Another game... let's play Q.I.

[HStorm]

If you want to play this quiz, PM your answers to me.

Remember, the point of the programme this quiz is based on is to dispel myths and cliches, so be careful what answers you give.


1. What nationality was the first man to set foot in America?

2. Who was the first Prime Minister of Great Britain?

3. For how many years did the Medieval wars over the Plantagenet claim to the French crown last?

4. What did Benito Mussolini do for the Italian public transport system?

5. Who was the first Norman King of England?

6. What did people in the fifteenth century think the shape of the Earth was?

7. What were the exact words of Henry II's furious exclamation that provoked three knights to murder Thomas Becket?

8. What did George Washington say to his father when he cut down a tree without permission?

9. What town is nearest the battlefield where the last Saxon King of England died?

10. What man-made object is visible from the surface of the moon?

11. How many soldiers was a Roman Centurion in charge of?

12. Who was the first King of all England?

[HStorm]

A couple of people have played so far and both have wound up with wonderfully low scores - negative double figures in fact.

I'll be uploading all the correct answers on Saturday evening. If you still want to take part, please send me your answers before then.

By the way, I thought I'd better explain the scoring system; -

A right answer earns you 1 point. A right answer with an interesting and relevant supplementary detail gets you 3 points. A wrong but unusual answer gets you 0 points. A wrong answer that is a hackneyed cliche or a common urban myth is penalised 10 points. (If you quote the urban myth, even if you then try to qualify it by saying it's not your actual answer, you may still be penalised.)

[HStorm]

Okay, answers and results. Those of you who took part, please have your Joo Janta 200 peril-sensitive shades on standby.

1. I must confess my choice of wording for this question isn't ideal, but I couldn't really find a better term to express it than 'nationality'. Let me first run down the cliche answers that would be penalised. The answer is categorically not; 'Red Indian', 'Viking', 'Norseman', 'Spaniard', 'Dane', or 'Portuguese'. The correct answer is 'Aborigine'.

2. Cliche answers to the first PM question are; 'Robert Walpole', 'Pitt' (Elder or Younger), 'Benjamin Disraeli', or 'William Gladstone'. These were all, in effect, Prime Ministers, and were sometimes referred to as such, but only as terms of rebuke. There was no such officially-recognised title as Prime Minister until Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman took office a hundred years ago almost to the month. (Thanatos has offered a very strong argument to suggest that Neville Chamberlain was the correct answer, but having assessed the weight of the arguments, I feel the current answer should stand.)

3. The cliche answer is of course '100 years'. The term 'One Hundred Years' War' is a lazy misnomer, as it was actually a series of wars and it lasted for quite a bit longer than that. There are two possible correct answers to this one, and I will accept either. Taking these specific conflicts in isolation, '116 years' is perfectly acceptable. However, we should remember that the likes of Henry VIII, William III, and the early Hanoverian monarchs also went to war with France, partly under the banner of Edward III's (quite genuine) claim to the French throne. This claim was never formally rescinded until the 19th century, and so the full extent of the wars is somewhere in the region of 550 years.

4. If you were to say that Mussolini 'improved' the transport system, or worse still that dreary old catchphrase, "Say what you like about Mussolini, at least he made the trains run on time", you would have been penalised for cliches. Analysing his policies and initiatives during his time in office, you will find no indication whatever that he even looked at the matter of public transport, let alone did anything to improve it. It is true that public transport in Italy improved while Mussolini was in charge, but this was the result of policies set in motion by the (*****DEMOCRATICALLY-ELECTED*****) Government that preceded him. (I don't want to flog an ancient donkey any further, but someone ask TheMekanik to read this, will you?)

