Sunday, January 6, 2008

The Monday Quiz IX

Flags of the World

Obsolete vestiges of medieval heraldry? Or cherished symbols of the human unity achieved in the modern nation state? You be the judge!

1. What South American County?


2. What Northern European Country?


3. What African Country? (That's a Maasai shield, if that helps.)


4. Can you ID either of these two flags?





5. Can you ID either of these two flags?



Submit your answers in the comments.

25 comments:

Karin said...

1. Chile? Brazil? Okay, Brazil.
2. Norway
3. Kenya
4. no idea.
5. I'm gonna guess Puerto Rico for the first one, because of the star and stripes, although it has African colors, hmm. And for the second one, let's see, how about Georgia? Because of the H, which is a G in Russian.

d said...

ok. this is gonna be hilarious:
1. chile?
2. denmark
3. tanzania? no. i'm gonna say kenya
4. i think the top one is south korea. i have no idea about the bottom one.
5. the bottom one seems south american to me. argentina? the top one looks all uptight and european, but i have no idea. latvia?

Elizabeth said...

1. Chile. But probably not.
2. Either Norway or Sweden, and I'll say Sweden since I just shopped at IKEA, but I hear my Norwegian high-school French teacher yelling "NO!" (or "NON!") in the distance.
3. Ethiopia. This isn't a fair question because George Bush says Africa IS a country.
4. South Korea (top) and Lichtenstein (bottom).
5. I'll bet their both from some -stan so I'll say Khazakstan (top) and Turkmenistan (bottom).

mhwitt said...

Since you have recently made it clear that you want participants, even when they know they are ignorant of the answers, I humbly offer this submission:

1. pretty sure it's Brazil, but last week I was pretty sure Hilary Clinton would be the next President of the United States of America.
2. Norway, I think. Can't get much more northern anyway.
3. Kenya? No matter what the country, no doubt that some number of the non-Massai are pissed off about the flag.
4. Nope. How about Estonia and Latvia. How about peace, love and understanding?
5. I'll go with Syria and Jordan. Seems like the latter is likely to be from Islamic countries anyway.

Rebel said...

1. Brazil
2. Finland
3. South Africa?
4. the bottom one I'm guessing- Cuba
5. again guessing at the bottom one - Qatar??

Anonymous said...

Flagging =

1. Declining; weakening.
2. Languid; drooping.

Apt for me, but I'll give it something marginally better than my worst shot.

1 - Brazil
2 - Norway
3 - Burundi
4 - North Korea / Tasmania
5 - Tunisia / Kazakhstan

Dan Nolan said...

1. Brazil
2. Finland
3. Tanzania
4. No
5. No

Anonymous said...

1 Brazil
2 Finland
3 Kenya?
4 NO! upper: Swaziland (also the Japanese Christmas banner, hung in department stores to promote nationalist retail fervor, and used to test for color blindness in the off season)
lower: Luxembourg
5 NO! upper: Ethiopia
lower: Qatar

Anonymous said...

1. Brazil
2. sweden
3. Swaziland (is that even a country?)
4. no, I can't
5. a) the colors are confusing me.(it doesn't take much)
b) how pretty. Uzebeckistan?
So, I guess that is a no on #5 too, then.

Anonymous said...

1. Brazil
2. Norway?
3. Kenya
4. Japan's twilight zone doppleganger and... no idea.
5. Well, the first one looks like one of those optical illusions where you stare at it for a while then look at a blank surface and see a painting of the Battle of Gettysbury. The second one has pretty colors...

Anonymous said...

I definitely meant Gettysburg, not Gettysbury.

fingerstothebone said...

Since I had a lazy day yesterday, I decided to be lazy all the way and not take the quiz. (Besides, I already took another 5 images quiz anyhow.)

Instead, I LOOKED UP THE FLAGS! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that right. I LOOKED THEM UP! So for one brief, shining moment in my life, I knew ALL the answers to the Monday quiz...bwahahahahaha

G said...

1. Brazil! Oh my, how I wish I were there right now.
2. Um, no.
3. Tanzania? No, that's got more stripes. Kenya!
4. No.
5. Sigh. No.

