Murdoch’s nepo baby, asteroid samples and a marathon record – take the Thursday quiz

Nasa's Osiris-Rex mission has sent back samples from an asteroid. What did you get up to at the weekend? Photograph: Nasa/PA

Unlike plans for high-speed railways in England, the Thursday quiz never runs out of steam, and once again you face 15 questions on topical and quirky news, general knowledge, and other weird ephemera. There are no prizes because it is just a bit of fun, but let us know how you get on in the comments.

The Thursday quiz, No 127

1. 

   HEAVENLY ACTION: Nasa's Osiris-Rex mission has returned some samples from the asteroid Bennu. In which US state did it land?

   1. Utah

   2. Nevada

   3. Arkansas

   4. Arizona

2. 

   STAR: We lost the wonderful David McCallum, reknowned for many roles including scaring the living daylights out of the quiz master with Sapphire and Steel back in the day. What was the name of his character in NCIS?

   1. Dr Charles "Snowie" Goose

   2. Dr David "Silver" Fox

   3. Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard

   4. Dr Phillip "Feral" Hogg

3. 

   HERE I GO IMPOSSIBLE AGAIN: Who (feet pictured) shattered the world record for the women's marathon at the weekend in Berlin?

   1. Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia

   2. Winifred Bambera of Zambia

   3. Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya

   4. Magdalena Shauri of Tanzania

4. 

   LOVE TO HATE YOU: Which nepo baby is taking over Fox and News Corp from Rupert Murdoch?

   1. James Murdoch

   2. Elisabeth Murdoch

   3. Lachlan Murdoch

   4. Dogface Hermann Dingbat Murdoch

5. 

   RUNAROUND ON THE UNDERGROUND: The bean-counters at the government keep lopping bits off the plans for the HS2 rail link which was originally going to go from London to Manchester and Leeds via Birmingham, and now appears to be going from just outside London to just outside Birmingham. What is the name of the proposed southern terminus, if it doesn't run all the way to Euston?

   1. Yew Fields Park

   2. New Ash Lane

   3. Old Oak Common

   4. Middle Of Nowhere Parkway

6. 

   GONE CRAZY: The UK government also excelled itself this week with a marketing campaign suggesting which favourite childhood character had been invented in London, when in fact they were famously invented in Scotland?

   1. Doctor Who

   2. Noddy

   3. Peppa Pig

   4. Dennis the Menace

7. 

   LEAVE ME TO BLEED: It is the anniversary of William the Conquerer's arrival in England when he hung around for a couple of weeks before helping Harold Godwinson to permanently "do one" near Hastings. But where did William eventually die in 1087?

   1. Caen

   2. Chelmsford

   3. Rouen

   4. York

8. 

   DRAMA!: It is also the anniversary of the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, a defining battle in the American Revolutionary War. Which US state is that particular Yorktown in?

   1. Virginia

   2. North Carolina

   3. Connecticut

   4. Massachusetts

9. 

   PRECIOUS: It is Hilary Duff's birthday today. Happy birthday Hilary! She was the titular character in which Disney television series in the early 2000s?

   1. Clarissa Explains It All

   2. Veronica Mars

   3. Sabrina The Teenage Witch

   4. Lizzie McGuire

10. 

    WHERE IN THE WORLD: Which of these countries has a border with Russia that is the furthest north?

    1. Kazakhstan

    2. Uzbekistan

    3. Georgia

    4. Azerbaijan

11. 

    CRY SO EASY: Laurence Fox (not pictured) will be off our screens for a while after he was suspended on Wednesday by which channel?

    1. TalkTV

    2. LBC

    3. GB News

    4. CBeebies

12. 

    THE CIRCUS: This is Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz. She is aware this week that a member of the US Congress was ridiculed after posting an image of a Hanukkah menorah in an effort to commemorate Yom Kippur, but has forgotten who. Can you help Willow remember?

    1. Josh Hawley, Republican senator for Missouri

    2. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican representative for Georgia

    3. Ted Cruz, Republican senator for Texas

    4. Lauren Boebert, Republican representative for Colorado

13. 

