Set 14 Flashcards
The Ron Goodwin theme for the 1966 film The Trap is used by the BBC during coverage of which sporting event?
The London Marathon
Released in the USA as ‘Don’t Look Now, We’re Being Shot At’, it was the most succesful film in French cinemas ever until the release of Titanic, and is still phenomenally popular whenever it’s shown on television. Which 1966 war comedy with Terry-Thomas?
La Grande Vadrouille
In biochemistry and pharmacology, what name is given to a substance that forms a complex with a biomolecule to serve a biological purpose?
Ligand
The biting louse whose Latin name is famously a tribute to Gary Larson is a parasite feeding only on which animals?
Owls
What was the name of Fletcher Christian’s son?
Thursday October Christian
There is a genus of mudskipper named for which musician, who also has a jellyfish and a spider named for him?
Frank Zappa
Preseucoila imallshookupis, named for Elvis and a song of his, is a species of what insect?
Gall wasp
He was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Who was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What’s My Line?
Bennett Cerf
Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 was a name given as a protest against the country’s strict naming laws by parents in 1991 in which country?
Sweden
In paleontology, what phrase refers to a fossil such as a dinosaur tooth that was washed out of sediments and re-deposited in rocks and/or sediments millions of years younger?
Zombie taxon
What genus of tropical American weevil often found in association with palms is a snouted beetle and the last word in many English-language dictionaries?
Zyzzyva
Who did the scores for the films Double Indemnity, Lust for Life, Ben Hur and El Cid?
Miklos Rozsa
He directed Gérard Depardieu in three films, including Sous le soleil de Satan (Under the Sun of Satan), for which he won the Palme d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival?
Maurice Pialat
Who directed classics such as Reach For The Sky and Alfie as well as three of the biggest Bond films ever: You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker?
Lewis Gilbert
He was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten. He won two Academy Awards while blacklisted; one originally given to a front writer, and one awarded to Robert Rich, his pseudonym. Which man is most noted for his anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun?
Dalton Trumbo
Who composed the music for The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) and Whistle Down the Wind (1961)?
Malcolm Arnold
Which lorry driver’s son from Stepney plays Inspector Lestrade in the 2000s Sherlock Holmes films?
Eddie Marsan
Which French film actress and dancer appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003 and is best known for the musical films An American in Paris (1951), Lili (1953), Daddy Long Legs (1955), and Gigi (1958)?
Leslie Caron
On which island was Whisky Galore set?
Barra
What’s the medical term for having an additional breast?
Accessory breast
What’s the medical term for a third nipple?
Supernumary nipple
In Hindu mythology, which goddess was born with three breasts?
Meenakshi
White dog dung, mixed with honey and used as a treatment for throat and skin problems, is called what?
Album graecum
Also known as anarchic hand or Dr. Strangelove syndrome, what name is given to a neurological disorder in which one of the hands of people who have it appear to take on a mind of its own?
Alien Hand Syndrome
A species of blind cave beetle found only in five humid caves in Slovenia is named for which rather inappropriate man?
Hitler
What is the discipline that explores acoustic phenomena encoded in ancient artifacts. For instance, theoretically a pot or vase could be “read” like a gramophone record or phonograph cylinder for messages from the past
Archaeoacoustics
His important works include research on vibrating plates and the calculation of the speed of sound for different gases. For this some call him the “Father of Acoustics”. He also did pioneering work in the study of meteorites, and therefore is regarded by some as the “Father of Meteoritics” as well. Which German physicist?
Ernst Chladni
It is a fictional psychoactive substance which is supposedly extracted from banana peels. A hoax recipe for its “extraction” from banana peel was originally published in the Berkeley Barb in March 1967. It became more widely known when the method was reproduced in The Anarchist Cookbook in 1970. Donovan wrote the song Mellow Yellow about it?
Bananadine
Which man, who shares his name with a film star, wrote The Anarchist Cookbook?
William Powell
Ota Benga, a pygmy from the Belgian Congo, was tragically and controversially exhibited at which US zoo in 1906?
Bronx
Which person, whose name simply means ‘man’, is believed to have been the last Native American in Northern California to have lived most of his life completely outside the European American culture?
Ishi
Abraham Ulrikab, who — along with his family — was to become a zoo exhibit in Europe in 1880 as an attraction at the Hamburg, Germany public zoo, was from which ethnic group?
Inuit
Which African woman was exhibited in Europe in the c19 under the name ‘The Hottentot Venus’?
