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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
29 December 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on world palaces:
(1) The Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace
starts at 11.27am precisely.
(2) There are 1744 rooms in the Sultan of Brunei’s
palace.
(3) Saddam Hussein had 68 palaces. (Sydney Morning Herald)
(4) John the Baptist’s right arm and hair from Muhammad’s
beard are in the Sultan’s Palace in Istanbul.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
22 December 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about Christmas:
(1) Christmas Day is the quietest day of the year at London’s
Heathrow Airport.
(2) “Swaddling” means “restraining”.
(Question was: "At Christmas we hear about the baby Jesus
being wrapped in “swaddling” clothes. What does
“swaddling” mean?")
(3) The are 14 days in the “Twelve Days of Christmas”,
which officially runs from 24 December to 6 January.
(4) Santa Claus lives in the Finish town Rovaniemi, making
him by far the biggest local tourist attraction.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
15 December 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on hobbies:
(1) Frequent flyer Nick Vermeulen collected 2112 aircraft
sick bags and aircraft enthusiast Ron Sherwin collected 150
different types of them.
(2) Christo’s form of art is wrapping.
(3) Australians aged 10 to 17 spend most of their time sleeping.
(4) A spermologist collects trivia.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
8 December 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on vegetables:
(1) What prevents you from burning your tongue when you have
gazpacho soup (ingredients are tomato, ground red pepper,
garlic and cucumber)? Fortunately it is served cold.
(2) The world’s most commonly-eaten food is rice.
(3) An onion is a lily.
(4) The average number of peas in a pod is eight. (Absolute
Trivia)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
1 December 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on retired swimmer
Ian Thorpe:
(1) Ian Thorpe was 15 in 1998. His shoe size then was 17.
(2) On four consecutive nights Ian Thorpe broke a world record
in the 1999 Pan Pacific championships.
(3) There are only nine letters in Ian Thorpe’s name,
but there are 22 in the name of one of his rivals, Pieter
van den Hoogenband
(4) Daniel Kowalski tried to avoid finishing second or third
in heats or semi-finals so that he would not have to swim
in an adjoining lane to Michael Thorpe in the final, which
he described as “like swimming in a washing machine.”
(Channel 9 Sydney)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
24 November 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Continents:
Actually, there is only one answer: Australia. Australia
is the continent with the lowest average elevation, it’s
the smallest continent, it has only one nation and (besides
Antarctica) it is the only continent with no landmines.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
17 November 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on execution:
(1) The surnames of the three men hung at Greenberry Hill,
London, for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry were Green, Berry
and Hill (Mensa Family Quiz Book)
(2) In Tehran in August, 1997, 20 000 people assembled to
watch a murderer hanged from a crane.
(3) Russia was the first country to abolish capital punishment.
(4) The occupation of John Roose, the first person in the
UK to be executed by being boiled to death, was cook. (Guinness
Book of Records)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
10 November 2006
Answers to last week’s world movies questions:
(1) The movie with the most film extras was Gandhi, with
300 000 in the funeral scene.
(2) The world’s first “fire-proof” theatre
burned to the ground 30 days after its opening. (Return of
Heroic Failures)
(3) The South Koreans cut all the songs out of “The
Sound of Music” because it was too long, but retained
its name. (Return of Heroic Failures) (Question was: "The
South Koreans found the film "The Sound of Music"
too long for screening in their theatres, so it was edited.
What parts were cut out?")
(4) Saudi Arabia has no movie theatres. (Question was: "What
are the most popular type of movies in Saudi Arabia’s
movie theatres? ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
3 November 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on horse racing:
(1) Australia’s Melbourne Cup is the only major race
run on handicap. (Question was: "How does the Melbourne
Cup differ significantly from the world's other major horse
races?")
(2) High Flyer was one of the horses in a triple dead-heat
for first in Sydney a century ago. In the re-run it finished
equal first in another triple dead heat. (Ripley's Book of
Chance)
(3) Itchy Palm was scratched at Sydney’s Canterbury
in 1998. (Question was: How did Itchy Palm fare in the sixth
race at Sydney’s Canterbury on 8 February 1998?")
(4) Seven Toronto stockbrokers worked on the seventh floor
of a building with street number 777. On 7-7-77 they bet $777
on the seventh horse in the seventh race, over seven furlongs.
