Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Trivia Fun!

So, once again after all the build up and what not, the pub quiz has come and gone again. As expected we had a few less teams than the first time out, but the competition was even more fierce than last time. Nine teams battled it out for supremacy; who knew more useless information than the others. Would it be Isfahan with their superior Middle Eastern Arabic knowledge, or the Wise Guys, with their superior instinct in the end. I'd appreciate any kind of feedback, just click on the message board link to the right and tell us what you think of anything that went down at Proletaryat, any ideas or suggestions you might have would be great. After 10 rounds the world got their champion, the questions and answers went something like this:

Entertainment

  1. In less than two years four major music stars died of strange circumstances, and all were the same age. Brian Jones, drummer of the Beach Boys drowned in a pool. Jimi Hendrix died after an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. Then Janis Joplin overdosed on heroine and finally Jim Morrison of the Doors died of heart failure in Paris. Growing up, Kurt Cobain told his sister he wanted to be a part of this club of stars who all died at the same age, which he did in 1994. How old were they all when they died?
    The 27 club isn’t all that select a club. It’s a little bizarre to see how many there are:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club
  2. The F-word was first used for the first time in a movie in 1968. In Brian De Palma’s 1984 movie, “Scarface”, it is Tony Montana’s favourite word. Within a range of 6, how many times is it said in the whole movie?
    The word is uttered an amazing 206 times, that’s about once every 29 seconds. Fuck that’s a lot.
  3. In 1959 this actress became the first Hollywood star to receive $1 million for starring in a single picture. Who is she?
    NO, it’s not Marilyn Monroe. It’s amazing how many people answered that in the testing for this question don’t worry. And in case you’re wondering, yes, Aud
    rey Hepburn was everyone’s second guess for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It was ET silly. And no, not the alien, it was Elizabeth Taylor silly, for the movie Cleopatra, and yes it’s still the most expensive movie ever made, dollars adjusted for inflation.
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/
  4. In 1962, kids and adults across the USA were doing the Mashed Potato, the Loco-Motion, the Frug, the Monkey and the Funky Chicken. What were they doing?
    They’re just dancing, pa! Don’t worry, you can’t get pregnant that way. Here's some guy doing the Mashed Potato.

  5. Which member of the Beatles was the first to have a solo number one hit after the group broke up?
    Not McCartney, nor Lennon, nor Ringo. That only leaves George. As in George Harrison baby, singing “My Sweet Lord”.
  6. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was trying to get back to Kansas. Helping her on her journey along the yellow brick road were the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man. What were each of them looking for?
    Ever try to push play at the same time on The Wizard of Oz as you start Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd… it’s a little creepy. Check it out at:
    http://www.everwonder.com/david/wizardofoz/
    The Tin Man was looking for a heart, scarecrow, a brain and of course the cowardly lion was looking for some courage.

Nature

  1. What animal, not counting humans ourselves, is responsible for the most human deaths world-wide? (Causing more than 2 million per year)
    Mosquitoes!
  2. We know that the blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, but what colour is lobster blood?
    It's blue folks.
  3. The ending ‘ology’ means study of something for example biology. The shortest ology is the word oology. What is it the study of?
    It's the study of eggs apparently.
  4. The Macaroni, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Emperor are all types of what feathery animal? Penguins! Those cute little bastards can all be seen at: http://www.dembsky.net/penguins/types.html
  5. The Richter scale is used to measure the strength of an earthquake. (Richtera) How many times stronger is an earthquake that measures 8 on this scale than one measuring 4?
    a) double as strong
    b) 4 times as strong

    c) 100 times stronger
    d) 10000 times stronger
    e) 10000000 times stronger
    Crazy logorithmic scales, it's 10000 times stronger.
  6. For years people have argued over the eternal question: What really came first? The chicken or the egg?
    Well, a little bit of a trick question, but, when you think about it, reptiles which lay eggs, have been on the planet far longer than chickens!


