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Tuesday, 22 November 2011 |
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The mobile phone — also called a cellular phone, cell phone and hand phone — has become ubiquitous during the first decade of the Twenty First Century, bringing telephone services within reach of (almost) everyone. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which tracks the growth of telecom services and information society worldwide, says there are around 5.9 billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world by late 2011. This gives a global penetration rate of 87 per cent and a developing country penetration of 79 per cent. According to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in Sri Lanka had risen to 18,176,030 by end June 2011. (Sri Lanka also had a total of 3,599,250 fixed phones by that date.) When compared to the 2,644 mobile phone subscriptions the country had in 1992, this growth has been simply phenomenal. Mobile phones have grown not just in numbers, but also in signal coverage as well as their sophistication. Many of us do not realise that even the basic mobile phones we use today pack more processing power than did the entire Apollo 11 spaceship that took astronauts to the Moon in 1969! and smartphones are already competing with laptops as devices that can access the Internet: the next wave of mobile broadband internet is already upon us. Today’s Wiz Quiz acknowledges the ubiquitous mobile phone.
1. GSM is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe technologies for second generation (or ‘2G’) digital mobile phone networks. The first call on a real, live network took place on a network set up by Nokia and Siemens on July 1, 1991 between Finland’s then prime minister Harri Holkeri and Tampere’s vice mayor at the time, Kaarina Suonio. The standard had been set up in 1987, but had only been in testing until that day. In the early days, GSM had to compete with CDMA but ultimately became the dominant format for phone calls in the world. About 4.4 billion GSM-based mobile subscriptions were active in mid 2011, and was still growing at about one million new users each day. What do the letters GSM stand for? 2. SIM stands for subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module (SIM). It is an integrated circuit that securely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the related key used to identify and authenticate a subscriber on mobile telephone devices. Typically a SIM is mounted on a removable SIM card, which can be moved between different mobile phones. SIM cards were first made the same size as a credit card but as mobile phones became smaller in size, the SIM card too was reduced. The first SIM card was made in 1991 by a Munich-based smart card maker, has recently proposed a nano-SIM, which is 60 per cent smaller than the SIM cards widely in use today. If adopted, nano-SIM cards could mean thinner devices or more room for other components such as larger batteries. What is this German smart card company?
3. India has an estimated 900 million mobile phone subscribers. The country also generates an estimated 75 million of bulk SMS (Short Messaging Service) every day, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) announced an upper limit on the number of SMS that can be send one day, so as to contain tele-marketers and other originators of bulk SMS. Exceptions are e-ticketing agencies, social networking sites and dealers of telecom operators. TRAI originally set the limit at 100 SMS per day, but on November 1, 2011 revised it to what higher number? (But customers are allowed to exceed this number on special days such as New Year, Pongal, Diwali and Christmas.) 4. Who is she? When she was elected President of Liberia in 2005, she became the first elected female head of state in Africa. In 2010, Newsweek listed her as one of the ten best leaders in the world, while Time counted her among the top ten female leaders. In October 2011, a few days before she won a second term as President, she was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen. 5.On November 11, 2011, Australia’s Gold Coast was chosen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. This signifies the a fifth time an Australian location hosts the coveted games. The first time was in Sydney in 1938, followed by Perth (1962) and Brisbane (1982). What was the last occasion that an Australian city hosted Commonwealth Games?
6. Senanayake Samudraya is a large water storage reservoir created in 1951 by damming the Gal Oya, a river that flows in the east of Sri Lanka. It was built as part of the Gal Oya Development scheme to open up 162,000 hectares of forest for agricultural and industrial purposes. At which location was the Gal Oya dammed to create this reservoir? 7. This writer was born in Colombo in 1954, grew up in Sri Lanka and the Philippines and moved to England in 1971. He started writing fiction, with Sri Lanka as the setting for most of his stories. His first book, a collection of short stories called Monkfish Moon, came out in 1992. His novel, ‘Reef’ (1994) was short-listed for the Booker Prize and won a number of other awards. He has since written The Sandglass (1998), Heaven’s Edge (2002) and The Match (2006). Who is he? 8. The post of Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka was created in 1978 when the former Ministry of External Affairs and Defence was separated into two ministries. From 1947 to 1978, the incumbent Prime Minister also held the posts of Minister of External Affairs and Minister of Defence. The first Foreign Minister held that office from 1978 to 1989, and thus holds the record for the longest tenure in office. Who was he? 9. The Phantom of the Opera, which started performing on January 26,1986, is the longest running Broadway show, which is nearing its 10,000th performance as 2011 draws to an end. What show that ended in 2000 holds the record for the second longest running Broadway show? This Andrew Llyod Webber musical was last performed on September 10, 2000, after 7,485 shows. 10. In the classic Disney movie Dumbo, the baby elephant with extra-large ears is separated from his protective mother and shunned by everyone else on their circus. He has only one tiny friend, a self-appointed mentor and protector, a mouse who feels sorry for Dumbo and becomes determined to make him happy again. In a fine demonstration of positive thinking to overcome adversity, this friend gives Dumbo confidence and courage to fly by flapping his ears - ultimately taking him to Hollywood stardom. What is the name of this friend-in-deed? 11. Disney’s fourth animated feature Dumbo not only turned a profit for the studio that badly needed it at the time, but also charmed critics. The movie took the Best Animation Design award at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival and won the 1941 Academy Award for Original Musical Score. It was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Song for ‘Baby Mine’, which Dumbo’s mother - locked up in a cage for unruly behaviour — sings to him. This is one of the all time favourite Disney movie moments that has made millions cry for 70 years. Who was the actress and singer who sang this song, even though she was not given screen credit for this performance?
12. Recently, an anthropologist from South Africa suggested to exhume the remains of a famous writer who died as long ago as 1616. Francis Thackeray, director of the Institute for Human Evolution in Johannesburg, South Africa, asked the Church of England for permission to exhume. He wants to examine forensic evidence to probe a speculation whether the writer drew his inspiration from smoking marijuana and cocaine. Who is this English writer? 13. There are two independent states in Europe whose total land area is smaller than the New York City’s famous Central Park. One of them is the Vatican, the smallest state in the world. What is the other? 14. ‘Profiles in Courage’ is the title of an American biography that came out in 1955. It describes acts of bravery and integrity by eight American Senators throughout the Senate’s history, who crossed narrow party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right — and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of these actions. Such politicians are rare in any country at any time. The book became a best seller and won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957 for its author, himself a senator and later US President. Who was he? 15. Who is this outstanding athlete? He represented Sri Lanka in the 1952 and 1956 Olympics and also in three Asian Games. He won the first Asian Games gold medal for Sri Lanka in the high jump event at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. Four years later, he won the silver in the same event at the Jakarta Asian Games. He has taught at Universities in Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, and lives in California, USA. Last week’s answers1. Kuda Hora (‘The Umbrella Thief’) |
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