Interrobang

Announcement by the organisers of Mindspark and Chakravyuuh, COEP's annual quiz Quizzing @ Mindspark ‘09 The College of Engineering, Pune is back with the city’s Premier Technical Festival MINDSPARK, and its bigger and better than ever. As a part of this technical extravaganza, we will be hosting three quizzes in our module ENCYCLOPAEDIA GALACTICA for all quizzing enthusiasts. Torquest (9th October 2009) We wouldn't really be an institute of excellence in technical education unless our students were sound in their technical knowledge and fundas. Pit your love for technology against ours. Brush up your theory and find out how much you could actually apply it when you go out into the mad, mad world. Science and technology are inseparable, and this is a quiz where the passion for both would find a home. Status: College Quiz Chakravyuh (10th October 2009) Chakravyuh has been one of Pune's best known open quizzes for many years now. A general quiz that is literally b...

We were featured in a recent edition of Mid-Day Pune. Read the article here .

While ego-searching for the BCQC, I chanced upon the "BCQC Ride for the Children" expedition. Having ensured that this was nothing to do with Salil (cycles + social causes!), I went to read more about this. This is a cause espoused by two Canadians Goran Matic and Iavor Boev who are currently undertaking "a 4,800 km bicycle journey across the heart of Canada which will take them "from Richmond Vancouver in British Columbia to Montreal Quebec." . Thus I inferred that "BCQC" seems to stand for "British Columbia-Quebec" . Matic and Boev are raising money to buy a Cerebral/Somatic Oximeter for the Montreal Children's Hospital. More details can be seen here . Here's one BCQC wishing the other the best of luck in their endeavour.

Punekar.in, a website that covers Pune, featured an article about the BCQC last month. Read it here. (Please treat my utterances with the usual intake of salt.)

A guest post by old BC alumnus Hirak Parikh , who now quizzes in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The original appeared on his blog here. A veteran quizzer once told me that quizzing was not so much about knowing stuff, but was more about entertainment and having fun. I disagreed at that point thinking that such a remark was an act of high treason. Over the years, I have realised that quizzing is not a knowledge test. If it were so then quizzes would be like exams - timed and written. A written and timed test is the fairest way to judge who knows the most. All teams get the same questions, no question of order or luck. The team/person that got the highest number of correct answers would walk home with the prize. That's not the point, is it? The point is to have fun. Over the years, people have obsessed over the best format that minimizes luck and ensures that the team that knows the most (read: best) wins. Quizzing innovations is an activity which has almost become a kind of cottage industr...