The Clash only had one UK top ten single

Your targets this week:

We won this week, but could you have done even better?
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The secret German
4) The metallurgist
5) The rich-person otherkin
6) The ringer

The ones that got away
1) The Clash song Rock the Casbah was inspired by the post-1979 ban on Western music in what country?
2) The building 'Blok P' was reportedly home to over 1% of the population in what autonomous country?
3) The animal Ursus arctos horribilis is better known by what name?
4) 2 point question: On January 25th, 1979, Robert William became the first person in history to be killed by what?
5) 2 point question: Excluding any spaces or punctuation, name country with exactly 14 letters in its name (and to simulate the quiz experience, you should only allow yourself a maximum of 5 minutes).

The answers

1) Iran
2) Greenland
3) Grizzly bear
4) A robot
5) Papua New Guinea or Solomon Islands

The doctor's excuses

1) We all independently thought that the Casbah had a connection to Morocco. Annoyingly multiple of us, if we had thought to question the first thing that more than one person liked, would have suggested a second-guess of Iran - based on the revolution in 1979 that brought the Ayatollah to power and trapped Ben Affleck in a building with an Argos catalogue... or something.
2) We didn't realise Blok was spelled Blok and not Block. So we weren't even thinking in the right area of Europe. We reasoned that the term "autonomous country" rather than just "country" was a clue to the fact that it was something weird like the Vatican. In actual fact Vatican City is simply an "independent state".
3) We thought we "knew" that the grizzly was Ursus horribilis, but in fact it turns out that the horribilis part is it's subspecies, in taxonomic terms, so there effectively is no such animal as Ursus horribilis. All this is just to say that we missed that it was the mainland grizzly and instead put "kodiak bear", which is Ursus arctos middendorffi (boringly just named after some guy). At least we avoided the trap of thinking it was the polar bear - Ursus maritimus.
4) Since anaesthetics is a field that progresses quite rapidly, we thought that lethal injection might be relatively recent, since it's *sort* of just someone doing a normal anaesthetic and then, being all WHOOPS POISON! It is pretty recent actually... having been first used in 1982, but still wrong. In future I'm just going to try to remember "Robert was killed by a robot"
5) This was an extremely high pressure quiz since it was the final of a tournament which had being going on for 6 months. As such, there was a lot going on as the final paper was handed in and mistakes were made (the passive voice means it was nobody's fault!). Czechoslovakia is obviously not a country any more, and is thus a wrong answer... but it does have the right number of letters, so it's swings and roundabouts really.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


Our alternative questions
1) 2 point question: Here are the first lines of two books purportedly banned in Iran. For 1 point each, name the novel:
a) "Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery."
b) "'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, 'first you have to die."
2) Greenland may be considered the least densely populated country in the world, but what Asian country is the least densely populated UN member state?
3) 2 point question: Which fictional bear's name derives from that of a Canadian provincial capital? For a second point, name any other Canadian provincial capital.
4) Robert William's death on January 25th coincided with the day of celebration of what other Robert?
5) What 'constitutional union' of 14 letters long would have been another bad answer to this question, as it ceased to exist 97 years ago?

The answers

1) a) The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) and b) The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie)
2) Mongolia
3) Winnie-the-Pooh (after Winnipeg), other capitals are St. John's, Halifax, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Quebec, Toronto and Regina
4) Burns
5) Austria-Hungary

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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McCain (the frozen chip company) was founded in Canada

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 11: Well done, you beat us!
5+ out of 11: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
1) What is the only animal that does not have a nervous system?
2) What is the SI unit of magnetic field strength?
3) ...and what is the full form of this unit in SI base units?
4) What is ergophobia the fear of?
5) What is the fear of numbers called?
6) Is metrophobia the fear of subway cars, cities, poetry or measurements?
7) Who said "China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.": Richard Nixon, Charles de Gaulle, John Diefenbaker, or Francisco Franco?
8) Who said "We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.": George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, or John McCain?
9) Who said "Mr McCain fought in Vietnam. I think that he has enough blood of peaceful citizens on his hands. It must be impossible for him to live without these disgusting scenes anymore. Anyone [in his place] would go nuts.": Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin, or Hassan Rouhani?
10) Who said "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.": Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, or Sarah Palin?
11) Who said "I would lean towards the idea, for myself, that you are born a pedophile, and it’s actually a problem that we do not know yet how to treat this pathology.": Nicolas Sarkozy, David Cameron, Viktor Orbán, or Alexis Tsipras?

