Quiz of the week's news

7 days 7 questions

It's the Magazine's 7 days 7 questions weekly quiz - a chance to find out how much news from the past week you've read, heard and watched... and how much has lodged in the old grey matter.

1.) Multiple Choice Question

A starter-for-10 that non-student Sam Kay (left) got right on University Challenge: If a tap leaks a millilitre of water every second, how many 10-litre buckets will it fill completely in a day?

1. Six
2. Eight
3. 12

2.) Multiple Choice Question

In PMQs, Harriet Harman told MPs that the knighthood given to ex-RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin was for services to charity, not banking.

1. True - it was for charity work
2. False - it was for banking

3.) Multiple Choice Question

Gordon Brown, enjoying one of his 19 standing ovations on Capitol Hill. The most Tony Blair received during his own prime ministerial visit to the US Congress?

1. 15
2. 17
3. 19
4. 22

4.) Missing Word Question

Pirate * 'puts lives at risk'

1. ships
2. ransom
3. radio

5.) Multiple Choice Question

"It's easier for you. I'm at the top of the pedestal and I have only one way to go. You're at the bottom, so you can only really go up." Who?

1. Sir Alex Ferguson to Liverpool's Rafael Benitez
2. Sharon Osbourne to a reality TV contestant
3. Princess Diana to Sarah Ferguson

6.) Multiple Choice Question

What's a "pool spray"?

1. Handful of journalists posing questions in informal setting
2. Treatment for mostly bald "ugliest cat in the world"
3. Term for mass grooming at Crufts

7.) Multiple Choice Question

And finally, the birthday question. Patsy Kensit. Daniel Craig. Both marked birthdays this week. The age gap?

1. Daniel older by one year
2. Daniel older by two days
3. Patsy older by one year
4. Patsy older by two days

Answers

1. It's eight - 8.64 to be precise, but the 0.64 is not a full bucket. After it emerged that Kay graduated well before the final, his Corpus Christi team - captained by Gail "human Google" Trimble - were stripped of their title on Monday.
2. It's false - she corrected herself straight after Wednesday's session. The 2004 Queen's birthday honours list states that Frederick Anderson Goodwin was knighted "for services to banking".
3. It's 19 - the same as Gordon Brown. The first came as Brown made his way to the podium on Wednesday.
4. It's radio - on Tuesday, Ofcom said the broadcasts can interfere with emergency service frequencies, and also block legitimate stations.
5. It was Diana. Sarah Ferguson said on Monday that these words helped fuel the self-loathing that led her to over-eat. Meanwhile, Osbourne is being sued by former contestant Megan Hauserman after an altercation on her Rock of Love Charm School show.
6. It's a small question and answer session in the Oval Office, that is not broadcast live. Downing St had told reporters there would be a full press conference between Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, only to find there would be a "pool spray" only. Japanese prime minister Taro Aso also had one with Mr Obama.
7. It's hot Bond hunk Daniel Craig by two whole days. He turned 41 on Monday, while Patsy's 41st was on Wednesday.

Your Score

0 - 3 : Quantum of solace

4 - 6 : Die another day

7 - 7 : Nobody does it better

For a complete archive of past quizzes and our weekly news quiz, 7 days 7 questions, visit the Magazine page and scroll down. You can also do this quiz on your mobile device.

Find out how to get the BBC News website on your mobile device

Not THE David Tennant

One of these is a celebrity, the other is a prankster civilian

We've all heard of people pretending to be celebrities on a social networking site, but is it OK as long as you're trying to be funny?

To some they are satirists, wittily sending up the people in the public eye. To others they are a pain in the neck, tricking genuine fans.

We are well used to hearing about how the rise of social networking sites has enabled us to communicate and spread our identity across the internet. But social networking has also spawned its own version of identity theft - people pretending to be celebrities.

Lisa Valentine is one of them. Search for Doctor Who star David Tennant on Twitter and the first result you call up is a feed called THEDavidTennant.

Had a drink with Matt Smith, he was crying into his shandy about not being as good as me. I told him to shut up and get the round in Tweet from THEDavidTennant

On the feed, David Tennant ridicules his successor Matt Smith and spends his time talking about having Paul Daniels as Davros in a celebrity special.

But it's not really David Tennant, it's Ms Valentine. She's just having a laugh.

"I made him into an egotistical womanising character who is obsessed with his own status from Doctor Who."

While to somebody taking a two-second glance, Ms Valentine's feed might appear to be that of Tennant, she assumed from the ridiculous nature of the tweets the Twitter-using public would realise it was all a joke.

Just to let you all know that David Tennant does NOT use Twitter. There is someone impersonating him on here so please don't contact them! Tweet from official davidtennantcom

Many didn't.

"I was getting requests for autographs and to say hello to their sons."

Worried, Ms Valentine contacted everybody who sent messages to her, making absolutely clear that she was not Tennant. She also contacted David Tennant's "people".

"I made the entries more and more ridiculous. They are surely not going to believe he goes to eat in McDonald's wearing a kilt."

But there were still some followers who didn't realise it was a joke.

She then made it clear on her feed that she was not David Tennant.

"Some people wanted me to say hello to their sons anyway," she says.

Obviously there are two different categories of online faker. Those who are genuinely seeking to trick people, whether for financial gain or other nefarious reasons are in one camp. Those having a stab at humour are in another.