Sarah Baartman
Often referred to in science fiction and fantasy circles as a tongue-in-cheek shorthand for extreme horror or evil, which H P Lovecraft character is often cited for the extreme descriptions given of its hideous appearance, its gargantuan size, and the abject terror that it evokes?
Cthulhu
This paradox arises when one considers what would happen if one attached a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large height.
Buttered Cat Paradox
Name this rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise. The syndrome may be related to a brain lesion, and is often of a paranoid nature with the delusional person believing themselves persecuted by the person they believe is in disguise?
Fregoli Delusion
Medial epicondylitis is better known as what?
Golfer’s Elbow
Very similar to phossy jaw, which other condition is the gradual decay of the jaw through dangerous chemicals at work?
Radium jaw
What is the common name for an exostosis or abnormal bone growth within the ear canal? It is similar to but not the same as swimmer’s ear.
Surfer’s ear
Which famous hoax was published in the British Medical Journal as a real condition in 1974?
Cello scrotum
What is a condition that causes patients with visual loss to have complex visual hallucinations, first described in 1760 and first introduced into English-speaking psychiatry in 1982?
Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Similarly, what name is given to auditory hallucinations among those with progressive deafness?
Musical ear syndrome
Its most common variant is white, but what can also be called pink, brown, blue, violet, grey, orange, green and black?
Noise
What is black noise?
Silence
Author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming, he has been called the “father” of the analysis of algorithms.
Donald Knuth
What two word phrase has been given to the colour of the universe by scientists at Johns Hopkins University?
Cosmic latte
If you have Cotard delusion, you believe you are what?
Dead or decaying
One of the first major outbreaks of dancing mania in mediaeval Europe was in which German city in 1374?
Aachen
Which five-word phrase consists of the area from the corners of the mouth to the bridge of the nose, including the nose and maxilla. Due to the special nature of the blood supply to the human nose and surrounding area, it is possible (although very rare) for retrograde infections from this area to spread to the brain?
Danger Triangle of the Face
On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King’s Lynn, England, died laughing while watching an episode of which programme? His widow later sent that programme a letter thanking them for making Mitchell’s final moments of life so pleasant.
The Goodies
In 1989, a Danish audiologist, Ole Bentzen, died laughing while watching which comedy film?
A Fish Called Wanda
Which disease is also called ‘laughing sickness’?
Kuru
What name is given to an exaggerated expression of humour which is unwarranted by external events. It may be uncontrollable laughter which may be recognised as inappropriate by the person involved. It is associated with abnormal mental states and may be symptomatic of drug use, particularly cannabis use, or mental illness, such as mania or schizophrenia?
Paradoxical laughter
Knismesis and gargalesis are the scientific names for the two kinds of what?
Tickling
Therefore, what is knismolagnia?
Sexual gratification from being tickled
Which Australian spin bowler, who Don Bradman called the greatest, was nicknamed Tiger and shared his full name with a US conservative commentator?
Bill O’Reilly
What process, common in bicycle riding, means the brain is focused so intently on an observed object that awareness of other obstacles or hazards can diminish? Also, in an avoidance scenario, the observer can become so fixated on the target that they will forget to take the necessary action to avoid it, thus colliding with the object.
Target fixation
What Gary Larson-derived, originally humorous name is given an arrangement of four to ten spikes on the tails of particular dinosaurs, of which Stegosaurus stenops is the most familiar?
Thagomiser
Thiotimoline is a fictitious chemical compound conceived by which science fiction author and first described in a spoof scientific paper titled “The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline” in 1948?
Isaac Asimov
Writer Norman Mailer was passionate about it. Author and humorist Paul Davidson claims that his grandfather Bernard Davidson invented it in the 1940s. American copywriter Julian Koenig claimed to have invented it in 1936 as a boy at Camp Greylock. Which ‘sport’?
Thumb wrestling
If you have lethologica, you temporarily do what?
Forget words, phrases or names
Which woman tricked doctors in c18 England into believing she had given birth to rabbits?
Mary Toft
Who became the first Portuguese man to win a Nobel prize when he was awarded one in 1949 for developing the lobotomy?
Antonio Egas Moniz
Which reckless doctor became infamous in the US for his icepick lobotomies, which he performed ‘on the road’ even though he had no surgical training?
Walter Freeman
Trimethylaminuria (TMAU) is a rare metabolic disorder that causes a defect in the normal production of the enzyme Flavin containing monooxygenase 3. It is colloquially known as what?
