Half the year almost gone, but not before you get the chance to try out these questions.
As usual, if you get stuck, you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating.
Enjoy and good luck.
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Q. 1. What was bought by the United States from France in 1803?
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Q. 2. ‘Black’, ‘Hooper’ and ‘Bewick’ are all types of what bird?
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Q. 3. What city in South America is known as ‘The City Of The Kings’ ?
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Q. 4. Very recently in the news for all the wrong reasons, what organization do the letters ‘FIFA’ represent?
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Q. 5. Who was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953?
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Q. 6. What did Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discover by accident on November 8 1895?
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Q. 7. He was born in Illinois and died in Idaho and during his lifetime he published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Who was he?
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Q. 8. What name is given to calfskin, dressed and prepared for writing on?
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Q. 9. Which sea is sometimes called the Euxine Sea?
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Q. 10. What is the name given to the person who is appointed the chief lawyer of the U.S. government?
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Q. 11. Name the famous Russian ballet dancer who changed the face of modern ballet?
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Q. 12. Who invented the rabies vaccination?
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Q. 13. Who is the current (2015) British Prime Minister?
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Q. 14. Big points opportunity. How many countries lie between Canada and Colombia? (A point for the correct number and a bonus point for each one you can name correctly.)
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Q. 15. What fruit is ‘Calvados’ distilled from?
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Q. 16. What is ‘Scooby’ short for in the name ‘Scooby Doo’ ?
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Q. 17. What does ‘RADAR’ stand for?
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Q. 18. In which French city was Joan of Arc put to death?
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Q. 19. What are the seven most popular sports in America? (A point for each correct answer and a bonus point if you can name them in the correct order.)
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Q. 20. He was famous as ‘Dracula’, ‘Scaramanga’ and ‘Saruman’. Who was he?
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ANWERS
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Q. 1. What was bought by the United States from France in 1803?
A. 1. The Louisiana territory (828,000 square miles).
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Q. 2. ‘Black’, ‘Hooper’ and ‘Bewick’ are all types of what bird?
A. 2. Swans.
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Q. 3. What city in South America is known as ‘The City Of The Kings’ ?
A. 3. Lima, Peru. (Ciudad de los Reyes)
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Q. 4. Very recently in the news for all the wrong reasons, what organization do the letters ‘FIFA’ represent?
A. 4. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the international governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer.
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Q. 5. Who was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953?
A. 5. Joseph Stalin.
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Q. 6. What did Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discover by accident on November 8 1895?
A. 6. X-rays.
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Q. 7. He was born in Illinois and died in Idaho and during his lifetime he published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Who was he?
A. 7. Ernest Hemmingway.
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Q. 8. What name is given to calfskin, dressed and prepared for writing on?
A. 8. It is known as ‘Vellum’.
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Q. 9. Which sea is sometimes called the Euxine Sea?
A. 9. The Black Sea.
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Q. 10. What is the name given to the person who is appointed the chief lawyer of the U.S. government?
A. 10. He/she is known as the ‘Attorney General’.
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Q. 11. Name the famous Russian ballet dancer who changed the face of modern ballet?
A. 11. Rudolf Nureyev.
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Q. 12. Who invented the rabies vaccination?
A. 12. Louis Pasteur.
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Q. 13. Who is the current (2015) British Prime Minister?
A. 13. David Cameron.
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Q. 14. Big points opportunity. How many countries lie between Canada and Colombia? (A point for the correct number and a bonus point for each one you can name correctly.)
A. 14. There are 9 countries that lie between Canada and Colombia – they are The United States, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
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Q. 15. What fruit is ‘Calvados’ distilled from?
A. 15. Apples.
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Q. 16. What is ‘Scooby’ short for in the name ‘Scooby Doo’ ?
A. 16. Scoobert.
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Q. 17. What does ‘RADAR’ stand for?
A. 17. ‘RADAR’ stand for ‘Radio Detection and Ranging’.
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Q. 18. In which French city was Joan of Arc put to death?
A. 18. Rouen.
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Q. 19. What are the seven most popular sports in America? (A point for each correct answer and a bonus point if you can name them in the correct order.)
A. 19. 1. American Football 2. Baseball 3. Basketball 4. Ice Hockey 5. Soccer 6. Tennis and 7. Golf
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Q. 20. He was famous as ‘Dracula’, ‘Scaramanga’ and ‘Saruman’. Who was he?
