These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on 2024-05-06,
and should be interpreted accordingly.
On each question you may give up to two answers, but if you give
both a right answer and a wrong answer, there is a small penalty.
Please post all your answers in a single followup to the newsgroup,
based only on your own knowledge. (In your answer posting, quote
the questions and place your answer below each one.) I will reveal
the correct answers in about 3 days.
All questions were written by members of the Smith & Guessin' and
are used here by permission, but have been reformatted and may have
been retyped and/or edited by me. The posting and tabulation of
current-events questions is independent of the concurrent posting
of other rounds. For further information please see my 2024-08-30
companion posting on "Questions from the Canadian Inquisition (QFTCI*)".
* Game 1, Round 4 - Science - Space Exploration
Questions about space exploration in our solar system.
1. SpaceX has pioneered rocket reusability with its Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy launch systems. On April 23, 2024, SpaceX passed
a milestone for the number of successful booster landings.
What was this number?
2. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) is planned to launch the
crew for the upcoming return to the moon. What is the name of
this program?
3. Ingenuity was the first aircraft to make a powered controlled
flight on another planet. Which Mars rover carried Ingenuity?
4. A high-profile Mars mission failure in 1999 (launched in 1998)
was blamed on a mismatch between metric units specified by
NASA and customary units used by the contractor who built the
mission payload. What was the name of this mission?
5. The DART mission smashed into the smaller body of a binary
asteroid system to see if it was possible to alter its orbit.
What does DART stand for?
6. The Cassini mission spent 13 years in orbit around Saturn
before being crashed into the planet in its "grand finale".
Cassini also carried a probe that successfully landed on the
moon Titan. Name *that* probe.
7. NEAR-Shoemaker was the first spacecraft to orbit and land on
an asteroid. Which asteroid did it land on in 2001?
8. Osiris-Rex was a successful mission to the near-earth asteroid
Bennu. What was the mission goal?
9. Between 1990 and 2003, NASA launched four "Great Observatories".
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope
are no longer in operation, leaving only the Hubble Telescope
and... which X-ray observatory?
10. 2015 saw the first fly-by of Pluto by a space probe. Name the
mission.
* Game 1, Round 6 - History - Disasters
And now for an uplifting History topic tonight -- disasters.
1. We'll start in Boston in 1919. A large storage tank burst at
a distillery, sending a dense liquid rushing through the streets.
The spill killed 21 people and injured 150. Name the spilled
liquid, which can be fermented to produce ethanol.
2. The deadliest rockslide in Canadian history took place in 1903.
As many as 90 people died when tonnes of limestone broke off
a mountain and slid into which southern Alberta town?
3. On 2004-12-26 a magnitude 9.1 earthquake killed an estimated
227,000 people across 14 countries -- mostly through the
resulting tsunamis up to 30 m high. The epicenter was off the
west coast of which island?
4. Name the city in India where more than 3,800 people were killed
by a gas leak from a pesticide plant in 1984.
5. That plant in Bhopal was owned by a subsidiary of which American
chemical company?
6. What was the name of the offshore drilling unit that sank in
a storm off Newfoundland in 1982, killing 84 crew members?
7. Within 50, how many people died in the 1917 Halifax Explosion?
8. The deadliest industrial disaster in New York City took place
in 1911. A factory fire in Greenwich Village killed 146 garment
workers -- thanks in part to the doors and exits being locked,
and there being no sprinklers in the building. What was the
name of the company?
9. The deadliest rail accident in Canada since Confederation
occurred in 2013. 47 people died when an unattended train
carrying crude oil ran away, derailed, and exploded in the
downtown area of which Quebec town?
10. In 2018, a truck crashed into a bus carrying a Saskatchewan
junior hockey team killing 16 people and injuring 13. Name the
team.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Winning isn't everything, but not trying to win
msb@vex.net | is less than nothing." --Anton van Uitert
My text in this article is in the public domain.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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