The horse finished seventh. (“Coincidences—Chance
or Fate?”)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
27 October 2006
Answers to last week's questions on Roman Catholics:
(1) St Simeon the Younger lived on top of a stone pillar
in Syria for his last 45 years. (Guinness Book of Records)
(2) The subject of more statues throughout the world than
anyone else is Joan of Arc, with 40,000 in France alone. (Sunday
Telegraph)
(3) The country with the most Roman Catholics is Brazil.
(4) Tens of thousands in St Peter’s Square clapped
Pope John Paul on 2 April 2005 just after he died. It is an
Italian custom to clap in recognition of the deceased’s
life.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
20 October 2006
Answers to last week’s French questions:
(1) The world’s second-largest French-speaking city
is In Canada (Montreal).
(2) The word “ouija”, as in “ouija board”,
comes from the French and German words for “yes”.
(3) The French for weekend is le week-end.
(4) The French sentence “Allez porter ce whisky au
vieux juge blond quie fume” (“Go take this whisky
to the old blond judge who is smoking”) is a pangram.
It contains all the letters of the alphabet.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
13 October 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Birds:
(1) The unusual feature of the cuckoo’s nest is non-existence.
It lays its eggs in other birds' nests. (Ultimate Trivia Quiz
Book)
(2) The odds and ends collected by bower birds are all- or
partly-blue.
(3) The sooty tern can remain aloft continuously for 10 years.
(Guinness Book of Records)
(4) The collective noun for owls is parliament.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
6 October 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about ants
around the world:
(1) Termites are white ants.
(2) Kidnap and slavery is still practised In ants’
nests. Species such as Europe’s sanguinary ants kidnap
the workers of other tribes and force them to do menial tasks.
(Absolute Trivia)
(3) After heavy rain, Malaysia’s cataulaucus muticus
ants clear their nests of water by drinking the floodwater
and nipping outside to let nature take its course. (Vegan
Voice)
(4) Asia’s leaf-carter ants cart leaves. They cart
them over distances of more than 100 metres, from the tops
of trees, down the trunks, across logs, through jungle and
down into their nests.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
29 September 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on crocodiles:
(1) Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba was once home to 25 000
crocodiles.
(2) A crocodile was cruising down the main street of Katherine
in Australia’s Northern Territory in January 1998 because
its habitat expanded somewhat during Katherine’s worst-ever
flood.
(3) If you are chased by a crocodile you should run away
from the water because crocodiles kill by drowning their victims,
or in a zigzag fashion because a crocodile cannot make sudden
changes of direction. (Absolute Trivia)
(4) No alligators live in Australia’s Alligator River
but there are plenty of crocodiles. The river was named by
an American explorer, who thought he had seen alligators.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
22 September 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on presidents:
(1) For the 27 years before Nelson Mandela became president
of South Africa, he was a prisoner. (Question was: "What
was Nelson Mandela’s occupation for the 27 years before
he became president of South Africa?")
(2) Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat had his picture appear
on every page of every newspaper in Egypt every day. (Question
was: "Did Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat allow his
picture to be published in the country’s newspapers?")
(3) The only American president who did not belong to a political
party was George Washington.
(4) The president and prime minister of Poland are twins.
(Question was: "Are the president and prime minister
of Poland closely-related?")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
15 September 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on national anthems:
(1) The USA national anthem starts with “Oh, say”.
(2) Very few Greeks know all the words of their national
anthem. It has 158 verses. (Absolute Trivia)
(3) The national anthems of Japan, Jordan and San Marino
all have four lines. (Absolute Trivia)
(4) The only person named in Australia’s national anthem
is Captain James Cook. The first line of the second verse
is “When gallant Cook from Albion sailed.”
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
8 September 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on world water transport:
(1) The liner “Resolution”, with its swimming
pools, gym, squash courts and library, was approved for British
government takeover as a floating jail to ease the overcrowding
in British prisons.