United Kingdom

  1. Which of these three is not a British soap opera: A Country Practice, Emmerdale, Crossroads or Brookside?
    Geoff told me the answer a few times, but for some reason my brain refuses to remember anything about British TV. Let's say it's A Country Practice.
  2. Name three ingredients of the British dish “Toad in the hole”.
    Sausages, Yorkshire Pudding (batter), carrots, potato and gravy
  3. David, Patrick, George and Edward are the four saints of the United Kingdom. Match them to their correct country.
    WalesDavid, ScotlandEdward, England – George, N.Ireland – Patrick
  4. Arrange the countries of the UK in order of population from lowest to highest.
    N. Ireland – 1.8 million, Wales – 3 million, Scotland – 5.2 million, England – 50 million
  5. How many countries in the world use English as one of their official languages?
    53
  6. What does BST stand for?
    You learn only the most important information here guys. British Summer Time.


World Facts

1. What is the oldest continuously lived in city in the world?
There’s a lot of old cities, but the answer here is Damascus, in good ol’ Syria. Yeah, the one the Israeli’s just bombed with American assistance. (Sorry Isfahan, maybe it is Jericho)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092002701.html

2. Every year Time magazine features a Man of the Year. Past winners include John Paul II won in 1994, George W. Bush in 2004 and last year it was Vladimir Putin. Can you tell me who was Time’s Man of the year in 1938?
It was Adolph Hitler my friends. In 2006, it was all of us. For a complete list:
http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa050400a.htm

3. Worldwide, what animal provides people with more meat and milk than any other animal?
It’s the goat. Not a cow or sheep. And definitely not a pig or chicken~!

4. Within 500, how many spoken languages exist in the world today? (You can give the clue that 2000 languages are spoken by less than 1000 speakers)

6500!

5. Since 1990, 28 new nations have come into being, many following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The world’s newest nation is Kosovo which declared independence from Serbia in February of this year. Including Kosovo and Taiwan how many countries are there in the world today?

Again, the world’s mysteries… So, China doesn’t recognize the country, but even the US State department doesn’t recognize Taiwan either. http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm

Whatever, there’s 195.

6. Children often try to dig a whole all the way through the Earth to China. In fact, you would have to be in one of 2 countries to be able to dig a whole to the other side of the world and be in China. Name one of these countries.

Argentina and Chile. Here’s a picture. (Note: they’ve flipped the image to help you)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1436/1092948687_f58f8c6f10.jpg

US History

1. On June 26th, 1945, more than 50 countries joined together for the object of peace, creating the United Nations. Today the UN has it’s headquarters in New York City, but originally, the paperwork was signed in what US city?
a) Chicago

b) San Francisco

c) Seattle

d) Washington, DC

For a bonus point, what were the five languages that it was written in?

It was San Fran Sisky! And the languages were Spanish, English, French, Chinese and Russian. Now there are 6 “official” UN languages, above plus Arabic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations

2. Who was the loser of the first two elections for president of the US? Hint: He also became the 2nd president. (Think, someone can be president twice in a row…)

It was John Adams, never gave up that boy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election

3. The White House in Washington, DC. was not always white. In fact it was painted that colour after being burned by Canadian troops in the War of 1812. What was the original colour?

It was grey. Ok, Ok, Canada wasn’t an independent nation at the time. But it was the Dominion of Canada, and it was the Canadian troops who fought their way all the way to Washington, DC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington

4. One of the most famous monuments in America is Mt. Rushmore. The heads of which four presidents are carved into the mountain?

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

5. The land of the free has brought us many firsts. The first man to walk on the moon, the first telephone call and first TV broadcasts. In 1963 it brought us another first, the first live televised murder. Over a million people watched in shock. Who was murdered?

