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The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

Simply Paul
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Lost in Space

+Lost in Space

Posted
Posted (edited)

Actually Mozart died in December 1791 approx 10 days before Beethoven's 21st birthday - but never mind........

 

A group of Japanese three year olds who knew their numbers 0 to 9 were posed the following question. 70% were able to solve it:-

 

8809=6

1723=0

7111=0

3359=1

2172=0

9232=1

9999=4

7777=0

7756=1

8689=6

 

6782=?

Edited by Lost in Space
The Forester

+The Forester

Posted
Posted

3

 

Kids have an innate ability to recognise simple shapes. To a kid those numbers have a commonly recurring shape, ie a round thing in the numeral.

 

Adding up the number of round things is, err, kid's stuff.

 

And for my next lesson: I'll tell you how an ATM recognises your PIN without knowing what your PIN number actually is.

Lost in Space

+Lost in Space

Posted
Posted

3

 

Kids have an innate ability to recognise simple shapes. To a kid those numbers have a commonly recurring shape, ie a round thing in the numeral.

 

Adding up the number of round things is, err, kid's stuff.

 

And for my next lesson: I'll tell you how an ATM recognises your PIN without knowing what your PIN number actually is.

 

Ding! You have obviously spent many a boring meeting, doodling - like myself!

MartyBartfast

+MartyBartfast

Posted
Posted

3

 

Kids have an innate ability to recognise simple shapes. To a kid those numbers have a commonly recurring shape, ie a round thing in the numeral.

 

Adding up the number of round things is, err, kid's stuff.

 

And for my next lesson: I'll tell you how an ATM recognises your PIN without knowing what your PIN number actually is.

 

Ding! You have obviously spent many a boring meeting, doodling - like myself!

 

Never in a million years would I have got that. Even with The Foresters explaination it took me 10 minutes to work it out. Maybe I'm just too old, or too stupid :D

The Forester

+The Forester

Posted
Posted

OK, my turn.

 

One of my all time heroes is the much maligned "Captain"(sic) William Bligh. He was a brilliant mariner and a superb navigator. Never mind the pop culture crap which resulted from a string of idiotic movies about Bounty. He wasn't the cruel figure that he was portrayed in those movies, which had conflated the genuinely cruel master of HMS Pandora (the ship which brought the mutineers to Justice) into the persona of Lieutenant (he wasn't a "Captain" then) Bligh.

 

Decades, or even centuries, ahead of his time, he implemepted a regime of what today we would call aerobic exercise. He also was one of the first masters to insist on anti-scorbutics (we call it Vitamin C) being admin/istered compulsorily to his men. His crews had the lowest death rate in the Fleet as a result of his far-sightedness.

 

Now, to the question.

 

Bligh suffered a total of four mutinies in his career. Two in the Northern hemisphere and two in the Southern hemisphere. Leaving aside Bounty, name one mutiny in each hemisphere.

The Forester

+The Forester

Posted
Posted

D&V got it right first.

 

The Nore mutiny followed extremely quickly after the Spithead one, and my hero was affected, through no fault of his own, in both.

 

The Oz mutiny most certainly was a mutiny, despite being on land, just as was the unrelated Sepoy Mutiny.

 

Bligh was completely exonerated after the "Rum" muntiny, as he was at his Court Martial following the Bounty mutiny. In fact after the "Rum" mutiny he was promoted, twice: first to Rear Admiral and then to Vice Admiral.

 

Did I mention that he was also a brilliant hydrographer? Did I mention that he learned part of his craft under Captain Cook? Did I mention that he engineered one of Nelson's victories?

norsch

norsch

Posted
Posted (edited)

Another quickie.....

 

In Scooby Doo, what was Shaggy's real name?

 

Very easy, I set this as a pub quiz question a couple of years back.

 

So I'll go for Norville Rogers

Edited by norsch
Lost in Space

+Lost in Space

Posted
Posted

Shoot. Wasn't expecting that.

 

Here's one for the oldies:-

 

When I was a youngster, (many years ago), we had a "plant" that we fed every day and at the end of a week had doubled in size and had produced an alcoholic beverage.

The "plant" could then be halved to give to friends whilst keeping half for yourself to continue the process.

 

Name that plant.

Pharisee

+Pharisee

Posted
Posted

There were several on the same theme although IIRC Ginger Beer was the most common. One variation was used to make "Friendship Cake".

 

DING to pajaholic.

 

For more info: Ginger beer

I loved that stuff. Used to make it as a kid until a bottle that was 'fermenting' in mum's airing cupboard exploded and covered her washing with shards of very sticky glass. She was not best pleased :o:angry:

Lost in Space

+Lost in Space

Posted
Posted

I loved that stuff. Used to make it as a kid until a bottle that was 'fermenting' in mum's airing cupboard exploded and covered her washing with shards of very sticky glass. She was not best pleased :o:angry:

 

Me too.

I don't know what made me remember it, but I did. Looked on "the auction site" and there it was. Bought one and it is now bubbling away nicely. If you want a "half", let me know.......

Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

DING to burtsbodgers. The eleven are:

  • North and South celestial poles, which are at the Earth's axis of rotation.
  • North and South geographic poles. The Earth wobbles, so the celestial poles move and the geographic poles are an average often called "True North".
  • North and South magnetic poles, which is where the magnetic field is vertically downward.
  • North and South geomagnetic poles, which are the points at which the theoretical dipolar approximation of the earth's magnetic field intersects the surface.
  • North and South poles of inaccessibility - the points most difficult to get to. In the North, this is the point in the Arctic Ocean furthest from land; in the South, it's the point on the Antarctic continent furthest from the ocean.
  • Ceremonial South pole.

FWIW, I got this from the QI TV show.

