Big Quiz 2013

Questions

1. Unusually, Google's homepage on 6 December 2013 featured an extra name and website link - whose name?

2. What country produced the internationally successful 2013 movie 'Arrambam' ('Beginning')?

3. Which nation in Feb 2013 effectively withdrew the penny (1 cent) coin from coinage and cash transactions, encouraging rounding to the nearest nickel?

4. Known as 'Odd Day', using 'DMY' format, which date in 2013 features a numerical pattern that will not happen again until the 1st March 2105?

5. Sweden's Jonas von Essen won what three-day 2013 world championship, in which always the final discipline is 'Speed Cards'?

6. Name the three-letter South Korean musician responsible for the most viewed YouTube video at 2013, and the most viewed 2013 video?

7. In the News of the World phone hacking trial which two defendants were revealed to have had a secret six year romantic affair?

8. Marc Marquez won the 2013 MotoGP Championship riding for?

   1. Ducati
   2. Repsol Honda
   3. Suzuki
   4. Yamaha

9. In the 2013 Forbes 400 List of the richest Americans which corporation was represented most in the top ten?

10. Which massively popular annual sporting event did the BBC not televise in 2013 for the first time since broadcasting it on TV in 1960?

11. What largely European contest was held in May 2013 at Malmo Sweden, saw withdrawals by Turkey, Portugal, Slovakia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina, and was won by Denmark's Emmelie de Forest?

12. Which old-Etonian political leader famously ranted that some children are born too unintelligent ever to achieve greatness and then flunked three logical-thinking questions in a radio interview?

13. What historically unprecedented devastating weather event was known locally as Yolanda?

14. What country, nicknamed Super Eagles, won the (soccer) 2013 Africa Cup of Nations?

15. What was Gotye and Kimbra's 2013 Grammy Award winning Best Song?

16. What technology-related term was the Oxford English Dictionary's (new) 2013 'Word of the Year'?

17. Chennai Express was the biggest selling 2013 product of which production brand, founded 100 years previously?

18. Which sport and major national star (two answers required) featured in plans for a 'peace match' between Colombian state and revolutionary forces?

19. Which nation's Sharia Islamic Law Committee drafted law in November 2013 for adultery, where there were eye-witnesses, to be punishable by death from stoning?

20. Booming international export demand for what food was rejected by Finland in 2013 due to stock depletion?

    1. Whale
    2. Seal
    3. Seaweed
    4. Reindeer

21. Trenton Oldfield (saboteur of the UK 2012 Boat Race) resisted deportation action back to his home nation of?

    1. Ireland
    2. South Africa
    3. New Zealand
    4. Australia

22. Ranked about 10-11th of all the world's websites in 2013, name China's equivalent of Ebay and Amazon?

    1. Taibay
    2. Toygo
    3. Taobao
    4. Amoy

23. Which team won the 2013 Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final?

    1. Brisbane Lions
    2. Geelong
    3. Adelaide
    4. Hawthorn

24. What version of the Gran Turismo video race-driving game launched end-2013?

    1. 6
    2. 9
    3. 2.5i
    4. 4.2XLS

25. Which best-selling reclusive author (1919-2010) wrote 'Three Stories', leaked online in 2013, previously only available via supervised library study?

26. 'Mersin 2013' was Turkey's hosting of the '(which Sea?) Games' - a 24-nation mini-Olympics established in 1951 "... to bring together the Muslim and European countries..."?

27. Name the 2013-criminally convicted owner of AC Milan?

28. How is the year 2013 shown in Roman numerals?

29. Which two significant celebrations, one global, the other one USA, coincided for the first time in 125 years?

30. The video for what 2013 Miley Cyrus big hit song provoked substantial debate about female rights, nudity and exploitation?

31. Meaning 'precious', what was named Bao Bao in the USA in 2013?

    1. Michelle Obama's perfume
    2. Justin Bieber's album
    3. Britney Spear's baby
    4. Smithsonian Zoo's baby panda

32. Which nation surpassed Japan in 2013 to become the world's 3rd largest smartphone market behind China (1st) and the USA (2nd)?

33. Which team in 2013 became the first to win the US Baseball World Series three times in the 21st century?

34. According to Forbes, who at 2013, since 2004, has been the longest-listed black billionaire?

35. Hassan Rouhani was elected president of which country in 2013?

36. Which nation received a €10bn EU bailout in Mar 2013, conditional on closing its Laiki Bank and a levy on major investors in its eponymous national bank?

