Technophobia 4: Massive Quizbowl Overdose
Bonuses by Caltech I've Got One Hand in My Packet (Brandon VandeBrake, Jay Catherwood, Josh DenHartog, Jason Meltzer)

  1. Welcome to Technophobia! Classify the following 2-manifolds topologically for the stated number of points:

    A. (5) This closed, orientable space with Euler characteristic equal to 0 is topologically equivalent to the surface of a standard coffee cup.

    answer: torus

    B. (10) This closed non-orientable surface with Euler characteristic equal to 0 may be obtained by joining opposite ends of a cylinder with a twist, or by attatching two Mobius bands along their boundary circles.

    answer: Klein bottle

    C. (15) This surface with Euler characteristic equal to 1 is obtained by identifying antipodal points on the boundary of a disk. It is closed and non-orientable.

    Answer: projective plane

  2. Identify these Leonardo DaVinci paintings from descriptions 5-10-15:

    A. (5) Christ is seated at the center of a long table, with six men on each side of him, in a sparsely decorated room.

    answer: The Last Supper

    B. (10) Brown and yellow ochre are the colors composing this piece, which features a woman and small child in the center, and a crowd of men and women all trying to look at the child.

    answer : Adoration of the Magi

    C. (15) Rocky cliffs and a tall tree dominate the background, while the characters in the foreground include two female relatives of Jesus, a nude child Christ, and a lamb.

    answer : Madonna and St. Anne

  3. Identify the following data structures for 10 points each:

    A. It is stored in memory as a fixed, contiguous block. Elements are accessed by a numerical index.

    answer: array

    B. It is series of data elements linked by pointers in which elements are only added at the tail of the list and accessed at the head.

    answer: queue (prompt on linked list)

    C. It is a type of array that accesses elements based upon a function called a key. It is often used in searching algorithms, as elements can be found via the key rather than a direct search.

    answer: hash table

  4. Given a description of a European title of nobility, identify the title on a 15-10-5 basis:

    A. (15) The Latin form of this title was originally given to high-ranking Roman military commanders, who usually had military and civilian responsibilities in a territory.
    (10) In most cases, it is the highest ranking title below prince or king.
    (5) It is derived from the Latin title dux.

    answer: Duke (Accept Dux or Archduke) on the 15-point clue

    B. (15) Under the Romans, these were household companions of the Emperor; the Franks used them as local administrators and judges.
    (10) Its rank is just below that of marquess or duke.
    (5) It is derived from the Latin title comes.

    answer: Count (Accept Comes on the 15 point clue)

  5. Identify the National Park from monuments for 10 points each:

    A. Nevada Falls, Clouds Rest, Half Dome

    answer: Yosemite National Park

    B. The Watchman, The Altar of Sacrifice, Kolob Arch

    answer: Zion National Park

    C. Cadillac Mountain, Echo Pond, The Triad

    answer: Acadia National Park

  6. Answer the following about a recent Internet chess match:

    A. For 5 points each--name the participants in this match, which was moderated by British Grandmaster Danny King, and was won by White when Black resigned on its 62nd move.

    answer: Garry Kasparov vs. the World

    B. For 10 points--on which company's "Gaming Zone" internet site did the match take place?

    answer: Microsoft (accept Microsoft Network or msn.com)

    C. For a final 10 points--name any one of the four analysts guiding the World team: a 16 year old French grandmaster, a 19 year old Romanian GM, a 14 year old German master, and the current US Women's Champion.

    answer: Etienne Bacrot or Florin Felecan or Elisabeth Pahtz or Irina Krush

  7. For 10 points each--name these persons who were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

    A. He holds the American League record for intentional walks, and he hit for batting titles in the '70s, '80s, and '90s during his career with the Kansas City Royals.

    answer : George Brett

    B. He played for the Giants, Cardinals, Braves, Athletics, Red Sox, and Royals during his career which lasted from 1958 to 1974, and won the National League MVP Award in 1967 with a unanimous vote. His nicknames included "Baby Bull" and "Cha-Cha".

    answer : Orlando Cepeda

    C. He served in the American League from 1954 to 1978, worked 5 World Series, and served as American League Assistant Supervisor of Umpires until his death in 1982. Name this man who Bud Selig called "the best umpire of the post-war era."

    answer : Nestor Chylak

  8. Name the Biblical figure, 30-20-10:

    A. This son of Nun and member of the tribe of Ephraim was part of the contingent which left Egypt at the great Exodus.

    B. Following Moses' death, God appointed this man as leader of the Israelites. He led the people across the Jordan as Moses had crossed the Sea of Reeds and ordered the males to be circumcised with flint knives as Zipporah had circumcised Moses.

