And so, for the answers:
1.Which well-known mythological figure is associated with the following people? (3 p)
Orpheus.
You also get 1 p for each of the persons you can identify.
1.
Valentin Greff Bakfark (ca.1520 - 1576)
Transilvanian lutenist and composer. Bakfark was born in Kronstadt (today Brasov, Romania) and was trained as a lutenist at the court of the Hungarian king Janos Zapolayi. He later was hired by the king of Poland as court musician, where he enjoyed great success until he became victim of a court intrigue, and being accused of being a spy for Brandenburg (it was quite common for musicians to be spies back then, but the accusations against Bakfark seems to have been unfounded) he had to flee leaving his family and estate in Wilno behind. He then settled in Wien and ended up in Padova where hedied of the plague. On the marble plaque on his grave, he is compared with Orpheus.
Bakfark enjoyed a great reputation in his time as a true master on his instrument, both in Poland and France poems in his praise exists, and there is even a Polish saying:"...Nobody plays the lute after Bekwark..."
2.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) French writer, poet, artist and film-maker. An important exponent of surrealism, especially through his films.One of the most wellknown and best is Orpheus, which was later followed up by a sequel, The Testament of Orpheus.
This is quite a good page about Cocteau:
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~lenin/JeanCocteau.html
3.
Tenessee Williams (1911-1983) One of the most prominent US playwrights in the 20th century. A writer in the so-called Southern Gothic style, some of William's plays belongs to the classics, such a The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcare named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tinroof. In the play Orpheus descending, he retells the myth set in the 1950's USA.
4.
Nick Cave (1957-) Australian musician, author, actor and screenwriter. On his 13th studio album with his band Bad Seeds, the second CD is called The Lyre of Orpheus.
2.What was Nim Chimpsky? (3 p)
A chimpanzee, the subject of an important animal language aquisition study at Colombia University, the Project Nim. The name is of course a humorous salute to Noam Chomsky, who apart from being one of USA's leading dissident also is regarded as the father of modern cognitive linguistics.Nim was raised in human-like settings and taught sign language as a human child. While he learned the basic signs, he did not seem to develop complex language skills.
3. Here follows an excerpt of a text. Who wrote this text (2 p) and what was the title of it (2 p)?
2.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) from the text
"What is Enlightenment". I was inspired by this by a current thread in OT where it was asked what philosophy you live by.
I find a lot of wisdom in this text,
Later somebody else wrote a comment to this text, using the same title. Who? (2 p)
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)., French philosopher.
Links to the two texts:
http://foucault.info/documents/whatIsEnlightenment/kant.whatIsEnlightenment.en.html
http://foucault.info/documents/whatIsEnlightenment/foucault.whatIsEnlightenment.en.html
4. Where did the Battle of the Bees find place? (3 p)
At
Tanga, Tanzania, a military outpost of German East Africa.
And in which war? (2 p)
First World War. This was the first major battle in Africa in this war, a poor attempt by the British Indian Army to capture German East Africa. El_Tigre mentioned that Adler17 has written an article about this on this forum. And since he knows much more about this than I, go read it.
5. What is the probable origin behind the expression "mad as a hatter"? (3 p)
Most likely from an early industrial occupational disease. Felt hats were once very popular in North America and Europe; the best sorts were made from beaver fur, but cheaper ones used furs such as rabbit instead.
A complicated set of processes was needed to turn the fur into a finished hat. With the cheaper sorts of fur, an early step was to brush a solution of a mercury compound—usually mercurous nitrate—on to the fur to roughen the fibres and make them mat more easily, a process called carroting because it made the fur turn orange. Beaver fur had natural serrated edges that made this unnecessary, one reason why it was preferred, but the cost and scarcity of beaver meant that other furs had to be used.
Whatever the source of the fur, the fibres were then shaved off the skin and turned into felt; this was later immersed in a boiling acid solution to thicken and harden it. Finishing processes included steaming the hat to shape and ironing it. In all these steps, hatters working in poorly ventilated workshops would breathe in the mercury compounds and accumulate the metal in their bodies.
Mercury is a cumulative poison that causes kidney and brain damage. Physical symptoms include trembling (known at the time as hatter’s shakes), loosening of teeth, loss of co-ordination, and slurred speech; mental ones include irritability, loss of memory, depression, anxiety, and other personality changes. This was called mad hatter syndrome.
Labour history can be so depressing.
