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The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz


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Thanks very much Maxx. Leika's story isn't a happy one, but was an important step along the path to safe space travel for humans. BTW, If anyone likes space sim games I've been addicted to Kerbal Space Program for a while. Really good fun and an old version is free on their website.

 

Anyway, to take things off in a 180 degree tangent (on a free return trajectory), what's a stiletto?

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Thanks very much Maxx. Leika's story isn't a happy one, but was an important step along the path to safe space travel for humans. BTW, If anyone likes space sim games I've been addicted to Kerbal Space Program for a while. Really good fun and an old version is free on their website.

 

Anyway, to take things off in a 180 degree tangent (on a free return trajectory), what's a stiletto?

I only know it as a dagger (after which the heel shape is named)

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What do the following number ratios have in common?

 

3: 4 :5

5: 12 :13

6: 8 :10

8: 15 :17

7: 24 :25

9: 40 :41

 

Pythagoras?

Yes. They're common Pythagorean triples (for right-angled triangles).

If each case above, if you make a triangle whose 3 sides measure the length of each given number respectively, the resulting triangle will have a right angle.

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Derbyshire. Stanton moor IIRC, The Nine Ladies. Legend has it they were turned to stone for daring to dance on a Sunday. :)

 

Thst's a big DING for the star at Orion's shoulder!!!!!

 

The Nine ladies features in Stephen Booth's second novel "Ddances with Virgins", a cache 'Petrus' appears in"The dead place" (dangerous dave indeed!!!!!!)

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Derbyshire. Stanton moor IIRC, The Nine Ladies. Legend has it they were turned to stone for daring to dance on a Sunday. :)

 

Thst's a big DING for the star at Orion's shoulder!!!!!

 

The Nine ladies features in Stephen Booth's second novel "Ddances with Virgins", a cache 'Petrus' appears in"The dead place" (dangerous dave indeed!!!!!!)

Hmmm.... Way back in the early 70s, I vaguely remember an old folk song being sung to me by my 'lady of the time' concerning "Sue and William" who lived in "Stanton Drew, in the county of Somerset". They went to be married on a Saturday and hired a fiddler to play for them afterwards. He would only play for them up until midinght because "dancing on a Sunday wouldn't be right". At midnight, Sue found another fiddler (the Devil in disguise) to carry on playing for them. When he stopped playing "Quick as a flash, he turned them to stone."

I wonder which came first, the old folk song or the name for the 'Nine Ladies'. :)

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Probably the old folk song John - or at least the tradition that lead to the singing of the old folk song - ceretainly having just googled it deeply I could find no reference to the derivation of the name (not even on "The Modern Antiquarian" or the "Megalithic Portal". )

 

English Heritage gives this:

 

"The names of the monuments derive from their associations with folk traditions, in which it is said that nine women were dancing on the Sabbath to a fiddler – the King Stone – and were turned to stone. The graffiti carved on the King Stone, which includes the name ‘Bill Stumps’, is also mentioned in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. "

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Probably the old folk song John - or at least the tradition that lead to the singing of the old folk song - ceretainly having just googled it deeply I could find no reference to the derivation of the name (not even on "The Modern Antiquarian" or the "Megalithic Portal". )

 

English Heritage gives this:

 

"The names of the monuments derive from their associations with folk traditions, in which it is said that nine women were dancing on the Sabbath to a fiddler – the King Stone – and were turned to stone. The graffiti carved on the King Stone, which includes the name 'Bill Stumps', is also mentioned in The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens. "

 

Having done a little Googling myself it seems that the impressive stone circle at Stanton Drew in Somerset also has a similar legend. This from Wikipedia:-

 

"There are several local traditional stories about the megalithic complex. The best known tells how a wedding party was turned to stone: the party was held throughout Saturday, but a man clothed in black (the Devil in disguise) came and started to play his violin for the merrymakers after midnight, continuing into holy Sunday morning. When dawn broke, everybody had been turned to stone by the Demon: so the stone circles are the dancers, the avenues are the fiddlers and the Cove is the bride and the groom with the drunken churchman at their feet. They are still awaiting the Devil who promised to come back someday and play again for them."

 

I eventually found the lyrics to the song I mentioned and more about the stone circle on the "Twisted Tree" website here:- Twisted Tree

 

Strange that the name "Stanton" is common to both sites. I wonder what the derivation of that name is. Maybe I'll dig a little deeper :)

Edited by Pharisee
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The term henge is derived from Stonehenge although Stonehenge itself isn't a true henge monument.

 

What defines a henge? And as a bonus question, why isn't Stonehenge one?

 

Having done a bit of "Googling" for stone circles for the above posts, I now know the answer... but as I didn't know the answer before the Googling, I'll leave it for someone else to reply :)

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I thought it might be because the lintel stones aren't just resting on the trilithons, they're held in place by joints. But then I checked the QI book while I was in the library and discovered Stonehenge is inside-out. It's a ditch abound a bank, not a bank around a ditch, as a Henge technically is.

DING!

 

A henge is distinguished by a ditch being cut in an oval or circular shape with a bank surrounding it - it doesn't have to have any kind of stone circle or monument associated with it. We have a rather spectacular example up here called the Ring of Brodgar which does have a stone circle inside the henge itself.

 

Stonehenge has the ditch and bank structure the wrong way round to be a true henge (the bank is inside the ditch) although oddly, the name henge is derived from Stonehenge.

 

Over to you, sir. :)

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Not Montserrat. The country you are looking for is the world's 73rd largest by area and has a population of around 93m. Baybayin is one of several indigenous scripts of this country.

Established April 27, 1565

Declared Independence from Spain June 12, 1898, but sold to the US for $20m by Spain

Self-government March 24, 1934

Independence from the United States July 4, 1946

Current constitution February 2, 1987

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