    C. The Old Testament book which bears his name includes the story of the walls of Jericho collapsing under his attack.

    answer : Joshua

  9. Name the Sheryl Crow song from lyrics for 10 points each:

    A. "Did you know when you go/It's the perfect ending/To the bad day I was just beginning"

    answer : My Favorite Mistake

    B. "Lie to me/I promise I'll believe/Lie to me/But please don't leave"

    answer : Strong Enough

    C. "We went searching through thrift store jungles/Found Geronimo's rifle/Marilyn's shampoo/And Benny Goodman's corset and pen"

    answer : If It Makes You Happy

  10. Answer the following about optics for 10 points each:

    A. In 1669, Bartholinus looked through a crystal of Iceland spar and observed two images, discovering this effect. He explained it by assuming that the crystal had two different indices of refraction.

    answer: birefringence (prompt on double refraction)

    B. In 1808, a French army engineer looked through a birefringent crystal at the light reflecting off the windows of the Luxembourg palace and noticed that the two images varied in intensity as he rotated the crystal. Name this man whose eponymous law states that light is partially polarized by reflection.

    answer: Etienne-Louis Malus

    C. Bertholinus and Malus both used crystals of this common birefringent material, whose three perfect cleavages give its crystals their six-sided polyhedral structure, and which has a rank of 3 on the Mohs hardness scale.

    answer: calcite

  11. Identify the following works of Harlan Ellison that have been converted into other media, for 10 points each.

    A. This short story, part of the collection Slippage, about a black mind reader from the South, is being turned into a motion picture starring Samuel L. Jackson.

    Answer: "Mefisto in Onyx"

    B. This story, in which a giant supercomputer endlessly torments the last five surviving humans, was turned into a CD-ROM computer game.

    Answer: "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"

    C. This story, from the collection "The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World," tells of a post-apolyptic future in which a telepathic dog and his owner walk the streets in search of love and food. It was turned into a 1975 motion picture by L.Q. Jones.

    Answer: "A Boy and His Dog"

  12. In 1929, they formally declared their intentions, which were to investigate scientific language and methodology, in the manifesto Scientific Conception of the World. For 10 points each:

    A. Name this group of logical positivists.

    answer: Vienna Circle or Wiener Kreis

    B. Name the founder of the Vienna Circle, an epistemologist and philosopher of science whose works include The Nature of Truth According to Modern Logic. He was shot and killed by a deranged student in 1936.

    answer: Moritz Schlick

    C. Name the author of works such as The Logical Structure of the World: Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, a German-born American thinker who founded the Vienna Circle journal Knowledge with Moritz Schlick in 1933.

    answer: Rudolf Carnap

  13. His eyes represented the sun and the moon, and he is the mythological ancestor of the Egyptian pharaohs. For 10 points each:

    A. Name this falcon-headed god.

    answer: Horus

    B. This uncle of Horus murdered Osiris and contested Horus' claim to the royal throne of Egypt. Horus eventually defeated him after eighty years of war.

    answer: Set

    C. In an early battle, Set put out Horus' left eye, which was healed by this ibis-headed god.

    answer: Thoth

  14. For 10 points each--given the second, third, and fourth lines of an Emily Dickinson poem, give the more well-known first line:

    A. ...Are you Nobody, too?/ Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!/ They'll banish us, you know.

    answer: I'm Nobody! Who are you?

    B. ...He kindly stopped for me./ The carriage held but just ourselves/ And Immortality.

    answer: Because I could not stop for Death

    C. ...To take us lands away/ Nor any coursers like a page/ Of prancing poetry.

    answer: There is no frigate like a book

  15. People like to write questions about where they are from, and this is no exception. Answer the following questions about Iowa for 10 points each:

    A. This river forms most of the western boundary of Iowa, before flowing southeast toward St. Louis.

    answer : Missouri River

    B. Davenport, Iowa and Bettendorf, Iowa, along with Rock Island, Illinois and Moline, Illinois are known by this collective name.

    answer : Quad Cities

    C. This lake has the largest surface area of any lake in the state. Its name resembles that of a Denver-area ampitheatre where John Tesh and Dave Matthews Band made live albums.

    answer : Lake Red Rock (do not accept "Red Rocks")

  16. Identify the Persian emperors from clues for 10 points each:

    A. Considered one of the greatest Persian Emperors, he reigned from 522-486 BCE and unsuccessfully attempted to conquer Greece throughout his reign.

    answer: Darius I or Darius the Great

    B. He was the son of Darius I and ruled from 486-465. His reign continued his father's war against the Greeks and saw the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea.

    answer: Xerxes I or Xerxes the Great

    C. He founded the Achaemenian empire, centered on Persia, which stretched from the Aegean Sea to the Indus River. He was noted by Xenophon as an idea monarch, and is remembered in the Bible as the liberator of the Jews from Babylon.

