298. French, German, Eqyptian or Moroccan?

There are multiple theories about the origin of this term. The Oxford English Dictionary mentions three probable theories:

• the word is derived from the combination of the French for "yes" and the German for "yes"
• inventor Charles Kennard claimed it to be an Ancient Egyptian word meaning "good luck"
• the word was inspired by the name of a Moroccan city

Which term?

297. Schweitzer + Gauguin = ?

"Described by his contemporaries as a cross between Albert Schweitzer and Paul Gauguin, he was a man of contradictions, at times taking on the role of evangelist, social worker, political activist, poet, government worker, and more. Intensely political, the Oxford-trained scholar tirelessly defended the rights of the indigenous and despite the deep religious influences of St. Francis and Mahatma Gandhi on his early career, staunchly opposed Hindu and Christian puritans in the debate over the future of India's X"

Identify the gentlemen.

296. Where's George?

Where's George? is a unique website established in December 1998 by Hank Eskin, a database consultant in Brookline, Massachusetts. Although the primary focus of the website is something else, the findings of the website has been utilized for research purposes. More recently, data from the website have been used to attempt to predict the rapidity and pattern of projected spread of the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

What does the website do?

Hint: TrackGandhi, the Indian version

295. La Gripe Española?

The last great flu outbreak was the La Gripe Española or the "Spanish" Flu of 1918. It killed some 50 to 100 million people worldwide till 1919 and is thought to be one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

If the outbreak and impact of this pandemic was fairly global in nature, and considering the fact that neither did it originate in Spain nor create the most number of deaths in Spain, why is it that the outbreak is referred to as "Spanish"?

294. In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: and vice-versa

The plot draws largely from an English legend, "The Pedlar of Swaffham", which has been also used by Borges in his Tale of Two Dreamers, collected in Universal History of Infamy.

Another possible source is also in the work of the 13th century Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, who in one of the stories of his Mathanawi tells an almost identical tale. In a modern translation the story (told in verse) is titled "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad". In it, a poor man in Baghdad who inherits a lot of money and land only to squander it quickly and become poor again has a dream, in which a voice tells him to go to Cairo and dig in a certain spot to find his wealth. When he gets there, while wandering the streets and begging for coins he is picked up by a night patrol. When he tells his story to the patrolman, the latter calls him a fool and tells him of a similar dream (which he had dismissed) about a place in Baghdad, describing the very street and house in which the poor man lives.

Identify the work.

293. The tollsters of the Khyber?

Arguably the most powerful and dominant tribe of the Khyber region, they lay claim to an inaccessible upland area, the Tirah, which even today is cut off from the modern world and where everyday life is governed by the ageless precepts of the Pakhtoonwali.

From time immemorial, they have literally been able to force every passing conqueror to pay toll tax for use or passage through the Khyber Pass

Today they are considered to be consummate smugglers and also run numerous gun manufacturing units in the region, supplying them to Jihadis all over the muslim world.

Identify.

292. Stuck Feet?

This sport is a variant of bowling and is reputed to have been invented in 1907 in the village of La Ciotat near Marseilles as a less physically-demanding form of jeu provençal. Physical effort was reduced by shortening the length of the pitch by roughly half and replacing a moving delivery with a stationary one.

The name is derived from a term which in the Provençal language means "stuck feet", because the feet have to remain fixed together within a (small) circle. It is of interest that this also means that handicapped people in wheelchairs can compete without any disadvantage.

Identify.