Missing Link Friday is back. And to start off the new year, here’s a short quiz. Follow the links to check your answers.
1. When the Japanese look at the moon, they don’t see a man, writes Catallaxy’s Ken Nielsen. According to Nielsen what do they see?
A. A lotus root
B. A rabbit pounding rice cakes
C. A yawning dog
D. A boy gathering wood
2.According to Mervyn Bendle at Quadrant’s History Wars blog, the teaching of history in Australia is dominated by:
A. Neo-Marxism
B. Postmodernism
C. Radical feminism
D. Post-colonial studies
E. Radical environmentalism
F. Gay studies
G. Other contemporary radical ideologies
H. All of the above
3. According to Katy Barnett, when someone says the words “climate sceptic”, the stereotype which springs to most people’s minds is:
A. A right-wing Holocaust-denying lunatic
B. A half-witted nutter who spends every lunch hour posting comments on Andrew Bolt’s blog
C. The kind of person who thinks evolution is an unproven theory but insists that the Laffer curve is a scientifically proven fact
D. Somebody who doesn’t hang washing on the line because you can never be sure it won’t rain
4. Earlier this week Andrew Bolt wrote that the Age is coming to resemble "a student newspaper from an Australian university circa 1970, selling a totalitarian ideology already responsible for the enslavement of more than 1 billion people and the deaths of perhaps 100 million." Which Australian blogger was he attacking in his post?
A. Kim from Larvatus Prodeo
B. Economist John Quiggin
C. John Passant from En Passant
D. Bill Muehlenberg from Quadrant
5. Channel Seven’s Sunrise show interviewed "weather expert" Ken Ring to help viewers decide whether recent floods and blizzards have anything to do with climate change. According to blogger Graham Readfearn, what are some of Ring’s other accomplishments?
A. School teacher, clown and author of a book on palmistry for cats
B. University lecturer, New Zealand politician and Druid priest
C. TV cooking show presenter, organic horticulturist and Greens senate candidate
D. Mochi maker, oboe player and bee keeper
6. Joshua Gans posts an advertisement from 1973. The text reads: "This could be the ________ you’ll leave to your great-grandson." What product is the ad referring to?
A. A Swiss watch
B. A digital watch with push button LED display
C. Home movies preserved on ‘u matic’ videocassettes
D. A reel to reel tape recorder
7. Late last year US blogs were abuzz with news that Brooklyn bees were producing red honey. What had the bees foraging on that made the honey red?
A. Crimson bottlebrush from a new plant nursery specialising in Australian natives
B. Corn syrup coloured with Red Dye No. 40 from a local maraschino cherry factory
C. Leaking barrels of Sun Tang Big Red soda concentrate illegally dumped on a vacant block in Red Hook
D. There was no red honey, the story turned out to be a hoax
8. At Still Life With Cat, Kerryn Goldsworthy has posted her new year resolutions. Which of the following is not one of them?
A. To make fresh cherry and toasted almond ice cream
B. Learn how to make haggis from scratch
C. Go on a diet of fresh fruit, raw vegetables, mineral water and peppermint tea
D. Finish writing a book about Adelaide
9. Marion Nestle at Food Politics writes about Pepsi’s plan to "snackify beverages and drinkify snacks". According to Nestle, one of the major ingredients listed on Tropolis Squeezable Fruit packs is actually a euphemism for sugar. Is that ingredient:
A. Fruit juice concentrate
B. Sorbitan tristearate
C. Tragacanth
D. Sucrose acetate isobutyrate
10. Robert Merkel at lefty blog Larvatus Prodeo has a new car. Which car did Robert buy?
A. Toyota Prius
B. 1988 Walkinshaw Commodore
C. Fiat 500 TwinAir
D. Volkswagen Polo GTI
Love it.
I ruled out 5C and 5D fairly quickly but got stumped by the other two possibilities.
Kevin Ring sounds like a man who knows a good scam when he sees one, so he’s eminently qualified to comment on climate science (although he’s unlikely to explain anything useful about either climate or science, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary in this particular discussion).
Speaking of “summer quiz”, I’m still waiting for a summer, but I’ll settle for a week without rain. Yeah I know, “weather” is when it’s cold, “climate” is when it’s hot. We all know 2010 was the hottest year on record despite snow over half the world and rain over the other half. Wake me up when the Northwest Passage is open to commercial shipping.
Please please give me the answers, otherwise I’ll never sleep. I do love a good quiz so keep these coming but please please please give me the answers.
[…] Don Arthur’s Missing Link. […]
1. B
2. H
3. A
4. C
5. A
6. D
7. B
8. B
9. A
10. D