Remember the big furor a while ago when Edward Snowden revealed that American intelligence agencies had been spying on their friends and allies as well as their enemies? I even commented on it myself here and there.
One of the politicians most outraged by the unwanted and unnecessary snooping was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Spying among friends, that’s not all right at all,” she said very publicly in 2013. And in July last year in an unprecedented move she expelled, from Germany the CIA station chief, who in plain language is the top American spy in the country.
The German media jumped all over it too, with heavy moralizing tones and whipping up the German public’s natural reaction against what America had been caught doing.
Hmmmm.
That was good stuff.
At least it would have been, but for more recent revelations that Germany’s own spy agency, the BND, have for years been collaborating with America’s National Security Agency (NSA) in spying on Germany’s friends in Paris and Brussels.
What???
Yes, you read it correctly.
While Merkel was whining on about privacy this, and privacy that, her spooks were operating hand in glove with the Americans to spy on supposed friends. And Merkel knew it. As Chancellor she is in charge of overseeing what the BND is up to.
And specifically what the NSA was up to was using the electronic eavesdropping facilities of the BND in Bad Aibling, a town in Bavaria, by giving the Germans phone numbers, search terms or internet addresses they wanted to monitor. The scale of the snooping was huge. In 2013 alone, the Americans snooped in on 690,000 phone numbers and 7.8m search terms.
As investigations and revelations continue we will no doubt hear phrases like “national security’ and ‘terrorist threats’ being cited as the reasons for all this snooping being necessary. That would be fine if it were true. But it isn’t.
The thing that negates all the good elements that those who have been caught red-handed and red-faced will try to emphasize now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag are revelations that the American snoops were also targeting certain commercial companies which, if true is industrial espionage and nothing to do with terrorism.
Airbus, the European aircraft maker and chief rival to America’s Boeing, has already filed a criminal suit with German prosecutors and demanded clarification from the German government.
Of course that doesn’t mean they’ll get it. Since these revelations a lot of ass-covering has started. Several investigations are apparently underway, investigations that will find whatever the government wants them to find. In other words they will only reveal what they think they have to and little else.
So to answer the question posed in the title of today’s post, ‘Heuchler’ is apparently the German word for hypocrite. So ‘Heuchlers’ they are!
Yes, lots of names in today’s quiz, either as the answers or as part of the questions.
Some easy and some quite difficult, but you’ll have to have a bit of knowledge of various subjects to answer them all correctly.
And as usual, if you get stuck, you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!
Enjoy and good luck.
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Q. 1: In which city does the American football team the ’49ers’ play?
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Q. 2: These two men had the same name, one was sentenced to death by hanging in the United States in 1859 and the other was a Ghillie who became close to Queen Victoria after the death of her husband Prince Albert – what was their name?
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Q. 3: And still on the subject of names, separated only by a vowel, what were the surnames of two famous painters born in Paris, France during the 19th Century who had a significant impact on the ‘impressionist’ movement? (There is usually a point for each correct answer in questions like this, but in this case if you get one right you’ll get them both right, so just one point up for grabs.)
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Q. 4: What type of animal is an Ibex?
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Q. 5: Who and what is ‘Tristan da Cunha’ ? (A point for each correct answer.)
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Q. 6: Which treaty with Germany brought a formal end to the First World War?
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Q. 7: What city is known as the ‘fashion capital of the world’ ?
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Q. 8: ‘Entomology’ is the study of what?
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Q. 9: In which organ of the body is insulin produced?
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Q. 10: As well as skiing, which other sport takes place on a piste?
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Q. 11: Who had himself crowned King of Scotland at Scone in 1306?
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Q. 12: Who performed the first human heart transplant?
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Q. 13: Who is the victim of ‘The Murder in the Cathedral’ in T S Eliot’s play of that name?
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Q. 14: In the Crimean War, Roger Fenton was the first person to be accredited in what capacity?
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Q. 15: What fictional character famously ‘tilted at windmills’ and who served as his ‘squire’ ?
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Q. 16: Which chemical element, number 11 in the Periodic table, has the symbol ‘Na’ ?
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Q. 17: What is the longest bone in the human body?
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Q. 18: In which spacecraft did Yuri Gagarin become the first man in space?
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Q. 19: In which country are two islands linked by the Seikan rail tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the world? (Two bonus points are available if you can also correctly name the islands.)
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Q. 20: ‘Professor Henry Higgins’ and ‘Eliza Doolittle’ central characters in which George Bernard Shaw play and which Hollywood musical?
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ANSWERS
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Q. 1: In which city does the American football team the ’49ers’ play?
