Ten Completely Random Questions About All Sorts Quiz

Answer: Dot

Determined by a vote of independent linguists, the choice of the word dot reflected the increasing popularity of the internet in the late 1990s and its use when verbalising URLs and email addresses.

Answer: It was a Roman encampment on the River Tove

The name Towcester comes from the Old English Tōfeceaster - tōfe refers to the local River Tove and ceaster comes from the Latin word castra or camp. So, Towcester means, camp on the (river) Tove.

The town is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the country. Previously named Lactodorum by the Romans, it is located on the Watling Street, a Roman road which stretches from the Kent port of Dubris (Dover) to Vironconium (Wroxeter) in Shropshire. The town features in Charles Dickens's novel "The Pickwick Papers" as one of the stopping places on Mr Pickwick's tour.

Answer: Because X is the Roman numeral for ten

Bletchley Park, a country mansion and estate in Buckinghamshire, housed the Government Code and Cypher School and was the centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. Prior to the war, the Bletchley Park mansion housed a secret radio intercept station. Being the tenth station of its type to be set up it was called Station X, because X is ten in Roman numerals.

Although the intercept station was relocated, the mysterious sounding name stuck as it seemed appropriate for the top-secret site.

Answer: Larry Brilliant

Lawrence "Larry" Brilliant, an American epidemiologist, technologist, philanthropist, and author, is notable for his 1973 - 1976 work with the World Health Organization (WHO), helping to successfully eradicate smallpox. In 1970 Brilliant, along with a group of others, rented a bus to drive around Europe, which then turned into a relief convoy to help victims of the 1970 Bhola cyclone in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan.

When civil unrest stopped the relief caravan, he spent several years in India studying at a Himalayan ashram with a Hindu Sage, Neem Karoli Baba.

After about a year Neem Karoli Baba advised Brilliant to eradicate smallpox. He participated as a medical officer in the WHO smallpox eradication program that in 1980 certified the global eradication of smallpox. Brilliant found that Indian officials became more receptive to his efforts when they learned of Neem Karoli Baba's involvement, to which he credits a significant portion of the program's success.

Answer: A mixture of household food waste fed to pigs and poultry

During WW2, shortages led to the creation of Tottenham Pudding, a mixture of household waste food which was converted into feeding stuffs for pigs and poultry. The "pudding" was named by Queen Mary on a visit to Tottenham Refuse Works. Production of the "pudding" continued into the post-war period, its demise coinciding with the merging of the borough into the new London Borough of Haringey in 1965.

Peter Smith, who lived near White Hart Lane, wrote in his memoirs about recycling: "food waste on the other hand from the 'pig bins' went to the 'cooking plant'. Here it was boiled up in great vats and turned into pig feed, it came out a big, sloppy mess that put into open top containers to cool down. If the look was pretty disgusting, the smell was even worse...but by all account the pigs loved it."

Answer: Elizabeth Bowen

Elizabeth Bowen wrote about the Irish war of independence in "The Last September". It concerns the life in Danielstown, Cork during the Irish War of Independence at a country mansion. John Banville wrote a screenplay based on the novel that was released in 1999.

CJ Sansom's "Winter in Madrid" is set in Spain just after the Spanish Civil War in 1940. With Madrid in ruins and the Nazis marching through Europe, General Franco considers whether to remain neutral or enter the world at war. Victoria Hislop wrote "The Return", which tells of a young women's journey to Spain to learn about Spanish dancing. While there she finds out about a family's experiences of the Civil War. George Orwell wrote "Homage to Catalonia" about his personal experiences fighting for the Republican army. He said, in 1946, that his experiences during that time defined his political outlook. In 1946 he wrote, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism as I understand it".

Answer: Blackheath

Blackheath Football Club was originally founded in 1858 by former pupils of Blackheath Preparatory School, where a version of the game made popular at Rugby School, which involved carrying the ball, was played. On 26 October 1863, Blackheath was one of eleven clubs based in and around London to be present at the Freemasons Tavern on Lincoln's Inn Fields for a meeting called to devise a standard set of rules for football, which became the founding of the Football Association, with Blackheath member Francis Maule Campbell elected as the new organisation's treasurer. During subsequent meetings, Campbell insisted that the practice of "hacking", where an opposing player is tripped by kicking their shin, be included in the new standard rules. This was rejected, and so at the sixth meeting of the Football Association in December 1863, Campbell withdrew Blackheath from the organisation. Seven years later, in December 1870, the secretary of Richmond FC called a meeting of other clubs playing the rugby type game to devise a standard set of rules for their game. On 26 January 1871, Blackheath was one of 22 clubs present at the Pall Mall Restaurant, at which the Rugby Football Union was founded.

