Thursday 29 January 2015

The world's tallest flagpole is in Tajikistan

Your targets this week:

We won this week, but could you have done even better?
The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor

The ones that got away
Question 5
1) Rank these five regimes in descending order of desirability according to Plato: Aristocracy, Democracy, Oligarchy, Timocracy, Tyranny.
2) 'Juche' is a fundamental principle of the ruling political ideology of North Korea - what does it mean?
3) In what year did South Korea have its first free elections?
4) "There is no subjection so perfect as that which keeps the appearance of freedom." is a quote from which work: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Das Kapital by Karl Marx, or On Liberty by John Stuart Mill?
5) Name the party which uses this flag - be careful of the details!
6) What term describes Japanese erotic drawings from the Edo period?
7) What newspaper was embroiled in a major controversy in 2005 concerning cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad?
8) The phrase 'back to the drawing board' was first coined in a cartoon in what publication?

The answers


Our excuses


How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 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) There are five Platonic solids: objects whose faces are all the same shape. The cube is one example, as it consists of six faces, all of which are squares. What shape are the faces of the 12-faced dodecahedron? (If you're stumped, why not try drawing one?)
2) North Korea is the world's most militarized society with (as of July 2013) 9,495,000 active, reserve and paramilitary personnel. To within 5%, what percentage of North Korea's total population does this represent?
3) 'North Korea South Korea' inevitably leads us to that essential area of trivia: We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. Two people mentioned in the song were at one point married, name both of them.
4) Hitler began writing Mein Kampf in prison following his role in the Munich Putsch at the Bürgerbräukeller. How is the Munich Putsch more commonly/informally known?
Question 8
5) Along with China, four other countries are officially considered to be 'nuclear-weapon states' under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Name all four.
6) Shunga translates literally as 'picture of spring' (spring being a euphemism for sex), but what word for Japanese comics translates as 'whimsical drawings'?
7) In the magazine name Charlie Hebdo, 'Hebdo' is short for the word hebdomadaire, which means what in English?
8) Which artist's name is missing from this New Yorker cartoon caption?

The answers


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

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 19
Bibliophiles vs. Gamesmasters

Crikey. I've only just got my breath back after that, but here's the poll for this week's questions. Our question of the week was the very first of the show, with Missing exclamation mark a good mix of clever disguise, kick yourself, and that quizzing classic of Westward Ho!

Thursday 22 January 2015

The Linux mascot is a penguin called Tux

Your targets this week:

1+ out of 10: Well done, you beat us!
3+ out of 10: We'd have won with you on our team!

The attendees
1) The statistician
2) The doctor
3) The left-fielder

The ones that got away
1) Which country in the southern hemisphere has more penguin species than any other?
2) Which armed conflict was the deadliest in US history, with an estimated 750,000 American military deaths?
3) In Star Wars what is Luke Skywalker's callsign during the first attack on the Death Star?
4) In a standard pack of playing cards, what weapon does the king of diamonds hold that no other king does?
5) What common six letter word, often used to describe wealthy industrialists, derives from a Japanese word meaning 'great prince'?
6) 2 point question: what novel opens with "progris riport 1-martch 5, 1965"?
7) 3 point question: which body of water was turned to blood as one of the plagues in Exodus?

The answers


Our excuses


How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more points)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more points)? Don't forget the 2- and 3-point questions! 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) Whose autobiography - controversially published under the Penguin Classics imprint - is not divided into chapters and has an opening paragraph which lasts four-and-a-half pages?
2) Also the surname of a US president, in which theatre was Abraham Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth?
3) On what date is Star Wars Day (unofficially) celebrated?
4) Give the name of the poker hand formed of - in playing-card slang - a hockey stick, a snowman, a neener, a sawbuck and a hook.
5) A number of 'business simulation' video games feature the word Tycoon in their title. Which series (first released in 1999) involved building structures with the properties 'Excitement', 'Intensity' and 'Nausea'?
6) IQ is modelled on a statistical distribution informally referred to as the 'bell curve'. There are two other (more formal) names for this distribution, one beginning with N, the other with G. For 1 point each, name them.
7) Below I have rendered one of the Plagues of Egypt in picture clue form. Name the two men and the plague I'm cluing to (one point for each for a total of three).



The answers


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

Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 18
Linguists vs. Oxonians

As my time continues to be consumed by everything not quiz related, I'm still catching up with Only Connect recaps. Nevertheless, here's the poll for Monday's episode to pick out your favourites!

