User: Stu2000

I'm a little sad Remus Lupin died - the last marauder. As a werewolf he probably didn't have a really enjoyable life (of which we know very little until he came to Hogwarts to teach) until he met Tonks, and just when things were starting to improve (marriage, his son) he is killed with his wife. I understand his reasons, but does anyone else see the parallels with James and Lily leaving an orphan behind from 16 years ago?

Tonks was always a fun character, and it's sad she died, too, I liked the character and always wanted to know more - how did she get on at Hogwarts as a metamorphamagus?

I felt more sorry for Harry than for Sirius Black when he died, I always felt he was a bit too frivolous, as demonstrated by the way he died. Dumbledore's death wasn't too surprising, though. I'm surprised Snape didn't survive, and that the Malfoys did - all of them!

Fire is a plasma - like the sun.

You should probably add things like Bose-Einstein condensates (very cold state of matter) and degenerate matter (like in a white dwarf or neutron star) too.

Thanks! I was reading Wikipedia and thought that some of the facts were rather obscure, but also interesting.

I agree that the question on the hottest inhabited place on Earth is probably a bad question. As well as how many years you include in the average, I guess you could argue about what exactly "inhabited" means. And I think that averaging over day and night or taking just the maximum daytime temperature every day would make a big difference too. There's too many variables really.

I had a look at your poll - it seems that American's aren't as bad as I thought they would be. One of the things I like about the new MrPoll version is that you can see individually how each person answered, so in a few weeks I could check to see the number of correct answers based on where people live. That actually might be an interesting thing to do!

There are two correct answers, but I can only select one on this poll.

The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. Therefore, both "Because the Earth's axis is tilted" and "Because the Earth goes around the sun" are correct and necessary.

Q1: La Paz, in Bolivia is the highest capital city above sea level at 3,640 meters (11,811 feet)

Q2: The Congo has the second-largest drainage basin in the world.

Q3: 8 countries - Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, the US (Alaska), Canada, Denmark (Greenland) and Iceland (Grimsey Island)

Q4: Los Angeles

Q5: Singapore is just over one degree north of the equator, so it is in the northern hemisphere.

Q6: The Volga is the longest (and largest) river in Europe.

Q7: The Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia.

Q8: Chimborazo, Ecuador is the furthest point from the centre of the Earth - due to the oblateness of the Earth, it is further than Mount Everest.

Q9: Antarctica is the worlds largest desert.

Q10: There are five oceans - Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern.

Q11: Reykjavik is the worlds most northerly capital city.

Q12: The South Pole is the most southerly point on land.

Q13: China contains the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility.

Q14: The hottest inhabited place on Earth is apparently FitzRoy Crossing, Australia, average temperature 36.5 degrees.

Q15: East Rand Mine in South Africa is the worlds deepest mine.

Q16: Lake Baikal is the worlds largest lake.

Q17: Northwest.

Q18: Ras ben Sakka, Tunisia is the most northerly point of Africa

Q19: Eight countries border the Persian Gulf - Iran, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.

Q20: False - the Ganges also flows through Bangladesh