Current events
On January 5th, a door plug detached on a Boing 737 Max 9 forcing pilots to make an emergency landing. What airline did this accident occur on?
Alaska airlines.
When a password is limited strictly to numeric characters, the secret is often referred to as a PIN. What does that acronym stand for?
Personal Identification Number
Who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,"
John F. Kennedy
What is the common name for the food that is technically steamed balls of crushed durum wheat semolina? It originated as a Maghrebi dish served with a stew spooned, and it has a repetitive "C" name.
Couscous
Some of our favorite collective nouns for animals include a congregation of alligators, a business of ferrets, an ostentation of peacocks, and a gaggle of what other fowl?
Geese.
Thousands of faculty from the largest college system in the US began to strike on the first day of their 2024 spring semester. What college system is this?
The California State University (CSU) system.
Which American tech company started with its founders' idea to rent out an air mattress in their San Fransisco living room to travelers hoping to avoid the city's high cost of rent?
Airbnb
Who said, We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock; the rock was landed on us,”?
Malcolm X.
What popular two word cable TV channel, owned by Discovery, offers shows such as “Chopped” and “Iron Chef America?”
Food Network
What was the first Disney animated feature movie that was not based on an already existing story?
The Lion King.
At least 8 people are dead following a landslide in freezing winter temperatures in what country?
China.
Scientists in South Korea are developing a robot that can change its entire appearance to match its surrounding colors, like a chameleon. This will be a high tech example of what “C” practice of disguising something by covering up how it looks?
Camouflage
Who said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,”?
Muhammad Ali.
What four-letter word is often used as the common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs? Typically, this word is only used when the mollusc is edible.
Clam
What is the national sport of Canada?
Lacrosse.
Fire ants are an invasive species in Australia as well as many other places. Why officials been especially concerned about the spread of fire ants with recent floods?
Fire ants are able to form rafts, therefore allowing them to spread very quickly across the continent.
In what early computer game did pioneers often die of dysentery? The game was later inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.
Oregon Trail
Who said, "God “does not play dice,”?
Albert Einstein.
Introduced by Campbell Soup Company and marketed as "less messy" than spaghetti, what kid-friendly food product sells hundreds of millions of units per year and has varieties with both Meatballs and Sliced Franks?
SpaghettiOs.
What are the only two mammals that lay eggs?
Echidna and platypus.
An indigenous community in South America recently won a legal fight to reclaim their ancestral land after more than 80. What country did this take place in?
ByteDance is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing that is most famously the owner of what mega-popular social media platform?
TikTok
Who said, “The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here,”?
Abraham Lincoln.
In multiple versions of an advertisement for a particular type of candy, a character named Mr. Owl returns a used candy stick to a young boy. What is the candy being advertised?
Tootsie Pop.
While often confused with llamas, what breed of camelid is used for fleece production, while its cousin the llama is not?
Alpaca.
As an effort to combat wildlife poaching, Nigeria has recently destroyed a record $11.2 million of what? As a hint, this product is a body part of an endangered African species.
Elephant tusks.
PDF is, unsurprisingly, an acronym. Name any of the three words represented by PDF.
Portable Document Format
Who said, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,”?
Mark Twain in response to an 1897 newspaper report that mistook him for a seriously ill and similarly named cousin.
Sushi is not an interchangeable term with "raw fish" but is a more general term for a Japanese way of preparing and serving vinegared rice. Speaking of raw fish. . . what is the term for the raw fish salad served in a bowl which originated in Hawaii?
Poke.
What is the world's longest river?
The Amazon River.
In India, a man presumed dead was jolted back to life due to what event during his transportation to be cremated?
Laser is an acronym that stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of _______. What word fills in the blank?
Who said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,”?
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ernie, Elmer, Buckets, Ma, and Doc are just some of the elves who help advertise the sweet treats of what food brand, which has been owned by Ferrero since 2019?
Keebler.
Which is the world's most earthquake-prone country?
Japan
Indonesia has experienced what natural disaster for the second time in just over a month?
Volcano eruption.
What mechanical device can be described as a method of applying pressure to an inked surface onto a medium, thereby transferring the ink? This two word device has St. Brigit as its patron saint.
Printing Press
Who said, “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,”?
J. Robert Oppenheimer
If you order this Latin American or Filipino dish, you'll normally see it spelled in Spanish, but if you really wanted to translate it into English it would probably be patty, pie, or turnover. What is this baked or fried pastry with filling that comes from the Spanish verb which means "to enbread?"
Empanada.
Who invented the airplane?
The Wright Brothers.
Pablo Escobar's famous ____________ are going to be culled by the Columbian government.
Cocaine hippos.
During Apple's 2017 presentation of its new line of iPhones it included their new form of biometric security and authentication under what name?
Face ID
Who said, “People who boast about their IQ are losers,”?
Stephen Hawking.
The orange-and-blue packaging of what Nestle candy bar proclaims that it is "crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery?"
Butterfinger.
The process of weathered material moving due to gravity is called what?
Erosion