Mark Brader
2023-07-27 04:09:24 UTC
These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on the dates
indicated, and should be interpreted accordingly. If any answers
have changed due to newer news, you are still expected to give
the answers that were correct on that date.
On each question you may give up to two answers, but if you give
both a right answer and a wrong answer, there is a small penalty.
Please post all your answers in a single followup to the newsgroup,
based only on your own knowledge. (In your answer posting, quote
the questions and place your answer below each one.) I will reveal
the correct answers in about 3 days.
All questions were written by members of Bloor St. Irregulars and
are used here by permission, but have been reformatted and may have
been retyped and/or edited by me. The posting and tabulation of
current-events questions is independent of the concurrent posting
of other rounds. For further information please see my 2023-05-24
companion posting on "Questions from the Canadian Inquisition
(QFTCI*)".
* Game 9 (2023-07-17), Round 1 - Current Events
1. On Sunday the 9th, the Calgary Stampede set the new world
record for most pancakes served in an 8-hour period. Guinness
World Records adjudicator Brittany Dunn observed the attempt,
and she disqualified 15 pancakes. However, they made more
than enough to beat the previous record of 14,208. Within 250,
what is the new world record?
2. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, it was announced
that SAG-AFTRA, the entertainment industry's largest union,
representing 160,000 actors and performers, would officially be
on strike at midnight PST. What fine actress is the SAG-AFTRA
president?
3. According to the results of a 2-year study, the air quality
in *what Ontario municipality* is like smoking a cigarette a
day, when it comes to inhaling cancer-causing benzo(a)pyrene?
U of T professor, and air contaminants researcher, Matthew
Adams also said that in Dundas or on the West Mountain it's "not
quite as bad -- maybe 1/3 of a cigarette or 1/2 a cigarette".
4. A blockade at a Winnipeg landfill is still standing -- as of this
writing -- in protest of the Province of Manitoba's announcement
that it would not support the search of another landfill for
the remains of two missing First Nations women. An injunction
went into effect Friday at 6 pm authorizing the Winnipeg Police
Service to remove the blockade. Name *either* landfill.
5. On Saturday, Markéta Vondrousová won the Ladies' Singles
Wimbledon championship, and set a first in doing so. What makes
her victory unique in the Open Era? Be sufficiently specific.
6. Attributed to crop failures after heat waves and heavy rains,
the price of what culinary staple has risen by 400% in India?
It's a key ingredient in many dishes, including butter chicken
and paneer makhni, and McDonald's has temporarily stopped
serving it as a burger topping. What is it?
7. Nothing sad about the news that Hillary Simms, from Torbay, NL,
has been appointed as a professor at Juilliard, and its first
female professor of her chosen brass instrument -- which is what?
8. On Thursday, Google announced it is expanding access to its
AI chatbot to 230 countries and territories, but not to such
places as Russia, China, North Korea, Afghanistan, and, oh,
Canada. What is Google's chatbot called?
9. On Tuesday, a group of scientists announced the bottom of
Crawford Lake in Ontario has been selected as the "golden spike"
-- the marker of a new proposed geological epoch, which would
start in the 1950s. What was considered our current epoch
is the Holocene, which started at the end of the last ice age
11,700 years ago. What is the name of new epoch?
10. Last week, Lithuania was the host country for the 2023 NATO
Summit, held in its capital -- which is what city?
After completing the round, please decode the rot13: Vs lbh fnvq
gur graavf cynlre jnf hafrrqrq, tb onpx naq or zber fcrpvsvp.
* Final (2023-07-24), Round 1 - Current Events
1. It's summer movie season (despite the strikes). Two dramatically
different movies, which both opened Friday, have gone viral due
to people planning to watch them back-to-back... and of course
there are memes and a portmanteau word for this double-feature
extravaganza. What is the portmanteau?
2. The North American Indigenous Games is the largest Indigenous
gathering and multi-sport event hosted in the history of
Atlantic Canada. What two-word name, in English, is used by
some Indigenous peoples -- such as many Algonquian and Iroquoian
speakers -- to refer to the continent of North America?
3. On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he
had received *which official document* -- with a two-word name --
indicating that he would soon be subject to new indictments from
Special Counsel Jack Smith relating to the events of 2021-01-06?
4. "Cheek to Cheek" (2014) and "Love For Sale" (2021) are
collaborative albums between a woman born with the name Stefani
Germanotta and a recently-deceased man born with the name
Anthony Benedetto. By what better-known names are these two
people credited on these albums? Two answers required.
5. On Wednesday, the South African government announced that Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be attending the upcoming
BRICS summit in place of President Vladimir Putin. Why was
Putin's attendance at the summit a problem for the South
African government?
6. On Friday, four men were arrested after a video surfaced of a
mob assaulting two naked women in which troubled Indian state?
7. The FIFA Women's World Cup is under way. Canada's women's soccer
team started the group stage with a 0-0 draw against Nigeria's
Super Falcons. Name *either* of the other two teams who share
Group B.
8. Following a 17-month investigation into workplace harassment,
the NFL levied a record $60,000,000 (US) fine against which
former owner of the Washington Redskins -- er, Commanders?
9. On Thursday, this country singer's video for "Try That in a
Small Town" was pulled by Country Music Television after
accusations that it called for racist violence. It didn't help
that the video was filmed on the site of a 1927 lynching and
a 1946 race riot. Name the artist, who denies any racist intent.
10. Taylor Swift currently occupies 11 spaces on the Billboard
200 Albums chart. While she is the first woman to dominate
that many spots at once, two other acts have achieved this
feat before. Name *either* of them.
indicated, and should be interpreted accordingly. If any answers
have changed due to newer news, you are still expected to give
the answers that were correct on that date.
