Keith Bradnam Keith Bradnam

Thanksgiving quiz 3

Image from flickr user hjl

When I lived in Davis and when we were entertaining friends and family at Thanksgiving I would always try to entertain our guests with a postprandial quiz of my own devising. I would wait until the guests had eaten their fill in order to ensure their near-comatose state forbids them an easy escape.

Scroll down for answers…

Round 1: Is it a turkey?

The Latin name for Turkey is Meleagris gallopavo, and turkeys belong to the family of birds called Phasianidae, (Face-ee-ann-i-die). So which of the following birds are also in the same family and hence closely related to turkeys?

  1. Pigeon
  2. Partridge
  3. Turkey Vulture
  4. Peacock
  5. Quail
  6. Flamingo

Round 2: Is it in Turkey?

  1. Pune
  2. Bochum
  3. Bodrum
  4. Ankara
  5. Hemet
  6. Ephesus

Round 3: Stuffing

A turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. But this is not the only example of food items being stuffed inside other food items. The name for this culinary technique is engastration.

You will see five dishes listed below; four of these dishes involve meat, but one of them is a dessert dish. 1 point for each of the correct blank spaces that you fill in. Order of stuffing not important

  1. Gurducken/Gooducken
  2. Fowl de cochon
  3. Pandora's cushion
  4. Hotchken
  5. Cherpumple

Round 4: True or false:

  1. The Turkish word for Turkey (the animal) is Turkey (i.e. it's the same)
  2. The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1897
  3. Turkey has a higher population than Argentina and Malaysia combined
  4. An adult wild turkey is covered by approximately 1,100 feathers
  5. Romania is one of 8 different countries that shares a border with Turkey
  6. Wild turkeys can fly at up to 55 mph
  7. Turkey is the world's largest producer of hazelnuts
  8. There are Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Turkey is home to two of them
  9. The weight of the largest turkey ever recorded was 86 lbs / 39 Kg
  10. Internationally, Turkey is more popular to tourists than the United Kingdom
 
 
 
 
 
 

Answers

Round 1: Is it a turkey?

The Latin name for Turkey is Meleagris gallopavo, and turkeys belong to the family of birds called Phasianidae, (Face-ee-ann-i-die). So which of the following birds are also in the same family and hence closely related to turkeys?

  1. Pigeon
  2. Partridge (Y)
  3. Turkey Vulture
  4. Peacock (Y)
  5. Quail (Y)
  6. Flamingo

Round 2: Is it in Turkey?

  1. No. It's in India, 27th largest city in the world.
  2. No. It's in Germany (16th largest city)
  3. Yes
  4. Yes
  5. Noo. It's in Riverside county, California
  6. Yes

Round 3: Stuffing

  1. Gurducken/Gooducken: goose <- duck <- chicken
  2. Fowl de cochon: pig <- turkey <- duck <- chicken
  3. Pandora's cushion: goose <- chicken <- quail
  4. Hotchken: chicken <- hot dogs
  5. Cherpumple: Cake <- cherry pie + pumpkin pie + apple pie

Round 4: True or false:

  1. False
  2. False: it was founded in 1923 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in WW1
  3. True: 77m vs 43m + 30m, 18th most populous in the world
  4. False: it's 5,500 feathers
  5. False: Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria
  6. True
  7. True
  8. True: Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
  9. True
  10. True: 37.8 tourist arrivals vs 31.2 in 2013
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Keith Bradnam Keith Bradnam

Thanksgiving quiz 2

Image from flickr user Jason Devaun

Image from flickr user Jason Devaun

When I lived in Davis and when we were entertaining friends and family at Thanksgiving I would always try to entertain our guests with a postprandial quiz of my own devising. I would wait until the guests had eaten their fill in order to ensure their near-comatose state forbids them an easy escape.

