George Washington quiz for Presidents Day with Biography Reference Bank

Monday is Presidents Day, and to mark the occasion today's quiz is all about President George Washington.

The answers are in one of the several detailed biographical profiles in Biography Reference Bank, or you can wait until later today, when we will tweet them.

1) What were the names of George Washington's parents?
a) Ann and Lawrence
b) Mary and Augustine
c) Martha and George

2) Washington's home, Mt. Vernon, was named after which significant figure in Washington's life?
a) A commander in the Continental army.
b) The governor who sent the 22-year-old Washington on an expedition to ascertain the number of French stationed on the Ohio and vicinity.
c) The admiral who was leading an expedition in which Washington was offered a place as midshipman as a youth.

3) In March 1776, Washington and his army surrounded the city of Boston. What was the outcome of this maneuver?
a) The British were defeated by Washington's troops in battle.
b) The British defeated Washington's troops and they had to regroup outside the city.
c) The British left the city without a fight.

4) What did Washington do on December 4, 1783, at Fraunces Tavern, New York?
a) Attacked Cornwallis's army.
b) Surrendered his commission as commander in chief.
c) Accepted the presidency of the United States.

5) What domestic crisis did Washington face in July 1794?
a) Pennsylvania farmers rebelled over a tax on making whiskey.
b) Jefferson rebelled over recognizing the new French government.
c) His cabinet split into Federalists and Republicans.

6) How old was Washington when he stepped down as president?
a) 75
b) 80
c) 65

New content for Cinema Image Gallery - Oscar nominees and more!

In time for awards season, Wilson has updated Cinema Image Gallery with 6,500 new images from 1,200 movies and television shows, including more than 450 movies new to the database, and with the nominee information for the 2011 Academy Awards.

More than 300 images from the 10 movies nominated for Best Picture are featured in the database, and the other award categories indexed by Cinema Image Gallery are also well represented.

New titles added to the database in this update include

• Tron: Legacy: 94 images
• Despicable Me: 57 images
• The Town: 45 images
• True Grit (2010): 44 images (Cinema Image Gallery also has 52 images from the original version)
• Boardwalk Empire: 31 images
• 127 Hours (28 images)

The images added are a mixture of publicity photos, scenes from the movies and shows, production shots of the crews in action, and lobby cards and poster art.

Valentine's Day Quiz with Cinema Image Gallery

If you're looking for inspiration for some romantic movies this weekend, try a search in Cinema Image Gallery for romance, using the genre dropdown list.

That's what we did in compiling today's quiz, where we're asking you to name these romantic movies. The answers are all in Cinema Image Gallery, or you can wait until later today when we will tweet them. 

Stormy Friday quiz with Omnifile

Ejiri by Hiroshige Ando

With Australia being battered by storms and severe weather fronts sweeping across the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere, today's quiz is all about storms. You will find all the answers to today's quiz in the Readers' Guide database in Omnifile (search for storms), or wait until later today when we will tweet them. 

(Pictures come from Art Museum Image Gallery.)

1) Before the private-sector organization AirDat began using its wallet-sized, airplane-mounted Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting sensors, how was atmospheric data usually gathered?

a) Weather balloons released twice a day.

b) Sensors on top of tall buildings and high mountain peaks.

c) Gases collected from rainwater.

2) According to Greg Carbin of the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma, what is considered "good advance notice" of where a tornado will strike?

a) It is impossible to give advance notice.

b) 2 - 3 hours.

c) 20 - 40 minutes.

Payaguas Indians of Paraguay scare off a hurricane

3) Which year of the 21st century saw an unprecedented number of storms during the Atlantic storm season, including 27 named storms, 15 hurricanes, 3 Category 5 storms, and the most intense storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin?

a) 2005

b) 2001

c) 2009

4) What is a lahar?

a) A glacier that is suddenly melting due to climate change.

b) A massive debris flood that can make changes to the landscape.

c) A large boulder that has been dislodged by a storm.

5) When did meteorologists start assigning unique names to hurricanes?

a) The turn of the 20th century.

b) During the cold war.

c) World War II.

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Wilson Omnifile

Firing crackers in honor of kitchen god

Celebrations for the Chinese Year of the Rabbit begin tomorrow, and Omnifile has a number of articles on the festivities that are sure to give you and your patrons some ideas for marking the occasion.

In an article from Yankee (January/February 2008), Boston restaurateur Joanne Chang offers a recipe for Chinese dumpling and soy dipping sauce, which is an ideal party food that is also sociable to prepare. For a Taoist approach to preparing a New Year's feast, find inspiration in an article from Sunset (February 2002), where a full  yin-yang menu including hot-and-sour soup, rock sugar ginger chicken, steamed sole with black bean sauce, stir-fried garlic lettuce, and steamed sponge cake is provided.

Rabbit by Nathan Oliveira

Remember that patrons can not only print out these articles to read, but also save them to an MP3 player to listen to at their leisure (they can opt for either a male or a female voice for the playback), which can be helpful when compiling a shopping list or cooking the recipes.

Those looking for some apt words for the occasion might consider a short speech from actor Nicolas Cage. After years of believing himself to have been born in the year of the dragon, he later discovered he was really a rabbit. You can read his whole speech in Los Angeles (January 2002).

(This entry is illustrated with pictures from Art Museum Image Gallery.)

Happy New Year!

Tennis quiz with Biography Reference Bank

This weekend sees the final of the Australian Open, one of the world's most renowned tennis tournaments. It's a truly international affair, with Scottish player Andy Murray taking on Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the men's final, and Belgian Kim Clijsters playing Na Li, the first Chinese player ever to reach a grand-slam final.

(These players, by the way, are well profiled in Biography Reference Bank.)

To mark the occasion, today's quiz will be all about tennis, with the answers available in Biography Reference Bank or later today in a tweet.

1. On September 6, 1975, my request for asylum in the U.S. was granted, and although I had a rocky year in 1976, I bounced back in 1977 to bcome the first female tennis player to earn $100,000 in one year. Who am I?
a) Evonne Goolagong
b) Martina Navratilova
c) Andrea Jaeger

2. I was born in the U.S., but my father was an Armenian who boxed for Iran in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics. Who am I?
a) Andre Agassi
b) Ivan Lendl
c) Boris Becker

3. In January 1997, at the age of 15 years 11 months, I became the youngest person ever to compete in the Australian Open. Who am I?
a) Llayton Hewitt
b) Sebastian Grosjean
c) Tim Henman

4. In addition to having won numerous singles and doubles titles, including the 2002 Australian Open Women's Doubles prize, I also speak six languages and am a classically trained pianist. Who am I?
a) Anna Kournikova
b) Ana Ivanovic
c) Daniela Hantuchova

5. A pioneer practitioner of power tennis, I was the first player to win the Grand Slam: Australian Open, French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. Who am I?
a) Arthur Ashe
b) Don Budge
c) Gene Mako

Downton Abbey and Costume Dramas on Cinema Image Gallery

In its 40th year on PBS, Masterpiece has scored another critical and popular hit with Downton Abbey, the story of those who lived and worked above and below stairs in one of Britain's great houses at the beginning of the 20th century.

Everyone loves great costume drama. It makes for excellent entertainment and can be a great teaching tool too. So, to mark this popular movie and television form, today's quiz asks you to name these classic period dramas. All the answers can be found in Cinema Image Gallery, or you can wait till later today when we will tweet them.