Pick n' Mix: Part TWENTY Trivia Quiz

Answer: Uranium and radium

Located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Haut-Katanga Province, Shinkolobwe was used to mine uranium for the Manhattan Project to construct nuclear bombs in World War II, as well as other nuclear weapons developed in America. The mine was first used in 1921 when what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was a colony of Belgium.

Belgium had a significant amount of uranium ore due to the Shinkolobwe mine. When the Nazis took control of Belgium in 1940, they were stopped from looting Belgium's uranium ore reserves by the Alsos Mission. The Alsos Mission was a mission conducted by Britain and the United States to sabotage scientific prosperity and discoveries by enemies of the Allies, and the ore was seized as a result.

Shinkolobwe mine was closed in 2004.

Answer: John Raymond Rice

John Raymond Rice (1914-1950) was a Native American of the Ho Chunk (also known as Winnebago) tribe, who was killed in combat in 1950 during the Korean War. Before this, he had given military service in the United States Marine Corps during the Second World War, achieving a Bronze Star for his efforts.

Rice was killed while leading his squad of riflemen in the Battle of Tabu-dong of 1950, where 600 American soldiers and 5,000 Korean soldiers were killed. When his body reached the United States for his funeral, a national scandal erupted when the Memorial Park Cemetery of Sioux City refused to bury him because he was Native American. His wife, Evelyn, was forced to take his body back to Winnebago, and Sioux City's reputation was tarnished as a city of racists for years to come.

The scandal reached the entirety of America, being blasted across the headlines of many newspapers. The outrage became so pronounced that U.S President, Harry Truman, had to intervene and order the cemetery to bury Rice.

Answer: Hongwu Emperor

The Hongwu Emperor (1328-1398) reigned China from 1368-1398. He was born into a poor family as Zhu Chongba in Haozhou, and became a monk at 16 as a result of being orphaned - a situation that was common amongst orphans in China at the time. China was suffering from famine and droughts and around 7 million people perished due to this. This led to many rebellions against the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty of China and the robbing of the rich.

Zhu quickly rose up in the ranks of the rebel military. In 1356, he led a rebellion that captured Nanjing, which he would assign to be the capital of the Ming dynasty once he declared himself emperor in 1368. He implemented a fairer tax policy, improved China's economy and had the population of China registered. Despite this, he is also remembered as a paranoid and cruel tyrant. In 1380, he had Lan Yu, one of his chancellors, executed after accusing him of plotting treason, as well as 30,000 people who were his family, friends, acquaintances and anyone perceived to have ever supported him.

The Hongwu Emperor is buried in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.

Answer: Holography

Denis Gabor (1900-1979) was a Hungarian-British scientist who had practiced physics since the age of 15. He constructed a laboratory with his brother in their childhood home. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he lived in Britain for the majority of his life, fleeing Nazi Germany as a Jew in 1933, and becoming a British citizen in 1946. He was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics due to his invention of the hologram.

While working in Britain in 1948, Gabor invented the hologram, but he called it "wavefront reconstruction" at the time.

Answer: Australia

Stephens's banded snake (Hoplocephalus stephensii) is named for academic and professor, William John Stephens. This highly venomous snake will typically grow to around 40 inches (1 m) long, and is found throughout the eastern coast of the country in both New South Wales and Queensland.

Stephens's banded snake is nocturnal and prefers not to interact with humans. The snake prefers to abide in trees, sometimes thousands of feet high.

Answer: Hitman

In the "Hitman" series created by IO Interactive of Denmark, Agent 47 is a genetically engineered clone whose DNA is a combination of five criminal geniuses, which gives him superb agility, intelligence, strength and speed, culminating in the creation of a highly efficient assassin.

The first game in the "Hitman" series, "Hitman: Codename 47", was one of the first games to employ ragdoll physics, which (in video game production) means the realistic falling of human bodies.

Answer: Lychees

Lychees will not ripen once they have been harvested, which is why they must be picked when fully ripe and have a comparably shorter shelf life to other fruits.

Lychees must be harvested carefully as the seed inside them is toxic, with compounds that can cause fatally low levels of blood sugar, particularly in people who are suffering from malnourishment.

Answer: Huron Indian Cemetery

Eliza Burton "Lyda" Conley was born in the late 1860s and was the first Native American woman to present the U.S. Supreme Court with a legal case. She was also the first woman to be admitted to the Kansas bar. The Huron Cemetery was important to Conley for her heritage and because her mother, sister and various ancestors of hers were laid to rest there.

