That Boston tea was worth a lot of money

Questions:

1. What private U.S. company has most successfully developed reusable rockets and spacecraft?

2. In what form is about 94 percent of the energy used for electricity generation in the United States stored?

3. What 12-letter word describes a person whose job is to record testimony in court using a specialized keyboard machine?

4. Who played Dr. Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future movies?

5. What were the most famous roles played by DeForest Kelley, James Doohan and George Takei?

Fun Facts:

A churro at Disneyland costs about $5.75, even though the ingredients cost less than 50 cents.

Industrialist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of 16 libraries in Wyoming between 1899 and 1917. Ten of those buildings are still standing, and five still operate as libraries. In Montana, 17 Carnegie libraries were built, 15 remain and nine are still libraries today.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963. Almost exactly 20 years later, on June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Japan welcomed Christian missionaries. Later, the shogunate viewed Christianity as a threat to political control and issued a 1614 decree banning the religion, destroying churches, persecuting converts and expelling missionaries. Christianity would not openly return to Japan for about 250 years. Today about 1.5 percent of Japan is Christian.

At the La Prele Mammoth site near Douglas, Wyoming, archaeologists have found hundreds of mammoth bones as well as 13,000-year-old sewing needles made from fox, bobcat, cheetah and lynx bones. 

China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that the effort is altering the local ecosystem. Increased vegetation leads to more evapotranspiration, plants releasing moisture into the air which can cool the surrounding area and even increase local rainfall.

The 340 chests of tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party each weighed about 250 pounds and would be worth roughly $6,000 today. Altogether, the destroyed tea would be valued at about $2 million in 2026 dollars.

Answers:

1. SpaceX (Not Tesla)

2. Water stored behind dams in reservoirs (China leads in hydropower capacity, followed by the U.S. and Russia.)

3. Stenographer (Experienced stenographers can earn $50 per hour or more.)

4. Christopher Lloyd (He was 46 years old when the first Back to the Future film was made.)

5. DeForest Kelley: Dr. “Bones” McCoy, James Doohan: Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, George Takei: Hikaru Sulu (Star Trek)