Tuesday Trivia: Mar 19, 2013

One rule: no googling please!

1. This English word originated in the Middle Ages from a Roman Catholic Church practice. Popes who had taken vows of chastity and therefore could not have their own children sought dynastic succession by elevating their nephews to the rank of Cardinal. The practice ended with a papal bull in 1692 that banned all future Popes from bestowing wealth and titles on their relatives, with the exception that at most one qualified relative may be made Cardinal by each Pope. What is the word?

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?

3. The word Pope is not a formal title; it is derived from the word papa which means “father.” The formal titles of the Pope include: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, etc. Within the city of Rome, including several monuments within the Vatican, the title that most often follows a Pope’s name, is one that predates Christianity by several centuries. The title means “greatest bridge-builder.” A common English term used to refer to the Pope is derived from that title. What is the old pre-Christian Roman title still used by the Pope?

4. This is our last question on the papacy for this week. In 1493, the papal bull Inter caetera (“among other things”) was issued. It has been famously described as the last thing of worldwide significance done in the city of Rome. What did this papal bull accomplish?

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


6. In the early years of his career, the American founder of this company worked in the Soviet Union, building cracking units to break heavy crude oil down into gasoline and diesel. He came to despise communism, and wrote of “a land of hunger, misery, and terror.” After he returned home, he co-founded Wood River Oil and Refining Company in Wichita, Kansas. The founder died fifty years ago, and the company was renamed in his honor. The company has grown to become the second largest privately-owned company in the United States. The founder’s family still controls the company, and has refused to take the company public. Had it been a public company, it would be large enough to make Fortune magazine’s top 20 list. Name the company.

7. Most clothes designed for men have their buttons on the right-hand side, while most clothes designed for women have them on the left-hand side. Why the difference?

8. This small Latin American country consistently ranks among the top countries in the region on human development indicators. The country has well-established democratic institutions, and is the only Latin American country to be considered one of the world’s older democracies. The country abolished its military in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Military budget was redirected to education and culture, resulting in the highest literacy rate in Latin America. It is now the largest country without an army. A full 20% of the country’s exports, and 5% of its GDP, are contributed by an Intel assembly plant near the capital. Name the country.

9. The common American first name Erin is used for both girls and boys, but is more common for girls. The name is actually the feminine personification of a country. Which country?

10. The Hundred Hour War was a brief war between the neighboring Central American nations of El Salvador and Honduras that took place in the summer of 1969. While the two nations had a number of simmering disputes, the war was precipitated by an unusual cause. What was the immediate cause of this war?

1. nepotism?

9. ireland?

6. koch industries.

8. costa rica.

1. This English word originated in the Middle Ages from a Roman Catholic Church practice. Popes who had taken vows of chastity and therefore could not have their own children sought dynastic succession by elevating their nephews to the rank of Cardinal. The practice ended with a papal bull in 1692 that banned all future Popes from bestowing wealth and titles on their relatives, with the exception that at most one qualified relative may be made Cardinal by each Pope. What is the word?

>>>Nepotism

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?


>>Monaco?


3. The word Pope is not a formal title; it is derived from the word papa which means “father.” The formal titles of the Pope include: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, etc. Within the city of Rome, including several monuments within the Vatican, the title that most often follows a Pope’s name, is one that predates Christianity by several centuries. The title means “greatest bridge-builder.” A common English term used to refer to the Pope is derived from that title. What is the old pre-Christian Roman title still used by the Pope?

>>>Pontius Maximus

4. This is our last question on the papacy for this week. In 1493, the papal bull Inter caetera (“among other things”) was issued. It has been famously described as the last thing of worldwide significance done in the city of Rome. What did this papal bull accomplish?

>>>Refused to sanction Henry VIII'a divorce form catherine of Aragon?



6. In the early years of his career, the American founder of this company worked in the Soviet Union, building cracking units to break heavy crude oil down into gasoline and diesel. He came to despise communism, and wrote of “a land of hunger, misery, and terror.” After he returned home, he co-founded Wood River Oil and Refining Company in Wichita, Kansas. The founder died fifty years ago, and the company was renamed in his honor. The company has grown to become the second largest privately-owned company in the United States. The founder’s family still controls the company, and has refused to take the company public. Had it been a public company, it would be large enough to make Fortune magazine’s top 20 list. Name the company.

>>>>Occidental Petroleum

7. Most clothes designed for men have their buttons on the right-hand side, while most clothes designed for women have them on the left-hand side. Why the difference?


