Life Processes Quiz REDACTED

LIFE PROCESSES
What truth? There is no spleen.

A Cartoon Rivalry (1996)
Quizmaster: Who wrote the Bill of Rights?
Participant 1: [Buzzer] Thomas Jefferson
QM: What is the name of Neptune’s moon?
P1: [Buzzer] Triton
What kind of triangle has-
P1: [Buzzer] Isosceles.
P1: [Buzzer] Gastroid!
P1 [Buzzer]: The _______ _________!
Quizmaster: [Wipes tear] That’s incredible.
Participant 2: [Running] NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Speaking of the brain…
What ailment is Dr. Sharma diagnosing here, as feared?

Answer
Lymphosarcoma of the intestine

Speaking of intestines…
From written sources, it is understood that this famous person had his last meal while
visiting, with his followers, a mango grove. The owner, a metalsmith named Cunda, feels
roused, edified, and gladdened by this visit, and offers to cook for them.
The meal consisted of a variety of soft and hard foods (sweet rice, cake, etc) and tender
pork. He specifically asked for the pork to be served to him, and the rest served to the
followers. (“I do not see in all this world anyone who could eat it and entirely digest it except
[me].”) 🐷🐷🐷
Soon after he had eaten the meal, a dire sickness fell upon him, even dysentery, and he
suffered sharp and deadly pains (bloody diarrhoea and abdominal cramps). The next day, he
was thirsty, cold and in a weakened state (dehydration, hypovolaemia and shock), and
required several rest stops. He succumbed within a day of his last meal.
Based on the symptoms and onset time, doctors believe this to be Clostridial necrotizing
enteritis, aka pig-bel and darmbrand (bowel-fire).
Who, at eighty years of age, died (or commited suicide) from an evident fondness of pork?

Speaking of the Buddha…
Kangling is the Tibetan name for a trumpet or horn made out of a
human body part, used in Tibetan Buddhism for various chöd
rituals as well as funerals performed by a chöpa. It is preferably
taken from a person who died a violent death, or from a respected
teacher. What body part?
Wikipedia editors being children:
The kangling should only be used in chöd rituals performed outdoors with the chöd damaru
and bell. In Tantric chöd practice, the practitioner, motivated by compassion, plays the
kangling as a gesture of fearlessness, to summon hungry spirits and demons so that she or
he may satisfy their hunger and thereby relieve their sufferings. A minor figure from Katok
Monastery, the First Chonyi Gyatso, Chopa Lugu (17th – mid-18th century), is remembered
for his "nightly bellowing of bone-trumpet [kangling] and shouting of phet" on pilgrimage,
much to the irritation of the business traveler who accompanied him. Chopa Lugu became
renowned as "The Chod Yogi Who Split a Cliff in China (rgya nag brag bcad gcod pa)."

Speaking of parts…
Provide one word/phrase.
Animal Time to onset Time for resolution
Cattle 12 - 24 hours 2 - 10 days
Pig 6 - 12 hours 1 - 2 days
Lamb 7 - 8 hours 1 day
Turkey 1/2 - 2 hours 6 - 24 hours
Chicken 1/2 - 1 hour 4 - 6 hours
Rabbit 12-20 hours 2-7 days
Venison 24 - 36 hours 6 - 14 days

Speaking of animals….
काक चेष्टा बको ध्यानं, श्वान ननद्रा तथैव च ।
अल्पहारी गृह त्यागी, नवद्याथी पंच लक्षणं ॥
Crow’s diligence, heron’s focus
and the sleep of a ______;
Eating moderately, renouncing home:
The five qualities of a student.
The word श्वान (shwana) shares an etymology with cognates in Greek and Latin.
What is a shwana?

Speaking of dogs…
Senile squalor syndrome is a behavioral disorder characterized by extreme self-
neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage
or animals, and a lack of shame. Affected people may also display symptoms of
catatonia.
It is also known by a quite inappropriate name, after a famous person that
deliberately rejected common standards of material comfort, and was really anything
but a hoarder. In fact, this person believed he was helping himself by living such a
minimal life.
What is the other name for this disease?

