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Any Questions #256

WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel try to short-circuit this week's show.

Last week's challenge
Start with the letters MSNBC. Add four vowels and you can spell a two-word phrase (five letters, four letters) for something that makes a loud noise. What is it?
Answer: If you add an I and three Os, you can spell SONIC BOOM.

THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: ROBOTS
On-air questions: On July 22, 2015, the annual RoboCup competition came to a close. Held every year since 1997, the annual robotics competition is officially titled "Robot Soccer World Cup", and its mission statement is "By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup." This week, we welcome our new robot overlords as we have a quiz about robots.

1. Bender, the Robot Devil, Calculon, and the Reverend Lionel Preacherbot are among the many robots on the animated series Futurama, created by which man, also behind the creation of another long-running popular animated series?
2. In 2009, film critic Peter Travers said, "If there was ever a time where an animated feature deserved to be nominated for Best Picture, it's" what Pixar film, which tells the story of a robot tasked with cleaning up trash on an abandoned Earth?
3. The dance known as the robot – in which the dancer moves their arms and legs in a, well, robotic fashion – first gained widespread fame when the lead singer of which singing group did the robot during a performance of the group's 1974 hit song "Dancing Machine" on an episode of Soul Train?
4.  "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm"; "A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law"; and "A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law" are the Three Laws of Robotics, which appear in a book of short stories titled I, Robot, written by what prolific science-fiction author?
5. Introduced in September of 2002, what is the name of the robotic vacuum cleaner manufactured by the iRobot company, whose later models have included an infrared sensor to help it avoid obstacles, wi-fi connectivity, and a smartphone app?

Extra credit
1. "Our democracy has been hacked" is a slogan that appears in promotional materials for what USA series starring Rami Malek and Christian Slater?
2. "Robot Parade" is a track on the 2002 children's album No! by what band, which won a Grammy award in 2009 for its children's album Here Come the 123s?

This week's challenge
Start with the title of the 1982 film BLADE RUNNER. Change one letter to a G and you can spell the two-word name of something that isn't true, but a lot of people think is. What is it?

ANSWERS
On-air questions

1. Matt Groening
2. WALL-E
3. The Jackson 5
4. Isaac Asimov
5. Roomba

Extra credit
1. Mr. Robot
2. They Might Be Giants
 

A lifelong resident of the Capital Region, Ian joined WAMC in late 2008 and became news director in 2013. He began working on Morning Edition and has produced The Capitol Connection, Congressional Corner, and several other WAMC programs. Ian can also be heard as the host of the WAMC News Podcast and on The Roundtable and various newscasts. Ian holds a BA in English and journalism and an MA in English, both from the University at Albany, where he has taught journalism since 2013.
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