 

Geoff

Simply Paul

+Simply Paul

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

There's Magnetic North, True North (around which the Earth circles, athough it moves around a bit with the pull of the moon & sun) and various Grid Norths, used as mapping datum. A matching set in the south too. I'm going to say 16; 8 of each.

 

Edit. Darn you, QI! :D Of course it had to be an odd number- I'd forgotten the Ceremonial South Pole.

Edited by Simply Paul
burtsbodgers

+burtsbodgers

Posted
Posted

Well the little grey cells remembered it from the QI episode, so who says you can’t learn anything from TV. :D

 

Anyway which Victorian child’s toy started it existence as a weapon from South East Asia?

Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

I'll hazard a guess at Cherokee and Mayan:

 

Many of the native American peoples had written languages (certainly more than two!) However, most were symbolic (i.e. used symbols to represent whole words). So I suspect that you mean written using an alphabet (e.g. Roman or Cyrillic).

 

Dragging the depths of QI again, I suspect that Cherokee is one you're looking for. That said, their written language developed post-contact after one of them saw white men writing, thought it a good idea, and developed their own system. That QI episode prompted me to do some research into the subject and ISTR that pre-contact only the Mayans had an alphabetic written language, but post-contact many peoples adapted the Roman alphabet and now have alphabetic written languages, e.g. Shoshone and Navajo.

norsch

norsch

Posted
Posted

I'll hazard a guess at Cherokee and Mayan:

 

Many of the native American peoples had written languages (certainly more than two!) However, most were symbolic (i.e. used symbols to represent whole words). So I suspect that you mean written using an alphabet (e.g. Roman or Cyrillic).

 

Dragging the depths of QI again, I suspect that Cherokee is one you're looking for. That said, their written language developed post-contact after one of them saw white men writing, thought it a good idea, and developed their own system. That QI episode prompted me to do some research into the subject and ISTR that pre-contact only the Mayans had an alphabetic written language, but post-contact many peoples adapted the Roman alphabet and now have alphabetic written languages, e.g. Shoshone and Navajo.

 

DING to Pajaholic for Cherokee, true their writing was developed after contact with europeans, and it does borrow from western notation, however they do have many letters of there own. I wouldn't have accepted Mayan, as they were a bit too far south to be considered North American.

 

Anyway what is this QI?

Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

DING to Pajaholic for Cherokee, true their writing was developed after contact with europeans, and it does borrow from western notation, however they do have many letters of there own. I wouldn't have accepted Mayan, as they were a bit too far south to be considered North American.

 

Anyway what is this QI?

Er ... The North American Continent is all of the Americas North of the Isthmus of Panama. Politically, North America includes Mexico, mainland USA, and Canada and (depending on the politician) might include some or all of the Central American countries (Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc.) Since the Mayans lived in Southern Mexico and the adjoining countries of Central America, they were a North American people! Clicky Wiki for reference.

 

For info, QI is a TV quiz-panel show hosted by Stephen Fry with Alan Davies (who played Jonathan Creek in the series of that name) the regular panellist who almost always loses, and three guest panellists. It was produced by the BBC but "Dave" now airs repeats several nights each week. The initials "QI" stand for "Quite Interesting", and the show is an oft-humorous gold-mine of what would normally otherwise be useless information.

 

Anyway, hopefully an easy one (that was probably mentioned in QI at some time - it just seems the sort of thing the show would include):

 

Why might the inventor Sir Robert Watson-Watt have ironically had cause to regret his most famous invention?

 

Geoff

MartyBartfast

+MartyBartfast

Posted
Posted (edited)

I know someone involved in the early days of steam power was killed by a boiler explosion so I'll guess:

 

It blew up and killed him.

 

Edit to add, I just googled and I'm WAY off :D

Edited by MartyBartfast
norsch

norsch

Posted
Posted

I know he worked near here (East Suffolk) during the second WW, so I think he may have invented radar, as an early testing station is just a few miles away at Orford Ness.

Did he get cancer from radio waves?

Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

You expecting a speedy response?

LOL! I do so hope that pun was intended, because I'm giving you the DING for it!

 

As norsch suggested, Sir Robert Watson-Watt invented RADAR, and so helped the Allies win WWII. However, his own invention was used against him when he received a speeding ticket from radar-equipped Canadian police in 1956. Allegedly, the experience caused him to pen the following poem :D

 

Pity Sir Watson-Watt,

strange target of this radar plot

and thus, with others I can mention,

the victim of his own invention.

His magical all-seeing eye

enabled cloud-bound planes to fly

but now by some ironic twist

it spots the speeding motorist

and bites, no doubt with legal wit,

the hand that once created it.

 

Oh Frankenstein who lost control

of monster man created whole,

with fondest sympathy regard

one more hoist with his petard.

As for you courageous boffins

who may be nailing up your coffins,

particularly those whose mission

deals in the realm of nuclear fission,

pause and contemplate fate's counter plot

and learn with us what's Watson-Watt.

Geoff

Lost in Space

+Lost in Space

Posted
Posted

Alledgedly, after being pulled over he said ""Had I known what you were going to do with it I would never have invented it!"

 

OK, going back to previous questions/answers, what do SG1, SG2 and the number 7.36 relate to?

Lost in Space

+Lost in Space

Posted
Posted

what do SG1, SG2 and the number 7.36 relate to?

 

SG1, SG2 are post code areas in Stevenage and Hitchin is 7.36 miles away by road

 

Ha! I happen to live in SG2, but that is not the answer I was looking for, you have to be more "specific".

norsch

norsch

Posted
Posted

If that was a hint...

 

Is is something to do with Specific Gravity - and calculating the alcohol content of wine/beer/something?

 

Ah, the licencee in me coming out - %v/v alcohol = (SG2 - SG1) / 0.0074 but I still don't know where 7.36 comes into it.

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