Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The Wednesday Quiz was responsible for the birth of modern science



It's:


The weekly game of knowledge, intuition, inductive reasoning, and willingness to risk public embarrassment in a friendly and moderately supportive environment!!

Answers come out Fridayish.

1. It's Russian for "transparency" in the sense of "open to public scrutiny."

2. Unlike its author's previous novels, such as The Beautiful and Damned and This Side of Paradise, this book was a commercial flop. At the time of his death, it was considered evidence of his failure to reach his potential. Now it is widely considered to be among the best novels in the English language. Name that book.

3. What is this here Manhattan landmark?



4. What movie do this bit of dialog come from?
Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing?
Benjamin: Well, I would say that I'm just drifting. Here in the pool.
Mr. Braddock: Why?
Benjamin: Well, it's very comfortable just to drift here.
5. One of the oldest extant pieces of literature -- although it's got bits missing where the clay tablets chipped -- it's about a Sumerian king who has adventures with his "wild man" pal Enkidu until the later dies, at which point the king goes on a long but fruitless quest for immortality.

6. What's being described here?


7. Stephen Hawking said he "perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science," and the Indigo Girls dubbed him "King of Night Vision, King of Insight."

8. The first served from 590 to 604, the sixteenth and most recent served from 1831 to 1846.

9. What Florentine painter created this little image in 1305 or so?



10. He was the founder of the Bauhaus school and, along with Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is considered one of the founders of Modernist architecture.

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The tie-breaker: What countries begin with this week's letter? I count eleven, and I oughtta know.

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Put your answers in the comments, open to public scrutiny.  Or send them in by postcard, of course.  

14 comments:

Elaine said...

1. Glasnost
2. The Great Gatsby
3. The Guggenheim
4. The Graduate
5. Gilgamesh, The Epic of
6. G....gosh-darned if I know
7. Galileo
8. Grand Poohbah
9. Giotto
10. Good grief
Shoot. I was going so well there for a minute.
Gabon, Ghana, Guinea (Papua, New), Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Grenada, Greenland, Guyana, Grand Cayman, and Google.

It's my birthday! I'm 64. In other words--not a milestone or a big deal (same old, same old) but oh well.

Christine M. said...

1. glasnost
2. The Great Gatsby
3. The Guggenheim
4. The Graduate
5. Gilgamesh
6. dunno
7. Galileo
8. Pope Gregory
9. Giotto
10. Walter Gropius

gS49 said...

1. Glastnost
2. Great Gatsby
3. Guggenheim Museum
4. Graduate, The
5. Gilgamesh, Epic of
6. God knows
7. Galileo Galilei
8. Gregory, Pope
9. Giotto
10. Gropius, don't know his first name.

Germany, Georgia, Gambia, and that's all.

Ben said...

1. Glasnost
2.
3. The Guggenheim Museum?
4.
5. The Epic of Gilgamesh
6. Gravity?
7. Galileo
8. Probably a Pope name...
9.
10.

margaret said...

1. glasnost
2. Great Gatsby
3. Guggenheim, aka a Great roller-skating venue
4. "The Graduate," aka "Get the mom"
5. The Gita?
6. Gravity
7. Gallileo
8. King George(s)
9. Giuseppe
10. gonna kick myself later, I know it, I KNOW it ... but I don't

Ghana!, Gabon, Germany, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Grench Guyana, Greenland, Goa (arguably a country?)

dhkendall said...

1. glasnost
2. Grapes of Wrath?
3. The Guggenheim?
4. got me
5. Gilgamesh?
6. gravity?
7. Galileo?
8. Pope Gregory
9. guh?
10. ga-wha?

Bonus: Gabon, Gambia, Georgia (possessor of one of my favourite flags and my second-favourite national anthem), Germany, Ghana, [Gibraltar], Greece, [Greenland]. Grenada, [Guam], Guatemala (the recent stamp should be a it of help), [Guernsey], Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana.

Voron X said...

1. гла́сность
2. The Great Gatsby
3. Guggenheim
4. The Graduate (1967)
5. Epic of Gilgamesh
6. Newtonian Gravitational Attraction
7. Galileo
8. Pope Gregory
9. Giotto
10. Gropius
11. Germany, Greece, Georgia, The Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Guyana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea Ecuatorial/Guinée équatoriale, Grenada, Guatemala, (Guyane française, Guam, Geurnsey, Gibralter, Guadeloupe, Gaza Strip, Greenland, Glorioso Islands)

Elaine said...

VoronX
You do know we're not supposed to Google the answers, right?
No, honest-- that's not human! Who knows these things? Wow.
but now that I think about it, your name is not an Earthling name, is it?

Voron X said...