Fish odour syndrome
In Christianity, thirteen is not always bad, particularly in the Old Testament. For example, what famous list is given in Exodus?
Thirteen Attributes of (God’s) Mercy
What name is given to the fear of the number four, common in East Asia?
Tetraphobia
Which number is considered unlucky in Italy, because in Roman numerals it can be a euphemism for “I am dead.”?
17 (VIXI)
Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of what?
Friday 13th
Every even integer greater than 2 is a number that can be expressed as the sum of two primes is which famous supposition in maths?
Goldbach’s conjecture
What name is given to a simple method of visualizing the prime numbers that reveals the apparent tendency of certain quadratic polynomials to generate unusually large numbers of primes? It was discovered by the titular mathematician in 1963, while he was doodling during the presentation of a “long and very boring paper” at a scientific meeting.
Ulam spiral
Which term, very similar in meaning to ‘uncanny valley’ was coined by Isaac Asimov to describe the fear people may have of human-like robots?
Frankenstein complex
What Greek-derived name means ‘anything that resembles a woman’, and is applied to female robots, in a similar way to the Austin Powers term ‘fembot’?
Gynoid
Also known as Pili trianguli et canaliculi, Spun-glass hair, and Cheveux incoiffables, what is a rare structural anomaly of the hair with a variable degree of effect? It was discovered in the 1970s. It becomes apparent from as little as 3 months to up to 12 years.
Uncombable Hair Syndrome
What word now means immovable or certain but historically meant ‘diamond-like’?
Adamant
What colloquial rhyming nickname is given to Nasa research planes flying parabolas to simulate zero-gravity?
Vomit comet
What is NASA’s official name for the ‘Vomit comet’?
Weightless Wonder
On objects orbiting the Earth, e.g. the ISS, zero gravity does not occur due to the Earth’s pull. Instead, what name is given to the phenomenon that is experienced?
Microgravity
This phenomenon is obtained when moving an element from one set to another set raises the average values of both sets. It is based on the following quote, attributed to the titular comedian: When the Okies left Oklahoma and moved to California, they raised the average intelligence level in both states?
Will Rogers phenomenon
What is the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging, particularly plastic blister packs and clamshells? Consumers suffer thousands of injuries per year, such as cut fingers and sprained wrists, from tools used to open packages and from the packaging itself.
Wrap rage
It is the symbolic person shown on traffic lights at pedestrian crossings in the former East Germany. It is a beloved symbol, enjoying the privileged status of being one of the few features of communism to have survived the end of the Iron Curtain with his popularity unscathed. What’s he called?
Ampelmaennchen
Charles Osmond Frederick, who worked at the British Railways technical centre in Derby, patented a nuclear driven space vehicle. The patent was based on work performed by Frederick, which originally was directed towards a lifting platform and finally culminated in a nuclear fusion powered passenger craft for interplanetary travel. How is this device known?
British Rail flying saucer
Which automaton in the form of a certain bird, created by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1739, appeared to have the ability to eat kernels of grain, and to metabolize and defecate them? While the automaton did not actually have the ability to do this - the food was collected in one inner container, and the pre-stored feces was ‘produced’ from a second, so that no actual digestion took place - Vaucanson hoped that a truly digesting automaton could one day be designed.
Digesting Duck
What name was given to the cartel of, among others, Osram, Philips and General Electric from December 23, 1924 until 1939 that existed to control the manufacture and sale of light bulbs? It reduced competition in the light bulb industry for almost twenty years, and has been accused of preventing technological advances that would have produced longer-lasting light bulbs.
Phoebus cartel
What device was famously used by aviation and rail corporations to test the strength of aircraft and train windscreens?
Chicken guns
What name is given to a device that uses pulsing rhythmic sound and/or flashing light to alter the brainwave frequency of the user? They are said to induce deep states of relaxation, concentration, and in some cases altered states of consciousness that have been compared to those obtained from meditation and shamanic exploration.
Mind machine
In Sherlock Holmes, which street urchin is the head of the Baker Street Irregulars?
Wiggins
Which real life brothers played the Fabulous Baker Boys in the famous 1989 film?
Jeff and Beau Bridges
In parapsychology, what does EVP stand for? It is the phenomenon where ghostly voices and sounds are said to be recordable on tape.
