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.

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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."

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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.

Gormley puts public on pedestal

Advertisement

Anthony Gormley explains what his Fourth Plinth piece is all about.

By Lawrence Pollard BBC World Service

Antony Gormley's commission for Trafalgar Square's "empty plinth" will see it occupied for 100 consecutive days, 24 hours a day, by members of the public.

To get an idea of what Antony Gormley is planning for Trafalgar Square try standing on the nearest park bench, parapet or bin.

Instantly people will notice you, grin, look worried, move away or, more alarming still, come over for a closer look.

I tried it for about 30 seconds when I met the sculptor next to the Fourth Plinth and it was an unnerving experience.

Putting real life in the place of idealisation, of the hero, and we have no idea what people will do Antony Gormley

Standing on a bench a mere couple of feet above passers-by made me feel a bit of a target, a bit of a manic street preacher and frankly, a bit of a fool.

Yet, Mr Gormley wants members of the public to volunteer to stand for a whole hour, 25ft up on top of the plinth in one of Britain's busiest public spaces.

They will of course, be art.

"The idea is very simple, I'm going to take you, and put you up there," he explains to me, pointing up the granite of the plinth.

Life as art

Laughing, he describes the plinth as offering a space somewhere between a go-go dancer's platform and an interrogation suite.

"You stand on the plinth for an hour and you become a symbol, or a metaphor," he says.

"Putting real life in the place of idealisation, of the hero, and we have no idea what people will do. That's the experiment, the excitement."

The practicalities revolve around a website which shares the project's name - ONEANDOTHER.CO.UK.

Antony Gormley wants people to turn themselves into art for an hour

Interested members of the public register, the computer then chooses a representative cross section of 2,400 names.

They are matched to the 2,400 hour-long slots on the plinth which run 24 hours a day from July to October.

Each individual will be fork-lifted up 25ft to spend their hour in full view, with no banister or barrier to protect them, other than a safety net skirting the plinth.

Then they can do exactly what they want, while being lit, filmed and recorded for an archive Mr Gormley hopes will produce a portrait of Britain.

As he was explaining the plan I began to think of what could go wrong - could it be hijacked, or become the scene of political protest and personal breakdown, or just make the "plinther" a target for abuse or projectiles?

Despite the endless frightening possibilities, Antony Gormley remains remarkably sanguine.

There will be a security presence, but otherwise participants can make a protest, juggle, shout, basically do as much as they like with the platform - or as little.

"I'm just as happy for someone to do absolutely nothing. They could have a kip for an hour or just stand there. I think that's enough," he says.

"The difference between this and theatre is the unpredictability, and that its about the condition of sculpture. You ask life to occupy the condition of sculpture, exposure, the elements, time, scrutiny."

Serious commitment

Ah. Scrutiny. It's not a bronze cast up there, it's an exposed human being.

And that's the unknown element which I fancy Mr Gormley likes the most.

What would you do on the Fourth Plinth?

When I stood up on that bench in front of him I felt surprisingly uncomfortable, vulnerable and a bit threatened.

What happens if a "plinther" gets scared, or caught short, or it starts howling a gale? Can they pop down?

"No they can't. They've got to stay up there. It's a serious commitment. We're making a sculpture here with an hour of someone's time."

Antony Gormley is one of the most successful creators of public art, anywhere.

Large metal casts of his own body are the basis for the famous Angel of the North in Gateshead, the 100 figures washed by the tide on a beach near Liverpool and the statues he placed on random roofs around central London last year.

Now he wants our body, our time and our presence on the empty plinth.

We'll be making living bodies into representations and hopefully people will tell us about that journey Antony Gormley

As he walked away in his fluorescent cycling jacket a crowd of teenagers began shouting at him.

"Antony Gormley! We love you! Woo! Woo!"

I was astonished. Other than Rolf Harris, I've never seen an artist recognised in public and serenaded.

