Question 462: Two's Company

This duty done, we refilled our glasses, lit our pipes, and resumed the discussion upon our state of health. What it was that was actually the matter with us, we none of us could be sure of; but the unanimous opinion was that it - whatever it was - had been brought on by overwork.

"What we want is rest," said Harris.

"Rest and a complete change," said George. "The overstrain upon our brains has produced a general depression throughout the system. Change of scene, and absence of the necessity for thought, will restore the mental equilibrium."

Harris said he thought it would be humpy. He said he knew the sort of place I meant; where everybody went to bed at eight o'clock, and you couldn't get a REFEREE for love or money, and had to walk ten miles to get your baccy.

"No," said Harris, "if you want rest and change, you can't beat a sea trip."

I objected to the sea trip strongly. A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.

Question: If not a sea trip, what?

Excerpts from?

Question 461: Oh Heavenly Delight

The lady in this picture is the patron saint of all engineers ( lucky B*st*rds), and the reason behind it was that most engineering colleges in England had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution. When it migrated to the US, it remained as the mascot (no surprises) and was passed onto their various drinking songs (again, lucky B*st*rds). Her story was often regaled by rogues in MIT and other engineering colleges, and often enacted over there by females ( lucky guys), and sometimes by  guys (what the deuce?), until strong feminist views stopped these practices  (was it against the girls doing it or the guys?)

Her influence isn't only encompassed by those engineers, as she finds her find figure upon chocolates, a pop music festival, poems (obviously), pictures ( they have more?), and movies (someone send me a link).

As for the question

1) ID the fine piece of art (im not talking about the painting, smirk)

2) Ignore the comments

3) And why is she portrayed as such?

(And why she should be portrayed so again,lol)

Question 460: Its all GEEK to me

During the construction of La Sagrada Familia, which according to Gaudi was supposed to chronicle the lifetime of Christ, he placed a symbol (refer to the picture) near the entrance to remind the visitors of one of the appellations of Christ, of his enduring nature.
To all of those who have suffered through high school/college/workplace?(what sort of life choice is that?lol), will recognize these symbols as totems of our torture as well.

So, simple enough

Question:
1) ID the symbol
2) ID where the phrase (or the apellation) was originally found

Question 459: In the good ol' days

Google doodle parodying what?

Also, id what has been blanked out?

In either blank.

Question 458: Pound Wise, Penny Foolish.

There was this British caricaturist called John Leech.
A particular sketch of his, ___X___, was commissioned by a famous author, __Y__, in order to write his novel, __Z__, based on this sketch(__X__).
A new word was inducted into the English language, __W__, named after the protagonist in the novel __Z__.
This word is typically a used to describe someone who's miserly in his ways.

Id X, Y, Z and W.

Id all, and you get 15 points, a bonus of +5.

A hint, if you need it. All related to the spirit of the times!

Question 457: Thinking into the box

Merry Xmas/Kwanza/Hanukkah to all

A simple sitter, since most will be hosting egg nog hangovers
lol

ID the show this clip was taken from,
(Its a spin off of a more popular show)
and what tradition is being denoted here

(Note: Black on Black violence and Father-Son Violence are not what im looking for, although they are accurate, they are not appropriate. Also, those aren't traditions)

Also, comment on the title

Question 456: Wal Mart's Mascot?

Id the man in the pic
(either one)

And

Id why he is so famous

(+5 for each part)

Question 455: Don't get your Nickers in a bunch over this one

An excerpt from a 2004 article, from a supply chain managers' trade magazine, aptly depicts __X(MAS)__:
(Note: Few changes have been made to ensure that this isn't too easy)

"The main distribution center is a sight to behold. At 4,000,000 square feet (370,000 m2), it's one of the world's largest facilities. A real-time warehouse management system is of course required to run such a complex. The facility makes extensive use of task interleaving, literally combining dozens of DC activities (putaway, replenishing, order picking, vehicle loading, cycle counting) in a dynamic queue...the DC workers have been on engineered standards and incentives for three years, leading to a 12% gain in productivity...The WMS and transportation system are fully integrated, allowing (the workers) to make optimal decisions that balance transportation and order picking and other DC costs. Unbeknownst to many, many vehicles and proxies are deployed, and the TMS optimally builds thousands of consolidated sacks that maximize cube utilization and minimize total air miles."

The only job, according to some, which can't be outsourced to Bangalore.

ID the job (or the workers), and __X(MAS)__

(To all pedants out there, ignore the (MAS). Just my way of spreading the joy)

Question 454: Physician Beware

The following is a clip from a famous commercial, giving rise to the new tagline of a company.
( The slew of tech questions is on request of Ameya, who got selected for the chroma challenge)
ID the Company, and the tagline

Question 453: GIving DTDC Competition

Official Statement my microsoft regarding another flop

"At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It's in Microsoft's DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The "__X__ project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time."

Similarily,
Michael Arrington Of TechCrunch wrote:

"So let’s design it, build a few and then open source the specs so anyone can create them."
"If everything works well, we’d then open source the design and software and let anyone build one that wants to."

Both were trying to design somethign to bring down __Y__

Questions:

1) ID X (microsoft's Project)
2) ID what Michael Arlington wanted to develop
3) ID the company they wanted to take down

(5 points for 2 right answers, 10 for all 3)