Following the forced relocated of the Wyandot Nation from Ohio to Kansas in 1843, outbreaks of disease in the area meant a cemetery had to be constructed with Native Americans representing a high number of the deaths from illness. The government agreed to have the cemetery sold in 1906 to private developers, and Conley specifically became a lawyer in order to defend and preserve the cemetery.

Conley did not just defend the cemetery legally. Her and her family erected a shed coined "Conley's Fort" in order to barricade the developers out of the entrance. Although they were repeatedly arrested and the shack was demolished regularly, the family did not give up the fight to protect the cemetery. The campaign attracted local and national interest including that of Kansas Senator Charles Curtis, who presented legislation to Congress to preserve Huron Indian Cemetery. In 1916 it was designated as a federal park and just over a hundred years later was awarded status as a National Historic Landmark in 2017.

Lyda Conley was the victim of a violent mugging where she had a brick smashed over her head in 1946, dying of cranial trauma within 24 hours of the attack. She is buried in Huron Indian Cemetery.

Answer: Uprising

Born Robert Nesta Marley in 1945, Bob Marley was a Jamaican reggae singer, widely coined as a pioneer for the genre. Before he became famous, he and his friend, Bunny Wailer, constructed a makeshift guitar from a sardine can to practice music. Upon becoming somewhat famous, he and the Wailers were removed from their first tour due to upstaging the main act they were supporting. He survived an assassination attempt in Jamaica in 1976 and moved to London, where he recorded the album, "Exodus."

Bob Marley and the Wailers released "Uprising" on June 10, 1980. It has a considerably more religious theme than their previous albums, with Bob Marley leaning closer to spirituality since his diagnosis of cancer in 1977. "Redemption Song," which features on the album, is said to be Marley saying goodbye to the world. Bob Marley's final concert performance was at Pittsburgh at the Stanley Theater in September 1980.

Bob Marley died of cancer aged 36 on 11 May 1981. Jamaica arranged a state funeral for him. The Bob Marley Mausoleum in Nine Mile to this day remains a pilgrimage site for both his fans and for those belonging to the Rastafarian religion.

Answer: Kashubian

Kashubian is part of the West Slavic language group, originating in what is now Poland. Poland recognised Kashubian as an official ethnic minority language in 2005. It has similarities to the modern day Polish language. Most Kasubian speakers reside in the region of Pomerania in north-central Poland, but there is a small minority of Kashubian speakers in Canada.

The Pomeranian language was spoken Slavic Pomeranians, having varieties such as Slovincian (which went extinct in the 20th century), Western Pomeranian (which went extinct in around the 17th century) and Kashubian, which according to the 2021 Polish census, is spoken by around 87,600 people in Poland.

Answer: Gadolinium

Gadolinium has symbol Gd and atomic number 64 in the Periodic Table. It is a malleable rare-Earth metal that is only found in oxidized form in nature. Gadolinium was discovered by Swiss chemist, Jean Charles de Marignac, in 1800. It is named after the silicate mineral gadolinite, one of the minerals where gadolinium is extractable.

Gadolinium is often used in MRI scans as a contrasting agent, which gives improved clarity by contrasting healthy and unhealthy tissue in a scan's images. When gadolinium is injected into a vein, it shortens the relaxation periods of neighbouring water molecules, rendering them brighter on MRI images. The element however is not suitable for every patient's use, despite being generally harmless. Those with kidney problems for example, cannot receive gadolinium injections.

Gadolinium is also used in alloys, with as little as 1% gadolinium use showing improvement and resistance to oxidation in iron, chromium, etc, at high temperatures. Gadolinium is also used as a phosphor in medical imagery, in electronics, in nuclear plants and in optical devices.

Answer: Henet

The Pyramid Texts, the oldest surviving ancient Egyptian religious texts, refer to Henet as "Mother of the King." Henet is a deity associated with the afterlife and is said to provide the deceased with a safe journey there.

She was also depicted as scooping evil forces up in her pelican beak to protect Egypt.

Answer: HMS Howe

During World War II, King George V-class battleships were the most modern battleships used by the British. There were five ships in total of this class constructed, all of which were named after King George V and his sons, Edward VIII and George VI. HMS King George V was the first of this class to be commissioned, in 1940, with HMS Howe being the last of this class to be commissioned, in 1942.

HMS Howe was constructed by Scottish company, Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited. The ship was named after Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe (1726-1799).