    PUSH ME SHOVE ME: In physics, what is the unit of momentum?

    1. J/s

    2. kg m/s

    3. N m

    4. m/s2

14. 

    SENSELESS: A report by dappGambl into the NFT market has found that 23 million people are holding investments in NFTs that have proved to be …

    1. Absolutely and totally worthless

    2. A really, really good idea

15. 

    A LITTLE RESPECT: The linking theme of the categories this week has been song titles by Erasure, who comprise singer Andy Bell (pictured) and which synth-pop wizard?

    1. Dave Ball

    2. Martyn Ware

    3. Vince Clarke

    4. Ron Mael

Solutions

1:A - The capsule travelled at 27,650mph through the Earth's atmosphere before parachutes slowed its descent to about 11mph at touchdown. The mission launched in 2017 and collected the samples in 2020 from the asteroid with a 1.2bn-mile return journey ahead of it. Well done little capsule, well done., 2:C - McCallum appeared in 20 seasons of the show, as well as being a Man from UNCLE and the Invisible Man too in a career that spanned seven decades. Altogether now … "All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension.", 3:A - She shattered the previous record by 2min 11sec, and as Thursday Quiz colleague Sean Ingle noted, "the way she powered home through the Brandenburg Gate suggested she could go even quicker still". , 4:C - In his resignation statement, Murdoch said "elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class" before announcing he was appointing his son., 5:C - It was designed as "a new super-hub" with 14 platforms and connections to high-speed rail services to the Midlands, Scotland and the North, access to central London and Heathrow via Crossrail, and lines to Wales and the South West. Ho ho ho., 6:D - “Dennis the Menace was created in 1951 by Edinburgh cartoonist Davey Law for the Beano, published every week by Dundee’s DC Thomson. He’s as Scottish as Sir Sean,” wrote Mark Millar, the writer of Kick-Ass, Jupiter’s Legacy and Ultimate X-Men., 7:C - William had returned to Normandy the year before his death, and was then buried in Caen, where his grave has been disturbed several times, leading to only one femur being buried there today., 8:A - Gen Charles Cornwallis ended up surrendering to Gen George Washington and the French Fleet, and the rest, as they say, is history. There are also Yorktowns in Texas, New York and Indiana., 9:D - She played the main character and also voiced the animated version of Lizzie who comments on her thoughts and feelings throughout the show., 10:A - It is Kazakhstan, which sits below the Omsk region in Russia and above Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Georgia and Azerbaijan are on the opposite coast of the Caspian sea and further to the south., 11:C - LolFox was suspended after a segment in which he suggested we would not shag a female journalist, referring to her as "that". He later appeared to publish an exchange of messages with host Dan Wootton sending laughter emojis about the segment, which seemed to the naked eye to somewhat undermine Wootton's profound and sincere public apology, especially the bit where he said "I was in no way amused by the comments". Wootton was subsequently suspended too. They seem nice., 12:B - The derision the Georgia representative brought upon herself comes after she was previously criticised for perpetuating antisemitic conspiracy theories. She seems nice., 13:B - At GCSE level in England and Wales, children are taught that momentum is the product of mass (measured in kg) and velocity (measured in m/s), therefore the unit of momentum is kg m/s., 14:A - In news that surprised absolutely nobody with a clue, it turned out that owning the receipt for a JPG image that could be freely copied wasn't a sound investment. Who could have guessed?, 15:C - Clarke was also an original member of Depeche Mode and enjoyed hits with Yazoo and The Assembly before forming Erasure with Bell in 1985. The duo have enjoyed ten top ten albums in the UK, including five No 1s, and still put on an absolutely brilliant live show.

Scores

1. 0 and above.

   We hope you had fun and didn't buy any NFTs – let us know how you got on in the comments!

If you really do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers – and can show your working – feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com, but remember the quiz master’s word is final and he is too busy listening to the New Eves.