Speaking of catatonia…
X is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a
reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. It is a well-controlled
thermoregulatory process and not, as previously thought, the result of switching off
thermoregulation. X enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability,
such as during hibernation, and, it is suggested, maybe even mass extinction events!
Y is the lack of critical mental function and a level of consciousness, in which an
affected person is almost entirely unresponsive and responds only to intense stimuli
such as pain.
Both words derive from Latin terms meaning stiff, numb or astounded, and continue
to be used similarly in English. X and Y?

Speaking of words…
Long time readers of the New Yorker provided these examples as special
entries for a long-running special interest activity.
Charles Lavoie, 2006: “Christ, what an asshole!”
Cory Arcangel, 2009: “What a misunderstanding!”
Frank Chimero, 2015 : “Hi, I’d like to add you to my professional
network on LinkedIn.”
What unique fact (as submissions go) is shared by these 3 statements?

Answer
A caption to fit every New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.
What a misunderstanding!

Speaking of awkwardness…
Pictured is a stone cylinder of Post-
Akkadian origin, dating from about
2200 to 2100 BCE. It was used as a
rotary seal with the image in intaglio.
The seal shows a common scene found
on seals from the twenty-third and
twenty-second centuries BC, today
seen as a conventional example of an
Akkadian banquet scene:
a seated male divine figure (identified by his head-dress of horns as a god) facing a
worshiper (who may or may not be female) with a tree in between. The snake(s)
represent(s) regeneration and fertility.
This is considered a very early representation of what?

Enhanced
What a misunderstanding!

Answer
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Speaking of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil…
L believed that the fruit which Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil must have been M, a theory that originated from medieval Christian and Islamic
beliefs.
The evidence for this, L suggested, were threefold:
- it grows at the right height, so that one reaches out to it with longing, as for
knowledge.
- If you cut across one, you will find a tiny crucified figure inside;
- its leaves afford a more suitable amount of coverage with which A&E could hide their
nakedness, vs. the traditional fig leaf.
L’s pioneering efforts also resulted in the type specimen of M being named M. paradisiaca.
L and M?

Answer
Carolus Linnaeus; bananas

Speaking of Carl…
This is the European common frog, Rana temporaria.
It is speculated that the term temporaria refers to the
‘temporary’ nature of this frog, visible in large
spawning aggregations, then disappearing until the
next spring.
Temporins are a family of peptides, isolated
originally from the skin secretion of Rana temporaria.
I propose an alternative etymology based on a
feature evident in this photograph and the following
question:
Temporin also refers to a tarry secretion from the temporal glands of what slightly larger animal?
This ooze contains proteins, lipids (notably cholesterol), and several aromatic compounds
(phenols, cresols and sesquiterpenes). The name of the condition when this ooze is typically
secreted comes from the Persian word meaning drunk, intoxicated, aroused. (Sanskrit term
closely related.)

Answer
Elephant
Musth ~ मस्त
Temporal = of or pertaining to the temple.

Speaking of oozes…
From the Prayer Book of Bonne of
Luxembourg, before 1349.
A popular icon in Christianity.
What is this holiest of holes?

Speaking of wounds…
“In 2020, hospitals in the city reported around 25 such injuries (both blunt and
piercing) … Of these, 12 cases were reported at the two tertiary care hospitals,
the Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital and the LV Prasad Eye Hospital (LVPEI).”
“... about two decades back, we saw many … injuries,” Director of Retina
Institute at LVPEI (and mother of K-Circle siblings The Kauls), Dr Subhadra
Jalali told The Times Of India (TOI). “For about 15 years we did not see these
injuries, but the numbers are starting to rise again. In an attempt to copy the
central characters … kids make their own … games.”
What happened in 2020 that caused an increase in eye injuries among the yutes?

Answer
Reruns of Mahabharata and Ramayana to alleviate effects of COVID-19

Speaking of Nation Building….
Egypt under Gen. Nasser wanted something to represent Arab strength,
so adopted this from the personal standard of Saladin, the first Sultan of
Egypt. Through the various movements for Arab unity, this symbol also
became representative of Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Somaliland.
In the 1970s, Libya and Egypt’s participation in the Federation of Arab
Republics led both to abandon this standard for one belonging to the
Quraysh clan of Mecca, which also today represents Jordan, Kuwait,
UAE, Kurdistan and Syria.
What is (are) being talked about, and was this change?

