Cumulative PM-based History Quiz II

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So, next step will a quizz where everyone would try to give the most stupid possible answer in order to get negative point and get the mower possible score? :crazyeye:

What have I done? :eek: :goodjob:
I demand you make this thread in the Humour & Jokes forum. :p (minus the PM-based stuff) And award the stupidest/funniest answers.

To avoid moderator closure and spam just put this in the first post.
Spoiler :
THE ALMIGHTY RULE:

Users may only post ONCE in this thread.

Note: Rule applies only till the end of the competition when winners for each answers are proclamed.

Invisible note: By posting in this thread you agree to the almighty rule and you will accept severe moderator punishment for a period given by ainwood and you will not complain about it. :p


I might have gotten a bit carried away with that last part. But the rest is for the purpose of good clean fun. :)
 
When will we get the answers so I can start banging my head against a wall because of all the things I knew :D
 
It has been a couple of quiet days, the only one to improve his score is thetrooper, who by adding 2 more points takes a clear 3rd so far.
 
So the time is out, no more entries accepted and we have a winner; Taliesin.:king:
Let me also thank all the participants , so many entries was indeed a pleasant surprise. :goodjob:
The final result is:
Taliesin 43
Ciceronian 42
thetrooper 34
sydhe 33
Adler17 32
Mirc 31
jameson 30
Otkell 28
fugazi 27
Atticus 26
shortguy 21
dutchfire 17
Irish Caesar 14
Plotinus 4
Steph 0

I will try to get the answers put up tomorrow.
 
Congratulations Taliesin! :goodjob:

I'm dying to know who the painter in the last q was...
 
Great quiz, great participation, and a pretty even spread of scores, too. :goodjob: Special congratulations to Steph for his epic hair-splitting in the noble pursuit of mediocrity.

I'll see if I can get the new quiz up in a couple of days, but to be realistic I won't promise anything sooner than about a week from now. You can expect something of a literary bent to the quiz, as that's probably my best (only?) means of stumping the many resident wizards. I will most likely also do my very best to provoke accusations of Eurocentrism, although with Rambuchan still MIA, I might get away with it.

EDIT: And I've just noticed, we'll need a new thread very soon! :thumbsup:
 
Meanwhile, you still have two days left on the researchable quiz. I want answers!
 
So the time is out, no more entries accepted and we have a winner; Taliesin.:king:
Let me also thank all the participants , so many entries was indeed a pleasant surprise. :goodjob:
The final result is:
Taliesin 43
Ciceronian 42
thetrooper 34
sydhe 33
Adler17 32
Mirc 31
jameson 30
Otkell 28
fugazi 27
Atticus 26
shortguy 21
dutchfire 17
Irish Caesar 14
Plotinus 4
Steph 0

I will try to get the answers put up tomorrow.



Hey, why isnt my name italic and my score bold like everyone else's?:sad:

Is it because im special?:crazyeye:
 
There are seven above you and seven below. You are clearly central to this quiz.
 
Great quiz, great participation, and a pretty even spread of scores, too. :goodjob: Special congratulations to Steph for his epic hair-splitting in the noble pursuit of mediocrity.
Indeed.:)

I'll see if I can get the new quiz up in a couple of days, but to be realistic I won't promise anything sooner than about a week from now.
That is excellent news, which means that I get more time to present the answers in a proper way.

You can expect something of a literary bent to the quiz, as that's probably my best (only?) means of stumping the many resident wizards.
Well, I stumped them with a question about a war.:D

I will most likely also do my very best to provoke accusations of Eurocentrism, although with Rambuchan still MIA, I might get away with it.
When I couldn't get such accusations this time, I doubt anybody will jump at you.

Okay, let's spam this one to death! :evil:
That's your job.:)

Meanwhile, you still have two days left on the researchable quiz. I want answers!
No time, no knowledge, no motivation to make a new one, or as Chandler put it; "old, tired and full of no coffee".:sad:

Hey, why isnt my name italic and my score bold like everyone else's?:sad:
It is called the printing error devil. My apologies, it should be corrected now.

Is it because im special?:crazyeye:
We all are. Perhaps some a bit more than others, though.

There are seven above you and seven below. You are clearly central to this quiz.

Good one.:lol: :goodjob:
 
I have beaten a Moderator! (always looking at the bright side of life)
 
Taliesin said:
You can expect something of a literary bent to the quiz, as that's probably my best (only?) means of stumping the many resident wizards.

That doesn' bother me at all.

luceafarul said:
That's your job. :)

Ain't that the truth.

:D

Seriously though. I'd prefer a new thread for his quiz.
 
The answers can still go here, and after that, I guess we'll be close too the magic 1000 anyway.
 
Could you give the answers for the less educated people in this quiz :p
 
And finally, the answers. it is made more condensed than originally planned, since it is my intention to post independent articles on some of those topics; for the moment I have in mind particulary #1 and 2.
As usual, feedback is welcome and more than that.
1.Who is depicted on the three paintings below (I have blackened out his face to avoid making it too easy)?

