South African (Off-Topic) Quiz

[+cincol]

Was it not because it was a region that stopped [geriem] the advance of the Brits?

[+Carbon Hunter]

Was "bought" from the local tribal chief for some riempies?

[Scmeirei]

Take a look at:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=9007dfa3-dbb3-4b4d-9695-0b6e509599ef&log=y

 

for a hint.

[+cincol]

OK - let's try another angle then. The word "riem" or "riempie" must have something to do with it then. The Free State was an area of abundant game and riem(pies) are made from leather - animal skins. Could it be that the area was named after the "industry" of riem(pie) manufacturing? Not that I know of any such industry, but the hint given only refers to animals and nothing else.

[Scmeirei]

Cincol you are correct. This part of southern Africa was inhabited by several antelope because the land was rich in nutrients and the veld could carry a lot of grazing animals. In the 1800's, people came from far to come to hunt antelope. The skins are processed to "rieme" (I don't know what its called, maybe thongs?) and clothes. The area later known as the Rielmand because there was always plenty of wild to hunt and "rieme" could be made. Rieme was very useful because every ox-wagon was using it. Farmers used it for several of task, from ox ploughing to fasting their load. They didn't had any rope because it was to expensive to buy and there was very little suppliers of it so they had so make it by themselves.

[+cincol]

Let's keep with some history then.

 

Mafikeng was previously known as Mafeking and also renowned for the Siege of Mafeking. What "thing" [if I describe it in more detail it will give it away] is attributed to have had its beginnings as a result of the Siege?

[+Carbon Hunter]

Boy Scouts?

[+cincol]

Boy Scouts?

 

KACHING!!! Perhaps you are better qualified than me to give a run down on Baden Powell, the Siege and Boy Scouts.

[+Carbon Hunter]

Yep = BP commanded the Brit troops and due to a shortage of personnel, he enlisted the boys of the town to do a number of tasks for the town (message runners, admin tasks etc.).

 

The seeds of the Scout movement rose from this and later, back in the UK, he held his first camp based on a book he wrote shortly afterwards called Scouting for Boys.

 

Question:

What South African movie starred Muntu Ndebele and Norman Knox in the lead roles?

[+edkin]

Shaka Zulu?

[+VryBurgers]

It is not District 9... What about Sarafina?

[+Carbon Hunter]

None of the above yet

[+edkin]

e'lollipop??

[+Carbon Hunter]

e'lollipop??

 

Yep - that's the one - you're it

[+edkin]

Pope John Paul II was born yesterday in 1920. He was best is remembered for:

1) His forgiveness of his would be assassin in 1981

2) His successful efforts to end communism, as well as for building bridges with peoples of other faiths

 

He also issued an apology. What was it for? No details necessary

[+cownchicken]

As far as I can remember it was for the sins committed by members of the Catholic Church.

[+VryBurgers]

The reported Jewish holocaust during WW2?

[+edkin]

It was for the churches actions during WW2 so Vryburgers gets the next question

[+VryBurgers]

Sticking with the Roman Catholic church then... due to a decision by them, October 4th 1582 was followed by which date?

[+cincol]

Not sure of the exact date but the Gregorian Calendar was adjusted by a number of days to compensate for the lunar movements that had been ignored up until then.

[+geocacher_coza]

Friday October 15, 1582

Not sure of the exact date but the Gregorian Calendar was adjusted by a number of days to compensate for the lunar movements that had been ignored up until then.

[+Carbon Hunter]

JanuARY 1?

[+the pooks]

I've got October 15 in my mind, which gives it an 11 day jump.

[+VryBurgers]

Jip. They adopted the Gregorian calendar and had to move the dates so that the March activities would correspond with the sun. Friday October 15th it is. I think I'll give this one to geocacher coza.

[+the pooks]

Post deleted - I'm just confused

Edited May 20, 2011 by the pooks

[+geocacher_coza]

Lets stay with calendars

The more modern Gregorian calendar superseded the Julian calendar, why? And, other than some Orthodox churches, who still uses the Julain calendar?

Edited May 20, 2011 by geocacher_coza

[+Carbon Hunter]

The Gregorian calendar stayed pretty close to the seasons of the year - so specific dates were always close to the solar/lunar cycle - rather than moving (like the Islamic calender which changes in relation to the normal calender and seasons) every year.

[+geocacher_coza]

Close, but not all there!

[+the pooks]

The solar (?) year is actually something like 365.2425?????? days long. Up until the jump they were working on just 365 days per year, so they were getting out of synch over the centuries. Don't know how they measured it, but the days they started sowing crops and harvesting started to change, or the sun did not line up the pyramids properly on the summer solstice (just my thoughts) They had to do the 11 day once off adjustment and now the gregorian calender has a leap year every 4 years, but not every 100 except for every 400 (if you get my drift) - all too keep in synch. Something like that?

