Tuesday, May 26, 2009
May 20 Math Bee
Monday, May 25, 2009
May 20 Warmup Quiz Answers
Nobel and Pulitzer Winners
Who won 2008’s Nobel Peace Prize? MARTTI AHTISAARI (no one knew this!)
What New York Times writer won 2008’s Nobel Prize in Economics? PAUL KRUGMAN (some people knew this)
The 2008 Nobel Prizes in “Physiology or Medicine” went to the discoverers of what two viruses? HIV & HPV
Who won the 2009 Pulitzer in music? STEVE REICH
In fiction? ELIZABETH STROUT
In poetry? W.S. MERWIN
Please list all the UK Prime Minsters serving after Churchill:
(The list of all UK Prime Ministers may be found here. One note: Churchill served three terms, with one Clement Attlee between the second and third terms; Attlee counts. Also, incidentally, as one point was awarded per prime minister listed, the winner of the quiz was pretty much the person who knew the most prime ministers -- good work, Norm!)
May 13 Warmup Quiz Answers
(JACK CONNER, TOM MORGAN, AL SMITH, BILL WELLS)
(ACQUIT, BAZAAR, CRUNCH, FRILLY, GAZEBO, HYPHEN, JARGON, KNIGHT, LAGOON, MELODY, ORPHAN, PSYCHE, ROTUND, SOUGHT, UNKIND, WREATH. Unfortunately, many people came up with the lovely word "fright," which works, but then leaves the contestant with "soully," which is a sad attempt at an adverb. The correct match, as above, is "frilly" and "sought.")
Famous People Anagrams - Unscramble to Spell the Name of a Person Matching the Clue (1 point each):
LOUD MAD SAGAS (an author at the end of the universe):
MERRY WARDROBE (she’s just not that into you):
DEMON JABS (a suave fictional character):
ONLY I CAN THRILL (never made it out of the primaries):
GERMANY (really liked to eat pie in the ‘80s):
PURITANS (pulled strings in Russia while the czar was away):
(DOUGLAS ADAMS, DREW BARRYMORE, JAMES BOND, HILLARY CLINTON, MEG RYAN, RASPUTIN)
Friday, May 15, 2009
May 13 Geography Bee Results
Winner Frank Chang (center) with runners-up Johnny and Bev and hosts Abbi and Jen
Frank Chang won in a knockout geography battle including a new round called "Country (and Territory) Truths and Lies." Contestants were each given five statements about a country and asked to separate the truths from the lies. Example (answers below):
The Philippines is named after King Philip II of Spain
The Philippines declared independence from the U.S. after WWI
The Philippines consists of 18 islands
The Philippines currently has a female commander in chief of the armed forces
The Philippines exports more oil than coconuts, measured monetarily
Click here for more photos.
Answers: TRUTH, LIE (after WWII), LIE (it's over 7,000!), TRUTH, LIE
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Answers to May 6 Warmup Quiz
Name the 2 smallest nations by land mass: VATICAN CITY AND MONACO
List the top 10 websites in the U.S. in any order (our source is today's Alexa rankings). Hint: includes 3 search engines, one video site, 2 social networking websites, and one online encyclopedia.
(Note: the list is also here, although it may have changed since the date of the quiz).
Yahoo!
YouTube
Myspace
Microsoft Network (MSN)
Windows Live
Wikipedia
Craigslist.org
eBay
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
May 6 Vocabulary Tournament Results
Winner: M.G. Duke
Winner M.G. Duke with host Jen and runner-up Johnny Lu
A full complement of 20 competitors vied for the vocabulary championship this month. In round one, as always, contestants were given three difficult words and asked to make up a sentence including all three. In round two, we played "Synonym Antonym True False" -- for example, trying answering Synonym Antonym True, or False to each of the following questions, as fast as possible (answers below):
realistically contains two a’s
a jodhpur is a weapon
erroneous infallible
the plural of synopsis is synopsis
perfidious staunch
an emollient is a salve
a quindecasyllabic word has 14 syllables
Finally, in round three, we tried a crossword-style challenge, one example of which came out looking like this:
M.G. Duke was far and away the winner, but many grandiloquent individuals had copious fun perambulating the Market, cerebrally jousting, and engaging in affable badinage.
Click here for more photos.
Answers: TRUE, FALSE (they're pants), ANTONYMS, FALSE, ANTONYMS, TRUE, FALSE (it has 15)
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
April 29 Warmup Quiz Answers
5 points: Take the first letter of the Spanish word for “today” (also the name of a popular Spanish language newspaper). Follow it by the first name of the current president of Liberia. Follow it by the initials of the term used to describe the boundary that separated the Warsaw Pact countries from the NATO countries from about 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. These letters together will form an adjective describing the study or spread of a particular ancient culture after that culture’s decline. Answer: HELLENIC
CALIFORNIA
TEXAS
NEW YORK
FLORIDA
ILLINOIS
Name the last 5 U.S. states by population:
South Dakota
Alaska
North Dakota
Vermont
Wyoming
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
April 29 Team Trivia
Here are some sample categories and questions from last week's trivia game:
American Cities and States
- The “Old North State” is actually in the South. What is it?
- If you are visiting a downtown area called The Loop, what metropolis are you in?
- What southern state was known as Land of the 4 C’s, after the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes?
- What is the name of the insurance-like contracts that promise to cover losses on certain securities in the event of a default and in which the buyer makes periodic payments to the seller, in return receiving a payoff if an underlying financial instrument defaults?
- Name the economist whose views, espoused in General Theory of Employment Interest and Money, encouraged deficit spending as a cure for the Depression of the 1930s.
- Name the 1977 Broadway musical containing the song "We'd like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover"
- In Eintein’s e=mc2, what does c stand for?
- What does the m stand for?
- The equation a2 + b2 = c2 was named after what Greek mathematician and mystic?
The Date Rappers were awarded first place, and we took their picture and we think they're swell. But then, after many people had left, O'Trivia Newton John (best team name EVER!) approached us, suspicious that they hadn't even been named in the top 5 teams when we announced Honorable Mentions. Turns out the team grading their answer sheet CAN'T ADD. We added. O'Trivia Newton John won by half a point. O'Trivia Newton John was offered a cash prize, but these guys didn't even want it -- they just wanted the recognition. Classy! The Date Rappers and O'Trivia Newton John are both seriously smart. Check 'em out here:
O'Trivia Newton John
The Date Rappers
(Answers: North Carolina; Chicago; Alabama; credit default swap; Keynes; Annie; the speed of light; mass; Pythagoras).