Cool Zooms, Part VII Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wooden chairs

The Nobel Prize Museum opened in 2001, marking the centennial of the prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). It contains material about Nobel as well as information about the laureates. Along with life stories are signatures and artifacts donated by the prize-winners.

The Museum incorporates a souvenir shop and café. In a tradition at Bistro Nobel, laureates are asked to sign the bottom of a wooden chair. The practice may have had its genesis in US President Bill Clinton's spontaneous signing of a chair in 2001. Returning laureates from earlier times have also made their marks in this fashion. Clinton is not a Nobel laureate, however.

Phoenix Rising's psnz was blown away by this question and was happy to leave his John Hancock, presiding over its placement in the quiz.

Answer: Bridge

The Acol System is a bidding system in contract bridge, and according to 'The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge', is "standard in British tournament play and widely used in other parts of the world. It is a natural system using four-card majors and, most commonly, a weak no trump."

It is named after the London club where it originated in the 1930s, which in turn gets its name from the Old English 'oak wood'.

This question was dealt to you by Phoenix Rising cardshark, ozzz2002.

Answer: Mosaic

Tesserae are small tiles, that can be arranged into geometric patterns to create works of art. These tiles can be made of glass, mirror, ceramic tiles, or even china. The art of tessellation has a long history, with pieces dating back over 5000 years being unearthed in the Middle East. Floor mosaics were also used in ancient Pompeii, and there is even a natural rock formation called the Tessellated Pavement, not far from Hobart in Tasmania, Australia.

This question was pieced together by ozzz2002.

Answer: Loris

The word "loris" is believed to be derived from the Dutch word "loeris", meaning "clown" or "simpleton". Lorises are strepsirrhine primates, a group that also includes lemurs and bushbabies. Lorises have short or no tails and are characterised by their large eyes surrounded by dark patches. They are nocturnal and arboreal and they can be found in the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. They climb trees using all four limbs, though their movements are slow. Their diet may consist of insects, fruits and slugs.

The loris is the only known venomous primate. It produces a mild toxin by mixing its saliva with a secretion from an inner elbow gland. The loris coats its young with this mixture for protection before leaving to feed.

This question was primed by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Mercury

Cinnabar is a red ore and the main source of quicksilver or mercury metal. The ore contains mercury (II) sulfide, (mercuric sulphide, HgS). Mercury's formula is Hg from its Greek name of "hydrargyrum" which means "water-silver".

Cinnabar is commonly found in regions of volcanic or geothermal activity. One derivation of "cinnabar" is from "dragon's blood" due to the ore's bright red colour.

Since ancient times, cinnabar's colour has seen the ore used in cosmetics and art. Despite mercury's toxicity, the ore has been used as a rouge for colouring cheeks and lips. Powdered cinnabar known as Vermilion or China Red, found uses in Ancient Rome's decorative artifacts, illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages, Renaissance paintings and Chinese lacquerware.

Mercury poisoning through exposure to the metal or its salts is commonly called "mad hatter disease" (erethism mercurialis). Mercuric nitrate was used in the production of felt material for hats and prolonged contact led to personality changes and memory loss.

Cadmium's main ore is called greenockite, while galena is the major ore of lead. There are many copper ores, including chalcopyrite and chalcocite.

Phoenix Rising's mercurial psnz flew into this question and remembers that he was able to refrain from biting his teacup while working on it.

Answer: North America

Blueberries (scientific section name: Cyanococcus), both lowbush "wild" and highbush "cultivated" (the kind found in supermarkets), are native to North America. The United States leads world blueberry production with most grown in the Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon) followed closely by Georgia and Michigan, as well as New Jersey, California and North Carolina. Canada is the second largest producer, primarily in British Columbia.

Blueberries are low in calories yet high in fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese. The polyphenol antioxidant flavonoid anthocyanin makes make them a potential "superfood", although more research is needed to definitively correlate the many health benefits claimed for the blueberry.

The question is submitted by Humanist who, like Miles Davis, feels kind of blue.

Answer: Fiji

At the Rio Olympics in 2016, Fiji broke their medal drought by placing in the Rugby 7s. Not only did they win a medal, they won the gold by thoroughly defeating Great Britain by 43 points to 7. In Fiji, stores shut and people celebrated in the streets after the final whistle blew and the festivities continued on over the weekend. The government announced a national holiday to mark the occasion and the following year the $7 note was released, featuring the winning team and coaches on the reverse side, the obverse showing the captain, Osea Kolinisau in full flight.

