The all new, revised and easier quiz! (mod note posts 1 and 2042)

garancafan · 23-05-2015 9:27pm

Time, perhaps, to put Prof Lobachevsky to bed.

Tom Lehrer gives the solution much more entertainingly than I could:
https://youtu.be/qU_j5cQ2sfQ

looksee · 23-05-2015 9:42pm

I think Rube was near enough so could you ever put Jellybaby down and come up with a question...just check out the name of this thread first though wudja?

Rubecula · 23-05-2015 11:24pm

OK Easy one.

Where is the biggest volcono we know of?

Jellybaby1 · 23-05-2015 11:32pm

Rubecula wrote: »

I will put her over my knee and give her a damn good spanking....... or maybe not if her OH is already doing it ....:D

Woah there Neddy, you're taking a step too far there! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Guns at the Alamo at dawn, you're Bowie, I'm your Santa Anna!

Pulsating Star · 24-05-2015 10:26am

Rubecula wrote: »

OK Easy one.

Where is the biggest volcono we know of?

Under Yella stone national park? Super volcano set at something like 600k yearly intervals. Seem to remember its overdue.

BrensBenz · 24-05-2015 2:44pm

Rubecula wrote: »

OK Easy one.

Where is the biggest volcono we know of?

On Mars. It's ........hewidge, so it is.

Pulsating Star · 24-05-2015 5:06pm

Yeah, on reflection the " where" rather than "which" bothered me afterwards.

Jellybaby1 · 24-05-2015 10:22pm

BrensBenz wrote: »

On Mars. It's ........hewidge, so it is.

looksee · 24-05-2015 10:30pm

BrensBenz wrote: »

On Mars. It's ........hewidge, so it is.

Ok I have to confess I spent several seconds trying to figure out if hewidge was the name of an astronomer who had had a crater named after him.

Jellybaby1 · 24-05-2015 10:31pm

In that case it would be......Hewidge! Oops, sorry, OT.

BrensBenz · 24-05-2015 11:35pm

The hewidge ting is called Olympus Mons.

Right, still in the heavens, there are 12 (slightly incomplete) cameras on the surface of the Moon, all made by which camera maker?
Bonus points if you know which parts are missing.

Jellybaby1 · 25-05-2015 12:08am

I can't think of the name but its a make no ordinary person can afford, ugly name and sounds foreign but not Japanese. Sorry the name won't come to me. I refuse to look it up.

garancafan · 25-05-2015 12:16am

Rubecula wrote: »

OK Easy one.

Where is the biggest volcono we know of?

I'm still trying to figure out what a "volcono" is.:(

OldGoat · 25-05-2015 8:48am

Hasselblad cameras. (ex mod of photography here).
I imagine they don't work anymore because they have no film in them. I didn't realise any were left there but it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. Dead weight for the return trip when all you need to to bring the film.

looksee · 25-05-2015 10:05am

garancafan wrote: »

I'm still trying to figure out what a "volcono" is.:(

Its an erupting Italian icecream (with raspberry sauce dribbling down the sides).

messrs · 25-05-2015 10:06am

looksee wrote: »

Its an erupting Italian icecream (with raspberry sauce dribbling down the sides).

now I want an icecream

garancafan · 25-05-2015 10:11am

BrensBenz wrote: »

The hewidge ting is called Olympus Mons.

Right, still in the heavens, there are 12 (slightly incomplete) cameras on the surface of the Moon, all made by which camera maker?
Bonus points if you know which parts are missing.

The only Hasselblads that I have encountered were twin lens reflex. The missing parts are, I presume, the reflex lenses and view-finders.

BrensBenz · 25-05-2015 11:08am

OldGoat wrote: »

Hasselblad cameras. (ex mod of photography here).
I imagine they don't work anymore because they have no film in them. I didn't realise any were left there but it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. Dead weight for the return trip when all you need to to bring the film.

garancafan wrote: »

The only Hasselblads that I have encountered were twin lens reflex. The missing parts are, I presume, the reflex lenses and view-finders.

OldGoat is correct with "Hasselblad" and can set the next question, please.