But let's suppose you have gone out to find a bench and are standing on it now. Are you a sculpture yet? What are you? How do you move from Life to Art?

"You've moved from being a citizen pavement walker to being a representation," he says, explaining that those on the plinth will be representations of the human condition.

"We'll be making living bodies into representations and hopefully people will tell us about that journey. But you know, just to stand is enough."

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The peanut detectives

One factory, two very separate zones: Kinnerton's production plant

By Peter Jackson BBC News

A man accused of sabotaging a food factory by scattering it with peanuts has walked free after charges against him were dropped. But the case highlights the threat this humble ingredient poses for those in the industry.

Pick up a random product from a supermarket shelf and there is a reasonable chance it will display the warning "May contain nuts".

Some consumer groups say the label is over-used and unnecessary, undermining more valid warnings and designed to cover the backs of the manufacturers.

But food producers disagree, arguing it is irresponsible not to warn people who may have extreme reactions.

Peanut or tree nut allergies have almost tripled over the past decade, with one in 50 children in the UK now afflicted, according to The Anaphylaxis Campaign. In 2007, five people died from anaphylactic shock caused by an adverse reaction to food, the latest official figures for England and Wales show.

Charges against Paul Bentley were dropped, leaving him to walk free

Nowhere is the humble peanut more feared than in the food industry, as highlighted in the case of engineer Paul Bentley.

Mr Bentley, 42, of Nottingham, had been accused of scattering peanuts around a food factory where he was an employee, after being disciplined. The factory had to be closed and cleaned at a cost of

Journey's end for Flight Simulator

FSX replicates real airports

The news that Microsoft has disbanded the team developing its successful Flight Simulator computer game has come as a shock to virtual aviators like Mike Smartt. He looks back at almost 30 years of taking off and occasionally landing safely in the world's longest gaming franchise.

It's supposed to be the computer game that grown-ups can own up to playing.

For years, Microsoft's Flight Simulator set the standard. Initially, the bar was low as the processing and graphics power of early home computers - like Sinclair's rubber Spectrum - struggled with the demands of replicating global air travel.

But in the early 1980s, as others were still guiding blips across black-and-white screens playing Pong, the thrill of attempting to land a single-engine Cessna, in colour in Flight Simulator's first iteration, was fun unsurpassed.

Never mind that it looked as if the instrument panel in your plane was cardboard stuck on with superglue and the runway facing you was a single dark strip in a featureless yellow field - and that was supposed to be Heathrow. You just had to use your imagination.

What every simmer dreams about is being called on to land an actual plane in an emergency. Job cuts ground Flight Simulator

Twenty-seven years and many updates later, FSX - Flight Simulator Ten - uses the muscle of today's high-end PCs to reproduce faithfully most of the world's airports in millions of colours in minute detail. Cities and landscapes look exactly as they do from the air in real life and air-traffic control instructions for final approach crackle continuously, and often confusingly, over the cockpit intercom.

And still the appeal remains a mystery to many.

With today's computer games, you can wipe out an entire German Panzer division, navigate Formula One's most challenging circuits and manage your football team in the European Championships, all without leaving the comfort of the chair at your PC. So flying an imaginary Boeing 757 from Stansted to Sarajevo in real-time can seem pretty tame.

But later versions of Microsoft FS do seem to "flight simmers", as we are known, to be just like doing the real thing. And more importantly, those who actually do the real thing say it's like that too.

Passenger applause

As one real-world pilot writes: "As a pilot, I use Microsoft Flight Simulator for training scenarios and often fly to a new airport virtually before flying there for real."

Of course, what every simmer dreams about is being called on to land an actual plane in an emergency. A trembling stewardess announces over the public address that both flyers upfront are suffering debilitating convulsions from the in-flight catering and has anyone flown an Airbus before?

"Er, not really but

How not to design a work uniform

By Jon Kelly BBC News

Female rail staff are up in arms, refusing to wear "see-through" blouses on duty. But how can designers avoid imposing ugly, impractical uniforms on workers?