[+VryBurgers]

I think they moved it because of something to do with March. There is something in March they wanted to fall at the correct alignment with the sun...?

 

I think Ethiopia still uses that calendar.

[+geocacher_coza]

Answers close but not there yet. Will post correct answer later

[+Carbon Hunter]

Is the Gregorian calender not the one that drops not only the Leap year to account for the 365.25 days - but also amends some of the century (centennial) years by adding a leap year too?

[+VryBurgers]

Carbon, the Gregorian one is what we are currently using. So it is the one with just an extra day every 4 years. The Hebrew calendar on the other hand worked on a lunar basis and that had 360 days a year as well as an extra month every couple of years. They also have something called a jubilee year that works different, but I am not 100% sure about that.

[+Jors]

Let me try and recall what was said in astronomy class many moons ago...

 

In the Julian Calendar a year has exactly 365.25 days, but the Gregorian calendar has 365,24222 days per year, which equates to a difference of just more than 11 minutes between them.

 

This difference caused a creep of the Julian calendar compared to the sun and the seasons and needed to be corrected and was therefore replaced by the Gregorian calendar, to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons.

 

For calculation purposes, Astronomers still use the Julian Calendar.

[+edkin]

Another long shot. Does the Gregorian calender use the Greenwich time line as its starting point compared to the other calendars that used a the Rose line or something like that. There was something about it in the Da vinci code.

[+geocacher_coza]

The Julian calendar began in 45 BC (709 AUC) as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year (known at least since Hipparchus).

The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months with a leap day added to February every four years. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. The motivation for most calendars is to fix the number of days between return of the cycle of seasons (from Spring equinox to the next Spring equinox, for example), so that the calendar could be used as an aid to planting and other season-related activities. The cycle of seasons (tropical year) had been known since ancient times to be about 365 and 1/4 days long.

The more modern Gregorian calendar eventually superseded the Julian calendar: the reason is that a tropical year (or solar year) is actually about 11 minutes shorter than 365.25 days. These extra 11 minutes per year in the Julian calendar caused it to gain about three days every four centuries, when compared to the observed equinox times and the seasons. In the Gregorian calendar system, first proposed in the 16th century, this problem was dealt with by dropping some calendar days, in order to realign the calendar and the equinox times. Subsequently, the Gregorian calendar drops three leap year days across every four centuries.

 

The Julian calendar is still used by the Berber people of North Africa, and on Mount Athos. Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Today Greeks commonly refer to Mount Athos as the "Holy Mountain"

 

Someone else can ask the next question

[+edkin]

Why don't you ask the next question. You're still holding the ball as everybody was stumped. you have the right to keep on going and stump us again. Go for it.

[+VryBurgers]

I agree! Go for it.

[+terrorbyte]

John, where Jack had had "had had", had had "had". "Had had" had had the teachers approval.

 

Would somebody like to tell us mere mortals what that MEANS!!!

 

It was the case that while John used 'had,' James used 'had had.' The teacher preferred 'had had.

[+cincol]

John, where Jack had had "had had", had had "had". "Had had" had had the teachers approval.

 

Would somebody like to tell us mere mortals what that MEANS!!!

 

It was the case that while John used 'had,' James used 'had had.' The teacher preferred 'had had.

 

Hey terrorbyte - good to see a fellow ME cacher on the SA Forum!

[+Carbon Hunter]

Who is asking the next question?

[+cincol]

Who is asking the next question?

 

edkin recommended that geocacher_coza asks another question. As Quintus is an irregular forum participant I would suggest that edkin ask as his answer was not far off the mark IMHO. The thread has been silent for a week now.

[+edkin]

My answer was WAAAY off the mark

[+the pooks]

Lets stay with calendars

The more modern Gregorian calendar superseded the Julian calendar, why? And, other than some Orthodox churches, who still uses the Julain calendar?

 

Now there is a lot of ducking and diving going on. This was a two part question, which is always a bit tricky. Quite a few of us had the gist of the first half correct - at least correct enough to suffice for a pub-quiz, and nobody the second. So it is really a free for all I believe. And now I am ducking because I don't have a question!

[+Jors]

Ok I'll do it. Just a silly question to get things going again.

 

A number can be written in various ways eg.:

 

i) 12.345 678 9

ii) 12,345 678 9

iii) 12.3456789

iv) 12,3456789

 

This being South Africa, which is the correct way - i, ii, iii or iv?

[+Carbon Hunter]

iii ?

[+Jors]

iii ?

 

Ummm... nope.

You can have only three more guesses, no more...

[+edkin]

iv) ?

[+Jors]

iv) ?

 

Do try again...

[+Carbon Hunter]

ii?