Aaron's Essays

Avatar: The Last Airbender

2010-03-04T08:30:00.001-05:00

When I started seeing ads for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie from M. Night Shyamalan, I was a bit surprised. All I knew of the animated TV series was that it was on Nickelodeon and everyone knows that there are two kinds of shows on that network: drivel aimed at keeping kids quiet while their parents do something else and shows that get canceled fast (c.f. Invader Zim). Throw in the confusion caused by the James Cameron movie, Avatar, which had nothing to do with the show, and I just needed to watch a bit of it to get the facts straight.

So, with every expectation of hating it, I watched the first season on Netfix via their TiVo instant-watch player. I was hooked.

To be sure, it's a kid's show. The characters are mostly children; the stories tend to be simple morality plays; and there's all the cute animals you could want (or orders of magnitude more if you're like me). So why did I like it? For starters, it's a solid story that's well written and that always draws me in. For another, the story isn't your average U.S. fare.

Let me describe the outline (spoiler-free), first. The story takes place in a fantasy world where four nations represent the four alchemical elements of fire, air, water and earth. This is not merely symbolic. There's a sort of shamanistic magic called "bending" in this world, by which people can manipulate these elements (the Fire Nation's benders can manipulate fire, and so on). These nations are currently at war and the only one that can end the war is Aang, the Avatar. An Avatar is born to each generation and has the ability to manipulate all four elements, but the current Avatar is 100 years late and a child who hasn't been trained in anything but the art of air bending.

The tale goes pretty much where you'd expect: he seeks out masters of the other three arts to train him and encounters friends and adventures along the way. Standard children's fantasy. Except...

What I didn't expect was a story about the nature of personal transformation and the acceptance of responsibility for one's own destiny. The story explains, in the basic terms of a show aimed mostly at children, many of the Eastern traditions of energy manipulation and meditation along with reincarnation, karma and some anti-totalitarian politics for good measure. It's a bit like the Promethea comic, but aimed at a younger generation and with far less sex.

I strongly suggest seeing the original before M. Night takes a swing at it. Even if his movie is excellent, I really don't think you'll want to watch the series after the movie, just because it's such an investment of time.

We're just about to start the third season and can't wait to find out what happens to our now favorite characters.

Has Anyone Ever Used a Meta-Naming Scheme?

2010-03-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

Today at work, we set out to name some conference rooms that had previously only ever had numbers. Lots of themes were suggested from local landmarks to moons and planets from Star Wars. That got me to thinking about the Geeky Science Fiction Themes Meta-Theme. Here's how it works: when you need a name for your machine, project, conference room or whatnot, and you want to be assured that you'll never run out of names, just start using the names of cliches from science fiction and fantasy. Here's a few names you could use:

Alien Units of Measure
Alternate Earth Presidents of the United States
Powerful Artifact Weapon That Only the Prophesied One May Wield
Landmarks of Science Fiction That Were Turned Into Terrible Movies

Imagine planning a meeting and telling your co-workers to meet you in Alien Animals That Are Really Just Chimeric Earth Animals at noon! It's guaranteed that they'll remember!

Some tips: make sure the first word is unique as many people will tend to refer to a room by that word (e.g. "Alien," "Alternate," "Powerful," and "Landmarks" from the above list). Also

Meds... I need to find my meds....

Perl and Python documentation or Pydoc considered harmful

2010-02-21T13:27:00.002-05:00

If you've read my programming posts before you know that I've transitioned from being mostly a Perl programmer to mostly a Python programmer (and from C to Perl before that). For the most part, this has been a painless transition. Python tends to take itself too seriously (which leaves me thinking: odd choice of name), but other than that it's a good language. Perl has its strengths, to be sure, but so does Python. One area, however, that causes me no end of frustration is reading Python module and program documentation. Coming from Perl, as I do, I'm used to flowing, descriptive documentation, the crafting of which is as much a part of the authoring of a piece of public code as the source.

In the Python world, it's another story. There are projects with excellent documentation like django, but I've never seen one that used the built-in documentation system in Python that was worth the time it took to create. (more...)

In Perl, the WWW::Mechanize module is used for Web scraping, automation and testing. Its documentation is nearly perfect, walking the user through its use by example and as a reference document at the same time.

In Python, I just came across scrape.py which is meant as a replacement for Beautiful Soup. Beautiful Soup's documentation is excellent, though not as good a reference document as WWW::Mechanize's, it's still a very good document for the primary purpose: explaining how to use the library. scrape.py's documentation, on the other hand is terrible. It documents everything with equal weight and has no flow at all. What's the difference between Beautiful Soup and scrape.py? scrape uses Python's built-in documentation system (source code download link) while Beautiful Soup uses HTML.

So, do Perl's POD documentation and HTML have some hidden advantage over Pydoc or is this just a cherry-picked comparison of unequal documentation styles? In my experience, thus far, it's the former. Python documentation comes in two flavors: pydoc and useful. I've yet to see the exception, though I'm sure someone, somewhere has used Pydoc to create some beautiful and useful documentation (just as someone used staples to create beautiful art on a wall).

What makes Pydoc so bad? A few things. First of all, it's not free-form at all. It's a tool for documenting code for maintenance programmers to read (not shocking, given the motivation behind writing Python in the first place). This means that the author never has to stop to transition from "coding mode" to "documentation mode" and documentation ends up reading like source. Frankly, if I wanted to read source code, I would. What I really need when I'm going to the docs is for the programmer to put the code down, take a deep breath, and think about what their software means to the user. Perhaps I'm just a bad programmer, but I can't do that while I'm coding.

OK, so I'm advocating for going back and writing the documentation once the code is done. I can do that in Pydoc, right? Well... yes, but then you get to the second problem: flow. Read WWW::Mechanize's documentation. It begins with some examples, then gets into how to instantiate the core class using new() then touches on a related startup method and then talks about a stand-alone helper function that you can use in conjunction with that method. This is documenting the use of the library, not the use of a specific class. The code might be organized very differently, but the documentation is laid out as it makes sense for the audience, not the source.

In Pydoc, documentation is data that lives in the code. It is fundamentally tied to the source in a way that prevents you from making any structural changes to the resulting document without also making those changes to the source. This means that you have to risk damaging the functionality of the program (and, of course, damage much of the source control history of the source) in order to change the flow of the documentation. That results in a high degree of documentation inertia.

You also cannot easily transition from reference style to descriptive style of documentation. If, for example, you wanted to have a section of a security module that discussed the statistics behind its choices, you might want that to be introduced after the general documentation about the module's use and its primary classes or functions. However, after that, you might then delve into deeper topics like helper functions/methods and other topics that are important, but certainly less weighty than the first two sections. In Pydoc you cannot do this. Documentation is sectioned in a way that the programmer cannot control.

Pydoc has one thing going for it: everything ends up in the documentation because source code auto-generates the framework for the documentation. This is a good thing, and I'd like to see a way to bring the two styles together, but as it stands I always dread having to look at the documentation for anything in Python unless I already know that it's been done using an external tool. That really should not be the case.

On a side note, here's a fun trick to try. To get documentation on a specific builtin function in Perl, do this:

perldoc -f sort

Try the equivalent in Python:

pydoc -k sorted

I'm sure I'm missing some trick, but on my system the latter results in a traceback which kindly explains that "'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get'" which, while technically true, is just about the worst excuse for user feedback I've ever seen. I'll probably need to write a followup article at some point on why tracebacks are a destructive and rainforest clear-cutting.

The Canon EOS T2i: My new dream camera

2010-02-20T01:41:00.001-05:00

The Cannon EOS T2i (what a horrible name) has everything I've ever wanted in a camera. It's a great digital SLR with the industry's best lineup of lenses behind it. At 18 megapixels (5184 x 3456 max resolution) it's a beast of a camera with one of the most advanced sensors in the industry. On top of that, it's capable of a range of light sensitivity that has previously only been found in professional (read: multi-thousand dollar) cameras.

Now, if that doesn't make you want one, it can also shoot full HD quality video at up to 30 frames per second. You can even step down to a smaller resolution and get hardware-based digital zoom of 7x that doesn't sacrifice sharpness.

I bought the first Digital Rebel when it came out and I loved it. But I've always envied my friends who bought later models. I think it's finally time for me to upgrade.

What Google Buzz is good for (and not!)

2010-02-16T09:00:00.001-05:00

I've been playing with Buzz since it launched and I have a few interesting observations from my experiments. The first is its (and Facebook's) largest failure: Buzz is not for celebrities. Twitter is still the single best venue for celebrities. Why? Because replies gain little visibility from their association with a celebrity post. On Buzz and Facebook a reply associated with a celebrity posting is immediately visible to everyone who follows that celebrity and that creates enormous incentive to post mindless drivel and spam in response to any celebrity posting. This might be improved if Buzz had two kinds of "following": one for friends and one for celebrities and other people you don't know directly. The primary difference I'd be looking for would be hiding replies and not bumping an item in my list when it's replied to if it's not a friend.

Next up: local Buzz search is really nice. Be it on Google's map software or stand-alone, the ability to see what people nearby have been saying is huge. Of course, it will require more adoption to see its potential realized, but it's a great start. Some use cases include searching for a nearby restaurant that people like, finding the best spots at a public event and asking "the neighborhood" simple questions like where people like to do their laundry. If I move to another town someday, I'll certainly be doing lots of buzzing right off the bat.

Integration with other services: mixed bag. Until Google solves the problem of messages from other services (Reader, Yelp, etc) being duplicated when people reply to them on the remote service, Buzz will be a poor place to comment on shared comments and articles from other services. Still, the integration with these services is promising. I was able to do much of what I'm now doing with Buzz in Reader by following RSS feeds from other services (e.g. following my friends' YouTube feeds). But Buzz makes it easier and much more social.

I think Buzz is probably here to stay, and while I'm sure Facebook will continue to do well, it's clearly the primary target of Buzz and it will almost certainly feel the heat.

Song Review: Methylchloroisothiazolinone by Josh Woodward

2010-02-12T01:55:00.000-05:00

Sometime in late 2008 or 2009 I began paying attention to freely available music via Free Albums Galore. Through that site I found a plethora of download sites that supported artists by giving them a forum in which to share their own works with the public. Publishers, music social networking sites and archives are all working hard to figure out what the right model is. Among them I've found some gems like Diablo Swing Orchestra and After the Fire. But one performer who I've always been on the fence about is Josh Woodward.

I first came across Josh via Free Albums Galore's review of The Simple Life which I feel is a heavily mixed bag. I did enjoy the upbeat and catchy Afterglow, but that kind of light fare seemed to be all he did, and in many of his others songs it just became too saccharine for me to take.

Flip forward to Christmas 2009 when I was trying to turn people on to the blocSonic netlabel and their netBloc series of free collections. It was then that I stumbled upon Methylchloroisothiazolinone in volume 8 (blocSonic has put together an astounding 26 albums of free music!) Here, Woodward shows that he can rock and even bring a dark sense of humor to the table. The song is about a preservative found in many personal hygiene and moisturizing products, but also triggers an allergic reaction is some that causes eczema-like symptoms. The oft-repeated line in the song, "you make me feel so clean," makes me chuckle just a bit, but at the same time it makes me wonder how many people have been caught in a cycle of using more and more moisturizer to treat the condition caused by that very same product.

I'm still of two minds when it comes to Woodward, but this song has lead to a re-examination of his work, and that's never a bad thing.

Google Apps Last Straw: Buzz

2010-02-10T18:07:00.000-05:00

For business use, Google Apps is amazing. If I start a company someday, its very first action will be the outsourcing of all communications through Google Apps. Why run a chat server, mail server, document sharing system and calendar server when you can just sign up for Google Apps?

On the other hand, I've now given up on using Google Apps as my primary interface for personal communications. Why? Because Google's social services such as Blogger, Reader and now Buzz don't support it. This means that you have to log into those services and share with your friends an identity that you don't actually use, and in order to manage that identity and its relationships, you need to log into a mail account you don't care about.

So, while my official email address will always be ajs@ajs.com, I've now moved back to using public gmail as my primary window on the social world and all mail to ajs@ajs.com will simply be forwarded there. Some useful tips, though, for those of you who want to do this sort of thing:

You can configure gmail to send outgoing mail "from" another account. Configure this in your settings (though you'll have to prove that you own the other account by responding to some mail they'll send you).
Contacts can be exported from gmail and imported into Google Apps or visa versa.

An Open Letter to Blizzard: Add a Battle.net Authenticator Option

2010-01-08T19:00:00.001-05:00

Recently Blizzard (vendor of World of Warcraft as well as the upcoming Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 titles) has switched over to their networked gaming platform Battle.net to manage all accounts for their games. In doing this, they've also pushed out an authenticator that's much like many high tech employees use to work from home. These little gadgets have a secret formula that they use to produce the next number in a sequence every time you press the button. Battle.net knows this sequence, and can verify your identity by making sure that the code you enter is the next (or nearly next, just to allow for mistakes) number.

Recently WoW.com has been suggesting that Blizzard might be on the edge of making these mandatory for the game. I understand this move, but there are two primary reasons people don't agree with it, and that it may well hurt WoW. First I'll cover those reasons and then I'll discuss the ways to work around them without giving up on account security.

(more...)

The first concern is simply monetary. Many players can pay their monthly fee and that's it. They really won't pay $6 more to keep playing. Sure, they're probably the minority, but a sizable minority in an 11.5 million player base is not to be ignored.

The second concern is that of having to re-key your authenticator every time you log in, which for some players is fairly often (especially those with the previous concern and therefore have least-common-denominator equipment, resulting in frequent disconnects).

To solve the first problem, simply provide the tokens with the next expansion (Cataclysm) and require their use for any account upgraded to the new content. Sure, some old users won't upgrade. Those who can't afford to upgrade to the next expansion will of course be unprotected, but it's then more reasonable to say that you won't support replacing lost items when these accounts are hacked and they're also a less attractive target for such scams.

Next you have the harder concern. People who get logged out and have to re-connect, potentially in time-critical situations (like a 5-man group they'll be kicked from or a raid that will wipe). For these players, you offer a different way of authenticating (an option, but not the default) where they only have to authenticate once per day per IP address per account. Thus, the user would not be required to enter more than their password on the second login.

This is not an ideal model for shared resources such as school or work computers or laptops that are often left exposed, but it still solves for the primary threat of keyloggers and email scams. Plus, if it's not the default, then most users will never enable it, retaining a higher degree of security.

A Quick and Easy Americanized Curry

2010-01-08T00:19:00.001-05:00

I found myself without a plan for dinner the other night, so I broke out some random ingredients and found myself sort of accidentally making a vegetarian dish that tasted just like some of my favorite curries. The spices in this are a bit exotic for some American kitchens, but get them and you'll thank me. Most large supermarkets these days will carry most of them.

Ingredients:

4 whole, green cardamom pods (or 1/2 tsp powdered)
1 whole clove (or 1/8 tsp powdered)
4-6 whole peppercorns (really, you need to substitute?)
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp garlic chili paste (comes in a small plastic jar with green lid, can substitute fresh chilies that you chop and add early)
1 can diced tomato
1 can Progresso Lentil Soup (Vegetable Classics)
2 good sized handfulls of fresh, baby spinach
2 cups rice

Cook the rice while the rest of this continues on. Consider adding vegetable or a chicken stock to it and perhaps some saffron if you have it. I also love to put just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil into the rice steamer with it.

To the ingredients, you could also include a meat of choice that you cook ahead of the next step.

Combine all spices in a mortar or spice grinder and make a powder. Pass this through a sifter if you want to avoid chunks of cardamom pod in the dish. Place all ingredients except for the spinach into a large, wide pan and cook on high until it begins to bubble. Then lower heat and reduce until it's thickened.

Now add all of the spinach on top and cover for 3 minutes on medium-low heat.

Stir and serve on rice.

You can tweak the spice mix or use a pre-mixed dry curry spice mix if you wish. I don't recommend the wet curry mixes. They tend to have off-flavors in most cases, and really don't get you anything over the dry. Other spices that are nice: curry leaves if you can get them, mustard seed (use 5-10 seeds), whole cumin seed. If you use whole seeds, consider toasting them in oil before adding them to the dish. This will release their oils more readily and incorporate them with the dish.

Occulus and How WoW Can Make Vehicles Fun

2010-01-07T19:00:00.001-05:00

World of Warcraft's Occulus is a beautiful instance. It's wide open to the sky, designed in 3 dimensions and otherwise breaks the mold that much of WoW's 5-man instance stable has set. And yet, it's widely considered to be a failure. I recently read one blog post about this that made some excellent points about why it was a failure. I'd like to analyze that a bit deeper and then discuss what I think the future of vehicles could be (yes, I think they have a promising future in 5-man instances and even raids).

Occulus often starts this way: 5 people zone in. 2-4 of them immediately drop group and port out. Why? Because they've done this before and they know that on average, even if they know what to do, they'll probably die at least once trying to finish the final encounter because someone won't. You see, having to get to know new abilities is a pain, but it's a one-time pain. Once you know what to do, you're all set. The problem is that you run a high probability of getting people who don't know what they're doing. They won't be like the warlock who's inexplicably doing half the dps they should be. They'll fail utterly to execute their role because they don't know what it is.

So, how do you fix that? There are three ways:

Vehicles have no abilities and role is easy to understand (e.g. you're in a chopper... drive away from the boss until it fades)
Vehicles have very simple abilities and are used only for a small part of the fight (think DTK final fight, but even slightly simpler and only once per fight).
Vehicles are an optional element of the fight (e.g. one player must get on a giant and use a complicated set of abilities during a boss fight). This is the Wintergrasp model.

Players will appreciate these roles for vehicles because it doesn't violate the value proposition of having learned to play their class. Right now, lots of players are gun-shy of vehicles because of Occulus, but if they continue to be as fun and optional as Wintergrasp or as intermittent as DTK, I think that it will be a fun and enjoyable part of the game.

A Wishlist for the New Comic Book Reader

2010-01-04T19:30:00.002-05:00

Recently, a friend of mine recommended some comics to a co-worker who had just started reading them with Watchmen. He leaped right in to Warren Ellis and other authors that I think present a fairly high barrier to the average reader, so I wrote this response detailing what I think a new comics reader should be looking for. Ellis is on the list, sure, but now that everyone uses Amazon, I don't see why you can't start with some older works. There's Byrne and Gaiman, Claremont and Moore. All the great comics authors of the last 25 years are your playground, so mix it up and have fun.

(more...)

Regarding Warren Ellis: he's an acquired taste. He delights in trying to shock the reader, and at times it falls flat (Ignition City's poo-fixation for example). However, he's written some brilliant stuff (e.g. the early Authority and Planetary) and I'll keep reading what he has to write (and the movies they're making from his stuff). If I were going to point someone to Ellis for the first time, though, I'd probably go with Transmetropolitan, which you did suggest. That's a sort of futuristic take on the famous journalist Hunter S. Thompson. It's funny, crazy and shockingly thoughtful for what presents itself as a drug-fueled rant.

