Sunday 8 December 2013

The term 'bobby dazzler' dates back to the mid-19th Century

What a pointless picture!!!!
Special announcement! Jamie Karran (the doctor) and I are selling our spare Pointless trophy. You can check out the auction here!

Specialer announcement! Also, don't forget to catch the Board Gamers in their Only Connect semi-final showdown against Quizzing Grand Masters (and Master) the Oenophiles on BBC 4 at 8.30pm tonight!

The team name: Warum heisst Kanada, 'Kanada'? Weil es gibt keine da. [The quizmaster was German, obviously.]

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
Question 3                                           Question 5               
1) The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement currently recognizes three symbols. Two of them are (predictably) the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. What's the other?
2) The earthquake of greatest magnitude on record occurred in which country?
3) Name the dog breed pictured.
4) Familiar to any bookworm, since 2007 how many digits are there in an ISBN (that is, an International Standard Book Number)?
5) What is this object pictured?
6) A group of which animal is referred to as a 'dazzle'?
7) Which novel opens with the sentence "You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings."?
8) How many essential amino acids are there?
9) Name the fictional character based on these clues:
    a) They take the prescription medicine clozapine
    b) They were an Arabic language student at Princeton
    c) They have trouble keeping their work and private life separate
10) Name the fictional character based on these clues:
    a) They were originally a carpenter but are now more associated with a different profession
    b) They are sometimes accompanied by a dinosaur
    c) Their brother is their sidekick.

The answers


Poll results: 16 votes with the average voter scoring 2.6/10!

The excuses


The alternative questions
Question 6
1) The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only organization to have won three Nobel Prizes. Four people and a United Nations agency have won two Nobel Prizes. Name either the specific organization, or one of the individuals.
2) The moment magnitude scale has largely succeeded which former scale used to quantify the magnitude of an earthquake? Media reports still often erroneously refer to the old scale.
3) Which fictional Labrador Retriever ostensibly died on an episode of a popular American TV show on November 24th this year (2013)?
4) ISBN codes are based on the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering code created for booksellers and stationers WH Smith. What do the initials WH stand for?
5) Which mathematician and mechanical engineer is considered a father of the computer? The London Science Museum boasts a difference engine built from one of his designs.
6) We are all familiar with zebra crossings, but which mythical animal lends its name to a pedestrian crossing designed with special consideration for horse riders (pictured)?
7) Though often dropped in modern editions, what is the subtitle of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?
8) The amino acid cysteine is a key component of keratin, important in forming skin and which two non-living materials of the human body?
9) The Great Seal of the United States features an eagle holding an olive branch in its right talon, and 13 of what in its left?
10) Nintendo has never revealed Mario's full name, but have confirmed that it is not which name, used in the 1993 live action Super Mario Bros. film?

The answers

6 comments:

  1. ha! Jesus was my internal joke answer, too...though that may be because of too many news stories about creation museums in the Bible Belt. the whole brother thing made me know it was wrong, but (despite growing up on Mario) i never even thought that, mainly because i only knew Mario as a plumber.

    that is a brilliant question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it? We grew up similarly and were (obviously) completely thrown by it. Still, always great fun when you get a quiz question wrong and yet can still enjoy it.

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  2. Got 2/10 on the first set and 8/10 on the alternate questions. Does that mean I can claim to have 10/10?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, nice try. Adding voting functionality for both sets of questions is on my to-do list (whether I ever get around to it is another question...). I realized on retrospect that this was actually a pretty tough set so I'm impressed with anyone who scored more than zero.

      Delete
  3. Can I have a point for red diamond?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure. I probably should have added that as an alternative (it was previously the 'red lozenge' as well, apparently).

      Delete