Famine's increasingly-never-on-a-Sunday Quiz, Round 11.

[DQuaN]

8 Hours????

 

[Famine]

Well, there's only been really 1 full day for people to answer. Be nice to give them a second one, and 8pm gives our colonial friends chance to wake up and pen something too.

 

[TheCracker]

Well, there's only been really 1 full day for people to answer. Be nice to give them a second one, and 8pm gives our colonial friends chance to wake up and pen something too.

But then i won't see the answers until Tuesday!

- most the guys here never seem to sleep anyway.

 

[DQuaN]

I'll post them up in 8 hours' time...

*ahem*

*ahem*

 

[Famine]

Oh, okay then. I was going to leave it until 8pm, but...

1. (Language) - What does the Aboriginal word "Kangaroo" actually mean in English?

It's often held to be apocryphal, though no-one has ever satisfactorily disproven it - as there is a remarkably similar sounding phrase in the local dialects - but the answer is "I don't know".

2. (Motorsports) - Which team (ergo nation) won the most A1 Grand Prix World Cup of Motorsport races (including feature AND sprint races)?

Zut alors! Ze French, of course!

3. (Science) - The inverse log10 of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution is the standard measure of... what?

This is the definition of the pH scale - the measurement of acidity/alkalinity. Either answer is good.

4. (Sport) - Phil Mickelson, recent winner of the US Masters (for the second time), has something rather unusual about his swing - something he shares with former US Masters winner Mike Weir. What is it?

It's very important to note this... Both golfers have a left-handed swing, but these specific two golfers are actually right-handers. There's lots of leftie golfers, but these are the only two I know of who have a left-handed swing but are right-handed.

The answer "they are left-handed" was thus totally wrong.

5. (Time) - What event happened in the UK on 5th September 1752?

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing at all.

Literally nothing.

The UK passed an Act in 1751 to adopt the Gregorian Calendar, instead of the Julian Calendar that was used until that time. In order to bring the dates into alignment, 11 days had to be skipped out completely. So everyone went to bed on Tuesday, 2nd September 1752 using the Julian Calendar and woke up the next morning on Wednesday, 14th September 1752 using the Gregorian Calendar. The 5th - along with the rest of the 3rd-13th - never occurred.

6. (Technology) - What country was the last in the world to introduce television (in, astonishingly, 1999)?

Bhutan.

Interestingly, since the introduction of TV - and the car - the crime rate in Bhutan has spiked alarmingly.

7. (World Geography) - Krung Thep Maha Nakhon is the capital city of which country?

Westerners know this place, for no good reason, as Bangkok (or Pankot), the capital of Thailand.

8. (Trivia) - What connects sportsmen Wayne Gretzky and Jenson Button, authors Douglas Adams and Mark Twain, musicians Johann Sebastian Bach and Eminem, actors Richard Dreyfuss and Ray Liotta, games-guru Shigeru Miyamoto (unexpectedly) and his avatar Mario and, most importantly, me?

We are all left-handed.

I was going to put in "but not Phil Mickelson and Mike Weir"...

9. (Science) - After a 150 day trip, it took 50 minutes to park this morning. What the hell am I talking about?

The Venus Express probe. It was launched 152 days ago (now, 150 days at the time) and fired its deceleration rockets for 50 minutes to bring it into a Venus orbit. It'll actually take another couple of months to park it in the required orbit. Women drivers. Tch!

10. (Religion) - Which religion has ultimate secrets are only disclosed at sea, believe in an evil alien ruler who transported trillions of people across the universe in a Douglas DC-8 to Earth (75 million years ago, of course), whereupon they were all blown up with hydrogen bombs and that women must give birth in absolute silence?

The more you learn about this "religion", the stranger it gets.

 

[Omnis]

The hell, Famine. I answered that they are lefties, implying that they swing lefty. Not even a half-point, eh?

I know phil is right-handed, but he's still lefty.

 

[Famine]

The hell, Famine. I answered that they are lefties, implying that they swing lefty. Not even a half-point, eh?

I know phil is right-handed, but he's still lefty.

Never heard of Mike Weir but Phil is a lefty.

The question was what is rather unusual about his swing. The fact that it's a left-handed swing isn't intrinsically unusual. It's that combined with the fact he - and Mike Weir - is right-handed with a left-handed swing. As far as I'm aware, these are the only two such professional golfers ever.

It doesn't matter that you know Phil Mickelson is right-handed if you don't tell me that in your answer!

 

[Randymcchickenf]

answers sent. just noticed them above me too. oh well, someone had to make a fool of themselves.

 

[James2097]

The left handed question was obvious - its the only answer that could easily connect so many people with such diverse occupations – we know they didn't all die on the same plane crash! Hehe!

Also, of course Famine is left-handed – he is a genius (or very close to it - assuming the proper meaning). A fellow lefty! Strangely, I play guitar right-handed (a preference - not because most guitars are right-handed), scissors right handed, kick a footy with my right leg etc... But write/throw with my left hand (I strangely throw right-handed only when its a frisbee!).

I don't believe doing various things (preferentially, not simply due to lack of lefty designed things) with your non-dominant hand is all that rare or unusual, perhaps only when you're really good at that thing. Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits guitarman) is left-handed and plays right-handed and Jimi Hendrix was RIGHT-handed (writing etc) and played left-handed. (!) He is often mistaken for being left-handed, due to the obvious problems getting left-handed guitars in the 60s (hence the lefty-strung strat). According to various people who witnessed in clubs, Jimi was EQUALLY good at playing left AND right-handed guitar. (!)

I think you can agree - much more impressive than playing a game of golf!


____
I'd always thought (with only my own warped logic to base this on) that "Kangaroo" must just mean something like "jumper" or "hopper", basically something that literally describes them - a noise, or their appearance. Besides, there were loads of completely different dialects in pre-1788 Australia used by different Aboriginal tribes. Something spoken in the far south (in Victoria) wouldn't have meant a lot to someone up north in Queensland and vice-versa. Its not likely "kangaroo" would've been used for all of Australia, or even all of its history... Seems to be kinda "locked in" now though.

Ok, you're right - the colonials need their sleep. I am one of them, time for bed!

 

[Omnis]

The question was what is rather unusual about his swing. The fact that it's a left-handed swing isn't intrinsically unusual. It's that combined with the fact he - and Mike Weir - is right-handed with a left-handed swing. As far as I'm aware, these are the only two such professional golfers ever.

It doesn't matter that you know Phil Mickelson is right-handed if you don't tell me that in your answer!

Lol. Okay, you win. I will be more specific next time.

Bee, you win. Bastard.

EDIT: About the lefties: Yes, I do believe we are rather elite. My fellow lefties, I find, are, on average, more intelligent than my right-handed acquaintances.

 

[Keef]

Unlike all you fols I included the magical word "like" in my golf answer, in reference to true left-handed golfers.
I was going to say Scientology to make a joke because I was just on their website the other day at school and all I read was stuff similar to buddhism--peace and love and other San Fransisco stuff. And all this time I thought South Park was making fun. I didn't realize they were telling the truth!
And is "I don't know" the accepted answer to the Kangaroo question? I just read that the word is similar to the word ganguru--something like that--which refers to the Gray Kangaroo in Aboriginese. I always thought it meant something about the animal itself.

 

[Omnis]

I put raelism just for the hell of it. I figured it would be either raelism or scientology.

 

[Ev0]

Sadly, I've actually memorized a condensed version of good 'ol Xenu's evil story. Or should I say Hubbard's story... either way, its hilarious seeing people's reactions when I tell them for their first time what Scientologists believe.