Quiz #93

*It is generally believed that the practice of wearing a falconry glove on the left hand is connected to European noblemen having the falcon with them at mealtimes, although having the dominant right hand free for tying jesses (tethers) or hoods is also an advantage. Mongolian and Kazakh falconers traditionally wear the glove on the right hand, which has an advantage if mounting a horse, usually done from the right, as this keeps the bird away from the horse’s line of vision. Falconry ‘furniture’, including gloves and hoods, can be made from a variety of materials, including buckskin, goatskin, and kangaroo skin, or elk or buffalo hides, although much is now mass-produced cowhide or leather substitute from Pakistan, to the extent that making falconry furniture is listed as an endangered skill by the UK’s Heritage Crafts Association.

*An estimated 60-90 people died during the Cuetta migration rush, either from drowning or being crushed, and questions remain as to how so many people were allowed to exit Morocco. Although past years have seen many migrants attempt to enter Cuetta, this incident seems to have been prompted by a June 29 ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court that said those arriving by sea were not subject to summary return (i.e. the rule that says those illegally crossing by land can be immediately sent back across the border). This prompted many to believe they could simply swim around the breakwater to enter Europe and not be forced to go home. However, Cuetta is not included in the Schengen Zone, so those arriving still needed to be processed at over-capacity reception centres; finding themselves with no accommodation or supplies, approximately 50000 of the migrants went home by their own accord within the next two days.

*Instead of buying Zidane, Blackburn bought only two players in the summer, Adam Reed from Darlington and Matty Holmes from West Ham; Holmes played nine league games for Rovers, and Reed didn’t play any. With their title defence ultimately stumbling, Blackburn did buy several expensive players during the year, but the likes of Billy McKinlay, Gary Flitcroft, Graham Fenton, Chris Coleman, and Gary Croft were unable to maintain the momentum, and the club finished 7^th, and was relegated in May 1999.

*Australia dominated the 2026 table, having nearly 2.5 times as many golds as second-place England. In the Commonwealth Games’ 96-year history, Australia sits just under 300 golds and 300 total medals clear of England, with Canada over 600 medals further back.

*5317704 spells Hollies when written on a calculator and turned upside-down.

*Sludge is similar to septage, which is what forms in septic tanks. Although sludge can be used for agricultural and energy purposes, much is still discarded in landfill. In 2022, resolutions in the London Protocol were amended so as to internationally ban the dumping of sludge into oceans, although only 87 countries are parties to the convention.

*The 2025 report found that 35 per cent of the goals had shown adequate progress – although only 18 per cent were on track to hit their target – while 48 per cent had shown insufficient movement. Goals relating to the access to technology, education, and work, plus urban air quality, were all deemed to be progressing, but there were negative evaluations for discrimination, food and water security, waste reduction, and several environmental issues, including ocean acidification, desertification, and biodiversity protection.

*Nvidia and fellow hardware companies Micron and AMD are the only companies on the site showing profits from what many are labelling a financial bubble. Due to their dual roles in hardware and AI programmes, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft top the biggest loss-makers at present, each with estimated losses of over $200bn.

*George W. Bush’s infamous strategist Karl Rove said Lehane was one of the Democrats top opposition researchers. Time magazine listed Lehane in its top 100 most important people in AI, placing him in the ‘shapers’ category.

*The 85-page lawsuit was filed in Rhode Island on July 23. Although a FEMA spokesperson said the new conditions were ‘common sense’ measures and ‘partisan pushback’ from ‘leftwing politicians’ ‘is nothing new’, FEMA and DHS have already lost two similar cases over withholding money from the same funds.

*Although the 30/30/30 rule is a good ‘rule of thumb’, other conditions can create or increase likely wildfire conditions, such as slopes in which uphill – and often downwind – fuel can quickly move flames up a hillside (which is also the most difficult terrain for firefighters to navigate). Another wildfire guide is the 10 per cent rule, which states that in woodlands with winds above 20 km/h, the fire will spread at approximately 10 per cent of the speed of the wind – however, this rate increases significantly on grasslands, with one 1987 Australian grassland fire in 44km/h winds travelling 25km in only 55 minutes. Fires with an intensity above 3000 kw/m are generally beyond ‘direct attack’ human control, and 8000-10000 kw/m beyond the shelter strength of a human vehicle; Australian wildfires have been known to top 80000 kw/m.

*Five different women from the Netherlands have worn yellow, including two eventual champions, while only one from each of the other countries has led – although Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévot did end up winning the tour. The first two stages of the 2026 edition, which started on August 1, were won by Dutch rider Lorena Wiebes.

