The All New All New Groundspeak UK Pub Quiz

[Pajaholic]

Thanks (Although I still think Marty was correct).

 

For the next ding, and staying with Colonial names, what was the pre-independence name of present-day Sri Lanka?

[+martin&lindabryn]

I believe that it was known as Ceylon

[Pajaholic]

DING! Ceylon it was.

 

Over to martin&lindabryn...

[+martin&lindabryn]

thanks for the Ding, now lets have a change of tack.

Say what you see

[+hal-an-tow]

oops, double post

Edited May 15, 2016 by hal-an-tow

[+hal-an-tow]

PinG PonG

[+martin&lindabryn]

PinG PonG

that's a ping to you, and pong for your question

[+hal-an-tow]

Thank you.

Playing the same game, and popping the ball back over the net,a gentle backhand to mid-table ,with hardly any spin ...

 

Got, got, got, got, hero, hero, hero, hero, hero, hero, hero, hero, hero, hero.

[+martin&lindabryn]

4 got 10 hero

 

or

 

forgotten hero

[+hal-an-tow]

4 got 10 hero

 

or

 

forgotten hero

 

A speedy return ! Point to you , your serve !

[+martin&lindabryn]

thanks for the ding,

now for a change

in 1824 Michael Faraday invented what to help him with his experiments with hydrogen?

[+speakers-corner]

Was it the Faraday Cage (shield) that is in every car. Protects you against lightning.

[+Yorkshire Yellow]

Was it the Faraday Cage (shield) that is in every car. Protects you against lightning.

 

I've Googled this and your answer is not correct SP.

[+martin&lindabryn]

I think it may be time for a clue.

the item I am looking for is often seen at birthday parties.

Edited May 24, 2016 by martin&lindabryn

[+MartyBartfast]

balloon

 

ETA: by which I mean a rubberised flexible balloon which grows significantly as you pump gas into it, as opposed to the "pig's" bladder type which probably existed for thousands of years and was oft employed by morris men and footy players of old.

Edited May 24, 2016 by MartyBartfast

[+martin&lindabryn]

the ding goes to Marty for his extended answer

[+MartyBartfast]

Thanks, here's a quick one to keep it moving:

 

When Shackleton's expedition was stranded in the Antarctic he made a famous voyage in a lifeboar to seek help, which were the two islands he stopped at on that?

[+me N u]

Possibly Elephant Island (where the majority of the party stayed) and South Georgia after the epic open boat journey.

[Pajaholic]

FWIW, I asked a work colleague about this. He confirmed Elephant Island but not South Georgia. That said, he related how Shackleton had mistreated the expedition shipwright, Harry McNish, after McNish had questioned some of Shackleton's dodgier decisions, including dragging the lifeboats across the ice earlier. In the end, those who survived owed their lives to the skill and efforts of McNish -- yet he was excluded from those awarded a Medal even though he was probably the real hero of the expedition. If it were not for him, the modifications he made to the boats and equipment, and his continued repair efforts, the entire expedition would surely have perished.

[+MartyBartfast]

Well my research said Elephant Island & South Georgia, so I'll give the DING to "me N u".

[Pajaholic]

I didn't dispute South Georgia -- my colleague just didn't know that part of the answer. I posted to give McNish's story!

[+me N u]

Thank you for the ding - the expedition story was covered in a TV documentary whose name we are unable to remember but it is the sort of thing we like!

 

Staying with Antarctica for the next question, the Shackleton led expedition was attempting to be the first to cross the continent via the South pole - who led the expedition that eventually succeeded?

[+hal-an-tow]

Thank you for the ding - the expedition story was covered in a TV documentary whose name we are unable to remember but it is the sort of thing we like!

 

Staying with Antarctica for the next question, the Shackleton led expedition was attempting to be the first to cross the continent via the South pole - who led the expedition that eventually succeeded?

 

Amundsen. I seem to recall that his expedition succeeded in part through the very un British action of ... eating the ponies.

(Cue value lasagne joke)

Edited May 30, 2016 by hal-an-tow

[+hal-an-tow]

Thank you for the ding - the expedition story was covered in a TV documentary whose name we are unable to remember but it is the sort of thing we like!

 

Staying with Antarctica for the next question, the Shackleton led expedition was attempting to be the first to cross the continent via the South pole - who led the expedition that eventually succeeded?

 

Amundsen. I seem to recall that his expedition succeeded in part through the very un British action of ... eating the ponies.

(Cue value lasagne joke)

 

Now I've ventured an answer, I looked Amundsen up, and turns out it's even less British than I thought : what they killed and ate along the way was the dogs. They fed them to both the remaining dogs and the expedition members.

[+speakers-corner]

Shackletons "right-hand man" - Frank Wild.

[+me N u]

Not Amundsen or Frank Wild

 

We didn't think this question would go on as long as it has, sorry!

 

Here are a couple of hints - the expedition was led by V----- F---- and took place during the International Geophysical year 1957/58

[+hal-an-tow]

Not Amundsen or Frank Wild

 

We didn't think this question would go on as long as it has, sorry!