The answers

1) Sponge
2) Tesla
3) kg·s⁻²·A⁻¹
4) Work
5) Arithmophobia
6) Poetry
7) Charles de Gaulle
8) George W. Bush
9) Vladimir Putin
10) Arnold Schwarzenegger
11) Nicolas Sarkozy

The doctor's excuses

1) I really like jellyfish, and so I am sad that this was not the correct answer (although apparently I don't know enough about them to know they did have rudimentary senses). Incidentally my dog has no nose and is thus very bad at smelling. Didn't know the sponge thing.
2) When we used to watch university challenge on the reg (it's harder when you're in Canada [ooer missus!]) they would always ask about magnetic flux and so we finally learned that the SI unit for that was the Weber. Unfortunately that wasn't the question. Quiztrolled :(
3) Not only did we not know in detail what a Weber was, we were also wrong about it being a Weber in the first place... double-wrong.
4) We thought of 3 things here... that an erg was a unit of energy and work (in the physics sense), that an erg was also a sand dune-type thing, and that ergo was latin for "therefore" (or something). Turns out we went for the wrong one of the three... which was maybe dumb of us. Although now I want to know what the actual fear of sand dunes is.
5) I find phobia questions deathly dull if I'm honest... perhaps I have a phobia of questions about phobias!!!! (I tried to find out what the Ancient Greek for that would have been and failed magnificently.)
6) Subway cars seemed dumb, so a 1 in 3 chance, and those Greeks sure did love their measurements! (They were also noted poets, but whatevs trevs.)
7) Nixon (famously) went to China, as immortalised in the John Adams opera Nixon In China. We guessed that this might have informed the sort of expert opinion we see in the quote.
8) We thought that Republicans didn't care about Africa, and Clinton seemed the odd one out (we thought the fact that it sounded like such an obvious "Bush-ism" was a red herring).
9) Rouhani was the only one we'd not heard of, which is a pretty boring reason for an answer, but we were pretty lost at sea otherwise.
10) It seemed mildly odd to put Bachmann in there since she seemed much less famous than the others. Also we had memories of her having to defend herself from allegations that she was a witch, and so maybe she's really dumb? Turns out you should always bet on an evil cyborg from the future.
11) Since we'd not had the answers yet, we didn't know how dismal a strategy "go for the one you know least about" (here, Orbán) was proving, and as such the streak of failure continued.

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (5 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


Our alternative questions

Question 2

1) What three word phrase, attributed to Sir Alex Ferguson, can describe the nervous final minutes of a sporting event?
2) Which country's (slightly censored) 100 dinar banknote is pictured here?
3) If the magnetic flux through a surface is 100 webers and the surface is 10 square meters, what is the resulting magnetic flux density in Teslas? (As a hint, consult the picture in the previous question!)
4) Which 17th century philosopher came up with the proposition "je pense, donc je suis"?
5) Roman numerals were widely used in Europe until around the 14th century AD, at which point they began to be replaced by numerals bearing which demonym?

Question 6

6) Which city's subway system (the busiest in the world) uses this logo?
7) The First Republic of France was founded in 1792 during the French Revolution. Which numbered republic of France did de Gaulle found in 1958?
8) Who added to his growing list of controversial remarks by commenting on John McCain with "He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured."?
9) According to World Health Organization figures, approximately how many people in Africa died of AIDS-related disease in 2012? If you're within 25% of the WHO estimate you get the point.
10) Schwarzenegger went AWOL from the Austrian army so that he could participate in the Junior Mr. Europe bodybuilding competition and was punished by time in military prison. What does AWOL stand for?
11) The president of France also holds the title (along with the Bishop of Urgell) of Co-Prince of which European microstate?

The answers

1) Squeaky bum time
2) Serbia (and yes, that is good old Nikola on there)
3) 10 (the formula on the banknote tells us to divide the magnetic flux of 100 webers by the surface area in square meters, i.e. 100 divided by 10)
4) René Descartes
5) Arabic numerals (Hindu-Arabic or Indo-Arabic acceptable).
6) Beijing
7) Fifth republic
8) Donald Trump
9) 1,108,000 (so 831,000 to 1,385,000; you can read more here here)
10) Absent WithOut Leave (or Absent Without Official Leave)
11) Andorra

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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No blog today :(

Sorry all, spent most of yesterday barely able to get out of bed, so no blog funtimes this week :(

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The longest-titled James Bond film is George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The doctor and I are teaming up this week: the excuses are solely his doing, while the alternative questions are a combination of our attempts at trivia funtimes!

