A good mixture of easy, difficult and maybe one or two tricky questions for you today.
But if you get stuck you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!
Enjoy and good luck.
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Q. 1: Was the color orange named after the fruit, or was the fruit named after the color orange?
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Q. 2: Approximately how much of the mass of our solar system does the Sun take up?
a) 59% b) 69% c) 79% d) 89% e) 99%
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Q. 3: What is the deepest part of the world’s oceans known as?
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Q. 4: What was the discovery that gave archaeologists the key to understanding modern Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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Q. 5: You’ve seen it hundreds of times at least, but how many stars surround the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo?
a) 12 b) 22 c) 32 d) 42
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Q. 6: Since the beginning of the modern Olympics, in 1896, what are the only two countries to have participated in every Games. (A point for each correct answer.)
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Q. 7: Who played detective Kojak in the long running TV series?
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Q. 8: Approximately how many bacteria are on each of your feet?
a) one thousand b) one million c) one billion d) one trillion
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Q. 9: What is the name of the lake situated on the border of Peru and Bolivia in the Andes Mountains? (You know it, it’s a very well known name.)
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Q. 10: What was the name of the New York Yankees baseball star who was once married to Marilyn Monroe?
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Q. 11: Which US state has the longest border with Canada?
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Q. 12: Lizzie Borden was an American woman, from Fall River, Massachusetts, who was famously accused of the axe murders of her father and stepmother. It was a famous case memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.” How long was her jail sentence?
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Q. 13: Without rearranging any of its letters, how many English language words can you make from the seven letter word “therein”? (You can have a point for each word you can make, so potentially a good score here!)
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Q. 14: They are now worth millions of dollars each and much sought after, but how many of his paintings did Vincent Van Gogh sell while he was alive?
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Q. 15: What is Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service better known as?
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Q. 16: South Africa is the only country with three official capitals, what are they? (A point for each correct answer, and a bonus point if you can correctly name all three.)
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Q. 17: What is a baby eel called?
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Q. 18: What is greater, the volume of the Earth’s moon OR the volume of the Pacific Ocean?
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Q. 19: Which US President pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason?
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Q. 20: Probably the most famous version is by Frank Sinatra, but who wrote the song “I Get A Kick Out Of You”?
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ANSWERS
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Q. 1: Was the color orange named after the fruit, or was the fruit named after the color orange?
A. 1: The color orange was named after the fruit.
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Q. 2: Approximately how much of the mass of our solar system does the Sun take up?
a) 59% b) 69% c) 79% d) 89% e) 99%
A. 2: The correct answer is e) 99%.
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Q. 3: What is the deepest part of the world’s oceans known as?
A. 3: The deepest part of the world’s oceans is known as the Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands.
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Q. 4: What was the discovery that gave archaeologists the key to understanding modern Egyptian hieroglyphs.
A. 4: The discovery of the Rosetta Stone finally provided the key to understanding modern Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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Q. 5: You’ve seen it hundreds of times at least, but how many stars surround the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo?
a) 12 b) 22 c) 32 d) 42
A. 5: The correct answer is b), there are 22 stars surrounding the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo.
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Q. 6: Since the beginning of the modern Olympics, in 1896, what are the only two countries to have participated in every Games. (A point for each correct answer.)
A. 6: The only two countries to have participated in every modern Olympic Games are Greece and Australia.
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Q. 7: Who played detective Kojak in the long running TV series?
A. 7: Telly Savalas.
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Q. 8: Approximately how many bacteria are on each of your feet?
a) one thousand b) one million c) one billion d) one trillion
A. 8: There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
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Q. 9: What is the name of the lake situated on the border of Peru and Bolivia in the Andes Mountains? (You know it, it’s a very well known name.)
A. 9: It is called Lake Titicaca.
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Q. 10: What was the name of the New York Yankees baseball star who was once married to Marilyn Monroe?
A. 10: He was Joe DiMaggio.
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Q. 11: Which US state has the longest border with Canada?
A. 11: Alaska.
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Q. 12: Lizzie Borden was an American woman, from Fall River, Massachusetts, who was famously accused of the axe murders of her father and stepmother. It was a famous case memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.” How long was her jail sentence?
