Monday, July 24, 2006

The Useless Knowledge IQ Test

I'm a pretty smart guy. The problem is, instead of applying my intelligence to rocket science or cures for deadly diseases, I'm much more interested in information that is relatively useless. I suspect this is why I attained a degree in writing.

Today's useless tidbit is animal hearding. See if you can correctly guess what each group of animals is called when there are several of them together. Example: A pack of wolves.
  1. Lions
  2. Crows
  3. Turkeys
  4. Fish
  5. Geese
  6. Horses
  7. Ants
  8. Beavers
  9. Hummingbirds
  10. Hyenas
  11. Jellyfish
  12. Kangaroos
  13. Leopards
  14. Lizards
  15. Crocodiles
  16. Camels
  17. Butterflies
  18. Locusts
  19. Hawks
  20. Owls
We'll make the worth 10 points each, leading up to a possible score of 200 (clarified for those who might not do so well on normal IQ tests).

Yes, it would be very easy to just look the answers up on the internet, but seriously, give it a try before you do. Write down the answers before you open the comments box. No copying others!

Some groups have multiple answers. Answers will be posted on Friday. Let's do a prize too, shall we? Highest score gets a plug on my website, and I'll post on the subject of their choice for a day.

At the end of the day, this is the honor system. There's no money involved, so please be honest.

18 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

i think mine should all be correct:
1. a mane of lions
2. a coven of crows
3. a waddle of turkeys
4. a swish of fish
5. a goose of geese
6. a roping of horses
7. a scurry of ants
8. a pussy of beavers
9. a hover of hummingbirds
10.a giggle of hyenas
11.a jiggle of jellyfish
12.a hopper of kangaroos
13.a pounce of leopards
14.a leap of lizards
15.a purse of crocodiles
16.a puff of camels
17.a flit of butterflies
18.a plague of locusts
19.a swoop of hawks
20.a who of owls..


am I close?

Anonymous said...

1. Lions : Pride
2. Crows : Murder
3. Turkeys
4. Fish : School
5. Geese : Gaggle
6. Horses : Herd
7. Ants : Colony
8. Beavers : Lodge
9. Hummingbirds
10. Hyenas : Cackle
11. Jellyfish : Smuck
12. Kangaroos : Mob
13. Leopards : Leap
14. Lizards
15. Crocodiles : Bask
16. Camels : Flock
17. Butterflies : Flight
18. Locusts : Swarm
19. Hawks : Cast
20. Owls : Parliament

Nicole said...

Ok Ben, here's my stab at it:

a murder of crows
a gaggle of geese\turkeys
a flutter of butterflies sounds pretty
a plague of locusts { because you know how much I detest such things and surely they are a plague to me!}
and lastly, any GOOD Canadian girl knows that BEAVERS come in colonies:-D

EJL said...

a pride of lions...awww screw it...I see others have posted and now I am cheating!

EJL said...

you blog is pretty!
I am broke and can't afford a sweet template

Ben said...

Good news, Ellie!

This one is one of the free templates offered by blogger. I'm also exceedingly poor.

See why I recommended writing down the answers before commenting? Follow instructions!

Ben said...

Sara's post has been deleted for admittedly cheating. The best part is, you still got turkeys wrong!

Fear not, sara. I'll repost your comments once the competition is over.

ELLIE: One more thing. I'm glad you like my layout, but apparently those who visit blogexplosion do not. I lose every single time.

Maybe it isn't the layout...maybe it's me. :-)

Shaman Dandulla said...

If you believe that a degree in Writing is useless, than what do you call a degree in Latin and Greek (my first one)? And I am not telling you the other ones I’ve got…

This is, by far, the best post I have read up to know! Why do I say this? Because it made me think! And also because I am soon going to post on a troop (although I prefer mission) of monkeys copulating in high waters while following 50 tonnes of bananas that eventually washed up on the Baltic coast…

it was very uncanny to find your post exactly when I was thinking “what each group of animals is called when there are several of them together”

Ps. you got a new fan! And thank you for passing by and commenting, that was greatly appreciated too!

