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The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

Simply Paul

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Betelgeuse

+Betelgeuse

Posted
Posted

Galloping Gertie finally collapsed in high winds.

 

Galloping Gertie was a suspension bridge that crossed the Tacoma narrows. The deck had a serious design flaw (lack of damping) which led to the deck oscillating wildly in high winds. The lack of damping lead to a runaway positive feedback that destroyed the span.

 

The footage of the deck oscillating in crosswinds is used today to provide a lesson in harmonic damping to student civil engineers. B)

mellers

+mellers

Posted
Posted

It was thiscache which meant I knew the answer to that one. I had looked it up soon after it was published. Funny, the things you learn while caching!

 

OK, for a DING, who can tell me James T. Kirk's middle name?

mellers

+mellers

Posted
Posted

Thanks.

 

Staying with Star Trek, in Star Trek TNG, what was the Picard family business?

They had a vineyard (I remember Jean Luc and his brother, having a mud fight in it, when he went home for an episode!)

mellers

+mellers

Posted
Posted

I like a bit of sci-fi, me.

 

What was the name of the little boxy computer (which was housed in a clear perspex box/frame) on Blake's Seven?

 

(I'm just being clear there, about which computer I'm asking about. I'm NOT talking about the one integrated in to the ship)

MartyBartfast

+MartyBartfast

Posted
Posted (edited)

I like a bit of sci-fi, me.

 

What was the name of the little boxy computer (which was housed in a clear perspex box/frame) on Blake's Seven?

 

(I'm just being clear there, about which computer I'm asking about. I'm NOT talking about the one integrated in to the ship)

 

Orac

 

Edit to add: Zen is the one you didn't want :rolleyes:

 

(and BTW Kirk's middle initial on the gravestone in the Pilot episode was R . From another sci-fi saddo :lol: )

Edited by MartyBartfast
mellers

+mellers

Posted
Posted

I like a bit of sci-fi, me.

 

What was the name of the little boxy computer (which was housed in a clear perspex box/frame) on Blake's Seven?

 

(I'm just being clear there, about which computer I'm asking about. I'm NOT talking about the one integrated in to the ship)

 

Orac

 

Edit to add: Zen is the one you didn't want :rolleyes:

 

(and BTW Kirk's middle initial on the gravestone in the Pilot episode was R . From another sci-fi saddo :lol: )

 

That's a DING to Marty with a side order of kudos for Zen as well!

Pharisee

+Pharisee

Posted
Posted

I seem to remember seeing a documentary program that said the guage evolved from the width of a Roman chariot / ruts in the road / horse drawn wagons to fit the ruts / wagons on the first railway but I have no idea what it is! :lol:

MartyBartfast

+MartyBartfast

Posted
Posted (edited)

4ft 8½"

 

(I think)

 

MrsB

 

DING to Mrs B. I had always thought it must be a Victorian thing but as Pharisee says there's evidence that it goes way back to the Roman times.

Edited by MartyBartfast
The Blorenges

+The Blorenges

Posted
Posted

A width that I recall from childhood - I had a Dad who was very interested in steam trains.

 

Now then...

 

A few weeks ago we came upon the village of Rodney Stoke in Somerset. The road sign as you enter the village gives its name and underneath is written "A Thankful Village". I'd never seen such an unusual comment on a village name before, so I had to look it up when I got home.

 

Can you explain what it means?

 

MrsB

MTH

+MTH

Posted
Posted

I thought so, having seen something about them last year. Remarkably there are some "doubly thankful" villages that didn't lose anyone in WW2 either.

 

We were in Somerset not that long ago, staying just south of Exmoor; a beautiful part of the world. So I'll keep my question in that part of the country.

 

What is the claim to fame of the "Man from Porlock"?

Beach_hut

+Beach_hut

Posted
Posted

I might have imagined this but, wasn't there a poet who dreamt an amazing poem about Kubla Khan, and on waking up set about writing it down, only the man from Porlock came to visit the poet part way through, and by the time the man had gone the poet had forgotten the poem, so it remained unfinished forever?

MTH

+MTH

Posted
Posted
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

 

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

 

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

 

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me

That with music loud and long

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

No-one knows who the Man (or Person) from Porlock actually was, or he even existed.

 

That's a DING by the way.

Beach_hut

+Beach_hut

Posted
Posted

I'm going to go for a wild guess at :

 

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...." (which was some American Civil war colonel who's name I don't know).

 

That's the one. Consider yourself DINGed!

MTH

+MTH

Posted
Posted

Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley who's husband,Percy, wrote the poem Ozymandias ("I met a traveller from an antique land...").

 

Who was Ozymandias?

maxx borchovski

+maxx borchovski

Posted
Posted (edited)

ok, new to this, I am guessing that a ding means correct and its my turn to ask a question?

 

If so here is my question...

 

Keeping to the Pharaoh theme, the Faroe Islands are one of the few countries in Europe to not have any McDonalds, if you are in need of a burger, which chain restaurant could you go to, and post the longitude and latitude to locate this Ozymandias.

Edited by maxxborchovski
maxx borchovski

+maxx borchovski

Posted
Posted

Oops, I edited my post as your post came in. Will repost my question here so it all makes sense.

 

Keeping to the Pharaoh theme, the Faroe Islands are one of the few countries in Europe to not have any McDonalds, if you are in need of a burger, which chain restaurant could you go to, and post the longitude and latitude to locate this Ozymandias.

MTH

+MTH

Posted
Posted

Welcome.

 

I like the sound of the Faroes. I've only eaten at McDonalds once in my life - once too often! It was at Stockholm airport after our flight was cancelled and it was the only place open. Never again! I'll starve next time.

 

As for the question, please remember it's a "pub quiz" the idea being someone competing in a pub quiz could answer without looking it up. I'm not sure knowing the lat/long counts :-)

 

At a guess Burger King, N58 W22

MTH

+MTH

Posted
Posted

No worries. No browsing is one of the rules.

 

I think the Ding is generous, given my co-ordinates were somewhere in the mid-Atlantic!

 

Following on from Burger and King, an Elvis question...

 

What was Elvis's first UK number 1 single?

 

Mark

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