>>>Belief that's the location of the heart?


8. This small Latin American country consistently ranks among the top countries in the region on human development indicators. The country has well-established democratic institutions, and is the only Latin American country to be considered one of the world’s older democracies. The country abolished its military in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Military budget was redirected to education and culture, resulting in the highest literacy rate in Latin America. It is now the largest country without an army. A full 20% of the country’s exports, and 5% of its GDP, are contributed by an Intel assembly plant near the capital. Name the country

>>>>Costa Rica.

9. The common American first name Erin is used for both girls and boys, but is more common for girls. The name is actually the feminine personification of a country. Which country?

>>>>Ireland (interestingly enough, met an Erin Ireland once at an AmEx Office in India-- and pointed out the redundancy in her name. She was anglo-indian and didn't kow the origin of the name Erin:)

10. The Hundred Hour War was a brief war between the neighboring Central American nations of El Salvador and Honduras that took place in the summer of 1969. While the two nations had a number of simmering disputes, the war was precipitated by an unusual cause. What was the immediate cause of this war?

>>>Over the results of a soccer match

1. Nepotinium
4. Divvy up the world between Spain and Portugal
7. Because it's easy for men to undress women, and easy for women to undress men.
8. Costa Rica
9. Ireland
10. Soccer

7. wild guess: a woman needs to unbutton the top of her dress with her left hand in order to breast-feed her baby because she's holding the baby in her right arm, and it is (supposedly) easier to undo the buttons with the left hand if they are on the left.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:1. nepotism?

Correct.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:9. ireland?

Correct.

Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:6. koch industries.

Correct.

Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:8. costa rica.

Correct!

Kris wrote:1. Nepotism

Correct.

Kris wrote:2. Monaco?

No.

Kris wrote:3. Pontius Maximus

Close enough... the actual title is Pontifex Maximum. The English word pontiff is derived from pontifex, which was an order of priest in the polytheistic Roman religion. Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of Rome in that old religion.

Kris wrote:4. Refused to sanction Henry VIII'a divorce form catherine of Aragon?

Good guess, but no.

Kris wrote:6. Occidental Petroleum

No, it is Koch Industries, owned by the conservative donors the Charles and David Koch aka the Koch brothers.

Kris wrote:7. Belief that's the location of the heart?

No.

Kris wrote:8. Costa Rica

Correct.

Kris wrote:9. Ireland (interestingly enough, met an Erin Ireland once at an AmEx Office in India-- and pointed out the redundancy in her name. She was anglo-indian and didn't kow the origin of the name Erin:)

Haha, that's right .

Kris wrote:10. Over the results of a soccer match

Correct!

7. to show women were inferior to men?

indophile wrote:1. Nepotinium

No, the word is nepotism.

indophile wrote:4. Divvy up the world between Spain and Portugal

Correct. The pope of the day (who happened to be a Spaniard from Valencia) drew an approximate line on the globe from pole to pole and said, this half is Spain's and that other half is Portugal's. The line runs west of the Philippines in the Pacific, and west of the Atlantic coast of Brazil. So the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and Argentina while the Portuguese went after Brazil and the Spice Islands.

indophile wrote:7. Because it's easy for men to undress women, and easy for women to undress men.

Haha, good guess, but not. A large majority of both men and women are right-handed, so if what you said was the objective, all buttons would be on one side regardless of gender of the wearer.

indophile wrote:8. Costa Rica

Correct.

indophile wrote:9. Ireland

Correct.

indophile wrote:10. Soccer

Correct. El Salvador and Honduras were playing a FIFA World Cup qualifier. Each side one a game each in their capital, accompanied by rioting. The tie-breaking third game at a neutral venue went into extra time and El Salvador won. There were riots in Honduras targeting Salvadorians, and El Salvador invaded Honduras.

Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:7. wild guess: a woman needs to unbutton the top of her dress with her left hand in order to breast-feed her baby because she's holding the baby in her right arm, and it is (supposedly) easier to undo the buttons with the left hand if they are on the left.

Good guess, but no.

yogi wrote:7. to show women were inferior to men?

No.

Here is an update with hints.

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?

Hint: The three archbishops who were electors represented Cologne, Mainz, and Trier.

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


Hint: Sholes's initial layout (in the picture above) significantly slowed down the typewriter. The eventual QWERTY design improved on this.