As an easier intro to the past 25 years or so in comics, I'd suggest this tour:

The evolution of the superhero:

Superman: The Man of Steel - Superman re-invented by John Byrne in the late 80s. Lots of fun with "making him real" including changing how he flies and simple things like how he shaves.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Batman with a punk twist. Ends with one of the best superhero crossover battles of all time.
Booster Gold - In the late 80s or early 90s this was bought by DC comics and re-started by Byrne. A con man from the future plays superhero for profit.
Watchmen - We started off with this, but I had to throw it in there. The axis on which superhero stories turned in the late 80s.
Supreme - What if Superman became aware of his own revision history? It's one of those Superman but with the names changed for copyright reasons books. Very postmodern. Somewhat uneven after the first book, which is brilliant.
Rising Stars - Only a hundred or so supers exist, all created by a strange meteor over the midwest. The story is about how the country reacts to them and how they react to each other in the face of public concern. It's J. Michael Straczynski's story who previously wrote the Babylon 5 TV series.
The Authority - Warren Ellis does superheros with his usual over-the-top flair. What would you do with the world if you could sink Italy with a thought? Would you protect it? Rule it? Is there a difference?
Planetary - Also Ellis. A strange science re-take on many genres of fiction including quite a few superheroes.
Kurt Busiek's Astro City is perhaps the most interesting re-take on supers. This story introduces the concept of the over-crowded superhero city that Alan Moore would later run with to the extreme in Top Ten. In Astro City supers are an every day thing, but the story isn't about their massive battles with supervillains, it's about their lives. How they make time for a day job; how the citizens manage to go about their days; and how a young man starts off being a side kick. The only flaw Astro City has is that it makes you want to know more about each character, but keeps rotating through them to tell their stories in such a way that you never really get to know any one of them other than The Confessor who takes up most of the second collected book.

Meta stories:

Neil Gaiman's Sandman changed comics. An age of post modern storytelling was brought in by this re-take on about 6000 years of human stories, dreams and myth. The story is essentially a soap opera about a dysfunctional family. The twist is that this family are the embodiments of the forces that drive humanity (Dream, Death, Destiny, etc.) It's a review of how and why we build myths clearly influenced by Joseph Campbell and others. He tears down and scrutinizes everything from Egyptian mythology to Shakespeare. This series goes about 50ish issues (something like 8-10 collected books) and has various spinoffs that follow Death and other characters.

Following that there were a number of interesting meta stories. I've already talked about Supreme and Planetary. There is also Promethea, which I just finished. That's the tale of a young woman who is possessed by a semi-mythological entity known as Promethea. This is essentially Alan Moore's excuse to explore the history of mostly Western magical theory from its roots in Egypt but mostly focusing on the post-Victorian sympathetic symbolism.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman starts off with a little tie-in to normal superhero stories, but in Marvel 1602, he goes all the way, re-tooling the whole stable of Marvel superheroes in the world of 1602 Europe. It's a fun read on its own, but even better if you brush up on X-Men and The Avengers first.

Comics that have become movies:

X-Men has a long history and there are some awesome stories tucked in there. I would probably start with either one of the really old collecteds or Joss Whedon's recent Astonishing X-Men series which is now being written by Warren Ellis. A good starting point for the group is probably the Dark Phoenix Saga by Claremont and Byrne which was butchered in a recent movie.

Spider Man. Frankly, there's little to recommend, here. Spider Man goes through phases of good and bad, but there's very little that's truly great. About as close as it's come is J. Michael Straczynski's run which explored the idea that Spider Man was more of an expression of the spider as a symbol than a radioactive freak. Neat idea, but not on par with his other work such as Rising Stars (above)

Superman. Beyond the Man of Steel, I'd also recommend Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow by Alan Moore and Kingdom Come which is probably one of the best "the weight of the world" type Superman stories, and has some of the best watercolor and pencil art to grace a comic.

Batman. Along with Dark Knight Returns, there are some really interesting one-shots series about or involving Batman. The DC alternate history line of comics, Elseworlds has some great batman "what if" stories. (search link) Gaiman also does a nice one-shot Whatever Happened To the Caped Crusader which is modeled on Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow, but does rely on a fair bit of Batman lore that you might not be familiar with.

Funny Comics:

XXXenophile is a series of graphically sexual comics that tell cute science fiction and fantasy stories as pornography. It might not sound like a recipe for success, but it's some of the funniest stuff I've read. Just to give a sense, one of the covers is a picture of a guy dressed up in a Godzilla suit standing over a woman in bed who is clothed only in strategically placed miniature Japanese houses. It's that kind of humor throughout. Artist and author Phil Foglio is the star, here. His slightly bulbous drawing style really brings out the funny in naked people. While he doesn't draw every story (nor write them all), it's his work and humor that glues the whole together and prevents it from becoming simply lurid (not that it isn't lurid... it's just not simple ;-)

Foglio and wife Kaja also wrote a more family friendly and less silly comic in the steampunk genre called Girl Genius. The first volume is in black & white, the rest are in color. Well worth it, though it failed financially and eventually became a Web comic, it was a great read.

Side note on Foglio: he was responsible for the cute little devil/deamon that's the logo for BSD Unix.

Also, there's the old She Hulk stories that many of my friends in college were avid readers of.

Serious stuff:

Comics have been a serious medium as well as a place for fantastic or funny stories.

Maus is a Pulitzer Prize winning story of the holocaust with the edges slightly rounded by the replacement of the people involved with anthropomorphic mice.

Understanding Comics is a comic about the art of making comics. It's a really fun tour of the medium.

Fantasy:

Most comic book fiction is of the superhero variety which melds fantasy and science fiction in a modern setting. A few stories are purely fantasy. Sandman is an obvious example, but it opened the door for a number of others.

Fables, one of the more recent entries in this lineup, is a great post-modern fairy tale read at first, but I'd only recommend going through to the end of the first major storyline which ends very well. After that it gets a bit soap opera.

Some of the things I've regretted reading:

Just about any "death of" series. The only one worth reading was Crisis on Infinite Earths which was literally the death of 50% of DC comics heroes and their fractured storylines up to that point. Some major characters were among the casualties along with entire alternate Earths that DC had been telling stories in up until then. But I got sucked into the whole Death of Superman and Death of Batman storylines before I wised up. Ugh. Fortunately by the time Marvel did the death of Captain America, I'd gotten the clue.

Preacher. OK, let me be clear: Preacher is excellent at what it sets out to do. What it sets out to do, however, is annoy the reader. This is a stab at the American myth in much the same way that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was. However, instead of touring the American dream on drugs, Preacher follows a down-and-out preacher whose congregation was killed by a freak accident (or was it) as he searches for God, encountering a hit-woman ex girlfriend, a hard-drinking Irish vampire, murderously insane Vatican secret agents and all manner of scary rural Americans on the way. It's really creative and interesting. Problem is, it's also a study in finding what you won't tolerate in a story and taking it to an extreme. Be it graphic violence (imagine Quentin Tarantino trying for an NC-17 rating... hard), rape, abuse of the deformed (there's a recurring character named Arseface... you can imagine why), sexual ... well, anything. Heck, the whole story is based on the idea that God is the moral equivalent of a deadbeat dad and should really be smacked around for what he's done. Clearly he was trying to accomplish something, here. I made it through the whole series, but I don't really recommend it.

Series that have gone down-hill are all too common. An author often comes up with a great idea, but later authors or even the same one fail to keep up the momentum. Often this happens after years of a comic's publication. Examples include The Authority, Teen Titans and the aforementioned Fables.

OS Fanboy? Not Really...

2009-12-24T10:54:00.000-05:00

I'm not a fanboy. I'm a realist.

Giving the original due credit:

http://www.joeydevilla.com/2009/12/16/how-fanboys-see-operating-systems/

3 or 5-manning Blackrock Depths (BRD) Post 3.3

2009-12-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

A long time ago, my World of Warcraft guild, Saturnalia, leveled 3 characters by doing dungeons together at appropriate level. I don't know if we were the first to 3-man all of the old world dungeons at appropriate levels, but we had a blast. I originally posted a guide to Blackrock Depths for other 3-man groups, but now it seems appropriate to update this for the post-3.3 era of the random dungeon finder. I'll keep all of the 3-manning notes just in case you want to try it, but this guide should now be even more helpful to those who want to do BRD as a random dungeon.

Read on for the full guide...

Group composition

If you're doing BRD with 3, then I suggest a good AoE tank such a paladin. If you're doing it with 5, then there's less of a concern.

The healer can be anything, but preferably it should be someone who can dps when healing isn't needed. We used a shaman for this.

The dpser should be able to tank if the need arises, but it's rare that it will. So I would recommend druid or paladin but shaman or dps warrior would do fine as well. You might even be able to get away with a pet class, but that might be pushing it.

Quests

The most important quest in BRD is the Shadowforge Key. This key gives access to the end of the dungeon, and can let you bypass most of the dungeon when you want to. We'll cover what you do once you have the quest in depth below, but you get the quest by dying (yes, you have to die) near the entrance. Here's how you get it:

First off, if you're doing random dungeons, you have to get the key quest on your own before you join a group. If you've been queue-hopping with a premade, you still need to physically go to get the quest for the key or you cannot do the whole dungeon!
Run into Blackrock Mountain from Searing Gorge (the entrance is in the south-west, due south of the Thorium Brotherhood flight node)
Go directly to the edge of the giant lava pit, but don't jump off
Turn left and go to the large chain
Climb up on the pile of rocks to get to the chain, and follow it down into the center of the lava area (a large stone structure, suspended by the chains)
This is where the summoning stone is. It's a great place to meet up.
Now follow the tunnels out of this structure and down, around the outside of the rock to the very last chain you can get up onto before the lava
Climb that chain down to the bottom. Around the corner is a Blood Elf quest giver that won't give you any quests until 56 or 57 I think. However, he's a great landmark. You're in the right place!
Now, jump into the lava and die. Yep, that's right just die. The best spot is right where the chain comes down and meets the rock wall.
When you run back to your corpse, as you follow the chain down to the summoning stone and then into the tunnels, you will see a slab of stone in an otherwise empty room that now has a spectral dwarf on it. Get his quest.
Now go down the chain and rez yourself.
The dungeon entrance is through the door near where you are now, just before the Blood Elf, and then north through the dwarven miners who will agro, but are easy fights. There's one elite: the fire elemental that you have to kill for one of the early quests
If you are doing this with the dungeon finder, once you rez, you can just jump in the queue, thought you might want to do the fire elemental quest first.

Now that you have the Shadowforge Key quest, you can go into the dungeon and start normally.

Horde

You should, at the very least, pick up Disharmony of Flame, which you can complete outside the instance and run back to turn in before you go into the instance itself. The followups are Disharmony of Fire and it also opens up Commander Gor'shak which will eventually lead you to the final boss of the instance.

Alliance

The equivalent chains for Alliance are The Smoldering Ruins of Thaurissan and that leads to Kharan Mighthammer which, again leads to the princess.

All of the quests

Wowhead has a complete list of all Blackrock Depths quests.

First foray

BRD, unlike many dungeons, is really not meant to be run all at once. Many of the quests are designed to take you back out of the dungeon and you should use these points to stop and break for the day. It's easy to burn out on this dungeon, so be careful. If you're doing random dungeons, I suggest that you ask up-front, what parts people want to do. A good way to put this is "Darkvire for the key, a Bael'Gar/Prison run, or a Guzzler/Emperor run." These are roughly the three runs I'll describe below.

I strongly advise against trying to do the whole dungeon with a random group. The people who think its a good idea probably never did it at appropriate level, and will be shocked to still be here half a day later!

Ring of Law

On your first run, the goal is simple: Get the Shadowforge Key. To do this, you will need to go through the Ring of Law, a boss event that starts when you walk into BRD's arena. From the entrance, go straight ahead through the large room. These pulls should be easy, but they're a great way to get a feel for 3-manning. If you have a pally tank, this is how you do it:

Pull with Avenger's Shield and bring things into the tunnel leading to the zone entrance
Consecrate once and keep Holy Shield up 100% of the time
Make SURE everyone is assisting you (MainAssist and MagicTargets can help you keep track)
If you have an AoEer, they should start in once your first consecrate fades
If your healer is dpsing as well, they should be fine starting up as soon as your consecrate has ticked twice

Once you get through the large room with all the dogs, go straight forward to the tunnel that has two dark iron dwarf guards and a group past them with a fire elemental. Clear both groups and the pathers, then go left into the Ring of Law.
Everyone should enter the Ring of Law at the same time. The event is triggered when you step on the central grate inside the arena, at which point the doors will close. It's 3 waves (similar to the spider boss in RFD). Just kill the first two waves and immediately drink/eat as soon as you drop out of combat. The boss will come out as soon as the arena master gets over to his door.

Longest trash clear ever...

To get to Fineous Darkvire, you have to clear a lot of trash. There are two bosses that you're going to avoid on the way (you will have to kill one of them later, and you can kill the other when you're done if you want, but stay focused on the key for now). Leave the Ring of Law through the west gate that opens when you kill the boss. When you go up the stairs, things will agro. Pull then down, and kill them. Now exit the stairs, and turn around 180 and go up the stairs to the Ring of Law's audience. They turn neutral when you win in the Ring of Law, so go past them, but be very careful to avoid all AoE abilities around the audience, as they will agro.
One of the hardest groups for a 3-man to do is coming up. Just outside of the other end of the spectator gallery is a group of 6. There are three tricks to this group (the last of which is going to be important from now on):

Pull them around the corner for LoS
Wait for the fire elemental pather to go by, as he will make this pull near impossible
Always kill the healers first, then the mages, then the melee

Once you clear that group, kill the pather elemental and continue on to the left, across the bridge (2 dwarves jump you when you're on the bridge... be ready). Now you have another series of hard pulls. Wait for pathers and then pull the groups out of the room on the other side of the bridge. Healers first, then casters then melee. You might find that putting your dpser on non-elites after the healers are down is even better, though, as they can be killed quickly and reduce the healing load.
Once in the room, go to the far stair well on the right and down, when you come out through the passage in the bottom, you will immediately be jumped by another large group. Same deal, but keep an eye out for Doomforge Craftsman, as they throw an AoE bomb. They're not elite so your dpser should be able to kill them fast. These groups are especially hard because they love to get out of range of the tank. Anything that backs up for range should be instantly targetted by you dpser and slaughtered without mercy.
This walkway is right next to the Vault where you face two different bosses, but ignore it for now. Go to the far exit and into the rough-hewn ramp down with all of the golems.

Fineous Darkvire

As you enter the golem area when Darkvire is, you have two choices: kill golems as you move down and meet Darkvire as he wanders or kill the first golem and the pather and then just wait for Darkvire to come to you. Either way the golems are the tank's target and the gnome attendants are the dpser's target, as they will heal the golem, and are non-elite.
When you see Fineous getting close, back off. You do not want Fineous attacking you during an existing combat. He's a real pain.
For Fineous, you want to dispel him if you have someone who can, otherwise you're going to have to just hit him with big damage fast, as he'll heal all throughout the combat. Other than that, it's a tank-and-spank. Make sure everyone loots him to get the hammer. That's the first part of the quest.

Pyromancer Loregrain

Go back all the way to the entrance to the Arena spectators' area. You'll see the passage you didn't take has a boss at the end of it after one or two more groups. Clear the trash and then take out the boss. You probably want to take out his attendants first and then focus-fire the boss down. He's a caster, but fairly easy, even for a druid tank (actually, a druid tank might be better than a paladin for him).
Once he's dead, you just click on the statue behind him to finish the quest and get your Shadowforge Key. Now you can go back and do the Vault if you want, and you can also clear past where Fineous was to kill Lord Incendius, but all of that is optional, and you don't want to burn out on your first visit!

Second Foray

Once you have your key, it's possible to avoid most of the dungeon whenever you like. The first boss you have to kill in order to get to the end of the instance is actually half the dungeon away from where you've been! However, there are some bosses you probably want to pick up on your second visit, just to be complete:

Lord Roccor, the elemental that paths through the tunnel behind the Ring of Law
Houndmaster Grebmar, a boss with many mutts, also behind the Ring of Law, near Roccor
Bael'Gar, now that you have the key, you can take the left immediately at the entrance of the dungeon and go down that passage and to the left to fight Bael'Gar (see below)
High Interrogator Gerstahn, you'll need her key to release the prisoner that starts the quest chain to free the princess. She's in the prison block, which is to the right, once you enter the first large room with all the dogs and dwarves, before the Ring of Law.
Lord Incendius, if you didn't kill him last time, you can kill him in the same pass as Bael'Gar, since he's in the same long hallway, just the other end.

If you do all of those, then count yourself industrious and stop now. Come back tomorrow or the next week. It'll still be here!

Third Foray

Now you start pushing through the zone, toward the final bosses. Use your key to go left from the entrance, then right to the small tunnel and left again through the locked door (the key will open it). This is the small room that you can easily get to after finishing the Ring of Law, and before you get to the spectators. You saw it the first time through, but from another angle. Clear this room and use the key on the giant locking mechanism on the other end of the room. This re-configures the dungeon so that you can't get to Lord Incendius anymore, but now you can get to the Grimm Guzzler, a bar deep within the dungeon.
Go up the stairs, and left down the tunnel, clearing trash as you go. Always kill the fire elementals first.

Angerforge and Argelmach

Once you reach a point where there are stairs down on either side of you, go to the left and kill General Angerforge. He's an easy fight if you have a paladin. Just kill his guards as you engage him, and then work him down to 30%. At this point, he'll summon guards. Get agro control over them and continue to burn down Angerforge. The healers will try to save him, but they just can't keep up. Kill the healers if you like, but Angerforge will die either way.
Now, you'll want to move everyone to the top of the stairs and off to the side. The tank should run down into the long hallway on the other side, run down most of the way to the end (don't agro the boss) and come back. You should have a few gnomes in tow. LoS pull them to the top of the stairs and kill them fast. Repeat until all pathers are dead.
Now move down and take out all of the groups on the left and right of the hallway. You have to completely clear them because the boss will run around this whole area!
Once they are clear, move to the boss at the end of the hallway. Engage him, but when he runs away, stay and kill his guards. Wait for him to come back and then kill him. Easy.

The Grimm Guzzler

The next stop is the bar, The Grimm Guzzler. It has many patrons that you can kill for loot, but you have to be careful. I recommend reading up on it at: http://www.wowwiki.com/Grim_Guzzler
Once you are done here, you can either trigger Phalanx or use the Love Potion, if you've done the quest to continue on. However, you might want to take a break now, since you've probably offed at least 4 bosses this run.

