moghal-e-Azam (1960)
Taj Mahal (2005)
Sohni Mahiwal (1984)

What connects these three films?



9 The first person who claimed to be X was the Brazilian businessman José Roberto Penteado. When Penteado started to get media attention, including an offer to be in a Volkswagen commercial, a 25 year old Hungarian man named Péter Guzli came forward as the real X.
Guzli took the photo on November 28, 1997, and was also responsible for the initial edit. He edited the image for a few friends, not realizing it would spread so quickly. He first provided the original undoctored photo and several other photos from the same series as proof to a Hungarian newspaper. Later on, the show Wired News examined the evidence and confirmed that Guzli was the real X. What are we talking about?


10 What is the name of this rather commercial painting/cartoon?

Ciao
Bharath

Answers General Quiz -4

1. Connect the four pics with an apronym and explain.

BASE jumping

• Building
• Antenna
• Span
• Earth

2. A band-pass filter is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects (attenuates) frequencies outside that range. An example of an analogue electronic band-pass filter is an RLC circuit (a resistor-inductor-capacitor circuit).

How is this schematic band-pass filter that appears in a novel 'V' written by Thomas Pynchon a reference to pop culture?

Kilroy was here

3 Proponents state that the they are accurate 75% to 90%. A Canadian study for 13 cities in the past 30 to 40 years puts success rate level at 37%. Also, the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall accuracy rate is around 39%. Random chance at a correct guess would be about 33%.

* Wiarton Will in Wiarton, Ontario

* General Beauregard Lee, PhD in Atlanta, Georgia

* Brandon Bob of Brandon, Manitoba

* Sir Walter Wally of Raleigh, North Carolina

Put fundaes..

Groundhogs. In weather lore, if a groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, marmot, or ground squirrel, emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it will return into its burrow and winter will continue for 6 more weeks.

4 Recently the Oxford English Dictionary has seen a reduction of about 4000 words. Angus Stevenson, eliminated some 16,000 _____ from the sixth edition, published last month. “People are not confident about using them anymore,” he said. “They’re not really sure what they’re for.”

What did Oxford do?
Removed hyphens

5. X is a style of drawing that uses the stipple method to create an image. They are designed to emulate the look of woodcuts and engravings on certificates and currency. Y first began using X in 1979 by freelance artist Kevin Sprouls. Y felt that the drawings complemented their classical feeling and gave it a sense of stability.

Each X takes between three to five hours to produce. Women are often more difficult to depict than men, due to their more complicated haircuts. In 2002, the Smithsonian Institute acquired 66 original X drawings and have put them on permanent display in the National Portrait Gallery.
X-Hedcut Y-The Wall Street Journal

6. It is maximum 30 ft (9.1m) wide and is about the same color as the soil surrounding it. Based on the optics of resolving power, (distance versus the width of the iris) an object of reasonable contrast to its surroundings some four thousand miles in diameter would be considered acceptable.

But it is of course not a disc but more like a thread, and a thread a foot (15 cm) long would not be visible from a hundred yards (90 m) away, even though a human head is.

Put fundaes..

Visiblity of the Great wall of China from the moon



7. What famous riff were the Italian football fans chanting after the Fifa 06 finals and why?? Italy’s RTWC:

Italy 2-0 Ghana

Italy 1-1 USA

Italy 2-0 Czech Republic

Italy 1-0 Australia

Italy 3-0 Ukraine

Italy 2-0 Germany

Italy 1-1 France Penalty 5-3

From the album Elephant by The White Stripes.. Seven Nation Army was sung as seven countries are to be defeated to win the world cup


8. The most famous review of X novel Y was written by the conservative author Whittaker Chambers. It was unrelentingly scathing. Chambers accused X of supporting the same godless system as the Soviets, claiming "From almost any page of Y, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To the gas chambers—go!'" Five decades later, The Intellectual Activist published a reply, arguing that Chambers had not actually read the book, as he misspelled the names of two major characters and used no quotations from the novel in his critique.

He called Y's characters flat and uninteresting, and the heroes implausibly wealthy, intelligent, physically attractive and free of doubt while arrayed against antagonists who are weak, pathetic, full of uncertainty, and lacking in imagination and talent
X- Ayn Rand Y- Atlas Shrugged

9. In the 1931 Rose Bowl game, "Five-Yard" Fogerty carried 25 times and gained exactly 5 yards on each carry. It was in that game that teammates celebrated the oddity of Fogerty's achievement. The results of that game were Alabama, 24, Washington State, 0. Fogerty played one year of professional football before breaking his leg in a skiing accident. Something really well known originated from this incident. What?
The usage of "High Fives"

10. The various ways in which this has been done:

Plain old jumping

Tunnels

Waiting for favorable winds

Hot air balloon

Sliding along aerial wires

Flying Ultra lights

Driving a sports car

methods used to cross the Berlin Wall

11. This is an infamous scene from the movie “It happened one night.” What specific disastrous economic effect did this particular scene have?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CsWOx9QJs
The sale of undershirts dropped as Clark gable is found to be bare chested when he removes his shirt..

