• Sports Q&A

• Business Quiz Questions

Check the box for all answers or click on each question for its
answer. New! is an addition in the last month.
82. What is the name of the oil rig that sank and caused the largest offshore oil spill in
US history and gave BP a bad rep in 2010?New!

Deepwater Horizon

81. Which dot-com company that had its heyday in the 90s is credited with the
development of the Secure Sockets Layer Protocol (for secure online
communication) as well as JavaScript? New!

Netscape

Netscape's web browser was once dominant in terms of usage share, but lost most
of that share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war. By the end of 2006,
the usage share of Netscape browsers had fallen, from over 90% in the mid 1990s,
to less than 1%. The name Netscape was a trademark of Cisco Systems, that was
granted to the company.

80. Which controversial company that offers private security services is now known as
'Xe Services' and was founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark?

Blackwater

Xe provided security services in Iraq to the United States federal government,

particularly the Central Intelligence Agency on a contractual basis. They no longer
have a license to operate in Iraq: the new Iraqi government made multiple attempts
to expel them from their country, and denied their application for an operating
license in January 2009.

79. Which company/product connected with transportation is associated with the

immensely successful 'Think Small' ad campaign?

Volkswagen

According to CNN: These 1960s ads by Doyle Dane Bernbach had the challenge
of selling a compact, strange-looking automobile to Americans obsessed with
muscle cars, which reflected the country's new superpower status.

78. Named for a Greek muse and currently given by the Nielsen Company, what are
the awards given to reward creative excellence in advertising and design?

Clio Awards

They are awarded in a number of fields, including: TV, Print, Outdoor, Radio,
Integrated Campaign, Innovative Media, Design, Internet, Content & Contact, and
Student work.

77. With which micro-financing institution is the Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner
Muhammed Yunus associated?

Grameen Bank
 The word "Grameen" is derived from the word "gram" and means "rural" or "village"
in Bangla language. The system of this bank is based on the idea that the poor
have skills that are under-utilized.

76. Which 20th century industrialist known as the father of modern American
shipbuilding is also known for organizing a 'permanent' health care system for his
workers and their families?

Henry J. Kaiser (1882-1967)

Among the projects he constructed or helped construct: the Los Angeles Aqueduct;
the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge; and the Hoover, Parker, Shasta and Grand
Coulee dams. The inexpensive, quick-to-produce "Liberty Ships" built at his
shipyards helped win World War II. But perhaps his greatest feat was providing his
workers with health care coverage. Kaiser saw his prepaid health coverage plan as
a way to temper labor unrest and leave the government out of the process, while
bettering humanity.

75. Bretton Woods, a town in New Hampshire, US was the site of the UN Monetary
and Financial Conference in 1944 which led to the establishment of which two
seminal world institutions in 1945?

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

As a result of the conference, the Bretton Woods system of exchange rate

management was set up, which remained in place until the early 1970s.

74. Which Russian petroleum giant, once one of the world's largest non-state oil
companies was declared bankrupt by a court in 2006?

Yukos

73. Red Barn, now a official historic site in the US, was the original manufacturing site
of which company?

Boeing

Built in 1909, it is the oldest airplane-manufacturing facility in the nation and is now
part of the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

72. The name of which company was initially proposed as 'Pequod' but was retracted
when a creative partner responded "No one's going to drink a cup of Pee-quod!"?

Starbucks

The company is named in part after Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate in the
novel Moby-Dick, as well as a turn-of-the-century mining camp (Starbo or Storbo)
on Mount Rainier. Pequod is the main ship in the novel.

71. The 19th century American businessman Aaron Montgomery Ward is credited with
the invention of what type of business that would have made the postal service
happy?

Mail order

Although his idea was generally considered to border on lunacy and his first
inventory was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire, Ward persevered. In August
1872, with two fellow employees and a total capital of $1,600, he formed
Montgomery Ward & Company. He rented a small shipping room on North Clark
Street and published the world's first general merchandise mail-order catalog with
163 products listed. Ward's catalog soon was copied by other enterprising
 merchants, most notably Richard Warren Sears, who mailed his first general
catalog in 1896.

70. Which 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen have become famous for their
steel production and armaments and have been known as the 'Arsenal of the
Reich'?

The Krupp family

69. The 0 scale (or 0 gauge) is a scale commonly used for which type of hobby that is
associated with the company Lionel?