1. Lions: pride (easy)

2. Crows: unkindness (middle hard)

3. Turkeys (difficult): raft (umm…) rafter(umm… ummm…)

4. Fish: shoal (easy), but also: run (mid-easy)

5. Geese: quite a lot actually… flock, gaggle and team (easy); skein and wedge (hard, I would say)

6. Horses: stud (semi-easy, but I think this is for the breading horses only... umm); team too.

7. Ants: colony (umm..)
8. Beavers: lodge (couldn’t tell you why, I heard it so many time); family (more appropriate); colony (why not).

9. Hummingbirds: charm (they really are charming little birds)
10. Hyenas: clan (easy); cackle (may be too)

11. Jellyfish: smack (difficult, and that’s the first that comes to my mind…)

12. Kangaroos: mob (little nasty animals when together)

13. Leopards: Leap (easy)

14. Lizards: lounge (that the only one I am afraid off… as in the use of the word… not sure at all, heard of it.. and yet never used it…)

15. Crocodiles: bask (I would say difficult, and may be not right but I do like it… it just gives me the right image of lazy crocs. soaking the sun… however, congregation is a bit more right.. although a congregation of crocs. saying their Ave Maria just doesn’t sound right…)

16. Camels: caravan (they taste amazing, especially shish kebabs of camels, I really could eat a caravan of camels…)

17. Butterflies: rabble (common); rainbow (I prefer)

18. Locusts: plague (very biblical...)

19. Hawks: cast (I love this one, don’t ask me why)

20. Owls: stare (difficult, may be because of their big eyes…)

nolatravelgirl said...

I have no idea which animals can actually be hearded but trying to get my friends to decide on a god damn Saturday night destination is like hearding cats.

EJL said...

isn't that how we met though Ben??? so the battle wasn't so bad after all!

Shaman Dandulla said...

Where'r the results mate??

TMLSB said...

1. Lions - Pride
2. Crows - Murder
3. Turkeys - family
4. Fish - school
5. Geese - gaggle
6. Horses - herd
7. Ants - swarm
8. Beavers - strip club
9. Hummingbirds - flock
10. Hyenas - pack
11. Jellyfish - school
12. Kangaroos - horde
13. Leopards - den
14. Lizards - i've never seen more than one at a time, so i don't know.
15. Crocodiles - a purse store
16. Camels - herd
17. Butterflies - mess of
18. Locusts - swarm
19. Hawks - covey
20. Owls - flock

Jesus. I haven't even looked up the answers yet, but I think I'm fucking retarded.

Ben said...

The results are in:

Yellowdog Granny scored 1/15. Her correct pick was "a plague of locusts"

skp: 15/20. Incorrect were: Turkeys, Hummingbirds, Lizards, hyenas, and jellyfish.

nicole: 4/15. Missed (that were attempted): turkeys, butterflies

ellie: 1/15 Thanks for not cheating!

Shaman: 15/20. Missed were Crows, crocs, turkeys, camels, and owls.

Tmlsb: 6/20. Correct guesses were Lions, crows, fish, geese, horses, and ants.

Results are tenative. Feel free to present evidence if you feel you have one that is correct that I marked off. Complete list of acceptable answers will be posted later.

Shaman Dandulla said...

The term "an unkindness of crows" belongs to a 15th-century listof proper-terms, notably that in the Book of St. Albans attributed to Dame Juliana Barnes (1486). Many of these are fanciful or humorous terms which probably never had any real currency, but have been taken up by joseph strutt in Sports and pastimes of England (1801) and by other antiquarian writers.
Based on that I would hope that you reinstated my unkindness of crows?
I look forward to reading the answers.
Ciao.

Ben said...

I've researched it. As far as I can tell, "murder" specifically applies to crows, and "unkindness" specifically refers to ravens.

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

Arguments may be posted in the form of a website link.

Shaman Dandulla said...

you are right. Now that i've started looking for these nouns in the net I found that too, and yes "murder" is used more for crows and unkindness for ravens, however, have a look here:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-19,GGLG:en&q=%22unkindness+of+crows%22

whatever you decide, this was a great post: I have learnt so much, and I thank you for this.

Shaman Dandulla said...

"Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

Anonymous said...

here is a list of everything

http://www.erinorourke.com/animals.html

i think my favorites are:
a mob of emus
a pod of porpoises
a business of ferrets
A pandemonium of parrots
A mustering of storks
A descent of woodpecker