Yours Truly, Cat Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scotland

Wouldn't every cat lover want to live in the Kingdom of Cat? Well, unfortunately, you're about 1200 years late for that and there are only scarce documents about this short-lived entity. The kingdom covered the territory of what is today called Caithness and part of Sutherland (called Cataibh in Gaelic). It was one of the seven Pictish kingdoms that existed around 800 CE.

Answer: A multi-threaded whip

"The cat" was the usual jargon for a cat of nine tails - a savage whip made from a single line of ship's rope. Ropes at the time were almost always spun from three smaller ropes which in turn each consisted of three more, thin strands. This yielded nine ends. By tying a small knot into each of those ends and then (for preservation and maximum sting) dipping the whole thing into sea water and letting it dry, you wound up with a cruel lashing weapon. Those poor sods sentenced to more than a few dozen strokes faced almost certain agonizing death because there was no way those savage wounds wouldn't get infected.

Answer: Vietnam

The cat exists only in the Vietnamese Zodiac which is otherwise identical to the Chinese one. However, it does not replace the tiger but rather the rabbit and also carries the same traits that are normally accorded to the rabbit. Some historians believe this change was caused by a linguistic mix-up; the early Vietnamese word for rabbit was "mao" while the cat was "meo".

Answer: Las Vegas

The main public transportation system in Las Vegas is the Citizens' Area Transport or, in short, CAT. Its buses use a white and teal livery and its logo uses similar colors, showing the front half of a white, running kitty against a greenish blue background. Even for tourists, a CAT ride is relatively cheap and buses run frequently all day and night, so you won't have to drive your car from one casino to the next.

Answer: Clear Air Turbulence

Clear Air Turbulence is one of the major dangers to airplanes. Most strong turbulence is visible via the movement of clouds. However, highly turbulent airflow can occur in completely clear skies and hit a plane without warning and in extreme cases, this can result in an unrecoverable stall or even in the mechanical destruction of the plane. A common and particularly dangerous kind of CAT is wake turbulence - turbulence caused by a preceding plane. Wake turbulence is one of the reasons airports like to arrange takeoffs in groups of ascending size planes. The heavier following planes are less affected by the previous lighter plane's wake, thus allowing a shorter separation.

If you discounted the "Controlled" option just because of the name, by the way, you should know that "Controlled flight into terrain" is one of the most common crash reasons. It happens when a pilot makes a navigational error and hits the ground or an obstacle while in full control of the plane.

Answer: Ecstasy

Cat - properly called methcathinone - is a powerful stimulant and euphorizing drug, although often not experienced quite as strongly as MDMA (ecstasy) or methamphetamine. While no deaths have been directly been attributed to methcathinone, it is a very dangerous drug and illegal in nearly all jurisdictions, with no medical use listed. So stay away from this kind of cat!

Psilocybin and LSD are both hallucinogenic while heroin is a narcotic.

Answer: Radiology

A CAT scan (more frequently just called CT scan or CT today) is a three-dimensional X-ray diagnostic calculated from several X-ray images taken from various directions. It allows, among others, for the precise location of tumors and other disturbances in diagnostics and in preparation for surgery. CAT stands for "computerized axial tomography", CT replaces the "computerized axial" with "computed".

A CAT scan or CT is a procedure to be used only when strictly necessary as the multiple X-ray images subject the patient to a relatively high dose of radiation in a very short time.

Answer: Display a file's content on screen

The "cat" command, short for conCATenate (don't ask me why!), just takes the name of a file (or several files) as input and then sends the contents of that file to standard output, which is usually the screen. Like every UNIX/Linux command, you can redirect its output to a file or different device, so with multiple source file names and redirections, it will actually result in a concatenated file.

The most common use of cat however is to just show a short text file (often configuration file) on screen. It's rarely used these days because you can now use the "more" command with a file name as well (it is effectively shortcut for "cat file | more") which will let you step through the file one page at a time if it does not fit the screen.

Answer: Cat Rambo

Cat Rambo is not a singer but rather a science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who mostly created short stories. In 2015, she began a cycle of fantasy novels set in the land of Tabat. The second of what is planned to be four parts was released in 2018.

Cat Stevens is of course well known (although he goes by Yusuf Islam now), Cat Power is a quite versatile singer and songwriter with styles ranging from folk to soul and punk. Cat Glover is a dancer and singer who worked, among others, with Prince.

Answer: Business Analysis

In a business strategy matrix, there are four quadrants, roughly representing a product or business life cycle. Low market share in a high growth market represents a "question mark", a possible opportunity that needs a significant investment to realize its potential. Successful question marks become "stars", characterized by high growth and high share.

They are profitable, but still need constant support and development to remain at the top. When the market cools (low growth, high share), the business or product becomes a "cash cow" to be milked.

It's the most profitable phase. Finally, fully milked cash cows and failed question marks drop to the "dog" quadrant where both growth and share are low. Time to end it!