Quiz of the week
1. What was our most populous settlement in 1866?
a. Hokitika
b. Dunedin
c. Devonport
d. Kororareka
2. The four most populous cities in the USA are New York, LA, Chicago and Houston. What’s number 5?
a. Phoenix
b. Philadelphia
c. San Diego
d. Punxsutawney
3. DOGE has apparently been what?
a. Dissolved
b. Transubstantiated
c. Grokked
d. Cucked
4. Speaking with great passion in Parliament, who said this?
[The government] has decided that the quick-fix remedy is to dig up the countryside. It thinks that by digging up the countryside it will create sustainable wealth, but that will be a short fillip for foreign-owned companies. The jobs will be scarce and the degradation in those very sensitive areas will be very long term, and, I would think, irreversible.
a. Chlöe Swarbrick
b. Steve Abel
c. Hana Rawhiti Maipi Clarke
d. Shane Jones
5. When was this photograph taken?
a. Last weekend, by mistake, in my pocket
b. 1942 in a PoW camp
c. 1822 in France
d. 1892 in France
6. Which of these has the coalition government not done this year?
a. Repeal ban on new oil and gas exploration
b. Give a leg up to companies looking to start gas ventures in New Zealand
c. Halve the country’s methane reduction target
d. Bother to even look like they give a fuck about the emissions stuff
7. What is this?
a. HAL 9000, a sentient computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey, saying I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that
b. Litter-Robot, an automated toilet for cats, saying I’m sorry Fluffy, I’m afraid I can’t do that
c. Nat-GPT an excuse generator getting an absolute caning this week in the Beehive, saying I’m sorry Nicola, I’m afraid I can’t do that
d. Nespresso Uber, an Italian coffee machine that can’t make drinkable coffee to save itself.
8. A pack of 20 cigarettes in New Zealand costs around how much now?
a. $20
b. $30
c. $40
d. $69
9. What was New Zealand’s first university?
a. University of Otago
b. School of hard knocks
c. Canterbury University
d. Flock House
10. What is the moral of this Aesop’s fable?
Once upon a time a fierce war was waged between the Birds and the Beasts.
The Bat at first fought on the side of the Birds, but later on in the day the tide of battle ran so much in favour of the Beasts, that he changed over, and fought on the other side.
Owing mainly, however, to the admirable conduct and courage of the Eagle, the tide once more and finally turned in favour of the Birds.
The Bat, to save his life and escape the shame of falling into the hands of his deserted friends fled, and has ever since; skulked in caves and hollow trees, coming out only in the dusk, when the Birds are gone to roost.
a. Always be closing
b. Hit like and subscribe
c. What I would say to you is what I would say to you is what was the question sorry?
d. That Regulatory Standards Bill thing was some shameful shit, even for Nicola Willis
Answers
1. What was our most populous settlement in 1866?
a. Hokitika had a population of more than 25,000 and more than 100 pubs.
2. The four most populous cities in the USA are New York, LA, Chicago and Houston. What’s number 5?
a. Phoenix
3. DOGE has apparently been what?
a. Dissolved
A Guardian story reports:
The so-called department of government efficiency has apparently been dissolved with eight months still remaining on its contract, ending a drawn-out campaign of invading federal agencies and firing thousands of federal workers.
‘That doesn’t exist,’ the office of personnel management (OPM) director, Scott Kupor, told Reuters earlier this month when asked about Doge’s status, adding that it was ‘no longer a centralized entity.’
Always nice to wake up and find a nightmare at an end. Although not before they caused irreparable harm up to and including the likely deaths in the hundreds of thousands thanks to their cold blooded strangulation of USAID.
Also nice to see some tide going out on the President up to and including the foam-flecked Marjorie Taylor Greene. Long way to go, but still. Encouraging direction of tide.
4. Speaking with great passion in Parliament, who said this?
d. Shane, for it is he, Jones, back in 2010. But wait! There’s even more! He also said:
But let me come back to mining. In the right place, mining is not a fatal economic consequence, but this is a Government that has chosen to mine the most sensitive areas and to turn an economic development debate into an exercise in destroying New Zealand’s clean, green image and its conservation values, apparently in order to perform a step-up exercise to catch Australia. Not only has the Government united the conservationists, it has also enraged all the people who have fought for the last 25 years to move away from the Muldoonist approach of digging up and quarrying the nation towards investing in innovation, long-term economic change, and jobs.
Cheers to reader Michael Smythe for unearthing this. Also, best wishes for a quick recovery to reader Michael Smythe whose 5 year NOVID run came to an end this week. Do we have anyone in the readership still unreached by the virus?
5. When was this photograph taken?
c. 1822 in France. The first.
6. Which of these has the coalition government not done this year?
d. Bother to even look like they give a fuck about the emissions stuff
7. What is this?
b. Litter-Robot, an automated toilet for cats. Seriously! Want to guess how much it costs? More than a grand.
8. A pack of 20 cigarettes in New Zealand costs around how much now?
c. $40. If I were still smoking at the rate I was when I gave up in 1984, it would be costing me $400 a week. Holy hell. Cheers to reader Ben Torkington who wrote this week he estimates he’s saved 30k since he quit two years ago.
No cheers whatsoever to the pathologically cynical NZ First for undoing what we’d managed to do first in the world, running the clock out altogether on this pernicious shit. We had done so well, but there will always be another young Chris Bishop tobacco executive type who likes the money too much, it seems, and always another political party willing to do just about anything for a vote and a buck.
9. What was New Zealand’s first university?
a. University of Otago
10. What is the moral of this Aesop’s fable?
d. That Regulatory Standards Bill thing — i.e. that thing we literally just voted for, yeah well now we’re saying we’ll vote against it if you put us back in — is some shameful cynical shit, even for Nicola Willis.