7. Most clothes designed for men have their buttons on the right-hand side, while most clothes designed for women have them on the left-hand side. Why the difference?

Hint: Most men and most women are right-handed. Placing the buttons on the right-hand side makes it easier for a right-handed person to open and close them.

7. to distinguish between men and women coats?
maids would find easy to unbutton a women's wear if its on left side!

yogi wrote:7. to distinguish between men and women coats?

Good guess, but no.

7. Most clothes designed for men have their buttons on the right-hand side, while most clothes designed for women have them on the left-hand side. Why the difference?

Hint: Most men and most women are right-handed. Placing the buttons on the right-hand side makes it easier for a right-handed person to open and close them.
maids would find easy to unbutton a women's wear if its on left side!

yogi wrote:7. to distinguish between men and women coats?
maids would find easy to unbutton a women's wear if its on left side!

This is the correct answer. Most women of the middle and upper classes in England and France had maids dress them. Most middle-class and even some upper-class men, OTOH, dressed themselves. So tailors habitually put buttons on the left for women's clothes to make it easy for the lady's maid to open and close them. In later times when "ready made" (pret-a-porter) clothes were launched, they tried to imitate the high-fashion (haute couture) clothing, so the buttons on womens' clothes are put on the left.

yay this was the only question that i could guess something. other questions were out of my league.

Here is an update with more hints.

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?

Hint 1: The three archbishops who were electors represented Cologne, Mainz, and Trier.

Hint 2: The other electors are the King of Bohemia, the Count of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


Hint 1: Sholes's initial layout (in the picture above) significantly slowed down the typewriter. The eventual QWERTY design improved on this.

Hint 2: Think about the design of the old typewriters and how they worked.

[quote="trofimov"]Here is an update with more hints.

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?

Hint 1: The three archbishops who were electors represented Cologne, Mainz, and Trier.

Hint 2: The other electors are the King of Bohemia, the Count of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.

>>>>The Hapsburg Empire

Kris wrote:

trofimov wrote:Here is an update with more hints.

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?

Hint 1: The three archbishops who were electors represented Cologne, Mainz, and Trier.

Hint 2: The other electors are the King of Bohemia, the Count of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.

>>>>The Hapsburg Empire

Close enough... the answer I was looking for was Holy Roman Empire, but the Habsburgs ruled as Holy Roman Emperors over 300 years. Technically each successive Habsburg was elected by that college of seven electors, although in practice they always picked heir apparent of the previous Habsburg ruler. To complete the connection to the papacy, the Holy Roman Emperor was officially installed in office when the Pope crowned him in Rome.

Just one question remains.

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


Hint 1: Sholes's initial layout (in the picture above) significantly slowed down the typewriter. The eventual QWERTY design improved on this.

Hint 2: Think about the design of the old typewriters and how they worked. Here is a picture of such an old typewriter.

trofimov wrote:Just one question remains.

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


Hint 1: Sholes's initial layout (in the picture above) significantly slowed down the typewriter. The eventual QWERTY design improved on this.

Hint 2: Think about the design of the old typewriters and how they worked. Here is a picture of such an old typewriter.

the letters that are most frequently used in english are placed where they are easily reached by the more agile, middle three fingers. i can see that this is true of the left side, where s, e, r, and t are placed; but i'm not convinced that the argument applies to the right side.

Jeremiah Mburuburu wrote:

trofimov wrote:Just one question remains.

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


Hint 1: Sholes's initial layout (in the picture above) significantly slowed down the typewriter. The eventual QWERTY design improved on this.

Hint 2: Think about the design of the old typewriters and how they worked. Here is a picture of such an old typewriter.

the letters that are most frequently used in english are placed where they are easily reached by the more agile, middle three fingers. i can see that this is true of the left side, where s, e, r, and t are placed; but i'm not convinced that the argument applies to the right side.

You are on the right track... the layout has something to do with the letters used most frequently in English. It also has something to do with how the typewriter operated. Think about what happens in order to produce a character on the page when the user hits a key.

I will post the answer tomorrow morning if nobody guesses it by then.

because one have to slide the slider (don't know what it is called exactly) with right hand and hence frequently used letters were arranged on left hand side.

