The World’s GEO QUIZ

Geo Texting game winners (Salzburg, Austria or Boston, MA

Kate in Austin, Texas

Liz in Briscoe, Missouri

Russ in Astrodome, TX

and Breanna in Hidden Valley, CA

Texting Game Sign up to get the Geo Quiz delivered to your mobile phone via text message.

How do I play? Text the keyword GEOQUIZ to 69866 from your mobile phone. Instructions will follow via text. You will need to reply with your name and zip code to enter. Once you have signed up, you will receive a quiz every Wednesday. We expect to add other days fairly shortly. Simply tune-in to the show to see if you got the correct answer. Answers will also be sent via text later and posted on The World’s website at theworld.org/geoquiz.We will select three people who answered the quiz correctly and mention your first name and city during the broadcast and post here on theworld.org

What are the terms and conditions? By signing up for the Geo Quiz texting game, you are subscribing to receive text alerts from Public Radio International (PRI) and The World. The Geo Quiz is free, but message and data rates from your mobile carrier may apply. You may opt-out any time by replying STOP to a text message from PRI or The World, or by sending a request to theworld@pri.org. You must include the mobile phone number you want opted out.

Who can I contact to get more information? For more information about the Geo Quiz texting game and its guidelines email theworld@pri.org. The World’s Geo Quiz tests your knowledge of world geography, and introduces you to fascinating people and places around the globe. Produced by The World’s David Leveille. Geo Quiz Podcast on iTunes Geo Quiz Podcast via RSS

Geo Quiz theme music:

SONG TITLE: Diaraby

ARTISTS:Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder

CD TITLE: Talking Timbuktu

CD LABEL: World Circuit Purchase the CD here

Geo Quiz


Fancy Hats and High Heels for Ireland’s Renowned Horse-Racing Festival

The Galway Races. (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Today’s Geo Quiz features an Irish city that has hosted a summer horse racing festival going back as far as the 1860′s. The races and festive atmosphere will again attract visitors this July from all over the world including loyal Geo Quiz listener Eamonn Burke who’s introducing the tradition to his daughter this summer.

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Pacific Island Takes on Soccer’s Best Teams

Fans of Tahiti sing their national anthem before the team's Confederations Cup match against Nigeria in Belo Horizonte (REUTERS/Jorge Silva)

A French Polynesian island is home to a soccer team playing in the Confederations Cup in Brazil this week. This team of underdogs are facing some of the world’s best in an international soccer tournament. Can you name it?

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Pirate Joe’s in Canada Sued by Trader Joe’s

Irate Joe's

In Friday’s Geo Quiz, we’re looking for a Canadian city, where Mike Hallatt has opened up a store dedicated to reselling Trader Joe’s popular products.

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Mozart’s Violin And Viola Tour US for First Time Ever

Mozart's violin in the US for the first time ever (Photo: WGBH)

For today’s Geo Quiz, we’re following the path of a famous stringed instrument, from its normal home in Austria to, well, just down the hallway from our studios here at WGBH.

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Acceleration and Agility, Not Speed, Secret to Cheetah Success

Wild cheetah with tracking collar. (Photo: Alan Wilson RVC)

The cheetah is ranked as the fastest creature on land. What makes it run so fast? That question has long intrigued Alan Wilson. He specializes in locomotive biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK. He’s been studying cheetahs in the wild in southern Africa and finds that the secret to the cheetah’s success when hunting is not its speed but its impressive acceleration and ability to change direction very quickly.

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Medici Children Suffered from Malnutrition During Italian Renaissance

X-ray shows the skull of Filippo de' Medici. Scientists say Vitamin D deficiency caused rickets and a swelling of Filippino's skull. (Photo: Valentina Guiffra, University of Pisa)

Italian paleopathologist Valentina Giuffra has been studying the skeletons of nine children born to the Medici family in Florence during the Renaissance. She tells anchor Marco Werman that their bones showed signs of rickets — they apparently suffered from a deficiency of Vitamin.

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Geo Quiz: Summer Travel Adventures

Marrakech (Photo: Marcp_dmoz/Flickr)

Are you traveling abroad somewhere interesting this summer? We would love to hear about it and include you in an interactive map we’re creating of summer adventures. If your summer plans take you outside the United States, and you want to participate, fill out the form here and we’ll be in touch.

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Syrian Vintner Carries On in a Time of War

Bargylus vineyards seen against the backdrop of the Al-Ansariyé mountains (Photo: Domain de Bargylus)

The war in Syria has been devastating in many ways: An estimated 80,000 people killed, innumerable families and businesses destroyed. But life has to go on. That’s the sense you get speaking to Sandro Saadé. Despite the war in Syria, he’s managed to keep the Bargylus vineyard and winery up and running in northwest Syria.

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Why China has Fallen for Fixies

Fixed gear city bicycle (Photo: iStock)

For Thursday’s Geo Quiz, our destination is China’s largest city. Bicycles have historically been the cheap, efficient way of getting from A to B there. But now fixed-gear bikes are becoming the must-have fashion accessory for this city’s hip young professionals.

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iDodge Tax Flash Mob Protest at the Apple Store in London

iDodge Tax Protest Flashmob at the Apple Store in London. (Photo: YouTube screen grab)

Apple computers and iPhones may be just about everywhere in the world but we’re searching for Apple’s European headquarters. The flashy corporate building is located just north of Blarney Road in Ireland. Can you name the city? It rhymes with fork.

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A Rare Dialect Spoken in Alaska

(Credit: Wiki Media)

In a small community in Alaska residents are speaking a language that you might not expect. Its roots come from a country that colonized Alaska in the 18th century. For today’s Geo Quiz, name that country.

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Ireland’s New Stamp Features a 224 Word Short Story

Irish postage stamp, 60 cents, celebrates the UNESCO City of Literature. (Photo: An Post)

Ireland’s newest postage stamp celebrates the country’s long literary heritage. The 60-cent stamp fittingly features a 224 word short story by Eoin Moore.

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Scientists Debate the Prospects for Bringing Woolly Mammoth Back to Life

An artist's rendering of an Ice Age mammoth skeleton (Credit : The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits)

Russian scientists have discovered a woolly mammoth carcass with liquid blood on a remote Arctic island. It was preserved in ice below the Siberian permafrost for thousands of years. The find has fueled speculation that it may be possible to clone the Ice Age animal.

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360 Degree Street View of the Galápagos Archipelago

A Galapagos giant tortoise crawls along a path as a Googler collects imagery with the Street View Trekker in Galapaguera, a tortoise breeding center, managed by the Galapagos National Park Service. (Photo: Google)

A team of scientists and Google mapmakers travelled to the Galápagos to retrace Darwin’s steps and to capture a 360-degree Street View perspective of the islands. Raleigh Seamster, project director for Google Maps, describes trekking into active volcanoes, documenting sea lions underwater, and getting up close and personal with Blue-Footed Boobies.

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World’s Biggest Flag Unfurled in Romania

Workers carry Romania's national flag during a Guinness World Record attempt for the world's biggest national flag in Clinceni, near Bucharest May 27, 2013. The flag, measuring 349.4 per 226.9 meters, established a new Guinness World Record, according to the organization's officials. (Photo: REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel)

A brass band played the national anthem at a military airfield outside of Bucharest, Romania earlier this week as 200 volunteers battled with the wind to unfurl a gigantic Romanian flag. Romania’s prime minister was also on hand for the historic occasion. It was an official attempt to set the Guinness World Record for the biggest flag.

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