bernhard
it is you who deserve the prize
a great prize
for creating & serving us this jovial & satyrical banquet
m
>From: Bernhard Lurssen <tardis@...-net.de>
>Reply-To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Christmas Quiz 2001 - Answers
>Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 09:27:12 +0100
>
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>The answers to last year's Christmas Quiz.
>
>As there were no entries, no prize will be awarded.
>
>
>The Quiz & Answers
>
>Q 1 The International Date Line was shortened significantly in 1910.
> 1.1 What was the name of the island causing the previously longer
> line?
> 1.2 What was this island's geographical position?
> 1.3 What specific 'property' of this island led to the shortening
> of the International Date Line?
> 1.4 What was the name of the person whose activities, once they
> became recognized as criminal, led to the redrawing of the
> International Date Line?
>
>Q 1 Answers
> 1.1 Morrell Island
> 1.2 29� 57� North, 174� 31� East
> 1.3 It has never existed
> 1.4 Captain Benjamin Morrell
>
>
>Q 2 A thumbnail-sized piece of paper led to the following sequence of
> events:
> - Secession of one province from the mother country
> - Temporary cession of an integral part of the new country's
> territory to a distant power
> - Achievement of a remarkable engineering project.
> 2.1 From which country did this piece of paper originate?
> 2.2 In which year did this piece of paper see the light of day?
> 2.2 What exactly was shown on it?
> 2.3 Why was this so important?
>
>Q 2 Answers
> 2.1 Nicaragua
> 2.2 1900
> 2.3 The Nicaraguan volcano Momotombo, belching smoke
> 2.4 The stamp, circulated among US senators, led to the canal being
> built in Panama instead of Nicaragua
>
>
>Q 3 What did the demarcation commission of the China/Burma boundary in
> the 1960�s do to improve the visibility of the boundary?
>
>Q 3 Answer
> They planted flowering trees
>
>
>Q 4 The boundary between the two German states was finally demarcated
> in the 1970�s, except for the stretch running along the river
>Elbe.
> The GDR claimed the boundary to be along the center of the river
>bed,
> whereas the FRG claimed the width of the river up to the tips of
>the
> breakwaters on the northern bank. This conflict remainded
>unsolved
> until 1989.
> 4.1 In the original agreement 1944, what words did the Allies
> choose to describe the boundary of the Allied Zones of
>Occupation
> in the Elbe area?
> 4.2 Of the 93.7 km Elbe boundary, over what length did the boundary
> according to the wording in the 1944 protocol actually run
> along the centre of the river bed?
> 4.3 Which territory bordering the Elbe was subsequently handed over
> to another Allied Zone of Occupation following a formal
>bilateral
> agreement?
> 4.4 Apart from the territory mentioned in 4.3, how many territorial
> fragments along the river changed hands between the United
>Kingdom
> and the Soviet Union?
> 4.5 On what grounds did the FRG claim the entire width of the river
>bed?
>
>Q 4 Answers
> 4.1 "The territory of Germany ... situated to the East of a line
>drawn from the
> point on L�beck Bay where the frontiers of Schleswig-Holstein
>and
> Mecklenburg meet, along the western frontier of Mecklenburg to
>the frontier
> of Hanover, thence, along the eastern frontier of Hanover, to
>the frontier of
> Brunswick; thence along the western frontier of the Prussian
>province of
> Saxony to the western frontier of Anhalt ... will be occupied
>by armed forces
> of the U.S.S.R. ..."
> 4.2 40.5 km
> 4.3 Neuhaus Strip
> 4.4 Four
> 4.5 The FRG claimed that handing over the Neuhaus Strip to the
>U.S.S.R.
> did not include the adjoining river bed.
>
>
>Q 5 At the end of World War II, French troops occupied a large part of
> Southern Germany, including the region along Lake Constance and
> the river Rhine.
> But what about the B�singen enclave...
> 5.1 How many members of the French occupation force were allowed
> into B�singen at any one time?
> 5.2 Were these persons allowed to carry weapons?
> 5.3 Which route were these persons to take from 'mainland' Germany?
> 5.4 When and where was the formal agreement on this matter signed?
>
>Q 5 Answers
> 5.1 10, including customs officials
> 5.2 Yes
> 5.3 From Gailingen along Laagstrasse
> 5.4 3 November 1945 in Bern
>
>
>Q 6 In August 1969, military action was taken to help resolve a
> territorial dispute by force.
> 6.1 A number of pilots for this mission under the command of
> Captain Nascimento were given the rank of Major. Why?
> 6.2 Which territory was the military action designed to capture?
> 6.3 According to one of the pilots' report, which unexpected
> obstacle did the troops encounter in the target area?
> 6.4 What nationality was the only fatality of the confrontation,
> and what was his cause of death?
>
>Q 6 Answers
> 6.1 The final decision for the assault had to rest with the pilots.
> They therefore had to hold at least the rank of Major.
> 6.2 The New River Triangle in southern Guyana/Suriname
> 6.3 The target runway was obstructed by survey poles
> 6.4 One Surinamese soldier drowned, when the boat he fled in
>capsized.
>
>
>Q 7 Some political geographers in the past advocated the maximum
> stability for countries with a circular boundary and the capital
> at its centre. Who said mathematics has no place in political
>geography?
> Let's imagine an ideal plane shared by countries as close to the
> 'ideal' shape as possible, without leaving any gaps.
> This would obviously be a honeycomb structure of adjacent
> regular hexagons.
> If we now consider an ideal globe without oceans or large lakes,
> without seasons and different climate zones.