A. 12: She was acquitted and no one else has ever been charged with the murders.
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Q. 13: Without rearranging any of its letters, how many English language words can you make from the seven letter word “therein”? (You can have a point for each word you can make, so potentially a good score here!)
A. 13: There are ten English language words that can be made out of the word “therein” without rearranging any of its letters: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein.
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Q. 14: They are now worth millions of dollars each and much sought after, but how many of his paintings did Vincent Van Gogh sell while he was alive?
A. 14: Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting while he was alive, the Red Vineyard at Arles.
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Q. 15: What is Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service better known as?
A. 15: QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline.
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Q. 16: South Africa is the only country with three official capitals, what are they? (A point for each correct answer, and a bonus point if you can correctly name all three.)
A. 16: South Africa’s three official capitals are Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.
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Q. 17: What is a baby eel called?
A. 17: A baby eel is called an elver.
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Q. 18: What is greater, the volume of the Earth’s moon OR the volume of the Pacific Ocean?
A. 18: Bit of a trick question here. The volume of the Earth’s moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.
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Q. 19: Which US President pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason?
A. 19: Gerald Ford.
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Q. 20: Probably the most famous version is by Frank Sinatra, but who wrote the song “I Get A Kick Out Of You”?
A. 20: Cole Porter. Sorry Frank but this is MY favorite version….
“It was Putin. He’s the baddie. We can’t let him get way with it!”
So go the cries in the US in the aftermath of the shooting down of Air Malaysia Flight MH17 over the Ukraine.
And that was long before any of the facts had been collected and it was known who shot down a plane on a different continent, or why.
Russia wants (virtual) control of the Ukraine. There isn’t really any doubt about that. For them it is a strategic imperative. Russia’s history has taught it that it needs to be able to control a vast amount of territory, if only to use as a buffer zone against invasion.
The situation is not helped by various US Presidents and Secretaries of State giving Russia assurances that they would not attempt to involve the peripheral former Soviet states in things like NATO – and then trying to do the exact opposite.
It is now widely accepted that the underlying reason for the unrest in the Ukraine and Russia’s reaction is because of US interference in that country, which included helping to overthrow its democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, and replace him with someone who was a virtual puppet of the West.
That was just asking for trouble. And they should have known it.
And they will get trouble, probably much more than they bargained for.
Unfortunately that will impact on ordinary people, like us.
Just as the US has its beady eyes on bringing the Ukraine and other former Soviet states into pro-Western organizations like NATO, it is equally certain that Putin will have his beady eyes on not only bringing the former Soviet states back firmly under Russian control, but in perhaps expanding his relationships with other parts of Europe.
Putin has the energy reserves to do it. Whilst there is very little in the way of direct trade between the US and Russia, particularly in regard to energy supplies, (Russia is just the United States’ 20th largest trading partner), Europe is largely dependent on Russian gas to keep it going. Over 30 percent of the European Union’s energy supplies come from Russia and the EU is Russia’s largest trading partner.
Russia’s counter strategy, therefore, will obviously be to use its considerable economic influence as leverage to try to break up the NATO alliance and to separate the European power house, Germany, from its Anglo-American alliance.
Putin is being helped by the arrogance of America’s government spooks who thought they could spy on their friends and allies, even going so far as tapping the phone of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, without there being consequences.
Prompted by leaks from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the fallout from America’s spying debacle continues, people have been arrested, and the German government has even ordered the local CIA station chief to pack his bags and leave the country.
Germany may still place some value on its relationship with the US, but not nearly so much as previously, thanks solely to America’s lack of respect for them.
Putin and his advisors know this, even if Obama and Kerry don’t. They see Germany as ready for change. And they may well be right. The German people are angry at the contempt America has shown for them – just as Americans would rightly have been if the Germans had done the same to them and their President – and they are increasingly frustrated at the burden the European Union has become economically.
If the US doesn’t catch itself on and behave differently and with respect towards its foreign friends, it may find that there will be changes it did not expect and certainly did not want.
We had it with the real estate market. Billions of dollars being lent to people who obviously couldn’t afford it.
