ForestBoard

Answers from last round!

Real world: Tallinn, K2, Kiribati
Tolkien: Rivendell, Erebor, Arda is the physical planet and Middle Earth is a continent.

Real world scores
Midand: 3
New Haudenosaunee Confederacy: 3
The Solar System Scope: 3
Uan aa Boa: 2
Glacikaldr: 2
Wesleywestlandia: 1
Protector eorum 16: 1
North prarie: 0
The church of satan: 0

Tolkien scores
Uan aa Boa: 3
Glacikaldr: 3
Protector eorum 16: 2
The Solar System Scope: 2
Wesleywestlandia: 0
The church of satan: 0

Our next round will be on history (and semi history in Tolkien, since those get obscure fast)! If you're just joining, check out the rules on the first round: page=rmb/postid=30883109

Real Life History:
1. How many years did the Hundred Years War last?
2. Which Hawaiian king established the Hawaiian Kingdom?
3. Who assassinated Franz Ferdinand?

LOTR History:
1. Which king ruled under Erebor before Smaug arrived?
2. As shown in The Hobbit, there are four members that meet in the White Council. Name two of them.
3. Who created the One Ring?

(trying not to spam, i promise, but forest people are taking part so D: )

Real world answers: Spider, Venus, Ireland
Tolkien answers: Eru Iluvatar, Morgoth/Melkor, Maiar/Wizards/Istari

Real world scores
New Haudenosaunee Confederacy: 8
Midand: 6
The Solar System Scope: 6
Wesleywestlandia: 6
Glacikaldr: 5
Protector eorum 16: 4
Zwangzug: 3
Frieden-und Freudenland: 3
Uan aa Boa: 2
North prarie: 2
The church of satan: 0

Tolkien scores

The Solar System Scope: 7
Protector eorum 16: 5
Glacikaldr: 5
Wesleywestlandia: 5
Uan aa Boa: 3
Eudoria: 3
Zwangzug: 1
The church of satan: 0

This will be the last round for today, since I need to sleep soon :P And since it's the last one, the theme's just going to be general knowledge!

Real Life General Knowledge:
1. What well-known animal does the less well-known vicuna look like?
2. Who was the last pope before the current one?
3. Name any chemical element named after a person.

LOTR General Knowledge:
1. Thorin's company in the Hobbit contains 4 dwarves whose name begins with B. Name one of them.
2. Who was the Necromancer?
3. What year was the Lord of the Rings first published?

Real world answers: Alpaca/llama; Benedict XVI; and there are a lot of correct elements, such as curium, einsteinium and oganesson!
Tolkien answers: Bombur, Balin, Bifur, Bofur; Sauron; 1954.

Real world scores
New Haudenosaunee Confederacy: 10
Midand: 9
Wesleywestlandia: 8
The Solar System Scope: 7
Glacikaldr: 7
Protector eorum 16: 7
Frieden-und Freudenland: 6
Uan aa Boa: 4
Zwangzug: 3
North prarie: 2
Eudoria: 1
The church of satan: 0

Tolkien scores
Protector eorum 16: 8
Glacikaldr: 8
The Solar System Scope: 7
Wesleywestlandia: 7
Uan aa Boa: 5
Eudoria: 5
Zwangzug: 1
The church of satan: 0

Thanks to everyone who took part (and tolerated all the pings from all the embassy posts!) And congratulations especially to New Haudenosaunee Confederacy for getting the most points in real world knowledge, and Protector eorum 16 and Glacikaldr who both scored 8 points in Tolkien trivia!

This was fun, and I hope to run this kind of quiz again some time :D

Forest turtle wrote:

NOOOO I missed it! :(

Hey we should run our own trivia.

Now, here is the thing. I love such quiz games, but one caveat of organizing such trivia events online is that we have access to internet, and we can easily google the answers to the questions. This spoils all the fun. To prevent this, I think one should ask the questions in such a way that Google cannot promptly give you the answer & there should be a very restricted time window for you to answer, so you can't thoroughly search for it online.

For example, a "bad" question would be something like: "Who was the lead actor in the movie "The Martian?" I mean, even if you don't know about Matt Damon, you could easily find the answer with a Google search.

A better question would be something like: "In how many movies has Matt Damon's character had to be rescued?" :D

To answer this question, you HAVE TO know the movies, so knowledge is needed.

But the question cannot be easily answered via a quick Google search, since it asks a very specific question about the content of the movies.

Thoughts?

Shall we organize our own trivia event with these types of questions?

The Cypher Nine wrote:

Why did we get rid of science minister?

Somewhere in some resignation we decided not to reappoint one; but Montmorencia is still basically continuing the Science Minister tradition with the EGNIF and Greenness dispatches.

Turbeaux wrote:

"Foresters" is better. "Forestian" does not roll off the tongue very easily!

Accent on the est, For-EST-ian. It's actually not that hard to say that way. And why would you need to speak it anyway, only type it! :P

Do choose your favorite and use it though. Forestian, Forester, Sylvan Phytophile - it just contributes to the diversity of our region! :D

Frieden-und Freudenland wrote:

Hey we should run our own trivia.

Now, here is the thing. I love such quiz games, but one caveat of organizing such trivia events online is that we have access to internet, and we can easily google the answers to the questions. This spoils all the fun. To prevent this, I think one should ask the questions in such a way that Google cannot promptly give you the answer & there should be a very restricted time window for you to answer, so you can't thoroughly search for it online.