Answer
Eagle of Saladin and the Hawk of Quraysh

Speaking of emblems…
Which country’s flag features the Five
Wounds of Christ? (Reportedly.)
x5 to represent the 30 pieces of silver
received by Judas Iscariot ot betray Christ.
(Reportedly.)

Speaking (some more) of Christians…
He is the patron saint of fathers, both families and virgins, workers,
especially carpenters, expecting mothers and unborn children. Among
many others, he is the patron saint of attorneys and barristers,
emigrants, travelers and house hunters.
But also, according to several hagiographers, the patron saint of
cuckoldry. Robertson Davies writes of him “.. known throughout Italy as
Tio Pepe and invoked by husbands who are getting worried. [He] hears
more prayers about cuckoldry than he does about house-hunting or
confectionery, I can assure you.”

Distribution of sub-species of
what? (8 of 9 are currently vying
for species status)
Speaking of family…

Speaking of heights…
A is an exudate from the high mountain rocks, mainly from Asia, but it is also known
from Peru (even Antarctica). It is chemically composed primarily of humic substances
(such as humic and fulvic acids), produced by the centuries-long decomposition of
resin-rich alpine plants.
A has been used widely for millenia, for its medicinal/lifegiving/aphrodisiac/panacean
properties.
Until the late 19th century, in times of short supply of A, particularly in the Middle East,
powders of B were used as a substitute, leading to a roaring black market trade in B.
A is an Indic word alluding to its mountainous provenance. The word B derives from the
Persian word for ‘asphalt/bitumen’, which has also been used while referring to A.
While Wikipedia claims this bizarre use of B arose from a mistranslation, I believe the
humic content of B may also have been considered. A,B?

Speaking of the Himalayas…
The most revered possessions of the Pangboche Monastery in Nepal were a pair of
relics which were claimed from antiquity to belong to a ‘disciple’ of Lama Sangwa
Dorje.
These relics were periodically paraded around the village as a fertility ritual, until
1957, when American businessman and adventurer/thief Tom Slick heard rumours
about them. After the monks refused its removal for study, a member of Slick’s
team stole pieces of one of the relics, smuggled them to India (whence they were
smuggled out by actor James Stewart in his wife's undergarments).
To avoid discovery, the thief replaced those pieces with human substitutes. When a
research expedition led by Sir Edmund Hilary encountered the relic, they were
unaware of the substitution, and called in a “Fake News”.
What was this relic, or who was the disciple?

Answer
Mummified remains of the Yeti

Speaking of reverence…
The genesis of this region’s culinary traditions is subject to debate. According to some, it evolves
from the tradition of feeding the thousands of devotees at the famous temple, began in the 13th
century. Others cite mythology to claim that some of the delicacies were invented by devotees to
tempt the Child God to stay in the region.
The temple staff, who were required to travel to propagate their strain of belief, brought back new
tastes and techniques into the temple kitchen. The cuisine was vegetarian, consisted of several
delicacies each day, and cooked to exacting priestly requirements and restrictions.
In the 16th century, other castes were allowed into the religious order, and they brought with them
new workarounds for the food restrictions. There were influences from the coast as well- some
believe the use of brinjal came from Arab or even Greek traders.
In the early 1900s, industrialization drove the people, and thus this cuisine, to the bigger cities. These
restaurants started off for affluent upper-caste folks, but brought in the culture of designated meal
areas like family room, common room and others, which enabled single women to walk into a
restaurant and eat a meal without raising eyebrows.
What now-ubiquitous cuisine?

Speaking of sitting down…
Where are we gonna sit?
So we've landed on Mars, now we need somewhere to sit. It's pretty expensive to ship furniture from
earth, so time to start building some chairs with all of the bountiful resources available on Mars.
(gestures at empty desert)
There's plenty of speculation on how we will end up building on Mars, but I feel one of the more
simple and obvious ideas has been left out: ______ / ______ Furniture.
● Fast growing
○ ____/______ can grow 12" per day.
● Water neutral
○ 90%+ water reclaimed in drying process.
● Compostable
○ Old/damaged furniture returned to system.
● Moderate energy requirements
○ Grow lights & kiln drying.
● It comes in the right shape!
○ No 3D printing or injection molding required. Just cut and bend to desired shape.

