Who is this?
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John Shaft played by Richard Roundtree. Movie Shaft (1971) "He's cool and tough. He's a black private dick that's a sex machine with all the chicks. He doesn't take orders from anybody, black or white, but he'd risk his neck for his brother man. I'm talkin' about Shaft. Can you dig it?" |
Demar
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Who could be defined as a "menace" because of his clandestine repair work, mostly south of the equator?
Archibald 'Harry' Tuttle. The renegade repairman played by Robert De Nero in Terry Gilliam's film Brazil.
Demar
What do these people have in common, besides the way they make a living?
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They have all played characters out of video/computer games. Clockwise from top left: Linden Ashby - Played Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat, which was based on the video game Mortal Kombat Dennis Hopper - Played the chief bad guy, King Koopa, in Super Mario Bros. based on the video game characters from Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. Angelina Jolie - Played Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, which was based on the video game Tomb Raider Jean Claude Van Damme - Played Col. Guile in Street Fighter, which was based on the video game Street Fighter II |
Venky |
Excellent answer.
Who painted this?
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Wassily Kandinsky, considered by many to be the founder of abstract art. The painting is titled Gelb, Rot, Blau (Yellow, Red, Blue) and was painted in 1925. |
Venky |
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Wassily Kandinsky. (1866-1944) Yellow, Red, Blue, 1925 Oil on canvas, 127x200cm. |
Demar |
Which loyal soldier is often mistaken for a misogynist?
Nicolas Chauvin, a legendary French soldier famous for his devotion to Napoleon. The word Chauvanist was later hijacked by feminists, as in “male chauvinist pig” and has virtually lost its original meaning.
Peter
These three people should lead you to name a fourth.
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Olivia Newton-John, Ella Fitzgerald and Nigel Kennedy (violin virtuoso and Yehudi Menuhin's most famous protégé) leading to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. |
Venky |
The cast list included a man who had a licence, a drummer, a man who sounded like a popular eatery and science fiction character, a gangster, a sun tanned vampire, a man known for his follies and lastly a funny, young Josephine. The title sounded like there should maybe only have been a cast of six and it was a vehicle for an octogenarian former starlet. Which movie?
Apparently the question is much better than the movie.
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Sextette (1978) Cast. Mae West. an octogenarian former starlet Timothy Dalton. a man who had a licence (James Bond) Dom DeLuise Tony Curtis a funny, young Josephine (Some Like It Hot 1959) Ringo Starr. drummer George Hamilton. a sun tanned vampire (Love at First Bite 1979) Alice Cooper Keith Allison Rona Barrett Van McCoy. Keith Moon drummer Regis Philbin Walter Pidgeon a man known for his follies (played Florenz Zigfeld in Funny Girl 1968) Harry Weiss George Raft a gangster. |
Demar |
All correct except a man who sounded like a popular eatery and science fiction character was Dom DeLuise who voiced Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs, (1987).
I added the sun tanned bit for a little surreal edge to the question.
Neil
Why is 3.428571428571428571428571428571 (recurring) a modern constant?
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Arithmetically 3.428571428571428571428571428571 equals 24 divided by 7, which is another way to interpret the oft used phrase/annotation for "all day, every day" expressed as 24/7. |
Neil |
How old is this phrase? I cannot remember hearing the phrase twenty four seven apart from in the last three or four years.
Who is this?
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Jane Goodall, Ph.D, CBE |
Russ |
The animal ethologist and conservationist, Jane Goodall. Most famous for her studies of the behaviour of chimpanzees, finding that they share many characteristics which we previously regarded as distinctly human, including a capacity and even relish for war.
What was struck where for the first time on Ronald Reagan's 60th birthday?
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Golf balls were struck on the moon for the first time on February 6, 1971 (Ronald Reagan's 60th birthday) by astronaut Alan Sheperd. (I love Alan's questions) |
Venky |
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Feb 6th 1971 - NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard used a six-iron that he had brought inside his spacecraft and swung at three golf balls on the surface of the moon. Had me going for a while. I was thinking decimalisation, and coins being struck(!) |
Mike |
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A golf ball on the Moon. February 6, 1971, by Alan B. Shepard, Jr. |
Demar |
Alan
An old school dictionary falls open. Across a two page spread I can find somebody who literally rakes in the money, a melting pot, an obsolete measure defined as approximately 18 obsolete measures and a churlish or miserly person. Are there a couple of popular words missing? They are on the tip of my tongue...
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The words referred to are croupier, crucible, cubit, and curmudgeon. I imagine the "popular" words missing from your school dictionary are cunnilingus and cunt. |
Alan |
Who are these men, and where do they seem to be?
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The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee of India. In the background, "there's no mistaking our iconic world famous Tyne Bridge - the sign of home to so many" according to the BBC's Newcastle WebCam site. Being a shandy-drinker, I'll just have to take their word for that. |
Alan |
Inhabitants of Sydney will find that bridge design strangely familiar.
