It was reported last weekend that 69-year-old Penny Freeman and her brother were trapped in their Yorkshire, U.K., home for four days, due to the terrifying menace of ... two seagulls. "I felt like a prisoner. The birds were very threatening," she told reporters. Every time she tried to leave the house, the gulls would vomit on her. If, like Ms. Freeman, you're stuck indoors with a little time on your hands, you could do worse than take a shot at the Slate News Quiz.

Question 1 of 12

Who or what was described in the news this week as "this cross between a Concorde, a rail gun, and an air hockey table"?

Hyperloop, as envisioned by billionaire Elon Musk, is a solar-powered regional transportation system in which pods carry travelers inside elevated tubes.

Question 2 of 12

According to an ongoing Reuters poll, fully 30 percent of Americans say they have no friends who are what?

The rate drops to 10 percent for Americans under age 30, however.

Question 3 of 12

At least 91 people were killed Saturday as a string of car bombings rocked Eid al-Fitr celebrations in which country?

Question 4 of 12

Whose long-lost early film, Too Much Johnson, was recently rediscovered in an Italian warehouse?

Question 5 of 12

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that the Justice Department will no longer enforce mandatory minimum sentences for many offenders of what laws?

Question 6 of 12

According to a new profile in the New York Times this week, Edward Snowden first identified himself to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras by arranging to hold what unusual item?

According to a prearranged code, the journalists were to ask what time a nearby restaurant opened, and Snowden was to answer that the food was bad.

Question 7 of 12

To protest EU agricultural policies, farmers in Brittany, France, have been doing what every night outside tax offices?

A surplus has led to a 37 percent drop in French egg prices over the past year.

Question 8 of 12

Two lawsuits were filed on Monday challenging North Carolina's new law—one of the most stringent in country—restricting what?

The ACLU and NAACP suits claim that the new voter ID law discriminates against minority voters.

Question 9 of 12

Police opened fire Wednesday on the enormous opposition encampment outside the Rabaa Adawiya mosque in what city?

Hundreds have died amid security forces' crackdown on Islamist protesters.

Question 10 of 12

Who spent a day listening to the opinions of regular folks while disguised as a taxi driver—though it was later discovered that some of the passengers were paid participants found via a casting call?

Question 11 of 12

On Monday, a federal judge ordered whom to give up the practice of "stop and frisk"?

Question 12 of 12

Organizers in Edinburgh, Scotland, staged a "pride march" Saturday for members of what oppressed minority?

"All hail! The red, orange, and pale!" read some of the marchers' banners.

You got 8 out of 12 answers correct in 20 minutes 30 seconds.