Toy trains (model railroading)

Lionel, LLC is a designer and importer of toy trains and model railroads, based in
Chesterfield Township, Michigan. Its roots lie in the 1969 purchase of the Lionel
product line by cereal conglomerate General Mills. According to its reorganization
papers filed as part of its bankruptcy plan on May 21, 2007, about 95 percent of the
company's sales come from O gauge trains. The plan estimated that about $70
million worth of O gauge trains are sold each year, and that Lionel accounts for
about 60% of that market, making it the largest manufacturer of O gauge trains.

68. Which economic theory that was the dominant school of thought throughout the
early modern period holds that the prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its
supply of capital and that the global volume of international trade is unchangeable?

Mercantilism

Economic assets or capital, are represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade
value) held by the state, which is best increased through a positive balance of trade
with other nations (exports minus imports) and assumes wealth and monetary
assets are identical. Mercantilism suggests that the ruling government should
advance these goals by playing a protectionist role in the economy; by encouraging
exports and discouraging imports, notably through the use of tariffs and subsidies.

67. Which influential author of 'Economics: An Introductory Analysis', the largest-selling

economics textbook of all time is also the first American to win the Nobel prize for
Economics?

Paul Samuelson

Economic historian Randall E. Parker calls him the "Father of Modern Economics",
and The New York Times considered him to be the "foremost academic economist
of the 20th century."

66. The name of which automaker derives from the Latin for 'I Roll'?

65. In the world of business, what phrase describes the process of a product becoming
non-functional after a certain period or amount of use in a way that is designed by
the manufacturer?

64. From the Arabic for 'to make known', what is the correct term for a duty imposed on
foreign goods?

63. In the US, Keogh Plans are full-fledged pension plans for small businesses and
what other type of people?

The self-employed
 Named for U.S. Representative Eugene James Keogh of New York, they are
sometimes called HR10 plans. IRS Publication 560 refers to them as “Qualified
Plans,” although Keogh Plan is understood by all. They are different from Individual
Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

62. While filming a commercial for which company in 1984 did Michael Jackson suffer
second degree burns after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire?

Pepsi Cola

Happening in front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, the incident
was the subject of heavy media scrutiny and elicited an outpouring of sympathy.
PepsiCo settled a lawsuit out of court, and Jackson gave his $1.5 million settlement
to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, where he had been
treated, allowing the hospital to acquire the best available technology for treating
severe burns; Brotman subsequently renamed its burn ward "Michael Jackson
Burn Center" in his honor.

61. After a Korean Air Lines flight was shot down after straying into the USSR's
prohibited airspace in 1983, President Reagan issued a directive making what
technology available for civilian use?

GPS (Global Positioning System)

Developed by the United States Department of Defense, it uses a constellation of

between 24 and 32 Medium Earth Orbit satellites that transmit precise microwave
signals, which enable GPS receivers to determine their current location, the time,
and their velocity. Its official name is NAVSTAR GPS.

60. George Bailey, the character portrayed by James Stewart in 'It's a Wonderful Life'
is loosely based upon which banker who was the founder of Bank of America?

Amadeo Giannini (1870-1949)

Giannini is credited as the inventor of many modern banking practices. Most

notably, Giannini was one of the first bankers to offer banking services to middle-
class Americans, rather than simply the upper class.

59. Which popular ice cream was named from two made-up words that were meant to
look Scandinavian to American eyes?

Häagen-Dazs

It was established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in The Bronx, New York in 1959.
The letter combinations 'äa' and 'zs' are impossible in all Scandinavian languages.

58. What is the name given to the fraudulent operation that involves paying abnormally
high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors rather
than from net revenues generated by any real business?

A Ponzi scheme

The system is doomed to collapse because there are little or no underlying

earnings from the money received by the promoter. The scheme is named after
Charles Ponzi, who became notorious for using the technique after emigrating from
Italy to the United States in 1903. Ponzi was not the first to invent such a scheme,
but his operation took in so much money that it was the first to become known
throughout the United States.
57. Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is the most important conversion process used in
petroleum refineries. What is it used for?

To convert crude oils to more valuable gasoline, olefinic gases and other
products

The FCC process vaporizes and breaks the long-chain molecules of the high-
boiling hydrocarbon liquids into much shorter molecules by contacting the
feedstock, at high temperature and moderate pressure, with a fluidized powdered
catalyst. In effect, refineries use fluid catalytic cracking to correct the imbalance
between the market demand for gasoline and the excess of heavy, high boiling
range products resulting from the distillation of crude oil.

