ROUND: Maps

1) Fossil fuel resources. The green areas indicate natural gas fields, the purple areas oil fields (purple squares small oil fields), and the gray areas coal deposits. [6]

2) Forms of government. The dark blue areas are presidential republics, the light blue areas are parliaments, the red areas are constitutional monarchies, the brown single-party autocracies, and the dark purple absolute monarchies, the light purple de-facto absolute monarchies, and the green areas military dictatorships. [6]

3) Allocation of the largest territories by land area to the countries with the largest population, so China gets Russia's territory, and so on. [7]

4) Frequency and intensity of seismic activity. [7]


ROUND: What do they have in common?

1) Epilepsy. It affected each in different ways. Dostoyevsky featured epileptic characters in many of his works, Caesar’s epilepsy caused paranoid behavior including forgoing bodyguards the day of his assassination, the singer Prince cites his childhood teasing as an inspiration for his musical career, while Prince John was completely hidden from public view before dying at age 14.

2) Prehensile tails, which can be used to manipulate objects or hang from trees.

3) Uranium, with Kazakhstan leading the way. 

4) They are all named for compass directions-Austria or Osterreich meaning East Kingdom, Australia for Australis meaning south in Latin, West Virginia meaning west in English, and Beijing meaning “northern capital” in Chinese.

5) They are all vegetarians-and committed ones who openly advocated it (except Superman).

6) All are SI units. The gray is a measure of absorbed dose named for Louis Gray, the Henry a measure of inductance named for Joseph Henry, the Sievert a measure of radiation dose equivalent named for Rolf Sievert, and the Weber a measure of magnetic flux named for Wilhelm Weber. 

ROUND: They might be giants

1) The Mekong River, which runs through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

2) Dwarf stars.

3) The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE. 

4) Dan yr Ogof, a 17 km cave system in Wales, Cheddar Gorge in Somerset, England, and the White Cliffs of Dover in England. Rounding out the top 10 are Jurassic Coast, Loch Lomond, Cwm Idwal, The Island of Staffa, St Kilda, Lundy Island.

5) Giant sequoias, found only in California, USA. The tallest is General Sherman, a 2700 year old, 84 m tall, 1,487 cubic metres in volume tree which weighs 2100 tons. 

6) The Prussian Army. Potsdam is the traditional residence of Prussian Kings.

ROUND: Breakups

1) PUMA, originally called RUDA for the founder.

2) Syria. Iraq was planning to join as the third member and adopted a three-starred flag, but momentum died with the breakup.

3) Consanguinity, specifically that they were technically fourth cousins.

4) Antarctica and South America, which finally split 15 M years ago between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula and are now separated by Drake’s Passage.

5) Six-Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. 

6) Rupert Murdoch and Anna Torv. Anna Torv Murdoch had served on the board of the Fox Corporation making the divorce particularly messy. Both partners re-married to others within the same year.

ROUND: Is that still going on?

1) Coins. The hotel cleans every coin it takes in and only gives out mint-condition coins.

2) Belarus, led by Alexander Lukashenko, who has recently said the country may reconsider its use of capital punishment.

3) The 3.5-inch floppy disk. The cassette-disk based Walkman, despite being similarly outmoded is still produced by Sony, though not in Japan, as well as several other companies, and it peaked in popularity well before 2000.

4) Mongolia

5) Kolkata or Calcutta, India.

6) Incandescent light bulbs. Toshiba and GE both ceased production in 2010, by 2014 they will be illegal for general sale in the US and EU and production is expected to nearly halt completely.

ROUND: Female names

1) Bullfighting. The veronica is the technique of using the cape to have the bull pass by the bull-fighter.

2) Mercedes. Emil Jellinek was an Austrian diplomat who named his race cars after his daughter Adriana Manuela Ramona Jellinek, whose nickname was Mercédès. The parent company is Daimler AG, formerly Daimler-Benz AG. 

3) Olivia. It is derived either from Oliver or the Oliva genus of olive trees. 

4) Rocket launchers, or mobile rocket artillery. The Soviets kept the official name BM-8/13/31 secret, leading to soldiers naming it after a popular war-time song. Opposing forces nicknamed it Stalin's organ.

5) Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe/Zambia. There has recently been a push to restore the traditional Tswana-language name, and that is it’s official name as a UNESCO world heritage site.

6) Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Lewis Carroll himself was a famous sufferer and it is believed to have partially inspired the novel. 

ROUND: 2010

1) Thailand. The protesters were supporting former PM Thakshin Shinawatra.

2) Sapphire. The engagement ring actually belonged to Princess Diana of Wales, William’s mother, and a similar increase occurred after Diana’s 1981 wedding.

3) Spanish, which will be dropping ‘ch’ and ‘ll’ but keeping ‘ñ.’ Hugo Chávez threatened to demand that they call him ‘Ávez’ in response. 

4) Phosphorus, although even this claim is subject to heavy dispute.

5) The Philippines. Manny Pacquiao, the current WBC/WBO weltwerweight boxing champion, was elected representative for the Sarangani province. 

6) Austerity

ROUND: Matching

1) D-C-A-B. (D)Turkish hazelnut production of 625,000 tonnes accounts for approximately 75% of worldwide production. (C) Vietnam is the world’s biggest cashew producer and exporter, with annual production of around 600,000 tonnes, though cashews are native to Brazil. (A) Australia is now the world's largest commercial producer of macadamia nuts with a total global production of 100,000 tonnes, recently passing Hawaii, though macadamia nuts are native to Australia. (B) Iran leads pistachio production with 190,000 tonnes per year, beating California which is the other major producer. Pistachios are native to Iran. [1]

2) D-A-C-B. (D) There are 170 M native and 30 M secondary speakers of Arabic in Africa. English and French have 130 and 115, respectively. (A) There are about 50 native speakers for every secondary speaker of Chinese, the lowest amongst major languages, compared with 4:1 for Arabic, 2:1 for English, and 1:2 for French. (C) There are 3.7M English Wikipedia articles, followed by about 1M each in French and German. (D) French is the IOC's official language was declared the first language for the London Olympics, and will be used to make announcements first followed by an English translation. [4] 

3) D-C-A-B. (D) Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel painted 'The Triumph of Death' in 1562. (C) Spanish painter Salvador Salvador Dalí painted The Persistence of Memory (La persistencia de la memoria) in 1931, his first painting to feature a melting clock. (A) Édouard Manet painted The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe) in 1862, generating controversy for featuring a completely nude female with clothed males. (B) Diego Velázquez painted The Maids of Honour (Las Meninas) in 1656. [5]

4) B-A-D-C. (B) The DRC produces 40% of the world's cobalt, 5 times more than any other country. (A) Chile produces a third of the world's copper, about 5 times that of the USA, Indonesia, and Peru. (D) South Africa has produced about half of all gold ever mined, and continues to lead the world with slim edges over China, the USA, and Australia. (C) Mexico passed Peru to again become the world's leading silver producer in 2007, with about 100 M tons each. [7]

5) A-D-B-C. (A) Great Britain's highest point is the 1344 m Ben Nevis in Scotland. (D) Hawaiʻi, or the Big Island, is dominated by the now-dormant Mauna Kea, which rises to 4,205 above sea level, and is arguably the tallest mountain on Earth if you include the underwater part, stretching it to over 10,000 m. [[1] (B) Jamaica's highest point is the 2256 meter Blue Mountain Peak, famous for Blue Mountain Coffee which only grows above 1700 m. (C) Java, the world's most populous island with 136 M people, reaches a high point of 3676 m at Mt. Semuru, which has erupted every year since 1967.

6) A-D-B-C. (A) Cinnamon's source was unknown for centuries in Europe but was finally discovered to be Sri Lanka. (D) Nutmeg originates in the Banda Islands of Indonesia, which were the world's only source until the 19th century. (B) Common sage is native to the Mediterranean region and has been cultivated at least since Roman times. (C) Vanilla is native to Mexico, being derived from the orchid, although today it is almost exclusively grown in Madagascar. [0]