6. In Russian language there exist the ironic cliche that somebody is a "Susanin".
What does this mean (2 p) and what is the origin of the expression? (2 p)
A person who leads somewhere claiming to know the way, but eventually proves that he doesn't. I suppose most of you know this type.
The expression comes from an incident in 1612. It had been a war between Poland and Russia, and even if a czar, Mikhail Romanov, had been elected, there was still supporters of the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa around in Russia. Some of those, finding out that the young czar was situated in Kostroma, went on the mission to kill him. Not being known in the area, they had to ask locals for direction.
The logger Ivan Susanin offered his assistance, claiming to know a shortcut to the Ipatiev monastery Mikhail was hiding in. However he led them completely astray, probably deep in the forest to die in the winter cold, sacrificing his own life in the process.
This story is also subject for the first Russian opera;
A Life for The Czar by
Mikhail Glinka.
7. The following poem is an example of a specific genre of poetry. What is this genre called? (1 p)
Haiku, a Japanese style of poetry.
It is written by one of the celebrated masters of this genre. What was his name? (3 p)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694).
Born Matsuo Kinsaku in 1644 near Osaka. Being of samurai family, he took employement as a samurai until his master died in 1666. He then went to Kyoto where he gained reputation as a great teacher of poetry before settling down in Edo.He took the name Basho after the banana three growing near his home.
Basho travelled extensively in Japan, and came to see the city as a negative influence, in his poetry he tries to define the perception of himself and the simplicity of the countryside.
The poem quoted here is his last one.
For those interested in Basho and Haiku, here is a wide selection of good links:
http://opening.hefko.net/gi_basho.html
8.What is depicted here? (4 p)
The flight of Abbas Ibn Firnas (?-887)
This multi-talented humanitarian, technologist and alchemist carried in 875 out a bold experiment. With a self-built glider he launched himself from a tower in his city Cordoba. While the flight was successful, the landing was not, and he injured his back.This is widely regarded as the first scientific attempt by a human to fly.
While Ibn Firnas deserves to be mentioned for a lot of other things as well, like his designed waterclock, his devised means of manufacturing glass from sand, the chain of rings he developed to show the motion of the planets, and developing a method to cut rock crystal his fame within the Islam countries is based mostly on this flight. Thus Libya issued a stamp in his honour, and north a Baghdad an airport carries his name.
9.I think most people know that it this year is 250 years since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.
It so happens that another illustrious composer was born the same year, this man.
During his brief life - he survived Mozart with only about a year - this German-born composer had great influence on the music in the country he settled down in. What was his name? (4 p)
Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792)
Kraus was born in Miltenberg and studied music in Mannheim before studying law in Weimar. In 1778 he went to Stockholm, and after a difficult start he was appointed conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera and director of the Royal Academy of Music. He was then granted a 5-years tour of studying in Europe, where he got to know among others Gluck, Mozart and Haydn, even writing a symphony for the latter to perform at the court of Esterhaza.
On his return he was appointed Conductor of the Royal Court, a post he held until his death.
An innovative composer with a flair for the dramatic (his surviving 12 symphonies are very much in the style of the fashionable Sturm und Drang), Kraus is a very interesting musical aquaintance, whose works for a long time has been the main contents in my mp3-player.
A good tip for those who like the music of this era, on Naxos one can find recordings of all his symphonies on 4 CDs by the Swedish chamber Orchestra and Petter Sundquist. A real bargain.
As additional clue I offer this portrait, 2 p for identifying him.
King Gustav III (1746-1792) the reigning Swedish monarch during Kraus stay in that country. One of Kraus' most moving compositions is the funeral symphony he wrote after the king's assasination .
10. In 1998, an organization called ATTAC was created.
What does the acronym represent? (3 p)
Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens or in French Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour l'Aide aux Citoyens.
This grass-root organization which today is a major one in the struggle against growing corporate power and what in newspeak is called globalization, was originally a single-issue movement demanding introduction of the so-called Tobin tax, a tax on currency specualtion suggested by the economist James Tobin.
Here is the link to its webpage:
http://www.attac.org/index.htm
11.What was the Milgram experiment? (2 p)
An experiment by the psychologist Stanley Milgram intended to measure the willingness of a participant to obey an authority who instructs the participant to do something that may conflict with the participant's personal conscience.
Here is a detailed description of the experiment:
For the experiment, subjects were recruited by newspaper ads and direct mail to participate in a study at Yale. The experiments themselves took place in two rooms in the basement of Linsly-Chittenden Hall on the university's Old Campus. The experiment was advertised as taking one hour, for which those responding would be paid $4.50. Participants were men between the ages of 20 and 50, coming from all educational backgrounds, ranging from an elementary school dropout to participants with doctoral degrees.