In this quiz, all of the questions are in the style of cryptic crossword clues. The answers can all be made from the letters in the word 'Thanksgiving'. Some examples…

Clue: I just rescued one of King Arthurs minions from danger (6, 6) Anwser: saving knight

Clue: I have a list of 7 things: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, and pride. If you had to remove one of those things from the list, what would you be doing? (6, 3) Answer: taking sin

Clue: An unforgettable singer without any Cole? (3, 4) Answer: Nat King

Okay so now on to the real questions. Scroll down for answers…

  1. People who have this are easily insulted, and are also very easy to give injections to (4, 4)
  2. As soon as we get a lot of snow, I'm going to Lake Tahoe and I expect I'll suffer from too much exposure to the sun. What will I be getting? (3, 3)
  3. Someone has just acquired another possession (5, 5)
  4. About a thousand years ago, a gentleman from Scandinavia may have worn this on his head (6, 3)
  5. Someone is contemplating about getting older (6, 5)
  6. I get very nervous and agitated about the prospect of going on long walks in the countryside (6, 5)
  7. I'm in possession of a rather noxious odor (6, 5)
  8. What might you call nitrous oxide if – in addition to making you laugh – it made you contemplate and consider the mysteries of life? (8, 3)
  9. One thousand grams has just disappeared (9, 2)
  10. If an actor from the film Apollo 13 started making an alcoholic beverage using juniper berries, what might he put on the bottle? (1, 5, 3) – requires 2 punctuation characters
 
 
 
 
 
 

Answers

  1. thin skin
  2. ski tan
  3. gains thing
  4. viking hat
  5. thinks aging
  6. hiking angst
  7. having stink
  8. thinking gas
  9. vanishing kg
  10. T. Hank's Gin
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Keith Bradnam Keith Bradnam

Thanksgiving quiz 1

Image from flickr user Michael Levine-Clark

When I lived in Davis and when we were entertaining friends and family at Thanksgiving I would always try to entertain our guests with a postprandial quiz of my own devising. I would wait until the guests had eaten their fill in order to ensure their near-comatose state forbids them an easy escape.

In this quiz (scroll down for answers ), all of the answers sound a bit like 'Thanksgiving'. A couple of examples…

Question: What prison inmates might be doing today?
Answer: Shanksgiving

Question: One way of describing the gifts and other objects that are donated at Christmas?
Answer: Thingsgiven

You get the idea now? Okay so here ten more questions (the last one is particularly cryptic)…

  1. What might you call it if you bought someone a Panzer or a Sherman as a gift?
  2. This is what would happen if Dracula gave away his dentures?
  3. The unlikely event that would occur if Wall St institutions donated their profits to charity?
  4. The butcher's cold store has just been furnished with several sides of beef.
  5. Throughout his life, Mr Sinatra raised millions of dollars for good causes.
  6. What would you call it if lots of women suddenly returned the same type of skimpy undergarment to Victoria's Secret?
  7. What happens when up and coming musicians have to rely on financial contributions from their supporters?
  8. I appreciate you all coming here today. It pleases me immensely. I'm much obliged. I owe you all a debt of gratitude.
  9. Sometime I wonder about bestowing gifts upon people.
  10. Big actor donates to charity
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Answers

  1. Tanksgiving
  2. Fangsgiving
  3. Banksgiving
  4. Flanksgiving
  5. Franksgiving
  6. Thongsgiving
  7. Fansgiving
  8. Thanksgiven
  9. Thinksgiving
  10. T. Hanks giving
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Keith Bradnam Keith Bradnam

45 Things You May Not Know About Keith Bradnam

On the occasion of my 45th birthday I thought it was time for a listicle to end all listicles:

  1. I have run more this year than in any other year of my life (123.3 miles so far).
  2. I don't own any jeans and haven't worn jeans for about 20 years.
  3. I have written two albums as part of the RPM music challenge — written and recorded entirely within the month of February).
  4. I have written one novel as part of National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) — written entirely within the month of November.
  5. When I was about 13, I once called a teacher a Nazi over the school PA system. It was intended as a joke. Nobody found it funny.
  6. My left arm is slightly longer than my right one and fingers on my left hand are notably longer than those on the right hand.
  7. When it comes to shaving or brushing my teeth, I am ambidextrous.
  8. I have cried at the ending of Cool Runnings (Disney Jamaican bobsleigh movie).
  9. I have cried watching Neighbours.
  10. Until I was about 16 I thought that approximately meant 'exactly' (this caused much confusion in maths lessons).
  11. I have watched — in chronological order — every episode of M*A*S*H, every episode of Seinfeld, and every episode of every Star Trek series.
  12. At age 15 I came very close to applying to join the Royal Air Force as an electrical engineer.
  13. I have logged my weight in a spreadsheet nearly every day since July 2009.
  14. My iTunes library contains 12,816 tracks and I have rated 12,795 of them.
  15. The first band that I ever paid to see was Doctor and the Medics.
  16. At university I frequently dyed my hair: 'Paprika' & 'Copper Mahogany' were popular colours.
  17. To check whether my son is paying attention, I frequently insert the word 'sausages' into random places when reading bedtime stories.
  18. I manage 11 different Twitter accounts (most, but not all, are active).
  19. I once spent an entire year giving up a different thing each month (alcohol, meat, TV, credit cards, etc.)
  20. I am fairly uncomfortable about the idea of fancy dress parties.
  21. I'm confident that I know more lyrics to Come on Eileen than 99.9% of the UK population.
  22. My superhero power — such that it is — is being able to identify songs only by hearing faint, and muffled, bass lines that penetrate the walls from neighbouring buildings.
  23. I (almost) never swear.
  24. My first paid job was washing dishes at around the age of 13.
  25. I still feel awkward at almost all social gatherings.
  26. At university I won an award for 'worst dressed person' from my hall of residence.
  27. One of my least favourite things in the world is to attempt any form of DIY or home repairs. This is the easiest way to see the 'dark side' of my personality.
  28. I started using spreadsheets for fun in 1990.
  29. I once was mistakenly beaten up for 'being gay' outside a toilet in Cambridge.
  30. I invented the concept of a Mexican Tweet-off — one of the world's least successful attempts at making something go viral on Twitter (three people stand in a triangle, take a picture of each other at exactly the same time and race to be the first to have their picture appear on Twitter.)
  31. I once had a video that I made feature on the YouTube home page.
  32. I once wrote to Coca-Cola to protest at their — geographically incorrect — depiction of a polar bear and penguin within the same winter-based scene.
  33. Awkward attempts at humour: I once used to frequent an online chatroom community using a user name of 'TheManWhoSaysNo' — the only response I would give to any conversation was 'No'.
  34. The first piece of recorded music that I purchased was Snot Rap by Kenny Everett (as Sid Snot). In my defence, I was only 12 at the time.
  35. I find the concept of 'Terms and conditions may apply' incredibly funny and frequently make reference to this in various forms of written content. I find it funny because it can just be used to hide any amount of bad news or unwanted side effects: 'Inappropriate use of this product may cause rashes, swellings, or premature death'.
  36. I have an encyclopaedic — and entirely useless — knowledge of jingles and catchphrases from 70s and 80s TV advertisements (We hope it's chips, Make room for the mushrooms, Meat not mince).
  37. I mostly choose to not play computer games as I easily become incredibly addicted to them.
  38. In the early 1990s I (needlessly) starting making a card-based index of records and songs by Gladys Knight and the Pips.
  39. There is one film that I have seen at the cinema which I enjoyed so much that I went and watched it again the following day. That film was The Usual Suspects.
  40. Of all form of arts and entertainment, I hold Radio 4's The Archers in the highest regard.
  41. While I am proud to have co-authored a book — about Unix and the programming language Perl — I am even prouder to have worked jokes into the index.
  42. I have once performed stand-up comedy at a Science Showoff event (my routine was titled The Seasonality of Death).
  43. This is Spinal Tap is probably all-time favourite movie.
  44. Who's Next by The Who remains my all-time favourite album.
  45. I still feel that I'm waiting to work out what I want to do when I grow up.
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Keith Bradnam Keith Bradnam

Talking about death and not dying on stage: Keith does Science Showoff!

A few weeks ago I performed a short stand-up comedy set as part of Science Showoff, a regular series of events which are billed as 'chaotic cabaret for science lovers'. Science Showoff is the wonderful brainchild of Steve Cross, who is to science and comedy what peanut butter and jelly is to sandwiches (well, American ones anyway). The idea is to make science fun, entertaining, and (hopefully), funny.