Ciao

Bharath

General Quiz-4

Hi..
back again with the next quiz.. this time answers will be sent to only those who reply..
You can mail the answers at batty_bharath@yahoo.co.in. Answers in a week..

1. Connect the four pics with an apronym and explain.

2. A band-pass filter is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects (attenuates) frequencies outside that range. An example of an analogue electronic band-pass filter is an RLC circuit (a resistor-inductor-capacitor circuit).

How is this schematic band-pass filter that appears in a novel 'V' written by Thomas Pynchon a reference to pop culture?

3 Proponents state that the they are accurate 75% to 90%. A Canadian study for 13 cities in the past 30 to 40 years puts success rate level at 37%. Also, the National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall accuracy rate is around 39%. Random chance at a correct guess would be about 33%.

* Wiarton Will in Wiarton, Ontario

* General Beauregard Lee, PhD in Atlanta, Georgia

* Brandon Bob of Brandon, Manitoba

* Sir Walter Wally of Raleigh, North Carolina

Put fundaes..

4 Recently the Oxford English Dictionary has seen a reduction of about 4000 words. Angus Stevenson, eliminated some 16,000 _____ from the sixth edition, published last month. “People are not confident about using them anymore,” he said. “They’re not really sure what they’re for.”

What did Oxford do?

5. X is a style of drawing that uses the stipple method to create an image. They are designed to emulate the look of woodcuts and engravings on certificates and currency. Y first began using X in 1979 by freelance artist Kevin Sprouls. Y felt that the drawings complemented their classical feeling and gave it a sense of stability.

Each X takes between three to five hours to produce. Women are often more difficult to depict than men, due to their more complicated haircuts. In 2002, the Smithsonian Institute acquired 66 original X drawings and have put them on permanent display in the National Portrait Gallery.

6. It is maximum 30 ft (9.1m) wide and is about the same color as the soil surrounding it. Based on the optics of resolving power, (distance versus the width of the iris) an object of reasonable contrast to its surroundings some four thousand miles in diameter would be considered acceptable.

But it is of course not a disc but more like a thread, and a thread a foot (15 cm) long would not be visible from a hundred yards (90 m) away, even though a human head is.

Put fundaes..

7. What famous riff were the Italian football fans chanting after the Fifa 06 finals and why?? Italy’s RTWC:

Italy 2-0 Ghana

Italy 1-1 USA

Italy 2-0 Czech Republic

Italy 1-0 Australia

Italy 3-0 Ukraine

Italy 2-0 Germany

Italy 1-1 France Penalty 5-3

8. The most famous review of X novel Y was written by the conservative author Whittaker Chambers. It was unrelentingly scathing. Chambers accused X of supporting the same godless system as the Soviets, claiming "From almost any page of Y, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To the gas chambers—go!'" Five decades later, The Intellectual Activist published a reply, arguing that Chambers had not actually read the book, as he misspelled the names of two major characters and used no quotations from the novel in his critique.

He called Y's characters flat and uninteresting, and the heroes implausibly wealthy, intelligent, physically attractive and free of doubt while arrayed against antagonists who are weak, pathetic, full of uncertainty, and lacking in imagination and talent

9. In the 1931 Rose Bowl game, "Five-Yard" Fogerty carried 25 times and gained exactly 5 yards on each carry. It was in that game that teammates celebrated the oddity of Fogerty's achievement. The results of that game were Alabama, 24, Washington State, 0. Fogerty played one year of professional football before breaking his leg in a skiing accident. Something really well known originated from this incident. What?

10. The various ways in which this has been done:

Plain old jumping

Tunnels

Waiting for favorable winds

Hot air balloon

Sliding along aerial wires

Flying Ultra lights

Driving a sports car

11. This is an infamous scene from the movie “It happened one night.” What specific disastrous economic effect did this particular scene have?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CsWOx9QJs

Ciao

Bharath

Answers General Quiz-3

Here are the answers

1.Charley Douglass was a sound engineer who is known for creating the X. The X stood a little over two feet tall and could be played like an organ to replicate different kinds of ________.

The operator could also select particular genders and ages. Some say Douglass recorded audiences from I Love Lucy, The Red Skelton Show, or Marcel Marceau's mime act to use in his X.

Canned Laughter or The Laugh Box

2.

What two word term is used in reference with the above picture?

No one answered this.. the pic was a bit vague though... The term is IRON CURTAIN

3. X is a silent, black and white film made in 1964 by Andy Warhol. It consists of eight hours and five minutes of continuous real time footage of X. Abridged showings of the film were never allowed; supposedly the very unwatchability of the film was important. It was filmed on the night of July 25-26 from 8:06 p.m. to 2:42 a.m. from the 41st floor of the Time-Life Building, from the offices of the Rockefeller Foundation. It was shot at 24 frames per second but is projected at 16.