However, it seems that much confusion reigns over the missing parts! Normally, Hasselblad cameras consist of a single, (not twin) detachable 80mm lens, a body (including viewfinder) and a detachable, light-tight film magazine. The moon flights carried 80mm and 250mm lenses and a few, loaded film magazines.

In my limited experience, the safest place to keep exposed film when returning from the Moon's surface is in a Hasselblad film magazine so the exposed film was flown home in the magazines. The camera bodies and lenses are still there - the equivalent weight in moon rocks was carried back to Earth.

Given Hasselblad's reliability and because (as far as I know) 1960's Hasselblads didn't rely on battery power, I wouldn't be surprised if, with new film magazines attached, those cameras worked first time. Unless, of course, they've been stolen by those pesky Klingons.

OldGoat · 25-05-2015 1:08pm

Collective nouns. What is the collective for Ravens?

Layinghen · 25-05-2015 3:06pm

An unkindness of Ravens.

BrensBenz · 25-05-2015 6:21pm

OldGoat wrote: »

Collective nouns. What is the collective for Ravens?

Trick question, methinks! Many boids have more than one collective noun and I think ravens have at least two. I would have said "conspiracy" but "unkindness" sounds good too. Other than having a suspicion that others exist, I can't recall what it or they are.

(The black raven is a popular mascot around NCD so this question is a regular here.)

OldGoat · 25-05-2015 7:00pm

It was "Unkindness" that I had in mind. Over too you Layinghen.

garancafan · 25-05-2015 7:57pm

BrensBenz wrote: »

...In my limited experience, the safest place to keep exposed film when returning from the Moon's surface is in a Hasselblad film magazine...

How often have you been?:)

Layinghen · 25-05-2015 9:03pm

How many toes does a dog have?

BrensBenz · 25-05-2015 9:16pm

Layinghen wrote: »

How many toes does a dog have?

Four on each paw, each with a claw but.........methinks another trick question as some breeds, including some Mountain Dog breeds have a "double dewclaw" on their hind legs. My Bernese Mountain dog had this and I thought he was deformed!

Other breeds have webbed feet, e.g. the magnificent Newfoundlander (Newfie) so counting their toes is difficult.

Layinghen · 25-05-2015 9:20pm

Correct and right..... 18 in total.

BrensBenz · 25-05-2015 9:24pm

OK.

What have The Beatles and Ena Sharples (late of Coronation Street) got in common?

BrensBenz · 25-05-2015 9:37pm

garancafan wrote: »

How often have you been?:)

Oh, once you've been, you'll keep going back. Last time for me was in September 2013 when the nurses gave me a few doses of post-op diamorphine which removed the need for a vehicle, booster rockets, retro rockets, launch pad, fuel, space suit, gyroscopes, heat shield, etc., etc. In fact, no equipment whatsoever was required for my six-day holiday on the moon.

The dosages of diamorphine had been mistakenly calculated on the weight of a much larger man! Unfortunately, I never did find out why Mike Mercury and Steve Zodiac were there at the same time as I was.

BrensBenz · 27-05-2015 5:44pm

BrensBenz wrote: »

OK.

What have The Beatles and Ena Sharples (late of Coronation Street) got in common?

Well, what "article" have The Beatles and Ena Sharples (late of Coronation Street) got in common?

looksee · 27-05-2015 5:48pm

Is it something to do with hair nets?

BrensBenz · 27-05-2015 6:41pm

looksee wrote: »

Is it something to do with hair nets?

No. It appeared both in Ena Sharples's living room in Coronation Street and on a Beatles double A side of 1965.

This may be more myth than fact - I've wondered about HOW it might have happened - but it has been repeated so often that it's now regarded as fact.

Jellybaby1 · 27-05-2015 11:50pm

Flying ducks on the wall? Oh wait, that was Hilda Ogden. Sorry, don't know.

looksee · 28-05-2015 7:48am

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Flying ducks on the wall? Oh wait, that was Hilda Ogden. Sorry, don't know.

Lol, that was my first thought!

looksee · 28-05-2015 11:27am

Ok i cheated. Would never have got it. As to how, easy, Granada studios, just nip down the corridor!

BrensBenz · 28-05-2015 3:58pm

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Flying ducks on the wall? Oh wait, that was Hilda Ogden. Sorry, don't know.