Answer
Bamboo/ rattan furniture

Speaking of water…
The Mpemba effect is the name given to a physical phenomenon exhibited by water. It
is named after Tanzanian schoolboy Erasto Bartholomeo Mpemba (1950–2020).
Mpemba first noticed it during cookery class, when preparing ice cream.
Mpemba was at first ridiculed by both his classmates and his teacher. However, a
scientist at the University of Dar es Salaam eventually confirmed the finding, and they
published the results together in 1969.
The effect has been known since ancient times. Aristotle said it was “common
knowledge”. Francis Bacon and even Descartes have remarked upon this seemingly
paradoxical observation.
Till today, there is disagreement about its theoretical basis and the parameters required
to produce the effect. Leading candidates speak of evaporation, dissolved gases, and
changes in and varieties of hydrogen bonding in far-from-equilibrium system
Please summarise the Mpemba Effect.

“Hot water freezes faster than cool water”

Speaking of special effects…
A quote from a visionary film-maker about what 1997 film?
“If I tell the world that a right-wing, fascist way of doing things doesn't
work, no one will listen to me. So I'm going to make a perfect fascist
world: everyone is beautiful, everything is shiny, everything has big guns
and fancy ships but it's only good for killing fucking Bugs!”

Speaking of sci-fi bugs…
● The earliest version of this was invented in 1890 by Russian engineer Nicholas
Yagin and used compressed gas.
● In 1917, United States inventor Leslie C. Kelley developed what he called a
pedomotor, which operated on steam power with artificial ligaments
● Hardiman was co-developed by General Electric and the US Armed Forces,
powered by hydraulics and electricity and introduced force feedback.
● In 1985, an engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) proposed a
version called Pitman for infantrymen. The design included brain-scanning
sensors in the helmet and was considered too futuristic; it was never built.
CONTD

● Parker Hannifin's Indego, Cyberdyne's HAL, Gogoa Mobility’s HANK (and
their knee-specific BELK) are approved electrically powered support
systems that helps patients with spinal cord injuries, acute brain damage
and neurodegenerative illnesses walk.
● The European Space Agency has developed a series of ergonomic units for
robotic teleoperation in remote harsh environments
● Roam Robotics produces a soft version for skiers and snowboarders.[63]
● Wandercraft produces Atalante, which is hands-free.
● Sarcos’s Guardian XO can lift up to 200 pounds (91 kg)
● Comau MATE is a passive spring-loaded version which provides
antigravitational support to the user.
CONTD

Speaking of protection…
Description of an encryption tool from GitHub (@jesseduffield):
How it works
_______ has two commands, split and bind.
Splitting
If I have a file called diary.txt in my current directory I can call
_______ split diary.txt
and it will prompt me for how many _________ I want, and how many will be needed to resurrect the
original file. For example I might want 5 _________ with the ability to resurrect the file if I have any 3.
The _______ files will be created like so:
diary_1_of_5._______
diary_2_of_5._______ ...
Now you just need to disperse the _________ around the house on various USBs or online locations and
hope you can recall where they all are!
CONTD

Binding
To bind the _________ back into the original file just call
_______ bind
in the directory containing the _________ (or pass the directory as an argument).
Who this is for:
People who need to encrypt a big sensitive file like a diary and don't expect to remember any
passwords years from now (but who paradoxically will be capable of remembering where
they've hidden their _________)
People who want to transmit files across multiple channels to substantially reduce the ability
for an attacker to intercept
People named ___ ______
What’s the name of this program, or who is referred to in the last line?

Speaking of magical creatures…
This creature has been spoken of and used as a symbol for several
millenia. In heraldry (particularly European), it signifies Empire, and
has been used by several empires past and present. (Holy Roman Empire,
Russia, Albania etc.)
In India, it served a similar purpose for a princely state in the 16th C., but
the creature has also featured in moral tales extolling teamwork and
warning against the dangers of selfishness.
What creature?