King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (1577-1648)
A typical autocrat of his time both for better and worse; he was on one hand grandios, brave, a sincere believer, a supporter of the fine arts and busilly trying to modernize his society, on the other hand frivolous, intolerant, greedy and not without despotic traits.
Only for the length of his reign, and the fact that he reigned in a turbulent time of European history, makes him stand out as one of the most famous Danish kings.He initiated a lot of reforms and projects as well as founding numerous cities, but his reckless foreign policy had unfortunate consequences for Denmark and led to that Denmark had to concede its hegemonic position in Scandinavia to Sweden.







The four people below played parts in his life in different ways. Identify them and give a brief account on what part they played ( 2 points each)

1.Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (1583-1634)
Bohemian nobleman and general.
Wallenstein entered the Thirty Years War in the Danish period by providing the emperor an army, and after Christian's debacle at the hands of Tilly at Lutter am Barenburg it was Wallenstein's army that persecuted the fleeing Danes and occupied Jutland. Later, it was also Wallenstein who saved the imperial cause against the Swedes. Wallenstein was a competent, albeit a bit to careful military leader, and an unscrupulous and ambitious opportunist. His political machinations eventually led to him falling in disgrace by the emperor, and he was murdered by soldiers in hs own army, probably on the emperor's order in Eger.
2.Tycho Brahe (1546 -1601)
Danish nobleman and astronomer.One of the pioneers of modern astronomy, Brahe also belonged to one of Scandinavias most prominent noble families. He was to develop a difficult relationship to the king, one of the reasons being his even for the time harsh treatment of his peasants, another his high demand towards the state for financial support of his scientific work. Brahe eventually settled down in Praha where he might have died in a rather bizarre way.
3.Lennart (Linnardt)Torstensson (1603 - 1651)
Swedish soldier and military engineer.
Torstensson began his career as a age of Gustav II Adolf , but the king became early aware of his talent for martial issues and at the time of Sweden's entry in the Thirty Years War Torstensson had become leader of the artillery, a post in which he distinguished himself, not the least at the famous battle of Breitenfeld (1631). In 1641 Torstensson succeeded Johan Baner as generalissimo of the Swedish Army, which he lead brilliantly in different campaigns, never losing a battle. When Sweden went to war against Denmark in 1645, Torstensson's army started the operations by quickly occupying Jutland.
4.John Dowland (1563-1626)
English lutenist and composer . Dowland was perhaps the greatest exponent of the quite fashionable melancholia in the music of the time which he turned especially well in his lute songs. He served at the court of Christian between 1606-1612, where he among other things wrote a gaillard dedicated to the king. Quite ironically one of his most famous compositions; the song "If my complaints could passion moves", uses the melody from another gaillard which was dedicated to captain Digorie Piper, a pirate who specialized in plundering Danish vessels.

2. Which conflict got the nickname The Cat's War (6 points)?
The one between Sweden of Norway in 1814.
When as a result of the Kiel treaty Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden, this was not accepted by the Norwegians, who assembled a parlament and adopted a constitution where they declared independency.
Pretty soon it was clear that Norway was left on its own, and the way the Norwegian officers treated the war operations - so passive that the conflict was compared to the Swedish cat's play with the mouse, hence the name, led to a quick conclusion.
Negotiations was initiated in the Norwegian city Moss only a few weeks after hostilities had started, and the cease fire agreement, the Moss Convention, led to Norway losing its independence but keeping a quite independent position inside the union.
I am planning to write an article about this here later. While not being so excited in general military history, I think the political role of the military is something worth looking into.

3. What is the connection between a former capital of Iran, a French crusader and the Rhone Rangers (8 points)?

The Shiraz wine grape ( Syrah in France).
The Shiraz grape comes from the city of Shiraz in Iran, where the art of wine-making may have originated some 7000 years ago. It is assumed that the crusader Guy De'Sterimberg brought it back to France where he living as a hermit on a steep hill in the Rhône River Valley developed a vineyard. Later the grape was also introduced in Australia, South America and USA; in the last mentioned country by the Rhône rangers, a group of viticulturists in California.

4. What was the Auburn system (6 points)?

A penal system based on the prisoners working in groups during the day and kept in solitary confinement during night, while silence was enforced by whipping at all times. The system was developed in the Auburn prison in the 1820s and used by a former warden at said institution, Elam Lynds, for building and running the Sing Sing Correction Facility.

5. In what office was the following restrictions (among many others) imposed on the person holding it (8 points)?
- It was unlawful for him to be out of the city for a single night
- He was forbidden to sleep out of his own bed for three nights consecutively.
- He might not mount upon horseback, nor even touch a horse
- He was not allowed to swear an oath
- He was not allowed to go out without his proper head-dress.
- He might not touch flour, nor leaven, nor leavened bread, nor a dead body
- He was forbidden either to touch or to name a dog, a she-goat, ivy, beans, or raw flesh.
- None but a free man might cut his hair; the clippings of which, together with the parings of his nails, were buried beneath a felix arbor.
- No one might sleep in his bed, the legs of which were smeared with fine clay; and it was unlawful to place a box containing sacrificial cakes in contact with the bed-stead.
- He was required to wed a virgin and he could not marry a second time. A divorce was not permitted, and if the wife died he was obliged to resign.