7) C-A-B-D. (C) Antimony trioxide consumes the majority of the world's antimony production, a flame-retardant material used in textiles, polymers, insulation and coatings. (A) 81% of cadmium production is used to make nickel-cadmium batteries, the most common type for portable AA/AAA-type batteries used in non-recharging electronics. (B) Only about 250 tonnes of platinum are sold per year, of which about half are used to make catalytic converters for vehicle emissions control, which each use 3-7 grams of platinum worth over £100. (D) About 55% of zinc production, or 750 thousand tons, is used for galvanising steel parts. [5]

8) C-B-A-D. (C) Saudi Arabia has the highest rate of fatal car accidents in the world, with 0.24 deaths per thousand people per year, consuming 1/3 of all hospital care and being the fifth-leading killer, despite no female drivers! Causes include near-total dependence on cars for transit, poor roads, aggressive driving and rare use of seatbelts. (B) Honduras had the highest murder rate in the world in 2009 with 1.54 deaths per thousand people. This is likely due high gang activity and the extremely inept and corrupt justice system. 77% are via gun, and 36% are estimated to be done by paid hit men. San Pedro Sula is probably the murder capital of the world. (A) Belarus has the highest suicide rate in the world at 0.35 per thousand people. Rates have skyrocketed throughout the former Soviet republics, and Belarus' weather is a factor, but unusually in Belarus suicide is 6 times more common for men than women and alcohol involved is in 62% of cases. (D) Sri Lanka has the highest snakebite (and thus animal attack in general) death rate in the world. 5,000 deaths, about 0.25 per thousand people. [4]

9) A-B-D-C. (A) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." is the opening of Anna Karenina by Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1873-1877). The quote is famous and even has a scientific principle named for it. (B) "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." is the opening of Cien años de soledad (100 years of solitude), written by Colombian author Gabriel 'Gabo' Garcia-Marquez in 1967. (D) "Today my mother died. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure." began French-Algerian author Albert Camus' 1942 novel The Stranger (L’Étranger). [7] (C) "'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heavens, 'first you have to die.'" was the opening of The Satanic Verses by Indian-British author Salman Rushdie, published in 1988.

ROUND: Miscellaneous

1) South Africa. The ‘pall’ is a sidewise Y shape in green (vert) with white (argent) and gold (or) borders, set on three background regions of black (sable), blue (azure), and red (gules). The flag was chosen as such in 1994 to represent the diversity of the “rainbow nation”.

2) The G-spot.

3) Jaguars, which are only found in South American and Central America. The others are all found in parts of Asia, though lions and cheetahs are now very rare.

4) Qatar, which has based most of it's growth on natural gas. Many of these statistics are exaggerated by the fact that only 60% of Qatari residents are citizens, the rest are classified as temporary workers and are excluded from these statistics.

5) Ballpoint pens, which were invented in 1935 in Hungary. Adhesive postage stamps were introduced in 1840, chewing gum was invented in the 1860’s, denim jeans 1850’s, and the ferris wheel in 1893

6) Two-thirds of couples tilt their heads to the right. This is thought to be related to right-brain dominance, but there is no scientific explanation.

ROUND: Three letter sequences

1) MAL-Mali, Malawi, Malta, Malaysia, Maldives

2) Cwm-a Welsh-originated word where the w stands for a vowel. The word is pronounced "koom" and refers to a valley created by glacial action.

3) THE, followed by and, tha. Hint: It contains the first, second, and eighth most popular letters in some order.

4) Campground.

5) XXX. In actuality it is meant to be three St. Andrew's crosses, though tourists often assume it refers to the city's famous red light district.

6) arm, eye, ear, gum, hip, jaw, leg, lip, rib, toe.

ROUND: Same Initials

1) TB-Tuberculosis, UK prime minister Tony Blair, and the Terabyte or Terabit.

2) KL-Kuala Lumpur, King Lear, and kL-the kilolitre.

3) PC-Paul Cezanne, the Parsec (3 light years or 3 petameters, and Plaid Cymru, the Welsh national party.

4) PT-Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the abbreviation for Portugal, and the symbol for Platinum.

5) MB-Mercedes Benz, Manitoba, and Montgomery Burns.

6) GG-(The) Great Gatsby, Galileo Galilei, and Grey Goose.

TIEBREAKER: 2,800 times. Ostrich eggs are 1.4 kg on average, bee hummingbird eggs weight 0.5 g