(2) Sir Francis Drake’s round-the-world voyage which
started in the “Pelican” finished in the “Golden
Hind” because it was renamed during the journey. (Reader's
Digest Book of Facts)
(3) The maiden voyage of Sweden’s “Wasa”,
one of the royal fleet’s largest ships, was its only
voyage. It sank while still in Stockholm Harbour. (Readers’
Digest Book of Facts)
(4) The ferry between Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the airport
peninsula leaves when, and only when, it is high tide (Lonely
Planet) (Question was: "When does the ferry depart on
its route between Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, and
the airport peninsula? (a) on the first Tuesday of the month
(b) at high tide (c) when it is full ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
1 September 2006
(1) When John McEnroe first stepped onto the same court as
Bjorn Borg and Arthur Ashe he threw balls to them. He was
their ballboy. (Channel 7 Sydney)
(2) When Jaslyn Hewitt was a spectator for a 2004 semi-final
she was watching her brother, Lleyton, playing her close friend
of several years, Joachim Johansson.
(3) In the 2004 final, Roger Federer was only one point short
of the greatest possible lead. Federer led Lleyton Hewitt
two sets to love, five games to love and had Hewitt serving
down 15-40.
(4) When Tim Henman said after the 2004 final: “If
you could combine Agassi’s ground strokes, Roddick’s
serve, Hewitt’s speed and determination and my volleys,
you’d have a chance of beating him”, he was talking
about Roger Federer.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
25 August 2006
(1) Ferrules are more frequently seen in wet weather because
they are the pieces that protrude from the tops of umbrellas.
(The word is also used to describe the pieces of metal that
hold rubber erasers on pencils.) (Absolute Trivia) (Question
was: "Why are ferrules more frequently seen in wet weather?")
(2) There are no thunderstorms in Antarctica. (Discovery
Channel)
(3) If a hurricane (northern hemisphere) rotates in one direction
and a cyclone (southern hemisphere) rotates in the other,
what happens if they cross the equator? They never cross the
equator, nor do they occur near it. Hurricanes and cyclones
are born in waters at least eight degrees north or south of
the equator. The earth’s rotation sends them off on
a track that arcs away from the equator. (Sydney Morning Herald)
(4) Snow falls in every month on Australia’s Mt Kosciuzko.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
18 August 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on fish:
(1) When danger threatens, Malawi cichlid fish hide in their
mothers’ mouths.
(2) The main food for the Nile Perch in Uganda’s Lake
Victoria is smaller Nile Perch. (Bradt’s Guide to Uganda)
(3) Murray Cod are found in Australia’s Darling River;
they are extinct in the Murray River. (The Sydney Morning
Herald)
(4) A Bombay duck can’t fly because it is a fish.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
11 August 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on weapons failures
in wars:
(1) The first man wounded by shrapnel was its inventor, General
Henry Shrapnel (Ripley's Book of Chance)
(2) Britain’s World War II No 74 (ST) hand grenade
had an adhesive coating that enabled it to stick to the side
of an enemy tank. It also enabled it to stick to the thrower,
which was generally what happened. (Book of Heroic Failures)
(3) The first bomb dropped by Russian aircraft when they
attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 hit the Soviet legation
in Helsinki.
(4) An estimated 40,000 to 80,000 men were killed by gunfire
in World War 1 in the Tyrolean Alps without being directly
hit. The sound of the gunfire precipitated the avalanches
which killed them. (Guinness Book of Records)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
4 August 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Israel:
(1) Although most countries’ embassies are in Tel Aviv,
the capital of Israel is Jerusalem.
(2) Arabs have been elected to Israel’s parliament.
(3) Israel’s Anna Smashnova smashes tennis balls. She
is a professional tennis player.
(4) The Israeli airline, El Al, does not fly between Friday
sunset and Saturday sunset, the Jewish Sabbath. (Question
was: "What is the unique feature of the timetables of
El Al, the Israeli airline?")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
28 July 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Lebanon:
(1) The first Arab country to permit private radio and TV
stations was Lebanon.
(2) The government of Lebanon decides which TV stations will
be allowed to broadcast news.
(3) In the 20 years from 1975, Israel, Syria and the Palestine
Liberation organisation used Lebanon as a battlefield for
their own conflicts.
(4) Besides food, Lebanon’s main export is tobacco.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
21 July 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Egypt:
(1) Of the Seven Wonders of the World, only the Egyptian
pyramids survive.
(2) Although all tourist pamphlets show the pyramids as being
in the middle of a desert, shops at Giza, a Cairo suburb,
are just a few metres away.
(3) The name for the ancient rulers of Egypt is Pharaohs.
If you had that spelling correct, you’re either a genius
or a cheat.
(4) The answer to the crossword clue “Egyptian flower
(4)” is “Nile”. Cryptic crossword compilers
try to give you a wrong steer, in this case making you think
of a flower (plant) rather than something which flows (a river).
