ROUND: Something's missing... 

1) When Darwin published "On the Origin of the Species" in 1859 he admitted that lack of fossil evidence for evolution was a major weakness of his theory. Two years later, a fossil was found which appeared to have had feathers like birds and sharp teeth like dinosaurs, and is now considered a "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds. What name has been given to this species, from the Greek words for "ancient" and "wing."

2) Which of these animals is never mentioned in the Bible: Bears, Cats, Ostriches, or Snails?

3) Which small, non-vital organ, present in humans and most vertebrates, is completely missing from the horse's anatomy? The organ's scientific name is the "cholecyst" and it is about 50 mL in size in an adult human.

4) The cover of The Beatles' 1969 album "Abbey Road" features the four band members walking across a zebra crossing wearing suits. What object in Paul McCartney's hand in the original cover was digitally removed for release in the US in the early 2000's?

5) Which sport, formerly in the Olympics until 1936, is completely missing left-handed players, who were banned in 1975 due to the danger involved when left-handed players and right-handed players both attempt to play simultaneously?

6) First presented in 1883 at the Galerie Vivienne in Paris, "First Communion of Anaemic Young Girls In The Snow" by French artist Alphonse Allais was controversial in the art world as the first publicly-displayed piece completely missing what?


ROUND: Borders

1) Pool Malebo, formerly known as the Stanley Pool, is a unique geographical feature in Africa which forms part of the border between which two countries? Both country's capitals sit near the pool, and are the geographically closest pair of national capitals in the world outside of Rome and the Vatican.

2) The border collie is claimed to be the most intelligent dog breed known. Which border is the border collie named after?

3) Which Caribbean island was divided in two in 1648 by local French and Dutch settlers? According to legend, the border was decided upon by each settlement picking a man to walk around the island in opposite directions, with the border being set at the point at which they met. The French walker drank wine while the Dutch walker drank beer, allowing the French to gain 54 square kilometers to 32 for the Dutch in the smallest internationally divided sea island in the world.

4) With 250 million people crossing it every year, the land border between which two countries is the most frequently crossed in the world?

5) Which 2,850 km river, despite being only the 28th longest river in the world, forms at least part of the border between 7 different pairs of countries, more than any other river?

6) In art, what is the name for a painting or photograph which lacks definitive borders, instead fading or blurring to white around its edges? The term is similarly used in literature and theatre.


ROUND: Formerly Known As

1) Istanbul, Turkey was famously named Constantinople until 1930 when the new Turkish Republic changed away from the Western name to the Turkish "Istanbul." In fact, the city was renamed in honor of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 330 BC, what was the original, Greek name of the city? 

2) Which modern Japanese company was originally founded as Service Games in Hawaii in 1940? The company's initial business was managing coin-operated machines on US military bases; it permanently relocated to Japan in 1952 as most of its business was being done on overseas US bases. 

3) Most popes in the Roman Catholic Church adopt one of several traditional papal names upon being elected. Pope Lando kept his own name when he served as head of the Catholic Church for 6 months in the year 913 and was the first (and last) Pope Lando. Since then, Albino Luciani is the only other person to choose a new papal name. What name did he choose? 

4) "Abysinnia," a Latinized version of the local name "Habesha", was historically used as the name of which present-day country, which is Africa's largest coffee producer and is also the spiritual homeland of the Rastafari movement? 

5) "Theophilus" was the original middle name of which famous musician, who changed his name frequently throughout his life and particularly enjoyed adapting his names to different languages as he learned them? 

6) Kitchener, Ontario, Canada changed its name in 1916 following a public vote and a contest to select a new name. What was the original name of this Canadian city which is today home to 200,000 people?

ROUND: Colors

1) Which color was used during the colonial period in the Caribbean to describe runaway black slaves and their descendants living in independent settlements?

2) With the majority of its 4+ billion copies printed between its publication in 1964 and 1976, when it was taken out of print, what color was the cover of by far the most printed book of the 20th century?

3) Which color gets its name from the most common species of duck in Europe? The males of this species have bands of the color surrounding their eyes.

4) The national flag of India contains a blue wheel, green and white stripes, and a top stripe which is officially which color? The color has special significance both to Indian cuisine and Indian politics, where it symbolises hard line Hindu nationalists.

5) When designing the Disney Epcot Theme Park in Orlando, FL, USA in the 1980's, a shade of which color was scientifically designed by engineers hired from Kodak for the park's walkways to make the surrounding grass look as green as possible in photographs?

