Clickbait... Question Seven Will Amaze! Quiz

Answer: London

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was a philosopher and social reformer whose ideas about personal freedom were influential. He is best known for his Utilitarian view that it is the "greatest happiness of the greatest number" that should be the measure of right and wrong.

Bentham's will stipulated that, on death, his body should be preserved and displayed in a glass case he called an auto-icon. His head was mummified. It looked so bizarre that the original intention of displaying the head on his body was discarded, and a wax head made instead. Bentham's mummified head was displayed on the floor in front of the chair the rest of his body was sitting on, dressed in Bentham's clothes. The auto-icon was acquired by University College, London in 1850. Several student pranks involving Bentham's remains meant that the head was removed from the auto-icon for safe keeping. The grown-ups weren't immune from pranks of their own: Bentham's 181 year old corpse attended a committee meeting of UCL in 2013. He was recorded as "present, but not voting".

Answer: Eating your snot

Research published in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology suggested that there were multiple health benefits to picking bogies, boogers or dried mucus from one's nose (rhinotillexis) and then eating it (mucophagy). Parents were encouraged not to dissuade their children from the habit that most people consider disgusting.

The benefits cited from ingesting the rich source of bacteria include improved dental health and protection from respiratory infections. On the other hand, other health professionals say sticking your finger up your nose can cause damage. My advice? Take your pick.

Answer: Thomas More

There are some striking parallels between Thomas More (1478-1535) and Thomas à Becket (1119/20-1170). More was named after Becket - his patron saint.
Both men were born in Cheapside, London.
Becket rose to become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. More was highly religious and considered becoming a monk, but chose the legal profession and became Lord Chancellor in 1529.
Becket fell foul of Henry II over the rights of monarchs and was killed by his supporters. More fell foul of Henry VIII over the split with the Catholic Church and the rights of the monarch and was executed. Henry II was remorseful. Henry VIII not so much.
Becket was canonized in 1173. More was beatified on Becket's feast day in 1886 and canonized in 1935.

Answer: agarwood

Agarwood is dark wood rich in an aromatic resin that forms in Aquilaria trees found in South East Asian countries such as Vietnam, India and Malaysia. The normal wood of the tree is pale, and it is transformed by the action of a fungal infection. This action is not fully understood, and there are methods used to introduce the infection and induce the formation of the valuable wood.

The resin has several names, such as agar, oud and aloes. The use of the oil produced from it in perfume and incense has been documented for over two thousand years.

The very best agarwood can attract a price of over a hundred thousand dollars per kilo, and the global trade is worth several billions of dollars per annum.

Answer: True

The Apollo 16 mission in April 1972 was the first manned mission to land in the lunar highlands. One of the samples collected by astronauts John Young and Charles Duke, which they raked up near the North Ray crater in the Descartes Highlands, was particularly significant. Sample number 67215, an anorthosite, was a type of igneous rock from the early lunar surface and was dated to about 4.46 billion years old.

This is pretty near to the estimated age of the earth and moon and somewhat older than the oldest terrestrial rocks known, which are dated at around 4.40 billion years old.

Answer: corundum

HAT-P-7b, an exoplanet - a planet outside of our solar system - was observed by astronomers to have a variable brightness. By studying four years' worth of data, their conclusions about the planet, and its weather, were quite remarkable.
It is 1000 light years away.
It is about 40% larger than Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet.
It is so close to its star that its temperature is very high - around 1900 degrees Celsius. This compares with the 462 degrees average temperature of Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system.
The planet is locked in position, so it has one side very much hotter than the other.
Because of its very high temperature, solids found on earth would be turned to vapour, and the scientists believe the planet is surrounded by a cloud of corundum, the mineral that rubies and sapphires are made of.
On earth, corundum is at number 9 on the Mohs scale, which means it is one of the hardest minerals. Different impurities lead to a wide range of colours. When it's red, we call it ruby, and all the other colours, such as yellow, green and the most familiar blue, are sapphires.

Answer: a name

It is only in the twentieth century that it became compulsory for racehorses to be given unique names. Horses could previously be identified in less formal ways - such as "sister of" or "colt of". The horse that prevailed in the eighteenth running of the Epsom Derby, owned by the fifth Duke of Bedford, was unique in that he was the only winner of that Classic race for three-year-olds who was never given a name.

He is known as "Colt by Fidget" or "Fidget colt", Fidget being his sire. We know his family tree, and we know he was brown.

His dam was also without a name - known as a Highflyer (her sire) mare. The Derby was the Fidget Colt's first race, and he was a 10-1 outsider. He only had one other race, as a four year old, when he finished seventh.

Answer: musical composition

Scottish archaeologist Sir William Mitchell Ramsey discovered the marble column inscribed with what became known as the Seikilos epitaph in 1883, near Aidin, in what is now Turkey. It passed through several hands, being used as a flowerpot stand at one stage, before ending up in the National Museum of Denmark in 1966.

The column is what is known as a stele, a type of memorial monument or tombstone. Its Greek inscription indicates that it was dedicated, possibly to his wife, by someone called Seikilos: "I am a tombstone, an image. Séikilos placed me here as a long-lasting sign of deathless remembrance".

What makes the column really special is that it has a complete, albeit short, musical composition set out in the Greek notation of the time. There are older fragments of music, but this is the oldest complete piece. The words accompanying the song are touching: "While you live, shine /have no grief at all / life exists only for a short while / and time demands an end."

Answer: To help detect leaks

Natural gas is an important fossil fuel used all over the world. It is formed from the decomposition of plant and animal material at high pressure and temperature underground over millions of years. It has no odour, and tragedies can occur when gas leaks go undetected, resulting in explosions and loss of life. Because of that, minute amounts of nasty-smelling odorants are routinely added, to give a characteristic "gas" smell.

These vary round the world, but are often sulphur-based, such as tert-Butylthiol or Tetrahydrothiophene.

Answer: Singin' in the Rain

Arthur Freed was one of the prime movers in the awesome success of MGM musicals. He was responsible for bringing about many of the greatest movie musicals of all time, such as "An American In Paris" (1951) and "Easter Parade" (1948) and he influenced the careers of many of the great musical performers, such as Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland. Freed and Herb Nacio Brown wrote the words and music respectively for many popular songs.

Freed decided to make a movie based around some of their old numbers, which became "Singin' in the Rain" (1952). These songs included the title song, which had appeared in the movie "Broadway Melody of 1929" (1929) and "Good Morning", which was featured in "Babes in Arms" (1939). Director Stanley Donen wanted a number to showcase Donald O'Connor's dancing and didn't feel there was anything in the duo's back catalogue that worked. He told them a song like "Be a Clown", by Cole Porter, that had been used in MGM's movie "The Pirate" (1948) would be ideal. Donen was presented with "Make 'Em Laugh" - exactly the same tune and very similar lyrical theme. "100% plagiarism" is what he called it, but Freed was the boss and they used it. O'Connor's routine was one of the standout parts of the movie. Porter didn't make a fuss.