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
14 July 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on North Korea:
(1) You normally don’t have to try very hard to find
the words “rogue state” in any Australian media
report of North Korea.
(2) North Koreans can legally drive 5km from home without
approval for further travel. (Sydney Morning Herald) (Question
was: "How far can North Koreans legally drive from home
without approval for further travel? (a) they can’t
leave their suburb (b) 5km (c) only to neighbouring countries,
except travel to South Korea is not permitted")
(3) In 1998, North Korea said it would charge foreign inspectors
US$300 million to check the contents of a large hole. (BBC)
(4) North Korea’s president has a life-long fear of
flying. When he visited the Russian president, his 10,000km
train journey took 10 days. (Sydney Morning Herald) (Question
was: "How does North Korea’s President Kim Jong
II travel to foreign countries to meet their presidents? (a)
boat (b) train (c) private 747 aircraft that includes spa
and gym ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
7 July 2006
1) Ivan Lendl won one Wimbledon title, the junior boys’
singles.
(2) Boris Becker became the youngest ever winner of the Wimbledon
men's singles in 1985. In 1986 he was the second-youngest.
(Question was: "Boris Becker became the youngest ever
winner of the Wimbledon men's singles in 1985. The 1986 champion
was the second-youngest. Who was he?")
(3) The last married man to win the Wimbledon men’s
singles was Jimmy Connors.
(4) That win was in 1982.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
30 June 2006
Answers to last week’s Wimbledon ladies’ questions.
(1) Tim Henman’s great grandmother was the first person
to serve over-arm at Wimbledon; his grandmother was the last
person to serve under-arm. (SMH 11-1-97) (Question was: "English
number one Tim Henman's great grandmother was the first person
to play a certain stroke at Wimbledon; his grandmother was
the last person to do it the opposite way at Wimbledon. What
did those ladies do?")
(2) A record number of spectators saw Billie-Jean King play
a man, 55-year-old Bobby Riggs.
(3) Chris Evert lost seven Wimbledon singles finals.
(4) Chris Evert and Fred Stolle both lost three consecutive
Wimbledon singles finals.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
23 June 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about Mt Everest:
(1) New Zealand’s Mark Inglis lost both his legs in
1982 when trapped for two weeks on New Zealand’s highest
peak. He climbs with prosthetic legs and in May 2006 became
the first double amputee to reach the world’s highest
point.
(2) Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei was the first female
to climb to the summit of Mt Everest.
(3) Over 160 people have died trying to reach Everest’s
summit.
(4) There are about 120 corpses still lying on the mountain.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
16 June 2006
Answers to last week’s World Cup questions:
(1) To help them win their World Cup matches, each player
of the Brazilian team puts his right foot onto the field first
when coming on for the match.
(2) Bora Milutinovic has coached all of the USA, Mexico,
Costa Rica and Nigeria World Cup teams.
(3) The war between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969 was
caused by each accusing the other of cheating in the qualifying
rounds for the 1970 World Cup.
(4) 150 people were injured when a woman accidentally drove
into a crowd celebrating France’s World Cup win in the
Champs Elysées, Paris, in July 1998. One died.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
9 June 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on the French Open
tennis championships:
(1) Chanda Rubin achieved the ultimate recovery in the 1995
French Open. She won her match against Jana Novotna after
being down a set, 0-5 and 0-40.
(2) The French-derived words “love” and “deuce”
are used at all the Grand Slam championships except the French.
(Question was: "The French-derived words “love”
and “deuce” are used for zero and 40-all at three
of the Grand Slam championships. At which Grand Slam are they
not used?")
(3) The French use “quarante auch” for the first
“deuce” in each game, and “égalité”
for subsequent “deuces”.
(4) During the third set of his quarter-final match in the
2002 French singles, Andre Pavel drove 14 hours return to
his hometown in Germany for the birth of his son. The match
had been suspended because of rain
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
2 June 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on fences:
(1) The world’s longest fence is in the Australian
state Queensland.
(2) It keeps out the dingo, a wild dog.
(3) Thousands flocked to Sydney’s Coogee Beach in February
2003 to see an optical illusion of the virgin Mary on a fence.
(4) An African rock python got stuck in a Miami turkey farm
fence in October 2005 after swallowing a turkey.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
26 May 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on world trees:
(1) The world’s tallest, largest and oldest living
things are California redwood trees
(2) Australia’s Forest Protection Society supports
logging.