5. Right, this one's causing some heated argument between myself and my brother - which is just as well in the current cold snap . The answer 'William I' would be penalised here. He was the founder of the Norman dynasty, but he was not the first recognisable Norman to be King of England. Believe it or not, it was actually the King almost everyone thinks of first when we talk about the Anglo-Saxon Kings; Edward the Confessor. Even though he was born in England, he was brought up in Normandy, spoke Norman French as a prime language (probably his only language - indications are that he'd all-but-forgotten how to speak English by the time he succeeded to the throne), and even had a Norman mother. Culturally he was very much a Norman, and the distrust in him that this generated amongst the English people was the main reason he was so ineffective as King.

Interestingly, Naselus says that, by this reasoning, Edward's half-brother, Harthacnut, should be seen as the first Norman King. This is not the case though, for although he and Edward had the same mother, Harthacnut did not have a Norman upbringing.

6. If you said 'Flat', shame on you. There is no evidence at all that people in the fifteenth century believed the world was flat, or indeed that anyone since the ancient Greeks believed it. It simply hadn't been proven that the world was round until after the great navigators of the early-Modern era charted the New World. The correct answer is 'shaped like a pear'.

7. Henry categorically did not say, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?!" or "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?!" or other variations. The exact cry is lost in the mists of time, and the one recognised by historians is only an approximation. It goes something on the lines of, "What wretched drones and traitors have I nurtured and brought up in my household, who allow their sovereign to be treated with such shameful contempt by a lowborn cleric!"

This distinction is very important, because if you study the second phrase closely, you may notice that there's nothing in it to suggest that Henry was ordering Becket's death, only that he should be stopped. The cliche phrase on the other hand, which appears to have been invented by propagandists working for Richard I, pins the blame for the Murder in the Cathedral squarely on Henry's shoulders, when it should not.

8. Washington did not say, "I cannot tell a lie, father..." etc etc, because the whole story about the tree is spurious. If he ever did say such a thing, it would itself have been a lie, as his record in Government would suggest. In common with most of the stories about key figures in the US War of Independence, the story about the tree is a complete myth.

9. Many people would immediately say, 'Hastings' in response to that, which is understandable as the struggle was called, 'The Battle of Hastings'. This is because Hastings was probably the nearest settlement back in 1066. But that answer is a cliche, because these days there's a far closer town called, fittingly enough, Battle.

10. 'The Great Wall Of China', which can be seen from space but not from the moon, would have got you a cliche penalty. The correct answer is a flag. It's the one planted in the soil of the moon by Buzz Aldrin, and which fell over after the module took off back to Earth. No man-made object on Earth can be seen from the surface of the moon (at least not without the aid of optical technology), but the question does not specify where the man-made object has to be.

11. At Naselus' bidding, I've decided to remove the cliche answer from this one. '100' is not really accurate, as there's nothing to suggest that any centurion in Roman history ever did command exactly one hundred men. The correct answer is between 60 and 160, but as 100 is between those two figures, that makes it fair enough... just. You are reprieved, Modeski!

12. 'Alfred' - who was merely the first to be acknowledged as the King of all Englishmen not subject to the Danes - or 'Arthur' - who, even if he existed, wasn't English, and probably wasn't even a King - are both cliches. The correct answer is Egbert of Wessex.

So, how did you do?

Four people took part, fittingly enough, seeing that QI is a panel quiz for four contestants. Before I get to the bottom line, I've revised a couple of scores after appeal; -

Naselus was originally awarded minus 23. I've now revised that to minus 11, as he did offer an interesting supplementary detail for one answer that I forgot to take into account, and I gave him a cliche penalty that wasn't really merited in hindsight.

Modeski, as mentioned above, has been reprieved for stumbling into the centurion trap. But I've also noticed that for some reason I awarded him a point for an answer he got wrong. He was originally awarded minus 77 (!), but I'm now pleased to inform him that his new score is minus 68. Congratulations, Mod, now you're only quite rubbish.

Bottom line!

Mod finishes fourth with minus 68.
Third with minus 12 is Thanatos.
Second with minus 11 is Naselus.
And our winner with a phenomenally high... er, 3 points is Rob, the only one to finish with positive numbers!