My apologies, I was in a hurry, and didn't read the rules, so, yes, I did Google. I also didn't realize it was all the same letter until I got to the end, at which point certain things became easy, like Guggenheim and glasnost. But scratch off numbers 4, 9, & 10 (though I would have known 10 in high school, since I did a report on bauhaus architecture, having liked the British band of the same name.) Not sure if I would have gotten 8. I figured it was a Pope, then got in a hurry and Googled. The countries, to be honest, didn't know about the Glorioso Islands, would not have thought to include Gaza or Guernsey, Gibralter, Guadeloupe, they not being on the flag-matching app my son loves. But the rest is as easy as going systematically continent by continent.

Elaine said...

VoronX
I clicked on your Blue Name and have read a bit of your story...
As the mother of a serious-birth-defects-affected child, I know a lot of what your life has been these last few years.
I just want to say, keep on keeping on! If I had only been able to know our daughter would win out, how much easier it might have been--but of course, that is not how it works. In any case, at age 30, she is now living her life (heading our way this weekend for a visit) and things are more positive than we had ever imagined. Hang in!

dhkendall said...

What is it with M5K fans that we have so much in common! My son was born with Pierre Robin's Syndrome/Sequence (I've heard both terms used) and the stories, pictures, etc that you shared (Voron) are definitely fresh in my mind (my son is now 6-1/2 and pretty much like his peers save for the occassional followup surgery). I even have the cute hospital pics like you to prove it!

That must be what gives us our superhuman intelligence (although I didn't Google, I'm just an uber geography geek and do know pretty much all the country names by heart in alphabetical order.)

Michael5000 said...

1. Glasnost
2. The Great Gatsby
3. The Guggenheim
4. The Graduate
5. Gilgamesh, The Epic of
6. Gravitational Force
7. Galileo
8. Pope Gregory
9. Giotto
10. Gropius

Happy Birthday Elaine!

Voron: No Googlin'! Although this is less important than it was back in the days when there was an elaborate scoring system, and much less than when there were actual cash-value prizes. But we've still stayed in the tradition of brain-only quiz taking.

dhkendall: It's a compelling theory, except that Mrs.5000 and I don't have any kids at all, so where does ~our~ superhuman intelligence come from?

Voron X said...

@Elaine- Thank you. It has been tough, and still is. The story, as far as my son goes, is incredibly victorious. I fell of the livejournal wagon a bit, but he's been doing incredibly. He's still a little delayed w/rt eating (eats through a g-tube, and eats very little by mouth, but he's caught up in size (though not as athletic as his cousin), and graduated from all education programs. He's a frikken Genius. How many kids know the flag of Qatar before the age of 3? He did mistake Fiji for Tuvalu, but I'll cut him slack with that one. He navigates through the apps folders very well to pick the games he wants. He surprised the Verizon guy by reading the logo on his shirt (or pretty much anywhere else, often with the accompanying slogan). And he's polite and sweet as well.

I don't know if you are aware, but his mother is currently in the hospital with a fever of unknown origin (as well as acquired Methemoglobinemia caused by Dapsone) following a Kidney/Pancreas transplant she got last month. The pre-eclampsia which resulted in Xerxes' premature birth pretty much did in her kidneys. Hopefully the doctors can figure out what's causing her current sickness (nothing grows in blood cultures or shows up on scans.)

Wish her a speedy recovery!

Aviatrix said...

I missed the quiz, but that doesn't mean I can't play now.

1. глазность
2. The best novel in the English language? No idea. I had, For Whom the Bell Tolls, but now I have the letter I have to take The Great Gatsby, because I'm pretty sure Garfield, Larger than Life isn't it.
3. General Assembly of the United Nations
4. As Saw III doesn't begin with G I'll have to switch to The Godfather.
5. What's the question? I'll was going with, "when were they found?" and had "1809." I'll have to switch to Gilgamesh, which has a significantly greater chance of being right.
6. Gravitational attraction between two masses.
7. Hmm, birth of modern science. Did he mean modern as in not using chicken entrails or modern as in not using tools that cost less than a million dollars? Night vision? Ooh, telescopes. Galileo.
8. A King of some sort. Not George, 'cause we just had #5 a short time ago. Not Louis, because that doesn't begin with a G. Could be a Pope. We had G-popes? Garibaldi, Giuseppe, Gary, Garth, Gregory, yeah! Pope Gregory.
9. Giovanni
10. Architechture? I'm supposed to know about architechture? Guggenheim.

Oh this is bad. I forgot about there being letters until I got to the tiebreaker. At that point I had three G-answers. Now I have to go back and stuff in Gs everywhere.

I think I'm kind of vague on what's a country, because I have thirteen and I think I missed some varieties of Guinea/Guynea/Guana.

Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Grenada
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guyana