It is the final insult for many wage-slaves everywhere. Itchy nylon; fiddly clip-on ties; garish corporate branding - if any aspect of one's job can make it a trial of drudgery and alienation, it is surely the bad uniform.

Designed as it may be to eradicate individuality and project a harmonious, unified image of a company or organisation, few of us would, by definition, choose to don one of our own volition. That uncomfortable shirt or impractical hemline can make the clock's hands inch painfully slowly to 5pm.

Remember Philip Treacy and Anne Tyrrell's Tube uniforms? Enlarge Image

But design-conscious workers are in a militant mood. Nearly 500 blouses sent to female staff on the National Express London to Edinburgh rail route were returned after their union complained the garments were "too thin and too cheap", not to mention practically "see-through".

It's a sobering reminder for designers everywhere: however chic that outfit may look on the page, no matter how much it may be feted by one's peers come the next Milan Fashion Week, it still has to be worn whilst pushing a trolley-load of crisps and sandwiches past a carriage full of West Ham fans on the 2030 to King's Cross.

'Not listening'

For designer and former BBC Clothes Show presenter Jeff Banks, such considerations are a stock-in-trade. Having designed workwear for Barclays, Butlins, Abbey National and BAA, Banks believes that the perfect uniform is a marriage of practicality and corporate identity.

YOUR WORST UNIFORM Got a fashion howler from one of your previous jobs? Send us a picture to yourpics@bbc.co.uk And we'll feature the best of the worst

He says he will discuss every aspect of every brief with employees, making sure that - for instance - pregnant women and members of different ethnic and religious groups will not face any obstacles from his clothes.

As a result, Banks believes that not paying enough attention to those who will actually have to wear the garments is where many companies fall down.

"Not listening to the staff is the basic, fundamental mistake - they're the ones who actually know how to do the job, after all," he says. "You want to communicate a brand, but you don't want workers to feel uncomfortable in any way.

"British Airways staff look as though they work for a building society rather than an airline. For a while the London Underground tried to make its employees look as though they worked for some kind of French railway - thankfully, they got rid of those eventually."

As soon as I see the words 'designer does uniform', I groan Imogen FoxThe Guardian Staff return 'see-through' shirts

Following on from the trail blazed by Banks, a number of high-profile designers have been brought in by High Street brands to revamp their uniforms - with varying degrees of success.

In 2008, Bruce Oldfield's outfits for McDonald's female staff included a jaunty scarf which, while no doubt adding a frisson of Parisian hauteur to the fast food experience, probably made leaning over the barbecue sauce a precarious experience. Paul Smith's orange-hued attire for employees at the Tate must surely have led art lovers to question whether they had inadvertently strolled onto an easyJet flight on their way to the Cezanne exhibition.

And indeed, not every style pundit is a fan of meshing the worlds of high couture and honest labour. Imogen Fox, deputy fashion editor of the Guardian, believes the catwalk and the workplace should be kept firmly apart.

"As soon as I see the words 'designer does uniform', I groan," she says.

The man-made fibres, the neon glow... the uniform at its highest expression

"It's always going to look outdated. It's always going to look like it's trying too hard. Uniforms are meant to be functional - as soon as you get away from that, something is going to go badly wrong."

Indeed, many workwear manufacturers make a virtue of keeping it simple. Debbie Leon, Director of Fashionizer Ltd, which has designed garments for clients including London's Westfield shopping centre, says staff prefer natural, breathable fabrics and outfits that have been user-tested for practicality, to big-name labels.

"Trends in uniforms come and go, but it's the business of good designers to come up with fresh and creative designs that actually work in the real world," she adds.

It's advice that those tasked with draping the nation's workers would do well to heed. Especially if they do not wish to incur the ire of the ladies of the East Coast Main Line.

Got a fashion howler from one of your previous jobs? Send us a picture to yourpics@bbc.co.uk and we'll feature the best of the worst?

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