Friday, March 25 News Quiz of the Week: Hypersonic, Marilyn

Andy Warhol’s silkscreen image, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, was sold for $195m in auction house Christie’s in New York on May 9, 2022. The work was created in 1964, along with red, orange, blue, and turquoise versions. It gained the highest price for any American work of art at auction and became the most expensive painting of the 20th century.

Whose records did Warhol’s Blue Sage Marlyn break?

So far, the most costly 20th-century painting sold at auction was Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) by Picasso, which fetched $179m in May 2015 at Christie’s New York. The previous most expensive American art piece ever sold at auction was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1981 skull painting – which sold for an astounding $110.4 million in 2017.

Who shot Marilyn?

Performance artist Dorothy Podber, who saw the paintings stacked against one another in Warhol’s studio, pierced four pieces in the Shot Marilyns series with a single bullet. The fifth painting with the turquoise background was not in the stack and escaped damage.

Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, died of cancer on March 23, 2022, at 84. Albright served in that role from 1997 to 2001. She fled the Nazis as a child with her family from her native Czechoslovakia to London during World War II and was raised a Roman Catholic. Still, her parents likely converted to Catholicism from Judaism to avoid persecution as Nazism gained strength in Europe, according to research by Washington Post.

Less than two months after winning the Australian Open for her third Grand Slam singles title, Ash Barty retired from tennis at age 25 while ranked No. 1. It’s her second retirement from tennis, having walked away from the game as a teenager in late-2014 for nearly two years because of burnout, saying she was overwhelmed by the pressure and travel required. In a six-minute video posted on her Instagram account on March 23, 2022, Barty said she no longer feels compelled to do what she knows is required to be the best she can be at tennis. Barty walks away with 15 titles to her name.

Roskomnadzor is Russia’s communications and media regulator who blocked Instagram and Facebook in the country, on March 21, 2022, for “extremist activity.” Prosecutors haven’t requested to ban WhatsApp’s Meta-owned messaging service, widely popular in Russia. A court’s ruling prohibits Meta from opening offices and doing business in Russia.

Which other news providers are blocked in Russia?

In addition to blocking Facebook and Instagram, Roskomnadzor, in March 2022, blocked the website of Euronews, a European news network, cut Euronews broadcasts, and shut access to foreign media websites, including BBC and Voice of America. Other blocked news providers include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and Latvia-based website Meduza.

Hypersonic missiles, by definition, fly at least 5 times the speed of sound (Mach 5), can fly at up to 10 times the speed of sound, and can maneuver in mid-flight, making it harder for air-defense systems to intercept. Russia has said it has twice deployed its newest Kinzhal (Dagger) hypersonic missile in Ukraine, claiming on March 20, 2022, to have destroyed a fuel depot near Mykolaiv and an underground ammunition storage site in the west.

Not a single country met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality standard in 2021. In a survey of pollution data in 6,475 cities published on March 22, 2022, only 3.4% of the surveyed cities met the bar in 2021. According to data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss pollution technology company that monitors air quality, as many as 93 cities saw 10 times the recommended level of polluters. New Delhi remained the world’s most polluted capital. Bangladesh was the most polluted country.

Bob Dylan published his acclaimed memoir “Chronicles, Volume One” in 2004. Dylan has a new book coming out in 2022, a collection of essays about songs and songwriters he admires, from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello. The new book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” is his first release of new material since “Chronicles.” The book hit stores on Nov. 8, 2022.

Actor Amanda Bynes was released on March 22, 2022, from a court conservatorship that put her life and financial decisions in her parents’ control for nearly nine years. Her mother told the court she agreed that her daughter was now ready to live without that level of oversight.

Why is Amanda Bynes famous?

Bynes, now 35, shot to fame at 13 when she landed her own hit variety program, “The Amanda Show” on Nickelodeon, and a role on the network’s sketch series “All That.” She went on to star movies, including “What a Girl Wants,” ″Hairspray,” and “She’s the Man,” but struggles with mental health, substance abuse, and the law prompted her parents to establish a conservatorship in 2013. Since the 2010 Emma Stone film “Easy A,” Bynes has not acted and has publicly said she retired from acting.

Ye was nominated for five Grammys this year: Album of the year and best rap album for Donda, best rap song for “Jail,” best melodic rap performance for “Hurricane,” and another Album of the Year nomination as producer and songwriter on Lil Nas X’s Montero.

Why didn’t Kanye West participate in the 2022 Grammys?

On March 18, 2022, about two weeks before the 64th annual Grammy Awards ceremony,  producers told West’s team that he would not be allowed to perform. According to a representative of the rapper, the organizers cited West’s troubling public behavior in recent weeks. That includes releasing an animated music video that portrayed the kidnapping and burial of a figure who looked a lot like Pete Davidson — the comedian who has been dating Kim Kardashian, West’s former wife.

Officially opened on March 18, 2022, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey is the longest suspension bridge globally—with a main span of 2,023 meters (6,637 ft) connecting Asia and Europe. The bridge surpasses Japan’s previous record-holder Akashi Kaikyo Bridge by 32 meters (105 ft).

Screenshot: Sandro Bovo – World Speed inline downhill Record (via YouTube)

Sandro Bovo of Italy holds the Guinness world record for fastest speed on inline skates (downhill) – 124.67 km/h (77.47 mph) achieved in Teutonia, Brazil, on Feb. 21, 2016. On Mar. 18, 2022, three-times Winter Olympic champion speed skater, the Dutch Kjeld Nuis, became the first person to break the 100 kph barrier on ice, clocking 103 km/h in Tynset, Norway – 10 km/h faster than his previous record set four years ago in Sweden. Watch him do it.