We saw the trouble, hardship, misery and financial woes that were caused as credit dried up, real estate prices began to tumble, and bankruptcies and foreclosures increased.
And we know the damage it did to the economy when irresponsible banks and other lenders went bust and almost brought down the entire financial system.
Smart people would learn from such a situation.
Smart people would never contemplate doing such a thing again.
But despite what they would like to have you believe, bankers are not smart people. They’re dumb and they are greedy, a deadly combination.
As a result of the financial crisis millions of Americans (and people in other countries too) have been left with poor credit scores. Yet remarkably they are now able to easily obtain auto loans from used-car dealers, including some who fabricate or ignore borrowers’ abilities to repay. Even if you are bankrupt or living only on social security, banks like Wells Fargo will lend you thousands of dollars to buy a used car.
It’s called the new sub-prime boom, because the lack of caution resembles the frenzied sub-prime mortgage market before its collapse. And it is already bringing misery to many people who have been suckered into taking out loans that they clearly could not afford.
Worse than that, these sub-prime auto loans often come with terms that take advantage of the most desperate, least financially sophisticated customers, with interest rates that can exceed 20 percent. And many of the loans can be at least twice the value of the second hand cars they are being used to purchase!
This creates a vicious circle for some borrowers, who still owe money on a car that they are trading in when they purchase another one, meaning that the former debt is rolled over into the new loan and they end up, not just paying too much for their current car, but also continue to pay off the loan on their previous car that they don’t even have!
This is the way loan sharks operate. Eventually you end up borrowing your own money and paying them interest for the privilege!
This surge in sub-prime auto lending is being driven by some of the same dynamics that were at work in sub-prime mortgages. There is a veritable deluge of money pouring into sub-prime autos, as the high rates and steady profits of the loans attract investors.
And just as Wall Street stoked the boom in mortgages, some of the nation’s biggest banks and private equity firms are now feeding the growth in sub-prime auto loans by investing in lenders and making money available for loans.
To quote some of the figures, auto loans to people with bad credit have risen more than 130 percent in the five years since the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, with roughly one in four new auto loans last year going to borrowers considered sub-prime, that is, people with credit scores at or below 640. Wells Fargo, mentioned earlier, made $7.8 billion in auto loans in the second quarter of this year, up 9 percent from a year earlier, and has at least $50 billion in auto loans on its books.
Even worse, as was the case with sub-prime mortgages before the financial crisis, many sub-prime auto loans are being bundled up into complex bonds and sold as securities by banks to insurance companies, mutual funds and public pension funds. They are all scrambling for these, which in turn creates ever-greater demand for loans, and leads to the banks issuing more and more sub-prime credit.
Unbelievably it’s the same crooks doing exactly the same thing, including using incorrect information about borrowers’ income and employment, so that people who had lost their jobs, or were bankrupt, or living on Social Security, could qualify for loans that they could never afford.
Admittedly, the size of the sub-prime auto loan market is only a tiny fraction of the sub-prime mortgage market at its peak, and its implosion would not have the same far-reaching consequences.
For the banks the investors silly enough to buy their bonds, that is.
But the misery is just as great for the people who are suckered into accepting credit they cannot afford.
Illegal it may not be, but immoral it certainly is.
Political leaders who sit astride high horses and purport to be working on behalf of the ordinary people should be doing something about it.
Since the government and bureaucrats in the United States abandoned the business-friendly environment that made the country the greatest and wealthiest nation on earth, and replaced that with a legislative and wealth redistributing strategy that is anything but business-friendly, there has been a growing trend for successful companies to leave the US.
It should have been obvious – and indeed it was – to everyone but the morons in Washington.
The latest to try to make a move out of the United States is the pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, currently based outside Chicago, Illinois, but not for much longer if they get their way.
Using a $53 billion acquisition of the Jersey-registered, Irish-headquartered global specialty biopharmaceutical company “Shire”, a deal that will allow Abbvie to reincorporate elsewhere, it plans to leave the high tax US for a more advantageous business environment.
By making this move and escaping United States tax rates, Abbvie will pay lower taxes on its international earnings, get access to overseas cash more cheaply, and be able to acquire other companies without making their earnings subject to United States taxes.
