Getting published 2
Syntax corner
Getting published
The British Invasion
Salvador
The quality of sanity is not strained
Going round in circles
Where do you hide your money?
For film buffs
SteamboatsQuiz at Nine – where on earth?
1. It’s international telephone dialing code is 672, has no reptiles, has one ATM machine, is very dry and almost never snows.
2. It’s capital is built on the River Effra, it’s northernmost city was at war with Russia for 110 years, it has a town named after the beavers in the river and there are more chickens than humans.
3. There are 4.9 million mobile phones and an annual mobile phone throwing competition, there are two official languages, it broadcasts news in Latin and has many lakes.
4. Political power was once monopolized by the True Whig Party, it’s the most dangerous country on earth, Charles Taylor and Amos Sawyer are just two of those struggling to take power.
5. For a religious country, it has one of the lowest marriage rates, the windmills turn clockwise, it has Stab City, it’s native language is hardly spoken and it has vastly more mobiles than landlines.
Answers
Antarctica, England, Finland, Liberia, Ireland
Filed under: Diversions, Leisure & travel
I got 2 and 4.
4 was easy because at Uni I knew the twin sons of the then dictator. “What’s your father’s political party called?” I asked.
“Man, we’s de True Whigs.”
“Ah, you’ve still got Whigs and Tories?”
“No, man, jus’ Whigs.”
OK, I’m not publishing them, but I got 1, by exhausive search in the BT telephone directory, paper version. I got 5 by logical deduction (and I’m sure I’m right). I also go 3 as a first guess and then checking, and I’m pretty sure I’m right.
However, I failed on 2 and 4, until I used computer search (so Dearieme and I need to consider teaming up).
Definitely much much to hard; well, at least compared to yesterday.
It’s got to the stage where I’d like to know the rules.
Best regards
Dearieme, I knew you’d get 2, well done on 4.
Nigel, no rules. Just trying to find that happy medium which will challenge but not flummox. N1 was interesting, was it not?
James writes: N1 was interesting, was it not?
Oh dear. Now he’s gone and made me look harder. His choice of place actually shares the 672 international dialing code with somewhere else (well, at least according to my phone book, if not Wikipedia), which is what I found. In fact my phone book does not mention his choice. The rainfall (rather than precipitation) is what settles it.
I wonder if anyone knows where I found: it has its own Internet country designation (and James’ choice does not, at least and again according to Wikipedia).
N5 is also a very good one.
Best regards
Moving on:- trying to solve James’ puzzles without using the Internet has thrown up for me just how massive a factual resource we have in the World-Wide Web, search engines and sites such as Wikipedia (though of course accuracy, truth and partisan motivation are problems).
For me, this moves the goalposts of rational argument, away from personal factual knowledge to be more reliant on deduction (and even induction sometimes).
This does make it so much easier to challenge established authority, such as governments. They no longer have a near monopoly on easy access to the truth.
However, as so many truths about and for government originate within government, strong pressure must be kept up, through such things as freedom of information laws and, particularly, government departments of statistical analysis and publication. And access to raw statistics is especially important, rather than governments’ analysis and summary spin.
Best regards
Nigel, I couldn’t agree more. When I saw that Antarctica [let's name it] was 672, an internet snippet, it was clearly a choice for the quiz and then it was a case of surrounding it with other snippets. Ditto for England and the Effra.
The internet has definitely had that effect. So when the PM says we have no choice but to go to war, we can now check with our colleagues in Germany, say and see if this is a beat up. That much is an improvement in my eyes.
And yet, even Google has its unintended [perhaps] tyranny. By ensuring that your side of an argument floods the web, all your arguments are on the Google front and Nos 2-5 pages and the other man’s argument is relegated.
Given the new impatience these days, that ensures that only your side is heard.