East Bay Times

Roundworms are our friends

- Leslie Elman Trivia bits Email Leslie at triviabits­leslie@gmail. com.

1. The Edict of Worms was a 1521 proclamati­on that condemned the teachings of whom?

A) Thomas Aquinas B) Aristotle C) Galileo D) Martin Luther 2. Which of the five Great Lakes is the only one that lies entirely within the United States? A) Lake Erie

B) Lake Huron

C) Lake Michigan

D) Lake Superior

3. Skye is the largest island in which archipelag­o?

A) Azores B) Channel Islands C) Inner Hebrides D) Marshall Islands

4. At what frigid temperatur­e do the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales correspond?

A) Minus 40degrees B) Minus 20degrees C) Zero degrees D) 32 degrees

5. Violet Baudelaire is one of the three siblings in which collection of novels?

A) “The Chronicles of Narnia” B) The “Harry Potter” series

C) The “Hunger Games” trilogy

D) “A Series of Unfortunat­e Events” 6. In nature, a porgy is what type of creature from the family Sparidae? A) Bat

B) Bird

C) Fish

D) Frog

Answers

1. The Edict of Worms, named for the city of Worms, Germany, condemned the teachings of Martin Luther.

2. All of the Great Lakes border Canada except Lake Michigan.

3. Skye is the largest island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

4. Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatur­es are the same at minus 40degrees.

5. Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are the main characters in Lemony Snicket's “A Series of Unfortunat­e Events.”

6. In nature, a porgy is a fish from the family Sparidae.

FACTS OF THE DAY

• Researcher­s who study aging and longevity often experiment on subjects with short life spans so they don't have to wait decades for results. Thus, they're partial to roundworms, which only live for two weeks or so and, weirdly, share some genetic characteri­stics with people. Weirder still: Yeast has enough cellular similariti­es to humans that it's also used in laboratory studies on human aging.

• GLK Foods of Appleton, Wisconsin, claims to be the world's largest producer of sauerkraut. (GLK stands for Great Lakes Kraut.) Founded in 1900, the family-run company processes about 140,000 tons of fresh cabbage into kraut each year. Demand peaks around Oktoberfes­t and New Year's Day, when it's traditiona­l to eat pork and sauerkraut for good luck.

• Four U.S. states picked violets as their official state flower. The first was Illinois, which adopted the common blue violet (Viola sororia) in 1908. Wisconsin named the wood violet (Viola papilionac­ea) its state flower in 1909. Rhode Island and New Jersey also chose Viola sororia.

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