Stern warning

Ms Valentine's ambitions are definitely in the latter - a point made clear from the nature of the entries, that this was not really the star speaking.

But the BBC was sufficiently concerned over the general phenomenon of Tennant impersonation to issue a warning.

"There have been several recent cases of people posing as David Tennant and other members of the Doctor Who cast in internet chat rooms and forums - as well as setting up social networking profiles in their names.

Tennant is a very appealing and popular public figure. Why does that image need subverting? John O'FarrellNewsbiscuit

"So fans are not disappointed or misled, we'd like to point out that both David Tennant and incoming Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith do not use social networking websites, chatrooms or forums. They wouldn't want fans to think that anyone who uses these are talking to the real actors."

Ms Valentine hopes no-one is going to mind too much about her efforts to amuse.

"I do hope they have a sense of humour. They know I'm not a threat."

But is this really satire? Comedian John O'Farrell, editor of website Newsbiscuit, suggests not all the humorous celebrity impostors are really acting in the true spirit of satire.

"They are pretending to be satirical. They are actually getting off on the fame, vicariously enjoying celebrity.

"[Tennant] is a very appealing and popular public figure. Why does that image need subverting? There is a role for satire on social networks but it needs to be aimed at the powerful and pompous."

---

Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

Name

Your e-mail address

Town/city and country

Your comment

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.

Terms & Conditions

Goodbye to a famous cat

BEEN AND GONE By Nick Serpell BBC Obituary Unit

Socks coped well with the media attention

Our regular column covering the passing of significant - but lesser-reported - people of the past month.

As speculation grew over the breed of the awaited Obama family pooch, a former White House pet slipped away. Socks was the Clinton family cat, originally found as a stray in Arkansas, who moved to Washington in 1993 when Bill Clinton became president. His reign as America's first pet was threatened when the family took on a Labrador named Buddy with whom Socks never got on. However Socks maintained his fan base. One American congressman questioned the use of official White House stationery and stamps to answer letters sent to the cat.

The larger than life experiences of Terry Spencer could easily have been made into a blockbuster film. Born in the middle of a Zeppelin raid in 1918 he joined the RAF and flew Spitfires, usually at low level during World War II. Shot down over German-held territory he managed to escape and get back to the UK. After the war he married a beautiful actress before becoming a successful photo journalist. Among his assignments for Life magazine were coverage of the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa and the Vietnam War. He also spent weeks on the road in the early 1960s with The Beatles, shooting over 5,000 pictures of the newly emerging Fab Four.

Conchita Cintron was a lone woman in a macho profession

The career of Conchita Cintron might also have made a feature film despite the antipathy of many to her chosen sport, bull fighting. Born in Chile she made her debut in 1936 in Portugal when, following local custom, she fought the bull on horseback. She spent four years in Mexico, where she fought on foot, earning the admiration of the crowds who named her La Diosa de Oro (the Golden Goddess). She went on to perform in Spain where women were prohibited by the Franco regime from fighting on foot because of worries that their flesh might be exposed if they were gored. She defied the law and dismounted during her last appearance in 1949 and was quickly arrested. However, a massive protest by the crowd forced the authorities to release her without charge.

As the twin towers collapsed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks Beverley Eckert was on the phone to her husband who was trapped in the building. His death prompted her to campaign for an investigation into the cause of the attacks which helped to bring about the 9/11 Commission. She also pushed for a permanent memorial to the victims of the attack and improvements in US intelligence gathering operations. She was on her way to Buffalo, New York to mark what would have been her husband's 58th birthday when the commuter plane in which she was a passenger crashed on its approach to Buffalo airport.

Lux Interior was known for his exuberant stage presence

In the early 1970s any serious self-respecting music fan had a single by The Cramps, the US punk band fronted by Lux Interior. Born Erick Purkhiser he founded the Cramps with his wife Kristy Wallace, known as Poison Ivy. His own moniker was taken from a new car brochure. The band quickly became notorious for decadent stage performances featuring a screaming Lux dressed in a variety of macabre costumes. The band supported The Police on a UK tour in 1979 and won some acclaim for the albums Psychedelic Jungle and Songs the Lord Taught Us. Always keen to push the boundaries they once gave a performance for the patients in a Californian psychiatric hospital.

The building of the Channel Tunnel owed much to the pioneering work of Alan Muir-Wood, dubbed by some as the father of modern tunnelling. Between 1958 and 1960 he produced a feasibility study for the project, much of which was used when the tunnel was eventually built in the 1980s. His early works as a civil engineer included the Clyde Tunnel in Glasgow, built in difficult conditions through a shifting river bed, and the 1960s tunnel at Heathrow, designed to carry cargo between the terminals, which was condemned by some engineers as impossible to build. In his retirement he campaigned against a proposal to concrete the Victorian interior of Marc Brunel's Thames Tunnel, carrying the East London underground line, and persuaded English Heritage to give it a Grade II listing, the first for any tunnel.

Among others who died in February were EastEnders and Are You Being Served? actress Wendy Richard, director of the Main Event and Private Benjamin, Howard Zief, Whitbread Award-winning Irish author Christopher Nolan, and bass player and vocalist with ELO, Kelly Groucutt.