This week's Pre-Apocalypse News and Information Quiz might provide a bit of levity on this Monday.
If you can't laugh, you can't learn.
Did you hear the one about ballast water in the Mediterranean, and the name of the new, GMO salmon headed for market in about a year?
They walked into a bar and said "That's what BP said.... last night!
The ApocaDocs' PANIQuestions from the week ending July 4.
(Answers below):
1. Why is mercury "more dangerous in oceans"?
a. It makes the ocean become a big thermometer.
b. The salt binds the methylmercury, leading to bioaccumulation.
c. It rides piggyback on krill, so doesn't get as tired.
d. DNA is just a little different in the ocean.
e. The ocean has become supersaturated with heavy metals.
2. According to its CTO, what is Monsanto becoming the "champion" of?
a. The world.
b. BP.
c. Climate change.
d. Denial.
e. Healthy eating.
3. What do scientists call the new, fast-maturing, GMO giant salmon?
a. SalmonEel.
b. Weird.
c. Dinner.
d. AquAdvantage.
e. Salmonsters.
4. What does new evidence indicate about Arctic response to overall warming?
a. Its temperature rise is triple the overall warming.
b. It expands its biomass via "hot plankton."
c. It absorbs heat into its "inferno core."
d. It makes clothes whiter than white.
e. It laughs at danger.
5. Why is spirulina algae considered a "miracle food"?
a. It tastes like chicken.
b. It reproduces utterly without sex.
c. It grows in the shape of the Virgin Mary.
d. It takes way more calories to digest than it provides.
e. Its dry weight is 70% protein.
6. What evidence was discovered about methane gushing along with oil in the Gulf?
a. Adolescent dolphins are enjoying the "cheap high."
b. It's almost as bad as all the cows in the US.
c. It's in a "cage match" with fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi.
d. It's creating huge oxygen-depleted "dead zones."
e. It interacts with dispersant to produce CH3E2E.
7. What effect is ballast water having on the Mediterranean?
a. It's raising the level of the lake 0.2mm per year.
b. It produces about one invasive species every nine days.
c. Fourteen barnacle species long thought extinct have survived within ballast cavities.
d. It softens skin.
e. The internal "ecosystem" of ballast water mimics the months-long ecosystem of Mars space ships.
Answers:
______
- Why is mercury "more dangerous in oceans"?
Correct Answer: (b): The salt binds the methylmercury, leading to bioaccumulation.
See "Why mercury is more dangerous in oceans" (Duke University, via EurekAlert)
http://www.eurekalert.org/...
- According to its CTO, what is Monsanto becoming the "champion" of?
Correct Answer: (e): Healthy eating.
See "Robb Fraley: Monsanto is a champion of healthy eating" (New Scientist)
http://www.newscientist.com/...
- What do scientists call the new, fast-maturing, GMO giant salmon?
Correct Answer: (d): AquAdvantage.
See "Giant salmon will be first GM animal available for eating" (Telegraph.co.uk)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
- What does new evidence indicate about Arctic response to overall warming?
Correct Answer: (a): Its temperature rise is triple the overall warming.
See "Arctic Overreacts to Climate Change" (DiscoveryNews)
http:/http://news.discovery.com/earth/arctic-warming-amplification.html
- Why is spirulina algae considered a "miracle food"?
Correct Answer: (): Its dry weight is 70\% protein.
See "Algae trials test 'wonder food' status of spirulina" (SciDev.net)
http://www.scidev.net/...
- What evidence was discovered about methane gushing along with oil in the Gulf?
Correct Answer: (d): It's creating huge oxygen-depleted "dead zones."
See "Methane Dead Zones in Gulf Waters Confirmed, Gas Levels 100,000 Times Normal" (SolveClimate)
http://solveclimate.com/...
- What was discovered about the Mediterranean, regarding ballast water?
Correct Answer: (b): It produces about one invasive species every nine days.
See "Ships' ballast water adds a new alien species to the Mediterranean every nine days" (Times of Malta)
http://www.timesofmalta.com/...
How'd you do?
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