Jump to content

The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

Simply Paul
Followers 29

Recommended Posts

Silver-Fox

+Silver-Fox

Posted
Posted

Hi Helen,

 

Joe's adoptive father and computer expert, Professor Ian McClaine, is the inventor of the BIG RAT, (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer), a device that allows knowledge and experience to be copied from the minds of top experts in their fields to another person.

 

So over to you,

Link to comment
Dobunnis

+Dobunnis

Posted
Posted

I would not have got that without being told it was in Joe 90... C knew what it appeared in though but did not know the fathers name.

 

Next question:

 

Without googling... COBRA has been in the news a lot recently: what does the acronym stand for?

 

Helen and Carolyn

Link to comment
Dobunnis

+Dobunnis

Posted
Posted
I can't think what the R and A mean though.

Room A - apparently (so I'm told) room A was chosen specifically to make it acronym friendly)

 

Ding... I thought that would last a bit longer; C said it wouldn't!

 

It is indeed Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, so called because that is the secure room where the Civil Contingencies Committee meet.

 

Over to Keehotee

Link to comment
Team Sieni

+Team Sieni

Posted
Posted

Ok - a nice easy one for you, and staying with acronyms..

 

What are the following-

 

NAVSTAR

NMEA

GNSS

WAAS

RKP

GLONASS

 

As usual - ding to the last correct answer.....

I'll pick off the ones I know off the top of my head.

 

WAAS is Wide Area Augmentation System, and EGNOS (which isn't on your list, but I want to show off) is European Geostationry Navigation Overlay Service.

 

NMEA is National Marine Electronics Association

 

Glonass is GlobalNavigationSS where SS is either Satellite System or System of Satellites.

Link to comment
The Forester

+The Forester

Posted
Posted

NavStar isn't an acronym. It's the proper 'brand' name of America's current GPS. It's one of half a dozen or so Global Positioning Systems but tends to be referred to by its generic name of GPS.

 

NMEA is the National Marine Electronics Association. They drafted a standard format for GPS to talk to boats' autopilots etc and it became a de facto standard for all sorts of GPS data transfer.

 

GNSS is Global Navigation Satellite System. It's actually synonymous with GPS, but the name GPS has taken over in common useage from the more correct name of NavStar

 

RKP is Relative Kinematic Positioning. It's a way of using GPS data by comparing the phase of the satellite signals instead of treating the data as pseudo-range measurements. It's the way grown-up GPSrs measure position. The acronym is sometimes used interchangeably with the more widely used acronym of RTK (RealTime Kinematic).

 

Glonass is Global Navigation Satellite System, just like GNSS, except it's the brand name of the Russian GPS. It uses the same principles as NavStar but never had the absurd Selective Availability and was, for a few years, actually better than NavStar GPS. It fell into semi-dereliction through lack of funding after the Russian Federation lost its former Soviet structure, but it's now seeing something of a resurgence as people around the world begin to mistrust and even distrust US military control of something as vital to modern life as GPS.

Link to comment
The Forester

+The Forester

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yup, I'll give that one to Helen.

 

The WBC hive is named after its designer William Broughton Carr who created the design in 1890. It became the de facto standard in the UK and some parts of the US for most of the 20th century. It's double-wall construction has the charateristic outline which many non-beekeepers and cartoonists associate with the classic shape of a British beehive.

Hive2.jpg

Although in full production and still available from all good merchants of beehives, the WBC has beome superseded by the more modern 'National' design which is single-walled, much more practical in its modular design, but is entirely cuboid and uninterseting in shape.

 

The navigational connection is that bees are superb navigators, the original cachers in fact. They don't even need a cachepage to tell the rest of the community where the goodies are to be found.

 

They perform a wiggle dance to indicate the direction and distance to the goodies. The direction is indicated with respect to the sun's direction and the number and vigour of the hip wiggles indicate the distance. It's even cleverer than that. The bees who've been told the bearing and distance to the goodies, which may be a source of pollen or water or nectar, will calculate the effect of crosswinds and immediately fly on the required heading to fly a direct track over the ground to the destination.

 

Remarkably, it has been shown that if the destination is the other side of the mountain which is too tall to fly over, they will fly around the mountain, knowing that the destination lies on the given bearing and that the indicated distance is the circumferential distance around the mountain to the site.

 

Even more remarkable is the ability to take into account the spherical shape of the Earth shown by scouts during a swarm. Although a swarm pigs out on honey in preparation for the swarm, time is not unlimited as they have left all their stores of pollen and honey back at the hive from which they have emigrated. The beachball-sized cluster of bees, usually clinging to a tree or a large shrub, waits eagerly for the scouts to bring news of a suitable location for a new nest-site and the search goes on 24 hours a day. Even at night, with the sun clearly round the other side of the Earth, the scout bee telling its chums of the co-ords (in rho-theta format) uses the position of the sun as the azimuth datum to indicate the direction for the tribe to fly to the entrance to the new abode. That requires, if not an understanding of, then at least an ability to compute bearings with a knowledge of the sun's position in three dimensions at any time of night. Now that's clever!

Edited by The Forester
Link to comment
Dobunnis

+Dobunnis

Posted
Posted

Yup, I'll give that one to Helen.

 

Thank you... another lucky guess but it made sense after bees were comfirmed.

 

Next question:

 

By what name is Richard Melville Hall better know as and how did he get his "nickname"?

 

Remember no googling (until I say so), there will be hints if required and the ding goes to the person with both parts or the last part to be answered.

 

GO! :unsure:

Link to comment
Dobunnis

+Dobunnis

Posted
Posted (edited)

How spooky!

 

This was a question on popmaster this morning on radio2!

 

He's Moby, the dj/popstar. Hes also a decendent of the Melville who wrote moby dick.

 

Thanks Ken Bruce!! :lol:

 

JackieC

 

Ding!!!

 

That's weird though because I did hear it on Radio 2 but a few weeks ago. I was not listenning this morning. Moby is indeed the great great great great nephew of Herman Melville who wrote Moby Dick and his parents nicknamed him Moby as a baby because of it.

 

............................probably the last one since this afternoon's announcement, Shame!

 

Don't scare us Ecky... we thought you were talking about this quiz not popmaster when we first read it :unsure: I will miss listenning to it.

 

Over to JackieC...

 

Helen

Edited by T-girls
Link to comment
JackieC

+JackieC

Posted
Posted

Keeping the Ken Bruce theme going (as I might have popmaster withdrawal symptoms today :o ).........

 

A three parter about the Fat Boy Slim record "Weapon of Choice". Where was it filmed (place and city), who directed it, and who was the star?

 

Off to work now, so feel free to ding a correct answer on my behalf to keep it going ;)

 

JackieC

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
Followers 29
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...