Questions from the Canadian Inquisition (QFTCI*)

[Mark Brader]

This is a repeat of my 2014-09-15 introductory posting with some
minor updates. If you were already familiar with the content and
with the way I'm scheduling current-events rounds now, then there's
no real need to reread it now.


* Introduction

As most of you will remember, the Canadian Inquisition is a team
trivia league that plays in Toronto pubs. It's a cooperative league,
whose teams take turns to write and ask the questions that the
others answer. In the January-April season of 2015, the questions
are being written by MI5. Next season it will be Five Guys Named Moe.

I have obtained MI5's permission to post to this newsgroup the
questions from this season, tagged QFTCIMI515 in the subject line.
Before posting them here, I'm editing some of them for various
reasons -- for brevity, to clarify their intent, to avoid issues
raised on protests, for suitability in this medium, and so on.
I intend to make the same request of Five Guys Named Moe when the
following season starts.

As you may remember, the league's season consists of 10 regular
games and a Final. A regular game contains 102 questions. Most of
the game is in rounds of 10 questions on a specific topic within
a different general area. For example, one game in 2008 included
a geography round on former place names, an entertainment round
on Morgan Freeman movies, and a sports round on things that
happened during Toronto Blue Jays games. Round 1 is always
a current-events round; Round 5 is always an audio round; and
Round 10 (the "challenge round") normally contains 12 questions,
2 each on 6 different subjects.

I won't be posting audio questions (except if I think they can be
answered without the audio), nor will I post the video questions
that sometimes occur in the Final.


* Scheduling - Regular Games

My intent is that for each quiz you'll get about 3 days to answer,
plus or minus a few hours, but I'm not going to set exact deadlines;
I'll cut off entries at whatever time (after 2 days and about
21 hours) that it's convenient for me to do the scoring and post
the results.

One series of postings will include Rounds 2-4 and 6-10 for each
of Games 1-10. I will normally post the questions as four sets
of two rounds each: Rounds 2-3 in one posting, Rounds 4 and 6 in
the next, and so on. In the Final, most rounds have 15 questions,
and these I'll post one round at a time.

For each game, I'll keep a cumulative score over the group of
postings, counting your best 6 rounds out of 8 (or 5 out of 7,
etc.) -- that way if you miss a set, or if there's a subject you're
weak on, you still have a chance to finish well. Each game will
be totaled after the last round is posted and scored.

In a normal game usually one round is Canadiana (this may also
fall under another subject such as history or geography), which
those of you in distant places may have some trouble with, but I am
including them in the posting series anyway. This is your chance
to shine by displaying your knowledge of Canadiana. However, if
*nobody* in the newsgroup scores *any* points on a round, which
has happened with Canadiana occasionally, then I will score as if
that round had never existed.


* Scheduling - Current Events

I will also do a separate series of postings consisting of
current-events rounds only, also to be posted two at a time. These
will all appear while they're still reasonably current -- normally
within a couple of days of the second of the two original games.
For this series I'm accumulating scores over all the games from
Unnatural Axxxe's season, similarly counting the best 9 out of 11.
So there will be an overall current-events winner for the season.

I'm posting current-events games independently of the posting
of other games, so there will normally be a regular game running
concurrently with each set of current-events questions.


* Procedures and Scoring

The usual rule in our regular league games is that each question
goes to an individual who can answer for 2 points without assistance,
and if he misses, he can consult his team and try again for 1 point.
If the quizmaster judges that an answer is incomplete, she can ask
for more details before ruling the answer right or wrong.

To maintain the spirit of these rules, I will say that you can give
two answers on every question. But I will penalize you if you give
both a right answer and a wrong answer. My scoring is:

4 points - if you answer once and are right (or twice, both right)
3 points - if you guess twice and are right only the first time
2 points - if you guess twice and are right only the second time

Bonus points may occasionally be available and will be explained in
the relevant round.

If you give only one answer, but with only some sort of additional
comment, please make it clear that that's what you're doing.
If there is any doubt I'll assume that you are giving two answers.
If I see more than two answers, the extra ones will be ignored.

Where it makes sense, I will accept answers that I think are almost
close enough (*more than half right*), with a 1-point penalty. But
I will reject answers that I do not think are sufficiently specific,
since there is no opportunity to ask for clarification when answers
are posted in the newsgroup.

You must, of course, answer based on your own knowledge and
nothing else. You must post all your answers in a single posting.
Where a person's name is asked for, *normally you need only give
the surname*. If you give another part of the name and you're
wrong, your answer is wrong.
--
Mark Brader "The spaghetti is put there by the designer of
Toronto the code, not the designer of the language."
m...@vex.net -- Richard Minner

My text in this article is in the public domain.