Question 541: Winging It

Right, so this is mostly because Pai and Pi have a problem with my using xkcd.
Which ofcourse means I have to go all out and post xkcd questions :D
Plus I had a busy day.

Onto the question:

Simple.
Just tell me what REAL  PROGRAMMERS in the last panel of the top row use.
Explain it if you feel like.

Question 540: Incompetence Incognito

The ___X___ effect explains a cognitive bias in people performing poorly in a task lack the meta-cognitive capacity to properly evaluate their performance.  Remaining unaware of their incompetence, such people fail to accordingly take any self-improvement measures that might rid them of their incompetence. 

Amongst the first experiments featured a group of undergraduate students who were asked to rate their performance for the class just completed - just as they walked out of an exam. In particular they were asked how well they had mastered the course material, and what they predicted their raw score to be for the test just taken.

After comparing the student's own impressions with their actual performance, a clear pattern emerged in the data: Worse students grossly overestimated their own performance, while top students somewhat underestimated theirs. For the bottom quartile, while their actual performance may have "put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated their mastery of the course material to fall in the 60th percentile and their test performance to fall in the 57th". Bottom performers tended to overestimate their performance by roughly 30%; a general pattern that has been replicated many times over since. Thus, people fail to grasp their own incompetence, precisely because they are so incompetent. 

The authors of the study won the Ig Noble for their work. The logical extensions of the study have been applied to describe phenomenon seen across the spectrum of human behavior - from climate debates to Sarah Palin, and reality TV to False Consciousness.

Name X

Question 539: __X__ is My Favorite MC

Although discovered by 2 gentlemen in the 19th centruty (ie, 1800s), an individual ___X____ became obsessed with it, and is associated with such items
Id X from the pic
& what the pic is (what it shows)

Brownie points for identifying where the title comes from

Question 538: I Won. Finally.

One for the tennis enthusiasts.
Spin a web around these images,  and arrive at a connect.
Order is important.
No, it's not repeated by mistake.

The answer's another player.
These images can be considered, well, his.. umm.. journey of sorts.

Question 537: Famous Last Words

The most accurate measure of a man could be how funny,memorable, or just plain stupid his last words are


1. "Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose."


2."I don't have the passion anymore, and so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away. Peace, Love, Empathy." 


3."I am dying as i have lived, beyond my means"


4."Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies."(when asked by priest to renounce Satan) 


5."Die, my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do!"


6."Dying is easy, comedy is hard." 


Identify.


And to all you googlers out there, really whats the point?

Question 536: Blood is thicker than water? But there are other Links.

On the 14th of April, 1865 a certain president was shot at by a certain well known actor with the aim of continuing the Civil War which had by then lost all its fervour and was at its tail end.

Now you all know who they were, but that's not the question.

Moving on to the question:

A

Something to help you id A

B

__A__, was quite a well known figure in his time. Unfortunately for him, through no fault of his own, today he is generally remembered for a reason different than the one that made him famous. Though he's occasionally remembered for that as well.

__B__ was a lawyer and the Secretary of War. The only one of four brothers to live past his teenage years,(bet he wouldn't have been able to do that on his own) he lived to be 82.

Identify A and B.
Once you've done that, tell me what the story between them is.
Also, tie up any loose ends and throw in whatever else you believe is relevant.
 5 points for identifying and 5 for the story.

Question 535: Don your thinking caps, coz all Wells that ends Well.

In the pic below, are given 2 cultural phenoms in their own right, both from the world of literature. Just ID them both, simple enough.

Note, as much as I would appreciate it, XKCD is not a cultural or literary phenom
YET.
smirk

The last panel shows the second literary giant (he's been blanked out)

Question 534: Noble Profession

Sorry for the abruptness of the question but I'm pressed for time :P

Anyway:
A certain gentleman, born in 1932 in some part of Egypt as a Melkite Greek Catholic. He took to acting in 1953 and became quite a successful actor in his time.

 He was also known for something else.

Id the man and what the other thing was.

Be blunt if you don't have a point

Due to various factors and reasons, some feel the scores were

With that being the reason (see pic above, all of it. The words as well people), they were soon solved.
But understand that tabulating the scores is like

Mainly because someone that small is actually handling the scoreboard (No, this isn't a Nihar joke this time,lol)

So let us know if there are any problems with the scores.
Check the scoreboard & tell us
After all:

Who's keeping score?

Good evening, one and all.

Please go check the monthly scoreboard and comment on this if any rectifications need to be made. If you think your score is less tell us. If it's more, keep mum...and do a little jig if you feel like it :)
If there is an error, it's most likely in Questions 522, 523 or 524. Google Docs didn't save all the changes made due to reasons unknown.

Also, kudos to Pranav for Question 526. It got 26 comments. The highest on the blog!
Congratulate him :)

That is all.