And Abbvie is not alone.
There has been a rush of companies wanting to get out of the United States. Health care companies in particular, such as Medtronic, Mylan, Actavis, Perrigo, Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Endo, have pursued these “inversion deals”, as they are called, with particular zeal.
The moral of the story is simply this.
When a country forgets what has made it great and instead turns into something quite the opposite, all the reasons for its greatness disappear. And the United States is doing this at a time when it is heavily in debt – the most indebted nation in the world by a long way.
The short-termism of trying to grab as much money as possible from companies and individuals will end in failure and disaster for all. People like Obama try to put a fancy misleading name on it and call it “wealth redistribution”. What it really is, is a major disincentive for anyone to want to set up and do business in the United States.
And as you would expect, the idiots in Washington aren’t scratching their heads and wondering why more and more companies are opting to leave the US. Instead the bureaucrats are trying to think of ways to make it illegal for companies like Abbvie to adopt this strategy.
Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has already sent letters to senior members of Congress, encouraging them to pass legislation halting inversions. The legislation being considered by some lawmakers would be retroactive, and if passed, could impede AbbVie’s ability to reincorporate overseas.
And proving that stupidity is a cross party phenomenon, on Thursday, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the Utah Republican who is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, responded to calls from the Obama administration to crack down on inversions by saying he supported a short-term fix, although he suggested that the administration’s initial proposal went too far.
It seems fairly logical in my mind that the way to stop this growing exodus, which in the longer term will leave the US a lot poorer and a lot more of its citizens out of work, is to legislate to reduce tax bills, not increase them; to give businesses an incentive to invest and expand in the United States, not to drive them away; and to encourage entrepreneurs to relocate TO the US rather than scramble to get out.
Of course, that’s just in my head. All that is in the heads of the idiot bureaucrats in Washington is self-defeating rubbish like increase minimum wages, increase healthcare contributions, increase taxation, introduce capital controls, increase government bureaucracy so more debt is piled up and the USD$ weakens further, and of course start a few more wars to distract the people from the mess that is being made at home.
So, to pose the question in the title of this post again, why are the bureaucrats destroying what made America great?
Your guess is as good as mine, although while some obviously have malicious intent, I wouldn’t entirely rule out plain old stupidity!
In the summer in Farnborough in Hampshire, England one of the biggest events in the aviation industry takes place. It’s call the Farnborough Air Show.
I remember when I used to work in that industry helping to prepare invitations, information packs, and all the usual PR stuff. Farnborough is THE place to meet and greet both those who buy aircraft and those firms like Boeing and AIrbus who build them and provide tens of thousands of jobs for smaller companies.
So it is an important event.
At this year’s show they named the world’s best airline, in fact they named the top ten best airlines.
And despite the United States building some of the best airplanes in the world, and despite the United States having some of the world’s largest and busiest airlines, do you know how many United States airlines made it into the top ten?
The title of this post probably gave it away. The answer is….
None. That’s ninguno, aucun, keiner, zero!
Even the regional category for North America was won by Air Canada.
Apparently, not only are air travelers in America to be treated as potential terrorists, herded and prodded and scanned and humiliated when they are trying to get on to an airplane. But when they do, the comfort and service they can expect will be second rate.
I think that’s a disgrace. America should be leading the world in the standard of their airlines. They should be at least one, if not more, of the top ten list every year offering a consistently high standard that their customers (that’s you and me) deserve.
And this award is decided by the votes of millions of travelers, so customers’ opinions do count.
So time for United States airlines to ditch those bureaucratic bean counters who decide that they can squeeze just another row of seats into an airplane so that everyone is uncomfortable. In the long term this kind of thinking doesn’t save you money, it loses you money. And when your customers vote for the best airline, they don’t vote for you!
For those of you who are interested, this year’s best airline was the Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific. They were voted best performer across all types of travel, economy, and luxury.
Cathay Pacific World’s Best Airline 2014
Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines placed second and third respectively in the global category, with last year’s winner, Emirates, slipping to fourth. Fifth to tenth places went to Turkish Airlines, ANA All Nippon Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Asiana Airlines, Etihad Airways and Lufthansa respectively.