A. 1: San Francisco.
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Q. 2: These two men had the same name, one was sentenced to death by hanging in the United States in 1859 and the other was a Ghillie who became close to Queen Victoria after the death of her husband Prince Albert – what was their name?
A. 2: John Brown.
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Q. 3: And still on the subject of names, separated only by a vowel, what were the surnames of two famous painters born in Paris, France during the 19th Century who had a significant impact on the ‘impressionist’ movement? (There is usually a point for each correct answer in questions like this, but in this case if you get one right you’ll get them both right, so just one point up for grabs.)
A. 3: They are Édouard Manet (born 23 January 1832) and Oscar-Claude Monet (born 14 November 1840).
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Q. 4: What type of animal is an Ibex?
A. 4: A Mountain Goat.
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Q. 5: Who and what is ‘Tristan da Cunha’ ? (A point for each correct answer.)
A. 5: ‘Tristan da Cunha’ is the name of a famous Portuguese navigator and the name of an island in the South Atlantic that he first sighted it in 1506.
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Q. 6: Which treaty with Germany brought a formal end to the First World War?
A. 6: The Treaty of Versailles.
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Q. 7: What city is known as the ‘fashion capital of the world’ ?
A. 7: Milan.
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Q. 8: ‘Entomology’ is the study of what?
A. 8: Insects.
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Q. 9: In which organ of the body is insulin produced?
A. 9: The Pancreas.
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Q. 10: As well as skiing, which other sport takes place on a piste?
A. 10: Fencing.
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Q. 11: Who had himself crowned King of Scotland at Scone in 1306?
A. 11: Robert the Bruce. (Think back to the final scene in the movie Braveheart.)
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Q. 12: Who performed the first human heart transplant?
A. 12: Doctor Christian Barnard.
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Q. 13: Who is the victim of ‘The Murder in the Cathedral’ in T S Eliot’s play of that name?
A. 13: Thomas Beckett.
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Q. 14: In the Crimean War, Roger Fenton was the first person to be accredited in what capacity?
A. 14: War Photographer.
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Q. 15: What fictional character famously ‘tilted at windmills’ and who served as his ‘squire’ ?
A. 15: Don Quixote and his squire was Sancho Panza. (From the Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.)
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Q. 16: Which chemical element, number 11 in the Periodic table, has the symbol ‘Na’ ?
A. 16: Sodium.
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Q. 17: What is the longest bone in the human body?
A. 17: The femur, or thighbone, either answer gets you the point.
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Q. 18: In which spacecraft did Yuri Gagarin become the first man in space?
A. 18: Vostok 1.
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Q. 19: In which country are two islands linked by the Seikan rail tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the world? (Two bonus points are available if you can also correctly name the islands.)
A. 19: The country is Japan, and for your two bonus points the names of the islands are Honshu and Hokkaido.
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Q. 20: ‘Professor Henry Higgins’ and ‘Eliza Doolittle’ central characters in which George Bernard Shaw play and which Hollywood musical?
A. 20: The play is called ‘Pygmalion’ and the movie version ‘My Fair Lady’.
There is a lot of nonsense surrounding Friday 13th.
Many superstitious people consider it to be unlucky. So much so in fact that they spend most, if not all, of that day in their homes, afraid to venture out into the great world beyond in case something bad happens to them.
In fact it has been estimated that around a billion dollars are lost every Friday the 13th because people are scared to work and travel on this date.
The really unfortunate thing is that sometimes circumstances play right into their hands, which only serves to reinforce their superstitions.
You can find some of them below along with other facts about Friday 13th that I hope you enjoy reading.
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Every month has a 13th but no single year
has more than three Friday the 13th’s
and on average there are two.
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Months with a Friday the 13th
always begin on a Sunday.
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Folklore remedies for triskaidekaphobia
include climbing to the top of a mountain
or skyscraper and burning all the socks you own
that have holes in them.
Another is to stand on your head
and eat a piece of gristle.
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It is from the Norse goddess Frigg, or Freyja,
that we get Frigg’s Day, or Freyja’s Day
which became the English Friday.
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On Friday 13 2006,
36 inches of snow fell on upstate New York.
The ensuing chaos claimed three lives
and caused $130 million worth of damage.
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On a Friday 13th in 1307.
thousands of soldier monks of the powerful
Knights Templar were massacred
by French king Louis IV.
Many people believe this is where
our fear of the date springs from.
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Friday 13 January, 1939
in Australia is known as Black Friday
because on that date bushfires
decimated 20,000 km² of land,
killing 71 people and
destroying several towns entirely.