6) In 2007, German mobile phone operator T-Mobile sent a cease-and-desist letter to the popular technology blog Engadget claiming the site's color scheme infringed on T-Mobile's trademark rights. In their widely criticised cease-and-desist letter, which specific color did T-Mobile assert that they "owned"?


ROUND: Little-known giants

1) After Oxygen (O2) and Nitrogen (N2) which gas is the third most common component of the earth's atmosphere, making up about 1% (0.93% volume 1.29% mass)? Because of its ubiquitousness it has many commercial applications, such as the filler in aerosol cans, light bulbs, and packaged food?

2) Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha has worldwide sales of 600 trillion yen, or 5 billion euros. About half of the sales come from architectural materials and manufacturing equipment, but the other half come from the sales of what ubiquitous everday object, of which the company dominates the worldwide market with a 70% share?

3) After wheat and rice, which crop, native to South America, but now also widely cultivated in Africa and Southeast Asia, is the third largest source of carbohydrates consumed by humans despite being extremely rare in European cuisine? 

4) Acrylic acid was first synthesized in 1843, but it wasn't until the 1930's when German chemist Otto Röhm pioneered commercial production of Polymethyl methacrylate, which was widely used during World War II in airplanes, submarines, and ground vehicles. What name for PMMA did Röhm trademark in 1934, by which the substance is still commonly known?

5) With over 17,000,000 containers transferred from one boat to another annually, which port is by far the busiest intermediate transfer point in international shipping?

6) Though the giant squid is better known, the largest member of the squid order is which other squid, which is about the same length as the giant squid but weights significantly more at 500 kg compared to 300 kg for the giant squid? Its name comes from the Greek word for 'giant statue.'


ROUND: Google it

1) Google claims to handle more data than any other company. Which SI prefix does Google add to the standard byte to measure units of data it processes, such that it processes approximately 1 unit on average per hour?

2) 'Mesotheliomia,' a rare disease, is frequently the most expensive keyword for advertisers to bid on in Google searches. What causes 
mesothelioma?

3) Google is not the dominant search engine in China, being out-competed by which local Chinese-language website, which features a search-engine, maps, discussion forums, and music and video stores, is the only non-American website ranked in the top-10 worldwide in 2009 traffic volume according to Alexa? The website's name is Mandarin for "hundreds of times."

4) Google brings in approximately $1 million in annual revenue per employee. Though this is impressive, which other top-100 website beats Google by a factor of 3, bringing in $100 million with just 30 employees 2009?

5) Google Suggest will recommend to users the most popular search term based on what they have entered so far. Of the 26 terms that come up after entering one letter, only this term, which comes up for the letter 'X' is not the name of a company or a website.

6) Google Distinguished Researcher Krishna Bharat was motivated by the September 11th, 2001 attacks to begin a new project "to make the world a better place" which has now developed into which popular Google service?


ROUND: Recent Events

1) On New Year's Eve 2009, the Marseilles art museum reported that "Les Choristes," a painting on loan from Musee D'Orsay in Paris valued at over €800,000, was stolen in one of the largest art thefts in years. Which French impressionist painter, known for painting dancers and horses, painted "Les Choristes" in 1877?

2) On the 2009 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest corporations, which metropolitan area is home to the greatest number, with 51 companies generating over UK £2.2 trillion in revenue?

3) Which verb was chosen by the Oxford University Press as it's 2009 Word of the Year? The word is very unusual in that it adds a 2-letter prefix to a common 6-letter noun which was considered obsolete as a verb to produce a new, technology-related verb.

4) The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith for their pioneering work on charge-coupled devices in the 1960's-1970's. What ubiquitous modern consumer product was made possible by the invention of charge-coupled devices?

5) On September 8, 2009, Samoa declared a two-day national holiday to avoid confusion as it changed which national law to bring itself in line with most other countries in Oceania? Prior to Samoa, the last countries to make such a change were Okinawa in 1978, Burma in 1970,  Iceland in 1968, and Sweden in 1967.

6. Beginning on April 14, 2010, a major eruption of Iceland's second largest volcano grounded most European air traffic for six days. How many letters are in the name of the erupting volcano?


TIEBREAKER: David Cameron and Nick Clegg are both notably young for major PM candidates. Which is younger, and by how many days?