Skeptics Café

1. the gums

2. Brazil

3. The major daily Russian newspaper during the Communist era. It means “Truth”.

4. A solitaire-like card game

5. Jack Ruby

6. Locally known as “greenstone”, but we’ll accept jade.

7. the nose

8. Egypt

9. Barry Sheen

10. South Africa; it ignored international sanctions regarding its hiring of overseas celebrity performers during the Apartheid era.

HARDER:

11. The Boston Strangler

12. Caraway

13. Raymond Chandler

14. 601 / 602

15. Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse, Alice, White Rabbit (briefly)

16. 0872

17. (a) Jack Kelly, James Garner, Roger Moore; (b) Warner Brothers; (c) Mel Gibson

18. The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V

19. 1907

20. Random Access Memory

1. the mouth

2. North America

3. Rod Laver beat Tony Roche

4. bombardier

5. 1972

6. two

7. Japan

8. Adelaide

9. Tom Watson

10. five: Robert Menzies, Harold Holt, John McEwen, John Gorton, William McMahon

HARDER:

11. Its primary meaning is “of the West wind”, but we’d accept secondary meanings of “mild” or “gentle”.

12. Rani

13. 2012

14. Her husband died building the Great Wall

15. Jerry Garcia

16. cockroach racing

17. 1935

18. Katy Manning

19. Number of consecutive bounces on a pogo stick (88,047)

20. World Quizzing Championship

1. an inn

2. TNT

3. The Ewings

4. stick

5. Brian Epstein

6. Cliff Richard

7. suicide

8. South America

9. Nancy Kulp

10. Jon Cleary

HARDER:

11. castrato singer

12. It crossed the Atlantic Ocean

13. ice and snow

14. Lion – taming celebrities Siegfried & Roy

15. Last place of several hundred people listed in the official line of succession to the British crown

16. Nuclear weapons (code names)

17. Barbara Windsor

18. Exxon Valdez

19. spaghetti

20. capital city

SET 1

a. paragraph  b. plinth  c. perish  d. psychopath  e. paunch  f. peevish  g. pariah  h. patriarch  i. polish  j. poach

SET 2

a. troubadour  b. templar  c. twitter  d. titular  e. trouper  f. torpor  g. totalisator  h. toper i . tachometer  j. tricolor

SET 3

a. bipartisan  b. buffoon  c. backgammon  d. bedouin  e. bisection  f. battalion  g. bunion  h. barbarian  i. boatswain  j. browbeaten

SET 4

a. Arthur  b. anchovy  c. archery  d. although  e. amphibian  f. authority  g. alphabetic  h. architrave  i. archbishop  j. Archimedes

SET 5

a. buxom  b. borzoi  c. bullion  d. backhoe  e. bergamot  f. bandwagon  g. bordellos  h. badminton  i. benefactor  j. backgammon

1. 1 in 10 or 10%

2. 8

3. 50 salutes

4. Alice is 10, Bill is 5, Charlie is 9

5. day 20

6. $30

7. 517 inhabitants

8. Answer: 1 minute early:
SOLUTION:
Journey 1:
Speed = 20km/hr = 1/3 km/min
Time = 20 mins late

Journey 2:
Speed = 30km/hr = ½ km/min
Time = 15 mins early

Journey 3:
Speed = 25km/hr = 5/12 km/min

y = the distance to work

speed (s) = distance (d) / time (t)

If the distance to work was (1/3 x 20) km shorter for journey 1 and (1/2 x 15) km longer for journey 2 both journeys would take the same time. Therefore, using s=d/t:

t = (y – 1/3 x 20) / (1/3) = (y + 1/2 x 15) / (1/2)

therefore the distance to work (y) = 35km.

therefore Journey 1 took 35/(1/3) = 35 x 3 = 105 mins.

105 mins is 20 mins late therefore the journey should take 85 mins.

Journey 3 takes 35 / (5/12) = 35 x 12/5 = 84 mins. Therefore he’s 1 minute early for work.

9. 10 teams

10. a. 10 b. 15 c. 9 d. 20 e. 12