56. Developed at DuPont in 1965 by Stephanie Kwolek and Roberto Berendt, what is
"...5 times stronger than steel on an equal weight basis..."?

Kevlar

Kevlar has many applications, ranging from bicycle tires and racing sails to body
armor because of its high strength-to-weight ratio.

55. Appropriately, which company's NYSE symbol is 'BID'?

Sotheby's, the auction house

Founded in 1744, it is the world's oldest international auction house in continuous

operation.

54. What is the term given to a retail store in which manufacturers sell their stock
directly to the public through their own brand?

An outlet store (or) factory outlet

The invention is often credited to Harold Alfond, founder of the Dexter Shoe
Company. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store, attached to a factory or
warehouse. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_outlet_store)

53. Which company whose name means 'light from the gods' is the world's largest
producer of guided missiles?

Raytheon

52. Which legal term describes a brand name that has become synonymous with a
particular class of products and whose examples include Scotch Tape, Frisbee,
Xerox and Band-Aid?

Genericized trademark

The term is legally significant in that unless a company works sufficiently to prevent
such broad use of its trademark, its intellectual property rights in the trademark
may be lost. A trademark typically becomes "genericized" when the products or
services with which it is associated have acquired substantial market dominance or
mind share.

51. Which system developed in the early 1940s has been the primary source of
audience measurement information in the television industry around the world?

Nielsen ratings

Since television as a business makes money by selling audiences to advertisers,

the Nielsen Television Ratings are the single most important element in
 determining advertising rates, schedules, and program content. Nielsen Television
Ratings are gathered by one of two ways; by extensive use of surveys, where
viewers of various demographics are asked to keep a written record (called a diary)
of the television programming they watch throughout the day and evening, or by
the use of Set Meters, which are small devices connected to every television in
selected homes.

50. In 1984, Gillette reportedly offered members of which rock band $1 million each in
an unsuccessful attempt to get them to shave their beards for a television
commercial?

Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top

Gibbons and Hill are always pictured wearing sunglasses (a nod to their 1979 song
"Cheap Sunglasses"), similar if not matching clothing, and their trademark chest-
length beards. The other member, Frank Beard sports a mustache, but rarely a
beard.

49. Which soft drink created in 1929 by Charles Grigg was originally named 'Bib-Label
Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda' and was launched two weeks before the Wall Street
Crash?

7 Up

48. What is the largest single-site employer in the US with more than 66,000
employees, a manifold increase from the 5,500 it employed when it opened in
1971?

Walt Disney World Resort

Today it employs more than 61,000, spending more than $1.1 billion on payroll and
$478 million on benefits each year.

47. In the late 1990s while attending the Northeastern University in Boston, what did
Shawn Fanning create when he wanted an easy method of finding music?

Napster

The popularity and repercussions of the first Napster have made it a legendary icon
in the computer and entertainment fields. Napster's brand and logo continue to be
used by a pay service, having been acquired by Roxio.

46. Which brand of Volkswagen was named after a wind that blows from the Sahara?

Scirocco (after Sirocco)

It is a sport compact produced by Volkswagen from 1974 through 1992. The model
was highly successful, and helped bolster VW's reputation. It will be revived with a
third generation in 2008.

45. The American businessman Orville Redenbacher is most commonly associated

with which popular snack item that bears his name?

Popcorn

His brand of popping corn continues to be among the most popular in the United
States. 2005 marked the 40th anniversary of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet
Popping Corn, still the #1 selling brand in America.

44. The children's literature section of the publisher Penguin Books are distributed
 under what name?

Puffin Books

Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and
much of the English-speaking world.

43. Located in Northern Ireland, what is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the
world?

Old Bushmills Distillery

Despite a lack of historical evidence, it is believed that troops of King Henry II

enjoyed the taste of Bushmills some 400 years before the distillery became
officially licensed in 1608 by King James I. In 1784 the Bushmills Distillery became
an officially registered company. From 1740 to 1910 Irish emigrants to the USA
spread the word of Bushmills, and it soon became a huge success at international
spirit and whiskey competitions.