Fourth Foray

Now, you are going to clear to the final boss. You should do the Love Potion quest that you got from the succubus in the bar, if you want to make it even faster.
There's nothing surprising between you and the room of infinite respawns, so clear to the Grimm Guzzler, skipping all bosses and either trigger Phalanx or use the Love Potion to get through the door. Then clear right through. You'll kill Ambassador Flamelash and The Seven, which are fairly easy fights. The Seven is a triggered fight against seven dwarves, one at a time. There's little time to rest, so conserve resources.
Infinitely re-spawning dwarves Once you get to the large, columned room with all of the patrolling dwarf groups, stop and plan out your actions. These dwarves are non-elite and easy to kill, but they nearly instantly re-spawn so you can't "clear" them. There are two torch-bearers who you need to find and kill. Once you do, use their torches to light the two braziers on the far end of the room and go through the now-open doors. Sounds easy. It's a total pain.

Magmus

Magmus is an easy fight, but there's a trick. You must pull him from where he is, all the way to the doors you just opened (actually, they will close, so don't get caught on the other side). Kill him there, and all will be well. The fire jets along the walls don't touch you here.

Emperor Thaurissan

Emperor Thaurissan is the final boss of the instance. Kill him by clearing all of his court and then taking him on. All you have to do is make sure you don't kill the princess that's with him, as she's the target of the quest chain you started when you freed the prisoners in the cell block. Other than that, he's an easy fight for a 56+ group, which you should be by now.

Thanks for reading this guide. I hope you have fun in BRD, and enjoy the loot!

Avatar Review: Nothing Is What It Seems

2009-12-19T15:36:00.004-05:00

I just saw James Cameron's Avatar. I'll break this review into three parts. The first is just about the film itself. The second is about what I think Cameron was trying to accomplish and what I think he's accomplished with this film (hint: it has nothing to do with "revolutionizing" movie making). The third part is more of the second part, but with spoilers.

But first, let me describe how I see a James Cameron film. When I was a teen, I saw Terminator and, like most of my friends, it blew me away. Like Close Encounters before it, it was a perfect blend of the ordinary and completely alien. It also had a swagger to it that appealed to me as a young man. It wasn't until Aliens came out, however, that I learned to recognize the director's signatures: the strong female protagonist; the relentless enemy which was somehow of our own making; the fading, but all-important ember of humanity. When Abyss came out, I was vaguely disappointed until I saw the director's cut (the one that changed how we thought about director's cuts). In its final version, it was nearly the same story as Terminator and Aliens, but it chose a new alien world to explore rather than the shattered future or a marooned spaceship, it was the ocean depths.

So when Titanic was announced, I was confused. It seemed as if it was both not his genre and at the same time something he'd already done. How little I knew. Nearly everyone I've talked to saw Titanic as a love story between DeCaprio and Winslet. Of course, the promotional material for the film didn't help that impression. However, if you dig a bit deeper, it was Cameron up to his old tricks again. Rose is our strong female protagonist; the sea is our relentless enemy, but the ship succumbs to it through our own negligence; and finally there is the fading of humanity. In Titanic we experience death from a dozen different directions. Rose undergoes a transformation due to the death of Jack, sure, but there's also the band that goes down playing; the man who will sacrifice anyone to get off the sinking boat. The movie is full of a dozen ways to die and and even more ways to face it. It is, in fact, a story about the nature one one's choices in the face of death.

So, when I went to see Avatar, I expected all of those things... and got none of them. So, on to the review. (more...)

From the moment the film begins until the introduction of the avatars, there's a sense of deja vu that I felt. This was the opening of Aliens, and there's no mistake, there. Cameron likes to use the military as a moral blank-slate. As the plot was set up, everything was foreshadowed. I won't spoil anything yet, but you know from a fairly early point how this is going to play out, just as you did in Titanic, when the computer model showed the boat sinking. You get to see Avatar's boat sink in a way, and you know what you're in for. The journey is another thing.

Overall, I'd say that this is not Cameron's best work. It's hard to be absolute about these things, but I'd argue for either Abyss or Aliens in that slot. Then again, coming in third in that lineup is quite the achievement. I do think that this is a better film in terms of pacing and drama than True Lies or Titanic, both of which I enjoyed.

Much will be made of the CG in this movie, so I should touch on it. There are times that it's distracting. Some of the glowing fauna is just a bit too cutesy, but I can forgive that. The creatures are stunning, but we've gotten a bit used to that. What's really amazing is the fact that next to nothing in this world was real. The trees, the ferns, the water, even some of the humans in the background are CG. The aliens are beautifully rendered, and I'm supremely impressed with the skin texture which finally reflects light with the correct mixture of rough and smooth that's been lacking in so many films.

OK, so let's talk about why Cameron made this film. Before I saw it, I was convinced that he was pouring so much money into it because he wanted to build a next-generation digital worlds studio and be able to farm that out to movies that could afford it. I still think that that was a motivation. However, I'm starting to see something that makes me think he's a move ahead of me on the chess board.

I play World of Warcraft. It's a fun game, but that's not why it's so popular. It's popular because it's a rich world with so much depth that every time someone goes to play another game they find it lacking. There are over 150 zones in the game, each with a fairly rich and detailed backstory. That's a lot of story to come up with, and you can't just drop it on people, you have to give them some way to absorb this backstory and feel that they know the world. World of Warcraft did this by introducing the Warcraft III game and its expansion: The Frozen Throne. I now believe that Cameron has done this by introducing a movie. To explain why, I have to get into spoilers...

Spoilers below.

We first see our hero learn to ride the local equivalent of a horse. It's a rather boxy looking mount that's not terribly interesting. Then he learns to ride a flying beast. Eventually he tames the great predatory flying mount. Meanwhile his lover tames her own unique mount that the world gives to her as a gift. I sat through these waves of unique mounts thinking: this feels like an MMO. That's odd. Then I began to consider what had come before. Each different area of the world had its own unique look. There was the dark, glowing fungus forest. There was the cleared human encampment. There was the great tree they lived in. There were even floating mountains. It seemed every act of the movie introduced at least three settings, each with a radically different look and feel. Sound like the ground work for an MMO? It does to me.

So, here's the pitch for the movie: World of Warcraft has 12million subscribers at $15/month. If you give me $300m to make the most expensive movie ever, I'll get about half that subscribership and pay you back out of petty cash in the first year... oh, and the movie might make some money too, but who cares. Now that is a sales pitch.

I can't be sure of this, of course, and Cameron was talking about Avatar before EverQuest was popular (perhaps before it existed), so it may have been an idea that came late in the process. Still, they did spend an awful lot of time establishing races, classes, mounts, zones, even quests that are the core of any MMO.

I have to admit that if it is the groundwork for an MMO, I'll play it.

HP Laptop Envy

2009-12-15T11:57:00.000-05:00

I can't afford a new laptop right now, but oh my, the new HP Pavilion DV7-3080US gave me laptop envy! The Intel Core i7 and the 1G dedicated graphics would really rock for gaming, and even for virtualization at work. Going to have to be strong....

Random dungeons in WoW

2009-12-11T09:43:00.000-05:00

World of Warcraft's 3.3. patch added a new feature called random dungeons. This allows characters of abotu level 14 and higher to place themselves in a queue for a dungeon. When you do this, you'll be in queue with everyone else in your battlegroup (a related set of realms that typically only saw each other in PvP battlegrounds and Arenas). If you're doing random dungeons, here are some tips:

At low levels, make sure you loot the last boss. The reward is apparently on a boss, not given automatically. I lost out due to this.
If you don't zone in automatically, you can click the "transport to dungeon" or whatever it's called button after the party is formed.
Don't sign up as leader unless you're familiar with the dungeon and willing to walk people through it
The penalty for leaving is just a 15 minute time-out. If you get a really bad group, just bow out politely.
The new zone map is awesome. Use it.
This will probably be the new way to power-level, since it gets you tons of dungeons faster than you could run to them.
If you die, you have to run back in. Make sure you know the layout outside the dungeon before going in.
If there is an option to disenchant, don't hesitate to use it. It's the same priority as "greed." Of course, check sell price for the item first. Greed might be better.
If someone wants to leave the group, don't get upset. They're automatically replaced.
If someone is linkdead, give them some time (e.g. a few minutes) and then initiate a group-kick vote.
When new people come in to an existing group, ask if they need an escort. Don't assume they know the way to where you are in the dungeon.

It's a lot of fun at lower levels. At high levels, it finally makes pugging worth doing for me. I never wanted to pug before, but I think that's because there was so much emphasis on not pugging for players who were good. Now the good and the bad all want to get the rewards from random dungeons, so you're more likely to get an evenly mixed group.

AT&T: We'd Rather You Use Verizon!

2009-12-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

I recently bought a Droid from Verizon. Previously, I had an iPhone from AT&T. My partner has an old AT&T account with a junky phone that we just wanted to keep the number from. I called up AT&T and explained the situation. They told me that I was required to keep both accounts or delete one, but that I was not allowed to move any numbers from any account to any other.

That seemed odd. So I asked what they would do if the number I wanted to bring in was a Verizon number. They told me that they'd be thrilled to move a number in and replace my current number at no charge and with my current plan. Wait... so, if I were a Verizon customer, I'd get better AT&T service, but because I'm an AT&T customer, they're not even willing to just move a phone number?! No, I had to have heard that wrong. So, I asked to speak to a manager and made it quite clear that all I wanted to do was move a number, not an account and that I wanted to keep my high-priced AT&T iPhone service for a good long time. Nope. I'd have to get a new plan with a new contract.

When I explained that my life would actually be simpler if I payed the $150 to terminate the iPhone and get my partner a Droid, I was told that that was my only workable option and he didn't even try to keep me as a customer.

In the end AT&T would much rather that you become a Verizon customer than close one, old clunky account and move the number around internally. Your customer loyalty for 10 years isn't, it turns out, worth a database record update to AT&T.

Well, two Droids is better than one, I guess...

Hardest Trivia Questions, Ever

2009-12-01T20:00:00.007-05:00

Wikipedia is a font of really useful information, but it can also be the source of some of the most obscure information to have graced the Web. Specifically, their "Did you know" section on the front page tends to have some of the most obscure trivia you'll come across. I've turned some of it into a set of trivia questions. See how many you can get by using your scroll bar to hide the next question's answer just off the bottom while you guess (questions after the jump)...

Israeli

Q: ____ is an Israeli charity that collects leftover and surplus food, gathering enough each week to provide 12,000 to 14,000 meals and 40 to 50 tons of produce?
A: Table to Table

The New York Times

Q: ____ was the first woman to be national political correspondent for The New York Times?
A: Robin Toner

Israel

Q: ____ is the largest supermarket chain in Israel to sell non-kosher food?
A: Tiv Ta'am

Benin

Q: ____ was installed head of Benin because the military did not recognise Maurice Kouandété as the official leader?
A: Paul-Émile de Souza

Japanese

Q: ____ was a Japanese naval architect, noted for work on innovative warships such as the cruiser Yubari and Yamato for the Imperial Japanese Navy?
A: Yuzuru Hiraga

Israeli Arab

Q: ____ was the first Israeli Arab woman to be elected to the Knesset?
A: Hussniya Jabara

Ottawa

Q: ____ was once barred from a nightclub near Ottawa, Canada, because Prime Minister of Canada Mackenzie King disapproved of his father?
A: William Buchan, 3rd Baron Tweedsmuir

Australian

Q: ____ is the only Australian-born player to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Canada?
A: Tommy Dunderdale

Mayflower Hotel

Q: ____ was founded at the Mayflower Hotel on the eve of the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as U.S. President in 1933?
A: United States Conference of Mayors

Fiddle

Q: ____ was a major influence on the distinctive fiddle sound that helped shape and develop early country music in the 1920s and 1930s?
A: Charlie Bowman

Rabbi

Q: ____ was the Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army during the German invasion of Poland in 1939, and died a year later as a Soviet prisoner of war in the Katyn massacre?
A: Baruch Steinberg

Polish Council of State

Q: ____ was the only member of the Polish Council of State to vote against the implementation of martial law in Poland in 1981?
A: Ryszard Reiff

Old-time music

Q: ____ was the first to play old-time music on Nashville radio, and his "Possum Hunters" records are considered some of the most complex string band compositions in the genre?
A: Humphrey Bate

Asian

Q: ____ is the first Asian to have written a book on ethnomusicology?
A: S. A. K. Durga

Omaha, Nebraska

Q: ____ was a founder of Omaha, Nebraska, and an early resident of Iowa's Black Hawk Purchase?
A: Enos Lowe

Naval

Q: ____ was the First and principal Naval Aide-de-camp to King Edward VII?
A: Henry Frederick Stephenson

New York City

Q: ____ was the leading publisher of theological and religious books in New York City during the early 1800s?
A: Jonathan Leavitt

Goodyear Blimps

Q: ____ is where the first Goodyear Blimps were assembled?
A: White City Amusement Park

Slovenia

Q: ____ is a high-altitude settlement in Slovenia having huts whose oval roofs (pictured) have wooden shingles that extend nearly to ground level to accommodate cattle?
A: Velika Planina

Philadelphia Flyers

Q: ____ was so excited to be drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft that he climbed over seats to get to the stage, and became stuck in a seat for two hours?
A: Barry Tabobondung

Mayor

Q: ____ is the first person since 1966 to be elected Mayor of Mesa, Arizona without having first served on its City Council?
A: Scott Smith

Chair

Q: ____ was chair of StatoilHydro, Norway's largest company, for four days?
A: Eivind Reiten

Election

Q: ____ lost the 1856 election for the Governor of New Jersey by less than 3,000 votes?
A: William Cowper Alexander

Illinois

Q: ____ was said to have been the first man in Illinois to volunteer for the American Civil War?
A: Augustus Louis Chetlain

Chinese

Q: ____ is thought to have written the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West anonymously, because writing in the vernacular language was considered vulgar?
A: Wu Cheng'en

Michigan

Q: ____ was part of Michigan's space rock music scene in the 1990s?
A: Burnt Hair Records

Fur trade

Q: ____ had both been in the fur trade before entering the shipping business, culminating with their 1965 purchase of Seatrain Lines?
A: Joseph Kahn and Howard Pack

Pulitzer Prize

Q: ____ won the Pulitzer Prize for an editorial on the shared responsibility of labor and management for an unauthorized strike that put 45,000 Chrysler workers out of work?
A: Royce Howes

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

Q: ____ played leading roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1896 to 1901 but died in 1902 at the age of 27?
A: Jones Hewson

Sound barrier

Q: ____ became the youngest person to break the sound barrier when she piloted a MIG-29 fighter jet at Mach 1.3 on July 12, 1994 at the age of eleven?
A: Katrina Mumaw

Phantom island

Q: ____ was a phantom island near Antarctica, described in 1832 by Benjamin Morrell, who was called "the biggest liar in the Southern Ocean"?
A: New South Greenland

Australian

Q: ____ was the last Australian to take 100 wickets on an Ashes tour of England, being the leading wicket-taker during the 1948 Invincibles tour?
A: Bill Johnston

Russian

Q: ____ was honored for his absurdist play about an impoverished Russian pensioner who engages in fanciful correspondence with Queen Elizabeth II, Vladimir Lenin, and Robinson Crusoe?
A: Oleg Bogayev

Chief Scout

Q: ____ became the Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scouts-in-Exile when scouting was banned by the Communist government after World War II?
A: Kisbarnaki Ferenc Farkas

Women's Suffrage

Q: ____ was known as "The General" for her habit of leading Women's Suffrage processions (lapel pin pictured) wearing an officer's cap and epaulettes whilst riding a large horse?
A: Flora Drummond

Gold mine

Q: ____ is the first commercial gold mine in Niger?
A: Samira Hill Gold Mine

Transition administration

Q: ____ is a petition to the transition administration of Barack Obama organized by the UFO community to put the extraterrestrial issue on the new U.S. administration's agenda?
A: Million Fax on Washington

Museum of Modern Art

Q: ____ organized the 1968 exhibition Word and Image of 300 posters at the Museum of Modern Art called "so handsome that for a minute you wonder why billboards are disfigurements"?
A: Mildred Constantine

Al-Qaeda

Q: ____ was the first Al-Qaeda operative to be convicted of directing terrorism in the United Kingdom?
A: Rangzieb Ahmed

Spy

Q: ____ was not a spy according to her brother, even though the 2008 film The Bank Job depicted her as one?
A: Gale Benson

Teamsters

Q: ____ was the first Teamsters General President elected by a direct vote of the membership?
A: Ron Carey

Member of Parliament

Q: ____ was Member of Parliament for Guildford after his nephew Foot Onslow, and was then succeeded by another nephew, Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow?
A: Denzil Onslow

1947 Wolverines

Q: ____ was captain of the 1947 Wolverines who were selected as the greatest Michigan football team of all time?
A: Bruce Hilkene

2nd Tactical Air Force

Q: ____ was the top-scoring night-fighter unit in 2nd Tactical Air Force in the period between D-Day and VE Day?
A: 410 Squadron RCAF

Hospice

Q: ____ is the first and only hospice in Dorset, England, for children with life-limiting conditions?
A: Julia's House

Beijing

Q: ____ was set to become Beijing correspondent for The New York Times when he instead was appointed the fourteenth editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly in March 2006?
A: James Bennet

Secretary of the Oregon Territory

Q: ____ was appointed as the Secretary of the Oregon Territory after later U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declined the position?
A: Edward D. Hamilton

Alanian

Q: ____ was the Alanian wife of Artaxias I, the king of Armenia and the founder of the Artaxiad Dynasty?
A: Satenik

Nagpur

Q: ____ is the place in Nagpur, India, where thousands of people embraced Buddhism on October 14, 1956?
A: Deekshabhoomi

Paralympian

Q: ____ was named 2005 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, the first Paralympian to earn the honor, after winning the 2.4 meter world championship against 60 able-bodied and 27 disabled sailors?
A: Nick Scandone

Indiana

Q: ____ is being considered to become the official state pie of Indiana, USA?
A: sugar cream pie

The Daily Observer

Q: ____ resigned as editor-in-chief of The Daily Observer, a newspaper in The Gambia, after being pressured by management not to publish stories about a certain politician?
A: Paschal Eze

Big Ten

Q: ____ won two Big Ten doubles tennis championships with his twin brother, and later coached Michigan tennis teams to 11 Big Ten and one NCAA team championships?
A: William Murphy

U.S. state

Q: ____ is not in the U.S. state of Delaware but rather in Ohio?
A: Delaware State Park

NCAA

Q: ____ won the NCAA heavyweight collegiate wrestling championship twice and was subsequently drafted by the Cleveland Browns to play in the NFL?
A: Dave Porter

2008-09 Nordic Combined World Cup

Q: ____ is leading the 2008-09 Nordic Combined World Cup right now?
A: Anssi Koivuranta

English

Q: ____ was a 19th-century English musician and composer with whom a young Robert Browning fell in love?
A: Eliza Flower

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Q: ____ was a power-sharing proposal made by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the government of Sri Lanka to resolve the Sri Lankan civil war?
A: Interim Self Governing Authority

President

Q: ____ was elected President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1901, nearly 30 years after his father, Thomas Hawksley, was elected to the position?
A: Charles Hawksley

