1. Adjust for inflation. In 1931, Babe Ruth made $80,000. How much would that be in today's dollars?
2. Match a name to a phone number. A tipster has passed on a terrific lead on a federal investigation of your mayor. Caller ID tells you the tipster called from 202-965-3515? Without calling the number, find out: Whose phone number is that?
3. Check your law. A 9-year-old girl has been killed riding her bike. She was not wearing a helmet. What is your state or city law on bicycle helmets?4. Prep for an interview. In 10 minutes you'll be covering a speech by an author named Grossman, who contends that video games are a cause of school shootings, because they condition children to kill. But you have an early deadline, so you have to do the interview before the speech. The book has "killing" in the title. What is the exact title? What term did he coin? What other books has he written? What town is he from, and why might that be interesting? What five questions do you want to ask him before the speech?
5. Source a quotation. When the nominees for president pick women as running mates, we'll have to be careful with that saying, "politics makes strange bedfellows." Who coined that maxim? And isn't there an earlier use of the phrase, "strange bedfellows"? Who said it first?
6. Background a business executive. Melvin J. Gordon just gave a huge contribution to your art museum. All you know is that he runs a company in the U.S. Who is he? What company? Besides its namesake product, what else does this company produce? What is his annual salary? What was his total cash compensation? How much is he worth (at least in company stock), as of today? What basic bio information do you have on him?
7. Find a trend. What was the 1997 estimate of computer ownership in the United States. Hint: try the Census Bureau.
8. Background a Web site. Matt Drudge has some gossip about your dean on his Web site, at
http://www.drudgereport.com. You need to reach Drudge by phone. All you know is his Web site address. From that, find his phone number. (It's not on his site.)Bonus Question 2. The web will help you some here.
The Bible says it rained 40 days and 40 nights and all the earth was covered by water. Assuming it rained everywhere in the world at the same rate so that there was no runoff, how many inches an hour would it have to rain in order to cover the top of Mount Ararat (where Noah supposedly landed his ark as the waters receded) in 40 days and 40 nights.