Electronic voice phenomenon
Which welder and automobile muffler repair shop owner, outraged over the outcome of a planning dispute, armored a Komatsu D355A bulldozer with layers of steel and concrete and used it on June 4, 2004, to demolish the town hall, a former judge’s home, and other buildings in Granby, Colorado? The rampage ended when the bulldozer became immobilized. After a standoff with law enforcement agencies, he killed himself with a handgun.
Marvin Heemeyer
Shawn Nelson stole a tank and went on a rampage before being shot dead by police in which US city in 1995?
San Diego
Which wantaway slave posted himself, successfully, from Virginia to Pennsylvania?
Henry Box Brown
What is a combination knife and fork called?
Knork
What name is given to a utensil that combines a knife, spoon and fork in one?
Sporf
The penis gourd or penis sheath is a phallocrypt or phallocarp traditionally worn by native male inhabitants of some (mainly highland) ethnic groups in New Guinea to cover their genitals. What is its common native name?
Koteka
Who was the Irish-born chief shipbuilder of the Titanic, who perished in the disaster?
Thomas Andrews
Li Shi was chief advisor to the Chin Emperor in China and devised which method of execution, by which means he was eventually killed himself in 208BC?
The Five Pains
Russian inventor Valerian Abakovsky is remembered as the inventor of, and one of the first men to die in, which form of transport in which an aircraft engine was added to a train?
Aerowagon
What was the name of the early form of guillotine used in Scotland?
Scottish Maiden
Perillos of Athens (circa 550 BC), according to legend, was the first to be roasted in which method of execution he made for Phalaris of Sicily for executing criminals?
Brazen Bull
It was found in 1972 beneath the site of a planned bank branch a and may be the largest example of fossilised human faeces ever found. Analysis of the nine-inch (23 cm) long stool has indicated that its producer subsisted largely on meat and bread whilst the presence of several hundred parasitic eggs suggests he or she was riddled with intestinal worms. What is the name of this coprolite?
Lloyds Bank coprolite
What name is given to small pointed tags, usually made of fluorescent yellow plastic, which are fixed to the lug nuts of the wheels of large vehicles. The tag rotates with the nut, and if the nut becomes loose, the point of the tag shifts noticeably out of alignment with the other tags?
Loose Wheel Nut Indicators
It is widely regarded as one of the most complex geared mechanisms of the ancient Chinese civilization. According to legends it was supposedly invented by the mythical Yellow Emperor, yet the first valid historical version was created by Ma Jun. It is a two-wheeled vehicle upon which is a pointing figure connected to the wheels by means of differential gearing. Through careful selection of wheel size, track and gear ratios, the figure atop the vehicle will always point in the same direction, hence acting as a non-magnetic compass vehicle?
South-pointing chariot
The Great Giana Sisters was a computer game that had to withdrawn almost as soon as it went on sale due to very close similarities with which other game?
Super Mario Bros
Which term is used in East Asian internet culture for video games and websites that are so-bad-they’re-good, and generally an appreciation of camp, kitsch computing?
Kuso
Also a popular pastime in northern England, in video gaming what term is frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods?
Homebrew
When launched, the screen only contains a glowing red gem, and an icon that when pressed, displays the following mantra in large text: I am rich I deserv [sic] it I am good, healthy & successful. Costing $999, and calles simply ‘I am rich’, this outrageous rip-off was one of the world’s first whats?
Apps
In economics, what are defined as a group of commodities for which people’s preference for buying them increases as a direct function of their price, as greater price confers greater status, instead of decreasing according to the law of demand? Examples are Rolls-Royces and that app above.
Veblen goods
What is the name of the iPhone app that makes a farting sound if the phone is moved?
iFart mobile
If you use a video to blog rather than writing, what does that make you?
A vlogger
The Publius enigma, a still-unsolved puzzle posed on the web, is associated with which Pink Floyd album?
Division Bell
Which term coined in the late 20th century to describe advanced 19th century telecommunications technologies such as the telegraph and pneumatic tubes, based on the idea that instantaneous global communication is not a recent invention, but rather developed in the mid-19th century, and that the changes wrought by the telegraph outweigh the world wide web?
Victorian Internet
Launched in 2004, this video game was condemned by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, the late President Kennedy’s brother, as “…despicable.”; and by Senator Joseph Lieberman who “was sickened by the game”. You play Lee Harvey Oswald and have to shoot the President. What’s it called?