For example, a "bad" question would be something like: "Who was the lead actor in the movie "The Martian?" I mean, even if you don't know about Matt Damon, you could easily find the answer with a Google search.

A better question would be something like: "In how many movies has Matt Damon's character had to be rescued?" :D

To answer this question, you HAVE TO know the movies, so knowledge is needed.

But the question cannot be easily answered via a quick Google search, since it asks a very specific question about the content of the movies.

Thoughts?

Shall we organize our own trivia event with these types of questions?

This would be amazing! I'll try and think of some questions and send them to you if I do.

Turbeaux wrote:

Mount Seymour, even if I just type it, spellcheck hates it because it is not a real word. I am going to continue to respect the English language by using "Forester". Someone implied that "Forestian" is official. I am glad that this is not the case!

I wouldn't call it quite "disrespecting the English language" but then again I don't take things like this so heavily. :P

Also, glad to have had you The Marsupial Illuminati while you were with us. o7

Canaltia wrote:

I'm currently working on a PSA assignment where I have to analyze two PSAs. I'm looking on youtube for them, and I never realized how horrific Canadian PSAs are. I can't actually review any of them, because I'm not allowed do one with offensive or graphic content. For a polite country, we really don't hold back when it comes to public safety...

Don't leave us hanging - we need examples now!

Canaltia wrote:

I don't know what you are looking for specifically, but there is a good chance there is a B-corp that sells it. Basically, a B-corp is a company, usually small and locally owned, that is highly regulated in every step of production. They need to make sure every step, from production all the way to disposal, is eco-friendly. To be a B-corp, you need to pass one of the most rigorous sets of corporal criteria there is, and it's a huge accomplishment to be one. You can find more info on their website.
https://www.bcorporation.net/

What a great resource. Thank you!

I'm not looking for any one thing right now, but there are various things I really need to buy at some point.

While it's not a B-corp, I did recently buy a mattress from a company called Saatva, and I've been really impressed by their eco-friendliness and the honesty on their website. They're very transparent about, for example, the fact that they don't use 100% organic materials - and they tell you exactly what is in their mattresses. (No wool, which is apparently rare among eco-friendly mattresses). Also, their customer service is great and the mattress is comfy.

Edit: I don't work for them or anything - just trying to save time for any other environmentally-conscious mattress-buyers out there who are prone to over-researching.

Esterild wrote:

In order to be able to make environmentally friendly purchases, I've been trying to figure out which countries of manufacture have the highest pollution standards. So far, the best source I've come across is the 2018 Environmental Performance Index by, apparently, Yale and Columbia. Countries are scored on environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

According to the report, "In general, high scorers exhibit long-standing commitments to protecting public health, preserving natural resources, and decoupling
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from economic activity."

Recently I've been noticing more products made in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and India. Interestingly, those countries all rank below China in this report (although China itself, at #120 out of 180, is not exactly covering itself with glory). Taiwan, on the other hand, is #23.

My thinking is that purchasing a product manufactured in one of the top-ranking countries would be more eco-friendly. Of course, I know that even though a finished product might be assembled in one location, its constituent parts may have come from elsewhere...but at least it's a start, right?

I'd be very interested to hear your opinions on this report and get links to any other useful sources.

https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/downloads/epi2018policymakerssummaryv01.pdf

Keep in mind that transporting products over long distances adds to their environmental impact, even if they were manufactured in an eco-friendly way. Gotta burn fuel to power cargo ships, trains, trucks, etc. and that releases emissions. So remember to factor that in if you are choosing your purchases based on where they are made.

Esterild wrote:

Wow. Those first two sets are like if Quentin Tarantino started directing Lifetime movies.

They do get the point across though. Especially the last one. Even when you try as hard as you can, there's still zombies!

Am I the only one who's suspicious when I see United Massachusetts has any resolution to do with Freedom of Religion before the general assembly?

They always seem to come with some horrible sting in the tail. The one here appears to be "not prosecuting victimless crimes if done in the name of sincerely held religion".

Hmm... That seems to me like an excuse for letting religions and cults get away with almost anything. The polygamist groups who push girls into marriage with the threats loss of their souls and families; religiously motivated prostitution; having people slave away in isolated communities for years for no pay (but willingly, all for the deity). All those things have been practiced due to "sincerely held" religious beliefs.

There is, of course, a hand-wave to member nations not being prevented taking action in case of violence or coercive action, which kind of makes it sound like: "If there are guns being held to people's heads, you can intervene... if you want."

If they omitted the part about "not prosecuting", I may have voted for. Because everyone should have freedom of religion and free from religion. But no-one should be free to do what they like in the name of religion, sincerely held belief or not.

Palos heights wrote:

Isn’t that the knob who was picking fights on our discord with anyone who’d reply to him about abortion or some other controversial topic?

I'm not on the Forest Discord -- I should join at sometime -- but he's periodically very active in the NSG abortion thread, he's strongly anti-abortion, and it frankly wouldn't surprise me...

EDIT: He's Catholic, IIRC. Prominent member of 'Right to Life'. Did I read on the abortion thread (or maybe somewhere else in NSG) that he's in politics? I'm sure I did, but can't recall where.