37. Who did something in Feb 2013 that no one had done voluntarily since 1294?

38. Which acronymic country won the (soccer) 2013 Gulf Cup of Nations?

39. Name the five main male members of the Monty Python comedy team which reformed end-2013?

40. Sony corporation patented what 'smart' product in 2013 to compete with other wearable technology such as spectacles and watches?

    1. Ring
    2. Cap
    3. Shoe
    4. Wig

41. Where did Edward Snowden first go after his leaking of US classified documents?

    1. Hong Kong
    2. Russia
    3. Ecuador
    4. Switzerland

42. Name the Australian fast bowler who ravaged England in the 2013-14 Ashes series?

43. US Cornell University produced what human body part using 3-D printing/collagen technology in February 2013?

    1. Fingernail
    2. Ear
    3. Nose
    4. Kneecap

44. The 2013 Oscars were the (what number?) Academy Awards?

    1. 17th
    2. 42nd
    3. 85th
    4. 121st

45. Name the UK ex-husband and wife political pair convicted and imprisoned in 2013 for perverting the course of justice relating to a speeding penalty in 2003?

46. Aside from the home nation in the second test, which was the only other team to beat the British and Irish Lions on their 2013 tour of Australia?

    1. Melbourne Rebels
    2. Brumbies
    3. Queensland Reds
    4. New South Wales Waratahs

47. Atlas, Ariane, Changzheng ('Long March'), and Soyuz were types of what launched in 2013?

    1. Perfumes
    2. Mega-Restaurants
    3. Space Rockets
    4. Pet-Dating Websites

48. Name the Belgian who at Wimbledon in 2013 became the first player to beat Rafael Nadal in the first round of a major tournament?

49. Name the Canadian winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "...master of the modern short story..."?

50. A $15bn project intended to become by 2030 Africa's main technology/commerce hub - Konza Techno City - began on a 5,000 acre site in which country?

51. In 2013 the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature named what '274301 Wikipedia'?

    1. a Technology Park in Los Angeles
    2. a Baby abandoned on a Seattle train
    3. an Asteroid
    4. a Humanoid mummy unearthed in South Dakota

52. Whose skeleton, found in a Leicester UK car park, was identified via DNA testing in 2013, solving a mystery dating back to 1485?

53. Robo Fish became globally a hugely popular what in 2013?

    1. Toy
    2. Movie
    3. Smartphone App
    4. Dance Move

54. The Argus II was approved in the USA as a prosthetic aid to restore what sense?

55. 2013 top-ranked and world champion squash player Ramy Ashour is from what country?

56. Which annual contest did 'Soletrader Peek A Boo' win in 2013?

57. The Large Hadron Collider discovery of what particle was confirmed by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) scientists in 2013?

58. Nobel Peace Prizewinner Aung San Suu Kyi was re-elected General Secretary of the National League for Democracy in which country?

59. The Shams power station, operational in 2013 near Abu Dhabi UAE, reportedly the largest of its kind in the world to date, uses what energy source?

    1. Nuclear
    2. Solar
    3. Water
    4. Oil

60. Who at 2013 is the only person to win an Indian F1 Grand Prix (in fact three of them, 2011/12/13)?

61. In winning the 2013 Snooker World Championship Ronnie O'Sullivan had attained greater what than all previous winners as far back as Ray Reardon in 1978?

62. Which country joined the EU in 2013?

63. What genome was sequenced in 2013 by German scientists from a toe bone found in Siberia?

    1. Neanderthal Man/Woman
    2. Mammoth
    3. Pterodactylus
    4. Yeti

64. Name the black US singer-songwriter who died in 2013, famed early in his career for memorably opening the 1969 Woodstock Festival with a two-hour set?

65. What cold and slippery women's world championship did Eve Muirhead win for Scotland in Riga, Latvia, 2013?

66. Name the highly regarded British actor (1947-2013) whose roles included Uncle Monty in Withnail and I?

67. Who controversially led the ZANU–PF to re-election victory in 2013?

68. Fiorente won what 2013 horse race, the biggest in Australia, run the first Tuesday every November?

69. Which website introduced a 'Report Abuse' button option in summer 2013 following criticisms of its safety controls, and a petition of 100,000 users?