At the time of its printing, the note was the only $7 bill in circulation anywhere in the world and it was also the first to have the obverse and reverse sides vertically and horizontally orientated. A 50 cent coin was also released concurrently to honour the Olympic achievement.

This question was designed, printed and circulated by leith90, who cannot play Rugby.

Answer: Rescued 705 Titanic survivors in 1912

RMS Carpathia was a modest 13 555 tons and was a workhorse transporting European emigrants from Trieste (mainly Hungarian emigrants) from 1904. On April 15, 1912, the Carpathia was on a New York to Fiume run when it heard the Titanic's distress call. Despite being 58 miles from the sinking ship, it turned around, exceeded its maximum speed of 14 knots to 17 knots, dodged its own icebergs, and reached the Titanic in four hours (The SS Californian was only two hours away but it did not respond to the distress call). The Carpathia picked up 705 survivors and returned to New York. The Captain Arthur Rostron rarely discussed the catastrophe, but response to an author performing research and asking how the little ship could have been forced to travel "at a speed greater than the maximum of which it was supposedly capable, and how it had progressed safely at such speed through ice in the dark", Captain Rostron replied "A hand other than mine was on the wheel that night."

The Carpathia was sunk in 1918 by a German U-Boat torpedo. Five crew were killed when the torpedo struck but 218 were saved despite the ship sinking within 20 minutes of being struck.

This question was steered into the quiz by seafaring Phoenix Rising team member 1nn1.

Answer: The city of Oslo, for assistance in WWII

The first Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree was a thank you from the King of Norway, King Haakon VII, who was forced to flee Norway in 1940 as the Nazis invaded. The Royal Family and Norwegian Government were evacuated from Tromso on 7 June 1940 aboard HMS Devonshire. This evacuation became extremely costly for the Royal Navy when 1,519 British officers and men and three warships were lost.

The King and his Cabinet set up a Norwegian government in exile in London. Initially, King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav were guests at Buckingham Palace, but moved to Bowdown House in Berkshire when the London Blitz started in September 1940. The Norwegian Royal Family returned to Oslo on 7 June 1945, exactly five years after they had been evacuated.

At the base of the tree stands a plaque, bearing the words:
This tree is given by the city of Oslo as a token of Norwegian gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during the years 1940-45.

Phoenix Rising member lg549 donated this question to the team quiz.

Answer: Galaxies

"Eye of Sauron" is a nickname applied to the spiral seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 in the constellation Canes Venatici because of its resemblance to the symbol of the Dark Lord from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".

The Andromeda Galaxy (NGC 224) is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Andromeda. French astronomer, Charles Messier, included the Andromeda Galaxy in his catalogue of 110 astronomical objects that frustrated his search for comets. It is therefore also known as Messier 31 or M31.

The Medusa merger (NGC 4194) is the result of a galactic collision in the constellation Ursa Major. It is characterized by a disturbed appearance resulting from interacting gravitational fields as one large galaxy forcefully merged with a smaller system.

Phoenix Rising's JCSon is the progenitor of this stellar question.

Answer: Dogs

While mosquitos are arguably the deadliest creatures known to man (as vectors of mosquito-borne diseases), killing more than 1,000,000 humans a year, the question asked for the deadliest mammal.

Dogs are responsible for over 25,000 human deaths a year. Most of these deaths are the result of infected feral or stray dogs spreading rabies to their victims.

Hippos and elephants kill about 500 people a year and sharks about 5.

Phoenix Rising member JCSon will rabidly defend dogs against any claim against their status as man's best friend based on this statistic.

Answer: Turkey

American swimmer Michael Phelps competed at four Summer Olympic Games between 2004 and 2016, before announcing his retirement from the sport (for the second time). During his career he won more gold medals than well over 100 countries, but his total of 23 (plus 3 silver and 2 bronze) was not enough to put him ahead of Turkey - which had amassed a total of 39 gold medals by the close of the Rio Games. Clearly Turkey had a massive advantage over Phelps though - their medals had been won over an 80-year period by 33 different people!

Phelps did place just ahead of Jamaica's 22 golds and well ahead of Estonia's 13.

This question was butterfly-kicked into this quiz by Phoenix Rising's Fifiona81.

Answer: Pandemonium

The Greek word for all is "pan" and demon is "daimon", hence the word pandemonium, literally, means "all demons". Pandemonium is defined as a place of confusion, a tumult... all hell has broken loose. Interestingly, it is also the collective noun for a group of parrots.

Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 was relieved to find that pandemonium was not the collective noun for a group of phoenixes... it's an odyssey.

