How good is your geography?

[Michael Collins]

Well, I've only got three questions, but each one nailed me when I was asked. Remember, no cheating or looking at answers (not to mention an atlas).

1) What country is bordered by Spain and France?

2)Which landlocked country has only one border?

3)What country has only one unrepeated vowel in its name?

[Harry R]

The first two are pretty easy -

1) Andorra
2) San Marino and Vatican City both seem to fit

3) could be Cyprus I suppose, although 'y' is a vowel, really

[Harry R]

My turn.

Food, this time.

1) What is the liqueur Amaretto made from?
2) What is kulich?
3) What part of the plant does powdered turmeric come from?

[Michael Collins]

Originally posted by Harry R
The first two are pretty easy -

1) Andorra Yep.
2) San Marino and Vatican City both seem to fit Actually, Swaziland was what I had in mind. I didn't know Vatican City was classed as a country. Sure wish I had

3) could be Cyprus I suppose, although 'y' is a vowel, really Yeah, forgot the Y bit. Chad.

[Michael Collins]

Righto, Harry, I'm no cheater, but I'll have a craic.

Originally posted by Harry R
My turn.

Food, this time.

1) What is the liqueur Amaretto made from?
Pigs ears.

2) What is kulich? A type of whale.

3) What part of the plant does powdered turmeric come from?
The roots?

Hmpff.

[gecian]

I had to google Harry 1. and 2. -- as for Swaziland, hasn't it got a Mozambican as well as a South African border? Or do you mean Lesotho?

[Michael Collins]

Gecian, you're right, I just looked at a map. Bloody hell, never take anything in good faith, huh? Unless,of course, my friend meant Lesotho.

[Dunc]

Mike -

(2)Which landlocked country has only one border?

There is no landlocked country with more than one border. Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg &c have only one border.

Only a few counties have more than one border - Russia springs to mind, plus those who own remote (non-coastal) islands - but they're not landlocked. Regards / Dunc

[Harry R]

Originally posted by Michael Collins
Actually, Swaziland was what I had in mind. I didn't know Vatican City was classed as a country.

Yup, it has its own entry in the CIA World Factbook and everything -

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/vt.html

and so is San Marino -

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sm.html

I always forget Chad.

[Alasdair]

Originally posted by Harry R
My turn.

Food, this time.

1) What is the liqueur Amaretto made from?
2) What is kulich?
3) What part of the plant does powdered turmeric come from?

No idea for 2, but 1 is almonds and 3 is the root. In fact, you can but tumeric as the root itself but they are really hard to grind although do have more flavour.

Al.

[Harry R]

As Michael and Alasdair both said, turmeric does come from the root.

But Amaretto is not in fact made from almonds.

[Dunc]

Apricot pits. Love that cyanide flavour! xxx / Dunc

[shadygrove]

Kulich like that dreadful Russian cake Martha Stewart makes, with saffron and currants and whatnot? Made in a coffee can, served with a rose?

Blagh.

Harry, why that?

[Harry R]

Originally posted by shadygrove
Kulich like that dreadful Russian cake Martha Stewart makes, with saffron and currants and whatnot? Made in a coffee can, served with a rose?

Blagh.

Harry, why that?

The recipe I use isn't from Martha Stewart, who, thankfully, isn't a major presence on this side of the Atlantic; but yes, it's a Russian Easter cake. Technically it's actually an enriched bread, with (in my recipe) lots of eggs and butter, as well as sultanas, currants, slivered almonds, almond essence, saffron, vanilla and cardamom.

It's often made in a cone shape to mimic the shape of Golgotha (Calvary).

That mixture - almond, saffron, vanilla and cardamom - is just to die for.

Harry

OK, it's someone else's turn.

[Michael Collins]

Originally posted by Dunc McReil
Mike -

(2)Which landlocked country has only one border?

There is no landlocked country with more than one border. Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg &c have only one border.

Only a few counties have more than one border - Russia springs to mind, plus those who own remote (non-coastal) islands - but they're not landlocked. Regards / Dunc

Hang on, Dunc, have I missed something here? "There is no land locked country with more than one border?" What about Africa? Or any of the countries in Europe?

