Pick n' Mix: Part TWENTY-SIX Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dolphin

Salacia gets her name from the Latin "sal" for "salt." She is typically associated with salt water. Neptune was besotted with her upon first sight, but Salacia was not overstruck on him. In response to his advances, she ran away to the Atlas Mountains.

Not to be deterred, Neptune sent a dolphin after her to persuade her to return to him. She eventually did so, and because the dolphin was successful in assisting Neptune, Neptune placed the dolphin among the stars as the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin.

Answer: Because it absorbs neutrons strongly

Zirconium (Zr), atomic number 40, has an exceptionally high level of corrosion resistance, a high melting point, and a very low absorption rate of neutrons. Hafnium must be removed because it possesses the complete opposite nuclear properties of zirconium.

Hafnium is directly below zirconium in the periodic table: yet despite being so similar chemically, zirconium and hafnium both behave very differently when exposed to neutrons. Zirconium absorbs hardly any neutrons, whereas hafnium absorbs a high number of neutrons. Natural zirconium ore usually contains about 2% hafnium. If this hafnium is not removed, this impurity would absorb the neutrons needed to sustain the nuclear fission chain reaction. This would subsequently make the fuel cladding and core structures fail at generating power.

Answer: Panic! at the Disco

It was released on September 27, 2005. The members of Panic! at the Disco were only between 17 and 18 years old at the time of recording, and were originally a Blink 182 cover band. They had not yet played a live concert before the album was completed. The band had $10,000-$11,000 budget to work with while producing their first album, which sold over four million copies worldwide.

The band's guitarist, Ryan Ross, left a web link on Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz's personal LiveJournal page, who was so impressed with the music that he drove to see the band perform in a garage in their home state, Nevada. Wentz immediately signed them to his label.

Answer: Red Auerbach

Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (1917-2006) led the Boston Celtics to eight consecutive victories between 1959-1966. He wrote seven books about basketball during his lifetime. His cartoonist brother, Zang Auerbach, helped design the leprechaun logo for the Boston Celtics.

Auerbach was known for his mind games against the Celtic's opposition before, during and after games. He would ensure that the opposition's showers were either freezing cold in winter or scalding hot in summer. He was also accused of underinflating basketballs against fast, quick scoring teams in order to sabotage their defence and disrupt their dribbling rhythm.

Red Auerbach was fond of cigars. He would light one up from the side lines whenever he was absolutely confident that the Celtics would win. It infuriated the opposition. In retaliation for this taunting habit, manager of the Cincinnati Royals, Pepper Wilson, handed out 10,000 cigars to Royals fans telling them to smoke out the stadium with them when their team won. The Celtics beat them instead, resulting in Red lighting his cigar in front of them, much to their annoyance.

Answer: Big Ben

Also known as Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe, Edmund Beckett Denison (1816-1905) was an English lawyer, architect and mechanical engineer. He is often cited as a major cause for the construction of the great clock for the Houses of Parliament, London, popularly known as "Big Ben," warping into a 16 year ordeal. Although his input during his co-designing of Big Ben ultimately resulted in the birth of the most accurate tower clock in the world, this was at the cost of many libel lawsuits, vicious public feuding and several broken bells.

Denison was a wealthy, amateur horologist who had forced his way into the clock tower's construction. He was particularly occupied with making the bell as loud as possible. Upon the first 15-ton bell's construction in 1856, Denison insisted on using a brittle metal alloy to increase the bell's auditory capabilities. John Warner & Sons, the bell foundry and metalworks who constructed it, heavily protested this. Denison then opted for using a 600-pound hammer to test the bell, resulting in the bell sporting a crack of around 1.2-metres.

John Warner & Sons were furious when the first bell cracked. They categorically denied any manufacturing fault, much to Denison's protests. The bell foundry argued that Denison's interference with the casting of the bell and his overly-engineered 600-pound testing hammer was wholly to blame for the damage. Denison publicly blasted the company for "faulty casting" and John Warner & Sons responded by suing him for defamation and won the case.

A rival company, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, were given the task of melting down the broken bell. They cast a 13.5-ton bell, around 2.5 tons lighter than its damaged predecessor. To celebrate the bell's successful construction a parade was organised, with the bell being displayed in a carriage drawn by 16 white horses. Denison's actions cracked this bell in 1859 when he implemented a hammer for it that was more than twice the maximum weight recommended by engineers.