Congratulations, Robsy, you win a fabulous holiday at Wigan Asda.

[Naselus]

Could you post our answers? I'd like to see the supplementary details for some of them, particularly the Chamberlain PM one.

[modeski]

Wigan Asda, you bar steward

[HStorm]

I'll have you know it's a classy prize!

Rob, your every dream has come true. You'll be whisked off by luxury National Express coach, complete with coloured mudflaps and on-board toilet facilities, up the scenic M6, to the beautiful resort of Wigan, where you'll get a state-of-the-art stockroom bed out back of Asda Stores. Take this fabulous opportunity to see the sights - bask in the glow of the freezer section's ultra-violet lighting, gaze in wonder at the fascinating moulds growing across the root vegetables in the greengrocery department, and live it up all night long among the bread and breakfast cereals in Asda's own in-store bakery.

Yes, Rob, all this and more is yours!!!!

See? I'm not just some bar steward. I'm some smooth-talking bar steward.

[HStorm]

With regards the PM question, Naselus, this is what Thanatos argued; -

Concerning no. 2: I believe you are mistaken. The position of Prime Minister wasn't definitively set down until 1937, with the Ministers of the Crown Act, passed during Chamberlain's premiership. The royal warrant of 1905 and Chequers Estate Act of 1917 referred to a Prime Minister but did not confer any official status upon that term.

He then offered this link for background details;-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom

This is a fair argument. However, on the very page the link points to, it says the following;-

"The title 'Prime Minister'... in 1905 was in a sense given official recognition when the 'Prime Minister' was named in the 'order of precedence,' outranked, among non-royals, only by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and by the Lord Chancellor. The first Prime Minister in this sense was therefore Henry Campbell-Bannerman."

The article as a whole seems to be confirming what I was saying i.e. that Walpole was the first PM in an effective sense, while Campbell-Bannerman was the first in an official sense. And although it mentions a timeframe for the rolling redefinition of the PM's office, it never seems to imply that Chamberlain was the first one to hold the official title.

I can also point to what it says in Campbell-Bannerman's bio on 10 Downing Street's own website. The link is;-

www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page141.asp

There it states categorically that Campbell-Bannerman was the first offical PM.

[modeski]

hstorm said:

Mod finishes fourth with minus 68.
Third with minus 12 is Thanatos.
Second with minus 11 is Naselus.
And our winner with a phenomenally high... er, 3 points is Rob, the only one to finish with positive numbers!

Congratulations, Robsy, you win a fabulous holiday at Wigan Asda.

Thus demonstrating that the google method of quiz answering is ineffective.

[Naselus]

OK, myself and Storm have been working together to get as may more questions as possible, so without further ado I bring you........


QI 2!!!!!!!!

Rules remain the same, naturally, and PM answer to either me or Storm.

1. When did Yugoslavia cease to exist?

2. Who was the first Emperor of Rome?

3. Who is the current Queen of Scotland?

4. What is the speed limit on a german autobahn?

5. Who was the last Saxon king of England?

6. What city is Salford in?

7. What's the smallest country in the world?

8. What is a hooligan?

9. On what date was the 400th anniversary of the arrest of Guy Fawkes?

10. What does steam look like?


Right, the quiz ends on Sunday, when Storm and myself will decide who's won, and post the answers. Good luck, everyone.

[ringmasterrob]

Sadly I will be unable to enter this one, I've got too much work to be getting on with until Friday and I'm working at the weekend. What will you do now you don't have me to gain the only positive score? ;D

[HStorm]

Believe me, if all the contestants finish below zero, we'll be smiling... *Evil grin*

[Naselus]

Given that Rob can't play, we've decided to increase the time limit to next Wednesday so he get's to take part.

[ringmasterrob]

I appreciate the thought but considering my current workload (which has been added to rather a lot this morning) it is unlikely I will have time to play for a while, sorry and all that.

[Naselus]

Right, it's been up for over a month, so here's yer answers.