Highway

Q: ____ is the most common cause of highway bridge failure (example pictured) in the United States?
A: bridge scour

Armenian

Q: ____ is an Armenian raw meat dish similar to steak tartare?
A: chee kufta

Running back

Q: ____ played six seasons as a running back in the National Football League despite never playing college football?
A: Charles Leigh

Chicago Park District

Q: ____ is named after the Chicago Park District's Washington Park although it is neither in the park nor in the Washington Park community area?
A: Washington Park Court District

Major League Baseball

Q: ____ is one of two Major League Baseball players to have attended Texas Wesleyan University, the other being Hall of Famer Tris Speaker?
A: Jeff Moronko

Latina

Q: ____ became the first Latina judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals in 2003?
A: Darleen Ortega

German

Q: ____ was an attempt by German Army Group Don to relieve the trapped Sixth Army in Stalingrad, during World War II?
A: Operation Winter Storm

Dalit

Q: ____ was the first member of the Dalit community to be elected to the Madras Legislative Council in India?
A: M. C. Rajah

Sunday Herald

Q: ____ was listed by the Sunday Herald newspaper as the 22nd greatest Scottish football manager of all time, even though he never won a major trophy?
A: Willie McCartney

English

Q: ____ received a number of complaints from English teachers because he appeared in a film with the grammatically incorrect title The Outlaws Is Coming?
A: Hal Fryar

University of Toronto

Q: ____ was a student, chairman, and principal at the University of Toronto before becoming its 22nd Chancellor in 1959?
A: François Charles Archile Jeanneret

British

Q: ____ were all British plans for military intervention in Zanzibar following the 1964 revolution?
A: Operations Parthenon, Boris, Finery, Shed and Plan Giralda

Zagreb County

Q: ____ is the most densely populated city in Zagreb County, Croatia?
A: Zaprešić

Library

Q: ____ was the first library in Singapore to install self-check machines for borrowing and returning of books?
A: Choa Chu Kang Community Library

African American

Q: ____ was the first African American professional pocket billiards player to ever win a World or U.S. National billiard title?
A: Cisero Murphy

Norwegian Parliament

Q: ____ was the last member of the Norwegian Parliament to be elected from the Communist Party ticket?
A: Emil Løvlien

Foreman

Q: ____ was foreman of the first grand jury in colonial America and played a key role in establishing the first written democratic town government at Windsor, Connecticut, in 1657?
A: William Phelps

Professors World Peace Academy

Q: ____ is presently President of the Professors World Peace Academy in the Republic of Benin?
A: Noel Dossou-Yovo

University of British Columbia

Q: ____ was the University of British Columbia's longest-serving chancellor?
A: Robert McKechnie

Front organization

Q: ____ was a fictitious front organization set up by France to help American revolutionaries fight England?
A: Roderigue Hortalez and Company

Michigan Wolverines men's basketball

Q: ____ is the first Michigan Wolverines men's basketball player to have at least 20 points and 20 rebounds in a single game since Phil Hubbard did so in the 1977 NCAA Tournament?
A: DeShawn Sims

Scottish

Q: ____ was a Scottish gentlemen's club devoted to "the convivial celebration of male sexuality"?
A: The Beggar's Benison

Sutter family

Q: ____ became the eighth member of the Sutter family to play in the National Hockey League when he made his debut for the Calgary Flames on December 23, 2008?
A: Brett Sutter

United States

Q: ____ was described as the first woman to serve as head of a public university in the United States when she became president of the University of Texas at Austin in 1974?
A: Lorene Rogers

Member of the Order of the British Empire

Q: ____ was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for breeding Birds of Paradise?
A: Fred Shaw Mayer

Norway

Q: ____ was Norway's first television correspondent stationed in an African country?
A: Halle Jørn Hanssen

Osmotic pressure

Q: ____ was awarded the Avogadro Medal in 1916 for his extensive report on osmotic pressure and semipermeable membranes ([[:|concept pictured]])?
A: Harmon Northrop Morse

Thomas Arne

Q: ____ was Thomas Arne's mentor and it is through his influence that Arne was able to pursue a music career?
A: Michael Christian Festing

Unknown

Q: ____ was halved between 1978 and 1988 due to the economic decline of the nation during the 1980s?
A: Guyana's sugar production

Sri Lankan

Q: ____ was the second Sri Lankan journalist to be assassinated in 2004?
A: Balanadarajah Iyer

Thomas Arne

Q: ____ was Thomas Arne's mentor and it is through his influence that Arne was able to pursue a music career?
A: Michael Christian Festing

Unknown

Q: ____ was halved between 1978 and 1988 due to the economic decline of the nation during the 1980s?
A: Guyana's sugar production

Sri Lankan

Q: ____ was the second Sri Lankan journalist to be assassinated in 2004?
A: Balanadarajah Iyer

Viceroy of India

Q: ____ was the acting Viceroy of India from June 1929 to April 1931?
A: George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen

Royal residence of the Danish monarch

Q: ____ is a royal residence of the Danish monarch in France?
A: Château de Cayx

Zoroastrian

Q: ____ is a Zoroastrian purification ritual in which a "defiled" person is confined to a corner of the house called Armêsht-gah for a period of nine nights?
A: Barashnûm

Breydon Viaduct

Q: ____ was Engineer-in-Chief of the Breydon Viaduct?
A: Alexander Ross

Member of the Order of the British Empire

Q: ____ was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for breeding Birds of Paradise?
A: Fred Shaw Mayer

1962 New York City newspaper strike

Q: ____ created The New York Standard, the largest alternative paper printed during the 114-day 1962 New York City newspaper strike, with a peak circulation over 400,000 in its 67 issues?
A: Leonard Andrews

North Russian Expeditionary Force

Q: ____ were deployed as a part of the North Russian Expeditionary Force and North Russia Relief Force during the Russian Civil War?
A: Australian forces

Norway

Q: ____ became the first siblings in Norway to compete in different events at the same Olympic Games?
A: Hedda and Ingrid Berntsen

Victoria Cross for Australia

Q: ____ became the first recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia, for his gallant actions under enemy fire in Afghanistan in September 2008?
A: Mark Donaldson

Gaza

Q: ____ was the first mayor of Gaza, appointed in 1906?
A: Said al-Shawa

Native Americans

Q: ____ is credited with helping to negotiate a truce between federal officers and Native Americans during the Wounded Knee incident in 1973?
A: Harlington Wood Jr.

New York State Assembly

Q: ____ was elected to the New York State Assembly after being held as a Union prisoner of war during the American Civil War?
A: Francis Mallison

Photographic film

Q: ____ is a type of photographic film that can be developed simply by heating it?
A: Kalvar

Hillsboro, Oregon

Q: ____ was the first park in Hillsboro, Oregon, to include a recreational water fountain?
A: Magnolia Park

Supreme Court of India

Q: ____ was the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India and also first of any highest judiciary of a nation in Asia?
A: Justice M. Fathima Beevi

Rice University

Q: ____ received his high school diploma while serving as Acting President of Rice University?
A: Frank Vandiver

Thermus aquaticus

Q: ____ discovered Thermus aquaticus, an extremophile living at greater than 70 °C in hot springs at Yellowstone which became the source of the enzyme used in PCR?
A: Thomas D. Brock

Kingdom of Mysore

Q: ____ was the first ruler in the Kingdom of Mysore to create symbols associated with Mysore royalty, such as the coins (Kanthiraya) that he named after himself?
A: Kanthirava Narasaraja I

Distinguished Service Cross

Q: ____ won the Distinguished Service Cross for actions in Germany during World War II and became the youngest American general to command a combat division in the Korean War?
A: Philip De Witt Ginder

ACLU

Q: ____ resigned from his ACLU position after the group's head criticized Morgan for calling a New Yorker a bigot for his refusal to consider voting for Jimmy Carter as President?
A: Charles Morgan, Jr.

Seattle

Q: ____ is one of only two historic agricultural parcels inside Seattle, Washington, city limits that retains an agricultural use today?
A: Marra Farm

English

Q: ____ were part of an English family of musicians that included several professional singers and organists in the 17th and 18th centuries?
A: Anthony, Charles, Cecilia, Isabella, Sr., Isabella, Jr., Esther, Elizabeth, and Polly Young

Nelson's

Q: ____ was present at Nelson's death at Trafalgar, and was subsequently incorporated into Arthur William Devis's painting of the event?
A: George Miller Bligh

Leela Charitra

Q: ____ was the first to edit Leela Charitra, the first written biography in the Marathi language?
A: Bhausaheb Kolte

Hawaii

Q: ____ had been filmed in a commercial for the bank in Hawaii where he worked when he was asked to play the role of "Che Fong", an original cast member of the television series Hawaii Five-O?
A: Harry Endo

Dickin Medal

Q: ____ received the Dickin Medal on behalf of all search and rescue dogs who participated in rescue operations after the September 11 attacks?
A: Appollo

Council of Economic Advisers

Q: ____ was the head of the Council of Economic Advisers advising U.S. President Truman, yet never finished his own graduate dissertation in economics?
A: Leon Keyserling

Anthony McAuliffe

Q: ____ was the inspiration for General Anthony McAuliffe's one-word reply "Nuts!" in response to a German demand for surrender at the Siege of Bastogne?
A: Harry Kinnard

Bradman's

Q: ____ were members of Bradman's Invincibles who won the First, Second and Fourth Ashes series Test matches of 1948 and drew the Third?
A: Harvey, Barnes, Brown, Johnson, Loxton and Hassett

Asian Games

Q: ____ scored the only goal in the final of the first Asian Games football competition held at Delhi, India, in 1951?
A: Sahu Mewalal

Royal Commission

Q: ____ was a member of the Royal Commission set up by King Edward VII to decide the British representation at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair?
A: John Clarke Hawkshaw

Varkari

Q: ____ is venerated as a saint in the Varkari sect of Hinduism, despite spending most of her life as a courtesan?
A: Kanhopatra

Modena

Q: ____ was used to light the streets of Modena, Italy, at the turn of the 17th century?
A: shale oil

Zero as a numerical figure

Q: ____ were the first material evidence of the figure zero as a numerical figure?
A: Khmer numerals

Psychiatric interviews

Q: ____ was imprisoned for conducting psychiatric interviews with Soviet dissidents confined to mental institutions and smuggling a paper about his findings to the Lancet?
A: Anatoly Koryagin

Governor of Madras Presidency

Q: ____ was the first Indian to act as the Governor of Madras Presidency in British India?
A: Mohammad Usman

Targets in Casablanca

Q: ____ was implicated in the bombing of targets in Casablanca, the American barracks in Riyadh, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 London bombings?
A: Karim el-Mejjati

High Commissioner for the Western Pacific

Q: ____ was the last person in history to be appointed High Commissioner for the Western Pacific?
A: Sir Donald Luddington

All-American

Q: ____ was an All-American football center while enrolled at the University of Michigan medical school even though his schoolwork did not allow him to practice with the team?
A: Ernie Vick

Crown prince

Q: ____ was made a crown prince of the Tang Dynasty, but his mother, a consort, had to settle for a much lesser honour?
A: Li Ning

Texas

Q: ____ was the first person in Texas history to have his conviction posthumously overturned based on DNA evidence?
A: Tim Cole

British India

Q: ____ was regarded by officials in British India as "the most powerful friend of His Majesty's Government in Tibet"?
A: Tsarong Dzasa

British

Q: ____ were built up to 13 feet (4 m) longer than most other British railway carriages of the time?
A: coaches of the Great Western Railway

Satirical

Q: ____ created a satirical techno remix, "Bale Out", utilizing a verbal rant actor Christian Bale made on the set of Terminator Salvation?
A: Lucian Piane

Cinematographer

Q: ____ became the youngest cinematographer ever to have been nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers award for a debut film, for his work on The Rat Pack?
A: Shane Hurlbut

Netscape

Q: ____ created Netscape's business plan and developed marketing campaigns for its web browser at a time when few had heard of the Internet?
A: Michael Homer

Fielding H. Yost

Q: ____ was quarterback of Fielding H. Yost's "Point-a-Minute" University of Michigan football teams in 1901–1902 that outscored opponents 1,211 to 12?
A: Boss Weeks

Turkish bathhouse

Q: ____ is the only remaining Turkish bathhouse in Gaza of the original five that continues to function?
A: Hamam al-Sammara

Korean

Q: ____ is a generic Korean term referring to court ladies who waited on the king and royalty during the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties of Korea?
A: gungnyeo

Public service obligation

Q: ____ was the first airline to win a public service obligation in Norway?
A: Teddy Air

Canadian

Q: ____ was the first Canadian company to be granted its own coat of arms by The Heraldic Authority?
A: Rideau

Albert Medal

Q: ____ was awarded the Albert Medal in 1918 for removing depth charges from a motor launch whilst the launch was ablaze?
A: Arthur Bagot

Norwegian

Q: ____ was an associate of Norwegian industrialist Sam Eyde, serving as CEO of Elkem from 1912 to 1950?
A: Conrad Wilhelm Eger

Alcan

Q: ____ was the president of Alcan, a Canadian aluminum company, before becoming the 10th Chancellor of McGill University in 1957?
A: Ray Edwin Powell

Geilo Airport, Dagali

Q: ____ were the first airlines with scheduled services at Geilo Airport, Dagali located in Hol, Norway?
A: Coast Aero Center and Norving

Stephen Báthory of Poland

Q: ____ organized two unsuccessful rebellions against Stephen Báthory of Poland but later became Báthory's close advisor despite differences in their religions?
A: Gáspár Békés

Percolating filter

Q: ____ was responsible for the construction of the first large-scale percolating filter sewage treatment plant?
A: John Duncan Watson

Australian rules footballer

Q: ____ was a leading Australian rules footballer of the 1930s and '40s?
A: Keith Smith

Back Stage

Q: ____ established Back Stage in 1960, considered the "casting bible" for theater performers?
A: Ira Eaker and Allen Zwerdling

Rs.

Q: ____ spent Rs. 4 lakhs on a propaganda campaign against consumption of liquor in the late 1920s?
A: S. Muthiah Mudaliar

Sunderland

Q: ____ became the youngest Sunderland footballer to have made a first team appearance when he was 15 years 185 days old?
A: Derek Forster

Public service obligation

Q: ____ won the first, and so far only, rail transport public service obligation tender in Norway in 2005?
A: NSB Gjøvikbanen

Buffalo

Q: ____ played for Buffalo in the National Football League on the weekends while attending medical school at the University of Michigan?
A: Angus Goetz

Pulitzer Prize for History

Q: ____ received the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age?
A: Walter A. McDougall

Skatepark

Q: ____ had the first skatepark in a Hillsboro, Oregon, park when it opened in 2003?
A: Reedville Creek Park

Belgian

Q: ____ was a Belgian journalist killed in Bucharest during the Romanian Revolution?
A: Danny Huwé

Basketball

Q: ____ played collegiate basketball in the United States, is signed to play semi-professional netball in New Zealand, and has represented Jamaica internationally in both sports?
A: Althea Byfield

President

Q: ____ was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1944 after the death of the president-elect, the second successive year this had happened?
A: Sir Roger Hetherington

Earl of Devon

Q: ____ was only Earl of Devon for three months before being killed by a mob?
A: Humphrey Stafford

War Cross with Sword

Q: ____ was awarded the War Cross with Sword for his actions in the Norwegian heavy water sabotage?
A: Jens-Anton Poulsson

"King and Country" debate

Q: ____ was the proposer of the notorious 1933 "King and Country" debate in the Oxford Union?
A: Kenelm Hubert Digby

Lifetime Achievement Award

Q: ____ received a Lifetime Achievement Award for choreography from the Joffrey Ballet?
A: Margo Sappington

Hitler

Q: ____ was claimed both to be romantically involved with Hitler and involved in a plot to overthrow him?
A: Erna Hanfstaengl

Tobias Hume

Q: ____ published composer Tobias Hume's First Part of Ayres, which contains what may be the earliest examples of pizzicato and col legno?
A: John Windet

Hunting

Q: ____ is the practice of hunting via remotely controlled firearms that can be aimed and shot using online webcams?
A: internet hunting

Party secretary

Q: ____ will retire as party secretary for the Norwegian Labour Party to run in the 2009 parliamentary elections?
A: Martin Kolberg

Norwegian Labour Party

Q: ____ was removed as editor of the Norwegian Labour Party organ Social-Demokraten in 1903, but continued as a prominent party member until 1921?
A: Anders Buen

Bishop of Hereford

Q: ____ was elected Bishop of Hereford in 1216 even though he was not on King John of England's list of candidates?
A: Hugh de Mapenor

Architectural firm

Q: ____ was an architectural firm in California that designed buildings in the so-called Googie architecture style popular during the 1950s?
A: Armet & Davis

The largest shopping mall in the Caribbean

Q: ____ is the President and CEO of Empresas Fonalledas, which owns the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean?
A: Jaime Fonalledas

Restaurant

Q: ____ is a restaurant and bar in San Diego, California, made famous after scenes in Top Gun were filmed there?
A: Kansas City Barbeque

Costa Rica

Q: ____ was elected to represent Costa Rica to the Constituent Congress of the Mexican Empire, but it was dissolved before he was able to participate?
A: José Francisco de Peralta

Norwegian Labour Party

Q: ____ was a founder of the Norwegian Labour Party and the newspaper Dagsavisen?
A: Christian Holtermann Knudsen

Albert Medal

Q: ____ was awarded the Albert Medal for his attempted rescue of a pilot trapped in a burning aircraft?
A: William McAloney

Dragoman

Q: ____ was Dragoman of the Sublime Porte before becoming Prince of Moldavia in 1795?
A: Alexandru Callimachi

Clackamas County, Oregon

Q: ____ was the first Democrat elected to represent Clackamas County, Oregon, in the Oregon House of Representatives in 20 years?
A: Monroe Sweetland

Hibernian

Q: ____ was the last Hibernian captain to win the Scottish Cup, in 1902?
A: Bobby Atherton

Gungnyeo

Q: ____ was an official title of the senior fifth rank, the highest attainable for gungnyeo, a lady-in-waiting during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea?
A: Sanggung

Cambodia

Q: ____ was the home of Sek Yi, who died aged 120 years, claiming the title of Cambodia’s oldest man?
A: Ponhea Kraek District

Ontario Hockey League

Q: ____ was taken first overall in the 2008 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection?
A: John McFarland

Football

Q: ____ played professional football, baseball and basketball and was the "workhorse" for the Green Bay Packers teams that won three consecutive NFL championships from 1929 to 1931?
A: Bo Molenda

Green Bay Packers

Q: ____ played professional football, baseball and basketball and was the "workhorse" for the Green Bay Packers teams that won three consecutive NFL championships from 1929 to 1931?
A: Bo Molenda

Ontario Hockey League

Q: ____ was taken first overall in the 2008 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection?
A: John McFarland