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Retired bus conductor Bob Renphrey of North Wales
decided to spend every Friday 13 in bed
after a run of bad luck on the
fateful day during the early 1990s.
Among other misfortunes
he wrote off four cars,
got made redundant,
fell into a river,
crashed a motorcycle
and walked through a plate glass door.
When Bob died of cancer in 1998,
his widow Betty, who on previous Friday 13ths
had fallen downstairs,
been hit by falling guttering
and been hospitalized
after Bob hit her in the face
with a stick he was throwing to a dog,
decided to book his funeral for
Friday 13 March as a final tribute.
Alas, all Rhyl’s undertakers were too busy.
“Bob would have seen the funny side,”
said Mrs Renphrey.
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On Friday 13 July, 1951
in Kansas ‘The Great Flood’
left 2 million acres of land underwater,
causing $760 million and killing 24 people.
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Friday 13 August, 1976
was particularly unlucky
for New York man Daz Baxter.
Having elected to stay in bed
to ward off bad luck,
the floor of his apartment block collapsed
and he fell six storeys to his death.
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Black Sabbath’s self-titled first album
was released in the UK on
Friday, February 13, 1970.
It wasn’t unlucky for them.
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Michelle and Gary Docherty had a
memorable wedding on Friday 13 August 2004.
First, a swarm of wasps attacked guests
at East Kilbride Registry Office, Lanarkshire,
as they waited for Michelle’s arrival.
Her aunt Mary Strachan
smashed an expensive digital camera
trying to swat one of the pests,
and when Michelle finally did turn up,
an insect flew up her dress,
triggering a panic attack.
After the ceremony,
two minibuses booked to transport guests
to the reception failed to turn up
and the couple lost their wedding video.
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On Friday November 13, 1970
a monster South Asian storm hit Bangladesh
killing 300,000 people in Chittagong
and creating floods that killed one million people
living on the Ganges Delta.
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Women drivers have a 64% increased chance
of death when driving on Friday the 13th.
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Friday 13 February, 1998
was simply business as usual for Manchester man,
John Sheridan, dubbed Britain’s unluckiest man
after once having his car stolen five times in one day,
making 16 trips to casualty in two years,
seeing eight TVs explode in six months
and losing out on a £4000 lottery win when he
put the ticket in the washing machine with his jeans.
John’s big day began when his Saab ran out of petrol.
He hitched a lift with a sympathetic policeman,
whose car broke down at the garage.
John returned to his car with a can of petrol,
got it started but lost a wheel as he turned a corner.
He returned home on a bus, which broke down.
Completing his journey on foot,
he realized he’d left his keys inside the car
and had to return in case in was stolen.
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Friday, October 13th, 1989,
the stock exchange suffered a serious crash,
the second most damaging in market history at the time
(this was in the pre-recession era).
Brokers were in a state of shock,
as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 190.58 points.
In Britain a deadly virus crashed IBM computers,
terrifying people and deleting lots of data
that could not be recovered.
This was before backup systems were used.
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A full moon on Friday February 13 1987
drove troubled Robert Bullard, 21,
to attempt suicide by putting his head in a gas oven.
Not only was his methodology flawed,
suicide by natural gassing is virtually impossible
since Britain moved from lethal coke gas
to less dangerous natural gas,
but a flicked light switch caused an explosion
which injured his mother and a policeman
and caused £35,000 of damage.
Robert was unharmed.
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On Friday the 13th, 2012,
the cruise ship Costa Concordia partially sank
killing more than 30 people.
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Friday 13 October 1972 was the date
a plane carrying Uruguayan rugby team
Montevideo Old Christians crashed
on its way from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile.
When rescuers finally found the fourteen
survivors two months later,
it emerged that they had survived
by eating human flesh from some of the
thirty-one crew and passengers
who had perished in the crash.
In 1992, the story was filmed as
Alive, starring Ethan Hawke.
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On the same day, Friday October 13, 1972,
an Aeroflot Il-62 airplane carrying 176 people
took off from Paris on a commuter flight
bound for Leningrad and Moscow.
The plane landed at Leningrad
and then took off for Sheremetyevo airport,
located just outside Moscow.
The weather was bad with rain and poor visibility.
The pilots were told to descend on approach to
the airport, but for unknown reasons,
they attempted and failed to land twice.
On the third attempt to land,
the plane crashed into a large pond
about 4 miles short of the airport.
There were no survivors.
No cause of the accident was ever established.
At the time, the crash resulted in one of the worst
loss of life incidents for a single plane crash, in history.
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