42. The American inventor Douglas Engelbart is best known for inventing which
ubiquitous 'clicking' device?

The computer mouse

In 1967, Engelbart applied for, and in 1970 he received a patent for the wooden
shell with two metal wheels, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y
position indicator for a display system". Engelbart later revealed that it was
nicknamed the "mouse" because the tail came out the end. His group also called
the on-screen cursor a "bug," but this term was not widely adopted. He never
received any royalties for his mouse invention, partly because his patent expired in
1987, before the personal computer revolution made the mouse an indispensable
input device, and also because subsequent mice used different mechanisms that
did not infringe upon the original patent. During an interview, he says "SRI patented
the mouse, but they really had no idea of its value. Some years later I learned that
they had licensed it to Apple for something like $40,000."

41. Which American financier was known as the 'Junk Bond King' in the 1980s era of
Wall Street and also served time for insider trading?

Michael Milken

He was highly influential in developing the market for junk bonds during the 1970s
and 1980s, which in turn fueled the 1980s boom in corporate raids and hostile
corporate takeovers. He has been called both a financial innovator and the epitome
of 1980s Wall Street greed.

40. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, USA, which company is the world's largest
package deliverer handling more than 15 million packages a day in over 200
countries?

United Parcel Service Inc. commonly referred to as UPS

UPS is well known for its brown trucks, internally known as package cars (hence
the company nickname "The Big Brown Machine").

39. What is the title of the landmark television commercial that launched the Apple
Macintosh personal computer in the United States in January 1984?

1984

The commercial aired on January 22, 1984 during a break in the third quarter of
Super Bowl XVIII. The ad showed an unnamed heroine (played by Anya Major)
 wearing red shorts, red running shoes, and a white tank top with a Picasso-style
picture of Apple's Macintosh computer, running through an Orwellian world to throw
a sledgehammer at a TV image of Big Brother — an implied representation of IBM
— played by David Graham. This was followed by an on-screen message and
accompanying voice over by actor Edward Grover: "On January 24th, Apple
Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984." At
the end, the Apple "rainbow bitten apple" logo is shown on a black background.

38. Which American businessman founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962
and later sold the company to General Motors?

Ross Perot

He is best known for seeking the office of President of the United States in 1992
and 1996. With an estimated net worth of around $4.3 billion as of 2006, he is
ranked by Forbes as the 57th-richest person in America.

37. In Business Week's ranking of top global brands of 2007, which Finnish, Japanese
and German companies were the only 3 non-American companies in the top 10?

Nokia(6th), Toyota(7th) and Mercedes-Benz(10th)

Coco-Cola, Microsoft and IBM occupied the first 3 positions.

36. Which company was responsible for the Bhopal disaster in 1984 that is frequently
cited as the world's worst industrial disaster?

Union Carbide

On December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant released 40

tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, immediately killing nearly 3,000 people and
ultimately causing at least 15,000 to 22,000 total deaths.

35. The name of which company is supposedly derived from the transcandental god of
Zoraastrianism?

Mazda

It is also said that Mazda coincides with the anglicized pronunciation of the
founder's name, Jujiro Matsuda, who was interested in spirituality, and chose to
rename it in honor of both his family and the Zoroastrians. Mazda means "wisdom"
in the Avestan language. However, in Japanese, the company has always been
pronounced and spelled as "Matsuda" leading many to believe that Mazda is really
just a poorly anglicized version of the founder's name.

34. Which company soars above all and is the largest exporter by value in the United
States?

Boeing

In 2006 it took 55% of global commercial aircraft orders for the first time since
2000. Boeing also continues to serve as the prime contractor on the International
Space Station and has built several of the major components.

33. In Cuba, what are known as 'Yank tanks'?

Classic cars

After the Cuban Revolution, the USA imposed an embargo on Cuba, making
international trade very difficult. As a result, the cars that were present were
 nurtured. Due to the presence of many rich US citizens in Cuba under Fulgencio
Batista, classic cars were the standard and due to constant good care, many
remain in good working order.

32. Which device was released in 1979 with the name of the Soundabout in many
countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK but is
now best known by the name of its Japanese version?

The Walkman

The device was built in 1978 by audio-division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony
co-chairman Akio Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his
frequent trans-Pacific plane trips. Morita hated the name "Walkman" and asked
that it be changed, but relented after being told by junior executives that a
promotion campaign had already begun using the brand name and that it would be
too expensive to change.