Monday 19 January 2015

Pub Quiz Poll: Team size limits?

It's common for pub quizzes to have strict rules about team sizes. After all, it can take the fun out of an evening if your team of four has to do battle with a group three times the size. Nevertheless, this isn't universally the case (and is particularly uncommon here in Montreal). This got me thinking about what people think of team limit rules, and naturally that called for a poll.

Do you think there should be a team limit? And if so, how big should that limit be?

Thursday 15 January 2015

Fajitagate was a thing

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 left-fielder

The ones that got away
1) From what country was explorer Alexander Mackenzie?
2) From what country was explorer Edmund Hillary?
3) On 30th September, 1927, which legend make history by hitting his 60th?
4) In what month of 1974 did Richard Nixon resign?
5) What adjective could describe a cow that's had its horns removed, but not its opinion?
6) In which 1966 Billy Wilder movie did Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon become embroiled in an extravagant insurance scam?

The answers


Our excuses


How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 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
Question 6
1) The Hudson's Bay Company is a Canadian retail business group and the oldest company in North America. It takes its name from the Hudson Bay in North-Eastern Canada, the world's second largest bay behind which other?
2) Where would you find the mountain Mauna Kea which, at over 10,200m, is the tallest mountain in the world when measured from its base? (By comparison, Everest is 8,848m from base to summit.)
3) What two-word term describes an award in Major League Baseball earned by a player leading the league in three specific statistical categories of performance? The term is used in numerous sports, although perhaps most notably in horse racing.
4) Wikipedia has a long (and fascinating) list of scandals given "-gate" suffix names, but who was the perpetrator of 2010's 'bigotgate'?
5) If you polled 100 sheep asking them what their favourite day of the week was, what is the minimum number of votes any one day could receive and still win outright (i.e. by at least one vote)? (Assuming every sheep picks a day.)
6) Before portraying Keith Lemon, comedian Leigh Francis created Channel 4's Bo' Selecta. Which English singer-songwriter is this Bo' Selecta mask depicting?

The answers


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

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 17
Chessmen vs. Felinophiles

Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 17 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 12th January. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

Missed last week's recap of the Nørdiphiles vs. the Bibliøphiles? Check it out here!

As the start of a new term (or 'semester', as I'm apparently supposed to call it) destroys my spare time, no recap yet for this week, but as always you can vote for your favourite questions! While the lovely Boom Boom Boom Boom sequence was apparently a long time in the making, our Question of the Week goes to Lil' rappers for elegantly disguising what many might consider a very 'non-OC' subject matter.

Friday 9 January 2015

The westernmost point of the American mainland is Cape Prince of Wales

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) To within 10%, how long is a year on Mercury in Earth days?
2) Of the four main characters in the 2006 movie The Departed (Spoiler warning!), which actor plays the only one who isn't dead by the end?
3) The sauces Béchamel, velouté, espagnole, Hollandaise and tomato are collectively known as what?
4) Which tissue in the human body takes its name from the Latin for 'gristle'?
5) Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, who was the original lead singer of Van Halen from 1974 to 1985? Surname suffices.
6) In the board game Risk, which is the only Asian territory that connects to North America by the Bering Strait?

The answers


Our excuses


How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 point or more)? Would you have helped us win (3 points or more)? 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) Derived from Mercury Surface, Space, Geochemistry, and Ranging, what is the appropriate, albeit somewhat contrived, name given to the first spacecraft to orbit the planet?
2) Before quitting (he would later lead hip-hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch), Mark Wahlberg was an original member of which boy band?
3) Though used for centuries in Tuscan cuisine, Béchamel sauce was renamed after the chief steward to which seventeenth Century King of France (also known as the Sun King)?
4) Also known as degenerative joint disease, loss of cartilage at a bone joint can give rise to what medical condition?
5) Despite being founded by brothers Alex and Eddie Van Halen, the band originally formed in 1972 under what Biblical name? They discovered it was already being used by a British group, who wouldn't top the US charts until 1986.
6) The standard Risk territories attempt to represent real-life geographical or political regions. This leads to a lot of compass points, including North Africa, Southern Europe, and Western United States. Which is the only standard Risk territory to end with a compass direction?

The answers


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

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Only Connect Post Mortem: Series 10 Episode 17
Nørdiphiles vs. Bibliøphiles

Scroll down for this week's Question of the Week poll!