Answer
Two-headed eagle/bird (Gandaberunda)

Speaking of birds…
David Langford is a British sci-fi author, editor, and critic. A number of
Langford's stories are set in a future containing images, which crash the
human mind by triggering thoughts that the mind is physically or logically
incapable of thinking.
This concept appears elsewhere in fiction and in theory to represent some
form of “cognitohazard”. (examples: mental/computer virus capable of
infecting the minds of hackers via their visual cortex, or a particular
combination of right angles is a harmful image to vampires).
What word did David Langford use to refer to these images, which could
cause death with a single glance?

Speaking of petrification…
Goa stones were made in Goa by Jesuits and
exported to apothecaries in Europe from the mid-
16th to 18th century. They were manufactured as
a substitute for a rare, scarcely available
naturally occurring product. They were kept in
ornate, solid gold or gilded cases that were
believed to enhance the magical properties of the
stones. They were created by combining organic
and inorganic materials including hair, fossil
shark teeth, shells, tusks, resin, and crushed
gems, then shaping the materials into a ball and
covering it with gilt.
(One known recipe: white coral, ruby, zircon, topaz, sapphire, pearl, dash of emerald, spot of
musk). They could be consumed by shaving off small pieces into a drinkable beverage
like water, tea, or wine. What were these, or what were these substitutes of?

Speaking of bezoars…
A natural bezoar is a mass, usually of hair or undigested vegetable matter,
found in a human or animal's intestines, similar to a hairball.
We all know a bezoar’s therapeutic properties, but how does one cure a
bezoar?
With ____-____! While there are many means endoscopic,
mechanical and enzymatic to treat bezoars, phytobezoars have been
found to respond best to a treatment with this commonplace item. The
mechanism of action has not been thoroughly explained, but its high
acidity is supposed to help dissolve fibres, while the presence of sodium
carbonate adds a mucolytic effect, and bubbles enhance penetration into
the bezoar.

Speaking of junk…
Arachis hypogaea is native to South America and was first cultivated ca. 8500 years ago. In
Peru, ancient Incas used them as a sacrificial offerings, and Brazilian Incas made pastes of it to
prepare drinks. By the time the Spanish arrived, cultivation of tlālcacahuatl (the plant's
Nahuatl name, hence the name in Spanish cacahuéte) had spread far north up to Mesoamerica.
The conquistadors took the plant back to Spain, and from there, it spread to Asia and Africa. In
Africa, it was greeted with so much enthusiasm that many historians were led to believe that it
actually had its origins there. A similar African legume, Vigna subterranea, was already
consumed all over Africa, but the new crop was so loved that it soon largely displaced the
native variety.
Africans were the first people to introduce them to North America beginning in the 1700s.
Their popularity in North America grew in the late 1800s when PT Barnum’s circus wagons
sold a hot preparation to crowds across the country. Slowly, it went from being a garden plant
and animal feed to a popular human food. What?

Speaking of drinking…
Which cricketer’s hand is this?

Speaking of madness…
In the 1920s, DuPont’s Deep Water plant in New Jersey came to be known as “The
House of Butterflies”. This was a reference to the workers who would constantly
try and brush off hallucinated insects flying around and crawling onto their bodies.
Dozens of workers died in straightjackets after being committed to mental
institutions. A similar problem affected workers at a Standard Oil facility, who used
to go to bed sick, and woke up the next morning violently insane.
Deep Water was making a chemical whose effects were then recently discovered by
Thomas Midgley Jr. Midgley was also the brain behind the development of CFCs,
leading The New York Times to write and article about Midgley titled “The
Brilliant Inventor Who Made Two of History’s Biggest Mistakes”
What were they synthesizing in the House of Butterflies in the 1920s?

Speaking of inventions…
While talking about innovation and how innovation leads to and derives from unexpected
routes, author Steven Johnson presents this wonderful example:
• X is invented.
• X creates a new habit in Europeans.
• People across the continent suddenly realize that they are farsighted
• This leads to a increased demand for spectacles.
• The market demand for spectacles encourages a growing number of people to produce and
experiment with lenses
• This leads to the invention of the microscope
• Which enables us to perceive that our bodies were made up of microscopic cells.
What was X, or what was the new hobby?

Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, reading.

Speaking of seeing…
Hannah Gadsby in her stand-up show Nanette, says about this man:
“X said, “You can have all the perspectives at once!” What a hero. But tell me, are any
of those perspectives a woman’s? Well, then I’m not interested. You just put a
kaleidoscope filter on your cock!”
Now, she is curating a show at the Brooklyn Museum, titled “It’s _____-matic:
X According to Hannah Gadsby”, which examines “the artist’s complicated legacy
through a critical, contemporary, and feminist lens, even as it acknowledges his
work’s transformative power and lasting influence.”
Name the artist, or the punny title of the exhibition.

Speaking of problems…
Vinegar Syndrome is a restoration and distribution
company with a catalogue of hundreds of objects
produced primarily between the 1960s and 1990s.
It is named for the smell caused by a chemical
reaction that deteriorates a particular item.
This item originally used to be made of a nitrate
compound, which was unstable and highly
flammable. In 1948, it was widely replaced by the
‘safety’ version, composed of an acetate
compound.
Unfortunately, this compound decomposes over time to release acetic acid (hence the name),
and causing severe deterioration. Within a decade, the first reports of degradation came from
the Government of India, whose materials were stored in hot, humid conditions. It was
followed by further reports of degradation from collections stored in similar conditions.
What do the good folks at Vinegar Syndrome restore and distribute?

“LoveChild as a term has been weaved into my
destiny ever since I was born; and now it’s time
to weave that destiny into a brand. For many
years I’ve looked at this as a negative, so I
thought it was time to make it a positive with a
new range that would resonate with individuals
who have been labelled all their lives too.
Being a woman of colour and belonging to two different ethnicities, it was really
difficult for me to find cosmetics that would suit my skin colour and type ... This is
where LoveChild fits in; to overcome these consumer need-gaps. I also think that
skin troubles arise from an overburdened mind and stressors of various kinds. If
you are not feeling your best, it will show on your skin. This is why we are here!”
Whose “playful & embracive cosmo-wellness” brand is LoveChild?

Speaking of cosmo-wellness…
A number of skincare products you’ll see in your (or your partner’s)
toiletries will claim to be ‘non-comedogenic’.
The word comedo means ‘glutton’ in Latin, and was used to refer to small
parasitic worms.
Assuming that your favourite skin cream generates neither comedy or
worms, in medical terms, what is a comedo, which also it hopefully does
not produce?

Speaking of worms….
Colour A, originally obtained from ores of mercury, but is named (from
Latin) for worms, because it resembled another colour B, which was
originally derived from an Old World scale insect. In fact, this dye has
been associated with this insect for so long, the scientific name of the
insect is of the form B a.
Another colour C, also derives its name from the same insect’s name, but
itself comes from a South American insect.
B’s name ultimately derives from the Sanskrit for ‘bug’.
A, B, C?

Answer
Vermilion, Crimson, Carmine.
Kermes vermilio

Speaking of Kermes…
A group of cousins of Kermes is Kerria.
Kerria was/is used to produce a substance used as colorant, glaze, finish,
varnish. It has also famously (but unsuccessfully) been employed to
eliminate some pesky cousins.
Kerria also has an unfortunate (for it) habit of amassing in very large
numbers in Indian forests.
What is the name of the substance, and what is the number?

Speaking of colours…
A (L. ‘beyond the sea’) was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a
powder. These days it is synthesised, and typically has a chemical formula
of Na8–10Al6Si6O24S2–4 .
Before A was successfully synthesised, a cheaper alternative B was
developed and named after the place of it’s discovery. It is also known as
ferric ferrocyanate or FeIII
4[FeII(CN)6]3.
A and B find use for their “colour-giving” properties, and are sold in
India under several brands. One such brand C, shares its name with YET
ANOTHER related color, D, named for the output of the real-life
American version of C.

Answer
A- Ultramarine
B- Prussian Blue
C- Robin
D- Robin’s Egg blue

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