Prior to the American Civil War, US accounted for 77% of the cotton consumed in Great Britain. Since majority of this was produced in the Southern states, The Confederacy tried to use this to their advantage. The plan was to blockage cotton shipments to get Britain to side with the Southern states in the war.
However, the plan backfired when Britain turn to another country for their supplies, developing railway lines, industries and uplifting the fortune of a particular port city in the country (which is now known for its ‘mills’).
Guess the country which supplied cotton to Britain. Bonus points for guessing the port city.
[18]
John Ray III is a lawyer by profession and has 40 years of experience in legal restructuring. His typical clients are companies which have gone bankrupt, where he steps in as the new CEO to salve whatever obligations that can still be met.
His claim to fame was the Enron case where the lawyer was hired to oversee the liquidation after an accounting scandal at the energy giant drove share prices from $90.75 to less than $1.
Late last year, he stepped in as the CEO of a high profile tech company involved in fraud, which he called ‘worse than Enron’.
Which company is he the current CEO of?
[17]
This company started as a loom machine manufacturing company in 1924, but then transitioned into an automobiles in 1934. The company’s current logo is perhaps a nod to this heritage, with it showing a thread being threaded through the eye of a needle.
Name the company.
Hint: The logo also seems to spells out all the alphabets in the company’s name.
Show Answer Toyota
[16]
There is an urban legend related to the political leadership of Russia. It has been followed from 1825, since the time of Nicholas I. Its latest occurrence can be seen in the last 4 leaders as well.
What am I talking about?
[15]
6 cities in the USA have sued Kia & Hyundai for a trend which has gone viral on TikTok. The graph below shows a statistic from The Economist which highlights the problem.
What’s the funda?
[14]
Sanjiv Mehta, owner of a luxury lifestyle brand unveiled a basketball sized coin to commemorate the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Made up of 8 pounds of gold, 6,426 diamonds, the ‘coin’ is valued at $23 million.
Mehta acquired this ‘brand’ in 2005, though the company itself originated in 1600 in Britain. What did he acquire?
[13]
What is common between the following wars? (non-exhaustive list)
-
- Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta between 431–404 BC
- Punic Wars between Rome & Carthage around 240BC
- First Balkan War (1912–13) between Turkey on one side & Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro on the other side
- Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 between Ireland & the UK
- First Kashmir War of 1947–1948 between India & Pakistan
- Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel & Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia (plus Lebanon)
[12]
X is the biggest player in the eyewear industry. The company owns bands such as Ray-Ban, Oakley, Sunglass Hut and many others. In addition, it designs & manufactures the entire range for brands like Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Michael Kors, Coach, Miu Miu and Tory Burch.
In 2018, it merged with Essilor and the combined entity now holds 30% of the global market.
Name the company.
[11]
The world history has been divided into different eons & eras. The last three eras defined are:
However unofficially, there is movement to classify the current age that we’re living in, under a new name. What is it & why?
[10]
The following animals have been named after this celebrity.
1993 – a spider from California
2003 – an ant from South America
August 2023 – a snake from Peru
The actor called the latest naming an honour, but joked that people ought to stop naming terrifying creatures after him.
Name the actor.
#NationalWildlifeDay
[9]
X are found only in China but are popular across the world due to their appearance. Recognizing this, China started giving them as gifts to nations, which with it had friendly ties. However, in 1984 this stance was changed and China started leasing them out, rather than straight up gifting. The rentals started with $50,000 per month, but were then changed to US$1 million per year.
Getting the opportunity to rent one is considered an honour and signifies the diplomatic relationship with China.
What am I talking about?
[8]
The following is a snap from the Wikipedia page of which aptly named song?
[7]
According to some sources, this practice started as a cash theft prevention tactic around the time cash registers were being introduced in the US. The idea was that the practice forced the cashier to register every sale, by opening the cash deposit in the register.
While the practice still continues in today’s digital age, though the reason is quite different. What am I talking about?
[6]
Not content with anything satisfactory available in the market, Dan Pashman developed ‘Cascatelli’ (Italian for little waterfalls) after almost 3 years of research. He based his design off 3 major parameters and credits his success to the strips in his invention which run 90-degrees to each other.
The product is now commercially available in the market, competing with other incumbents. What is it that he developed?
Show Answer
Cascatelli - a new shape of pasta
The three parameters for judging were:
1. Forkability - how easy it is to get a pasta shape on your fork and keep it there
2. Sauceability - how well a sauce sticks to it
3. Toothsinkability - how satisfying it is to bite into
[5]
The following is an ad doing rounds in the newspaper. What is it actually about?
[4]
In 2005, British Petroleum hired the public relations professionals Ogilvy & Mather to run a campaign to divert the onus of climate change from the oil giant, to individuals. The result was a term which was promoted and then publicized by BP, essentially saying that the lifestyle of individuals – working, eating, traveling, etc – is the leading cause of global warming.
What term did they coin?
[3]
When Vin & Spirit wanted to launch a new premium product for the US market, they departed from the traditional approach of having a tall bottle with a large crimson label, an abundance of crests, and Russian-sounding names.
Instead, their final design was inspired by a bottle found in a medical shop.
What is the product that the company launched?
Show Answer
Absolut Vodka
[2]
The image below shows the IMDB rating of a TV series. Can you guess this series which took a nosedive in its last season.
[1]
According to the myth, when X became tired it migrated from Arabia to Heliopolis, Egypt, the “City of the Sun.” There, it gathered cinnamon twigs and resin to build a nest of spices atop the Temple of the Sun. Then it used to perform its signature move and then go back to Arabia.
This story was then picked up 2500 years later by Greek historian Herodotus and is now famous world over.
What is X?