> The task is to cover the surface with 32 countries of equal area,
>
> without leaving gaps, while keeping the boundary length of each
> country to the minimum
> (for reasons of simplicity we assume a polyeder instead of a true
>
> sphere).
> 7.1 Which shape(s) must these countries have?
> 7.2 How many countries are required of each shape type?
> 7.3 How is the area of each type of shape calculated?
>
>Q 7 Answers
> 7.1 Regular pentagons and hexagons with two different sides,
> the longer one equalling the side of the pentagon
> 7.2 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons
> 7.3 Regular pentagon: Area = a2 * 1.7205
> Hexagon: Area = 0.433 * (a2 + 4ab + b2)
>
>
>Q 8 The McDonald�s Theorem of War and Peace basically says that no two
> countries ever went to war against one another if there was at
>least one
> branch of McDonald�s fast food chain in both countries.
> For this theorem, civil wars and unrests do not count.
> 8.1 Name an exception, i.e. both war parties and the year
> 8.2 In this example, how long until the fast food branches on the
>territory
> of one participant were closed?
>
>Q 8 Answers
> 8.1 Yugoslavia and the NATO countries in October 1999
> 8.2 2 days
>
>
>Q 9 We all know these jokes like 'How many (insert group to be derided)
> does it take to change a lightbulb?'.
> In a more serious vein � If the answer to the question 'The state
>
> authorities of how many countries have to be involved to change a
>
> lightbulb?' is 'Four' -
> 9.1 Where is this street lamp located (village/town/city as well as
> street/square name)?
> 9.2 Which four states' authorities would be involved?
> 9.3 During which period of history has this taken place?
>
>Q 9 Answers
> 9.1 "West Berlin, Platz vor dem Brandenburger Tor" or
> "East Berlin, Pariser Platz"
> 9.2 1. Federal Republic of Germany/West Berlin Senate,
> 2. United Kingdom (The lamp posts were in the UK Sector),
> 3. Soviet Union (The light bulbs were in Soviet Sector
>airspace),
> 4. German Democratic Republic (to actually carry out the
>repair)
> 9.3 Between 1945 and 1989
>
>
>Q 10 The Channel Island of Guernsey's subdivision into ten Parishes has
> produced fragments of almost communal Liechtenstein magnitude.
> A Parish in Guernsey is a clerical as well as a communal
> subdivision.
> 10.1 Which Parishes are fragmented, if the Parish boundaries at
> low water level are taken into account?
> 10.2 Identify the smallest fragment on the island; what is its area
>
> in square meters?
> 10.3 There is a tight bottleneck in the west of the island, where
> two Parishes nearly meet at one point. By what distance do
>we
> miss out on a biparochial quadripoint, rounded to the
>nearest
> meter?
>
>Q 10 Answers
> 10.1 Torteval, St. Martin�s, St. Sampson�s
> 10.2 St. Martin�s Exclave, to the west of the main Parish, 24.123
>sqm
> 10.3 30.4 m -> 30 m
>
>
>Q 11 The state of Bremen is the smallest of the 16 constituent states
> of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the City of
> Bremen and the City of Bremerhaven, a territorial fragment
> some 50 kilometers downriver from Bremen.
> 11.1 In what way does the inner harbour area of Bremerhaven
> qualify as a territorial curiosity?
> 11.2 What is the smallest fragment of the city state of Bremen
> called, and roughly where is that exclave located in
>relation to
> Bremen territory?
> 11.3 What characterizes the population of this fragment, if any?
>
>Q 11 Answers
> 11.1 It forms part of the city of Bremen, not part of the city of
>Bremerhaven
> 11.2 Exclave Fehrmoor, just north east of Bremerhaven
> 11.3 Non-permanent people in weekend houses
>
>
>Q 12 Three days after the end of World War 2, the first post-Nazi de
> facto government on German territory took office.
> 12.1 What territory did this government effectively control?
> 12.2 Why did the Allied forces allow this to happen?
> 12.3 On what date did this government hand over control to Allied
> forces?
>
>Q 12 Answers
> 12.1 The district (Landkreis) of Schwarzenberg in Western Saxony.
> 12.2 The Soviet troops kept their agreement with the US forces and
>stopped
> east of Schwarzenberg, whereas the US troops stopped west of
>the
> territory. Some sources say this was an oversight by the
>Americans.
> Others claim the power vacuum gave the Americans the chance
>to
> transfer millions of German soldiers from adjacent Bohemia
>into their
> control. In view of the impending Cold War scenario with the
>USSR
> this was apparently more desirable than leaving them for
>capture by
> the Soviet forces.
> 12.3 On 24 June 1945, the Action Committees of Republik
>Schwarzenberg
> handed over control to the Soviet commander.
>
>
>Q 14 Micronations are entities created by individuals who want to see
> the dream of their own state come true. The world at large
>usually ignores
> them, except during the silly season.
> Nevertheless, one such micronation gained recognition by a
>subject
> of International Law. After protest from the 'mother country',
> which doesn't recognize the secession, this subject of
>International
> Law 'de-recognized' that micronation.
> 14.1 Where is this micronation located and what is its name?
> 14.2 Which subject of International Law recognized it?
> 14.3 What is so peculiar about 'de-recognizing' a
>country/micronation?
>
>Q 14 Answers
> 14.1 Near Northampton in Western Australia,
> called "Hutt River Province Principality"
> 14.2 Hong Kong
> 14.3 International Law does not know the process of de-recognizing
> a country. In other words: recognition is irreversible.
>
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