1. Yugoslavia is still the formal name of the union of Serbia and Montenegro, and will not officially be disolved until 2006. Cliched answer would have been either of the dates of Crotia or Bosnia leaving.

2. 1 pt for Augustus, and 2pts for giving his original name Octavian. Cliche would have been Julius Caesar, who never claimed to be Emperor. He was Dictator and Imperator.

3. She is Queen Elizabeth the 1st of Scotland and Great Britain. 'Elizabeth the 2nd' is the cliche, as she is only Elizabeth the 2nd in England and Northern Ireland; Elizabeth the 1st of England predated the accession James the 1st and 6th - who was the first to rule both Kingdoms - and so was never Queen of Scotland.

4. There is a speed limit for all vehicles on autobahns, as no vehicle should move slower than 30 miles an hour unless in heavy traffic. Cliche would have been saying there isn't one.

5. The correct answer is Edgar Aethling, who was the last true Saxon king of England. To become King, Saxons had to be voted to the post by the Witengamot, and so Edgar was. He surrendered to the victorious Normans as soon as they arrived, but he WAS king for about a day. Harold 1st would have been the cliche.

6. If anyone said Manchester, then that would have been a big fat cliche. Salford is actually in, er, Salford.

7. The Principality of Sealand, an ex-British naval platform in the Thames estuary, independant since 1967. Cliche would have been the Vatican.

8. A follower of Paddy O'Hoolihan, or a member of Hooli's gang, for 1 point. Cliche would have been anything involving a mention of football.

9. Due to the switch over to the Gregorian Calendar, the 400th anniversary of Guy Fawkes capture is actually 2 weeks earlier than 5/11/2005, so anyone saying 5/11/2005 would be looking at a cliche.

10. Steam is completely invisible. The white cloudy effect is the heated air around it.


Now, only one person actually took part, which was Thanatos. He scored a marvelous -34 points, and so goes on to win over oposition who, on the whole, did much better this time by not playing. The highest improvement in score goes to Modeski, who's failing to participate seems to have been a great move for his career.

Congatulations to Thanatos, who wins a lifetime subscription to Earthworm! magazine, the thrilling expose of the lifes and loves of a colony of worms and their ex-Big Brother contestant neighbours.

[HStorm]

High time we played another game of QI, and as it's Modeski's wedding day, and as we're just past the second anniversary of the site, I thought I'd set one up. So without further preamble, here's some more questions...


1. Who was the head of the Soviet Union's government in 1939?

2. When was the nation of Austria founded?

3. What mighty proclamation did Richard III make at the Battle of Bosworth Field, moments before dying?

4. When did England formally become independent of Norman rule?

5. What nationality was St. Patrick?

6. What country was Chop Suey invented in?

7. How many Gods are there in the Hindu Pantheon?

8. What is a barbarian?

9. What is a thug?

10. On what planet was Spock born?

11. What is Big Ben?

12. What nationality was the winning General at the Battle of Waterloo?


Usual rules apply, send me your answers by IM, and I'll announce the winner in a couple of weeks or so.

[HStorm]

Haven't had any entries yet. Competition closes on Monday, so if you want to have a go, better hurry.

[HStorm]

Ah well, doesn't look like anyone wants to play this one. Here are the answers though, just in case anyone's curious; -

1. Who was the head of the Soviet Union's government in 1939?
The answer is Vyacheslav Molotov, who was a sort of constitutional manager of the time (not really much more than a ceremonial placement by the late-30's), as the elected head of the Duma. The cliche answer is of course Josef Stalin, who was the real leader in practise, but whose official title was General Secretary of the Communist Party. Whoever was in charge of the running of the party was, in practise, the true leader, but officially he was never a President or Premier.

2. When was the nation of Austria founded?
The correct answer is 1919. The cliche answer is 1436, which was the birth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria existed as a set of baronial territories since the tenth century. It only became a distinct nation in its own right with the dismantling of the Empire at the end of the First World War.

