Wednesday 12 May 2010

Quz 3

Right. Another relative toughy this time round (I did try to make it easy, honest), though one particularly smart team managed 36. Second place was 30, and there were two teams tied on 29.

I should note that Round 3 was written by one of our contributors, rather than myself. If you detect a sudden upsurge in quality after ten questions, that would be why.

Round 1: Words

(Each answer contains the name of a musical instrument, unscrambled, i.e. "fluted" contains the word flute, though the other answers are much less stupid.)

1. A member of the vespidae family of insects the largest member of that family to build communal nests, noted for its exceptionally painful sting. (Hornet)

2. A title used by various governments - including the UK's – to describe a high-level political position, or even, in countries like Austria, to describe the head of state themselves. (Chancellor)

3. To give a keen edge or fine point to. (Sharpen)

4.The name given to any medical procedure in which a tube is inserted into the body; though its use is most common in situations in which the windpipe is to be artificially kept open. (Intubation)

5. A word first coined by Samuel Foote in 1755 to refer to a person who has or claims to have great authority or influence. (Panjandrum)

Round 2: Dogs

1. Digby, the biggest dog in the world, The Colonel from "101 Dalmatians", and the Dulux dog are all examples of which dog breed? (Old English Sheepdog)

2. Dogmatix is the tiny canine pet of which super-sized cartoon character? (Obelix)

3. The David Bowie album "Diamond Dogs" came out of an attempt to create a theatrical production of which novel written in 1948, a project which was abandoned after the author's estate denied the rights? (1984)

4. Which financial and commercial centre is located upon the Isle of Dogs in East London? (Canary Wharf)

5. The four dog statues outside Tivoli Mansion in central Ljubljana are named for a missing piece of their anatomy, an oversight that according to local legend caused the artisan Anton D Fernkorn to kill himself when he realised his mistake? (Tongues)

Round 3: Numbers

1. What gauge of film, introduced in 1892, is still the standard gauge still used for still photography and motion pictures? (35mm)

2. There is only one temperature given the same value on both the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales of temperature. Which is it? (-40)

3. What number links the Golden Mean of Proportion, the Defenestration of Prague and the Roman Mile? (1.618/1618/1618 yards)

4. What number was, according to the computer Deep Thought, the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything? (42)

5. How many zeros follow the one in a googol? (100)

Round 4: Creation

1. In the Book of Genesis, on which day of the forming of Creation did God create the stars? (The fourth)

2. What kind of animal was Audumbla, who according to Norse mythology freed the first Gods by licking away the ice that imprisoned them? (Cow (of the giant space variety))

3. What is the name given to the time period in which, according to the Australian Aboriginal tradition, totemic spirit beings gave birth to creation? (The Dream Time)

4. In Greek mythology, who led the Titans in their war against the Gods of Olympus soon after the creation of the world? (Chronos)

5. The creation myth of which ancient civilisation held that the God Atum or Temu brought forth the world through an act of masturbation? (Egypt)

Round 5: America In Song

1. Which laconic Canadian described America "The cradle of the best and of the worst" in his 1992 song "Democracy"? (Leonard Cohen)

2. Which Lynyrd Skynryd song takes Neil Young to task for his own song "Southern Man", in which he suggested the American South should repay its debt to its black citizens? (Sweet Home Alabama)

3. In Simon and Garfunkel's song "America", Kathy spies a man in a gabardine suit. What does the narrator tell her the man's bow tie really is? (A camera)

4. The lyrics to which song come from a Francis Scott Key poem, written after he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships in the Chesapeake Bay? (The Star-Spangled Banner)

5. Which group of Americans did Kim Wilde sing about in 1981? (Kids)

Round 6: Seas

1. In which sea, the only sea without shores, do both the European and American eels go to spawn? (The Sargasso Sea)

2. The oasis of Ein-Gedi, where the Bible states David hid from King Saul, is near to the shore of which sea? (The Dead Sea)

3. Which section of the brain, important for long-term memory and spatial navigation, is named after a seahorse due to its roughly similar shape? (The hippocampus)

4. Astronomers have hypothesised the existence of a subterranean sea under the surface of which moon, due to the apparent smoothness and youth of its outer layer of ice? (Europa)

5. The sea breeze cocktail, born in the 1920s, is made from vodka, cranberry juice, and the juice of which other fruit? (Grapefruit)

General Knowledge

1. The final "Hound of the Baskervilles" question: whodunnit? (Stapleton)

2. Which supermodel stormed out of an interview late last month when pressed on the possibility of her having received a blood diamond from the former President of Liberia? (Naomi Campbell)

3. Name either of the two countries in South America which do not share a border with Brazil, other than Brazil itself. (Chile and Equador)

4. Which nineteenth century poet wrote "Hyperion" and "Endymion"? (John Keats)

5. What distinguished the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South on Thursday night? (First to declare)

6. Neil Robertson has become only the second World Snooker Champion from outside Great Britain and Ireland since the modern game began in 1969. Who was the first? (Cliff Thorburn)

7. In which war did the first military submarine see service, a one-man hand-powered vehicle that tried and failed to sink the HMS Eagle? (The American War of Independence)

8. Which Australian misery merchant has fronted three successful bands, duetted with Kylie, and co-wrote the score for the films The Proposition and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford? (Nick Cave)

9.What is the most common translation of the Latin phrase "Caveat emptor"? ("Buyer beware")

10. What kind of animal is a weka? (A bird)

11 comments:

Dan Edmunds said...