Blah. But for fun, please see Josh Parsons' Grading the World's Flags. Boo, Dominica!

G said...

P.S. Does Bhutan's flag depict a dragon on wheels? 'Cause that would be awesome.

Rebel said...

I was feeling bad that I only got 2 of them right... but it looks like I'm not the only one struggling with this week's quiz.

Mr. Shain said...

i think i'll only get the ones where i've actually been there:

1. brazil
2. finland
3. kenya
4. bangladesh/?
5. togo or myanmar/?

Chance said...

Ah, vexillology. I did a post on that, here if you care.

1. brazil, for sure
2. i'm guessing finland, but those norse flags all look alike.
2. kenya
4. (top) bangladesh
(bottom) luxembourg?
5. (top) togo
(bottom) it seems muslim, but for the life of me i can't think what country it would be. maybe it's not a country flag at all.

McGuff said...

1. Brazil
2. Finland
3. Let's try Chad
4. Nope. Nothing. And I like them so much too.
5. Nada. Let's try Burundi / Turkmenistan. If not, then Someotherstan: Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, M5Kistan,....

Anonymous said...

1. Brazil
2. Sweden
3. Ethiopia?
4. No
5. No

I'd like to point out that "No" is a correct answer for both 4 and 5. You are, after all, asking me whether or not I can identify either of the flags. Therefore, the only two possible right answers are "yes" or "no." =)

MBG said...

1. Brazil
2. Finland
3. Kenya
4. ? / Panama?
5. ? / Tajikistan?

Anonymous said...

1. Brazil maybe
2. Suomi! Finland.
3. Kenya?
4. The top one is to test for color blindness. Bottom the same.
5. no idea the top unless it is also a color blindness flag but the bottom, Uzbekistan? Had to go with a random Stan on that one.

Michael5000 said...


In fact, the answers are:

1. Brazil
2. Finland
3. Kenya
4. Bangladesh/Panama
5. Togo/Turkmenistan

Michael5000 said...

There was a HUGE range of answers today; I guess you either know flags or you don't.

Mr. Shain, on a roll after winning the last Thursday Quiz, blurred the line a little bit by giving two answers "Togo or Myanmar," but it was a tough quiz, so I'll lighten up.

Our own sapient sutler, Chance, was right there with him. They take the MQIX Exclamation Points.

This makes Chance the unrivaled Monday Quiz champion to date, with three-count-'em-three Exclamation Points to his name. Mr. Shain, with two, moves into an eight-way scrum for second. (You can of course follow all this excitement at The L&TM5K Quiz Leaderboard.)

Michael5000 said...


@Elizabeth: A trip to IKEA could have been helpful, in that their stores and signage drape themselves in the colors of the Swedish flag. Which are, alas, not blue and white, but rather blue and gold.

@mhwitt: That's the spirit!

@Mrs.5000 and Boo: It has occured to me that the Bengali flag (and also the Moroccan, if memory serves), are not exactly friendly to those countries' color-blind citizens.

@sandy: I think the Turkmeni flag is a stunner, too. As flags go.

@missy: To test your hypothesis, I stared at the flag of Togo without blinking for approximately sixty seconds, then looked at a white surface. You were about a century off, as what I actually saw was the Battle of Stalingrady.

@fingers: Crikey, if she just looks up the answers, I have lost the source of my power!

@g: The dragon (named "Druk"!) is apparently grasping jeweled orbs of some sort. However, I don't see why he couldn't use them as wheels....

@Mr. Shain: Have you in fact been to Brazil, Finland, Kenya, and Bangladesh? And more significantly, have you been in a situation where you weren't sure whether you were in Togo or in Myanmar? Because that must be a hell of a story.

@Phineas: Hmmm, M5Kistan needs a flag, doesn't it....

@mydog: Nice try.

@Annielee: You were so close I can hardly stand it, the difference between "ajik" and "urkmeni." Of course, I suppose that seems rather important to the Tajiks and Turkmen.

Thanks for playing, y'all.

Mr. Shain said...

i won't bore your readers with stories about how i studied the world almanac as a child...

i've never been to myanmar, but i have been to panama--i don't know how i missed that one.