We won this week, but could you have done even better?

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The rich-person otherkin
4) The secret German
5) The metallurgist

The ones that got away
1) To what genus of birds does the Kestrel belong? Hint: It shares its name with a US sports team.
2) Which country recently re-elected its centre-right prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho? It is the first European country to have done so since the start of the global financial crisis in 2009.
3) Name the two mobile telephones announced by Google at a September 2015 event in San Francisco.
4) In what year did the first James Bond movie Dr No. come out?
5) October is the 10th month, despite have the prefix "Oct" meaning Eighth in its name. Which two months were added to cause this?
6) Name all 10 events in the Men's decathlon. All 10 needed for the point.
7) Name all 10 members of the Wu-Tang Clan, both deceased and not. All 10 needed for the point.

The answers

1) Falcon
2) Portugal
3) Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P
4) 1962
5) January and February
6) 100m, 400m, 110m hurdles, 1,500m, Javelin, Pole Vault, Discus, Shot put, Long jump, High jump
7) Raekwon, RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Cappadonna, Masta Killah, U-God, Ghostface Killah

Our excuses

1) None of us being particularly familiar with the Atlanta Falcons we instead went for Seahawks, as we could see that they were playing a game on the pub TV... so it was like, fate, or stuff. Wrong though.
2) The rich-person otherkin (recently returned from a stint in Dubai, which they described as being "insane, you have no idea") assured us that there was no way that Coelho was not an "uber-Spanish" name. Since she has roots in Italy, this seemed like pretty good knowledge and a decent basis for an answer. Coelho is actually a deffo Portuguese name meaning 'rabbit'. Just goes to show that you can't trust rich people, I guess.
3) Personally i think this is probably the most boring question I've ever been asked (in light of the answer). Like if they were called the Nexus 6-Willies and the Nexus 5-Fart then I'd think it was super funny and a super good question to ask. Obviously that's immaterial though, and there's definitely an argument that one should vaguely keep up with tech news... I think I'm the wrong person to have that argument with though.
4) We seem to have very poor luck with film year questions, and were actually pretty chuffed to be only one year out with 1963.
5) Quite a contentious one this as we were unable to derive the meanings behind all the month names (something that we thought would be utterly key to the answer... but which wasn't, the months mainly seem to have vague or obscure name origins). The statistician argued that, since July and August were associated with Julius and Augustus Caesar, who are dudes, rather than Gods (we remembered that January came from Janus, Roman God of the threshold), they were most likely to have been invented most recently. January and February were apparently added to the original 10 months by the Numa Pompilius "Second King of Rome" because i guess that's the sort of thing that people did for fun before Twitter was invented.
6) This was the first of two 10-answer questions where every 2 answers got you a point. As the team's default 'sports guy' the statistician was left to his own devices and managed 9 of the 10, incorrectly including the hammer but leaving out the 400m. What a n00b.
7) The second of two 10-answer questions where every 2 answers got you a point. Amusingly a friend (playing off the doctor's desire to become better educated about rap music) had recently written us a cryptic Wu-Tang clan member-name connection quiz (things get wild sometimes, when your friends are nerds). Despite this, and despite the charming graffiti in the Men's loos declaring that "Wu-Tang is for the children!", we managed to misremember Redman as being a member (he collaborated with Method Man, but was not himself a member) and couldn't remember Cappadonna, instead plumping for the invented rapper Genius (watch out for him though, dude's gonna blow up now he's been mentioned on this blog).

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!


My alternative questions

Question 1

1) Pictured is the logo of a Toronto NBA team - what is their name? (Hint: it's also a word for a type of bird.)
2) Portugal is one of only two European Union members to share the same time zone as the UK. What's the other?
3) Versions of Google's mobile operating system Android are released under confectionery-themed names, such as Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair. For 1 point each, can you identify the two versions with the pictured logos? As a hint, they begin with I (on the left) and J (on the right).
4) Dr. No dies (spoilers!) in a reactor coolant tank filled with heavy water. What subatomic particle is the key difference between heavy water and regular water?