31. Seems like Amazon.com has been around forever. What is the year in which the
site made its first sale in the form of Douglas Hofstadter's book 'Fluid Concepts &
Creative Analogies'?

1995

30. Dean Kamen, the inventor of which self-balancing transportation device said
"walking is a remnant of the Dark Ages, an unpleasant time-waster that technology
needs to eradicate"?

The Segway

The Segway resembles the motorized, gyroscopically stabilized unicycles in the

science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein titled "The Roads Must Roll".

29. Harald X Gromson was the king of Denmark in the 10th century and is regarded as
having united Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. How is his name popular in the
technological world (X in his name)?

As Bluetooth

Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs)

that provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices.

28. Which is the all time bestselling car in the world?

Toyota Corolla

In 1997, the Corolla became the bestselling car in the world, with over 30 million
sold as of 2007.

27. In October 2006, USA Today listed which advertising icon as no.1 on their list of
'Imaginary Luminaries: the 101 most influential people who never lived'?

The Marlboro Man

The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954. The ads were
originally conceived as a way to popularize filtered cigarettes, which at the time
were considered feminine.

26. In business hierarchy, what is the marzipan layer?

The group of managers just below the highest level of directors

 This phrase refers to the fact that in some cakes, a layer of marzipan lies just
below the icing.

25. By repute, where is the largest gold repository in the world? (Hint: Not Fort Knox!)

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan

This cannot be confirmed as Swiss Banks do not report their gold stocks. The
FRBNY's stocks are larger even than Fort Knox, and it holds approx 5,000 tonnes
of gold bullion ($90 billion worth at 2007 prices). The gold is owned by many
foreign nations, central banks and official international organizations. The Federal
Reserve Bank does not own the gold but serves as guardian of the precious metal,
which it "protects" at no charge as a gesture of good will to other nations.

24. The American journalist Ida Tarbell is known for her expose of the corrupt practices
of which giant company?

Standard Oil

She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work
known in modern times as "investigative journalism." She is best-known for her
1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company, which was listed as No. 5 in
a 1999 list by the New York Times of the top 100 works of 20th-century American
journalism.

23. In the 2009 list of cities with Fortune Global 500 companies, which city topped with
51 companies?

Tokyo

Followed by Paris with 27, and Beijing with 26.

22. Which New York businessman is widely reputed to have been behind baseball's
Black Sox Scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed?

Arnold Rothstein

His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, including "Meyer
Wolfsheim" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.

21. Which renowned company based out of California made significant contributions to
modern-day computing by inventing laser printing, Ethernet, and the graphical user
interface (GUI) paradigm, among other things?

PARC (Palo Alto Research Center, Inc.), formerly Xerox PARC

It was founded in 1970, and incorporated as a separate company (wholly owned by

Xerox) in 2002. Xerox has been heavily criticized (particularly by business
historians) for failing to properly commercialize and profitably exploit PARC's
innovations. The work at PARC in the years since the early 1980s is often
overlooked, but major work since then includes ubiquitous computing, aspect-
oriented programming, and IPv6.

20. In the 1970s, 'The Chicago Boys' were a group of 25 economists working under
which South American dictator's administration to create a free market economy?

Augusto Pinochet

They were trained at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman and Arnold
 Harberger, that's why the name.

19. In 1914, which company offered the first charge card for consumers, which were
precursors to the current day credit cards?

Western Union

These early cards were issued to preferred company customers to offer them an
array of special services, including interest-free deferred payments.

18. What is the largest oil corporation in the world with the largest proven crude oil
reserves and production?

Saudi Aramco, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Aramco also operates the world's largest single hydrocarbon network, the
Master Gas System. It was known as just Aramco between the years of 1933-
1988, an acronym for Arabian American Oil Company. Among those fields fully
owned by the company is the Ghawar Field, the world's largest oil field.

17. Which principle states that 'In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level
of incompetence'?

The Peter Principle

Formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter in his 1968 book of the same name, the Peter
Principle pertains to the level of competence of the human resources in a
hierarchical organization. The principle explains the upward, downward, and lateral
movement of personnel within a hierarchically organized system of ranks.

16. Marshall McLuhan was named as the 'patron saint' of which magazine that had his
quote on its masthead for the first ten years of its publication?

Wired

'Wired' has both been admired and disliked for its strong libertarian principles, its
enthusiastic embrace of techno-utopianism, and its sometimes experimental layout
with its bold use of fluorescent and metallic inks.