History of literature

Q: ____ was appointed professor in the history of literature at the University of Kristiania in 1899, despite there being remarks about "the holes present in his knowledge"?
A: Gerhard Gran

Battle of the Philippines

Q: ____ was the first American naval officer killed during the Battle of the Philippines, and had a ship named in his honor?
A: Robert Tills

Scouts Canada

Q: ____ is a Scouts Canada camp which features the haunted home of Maurice Macdonald Seymour?
A: Camp Gilwell

Israel

Q: ____ was launched by Israel to capture Palestinian prisoners in Jericho to make sure they were not released?
A: Operation Bringing Home the Goods

Saskatchewan

Q: ____ established the Saskatchewan Medical Association and the Saskatchewan Anti-Tuberculosis League?
A: Dr. Maurice Macdonald Seymour

Cellist

Q: ____ was appointed the principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic in 1996?
A: Carter Brey

German submarine U-9

Q: ____ was sunk by German submarine U-9 in May 1940, after being ordered to sortie with significant damage, rendering it unable to dive?
A: French submarine Doris

Unknown

Q: ____ is in doubt: as of 2005, an estimated 70 percent of older Americans read a newspaper daily, while fewer than 20 percent of younger Americans did?
A: the future of newspapers in the United States

Holodomor

Q: ____ was among the first academics to protest against the Holodomor?
A: Kyryl Studynsky

Civilian

Q: ____ is the only civilian general hospital in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar?
A: St Bernard's Hospital

Rockland County

Q: ____ is the only remaining intact dam on the Rockland County stretch of the Ramapo River?
A: Sloat's Dam

South East Queensland

Q: ____ was the first independent Christian school opened in the Redlands Shire, South East Queensland?
A: Faith Lutheran College, Redlands

Camden County, New Jersey

Q: ____ was selected to run for the Camden County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders after appearing at a candidate recruitment interview complaining and waving his tax bill?
A: James Beach

Military Cross

Q: ____ won the Military Cross in the First World War for assaulting enemy positions and taking prisoners of war, despite being assigned to build field defences?
A: Henry Cronin

Det Norske Teatret

Q: ____ was co-founder of Det Norske Teatret in Oslo, which was established in 1912?
A: Hulda Garborg

A Time for Burning

Q: ____ was executive producer of A Time for Burning, a cinéma vérité documentary about efforts to bridge race relations among Lutherans in Omaha, Nebraska?
A: Robert E. A. Lee

Nativist

Q: ____ began as a nativist religious movement led by Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa (pictured), a Shawnee witch hunter?
A: Tecumseh's Confederation

Distinguished Service Order

Q: ____ was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his "cool example and inspiring leadership" during a fierce battle in the 1982 Falklands War?
A: Hew Pike

Glacial Lake Passaic

Q: ____ was where Glacial Lake Passaic overflowed as the Wisconsin Glacier expanded in New Jersey?
A: Moggy Hollow Natural Area

Police captain

Q: ____ was a New York City police captain who led the defense of the NY Draft Office when it was attacked by angry firefighters and mobs during the 1863 New York Draft Riots?
A: Galen T. Porter

Danish

Q: ____ were two 11th-century Danish brothers who fought on opposite sides at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014?
A: Brodir and Ospak of Man

Differential calculus

Q: ____ is a technique used in differential calculus to differentiate complicated functions by taking the natural logarithm of both sides of the equation y = f(x)?
A: logarithmic differentiation

Everett, Massachusetts

Q: ____ won election as a 21-year-old to the Common Council of Everett, Massachusetts, in 1954 using a new MIT high-speed camera to create individualized fliers for each voter?
A: George Keverian

Unknown

Q: ____ was best known for Falling Man, a series of works "about man at his most imperfect" depicting an armless human figure that appeared in sculptures, paintings, prints and wristwatches?
A: Ernest Trova

German

Q: ____ was the primary German airfield within the city during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II?
A: Pitomnik Airfield

60 metre hurdles

Q: ____ won the 60 metre hurdles event at the 2009 European Indoor Championships ahead of Lucie Škrobáková?
A: Eline Berings

Encyclopedia

Q: ____ was responsible for the creation of the first encyclopedia in Tamil?
A: T. S. Avinashilingam Chettiar

Sunderland

Q: ____ scored 12 goals in one match, when Sunderland beat Castletown 23–0 in an exhibition football game?
A: James Allan

Dog sled

Q: ____ was the last surviving dog sled mail carrier in the United States when he died in 1995?
A: Charlie Biederman

Kerrang!

Q: ____ were the opening act for the 2009 Kerrang! awards tour supporting Bring Me the Horizon, Black Tide, Dir en Grey and Mindless Self Indulgence?
A: In Case of Fire

Cigarettes

Q: ____ was the American businessman who introduced women to cigarettes?
A: George Washington Hill

Olympic

Q: ____ won five Olympic medals during his career, more than any other Olympic wrestler?
A: Wilfried Dietrich

George Medal

Q: ____ is the first person in 26 years to be awarded a second George Medal, the last one posthumously for "immense bravery" in Afghanistan?
A: Gary O'Donnell

Tigers Opening Day starting pitcher

Q: ____ was the Tigers Opening Day starting pitcher in 1928, despite being only 20 years old and having only won five Major League baseball games prior to the season?
A: Josh Billings

Japanese

Q: ____ is a Japanese online community for artists, which as of February 2009 consists of over 600,000 members, and 3 million submissions?
A: Pixiv

OPOJAZ

Q: ____ was a key member of the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOJAZ)?
A: Boris Eikhenbaum

Western Australia

Q: ____ is listed in Western Australia both as a ‘declared pest of agriculture’ and as ‘rare or likely to become extinct’?
A: Muir's Corella

Gamma-ray burst

Q: ____ was the first gamma-ray burst to have its redshift measured?
A: GRB 970508

Youth of the Progress Party

Q: ____ was the first leader of the Youth of the Progress Party in Norway, from 1978 to 1984?
A: Peter N. Myhre

Satellite radio

Q: ____ was a satellite radio company that used to broadcast gaiden-versions of Nintendo's most popular franchises?
A: St.GIGA

Carving

Q: ____ is the art of carving human-shaped hill figures such as the Cerne Abbas giant (detail pictured)?
A: gigantotomy

Columbia University School of Social Work

Q: ____ spent 57 years on the faculty of the Columbia University School of Social Work, where he wrote multiple reports regarding child welfare in New York City for the Citizens' Committee for Children?
A: Alfred J. Kahn

Conductor

Q: ____ was the widely admired conductor of young people's orchestra concerts across Canada?
A: Mario Duschenes

Norwegian

Q: ____ was the first Norwegian to set a world record in a track and field event?
A: Charles Hoff

Swedish

Q: ____ is a Swedish candy stick invented in 1859 by a widow in Gränna?
A: Polkagris

Swedish

Q: ____ is a Swedish candy stick invented in 1859 by a widow in Gränna?
A: Polkagris

Schibsted

Q: ____ established the publishing house Schibsted and the newspaper Aftenposten?
A: Christian Schibsted

Cambodia

Q: ____ was home to Cambodia’s ancient capital of Lovek?
A: Kampong Tralach District

Medieval deer park

Q: ____ was set up as a medieval deer park by the Bishop of Winchester?
A: Poundisford Park

Fantoft stave church

Q: ____ was behind the moving and reconstruction of Fantoft stave church?
A: Fredrik Georg Gade

Unknown

Q: ____ was estimated to be 140 years old?
A: George the lobster

Defender

Q: ____ was a defender in the last impeachment case in Norway?
A: Gustav A. L. Heiberg

American

Q: ____ is claimed to be the first American airline to fly pets exclusively?
A: Pet Airways

Medal of Honor

Q: ____ was a Medal of Honor winner from the American Indian Wars and champion marksman from 1879 to 1892?
A: William Preble Hall

Fourteenth century

Q: ____ is the name prefixed to the fourteenth century Lodi period “Barakhamba Monument” in Nizamuddin complex and to “Barakhamba road" in Connaught Place in New Delhi?
A: Barakhamba

Ministry of Justice and the Police

Q: ____ was dismissed from the Ministry of Justice and the Police for listening to a Norwegian resistance radio broadcast in his office?
A: Carl Platou

Collarbone

Q: ____ was named All-State in high school as a senior despite breaking his collarbone?
A: Jermaine Mays

Employee-owned

Q: ____ was an employee-owned book distributor that helped revolutionize independent publishing and bookselling?
A: Bookpeople

Soviet Union

Q: ____ was the first American composer to have a concert devoted entirely to her works presented in the Soviet Union?
A: Peggy Stuart Coolidge

Punter

Q: ____ is the only punter in Florida Gators football history to be named a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award?
A: Eric Wilbur

Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries

Q: ____ was among the founders of the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries?
A: Fredrik Meltzer Wallem

Cap

Q: ____ were all single cap Wales rugby union players after the team (pictured) was humiliated by England in its first international match?
A: Richard Summers, Edward Peake, Godfrey Darbishire and Richard Williams

City of Edinburgh

Q: ____ was a Scottish goldsmith who represented the City of Edinburgh in Parliament eight times?
A: George Heriot

Native American

Q: ____ was the first Native American woman to be elected as a state district judge in the United States?
A: Carol Jean Vigil

Cartoon

Q: ____ is a fictional cartoon moose who hosts TV shows on Nickelodeon's educational spin-off Noggin?
A: Moose A. Moose

Norwegian Genealogical Society

Q: ____ was among the founders of both the Norwegian Genealogical Society and the Norwegian Heraldry Society?
A: C. S. Schilbred

Negotiations in Karlstad

Q: ____ was present at the negotiations in Karlstad between Norway and Sweden in 1905 as a military representative?
A: Karl Bull

First

Q: ____ was the first footballer to be transferred for £100 or more?
A: Willie Groves

Norwegian Society

Q: ____ is recognized as the 1772 founder of the Norwegian Society?
A: Ove Gjerløw Meyer

Hanging

Q: ____ was the first person sentenced to death by hanging under a congressional act that made it a capital offense to kill a federal agent?
A: George W. Barrett

Nguyễn Lords

Q: ____ was the capital of the Nguyễn Lords, the Tây Sơn Dynasty and the Nguyễn Dynasty?
A: Phú Xuân

HIV

Q: ____ was the first religious leader in Africa to publicly announce that he was HIV positive?
A: Gideon Byamugisha

Maryland

Q: ____ was called less adequate than a high school gymnasium by Maryland coach Bud Millikan?
A: Ritchie Coliseum

Padma Shri

Q: ____ received a Padma Shri award in 1972 for helping and treating injured soldiers in Safdarjang Hospital during the Bangladesh Liberation War?
A: Balu Sankaran

Ghetto

Q: ____ was the largest ghetto in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union?
A: Minsk Ghetto

Meteorological

Q: ____ is credited with founding meteorological research in Norway?
A: Henrik Mohn

South American

Q: ____ is the South American record holder in the women's triple jump event?
A: Keila Costa

Norwegian Minister of Defence

Q: ____ was the Norwegian Minister of Defence on two occasions, but for a total time of six months?
A: Thomas Heftye

Manager

Q: ____ became manager of St Albans City F.C. at the age of 29, three months after he retired as a player?
A: Ritchie Hanlon

Kooks

Q: ____ is "an expert on kooks [who] has a genuine, if sometimes uncomfortable, affection for her subjects"?
A: Donna Kossy

Union Army

Q: ____ was the first Union Army officer to receive the Medal of Honor during the Civil War?
A: Charles Henry Tompkins

Swedish

Q: ____ was an early Swedish cookbook author who also argued that middle class women should be entitled to an education in household matters?
A: Anna Maria Rückerschöld

Harpers Ferry Armory

Q: ____ was the superintendent of the Harpers Ferry Armory during John Brown's raid in 1859?
A: Alfred Madison Barbour

Grand Cross

Q: ____ was awarded the Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1893 for his achievements in international arbitration?
A: Gregers Winther Wulfsberg Gram

Willamette

Q: ____ was the president of three universities, but only Willamette still exists?
A: Thomas Van Scoy

Public transportation

Q: ____ were the main form of public transportation in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the turn of the 20th century?
A: Cincinnati streetcars

Unknown

Q: ____ was founded in 1994 as the Estonian Blue Party?
A: Libertas Estonia

Lèse majesté

Q: ____ was indicted for lèse majesté for his 1884 pamphlet, where he called for citizens to take up arms if the King and Army interfered with parliamentary process?
A: Jon Hol

Dina Thanthi

Q: ____ was the founder of Dina Thanthi, a widely read Tamil newspaper?
A: S. P. Adithanar

Solidarity

Q: ____ was the student arm of Polish opposition movement Solidarity?
A: Independent Students Union

Scottish

Q: ____ was a Scottish banking house which collapsed in 1772 precipitating the collapse of almost every private bank in Scotland?
A: Neal, James, Fordyce and Down

College football national championships

Q: ____ won three college football national championships and an NFL championship with the Detroit Lions before being elected as a judge, where he served for over 20 years?
A: Gus Cifelli

Gęsiówka

Q: ____ was a Polish resistance fighter who liberated the Gęsiówka concentration camp and a UN diplomat who promoted renewable energy in developing countries?
A: Wacław Micuta

Federal Bar Association

Q: ____ was the first woman ever to be elected as president of the Federal Bar Association?
A: Marguerite Rawalt

State Senator

Q: ____ was the first black woman to be elected as a State Senator?
A: Verda Welcome

League of Nations

Q: ____ was India's delegate to the first session of the League of Nations in 1919?
A: Muhammad Habibullah

World Champion in ski orienteering

Q: ____ was the first World Champion in ski orienteering?
A: Sinikka Kukkonen

Gary Cooper

Q: ____ was Gary Cooper's second Academy Award-winning role?
A: Will Kane

Zionist

Q: ____ was a leader of Polish Jews, a Zionist activist, and a deputy to the Polish Sejm during the interwar period?
A: Apolinary Hartglas

Frost

Q: ____ was so devastated by spring time frost that the whole region only produced 11 cases of wine during the 1957 vintage?
A: Chablis

Crack cocaine

Q: ____ was addicted to crack cocaine as a player in the National Football League, but later became a substance abuse counselor?
A: Alvin Powell

African-American

Q: ____ was the first African-American television journalist?
A: Louis Lomax

Community college

Q: ____ was the first comprehensive community college in Southern Alabama?
A: Wallace Community College

Computer virus

Q: ____ was the first computer virus to spread rapidly by email?
A: Happy99

Unknown

Q: ____ is a symbol of steadfastness and tranquility in religion, mythology and folklore around the world?
A: the turtle

Deep

Q: ____ is credited with inventing deep fried clams in 1916 at his clam shack that became Woodman's of Essex (sign pictured)?
A: Lawrence "Chubby" Woodman

American

Q: ____ is the American political scientist known for developing the concept of nonkilling?
A: Glenn D. Paige

Sickle cell trait

Q: ____ is found almost exclusively in individuals with sickle cell trait or sickle cell disease?
A: renal medullary carcinoma

Community college

Q: ____ is the largest community college in Colorado?
A: Front Range Community College

Christian groups

Q: ____ is frowned upon by many Christian groups?
A: Lust Control

Lunar ecliptic

Q: ____ was featured in a lunar ecliptic children's fairy tale which has been criticised by internet trolls?
A: Phil Lynott

Unknown

Q: ____ is made of 1970s electric folk musicians?
A: Hedgehog Pie

Toenail

Q: ____ was arrested for the possession of toenail clippings (example pictured)?
A: Adam de Stratton

Massachusetts Senate

Q: ____ won a seat in the Massachusetts Senate after her opponent was accused of stuffing her bra?
A: Sonia Chang-Díaz

Japan

Q: ____ is still part of Japan?
A: New England used to be part of the Roman Empire, and China

Unknown

Q: ____ is still singing from his grave 47 years after his death?
A: Sparkie Williams

Survivor

Q: ____ is the only known survivor of the atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II?
A: Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Leo Tolstoy

Q: ____ was lauded by Leo Tolstoy for her play "Báb"?
A: Isabella Grinevskaya

Postmaster

Q: ____ was the first postmaster of the first post office in Washington County, Oregon?
A: Alvin T. Smith

Steamboat

Q: ____ was the first American woman to acquire a steamboat master's license?
A: Mary Millicent Miller

Pork

Q: ____ is used as a substitute for pork bacon at Camille's Sidewalk Cafe locations in the Middle East?
A: turkey bacon

Wet nurse

Q: ____ was selected as wet nurse for William, Duke of Gloucester by his father because of her breasts, which were "gigantic"?
A: Mrs. Pack

Accounting Hall of Fame

Q: ____ was the first living non-American to be inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame?
A: Sir Henry Benson

NCAA

Q: ____ won the 2009 NCAA Men's Tennis singles national championship as a freshman and is the only University of Mississippi tennis player to win the championship?
A: Devin Britton

Royal Navy

Q: ____ were originally termed surgeons in the Royal Navy and were paid £5 for every 100 cases of venereal disease they treated?
A: ship's doctors

Folke Bernadotte

Q: ____ organized the September 1948 assassination of Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been sent by the U.N. Security Council as its mediator following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War?
A: Yehoshua Zettler

Lesotho

Q: ____ is a type of music from Lesotho, named after the action of female dancers exposing their naked rear?
A: famo

Silver medal

Q: ____ won the silver medal in the 9th Paris International Dance Competition?
A: Georgette Sanchez

Architect

Q: ____ was an architect responsible for the 19th-century black-and-white revival in Chester, Cheshire?
A: John Douglas

Track athlete

Q: ____ is the only track athlete to have run 100 meters in under ten seconds at Olympic Trials and not make the Olympic team?
A: Coby Miller

Unknown

Q: ____ was the last person to die in an attempt to escape across the Berlin Wall?
A: Winfried Freudenberg

Unknown

Q: ____ is a Russian song based on a translation from English, but the English source was claimed to be translated from Russian?
A: Evening Bell

Clifton's Golden Rule

Q: ____ was once known as Clifton's Golden Rule because patrons were obliged to pay only what they felt was fair?
A: Clifton's Cafeteria

Rape

Q: ____ was built in the Rape of Chichester in the 11th century?
A: Chichester Castle

Powerlifter

Q: ____ won two national championships as a powerlifter while serving on the Washington Supreme Court?
A: Faith Ireland

Termites

Q: ____ had to be sent back to Britain for repairs in 1804, partly because she was infested with termites?
A: HMS Centurion

Amateur

Q: ____ was completely restored from dereliction to working order by amateur volunteers?
A: Thelnetham Windmill

Norway

Q: ____ was Norway's first full-time theatre critic?
A: Sigurd Bødtker

Fly fishing

Q: ____ is a two-handed fly fishing technique that was developed on the River Spey in Scotland?
A: Spey casting

Austrian

Q: ____ was an Austrian aristocratic night fighter flying ace who fought for the German Luftwaffe in World War II?
A: Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld

Switzerland

Q: ____ is known as the "Switzerland of the Americas" from its adoption of Swiss-based banking laws?
A: Uruguay

African-American

Q: ____ was called the "mother of the African-American romance" for her 1980 novel, considered the first to feature African American characters by an African American author?
A: Elsie B. Washington

German immigrants

Q: ____ was nearly assassinated after establishing a settlement of German immigrants in northern Alabama?
A: John G. Cullmann

European

Q: ____ is the last European known to have been executed for lesbianism?
A: Catherina Margaretha Linck

Radio presenter

Q: ____ was a popular radio presenter for children during the early days of Norwegian broadcasting?
A: Carl Bødtker

Reinforced concrete

Q: ____ was the first builder to use iron reinforced concrete?
A: François Coignet

Solar powered

Q: ____ was the first in the UK to have solar powered on-street ticket machines?
A: Greater Manchester bus route 192

Haitian Vodou

Q: ____ was a Haitian Vodou priest who was classified as a surrealist painter by the surrealist theorist André Breton?
A: Hector Hyppolite

Army dogs

Q: ____ supplied army dogs with 1,256,976,708 dog biscuits during World War I?
A: Spratt's

Chief of staff

Q: ____ was the second chief of staff of the Bundeswehr and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II?
A: Friedrich Foertsch

Chicago Colts

Q: ____ was the Chicago Colts' Opening Day starting pitcher in 1896, despite only having pitched five previous Major League Baseball games?
A: Danny Friend

Cow

Q: ____ spent about ten days acquainting himself with a cow to prepare for scenes in the film Le Grand Chef, likening the experience to working with a sensitive actress?
A: Kim Kang-woo

Chianti

Q: ____ was included in the 19th-century Chianti recipe to add fruitiness and soften the tannins of Sangiovese, much like Merlot's role in Bordeaux wine blends?
A: Canaiolo

Gamma-ray burst

Q: ____ was the first short-duration gamma-ray burst for which an optical afterglow was detected?
A: GRB 050709

Spine

Q: ____ published an account of his life as a sufferer of a condition in which his spine curved forward to the extent that his chin rested on his chest?
A: Leonard Trask

Iowa Hawkeyes

Q: ____ was the first Iowa Hawkeyes football player to be named an All-American?
A: Lester Belding

Manchester

Q: ____ was used to dispose of Manchester's night soil, and was a Starfish site in World War II?
A: Carrington Moss

Poland

Q: ____ was in 1939 the last place of Poland to surrender to the invading Wehrmacht, and during World War II it was used as a Kriegsmarine base?
A: Hel Fortified Area

Miniaturist

Q: ____ was the first recorded female miniaturist in the American colonies?
A: Mary Roberts

Unknown

Q: ____ was the first year that companies started to pay award monies for publicity?
A: in NASCAR, 1952

Grandfather

Q: ____ had a father, a grandfather and a son, all with the same name?
A: Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford

Shot put

Q: ____ was the first woman to throw a shot put more than 19 meters in the Summer Olympic Games?
A: Margitta Gummel-Helmboldt

Muslim

Q: ____ was a Muslim Tatar who co-founded the Polish Socialist Party and probably saved the life of the future leader of Poland, Józef Piłsudski, by planning his escape from a mental hospital?
A: Aleksander Sulkiewicz

Civil engineer

Q: ____ was a civil engineer on routes for the Pacific Railroad Surveys and a wagon road used by the Butterfield Overland Mail in the years before the American Civil War?
A: Nathaniel Henry Hutton

Franchisee

Q: ____ is the master franchisee of Marrybrown fast food chain for Southern India?
A: MGM Group of Companies

Real-life superhero

Q: ____ is a real-life superhero who wears a cape and mask while fighting crime in Cincinnati, Ohio?
A: Shadow Hare

American Society of Military Comptrollers

Q: ____ was serving as Executive Director of the American Society of Military Comptrollers when President Barack Obama appointed him Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)?
A: Robert F. Hale

Machining

Q: ____ is a machining process used to rough out gears prior to final machining operations, like hobbing or shaping?
A: gashing

Governor of Svalbard

Q: ____ was Norway's first permanent Governor of Svalbard?
A: Johannes Gerckens Bassøe

Organist

Q: ____ was the youngest cathedral organist in Britain when he became organist of St Edmundsbury Cathedral at age 24?
A: Harrison Oxley

African-American

Q: ____ became the first African-American journalist to accompany a U.S. president while traveling?
A: Alice Allison Dunnigan

Chief of police

Q: ____ was the first female chief of police in Norway as well as the first female Governor of Svalbard?
A: Ann-Kristin Olsen

Supreme Court of India

Q: ____ was the first Justice of the Supreme Court of India to face impeachment proceedings in independent India?
A: V. Ramaswami

Ph.D.

Q: ____ was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg?
A: Ida Henrietta Hyde

English Civil War

Q: ____ was largely destroyed during the English Civil War and rebuilt 200 years later?
A: Cothelstone Manor

Superintendent of the United States Military Academy

Q: ____ was Superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1910 to 1912?
A: Thomas Henry Barry

Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning

Q: ____ was denied the 1925 Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning for landing his balloon not on land, but on the deck of a ship?
A: Ward Van Orman

Appomattox Court House

Q: ____ played a critical role in developing the village of Appomattox Court House, where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant?
A: Samuel D. McDearmon

Unknown

Q: ____ is the only remaining water-powered measure mill in the United States after some 150 years of operations?
A: Frye's Measure Mill

Tailgating

Q: ____ was called "the mother and mistress of outdoor ritual mayhem" for its legendary football game day tailgating by The New York Times?
A: The Grove at Ole Miss

Plastic flamingo

Q: ____ created over 750 plastic animals, but is most famous for the plastic flamingo?
A: Don Featherstone

Oslo

Q: ____ was started in Oslo by actors and students, including Jens Bolling, Liv Strømsted and Arne Thomas Olsen, who had secretly studied Stanislavski's theatre theories during World War II?
A: Studioteatret

American Civil Liberties Union

Q: ____ was expected to become head of the family bank, but instead served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union?
A: Patrick Murphy Malin

Photographer

Q: ____ was a pioneer photographer of the northern Rockies who betrayed the plans for the Federal defense of Alexandria, Virginia, to the Confederacy early in the American Civil War?
A: James D. Hutton

Polish

Q: ____ was a Polish cavalry commander in the Napoleonic period, a general, a Baron of the French Empire, and was decorated with the Légion d'honneur?
A: Jan Konopka

CEO

Q: ____ was CEO of one of the shortest-lived public companies on record?
A: Julie Wainwright

Peru

Q: ____ was "the most renowned early supporter" of the artistic indigenist movement of Peru?
A: José Sabogal

Bibliographer

Q: ____ was a diplomat and bibliographer specializing in Latin American works whose younger brother William Rich was a botanist with the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–42?
A: Obadiah Rich

Woodridge, New York

Q: ____ was founded when the members of the existing synagogue in Woodridge, New York, had a dispute over who would be the community's ritual slaughterer of animals?
A: Ohave Shalom Synagogue

American football

Q: ____ won a professional American football championship in 1901 and was later nominated by U.S. President William Howard Taft as a federal judge in Alaska?
A: Pete Overfield

Type Ia supernova

Q: ____ was classified as a type Ia supernova, but does not have some features that define a type Ia supernova?
A: SN 2002cx

Jazz

Q: ____ were an English jazz/progressive rock band with more than 50 members?
A: Centipede

Spy

Q: ____ was the first spy caught with the aid of an electronic transmitter?
A: Frank Bossard

Wilsonville, Oregon

Q: ____ is both the oldest and largest park in Wilsonville, Oregon, and includes a barn built in 1901 (pictured)?
A: Wilsonville Memorial Park

Wildcatter

Q: ____ was a wildcatter who was credited with discovering more than 50 oil and gas fields, though he twice declared bankruptcy?
A: Michel T. Halbouty

Battle honours

Q: ____ won five battle honours during the Second World War, despite a career lasting less than a year from commissioning to being sunk?
A: HMS Lively

Mountain bike orienteering

Q: ____ won gold medals in all the first five World Championships in mountain bike orienteering?
A: Mika Tervala

Flying University

Q: ____ was a lecturer at the Flying University in Warsaw?
A: Jan Władysław Dawid

Wallowa Mountains

Q: ____ is the highest point in the Wallowa Mountains and the sixth highest peak in Oregon?
A: Sacajawea Peak

Unknown

Q: ____ was 172 years old when demolition of its premises began in June 2009?
A: Chennai Central Prison

Ion

Q: ____ is a theory used to estimate single-ion activity coefficients in electrolyte solutions at relatively high concentrations?
A: Specific ion Interaction Theory

Mammals

Q: ____ is a process of "internal adaptation whereby two mammals become attuned to each other's inner states"?
A: limbic resonance

Football

Q: ____ played football with Knute Rockne and once struck out 19 batters in a baseball game?
A: Freeman Fitzgerald

Neanderthal

Q: ____ is the common name for the first Neanderthal discovered in the Netherlands?
A: Krijn

Post-modern

Q: ____ is a post-modern skyscraper noted for its use of a pre-cast concrete finish to mimic the appearance of limestone?
A: 461 Fifth Avenue

Unknown

Q: ____ were rare because "the vernacular appeared simply and totally inadequate" for such a prestigious work?
A: Bible translations in the Middle Ages

US$

Q: ____ created the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, which reached its peak of popularity in the 1960s, earning US$2 million in gross revenue each month, 25 cents at a time?
A: John Houghtaling

African American

Q: ____ was the first African American majority owner of a major league sports team?
A: Rommie Loudd

Norwegian Folk Music Research Association

Q: ____ was a founder and first president of the Norwegian Folk Music Research Association?
A: Ole Mørk Sandvik

Delhi Durbar

Q: ____ was the site of the 1911 Delhi Durbar that marked the shifting of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi?
A: Coronation Park

Gilbert and Sullivan

Q: ____ played three roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas for Richard D'Oyly Carte, but left his company in 1878 never to return?
A: Pauline Rita

Comedy films

Q: ____ is the first United States company to produce comedy films to play on mobile phones worldwide?
A: Fun Little Movies

Football

Q: ____ spent a year out of football before being recommended to their current CFL teams?
A: Damian Sims and Fred Reid

News anchor

Q: ____ was a locally well-known television news anchor who quit to become a mayoral executive assistant and later ran for mayor of the city of Shreveport, Louisiana?
A: Liz Swaine

It's a Business

Q: ____ played a song publisher in the sitcom It's a Business and actually co-wrote the song "That's All"?
A: Bob Haymes

Cloud type

Q: ____ is the first new proposed cloud type in over 50 years?
A: Undulus asperatus

Executed

Q: ____ was the first person to be executed by guillotine (pictured)?
A: Nicolas Jacques Pelletier

Rhode Island

Q: ____ is the largest of Rhode Island's nine salt ponds?
A: Ninigret Pond

Member of Parliament

Q: ____ became a Member of Parliament to gain contacts to help him in his career as a barrister?
A: John Verney

Polish Underground State

Q: ____ was the Polish Underground State's anti-communist propaganda department?
A: Operation Antyk

Member of the Order of the British Empire

Q: ____ was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his work in the Australian outback?
A: Tom Kruse

World Boxing Association

Q: ____ became a top contender in the World Boxing Association's light heavyweight division while serving time at Rahway State Prison?
A: James Scott

Zombie

Q: ____ is an international event in which participants (example pictured) simultaneously emulate the zombie dance from the music video of Michael Jackson's "Thriller"?
A: Thrill the World

Barrister

Q: ____ was prompted to become a barrister by the death of his wife?
A: Sir William Fortescue

Unknown

Q: ____ played an important role behind the Norwegian cultural scene, as a program editor of the radio magazine Søndagsposten for more than twenty years?
A: Otto Nielsen

Lighting

Q: ____ was little used at night when it first opened, because of its owners' policy of only turning the lighting on if Queen Victoria was spending the night in London?
A: Chelsea Bridge

Distinguished Flying Cross

Q: ____ was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for sorties against the Chinese in the Korean War?
A: George Chesworth

Master of the Rolls

Q: ____ was only offered the position of Master of the Rolls after William Murray turned it down?
A: Sir Thomas Clarke

William Henry Weeks

Q: ____ was designed by William Henry Weeks, a prominent architect, and was his 14th and last major work in Woodland, California?
A: Hotel Woodland

WordStar

Q: ____ were regarded as the second-most cloned piece of software after WordStar?
A: video games with isometric graphics

Fairleigh Dickinson University

Q: ____ is the winningest men's basketball coach in Fairleigh Dickinson University history and led the team to its first NCAA Tournament berth in 1985, losing 59–55 to top-seeded Michigan?
A: Tom Green

Unknown

Q: ____ was originally planned as a school's private chapel, but served as a public church for nearly 150 years before the school took it over?
A: St Mark's Church, Brighton

Christopher Columbus

Q: ____ was the mistress of Christopher Columbus (pictured)?
A: Beatriz Enriquez de Arana

Royal Navy

Q: ____ were carried on practically all types of warships of the Royal Navy during the age of sail, from ships of the line down to brigs?
A: jolly boats

African American

Q: ____ is the first African American female rabbi?
A: Alysa Stanton

Lenses

Q: ____ began with the development of lenses by the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians (dispersive prism pictured)?
A: optics

Purdue

Q: ____ was coached by ex-Purdue defensive back Ken Coudret in high school, before going on to play at Purdue himself?
A: Stanford Keglar

New York Times

Q: ____ was featured in the New York Times in 1896 as a "dish for sultry weather"?
A: angels on horseback

Bacon

Q: ____ is included in a handbook for first-year teachers as a day for activities including cooking bacon, making BLTs, and discussing where pork chops come from?
A: National Pig Day

Fish Tank

Q: ____ was cast in the film Fish Tank, after a casting agent spotted her having an argument with her boyfriend at Tilbury Town railway station?
A: Katie Jarvis

Tool steel

Q: ____ was the first tool steel and later led to the discovery of high speed steel?
A: Mushet steel

Medal of Honor

Q: ____ is only the second person to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the War in Afghanistan?
A: Jared C. Monti

Dahlia

Q: ____ was a political hostess who introduced the dahlia to the United Kingdom in 1804?
A: Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland

Synagogue

Q: ____ is the oldest synagogue in Bridgeport, and the third oldest in the U.S. state of Connecticut?
A: Congregation B'nai Israel

Los Angeles

Q: ____ is a Los Angeles–based chain of grocery stores that offers delivery service of groceries, deli food, cigarettes, and alcohol?
A: Pink Dot

Mississippi

Q: ____ was the first school in Mississippi to offer high school diplomas to African-American students?
A: Meridian Baptist Seminary

Microwaves

Q: ____ was known as "Mr. Microwave" for his research on microwaves in food that led to the development of the microwave oven?
A: Robert V. Decareau

Iceland

Q: ____ is Iceland's largest candy manufacturer and now owns English chocolate company Elizabeth Shaw?
A: Nói Síríus

National Medal of Science

Q: ____ was awarded the National Medal of Science for discovering the coenzyme of vitamin B12, which Barker had isolated from mud taken from San Francisco Bay?
A: Horace Barker

Bossier Parish

Q: ____ is not only the first woman state legislator from Bossier Parish in Louisiana, but she is the first woman to have been a high-school principal and school superintendent there as well?
A: Jane H. Smith

Paved road

Q: ____ is the second-highest paved road in the state of Utah at 10,626 feet (3,239 m) above sea level?
A: Utah's Patchwork Parkway

Par

Q: ____ were two 90-inch (2.3 m) tall steam locomotives specially designed to fit under a bridge at Par that was only 96 inches (2.4 m) high?
A: Judy and Alfred

Cricketer

Q: ____ was the first cricketer to be timed out in a first-class match after poor weather delayed him in reaching the ground to start his innings?
A: Andrew Jordaan

Studio 54

Q: ____ had four tons of glitter dumped on the floor of Studio 54 for a 1970s New Year's Eve party, which owner Ian Schrager described as like "standing on stardust"?
A: Robert Isabell

Argentine

Q: ____ was an Argentine businessman, academic and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Relations between 1991 and 1999?
A: Guido di Tella

Cluny Abbey

Q: ____ was a dependency of Cluny Abbey from its foundation around 1100 until 1407?
A: Montacute Priory

Santa Fe Railroad

Q: ____ was built by owner Juan Delgadillo using mostly scrap lumber from the nearby Santa Fe Railroad yard?
A: Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In

Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy

Q: ____ is the Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy?
A: Richard Morningstar

RMO

Q: ____ was among the leaders of the naval intelligence organization RMO in Norway during World War II?
A: Martin Siem

Louisiana state senator

Q: ____ was a Louisiana state senator from 1928 to 1932 and later president of the Louisiana Bankers Association?
A: V.V. Whittington

Assassin

Q: ____ was the first assassin to use a gun?
A: James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh

Physiotherapist

Q: ____ was the first physiotherapist of the Scotland national rugby union team?
A: John Brown

Oldest synagogue

Q: ____ is the oldest synagogue built by Ashkenazi Jews in the English speaking world?
A: Plymouth Synagogue

Emmy

Q: ____ won an Emmy in 2006 for producing and directing the Vietnam War documentary "Two Days in October" for the PBS television program American Experience?
A: Robert Kenner

Peace conference

Q: ____ was host and chief mediator at the peace conference ending the Northern Seven Years' War?
A: Johann Friedrich, Duke of Pomerania

Seoul

Q: ____ is a district of Seoul consisting of galleries and antique shops, known for "culture of the past and the present"?
A: Insadong

Pinyin

Q: ____ is credited as the "father of pinyin", the official romanization in the People's Republic of China?
A: Zhou Youguang

Pacific hurricane season

Q: ____ is the least active Pacific hurricane season since 1949?
A: the 1977 Pacific hurricane season

New York

Q: ____ was appointed Lt. Governor of New York on July 8, 2009, in a move that New York's attorney general claimed was unconstitutional?
A: Richard Ravitch

Electronic filter

Q: ____ is an electronic filter parameter of significance for removing muscle activity noise in electrocardiograph machines?
A: roll-off

Weaving

Q: ____ is a weaving term for the temporary separation in warp threads so the shuttle with the weft can go through?
A: shed

Government

Q: ____ was made a "national health priority" by the government in 2008, officially elevating awareness to the same level as other health risks like cancer, heart disease and diabetes?
A: obesity in Australia

Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav

Q: ____ was the only person from Germany decorated with the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for her activities during World War II?
A: Hiltgunt Zassenhaus

Trans-Alaska Pipeline

Q: ____ was inspected by engineers working on problems faced by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline?
A: Davidson Ditch

Armored cruiser

Q: ____ was the last armored cruiser built by the German Imperial Navy?
A: SMS Blücher

Pickup truck

Q: ____ was honored by the Colorado Broadcasters Association for giving away an "ugly" pickup truck?
A: KATR-FM

