Set 16 Flashcards
Rangers manager Walter Smith bought this Italian from Perugia for £3.5 million in 1997. He was rewarded with instant success, as he scored 23 goals in his first ten league games. His low-key celebrations were noteworthy - often he felt the need only to exchange a handshake with other players and showed little in the way of facial expressions. He then spent years in the reserve team after an eye injury from playing squash. Who?
Marco Negri
Whereas Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa made a positive mark at Spurs, this 1970s Argentinian import for Birmingham City came and went in 23 games, with little or no footballing consequence. His career in England ended in 1987 after he waded into a home crowd for a punch up?
Alberto Tarantini
Which then Crystal Palace Serbian international held an on-pitch protest agains the bombing of Serbia in 1999?
Sasa Curcic
Some of Brazilian footballer Argelico F*cks’ fame stems from his surname. This has led to a variety of double entendre headlines including one from Eurosport.com titled what?
F*cks Off to Benfica
Meaning the degree of trauma experienced when what is undertaken in confident spirit founders on unforeseen difficulties, what phrase arose after the 1999 Open Golf Championship, when the world’s greatest players failed to play to theoretical par for the distance. Even the winner finished six strokes over par?
The Carnoustie Effect
What three-word term is an English football phrase which has become synonymous with the potential dire consequences for domestic clubs of financial mismanagement?
Doing A Leeds
Which term, now used mainly in another sport, comes from horse racing, where the number one starter starts on the inside by the start sign?
Pole position
What phrase used predominantly within the British media to describe a sudden volte-face in an organisation’s editorial line on a certain issue, which generally involves no acknowledgement of the previous position originates from Kelvin MacKenzie’s time at the The Sun because his preferred description of the role of journalists when it came to public figures was to “stick a ferret up their trousers”?
Reverse ferret
Which chiefly British and Japanese analogy compares the tennis fame of London with the economic success of the United Kingdom’s financial services industries? The point of the analogy is that a national and international institution can be highly successful despite the lack of strong native competition.
The Wimbledon effect
Who was the female equivalent of Eric ‘The Eel’ Moussambani?
Paula ‘The Crawler’ Barila Bolopa
Jeffrey Maier and Steve Bartman are not sports players, but are notorious in sporting history. How?
Both were spectators at baseball games who caught a ball in the stands that could have been caught by a fielder, thereby changing the result of the game
The Steve Bartman Seat is at which team’s ground?
Chicago Cubs
Which legend is commonly cited to explain why the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team has not been to the World Series since 1945?
The Curse of the Billy Goat
What sport was a game traditionally played by students of Yale University, between 1954 and 1982, until being banned by the administration. A revival game was played in 2009?
Bladderball
Which man represented Senegal at the 1984, 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics? He was the first Black African skier to take part in the Olympics.
Lamine Gueye
Tofiri Kibuuka is a blind athlete. He has participated in both the Winter Paralympic Games, in cross-country skiing and in the Summer Paralympic Games, in mid- and long distance running. Active from 1976 to 2000, he won five Paralympic silver medals, and one bronze. He holds the distinction of being the first African to have competed at the Winter Paralympics, and more generally the only athlete from a tropical nation to have done so. What country did he represent, even though he was born in Uganda?
Norway
Which was the first fully tropical nation (Mexico was earliest but is semi tropical, so doesn’t count) to compete at the Winter Olympics, with two skiers at Sapporo 1972?
Phillipines
Mexico made its debut at the Winter Olympics as early as 1928- in which sport?
Bobsleigh
Arturo Kinch is the only competitor from which country in Winter Olympics history?
Costa Rica
At which Winter Olympics did the Jamaicans finish 14th in the four-man bob, ahead of both the USA and Russia?
Lillehammer 1994
Which was the first southern hemisphere country to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, in 1992?
New Zealand
Which old Leicestershire custom takes place in the village of Hallaton each Easter Monday?
Bottle-kicking
Which version of medieval football is played in Scotland, perhaps most notably in Orkney and the Scottish Borders, around Christmas and New Year?
Ba Game
The goal of a player in which game is to grab the carcass of a headless goat or calf and then get it clear of the other players and pitch it across a goal line or into a target circle or vat?
Buzkashi
Spanish for ‘duck’, it is a game played on horseback that combines elements from polo and basketball. It is the national game of Argentina. What?
Pato
Which game is played on horseback, where a ball is handled and points are scored by shooting it through a high net (approximately 1.5m×1.5m). The sport is like a combination of polo, rugby, and basketball?
Horseball
What name is given to a cylindrical piece of polyethylene foam, sometimes hollow? They may used by people of all ages while swimming. They are useful when learning to swim, for floating, for rescue reaching, in various forms of water play, and for aquatic exercise.
Pool noodles
LARP is a form of game where the participants physically act out their characters’ actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. What does LARP stand for
Live Action Role Playing
The sport began when Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh, inspired by fictional depictions by French comic book artist and filmmaker Enki Bilal, organized actual bouts.
Chess boxing
Which female competitive eater is called the Black Widow?
Sonya Thomas
Which American football league founded in 1987 by Jim Foster is played indoors on a smaller field than American football, resulting in a faster-paced and higher-scoring game?
Arena Football League
In which sport are contestants sometimes called gurgitators?
Competitive Eating
Which traditional event in Lyme Regis, Dorset has been called the “most fun a person could have with a dead fish”?
Conger cuddling
In the Shurdington cheese-rolling, what kind of cheese is used?
Double Gloucester
In Japanese baseball, the curse of which fictional figure hangs over the Hanshin Tigers baseball team?
Colonel Sanders
The Curse of Billy Penn was invoked to explain why sports teams from which city went on a long losing streak?
Philadelphia
The Curse of Rocky Colavitois a phenomenon that supposedly prevents which baseball team from winning?
Cleveland Indians
Which alleged curse supposedly prevented the Chicago Black Hawks of the NHL from finishing in first place?
Curse of Muldoon
The Curse of 1940, also called Dutton’s Curse, was a superstitious explanation for why which NHL team did not win the Stanley Cup from 1940 to 1994?
New York Rangers
The Curse of Biddy Early, who was a witch, appears in which sport?
Hurling
Teressa Bellissimo, the chef/owner of the city’s Anchor Bar, first prepared the now-widespread chicken wings here on October 3, 1964. Which city, which gives its name to the recipe?
Buffalo
In snooker, what phrase refers to the fact that no first-time winner of the World Snooker Championship has successfully defended his title since 1977?
The Crucible Curse
The Curse of LaBonte is in which sport?
Curling
There is a jinx associated with appearing on the cover of which US magazine?
Sports Illustrated
What par is the informal competition held before the Masters in golf, which is allegedly cursed because no-one who wins it then wins the Masters?
Par 3
A curse has been invoked as the reason why which city has never claimed a modern major league sports championship in the United States (Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, and NBA Finals)? It’s the largest city never to have won.
San Diego
The Curse of Norm Smith is associated with which city’s Australian Rules Football Team?
Melbourne
What is the nom de guerre of Peter Michael Howard? He is known for having disrupted numerous sporting events, including cutting a hole in the net that stopped Australia qualifying for the 1998 World Cup as well as the funerals of former INXS frontman Michael Hutchence and racehorse trainer T J Smith, often with bizarre religious claims or gratuitous nudity?
Peter Hore
How was James Jarrett Miller, who ‘dropped in’ to the Holyfield v Bowe fight in Las Vegas in 1993, but committed suicide in 2002, better known?
Fan Man
Which NFL team play at the Ralph Wilson stadium?
Buffalo Bills
Disco Demolition Night was a promotional event that took place on Thursday, July 12, 1979 during which a crate filled with records was blown up on the field at Comiskey Park in which city?
Chicago
At least four American stunt entertainers of the 20th century (Harry Gardiner, George Polley, John Ciampa and George Willig) were given this nickname- what?
The Human Fly
What’s the name of the modern ‘human fly’ (in fact, nicknamed Spiderman) who is French?
Alain Robert
Which national capital is home to a rugby club called The Nondescripts?
Nairobi
The East Africa rugby team represented Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The East Africa cricket team also represented these three countries, and which fourth?
Zambia
What’s the name of the two teams who play the Eton Wall Game on St Andrew’s Day every year?
Collegers and Oppidans
What is the first in the series of Bond as a teenager books by Charlie Higson?
SilverFin
The Eton Wall Game is one of the two codes of football at Eton- which is the other?
Eton Field Game
Which three-word phrase is a little-known way to score points in American football left over from rugby. It was last used successfully in the pro game in 1976?
Fair Catch Kick
What was the name of the ‘mock’ mascot created by Australians disaffected at the commercialisation of the Olympic mascot industry in 2000?
Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat
Played in Friesland, the sport involves a long pole and a body of water. The pole is between 8 and 13 m long and has a flat round plate at the bottom to prevent it from sinking into the muddy river or canal bottom. A jump consists of a sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top of the pole while trying to control its forward and lateral movements over a body of water, and finishing by landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point. What’s it called?
Fierljeppen (lit. Far-leaping)
Sepak takraw, popular in Malaysia, is like a cross between football and which other sport?
Volleyball
What does the sport of goose pulling involve?