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Series 10, Episode 17 of Only Connect, first broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 5th January. If you haven't seen it yet go and watch it on iPlayer!

Missed last week's recap of the Orienteers vs. the Gamesmasters? Check it out here!

As the Christmas dust (and rather a lot of snow) settles, things have been rather busy at OTGA HQ. Nevertheless, the fearless doctor (AKA UCL Karran AKA Brian May etc. etc.) has kindly volunteered to cover this week's Only Connect recap. He has assured me this will be at best 'slapdash', but perhaps his unique take is precisely what the UK quiz blogging circuit needs. This was the last playoff for an automatic quarter-final place, and saw the Nørdiphiles return after their thrilling 28-26 win over the Nightwatchmen while the Bibliøphiles (now with bonus 'ø' hilarity) saw off the QI Elves way back in episode 4. Enjoy!

Round 1: What's the connection?

The questions
1) Music: Shenandoah; Zambezi; Orinoco Flow; The Blue Danube
2) Health (2008-2011); Answers (2002-2006); Reader (2005-2013); Wave (2009-2010)
3) Pictures: Atlas bone; Charles Atlas; Atlas mountains; Atlas statue
4) My Ding-a-Ling (corrupting children); Til Death Us Do Part (dirty); Panorama on Belsen (filth); The Romans in Britain (gross decency)
5) Sapporo Dome; John Smith's Stadium; Liberty Stadium; KC Stadium
6) Pineapples (unlock Mr. Sparkle blade); Pears (Worcestershire CCC); Oranges (1919 Prokofiev opera); Apples (height of a Smurf)

The answers


Our thoughts
1) Music questions have seemed way harder this series. The first two clues were basically auditory nonsense to us. Basically, we recognised the Enya song, (because we've spent a non-zero amount of time in a dentist's waiting room in the last 20 years) but didn't know the name. And we recognised the Blue Danube Waltz, because we're not bloody criminals. Not enough to go on for the answer though. I think we suggested "music used in sci-fi movies" because of Kubrick's 2001. An ok question I guess. I'm never particularly enthusiastic about the music ones, not enough death metal or Zelda remixes.
2) First clue had us all Jeremy Hunting up the place before we realised he was too recent (and a total berk). Next two didn't help us a great deal, I think Stats-bro suggested "Cash For..." scandals, but that was torpedoed by "Reader" (which made me think of that Holocaust movie I haven't seen...). On wave though it clicked and we registered that they were all defunct Google stuff. Was amused by VC not knowing what an RSS reader was, but I guess that's why she's a famous poker millionaire and I'm some chump writing Only Connect recaps on the internet for nerds. Decent question, if a bit hard for anything other than 1 point (IMO).
3) I was quite pleased (pleased in my pants) when I saw we were looking at a bone, which i immediately misidentified as a pelvis. Looking at it a bit more ('cause i was desperate to take anything vaguely medical for MAXIMUM POINTS) I realised it was obviously not a pelvis because where would the legs even go? It would be crazy. That's when it clicked and i saw that it was the top bone of the vertebral column i.e. C1, or more poetically "the Atlas". Next clue gave us something to hang a connection on (don't think we'd have recognised a bodybuilder from the 1930s otherwise) and we were happy. Generally quite liked this question though i'm totally biased because i smashed it (could have done better obvs). I still think it was legit good because it was a nice mix of things whilst also being pretty gettable for one point at the end (if you're on Only Connect and you don't know who that bloke who holds up the earth is... you're probably not supposed to be on Only Connect).
4) Hugely frustrating (for us) but reasonably amusing question, this. After two questions I was thinking Mary Whitehouse complaints because it was old people-style complaints about old people-aged stuff. But unfortunately, I basically had no idea who Mary Whitehouse really was, outside of "someone who once complained about Mortal Kombat i think", and went with the safer-seeming "BBC complaints", which was wrong. Good question for people the right age (i.e. old) and as always shows that OC has a pleasant variety of weird content in it. Chemical Elements this ain't.
5) Ridiculously hard question, I think. Having been annoyed to miss out of the tender ministrations of Ms Whitehouse, I urged us to go hell for leather on this one and we buzzed early after the first two clues to say "sports stadia sponsored by booze. Pretty cretinous buzz given that this series has had a lot of questions which looked like one easy-ish thing after two clues, but turned out to be another harder thing after all four had been revealed. Fortunately we were nowhere near the correct answer, so the statistician did not beat me up (he did say the pasta I'd made for Only Connect dinner funsies was too spicy though, which was probably unrelated). Hard for me to judge, because i am not Mr Sports, but this question seemed ball-breakingly hard.
6) Probably the hardest the two of us have ever worked for 1 point. We both recognised that the first one was obviously a videogame thing, and I (because I am awesome at nerd stuff) reasoned that it must be Fruit Ninja, despite having never played the game... though really it was probably a pretty obvious inference if you're familiar with the language of games and could put together "involves fruit" and "involves sharp things". Aaaanywho, our hopes of the next one being Candy Crush related were dashed and neither of us knew any Prokofiev operas. Fortunately the statistician is apparently intimately familiar with the anatomy of the Smurf and was able to talk me down from my belief that they were "around 8 apples" high. Basically, we said three fruits and were pretty pleased. Probably question of the week for sheer eclectic joy.

Round 2: What comes fourth?

The questions
1) African antelope; Slow underhand cricket ball; Disorderly crowd
2) 594 x 841; 420 x 594; 297 x 420
3) Nottingham = 5; Leicester = 6; Bristol = 7
4) Noah's Ark; Jack-and-Jill bathroom; Monty Hall problem
5) Pictures: Barbara Sinatra; Mia Farrow; Ava Gardner
6) Face; Arms; Speech

The answers


Our thoughts
1) Didn't get it, maybe should have? Neither of us had heard of a Kob. I was stuck between Springbok (thinking it might be a four seasons thing), Dik Dik, and Bongo, which i think are all horned african deer-type things. Not going to look it up though because it seems boring. Not much to say about this, good job to the people on the show getting it.
2) The statistician got this for the smallest number of points, which blew me away. Seemed really hard. I realise it's something one sees a lot because of the ubiquity of computer printing, but even so. Fun fact: paper sizes are totally bonkers in North America, it's all like "legal letter" size, which is near A4 but is actually some weird other thing. This video explains it quite enjoyably.
3) Didn't know, didn't super care? The statistician suggested London, and having lived in London all my life before we moved to Canada, and remembering having an 0208 phone number, I was down with it. Don't really follow why it's interesting but I presume it's the kind of thing that's just crazily ingrained knowledge if you're from the right place and the right time, which is fair enough. Not every question can be about Pokemon.
4) Never heard of a Jack-and-Jill bathroom, it sounds deeply kinky though. The statistician likes to bring up the Monty Hall problem a lot though, probably because it took him about 4 years to adequately explain it to me and it ended up being some kind of point of pride. Don't know if the most famous thing about Noah's Ark is that it only had one door, but fair enough. Interesting question. Got it for 2 points.
5) Literally within the last 7 days, we have done a quiz which mentioned like 3 of the wives of Frank Sinatra. It didn't have pictures though and so this turned into a big fat nothing for us. I think we guessed Elizabeth Taylor, much like the contestants did, because she generally seems a pretty good guess for any group where it looks a bit Hollywood Golden Age. It'll be interesting to see how these sorts of questions look in 40 years time when nobody gives a damn about Old Blue Eyes or Elvis, etc. I feel like pop culture has fragmented too much these days, for there to keep being questions where everyone should know the answer... but then again, Kanye West exists.
6) Ha ha, hahaha, ahaha hahahaha. 0 points. As I explained to the statistician I am counting this as a totes legit 0 points for me. Obviously I've seen the posters for stuff like this, but I never really paid attention because it was for plebs. I know how to diagnose a stroke proplerly and cute little acronyms aren't how we do it in the big leagues, baby! Basically, despite my terrible track-record with medical questions, I am counting this one as being "so beneath me that it's barely even a medical question". Realistically though I 100% should have got it :(

Walls and missing vowels were a thing.

Question of the Week

3 fruits. We worked ridiculously hard to get it, but also it has the diversity of clue-sources that I love in only connect. It's not just iPhone games, it's also Belgian cartoons, and cricket clubs, and Russian operas. I also liked the Atlas question, but I think that's just because I was happy to see a vaguely obscure bone that I knew.

Friday 2 January 2015

Happy New Year!

Well done everyone on surviving to 2015. No Ones That Got Away today, but we'll be getting back into the regular swing of things next week!