Screenwriter

Q: ____ was the first hired film screenwriter, and the first to start a Sunday paper comics supplement in color?
A: Roy McCardell

Horse and buggy

Q: ____ was the first female horse and buggy driver in New York City's Central Park?
A: Maggie Cogan

Legal aid

Q: ____ was described as the "midwife to civil legal aid"?
A: Sir Albert Napier

PMPC Star Awards

Q: ____ was awarded best male newscaster in the 2008 PMPC Star Awards for TV?
A: Julius Babao

English

Q: ____ was an English physician and botanist, a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, and an early adopter of the heart drug digitalis (pictured)?
A: Jonathan Stokes

Cellular frequency

Q: ____ began business by buying, selling and trading licenses for cellular frequency allocations after an AT&T article that suggested they were being sold at a discount?
A: McCaw Cellular

Baseball

Q: ____ received a promise from baseball player Babe Ruth while suffering from a life-threatening illness that he would hit a home run for him during the 1926 World Series?
A: Johnny Sylvester

1919 educational experiment

Q: ____ was the subject of a 1919 educational experiment?
A: Winnetka School District 36

Banned

Q: ____ was known for the book Snorri the Seal, banned during the German occupation of Norway for being a subtle satire on Nazi Germany?
A: Frithjof Sælen

Windmill

Q: ____ is a combined windmill and watermill, and that each mill could drive the other's machinery?
A: Union Mills, Burnham Overy

Hereditary disorder

Q: ____ is a hereditary disorder characterized by the absence of toenails?
A: Cooks syndrome

Clallam County

Q: ____ was given to Clallam County in 1955, only to be given back to the state in 1991?
A: Washington State Route 113

Bourgeois pseudoscience

Q: ____ was repressed as a bourgeois pseudoscience during the early communist era?
A: the study of sociology in China

Dutch authorities

Q: ____ was expelled by Dutch authorities while conducting research in Indonesia for his dissertation on the country's struggle for independence?
A: George McTurnan Kahin

Chicago Tonight

Q: ____ created the award-winning news program Chicago Tonight and was awarded 10 honorary doctorates, despite being a college dropout who hitchhiked to Chicago with 71 cents in his pocket?
A: John Callaway

Southampton St Mary's

Q: ____ scored twice in Southampton St Mary's biggest competitive victory, a 14–0 FA Cup win against Newbury Town on 13 October 1894 that still remains a record win for Southampton?
A: Fred Hollands

Sit-in

Q: ____ organized an African-American civil rights sit-in at the Alexandria, Virginia, public library as early as 1939?
A: Samuel Wilbert Tucker

2004 version

Q: ____ hosted the 2004 version of Melodifestivalen, an annual music competition and the most watched television program in Sweden?
A: Ola Lindholm

Sverre Munck

Q: ____ resigned as editor-in-chief of Morgenposten shortly after Sverre Munck bought the newspaper?
A: Per Voksø

Highlands of Scotland

Q: ____ was an ancient deserted settlement in the Highlands of Scotland, but is now a super-quarry which exports 6,000,000 tons of granite every year?
A: Glensanda

Football

Q: ____ rejected a chance to play international football for Barbados to help Crawley Town in their relegation match against Dorchester Town, saying it was the "bigger game"?
A: Gus Hurdle

Discus

Q: ____ won two gold medals at the 2009 World's Masters Championships because he was the only competitor in the 100+ age bracket for discus and shot put?
A: Alfred Proksch

United States Department of Defense

Q: ____ wanted the United States Department of Defense to hire 10,000 people to perform Transcendental Meditation continuously in order to improve society?
A: David Orme-Johnson

Unknown

Q: ____ became the world's first female telephone operator when she started working for the Boston Telephone Despatch company in 1878?
A: Emma Nutt

Zambian

Q: ____ once called Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa a "cabbage" and accused him of rigging his election, yet still went on to serve as his Minister of Commerce?
A: Dipak Patel

Medal of Honor

Q: ____ received the Medal of Honor for rescuing his crewmates from their sinking ship during the American Civil War?
A: Thomas E. Corcoran

State Conciliator of Norway

Q: ____ is the first female State Conciliator of Norway?
A: Kari Gjesteby

Jamaican patties

Q: ____ is a chain of 120 restaurants serving Jamaican patties, jerk chicken and curried goat?
A: Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill

Casimir III the Great

Q: ____ bore no sons to her husband, Casimir III the Great, which spelled the end of the Piast Dynasty in the Kingdom of Poland?
A: Jadwiga of Żagań

Slaughter House Gang

Q: ____ was a member of the Slaughter House Gang who was known for being the official "bloodsucker" at prize fights in New York?
A: George "Snatchem" Leese

University of Cambridge

Q: ____ spent 45 years at the University of Cambridge?
A: John Edward Marr

Brigade

Q: ____ was a brigade-sized British commando force named after their commander Robert Laycock?
A: Layforce

Fort Nisqually

Q: ____ was the location of the original Fort Nisqually trading post established in 1833 by the Hudson's Bay Company?
A: Sequalitchew Creek

Boston Marathon

Q: ____ was the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon?
A: Bobbi Gibb

Chequers

Q: ____ donated Chequers, a country house in Buckinghamshire, for use as the official country residence of the British Prime Minister?
A: Sir Arthur Lee

Germán Bernácer Prize

Q: ____ won the Germán Bernácer Prize for his work in financial economics on bubbles and crashes?
A: Markus Brunnermeier

Selvarasa Pathmanathan

Q: ____ opposed the nomination of Selvarasa Pathmanathan to lead the Tamil Tigers?
A: Perinpanayagam Sivaparan

Landed gentry

Q: ____ was born into the English landed gentry but moved to New York as an actor in 1901 and later became one of Broadway's greatest musical theatre directors and lighting designers?
A: Hassard Short

Assassination

Q: ____ is held to commemorate the anniversary of the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., husband of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino (pictured)?
A: Ninoy Aquino Day

British commando

Q: ____ was the first British commando unit raised during the Second World War?
A: No. 3 Commando

British Commando

Q: ____ was the first British Commando?
A: John Durnford-Slater

Campbell Case

Q: ____ approved the prosecution of the Campbell Case which was instrumental in the fall of the first Labour government?
A: Sir Patrick Hastings

Xposé

Q: ____ became the first ever male presenter of Xposé upon winning the reality television show Total Xposure?
A: Sean Munsanje

On-campus housing

Q: ____ is one of only a few community colleges to offer on-campus housing?
A: Shawnee Community College

Bharatanatyam

Q: ____ is one of only two Bharatanatyam experts in Pakistan?
A: Indu Mitha

Unknown

Q: ____ broke ground for its present campus on the very same day it received accreditation on March 27, 1969?
A: Rend Lake College

Larvik

Q: ____ was founded as a cooperation club in Larvik, Norway, but repeatedly failed to include the club Larvik Turn in the merger?
A: Larvik Fotball

Supreme Court of California

Q: ____ was both the youngest Justice and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, having been appointed at ages 25 and 27, respectively?
A: Hugh Murray

Krystyna Skarbek

Q: ____ unknowingly met Krystyna Skarbek, whose biography she would write two decades later, days before Skarbek's murder in 1952?
A: Madeleine Masson

Secaucus, New Jersey

Q: ____ lost his Secaucus, New Jersey Town Council seat to reform candidate Dennis Elwell, with both later resigning from political office following corruption charges?
A: Anthony Impreveduto

Electroshock therapy

Q: ____ was imprisoned and subject to electroshock therapy in the People's Republic of China for being a Falun Gong practitioner?
A: Jennifer Zeng

Test pilot

Q: ____ was a test pilot for Hawker Siddeley during the Second World War, and was the grandfather of British TV presenter Kate Humble?
A: Bill Humble

Windmills

Q: ____ was considered a world authority on windmills, watermills, animal engines and other forms of industrial archaeology?
A: Ken Major

Dallas

Q: ____ was the second mayor of Dallas, and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1861 to 1863?
A: John McClannahan Crockett

Luftwaffe

Q: ____ lost a leg in World War I but served as a general in the Luftwaffe of both the World War II Wehrmacht and the West German Bundeswehr?
A: Joachim-Friedrich Huth

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Q: ____ is investigating whether the debris floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can be collected and recycled?
A: Project Kaisei

ERA

Q: ____ was involved in the drafting of the ERA, challenged the appointment of Justice Hugo Black, and ran against Nixon for Senate?
A: Albert Levitt

First World War

Q: ____ was responsible for 4,400 of the 40,000 official British photographs made during the First World War? (example pictured)
A: Ernest Brooks

William Wallace

Q: ____ was the home of William Wallace's uncle, and it was here that he set off on the day that ended in the burning of the Barns of Ayr as an act of revenge?
A: Crosbie Castle and the Fullarton estate

Train

Q: ____ entertained two hundred people on a train as part of the twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations of the DART?
A: The Chapters

Textile engineering

Q: ____ established the first textile engineering school in the Southern United States in 1899 while president of the Georgia Institute of Technology?
A: Lyman Hall

Balinese

Q: ____ is the Supreme God according to Balinese Hinduism?
A: Acintya

Jamaican

Q: ____ became a leading Jamaican trade unionist after she took a job as a secretary for her future husband, Sir Alexander Bustamante?
A: Gladys Bustamante

Michigan

Q: ____ played for a national championship team at Michigan and coached Nebraska to two championships?
A: William "King" Cole

Enzyme

Q: ____ is an enzyme that breaks down stress hormones and decreases blood pressure?
A: renalase

Prostitution

Q: ____ was a center for prostitution for soldiers at Fort Laramie?
A: Three-Mile Hog Ranch

Failure

Q: ____ is often associated with failure of a major brain structure to develop?
A: Lujan-Fryns syndrome

Nickname

Q: ____ is credited with giving the nickname "Rose City" to Portland, Oregon?
A: Frederick Van Voorhies Holman

Hammer throw

Q: ____ won the U.S. national collegiate hammer throw championship in 1926 and was rated by Fielding Yost as the best football lineman of 1925?
A: Harry Hawkins

Winter Olympics

Q: ____ was the first Australian to win an individual medal at the Winter Olympics?
A: Zali Steggall

Lieutenant Governor of Texas

Q: ____ was the first Lieutenant Governor of Texas?
A: Albert Clinton Horton

Black Jewish

Q: ____ was the first Black Jewish lawyer in India?
A: Abraham Barak Salem

Unknown

Q: ____ was interpreted differently throughout Europe by contemporaries and remains a "lightning rod" of historical interpretations?
A: Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address

Srebrenica genocide

Q: ____ is a survivor of the Srebrenica genocide who is suing the Dutch state for its failure to protect his family from being killed by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995?
A: Hasan Nuhanović

Muslim Brotherhood

Q: ____ was chief judge of the court that sentenced seven Muslim Brotherhood leaders to death for participating in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser?
A: Gamal Salem

Medal of Honor

Q: ____ was awarded the Medal of Honor in World War I for running through no man's land to rescue wounded men?
A: Jesse N. Funk

Canon law

Q: ____ was the first canon law writer to write his works in English?
A: Henry Swinburne

Jihadist

Q: ____ is accused of leading a jihadist terrorist cell in North Carolina?
A: Daniel Boyd

Egypt

Q: ____ resigned his position as vice president of Egypt because Nasser adopted a more Soviet Union-style system for Egypt rather than closer United States relations?
A: Abdel Latif Boghdadi

Online forums

Q: ____ is a pattern of behavior where people feign illnesses in online forums to gain attention and sympathy?
A: Münchausen by Internet

Panch Kedar

Q: ____ is the only temple in the Panch Kedar circuit, a group of five sacred Shiva temples in the Garhwal Himalayas, accessible throughout the year?
A: Kalpeshwar

Burgundy

Q: ____ is the only estate in Burgundy to make wine exclusively from grand cru vineyards?
A: Bonneau du Martray

Class action

Q: ____ was the lead plaintiff in a class action suit in which a jury awarded a U.S. record punitive damage verdict of $145 billion against the tobacco industry?
A: Howard Engle

Peterborough Petes

Q: ____ was the Peterborough Petes's leading scorer during the 2008–09 Ontario Hockey League season?
A: Tony Romano

Oregon State Treasurer

Q: ____ was elected as the Oregon State Treasurer four times and served in the office longer than anyone else in Oregon history?
A: Thomas B. Kay

India

Q: ____ is a researcher, author and historian who analysed present-day conservation conflicts in India and found their roots in India's colonial past?
A: Mahesh Rangarajan

Cooperative agreement

Q: ____ is a cooperative agreement between the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs?
A: CEPPS

Category 5

Q: ____ was the first Category 5 equivalent super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale during 2009?
A: Typhoon Choi-wan

Ferrous

Q: ____ is a ferrous case hardening process that causes little shape distortion because of its low temperature (below 650 °C)?
A: ferritic nitrocarburizing

7 dan

Q: ____ is ranked as a 7 dan in the board game Go?
A: Yilun Yang

Louisiana Senate

Q: ____ was elected to the Louisiana Senate at the age of 73?
A: B.G. Dyess

Boston

Q: ____ was a Boston newspaperman and United States Army Major who wrote the first dictionary of the Apache language and an account of their culture in 1869?
A: John C. Cremony

Pakistani commando

Q: ____ was an elite Pakistani commando before he was killed by a U.S. drone in 2009?
A: Ilyas Kashmiri

Austin, Texas

Q: ____ was a pioneer of the Austin, Texas, punk rock scene, authored a series of mystery novels, and wrote a history of the Texas Turnpike Authority?
A: Jesse Sublett

Hong Kong

Q: ____ was recently sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in Hong Kong's biggest insider trading case?
A: Du Jun

Japan Academy Prize

Q: ____ won the 1995 Rookie of the Year Award at both the 19th Annual Japan Academy Prize ceremonies and at the 38th Blue Ribbon Awards for her debut acting role in the 1995 film Maborosi?
A: Makiko Esumi

Grape variety

Q: ____ is the only grape variety besides Chenin blanc permitted in the Loire Valley wine of Vouvray?
A: Arbois

Captain

Q: ____ was the only captain who fought at Copenhagen in 1801 to receive an honorary reward specifically for his actions during the battle?
A: John Lawford

Division I

Q: ____ was a Division I head coach for football and basketball at two different institutions?
A: Mike Milligan

Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs

Q: ____ was Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs for only 56 days, due to his cabinet withdrawing shortly after he was supplemented into it?
A: Lars Peder Brekk

Charter school

Q: ____ was the first charter school in Hillsboro, Oregon, when it opened in 2004?
A: City View

Norwegian Parliament

Q: ____ was elected to the Norwegian Parliament at the age of 25?
A: Jon Olav Alstad

Turkish

Q: ____ were the first Turkish soccer team entitled to participate in the UEFA Women's Champions League?
A: Trabzonspor

Hawaii

Q: ____ was the first person from Hawaii to receive the Medal of Honor?
A: Herbert K. Pililaau

Gene regulatory networks

Q: ____ discovered two gene regulatory networks that regulate the exit of cells from mitosis to the G1 phase?
A: Angelika Amon

Flying Tigers

Q: ____ was credited with shooting down nine-and-a-half Japanese planes and was himself shot down twice while serving with the Flying Tigers in Burma and China?
A: Maj. Gen. Charles Bond

Unknown

Q: ____ is famous for the "Tecolutla Monster" that washed up on shore in 1969?
A: Tecolutla, Veracruz

Cave

Q: ____ is the deepest cave in Southern England?
A: Charterhouse Cave

Orienteer

Q: ____ was elected Orienteer of the year 2007 by Norwegian sports journalists?
A: Anders Nordberg

Burnley

Q: ____ scored Burnley's first-ever competitive hat-trick?
A: Claude Lambie

Australian

Q: ____ is an Australian literary genre which features gritty depictions of urban and suburban life revolving around a nihilistic pursuit of sex, drugs and alcohol?
A: Grunge Lit

Agent provocateur

Q: ____ was a counterfeiter, swindler, charlatan, sham plotter, and agent provocateur, who was convicted by Isaac Newton, sent to Newgate Prison, and hanged on the gallows at Tyburn?
A: William Chaloner

Supernova 2008ha

Q: ____ was 14 years old when she discovered supernova 2008ha?
A: Caroline Moore

Luftwaffe

Q: ____ is the sole unit in the Luftwaffe still operating the F-4 Phantom II fighter?
A: Fighter Wing 71

Unknown

Q: ____ played the character "Moishe Ventilator" more than 1,000 times?
A: Yaakov Bodo

Appendectomy

Q: ____ had to perform an appendectomy on himself because he was the only doctor stationed at the Soviet Antarctic research station Novolazarevskaya?
A: Leonid Rogozov

Manchester United

Q: ____ scored a goal for Manchester United against Clapton Orient in 1925, despite only completing a transfer from Orient to United an hour before kick-off?
A: Albert Pape

American Pediatric Society

Q: ____ became the first female member of the American Pediatric Society in 1930?
A: Martha Wollstein

Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company

Q: ____ was Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and Governor of the Bank of England?
A: Sir John Henry Pelly

Soccer

Q: ____ was offered a soccer scholarship in the United States after studying sports development at Lincoln College?
A: Samuel Clucas

Modelling clay

Q: ____ is modelling clay that can be eaten as well as played with?
A: Yummy Dough

Haaretz

Q: ____ was the editor of Haaretz for over 50 years?
A: Gershom Schocken

Unknown

Q: ____ spent fifteen years making hundreds of maps of Dutch cities, but his work was only rediscovered 299 years after he began?
A: Jacob van Deventer

Unknown

Q: ____ was the last joint American-Australian battalion-sized operation in Vietnam?
A: Battle of Long Khanh

German Emperor William I

Q: ____ became the youngest soldier in the world when assigned to the 15th Mecklenburg Dragoons by German Emperor William I shortly after his birth?
A: Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg

Homoerotic

Q: ____ was an American artist whose "idealized, strongly homoerotic" depictions of men appeared in physique magazines?
A: George Quaintance

Mauritanian

Q: ____ is an award-winning Mauritanian film director who dubbed the voice of Donkey in the French language version of Shrek?
A: Med Hondo

Point

Q: ____ was the first to define the point as a unit of measurement in typography?
A: Francesco Torniello

Albert Medal

Q: ____ received the Albert Medal for removing depth charges from a ship while it was on fire?
A: Robin Hoare

United States

Q: ____ is one of only two dental officers ever to receive the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor?
A: Alexander Gordon Lyle

Edmonton Mercurys

Q: ____ played for the Edmonton Mercurys, an ice hockey team sponsored by a local car dealership, that won the gold medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics?
A: Al Purvis

Italianate

Q: ____ is the site of a large Italianate villa, built by Henry Goodridge as his own house?
A: Bathwick Hill, Bath

Particle accelerator

Q: ____ is a sculpture made out of a 1 million volt (low energy) particle accelerator?
A: Terrestrial Physics