Only a few counties have more than one border.
Hey, Dunc, what's goin' on here? I know you to be a very intelligent person, but what you're sayin just doesn't make sense.

Apologies if I will have trouble with my foot and eating-orifice.

Mike

[Michael Collins]

Alright then, new question (if not a little extreme-- gecian, I'm waiting [advanced maths. advanced science, advanced physics]):

1)What is the ratio of the length of the sides of the rectangle that is used to construct the Archimedes' spiral?

(Remember, no googling!)

[Dunc]

Mike -

Stand with one foot in the Atlantic at Biarritz, where the border of France is contiguous with the border of Spain. Walk along the border of France through the Pyrénnées. along the shore of the Mediterranean, through the Alps, blah blah till you get back to the Atlantic next to Belgium, turn left and go back to where you started. Continental France is contained within the one border. Voilà! (Actually, France has another continental region, Guyane Française, and so another continental border, in addition to its various islands. Maybe Sweden would be a simpler example.) Regards / Dunc

[gecian]

Originally posted by Michael Collins
1)What is the ratio of the length of the sides of the rectangle that is used to construct the Archimedes' spiral?

This question isn't legitimately geography, since there's nothing Greek about Archimedes or the golden ratio anymore -- the ratio is approx. that of any large Fibonacci number to the one before it, which is around 1.6.

(Dunc -- how about sea-space? If it is to count as part of the border, Indonesia and Panama have just one border; otherwise, Uganda is a landlocked country with multiple borders because it has islands in Lake Victoria.)

1. Which bird species breaks ostrich eggs by dropping stones on them?

2. Where are tarsiers found and what are they?

3. What's the primary observable difference between Old-World and New-World monkeys?

[Harry R]

Originally posted by gecian

1. Which bird species breaks ostrich eggs by dropping stones on them?

Egyptian Vulture

2. Where are tarsiers found and what are they?

Well, they're a simple primate, but I'm not sure where they're from. Africa?

3. What's the primary observable difference between Old-World and New-World monkeys?

Ooh, interesting. Prehensile tails, maybe? NW monkeys have them, OW monkeys don't?

[Michael Collins]

Dunc, arggh. I shouldn't post after a fair few beers at the pub. I see your point, and how I wrongly asked my original question. I meant to write, "which landlocked country is bordered by only one other country?". (Which I had the wrong answer for, anyway.)

Cheers

Mike
[SIZE=1]feeling daft[/SIZE]

[gecian]

Tarsiers are East Asian (Indonesian / Philippine), not African, but 1. is correct and 3. is what I had in mind. (There might be other differences but I'm not aware of them.)

[Harry R]

On the same theme - do you know the difference between frogs and toads?

[Soleo]

That's easy.....

Frogs turn into princes when kissed by the right lips.

Toads scream like babies when bitten by cats.

Yours in jest

Soleo

[gecian]

Frogs breathe through their skins much more than toads, so frogs' skins are slimier than toads' and only the latter have warts. Something like that.

Another -- what are three morphological differences between male and female giraffes?

[Harry R]

Actually, the answer I was looking for was that frogs have teeth and toads don't.

But a quick bit of web research suggests this may not be the whole story. Frankly I'm now just confused.

I have no idea about the giraffe thing (though a smutty answer immediately comes to mind).

Harry

[gecian]

There are a few differences between frogs and toads; I hadn't heard the one about teeth before. About giraffes:

a. the horns are shaped differently; m. horns taper off upwards and f. horns are tufted on top. m. horns are also thicker.

b. males have thick black knobs on the forehead, which females don't.

I think c. is that males have longer faces, but I put it in mainly to account for the smutty response.

[Soleo]

Let me see if I got this right.....

This giraffe thing...

I'll quote; "males horns taper upwards", their horns "are also thicker", and "males have black knobs...females don't".

OK. Could one of you kind folk explain to me how a male giraffe is much different to any other male.

I mean, it doesn't take a wizard to understand that males are often "hornier" than their female counter part, and whereas some particular males like the giraffe have black knobs, many other males have pink knobs...........

Yours

Soleo

[gecian]

Originally posted by Soleo
OK. Could one of you kind folk explain to me how a male giraffe is much different to any other male.


That's easy -- it has a longer neck.