DailyDirt: Olympic Trivia

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Just in case you haven't gotten enough information on the Olympics, there are a ton of stories digging up random trivia about the games. (Or maybe you think everyone should be more interested in a robot on Mars.) But if you're looking for some bits of Olympic trivia, here are just a few examples.

• The oldest athlete at the 2012 Olympics is Hiroshi Hoketsu at age 71. He competes as an equestrian rider, but isn't the oldest Olympian ever. Oscar Swahn from Sweden won a medal in shooting at the 1920 games at the age of 72. [url]
• The shuttlecocks in Badminton can reach speeds of over 300 miles per hour. Strangely, the best shuttlecocks are made from goose feathers -- plucked only from the left wing of the bird, for no particular good reason. [url]
• Guor Marial competes in the Olympics ... as an independent (representing no country). Wouldn't it be interesting if all the athletes were given the option to compete without representing a nation? Marial's unique status comes from being a South Sudan native, but not wanting to represent the nation that killed his family. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: badminton, guor marial, hiroshi hoketsu, olympics, oscar swahn, shuttlecocks, trivia

Answer Some Trivia Questions To Get A Free Copy Of Year Zero; The Epic Sci-Fi Story Of What Happens When Aliens & Copyright Intermingle

from the answer-some-questions dept

Well, well. Last week, we posted an excerpt from Rob Reid's awesome Year Zero novel, and offered up free copies to the commenters who got the highest ranked voting. In retrospect, perhaps we should have realized this effort was going to fail. Whether it was "performance anxiety" from commenters with a free book on the line, a lack of something specific to comment on or (most likely) an unwillingness of people to vote since it might take away from their own chances of winning, the comments on the post got almost no votes. Only one qualifying comment got a serious number votes. One anonymous comment got a bunch of votes too, but you had to be a named commenter to win a book.

That means we're still left with four books to give away, and this time we're going about it a bit differently: posting four trivia questions/scavenger hunt items, and the first people to answer each of them in our comments (with some key conditions) get the remaining books sent to them (the first correct response to each question wins -- so if someone gets the first question right, and you answer the same question before someone else answers one of the others, you don't get the book). In order to get the book, not only do you have to get the question right, but you have to leave your email address with your comment (in the email field, not publicly) so we can reach out to you. You also have to respond within 24 hours of us emailing you (check your spam filters!) or we move on to the next person on the list. Yes, again, you have to be in the US or Canada (sorry about this one, but I believe this is due to Random House only having distribution rights in those two countries). Also, you can only win one book. So even if you can answer more than one question, there's no reason to do it, other than to be that guy... and no one likes that guy.

Okay, here are the questions. Get answering:

1. Link to a Techdirt post that mentions the person who narrates the audiobook version of Year Zero? (Feel free to name the individual too).
2. Year Zero is frequently compared to a famous sci-fi series that was a "trilogy" in five books. A few times on Techdirt, we've paraphrased a famous saying by the author of that series. What's the famous saying he said, that we've paraphrased multiple times?
3. The excerpt we posted includes the protagonist in the story, Nick Carter, reciting the "standard terms" that show up in "almost every" major label contract. He notes that most people think he's joking when he tells them that language, but he's not. Of course, Carter is just a character in a funny novel... but he's not joking. Point to three news articles/blog posts (anywhere, doesn't need to be Techdirt) that point to very similar (does not need to be identical) language in actual music contracts.
4. Rob has cleverly made sure that he cannot use the most obvious title for a sequel to this book. How?

Good luck.

Filed Under: copyright, rob reid, trivia, year zero