Antibiotic

Q: ____ is a novel antibiotic against MRSA and other resistant bacterial strains and is under clinical trial as a treatment for infectious diseases such as community-acquired pneumonia?
A: ceftaroline

Drainage basin

Q: ____ is designated primarily to protect the drainage basin of Parakrama Samudra (pictured)?
A: Angammedilla National Park

Unknown

Q: ____ built in 1505 AD?
A: Fort Anjediva (pictured) built on Anjadip Island, under the jurisdiction of Goa, India, formerly under Portuguese rule, is in the vicinity of the Church of Our Lady of Springs

Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970

Q: ____ was a leading critic of the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, arguing that it led to newspaper monopolies and the demise of smaller papers in cities in the United States?
A: Stephen Barnett

Funk

Q: ____ were widely assumed to be an American funk band until their identities were revealed to be British session musicians including Mike Vernon and Pete Wingfield?
A: the Olympic Runners

Ghanaian

Q: ____ is the first Ghanaian to qualify for the Winter Olympics?
A: Kwame "The Snow Leopard" Nkrumah-Acheampong

Costume designer

Q: ____ was the costume designer for Die Hard with a Vengeance and Bicentennial Man?
A: Joseph G. Aulisi

University College London

Q: ____ was the third member of his family to become a legal professor at University College London, after his father and grandfather?
A: Sir Maurice Amos

Village Colleges

Q: ____ was the second of the Village Colleges established by Henry Morris in his vision for a better education for country people in Cambridgeshire?
A: Bottisham Village College

Special election

Q: ____ lost a special election for the Louisiana State Senate in 2005, despite having led the first round of balloting?
A: Diane Winston

Neue Freie Presse

Q: ____ managed to get the Neue Freie Presse to print a letter in which he complained about the use of fireproof coal and oval wheels by the Federal Railway of Austria?
A: Arthur Schütz

Unknown

Q: ____ is the only state highway in New Jersey where neither of its termini is another roadway?
A: New Jersey Route 324

Lyrical language

Q: ____ is a lyrical language created by French drummer and composer Christian Vander for his progressive rock band Magma?
A: Kobaïan

Miniaturist

Q: ____ was the first English miniaturist to paint on ivory instead of vellum?
A: Bernard Lens III

Aztec

Q: ____ was a mythological Aztec fire-serpent, viewed as the spirit form of Xiuhtecuhtli, the fire god, and was the lightning-like weapon of the god Huitzilopochtli?
A: Xiuhcoatl

Western Union

Q: ____ was a messenger for Western Union, a telephone operator, a hardware business owner and a city councilman before he was elected mayor of Oakland, California in 1905?
A: Frank Kanning Mott

Siege of Malta

Q: ____ was the only English knight present at the siege of Malta and is the only person to be buried in the crypt of Valetta Cathedral who was not a Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller?
A: Sir Oliver Starkey

Moroccan

Q: ____ was a Moroccan ambassador to the court of Charles II in England in 1681–82?
A: Mohammed bin Hadou

Spider toxin

Q: ____ is a spider toxin from the venom of the South American tarantula Psalmopoeus cambridgei (pictured)?
A: psalmotoxin

Los Angeles

Q: ____ is the publisher and Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles-based La Opinión, the largest Spanish language newspaper in the United States?
A: Monica C. Lozano

Hurdler

Q: ____ was a two-time state champion hurdler at Western Branch High School before he enrolled at Penn State to play football?
A: Kevin Newsome

Lodi, New Jersey

Q: ____ spent 38 years in the prison system for the murder of two Lodi, New Jersey, police officers, making him the longest-serving prisoner in the state as of his parole in 2002?
A: Thomas Trantino

Chemical reaction

Q: ____ discovered in 1890 a chemical reaction which is still used to study the effect of solvent on reaction rate?
A: Nikolai Menshutkin

Cricketer

Q: ____ was the only English cricketer involved in the 1924 Test Trial match not to go on to represent England at Test cricket?
A: Dar Lyon

Colony of Maryland

Q: ____ was appointed the first royal governor of the colony of Maryland after a Protestant rebellion, but died after only a year in office?
A: Lionel Copley

Liberace

Q: ____ hosted recitals by Liberace and Risë Stevens and served as the home of Patrick Swayze's character in Donnie Darko?
A: Leonie Pray House

Nyingma

Q: ____ is the only monastery of the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism in Ladakh?
A: Takthok Monastery

Gilbert and Sullivan

Q: ____ created the role of Ralph Rackstraw in Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore in 1878?
A: Sir George Power, 7th Baronet of Kilfane

Cloud forest

Q: ____ is an important and isolated cloud forest, however its small size and isolation is jeopardizing its long term survival?
A: Hakgala Strict Nature Reserve

Russian

Q: ____ is a Russian art collective whose provocative works have included public group sex and staged hangings?
A: Voina

George Washington

Q: ____ published articles on the history of the toothbrush, George Washington's dentures, and one entitled "Did You Know A Dentist Embalmed President Lincoln?"?
A: John Hyson

Rebecca Riots

Q: ____ was transported to Australia for his part in the Rebecca Riots, an uprising that saw the mob leaders cross-dressing as women?
A: David Davies

Governor of American Samoa

Q: ____ was the first Governor of American Samoa styled as such, the previous ones holding the title "Governor of Tutuila"?
A: William Michael Crose

Tropical cyclone

Q: ____ was the first tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in Mexican state of Campeche?
A: Hurricane Brenda

Uruguay

Q: ____ spent ten years creating an artwork that shows the people who disappeared during the dictatorships in Uruguay?
A: Antonio Frasconi

Atlantic tropical cyclone

Q: ____ was the easternmost forming Atlantic tropical cyclone on record?
A: Tropical Storm Christine

Richard Wagner

Q: ____ created two roles in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle?
A: Luise Jaide

Richard Wagner

Q: ____ created the role of Brangäne in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the first of two Wagner characters she premiered?
A: Anna Deinet

Naval Governor of American Samoa

Q: ____ was appointed Naval Governor of American Samoa after he had retired from active duty?
A: John Martin Poyer

USS Michigan

Q: ____ was removed from command of the USS Michigan for allowing the sailors under his command to organize advising committees?
A: Clark Daniel Stearns

Pulitzer Prize

Q: ____ won a 1953 Pulitzer Prize for anti-KKK reporting, "waged on their own doorstep at the risk of economic loss and personal danger" that led to the conviction of over 100 Klansmen?
A: W. Horace Carter

Maya

Q: ____ is a crude non-Maya sculptural style distributed along the Pacific slope of southern Mesoamerica and dating to the Preclassic Period?
A: potbelly sculpture

Surgeon

Q: ____ was an English surgeon who in 1867 was expelled from the Obstetrical Society of London for performing clitoridectomies without his patients' consent?
A: Isaac Baker Brown

Greece

Q: ____ is one of three areas in Greece that hosts populations of bears?
A: Pindus National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Q: ____ was lost for 37 days while exploring what would become Yellowstone National Park?
A: Truman C. Everts

Persian

Q: ____ is a collection of 52 Persian stories narrated through a parrot to prevent his owner (pictured) from committing adultery while her husband was away?
A: Tutinama

Chemical reaction

Q: ____ is not actually a disease, but a chemical reaction that attacks shells in storage or on display?
A: Byne's disease

John Lennon

Q: ____ was John Lennon's inspiration for the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"?
A: Lucy Vodden

Elvis Presley

Q: ____ was the designated song screener for Elvis Presley?
A: Freddy Bienstock

Red and white

Q: ____ is celebrated every 10 September by releasing 30,000 red and white balloons (pictured) which represent the people of Gibraltar?
A: Gibraltar's National Day

Ottoman Empire

Q: ____ was the first French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1534, and that he negotiated in 1536 a Franco-Ottoman treaty of alliance?
A: Jean de La Forêt

Fuel tanks

Q: ____ is used to protect the fuel tanks of military aircraft such as the A-10 Thunderbolt II?
A: reticulated foam

Opera

Q: ____ became an opera singer because a cracked vertebra sustained as a high school football defensive tackle derailed his plans for a sports career?
A: Gary Lakes

Joseph Haydn

Q: ____ was the first conductor to record the complete symphonies of Joseph Haydn?
A: Ernst Märzendorfer

Jewish

Q: ____ was the first non-Jewish member of an Israeli government?
A: Abd el-Aziz el-Zoubi

Military coup

Q: ____ was the codename for the 1977 military coup that overthrew the regime of Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto?
A: Operation Fair Play

Python: Adopting Perl's given and Smart Matching

2009-11-30T21:00:00.003-05:00

Python doesn't have a switch statement. This makes it relatively unusual among modern languages, but it's not terribly shocking. It has never been entirely clear what the useful equivalent of C's very efficient and elegant switch should be in high-level languages. However, one useful signpost is Perl's late addition: given.

In Perl 5 (released around the dawn of Python) there was no switch equivalent. Many of the same hacks that are used in Python to work around this were suggested to Perl users. However, when crafting a spec for Perl 6, a switch statement was high on the list of user requests, so "given" was introduced. Later, as Perl 6 prototype implementation features were scrutinized for back-porting to Perl 5, given was selected as a useful bit of low-hanging fruit that didn't require massive changes to the language. In Perl 5.10, the given statement is now available with the use of a special pragma. Presumably, this pragma will be removed in future versions.

So, back to Python. Is given the right way to go? Perhaps. Given assumes a lower-level tool called smart-matching, and Python currently has no such mechanism. The introduction of smart-matching has the potential to be disruptive to the language if done poorly. Great care should therefore be taken, but a minimal approach should be acceptable.

(read on for the proposal...)

Here's one way to introduce smart-matching and given to Python:

The "ismatch" method is provided by object, and uses "==" to compare its "self" to its single parameter, "target" like so:

def ismatch(self, target):
return self == target

However, classes are expected to provide useful ismatch methods of their own. For example, the ismatch method for the "re" class's compiled regular expressions objects should apply the regular expression to a target string or perform basic equality checking if the target is, itself, an re.

The given/when statement is thus a wrapper for invocations of ismatch which may or may not be optimized for trivial cases in any given implementation. Given takes a single parameter like if or for. It then requires a block of indented code which contains two types of statements: "when" and "default". The when statement also takes one parameter and introduces a block of indented code. The default statement is like "else" and takes no parameter.

Each when clause is tried, calling its object's ismatch method with the given object as its parameter. If any ismatch evaluates to True, then matching stops. Again, suitable optimizations may be performed in cases where all of the when operators have simple, constant values.

Here's an example:

given name:
when re.compile(r'^Ma?c[A-Z]'):
print "Hey mac!"
when "Jason Voorhees":
      print "It's OK, he just wanted his machete"
default:
      print "Who are you?"

Perl defines given such that the when block is just another kind of statement, and neither must it occur only within a given block nor must it be the only kind of statement within such a block. I think that Python doesn't need or want this much flexibility in the syntax. It's not that it doesn't make sense in Perl, but Python simply isn't that forgiving a language. However, this presents some complexity when you wish to provide one block of code and multiple possible matches for it.

This is a very special case, since the body of both when statements is shared. Another unusual case is handled in C where one case statement falls through to a second one. In Python, each block is a discrete scope from which the default action is to exit the given, so instead of falling through, the next block must be explicitly invoked. Here's how that might look:
when item_a:
code ...

continue when
when item_b:
    code ...

By using "continue when" and not just a bare "continue" we avoid co-opting the flow control of an enclosing loop.

In Perl, magical variables are often populated with side-effect data. In Python this is frowned on, so a page can be taken out of the exception handling book to address the need for when clauses that have useful return values:

given foo:
when re.compile(r'^(a(b(c))?)'), match:
print "Found", match.group(2)

Notice the comma with a variable after it. This is very similar to try/except, only instead of an exception, the named variable will store the return value of the smart-match. In the case of regular expressions, this is the match object or None, and since we only execute the block if the return value is true, we know that it's not None.

So why use "given"/"when" instead of C's "switch"/"case"? Certainly either can be used, but the motivation behind the naming in Perl was to indicate the kind of operation being performed. It's not simply the case that you're performing a jump into an indexed bit of code the way C does, but you're actually performing a set of operations with the given value as context. In this sense, the construct is more like Pascal's "with" statement than C's switch.

I know that the Perl and Python communities have not always relished sharing features because of the fundamentally different design philosophies, however, it seems to me that given and smart-matching represent a case where Perl has introduced a useful mechanic which Python can equally benefit from (just as Python's parameter passing semantics were adopted by Perl 6).

First Flight in Dragonblight

2009-11-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

World of Warcraft is a beautiful game, but sometimes the grind-heavy aspects of the game make it easy to forget that. Today I took my Turbo-Charged Flying Machine for a spin for the first time (my engineer finally got around to making one), and I decided to Fraps up a movie of the experience. The music is by Celestial Aeon Project, from their albums Aeon 2 and Mind's Eye, both of which are distributed under a Creative Commons license at Jamendo.com.

Followup on Droid

2009-11-13T19:00:00.005-05:00

As you know if you read this site, I got a Verizon/Google Droid to replace my iPhone last week. Having had a full week to play with it, here's my followup on my original take:

The keyboard is nowhere near as annoying as I thought. I am back to iPhone typing speed, and perhaps a bit faster.
The camera app is still annoying. It's hard to press the camera button long enough to get the app to come up without having it snap a shot immediately, and saving a photo will cause music to skip.
Initially I thought the lack of a sleep mode (for playing music when I go to bed) was going to annoy me, but as Apple says, there's an app for that.
Music management is more tolerable since I started using MediaMonkey, an iTunes-alike that handles just about any device. This also does smart playlists ala Apple, but the free version doesn't have that feature ($20 for the pay version).
Dropped WiFi connections are still a bit of a pain, but not as bad as I'd feared. The phone takes longer to recover than the iPhone, but it does so. Weak WiFi is actually more of an issue, especially for file transfers (e.g. app installation).
A week in, and I'm getting used to the combined messaging features, but popup would be a nice option.
I do like the Exchange integration for the iPhone better than for the Droid, but that's a relatively minor issue. They both work.

I still don't think the Droid is an iPhone killer, but then it doesn't have to be. There will always be a core loyal audience for the iPhone, and if this phone cured cancer, I don't think they'd give it up. On the other hand, the Droid is comparable on every level, and better in a few key areas such as navigation and openness.

If you have a Google Apps account (e.g. for work, school or a vanity domain), then you really should get an Android phone. It's capable of syncing from both your normal Google account and your Apps account for mail, calendar and contacts, which is pretty huge. Oddly, though, it won't do IM through Apps as far as I can tell.

USB Droid: Can't Connect?

2009-11-13T18:45:00.001-05:00

When I first got my Motorola/Verizon/Google Droid phone, I thought it was broken because it wouldn't talk to my laptop. I tried plugging it in to multiple USB ports, resetting, searching for drivers, etc.

It turns out that it's really easy to get this working, and once you do, you'll understand something that's critical about your new phone: everything important shows up in the notice bar at the top of the screen.

When you plug the Droid in to a USB host like a laptop or desktop system, it brings up a notification (USB logo in the status bar). Place your finger off the screen, above this notice, and swipe directly down onto the screen. This will bring up the all-important notification menu. Here, you'll see things like "USB Connected" and various app installation notices if you've recently downloaded anything. Touch the USB notice now and it will bring up a dialog box that asks if you want to mount the SD card on your host computer. Press "Mount" and you'll have full access to the SD card from your system. When you're done, you can either repeat this process or just unplug the USB cable to force it to re-mount internally.

My Photos On the Web

2009-11-10T18:30:00.006-05:00

I've always put my photography up on the Web under the Creative Commons licensing that allows others to use and distribute them as long as they give credit and allow others to do the same (the CC-By-SA license). Over time, I've seen my pictures used for more and more things that I'd never have dreamed. One church has used a panorama of mine for their banner and I've seen my images used for several news articles, such as the story of tequila being used to make diamonds.

For those who might want to use some of my images in the future, the best place to look is on my Picasa folders. One of these, Misc Photos, contains what I consider to be some of my best general work, though I have other sections for nature photography; specific events like the Tall Ships and Fireworks; and so on. You need only credit me and provide some way for people to find the original in order to use these images.

Droid Replaces My iPhone

2009-11-08T12:00:00.010-05:00

Friday, I went out and got a Droid to replace my iPhone (which I've handed down to someone else). My first impression is that its very nice, but for every iPhone annoyance that the Droid fixes, there's a new one to replace it.

Here are a few:

Keyboard is far too prone to multiple keypress
Camera is slow, and prone to blurry images
The iPhone had a sleep function (timed shutoff) that Droid lacks
Music management is horrible
Apple's smart playlists are clearly a killer feature
Recovery from a dropped wifi connection is not as graceful
No popup SMS/messaging notifications (brief scroll on top bar instead)
Google Voice / built-in messaging can be confusing (which one am I selecting?)

On the other hand, it has:

An open app store
Free turn-by-turn navigation with a fairly cheap car-mount
A keyboard at all (narrowly a win over none... narrowly)
Great email/SMS integration if you use gmail and Google Voice
Search by voice for nearly everything
"Back" button works across apps

Some things that I think would improve the experience:

Add a countdown timer that kills the browser and music player when it goes off
Make the music player automatically create playlists from directories on the SD
Add smart playlists (see my other post)
Build in some software guards against multiple keypress
Improve guessing with respect to poking at links on the Web browser (I often get the wrong link)

Overall, it's a great phone, but in some respects, it leaves me longing for my iPhone. I'm sure that over time it will become my favorite phone, but it's not a clear iPhone killer.

How To Use Smart Playlists In iTunes

2009-11-08T11:39:00.002-05:00

Do you have an iPhone and many more Gigabytes of music you love than you can fit on it? Do you get frustrated over having to choose what to put on the phone? Here's a way to never compromise your collection while still carrying around only a trivial number of tunes:

Create a playlist for a kind of music you want to listen to. You can use one of the built-in smart playlists like "Highest Rated" or build your own (for example, I have a "Quiet" playlist of songs I like to go to sleep to)
Now create a new smart playlist and give it the rule: "Playlist", "is", and the playlist from above.
Select the checkbox next to "Limit to" enter "50" or "100" for the count and for "selected by" use "Least recently played".
Now when syncing your phone, go to the "Music" tab under the iPhone's entry in iTunes. Select the option to only place selected playlists on the phone, and select your new smart playlist.

(more...)
Now when you sync your phone, that playlist will get the 50 or 100 least recently played entries from the original playlist. Every time you play a song on your phone, it will update the time and it will be removed the next time you sync, to be replaced by another song you haven't heard in a while.

To take this a step further I have a playlist that I put anything I download from Jamendo, Amazon or any other free music source into. These are thousands of songs. The playlist is a "for review" list. I then have a smart playlist as above, but I've added a second selector: rating is less than 1 star. That means that my new smart playlist will hide any entry that I give a rating to. My other playlists are based on rating, so as I rate songs, they appear in those playlists (I have one playlist for 4-5 stars and another for 3+ for more variety).