JFK: Reloaded
What is the name given to a standard test image originally cropped from the centerfold of November 1972 issue of Playboy magazine? It was a picture of a Swedish model, shot by photographer Dwight Hooker. The image is probably the most widely used test image for all sorts of image processing algorithms (such as compression and denoising) and related scientific publications.
Lenna
Which early computer created in 1949 by the New Zealand economist Bill Phillips to model the national economic processes of the United Kingdom used fluidic logic to model the workings of an economy? Its name may have been suggested by an association of money and ENIAC, an early electronic digital computer.
MONIAC
The problem of creating which self-powering means of transport that can balance itself in three dimensions, is a well-known problem in robotics and control theory?
Unicycle
Mark V Shaney is a fake Usenet user whose postings were generated by using text generated by which random technique, which sounds like Mark V Shaney?
Markov Chain
Which adage, which began as the caption of a cartoon by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker in 1993 featuring two dogs? As of 2000, the panel was the most reproduced cartoon from The New Yorker, and Steiner has earned over US$50,000 from its reprinting.
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog
Which website, launched in 2004, satirizes both encyclopedic topics and current events, especially those related to or relevant to internet culture? It is also associated with the internet subculture Anonymous. The site’s “elaborate trolling culture”, chronicling of internet trolling, use of content with shock value, and criticism of other internet communities have all gained media coverage and commentary.
Encyclopaedia Dramatica
What does NSFW stand for on the Internet?
Not Safe For Work
What was the name used on several bulletin boards during 2000 and 2001 by a poster claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. In these posts he made numerous incorrect predictions about events in the near future, starting from 2004? He described a drastically changed future in which the United States had broken into five smaller regions, the environment and infrastructure had been devastated by a nuclear attack, and most other world powers had been destroyed.
John Titor
Thanks to a widely circulated internet hoax photograph, how is the 25 year old Hungarian man named Péter Guzli better known?
The Tourist of Death
The Trojan Room coffee pot was the subject of which technological innovation? The innovation was to help people working in other parts of the building avoid pointless trips to the coffee room.
First webcam (1991)
What name was given to an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type?
Printer’s devil
Who was a demon said to work on behalf of Belphegor, Lucifer or Satan to introduce errors into the work of a scribe?
Titivillus
Which Canadian computer programmer coined the terms ‘Hello, world’, WYSIWYG and Unix?
Brian Kernighan
What is the 3D computer graphics equivalent of a ‘hello world’ programme?
Utah Teapot
As per the Atari New Mexico dumping incident, what is widely considered the worst video game of all time?
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
The second best selling video game franchise of all time behind Super Mario, what series was created by Satoshi Tajiri?
Pokemon
Who created Tetris?
Alexei Pajitnov
Hironobu Sakaguchi created which best-selling franchise of computer games?
Final fantasy
Which former American football player, a former head coach with the Oakland Raiders and commentator is the face and name of the world’s most successful American football video game?
John Madden
Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima created which famous character?
Sonic the Hedgehog
As well as Super Mario, what is the second-best selling franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto?
The Legend of Zelda
The Collyer brothers created which successful computer games series?
Championship/Football Manager
Which film, often called the worst ever made, was Bela Lugosi’s final appearance?
Plan 9 From Outer Space
This 1987 film by Rick Sloane, widely considered to be a blatant rip-off capitalizing on the popularity of the 1984 film Gremlins, is on the IMDb’s Bottom 100 list, and at its lowest rating, it repeatedly made number two, second only to Gigli.
Hobgoblins
Battlefield Earth was so bad because it included so many of them. What term is used for a cinematic tactic often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed by tilting the camera off to the side so that the shot is composed with the horizon at an angle?
Dutch angle
Which was the terrible film for which Halle Berry turned up in person at the Golden Razzies award?
Catwoman
This 1982 war movie, directed by Terence Young and starring Laurence Olivier as General Douglas MacArthur, was meant to be a depiction of the Korean War. Producer Mitsuharu Ishii was a senior member of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, whose leader, Sun Myung Moon, claimed he had the film made to show MacArthur’s spirituality and connection to God and the Japanese people. The movie ran theatrically in the United States for only a few weeks and lost millions.
Inchon
Which 1996 comedy that stars professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal as the title character, a genie, is often called one of the worst ever?
Kazaam
Sandra Bullock won a Golden Raspberry for which 2009 film the day before she was awarded the Oscar for The Blind Side?
All About Steve
What was the name of the sequel to Highlander, often considered as among the worst films ever made?
