answer stringlengths 1 239 ⌀ | question stringlengths 1 25.7k |
|---|---|
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs | Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to leave the Manhattan Project on moral grounds co-founded what Nobel Peace Prize winning organization that is named for a Canadian village? |
Gulag | What was the Soviet government agency that administered the country's forced labor camps which were compared to 'a chain of islands' by a Nobel Prize winning author? |
Lima syndrome | You've surely heard about the Stockholm syndrome. But what is the opposite of this condition where the hostage takers become more sympathetic to the hostages? It is named after a South American city where it was observed after the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis in 1996. |
White House | "What building whose construction started in 1792 was once described by one of its residents as ""... big enough for two emperors, one pope and the grand lama ...""?" |
Pale Blue Dot | What is the name of the photograph taken by Voyager 1 of the Earth against the vastness of space which lent itself to the title of a 1994 book by Carl Sagan? |
Quarantine station | A lazaretto which can be an isolated island or a ship at anchor near a harbor is used for what purpose for maritime travelers? |
Kevin Bacon | In 2007, which celebrity started a charitable organization called SixDegrees.org? |
Scrooge McDuck | Which anthropomorphic cartoon character whose parsimony typifies the stereotype of miserly Scotsmen was possibly modeled after the Scottish industrialist Andrew Carnegie? |
Kindergarten | The German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel who recognized that children have unique needs and capabilities introduced what concept of modern education? |
Dead reckoning | In navigation, what is the process of estimating one's current position based upon a previously determined position and advancing it using estimated speed over elapsed time, and course? |
Reader's Digest | While recovering from wounds received in World War I, Dewitt Wallace had the idea to gather a sampling of articles from various publications; this resulted in the birth of what popular magazine? |
Cyprus | In December 2010, which country unveiled a new passport design with a picture of a nude Aphrodite on it that raised many eyebrows? (hint: where was Aphrodite born?) |
Comic Sans | What ubiquitous font created by designer Vincent Connare was said to have been inspired by the graphic novels The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen? |
Travelling salesman problem | What is the common name of the computational problem whose task, when given a list of cities and the distances between them is to find the shortest possible tour that visits each city once? |
Babel Fish | Which web application on Yahoo! that translates text between different languages is named after a fictional animal used for a similar purpose in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? |
René Descartes | Which great philosopher corresponded with Queen Christina of Sweden in his final years and died in 1650 in Stockholm where he had been invited as a teacher for her? |
John Dillinger | Biograph Theater in Chicago is notable as the site of the killing of which notorious personality in 1934? |
Cecil Rhodes | Groote Schuur estate in South Africa was the site for the signing of a historic agreement between Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk in 1990. The estate originally belonged to which tycoon? |
Police force | Apart from writing Tom Jones, the English author Henry Fielding also founded which the organization the Bow Street Runners which is seen as the first attempt at creating what unit of London? |
Instant runoff voting (IRV) | What is the American English term for a voting system in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, most commonly in single-winner elections? |
Animals | The Dickin Medal that bears the words 'For Gallantry' and 'We Also Serve' was instituted in 1943 by Maria Dickin to honour the work of whom/what in war? |
Tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities | "Named for the fictional town in the radio series A Prairie Home Companion, what is the Lake Wobegon effect? (Hint: According to Garrison Keillor, the presenter of the show, here ""all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average"")" |
Gleaning | What is the correct term for the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest? |
American mafia | If you were at the home of Joseph Barbara in Apalachin, New York on November 14, 1957, I'd be very wary of you. Who met there? |
Blair House | Located at 1651-1653 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., what is the official state guest house for the President of the United States? |
University of Oxford | The Bodleian Library, one of the oldest libraries in Europe, is the main research library of which seminal institution? |
Dowager | Usually associated with monarchical and aristocratic titles, what is the term for a widow who holds a title or property derived from her deceased husband? |
Sex change surgery | Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989), who was born George William Jorgensen was famous for having been the first wordly-known individual to have undergone what procedure? |
Death from overwork | What does the Japanese word 'karoshi' translate to, which workaholics must be aware of? |
Pyongyang, North Korea | The Ryugyong Hotel, a partially constructed concrete skyscraper that was intended to be a hotel was called 'The Worst Building in the History of Mankind' by Esquire in 2008. Where is it located? |
