The 1st Question 52 - 26 May 09

In accordance with our new segment Word-UP, we now have a word of the week-
Thank you Explorer Dastardly for “Bubbieliscious” which a word to describe herself.

Quotes

Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.
Omar N. Bradley

The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance between unity and plurality.
Irving Babbitt

Literature is the question minus the answer.
Roland Barthes

Questions

For the answers go to The 1st Question blog at treet.tv

1) Ahoy is used to hail a ship, a boat or a person, or to attract attention. Traditionally, when used from a ship to hail an approaching boat, the standard responses are: "aye aye", if a commissioned officer is in the boat. What is the correct response if there isn’t an officer in the boat?

2) This is a fictional foundation in the Lost television series. It was formed by an arms purveyor, who turned his attention from "keeping the world safe through the development of sophisticated weapons systems" to focus instead on the development of new technologies to "create a brighter future for all humanity." The greeting "Namaste" is used by the organization's members. What is the name of this?

3) Its coverlet senses patient respiration and heartbeat as well as movement. It's a zip-on mattress cover with an embedded sensor array, including pressure switches. The wall monitor presents this information, and transmits it to the other communication systems in the hospital. The technology transforms any hospital bed, which invisibly tracks a patient's basic vital signs without any connection to the patient whatsoever. However, if the patient begins to deteriorate, it immediately notifies the hospital nursing staff -- all invisible to the patient. Apparently, this system has been tested extensively. Star Trek fans (classic Trek, natch) recall the amazing sick bay beds that always knew everything about patients lying on them. What is this?

H: After the show he was told by one of the organizers that he ought to return to Memphis to resume his truck-driving career. In the 1960s, as the hippie counterculture movement built, the Opry maintained a straight-laced, conservative image; "longhairs" were almost never featured on the show. However one 60’s band did take the stage- which one was it?

5) He was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of U.S. wilderness. His direct activism helped to save the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club was founded by him. Left almost blind by an accident he devoted himself to his great love, nature and walked in 1867 from Indiana to Florida which he recounted in his book A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf. He camped with Roosevelt in Yosemite, convinced Robert Underwood Johnson to lobby Congress for the preservation for pristine lands and was among the first to realize the impact glaciers had in the formation of terrain. Who was he?

6) Australia's Entecho has come up with an operating prototype. Air is drawn into a ring of vents on the upper side of the aircraft, then forced downward through the rotors, which spin inside the shell of the aircraft. The resulting pressure differential lifts the aircraft off the ground with good hovering stability, even in crosswinds. And makes for a very simple and reportedly intuitive 360-degree steering process via a joystick. What is it?

7) He was an American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial led to the first posthumous pardon in New York history. In 1951, he was arrested in Miami, for impersonating a priest, soliciting charitable donations. Later in his semi fictional autobiography “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People,” he revealed that he had made approximately $8,000 in three weeks, sending $2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest. He also wrote a children's film, The Rocket Man, and was asked by Frank Zappa to sign his draft card (he refused.) Who was he?

8) He graduated from West Point in 1915 as part of a class that contained many future generals, and which military historians have called "the class the stars fell on". 59 generals from that graduating class, including this man and Dwight Eisenhower. He taught mathematics at West Point- and has a reputation even today as a general who was very patient with the officers under his command, compared to his most famous colleague, George S. Patton, but the truth is complicated. He sacked more than a dozen generals during the Second World War with little provocation, whereas Patton actually fired only one and in Patton, Karl Malden played this man, who was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. And Chairman of the Board of the Bulova Watch Company? Who was he?

P: 9) A self-sustaining toilet concept from students that calls on yoga principles in its quest to define the lavatory of the future. The designers say that using this transcendental commode is "akin to yoga" because its ergonomics require a squatting position that strengthens abdominal and back muscles. The sustainable design reuses water and needs just one gallon of water for flushing. It's also free of mechanical parts and independent of electric power, with flushing dealt with via an electromagnetic ball valve. “We hope our design will alter the toilet archetype by the year 2030,” What is the ASU design team name for this toilet of the future?

H: 10)It is "the study of, or belief in, the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits As a social movement it reached its height of popularity in the early decades of the 20th century. In Sweden, the "Sterilization Act of 1934" provided for the voluntary sterilization of some mental patients. At its pre-war zenith, the movement often pursued pseudoscientific notions of racial supremacy and purity By the end of World War II it had been largely abandoned,. - It’s post-war that the movement went into decline, of course because of “the Final Solution” Although one modern implementation of a form of this was a "genius sperm bank" (1980–99) created by Robert Klark Graham, from which nearly 230 children were conceived, What is this control by breeding called?

11Arcadia was supposed to be a haven for the French from Canada, but turned out to still be under this countries rule at the exodus of French. Two great fires destroyed the old French colonial buildings leaving the colony's new overlords to rebuild it according to more modern tastes—and strict new fire codes, which mandated that all structures be physically adjacent and close to the curb to create a firewall. When La Nouvelle Orléans was founded in 1718, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré ("Old Square" in French) as it was known then. Who rebuilt the City of New Orleans after the fires of the late 1700’s?

12) Strictly hush hush, as reported by the BBC- "No reporters are invited in and while confidential minutes of meetings are taken, names are not noted... In the void created by such aloofness, an extraordinary conspiracy theory has grown up around the group that alleges the fate of the world.” Royal Heads of state have attended the annual meetings,. Prominent politicians from North America and Europe are past attendees. In recent years, board members from IBM, Xerox, Royal Dutch Shell, Nokia and Daimler too. The original conference was held at a hotel in the Netherlands for which the group is named beginning in 1954. It was initiated to stem anti-Americanism in Western Europe, although the orchestrated fall of the USA has been a reported take away, according to Notes from Gollitsyn certainly the European Common market was hatched there. A record is made of the club’s discussions in which, however, the name of the speaker is never published. What is this organization where the only obligation is not to publish or disclose anything?

13) An amazing UFO formation was evident and captured on video. Multiple small ships were centered in a formation with 2 larger ones outside, while other footage taken that night shows a straight line of the lights. In what state did this recent sighting, now on YouTube, take place?