The Quickening
Which terrible disco song, sharing its name with one by Dizzee Rascal, was released in 1980 by newsreader Reginald Bosanquet?
Dance With Me
Which tasteless 2004 American reality television program broadcast on Fox was considered one of the worst programmes ever? Women were given “extreme makeovers” that included several forms of plastic surgery. Each contestant was assigned a panel of specialists — a coach, therapist, trainer, cosmetic surgeons and a dentist — who together designed an individually tailored program for her. Both the first and second seasons debuted in 2004. A third season was tipped to happen, but the show was cancelled in early 2005 after continued ratings drops.
The Swan
The show centres on fictionalised versions of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, who live next door to a Jewish couple, Arny and Rosa Goldenstein. The show’s plot is centred on Hitler’s inability to get along with his neighbours. A caption at the beginning of the episode presented the series as a ‘lost’ sitcom from the 50s, recently re-discovered. Which ‘worst ever’ British sitcom?
Heil Honey I’m Home
They were originally developed in 1990 by Microsoft by combining glyphs from Lucida Icons, Arrows, and Stars licensed from Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes. What?
Wingdings
One edition of Wingdings caused controversy, because a skull and crossbones, Jewish star and thumbs up appeared in that order when typing what?
NYC
Likened to a secret handshake among comedians, and named by Johnny Carson as his favourite joke ever, it is an exceptionally transgressive dirty joke that has been told by numerous stand-up comedians since the vaudeville era. Throughout its long history, it has evolved from a clichéd staple of vaudevillian humor into a postmodern anti-joke. WHat’s the name of this joke?
The Aristocrats
Which comedy sketch show broadcast on Radio 4 revolves around a website broadcast on radio, intended to be a parody of Wikipedia?
Bigipedia
George P. Burdell is a fictitious student officially enrolled at which American university in 1927 as a practical joke? Since then, he has received several degrees, served in the military, got married, and served on Mad magazine’s Board of Directors, among other accomplishments. Burdell at one point even led the online poll for Time’s 2001 Person of the Year award.
Georgia Tech
The Bus Uncle is one of the most famous You Tube clips within and filmed in which city?
Hong Kong
Which term often used in reference to computer role-playing games refers to the use of a character’s inventory in the game, which can often contain more items (or items of too large a size) than is physically possible for the character to carry without any visible means to hold or transport them?
Magic satchel
Which unlikely character is a perennial parody of R. E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian that has appeared in film, television, comics, and fan fiction?
Conan the Librarian
Which type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea is drawn from popular fiction in Japan? Favorite sources include manga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies.
Cosplay
Spides and millies are the words for ‘chav’ where?
Northern Ireland
A Croydon facelift hairstyle can cause which genuine medical complaint?
Traction alopecia
Who played Napoleon in Abel Gance’s classic film?
Albert Dieudonné
Who directed the first cinema adaptation of War and Peace in 1956, with Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Herbert Lom as Napoleon?
King Vidor
Literally “budding”, as with a plant, which Japanese slang word originally referred to a strong interest in a particular type or style of character in video games, anime or manga, but now, roughly, means ‘phwooar’?
Moe
Which slang term for an apocryphal and potentially lethal sexual practice supposedly performed during anal sex based on a rabbit punch?
Donkey punch
Which fictitious Australian marsupial is commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous koalas that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above?
Drop bears
A mythical animal of North American folklore, what is described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant’s tail (and often hind legs)? It is possible that they were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus, which causes the growth of horn- and antler-like tumors in various places on the rabbit’s head and body.
Jackalope
What name is given to the ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail?
Ouroborus
What is the origin of the word ‘sniper’?
Snipe are very difficult to shoot, so only the best marksmen could get one
In US culture, a juggalo is a fan of which band?
Insane Clown Posse
Often abbreviated IE, they are a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Their slogan is “We Cause Scenes.” and some of their events have become huge You Tube and comedy hits. Credited with inspiring the Flash Mob movement, what is the name of this group?
Improv Everywhere
The world’s first eco-porn organization, this Norwegian group, despite similar aims, have had trouble getting Friends of the Earth to work with them, so they are working direct with indigenous tribes in Latin America. What does FFF stand for?
F*ck for Forest
A phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of causing the information to be publicized more widely than would have occurred otherwise is named for which American entertainer, following a 2003 incident in which her attempts to suppress photographs of her residence generated further publicity?