Pulling the head off a live goose on horseback
Fuchsprellen was a popular sport in mediaeval Germany. How is it normally translated into English?
Fox tossing
Eddie Gaedel is famous in American baseball history for what reason?
He had dwarfism
Which sport was invented by bookmakers in Britain when many horse races were cancelled as a result of foot-and-mouth in 2001?
Hamster racing
In which town is the Henley-on-Todd regatta held?
Alice Springs
Which game is staged every two years in the Italian city of Marostica near Venice?
Human chess
His Serene Highness Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg is an Alpine skier, photographer, businessman, and pop singer known as Andy Himalaya and Royal Disaster. He competed for which country at the Winter Olympics?
Mexico
At the Ithaca, NY, farmer’s market, which type of vegetables are curled in an International _______ Curling Championship?
Rutabaga
A sport in some parts of Africa, small, hard pellets of dung from which animal are spat, with the farthest distance reached being the winner?
Kudu
Which veterinary surgeon from Melbourne, Australia performed a hoax during the 1956 Summer Olympics where he pretended to be running with the Olympic Flame- but it was actually a silver chair leg and a burning pair of underpants in a plum pudding can?
Barry Larkin
What is an informal term used in baseball for the threshold of incompetent hitting that is said to occur at .200 and below?
Mendoza line
Which boxing organisation based in Puerto Rico was founded as a breakaway organisation from the WBA in 1988?
WBO
Which sport, popular in the 1960s in the Pacific Northwest, involves a diver grappling with a certain cephalopod in shallow water and dragging it to the surface?
Octopus wrestling
They were a traveling team in the NFL from LaRue, OH. The team was named after the local dog kennels. It was a novelty team put together by the kennels’ owner, Walter Lingo, for marketing purposes. All of the players were Native American, with Jim Thorpe as its leading player. With a population well under a thousand people, LaRue is the smallest town ever to have been the home of an NFL franchise, or probably any professional team in any league in the United States.
Oorang Indians
The PFL is a Toronto-based semi-professional sports league centered around what?
Pillow fighting
The result of a practical joke by future MP Humphry Berkeley, who was the nonexistent headmaster of the also nonexistent Selhurst School (“near Petworth, Sussex”) who wrote many bizarre letters to public figures in 1948?
H. Rochester Sneath
Which main astronaut character in 2001; A Space Odyssey was played by Gary Lockwood, whose daughter Samantha is also an actress and yoga practitioner?
Dr Frank Poole
Which American army surgeon who was one of the largest contributors of quotations to the Oxford English Dictionary was held in a lunatic asylum at the time? His biography by Simon Winchester is called the Surgeon of Crowthorne.
William C Minor
The activity began in the late 1970s in Sweden. It was popularized in the United Kingdom following an appearance on the TV show That’s Life!. There are more than fifty show jumping clubs throughout Scandinavia. This is show jumping for which animal?
Rabbits
What French term is used for small forewings on som fighter aircraft, as opposed to tailplanes on civilian airliners?
Canard
One of the world’s least successful football teams, they are nicknamed ‘The Bad Lions’. From which island are they?
Sark
The World Championships of which sport started in Congham, Norfolk in the 1960s after founder Tom Elwes witnessed the event in France? It is traditionally started with the words Ready, Steady, Slow?
Snail racing
With a nut on the end of your line, American college students have started fishing which land animal for sport?
Squirrels
What is unusual about ice hockey player Taro Tsujimoto who was drafted by the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres 183rd overall in the 11th round of the 1974 NHL Entry Draft?
He didn’t exist- he was created to protest at the slow speed of the drafting process
It is a popular Christmas season promotion at many minor and junior hockey arenas throughout North America. Fans are encouraged to bring them to the game, and to throw them onto the ice when the home team scores its first goal. They are then gathered up to be donated as Christmas presents to hospitals and charities. What objects?
Teddy bears
In the sport of turkey bowling, associated in America with Thanksgiving, a turkey is bowled at 10 pins. What are the pins?
Fizzy drinks bottles
What is the name of the competitive animal sport played in Flemish Belgium in which male chaffinches are made to compete for the highest number of bird calls in an hour?
Vinkensport
In which sport do five “idiots” tie themselves to a (sometimes modified) grocery store shopping cart and run through the streets of a major metropolitan area? The race usually features people in costumes and themed floats. The races are fun competitions where sabotage such as tripping competitors, throwing marbles or large obstacles in their paths, and the spreading of misinformation such as false route information are common and rewarded.
Idiotarod
What name is given to the sport that is an organized contest of human-powered amphibious all-terrain works of art and is popular on the West Coast of the USA?
Kinetic Sculpture Race
Inspired by a bet in the German TV show Wetten, dass..?, what kitchen utensils have been modified into bobsleds?
Woks
Zoobomb is a mad weekly downhill cycle race in which West Coast city?
Portland
Which manned North American rail transport vehicle was once coupled at the end of nearly every freight train, but their use has declined and they are seldom seen now, except on local and smaller railroads?
Caboose
Which sporting term for ‘wooden spoon’ gets its name from something hanging from a caboose?
Lanterne rouge
Literally Drunken Fist, which concept in traditional Chinese martial arts is a category of techniques, forms and fighting philosophy that appear to imitate a drunkard’s movements? It is considered to be among the most difficult wushu styles to learn due to the need for powerful joints and fingers.
Zui Quan
Which two-word collective term was coined in early lumberjack folklore to describe a variety of mythical beasts that were said ‘to inhabit’ the frontier wilderness of Anglo-America?
Fearsome Critters
What half-avian, half-human class of creatures (translated as “heavenly dogs”) are found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature? They are one of the best known yōkai (monster-spirits) and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami.
Tengu
Which half-man, half-snake founded Athens?
Cecrops
The leader and most powerful of the Koopa turtle race, who is the main antagonist in the Mario series?
Bowser
The forerunner of Hecate, the Egyptian goddess Heqet appeared in the form of which animal?
Frog
Which Egyptian god was the personification of eternity and had a name meaning ‘endlessness’?
Huh
The most commonly eaten potato around the world was originally indigenous to which Chilean archipelago?
Chiloe
In Orkney folklore, who are sorcerous shapeshifters of the sea, the dark mysterious race from Finfolkaheem who wade, swim or sometimes row upon the Orkney shores in the spring and summer months, searching for human captives?
Finfolk
Alternatively known as Mermaid Syndrome, it is a very rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving them the appearance of a mermaid’s tail?
Sirenomelia
Which character in the DC Comics universe is King of Atlantis?
Aquaman
Kosik is an allegendly talking elephant in a theme park in which country?
South Korea
The Patterson-Gimlin film purports to show evidence of what?
Bigfoot
A wooden box located in the Siskiyou National Forest in the southern part of Jackson County, Oregon, a few miles from the California state border is the world’s only what?
Bigfoot trap
In Asian myth, which ox flings burning dung at its enemies from its rear and horn?
Bonnacon
Which two-word concept posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times?
Eternal return
What word beginning with c means any theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be?
Cosmogony
Which mathematician is famous for his incompleteness theorems?
Gödel
Which ritual to avoid rabies was formerly practiced in a village in southeastern Bulgaria until halted by activists, including the UK Green Party?
Dog spinning
Which hallucinogenic concoction was said to be used by witches in mediavel Europe, to help guide their brooms through the air on the Sabbath?
Flying Ointment
Gerald Gardner was instrumental in promoting what after the repeal of anti-witchcraft laws in England in the 1950s?
Wicca
Which family was haunted by Gef the talking mongoose on the Isle of Man and were the only ones who ever saw him?
Irving
GORG, was an action originally scheduled for 22 December 2006 to coincide with the end of solstice. The idea was for participants throughout the world to enjoy themselves during this one day while thinking about peace in order to emit positive energy to Earth. What does GORG stand for?
Global Orgasm
Which German youth claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell? His claims, and his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate and controversy?
Kaspar Hauser
Which German sculptor did the Liver Birds in Liverpool?
Carl Bernard Bartels
Which 1972 western starring Robert Redford and directed by Sydney Pollack was based on the story of a frontiersman called ‘liver-eating’ due to stories of his unusual cannibalistic tendencies?
Jeremiah Johnson
Which term was coined by the late ethnobotanist, writer and philosopher Terence McKenna to describe the apparent entities that are often reported by individuals using tryptamine based psychedelic drugs, especially DMT?
Machine elves
It is described as bright red with a wide body that is 2 to 5 feet long and lives in the Gobi Desert. It can spew forth acid that, on contact, will turn anything it touches yellow and corroded (and which would kill a human), as well as being able to kill at a distance by means of electric discharge. Which cryptid?
Mongolian Death Worm
In 2003, David Hart claimed to have found what preserved in a jar of formaldehyde in his garage in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire? The hoax was a publicity stunt to publicise a forthcoming book.
Pickled dragon
Which popular bilingual proverb concerns the historic friendship between two Eastern European peoples?
Pole and Hungarian Cousins Be
A bat-winged monster called the Popobawa is said to sodomize people during election campaigns on which island?