.....on the wall???? Surely one means "on the murial", doesn't one?

No. The Beatles had little use for delph ducks but this "thing" was particularly useful for the Dsus4 chords in "We Can Work....." whhoooopppps, too much information.

Hint: Mrs. Sharples performed several duties in t'mission, including operating this "thing" for t'bretheren.

garancafan · 28-05-2015 6:06pm

Has to be the harmonium.

BrensBenz · 28-05-2015 6:31pm

garancafan wrote: »

Has to be the harmonium.

Phew. Perfecto!

Now, your turn.

garancafan · 28-05-2015 8:02pm

Ok then:-

To what did Dionysius and Mary O'Brien change their names?

looksee · 28-05-2015 8:33pm

There is some very obscure knowledge out there...though I think I know the reference even if I don't know the answer.

Jellybaby1 · 28-05-2015 8:38pm

Ha Ha, just looked it up. I would never have guessed that in a million years. Had I asked himself, he probably would have got Mary O'Brien though. There is a rule, isn't there, that if you look it up, you have cheated, and therefore are disqualified. I hereby disqualify myself.

BrensBenz · 28-05-2015 9:10pm

garancafan wrote: »

Ok then:-

To what did Dionysius and Mary O'Brien change their names?

Didn't Mary O'Brien become Dusty Springfield?
As for Dionysius, which one? Although, if named Dionysius, I can sympathise with anyone's desire to change it to......anything!

looksee · 28-05-2015 10:00pm

Lol, looked it up, never in a million etc. I was wrong about knowing the reference too (I thought it was something to do with James Joyce's writings). Nope!

When its my turn (if ever at this rate :eek:) I shall ask questions about antirrhinums and mesembryanthemums and stuff like that.

garancafan · 28-05-2015 10:17pm

BrensBenz wrote: »

Didn't Mary O'Brien become Dusty Springfield?
As for Dionysius, which one? Although, if named Dionysius, I can sympathise with anyone's desire to change it to......anything!

Agreed. Dionysius, not surprisingly, grew up as Dion. Tomboy Mary, as a consequence of kicking footballs around the backstreets of High Wycombe, grew up as Dusty. The surname was engineered later.

The answer then, formally, was Tom and Dusty Springfield.

Your serve BrensBenz.

Jellybaby1 · 29-05-2015 12:30am

Now I do know a little about mesembryanthemums as I grew them years ago. Lovely ickle daisy types open and smile when the sun shines!

Oops Looksee, you can't ask that question now!

BrensBenz · 29-05-2015 8:19pm

garancafan wrote: »

Agreed. Dionysius, not surprisingly, grew up as Dion. Tomboy Mary, as a consequence of kicking footballs around the backstreets of High Wycombe, grew up as Dusty. The surname was engineered later.

The answer then, formally, was Tom and Dusty Springfield.

Your serve BrensBenz.

Well, I was only half right - no idea that Tom Springfield had been dealt such a cruel blow by his parents.

I note the subliminal suggestions to set a question about gardening but.....tough luck! I inherited and proudly cherish the belief that "one hour spent gardening is two hours wasted."

OK, something fairly well-known but still interesting:
What building material was used by the ancient Romans, without which many of their more ambitious projects, including underwater, would not have been possible?

looksee · 29-05-2015 8:20pm

Concrete

BrensBenz · 29-05-2015 8:37pm

looksee wrote: »

Concrete

Wow! Howja no dah? Any idea why it was forgotten until the 1800's?

So, let's have a gardening question.

looksee · 29-05-2015 8:50pm

Dunno, it was just in the back of my head from somewhere, no idea why it was forgotten - the Romans introduced all sorts of brilliant ideas for comfortable living which were promptly forgotten when the empire fizzled out.

Ok back to my original (snarky) remark, what is the common name for antirrhinums?

bonzodog2 · 29-05-2015 8:52pm

Is it snapdragons? BTW the Pantheon in Rome has a domed roof made from concrete.

looksee · 29-05-2015 8:54pm

You are correct Bonzodog2! Your turn...

The all new, revised and easier quiz! (mod note posts 1 and 2042)

Comments