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The King William's College 2004 Quiz
A UK college creates an annual quiz for their students. Here's the Questions and Answers from a previous year, if you want to get an idea of just what sort of esoterica you're seeking.
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if you thought that said erotica. ::raises hand::
They should have asked some of these questions to Ken Jennings while he was still on Jeopardy. My bet, 10% correct.
Back in my day, we watched T.V. by candlelight.
Cheers,
Ian
Now, back to the eggnog!
someone, for the love of god, get James Burke on the phone.
"Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est"
It seem to say something about write down the stuff you make up to the best of ability yours, but I will leave the real translation to those who are smart and well educated.
All I can say is that the test seems to over useless stuff. Give me a quiz over Star Trek or South Park or ATHF or TNMT. That would be time well spent and prove my superiority.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
And true enough quickly looking at the first section I was able to find answers to 9 withing few minutes... The last one would require probably few more minutes..
In a way it is strange how much information is searchable... and how the action of searching the web has taken over. Back when younger we were supposed to LEARN the history...:)
I was thinking if they made an Slashdot Quiz how would it be, I wonder?
Slashdot Quiz
1. What is Raistlin Majere's middle name?
2. Name 10 species that existed in Middle Earth.
3. If someone offends you with a post, should you a). Flame him b). Flame him c). Flame him.
4. Name the past 10 iterations of intel's processor.
etc...
Here is another Guardian article with some more information about the quiz, as opposed to the quiz itself, which is ridiculously hard. It tells a bit about the author (quizmaster) of the quiz and other bits of useful information like the fact that they take the quiz once before winter break and then once after winter break after having some time to prepare responses using any means available (including the Internet, which is one reason it has gotten harder in recent years -- the author wants to make sure that google is all but useless).
Anyway, I'd hate to have to take one of these, and the last thing I want to do over break is look up 180 obscure questions.
5) In Soviet Russia, what happens?
6) What kind of cluster are you imagining right now?
7) In Korea, what demographic group is particularly special?
8) Who is Cowboy Neal?
9) What is the best material for covering Natalie Portman?
10) Can you trust your computer to this quiz without its digital signature?
libertarianswag.com
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Guardian Says: "The King William's College quiz: It's 100 years old and it'll still outsmart you."
Hey, It's 100 years old and that's the one of the reasons it is so difficult.
How am I supposed to remember the 100 years old history? I can't even remember the syntax for crontab entries. Everytime I have to go through the man pages.
test: What is the average flight-speed of a sparrow?
a: african or european?
test: I don't know arrrrrggggggggg
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
We are not really esoteric, it's just that nobody pays much attention to us.
ha, we were supposed to LEARN, but...
The world may be changing to one where the flow of information is so rich and accessible that we need not remember all types of abstract facts and figures; we'll just look them up when we need them. With such a world of data at our fingertips at all times, our minds will be freed from hard data to concentrate on concepts and ideas through more objective thought processes. I wonder if such limitless access to information could eventually change the way people think, enabling them to concentrate less on the actual information and more on the relationships/concepts at hand?
I went all the way through and got 5! Christ, I'm loaded with useless info and thats all I could come up with! Ob-fucking-scure!
Send whiskey and fresh horses!
I actually did quite well with my 5 correct answers, considering the average score of only 2. I must admit though, that this is largely due to the fact that section 7 is thematically tied to my country of birth. Had I been smart enough to figure out that some sections have a theme to the answers as well as to the questions, then I probably could have doubled my score.
Thus one would need the "base data" or call it framework to place the facts found from sources line google. If that framework is not there the facts will be meaningless or even too easy to forge.
more like "the useless knowledge quiz"
These questions are too hard. Does anyone know of any better Xmas quizzes? How about some that would be good for a mixed UK and US audience?
Peace,
Aleph
9) What is the best material for covering Natalie Portman?
Saran wrap?
The college is a public (in British sense) school on the Isle of Man - which lies in the middle of the Irish Sea and is not part of the UK
Wasn't that a 70's concert?
Google is 8 years old and it'll still outsmart this quiz. Next!
"Could I have Obscure and British for $1,500, Alex"
Why is everyone doing so well? I got one! 1! I'm half average!
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
I was always told in my undergraduate engineering education that we were "learning to learn". The idea being that it is more important to learn how to approach new topics, find information, discern fact from fiction, and apply both old and newfound knowledge than it is to remember the Navier-Stokes equation verbatim. This approach has proved very helpful now that I'm out in the working world.
I would imagine that the traditional humanities-related fields would find this approach even more critical. With the wealth of information available now, it is extremely important to know how to find it quickly and discern what is real and what is just fluff. Combine this with an understanding of the concepts or "base data" you speak of and you have yourself a powerful intellect.
It freaks me out every time I see a mention of that online. It's the school I used to go to - indeed right now I'm only a few miles away, back on the Isle of Man for the holidays. We used to have to do that quiz every year and we all hated it!
Anyway, some information...
[1] KWC is not a 'college', really, despite its name. It's a primary and secondary boarding and school, these days, for boys and girls. (When I started there, it was male-only.)
[2] It's in the Isle of Man on the outskirts of the town of Castletown and the village of Ballasalla. This means it is not in the UK, strictly: the Isle of Man is an independant protectorate of the British crown. The Manx Tynwald is the oldest government in the world - 1,025 years of continuous rule.
Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
Well, that might work, but the correct answer is:
;)
HOT GRITS
libertarianswag.com
King William's college is NOT in the UK! It's in the Isle of Man, which is neither part of the UK nor part of the European Union.
Since we're talking about my home (and a general knowledge quiz that eminates from there) I thought I ought to point this out.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
6.2 The Glacier Express Railway.
8.5 M/V Esperanza.
9.5 Mt. Brandon (St. Brendan the Navigator, said to have discovered North America).
10.6 Einstein.
10.7 Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)
11.3 The burning of Rome (Nero).
11.10 The Chicago Fire.
14.7 John Brown ('s Body Lies a-Moldering...).
14.10 German WW1 storm troops, later the Nazi SA.
15.4 The time zone of the Republic of Kiribati.
15.8 A cherry picker.
17.5 Look before you leap.
rj
The Viking Ship of Oseberg, King Sisavang Vong, the opening of the Heysham port (not completely sure on the last, it's a little vague.)
Oldest and longest enduring democracy for that matter.
Seeing that RDF feed popping up in Evolution gave me a frisson, I was there.
I know the answer is "hot grits", but can anyone say where that comes from? A google search is somewhat fruitless, as most of the results point to slashdot and nerds.
5 successfully absorbed nitroglycerin in kieselguhr? ANSWER: Alfred Noble, inventor of TNT
Dynamite not TNT.
Before or after the hot grits?
Wikipedia explains it. This is like, my 9th account. I remember this shit starting. If this article isn't correct, then i have no idea. drugs maybe?
Actually it is Alfred Nobel. 'Nobel' is not pronounced as 'noble", but with accent on the 'e'.
Yes. Those were Jim Laker's bowling figures against Australia in the 1956 Ashes at Old Trafford - he was the first bowler to scalp all 10 wickets in a test innings. (That feat has been repeated only once, by Anil Kumble against Pakistan in 1999).
d epth/cricket/2001/ashes/legends/laker.stm (Scroll down to 1956 Old Trafford).
Link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/in_
BTW, if you don't play/watch cricket, that was some good deduction on your part. The four numbers represent a bowler's statistics: number of overs bowled, number of maiden overs, runs conceded, wickets taken. The superlative number here would be 19, the number of wickets he took in the match.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Cool, a whole Dutch section (7, in which town).
to do the 2004 edition of the quiz.