HMS Howe was involved in the Allied Invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) in 1943, escorting two Italian battleships that had surrendered to Alexandria, alongside HMS King George V. In 1958, the ship was sold to be scrapped.

Answer: Kabalagala

The neighbourhood of Kabalagala , Kampala (Uganda's capital) was named after this banana pancake due to the street vendors repeatedly shouting "kabalagala!" at passers by hoping to sell their pancakes, hence, the name became associated with the area.

This pancake is thought to have become popular in Uganda in the 1970s. The dish is popular for its simplicity, with only cassava flour and ripe banana needed to make it.

Answer: Steve Olin and Tim Crews

Steve Olin (1965-1993) was a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, debuting for this baseball team in 1989. He played for the Cleveland Indians for four seasons before he died.

Tim Crews (1961-1993) also played for the Cleveland Indians and was also a pitcher, but began his baseball career in 1987, playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On March 22, 1993, Steve Olin, Tim Crews and their team mate, Bob Ojeda, were driving a boat at night after consuming substantial amounts of alcohol. Crews, who was driving the boat, did not see the pier they were approaching in the dark. Olin was killed by the impact immediately and Crews died in hospital the next day, with Bob Ojeda being the sole survivor of the accident.

The Cleveland Indians all donned a jersey patch which displayed both players' uniform numbers during the 1993 season to commemorate their two deceased team mates.

Answer: Boron

When used to create Pyrex glass, boron is mainly utilised in the form of boron trioxide. Boron trioxide is mixed with soda ash, silica and alumina, the mixture is then heated and melted. The boron trioxide establishes strong, firm bonds within the glass' molecules, resulting in the glass, once cooled, being much less susceptible to expanding when under heat, and contracting when under cooler conditions. This means that the glass can cope with extreme changes in temperature (such as from a hot oven to a cool refrigerator) without breaking.

Boron trioxide also aids in cooling the temperature of the glass mixture when Pyrex glass is being created. This means that the mixture is not only less susceptible to crystallization, which can create defects in the glass, but the mixture is also safer for workers to handle. A standard Pyrex glass product contains about 13% boric oxide, with the majority of the product consisting of silica at around 80%.

Answer: Gujarat

Located in the Thar Desert in the northwest of India, the Great Rann of Kutch was once a part of the Arabian Sea. However, as a result of geological changes in the area throughout history, the connection to the sea was severed, turning what is now the Great Rann of Kutch into a salt desert. The area is flooded during monsoon season and dry during the summer.

The area is home to a variety of wildlife including the Asiatic wild ass and the striped hyena. It is an important breeding ground for flamingos, and over 200 species of birds.

Answer: Battle of Okinawa

Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr (1886-1945) was commander of the Tenth United States Army. On June 18, 1945, the Battle of Okinawa was coming to an end. A Japanese artillery shell struck a rock which was near the outpost Buckner was standing by, the blast causing a chest injury that would kill him. Marine General Roy Geiger succeeded him.

Code-named Operation Iceberg, the Battle of Okinawa was the largest amphibious battle occurring in the Pacific War. At least 110,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in the Battle of Okinawa, as well as around 12,500 American soldiers. Civilians of the area suffered heavy casualties. Japanese propaganda encouraged a good number of civilians to commit suicide before they could be captured by American forces, who had been depicted as barbarians who would defile them.

The Battle of Okinawa saw the most kamikaze incidents of the Second World War, with Japanese forces unleashing 1,500 kamikaze attacks on the Allies. Over 30 ships were sunk by kamikaze pilots and over 300 were damaged.

Answer: Chalchiuhtlicue

In Aztec mythology, the world was created and then destroyed several times. Chalchiuhtlicue, which translates roughly to "She of the Jade Skirt," presided over the Fourth World. When a disgruntled fellow god, Tezcatlipoca, accused Chalchiuhtlicue of being facetious in her affection for humanity, her tears caused the world to flood for over 50 years. Humans around the world turned into fish to survive the destructive flood.

As a water deity, Chalchiuhtlicue was hailed as important for agriculture and human life. Midwives would pray to her when assisting women in labour, and would wash newborns religiously while invoking her name.

To ask Chalchiuhtlicue for rain during dry season, the Aztecs would drown a young girl in Lake Texcoco as a sacrifice.

Answer: Flexing the big toe

Located along the inside the foot's sole, the abductor hallucis' function is to flex the big toe, and to move the big toe away from the other four toes in the human body. It forms the fleshy protrusion along the medial arch, which is the highest arch of the human foot.

The abductor hallucis is controlled by the medial plantar nerve.