Question: In a famous American novel, the effectiveness of what object is being conveyed in this passage? "In most land animals there are certain valves or flood gates in many of their veins, whereby when wounded, the blood is in some degree at least instantly shut off in certain directions. Not so with the whale; one of whose peculiarities is, to have an entire non-valvular structure of the blood-vessels, so that when pierced even by so small a point as a ___, a deadly drain is at once begun upon his whole arterial system ..."
Answer: Harpoon

Question: Whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in jail for revealing what to the British press in 1986?
Answer: Details of Israel's nuclear program

Question: What is the last name of the Russian inventor who discovered in 1939 that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a high-voltage source, an image is produced?
Answer: Kirlian

Question: Pitman, Gregg and Teeline are all forms of what type of 'writing'?
Answer: Shorthand

Question: The term 'flensing' is used to describe the processing of what creatures?
Answer: Whales

Question: Imagine a society and decide on its principles for the distribution of rights, positions and resources. You must do this without knowing your position in this society. What is the term for this method of determining the morality of an issue that was first proposed by John Harsanyi and later made famous by John Rawls?
Answer: Veil of ignorance

Question: Before he became famous for another work, who sculpted the monumental The Lion of Belfort in 1880 to symbolize French resistance of a Prussian assault?
Answer: Frédéric Bartholdi, best known for the Statue of Liberty

Question: Yale (1969), Princeton (1969), Brown (1971), Harvard (1972), all US military academies (1976). What happened at these institutions during the indicated years which must have made education far more interesting for college-goers?
Answer: Admittance of women

Question: The word 'parbuckle' means 'a sling for raising or lowering an object vertically.' The Parbuckling Project with a budget of $400 million raised what entity that sank in 2012?
Answer: Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that sank in Jan 2012

Question: What metaphor to describe obsessive types first appeared in the 1969 book Between Parent & Teenager by Dr. Haim Ginott in which a teen complains that his mom constantly hovered over him?
Answer: """Helicopter parent"""

Question: The term 'lucid dream' coined by the Dutch psychologist Frederik van Eeden describes what type of a dream?
Answer: One in which the dreamer is aware that s/he is dreaming

Question: The Voga alla Veneta technique of rowing that allows a boat a great deal of maneuverability is notably practiced by what group of professionals?
Answer: Gondoliers of Venice

Question: Bishop's Mark introduced by the Englishman Henry Bishop in 1661 to prevent delays was the world's first what?
Answer: Postmark

Question: If traditional Chinese women practiced foot binding, what anatomical feature did the Padaung/Kayan women of Burma seek to highlight? Easy, this is a family site!
Answer: Necks

Question: A set of rules known as separation minima violating of which may cause casualties are used by what professionals?
Answer: Air-traffic controllers

Question: What nuclear weapon policy was first declared by China in 1964, later adopted by India and North Korea, dropped by Russia in 1993 and has been rejected repeatedly by NATO?
Answer: No first use

Question: According to its chief architect Adrian Smith, the triple lobed footprint of what iconic new millennium construction was inspired by the flower Hymenocallis?
Answer: Burj Khalifa in Dubai

Question: The traje de luces that means 'suit of lights' in its native tongue is the traditional costume of whom?
Answer: Bullfighters

Question: The policy of Songun that emphasizes the role of military guides the political and economic life in what country?
Answer: North Korea

Question: Who is the Nobel Peace Prize winner nicknamed 'The Arch' referring to a short-cut of his profession? The nickname alludes well to the colorful term he used to describe his native African country.
Answer: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who called South Africa the 'Rainbow Nation'

Question: Attention megalomaniacs! What theory popularized in the 1840s by Thomas Carlyle states that history can be explained by the impact of just a few?
Answer: Great Man theory

Question: Similar to thread count, mommes are units of weight traditionally used to measure the density of what?
Answer: Silk

Question: One of his 942 quatrains is below. Who is the author? When the litters are overturned by the whirlwind and faces are covered by cloaks, the new republic will be troubled by its people. At this time the reds and the whites will rule wrongly.
Answer: Nostradamus (1503-66)

Question: What school of philosophy of ancient Greece associated with Aristotle takes its name from a legend that he meandered while lecturing?
Answer: Peripatetic school

Question: The highest award given by the Red Cross is named after which person who was motivated by the suffering of the wounded in the Battle of Solferino in 1859?
Answer: Henry Dunant (1828-1910)

Question: Identify the entertainer from the three clues. 1. Paris 2. Bananas 3. Pet cheetah Chiquita
Answer: Josephine Baker (1906-75)

Question: Loop, bight, elbow, standing end and working end are the components of what, the varieties of which are the subject of a 1944 encyclopedic work The Ashley Book of ___?
Answer: Knots

Question: The logos of Encyclopædia Britannica and Carnegie Mellon University feature what plant to honor their origin related to a particular nationality?
Answer: Thistle (Scotland)

Question: Although it is erroneously believed that it was built as a teaching tool for students to understand 3D objects, its real purpose was solving the problem of moving its parts independently without the mechanism falling apart. What is this object in question that was invented at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest in the 1970s?
Answer: Rubik's Cube

Question: What popular assessment that is based on the theories of Carl Jung was created during WWII to help women identify the type of war-time jobs where they would be 'most comfortable and effective'?
Answer: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Question: A 2003 book by Gian J. Quasar subtitled Pursuing the Truth Behind the World's Greatest Mystery focuses on a region with vertices at Florida, Puerto Rico and what other island?
Answer: Bermuda

Question: What architectural term originated from the 16th century after Renaissance revived Classical construction and created a perception of past styles as a product of barbarous tribal cultures?
Answer: Gothic

Question: Who is the 1st century BC Roman architect who wrote that the figure of a man can be inscribed both in a circle and a square in his best known work De architectura?
Answer: Vitruvius

Question: Following a famous crime, the United States Congress adopted a statute in 1932 that was dubbed the Lindbergh Law. The legislation made what act a federal offense?
Answer: Kidnapping

Question: In maritime law, what chaste term denotes the passage of a vessel through the territorial waters of another state subject to certain restrictions?
Answer: Innocent passage

Question: What was the end result of Operation Neptune Spear conducted by the CIA in 2011?
Answer: Death of Osama bin Laden

Question: Which 20th century German theologian and doctor who established a famous hospital in Gabon was known for his philosophy called 'Reverence for Life'?
Answer: Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Question: What substance is the most used man-made material in the world?
Answer: Concrete

Question: In the NATO phonetic alphabet, name the two dances that are used to represent a couple of letters?
Answer: Foxtrot and tango