The Week of October 27, 2024 by CoenM

Description


Instructions

Answer the questions below to the best of your ability without using outside resources. Outside references include (but certainly are not limited to) searching for an answer on the internet, looking at maps, using a calculator, or asking a friend (or foe) if they know the answer. Basically, you are relying on your brain (and maybe a pencil and paper).

For each correct answer, you will receive 15 points. You must also mark 5 questions as "money" questions. For each money question that you answer correctly, you will receive bonus points equal to the percent of players who answered incorrectly. (That is, if 25% of players got a question right, its money bonus would be worth 75 points.) You still don't get any points for a wrong answer, though, so try to select the hardest questions you think you have answered correctly. (Note: You can't use outside resources to help pick your money questions either.)

This quiz is closed for grading, and you can no longer submit answers. When the author has finished grading, the results will be published on this page.

Questions

Question 1

A surprise among the final polls in the US presidential race was one finding that Kamala Harris led Donald Trump by three points in what MIDWESTERN STATE? The poll, administered by Ann Selzer, found shifts among older and independent women voters as the basis for Harris' lead.

Iowa

Question 2

Japan's snap election proved costly for what RULING PARTY, as it lost its solo majority in the lower house, as voters punished it and coalition partner Komeito for a variety of scandals? The party is likely to stay in power, as the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party does not have a clear path to form a coalition government.

Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

Question 3

What FURNITURE AND HOME GOODS COMPANY agreed to pay 6 million Euros into a fund for former East German prisoners to compensate for forced labor? The company used political prisoners to build its flat-pack furniture as late as the 1980s.

IKEA

Question 4

Russia fined what company 2 undecillion rubles ($20 decillion) for its decision to ban 17 Russian media outlets from You Tube, which it owns? The fine is structured to continue multiplying as long as it isn't paid.

Google

Question 5

Over 200 people died in what REGION OF SPAIN, when a year's worth of rain fell in a single day? The sudden rains caused the Magro, Turio, and Poyo rivers to overflow, inundating the region's namesake city and its suburbs.

Valencia

Question 6

What RESTAURANT CHAIN known for its red and white signs and flair-bedecked servers filed for bankruptcy? The chain, which said it had been unable to rebound after the Covid-19 pandemic, had already closed over 160 locations this year.

TGI Fridays

Question 7

Nvidia was announced as replacing what OTHER CHIPMAKER on the Dow Jones Industrial Average? While Nvidia has seen its market cap rise over $3 trillion, the other company has made little headway in the AI marketplace and continues to lose share in the PC chip market to companies like Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel

Question 8

What SOUTHERN AFRICAN COUNTRY put the ruling Democratic Party out of power for the first time since the country became independent in 1966? Duma Boko of the Umbrella for Democratic Change is expected to become the country's next president.

Botswana

Question 9

Thieves in the Netherlands stole four silkscreens of what AMERICAN ARTIST's Reigning Queens series, keeping the depictions of Queen Elizabeth II and Denmark's Magrethe II, but leaving behind pictures of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of eSwatini?

Andy Warhol

Question 10

Your HallR Memorial Mini-Theme of the Week: Rally. Donald Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden which caused controversy when one speaker compared what US COMMONWEALTH to an island of garbage?

Puerto Rico

Question 11

Kamala Harris had her own rally at what WASHINGTON, DC LOCATION, the same place where Donald Trump spoke on January 6, 2021, prior to the attack on the Capitol?

The Ellipse

Question 12

What MOUNTAIN in Asia was snowless through October for the first time since records were first kept in the 1890s? A volcano and the country's highest mountain at over 12000 feet, it usually gets its first snowfall in early October.

Mount Fuji