Zanzibar
In cryptozoology, ufology, and outdoor photography, what phenomenon (sometimes known as “skyfish” or “solar entities”) are elongated artifacts produced by cameras that inadvertently capture several of a flying insect’s wingbeats? Videos of such objects moving quickly through the air were claimed by some to be alien life forms or UFOs, but subsequent experiments showed that they appear in film because of an optical illusion.
Rods
Which folkloric creatures are adapted to living on hillsides by having legs on one side of their body shorter than the legs on the opposite side (trapping the beast in an endless circular, uphill path)?
Sidehill gougers
Knitters use this term to describe a situation in which a knitter gives a hand-knit item to a significant other, who quickly breaks up with the knitter?
Sweater curse
Which creature from Japanese folklore is best known for its huge testicles but is also the Japanese word for the raccoon dog?
Tanuki
According to the Japanese, these “artifact spirits” originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware? Any object of this age, from swords to toys, can become one?
Tsukumogami
In this folk legend from the Balkans, watermelons or any kind of pumpkin kept more than ten days or after Christmas will become what?
A vampire
Which CIA project attempted to use cats in spy missions? A battery and a microphone were implanted into a cat and an antenna into its tail.
The first cat mission was eavesdropping on two men in a park outside the Soviet compound in Washington, D.C. The cat was released nearby, but was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately.
Acoustic Kitty
The Duplessis Orphans were the victims of a scheme in which several thousand orphaned children were falsely certified as mentally ill by the government of which province and confined to psychiatric institutions?
Quebec
What was an apparently innocuous piece of congressional legislation that became the subject of outrageous but widely believed conspiracy theories in 1956?
Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act
Simon Burgess, former Managing Director of British Insurance, said “Of course, the burden of proof lies with the claimant. Let’s face it – insurance is so tedious that if I can enlighten my dreary life with a bit of humour every now and again, I will.” He was referring to insurance against what?
Alien abduction
Operation Snow White and Operation Freak Out were both designed to discredit the percieved enemies of what?
Scientology
In which EU capital city is the world’s only vegetable orchestra based?
Vienna
What ‘effect’ occurs when people devote sufficient time and attention to an activity that it begins to overshadow their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. It is named after a video game?
Tetris Effect
Which all-female rock group formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1968 by the Wiggin family on the insistence of their father, Austin Wiggin? The band is primarily notable today for their perceived ineptitude at playing conventional rock music but Kurt Cobain and also Frank Zappa liked them- the latter called them “better than the Beatles”?
The Shaggs
Which Star Trek cast member is responsible for the song The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins?
Leonard Nimoy
P D Q Bach used which awful-sounding hybrid of the trombone and the bassoon?
Tromboon
What is a traditional Newfoundland musical instrument fashioned out of household and tool shed items, typically a mop handle with bottle caps, tin cans, small bells and other noise makers. The instrument is played with a drum stick and has a distinctive sound?
Ugly stick
What is a close equivalent of the ugly stick in UK folk music?
Monkey stick
You Suffer by which British grindcore band is the shortest song ever, at 1.36 seconds?
Napalm Death
Which five-word phrase was first used by Mr Justice Foster in 1978 as an informal rejection of a claim that a trader has made a misrepresentation damaging another trader’s goodwill, an important principle in passing off law? The case related to whether it was possible to distinguish between the Morning Star and the Daily Star.
A moron in a hurry
Angie Sanclemente Valencia is a former Colombian beauty queen and lingerie model now believed to be what?
A drugs baroness
What was the name commonly given to the posthumous ecclesiastical trial of Catholic Pope Formosus, held in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January of 897? Before the proceedings the body of Formosus was exhumed and, according to some sources, seated on a throne while his successor, Pope Stephen (VI) VII read the charges against him (of which Formosus was found guilty)?
The cadaver synod
Which philosophy invented by John Lennon and Yoko Ono involved literally wearing a bag over one’s entire body. According to John and Yoko, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged by others on the basis of skin color, gender, hair length, attire, age, or any other such attributes?
Bagism
Which British interest group campaigns in support of beards and opposes discrimination against those who wear them. It was founded in 1995 by socialist historian Keith Flett who continues to organise and represent the organisation?
Beard Liberation Front
Which tongue-in-cheek economic indicator, maintained by the U.S. bank PNC Financial Services, tracks the cost of the items in the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?
Christmas Price Index
Which informal index of economic health created by The Economist counts how many stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times using the namesake word in a quarter?
The Recession Index
Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions, or B.U.G.A. U.P. is a subvertising artistic movement that detourns or modifies with graffiti billboard advertising that promotes something they deem unhealthy, usually cigarettes. In which city did they start their activity?
Sydney
Which loosely connected group of West Coast activists called the BBB for short are famous for throwing pies in the faces of such figures as Bill Gates, San Francisco mayors Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom, anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, economist Milton Friedman, Swedish King Carl Gustaf, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and conservative journalist William F. Buckley?
Biotic Baking Brigade
Nino Rota’s theme to Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film Romeo and Juliet is familiar to millions in what broadcasting context?
Our Tune with Simon Bates on Radio 1
Sometimes referred to as the “Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch”, “The Burglar Bunch”, or the “Hollywood Hills Burglars”, which group, mostly comprising teenagers based in and around Calabasas, California, burgled the homes of several celebrities over a period believed to have been from around October 2008 through August 2009. In total, their activities resulted in the theft of about $3 million in cash and belongings, most of it from Paris Hilton, whom they robbed several times?
The Bling Ring
By tradition, what do Canadian finance ministers wear on Budget Day?
New shoes
Nix v. Hedden was a case in which the United States Supreme Court addressed whether what was what?
A tomato was a fruit or vegetable
Which gay gun rights organization in the United States and Canada has mottos including “Pick on someone your own caliber” and “Armed gays don’t get bashed.”?
Pink Pistols
The PPPP was a kind of Polish equivalent of the Monster Raving Loony Party, but with a serious message- to switch to lower-alcohol drinks and not vodka. In English, what does PPPP stand for?
Polish Beer Lover’s Party
What is or was it prohibited to do on Delos and in Longyearbyen?
Die
What are the names of the large circular stones used on Yap for money?
Rai stones
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire, the text of which was famously laced with profanities against Mehmed, was an actual historical document written in1676. Who painted the scene of the Cossacks gleefully writing it?
Ilya Repin
Name all three Chiltern Hundreds that an MP can resign to?
Stoke, Desborough and Burnham
In which English county is the similar Manor of Northstead?
Yorkshire
We promise to keep none of our promises was the name of which eccentric political party in Canada that was led by Cornelius the First and shared its name with an animal?
Rhinoceros Party
Educated at Sherborne School, which man first became well known for performing topical calypsos on television satire shows such as That Was The Week That Was. He appeared in the Carry On film, Carry On Cruising (1962). He also provided the voice of central character “Old Fred” in The Beatles’ animated film Yellow Submarine?
Lance Percival
In which Katheryn Bigelow film do bank robbers use masks of US presidents?
Point Break
What three word phrase means an informal strategy used by authors to evade libel lawsuits by making male characters deliberately unflattering?
Small penis rule
Which leftist German psychiatric patients’ group active in 1970/71, fighting against medicine and doctors as enemies of the “patients’ class”, saw capitalism as the reason for illness and practicing illness as a weapon against capitalist society?
Socialist Patient’s Collective
What is Hungarian-born La Cicciolina’s real name?
Ilona Staller
Stambovsky v. Ackley was a famous case in which it was determined that what applied legally to a house in Nyack, NY?
That it was haunted
Keron Thomas was most famous for posing as what in New York in 1993?
A subway train driver
The Swastika Laundry was a laundry service whose electric vans cheerfully displayed the notorious symbol around which city until the 1960s?
Dublin
Which perennial candidate for election in Canada, according to the Guinness Book of Records, holds the records for the most elections contested and for the most elections lost? As of March 2010 he has contested 73 elections and lost 72.
John C. Turmel
VHEMT (pronounced “vehement”), is a movement which calls for what? (i.e. spell out its initials)
Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
What is the name of a short work by dystopian English author J.G. Ballard, first published as a pamphlet by the Unicorn Bookshop, Brighton, in 1968? It is written in the style of a scientific paper and catalogues an apocryphal series of bizarre experiments intended to measure the psychosexual appeal of Ronald Reagan, who was then the Governor of California and candidate for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination.
Why I Want to F*ck Ronald Reagan
Who founded Postcard Records in Glasgow in the early 1980s?
Alan Horne
Abeguwo is a goddess of which mythology who resides in the sky, and when she feels the urge to urinate, does so onto the Earth in the form of rain?
Melanesian
Axinomancy is a way of foretelling the future by using what?
An axe
What is a form of divination using sortition, casting of lots, or casting bones or stones?
Cleromancy
Catoptromancy is divination using what?
Mirror
What name is given to divination using mice?
Myomancy
Cromniomancy is divination using what?
Onions
What is a technique of divination using molten metal. Typically molten lead or tin is dropped into water?
Molybdomancy
Libanomancy is divination using what?
Incense smoke
What is a type of divination by means of any rod, wand, staff, stick, arrow, or the like?
Rhabdomancy
Which phrase refers to a fête in Rome, and particularly to a prostitute-laden supper held in the Papal Palace by Don Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI on October 30, 1501, that marked a nadir for Catholicism?