    1. Facebook
    2. Twitter
    3. Amazon
    4. Ebay

70. Professor Giulio Fanti of Italy's University of Padua reported in 2013 a scientific re-dating of what revered piece of cloth, so as to support claims of its authenticity?

71. What production, about Charlie the shoemaker and Lola the drag queen, won the US Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Musical Score in 2013?

72. Keyboard player Ray Manzarek (1939-2013) co-founded what iconic 1965-73 band, whose hits included Riders on the Storm?

73. Charles Saatchi, whose reputation dimmed in 2013, found fame and fortune originally in?

    1. Ostrich farming
    2. Advertising
    3. Ice cream vans
    4. Cage fighting

74. A 2013 study by Dundee University reported dangerous levels of what occurring widely in effervescent/soluble painkillers and supplements?

    1. Oxygen
    2. Salt
    3. Sugar
    4. Plutonium

75. The discovery of a 2,600 year-old shrine in Nepal revised datings of the origins for?

    1. Buddhism
    2. Christianity
    3. Hinduism
    4. Marxism

76. 'Chavismo' - for which 2013 was a significant year - is associated with what/whom?

    1. Silvio Berlusconi
    2. Prince Charles
    3. Hugo Chavez
    4. The Only Way is Essex

77. What caused explosive destruction to the Russian city of Chelybinsk in January 2013?

78. The 2013 UK National Sex Survey (15,162 people age 16-74) reported average sex frequency for men and women (age 16-44) of how many times per month?

    1. 5
    2. 8
    3. 12
    4. 15

79. What £890m state-owned loan account for 1990-98 did the UK government sell at a discount of £730m for £160m to debt collection corporation Erudio in November 2013?

80. Which devisive British public figure's death on 8 Apr 2013, and subsequent funeral, prompted the burning of effigies in certain British streets?

81. The global restructuring group (GRG) of which major UK bank was accused of fraudulently repossessing and selling assets of distressed small business customers?

82. Whose appointment was the first ever: from the Americas, Jesuit, and so named?

83. Veteran UK broadcaster David Dimbleby had what tattooed on his shoulder?

    1. Microphone
    2. Bumblebee
    3. Scorpion
    4. 'BBC'

84. EU officer Catherine Ashton was widely praised for facilitating a globally significant agreement between 'P5+1' and which nation?

85. In 2013 the first mass-market 'OLED' television was launched - what does 'OLED' stand for?

86. What Marvel/Disney production was 2013's highest grossing (box-office takings) movie?

87. Which country retained the (men's international team tennis) Davis Cup in 2013?

    1. USA
    2. Spain
    3. Russia
    4. Czech Republic

88. Which country won the (women's international team tennis) Fed Cup in 2013?

    1. Italy
    2. USA
    3. Russia
    4. France

89. Which external nation first intervened militarily in the 2013 northern Mali rebellion?

90. Film director Michael Winner (1935-2013) was also a noted critic/commentator on?

    1. Theatre
    2. Music
    3. Restaurants
    4. Technology/Gadgets

91. Which two very public figures - one the godfather of the other's child - reportedly ended their friendship when one accused the other of inappropriate liaisons with his wife?

92. Name the Canadian airline which announced and began taking bookings for a first-for-many years budget transatlantic fare, via Dublin and Newfoundland?

    1. EastJet
    2. WestJet
    3. CoolJet
    4. BudJet

93. Amazon announced the testing of what delivery method during 2013?

    1. Carrier Pigeon
    2. Quantum Teleportation
    3. Pizza delivery networks
    4. Drone

94. What Roman numerals denote American Football's 2013 Super Bowl?

    1. XLVI
    2. XLVII
    3. XLIX
    4. MCXLII

95. In 2013 Veronica Mars became the biggest and fastest fund-raising film project (to date) via which crowdfunding platform?

96. Name the famously unbeaten Australian racehorse which retired in 2013?

97. Which nation won the 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup?

    1. Australia
    2. New Zealand
    3. England
    4. Germany

98. Which country topped the medal table at the 2013 Track Cycling World Championships?

    1. France
    2. Australia
    3. Great Britain
    4. Germany

99. Name the hugely popular US country music star (1931-2013) whose recordings over six decades included 'She Thinks I Still Care'?

100. In the (standard western) Gregorian calendar which day of the week was the first day of 2013?

101. What version of the Gran Turismo video race-driving game launched end-2013?

     1. 6
     2. 9
     3. 5i
     4. 2XLS