3. What mighty proclamation did Richard III make at the Battle of Bosworth Field, moments before dying?
Let's get the cliche out of the way first. He categorically did not say, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" This is a classic bit of Shakespearean/Tudor propaganda, designed to make Richard look like a coward who was looking for an easy escape while his men died in their thousands.

The reality is that he was an extremely brave warrior who had refused numerous opportunities to flee the battlefield when his henchmen encouraged him to do so, and indeed had only got into danger by an impetuous attack in person on Henry Tudor. When it led to him being betrayed and engulfed by Lord Stanley's troops, he defiantly stood his ground. What he in fact said was, "As God is my witness, I shall die this day as King or win!"

4. When did England formally become independent of Norman rule?
Cliche is any year between 1204 and 1215, which were the years of the collapse of the Angevin dominion, including the re-conquest of Normandy by France. One area of the Norman lands that remained free of French control was the Channel Islands. Therefore, absurd as it sounds, England remained officially a colony of Jersey and Guernsey, which were officially still classed as part of Normandy. These lands were never conquered by an outside power until the Second World War. Therefore the correct answer, believe it or not, is 1940!

5. What nationality was St. Patrick?
Cliche answer is Irish. He was born on the British mainland early in the Dark Ages, and only arrived in Ireland when he was captured by raiders and taken there as a slave. The correct answer is a Romano-Briton. (That doesn't really count as Welsh, by the way, as Wales still didn't exist as a coherent faction, but that wouldn't have been penalised as a cliche; it would just have been wrong.)

6. What country was Chop Suey invented in?
Cliche answer is China. It was actually an invention of the USA.

7. How many Gods are there in the Hindu Pantheon?
If you said, "Over two hundred" or anything along the lines of masses and masses, for-shame! And for-penalisation. The answer is in fact just the one. Yes, it's true that Hindus worship Brahmin, Brahma, Vishnu, Shivah etc, but contrary to popular myth, these are not different Gods. A little like the Christian belief that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are merely the trinity of forms of one supreme entity, so all the many Gods in the Hindu pantheon are merely the many manifestations of one entity as well.

8. What is a barbarian?
Any answer to do with violent, unthinking, cultureless yobbery gets you a cliche penalty. Rather like words such as 'philistine', in its correct usage, the word has nothing whatsoever to do with cultural ignorance, and instead is entirely a reference to geography. The correct answer is, simply, anyone from the Balkans who is not a Greek, especially a Macedonian or an Ilerian.

9. What is a thug?
This one rather resembles the previous question. A thug is not some unshaven BNP-supporter from the east end who goes around beating people up and attacking rival football fans with iron bars, and any suggestion on those lines would cost you 10 points. The correct answer is an Indian-born worshipper of the Goddess of War, Kali.

10. On what planet was Spock born?
Go on, admit it! Which of you said he was born on the planet Vulcan? Go on, put your hand up!

Mr Spock from Star Trek is an entirely fictitious entity, whereas this quiz deals with physical reality or religious legends. Dr. Spock was born on Earth, and was famous for writing books discussing parental advice and the behaviour of infant children.

11. What is Big Ben?
Cliche answers are 'a clock', 'a tower', 'a building', and other variations. The correct answer is a bell i.e. the common misconception is that the clock tower itself is called Big Ben, when it's actually the name of the bell inside it.

12. What nationality was the winning General at the Battle of Waterloo?
'English' is the cliche answer, as Arthur Wellesley was from Ireland. You can just about get away with calling him British without incurring a penalty, even though he was born years before Ireland joined the United Kingdom.

To be fair to those who assume him to be the quintessential English aristocrat, the Duke of Wellington was generally thought to be less than proud of being an Irishman; a famous-though-unproven story has it that when someone asked him what he thought of his birthplace, he answered, "Just because one is born in a stable, that does not make one a horse." To which an affronted Irish MP commented, "No, but it might make you a donkey..."