Banquet of Chestnuts
Robert John Burck is an American street performer whose pitch is on New York City’s Times Square. He wears only cowboy boots, a hat, and briefs, with a guitar strategically placed to give the illusion of nudity. What’s his name?
The Naked Cowboy
Which form of dishonor could be passed by the Roman Senate posthumously upon traitors or others who brought discredit to the Roman State, with their faces erased from pictures, statues destroyed, etc?
Damnatio Memoriae
What was the Nazi name for Christmas?
Julfest
What was the name of the Nazis’ fight to get the churches in Germany on the side of Nazism?
Kirchenkampf
The Nazis gave to charity. Which drive, its slogan “none shall starve nor freeze”, ran from 1933-1945 during the months of October through March, and was designed to provide food, clothing, coal, and other items to less fortunate Germans during the inclement months?
Winterhilfswerk
What was the name of the Rector of Stiffkey?
Harold Davidson
Which pejorative expression has been used since at least 2001 in Wicca (and in Neopaganism generally) to refer to adherents of the religion who are thought to be superficial or faddish? They are considered to dislike darker elements and emphasise goodness, light, eclecticism and elements taken from the New Age movement, or follow it as a fad.
Fluffy Bunny
In atheism, if the FSM is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, what is the IPU?
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Which Chinese General is most notable for his act of self-castration as a display of loyalty to his emperor?
Gang Bing
In China, what are a modern form of joss paper printed to resemble modern bank notes? They are not an official currency or legal tender anywhere in the world but are intended to be burnt in Chinese ancestor veneration.
Hell bank notes
In Christian iconography, what name is given to Christ’s foreskin?
Holy prepuce
Which religion does not discriminate against homosexuals as it is, unusually, not fertility based?
Haitian Voodoo
Umbanda, Candomble, Batuque, and Macumba are all Africa-derived hybrid religions in which country?
Brazil
In which religion would you find The Bubble Gum Incident, the Body Builder Incident, the Ice Cube Incident and Aircraft Door Goals?
Scientology
What is the scientific term for ‘handedness’?
Chirality
In June 2005, Jamie Reed, newly-elected Labour Member of Parliament for Copeland in Cumbria, declared himself to be the first ever what?
Jedi MP
In Sikhism, what is Kachchhera?
Special underwear
What is the name of the fringed undergarment worn by Orthodox, Hasidic and some Conservative Jewish males. It is a poncho-like garment with a hole for the head and special twined and knotted fringes?
Tallit Katan
What are the name of those twined and knotted fringes?
Tzitzit
Which type of underwear is worn by members of some denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, after they have taken part in the Endowment ceremony?
Temple Garment
Which newspaper in Illinois that only ever published only one issue, dated June 7, 1844, set off a chain of events that led to the assassination of Latter Day Saint movement founder, Joseph Smith?
Nauvoo Expositor
Which star, according to Mormons, is the closest to God’s throne?
Kolob
Which Hungarian-born Australian geologist claimed to be Jesus Christ as he attacked Michaelangelo’s Pieta with a hammer in 1972?
Laszlo Toth
Claudia, Procla, Procula, Perpetua or Claudia Procles are suggested named for which nameless Biblical character?
Pilate’s wife
Who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, establishing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the “Heavenly King” and self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ?
Hong Xiuquan
Its scientific name is parhelion. What is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun?
Sun dogs
What is Arabic for Jesus?
Isa
It took place on 31 May 1838 near Hernhill in Kent; it has been called the last battle on English soil. The battle was between a small army of laborers from the Hernhill, Dunkirk, and Boughton area and a detachment of soldiers sent from Canterbury to arrest the marchers’ leader, the self-styled Sir William Courtenay, who was actually John Nichols Thom, a Truro maltster with a history of mental illness.
Battle of Bossenden Wood
No-one knows his real name. He was an African American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death. He founded the International Peace Mission movement, formulated its doctrine, and oversaw its growth from a small and predominantly black congregation into a multiracial and international church. Controversially, he claimed to be God.
Father Divine
Marina Tsvigun, who led a cult that tried to storm St Sophia Cathedral in Kiev on 10 November 1993, the day she had predicted the apocalypse, is better known by what assumed name?
Maria Devi Christos
Which American punk rocker, who died in 1993, was christened with the forenames Jesus Christ?
GG Allin
Which term coined by M. Lamar Keene in his 1976 book The Psychic Mafia is used to refer to people who continued to believe in a paranormal event or phenomenon even after it has been proven to have been staged?
True-believer syndrome
What is the name of an influential Indonesian dynasty that emerged in 8th century Java? They were active promoters of Mahayana Buddhism and covered the Kedu Plain of Central Java with Buddhist monuments, including the world famous Borobudur.
Sailendra
After her death, she was deified by her people with the name of Tanit and assimilated to the Great Goddess Astarte. Who?
Dido
Son of Amyntor, he was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was “… by far the dearest of all the king’s friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets.” This friendship lasted their whole lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus. Who?
Hephaestion
Probably a lover and therefore deified by Hadrian, which member of Hadrian’s entourage was the last non-Imperial human to be formally deified in Western Civilization?
Antinous
Which prominent minority religious group in Syria who describe themselves as a sect of Shī‘ah Islam live traditionally in the An-Nusayriyah Mountains along the Mediterranean coast of Syria?
Alawites
which new religion that was an offshoot of Shintoism was founded by Deguchi Nao in 1892 and, among other beliefs, claims that L L Zamenhof, the founder of Esperanto, was a god?
Oomoto
Who founded the Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930?
Wallace Fard Muhammad
Which immense fresco painted by Greek-Italian artist Constantino Brumidi in 1865 is visible through the oculus of the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building?
The Apotheosis of Washington
According to the founders of Mormonism, Native Americans were the descendants of which race of people?
Lamanites
Which Vanuatu island is the centre of the Prince Phillip cult?
Tanna
What is the tradition of worshipping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy or devi in South Asian countries? The word literally means virgin in Sanskrit, Nepali and other Indian languages and is a name of the goddess Durga as a child.
Kumari
Which empire was created out of the eastern conquests of the former Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great? At the height of its power it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today’s Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.
Seleucid
Jehovah Wanyonyi (1924?-) lives in which country? He claims to be God and deems Jesus to be his son. He also claims to be able to cure AIDS and has stated that he would punish the nation if they did not give him $3.8 million. His religion is called “Lost Israelites.” Wanyonyi has 25 wives and 95 children.
Kenya
The only Protestant religion of Puerto Rican origin, it believes that a woman born Juanita García Peraza (1897-1970) was the living incarnation of the Holy Spirit in its third manifestation?
Mita
Dutch cult leader Lou de Palingboer (1898-1968) claimed he was Jesus Christ. Lou de Palingboer was his nickname from his days as a market trader and means what in English?
Lou the Eel Seller
Which alphabet of India and Nepal is written from left to right, does not have distinct letter cases, and is recognizable (along with most other North Indic scripts, with the Gujarati script being an exception) by a horizontal line that runs along the top of full letters?
Devanagari
Which word starting with M is, in Buddhist eschatology, a future incarnation of the Buddha?
Maitreya
Which Swiss electronica band consisted of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank?
Yello
What name is given to the purported appearance of the Sun in Portugal in 19176 after the Fatima events?
The Miracle of the Sun
What Greek-derived term is used for sayings of Jesus that are not found in the canonical Gospels?
Agrapha
Which two-word term describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product’s source materials? Some consider it a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology.
Open source
Which Roman noblewoman who was the alleged mistress of Pope Sergius III was given the unprecedented titles senatrix (“senatoress”) and patricia of Rome by Pope John X?
Marozia
David Allen Bawden (born September 22, 1959), is recognized as who by a small group of Conclavists based in Delia, Kansas?
Pope Michael I
Which termwas first used in 1853 to describe the members of the See of Utrecht who did not recognise any claimed ‘infallible’ papal authority? Now it refers to anyone who splits with the Church of Rome on doctrinal grounds but retains their Catholicism.
Old Catholic
Saeculum Obscurum (The Dark Age), The Rule of the Harlots or the Pornocracy are all terms used to describe a number of immoral Popes in which century?
Tenth century (904-964)
From the Pennsylvania German for running around, what word generally refers to a period of adolescence for some members of the Amish that begins around the age of sixteen and ends when a youth chooses baptism within the Amish church or instead leaves the community?
Rumspringa
Which Church was founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by D. F. Cassidy and has found a following mainly among homosexual men in Canada and the United States? It teaches that the phallus is the source of life, beauty, joy, and pleasure
St Priapus Church
Sometimes interpreted as “spiritual echo,” or calling up the dead, it was an ancient Scottish mode of divination. In one version it included roasting cats alive, one after the other, for several days, without tasting food. This supposedly summoned a legion of devils in the guise of black cats, with their master at their head, all screeching in a terrifying way?
Taghairm
What two word term is a genre of science fiction comic or the history of the universe according to Scientology?
Space opera
Which 2nd century Greek philosopher and opponent of Early Christianity is known for his literary work, The True Word, the earliest known comprehensive attack on Christianity? He explained that Jesus’ mother was a poor Jewish girl. This girl’s husband, who was a carpenter by trade, drove her away because of her adultery with a Roman soldier named Panthera.