*Common value auctions are auctions in which the item will have the same value to any bidder, regardless of who wins – for example, a bottle of coins – and so it is likely the winning bidder has overestimated the item’s worth compared to other bidders.

*Kandinsky’s contemporary, Swiss-artist and former music prodigy Paul Klee, was also interested in trying to paint representations of music, and Kandinsky, Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Alexej von Jawlensky formed an art group known as The Blue Four. Three of Kandinsky’s Composition paintings are believed to have been destroyed during World War II after being seized by the Nazis.

*Workhouses, also called poorhouses, were introduced to reduce pauperism by offering food and accommodation to those whose income was insufficient to financially support themselves. They were designed to be harsh to avoid benefit fraud or idleness, but have generally been seen as hugely exploitative, with the conditions famously portrayed in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.

*Bonnie Pointer left the group for a solo career in 1977, and although she enjoyed some success, the group had its largest hits without her. Of the four sisters who were once in the band, only Ruth is still alive. The new group does not tour, but does give occasional performances and can be hired for events.

*Sevastapol was added in a 2014 constitutional amendment after Russia annexed Crimea, a move most nations deem illegal.

*Wilkinson has also topped the Irish album charts and represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest, in which he finished fifth.

*Although the show helped cement the popularity of The Beatles in the US, the group already had a legion of fans in the US: 50000 people applied for tickets to the 728-capacity theatre. After the initial three February shows, The Beatles would return to the programme in May, and continued to interact with the show until 1970.

* Lore says the curse was put upon Mayo by a priest angered by a lack of respect shown at a funeral. Mayo had gone into the final as underdogs, meaning a 12^th consecutive final defeat was expected, and the team started slowly, being down 1-5 (8) to 0-1 (1) after 16 minutes. However, accurate long-range 2-point shooting meant that by halftime the margin was down to 1 point, and in a tense finale in which a Kerry shot to equalise in the last minute fell short, Mayo ultimately triumphed 1-20 to 1-17. Mayo’s manager Andy Moran, in his first year in the job, had himself lost in six finals as a player.

*As its name suggests, the blue-eyed black lemur has blue eyes, although the females have reddish-brown fur rather than the male’s black.

*Research has shown that bird waves generally have one or two ‘nuclear’ or ‘centric’ species around which the other birds gather. Studies of bird waves in Sri Lanka also found that the mixed flocks produce two different types of alarm call warning systems when predators approach: one in which a vigilant primary alarm caller, such as a fly-catcher, takes up warning duties; and another in which one more nervous species may raise concern about a predator, which is eavesdropped on by other species, and eventually a key species makes the call and the birds leave. Although birds may not understand the calls of other species, having multiple species which have different levels of awareness for different predators is seen as an advantage for a bird wave.

*Although theistic evolution manages to cover both the existence of a creator god and modern scientific theories, and allows for the world to be billions of years old rather than less than 10000, as argued by some creationists, it has been attacked by both sides of the debate. Christian creationists say the theory undermines the Bible, particularly Genesis, and that allowing for evolution suggests that God is not perfect, while evolutionists say it is trying to tag a ‘God did it’ excuse onto scientific theory, with Richard Dawkins saying it was an attempt to ‘smuggle God in by the back door’.

*The Rashidun Caliphate defeated the navy of the Byzantine Empire, thus taking control of the Eastern Mediterranean around Asia Minor. The battle’s name is derived from the closeness of the boats during the battle, with victory as much secured through superior close combat skills after boarding enemy vessels as through sailing technique.

*Mussolini’s fascists painted their March on Rome as a display of strength in which they took the capital by force, but Emmanuel, concerned about the possibility of civil war, had already named Mussolini Prime Minister by the time the Blackshirts were parading in the street.

*Constantine and Licinius had met in Milan at Licinius’s wedding to Constatine’s half-sister, Constantia, during which the pair discussed matters of state, including religious freedom during the Roman Empire’s period of relative peace. However, evidence of an actual edict does not exist; rather, two letters noting the agreed policy were sent to provincial governors by Licinius from the cities of Nicomedia and Caesarea.

*In her book The Five, historian Hallie Rubenhold attempted to move the true crime genre away from its fixation on murderers by highlighting the lives of the real people who died in the Jack the Ripper case. The book won the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (previously known as the Samuel Johnson Prize), and in 2025 was named in The Times newspaper’s 10 best ever true crime books list.