(3) The only time when the African baobab tree’s blossoms
open is in moonlight.
(4) The Qantassaurus, a dinosaur species discovered in 1996,
was named after Qantas because of the airline’s support
for dinosaur exhibitions. This dinosaur grazed on ferns and
Norfolk Island Pines. (Sun-Herald 16-1-00). (Question was:
" What destroyed many Norfolk Island pine trees?
(a) the Qantassaurus (b) the elliptic eel (c) the orchestral
honeybee ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
19 May 2006
Answers to last week’s Solomon Islands questions:
(1) Charles Dausabea was in jail when he was appointed the
Solomons Islands’ Minister for National Security and
Minister for Police on 5-5-06.
(2) Nelson Ne’e was in jail with Charles Dausabea when
he was appointed the Solomons Islands’ Minister for
Culture and Tourism on 5-5-06.
(3) The traditional dress at custom villages on the Solomons’
Guadalcanal Island is nothing, except for leaves or similar
to cover the private parts.
(4) The Solomons have no government or commercial television,
but they view overseas TV by satellite.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
12 May 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on world taxation:
(1) Bahrain and Norfolk Island have no income tax.
(2) All 16 Australian Football league clubs were named in
1998 as having been prosecuted for tax evasion.
(3) Al Capone was finally convicted for tax evasion.
(4) In a five-page judgment, the Australian Tax Office determined
that “the primary constituent” of frozen yoghurt
was yoghurt. (Question was: " In a five-page judgment,
what did the Australian Tax Office determine is “the
primary constituent” of frozen yoghurt? ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
5 May 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about British Royalty
The answer to all four questions was Elizabeth II
1) She is the only person in England who does not need a car
licence plate;
2) her mother called her Lilibet;
3) she is the Duke of Lancaster and
4) was Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1952.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
28 April 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on American inventions:
(1) Bob Berner invented the computer escape key.
(2) Amongst many other things, President Thomas Jefferson
invented coat hangers.
(3) Dr Albert Southwick, inventor of the electric chair,
was a dentist.
(4) The first recording made by Thomas Edison, inventor of
the phonograph, was Mary Had a Little Lamb.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
21 April 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on celebrations:
(1) Twelve courageous Filipinos from Pedro Cutud village
celebrate Easter each year by being crucified. They have 10cm
nails driven through their hands and feet and are hoisted
to a vertical position for several minutes. (The Sydney Morning
Herald)
(2) The weapons used by residents of the Spanish Town Buñol
in their annual “La Tomatina” festival are squashed
tomatoes.
(3) Washington DC’s 600 arrests, 150 smashed windows,
42 looted refreshment stands, 17 stonings of uniformed officers,
33 fires, 14 cars demolished in Constitution Avenue and 120
cases of public brawling were during the celebration of Human
Kindness Day (Question was: On 10 May 1975 in Washington DC,
there were 600 arrests, 150 smashed windows, 42 looted refreshment
stands, 17 stonings of uniformed officers, 33 fires, 14 cars
demolished in Constitution Avenue and 120 cases of public
brawling. What day was being celebrated?")
(4) Russians celebrate the October Revolution in November.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
14 April 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Uzbekistan:
(1) As recently as 2003, no Uzbekistan establishments named
“Internet Café” had computers and none
served coffee. They just liked the sound of the name as a
meeting place. (Question was: What did establishments named
“Internet Café” in Uzbekistan lack as recently
as 2003 that we would expect to find in buildings displaying
that name?")
(2) The highest-value currency note in Uzbekistan is worth
about one Australian dollar.
(3) Erk, meaning freedom, is an opposition party in Uzbekistan.
(4) Opposition parties played no part in Uzbekistan’s
December 2004 parliamentary elections because they were banned.
(Question was: What role did opposition parties play in the
2004 December Uzbekistan parliamentary elections? ")
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
7 April 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Tuvalu:
(1) Altitude sickness medication is not necessary if you
attempt a climb on Tuvalu, as its highest point is 4.5 metres
above sea level.
(2) Tuvalu derives significant income from both selling its
internet domain letters, tv, to TV companies and much of its
900 international telephone code space to foreign companies.