15. Which iconic personality co-founded the television channel 'Oxygen' in 1998 to
carry programming for young women?

Oprah Winfrey

14. In economics, what is 'monopsony'?

As opposed to monopoly, it is the market form with only one buyer

The term "monopsony" was first introduced by Joan Robinson. Good example is
the Arms Industry, where the government is the only buyer.

13. What 'nuclear' nickname was given to Jack Welch in the 1980s for eliminating
employees while leaving the office buildings intact?

Neutron Jack

In reference to the Neutron bomb that kills people but does not destroy buildings.

12. The design of Nike's Air Jordan basketball shoe was reportedly inspired by which
 deadly African slithering creature?

The Black Mamba

11. Which fashion designer credited with the turnaround of Gucci also posed with a
nude Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley on the cover of Vanity fair in 2006?

Tom Ford

Ford was the guest editor for the February 2006 Hollywood edition of Vanity Fair
and the cover was originally planned to showcase Keira Knightley, Scarlett
Johansson, and Rachel McAdams. But McAdams was replaced with a clothed Ford
after refusing to appear nude.

10. In a 2006 commerical for Genworth Financial, a little boy more than matches the
former pro Taylor Dent in a game of tennis. At the end of the ad, the boys parents
stop by to pick him up. Can you guess who they are?

Agassi and Graf!

9. The most widely accepted explanation for the origin of which symbol is that it is the
result of the evolution of the Spanish and Mexican scribal abbreviation for pesos?

The $ symbol

This theory, derived from a study of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
manuscripts, explains that the s gradually came to be written over the p developing
a close equivalent to the "$" mark.

8. Which company's name comes from a misheard line in a song called 'Space
Captain'? The actual words are 'Lovely X' but Tony Wheeler, the founder, heard
'Lonely X' and decided to name the company thus.

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet's first books catered to young people from Australia and Europe
(mainly the UK) undertaking the overland hippie trail between Australia and
Europe, via South-East Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. This
was becoming something of a rite of passage for young travellers, especially
Australians and New Zealanders, who spent many months (or years) on the
journey.

7. The Micronesian island of Nauru houses an offshore detention centre that holds
and processes asylum seekers trying to go where?

Australia

Nauru is a phosphate rock island, and its primary economic activity since 1907 has
been the export of phosphate mined from the island. With the exhaustion of
phosphate reserves, its environment severely degraded by mining, the government
of Nauru has resorted to unusual measures to obtain income and has given this
service to Australia since 2001.

6. In Japan, what term is given to a set of companies with interlocking business

relationships and shareholdings, akin to a business group?

Keiretsu

There are two types of keiretsu: vertical and horizontal. Vertical keiretsu illustrates
the organization and relationships within a company, while a horizontal keiretsu
shows relationships between entities, normally centred around a bank and trading
company. There are currently 6 major ones and a host of minor ones.
5. The success of which shoe brand has resulted from the aerobics fitness craze of
the 80s?

Reebok

Reebok surged in popularity in 1982 after the introduction of the Freestyle athletic
shoe, which was specifically designed for women and came out when the aerobics
fitness craze started. Reebok continues to produce the Freestyle to this day as it is
popular with cheerleading, aerobic dancing, the gym, and dedicated consumers.

4. Which online business was named for a word from 'Gulliver's Travels' that meant
'rude, unsophisticated, uncouth'?

Yahoo!

It was founded by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo in January
of 1994 and incorporated on March 2, 1995.

3. How did Google's famous 'page-rank' algorithm get its name?

From Larry Page, one of the co-founders of Google

It is a link analysis algorithm which assigns a numerical weighting to each element

of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose
of measuring its relative importance within the set. The PageRank process has
been patented and is not assigned to Google but to Stanford University.

2. Which cartoon character with wispy hair was licensed to Pepsico in the 1980s and
was extensively used to market 7 Up?

1. In the world of advertising, who is 'Bibendum'?

The Michelin man

The symbol was introduced in 1898 by French artist O'Galop (pseudonym of

Marius Rossillon), and is one of the world's oldest trademarks. André Michelin
apparently commissioned the creation of this jolly, rotund figure after his brother,
Édouard, observed that a display of stacked tyres resembled a human form.
Today, Bibendum is one of the world's most recognized trademarks, representing
Michelin in over 150 countries.