Friday, Jan. 7 News Quiz of the Week: Space, True Millipede

You’re looking at a 4 km-wide crater in Mars’s north polar region of Vastitas Borealis. The crater is partially filled with water ice. The dark material on the crater rim likely consists of volcanic materials such as basalt, giving the Marsian crater its red velvety look. The image was taken Jul. 5, 2021, by the European Space Agency/Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and released by the ESA on Jan. 3, 2022.

Apple became the first US company to be valued at over $3 trillion on Jan. 3, 2022. The company became the world’s first trillion-dollar company in August 2018 and passed $2 trillion in 2020. Apple alone is more valuable than Boeing, Coca-Cola, Disney, Exxon-Mobil, McDonald’s, Netflix, and Walmart combined.

Is Apple still the most valuable company in the world?

By May 2022, Apple shares have fallen nearly 20%. On May 11, Oil giant Saudi Aramco surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable firm with a market valuation of just under $2.43 trillion. Apple is, as of May 2022, worth $2.37 trillion.

Most famous for opposing apartheid in South Africa and helping the country’s peaceful transition to majority rule, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu died on Dec. 26, 2021, at age 90. He had won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position.

What was Desmond Tutu’s Position on LGBTQ+ issues?

Tutu criticized South African President Thabo Mbeki for denying HIV/AIDS and preventing the government from distributing life-saving treatments. He also compared a proposed law criminalizing homosexuality in Uganda to apartheid South Africa’s laws that banned inter-racial sexual relations.

Born Jan. 17, 1922, Betty White told People in a Jan. 13, 2021, interview for her 99th Birthday that her secret to a long life is to have a great “sense of humor.” White died on Dec. 31, 2021. She would have turned 100 on Jan. 17.

Benzene is found in the air, contained in motor fuels, and used by industrial producers to make plastics and resins. Exposure to high levels of the chemical can cause illness, including an increased risk of leukemia.

Is there benzene in my shampoo?

Procter & Gamble recalled 32 of its dry shampoo and conditioner products on Dec. 21, 2021. after detecting benzene in some of them. The voluntary recall includes aerosol products from Pantene, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, and others. P&G sold the recalled products in stores and online in the United States. The company stated that benzene is not an ingredient in any of its products.

Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, while millipedes have two. Typically millipedes have about 100 to 200 legs, while centipedes have as many as 382.

Is there a creature with 1,000 feet?

Scientists led by Virginia Tech entomologist Paul Marek have discovered millipede possessing 1,306 legs (pictured) – more than any known kind. The threadlike pale-colored millipede reaches about 3-1/2 inches (95 mm) long and about four-hundredths of an inch (0.95 mm) wide. The creature is equipped with a conical head, beak-shaped mouth, and extensive antennae – likely one of its only sources of sensory input because it lacks eyes, according to the research published in the journal Scientific Reports on Dec. 16, 2021. The Eumillipes Persephone resides underground in Western Australia.

You’re looking at a BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphone, launched in 2008. Boasting a physical keyboard and instant messaging, BlackBerry was in the first decade of the 2000s the device of choice by white-collar professionals and then-President Barack Obama. On Jan. 4, 2022, the company discontinued service on its classic smartphones.

On Jan. 2, 2022, Twitter had banned the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple violations of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy. The ban applies to Greene’s personal account, @mtgreenee, but does not affect her official Twitter account, @RepMTG. “Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” Greene responded.

What’s Twitter’s Strike System?

Under the “strike” system, Twitter uses artificial intelligence to identify misleading, harmful posts about the coronavirus. Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock. Four strikes evoke a weeklong suspension. Five or more strikes can get a user permanently removed from the platform. Twitter had previously suspended Greene’s personal account for periods ranging from 12 hours to an entire week.

On Jan. 4, 2022, Lowell, Massachusetts, elected Sokhary Chau mayor, making him the nation’s first Cambodian American mayor. Chau came to the U.S. as a young refugee after surviving Khmer Rouge’s brutal rule.

Chile elected 35 years-old Gabriel Boric as its president at the 2021 presidential election run-off vote on Dec. 19, 2021, making him the youngest head of state in the Americas and the second youngest in the world. Assuming office in March 2022, Boric is the youngest president in Chile’s history and the president elected with the most significant number of votes in the country’s history.

Amanda Gorman posted “New Day’s Lyric” with an accompanying video on Instagram on Dec. 29, 2021, to mark the end of 2021. Her bestselling collection “Call Us What We Carry” came out in early Dec. 2021. “New Day’s Lyric” is a five-stanza, 48-line resolution with themes of struggle and healing.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope, a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The $10-billion observatory rocketed from French Guiana on South America’s northeastern coast on Dec. 25, 2021. The Webb Telescope is on a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) search to find light from the first stars, galaxies, and hints of life.

Who was James Webb?

James E. Webb was the first NASA Administrator, serving from Feb. 1961 to Oct.1968.

SpaceX has launched more than 1,700 low-orbiting “Starlink” satellites by the end of 2021. Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency, called for coordinated action from the EU and other countries to ensure that SpaceX’s constellation did not prevent other countries or companies from launching their satellites. SpaceX is racing against competitors to build a satellite network big enough to cover the whole globe, with permission from US authorities to launch 12,000 satellites. The company eventually plans to have a constellation of 42,000 satellites orbiting the planet.

David Bowie’s 75th birth anniversary is on Jan. 8, 2022. Bowie died in 2016, aged 69.

What’s Bowie’s catalog’s worth in 2022?

In Jan. 2022, Warner Music Group announced it has bought David Bowie’s entire catalog spanning six decades, including songs from the 26 studio albums released during his lifetime and hits such as “Heroes” and “Let’s Dance.” A person familiar with the deal told Reuters the purchase was worth about $250 million.

Sony Pictures’ “Uncharted” is based on the PlayStation video game of the same name. Starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, and Antonio Banderas, the movie’s release date was Feb. 18, 2022. Watch this mesmerizing plane fight scene from Uncharted.