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About This Quiz
Time is a limited resource. If you want to spend your time learning one skill, you will inevitably not learn another skill. It is a rare person who masters a musical instrument, oil painting, baseball and astrophysics all at the same time. While one skill can dovetail nicely with another skill, most people aren't going to be able to learn every skill they might find interesting because they are just too disparate.
Some skills are related. A linguist will find it easier to learn all the Latin languages than one Latin language and contact juggling. What is fascinating and peculiar is that some skills which do not appear to have much in common could actually be very easy to cross train between. For example, while baseball and football are both sports, the types of movements that football players are accustomed to probably translate more easily into the study of dance, rather than baseball. Baseball, on the other hand, would not translate as well into cricket, because everything baseball players are taught about how to throw a ball or swing a bat is wrong or against the rules in cricket.
So put your skills to the test! Are you an average Joe, or can you do the things few can? Find out with this quiz!
What is the first thing you should do after taking a steak off of the grill?
Let it sit around for a few minutes.
After cooking a steak or any large piece of meat, it is good to let the meat rest for a minute or two. This allows the distribution of the juices to even out. As a result, the meat will stay juicy after cutting into it, instead of having all the juices pour out after cutting it once.
Slice it up and serve it.
Sear the outside over an open flame.
Microwave it for maximum texture.
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How can you keep a fountain pen from leaking when on an airplane, without dumping out the ink?
Keep the pen shut for the whole flight.
Once at altitude, shake the pen like a cocktail mixer.
Put the pen on its side for the flight, cap off.
Take off the cap and point the tip up.
Fountain pens leak because the bubble of air behind the ink has the air pressure of ground level, while aircraft are pressurized to 6,000 feet in most cases. Once the air pressure outside the pen is lower than that inside the pen, the air in the pen tries to escape, pushing against the ink that sits in the way, forcing the ink out. If you uncap a fountain pen with the tip up before takeoff, and leave it in this position until the aircraft is fully pressurized, the bubble in the ink cartridge or ink bladder will move to the mouth of the pen and connect to the outside air before pressurization of the aircraft. This means that the high pressure (ground level) air will not force the ink out when the air around it is pressurized to 6,000 or so feet above sea level.
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How can you tell your PC to prioritize a graphics application while you are using other software?
You need special software for that.
It's a choice during installation.
It's an option in Task Manager.
Go to the program in the list in Task Manager, right click on it, and "Change Priority". This brings up a drop down menu allowing you to tell the computer how to queue the importance of software's access to the CPU.
It's an option in Resource Monitor.
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What is the first thing you should do when handed a baby?
Burp them.
Support their head.
Babies are not very strong yet and have big heads. You should also support a baby's head until the baby is able to do it him- or herself. The baby and its parents will thank you!
Hand it back.
Support the butt.
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What is a fairlead?
A ring that a rope goes through
A thing for ropes on boats
A point that allows a skipper to aim the bow of a ship
The furthest forward on deck fitting through which the jib sheet passes
Sailors don't call ropes ropes. Ropes are either lines or sheets. A line is used to tie a ship to a dock. A sheet controls a sail. The jib is the sail on the front of a ship, and the jib sheet is the rope used to control the jib by pulling it in or letting it out. To control the jib sheet, it passes through several fittings on its way to the stern, where the crew are located. The furthest forward of these fittings is called a fairlead. The American Sailing Association requires this answer on their certification test.
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What's a good tip for executing an excellent faro shuffle?
Bevel one half of the deck.
A faro shuffle is one of the most satisfying and useful shuffles for the professional croupier or magician. The goal is to perfectly weave one half of the deck into the other with just a little pressure, by putting the edges of one half of the deck against the edges of the other.
Use a lot of force.
Drag the edges of the cards together like you're playing a violin.
Insert one half of the deck into the other one card at a time.
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What are the three most important elements in filmmaking?
The actors, the script, and the directing
The directing, the cinematography, and the music
The script, the script, and the script
Alfred Hitchcock said "To make a great film you need three things: the script, the script, and the script." Without a good script, no movie can be good, and the better the script, the better the movie. No other element can make this claim, from the acting (remember Wild Wild West? Exactly.) to the directing (remember Waking Life? Exactly.) to the special effects (remember Radioland Murders? Exactly.)
Special effects, acting, and music
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How can you tell when a steak is cooked to the point of being "rare"?
Make a guess.
Cut it open.
It feels like your cheek when you poke it.
A simple way of knowing how a steak is cooked is to poke it. If it feels like the meat of your cheek (fairly soft) it is rare. If it feels like your chin, it is medium. If it feels like your forehead, it is well done.
Look at the color of the outside.
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What is the most important thing to know to do when falling to the ground?
Taking a break-fall
Tucking one's chin
When one falls, one runs the risk of injuring one's spine. Tucking one's chin into one's chest keeps one's head from knocking around. This prevents neck injury. While break-falls and relaxing are good to know, they aren't as important as tucking one's chin.
Relaxing one's body
None of the above
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How can you build a strong credit rating without taking out student or home loans?
Take out personal loans and have your creditors write to the three major credit bureaus.
