This quiz is over, and the winner is DAN BLUM. Yours is the glory
for the next 24 hours!
Here is the scoreboard.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
Dan B 1 1 1 - - 1 1 - 1 1 1 - 8
Mark B 1 1 1 - 1 - 1 - - 1 - - 6
Stephen P - 1 1 - - - 1 - 1 - 1 1 6
Pete G - - - 1 - - 1 - 1 1 1 1 6
Bruce B - - - 1 - - 1 - - 1 1 1 5
Joshua K 1 1 - - - - - - 1 - - 1 4
Before I go the answers, I need to say that this quiz had a wee bit
too many flaws to be really satisfactory. Beside the correction I had
to post, at least two more questions had issues I should have resolved
before posting. I hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.
1: Rivers: Amazon, Congo, Danube, Hudson, Tagus.
Danube - all others run out directly to the Atlantic.
Hudson was a popular answer, and the two entrants who highlighted
that it is the only river be in a single country were awarded. For
those who did not - I'm sorry, but that is the explicit rule of
the game. For this question, I don't feel ashamed for not spotting
the alternative answer when composing the question. Rather, this is
one of these things that makes this format charming.
Here is an interesting titbit: If Wikipedia is to be beleived, Hudson
is not a correct answer with Brazilian pub rules. In Brazil, the name
Amazonas is only used from downstream Manaus.
One entrant suggested that Hudson is the only one to not be the
longest on its continent. That answer cannot be not correct, given
that two rivers are on the same continent. And is turns out - none
of them are. The longest river in Europe is the Volga. Nor is the Congo
is not the longest in Africa. So left is only Amazon.
2. Names: Giovanni, Hans, Ivan, James, João.
James. Not a cognate to John.
3: Astronomy: Ceres, Io, Ganymede, Phobos, Titan,
Ceres. That's an asteriod. All others are moons. (Io and Ganymede
of Jupiter, Phobos of Mars and Titan of Saturn.)
4: Sports: Sue Bird, Tonya Harding, Mikaela Shiffrin, Hope Solo,
Serena Williams.
Tonya Harding - all others are Olympic champions.
One suggestion was "not a team sport" - but I had that one covered!
Exactly to rule out that option, I looked up the US Olympic basketball
team, and found Sue Byrd, being four times a champion.
One entrant gave an answer and motivation related to the matrimonial
status of these women. Apparently that entrant had failed to observe
the theme for the question.
5: Coastal city climate: Agadir (Morocco), Dubai (UAE), Lima (Perù),
Singapore (Singapore), Walvis Bay (Namibia).
Singapore. That's a quite a wet place, all others are dry.
But alas not equally dry. Here is the annual precipitation in mm as
taken from Wikipedia:
Agadir: 291.9
Dubai: 94.3
Lima: 6.4
Singapore: 2165.9
Walvis Bay: 13.2
My recollection from my initial research was that Agadir was a lot
drier. May I confused the row with the precipitation with the row
for the number of precipitation days. It still stands out from
Singapore, but it's not a true desert climate. And if Agadir is good,
I could just as well have kept San Diego (271 mm) which I had there
instead of Walvis Bay for a long time.
Several entrants gave motivations for their answers, but I could
deem any of them to be correct, although it is somewhat subjective.
What is really "tropical"?
6. Wars of the Roses: Barnet, Northhampton, Tekwesbury, Towton,
Wakefield.
Wakefield. This battle was won my Lancaster, all others were
Yorkist victories - and quite decisive ones.
In the battle of Northampton, the Earl of Warwick captured Henry VI,
and the Parliament that followed, declared Richard of York to be
the heir of the throne. Something he had little use for, because
he lost his life at Wakefield. But apart from that Lancaster were
not able to really capitalise on their victories.
Towtown was in the year that followed. Richard's son Edward had
declare himself King, and Towtown was an immense victory for York.
While the war would drag on in the north for a few years, Edward IV's
rule was largely undisputed.
The Earl of Warwick later changed sides, and Edward IV had to go
on in exile for a half-year. When he came back, he met Warwick at
Barnet, and Warwick was slain.
About a month later he dealt with the army of the real leader of
the Lancastrian party, Queen Margarete, at Tewkesbury. Not only
did he win the battle, but in the aftermath he made sure that
no male descendants from the male lines of John of Gaunt was left
alive. (Well, he did spare poor Henry VI, but he died anyway.)
...however, there was still one man left on the female line from
John of Gaunt, and...
Yes, I've been reading a book on the Wars of the Roses lately.
7: Medecine: Chickenpox, Covid-19, Ebola, Measels, Winter vomiting bug
Winter vomiting bug. There is vaccine in use against this
disease. Wikipedia mentions a trial, but only in phase one.
One entrant said "not a virus", but all five are caused by viruses.
But since the answer was the intended one, the entrant was awarded.
8: Literature: Honoré de Balzac, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Henrik Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, Leo Tolstoy
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He is considered to be a romanticist,
whereas the others are of the realism school.
And speaking of school, I had to learn this in high school, but
given that this was a stumper, it seems that others were spared.
9: Apostles: Andrew, John, Paul, Peter, Thomas.
Paul. Not one of the 12 disciples of Jesus.
10: Symbols: Refer to https://www.sommarskog.se/temp/quiz10.pdf and
select a letter a, b, c, d or e.
b = "place of interest symbol". All others are used for currencies.
a is the Euro, c is the Japanese Yen and e is the Korean Won. And
d is the Chinese character yuan, but this character is used not only
for the Renminbin in the People's Republic, but also on Taiwan for
the New Taiwanese Dollar.
11: Food: Eggplant, Falafel, Kabanos, Quorn, Tofu
The intended answer was Kabanos, a sausage, which is the only
meat-based food. All others are vegan.
However, Eggplant distinguishes from the rest by not being a product
of humans, and this is absolutely just as characteristic as the
kabanos. This should absolutely not have slipped through! I did
realise the issue before someone actually entered eggplant, though,
and I decided that I would accept eggplant without motivation.
A case can also be made for Quorn, since it is the only one which
is a brand name. This was on my radar already when working with the
question, and I would accepted it, had someone given that as a
motivation.
I did have an alternative to eggplant that would also have addressed
the Quorn issue, to wit Oumph. But while it seems to be readily
avilable here in Sweden, I don't know well-known it is internationally.
It's a warning sign that there is no article Oumph in Wikipedia.
12: Music: Keith Emerson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Pat Metheny, Jimmy Page,
Django Reinhardt.
Keith Emerson was a great keyboard player. The others are or were
guitar players.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)