Most of them use the numbers to sell phone sex (The Sydney
Morning Herald 18-2-00); an American internet company paid
US$50 million for its domain name (The Australian 24-3-01)
(3) You can only fly to Tuvalu from Fiji.
(4) Can you name all of Tuvalu’s rivers? Yes and no.
Tuvalu doesn’t have any rivers, not even any streams.
(BBC News)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
31 March 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Swaziland:
(1) The King of Swaziland has more than 20 wives.
(2) Former Swaziland King Sobhuza II had more than 100 wives.
(3) The Speaker of Swaziland’s parliament stole cow
dung from the king’s cattle enclosure, throwing the
kingdom into a political crisis in 2000.
(4) The fine for a man soliciting sex with a woman in Swaziland
in 2002 was one cow.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
24 March 2006
Answers to last week’s Commonwealth Games questions:
(1) The four teenagers illegally inside the 2006 Commonwealth
Games complex in Melbourne were also illegally out, having
escaped from the youth detention centre next door. (Question
was: Two days before the 2006 Commonwealth Games opened, four
teenagers were apprehended while trespassing inside the arena.
As well as being illegally in, they were illegally out. How
could this be?)
(2) Was the youngest competitor in the 2006 Commonwealth
Games in his upper or lower teens? No, the table tennis star
was aged 12.
(3) Only the second half of the first verse of the national
anthem “God Save the Queen” was sung when Queen
Elizabeth officially opened the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
(4) “After lurching from one military coup to another,”
says the BBC, “Nigeria now has an elected leadership.”
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
17 March 2006
Answers to last week’s Commonwealth Games questions:
(1) Seven Commonwealth Games gold medals holder Lisa Curry-Kenny
is allergic to chlorine.
(2) The 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia were the first
to be held in Asia.
(3) In those Malaysian games, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe
missed breaking the oldest world swimming record by one one-hundredth
of a second.
(4) The premier of the Australian state Victoria was confident
of winning the 2006 Commonwealth Games for his capital city,
Melbourne, because Melbourne was the only city to bid.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
10 March 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on North Korea (Democratic
People's Republic of Korea):
(1) A photo of the present leader of North Korea and his
father must be displayed in every house in North Korea.
(2) In 1998 Kim Il-sung was made the country’s permanent
president for ever even though he died in 1994. (Question
was: "Who has North Korea decided will be their president
in 2100?")
(3) Only the president can use the centre lane on North Korea’s
main roads.
(4) All North Korean men are required to wear a lapel pin
bearing the president’s name or photo.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
3 March 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about Myanmar:
(1) London human rights activist James Mawdsley went to Myanmar
three times with the intention of being jailed to draw attention
to human rights. (Sun-Herald 19-11-00)
(2) Myanmar, Liberia and USA are the only countries that
retain the Imperial system of measurement. (ie inches, feet,
miles)
(3) The 12-year-old twins who led Myanmar’s God’s
Army were cigar smokers.
(4) The top of the Shwe Dagon pagoda in Myanmar is protected
from rain by an umbrella. (Reader’s Digest Book of Facts)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
24 February 2006
(1) Australia had 24 contestants in the 1998 winter Olympics
in Japan and sent 71 officials. (Question was: "Australia
had 24 contestants at the 1998 winter Olympics in Japan. How
many officials did we send? (a) 8 (b) 16 (c) more than the
number of contestants")
(2) The 1988 winter Olympics’ Eddie the Eagle was probably
the most famous winter Olympian ever because he was the worst
contestant by far.
(3) Coming last, and by a large margin, enabled speed skater
Steven Bradbury to take the gold medal in the 2002 winter
Olympics. The other five were in a mass pile-up near the finish
line and he coasted past them for victory.
(4) The verb that commentators create from a noun when reporting
on those who have gained a first, second or third Olympic
place is “medalled”.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
17 February 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about Mali:
(1) Mali’s President Toure doesn’t have a political
party. He went into his election with the support of 22 minor
parties (BBC World)
(2) The spiritual chief of the Dogon village Endé
spends 364 days each year in his cave half-way up a cliff
overlooking the village.
(3) In the Dogon Desert villages, backpackers sleep on the
roof.
(4) Mali did not use the Olympic swimming pool built for
it by Russia because it could not afford the chlorine. (Sunday
Telegraph)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
10 February 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Iraq:
(1) Until 2002, no female spectators were permitted at Iraqi
sporting events.