I love presenting and I've always considered myself to be someone who puts a lot of humour in my presentations and I always try hard to make my talks engaging. So Science Showoff seemed like a logical thing for me to do. However, there is a big difference between a science presentation with hints of comedy and a comedic presentation with hints of science.

In addition to having presented at a variety of levels (from lab meetings up to to international conferences) I've also played several gigs in various bands. So I'm not particularly nervous about the idea of getting up in front of strangers. Initially, the idea of performing stand-up comedy didn't really faze me at all, but as the date of the gig came closer, I felt much more anxious than I was expecting to feel.

The most challenging aspect of Science Showoff is that, as a newcomer, you get a 9 minute slot. This goes by very quickly and if you want to tell some sort of story with a beginning, middle, and end, there is very little room for making on-the-fly alterations.

I found myself rehearsing my material in more detail than I have for most presentations that I have given. There is very little room for 'chaff' in a 9 minutes! My original version of my talk probably ran to about 30 minutes and I had to just keep cutting more and more material to hone it down (maybe they'll end up as deleted scenes on the DVD version).

I feel I made things harder for myself by deliberately choosing a topic which initially might seem bereft of any humour potential. My title was: 'Seasonality of Death'. When I first volunteered for this, I knew that I would be doing a slide-driven presentation but I dramatically cut back on how many slides I would normally present and I chose slides that were strong on visuals and kept text large and legible.

The result of my efforts is included below. I'm pleased with how I did, especially with respect to the timing of all of my content. I'd certainly consider doing this again if the opportunity arose and I think it is a great exercise in making you think about all aspects of your presentation skills.

Thanks again to Steve Cross for the opportunity.

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Keith Bradnam Keith Bradnam

My new job: Imaginatively Communicating Research

When I arrived at the UC Davis Genome Center in January 2005, I started a job as a postdoctoral researcher. Over time, I became an Assistant– and then an Associate Project Scientist. Throughout my 11 years at UC Davis, my primary focus was on research science: using bioinformatics approaches to investigate a variety of genomics projects.

However, my job titles became a poor reflection of what I actually ended up spending my most of my time doing. Increasingly I spent time managing & organising projects, training & mentoring people, and communicating about science. As I detailed in my exit seminar, there were many different hats that I ended up wearing:

Science communication came to dominate my activities at UC Davis and I also realised that a) I really enjoy this (more than research science!) and b) it's something that I am good at. Away from work, I decided to write more about science on my ACGT blog (333 posts since June 2012), I helped create a web comic devoted to science outreach (The Take-Home Message), and I found some time to teach courses on using Twitter for a local non-profit.

We have known that we were going to leave Davis and return to the UK for quite a while and so I made the decision that it was time to make all of these secondary activities the primary focus of my new job. For the last few months I focused on looking for work in the fields of science outreach and communication. This also involved switching my computer's spell checker back to British English as 11 years is long enough to 'go native'.

So today I can (finally) reveal my new job which — at the time of writing — I will be starting in about one hour's time! My new role will see me become the Digital Strategy Manager for the Institute of Cancer Research. The ICR is one of the world's leading cancer research organisations and was ranked first in the Times Higher Education league table of university research quality.

The ICR has been driving forward cancer research for over 100 years. Aside from the varied research programs, the ICR trains several hundred PhD students, works with industry to develop new drugs, and — as a charitable organisation — has a variety of fund-raising programs and campaigns. This multifaceted nature is something that presents many challenges for how the ICR has to communicate their work to all of the different stakeholders. This challenge was one of the reasons why I was attracted to this role.

There's an irony that my wife has just left a cancer research institute in Davis and now I am starting work at one in London. I'm sure I'll have many questions for her in the coming weeks! I look forward to learning a new vocabulary of cancer related terminology, and will try my best to learn how to pronounce names like 'abiraterone'.

My new role puts my science research career behind me and formalises my new journey into the world of science communication. I look forward to helping bring you news about the great research, training, and other activities that occurs at the ICR. I plan to continue blogging about science in my free time, and will continue my 101 questions with a bioinformatician series on my ACGT blog. I imagine that the blog content will evolve somewhat and maybe I will find myself writing about the challenges (and rewards) of being a science communicator!

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