[Thanatos]

I returned here too late to take part, but now I must speak. I could dispute a few of these (the Spock question, for instance, seems to rely on arbitrary critera) but the only one I feel I must challenge you on is that regarding barbarians. The term is by no means exclusive to the Balkans; Herodotus, for instance, famously uses it of the Persians (not pejoratively; notable for his even-handedness treatment of Greeks and foreigners, expressed well enough in his brief but well-known preface, he was later scathingly dubbed a "barbarian-lover" for his trouble).

[HStorm]

Well okay, it's fair to say the term is looser than I've made it sound, but the key point of the question is that it shouldn't be confused with an insult.

I wouldn't say the criteria of the Spock question are arbitrary. He is definitely not a genuine historical figure - the existence of his entire planet is astronomically unlikely, and in any case he would be a character from the future, not from history - nor can he be classed as a religious legend who might have existed.

(I know it was still a bit of a snarky one to include, but I'd say it was fair enough.)

[Thanatos]

It's just that there was never a rule set down that fictional beings were excluded. Penalising the "Vulcan" answer would have been fair enough, but "Vulcan or Earth, depending on to which Spock you refer", perhaps?

[HStorm]

Yeah, I'd probably let you get away with that. It's just you should remember the fundamental nature of the quiz is to separate truth from urban myths, and so, kind of by definition, fictional characters will rarely have a place in it i.e. if their fictional, there can't be a 'truthful' aspect to them, only 'definitive' aspects.

(Having said all that, I'm thinking of doing a quiz that will include fictional characters and the common myths surrounding their stories.)

[Naselus]

thanatos said:

I returned here too late to take part, but now I must speak. I could dispute a few of these (the Spock question, for instance, seems to rely on arbitrary critera) but the only one I feel I must challenge you on is that regarding barbarians. The term is by no means exclusive to the Balkans; Herodotus, for instance, famously uses it of the Persians (not pejoratively; notable for his even-handedness treatment of Greeks and foreigners, expressed well enough in his brief but well-known preface, he was later scathingly dubbed a "barbarian-lover" for his trouble).

The term barbarian refers to the language used by the early inhabitants of Ilyria, which the Greeks thought sounded very much like the baa'ing of sheep. It's reckoned to date back to the Trojan war at least, and was only generalised to include all non-greeks later, becoming bastardised to mean 'cultureless savages', since that's more or less what the Ilyrians, and their later masters the Dacians, were.

Dr. Spock was born on Earth. Mr. Spock was never born at all, being fictional, unless you mean where he was first dreamed up, in which case it was also on Earth, in Gene Rodenbury's head.

[HStorm]

Here's an overdue new round of QI. I've decided to follow up the Spock question from the previous quiz by doing a quiz about sci-fi assumptions. The bit about 'physical reality' applied to the Spock question does not come into play here for obvious reasons - we're dealing with pure fiction after all - but other than that, usual rules apply...


1. Doctor Who. What planet was Doctor Who born on? (NOTE: This one's probably a little unfair.)

2. Doctor Who. What is the race of beings that the Doctor was born to?

3. Doctor Who. What does TARDIS stand for?

4. Star Trek. What phrase does Captain Kirk tend to say into his communicator when he wants to be transported back up to the USS Enterprise?

5. The Transformers. Who became Decepticon leader when Megatron died in 2005?

6. Star Wars. What planet did Jabba the Hutt come from?

7. Star Wars. What was the name of Anakin Skywalker's owner when he was a baby on Tatooine?

8. Star Wars. What is the title given to all Sith?


Deadline for all entries is August 5th.

[modeski]

In true, QI spirit, I've done no research (ie googling) for this quiz, everything is off the top of my head (hence all the wrong answers!)

Answers PMed, HStorm.

[HStorm]

Mod has achieved a spectacular -28 points, folks. Can anyone beat that? (Or to put that more precisely, is there anyone who can't beat that?)