(2) When Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn’t pay enough
postage on a letter bomb he sent, It came back stamped return
to sender. It had been so long since he posted it, he didn’t
recognise it as his bomb and when he opened it he was blown
to bits. (Signs of the Times). (Quesion was: "What happened
when Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn’t pay enough
postage on a letter bomb he sent?")
(3) Saddam Hussein was the only candidate in Iraq’s
election after the Gulf War loss and voting papers had to
be completed in the full view of officials. (Question was:
"In spite of losing the Gulf War and leading his country
to ruin, Iraqis returned Saddam Hussein to power in October
1995 by a margin of millions of votes. Why?")
(4) Iraq’s name ends with a “q” not followed
by a “u”. The country’s name that begins
with a “q” not followed by a “u” is
Qatar.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
3 February 2006
(1) 17,000 people attended the one-day trial of Cuban murderer
Major Blanco, in the Havana Sports Palace. (Guinness Book
of Records) (Question was: "How many people attended
the one-day trial of Cuban murderer Major Blanco? (a) one,
the judge (b) 12, the judge and 11 prosecutors (c) 17 000")
(2) Australian Susie Maroney travelled to the United States
in 1997 by swimming the 200 kilometres from Cuba. (Question
was: "How did Australian sports star Susie Maroney travel
to the United States from Cuba on 12 May 1997?")
(3) Cuba is the only country to which the US does not allow
its citizens to travel directly. (Question was: "To what
countries besides Cuba does the US not allow its citizens
to travel?")
(4) The United States has leased its Guantánamo naval
base in Cuba since 1903.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
27 January 2006
(1) The word “ilunga”, from the Congo language
Tshiluba, means “a person who is ready to forgive any
abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but
never a third time.” It won a poll conducted among a
thousand linguists for the world’s most difficult word
to translate. (If someone gets annoyed with you after you
offend for the third time, you could just tell them “Don’t
be such an ilunga.”)
(2) Brazzaville finished last in the 2003 Quality of Life
survey. (Sydney Morning Herald)
(3) (a). All 11 players of the Congo football team were killed
by lightning in a 1998 match, which left the other team untouched.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
(4) Congo is expected to have general elections in 2006 for
the first time since 1960. (BBC News)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
20 January 2006
Answers to last week’s Namibia questions:
(1) All of the 14 towns in the 250km west of Eenhana shown
in the Lonely Planet guidebook for Namibia have names beginning
with “O”
(2) As Dundozonananandana is the name of one of its mountain
ranges, we could guess that German is commonly spoken in Namibia.
(3) Australia beat Namibia 142-0 in the 2003 World Cup.
(4) When Botswana prepared itself for war against Namibia
in 1998 the dispute was over hippopotami. The two disputed
islands were usually underwater in the rainy season. (Sydney
Morning Herald)
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
13 January 2006
Answers to last week’s questions about Burkina Faso:
(1) The vowel-laden capital city of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou.
(Question was: "The name of Burkina Faso’s
capital city has 11 letters; an astonishing eight of these
are vowels. What is it?")
(2) “Burkina Faso” means “land of honest
or upright men”.
(3) Burkina Faso is a little short of submarines as it’s
a landlocked country. (Question was: "What is the
salient feature of Burkina Faso’s navy submarines?")
(4) The people of Burkina Faso are called Burkinabe.
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Free Trivia Answers to Questions for week ending
6 January 2006
Answers to last week’s questions on Equatorial Guinea,
a small African country:
(1) The equator runs through neighbouring Gabon, but not
through Equatorial Guinea.
(2) Equatorial Guinea’s Eric Moussambani received the
most publicity of any 2000 Olympics swimmer, because he didn't
drown. He was the worst competitor, having learned to swim
only nine months earlier. In his heat of the 100m freestyle,
the other two contestants were disqualified. Although he had
never swum 100m before, he completed the distance in 1m 52.72s.
(3) Equatorial Guinea’s wet seasons last for 10 months,
from April to January. (Lonely Planet)
(4) The current president of Equatorial Guinea is a nephew
of the previous president of Equatorial Guinea, who he overthrew
and executed. (BBC News). (The question was: "Since
independence in 1968, Equatorial Guinea has had two rulers.
What relationship was the current president, Obiang Nguema,
to President Francisco Nguema, in 1979, who was tried and
executed? (a) former best friend (b) nephew ")
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