Answer: Waldorf and Statler

These two cantankerous old gentleman, who first appeared in "The Muppet Show" in 1975, are first class hecklers and, though they keep complaining about the acts that they're watching, they continue to show up week after week. Though they reserve most of their heckling for Fozzie Bear, no one is safe, not Kermit nor Miss Piggy.

Statler: You know this show was doing very good.
Waldorf: Yeah, and then what?
Statler: They raised the curtain!

This question was presented to Waldorf and Staler by Phoenix Rising's pollucci19 to see if they liked it. "Sure we like it" they said "if you promise that you won't publish it".

Answer: 1840s

The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór) was the worst manifestation of the European Potato Failure caused by blight. However, whereas about 100,000 deaths occurred in Northern Europe, one million people died in Ireland from 1845 to 1849 as a result of mass starvation and disease. During the "Hungry Forties", famine in the rest of Europe was a contributing cause of the unrest leading to the widespread European Revolutions of 1848. Scotland's suffering, however, was alleviated by English aid, although many Scots did emigrate. The Irish, in contrast, did not receive such aid and a million more Irish left for Liverpool, Australia and the United States where, by 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the populations in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Many Irish fought for the Union in the American Civil War and worked in the mines and on the railroads afterwards. In Ireland itself, the lasting effect of the Great Famine was to boost nationalism and republicanism.

This question is submitted by Humanist who has never known hunger.

Answer: It was a placeholder designating the start day of a military operation

Prior to June 1944, the phrase 'D-Day' was simply a common military term that was regularly used in the planning and execution of major operations. However, the importance of Operation Overlord to the eventual outcome of the Second World War meant that the phrase 'D-Day' quickly became synonymous with the specific events of the Normandy landings.

The term 'D-Day' indicated the day on which the operation would take place, with the days before labelled D-1, D-2, etc. and the days after becoming D+1, D+2, etc. This allowed military planners to allocate tasks to specific days in the run up to an operation without having to know the exact date on which it would take place. In fact, D-Day was originally scheduled to take place on June 5th, 1944 but was delayed by a day due to bad weather and poor sea conditions.

It should be noted that there are numerous competing theories for the naming of D-Day; various 'D' words have been suggested over the years as other possible meanings, including 'debarkation', 'disembarkation', 'decision' and 'departure'.

The detail of this demanding question was drafted and directed by Fifiona81.

Answer: Cleopatra VII

Cleopatra VII Philopator (69 BC -30 BC) was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt and a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I.

The others listed were much earlier rulers of Egypt.

Phoenix Rising member mike32768 chose to write this question because he sphinx Cleopatra was a most interesting pharaoh.

Answer: 1986

Halley's Comet is a regular visitor in Earth's skies, appearing in the inner solar system every 75-76 years. Recordings of comets have been chronicled since 239BCE when Chinese astronomers marked the event. It wasn't until English astronomer Edmond Halley surmised that comet sightings in 1531, 1607 and 1682 were actually the same comet and not separate events as previously thought. He went on to predict its return in 1758 and while he did not live to see it, the comet was given his name.

Halley's comet sighting in 1986 was the first time spacecraft were able to view the comet to sample its composition and take photographs. The sighting from Earth was disappointing as the comet's trajectory had it on the far side of the sun at its closest pass to Earth on April 10th. The comet is due to pass by again in 2061 and will be on the same side of the sun as Earth, so the apparition should be more impressive.

This question was tracked and recorded by Phoenix Rising's Leith90, who, like Halley's Comet, had her last flash of brilliance back in 1986.

Answer: Spy-hopping

Oceanographers believe that whales spy-hop to get a better view of surface activity. During spy-hopping, the cetacean's eyes can be above or below the water line. Some scientists think that hearing may play a bigger part than vision in spy-hopping because often, the animal's eyes are underwater. Spy-hopping can last for as long as 30 seconds. Apart from whales, some species of shark also spy-hop.

This question was espied by Phoenix Rising team member purelyqing.

Answer: Roland Garros

Hopefully the tennis terms may have helped! Roland Garros was a pioneer French aviator prior to World War 1. He then served in the French airforce before being forced down behind German lines in 1915, where he was captured. After three years imprisonment, he escaped and returned to France. He resumed flying and prior to being shot down and mortally injured in October 1918, he achieved four kills (nearly qualifying as an ace - 5 kills). His service and sacrifice was recognized by the naming of the Parisian tennis center, constructed in the 1920s, in his honor. Stade Roland Garros then became home to the French Open tennis tournament.

MikeMaster99 flew high to return this question lobbed in his direction....