Dead Sea Scrolls | What were found in a cave near Qumran, Jordan by Mohammed Ahmed el-Hamed in 1947 that significantly impacted the world's understanding of religion and history? |
First space tourist | What is the claim to fame of the US millionaire Dennis Tito who soared high and achieved a first of sorts on April 28, 2001? |
Vowel | In phonetics, what is a sound that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis? |
Boat people | During the 1970s, what name was given to the illegal immigrants/asylum seekers from Vietnam referring to their mode of transport? |
Shaolin | What Chan Buddhist monastery in the Henan province of China is best known to the world for its association with martial arts? |
Yasukuni shrine | Which Shinto shrine located in Tokyo is dedicated to those who died fighting for the Emperor of Japan and is a source of considerable controversy? |
Falun Gong (or) Falun Dafa | Literally 'Practice of the Wheel of Law' in Chinese, what system of mind and body cultivation has been the focus of international attention since the Chinese government began a crackdown on it? |
Leonardo Da Vinci's | In 1994, Bill Gates bought The Codex Hammer at an auction for $30.8 million, making it the most expensive book ever. Whose writings does it contain? |
Library of Congress | The Thomas Jefferson Building, The John Adams Building and The James Madison Memorial Building in Washington DC together make up what seminal institution? |
Photograph | What type of work is 99 Cent II Diptychon by Andreas Gursky which was sold for USD 3.3 million in 2007 and holds the record for the highest price paid for an artifact in that field? |
Jane Goodall | Who once described Tarzan as a major influence on her childhood and said that she would be a much better spouse for him than his fictional wife, Jane? Naturally, she spent time around apes like him! |
Daylight saving time | Presaged by a 1784 letter of Ben Franklin, what concept saw its first widespread use in 1916 as a wartime measure aimed at conserving coal? |
Paddle steamers | If screw-driven steamships generally carry the prefix 'SS' before their names, what type of steamers carry the prefix 'PS'? |
University of Oxford | Awarded to applicants annually since 1902, the Rhodes Scholarships are for study at what institution? |
Darfur conflict | 'Janjaweed', an Arabic word that literally translates to 'devil on a horse' has achieved infamy by its association with a dubious group in which current day crisis in Sudan? |
Piltdown Man | What paleontological hoax takes its name from a place in East Sussex, England where in 1912, discovered bone fragments were thought to be the remains of an unknown form of early man? |
Perpetual motion machine | Deviating from standard practice, the US patent office has a policy of refusing to grant a patent without a working model for what type of device? |
National Geographic | Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman of Pashtun ethnicity achieved world wide fame when her photograph was featured on the cover of which magazine in 1985? |
King Tut's tomb | George Herbert, Earl of Carnarvon (1866-1923) was an English aristocrat best known as the financier for the excavation of what? |
Secret Service | Which US agency has primary jurisdiction over the protection of the President, Vice President and other high ranking government officials? |
Sea | A form of government called by the Greek term 'thalassocracy' refers to a state with power in what realm? |
Swiss Army Knife | The name of what versatile product was coined by US soldiers as they couldn't pronounce its original name, 'Offiziersmesser'? |
Bertrand Russell | """There was a footpath leading across fields to New Southgate, and I used to go there alone to watch the sunset and contemplate suicide. I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics."" Which 20th century philosopher-mathematician wrote this in his autobiography?" |
Einstein | "Alexander Pope wrote this epitaph for Sir Isaac Newton: ""Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night; God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."" To the above, Sir John Collings Squire added: ""It did not last: the devil, shouting 'Ho. Let ___ be' restored the status quo."" Whom did the devil add?" |
Institute for Advanced Study | What institution in New Jersey best known as the academic home of Albert Einstein and John von Neumann was established to foster research without the complications of teaching or funding or sponsorship? |
Northern Ireland | Just as The Lord of the Rings franchise gave a major fillip to New Zealand's tourism, the HBO hit Game of Thrones (predominantly) had a similar effect on what part of the world? |
Angkor Wat | In a journal entry of the 19th century, French naturalist Henri Mouhot who explored Southeast Asia compared what site to the pyramids? |
Boardwalk | In the early days of Atlantic City in NJ, what was constructed to keep tourists from tracking beach sand all over town? |
Helen | Because it switched possession several times between Britain and France over multiple wars, the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia has been compared to what beautiful person of myth with the sobriquet '... of the West'? |
France | What country has the most time zones, with 12? Surprisingly, its not Russia or the US. Think of a country with far-flung territories and dependencies. |
Lake Baikal | The BAM railway (...-Amur Mainline) in remote Russia is named for the Amur river and what other geographic feature? |
