Saturday, September 29, 2007

BH129: Summat for Le Weekend

(Partly inspired by The Observer Book of Genius and Trevor's A-Z of Sport. You must give credit where it is due)

I must off to the south coast. Not much to report that I can think of, despite their being obviously tons of stuff to ponder and rant about, so here is a quiz. Yes, more questions. How could it be any other way?

BH129
1 Who is considered to have built the first practical engine, of the internal combustion kind, in 1876?
2 In 1801, who modified a textile loom to respond to a series of punched paper cards and, arguably, invented the first computer?
3 A former pupil of Donatello, by what name was the artist Andrea di Cione better known?
4 What is measured on the Cephalization Index?
5 On meeting Guido Calvanti, Lapo Gianni, Cino di Pistoia and Bruno Latini, an 18-year-old Dante went on to become leaders with these writers of which poetry movement?
6 The Isle of Wight band Level 42 took their name from which novel?
7 Given the title Ganita Chakra Chudamani ("gem of the circle of mathematicians") by Bhaskara II, which Indian mathematician and astronomer (598-668) completed his second work, the Khandakhadyaka in 665?
8 During which conflict was Archimedes killed by a Roman soldier in 212BC?
9 Which American wrote what has been called the first self-help book, Autobiography, in which he detailed the mistakes and successes of his life with a view to preventing others from making them?
10 What did Pythagoras call "the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of god and demons"?
11 Which scientist married Mileva Maric in 1903?
12 What dish of fillet steak, foie gras, truffles and demi-glace sauce is named after the 19th century composer and food fan who is said to have given the recipe to the chef at the Cafe Anglais?
13 Which brilliant pianist would only play concerts whilst sat on an old armchair his father had made?
14 The only man in history to be acknowledged on the footstone of a king, who was the author of one of the oldest extant medical texts, now known as the Edwin Smith papyrus after its finder?
15 In early Roman myth, what name was given to the attendant spirit belonging to men (women had a "juno"), which were dedicated to furthering the ancestral line?
16 Lancelot Ware and Roland Berrill founded which well-known society, later boosted worldwide by the efforts of Victor Srebiakoff, in 1946?
17 What "honour" did Dr Julie Peterson, now a qualified chiropractor, receive in February 1987?
18 Which 1927 film featured an evil scientist named Rotwang invent a robot named Hel?
19 Which English artist was born with the last three names Steven David Brennan in 1965?
20 Which Venice-based dramatist's best known plays include La locandiera/The Mistress of the Inn (1753), I rusteghi/The Boors (1760) and Le baruffe chiozzote/The Squabbles of Chioggia (1762)?
21 The recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1971, which actress made a joint film debut with her sister in An Unseen Enemy (1912) and directed one film, Remodelling Her Husband (1920)?
22 Which saint's famous treatise, De Exidio et Conquestu Britanniae, probably written between 516 and 547, is the only extant history of the Celts?
23 Which crime novelist is far less well known for a series of detective novels featuring "the DA", District Attorney Doug Selby?
24 Known for extreme Republican sympathies that resulted in his being imprisoned twice, which short-lived French mathematician (1811-32) possesses a reputation that rests on fewer than 100 pages of work of original genius, which include a memoir on the solubility of equations to radicals, and a mathematical testament giving the essentials of his discoveries on the theory of algebraic equations and Abelian integrals?
25 Equivalent to the Roman cella, what was the inner cell or sanctuary of a Greek temple containing the statue of the deity, as well as the sanctuary of a centrally planned Byzantine church?
26 Which Isambard Kingdom Brunel ship was also called The Leviathan?
27 Cut from his dead body by Anton Francesco Gori in 1737, whose well-preserved middle finger is on display in Florence's Museo di Storia del Scienza?
28 According to philosopher Roger Scruton, which of Kant's Critiques (his third in 1790) "is the only work by a major philosopher to have said anything useful or true about aesthetics, as well as defining the subject for the firs time"?
29 Wang Liqin is considered to be one of which sport's all-time greats?
30 Which company's factory at Hamamatsu near Nagoya began life as a clothing factory in 1909 and during the post-WW2 depression diversified into motorcycles in 1952?
31 Which football club won the first European Super Cup in 1972?
32 Employees at the brewery firm of Hockey & Sons are credited with establishing the standard throwing distances for which sport?
33 In which sport did CE Willis win the first Open Championship in 1897?
34 Which Puerto Rican boxer first won the lightweight crown from Joe Brown in 1962?
35 The Germans Thomas Kohler (1964), Wolfgang Schiedel (1972), Bernhard Glass (1980) and Jens Muller (1988) each won the Olympic Men's Singles in which winter sport in those years?
36 Which third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles (b.1960) set a consecutive games record of 2632 games over 14 seasons?
37 The frame of a racket in which sport should not exceed 680 mm in overall length and 230 mm in overall width?
38 What is the world's highest active volcano?
39 Which tennis player won the junior Grand Slam in 1983 and his first Grand Slam title, the Australian Open, in 1985?
40 Written by unknown Norwegian poets of the 9th-12th centuries, what early Icelandic literature collection of poems was discovered c.1643 by Byrnjolfr Sveinsson?
41 Equal to 100 lb (45.4 kg), what is the alternative name for the imperial unit known as the short hundredweight?
42 Which philosopher wrote the Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40)?
43 Co-ordinators of a life sciences research project begun in 1988, what organisation is known by the abbreviation HUGO?
44 Which province of south-central China has Changsa for its capital and is site of Dongting Lake and the farmhouse in Shaoshan village where Mao Zedong was born?
45 Which species of kangaroo, with the large red the largest living marsupial, has the scientific name Macropus giganteus?
46 In 1914, who produce the series Improvisations and Compositions, the first known examples of purely abstract work in 20th century art?
47 A leading member of the Acmeist movement in Russian poetry, what was the pen name of Anna Andreevna Gorenko whose works include Requiem (written in the 1930s and published in 1963, due to its dealing with the Stalinist Terror) and Poem Without a Hero (1962, but begun in 1940)?
48 What is the smallest of the seven states that make up the UAE?
49 Morihei Ueshiba created which Japanese art of self-defence, whose central principle is that of "harmony of energy"?
50 Meaning "achievement of universal peace", what is the reign of the current Emperor of Japan, Akihito, called?

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Answers to BH129
1 Gottlieb Daimler 2 Joseph Marie Jacquard 3 Verocchio 4 The relative intelligence of animals 5 Dolce Stil Novo/Sweet New Style 6 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 7 Brahmagupta 8 Second Punic War 9 Benjamin Franklin 10 Number 11 Einstein 12 Tournedos Rossini 13 Glenn Gould 14 Imhotep 15 Genius 16 Mensa 17 Playboy Playmate of the Month 18 Metropolis 19 Damien Hirst 20 Carlo Goldoni 21 Lillian Diana Gish (Lillian de Guiche) 22 St Gildas 23 Erle Stanley Gardner 24 Evariste Galois 25 Naos 26 SS Great Eastern 27 Galileo 28 The Critique of Judgement/ Kritik der Urteilskraft 29 Table tennis 30 Suzuki 31 Ajax 32 Darts 33 Croquet 34 Carlos Ortiz 35 Luge 36 Cal Ripken Jr 37 Badminton 38 Cotopaxi (in Ecuador) 39 Stefan Edberg 40 Elder or Poetic Edda 41 Cental 42 David Hume 43 Human Genome Organistion 44 Hunan 45 Great grey kangaroo 46 Vasily Kandinsky 47 Anna Akhmatova 48 Ajman 49 Aikido 50 Heisei

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