Round 1

1. Hornet
2. Chancellor
3. Sharpen
4. Intubation
5. Don’t know

Round 2

1. Don’t know
2. Obelix
3. Don’t Know
4. Canary Wharf
5. Two things spring to mind – I’ll go with the less rude option – tail?

Round 3

1. 35mm
2. -40 (had to work that one out)
3. No idea
4. 42
5. Emm, lots?

Round 4

1. 2nd
2. Cow
3. Don’t know
4. Cronus?
5. Don’t know

Round 5

1. Don’t know – Not Bryan Adams so clearly a rubbish Canadian
2. Sweet Home Alabama
3. Don’t know
4. Don’t know
5. Don’t know

Round 6

1. No idea
2. Guess – The Dead Sea?
3. No idea
4. Titan
5. No idea

Round 7

1. I remember it was an illegitimate son – can’t remember his name though
2. Sounds like Naomi Campbell
3. Chile and another one
4. Don’t know
5. First to declare
6. Should know but can’t remember
7. American War of Independence – Given it was after a HMS ship
8. No idea
9. Buyer beware
10. Some type of bird?

SpaceSquid said...

19 for Spielbergo.

Jamie said...

Round 1
1. Hornet
2. Chancellor
3. Sharpen
4. Intubation
5. I would never have got this in a million years, and have looked it up - good work!

Round 2
1. Great English Sheepdog
2. Obelix (although if I were really picky, I would say that you should have specified that Dogmatix is the English adaptation of the French Idefix).
3. 1984
4. Canary Wharf
5. No way in hell I'm going to know this, so: genitalia?

Round 3
1. 8mm?
2. -40 degrees
3.
4. 42
5. 100

Round 4
1. Day 3
2. A wolf?
3. The Dream Time
4. Cronos
5. The Mayans?

Round 5
1. Leonard Cohen?
2. Sweet Home Alabama?
3. A spy
4.
5.

Round 6
1. The Sargasso Sea
2. The Dead Sea?
3. Ganymede
4. Cerebellum?
5.

Round 7
1. Dunno. And in fact, I don't want to know till I've read it...
2. Naomi Campbell?
3. Chile and Ecuador
4. John Keats
5. First election result to be announced.
6.
7. The American War of Independence
8. Nick Cave
9. Dammit, I always forget this
10. A parrot

SpaceSquid said...

That's not picky, Jamie, that's demanding I add information to a question that doesn't require it. Which is, y'know, worse ;)

Also, bonus marks (though not literally, obviously) for fretting about spoilers for a book that's 108 years old.

Anyway, an entirely respectable 24 points are yours (I'll be generous with your final answer), which purely on your own puts you in the middle of last night's scores. Your combined total with S. Spielbergo is 27, which puts you joint 5th out of 13 teams.

Jamie said...

Dammit, I meant Old English Sheepdog! Although your generosity on the last answer means that it kind of makes up for getting mixed up there. I knew it was an NZ bird at any rate, and thought it was a parrot since quite a few of them are.

With the Dogmatix one, I guess I'd just prefer from an anal perspective to have the question reworded and Dogmatix altered to Idefix. But I guess the quiz is hard enough as it is.

SpaceSquid said...

I gave you the OES question too, Jamie, because I am nice.

Tomsk said...

From me and Kim... we have two quibbles to distract from our poor performance...

R1

1. Hornet
2. Chancellor? (The Austrian head of state is the President but can't see any instrument in there.)
3. Sharpen
4. Intubation
5.

R2

1. Big white grey fluffy dog
2. Obelix
3. 1984
4. Canary Wharf
5. Tongues

R3

1. 35mm
2. -40
3. 1698
4. 42
5. 100

R4

1. Second
2. Polar bear
3. The Dreaming
4. Kronos (But Kim says it wasn't soon after!)
5. Egypt

R5

1. Leonard Cohen
2.
3. Camera
4.
5. Kids

R6

1.
2. Red Sea
3. Hippocampus
4. Europa
5. Orange

GK

1. The hound
2. Naomi Campbell
3. Chile & French Guyana
4.
5. First to declare
6.
7. American War of Independence!
8.
9. Buyer beware
10. Bird

SpaceSquid said...

Boo! I was led to believe that the Austrian HoS was a chancellor. Boo, I say! I knew I should have gone with Germany...

As to the Chronos thing, it's all relative. I pretty much just wanted an excuse to include the question.

You two got 26, and between the four of you, you've reached joint second.

Tomsk said...

Germany's head of state is also the President :p

Jamie said...

Dammit, I just realised that I would have got 25 if I'd only read the Simon and Garfunkel question properly. Crap.

SpaceSquid said...

An important lesson learned...