Not quite. The answer is that the layout puts characters that are most frequently used together in the English language (e.g. q and u, t and h, c and h, s and t, etc. not next to each other. This was done to prevent jamming the typewriter. Those jams used to occur when two letter next to each other are hit simultaneously or in close succession. When you hit a letter, there is a swivel arm corresponding to the letter that goes and hits the carbon paper at the current letter position. If you hit two or more letters at the same time, all those arms move towards the exact same spot, and they get stuck. Here is an example of such a jam.

BTW, that slider is called the carriage, I think. Although computers never had a mechanical carriage, the term "carriage return" is still used in the ASCII standard for character encoding.

Here are the answers.

1. This English word originated in the Middle Ages from a Roman Catholic Church practice. Popes who had taken vows of chastity and therefore could not have their own children sought dynastic succession by elevating their nephews to the rank of Cardinal. The practice ended with a papal bull in 1692 that banned all future Popes from bestowing wealth and titles on their relatives, with the exception that at most one qualified relative may be made Cardinal by each Pope. What is the word?

Answer: Nepotism

2. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is not just a spiritual leader, but also the head of state of a monarchy. As such, the Vatican is an elective monarchy, as opposed to most other monarchies that use dynastic succession. Apart from the Vatican, another empire used an elective monarchy for about two centuries. Seven electors – three archbishops, one king, one count, one duke and one margrave – got together to elect the emperor. This empire itself existed for over 900 years. What was the name of this empire?

Answer: Holy Roman Empire

3. The word Pope is not a formal title; it is derived from the word papa which means “father.” The formal titles of the Pope include: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, etc. Within the city of Rome, including several monuments within the Vatican, the title that most often follows a Pope’s name, is one that predates Christianity by several centuries. The title means “greatest bridge-builder.” A common English term used to refer to the Pope is derived from that title. What is the old pre-Christian Roman title still used by the Pope?

Answer: Pontifex Maximus, the high-priest of ancient Rome under its pagan religion

4. This is our last question on the papacy for this week. In 1493, the papal bull Inter caetera (“among other things”) was issued. It has been famously described as the last thing of worldwide significance done in the city of Rome. What did this papal bull accomplish?

Answer: Issued by a Spanish Pope, the bull divided up the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. Spain got the globe between the Philippines and the coast of Brazil. Portugal got the coast of Brazil to the East Indies.

5. The QWERTY keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Sholes, a Milwaukee newspaper editor, in the 1870s. It is now the most popular keyboard layout for Latin scripts. But that was not Sholes’s initial choice of layout. The picture below shows his first keyboard layout. Why did Sholes eventually pick the specific order of characters that became the standard?


Answer: He wanted to avoid putting letters that are most often used together in English (e.g. t and h, q and u, s and t) next to each other to prevent jamming the manual typewriter.

6. In the early years of his career, the American founder of this company worked in the Soviet Union, building cracking units to break heavy crude oil down into gasoline and diesel. He came to despise communism, and wrote of “a land of hunger, misery, and terror.” After he returned home, he co-founded Wood River Oil and Refining Company in Wichita, Kansas. The founder died fifty years ago, and the company was renamed in his honor. The company has grown to become the second largest privately-owned company in the United States. The founder’s family still controls the company, and has refused to take the company public. Had it been a public company, it would be large enough to make Fortune magazine’s top 20 list. Name the company.

Answer: Koch Industries, owned by conservative political donors Charles and David Koch also known as the Koch brothers

7. Most clothes designed for men have their buttons on the right-hand side, while most clothes designed for women have them on the left-hand side. Why the difference?

Answer: Women who could afford high fashion in the 19th and early 20th century were dressed by their maids. Putting the buttons on the left made it easier for the maid.

8. This small Latin American country consistently ranks among the top countries in the region on human development indicators. The country has well-established democratic institutions, and is the only Latin American country to be considered one of the world’s older democracies. The country abolished its military in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Military budget was redirected to education and culture, resulting in the highest literacy rate in Latin America. It is now the largest country without an army. A full 20% of the country’s exports, and 5% of its GDP, are contributed by an Intel assembly plant near the capital. Name the country.

Answer: Costa Rica

9. The common American first name Erin is used for both girls and boys, but is more common for girls. The name is actually the feminine personification of a country. Which country?

Answer: Ireland

10. The Hundred Hour War was a brief war between the neighboring Central American nations of El Salvador and Honduras that took place in the summer of 1969. While the two nations had a number of simmering disputes, the war was precipitated by an unusual cause. What was the immediate cause of this war?

Answer: Rioting after a hotly contested soccer series to qualify for the FIFA World Cup