1. What did Jonathan Badeen create for a service he cofounded after repeatedly clearing his bathroom mirror after an hour’s shower, something which has since become ubiquitous?
2. What portmanteau word is used to describe the work of artists such as eL Seed which combines art forms from ancient Islamic/West Asian and contemporary Western urban cultures?
3. What Urdu word, which originally referred to judicial chambers, made its way south, shifted contexts to private gatherings of patrons of the arts, and now forms a quintessential part of December?
4. Which novel’s manuscript, bought in an auction for $2.2 million in 2004 by billionaire Jim Irsay, is shown in the image?
5. What name did researcher Margaret Rossiter give in 1993 to gender bias in the sciences whereby the accomplishments of women are attributed to their male colleagues? She used the name of the abolitionist and suffragist who first described it in 1870.
6. By what collective name are the villages of Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore in the Liguria province of northwest Italy known? In 1999, the villages and the surrounding coastline and mountains were designated as Italy’s first national park.
7. As part of the promotional activity around the FIFA World Cup in 2018, Adidas produced souvenir footballs with flags of all the qualifying nations depicted on them, except one, in compliance with a request from the country’s government. Which country, and for what reason?
8. This 3rd Century Roman mosaic, depicting Terra with the seasons and Aion/Uranus with the zodiac, is one of the earliest existing depictions of what, named after a man who (re)discovered it in 1858?
9. Despite the proliferation of typefaces and fonts in the computer era, screenplays have persisted with the convention of using 12-point Courier, a monospace font that replicates the look of typewritten pages. Why is this convention followed?
10. Myrrh and frankincense, among other similar plants, fall into a group of trees commonly known by a name due to their high flammability. This name was used as a codename in the 1990s, during the production of a hugely popular TV show, and was eventually used to title a spin-off series. Why was this codename chosen?
Answers
1. Swiping left/right on Tinder
2. Calligraffiti, which merges Islamic calligraphy and graffiti
3. The Carnatic music kutchery
4. On The Road, by Jack Kerouac
5. Matilda effect, after Matilda Joslyn Gage
6. Cinque Terre (five lands)
7. Saudi Arabia, which has ‘Allah’ written on the flag
8. The Möbius strip
9. To help estimate the length of movies (1 page = 1 minute)
10. Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who
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