On each question you may give up to two answers, but if you give
both a right answer and a wrong answer, there is a small penalty.
Please post all your answers in a single followup to the newsgroup,
based only on your own knowledge. (In your answer posting, quote
the questions and place your answer below each one.) I will reveal
the correct answers in about 3 days.
All questions were written by members of Bloor St. Irregulars and
are used here by permission, but have been reformatted and may have
been retyped and/or edited by me. The posting and tabulation of
current-events questions is independent of the concurrent posting
of other rounds. For further information please see my 2023-05-24
companion posting on "Questions from the Canadian Inquisition
(QFTCI*)".
* Game 9 (2023-07-17), Round 1 - Current Events
1. On Sunday the 9th, the Calgary Stampede set the new world
record for most pancakes served in an 8-hour period. Guinness
World Records adjudicator Brittany Dunn observed the attempt,
and she disqualified 15 pancakes. However, they made more
than enough to beat the previous record of 14,208. Within 250,
what is the new world record?
2. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, it was announced
that SAG-AFTRA, the entertainment industry's largest union,
representing 160,000 actors and performers, would officially be
on strike at midnight PST. What fine actress is the SAG-AFTRA
president?
3. According to the results of a 2-year study, the air quality
in *what Ontario municipality* is like smoking a cigarette a
day, when it comes to inhaling cancer-causing benzo(a)pyrene?
U of T professor, and air contaminants researcher, Matthew
Adams also said that in Dundas or on the West Mountain it's "not
quite as bad -- maybe 1/3 of a cigarette or 1/2 a cigarette".
4. A blockade at a Winnipeg landfill is still standing -- as of this
writing -- in protest of the Province of Manitoba's announcement
that it would not support the search of another landfill for
the remains of two missing First Nations women. An injunction
went into effect Friday at 6 pm authorizing the Winnipeg Police
Service to remove the blockade. Name *either* landfill.
5. On Saturday, Markéta Vondrousová won the Ladies' Singles
Wimbledon championship, and set a first in doing so. What makes
her victory unique in the Open Era? Be sufficiently specific.
6. Attributed to crop failures after heat waves and heavy rains,
the price of what culinary staple has risen by 400% in India?
It's a key ingredient in many dishes, including butter chicken
and paneer makhni, and McDonald's has temporarily stopped
serving it as a burger topping. What is it?
7. Nothing sad about the news that Hillary Simms, from Torbay, NL,
has been appointed as a professor at Juilliard, and its first
female professor of her chosen brass instrument -- which is what?
8. On Thursday, Google announced it is expanding access to its
AI chatbot to 230 countries and territories, but not to such
places as Russia, China, North Korea, Afghanistan, and, oh,
Canada. What is Google's chatbot called?
9. On Tuesday, a group of scientists announced the bottom of
Crawford Lake in Ontario has been selected as the "golden spike"
-- the marker of a new proposed geological epoch, which would
start in the 1950s. What was considered our current epoch
is the Holocene, which started at the end of the last ice age
11,700 years ago. What is the name of new epoch?
10. Last week, Lithuania was the host country for the 2023 NATO
Summit, held in its capital -- which is what city?
After completing the round, please decode the rot13: Vs lbh fnvq
gur graavf cynlre jnf hafrrqrq, tb onpx naq or zber fcrpvsvp.
* Final (2023-07-24), Round 1 - Current Events
1. It's summer movie season (despite the strikes). Two dramatically
different movies, which both opened Friday, have gone viral due
to people planning to watch them back-to-back... and of course
there are memes and a portmanteau word for this double-feature
extravaganza. What is the portmanteau?
2. The North American Indigenous Games is the largest Indigenous
gathering and multi-sport event hosted in the history of
Atlantic Canada. What two-word name, in English, is used by
some Indigenous peoples -- such as many Algonquian and Iroquoian
speakers -- to refer to the continent of North America?
3. On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he
had received *which official document* -- with a two-word name --
indicating that he would soon be subject to new indictments from
Special Counsel Jack Smith relating to the events of 2021-01-06?
4. "Cheek to Cheek" (2014) and "Love For Sale" (2021) are
collaborative albums between a woman born with the name Stefani
Germanotta and a recently-deceased man born with the name
Anthony Benedetto. By what better-known names are these two
people credited on these albums? Two answers required.
5. On Wednesday, the South African government announced that Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be attending the upcoming
BRICS summit in place of President Vladimir Putin. Why was
Putin's attendance at the summit a problem for the South
African government?
6. On Friday, four men were arrested after a video surfaced of a
mob assaulting two naked women in which troubled Indian state?
7. The FIFA Women's World Cup is under way. Canada's women's soccer
team started the group stage with a 0-0 draw against Nigeria's
Super Falcons. Name *either* of the other two teams who share
Group B.
8. Following a 17-month investigation into workplace harassment,
the NFL levied a record $60,000,000 (US) fine against which
former owner of the Washington Redskins -- er, Commanders?
9. On Thursday, this country singer's video for "Try That in a
Small Town" was pulled by Country Music Television after
accusations that it called for racist violence. It didn't help
that the video was filmed on the site of a 1927 lynching and
a 1946 race riot. Name the artist, who denies any racist intent.
10. Taylor Swift currently occupies 11 spaces on the Billboard
200 Albums chart. While she is the first woman to dominate
that many spots at once, two other acts have achieved this
feat before. Name *either* of them.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
***@vex.net --Walt Disney
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Mark Brader, Toronto "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
***@vex.net --Walt Disney
My text in this article is in the public domain.