Celsus
Which analytical tool is used by Biblical scholars in assessing whether the New Testament’s accounts of Jesus’ actions and words are historically probable? It states that if something is awkward for an author to say and he does anyway, it is more likely to be true.
Criterion of embarrassment
Which philosophical concept was described by Aristotle as the first cause that sets the universe into motion? St. Thomas Aquinas elaborated on the idea in the Five Ways.
Unmoved mover
Which five-word phrase, associated most recently with Stephen Hawking, is a jocular rebuttal to the question ‘If the universe stands on the back of a turtle, what does the turtle stand on’?
Turtles all the way down
Which Czech and Slovak religious movement founded in the 1990s centered around Ivo A. Benda is based upon the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations communicating with Benda and other contactees since October 1997 telepathically and later even by direct personal contact?
The Universe People
What four-word phrase is the name given to an episode alluded to in three verses of Exodus. It is one of the more unusual, curious, and much-debated, passages of the Pentateuch, because its use of pronouns renders it unclear who is doing what to whom. The verses in question are Exodus 4:24–26, the context is Moses and his wife on their way from Midian to Egypt to announce the plagues to the Pharaoh?
Zipporah At The Inn
The 3rd Dental Battalion is a unit of the United States Navy that supports United States Marine Corps forces where?
On Okinawa
In 1896, which war lasted 45 minutes, the shortest in history?
Anglo-Zanzibar
The Soviets loaded which animals with explosives until 1996 as anti-tank ‘suicide’ bombers?
Dogs
Sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, which battle was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force “B” to capture German East Africa during World War I? The 98th Infantry got attacked by swarms of angry bees and broke up. The bees attacked the Germans as well, hence the battle’s nickname.
Battle of Tanga
The Vespa 150 TAP is an Italian scooter modified to transport what?
A rifle
Which memorial located in Saratoga National Historical Park, New York commemorates Major General Benedict Arnold’s service at the Battles of Saratoga in the Continental Army, but contrives not to name him?
The Boot Monument
Which eccentric English soldier who fought throughout World War II armed with a longbow, arrows, and a claymore was also the first man to surf the Severn Bore?
Jack Churchill
An otherwise-typical fighter-mounted bomb photographed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in October 2001 during the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan was defaced with graffiti (a “message” to the bomb’s targets) by an unidentified U.S. Navy sailor which outraged the LGBT community. What did it say?
Hijack this, Fags
Conflicts in the East End in the 1980s between rival van operators, over lucrative territory and selling drugs involved daily violence and intimidation, and led to the deaths by arson of several members of the family of one van driver and a consequent court case that lasted for 20 years. The conflicts generated widespread public outrage, and earned the Police the nickname the “serious chimes squad”. What’s the name of this episode?
Glasgow Ice Cream Wars
What codename was given to a massive, rocket-propelled, explosive-laden cart designed by the British military during World War II, whose name was derived from a word coined in the c18 by Samuel Foote?
Panjandram
Which experimental weapon in WW2 got its codename because it was the name of a Biblical prophet backwards?
Hajile
Also known as an Anti-Submarine Projector, it was an anti-submarine weapon developed by the Royal Navy during World War II deployed on convoy escort warships such as destroyers to supplement the depth charge. What was its name, from its animal-like appearance?
Hedgehog
In WW2, what were Hobart’s Funnies?
Tanks modified for the D-Day landings
In WW2, what were the British equivalent of the Italian maiale?
Chariots
If you are on a boat and are called a Shellback, what have you done?
Crossed the Equator
Conversely, what name is given to a boat passenger who has not yet crossed the Equator?
Pollywog
Which beauty contest is held in Russia to boost military recruitment?
Miss Russian Army
If you are a Golden Shellback, where have you crossed the equator?
At the International Date Line
If you are an Emerald or a Royal Diamond Shellback, where have you crossed the equator?
At the Greenwich Meridian
According to a famous Chinese poem, what was the name of the woman who joined the Chinese army in her father’s stead?
Hua Mulan
What is the place of Betty Burke in Scottish history?
Servant of Flora McDonald who Bonnie Prince Charlie disguised herself as
Which later prime minister of Israel disguised himself as a woman to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut in 1973?
Ehud Barak
Which nnual Christmas-themed entertainment program produced under the auspices of the North American Aerospace Defense Command purports to follow Santa Claus as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents to children around the world?
NORAD Tracks Santa
It was not Hiroo Onoda, who for some reason is more famous despite only being the penultimate Japanese holdout during WW2. Who was actually the last one, still fighting until 1974?
Teruo Nakamura
Which (almost certainly non-existent) experiment is also referred to as Project Rainbow?
Philadelphia Experiment
Which troop of soldiers in ancient Greece consisted of 150 gay lovers?
Sacred Band of Thebes
Which is the only gay-friendly rugby club in the UK, based in Edinburgh?
Caledonian Thebans
Who was the first known leader of the Sacred Band of Thebes?
Gorgidas
Which Theban general and statesman of the 4th century BC transformed the Ancient Greek city-state of Thebes, leading it out of Spartan subjugation into a preeminent position in Greek politics. In the process he broke Spartan military power with his victory at Leuctra?
Epaminondas
Which was the most decorated war dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted to sergeant through combat?
Sergeant Stubby
It boasts the world’s highest helipad, built by India. The world’s highest battlefield is also located on the glacier at a height of 21,000 feet. Which glacier, controlled by India but claimed by Pakistan?
Siachen Glacier
A cargo ship built by Thomas Royden & Sons of Liverpool; acquired from the Leyland Line in 1901; scrapped in 1903. A cargo ship built by W. Harkess & Sons of Middlesbrough; sunk by gunfire from German submarine SM U-35 during World War I on 5 January 1917, and a cargo ship built by Swan Hunter of Wallsend; seized by Vichy French forces at Beirut during World War II; scuttled 14 July 1941; wreck is a dive site. All three ships had what name?
SS Lesbian
The Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74 was an ad hoc solution to a lack of sufficient anti-tank guns in the aftermath of the Dunkirk evacuation. It consisted of a glass sphere containing nitroglycerin covered in a powerful adhesive, and surrounded by a sheet-metal casing. It had several faults with its design. In tests it failed to adhere to dusty or muddy tanks. How is it known?
Sticky bomb
What were the name of the chariots used in war in the c20? With machine guns mounted on them, their use was widespread in Ukraine during the Russian civil war.
Tachanka
Which turning manoeuvre on horseback in dressage has a name derived from the Spanish for ‘snail’?
Caracole
What name is given to a type of propeller-powered snowmobile, running on skis, used for communications, mail deliveries, medical aid, emergency recovery and border patrolling in northern Russia, as well as for recreation? They were used by the Soviet Red Army during the Winter War and World War II.
Aerosani
The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years war ended in 1986 when the Dutch Ambassador signed a peace treaty where?
The Scilly Isles
What name was given to the almost entirely bloodless boundary dispute between the U.S. state of Ohio and the adjoining territory of Michigan?
The Toledo War
When William was thrown from his horse his helmet was driven into his face, suffocating him, but this man was able to remove the helmet and save William’s life. He suffered dearly for his bravery, sustaining an injury so severe that his entire leg had to be amputated. Which (almost certain non-existant) man?
Truelove Eyre
Which unusual Russian armored vehicle developed in 1916–1917 was scrapped after initial tests deemed the vehicle to be underpowered and vulnerable to artillery fire? It differed from modern tanks in that it didn’t use caterpillar tracks—rather, it used a tricycle design. The two front spoked wheels were nearly 9 meters (27 feet) in diameter.
Tsar Tank
The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program is based in which coastal city?
San Diego
The War of the Insane or the Madman’s War was a revolt by which ethnic group against taxation in the French colonial administration in Indochina lasting from 1918 to 1921?
Hmong
Which top secret sulfurous stench weapon was developed by the Americans during World War II to be used by the French Resistance against German officers? It smelled strongly of fecal matter, and was issued in pocket atomizers intended to be unobtrusively sprayed on a German officer, humiliating him and, by extension, demoralizing the occupying German forces.
Who Me
Which defeat by Crassus, where molten gold was poured down his throat, is responsible for the English phrase ‘parting shot’, originally ‘Parthian shot’?
Battle of Carrhae
Which was Hannibal’s most notable success against the Romans?
Cannae
In which battle was the Emperor Valens killed by the Goths in 378 AD?
Adrianople
The result of this 636 battle was a complete Muslim victory which permanently ended Byzantine rule south of Anatolia.
Yarmuk
Which was the decisive engagement between the Arab Muslim army and the Sassanid Persian army during the first period of Muslim expansion? It resulted in the Islamic conquest of Persia, and was key to the conquest of Iraq
Kadisiya
This battle, in 1071, saw the Byzantine Empire suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Seljuks, resulting in the capture of Emperor Romanos IV.
Manzikert
At which battle in 1187 did overconfident Crusader forces from Jerusalem became trapped in a waterless desert area, and thus became easy prey for the Saracen forces of Salah-ud-din (Saladin)?