A tip to anybody eating in Newcastle on Tyne, never ask for the hottest curry on the menu.
Link Yucca brevifolia with law on the cheap and a high flying spy.
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Yucca brevifolia is the Joshua tree, and Joshua Tree is the classic album from the band U2, which is also the name of an American high-altitude spy-plane. U2's lead singer Bono (Paul Hewson) suggests the phrase "pro bono" which is what it's called when lawyers (and some other professionals) provide services for no fee. |
Alan |
Pro bono work is unpaid professional services, the phrase gained currency among American lawyers working for the public good, in Latin, pro bono publico.
What do the following cities have in common: Bruges, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Birmingham and Amsterdam?
All have at one time or another been called The Venice of the North.
Also Luxembourg, Ghent, Hamburg and Liverpool, and I doubt that list is exhaustive.
Venky
At the end of the conference the twenty delegates shake hands with everybody once, except Nigel, as he has his arm in a sling, and Carol who left after shaking only the hand of Bill, the guest lecturer. How many handshakes all together?
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ASSUMPTION ALERT: the guest lecturer is not one of the delegates. Carol and Bill shake, and then she leaves. Nigel doesn't shake at all. So ignoring Carol and Nigel, there are 19 people (18 delegates and one lecturer) who all shake with each other, giving (19*18)/2 shakes, plus one for Carol-Bill for a total of 172. (If you intended Bill to count as one of the delegates, then the answer would be (18*17)/2+1 = 154). |
Alan |
Perfect answer. Never assume the question is perfect. I gave points for either 172 or 154, and bonusses for both.
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Right. (Deep Breath!) "Everybody" must include all those present, i.e. 20 delegates + Bill = 21 people. To make this easier, imagine that all the unnamed people are called 'Clint' (The Man With No Name :-). Here is a list of how many handshakes each person participates in: Nigel 0 Carol 1 (Bill) Bill 19 (Carol, and 18 Clints) Clint 18 (the other 17 Clints, and Bill) There are 18 Clints, so multiply 18 by 18, giving 324. Add them up: 0+1+19+324 = 344. Divide by two because we counted each handshake from both ends: ANSWER = 172. |
Mike |
Which elements can occur in pure liquid form at room temperature?
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Bromine and mercury are liquid at the temperature technically designated as 'room temperature' -- 298 K (25° C). In addition, francium, cesium, gallium, and rubidium can be liquids at actual room temperatures and pressures, given a fairly warm room; they melt respectively at about 26.8, 28.4, 36.9 and 39.3 Celsius. |
Alan |
I wouldn't be comfortable in a room at 39.3 Celsius, or in one with any significant quantity of francium in it come to that.
3iff
Which river comes after this sequence of letters?
T A R D M F J O B Q C S G P H K
Hint: We've come full circle.
NILE. The numbers on a dart board, read clockwise from the top, and translated into letters by alphabetical position: 20 1 18 4 13 6 10 15 2 17 3 19 7 16 8 11 14 9 12 5 T A R D M F J O B Q C S G P H K N I L E Notice that the first four letters are an anagram of 'Dart'. Interesting, eh? I was going to use that as the hint, but thought it would make it too easy. - Says Mike.
No we couldn't have it too easy...
Mike
Who is this?
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Barney the dinosaur. Barney was created by Dallas teacher Sheryl Leach in 1987. |
Demar |
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Bob West in a Barney The Purple Dinosaur costume. |
Russ |
The names of the guilty parties have been duly noted. Come the glorious day their fate is sealed.
What is this?
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F-22 Raptor. STOL capability Airspeed: Mach 1.5+ Ceiling: 40,000ft+ Range: 3000 mil. |
Demar |
It looks the part too.
Which time interval is significantly briefer than it sounds. Defined as the interval between a green light and the blast of a car-horn in a particular part of space-time where time is more relative than elsewhere.
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Space and time themselves must come in tiny indivisible chunks. Professor John Wheeler, a famous relativist, illustrated one of his papers with a close-up of a sponge. "This is a picture of space-time at the smallest scales," he wrote. In popular speech the shortest possible time is a New York minute. It is the time that elapses between a stoplight turning green and the cabby behind you honking his horn. The time is: 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000005 seconds. Physicists call this the Planck time. What is a New York inch? It is the distance light travels in a New York minute, which is a number with 10 fewer zeros. If space and time come in chunks the chunks are tiny. |
Venky |
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A New York Minute From : http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorn.htm "New York Minute A New York minute is an instant. Or as Johnny Carson once said, it's the interval between a Manhattan traffic light turning green and the guy behind you honking his horn. It appears to have originated in Texas around 1967. It is a reference to the frenzied and hectic pace of New Yorkers' lives. A New Yorker does in an instant what a Texan would take a minute to do. The term has a mildly derogatory tinge to it; although New Yorkers are probably proud of the characteristic and would forgive your using it with a simple "Fuggedaboutit ." |
Neil |