The participant and a confederate of the experimenter (an actor pretending to be another participant) were told by the experimenter that they would be participating in an experiment to test the effects of punishment on learning behavior.
A slip of paper was given to the participant and another to the confederate. The participant was led to believe that one of the slips said "learner" and the other said "teacher," and that the participants had been given the slips randomly. In fact, both slips said "teacher," but the actor claimed to have the slip that read "learner," thus guaranteeing that the participant was always the "teacher." At this point, the "teacher" and "learner" were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. The confederate was sure to mention that he had a heart condition.
The "teacher" was given a 45-volt electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment. The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read 4 possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the learner would receive a shock, with the voltage increasing by 15 volts with each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher read the next word pair.
The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level. After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, the learner gave no further response to the questions and made no further complaints.
At this point many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Many test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Some continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. Some subjects began to laugh nervously once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.
If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:
Please continue.
The experiment requires you to continue, please go on.
It is essential that you continue.
You have no choice, you must continue.
If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.
Chilling stuff.
12.With the aid of the following pics, find the name of an ancient city.(3 p)
Corinth.
The first picture shows
Aphrodite, to whom the Great Temple of its acropolis was dedicated. The second shows the tyrant
Periander, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. The third is the philosopher
Diogenes, who lived for the last part of his life and probably died in Corinth.
13. We all know that Christopher Colombus "discovered" America. His namesake Mateo Colombo also claimed to have "discovered " something. What was that? (4 p)
The clitoris. 
Mateo Colombo (1516-1559), pupil of Vesalius, was an important anathomist who among other things discovered the pulminary circulation and also pointed out the correct placement of the lens in the eye. However, in his De Re Anatomica, he also describes what he calls "love or sweetness of Venus,"of which he claims the honur of having discovered.
Except that it was later pointed out that anathomists had known about this for centuries, one might assume that more than one woman knew perfectly well about its existence and benefit...
This is the subject of a nice novel by Federico Andahazi: The Anatomist.
14.What sort of people is this drawing depicting? (3 p)
Soldiers in the Swedish army in the Thirty Years' War as seen by Catholic propaganda. To the left is an Irishman, to the right a Lapp (or Sami).
15. From which literary work is this? (4 p):
Batrachomyomachia, or the battle between the frogs and the mice.This is a mock-epic or parody on the Iliad about which neither the author or the exact time written is known.
A link to the text with comical illustrations:
http://www.homer.com.mx/Homeric_Hymns_and_Homerica/Batrachomyomachia/01.html
And who was it usual to suppose had written it? (2 p)
Homer. Nowadays it is common to attribute it to some anonymous poet of the time of Aleksander the Great, though.
16. In Slavic mythology; what is Jav, Prav and Nav? (3 p)
In the Book of Veles, this is the names of the three worlds. Jav is the material world, contained within Nav, the immaterial world of the dead. Prav is the law of the fire god Swarog that governs both Yav and Nav.
17.What is depicted here? (4 p)
The mutilation of king Magnus Sigurdsson.
The Irishman
Harald Gille come to Norway in 1127 and claimed to be the son of king
Magnus Barefoot. he proved his claim by an ordeal of fire, and was aknowledged by the reigning Norwegian king
Sigurd Jorsalfar under the condition that he would not rival Sigurd's son Magnus. however the realtion between Harald and Magnus was an uneasy one, and when Sigurd died in 1130, Harald broke the agreement and war broke out. it ended with the capture of Magnus in 1135, and to render his rival harmless, Harald had his eyes put out, catstrated him and for good measure also chopped off one foot.
Except for the cruelty of this action, it was a political blunder, which lost Harald a lot of the sympathy he had built up through former cunning actions. He was not to enjoy his kingship for a long time, as he was murdered the year after by another throne pretendant,
Sigurd Slembejakn.
This was to begin a period of turmoil in Norwegian history, the so-called civil war era.
See also this:
http://omacl.org/Heimskringla/gille.html
Reactions to this is welcome, positive as well as negative. If somebody wants more information about any of the topics covered, I will do my best to provide it.
And finally,
Ciceronian, you can go ahead and post your quiz. I look forward to see it.
And without me at the top, we could have three winners - three people on 15 points at the moment. Wouldn't this quiz be much more exciting without me? 
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