Hattin
At which 1598 battle was an English force of 4000 ambushed by Irish defenders under Hugh O’Neill and defeated. This temporarily put Ireland out of English control, allowing the rebellion to spread throughout Ireland?
Battle of the Yellow Ford
It took place during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn the public buildings of Washington, D.C. It has been called “the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms”. What?
Battle of Bladensburg
Whose disastrous retreat in 1842 during the First Anglo-Afghan War led to the loss of almost his entire command?
William Elphinstone
It occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in “The Narrows” section of the Harbour. About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured. This is still the world’s largest man-made accidental explosion. Which city?
Halifax, NS
Which battle fought in Spanish Morocco between the Spanish Army and combatants of the Rif region was a major military defeat suffered by the Spanish on July 22, 1921? It led to major political crises and a redefinition of Spanish colonial policy.
Annual
What was the first major Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during World War II? British and Commonwealth forces attacked Italian forces in western Egypt and eastern Libya in December 1940 to February 1941. The attack was a complete success.
Operation Compass
Who was the British commander who capitulated to the Japanese in the Battle of Singapore?
Arthur Percival
What was the codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation during World War II, which cleared German forces from the Belorussian SSR and eastern Poland between 22 June 1944 and 19 August 1944? It was named after the 18th–19th century Georgian Prince, a general of the Imperial Russian Army, who received a mortal wound at the Battle of Borodino.
Bagration
Name the mistaken attack on a United States Navy technical research ship by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy torpedo boats, on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War? The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members. The Israelis thought it was an Egyptian ship.
USS Liberty Incident
Operation Gothic Serpent is nowadays more well known through which three word phrase, which describes the downing of an aircraft in its midst?
Black Hawk Down
What links the deaths of Prince Okarius of Bavaria and Earl Ulf of Denmark?
Fight over a chess match
At a hanging, what is sometimes called angel lust?
The corpse’s ‘death erection’
One of the signs of death, it is a settling of the blood in the lower portion of the body, causing a purplish red discoloration of the skin: when the heart is no longer agitating the blood, heavy red blood cells sink through the serum by action of gravity.
Livor Mortis
Which special railway station in London was constructed for funeral trains near Waterloo, specifically to serve Brookwood Cemetery?
London Necropolis
What name is given to the practice of physically rendering the dead incapable of rising or haunting the living in undead form? One common method was the cutting off of the feet, hands, ears, nose, etcetera, tying them under the armpits of the corpse all strung together.
Maschalismos
Which mysterious figure, from approximately 1949 until 2009, paid an annual tribute to American author Edgar Allan Poe by visiting the author’s original grave marker on Poe’s birthday, January 19? Eyewitnesses reported that the person, dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat and a white scarf, would leave three roses and a partially-filled bottle of French cognac then disappear into the night.
The Poe Toaster
Who did the same as the above, for Valentino’s grave?
The Woman in Black
Which American photographer and artist has become most notorious through his photos of corpses, as well as his controversial work “Piss Christ”, a red-tinged photograph of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of what was purported to be the artist’s own urine?
Andres Serrano
What name is given to a figure of a skull or skeleton (usually human) commonly used for decoration during the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, although they are made all year round?
Calaca
Which form of execution that allegedly occurred in Nantes during the Reign of Terror in Revolutionary France involved tying a naked man and woman together and drowning them?
Republican marriage
Which cruel man ordered Republican Marriages- a man who was notorious for harrying Nantes during the Terror?
Jean-Baptiste Carrier
What was the Australian equivalent of the London Necropolis Company railway?
Rookwood Cemetery railway line
Which American serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California was nicknamed “The Vampire of Sacramento” because he drank his victims’ blood and cannibalized their remains?
Richard Chase
What name is given to a coffin fitted with a mechanism to prevent premature burial or allow the occupant to signal that he has been buried alive?
Safety coffin
What name is given to the spontaneous return of circulation after failed attempts at resuscitation? Its occurrence has been noted in medical literature at least 25 times since 1982.
Lazarus syndrome
What is the name of the once common funerary practice in Tibet wherein a human corpse is cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements and animals – especially to birds of prey?
Sky burials
In Zoroastrianism, how is a dakhma better known?
Tower of Silence
Who was thought to be Tokyo’s oldest man until July 2010, when it was found that he had likely died in 1978, aged 79, and his family had never announced his death in an attempt to preserve his record?
Sogen Kato
The Valentich disappearance gave rise to which three-word phrase for that stretch of water?
Bass Strait Triangle
VEGM is a Western-style tombstone equipped with weatherproofed video playback that would be initiated by remote control. Through sound and video, VEGMs would, in theory, make visits to graveyards an interactive experience. What does VEGM stand for?
Video Enhanced Grave Marker
Multiple premature obituaries came to light on 16 April 2003, when it was discovered that pre-written draft memorials to several world figures were available on the development area of which website without requiring a password? It described Dick Cheney as the UK’s favourite grandmother.
cnn.com
Which (Jewish) Italian theoretical physicist who began promising work on neutrino masses disappeared suddenly in 1938 in mysterious circumstances?
Ettore Majorana
Which American professional basketball player disappeared in Uganda in April 1978 and has not been heard from since?
John Brisker
Which judge in New York City disappeared on the night of August 6, 1930? He was last seen leaving a restaurant on 45th Street. His disappearance became one of the most famous in American history and pop culture, and earned him the title of “The Missingest Man in New York”.
Joseph Crater
In 1964, Joseph Gaetjens, who scored the famous 1-0 goal against England in Belo Horizonte disappeared in which country?
Haiti
Which American traveler, adventurer, and author? Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history—thirty-six cents—he was headline news for most of his brief career. His final and fatal adventure, an attempt to sail a Chinese junk, the Sea Dragon, across the Pacific Ocean from Hong Kong to the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, made him legendary.
Richard Halliburton
Michael Clark Rockefeller (presumed dead November 17, 1961), was the youngest son of U.S. Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller and disappeared during an expedition in the Asmat region of which island?
New Guinea
Which question has been used many times as a trite dismissal of medieval angelology in particular, of scholasticism in general, and of particular figures such as Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas?
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
In the ad, titled “Fluffy Bun”, actress Clara Peller receives a burger with a massive bun from a fictional competitor which uses the slogan “Home of the Big Bun”. What does she then ask?
Where’s The Beef?
Which was by far the most visited article on Wikipedia in 2009, possibly the result of a typing error? It refers to a concept invented by Ward Cunningham.
Wiki
Also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, it is a 16×16 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage. Browsers that provide support typically display it in the browser’s address bar and next to the page’s name in a list of bookmarks.
Favicon
What was the subtitle of the 2009 sequel to ‘Transformers’?
Revenge of the Fallen
Which 2009 American superhero film directed by Zack Snyder and starring Malin Åkerman and Billy Crudup is set in an alternate history 1985 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as a group of mostly retired vigilantes investigates an apparent conspiracy against them and uncovers something even more grandiose and sinister?
Watchmen
In which town, more famous for something else, was Megan Fox born?
Oak Ridge, TN
Which Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Noriaki “Tite” Kubo follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper? It shares its name with a household product.
Bleach
Which American situation comedy with Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segal premiered on CBS in 2005? The main character, in the year 2030, recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to him meeting their mother.
How I Met Your Mother
What surname is shared by the popes Leo X and Clement VII?
Medici
In Yorkshire, what is a fat rascal?
Scone or teacake
Who wrote The Charterhouse of Parma/La Chartreuse de Parme in 1839?
Stendahl
How many hectares in a square kilometre?
100
Name this geographical feature: a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, either an extremely slow-moving stream or river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), or a marshy lake or wetland. It is frequently an anabranch or minor braid of a braided channel that is moving much more slowly than the mainstem, often becoming boggy and stagnant.
Bayou
What relation is Jean-Michel Jarre to Maurice Jarre?
Son
What is the highest rank in the Royal Marines, currently Prince Phillip?
Captain-General
What are the other two of Tanzania’s three islands?
Pemba and Mafia
According to the memoirs of Samuel Butler, life is one long process of getting __________?
Tired
Which instrument represents the swan on the river of death in the Sibelius tone-poem The Swan of Torvela?
Cor anglais
What is represented by the flute in Peter and the Wolf?
Bird
Which instrument represents Peter in Peter and the Wolf?
Strings
Which instrument represents Peter’s grandfather in Peter and the Wolf?
Bassoon
Who was the general, who under the Emperor Justinian in the c6, was successful in reclaiming North Africa, Italy and Spain, the so-called lost provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, for the Byzantines?
Belisarius
Which Italian man, who had previously enjoyed a circus career as a strongman billed as the Patagonian Sampson, discovered the entrance to the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings in 1817?
Giovanni Belzone
In Alvin Toffler’s book the Culture Consumers, there is the law that the wider any culture is spread, the thinner it must become. What’s the name of this law?
The law of raspberry jam
Eyes Wide Shut was based on which Arthur Schnitzler work?
Traumnovelle
What is the chemical formula of acetylene?
C2H2
Which is the first of the Barchester series by Trollope?
The Warden
Which eccentric physicist was evicted from numerous hotels for feeding pigeons from his room?