A. 20. He was the wonderful actor Sir Christopher Lee.
During the past months America has been creating approximately 200,000 jobs. At least that’s what the official figures are saying. It has helped to indicate the underlying strength of the economy, led to official unemployment figures of 5.5% and propped up the USD on the foreign exchange markets.
And no one is questioning any of it.
It’s as if it’s really real.
Again it’s all a question of what you do with the numbers.
The May 2015 figure for the labor force is 157.5 million. That is the figure the government uses to calculate it’s unemployment rate of 5.5%.
That’s what they call the ‘U3’ number. U3 is the official unemployment rate.
But there is also a ‘U5’ number that includes discouraged workers and all other marginally attached workers; and a ‘U6’ number that adds on those workers who are part-time purely for economic reasons.
Don’t ask me what happened to ‘U1’ or ‘U4’ because I don’t know. However ‘U2’ is a very successful pop group from Dublin, Ireland.
The problem is that the “official” unemployment rate (U3) does not count discouraged workers who have settled for part-time jobs or have given up looking altogether because they believe there are no jobs out there for them.
There are about another 7.5 million or so people who were not considered ‘unemployed’ because they were employed part-time for economic reasons. Those people are also called involuntary part-time workers – working part-time because their hours were cut back or because they were unable to secure a full-time job.
If you include those individuals, (the U6 number), you get a very different figure for the nation’s unemployment rate. Unlike other jobs figures, the U6 rate actually got worse in June.
So the real unemployment rate is well in excess of 12%, more than double the official figure.
But it is even worse than that.
The economy is growing, BUT it is growing slowly, and it is growing from a very low base caused by the financial crisis that the banksters brought upon us with their fraud and greed.
In that light, an increase of 200,000 jobs or so each month is basically just replacing some of the millions of jobs lost during the bank-caused recession, not creating ‘new’ jobs as such. In other words we’re just slowly getting back to where we were.
The forecasts aren’t optimistic either. If and when the workers laid off during the recent recession find new jobs and we get to what the government calls full employment, the labor force is forecast to grow at a rate of only 0.5% for the rest of this decade. At 0.5%, we grow at a rate of about 66,000 a month — nowhere near 200,000. Next decade it’s even worse, at 0.2%.
Add to that the fact that a great number of the jobs being created are government bureaucratic jobs that cost the country money, not real jobs that produce wealth for the country and you can see that there is little for the politicians to crow about.
As I noted in my post on Wednesday, with statistics you can ‘prove’ anything. Take any government figures with a great big pinch of salt.
Although Al Gore blatantly exploited the global warming theory to make himself millions of dollars in one of the biggest scams in recent history, the real inconvenient truth about the guff he was peddling was that the statistical evidence didn’t back up what he was saying.
That was a BIG problem for his credibility and for the credibility of the pseudo-scientists who had grabbed on to his coattails to try to make a name for themselves also.
There were only two possible things they could do.
(1) admit they had got it wrong,
or
(2) change the statistics.
Of course, door number (1) meant telling the truth, so they chose door number (2).
They changed the statistics.
Basically what the pseudo-scientists have now done is made the inconvenient “pause” in global warming disappear.
In a new paper published by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) they now estimate that global temperature during the period 1998 to 2012 increased twice as fast as all other estimates had calculated.
Of course, their new study stays well clear of six of the seven temperature sets used by climate scientists and instead uses the one regarded as problematic, the one shunned even by the UK’s own Met Office.
How they think they can get away with such crap is beyond me.
What they have done this time is just make the numbers up as they need them. Where instrument readings didn’t exist, for example for the Arctic, they stuck in a ‘guess’ of what they would have been, a ‘guess’ that would be sure to support the conclusion they wanted to reach.
Past temperatures like the HOT 1930s have been erased and other figures ‘massaged’ to emphasize recent warming.
The whole thing is another big fraud to manipulate the public who invariably believe whatever they are told by supposedly ‘learned’ sources and to give unscrupulous governments the ammunition they need to introduce more unnecessary legislation and taxes.
Facts, like the almost two decade long pause in global warming, are officially accepted by organizations like the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), but you would never know it if you read any of their reports because this type of information is buried so deep within it that hardly anyone sees it.