In 2004, "X" was added to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in recognition of the cultural, historical and aesthetic significance of the movie. Name the movie.

Empire- contains eight hours of real time footage of the Empire State Building

4 Identify this place in England

Many people came close... But the answer is HIGHBURY - Arsenal's former home ground

5. This is the “Horn and Hoof flag”.Where will you find this flag?

In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell

6. Name the book and the author.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barrack Obama

7. Persons who work in the army are not exposed to much dirt from their surroundings and also do not handle dirty or muddy objects. Hence their palms are clean.

Persons who work in the navy and on the decks of ships are exposed to much dirt from their surroundings and also handle dirty or muddy objects. Hence their palms are relatively dirty.

This is the reason for a prime difference between a particular practice of the army and the navy. What practice?

The difference is their way of salutation-- army with their palm outwards and in the navy with their palms concealed

8. The first X was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III of Russia as a surprise for his wife Maria Fyodorovna. Empress Maria was so delighted by this gift that Alexander appointed Y a "Court Supplier" and commissioned a gift each year thereafter, stipulating only that it be unique and contain a surprise. His son, Nicholas II of Russia continued the tradition, annually presenting a X each spring to his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna as well as his then-widowed mother.

Of the 69 known X, only 61 have survived to the present day. The vast majority of them are stored in public museums, with the greatest number, 30, in Russia. In November 2007, a X, named by Christie's auction house as the 'Rothschild X' sold at auction for £8.9 million.

Faberge Eggs

9.
Australia - Mike Ward

Austria - Hans Meier

Bolivia - Juan Perez

France - Monsieur Durand

India - Ashok Kumar

Japan - Yamado Taro

United States - ?

Fill in the blank and explain.

they are all placeholder names for a male party in a legal action or legal discussion whose true identity is unknown.

10 . On February 14, 2007, X displayed a chocolate-dipped strawberry that combined its characters into a green stem, giving the appearance something was missing: thereby displaying a wrong version. In response to several speculations the officials responded: "When you look at X, you may worry that we forgot ourselves overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided this new version has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you're feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry."

Google's Valentine Day Doodle

General Quiz-3

Here goes the next edition ..

Mail the answers to batty_bharath@yahoo.co.in . Answers will be put up in a week.As usual Please refrain from googling or wikiing...

1.Charley Douglass was a sound engineer who is known for creating the X. The X stood a little over two feet tall and could be played like an organ to replicate different kinds of ________.

The operator could also select particular genders and ages. Some say Douglass recorded audiences from I Love Lucy, The Red Skelton Show, or Marcel Marceau's mime act to use in his X.

2.

What two word term is used in reference with the above picture?

3. X is a silent, black and white film made in 1964 by Andy Warhol. It consists of eight hours and five minutes of continuous real time footage of X. Abridged showings of the film were never allowed; supposedly the very unwatchability of the film was important. It was filmed on the night of July 25-26 from 8:06 p.m. to 2:42 a.m. from the 41st floor of the Time-Life Building, from the offices of the Rockefeller Foundation. It was shot at 24 frames per second but is projected at 16.

In 2004, "X" was added to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in recognition of the cultural, historical and aesthetic significance of the movie. Name the movie.

4 Identify this place in England

5. This is the “Horn and Hoof flag”.Where will you find this flag?

6. Name the book and the author.

7. Persons who work in the army are not exposed to much dirt from their surroundings and also do not handle dirty or muddy objects. Hence their palms are clean.

Persons who work in the navy and on the decks of ships are exposed to much dirt from their surroundings and also handle dirty or muddy objects. Hence their palms are relatively dirty.

This is the reason for a prime difference between a particular practice of the army and the navy. What practice?

8. The first X was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III of Russia as a surprise for his wife Maria Fyodorovna. Empress Maria was so delighted by this gift that Alexander appointed Y a "Court Supplier" and commissioned a gift each year thereafter, stipulating only that it be unique and contain a surprise. His son, Nicholas II of Russia continued the tradition, annually presenting a X each spring to his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna as well as his then-widowed mother.

Of the 69 known X, only 61 have survived to the present day. The vast majority of them are stored in public museums, with the greatest number, 30, in Russia. In November 2007, a X, named by Christie's auction house as the 'Rothschild X' sold at auction for £8.9 million.

9.
Australia - Mike Ward

Austria - Hans Meier

Bolivia - Juan Perez

France - Monsieur Durand

India - Ashok Kumar

Japan - Yamado Taro

United States - ?

Fill in the blank and explain.

10 . On February 14, 2007, X displayed a chocolate-dipped strawberry that combined its characters into a green stem, giving the appearance something was missing: thereby displaying a wrong version. In response to several speculations the officials responded: "When you look at X, you may worry that we forgot ourselves overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided this new version has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you're feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry."