BH111: Is "It's a Nelson" one of your initial thoughts?
Befoe the Quiz: Proof of the Idiocracy
So I got an e-mail today from one of those sources you end up regretting signing up to, simply because you wanted to have a look at something once and never visited again that site, like ever, but found instead you ended up being flooded with spam-mail for the the rest of your life and can't be bothered to stop the relentless flow by going back to the site.
Anyway.
It was from SRO Audiences. Apparently, it is offering tickets to the BBC's new quiz show "THE PEOPLE'S QUIZ" because "the contestants have now been found" and you might like watching "the sharpest of minds crumble and somebody's dreams come true". It adds "apply now!"
Then it gave the dates because it even had me interested (yes, me!):
Wednesday April 11, Monday April 16, Tuesday April 17, Wednesday April 16
I was gobsmacked. Astonishing that SRO Audiences are offering TV show tickets allowing us to go back in time! They have cracked time travel! Hurrah! I could sit in the audience and see how I looked from the back and shout abuse at myself in a kind of display of cathartic self-loathing.
Er, wait a minute I then thought. How could they? It's a television audiences tickets company. They haven't cracked the thorny problem of the flux capacitor.
I then realised. They were being bloody rubbish! Incompetent idiots. Who sends invites to get tickets more than two weeks late? Oh, SRO Audiences. No wonder the actual audience was so sparse and had to be filmed so carefully. We can blame shoddy electronic communication like this one. In part.
Zat Quiz
1 The latest collaboration between Les Miserables composer Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyricist Alain Boublil is based on the life and adventures of the 16th century chieftain Grace O'Malley, who was one of the last Irish clan leaders to resist the English conquest of Gaelic Ireland. What is its title?
2 Based upon a 1934 George S Kaufman and Moss Hart play, which Stephen Sondheim musical opened on November 16, 1981 and ran for only 16 performances, its "difficult" nature being put down to the reverse chronology of the work in its backwards look at the life of highly successful yet jaded film producer Franklin Shepherd, who has lost such friends as collaborator Charley Kringas on the way?
3 Abandoning architecture at the age of 18 to study painting, which artist did Georges Seurat meet and befriend at the Societe des Artistes Independants in 1884? Together they would develop the pointillist style, and the man in question would execute many paintings of the French coast, including The Port of St Tropez (1901). His other works include Breakfast (1886-1887), The Papal Palace, Avignon (1900) and The Pine Tree at St Tropez (1909).
4 Which German physician and physicist (1821-1894) made his first important contribution to science with a 1847 physics treatise on the principle of conservation of energy, written in the context of his medical studies and philosophical background and discovered while he was investigating muscle metabolism?
5 In which constellation has the potentially habitable planet, Gliese 581 c, been discovered?
6 Who shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, on April, 26, 1865?
7 What colour are Michelin Guides for travel and tourism, if they are red for hotels and restaurants?
8 Which author is buried along with his wife in the North Carolina town of Asheville?
9 Who wrote the following books on the Carnegie of Carnegie medals shortlist: a) Skellig (the 1998 winner, a tale of a creature which lives beneath a garage) b) Storm (1985, in which a girl discovers the secret of a marsh) c) A Gathering Light (2003, a novel about a real murder) d) The Family from One End Street (1937, a portrait of a working class family) e) The Machine Gunners (1981, a World War Two novel)?
10 Headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, which clothes company known for its rugged, durable workwear was founded in 1889 to make attire for railroad workers and took its name from its founder, whose first forename was Hamilton?
11 The Djemaa el-Fna, meaning "assembly of the dead", is the huge square situated at the heart of which North African city?
12 The Chaconne or Ciaconna is said to be the meatiest (and fifth and final part) of which JS Bach work (BWV 1004), written during the period 1717-1723 and described by some as the most famous piece ever composed for solo violin?
13 Advocating the dictum "form follows function", which US architect and pioneer of the skyscraper designed the Wainwright Building (1890) in St Louis and the Carson, Pirie, Scott Department Store (1904) in Chicago?
14 Which 1974 Werner Herzog film derives its source material from a teenage boy who appeared on the streets of Nurnberg on May 26, 1828?
15 Which 2005 fantasy-historical novel by Daniel Kehlmann topped the German charts for almost a year and featured the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss?
16 Winner of the Prix Nadar in 1956 and also director of such films as 1966's Who Are You Polly Magoo?, which US photographer sued Christian Dior designer John Galliano for using his trademark technique of painting over photographs in adverts, recently resulting in Galliano being fined 200,000 Euros in a French court in April 2007?
17 Lyme disease is so named from the location where an outbreak occurred in 1975. In which US state did it happen?
18 While attending Sunday mass, the 17-year-old Galileo noticed a swinging pendulum which would later help him formulate a pendulum theory. In which cathedral did the mass take place?
19 Who founded modern robotics when he invented the first programmable robot - known as the Ultimate - in 1954, and which was used on the General Motors assembly line?
20 Which country has the biggest pension fund in the world with $300 billion in current assets? And which Californian state pension fund is the next largest in the world with assets of $200 billion?
21 Originating in the south-western Indian state of Kerala, which ancient martial art, whose practitioners are sometimes called "Flying Warriors", takes 12 years of training to graduate from disciple to guru and is practised in a matting floor enclosure measuring 21ft by 42ft with a platform housing a guardian deity?
22 The Mursi or Murzu are a nomadic cattle herding ethnic group in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region in the south of which African country?
23 With a season lasting from June till October, Las Lenas is the premier ski resort in which South American country and is the biggest Andean resort?
24 Which comic book for children, written by Australian cartoonist Norman Lindsay (1879-1969), concerns the adventures of a koala bear named Bunyip Bluegum who lives home to travel the world?
25 While Rocky Marciano was undefeated heavyweight champion over 49 fights, which US boxer was also undefeated as a heavyweight but lost to Harry Greb as a light heavyweight?
26 Which Romanian civil servant (b.1964) has won seven Olympic medals (four gold, two silver, one bronze), more than any other rower?
27 In 2000, the NEAR space probe entered orbit around which deep space asteroid that shares its name with a god in Greek mythology?
28 Which German chemist formulated the third law of thermodynamics in 1905?
29 Which Austrian-born film director won his first Oscar with the 1938 short film That Mothers Might Live?
30 The Austrian chemist Richard Adolf Zsigmondy won the 1925 Nobel for chemistry for his work on what substances, having discovered a water suspension of gold whilst working at a glass manufacturing company and proposing that their shape and size could be deducted from the way in which the particles scatter light?
31 Which Russian became prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet in 1944, earning international recognition for her roles in such Lavrovsky productions as The Red Poppy, Giselle, and Romeo and Juliet before she retired and became a coach with the Bolshoi in 1962?
32 Founded as Nidaros in 997, what city was the political and religious capital of medieval Norway?
33 What name for a footman or flunkey was popularised by William Makepeace Thackeray in a 1846 book, which took its name from a former footman whose real name is James Plush?
34 Andrea Mantegna executed his famous work, the nine-painting series The Triumphs of Caesar (c.1480-95), for which family of Mantua?
35 Chemical number 77, which metallic element's name was coined in 1803 by English chemist Smithson Tennant with reference to the various colours of the element's compounds?
36 What does the J in a J cloth (used for cleaning surfaces etc) stand for?
37 Commemorated in a new book entitled Horizons Touched, which jazz and new music label was founded by Manfred Eicher in Munich in 1969?
38 Known for such albums as Duster (1967), Throb (1969) and Dreams So Real (1975), the jazz musician and composer Gary Burton is best known for playing which instrument?
39 Their 14th studio album, Iron Maiden's latest record is warfare-themed and shares its name with which Powell and Pressburger film?
40 The first quarter profits of Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker, are said to have been hit by disappointing sales of which diabetes drug?
41 Also known as hundi, which thousand-year-old system has been used as a simple banking method from the Middle East through the Indian subcontinent to China and has made UK news headlines due to it being used by criminal gangs to transfer funds overseas?
42 The Marvellous Spatuletail is a seriously endangered example of which bird?
43 Set up in 1936 on the death of an eponymous US-born pharmaceuticals expert (named Sir Henry), what has become Britain's biggest charity, spending more than £500m a year on biomedical research?
44 Set in Austria at the beginning of the 19th century, which 1850 Verdi opera was based on the Emile Souvestre and Eugene Bourgeois play Le Pasteur, ou l'Evangile et la Foyer and centred on an Italian Protestant priest whose marriage to Lina when he discovers she has taken a lover? It was subsequently revised by Verdi in 1857 into a new opera called Aroldo.
45 What word describes the traditional Japanese thermal baths which use natural hot springs? And which word describes the old public bath houses that rely on tap water?
46 What is the name of the woman embroiled in the pay rise scandal that may bring about the end of her partner Paul Wolfowitz's tenure as World Bank president?
47 Which small onion-like herb is Allium schoenoprasum?
48 Which deep-fried Mexican rolled tortilla takes its name from the Spanish for "trinket"?
49 Which order of regular canons was founded by St Norbert at a location near Laon in northern France in 1120?
50 Meaning "Doctrine of the Elders", what is the older of the two major schools of Buddhism?
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Answers to BH111
1 The Pirate Queen 2 Merrily We Roll Along 3 Paul Signac 4 Hermann von Helmholtz 5 Libra 6 Boston Corbett 7 Green 8 F Scott Fitzgerald 9 a) David Almond b) Kevin Crossley-Holland c) Jennifer Donnelly d) Eve Garnett e) Robert Westall 10 Carhartt 11 Marrakech 12 Partita in D minor or Solo violin partita No. 2 13 Louis Sullivan 14 The Enigma of Kasper Hauser 15 Measuring the World 16 William Klein 17 Connecticut 18 Pisa Cathedral 19 George Devol 20 Norway, Calpers 21 Kalaripayattu 22 Ethiopia 23 Argentina 24 The Magic Pudding 25 Gene Tunney 26 Elisabeta Lipa 27 Eros 28 Hermann Nernst 29 Fred Zinneman 30 Colloids 31 Galina Ulanova 32 Trondheim 33 Jeames as in The Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche, Esq. 34 Gonzagas 35 Iridium 36 Johnson (and Johnson) 37 ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) 38 Vibraphone 39 A Matter of Life and Death 40 Exubera 41 Hawala 42 Hummingbird 43 Wellcome Trust 44 Stiffelio 45 Onsen, Sento 46 Shaha Riza 47 Chive 48 Chimichanga 49 Premonstratensians as in Premontre 50 Theravada
So I got an e-mail today from one of those sources you end up regretting signing up to, simply because you wanted to have a look at something once and never visited again that site, like ever, but found instead you ended up being flooded with spam-mail for the the rest of your life and can't be bothered to stop the relentless flow by going back to the site.
Anyway.
It was from SRO Audiences. Apparently, it is offering tickets to the BBC's new quiz show "THE PEOPLE'S QUIZ" because "the contestants have now been found" and you might like watching "the sharpest of minds crumble and somebody's dreams come true". It adds "apply now!"
Then it gave the dates because it even had me interested (yes, me!):
Wednesday April 11, Monday April 16, Tuesday April 17, Wednesday April 16
I was gobsmacked. Astonishing that SRO Audiences are offering TV show tickets allowing us to go back in time! They have cracked time travel! Hurrah! I could sit in the audience and see how I looked from the back and shout abuse at myself in a kind of display of cathartic self-loathing.
Er, wait a minute I then thought. How could they? It's a television audiences tickets company. They haven't cracked the thorny problem of the flux capacitor.
I then realised. They were being bloody rubbish! Incompetent idiots. Who sends invites to get tickets more than two weeks late? Oh, SRO Audiences. No wonder the actual audience was so sparse and had to be filmed so carefully. We can blame shoddy electronic communication like this one. In part.
Zat Quiz
1 The latest collaboration between Les Miserables composer Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyricist Alain Boublil is based on the life and adventures of the 16th century chieftain Grace O'Malley, who was one of the last Irish clan leaders to resist the English conquest of Gaelic Ireland. What is its title?
2 Based upon a 1934 George S Kaufman and Moss Hart play, which Stephen Sondheim musical opened on November 16, 1981 and ran for only 16 performances, its "difficult" nature being put down to the reverse chronology of the work in its backwards look at the life of highly successful yet jaded film producer Franklin Shepherd, who has lost such friends as collaborator Charley Kringas on the way?
3 Abandoning architecture at the age of 18 to study painting, which artist did Georges Seurat meet and befriend at the Societe des Artistes Independants in 1884? Together they would develop the pointillist style, and the man in question would execute many paintings of the French coast, including The Port of St Tropez (1901). His other works include Breakfast (1886-1887), The Papal Palace, Avignon (1900) and The Pine Tree at St Tropez (1909).
4 Which German physician and physicist (1821-1894) made his first important contribution to science with a 1847 physics treatise on the principle of conservation of energy, written in the context of his medical studies and philosophical background and discovered while he was investigating muscle metabolism?
5 In which constellation has the potentially habitable planet, Gliese 581 c, been discovered?
6 Who shot and killed John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, on April, 26, 1865?
7 What colour are Michelin Guides for travel and tourism, if they are red for hotels and restaurants?
8 Which author is buried along with his wife in the North Carolina town of Asheville?
9 Who wrote the following books on the Carnegie of Carnegie medals shortlist: a) Skellig (the 1998 winner, a tale of a creature which lives beneath a garage) b) Storm (1985, in which a girl discovers the secret of a marsh) c) A Gathering Light (2003, a novel about a real murder) d) The Family from One End Street (1937, a portrait of a working class family) e) The Machine Gunners (1981, a World War Two novel)?
10 Headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, which clothes company known for its rugged, durable workwear was founded in 1889 to make attire for railroad workers and took its name from its founder, whose first forename was Hamilton?
11 The Djemaa el-Fna, meaning "assembly of the dead", is the huge square situated at the heart of which North African city?
12 The Chaconne or Ciaconna is said to be the meatiest (and fifth and final part) of which JS Bach work (BWV 1004), written during the period 1717-1723 and described by some as the most famous piece ever composed for solo violin?
13 Advocating the dictum "form follows function", which US architect and pioneer of the skyscraper designed the Wainwright Building (1890) in St Louis and the Carson, Pirie, Scott Department Store (1904) in Chicago?
14 Which 1974 Werner Herzog film derives its source material from a teenage boy who appeared on the streets of Nurnberg on May 26, 1828?
15 Which 2005 fantasy-historical novel by Daniel Kehlmann topped the German charts for almost a year and featured the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss?
16 Winner of the Prix Nadar in 1956 and also director of such films as 1966's Who Are You Polly Magoo?, which US photographer sued Christian Dior designer John Galliano for using his trademark technique of painting over photographs in adverts, recently resulting in Galliano being fined 200,000 Euros in a French court in April 2007?
17 Lyme disease is so named from the location where an outbreak occurred in 1975. In which US state did it happen?
18 While attending Sunday mass, the 17-year-old Galileo noticed a swinging pendulum which would later help him formulate a pendulum theory. In which cathedral did the mass take place?
19 Who founded modern robotics when he invented the first programmable robot - known as the Ultimate - in 1954, and which was used on the General Motors assembly line?
20 Which country has the biggest pension fund in the world with $300 billion in current assets? And which Californian state pension fund is the next largest in the world with assets of $200 billion?
21 Originating in the south-western Indian state of Kerala, which ancient martial art, whose practitioners are sometimes called "Flying Warriors", takes 12 years of training to graduate from disciple to guru and is practised in a matting floor enclosure measuring 21ft by 42ft with a platform housing a guardian deity?
22 The Mursi or Murzu are a nomadic cattle herding ethnic group in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region in the south of which African country?
23 With a season lasting from June till October, Las Lenas is the premier ski resort in which South American country and is the biggest Andean resort?
24 Which comic book for children, written by Australian cartoonist Norman Lindsay (1879-1969), concerns the adventures of a koala bear named Bunyip Bluegum who lives home to travel the world?
25 While Rocky Marciano was undefeated heavyweight champion over 49 fights, which US boxer was also undefeated as a heavyweight but lost to Harry Greb as a light heavyweight?
26 Which Romanian civil servant (b.1964) has won seven Olympic medals (four gold, two silver, one bronze), more than any other rower?
27 In 2000, the NEAR space probe entered orbit around which deep space asteroid that shares its name with a god in Greek mythology?
28 Which German chemist formulated the third law of thermodynamics in 1905?
29 Which Austrian-born film director won his first Oscar with the 1938 short film That Mothers Might Live?
30 The Austrian chemist Richard Adolf Zsigmondy won the 1925 Nobel for chemistry for his work on what substances, having discovered a water suspension of gold whilst working at a glass manufacturing company and proposing that their shape and size could be deducted from the way in which the particles scatter light?
31 Which Russian became prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet in 1944, earning international recognition for her roles in such Lavrovsky productions as The Red Poppy, Giselle, and Romeo and Juliet before she retired and became a coach with the Bolshoi in 1962?
32 Founded as Nidaros in 997, what city was the political and religious capital of medieval Norway?
33 What name for a footman or flunkey was popularised by William Makepeace Thackeray in a 1846 book, which took its name from a former footman whose real name is James Plush?
34 Andrea Mantegna executed his famous work, the nine-painting series The Triumphs of Caesar (c.1480-95), for which family of Mantua?
35 Chemical number 77, which metallic element's name was coined in 1803 by English chemist Smithson Tennant with reference to the various colours of the element's compounds?
36 What does the J in a J cloth (used for cleaning surfaces etc) stand for?
37 Commemorated in a new book entitled Horizons Touched, which jazz and new music label was founded by Manfred Eicher in Munich in 1969?
38 Known for such albums as Duster (1967), Throb (1969) and Dreams So Real (1975), the jazz musician and composer Gary Burton is best known for playing which instrument?
39 Their 14th studio album, Iron Maiden's latest record is warfare-themed and shares its name with which Powell and Pressburger film?
40 The first quarter profits of Pfizer, the world's biggest drug maker, are said to have been hit by disappointing sales of which diabetes drug?
41 Also known as hundi, which thousand-year-old system has been used as a simple banking method from the Middle East through the Indian subcontinent to China and has made UK news headlines due to it being used by criminal gangs to transfer funds overseas?
42 The Marvellous Spatuletail is a seriously endangered example of which bird?
43 Set up in 1936 on the death of an eponymous US-born pharmaceuticals expert (named Sir Henry), what has become Britain's biggest charity, spending more than £500m a year on biomedical research?
44 Set in Austria at the beginning of the 19th century, which 1850 Verdi opera was based on the Emile Souvestre and Eugene Bourgeois play Le Pasteur, ou l'Evangile et la Foyer and centred on an Italian Protestant priest whose marriage to Lina when he discovers she has taken a lover? It was subsequently revised by Verdi in 1857 into a new opera called Aroldo.
45 What word describes the traditional Japanese thermal baths which use natural hot springs? And which word describes the old public bath houses that rely on tap water?
46 What is the name of the woman embroiled in the pay rise scandal that may bring about the end of her partner Paul Wolfowitz's tenure as World Bank president?
47 Which small onion-like herb is Allium schoenoprasum?
48 Which deep-fried Mexican rolled tortilla takes its name from the Spanish for "trinket"?
49 Which order of regular canons was founded by St Norbert at a location near Laon in northern France in 1120?
50 Meaning "Doctrine of the Elders", what is the older of the two major schools of Buddhism?
M
E
M
O
R
I
E
S
I
N
D
R
E
A
M
S
Answers to BH111
1 The Pirate Queen 2 Merrily We Roll Along 3 Paul Signac 4 Hermann von Helmholtz 5 Libra 6 Boston Corbett 7 Green 8 F Scott Fitzgerald 9 a) David Almond b) Kevin Crossley-Holland c) Jennifer Donnelly d) Eve Garnett e) Robert Westall 10 Carhartt 11 Marrakech 12 Partita in D minor or Solo violin partita No. 2 13 Louis Sullivan 14 The Enigma of Kasper Hauser 15 Measuring the World 16 William Klein 17 Connecticut 18 Pisa Cathedral 19 George Devol 20 Norway, Calpers 21 Kalaripayattu 22 Ethiopia 23 Argentina 24 The Magic Pudding 25 Gene Tunney 26 Elisabeta Lipa 27 Eros 28 Hermann Nernst 29 Fred Zinneman 30 Colloids 31 Galina Ulanova 32 Trondheim 33 Jeames as in The Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche, Esq. 34 Gonzagas 35 Iridium 36 Johnson (and Johnson) 37 ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) 38 Vibraphone 39 A Matter of Life and Death 40 Exubera 41 Hawala 42 Hummingbird 43 Wellcome Trust 44 Stiffelio 45 Onsen, Sento 46 Shaha Riza 47 Chive 48 Chimichanga 49 Premonstratensians as in Premontre 50 Theravada
posted by That Quiz Guy at 8:13 AM
1 Comments:
Olav:
I apologize, sincerely, if you have simply been too busy to respond to my previous e-mailed questions; in this day and age, one never knows if one's electronic missives have been intercepted by the hierarchies of Spam filters, and I figured I'd just duplicate the previous method by which I successfully contacted you.
I suppose I could reduce my question set down to just one question:
1. In the math round and the letters/word round, did you read the questions off a monitor, or did you only hear them spoken?
Thank you for your time and help,
Ogi Ogas
ogiogas@verizon.net
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