The Streisand Effect
What is the espionage term for the violent, unintended consequences of a covert operation that are suffered by the civil population of the aggressor government?
Blowback
What name is given to the psychological process whereby an individual’s deliberate attempts to suppress or avoid certain thoughts render those thoughts more persistent?
Ironic processing
Which man, who died in 2010, was often cast as characters much older than he really was because of premature baldness? For example, he played Caractacus Potts’ father in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, even though he was 6 months younger than Dick Van Dyke!
Lionel Jeffries
Which 2010 British film was inspired by an episode of The Reunion on Radio 4?
Made in Dagenham
Which British jazz dance band was one of the most successful bands of the 1950s? Its eponymous leader played bass saxophone, an unusual instrument then as now. His friend Harry Davis, tall, elegant and good-looking, acted as compère and conductor?
Oscar Rabin Band
Who won Best Actor at Cannes in 1962 for his role as Geoffrey opposite Rita Tushingham in A Taste of Honey?
Murray Melvin
Which actor, who died in mysterious circumstances in Leicestershire in 1997, played the lead role of teacher Jeremy Brown in ‘racist’ ITV sitcom Mind Your Language?
Barry Evans
Which awards are given at the discretion of the Academy in the November before the main Oscar ceremony?
Governors Awards
Which British expert on the silent movie era was given a Governors Award in November 2010?
Kevin Brownlow
What name was given to the 1972 film that was a Magic Roundabout spin-off?
Dougal and the Blue Cat
Who directed Cloverfield and 2010’s Let Me In?
Matt Reeves
Which Broadstairs-born film composer did the scores for Far From the Madding Crowd, Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and Four Weddings and a Funeral?
Richard Rodney Bennett
Which 1971 British biopic about Nicholas II of Russia and his wife won two Oscars?
Nicholas and Alexandra
Which northeastern region of India, capital Imphal, is fighting for independence?
Manipur
In South Korea, professional computer gamers can now earn hundreds of thousands of dollars playing to packed audiences. What name is given to them?
E-athletes
The USA leads the world in terms of number of Christian missionaries working overseas. Which country is second?
South Korea
The boy band UTN1, (Unknown to No one) come from which country?
Iraq
The Gilgel Gibe III dam is under construction on the Omo River in which country? Once complete, it will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric project.
Ethiopia
Which Indiana town has been called ‘The Most Studied Town in the USA’ as it was used as ‘Middletown’ in a number of c20 studies trying to gauge mainstream Amerian attitudes?
Muncie
Which brand of Protestantism more usually associated with North American has been making inroads into Latin America over the last 20-30 years as a right-wing answer to ‘left-wing’ Catholic liberation theology?
Pentecostalism
Which Soviet scientist and organ transplant pioneer once transplanted a dog’s head to create a two-headed dog and was called ‘my teacher’ by Chritian Barnaard?
Vladimir Demikhov
What is Natasha Demkina’s claim to fame?
She has ‘x-ray eyes’
What is dihydrogen monoxide, the subject of a famous chemical hoax?
Water
Which German mathematician who became a logician and philosopher was one of the founders of modern logic, and made major contributions to the foundations of mathematics. As a philosopher, he is generally considered to be the father of analytic philosophy, for his writings on the philosophy of language and mathematics. Although he was mainly ignored by the intellectual world when he published his writings, it was Giuseppe Peano and later Bertrand Russell who helped introduce his work to later generations of logicians and philosophers?
Gottlob Frege
What name is given to sagittally symmetrical indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back, just superior to the gluteal cleft?
Dimples of Venus
What loan word from German is the color seen by the eye in perfect darkness?
Eigengrau
Which solitary wasp of the family Ampulicidae is known for its unusual reproductive behavior, which involves stinging a cockroach and using it as a host for its larvae?
Emerald Cockroach Wasp
Glyptapanteles is a genus of wasp notable for inducing which animal to serve as its bodyguard?
A caterpillar
If an animal is brightly coloured because it is poisonous or dangerous, it is called what?
Aposematism
Batesian mimicry is where a harmless organism imitates a harmful one. What sort of mimicry is it where two harmful organisms look similar to one another?
Mullerian mimicry
What name is given to the condition that causes someone falling asleep occasionally to experience a tremendously loud noise as originating from within his or her own head, usually described as the sound of an explosion, roar, gunshot, loud voices or screams, a ringing noise, or the sound of electrical arcing (buzzing)?
Exploding Head Syndrome
