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The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

Simply Paul
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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.

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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?

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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

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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

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The Forester

+The Forester

Posted
Posted

For the sake of saving an unmaintained cache, let's give The Birdman of Alcotraz a Ding.

 

He got them all right:

 

Aurora Borealis

Ali Baba

Anaeroid Barometer

Atom Bomb

Anne Boleyn

 

Let's agree to move the game on and give Birdman the chair for the next question.

 

It's a good cache, so let's nurture it while the GC.com bureaucrats ain't botherin'.

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Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

Good Cornish names there. Now we know that wherever in the World there's a hole in the ground you'll find a Cornishman at the bottom winning the minerals. So my guess is that it's a country we taught the art of hard-rock mining. Knowing a little of Birdie, I suspect this country is now famous in it's own right for football - possibly South America, ...

 

So I'll guess Brazil?

 

Geoff

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Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

I seem to recall that they elected a president to stop George Washington becoming king, but I may be well wrong.

You might be correct. However, AFAICT the role of the first Presidents was similar to the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons in that they presided over - hence the title "president" - the assembled Congress to keep order in the assembly, but had little or no executive power.

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Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

Good try, but no ding.

 

AIUI Hanson is often cited as the first elected president, but he wasn't the first to be appointed. One of the presidents before Hanson is possibly as famous as Washington because of a quirk of colloquialism. John Hancock was President when the Declaration of Independence was signed, which is allegedly the reason why his signature is so prominent on that document, which in turn is why "John Hancock" is US slang for "signature". That said, you have to look earlier even than John Hancock for the first President!

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Pajaholic

Pajaholic

Posted
Posted

Just looked on wikipedia at this one, their entries say that Peyton Randolph was the first president of The Continental Congress, wikipedia gives the first President of America as John Hanson.

 

Strange

No matter whether you accept Peyton Randolph, it most definitely wasn't John Hanson. From this, you can see three "series" of "President".

 

The first series was from when the American Colonies got together to rebel against Britain to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The full title of the President then was "President of the Continental Congress of America". Randolph was the first and third of that series, with John Hancock the fourth.

 

The second series was after the Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781. From that point, each state was independent and the full title of the President was "President of the United States in Congress Assembled". Since Hanson was the third of that series, it follows he could not have been the first.

 

The third series was post-Constitution, from George Washington to Barack Obama.

 

HTH,

 

Geoff

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