- Erland's Occasional Quiz - Results - 5 Updates
| Erland Sommarskog <esquel@sommarskog.se>: May 31 06:24PM +0200 This quiz is over and Dan Blum emerged as the winner the small field of entrants. Even if the presence in r.g.t has dwindled, I had hoped for a few more entrants. It could be many regulars here are left- ponders, and admittedly there were pitiful few questions related to that part of the world. Here is the answer slate: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total Dan B 1 1 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 1 - - 7 Calvin 1 - 1 - - - 1 - 1 1 - - 5 Mark B - 1 1 1 1 - - - - 1 - - 5 Dan T - - - - - - - - - - - 1 1 The answers: > 1. Nicknamed "L'enfer du Nord" (The Hell of the North), it is a > prestigious one-day event in which sport? Road cycling. The official name is Paris-Roubaix. According to Wikipedia, the name was coined after WWI because of the events in that area during the war. One reason the name has stuck is quite a bit of the race runs over rough countryside roads with countryside and the like. > 2. The head of which state claims ancestry to sun goddess Amaterasu? Japan. > unexpectedly stepped down. It only took ten days after his > resignation that the national capital was renamed after him. > Which country am I talking about? Kazakhstan. The capital is now known as Nur-Sultan. Which after all is a somewhat more inspiring name than Astana which means, yes, "captial". > 4. Jack Ma is the founder and head of which Internet giant? Alibaba. > 5. The catalogue of which director includes titles such as "Women > on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "All About My Mother"? Pedro Almódovar Both films are among my favourties. > 6. The ancient kingdom of Goguryeo - an older transliteration is > Koguryo - existed until 668 AD existed on a territory which > roughly corresponds to which state existing today? North Korea Two entrants were close when they entered South Korea. And, true, if you look it up on Wikiepdia, you will see a map where it extends well south into present-day South Korea. Like all kingdoms of those days it grew and shrank, but their core was in the north. That map is from middle of the 5th century. In the next century, Silla and Baekje would push Goguryeo north of the Han river (which runs through Seoul). Later Silla would first chrush Baekje and then Goguryeo to unite the Korean peninsula and the division into north and south would not appear again until 1949. However, the power base in Korea did switch between north and south through the years of the united Korea as well. > 7. Which former racing champion died at the age of 70 just a few > days ago? Niki Lauda. This question was also in Mark's Current Event quiz, which is why I delayed this posting a day. > 8. Which country suffered severe devastation earlier this year from > the cyclones Idai and Kenneth? Mozambique The disasters were given quite much attention in the media up here, but apparently not so much elsewhere. > as their lead singer made a political career and was elected > to the national Senate and also was minister of the government > for a while. Since 2016 they are active again. What is their name? Midnight Oil. They're from Australia, so this was a free point for Calvin. But Dan Blum knew them too. > 10. Which popular programming language is named after a British > comedy series? Python. As in Monty Python. > 11: Where are the six countries with the highest male surplus located? > Give a regional description which is specific enough, or just > name any of the six countries. The six countries with their numbers: Saudi Arabia 131 Kuwait 135 Bahrain 161 Oman 184 United Arab Emirates 272 Qatar 307 I would assume that the reason for the huge male surplus is the influx of guest workers from countries like Nepal, Bangladesh etc mainly in the construction industry. India and China were mentioned and while not top 6, India is #10 with 108 and China #13 with 106. The Vatican may beat them all, but they are not present in the material. (I did not mention that the data comes from the UN originally and the Vatican is not a UN memeber, as I recall.) In any case, there is no neighbouring country to the Vatican that qualifies. > 12: And the same question for the six countries with the highest > female surplus. Again, Give a regional description which is > specific enough, or just name any of the six countries. The six are: Latvia 84,8 Lithuania 85,4 Ukraine 85,9 Russia 86,8 Belarus 87 Estonia 87,9 And Armenia is #7. Georgia is #12 and Moldova #15. There may be more than one reason, but I believe that at least in case of Russia, the reason for the imbalance is alcohol, which is attributed to that the life expectancy for men in Russia is as low as 65. I had not really intended to approve "Eastern Europe" as it is a little imprecise - I had intended ex-Soviet states or "North-Eastern Europe", but I did not want to leave Dan T without any points at all. And he was the only who was even close to any of the two regions. (Well, one entrant suggested Yemen - but in the wrong question.) Thanks everyone for playing! |
| msb@vex.net (Mark Brader): May 31 12:25PM -0500 Erland Sommarskog: > Mozambique > The disasters were given quite much attention in the media up here, > but apparently not so much elsewhere. I know about the event, but you referred to it by storm name, and that's not something very memorable in distant parts of the world. To be fair, even if I'd guessed that this was the disaster in southeastern Africa, there's some chance I still would've guessed the wrong country. -- Mark Brader | "There is a pervasive illusion in certain quarters Toronto | that Mother Nature is our friend. Wrong; dead wrong. msb@vex.net | She doesn't care whether we live or die, | and she loves surprises." -- Henry Spencer My text in this article is in the public domain. |
| Erland Sommarskog <esquel@sommarskog.se>: May 31 07:57PM +0200 > not something very memorable in distant parts of the world. To be fair, > even if I'd guessed that this was the disaster in southeastern Africa, > there's some chance I still would've guessed the wrong country. I will have to admit that I had to look up Idai. Kenneth was more memorable, since I have a colleague by that name. It was sort of fun to read "Kenneth causes massive devastation". Then again, some storm names are certainly well-known. Katrina, for instance. But, yes, in hind-sight, I should probably have added African to make the question more reasonable. |
| msb@vex.net (Mark Brader): May 31 01:13PM -0500 Erland Sommarskog: > Kenneth was more memorable, since I have a colleague by that name. > It was sort of fun to read "Kenneth causes massive devastation". Reminds me of when I had a co-worker whose first name was Israel, and someone at the office started a collection of headlines about whatever Israel/Arab conflict was going on at the time. (Israel took it in a good spirit.) -- Mark Brader, Toronto | "Death has a tendency to encourage msb@vex.net | a depressing view of war." --Donald Rumsfeld My text in this article is in the public domain. |
| Dan Tilque <dtilque@frontier.com>: May 31 02:25PM -0700 On 5/31/19 9:24 AM, Erland Sommarskog wrote: > but I did not want to leave Dan T without any points at all. And he > was the only who was even close to any of the two regions. (Well, > one entrant suggested Yemen - but in the wrong question.) If it makes you feel any better, I was pretty sure it was those exact countries, except maybe for Ukraine (might have been Poland, instead). I suppose I should have given one of them as my answer. -- Dan Tilque |
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