Introductory Questions
Describe the "slice-of-life" genre.
Film genre focused on realistic, light-hearted depictions of daily life - literally a "slice" of life!
What is a megaproject?
a complex, large-scale operation that usually takes many years to complete, typically cost around $1 billion and have large impacts on the surrounding area
What is haruspicy?
form of divination in the religion of ancient Rome where animals are sacrificed to inspect their organs (especially livers of sheep and chickens) to communicate with the gods, especially before a war
What is a mecha?
humanoid robots
What was the name of the famous Russian monk who befriended the last tsar of Russia and was eventually assassinated in 1916?
Rasputin
In Avatar: the Last Airbender, how many years was the main character Aang asleep for?
100 years
What does FTTP stand for (clue: it has something to do with Australian wifi!)?
Fibre-to-the-premise
What is the Barnum Effect?
What is the time signature of the song "Caribbean Blue" by Enya?
3/4 - waltz time signature
Define unipolarity.
When one country holds the majority of the power in the global stage
What is Moore's Law?
the observation that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years with minimal rise in cost (aka: every 2 years, technology will become half as expensive)
List at least TWO reasons why establishing a high speed rail in Canada is challenging.
Lack of population density, federal government lack of train monopoly, land acquisition costs, rail/train/planning costs
In the poem Ode I. 11 by Horace, the theme is to enjoy the present. This is exemplified in its most famous line, "carpe diem", which translates to...
seize the day
A [BLANK] is an "upside-down" train, where instead of touching the ground, the train is attached by the ceiling. They're unpopular because they're slow, expensive and a pain to engineer compared to the normal grounded version. What is this technology called?
Suspension railway
What is the difference between a core country and a peripheral country?
Core country: more developed, higher-skill capital-based economies (ie. Japan, Canada)
Periphery country: less developed, lower-skill, labour-based economies (ie. Bangladesh, India)
Sam Altman, the inventor of ChatGPT, proposed a potential governmental system with a new set of economic policies. One of these policies entails a universal yearly income for every person. How much is this income?
$13,500
Saudi Arabia is launching the massive $8.8 trillion NEOM mega-project, which is comprised of a series of smaller mega projects. Two of those include the Oxagon and The Line. Describe those two megaprojects.
The Line: three-layered, 170km long linear “smart city” designed without cars, streets, or carbon emissions
Oxagon: world's first and largest fully automated port and integrated logistics hub + port, world's first floating city
Fill in the blank: "Bazi" refers to a Chinese concept that one's fate is decided by their birth cycle, year, month, day, and hour. This is a cyclical system, meaning that people would have matching destinies every [BLANK] years.
1,800
Supersonic transports are civilian aircrafts that can travel "faster than sound", but only two have ever been in commercial operation. What were they called?
The Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144
The Carolingian Empire, which lasted 87 years, is often considered the first phase of the Holy Roman Empire, occupying modern France, Germany, Italy, and more. It was known by three other names at the time. List all three.
Roman Empire, the Franko-Roman Empire, the Christian Empire
Finish this famous phrase from Charles Dickens' book series A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... foolishness."
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."
The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Although it is very successful, it is also controversial for its environmental impacts - including causing the extinction of which species?
Chinese river dolphin
Your job as a diviner s to interpret jiaobei (moon blocks), which are crescent shaped and have both a flat and round side. When you throw them, both blocks land on the round side. What does this mean?
Xiaojiao (laughing answer), symbolizing laughter by the gods: can mean disapproval, or that the question was either obvious or unclear
The academic Francis Fukuyama published a 1989 controversial paper about the "end of history", discussing liberal governments and market economies. According to him, what three things does a liberal democratic state require?
1) democratic (allow elections + elections result in citizens getting what they want)
2) the state possesses sufficient strength and authority to enforce its laws and administer services.
3) the state and its highest leaders are not above the law
After a long period of conflict, The Song Dynasty reunited most of China. What was the main factor that led to the Song Dynasty eventually collapsing?
Mongol invasion