So if you ignore reality and make up your own numbers you can indeed prove anything with statistics.
Spending a penny is becoming more and more difficult these days, especially if you are in the US military as you will see. But then they are trained to take the pressure.
More fabulous facts below.
Enjoy.
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Stores on US military bases around the world
don’t accept pennies as currency because they are
“too heavy and are not cost-effective to ship”.
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A person’s pupils will dilate if they are lying.
In fact, because this is an involuntary behavior
it is usually a good indication.
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The world’s first female American self-made millionaire,
Madame C.J. Walker, made her fortune
in the early 20th century cosmetics industry.
A black man appeared to her in a dream
and told her the mixture which would help
her falling-out hair grow back in.
It worked, and she enjoyed a lengthy career
selling her cosmetics products.
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Australia’s National Science Agency
claims to have basically invented wi-fi
and has even sued over it.
But sure we all know it was Al Gore,
or was that the internet he didn’t invent?
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Still on the subject of the internet,
when Montenegro gained its independence
from Yugoslavia its top level internet
domain went from .yu to .me
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And yet more Internet goodies,
in 1993 there were only 623 websites.
Today, more than 100,000 domain names
are registered every single day
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The Incas constructed buildings without mortar,
the huge stones they used fitting together
so perfectly and tightly that
nothing could get between them.
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In China reincarnation is illegal.
Unless you have permission from the government.
(But how would they know if you came back
as an American or maybe a dog?)
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The first submarine attack in history
took place in New York Harbor in 1776.
The colonists attempted to attach gunpowder
to the hull of the British ship HMS Eagle
using a submersible they called ‘The Turtle’.
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NASA will send you a text message
whenever the International Space Station
passes over your location.
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Is there such a thing as a jinx?
Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln
was by his father’s side as he passed away.
He then went on to witness the assassination
of President James Garfield.
Twenty years later, in 1901, President William McKinley
invited him to the Pan-American exposition in New York
and on that day President McKinley was also assassinated.
Robert decided to decline any presidential invitations
Another challenging selection of questions for you.
And if you get stuck you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating.
Enjoy and good luck.
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Q. 1. M*A*S*H was a famous book, movie and TV series, but what do the letters M A S H stand for?
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Q. 2. Wind transports approximately how many millions of tonnes of dust from the Sahara to the Amazon every year?
a) 4 million tonnes b) 40 million tonnes c) 400 million tonnes
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Q. 3. What city is known as ‘The City Of Tigers’ ? (HINT: it is not in Asia.)
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Q. 4. ‘Ring of Bright Water’ is a book about which creatures?
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Q. 5. This one is the name of a rich fruit cake decorated with almonds, a town in Scotland, and the last name of a comic Australian movie character. What is it?
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Q. 6. In which country is the legendary city of Timbuktu? (If you have been following the TV series American Odyssey you’ll know this one.)
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Q. 7. A multi-point question. What currencies are used in the following countries?
a) USA b) Britain c) Japan d) Europe e) China
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Q. 8. What percentage of internet users quit waiting for a video to load after 10 seconds?
a) 10% b) 20% c) 30% d) 40% e) 50% f) 60%
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Q. 9. What were the first names of the four main characters of the long running and highly successful TV series ‘The Golden Girls’ ? (Bonus points if you can also correctly name the actresses who played them.)
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Q. 10. In 1929, US Army Air Corps Lieutenant General John MacCready asked Bausch & Lomb, a New York-based medical equipment manufacturer, to create aviation sunglasses that would ban the sun rays and reduce the headaches and nausea experienced by his pilots. What name were they given?
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Q. 11. “The devil on two sticks” is a former name for which juggling-like game?
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Q. 12. What are the four largest countries on Earth by area? (A point for each you name correctly and a bonus point if you get them in the correct order, starting with the largest.)
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Q. 13. What is the painting, ‘La Gioconda’, more usually known as?
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Q. 14. What is the name of the traditional Irish potato and cabbage dish?
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Q. 15. What is the name of John Lennon’s widow?
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Q. 16. With whom is the fictional character ‘Alfred Pennyworth’ associated?
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Q. 17. Who is the largest American retailer of lingerie?
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Q. 18. In the Bible what are the names of the first and last books of the New Testament?
