Miscellaneous Madness XIV Trivia Quiz

Answer: They have "several-unit" sugars that our enzymes can't break down.

The culprits are oligosaccharides, or "several-unit sugars" that are used by the legumes to store energy. The human body doesn't have the enzymes to break these sugars down so they can be digested as simple sugars so they are digested in the colon by normal intestinal bacteria and it is the bacteria that produce these gasses.

Answer: Trees do not survive periodic fires common to prairies since they are not a fire-tolerant plant.

The ecology of the prairie environment is sustained by a cycle of fires and regrowth of a succession of fire tolerant plants. The fires help the prairies by clearing dead thatch and fertilizing the soil. Before European settlement, the tallgrass ecosystem covered more than 220,000 square miles from Canada into Texas and from Nebraska to the Great Lakes. Can't you just see all the happy prairie dog towns?

Answer: Yes

Rattlesnakes are buoyant and float well. They propel themselves fairly fast in the water in a sinuous motion. They may hold their rattles above water while resting or floating but they use their tails for propulsion. They can bite when in and under water and you would have to be crazy to get in the way of a swimming rattlesnake!

Answer: Peregrine Falcon

AND THE WINNER IS - The peregrine falcon - hands down! He may even be the fastest animal of any kind on earth! Estimates of top speed when diving are around 200 miles per hour and some even think it is much higher - 275 miles per hour. The top horizontal speed is 60 mph or more.

The high speeds are important for feeding as the falcon overtakes and kills other birds and bats in midair. His wingspan is 36 to 44 inches.

Answer: Yes

Yes, if the cheese is real and if the tomato sauce is real. We have our essential vitamins and minerals. We have protein in the cheese and crust - so if you ate enough pizza, you could probably survive for quite some time. But while you were surviving, you may have to have your fat self wheeled around in a wheelbarrow.

Answer: Wolverine

While the wolf and the badger are not the most pleasant animals in the woods, the wolverine has them all beat for downright meanness. Pound for pound, a 40 pound wolverine is stronger than many of its adversaries and is very capable of killing animals much larger than itself. On a TV nature show, I recently saw several wolves bring down a deer and then a wolverine showed up, ran the wolves off and proceeded to chow down uninterrupted.

Answer: Asphyxiates the cells.

Cyanide competes with oxygen in the body's cells. The enzyme that is responsible for using oxygen likes cyanide much more than it does oxygen and so the presence of cyanide starves the cells for oxygen.

Answer: South America

How could the ancients have possibly lined miles of stones to make pictures that could only be seen from on high? Erich von Daniken in his book "Chariots of the Gods" brought many tourists to see the "lines" as it was his belief that the 37 mile long Nazca plain was an airfield for astronauts from other worlds and that the drawings were instructions to an alien spacecraft.

Interesting, but it has also been surmised that the ancients could possibly have also constructed a hot air balloon to elevate them so they could design the huge drawings. Archeologists have been at work on this puzzling matter since at least 1936.

Answer: All were found.

Other mummies produced the same results. Needless to say, this produced a furious controversy. Egyptians said "no way" was there a trade route open at 1000 B.C. And as for nicotine? Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the idea of smoking. Cocaine was also unknown in the Old World before Columbus. What do YOU think? Fascinating, wouldn't you say?

Answer: Yes

Male breast tissue has no functional significance although the breast tissue is still there and can respond to the female hormones. It is called gynecomastia. This is seen in conditions in which there is excessive estrogen function in the male. Remember, it is still breast tissue and men can and do get breast cancer.

The fact that males have nipples proves the fact that the body plan for men and women are very similar and that the exaggerations in each sex are based on early development and hormonal influence later on.