Sunni Islam | What is the largest religious denomination for any religion in the world? |
India (Pakistan) | Which country has 12% of the world's Muslim population but has not been allowed to join the Organisation of Islamic Conference, mainly due to the efforts of another country? |
Brunei | In April 2014, which tiny nation became the first East Asian country to adopt Islamic sharia law? |
Yemen | The town of Shibam in the Middle-East is known for its tower brick homes all of which have a minimum height. What country is it located in? |
Whirlpools | In the world of geography, Scotland's Corryvreckan and Japan's Naruto are two of the noted ones and Old Sow is the largest of all in the Western Hemisphere. What are they? |
James Cook | Rarotonga is the most-populated of the group of Pacific Islands named for which explorer? |
Peninsula | Not surprisingly, the name for what feature of geography means 'almost an island' in Latin? |
Aswan dam | UNESCO's World Heritage List originated in the effort to preserve historic sites that were being affected by the construction of what structure in the 1950s? |
Route 66 | The fictional Radiator Springs in Pixar's hit Cars is said to be based on several places the crew visited along what iconic American road? |
Iceland | The volcanic island of Surtsey that started forming in the 1960s attracting worldwide scientific attention is nearest to what country? |
Victoria Falls | Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia is adjacent with what other park that is also named for a famed attraction? |
Glacier | Going-to-the-Sun Road is a prominent pathway in an American national park named for what geographical feature? |
Oases | Tafilalt in Morocco, Chebika in Tunisia and Huacachina in Peru are some of what? You are sure to quench your thirst at these locales! |
Commit suicide | Aokigahara forest in Japan is noted as a place where many people go for what purpose? |
Papua New Guinea | A custom known as the kula exchange or kula ring where great risks are taken to exchange gifts is prevalent in what part of the world? |
Salt | A mine in the town of Wieliczka in southern Poland that attracts millions of visitors is known for having produced what for centuries? |
Red-light districts | St. Pauli in Hamburg, Soi Cowboy in Bangkok, De Wallen in Amsterdam and Sonagachi in Kolkata, all of which I've only read about and never visited, are famous as what? |
Polynesia | Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand are the three vertices of a hypothetical triangle used to designate what geographic region/area? |
Dresden | The Semperoper is the opera house of what European city? (hint: Slaughterhouse-Five) |
Madeira river | What waterway of South America that has the name of a robust wine is the largest tributary of Amazon? |
Ethiopia | The Semien Mountains whose highest peak is Ras Dashen lie in what African country? |
Golden Horn | The Galata bridge spans what water body that is part of the Bosphorous strait and that has been a subject of numerous works of art? |
Hawaii | What is the only U.S. state flag to feature the Union Jack? |
Pillars of Hercules | The northern component of what enchanting geographic term is accepted as the Rock of Gibraltar but the southern component disputed and at various times claimed as Monte Hacho (in Ceuta) or Jebel Musa (in Morocco)? |
Karbala | The Muslim observance of Arba'een attracts millions of visitors annually to what Iraqi city? |
Goa | Aguada, Varca, Vagator, Colva, Calangute, and Anjuna are some of the beaches in what state of India known for its Portuguese influence and for its spicy vindaloo? |
Moon | Geographic features called rilles that come in sinuous, arcuate and straight types are a prominent part of the landscape where? |
Casbah | Fans of the band The Clash should know that what word meaning 'citadel' in Arabic refers to any walled enclosure but is mostly used for a specific area of Algiers? |
Rhodes | Petaloudes Valley, whose name translates to Valley of the Butterflies in Greek is a tourist attraction of what 'wondrous' Dodecanese island? |
Prague | The historic Charles Bridge that crosses the Vlatava river connects which city's castle to its old town? |
Machu Picchu | The Hiram Bingham luxury train has what magnificent location as its destination? |
The Philippines | The 2000-yr old Banaue rice terraces built largely by hand in the Ifugao mountains that cover 4000 square miles are in which country? |
Jordan | Of the twenty two members of the Arab league, only three maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. They are Egypt, Palestine and what other country? |
Stonehenge | A rock called Heel Stone that measures 16 feet above the ground and whose previous names include Friar's Heel and Sun-stone lies outside the main entrance to what monument? |
Auschwitz | Tourists to the town of Oświęcim in Poland are most likely headed to see what? |
New England | When the pioneering English settler John Smith explored the coastline of the region north of Virginia in 1614, what did he call the area? |
Hindi | If all the languages of the world are listed by the highest number of speakers, what is the first name that is not an official language of the UN? |
The Philippines | In the list of 25 countries ordered by the highest number of Spanish speakers, what is the only name that is not from the western hemisphere? |
Lop Nur | What region in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is the site of China's nuclear weapons tests? |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.