Five questions (with answers) asked in the Internet Hunt during 1994

Rick Gates, Director of Library Automation at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is asking questions like the ones below in a monthly contest dubbed "the Internet Hunt." Participants in the Hunt score points for finding the answers to Gates' questions - but not using traditional reference material like encyclopedias and almanacs. Instead, hunters must find the answers online, using information sources on the net. All of the answers are to be found online using any service on the Internet. Whoever answers the questions first wins. The true purpose of the Hunt is not to find the answers, but to learn how to find them. It is a sly maneuver to make people dive in and make networked information resources work for them. The best way to learn, Gates says, is by "getting your hands dirty."
  1. Q: Is there a picture of the galaxy-gobbling black hole that the Hubble Telescope recently discovered?
    A: Yes: ftp stsci.edu:/stsci/epa/gif/M87*.gif
  2. Q: How many major earthquakes have occurred in Canada since 1970, where we define major as at least a 6.0 on the Richter scale?
    A: Seven, in 1970, 1979, 1982, 1985 and 1988 (from gopher://gopher.emr.ca/0/NRCan-Info-English/gsc/earthqk)
  3. Q: Is there a list of movies that feature juggling?
    A: Yes, try http://www.hal.com/services/juggle
  4. Q: The flag of Sri Lanka depicts a lion holding a sword. With which paw does the lion wield the sword?
    A: The right one. (Look at http://suif.stanford.edu/~lanka/sri_lanka.html)
  5. Q: Who is the state senator for Yreka, California?
    A: Maurice Johannessen (via gopher at en.ca.gov:70/11gopher_root1:[sen])


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Copyright © 1994, 1995, 2004 by Kevin Savetz. The information in this book was collected in 1994-1995 and has not been updated since.