Nikola Tesla
A building in Motcombe Street, Belgravia was used from the 1830s as storage facilities for wealthy residents nearby. It was built with a Greek style Doric column façade, and called what, Greek for “pertaining to all the arts or crafts”? By extension, its delivery vans got that name too.
Pantechnicon
Jacques Pierre Brissot, Jean Marie Roland and Jérôme Pétion were the leaders of which group in Revolutionary France?
Girondists
Which is the first of the City of London livery companies in order of precedent?
Mercers
What was Jean-Luc Godard’s response when told that films should have a beginning, middle and end?
Yes, but not necessarily in that order
Also a form of accommodation, what term means to minimise capital gains tax by selling shares one day and then buying them back the next?
Bed and breakfasting
What term for the internal organs of a pig has now come to mean a meatloaf made with such offal, originating in Lincolnshire?
Haslet
Which explorer was born in East Coker, Somerset?
William Dampier
Which saint founded the Carthusian order?
St Bruno of Cologne
Which canal finished in 1939 links Antwerp and Liege?
Albert Canal
In which field of human activity was the First Earl of Leicester a pioneer?
Farming
Due to top-heaviness, it foundered and sank after sailing less than a nautical mile (ca 2 km) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. Which ship?
The Vasa
Which king insisted on the floating of the Vasa even though it wasn’t ready?
Gustavus Adolphus
Which part of a horse’s saddle loops beneath the tail and prevents it from sliding forwards?
Cropper
Which Welsh town was created a city to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002?
Newport
Which Stockholm building is the world’s largest hemispherical building?
Ericsson Globe
The Ericsson Globe represents the Sun in which model, the world’s second largest of its type?
Sweden Solar System
The point towards the edge of the heliosphere where the solar wind slows down is called what?
Termination Shock
What name is given to the point at the edge of the heliosphere where the interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance?
Heliopause
What name is given to the point where the interstellar medium, traveling in the opposite direction, slows down as it collides with the heliosphere?
Bow Shock
Earning the moniker “America’s Oldest Teenager”, until he had a stroke in late 2004, which 80 year old man is famous for his New Year’s Rockin’ Eve show in the USA?
Dick Clark
Which American comedy-drama television series follows students of the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University (CRU) who participate in the school’s sororities and fraternities?
Greek
Which Australian singer-songwriter is known for the 1981 #1 single “Jessie’s Girl”, which became a blockbuster of 1980s pop rock music and helped establish the emerging music video age?
Rick Springfield
Which American singer and guitarist had success in the mid-1950s and 60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and is known to many as the First Lady (or Queen) of Rockabilly? She moved to a successful career in mainstream country music with a string of hits between 1966 and 1973, including “Tears Will Be the Chaser for Your Wine”, “A Woman Lives for Love” and “Fancy Satin Pillows”.
Wanda Jackson
Which denomination of euro coin is minted as commemorative coins?
Two euros
What is the name of the world’s tallest museum, in Turin?
Mole Antonelliana
What museum is it?
National Museum of Cinema
Schwerin is the capital of which German Bundesland?
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Which is the largest city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern?
Rostock
Primoz Trubar was a Protestant reformer, the founder and the first superintendent of the Protestant Church in his country, a consolidator of its language and the author of the first printed book in that language. Which country?
Slovenia
The Count of Cavour was a pivotal figure in the founding of modern Italy. What was his real name?
Camillo Benso
What name is an alliance of four Central European states – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – for the purposes of cooperation and furthering their European integration?
Visegrad Group
Which music festival takes place annually on June 21 and started in France?
Fete de la Musique
Which Portuguese explorer and writer’s exploits are known through the posthumous publication of his memoir Pilgrimage in 1614, an autobiographical work whose validity is nearly impossible to assess? He travelled widely in the Middle and Far East and was one of the first Europeans to make contact with Japan.
Fernao Mendes Pinto
In which German city does a statue of the city’s protector, Roland, erected in 1404 stand in the market square facing the cathedral? He bears Durendart, the “sword of justice” and a shield decorated with the two-headed imperial eagle.
Bremen
What is the name of the twin-towered gate in Lubeck?
Holstentor
As evidenced by its modern acronymic name, which major container company started life as the Hamburg American Packet-shipping Joint Stock Company?
Hapag-Lloyd
Which medieval building in Frankfurt am Main, one of the city’s most important landmarks, has been the city hall or Rathaus for 600 years?
Roemer
Impressed by Versailles, which Elector of the Holy Roman Empire built the Zwinger palace on his return?
Augustus the Strong
In which German city is the Zwinger Palace?
Dresden
Which large Roman city gate in Trier, Germany is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps and has been designated a World Heritage Site?
Porta Nigra
Which castle is situated on a 1230-foot precipice to the southwest of, and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia?
Wartburg
Which was the last Moorish and Muslim dynasty in Spain?
Nasrid
The Nasrids rose to power after the defeat of which other dynasty in 1212?
Almohad
What’s the name of the summer palace of the Nasrid rulers near Granada, part of the Alhambra World Heritage Site?
Generalife
The old town of Granada, which is the third component of the Granada World Heritage Site?
Albayzin
It was used for the topknots of the Easter Island statues, and is a volcanic rock like pumice, but denser- it sinks in water. It means rust in Greek and is also the origin of the name of Phillip II’s palace near Madrid?
Scoria
Which type of United States paper money that was issued between August 1861 and April 1862 during the American Civil War in denominations of 5, 10, and 20 dollars was the origin of the nickname ‘greenback’ for money in America?
Demand note
Which American businessman and engineer sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987? He was a pioneer in television commercials with his oddball “Madman” persona – an alter ego who generated publicity with his unusual costumes, stunts, and outrageous claims. He invented the practice that came to be known by his name (_____ing), which involves simplifying otherwise complicated electronic devices.
Earl Muntz
Which financial crisis, named for the year of its occurrence, happened in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell close to 50% from its peak the previous year? It was triggered by the failed attempt to corner the market on stock of the United Copper Company. This led a week later to the downfall of the Knickerbocker Trust Company—New York City’s third-largest trust.
The Panic of 1907
What name is given to the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length?
Coastline paradox
What are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that occur far out in sea, and are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners?
Rogue waves
What name is given to a concrete block in a complex geometric shape weighing up to 20 tons, used in great numbers to protect harbour walls from the erosive force of ocean waves? They were developed in East London, a port city in South Africa and are found in millions around the world.
Dolos
Project Azorian or Project Jennifer in 1974 was a covert CIA operation at sea that may have successfully done what?
Raised a Russian nuclear sub
How was pirate Jack Rackham better known?
Calico Jack
Also known as lobstering or tail-flipping, which three word phrase refers to an innate escape mechanism in marine and freshwater crustaceans such as lobsters, krill, shrimp and crayfish?
Caridoid escape reaction
Which optical phenomena occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a spot of that colour is visible, usually for no more than a second or two, above the sun, or a ray of that colour shoots up from the sunset point?
Green flash
In biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are said to be doing what?
Shoaling
When does shoaling become schooling?
If a shoal is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner
What name is given to a shape which is the intersection of two circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the circumference of the other? The name literally means the “bladder of a fish” in Latin. The shape is also called mandorla (“almond” in Italian).
Vesica Piscis
Its original meaning was simply “triangle” and it has been used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it has come to refer exclusively to a particular more complicated shape formed of three vesicae piscis, sometimes with an added circle in or around it. This has been used as a religious symbol of things and persons that are threefold?
Triquetra
Which pizza-like dish made in southern France, around the Nice, Marseilles, Toulon and the Var District, and in the Italian region of Liguria. Believed to have been introduced to the area by Roman cooks during the time of the Avignon Papacy, it can be considered a type of white pizza, as no tomatoes are used?
P1ssaladiere
Bagoong is a version of fish sauce in the cuisine of which country?
Phillipines
When one considers a heap of sand, from which grains are individually removed, is it still a heap when only one grain remains? If not, when did it change from a heap to a non-heap? This paradox is called what?
Sorites Paradox
What name is given to a sudden and violent windstorm phenomenon at sea which is not accompanied by the black clouds generally characteristic of a squall? They are common on the Great Lakes but less common at sea.
White squalls
What is the German word for “skull of a dead man”? It is used to describe a military insignia featuring a skull suprapositioned upon crossed long bones; when used in this context it is commonly known as the “death’s head” in English. For a long time in use in several countries, its association with aspects of Nazi Germany has perhaps accelerated its decline.
Totenkopf
Which flag, possibly totemic in nature, was flown by various Viking chieftains and other Scandinavian rulers during the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries? It was roughly triangular, with a rounded outside edge on which there hung a series of tabs or tassels.
Raven banner
Which scale measuring the height of the waves and also the swell of the sea is expressed in one of 10 degrees?
Douglas scale
The TORRO scale measures what?
Tornadoes
Which originally Swedish word means a gathering of males, of certain animal species, for the purposes of competitive mating display. They assemble before and during the breeding season, on a daily basis?
Lek
What is the name used locally for a natural phenomenon that occurs sporadically on the shores of Mobile Bay when many species of crab and shrimp, as well as flounder, eels, and other demersal fish will leave deeper waters and swarm—in large numbers and very high density—in a specific, shallower coastal area of the bay? It attracts large crowds, many drawn by the promise of abundant and easy-to-catch seafood.
