This quiz is over and undisputed winner is Stephen W Perry! He well deserves the awe from the rest of us in this newsgroup for the next 24 hours! Congratulations!

Here is the full score table:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total
----------------------------------------------------
Stephen P - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 10
Dan T 1 1 1 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - - 7
Joshua K 1 1 1 - 1 - - - - 1 - - 5
Pete G - - 1 1 - - - 1 - 1 - 1 5
Dan B 1 - 1 - - - - - 1 1 - - 4
Mark B 1 - 1 - - - - - 1 1 - - 4


Here are the answers:

1. Chaco is a geographic natural region that spans over several countries.
Name any of them.

Argenina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay.

The largest part of Chaco is in Argentina, but it's a much more defining
part of Paraguay, since about half of the country is covered by Chaco.

I once travelled by bus on the south-western fringe of Chaco in Argentina
and I was completely amazed. It was like nothing I had seen before. Flat
with dense but low vegeation.

2. Which controversial organisation was founded by Hassan al-Banna in
1928?

Muslim Brotherhood.

3. "Rosebud" is an important word in which classic movie?

"Citizen Kane". Everyone knew this.

4. Who is Olaf Scholtz?

The current Chancellor of Germany.

5. Rurik is a mythic legendary figure who was the ancestor of the
rulers in several state formations. Name any of these.

Novgorod, Kievan Rus, The Grandy Duchy of Moscow and Russia are
the most significant. In the course of history, there were also
splinters from Kievan Rus that were practically independent.

According to the Primary Chronicle, written in Kiev in the second half
of the 11th century and completed in the 1110s, four Slavic tribes around
of what would become Novgorod called on Rurik, a Swedish viking, saying:
"We can't keep peace, so come rule over us". This is said to have happened around 200 years before the Chronicle was written, so we need to take
this with some grains of salt.

Rurik himself only ruled over Novgorod, which is supposedly founded.
His successors took Kiev and establised the family there.

6. This creature starts its life in the middle of the deep ocean, but
finds it ways to the continental shores where it travel upstreams into
sweetwater lakes and lives for many years, before eventually returning
to the middle of the ocean to reproduce and die. What creature is this?

Eel.

7. In the field of energy production, what does SMR stand for?

Small Modular Reactor.

And that is a nuclear reactor. The idea is that these would be mass-
produced, and you would buy an SMR from a manufacturor like you buy a
car. This way they would be cheaper and not the mass investments like
the current monoliths are. But we are not really there yet.

8. Armenian is most closely related to which of the following languages:
Georgian, Hebrew, Hungarian, Kurdish or Turkish?

Kurdish.

Armenian and Kurdish are the only two Indo-European languages in the
pack. In the IE family, Armenian constitutes its own group, while
Kurdish belong to the Indo-Iranian languages.

9. In the novel "The Nine Tailors" by Dorothy Sayers, Lord Peter Whimsey
concludes that he was himself involved in killing the victim. How?

Wimsey arrives in a small town and has some car problem. He is invited
to participate in ringing "The Nine Tailors", stepping in for a person
who has caught the flu. It later turns out that this person had tied up
the victim in the bell chamber. Not with the intent to kill him, but only
to get that person out of the way. Wimsey finally concludes that the
it was the ringing that killed the person.

10. Reportedly, there are visitors to New Zealand who think they see a
kiwi when they see this bird:
http://privat.sommarskog.se/NZ2018/00-Intro/Stor-0310_IMG_0424-en.html
And while this bird also has a four-letter name, it is not a kiwi. Give
the name, or if you don't know, explain why this cannot be a kiwi.

As noted by everyone, big goof on my side here.

Anyway, the idea was not really that should know that this is a weka,
but that it can't be a kiwi, since the picture is taken in daylight,
and kiwis are nocturnal.

My plan was to approve anything that was not apparently unreasonable,
like a kiwi having four legs, so even with the correct link, it might
very well have been a point for everyone.

11. This week, on Wednesday 8th, sees the global celebration of what?

Internnational Women's Day.

Everyone knew "Citizen Kane". Only one entrant knew this one. Seriously?
OK, this is a trivia newsgroup, but nevertheless...

12. The 2nd of this month a great musician passed away at the age of 90.
In the 1960s, this sax player was an integral member in Miles Davis
Quintet. In the 70s and 80s he was the co-leader of one of the most
reknowned acts in fusion music. After that he continued as a solo
artist and also as a leader for a quartet that bore his own name. Who
am I talking about?

Wayne Shorter. The group is most associated with is Weather Report,
which he led together with Joe Zawinul.


Thanks to everyone for playing!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)