Not wanting to lose face again, Denison tracked down a worker from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, got him drunk and tricked him into signing a document stating that the company had deliberately tried to cover up a bad casting using filler. When Denison published these accusations in the Times, the company's founder, George Mears, was so furious and insulted that he decided to sue Denison as well. Denison, realising that he would be exposed as a liar in court, retracted his statements and settled with Whitechapel Bell Foundry out of court.

Answer: Pandan leaves

"Lod Chong" roughly translates to "passed through a hole," which is descriptive of the dessert's production method. A specialized sieve or container is used to pass through pandan-infused rice flour paste, straight into cold water. This solidifies the paste into a noodle shape. Lod Chong is traditionally served at Thai weddings.

Known locally as "Bai Toey Hom," pandan leaves have many uses in Thailand. The leaves are not only regularly used in cooking (even when the dish is not green), but as air fresheners and as an insect repellent.

Answer: Gernot Reinstadler

Gernot Reinstadler (1970-1991) was a promising skier who tragically died due to an accident involving a net during a World Cup training run. He was the son of Traudl Eder, who competed in the Austrian women's national ski team.

Gernot Reinstadler died aged 20 on the Lauberhorn course in Wengen, Switzerland. Travelling at 50 mph (80 mph), he lost control and crashed into a safety net. One of his skis became trapped in one of the safety nets large holes, his ski remaining stuck while his body continued to move at high speed. Gernot suffered from a torn pelvis and his right leg was almost totally severed internally. This resulted in his femoral artery rupturing, and he could sadly not be saved after being airlifted to hospital.

The sudden and shocking death of Gernot Reinstadler resulted in wide-mesh safety nets being banned in skiing. The International Ski Federation (FIS) recalled all existing similar nets in use and replaced them with small-mesh ones, making sure skiers would not get their equipment entangled in them in future.

Answer: Nightcrawler

Born in 1965, Alan Cumming is a Scottish actor, singer and writer. He stated that playing Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler appealed to him because he is fond of playing characters that are first thought to be the movie's villain, but are later proven to be misunderstood. Nightcrawler is first assumed to be the villain in the film because in the opening scene he attacks the U.S President and attempts to assassinate him. He is later revealed to be under the control of a drug that manipulates mutants.

Cumming undertook acrobatics training and intense physical exercise to prepare for the role. Nightcrawler is a character who lived in the circus. He also has blue skin, which took around four hours of makeup daily to prepare Cumming for filming. He went through this makeup process around 40 times.

Answer: QR codes

Before Masahiro Hara invented the QR code while working for Denso Wave, one dimensional (1D) barcodes were difficult to work with in Japanese factories and supermarkets. These barcodes were only capable of storing data horizontally through vertical lines, roughly around 20-25 alphanumeric characters. Factories had to print multiple barcodes on one box to log the necessary data, resulting in workers having to scan up to ten different barcodes on one package.

In the 1990s, Japan's automotive industry was booming. As cars have thousands of parts, a single box of components forced workers to scan up to 1,000 barcodes a day. Masahiro Hara thought there must be a better system than this. While on his break during a shift at Denso Wave, Hara was playing "Go," a traditional East Asian strategy board game which uses a grid and black and white stones. He realised that using a square matrix pattern, he could arrange data in two dimensions, both horizontally and vertically. This system could not only support both Japanese Kanji and Kana characters, but discarding linear lines to use a 2D grid meant that the new code could hold over 100 times more information than a traditional barcode.

The invention of the QR code came with an unexpected twist: Denso Wave refused to patent their design rights. They only monetised the specialised scanners required to read a QR code, but generously made the QR codes themselves royalty-free.

Answer: Tethys Ocean

The Tethys Ocean, also known as the Tethys Sea, was a tropical sea that existed for hundreds of millions of years. It ran east to west, separating the supercontinents of Laurasia (which lay north) and Gondwana (which lay south). The modern Mediterranean, Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Aral Sea are the last remnants left behind by the closing of the Tethys Ocean.