Yes, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in ’63, but it was just a little visit to Dallas. The national media, and thus their cameras weren’t around until his assassin was being transferred to court, when “waaaaah”, Jack Ruby pops out and shoots him down, closing the book on the case and opening it up to conspiracy theories until the end of time. Here’s the first google search that came up on the killing:

http://wonkette.com/357506/jack-ruby-and-lee-harvey-oswalds-kill-jfk-plans-revealed

6. The law established in 1920 with a constitutional amendment was known by many at the time as “the noble experiment” because they hoped it would improve people’s health and reduce crime. It was in effect for 13 years until another constitutional amendment repealed the law in 1933. What was this law?

Prohibition.

Random Trivia

  1. What does BST stand for?
    British Summer Time
  2. According to most surverys, what is the most common phobia?
    Arachnophobia
  3. What does a tuck shop sell?
    Food
  4. Painter use a mix of the three subtractive primary colours: red, yellow and blue, what are the three secondary colours?
    green, orange and purple
  5. Certain schools in England are referred to as C of E. What does C of E stand for?
    Church of England
  6. The year 1752 was very fast in America and England. That year there were only 354 days. What happened to the other 11 days?
    Switch to the “new” Gregorian calendar.
  7. In the 14th century, the Arabs started to cultivate coffee plants. The first commercially grown and harvested coffee originated on the Arabian Peninsula near the port of Mocha and thus the word mocha. In what modern day nation is Mocha?
    Yemen

Brain Teasers

1. What word can be written forward, backward or upside down and still be read from left to right? (Hint: lunch time)
The answer here is NOON

2. What’s the difference between a dollar and a half and thirty five-cents?
You have to read the question carefully to see that it is thirty coins worth 5 cents each, we call them nickels, and thirty nickels is a dollar fifty. So the answer is nothing.

3. Alice is walking through the forest of forgetfulness. She wants to know what day of the week it is so she stops and asks a lion and a unicorn. The lion lies all of the time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The unicorn always lies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Alice asks the lion what day it is and it says, “Well, yesterday was one of my lying days.” Alice needs to ask the unicorn to figure it out so she asks and it says, “Yesterday was also one of my lying days.” What day is it?
Thursday of course.

Here's an explanation:

0 - Lying days
1 - Truth days
On what days can the lion say that the previous day was his lying day?
-He can say it on Thursday when he is telling the truth about Wednesday being his lying day; or he can say it on Monday, then he lies about Sunday.
On what days can the unicorn say that the previous day was his lying day?
-He can say it on Thursday when he lies about Wednesday; or he can say it on Sunday when he tell the truth about Saturday.

Therefore the day of the week when both the lion and the unicorn can say that the previous day was their lying day is Thursday!

4. People celebrating birthday’s today (April 28th) are Penelope Cruz, Jessica Alba, Jay Leno and it also would have been Saddam Hussein’s birthday. How old are they today (and would have been for the dead dictator)? The ages are: 58, 34, 27, 71
Jessica Alba turned 27, Cruz 34, Leno 58 and Saddam didn't make it to his 71st birthday.

5. Among the digits of pi currently known, the concentrations of each of the digits 0 - 9 are pretty much equal. However, in the first 30 digits of pi's decimal expansion, one number is conspicuously missing. Which number is it?
Zero

6. A panagram is a sentence composed of all 26 letters of the alphabet. Please compose a panagram.

Eg. Pack my red box with five dozen quality jugs.
We got lots of interesting answers here. Good work everyone!

7. As far as I know, Monday is the only day of the week with has an anagram. What is it?
Dynamo. That sure was nice of me to put the answer on the question sheet for everyone!

8. The word “lost” has it’s letters in alphabetical order, as the o comes after l, s after o and t follows s in the alphabet. What is the only number that has it’s letters in alphabetical order?
Patience paid off for all of you that counted all the way to forty.