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Q. 19. What was the name of the flamboyant and controversial Australian actor who starred in many movies during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and played characters like ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘George Custer’?
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Q. 20. What was the name of the group that Paul McCartney went on to form in 1970 after The Beatles split up?
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ANSWERS
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Q. 1. M*A*S*H was a famous book, movie and TV series, but what do the latters M A S H stand for?
A. 1. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.
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Q. 2. Wind transports approximately how many millions of tonnes of dust from the Sahara to the Amazon every year?
a) 4 million tonnes b) 40 million tonnes c) 400 million tonnes
A. 2. The correct answer is b) 40 million tonnes.
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Q. 3. What city is known as ‘The City Of Tigers’ ? (HINT: it is not in Asia.)
A. 3. It’s Oslo, Norway. (Apparently because the city was referred to as ‘Tigerstaden’ (the City of Tigers) by the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson around 1870, due to his perception of the city as a cold and dangerous place.
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Q. 4. ‘Ring of Bright Water’ is a book about which creatures?
A. 4. Otters.
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Q. 5. This one is the name of a rich fruit cake decorated with almonds, a town in Scotland, and the last name of a comic Australian movie character. What is it?
A. 5. It is ‘Dundee’.
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Q. 6. In which country is the legendary city of Timbuktu? (If you have been following the TV series American Odyssey you’ll know this one.)
A. 6. Mali, Africa.
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Q. 7. A multi-point question. What currencies are used in the following countries?
a) USA b) Britain c) Japan d) Europe e) China
A. 7. a) Dollar b) Pound c) Yen d) Euro e) Yuan Renminbi
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Q. 8. What percentage of internet users quit waiting for a video to load after 10 seconds?
a) 10% b) 20% c) 30% d) 40% e) 50% f) 60%
A. 8. The correct answer is e) 50%.
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Q. 9. What were the first names of the four main characters of the long running and highly successful TV series ‘The Golden Girls’ ? (Bonus points if you can also correctly name the actresses who played them.)
A. 9. They were Dorothy Zbornak (played by Bea Arthur); Rose Nylund (played by Betty White); Blanche Devereaux (played by Rue McClanahan); and Sophia Petrillo (played by Estelle Getty).
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Q. 10. In 1929, US Army Air Corps Lieutenant General John MacCready asked Bausch & Lomb, a New York-based medical equipment manufacturer, to create aviation sunglasses that would ban the sun rays and reduce the headaches and nausea experienced by his pilots. What name were they given?
A. 10. They were called Ray Ban.
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Q. 11. “The devil on two sticks” is a former name for which juggling-like game?
A. 11. Diabolo.
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Q. 12. What are the four largest countries on Earth by area? (A point for each you name correctly and a bonus point if you get them in the correct order, starting with the largest.)
A. 12. 1) Russia 2) Canada 3) United States 4) PR China
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Q. 13. What is the painting, ‘La Gioconda’, more usually known as?
A. 13. The Mona Lisa.
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Q. 14. What is the name of the traditional Irish potato and cabbage dish?
A. 14. Colcannon.
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Q. 15. What is the name of John Lennon’s widow?
A. 15. Yoko Ono.
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Q. 16. With whom is the fictional character ‘Alfred Pennyworth’ associated?
A. 16. He is butler to Bruce Wayne, aka Batman.
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Q. 17. Who is the largest American retailer of lingerie?
A. 17. Victoria’s Secret.
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Q. 18. In the Bible what are the names of the first and last books of the New Testament?
A. 18. They are the book of Matthew and the book of Revelation.
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Q. 19. What was the name of the flamboyant and controversial Australian actor who starred in many movies during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and played characters like ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘George Custer’?
A. 19. He was Errol Flynn.
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Q. 20. What was the name of the group that Paul McCartney went on to form in 1970 after The Beatles split up?
Then he thought about it, and then he didn’t do it.
But this time he has done it – for now anyway.
Love him or hate him there is one thing for sure – a Presidential campaign with Donald Trump fully committed is going to be a lot more entertaining than one with Sarah (what day of the week is it?) Palin, Jeb (not another one) Bush, or even Hillary (no, really I’m not lying) Clinton.
Donald Trump’s show of wealth for some may sometimes border on the vulgar, but he is the personification of the American success story. He’s made a fortune, and more than once.
But is Trump equipped to be President?