During the Mesozoic Era, Earth did not have the polar ice caps that we have in modern times. The shape and size of the Tethys Ocean profoundly influenced global weather. The ocean formed a long, uninterrupted channel directly along the Equator and was home to terrifying marine reptiles such as Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs and Placodonts. Africa and India had not yet drifted north to disrupt this flow, meaning that global oceanic currents were considerably different.

Answer: It creates a high refractive index and low dispersion

Lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃) is a white, solid, inorganic compound that gives glass an exceptionally high refractive index. This results in light bending through the glass much more sharply, allowing for cameras to be made with thinner lenses capable of great magnification. It also makes the glass more durable, making it strongly resistant to attacks by bases and acids.

Traditional glass functions like a prism, splitting white light into separate colour wavelengths, that is, chromatic aberration. Lanthanum oxide possesses a very low dispersion which forces all colours of the light to focus at an exact point. This results in the elimination of colour fringing around images.

If left exposed to open air, lanthanum oxide will absorb moisture from the atmosphere aggressively and turn into lanthanum hydroxide. This is why lanthanum oxide should always be stored in airtight containers.

Answer: Darren Fletcher

Darren Fletcher impressed Alex Ferguson so much as a youth player that he wanted to give him his senior Manchester United debut when he was just 16. Due to Premier League regulations at the time this was not possible. He had been a youth player since the age of 11 in 1995.

Darren Fletcher made his senior first team debut for MUFC on 12 March 2003. He played for the club for the club for 20 years, scored 24 senior goals and made 342 appearances in matches. He left for West Bromwich Albion in 2015.

Fletcher scored two goals against rival football club, Manchester City, during the 4-3 Manchester Derby Thriller of 2009. This set the stage for Michael Owen's infamous 96th-minute goal.

Fletcher returned to MUFC as a coach in 2020 for the Under-16s.

Answer: Bhutan

Following the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 on December 6, 1971, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, the Third King of Bhutan (1931-1972), sent an official telegram of recognition to the government of Bangladesh. It also contained a personal prayer the king had written which prayed for the safe release of Bangladesh's founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was being held captive in prison by the military of West Pakistan.

Bhutan's telegram arrived a few hours before India's telegram of recognition of Bangladesh's statehood did. The USA sided with Pakistan, with Richard Nixon wishing to use Pakistan's connections to open relations with Communist China. China strongly opposed Bangladesh's independence, both as a close ally of Pakistan and as a rival of India and the Soviet Union. China stopped Bangladesh from joining the United Nations until 1974.

Answer: Pope Paschal I

Pope Paschal I was pope from 817 AD until his death in 824. Paschal began his work to rescue the catacombs as soon as he was elected. The remains of around 2,300 bodies of martyrs and anonymous people were transported to Santa Prassede Basilica.

The body of Saint Cecilia was discovered during the excavations, with Paschal dedicating a basilica to her in 821.

Answer: Krishna

Considered to be Surdas' masterpiece, the "Sur Sagar" ("Ocean of Melody") is renowned in Hindi literature. Despite being blind, Surdas gave vivid descriptions of Krishna in his poetry which is so beautiful and detailed that scholars have speculated as to whether he was born with sight and later lost it. It is said that because Surdas gives clear descriptions of the colours of the sunset, the textures of Krishna's clothes and the expressions on Krishna's face, it is likely that he was not always blind.

When he was around 18, Surdas met the Hindu saint, Vallabhacharya. Recognising that Surdas possessed musical talent, Vallabhacharya had him join his religious order to chant the Bhagavata Purana, which grew Surdas into a devoted worshipper of Krishna. Surdas' story became so famous that it even drew the attention of Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great, who was deeply moved by his spiritual music and his story.

Answer: Manduria Airfield

In contrast to other Axis bases, Manduria Airfield was not bombed by the Allies, who captured the airfield in 1943. The airfield is located around 3 miles (5 km) north of the city of Manduria, southern Italy. The airfield was directly outside a 200 year old olive grove.

Because the airfield was left undamaged, the Allies only had to expand and upgrade the grounds to accommodate the larger and heavier American bombers. Following the end of the Second World War the base closed in 1945 with the land being returned to local farmers.

