Free Entry for Children Under 8!

All questions and answers are from current knowledge. No research done.

GEOGRAPHY! (kind of)

1. Height of Mt. Everest? (answers within 500m accepted)
2. People from Melbourne are Melbournians. What are people from Moscow called?*
3. And people from Paris?
4. Order these three continents in size: N. America, S. America, Africa. (not entirely sure myself lol)
5. Where is Belfast?

HISTORY! (admittedly its mainly Asian history)

1. What dynasty followed the Taiping Rebellion in China?
2. What relation is Kublai Khan to Genghis Khan?*
3. When was Malacca considered the absolute epicentre of trade in Asia?* (century)
4. Where was Captain Cook killed?
5. When was China unified by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China? (century)

SCIENCE & MODERN TECHNOLOGY!!

1. Ohm's Law? V = ?
2. What does HTML stand for?
3. What shape is a truss?* =D
4. Everybody know's Pi to two decimal places, what is Pi to four decimal places?
5. How much bits in a byte?

LANGUAGES!!

1. What is 'piscine' French for?*
2. What is 'cuttlefish' in Japanese?*
3. What is 'poo, no.2, faecal matter' in Hokkien?
4. What is the structure of a haiku?
5. What was Jesus' native tongue? (not sure if i spelt the answer right)

MISCELLANEOUS!

1. What is the title of the occupation for one who makes and edits dictionaries?*
2. What is the suffix '-cracy' indicating?
3. What fashion label's icon is two letter Cs overlapping (one mirrored horizontally)?
4. Which country invented the gesture of the middle finger up?*
5. Who is the current world record holder for the 100m dash?

ANSWERS FOLLOW----------------------

*

*

*

*

g1. 8848m above sea level; g2. Moscuvites; g3. Parisians; g4. Africa, N. America, S. America; g5. Ireland I think?

h1. Ming Dynasty; h2. great-great-grandson i think, possibly great-grandson; h3. 17th Century (~1600); h4. Hawaii (speared by natives i think); h5. 221BC i.e. 3rd Century BC

s1. IR; s2. Hypertext Markup Language?; s3. Right angled triangle? s4. 3.1415; s5. 8

l1. swimming pool; l2. ii ka (whatever the hiragana is); l3. bang sai; l4. 3, 5, 3 syllables; l5. Aramaic

m1. lexicography; m2. a type of government; m3. Chanel; m4. England (english archers specifically); m5. Usain Bolt

DONE. With mistakes.

*double points

'The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, according to a scientist who has studied the fruit, Linda Bartoshuk at the University of Florida's Center for Smell and Taste. Dr. Bartoshuk said she did not know of any dangers associated with eating miracle fruit.'
- New York Times

Every blog needs a 'how-to' post once in a while...

So I've been driving old people back from church a bit this week because my uncle, who normally does it, is in canberra at the moment.

I do not profess to be an expert on this in any way, but there are essentials to know when you go about this activity.

1. Drive slowly. i.e. v = (speed limit -5km/hr) +/- 5km/hr

Apparently you can cause the elderly to have back pain if you drive too fast due to the need to brake harder when you slow down. You have to imagine any possible pains you are causing them when you brake and then double that potential pain. It's just a safety margin.

Your braking has to be so gentle and gradual that nobody jerks forward even remotely when you stop. If any passengers jerk forward in their seat when you stop at some lights for example, you have failed your mission. *fail buzzer* 'buh-bunggg'

2. Change the radio station to Mix 101.1FM or Light 89.9FM

It must be easy listening. Acoustics are a plus. Metal is game over.

Sometimes even Mix 101.1FM has loud and potentially stroke-rendering music! If Miley Cyrus - See you again (or whatever that crap song is called) comes on, I think Mix does play it ocassionally, change to Light FM.

And it may be obvious, but avoid any songs with expletives in the lyrics. The elderly folk do not need to hear the words f*** and c***. Agreed?

Notable songs to avoid:

• Ian Carey Project - Get Shaky;
• Anything from Metallica's album: Kill 'em All;
• Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane;
• etc,

So keep your ears pricked up and ready to change that dial before a guitar solo starts and bursts somebody's coronary artery.

3. Acceleration: do not rev too hard.

If you are going up a steep hill and your car isn't powerful enough, don't sweat it.

Do NOT try and build up speed 30km/hr over the speed limit to get some momentum to cruise up that hill...

Just chug along and go up the hill at whatever speed it ends up being by the time you get there. There is no rush.

4. Slow down excessively at speed humps and stop before roundabouts and cut-out left turns.

If you normally cruise through that left cut-out at 50km/hr when you see it's clear. Do NOT do that this time around. Slow down to a complete stop, check for traffic even though there won't be any and proceed. Same applies for roundabouts, but even more so.

5. Finally, do not drive a beast.

The elderly do not care for turbo.

They do not care how loud your engine is.

They like peace and quiet, and a smooth ride.

"I walked into a butcher shop, and the butcher said to me: "I bet you 10 pounds you can't touch those pieces of meat hanging up there." I replied: "No thank you, the stakes are too high." - Tim Vine (who me and ling are going to see)

Quick attack
It's too quick, Gamefreak
So imbaaaa~