Interact - The Quiz Club

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Ever wondered why MK Gandhi never won the Nobel Peace Prize !

Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate Nobelprize.org, The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize

Just south of Mexico City, between the canals of Xochimico you can find a small island with a sad background which never intended to be a tourist destination. The island is known as Isla de las Munecas (Island of the Dolls).
It is dedicated to the lost soul of a poor girl who met her fate too soon in strange circumstances.
The area has thousands of people, but this small island is home to hundreds of terrifying dolls. Their severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes adorn trees.
Dolls are threatening, even in the bright light of midday, but in the dark, they are particularly disturbing.

It is said that a girl was found drowned in mysterious circumstances many years ago on this island and that the dolls are possessed by her spirit.
Local legend says that the dolls move their heads and arms and even opened their eyes.
Some witnesses claim they had heard the dolls whispering to each other, while others who were on a boat near the island said the dolls lured them to come down to the island.
Of course these witnesses are exaggerating and the island is in no way possessed but the truth is that the Isla de las Munecas is a very creepy place that marks the casual visitor.
Spooky Story, Ain't It?

Happy Mahashivratri

Eclectika 2015 (A Mythical Voyage)

i-Quest 2.0 Teaser The Mega Quiz of National Institute of Technology Raipur in Eclectika 2015

In 1883 Henry Ziegland broke up with his girlfriend, who was so distressed she committed su***de. Her brother decided to avenge her death, shooting Ziegland, then himself.
The brother believing he had killed Ziegland, took his own life by shooting himself. But infact the bullet had only grazed Ziegland face and then buried in to a tree.Ziegland considered himself very lucky to escape from the incident.
Twenty years later, in 1913, Ziegland decided to remove the tree from his property. Unable to perform the task manually, he decided to use dynamite. In the explosion, the bullet, which had originally been intended for Ziegland, became dislodged with such a catapulting jolt that it was shot violently into Ziegland's head, killing him at last! And that's how karma works :D
-N.P.-

In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe released a book called "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket", his only full novel. The book was such a hit that Poe eventually agreed with his critics that it was "a very silly book".
Partway through the book, the crew of a ship called Grampus finds themselves with a busted boat and no food or water. They manage to catch a tortoise and strip off its shell, but eventually, in order to survive, the crew draws straws to figure out which of them will be sacrificed to provide meat for everyone else. The death straw goes to a former mutineer named Richard Parker, who is promptly stabbed to death; his head, hands and feet thrown overboard.
This keeps them alive for a little bit longer, but the remaining crew members are still on the brink of death when they're finally rescued. A great story, but the twist was yet to come! :D
In 1884, a yacht named the Mignonette left England, headed toward Sydney, Australia. The yacht wasn't really made for trips around the world, so it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone when it sank in a storm. The four-man crew barely escaped in a lifeboat, but they definitely didn't have enough provisions for survival. They did catch a turtle and eat it, but just like their counterparts in the 45-year-old Poe tale, they needed more if they were going to be found alive when a rescue boat found them.
One man fell overboard and then made the mistake of drinking seawater to attempt to quench his thirst. He started going downhill fast, and that's when his fellow survivors decided they would kill him to ensure their own survival. The men had considered drawing straws, but they figured he was so far gone they might as well kill him and drink his blood while it was fresh (instead of risking the contaminated blood that might occur if they just waited for him to die due to illness). After stabbing him in the throat with a penknife, the three men devoured him. They were rescued a few days later.
And the man who was killed had a name, Richard Parker :D
~N.P~

Have you heard about the Japanese runner who took 54 years to finish a marathon?

To be precise, 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds was how long it took Shiso Kanakuri to finish the race. He was one of just two to represent Japan the first time it took part in the Olympic Games, in Stockholm(1912). On May 16, 1912 they departed for Stockholm from Japan. Lack of experience was not the only thing working against the Japanese runners. There was also the fact of the 10 days to be spent on the Trans-Siberian Railway, when opportunities to train would be at a minimum.

The day of the Stockholm marathon, July 14, 1912, was a scorcher. Somewhere around the 27-km mark, Kanakuri collapsed, probably from hyperthermia. It is believed he briefly lost consciousness before being taken to the house of local residents who assisted him. The Japanese runner was likely too dispirited by his failure to worry about filling in the proper paperwork and he didn’t notify the event officials. They duly listed him as “missing". On his return to Japan, he immediately began preparing for the Berlin Olympics, which were due to be held in 1916.

In 1967, Kanakuri received an odd invitation. The Swedish National Olympic Committee wanted him to return to Stockholm to participate in the 55th anniversary celebrations of the 1912 Olympics. Upon his arrival in the Scandinavian country he was informed that he had become known there as “the missing marathoner” — the man who had vanished without a trace all the way back in 1912. Kanakuri was asked to “finish” the race and his time was promptly read out — 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds.

Palitana, a major pilgrimage centre for Jains in Gujrat, has become the first all-vegetarian city in the world.

Behind this revolutionary change are the Jain monks who went on a hunger strike to pressure the state of Gujarat to outlaw animal slaughter in their city. The hunger strike was successful and the Gujarat government imposed a ban on animal slaughter and outlawed the sale of meat and eggs.

Adinath, the first of the Jain tirthankaras, is said to have meditated on the Shatrunjaya hill where the palitana temples are constructed

At a time where strutting around under the illusion of grandeur, having accomplished some over glorified flimsical endeavors, is the norm rather than the exception, people tend to forget the unparalleled badasses in history of mankind.

Today, we present to you, the greatest geek who ever walked on the face of earth. A man who could make Tony Stark look like a kindergartner.

NIKOLA TESLA

The Croatian-born genius spoke eight languages, almost single handedly developed technology that harnessed the power of electricity for household use, and invented things like electrical generators, FM radio, remote control, robots, spark plugs, fluorescent lights, and machines that shoot enormous, brain-frying lightning bolts all over the place like crazy. He had an unyielding, steel-trap photographic memory and an insane ability to visualize even the most complex pieces of machinery – the guy did advanced calculus and physics equations in his damn head, memorized entire books at a time, and successfully pulled off scientific experiments that modern-day technology STILL can't replicate.

In 2007 a group of lesser geniuses at MIT got all pumped up out of their minds because they wirelessly transmitted energy a distance seven feet through the air.
Nikola tesla was so ahead of his time that in 1899, he lit 200 lightbulbs from a power source 26 miles away. (Yes that scene from The Prestige actually happened)

Ever heard of ball lightening?
It's lightening that appears in the form of a sphere and travels slowly while hovering a few feet above ground. It's an extremely rare phenomenon and even today, no scientist has ever produced it successfully in a laboratory.

Oh, except Tesla did it back in 1890s.

Nikola Tesla held 700 patents at the time of his death (despite being one of the greatest genius ever, he died impoverished, in debt and alone :( ). He had made groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of physics, robotics, steam turbine engineering, and magnetism, and once melted one of his assistants' hands by overloading it with X-rays - which isn't really scientific, but is still pretty cool :P

~V.K~