These questions were written to be asked in Toronto on the dates
indicated below, and should be interpreted accordingly. If any
answers have changed due to newer news, you are still expected to
give the answers that were correct on that date.
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 Bill Psychs 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 see my 2017-09-25 companion
posting on "Questions from the Canadian Inquisition (QFTCI*)".
* Game 9 (2018-03-19), Round 1 - Current Events
1. Greece indefinitely suspended its soccer league on Monday,
a day after the owner of PAOK Thessaloniki marched onto
the field following a disputed goal at the end of a match.
What about his action triggered the league suspension?
2. The North American bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup includes
23 candidate host cities. After Vancouver withdrew its
submission at the last-minute over concerns about FIFA's demands,
three Canadian cities remain on that host-city-candidate list.
Name *two* of the three.
3. Although plagued by bugs in the app, a new ride-sharing service
was set to launch in Toronto on Friday, catering to women only.
What is the name of this service?
4. The Belgian king and queen kicked off a week-long state visit
in Ottawa this week. For a planned tree-planting ceremony,
officials narrowly avoided a hitch relating to the tree planted
by Her Majesty Queen Fabiola in 1977. What was the cause of
this potential problem?
5. On Tuesday, US President Trump took to Twitter once again, this
time to publicly and unceremoniously fire Rex Tillerson as
the US Secretary of State. Trump nominated CIA Director Mike
Pompeo to replace Tillerson. According to the tweet, who is
replacing Pompeo as director of the CIA, the first female to
hold this position?
6. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has picked a Métis lawyer to sit
in the Senate and represent Ontario -- the first Indigenous
person appointed to the Red Chamber from that province.
Name Parliament's newest independent Senator.
7. What theoretical physicist, perhaps the best-known of his time,
died this week?
8. Which French couturier, a pioneer of ready-to-wear fashion,
who designed Audrey Hepburn's little black dress for "Breakfast
at Tiffany's", died this week at age 91?
9. The Canadian national DNA databank program launched an expansion
this week to include the collection of DNA relating to which
of people?
10. A global study released this week evaluated 11 brands of
bottled water bought in 9 countries. What type of contaminant
was found in 93% of the tested bottles?
After completing this round, please decode the rot13: Vs lbh whfg
fnvq "cynfgvp" sbe gur ynfg dhrfgvba, cyrnfr tb onpx naq or zber
fcrpvsvp.
* Game 10 (2018-03-26), Round 1 - Current Events
1. Which animal, the world's last male of its kind, was put down
on Monday? Two females are still alive, and scientists
hope to save the subspecies from extinction through in-vitro
fertilization.
2. The Toronto Blue Jays announced their opening day starting
pitcher on Tuesday. It will be the first time in his 10-year
career that he will start on opening day. Who is he?
3. Which former French president was placed in custody on Tuesday
as part of an investigation into allegations that he received
millions of euros in illegal campaign financing from the regime
of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi?
4. Billionaire Wall Street financier Peter Peterson died on Tuesday
of natural causes. He was 91. What was the name of the private
equity firm that he co-founded? It combines the meanings of
the German word "schwarz" and the Greek word "petros", relating
to the two founders' names.
5. A pod of dolphins was trapped by sea ice in a shallow harbor
in Trinity Bay. They were eventually freed with the help of
excavators that were used to dig out the ice. Name the town
where the harbor is located.
6. A new study involving scientists from around the world suggests
that there are more than 79,000 tonnes of ocean plastic in a
1,600,000 km² (600,000 sq.mi.) area of the North Pacific Ocean.
What is this often referred to as?
7. A Canadian woman won gold in women's singles at the world figure
skating championships in Milan on Friday. The 22-year-old from
Marystown, Newfoundland, scored 150.50 points for her "Black
Swan" routine, to finish with 223.23 points overall. Name her.
8. Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands has been awarded a
prize for developing a "grand unified theory of mathematics".
The prize, sometimes referred to as the Nobel prize of math,
was created by the government of Norway in 2003 and comes with
a cash award of more than $1,000,000. Name the prize.
9. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would replace
national security adviser H.R. McMaster with a former UN
Ambassador and current Fox News commentator. Name him.
10. The World War II veteran who founded Toys'R'Us six decades ago
and transformed it into an iconic piece of Americana died
Thursday at age 94. Name him.
After completing this round, please decode this rot13: Vs lbh whfg
fnvq "euvabprebf" ("euvab" vf npprcgnoyr) ba gur svefg dhrfgvba,
cyrnfr tb onpx naq or zber fcrpvsvp.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "The brain is amazing when it's amazing, with
m...@vex.net | apologies to Robert Biddle." --Steve Summit
My text in this article is in the public domain.