Question 3

5) The key difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars is in when leap years occur. While they happened once every four years in the Julian calendar, under the Gregorian system they happen in years that are divisible by 4, except that years divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. Simple, eh? For 1 point each, when was the last year that would have been a leap year under the Julian system, but wasn't under the Gregorian system, and when will the next such year occur?
6) What total height do you get if you add together the current men's world records (as defined by the International Association of Athletics Federations) in long jump, high jump and pole vault? If you're within a metre you get the point.
7) The last four letters of the Wu Tang Clan song C.R.E.A.M. stand for 'Rules Everything Around Me'. What does the 'C' stand for?

The answers

1) Raptors
2) Republic of Ireland (Iceland also shares the same time zone, but isn't an EU member)
3) Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean
4) A neutron (heavy water contains deuterium, which is heavy due to the presence of an extra neutron in its core)
5) 1900 and 2100
6) 17.56m (so 16.56m - 18.56m gets you the point; the pole vault record is 6.16m, the high jump 2.45m and the long jump 8.95m)
7) Cash

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!

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The US title of Murder on the Orient Express was Murder in the Calais Coach

It's another Ones That Got Away special brought to you by the doctor! I'm currently swamped with work so you're getting the occasional treat of his take on things. Good luck!

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 6: Well done, you beat us!
3+ out of 6: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
1) Which European country drinks more coffee per capita than anywhere else in the world?
2) In what decade was Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express set?
3) Which TV show introduced The Simpsons?
4) What sport was once contested with a spadroon?
5) What is the world's highest capital city?
6) Which South African city is overlooked by Table Mountain?

The answers

1) Finland
2) 1920s
3) The Tracey Ullman Show
4) Fencing
5) La Paz
6) Capetown

Our excuses

1) We put Italy, having never once considered Finland, mainly because of their tradition of "suspended coffee" making them seem like a country who take their roasted bean drinks very seriously. (Although remember, coffee ain't actually a bean, it's a seed... that's one to annoy people with at parties). Seems like one of those trivia you never know until you do, and when you do, you never forget.
2) The lion's share of our deliberation over this question was about "that one Doctor Who episode where Agatha Christie fights a giant wasp". Whilst a deeper Whovian knowledge would have given us 1926 as the date that episode was set, our inability to remember incidental (non-vespiform) details led to us being about 30 years off... which i think is pretty ok really.
3) Classic, if a tad obscure, trivia due to the collossal cultural impact of El Simpsones (Spanish name for the show, probably). We were just like "well we have no idea, so let's put something of the form 'The [person's name] Show' yeah?". Turns out that The Larry Sanders Show is actually a sitcom starring Garry Shandling. So there you go.
4) Spadroon sounded like "ye olde Englishe" to us and the sword in question's wikipedia page is a stub, which doesn't shed much light on the matter. Our guess of football was based on the idea that perhaps "spadroon" sounded an appropriate name for an inflated pig's bladder. It's not, but you've gotta have a go, right?
5) I'm basically pants at geography, having almost wholly outsourced it to my glamorous assistant. Everyone was thinking South/Central America and since Machu Picchu is in Peru and looks quite high up in pictures, we went with Lima. The elevation of Machu Picchu is 2,430m (oh?), Lima is 2672m (looking good!) and La Paz is 3,650 m (nooooooo).
6) We watched SO MUCH of the 2010 World Cup, in South Africa, and apparently have literally nothing to show for it. Sad :(

How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!



My alternative questions
1) In 1906, Finland became the second country in the world to practice universal suffrage. Which island nation (coincidentally one of the first to popularise the Flat White coffee) was the first to do so, in 1893?
2) The Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None, takes its title from the final line of which children's rhyme about the varying fates of a number of small native Americans?
3) Published weekly between 1977-2012, what is the name of Matt Groening's comic strip about the darkly comedic lives of a group of rabbits?
4) With a name literally translated as "sword way" what Japanese martial art, in which practitioners endeavour to strike one another with wooden or bamboo swords, is similar to fencing but way cooler?
5) La Paz's full name is 'Nuestra Señora de La Paz', meaning 'Our Lady of...' what?
6) Which 2004 animated movie contains an extended diatribe by superhero fashion designer Edna Mode, about the significant safety hazards presented by capes?

The answers

1) New Zealand
2) Ten Little Indians
3) Life In Hell
4) Kendo
5) Peace
6) The Incredibles

How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!