 

Here are a couple of hints - the expedition was led by V----- F---- and took place during the International Geophysical year 1957/58

Just going on the initials the name Vivian Fuchs (spelling may well be wrong there !)pops into my mind.

[curlingfan11]

Ernest Shackleton.

 

Because I am new to this, Me N u can post the next question if i'm correct

 

I don't know about the hint, but I asked my dad, (who is a teacher of expeditions') about it, and he said it was Ernest

Edited May 31, 2016 by curlingfan11

[+Optimist on the run]

Edmund Hillary? I believe he was part of a polar expedition after he conquered Everest, but I don't know if it was an attempt to cross the continent.

[+me N u]

DING goes to hal-an-tow!

 

Vivian Fuchs was the leader of the 1st expedition to cross Antarctica and incidentally it was also the first to reach the South pole overland since Scott's expedition in 1912!

 

Ernest Shackleton's expedition attempted the crossing but obviously didn't succeed.

 

Edmund Hilary was apparently involved in Fuchs' expedition but in the support team - had to look that up.

[+hal-an-tow]

Thanks for the ding - it just goes to show the random things lurking in the brain, I knew the name, and sort of thought it belonged to some kind of explorer.

 

Right-o, total change of subject matter for the next question, something else from the dusty corners of my memory:

How were newts and nicknames made bigger, while adders and aprons both shrank?

[curlingfan11]

This question is such a toughie! Because newts are small, and most nicknames are to short? need a hint!

[Pajaholic]

I have a feeling this might be something about typography and that in the early days, scribes wrote the letter 'n' more compactly and the letter 'a' much wider. In modern type, both letters are approximately the same width and so any word beginning with 'n' may be said to have lengthened and any word beginning with 'a' to have shrunk. -- Just a complete guess with nothing other than gut feeling to back it up!...

Edited June 2, 2016 by Pajaholic

[+Optimist on the run]

I think adders used to be called nadders, and "a nadder" became "an adder". Conversely "an ickname" became "a nickname". The same presumably occurred with ewts and naprons.

[+hal-an-tow]

I think adders used to be called nadders, and "a nadder" became "an adder". Conversely "an ickname" became "a nickname". The same presumably occurred with ewts and naprons.

 

You got the general idea, so the ding goes to Optimist on the run

 

The amphibian was originally 'an ewt' which was run together and sort of re-divided to become 'a newt'

Ditto for 'an ickname', whilst 'a nadder' lost the 'n' from 'nadder' to the a, making 'an adder' . As you guessed napron/apron did the same trick.

That pretty much exhausts my knowledge of linguistics though, and I never could find out why flammable and inflammable mean the same thing. That one still bothers me. Isn't English strange !

[+Optimist on the run]

Thanks. The comment about flammable/inflamable made me think of a related question: give me a word in English that has two completely opposite definitions.

[Pajaholic]

Inflammable itself is one. Originally, it meant easily set on fire but then the "in" was taken to denote the opposite and so "flammable" came into being. There are many others. For example, "fast" which means both "held in place" and "moving or capable of moving quickly" is one. Recently, colloquial use of words like "bad" to have negative or positive connotation will probably end up in the OED sooner or later!

 

Edited to add another (encountered at work today while validating a work instruction): "Replace". In this case, the original instruction was to "replace an O-ring", which could mean either to fit a new item or to re-use the original. (I edited the instruction to tell the maintainer to "renew the O-ring") ...

Edited June 3, 2016 by Pajaholic

[+Optimist on the run]

Ding to Pajaholic. There are several examples: the one I was thinking of was cleave, meaning to split or to join (in marriage).

[Pajaholic]

Thanks. Staying with English Language, what is a pangram?

[curlingfan11]

A sentence or line that contains all the letters of the alphabet

[Pajaholic]

DING! Over to you ...

[curlingfan11]

DING! Over to you ...

 

Thanks for the ding. Sticking with English also.

 

The # symbol is usually referred to as the hash sign, or number sign. What is its correct name?

[Pajaholic]

FWIW, this came up on a writer's forum some time ago when someone reminded American subscribers that the "octothorpe" is not the GB currency symbol, and asked that they please stop calling it "the pound sign"! The hash symbol is properly called the octothorpe.

[curlingfan11]

FWIW, this came up on a writer's forum some time ago when someone reminded American subscribers that the "octothorpe" is not the GB currency symbol, and asked that they please stop calling it "the pound sign"! The hash symbol is properly called the octothorpe.

 

DING! Over to you again Lol

[Pajaholic]

Thanks. For the next, what is a "palindrome"?

[curlingfan11]

Thanks. For the next, what is a "palindrome"?

 

A word, phrase, number, or other characters which reads the same backward or forward. For example 'kayak'

[Pajaholic]

DING! Back to you ...

[curlingfan11]

what capital is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world

Edited June 4, 2016 by curlingfan11

[+Optimist on the run]

I think it's Damascus.

[curlingfan11]

Ding! To Optimist On The Run

Edited June 4, 2016 by curlingfan11