Car loans
Leave a little money on a credit card that you use every month, but always pay off more than the minimum without paying it all off.
By taking out a credit card and always paying it down a little, you establish that you can be trusted with credit, but by not paying it off you show that you're worth investing in for the interest paid to your creditors. Given a couple of years, this will give you a good credit history without having to take out loans for tens of thousands of dollars.
None of the above
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What is the key to learning Microsoft Office Suite?
Learning the icons
The quickest way to learn Office is to learn the icons. Icons in Office are common to all Office applications, meaning that learning what they mean in one application means you know what they mean in other applications. Since those functions are most of what makes up the programs, learning them means that there are fewer things to learn within each program.
Knowing the keyboard shortcuts
Memorizing functions
None of the above
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What's the best way to learn a new language?
Night classes
Computer programs
Full immersion
Full immersion is the best way to learn a language. Move to a place where no one speaks any language you understand and force yourself to learn the local tongue.
None of the above
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How can you estimate when to make a turn when flying over the ocean and all you have for navigation is a map and a watch?
Use the second hand.
What's a watch? You mean like an Apple Watch? Just use the GPS!
Use the watch's bezel.
Naval aviators are taught to use math to navigate over the ocean, since there are no landmarks. By maintaining a constant speed and using some basic math, the pilot can use the watch's rotating bezel to mark the time when they will have reached the point on the map where they are to turn.
None of the above.
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What must a director have in order to have a successful film shoot?
Storyboards
Camera notes
A director's book
While all of these tools are good and many are often ignored, the director's book is the most important tool the director has. It contains all the notes on the script including direction for the actors, the script, storyboards, shot lists and everything else the director needs to run the set.
A script
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What is the very first thing you should do when writing a story, be it a novel or a script?
Write a logline.
Loglines are important. A good logline means you really know what your story is about, because you can communicate the important bits in one sentence. Knowing this is important, since it makes everything else possible.
Write an outline.
Write the final scene.
Write a scene breakdown.
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What is the best method for memorizing a list of a thousand items?
Cheat. Write it down.
The memory palace
The peg system
The so-called "memory palace" system is useful, but in order to remember any one item in a list one needs to begin at the door to the house and pass through every room. The peg system uses phonetic sounds for digits 0-9, which can be turned into words for numbers ("rat" for 41, the sounds for which are "R" and "T" or "D") which are then associated with the objects in a funny way. A rat nibbling on an iPhone is an easier thing to remember than "41=iPhone".
None of the above
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What should you keep in mind when opening a Japanese puzzle box?
The patterns on the outside of the box are only there to conceal the mechanism, so ignore them.
You may have to go backward to go forward.
Don't smash it with a hammer.
All of the above.
Japanese puzzle boxes are fun, but difficult. To complete them, people find it is often necessary to go back a bit, because the mechanisms are often built to go one way, then back. Also, the marquetry on the outside is there to conceal the moving pieces, and hitting the box with a hammer is cheating.
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What is the first step in executing a split-s?
Turn the plane upside down.
A split-s is an air combat maneuver as old as the hills. To do it, the pilot must turn their plane so that it continues on its current vector while upside down, then pull "up" (which is really down) and turn in the direction opposite the vector on which they were originally traveling.
Bank right.
Roll right.
Pull up.
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What is the best way to ensure you don't lose all the documents on your computer?
Upload everything to the cloud, where it can be data mined.
Back up to a big heavy hard drive you won't lose, then put it in storage.
Back it up to several encrypted thumb drives, one of which you carry with you.
Backing up to multiple encrypted hard drives means that only you will have access to the data, and that if you lose one of them in say, a fire, you'll be fine. It's a good idea to keep one at home, one at work, and on in your wallet or on your keys, just in case.
Just don't do anything stupid with your computer.
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What must a pilot do in order to correctly execute a hammer?
Fire accurately while in a barrel roll
Force the engine to stall
The hammer is one of the earliest air combat maneuvers, and requires the pilot to pull the aircraft into a vertical climb until it stalls, then let it yaw to one side into a dive which restarts the engine and gives the attacking aircraft speed, altitude and surprise.
Jam the aircraft's machine guns
None of the above
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What is the best, invisible way to write notes in class without getting caught?
Morse code in pencil on paper
Whatsapp
Texting
With a Post It Note in your pocket
Stick a Post It to your ID so you have something firm to write on, and use the broken off tip of a pencil to write in your pocket. No one will be able to see you, and if the teacher identifies the motion as happening, the last thing they'll think is that you're writing notes, and be too embarrassed to say anything.
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What style choice will make a stone sculptor's life easier?
Long trousers and sleeves
Wear a smock
Wear a mask
Short hair
While a mask can be good for stone sculptors because it will keep dust out of one's lungs, short hair will have more immediate uses. Stone dust has a tendency to collect in one's hair, and even wearing a hat or a ponytail won't help. Stone dust can really get into your hair, and even washing it won't get it all out if you have long hair, so make like Michelangelo and cut your hair short.
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How should you arrange seating at a dinner party so everyone is included?
Let people sit wherever they like to keep things casual.
Sit people next to people they know really well.