An important position in Roman religion; the High Priest of Jupiter. For those who like contrafactual speculations, it is perhaps interesting that Julius Caesar was nominated for this position, but never installed.

6. A mother and her daughter both shared the same name, they both married famous radicals, and they both attained fame for their writings. The mother's most famous work was an influential political tract, the daughter's a fictional work.
1.What was the name of the mother (3 points), the name of her husband (2 points) and her most influential work (3 points)?
2. What was the name of the daughter (3 points), the name of her husband (2 points) and her most famous work (3 points)?


1. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), William Godwin, A vindication of the Rights of Woman.
While Wollstonecraft wrote a number of books, among others one about the French Revolution and an amusing one about travelling in Norway, her fame rests deservedly on the pioneer work in feminism that argues convincingly for the fact that the genders are equal. This is one of the books I think everybody would profit from reading.
2. Mary Shelley (1797-1851), Percy Byshe Shelley, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
I suppose both the story about how Frankenstein was written and the novel itself is familiar with almost everybody here.

7.
What infamous person from history, whose identity has been hotly debated, is this?
(4 points)?


Jack the Ripper, archetypical serial killer, who killed at least 5 prostitues (possibly a number of others as well) in the Whitechapel area of London during 1888.
The photo shows a reconstruction based on the work of a highly qualified British research team which went through all the known information.
As for the identity debate, suggested candidates has been among many others Lewis Carrol, Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), Walter Sickert, Dr. Alexander Pedachenko,Prince Albert Victor and sir John Williams, but now it would seem like it was indeed Freddie Mercury...

8.
What military unit is this ( 5 points)?
This cavalry unit was perhaps the best of its time and the elite unit in its country's army.
The etymology of its name is controversial, it might have been derived from words for "horseman", "brigand" or "twenty" on some other language.
It developed from light cavalry to be a heavy unit with armour, a variety of weapons including a 6 meters lance but it was most famous for a special part of its equipment which was not worn on all occasions but it always highlighted on portraits of it.
Its golden age was between the late 16th and the late 17th century when it fought in a great number of battles against various enemies, usually with success.


The Polish winged hussar or heavy hussar.
For information, look here:http://www.jasinski.co.uk/wojna/comp/comp06.htm

9.
Two famous writers died on the same date, but not the same day.
Who were those writers ( 2 points for each correct answer), and how is this possible (3 points)?


William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and Miguel de Cervantes Savedraa (1547-1616)
The reason for this was that Spain had adopted the Gregorian calendar, while England still used the Julian one.



10.
A composer.
- Holding the prestigious position of Kapellmeister at St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, he was one of the most influential and highly regarded musicians of his time, but for some reason went into oblivion.
- Until recently, the only recorded work of his was a flute concerto, wrongly ascribed to Joseph Haydn.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart worked for a while as his "unsalaried adjunct".
What is his name (5 points)?


Leopold Hofmann (1738 - 1793)
A short biography and a discography can be found here:http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/485.htm

11.
Find the name of a city (5 points).
For some extra points, identify the persons on pic 1 and 3 for 2 points each, and the painter who made pic 2 for 3 points.

The city is Barcelona, Spain
The person on pic 1 is the brilliant general and highly competent politician Hannibal Barca (247-183 BC), the most famous member of the Carthagenian dynasty from which the city derives its name.The city was founded by Hannibal's father, Hamilcar.
The person on pic 3 is George Orwell (1903-1950), British author and journalist.
The radical Orwell participated in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and later wrote Hommage to Catalonia where he describes the revolutionary Barcelona in positive ways.
The painter is Juan Miro (1893 - 1983), a native of Barcelona and a prominent exponent of surrealism.

12. And finally; what was the Paraffin Scandal, of which Consuelo Vanderbilt was the most famous victim (4 points)?

It relates to the fact that before silicone, injection of paraffin was used in plastical surgery. The method had originally been used in Vienna for reconstructing deformed noses due to syphilis by injecting paraffin in the patient's face. The same method was then used for breast- and penis-enlargement and eventually for smoothening out wrinkles in the face.
Paraffin was chosen because it was both inexpensive and easy to form. The problem was only that just like silicone, it would start to travel around in the organism, but unlike silicone instead of vanishing it would lump together and form hard knobs or wounds filled with puss. This could lead to blindness, gangrene or even death. This became an ugly reality during the 1930s.
Consuelo Vanderbilt, from the wealthy family, was one of the famous beauties of the time (Just like today, a lot of the beauty is of course to be found in the celebrity status), was one of those who tried this method, and as a consequence got a deformed face forcing her to live in seclusion.
 
luceafarul said:
As usual, feedback is welcome and more than that.

A very fine quiz.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry for not getting points in #1 though.

...by injecting paraffin in the patient's face...

And this was only 70 years ago?
 
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