Jubilee
What was the name of Tiberius’ palace on Capri?
Villa Jovis
The only inhabitant of the island of Tetiaroa in the Society Islands of French Polynesia is whose son?
Marlon Brando
The striated caracara, native to the Falkland Islands, is what kind of creature?
Bird
Which type of knot, so named because it looks somewhat like a small bunched paw, is tied at the end of a rope to serve as a weight, making it easier to throw? This type of weighted rope can be used as an improvised weapon, called a slungshot by sailors. It was also used in the past as an anchor in rock climbing, by stuffing it into a crack, but this is obsolete and dangerous.
Monkey’s fist
The Palawan Princess is the second largest in the world, and the Lao Tzu the largest- what?
Pearls
Named for her inventor, which was the first combat submarine to sink an enemy warship? It belonged to the Confederate States of America.
H L Hunley
Which military conflict took place from 1879 through 1884 in which the forces of Chile fought against a defensive alliance of Bolivia and Peru? Also known as the “Saltpeter War”, the war arose from disputes over the control of territory that contained substantial mineral-rich deposits.
The Pacific War
What name was given to a series of battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru and Chile from 1864 to 1866, that began with Spain’s seizure of the eponymous guano-rich islands, part of a series of attempts by Isabel II of Spain to reassert her country’s lost influence in its former South American empire?
Chincha Islands War
What name is given to an unusual and very complex form of mirage, a form of superior mirage, which, like many other kinds of superior mirages, is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon?
Fata Morgana
Which ill-fated 1913 expedition went to investigate a huge island supposedly sighted by the explorer Robert Peary from Cape Thomas Hubbard, Nunavut in 1906? The island was later shown to have been a mirage.
Crocker Land Expedition
What is the proper name of a body of water?
Its hydronym
Which ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism? Some of its verses are still recited as Hindu prayers, at religious functions and other occasions, putting these among the world’s oldest religious texts in continued use. It is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that it was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 1700–1100 BC.
Rig Veda
Which land formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Metz served as its capital?
Austrasia
British territory, Southern Thule is a part of which island group?
South Sandwich Islands
What is the capital of South Georgia, meaning Pot Cove in Swedish, and home to Shackleton’s grave?
Grytviken
Also the victim of a Fata Morgana, this time in Antarctica: Sometimes known as Morrell’s Land, it was an appearance of land recorded by the American captain Benjamin Morrell of the schooner Wasp in March 1823, during a sealing and exploration voyage in the Weddell Sea. However it doesn’t exist. WHat name ws given to this non-existent land?
New South Greenland
Almost all diamonds have some kind of colour. Which colour diamonds are the rarest?
Red
Which rare and valuable opal-like organic gemstone found primarily along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada is arguably the rarest gemstone on earth?
Ammolite
What is the name given to an 1863 conflict between rival egging companies on the Farallon Islands, 25 miles off San Francisco?
The egg war
Which order given aboard naval vessels to issue the crew with a drink orginated with an order for one of the most difficult emergency repair jobs aboard a sailing ship, so became a euphemism for authorized celebratory drinking afterward, and then the name of an order to grant the crew an extra ration of rum or grog?
Splice the mainbrace
German biologist Ernst Haeckel is known for his controversial (and wrong) hypothesis that in developing from embryo to adult, animals go through stages resembling or representing successive stages in the evolution of their remote ancestors. What is the name of this hypothesis?
Recapitulation theory
Jacquemart island is the southernmost extremity of which country?
New Zealand
What name is given to a group of herbaceous perennial wildflowers growing in the New Zealand sub-antarctic islands? They are characterised by their great size, with huge leaves and very large and often unusually-coloured flowers, which have evolved as an adaptation to the harsh weather conditions on the islands.
Megaherbs
Crimping or shanghaiing in the USA has what British equivalent?
Press ganging (or impressment)
Which islands have now been renamed Haida Gwaii?
Queen Charlotte Islands
Which straits separate the Haida Gwaii from the British Columbia mainland?
Hecate Strait
What name is given to the carved wooden figures formerly used to represent tobacconists, just as striped poles indicated barber shops?
Cigar store Indians
What term traditionally refers to air routes flown by Qantas between the countries of Australia and the United Kingdom, via the Eastern Hemisphere?
Kangaroo Route
What collective name is given to the set of nine commercial aviation rights granting a country’s airline(s) the privilege to enter and land in another country’s airspace?
Freedoms of the Air
Electropositive metals are a class of materials that produce a measurable voltage when immersed in an electrolyte. The voltages produced are as high as 1.75 eVDC in seawater. Therefore, they can be used as what useful items?
Shark repellants
Which country has the world’s largest Exclusive Economic Zone at sea?
USA
Which camouflage paint scheme used on ships, extensively during World War I and to a lesser extent in World War II was credited to artist Norman Wilkinson? It consisted of a complex pattern of geometric shapes in contrasting colours, interrupting and intersecting each other.
Dazzle camouflage
What colour scheme was adopted by vessels of the Royal Navy, modelled on that used by Admiral Horatio Nelson? It consisted of bands of black and yellow paint along the sides broken up by black gunports.
Nelson Chequer
What name is given to an extremely fine, rare and valuable fabric produced from the long filaments or byssus secreted by a gland in the foot of several bivalve molluscs (particularly Pinna nobilis L.) by which they attach themselves to the sea bed?
Sea silk
Which sign language, on an island famous for its hereditary deafness, evolved into American Sign Language?
Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language
What was unusual about the baseball game played between Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in 1981?
Longest professional baseball game in history
What is the pseudonym adopted by a man who has retrograde amnesia who was discovered unconscious on August 31, 2004 behind a Burger King in Richmond Hill, Georgia? No-one knows who he really is.
Benjamin Kyle
Who was Patient Zero in the AIDS epidemic?
Gaetan Dugas
Early in the Reagan administration, the FDA proposed changing the status of what from condiment to vegetable, thereby cutting out a serving of vegetables from hot lunch program child-nutrition requirements?
Ketchup
Which form of evidence based upon dreams and visions of what the accused did was permitted at the Salem Witch Trials?
Spectral Evidence
It presents a scenario where the volume of space debris in Low Earth Orbit is so high that objects in orbit are struck frequently by debris, thereby creating even more debris. The implication is that this debris might render space exploration unfeasible?
Kessler syndrome
The six-hour clock is a traditional timekeeping system used in which country alongside the official twenty-four-hour clock? Like the other common systems, it counts twenty-four hours in a day, but divides the day into four quarters, counting six hours in each.
Thailand
What form of real-time internet communication, IRC for short, predates the World Wide Web? IRC was used to report the Soviet Coup during a media blackout in 1991, similarly to Twitter being used in Tehran in 2009.
Internet Relay Chat
Which ‘argument’ claims to predict the future lifetime of the human species given only an estimate of the total number of humans born so far? It states that supposing the humans alive today are in a random place in the whole human history timeline, chances are we are about halfway through it.
Doomsday Argument
Which two-word name can refer to any of three plants: Synsepalum dulcificum, source of a berry that increases the perceived sweetness of foods, Gymnema sylvestre, source of an herb that reduces the perceived sweetness of foods, and Thaumatococcus daniellii, source of a spice that has an intensely sweet flavor?
Miracle Fruit
What medical term describes involuntary swearing or the involuntary utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks?
Coprolalia
What name is given to a performer who receives payment for farting in an amusing and/or musical manner?
Flatulist
With its associated response “two bits”, what is the name for the simple, 7-note musical couplet popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comic effect?
Shave and a haircut
Bonobos are endangered in the wild and found in only one country- which one?
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Which phenomenon occurs when a person, after having learned some (usually obscure) fact, word, phrase, or other item for the first time, encounters that item again, perhaps several times, shortly after having learned it?
Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon
The Julia Tuttle Causeway colony was an encampment of what kind of people who were living beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway, a highway in Miami, Florida from 2006 to April 2010?
Sex offenders
Which device first used in World War II that, used with other artificial paratrooper units, is meant to cause an invasion by air to appear larger than it actually is? Their first known use was by the Germans during the Battle of the Netherlands and Belgium in 1940. They used straw-filled puppets that were thrown en masse out of airplanes in order to incite fear and panic among the civilian population.
Paradummies
What is the name of the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world? It is also known as the Devil’s Bible because of a large illustration of the devil on the inside and the legend surrounding its creation.
Codex Gigas
If you are gleeking, what are you doing?
Spitting
What is the name of the chain of state-owned North Korean restaurants in cities across Asia?
Pyongyang
What is the name of the secret money-laundering/slush fund department of the North Korean government?
Room 39
Which vague and obscure legal term is used in certain jurisdictions to mean “walking down the street with no clear destination or purpose”?
Mopery
What term means a research facility where human decomposition after death can be scientifically studied in a variety of settings. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the decomposition process, permitting the development of techniques for extracting information (such as the timing and circumstances of death) from human remains?
Body farm
What name is given to the aftermath of the November 13, 1985 Nevado del Ruiz Volcano eruption in Tolima, Colombia. The eruption of lava melted the mountain’s large ice cap and produced floods, mudslides and a series of lahars?
The Armero Tragedy