Sit people next to their partners or spouses.
Split up couples or friends so they meet new people.
By splitting up people from the people they came with, you can introduce them to new people by sitting new people on either side of them. This means everyone makes a new friend! Try to introduce people to other people you think they will find interesting or professionally useful, for extra points!
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How do you kill the signal of a cellphone without using the power button, liquid or smashing it?
Take it into your basement.
Put it in an RFID blocking wallet.
Put it in a microwave.
Put it in a copper bird cage.
A Faraday cage will block radio signals, but how do you make one? Some older microwaves will do, but most modern ones will not cut off the signal because their design is built to block microwaves, not radio waves. Your basement would have to be deep underground to block the signal, and Mylar wallets only block signals on some models, and only some of the time. A copper bird cage would do the job though.
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What's the last thing you should do when cleaning hinges with WD-40?
Wipe it clean.
Blow it out with a can of compressed air.
Splash some water on there.
Add oil.
WD-40 is actually a degreaser, not a lubricant. As a result, it actually causes any oil left on a thing to come off after application. If you use WD-40 to clean a hinge or a bicycle chain, you're cleaning it and exposing it to potential rust. After using WD-40, clean off the WD-40 with a rag and apply machine oil as appropriate to your tool.
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What is the first thing you should do when a PC gets a blue screen of death?
Unplug everything except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, and turn it on again.
The BSOD is the bane of every PC user's existence. It is, luckliy, not too hard to fix. The first thing you should try is restarting the machine without all your hard drives, gaming accessories, etc. plugged in.
Hit it.
Cold boot it.
Dust it out.
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How can you basically guarantee you will win at a casino without being a professional gambler?
Learn to gamble from a pro, but wear a disguise.
Bribe the dealer.
Be a croupier.
To gamble is to risk losing. Croupiers are the dealers in a casino, and the math is entirely on their side in every game. Do you want to win at a casino? Become a croupier. That's the only way you can guarantee success.
Play the mathematical odds.
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How do you throw a knuckle ball?
Slightly open your fist to expose the knuckles, and grip the ball with that.
Balance the ball on the back of your hand and whip it toward the plate.
Throw the ball normally, but without imparting spin. Just push the ball.
Throwing a knuckle ball isn't like throwing a curve or a cutter. A knuckle ball does not spin, so the throw is more of a push, but it has to appear like any other throw in order to fool the batter. Interestingly, the old fashioned way of throwing a splitter used to produce a ball without spin, giving it knuckle-ball-like characteristics.
Hold the ball, pinched between your index and middle fingers. Throw using only the index and middle fingers.
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What tool might you need to split a playing card into two layers of paper?
Finger nails
All that is really needed to split a playing card is a fingernail. After abusing a corner a little by tapping it against the table, the edge of the paper will start to open up and allow you to pry it open some more with a nail.
A razor blade
Tweezers
A Swiss Army knife
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How do you find a road while in the wilderness, without a map?
Look for carrion birds, like crows.
Climb to high ground and look for the road with your eyes.
Listen for the road.
Any of the above.
Depending on the situation and surroundings, the best way to find a road could mean following carrion birds that tend to eat roadkill, or listening for the tire roar of a road, or climbing to high ground so you can view the road from a hilltop.
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How can you guess what side is on the bottom of a die without seeing the sides?
Guess. It's one out of five!
Subtract the top number from 7.
Indeed, opposing sides on a die always add up to 7, so if the number on top is a 2, the bottom is a 5. If the number on top is a 6, the number on the bottom is a 1. If the number on top is a 3, the bottom is a 4.
If the number on top is a two, angled from upper left to bottom right, then the number on the bottom is a 6,
Double the number. That's the number on the other side.
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What should you use to get corrosion off the terminals of a car battery?
A dry toothbrush
Nitric acid
Coca Cola
Rust is iron oxide, and acid dissolves iron oxide. Coca Cola has mild acids in it (carbonic acid and citric acid) that, together, pack enough punch to remove rust from car batteries. In a pinch, it works. Then get your car to a garage, because your battery contacts shouldn't be rusting.
WD-40
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How can you outwit facial recognition software to go unrecognized?
Wear a mask of a famous person.
Paint your face silver.
Paint your face with irregular, woodland camouflage.
Paint your face with large, high-contrast, geometric camouflage.
Computers use algorithms to recognize faces. They apply a series of shapes to what they see, looking for patterns like the shadows under the eyebrows, nose, and chin. By disrupting this pattern with paint, you won't be recognized as a person.
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How long should your starting pieces of lanyard be, for making a box stitch?
9 times the intended finished length
To begin a box stitch lanyard, you should have two colors of lanyard material, cut to 9 times the total length you want to have when finished.
15 times the intended finished length
3 times the intended finished length
4 times the intended finished length
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How should you fold a fitted sheet?
Just don't. It's not worth it.
Put one corner into the other, then repeat.
You can make a perfect rectangle, though the inside seams won't be perfect. It's all about putting one corner inside the other, then neatening things up and doing it again. There are videos online so check 'em out!
The same way as a regular sheet.
Roll it around a single corner.
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You Got:
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