Answer: USS Nevada

In December 1941, the battleship USS Nevada was one of three ships attached to Battleship Division 1 of the US Pacific Fleet. On the morning of 7 December, Nevada was moored as the rearmost of the ships on "Battleship Row", the usual mooring station for battleships along the south-east side of Ford Island. Unlike the ships ahead of her, Nevada was not berthed next to another ship. Additionally, the ship had two boilers lit, as plans were in place to transfer power generation from one boiler to another that morning.

This allowed the ship to raise steam and begin to maneuver - despite being hit by a torpedo that caused flooding leading to a list to port, damage control counter flooded to right the ship, and she was able to get under way by 8.40am, just under an hour after the attack started.

This made the ship a prime target, as the Japanese pilots saw her sinking as a means of blocking the harbor's entry/exit channel. Nevada was hit by a number of bombs, with damage becoming so significant that the decision was taken to beach her to avoid her sinking in deeper water.

At 10.30, Nevada ran aground at Hospital Point on the west side of Ford Island. Nevada was eventually refloated on 12 February 1942 and, having received temporary repairs, was sent to Puget Sound Navy Yard where, following a major repair and modernisation programme, she returned to service in October 1942.

Answer: Peter Ustinov

In September 1939, David Niven, then building a successful career in Hollywood, returned to the UK to join the British Army. Initially commissioned as a Lieutenant in The Rifle Brigade, he transferred to the Army Commandos, where he was assigned to the GHQ Liaison Regiment, one of the Army's major intelligence units.

As part of this work, he was also attached to the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU), eventually rising to the rank of Lt Colonel. Also attached to the AFPU at the time was Private Peter Ustinov. Ustinov was an actor, but was also building a reputation as a writer, and was one of the screenwriters of the film "The Way Ahead", which Niven was both producing and starring in.

This meant that he and Ustinov would be working in collaboration.

However, the difference in their statuses - Niven as a senior officer and Ustinov as a private soldier - meant that there would be no way that the two could associate except as officer and subordinate. So, Ustinov was assigned as Niven's personal attendant (aka batman) as a way of the two being able to remain in close contact within the military structure. "The Way Ahead" was the first of three collaborations between Niven and Ustinov, with Ustinov directing Niven in the 1965 film "Lady L", and the two starring in the 1978 film "Death on the Nile".

Answer: Hawker

In 1923, Canadian Vickers, the Canadian subsidiary of the Vickers shipbuilding and aerospace company, began manufacturing flying boats for the Royal Canadian Air Force, with a major contract awarded in 1941 for production of the PBV-1 Canso, a licence built version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina. A new factory was established for this at Cartierville, north-west of Montreal, but in 1944 Canadian Vickers asked to be removed from managing this work, with the company's aviation assets transferred to the new company Canadair.

De Havilland Canada (DHC) was established by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in 1928, with its first main location being at Downsview Airport, to the north of Toronto. Originally a unit of its British parent, DHC became a Crown Corporation during the Second World War, becoming operationally independent. After the war, DHC began developing its own designs suited to the local conditions in Canada. DHC was eventually privatised in 1986.

In 1938, the National Steel Car Corporation was formed at Malton, Ontario. Renamed as Victory Aircraft in 1942, the company was purchased by the Canadian government, remaining in state hands until 1945, when it was sold to the Hawker Siddeley Group, which renamed it as A.V. Roe Canada, the wholly Canadian subsidiary of A.V. Roe and Company, aka Avro. Avro Canada developed a number of domestic designs, including the CF-105 Arrow, an advanced interceptor intended for the Royal Canadian Air Force unveiled in 1957, but which was cancelled by the Canadian government in 1959. The cancellation of the Arrow was the major factor in the closure of Avro Canada in 1962.