Or perhaps a more appropriate question, is Trump better equipped to be President that the other hopefuls?
Whatever way you phrase the question I think the answer has to be ‘Yes’ he is better equipped. Not that that says a lot when you look at the other contenders.
Trump has made his own way in life, done deals, hired and fired, negotiated hard, got value for his money, and done a lot of it in New York City which is not the easiest place to succeed in real estate.
Contrast that with some of the other would-be’s who have spent much of their lives as the political mouth pieces for whoever could pay them the most.
Trump is also an entertainer and a man full of charisma – you know when he has walked into a room.
He and his name are also well known, which is a very big plus in an election. It means that he can and will appeal to conservatives like himself (tough on foreign policy, pro-NRA, pro-business and jobs, etc), but also to undecided and independent voters in much the same way as Ronald Reagan was able to do.
He also has the money to fund his own campaign if he chooses to do so. It is a big plus both for him and for people thinking of voting for him. Trump will not have to end up in anyone’s pocket post-election and he can start his campaign right away rather than waste time accumulating vast war chests of cash.
He’ll also find that he will have to spend less than the others to get his message out there. He won’t have to pay millions to get on to TV because when the people want to hear what he has to say the media simply cannot ignore him.
Trump is also used to getting his own way and used to winning. His ego is huge and won’t allow him to approach the battle half-heartedly.
He’s also got an attractive wife, more reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy than some of the frumps we have had to put up with before and since. But I suppose that is a sexist remark these days and should be disregarded – although believe me it won’t be by the voters.
Trump’s detractors will be both vociferous and numerous. The GOP hopefuls , mostly a collection of Senators and Governors, will not like him stealing whatever little thunder they may think they have. The Democrats, especially Hillary will be cursing the fact that the GOP has someone who can cast a very big media shadow over them. And a lot of the pseudo-intellectuals who commentate on things political will poke fun at Trump, although it will be a tough job for them to find a better equipped candidate in either party.
All in all then a presidential election with Trump involved is a much better prospect than one without him.
That doesn’t mean he’ll be the next President.
It doesn’t even mean he will win the nomination.
But it does mean that we have more fun finding out who will do both those things.
Trump has about another two weeks to file his papers with the Federal Elections Commission to make his candidacy official. Let’s hope he really does run this time, he’s going to look pretty silly now if he doesn’t.
As I said earlier, more than anything else Trump is an entertainer.
It’s never pretty when some smart ass says I told you so.
But never mind that.
“I told you so.”
There I said it.
I wrote a post “The Only Way Is Up, Unless It’s Sideways” (if you want to read it click here) that all the logic in my head told me that contrary to the Fed’s threats to raise interest rates in June they wouldn’t.
They didn’t.
Gloat, gloat.
Mind you, although I’m taking all the credit that’s going, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. Despite that it did seem to be beyond most of the ‘financial advisors’ who just swallow whatever government crap that’s going and act accordingly – and usually lose money.
So it wasn’t a great surprise to me when on Friday past, after an announcement from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that reported 280,000 jobs created in May, the promised interest-rate hike expectations have moved back to this September. My guess is still that interest rates will remain near zero for considerably longer than that. (I explained my reasoning in that other post just referred to.)
SNAFU they say in the army.
For those who don’t know, SNAFU means ‘situation normal, all f***ed up’, because that’s how it always seems in the military. Usually however they muddle through because they can always count on being bailed out by the government.
With the government it’s different. There’s no one to bail them out.
The American economy, which is currently built around a staggeringly enormous debt of $18 trillion, is slowing.
Add to that equation sluggish economic recovery on the back of a collossal and prolonged printing of money by the Fed — Quantitative Easing, they called it.
And you do not have a sound enough foundation to support raising interest rates.
Some wiser voices in the Fed – maybe just a wise voice – realize the whole thing is out of control. The Fed has hinted, prodded and sometimes just asked plainly for the government to stop reckless spending habits. But the government hasn’t tightened its belt, nor doesn’t seem likely to.
What this really means is that a hike in interest rates too soon or too fast risks not only a market crash, but also a catastrophic mess for the government — and as I said in my previous article on the subject 2016 is an election year so there probably won’t be much boat rocking going on.
Stay tuned for what happens in September, I still have some humble pie in the freezer if I need it.
fasab 