A portion of the state-owned Manduria Airfield grounds was used as a makeshift migrant reception centre in response to the 2011 Arab Spring Crisis. The camp was dissolved following the calming of the crisis, with farmers still using the surrounding fields.

Answer: The son of Bangladesh's founding father

Established in 1995, Sheikh Russel KC is named to honour the youngest son of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Russel, who was tragically killed (alongside most of his other family) in 1975 during a military coup. Named after Bertrand Russel, Sheikh Russel had ambitions of becoming a soldier to serve Bangladesh when he grew up. Bangladesh officially observes Sheikh Russel's birthday every year on October 18.

Under coach Wajed Gazi from 1998, Sheikh Russel KC rose from Bangladesh's lowest tier Pioneer Football League in 1996 to the the Dhaka Premier Division Football League in 2003. The club won the 2012 Bangladesh Federation Cup.

Answer: Mosul

Nineveh was the last capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and was located in what is now the modern day city of Mosul, Iraq. In the Old Testament, Nineveh is the notorious, sinful city where Jonah is sent to preach after becoming trapped in the belly of a whale.

Under the reign of King Sennacherib, Nineveh became an influential city in around 700 BC, overtaking Babylon in size and reaching a population of between 100,000-150,000. The wall surrounding Nineveh's inner fortress was over 40 feet high and over 50 feet thick, fortified by 15 gates named after various Assyrian gods.

In 612 BC, Nineveh was attacked by the Babylonians, the Medes, the Chaldeans and the Scythians. This was a result of the death of the last major ruler of Assyria, Ashurbanipal, and the following civil wars. The infighting weakened the military and left the area vulnerable. Realising there was an opportunity to invade the territory, Nabopolassar of Babylon and Cyaxares, King of the Medes, united to attack Nineveh. Generations of hatred and resentment fuelled the invaders to massacre the city and burn buildings to the ground, including the Library of Ashurbanipal.

Answer: Egypt and Syria

Established in February 1958, the United Arab Republic (UAR) aimed to become the first in an expanding pan-Arab state in its unification of Egypt and Syria. In the 1950s, Syria was suffering from severe political instability, with military infighting being a common occurrence, and fears of both Western and communist influence being a growing concern.

Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) was the second president of Egypt. He had risen to great popularity among Arabs for his handling of the Suez Crisis of 1956. Arab nationalism was highly popular at the time and Nasser represented what a lot of Arabs then wanted. He was openly against Western influence, openly opposed Israel and was fiercely supportive of Arab independence and political expansion.

Syria approached Nasser asking for unity in January 1958. When this was agreed to, the Syrians were originally thrilled. When Nasser arrived in Damascus in February that year enormous crowds flooded the street with people climbing up trees, buildings and cars just to get a glance of him.

This admiration towards Nasser from the Syrian people would not be everlasting. When the union was agreed on, Syria believed it would be joining Egypt as an equal partner. Nasser made it clear this was not the case when he banned and dissolved all Syrian political parties including the Syrian Ba'ath Party, which had been particularly vocal in supporting Nasser. Syrians were greatly outnumbered in population by the Egyptians, Syrian army officers were transferred to Egypt and Egyptian officials were sent to show off their newfound power in Syria. This disillusionment with the union was compounded by severe droughts in Syria between 1958-1961.

Syria left the union as a result of the Syrian army's military coup in September 1961. Egypt continued to call itself the United Arab Republic (UAR) until 1971.

Answer: Ysbaddaden Bencawr

Ysbaddaden Bencawr is the grotesque chief antagonist of Medieval Welsh romance tale, "Culhwch and Olwen." His size is so large that his eyelids are heavy and droop shut. He has servants that use iron tipped forks to prop his eyelids open. He lives in fear of a prophecy that he will die on his daughter Olwen's wedding day.

Culhwch asks to marry Olwen, resulting in Ysbaddaden Bencawr giving Culhwch 40 seemingly impossible tasks for him to undertake to gain his blessing. This includes hunting a monstrous supernatural boar named Twrch Trwyth. Culhwch completes every task. Defeated, Ysbaddaden Bencawr is beheaded by his nephew, Goreu, who had good cause for revenge. Ysbaddaden Bencawr had previously murdered 23 of Goreu's brothers.