1) American President Calvin Coolidge had a reputation in private of being a man of few words and was nicknamed "Silent Cal." A possibly apocryphal story has it that a matron seated next to him at a dinner said to him, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." What was his response?
You lose
2) The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes made a virtue of poverty. He begged for a living and he slept in a large jar. When the great king Alexander the Great met him in Corinth, he asked Diogenes that he would fulfill any favor that Diogenes asked of Alexander. Diogenes replied "Yes, could you please stand out of my sunlight". He was often called "The Dog", a term which he revelled in. Which philosophical school was Diogenes part of? The term translates to "dog-like".
Cynicism
3) On May 11, 1997, the computer Deep Blue won against a chess grandmaster for the first time. What was the name of the chess player?
Kasparov
4) On 18 December 1878, a child was born in Georgia and was given the name "Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jugashvili". Under what name was he better known?
Stalin
5) At December 31, 1999 a new Time issue named a person of the century. What was his name?
Einstein
6) Einstein is usually credited with the invention of General Relativity. But a famous German mathematician is said to have completed the theory at least 5 days before Einstein submitted his paper. This famous mathematician also did work in functional analysis, mathematical logic and algebra. What is his name.
Hilbert
7) Another great mathematician was Alan Turing. He is considered the Father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was also active in cracking intercepted coded messages by the Germans in World War II. What was he prosecuted for in 1952?
Homosexuality
8) The Norse God Odin sacrificed his eye in order to drink from a well of wisdom. He was also hanged from the world tree for nine days and nights pierced by his own spear in order to gain wisdom. He was eventually defeated by a Fenrir. What kind of creature was Fenrir?
Wolf
9) What is the sum of all numbers on a roulette wheel?
666
10) Brunei has been independent since 1984. Its territory is completely surrounded - except for its sea-outlet - by another Asiatic country. Which one?
Malaysia
11) The chemical 2-Oxo-L-threo-hexono-1,4-lactone-2,3-enediol is also known as Ascorbic acid. It is essential for many animals such as humans. What is this chemical better known as?
Vitamin C
12) This illness is mainly caused by a lack of Vitamin B1. Symptoms include weight loss, emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception, weakness and pain in the limbs, and periods of irregular heart rate. What is the name of this disease?
Beri Beri
13) This greek letter indicates the wavelength of any wave. It also denotes an eigenvalue in linear algebra, and can be used to denote the Lebesgue measure. What is the name of this letter?
lambda
14) What is EVO in international morse code?
. ...- ---
15) In 1966 during the Vietnam war, the prisoner of war Jeremiah Denton was brough on television by his North Vietnam captors for propagande purposes. Denton managed to blink a certain Morse code with his eyes. What word did he manage to communicate to the US?
TORTURE
16) The danish letter Ø is used to denote the empty set in mathematics. But the single letter is also a Danish word. What does it mean?
Island
17) Who is the composer of the anthem of the European Union?
Beethoven
18) The Russian folk song Korobeiniki (translated: Peddlers) is about a meeting between a peddler and a girl. They haggle over the price of goods, but it is actually a metaphor for courtship. Korobeiniki is better known to most of us because of its appearance in a game. Which game?
Tetris
19) How does fictional secret agent James Bond like his martini?
Shaken, not stirred
20) At the end of the first book of the Lord of the Rings, the hobbits Pipin and Merry were kidnapped by the Uruk-hai of Saruman. When Legolas notices this, he immediately identifies where the uruk-hai are taking the hobbits. Link the correct video which answers this question.
21) What is the longest time that a person has actively watched the video "Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" one after each other?
10 hours
22) A man has hundreds of bodies buried on his land, many of which are cops and criminals. Many people find out what he has been doing, but none go to the police. Why not?
He owns a cemetery
23) South America has only two land-locked countries. Name one of them.
Bolivia, Paraguay
24) The Egyptian funerary God Anubis is portrayed as what kind of animal?
jackal
25) The 1996 movie Shine was based on the life of David Helfgott. The Piano Conerto No. 3 in D minor is portrayed in the film to be the hardest piano piece in existence. Which composer wrote it?
Rachmaninoff
