Of oil prices and food crises...

[Wiz quiz]

Nalaka Gunawardene and Vindana Ariyawansa

Once again we offer you a 'mixed bag' of questions, covering subjects ranging from culture and sports to science and business. These take off from some recent news stories and current concerns. For example, we hear about world oil prices rising (again!), and extreme weather causing food shortage in some parts of the world. When news reports mention oil barrels and talk about Malthusian scenarios, do we know what they really mean?

Test your knowledge to see how well informed you are!

1. Sri Lanka recently unveiled its colourful logo for the 2018 Commonwealth Games which it is hoping to secure for Hambantota. The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from Commonwealth Nations. The Games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games, were held in Delhi, India, from October 3 to 14, 2010. Which city and country are already awarded the next (20th) Commonwealth Games to be held in 2014?

2. The Commonwealth Games host city is selected from across the Commonwealth, with 18 cities in seven countries having hosted it so far. The event was first held in 1930 under the title of the British Empire Games. Where was this sporting event first held?

3. The international selling price of unrefined petroleum (commonly referred to as the oil price) has once again gone up to US Dollars 100 per barrel, causing concerns worldwide.

The 'oil barrel' is an old measure that has survived from the early days of the oil industry that originated in the Pennsylvania oil fields.

In the early 1860s, when oil production began, there was no standard container for oil, so whisky barrels were used. Although barrels are no longer used to transport crude oil - and most petroleum is now moved around in pipelines or oil tankers - the measure is still in use. Since it was standardized in 1872, how many US gallons are in one barrel of oil?

4. The world today is dependent on petroleum as a main source of energy. Petroleum is extracted from certain areas of the Earth's crust. Although modern oil drilling originated in the United States, which country historically dug the first oil wells - using bamboo poles?

5. Oil refiners refer to crude oil as 'sweet' or 'sour' - depending on how much, or how little, a certain chemical element is present in that oil. Which element decides this character in petroleum?

6. Al Jazeera means 'the Island' or 'the peninsula' in Arabic. In recent years, Al Jazeera has emerged as an independent global news TV channel giving an alternative point of view to those offered by BBC and CNN. In which Middle Eastern city is the Al Jazeera channel headquartered?

7. She is a self-made billionaire who was once ranked by Forbes magazine as the richest African-American in the 20th Century. She is a spokesperson for many causes, owns her own magazine O, a cable television network called OWN, a production company - and has been on television for over 25 years in the United States. She is considered in some rankings to be the world's most influential woman. Who is she?

8. Once again we have concerns about a food crisis both nationally and globally. In the 19th Century, a British scholar cautioned that human population will always exceed the growth of food. In 'An Essay on the Principle of Population', he argued that while the food supply increases at an arithmetic rate, our population increases at a geometric rate. He also said that perfectibility of human society will always be out of reach. Who was he?

9. Professor Ediriweera Sarachchandra produced his play Manam‚ in 1956 to widespread acclaim. Manam‚ is generally considered the first real Sinhala drama, signifying the transition from the Nadagam or folk drama tradition to the modern theatrical drama format. The make-up of the play was influenced by Kabuki and Noh theatre styles of Japan. Who were the first actors to act as Prince Manam‚, Veddah King and Princess Manam‚ in this long enduring play that still entertains drama lovers in Sri Lanka?

10. Manam‚ is a landmark in the history of modern Lankan theatre. It was first staged on November 3, 1956 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo and was soon acclaimed by critics and well received by audiences. Manam‚ is based on a well known Buddhist story belonging to the Jataka tales (or previous birth stories of the Buddha). Which story?

11. In 2003, a Sri Lanka-born, Oxford-trained virologist working in Hong Kong achieved worldwide acclaim as the lead discoverer of the coronavirus (CoV) that caused the hitherto unknown respiratory disease that was given the name Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

In 2006, he became the first Sri Lankan to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the highest scientific honour in the Commonwealth. The same year, TIME Magazine named him an Asian Hero. Name this illustrious scientist, who works at the University of Hong Kong as scientific director of the Hong Kong University-Pasteur Institute?

12. The snake's image has traditionally been used as a symbol of western medicine. This is linked to the ancient Greek God of medicine and healing, whose rod was a snake-entwined staff. What was the name of this deity?

13. 'Madame-Sir' is the title chosen by Sri Lanka's first woman entrant to the Foreign Service (then Ceylon Overseas Service), for her recently published memoirs. She served in a number of Lankan missions overseas, and was ambassador to Thailand and Germany. She was Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Sri Lanka hosted the Fifth Non-Aligned Heads of State Summit in August 1976, the largest gathering of heads of state in the island before or since. Who is this remarkable lady?

14. Which country is currently heading the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), having hosted the 15th Summit in July 2009?

15. World leaders gathered at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 and adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as a set of minimum development targets to be accomplished by or before which year?

The answers will be published next week.

Last Week's answers

1. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat
2. 1990
3. Man-made wetlands (such as tanks/wewas, reservoirs, rice fields and salterns)
4. Department of Wildlife Conservation
5. 1,911 sites, covering a total of 186,950,196 hectares
6. Bundala National Park
7. Northwestern Province
8. Balapitiya
9. Vankalai Sanctuary
10. Ecosystem services
11. Siltation, or the pollution of water body by particles of soil and mud washed off from nearby or far away lands.
12. It is the largest saline peat bog in Sri Lanka
13. The Pantanal (comes from the Portuguese word pƒntano, meaning wetland, bog, swamp or marsh)
14. West Bengal
15. Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, which degraded some coastal wetlands such as mangroves, lagoons and estuaries.

Answer our Wiz quiz and win valuable book vouchers from Sarasavi Book Shop. Mail your answers to Wiz quiz, Daily News, Lake House, No 35, D R Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10 or email to punch@dailynews.lk with your ID and contact numbers to reach us on or before Friday.

In case there are more than one entry with equal number of correct answers, winners will be picked by a draw. Winners can get their vouchers from the Manager of new Sarasavi Book Shop Nugegoda.

Winners of January 25 Wiz quiz
First place - Ajith Dissanayake, Polambakotuwa, Menikhinna
Second place - Paul Devaraj, Katubedda
Third place - Shereen Nawzil, Boralesgamuwa

Winners of February 01 Wiz quiz
First place - Sunila Hemali Hemachandra, Homagama
Second place - Lakshitha Dinesh Jayalath, Udupussallewa
Third place - Shereen Nawzil, Boralesgamuwa