9. There are four countries in the world with only one syllable. Can you name them?
Chad, Spain, France and Greece

10.Name all the body parts you know with only three letters. (there are ten)
Hmmm, let's see what I
can come up with: leg, arm, eye, ear, toe, lip, gum, rib, hip and jaw

English Expressions
'Every cloud has a silver lining' - You can always find a positive in any situation

'Nothing ventured nothing gained' - You have to risk something to gain something

'Out of the frying pan into the fire' - To escape one difficult situation only to find yourself in a worse one

'You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink' - You can show someone how to do something, but you can't do it for them
'The grass is always greener on the other side' - It seems like other people have it better than you
'The best things in life are free' - Self evident
‘You can't judge a book by its cover' - You can't tell everything about a person, place, etc... just based on how they look
'Live and let live' - Everyone has the right to live their own lives
'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach' - Cook something tasty for your man, he'll love you forever
'Bob's your uncle' - I really don't know what this means!
'Eyes are bigger than your belly' - To eat, or at least attempt to eat, too much food
'Tie the Knot' - get married

Finally, if you've made it this far, you deserve to know the results so here's the final tally:

Hair Products - 49.5
Isfahan - 48
Red Star - 42.5
Snoopy - 38
No Cell Phones - 36
Wise Guys - 33
Clairvoyant - 32
SebaMag - 26.5
Probis.com.pl - 22.5

Well done everyone! Thanks a lot for coming out, cuz without you guys there wouldn't be a trivia night. See y'all next time...

Monday, April 28, 2008

Organizing Life


It's often quite difficult to separate the different factors that go into so many of life's little mysteries. With the Trivia Night coming up tonight (April 28th), along with everything else going on, I've been struck by the difficulty of organizing activities. Do you remember when you were just a kid? Didn't it seem that everything just kinda happened because that's what was supposed to happen? We all had school and friends and football teams and band practice. Mom telling us what shoes to where cuz it was raining, or that we needed a scarf to protect us from the wind. If you wanted to put together a game of football (or in my case some street hockey or baseball) you just called up your buddy, walked across the street to another friends and the next thing you knew it was game on.

So what changed? Reminds me of the Beatles song, Help!:
"And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze."
Seems to answer the question of why it's so hard to get a bunch of people together for a day or night out these days. I started to notice it when I was living in Krakow. Along would come a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a day out at the park, Blonia, frisbee, baseball, football and a couple of cold ones with some friends, what could be better (well, maybe a nice barbecue to go along with it). So begins the text messaging ordeal. Back in the day, you made a plan and you stuck to it. However, in today's new and improved world, you can make a plan one minute, then thanks to connectivity, you just send a text and change plans. Of course this text leads to a chain reaction of more texts, which then leads to round three..., you get the picture. The same thing applied again this past weekend, glorious sunshine beckons us outside and we find ourselves en route to the park, big lake, a few cold ones with friends while enjoying some "funky ball" (a game I believe was invented at AGH in Krakow, involving running, throwing and drinking beer). Originally we were to meet about 10 or 12 people in the middle of the afternoon, but as the day progressed, the number regressed. With excuses as lame as I've got to study or work on some school project (that they evidently didn't know about before 3pm on Sunday afternoon) or I'd rather drink beer in a pub (ok, not so lame, but it was really sunny outside). Long story short, we end up at the lakeside, five of us managed to make it by about 6pm. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to sit and drink beer on the grass, feeling almost one with nature until a train passed by, but it would have been better to get a little game in as well (five can't play funky ball in case you're wondering).

Yes, we all have busy lives and yes it's nice to have a mobile phone when you're lost in the middle of a strange city, wandering from street to street and remember the life-line in your pocket, but come on! When you make a plan to do something, try to imagine life before your mobile, think about your other commitments and organize your time, don't let your phone do it for you.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Come one, Come all!




In response to overwhelming public demand, the pub quiz is coming back to Proletaryat on Monday, April 28th starting at 8pm. Make sure you get there early to ensure the best seat (and more importantly one of the limited number of free beers) as last time was a full house that saw a battle to the finish.

Again, we'll feature 6 rounds of questions and answers on topics ranging from sports, to entertainment and maybe even a question or two about Canada(you know you want it!) Come alone and join a team or bring your whole gang and compete against other teams of four. Of course there'll be prizes for the winners, but what's most important is the knowledge that you know more than the rest!