Off Topic Quiz

Question 1:
What was and who was involved in the "Affair of the Necklace" – and why is it so important to the history of Western Europe?

Question 2:
He was a braggart, a bully but yet one of his sport’s most revered icons. He carried the Olympic Torch into Atlanta and won one gold Olympic Gold medal – who is he?

Question 3:
Utzon designed it but has never seen its completed form. It’s one of the most iconic examples of twentieth century architecture and is one of its country’s most recognisable symbols.

Question 4:
This was the suspension bridge that wobbled and wobbled, eventually snapping in the high canyon winds… Grainy black and white film footage chronicles my end… Where was the bridge?

Question 5:
There were two US Aircraft Carriers in the Pacific Fleet that were not in Pearl Harbor during the attack by Japanese forces in 1941. One was the USS Enterprise but what was the other?

Question 6:
Brand of the watch that Steve McQueen wears in the motion picture Le Mans

Question 7:
First name of the late founder of the Honda Company.

Question 8:
What is the name of Europe’s version of GPS called.

Question 9:
This vessel was scuttled in the mouth of the River Plate during WWII – name the vessel and the three Allied vessel involved in the battle immediately preceding the scuttling…

Question 10:
Cosmonaut – Russian, Astronaut – US but what is the Chinese version called?

2. Muhammad Ali?
3. The Sidney Opera.
6. Tag Heuer Monaco.
8. I still use GPS, but the answer is probably the Galileo system.
10. Taikonaut, I think.

Some toughies in there. Here are the ones I know off the top of my head.

#4 is the Tacoma Narrow

#5 was the Lexington

#8 Galileo

#9 Graf Spee if I remember correctly. As for the countries – Britain, New Zealand and I don’t remember anyone else….

#10 Yuhanyuan is the term. Taikonaugt was coined by the west.

#7 Sochiro.

I think I would have guessed Tag Heuer for #6, but it would have just been a guess...

1) Jeanne De La Motte Valois, a countess whose name was stripped from her by the Royal Family during the late 18th Century.

To simplify, her efforts to clear her family's name was purported to have led to the French Revolution.

2) Muhammad Ali.

3) The Sydney Opera House.

5) U.S.S. Hornet.

6) Tag Heuer.

7) Soichiro.

9) German pocket battleship Graf Spee.

10) Taikonauts.

#1: Former countess Jeanne De La Motte Valois, she was stripped of her family title, don't know much else about it..

#9: Yogs is right about the ship, the vessels involved were HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles but the Graf Spee wasn't scuttled at the river, she was scuttled making a run for Montevideo when they realised they were likely to lose the ship due to other Allied presence(aircraft carriers waiting for her) they scuttled her.

Q1.
Napoleon once said that the French Revolution was caused by The Seven Years War, the Phylloxera grapevine fungus, and The Affair of the Necklace.

The Affair of the Necklace involved Marie Antoinette, Jeanne De La Motte Valois and was a story of intrigue, ambition, scandal and revenge involving a diamond necklace.

Q2.
Muhammed Ali. If you don’t think he is a bully, try researching his infamous ‘What’s my name?’ bout with Ernie Terrel. Terrel refused to acknowledge the change of name, the conversion to Islam by his opponent and kept calling him Cassius. It’s widely accepted that Ali could have finished Terrel before the end of the bout but "carried" him for several rounds with continual taunts of "What’s my name" followed by punishing blows.

Q3.
The Sydney Opera House – Utzon left Australia before the building was completed and has evidently never seen the building first hand. With the aniversary of the completion of the building he is overseeing some design work but ironically cannot travel to Australia due to ill-health…

Q4.
Tacoma Narrow – proof that you always look at aerodynamic loads and harmonics when constructing large structures.

Q5.
The USS Lexington (CV2)…

On 7 December 1941, Lexington was at sea with Task Force 12 (TF 12) carrying marine aircraft from Pearl Harbor to reinforce Midway when word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was received. She immediately launched searchplanes to hunt for the Japanese fleet , and at mid-morning headed south to rendezvous with USS Indianapolis (CA 35) and USS Enterprise CV6 task forces to conduct a search southwest of Oahu until returning Pearl Harbor 18 December.

Of these three ships, only Enterprise survived WW2.

Lexington - CV2 was lost in battle in the Coral Sea and replaced by another USS Lexington (The Blue Ghost) which is the one that is a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas.

On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea and sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 men on board, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats and most with no food or water. The ship was never missed, and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident four days later only 316 men were still alive.

Q6.
Well close… the Watch is actually a Heuer Monaco Chronograph. The company later became TAG Heuer (and is owned by LMVH). There is a replica produced as the Steve McQueen but this is a TAG Heuer not the original

Q7.
Soichiro

Q8.
Galileo is Europe’s proposed version of satellite positioning. GPS being the US military system and GLONASS being the Russian Version.

Q9.
Okay – made a mistake. The Graf Spee was damaged at the Battle of the River Plate after a battle with three cruisers the HMS Ajax and Exeter and the HMNZS Achilles. The vessel was scuttled off the neutral port of Montevideo in Uruguay.
http://www.ocean98.org/spee.htm (http://www.ocean98.org/spee.htm)

Q10.
I’ll take Taikonaut or Yuhanyuan.

I at least got #9 :evillol:

I did ok. I knew Ali was a bully (as most boxers are) but I didn't know the question was about him.


Those were good tough questions :smile:

ummmm...ummm....78!

Replicant ROCKS!!! :sunglasse