    answer: Cyrus II or Cyrus the Great

  17. Identify the city at the junction of the following major US Interstates for 10 points each:

    A. I-29, I-35, I-70

    answer: Kansas City

    B. I-74, I-75, I-71

    answer: Cincinnati

    C. I-85, I-75, I-20

    answer: Atlanta

  18. The Apostles of Jesus were said to have founded churches in many towns, which later came to be known as Apostolic Sees. Name these cities from clues for 10 points each:

    A. Peter and Paul are said to have founded this See, also called the Papal See.

    answer: Rome

    B. Peter supposedly founded this See located in Phrygia, which is now in west-central Turkey.

    answer: Antioch

    C. In the 7th century, the Patriarchate of this city, in an effort to compete with Rome, claimed that its church was founded by the apostle Andrew; nobody then or now really believed it.

    answer: Constantinople

  19. Answer these questions about this year's Booker Prize.

    A. For 10 points each, name the South African author who won the 1999 Booker Prize, and the novel for which he received the award.

    answer: J.M. Coetzee and Disgrace

    B. J.M. Coetzee is the first person to win the Booker prize a second time. For 10 points, for what book did he previously win, in 1983?

    answer: Life & Times of Michael K.

  20. It does a body good -- pass it on! Answer the following questions about milk for 10 points each:

    A. Start with the cow. The first fluid secreted by its mammary glands is not milk, but this clear solution of concentrated protein, vitamins, and antibodies.

    answer: colostrum

    B. This protein, which forms Little Miss Muffet's curds, coagulates and forms solid clumps when exposed to acid or bacteria. It is also used in the manufacture of paper, plastics and glue.

    answer: casein

    C. This milk treatment, developed in 1900 by the French, breaks up agglomerated particles to prevent creaming. Because its implementation causes milk to go rancid in a matter of minutes, it is always carried out concurrently with pasteurization.

    answer: homogenization

  21. Identify the composers from works for 10 points each:

    A. Preludes, Images, Reverie

    answer: Claude Debussy

    B. "Military" Polonaise, Etude in E "Tristesse", Etude in C Minor "Revolutionary"

    answer: Frederic Francois Chopin

    C. Theodosius, Dioclesian, Dido and Aeneas

    answer: Henry Purcell

  22. Given a year, identify the film that won best picture for 10 points each; you'll get 5 points if you need the director.

    A. (10): 1974
    (5) Francis Ford Coppola

    answer: The Godfather Part II

    B. (10): 1962
    (5) David Lean

    answer: Lawrence of Arabia

    C. (10)1954
    (5) Elia Kazan

    answer: On the Waterfront

  23. 30-20-10: Identify the 20th Century Philosopher.

    30: He stopped writing for publication in 1971 and, following the motto "commitment is an act, not a word," he often participated in street riots and the dissemination of left-wing literature.

    20: He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964 for his autobiography, but he refused it.

    10: His most important work, Being and Nothingness places human consciousness, neant in opposition to being, etre.

    Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre

  24. Given a ship's name, identify the work of Joseph Conrad in which it appears, for 15 points each.

    A. Patna

    Answer: Lord Jim

    B. Sephora

    Answer: "The Secret Sharer"

  25. Given selected poems, identify the title of the collection containing them, FTP each, or for 5 if you need the poet.

    A) 10: "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "To a Gentleman," "The Visionary Hope."
    5: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Answer: Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems

    B) 10: "Ode to the West Wind," "Adonais," "To a Skylark"
    5: Percy Bysshe Shelley

    Answer: Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems

    C) 10: "The Thorn," "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey," "The Nightingale"
    5: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Answer: Lyrical Ballads

  26. Identify the type of dark matter from descriptions FTP each:

    A) This class of objects include brown dwarfs, dim stars, and black holes.

    Answer: MACHOs or Massive Compact Halo Objects

    B) These particles are thought to interact with normal matter only through the weak and gravitational forces, thus making them very difficult to detect.

    Answer: WIMPs or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles

    C) These leptons come in electron, muon, and tau types, have no electric charge, and spin one-half. As they have recently been found to have mass, they make up some part of the "missing mass" problem of dark matter.

    Answer: Neutrinos

  27. So, you know a lot about Mythology? How much do you know about the Mythology of William Blake? Identify these entities from Blake's mythology, FTP each:

    A) The "Ancient Man" or "One Man"

    Answer: Albion

    B) The spirit of mortal imagination

    Answer: Los

    C) The spirit of Rebellion

    Answer: Orc

  28. Identify the battle of the Napoleonic Wars given Napoleon's opponents for 10 points each; 5 points if you need a date and approximate location:

    A. (10) Alexander I of Russia, Francis I of Austria
    (5) December 2, 1805 near Vienna

    answer: Austerlitz

    B. (10) General M. I. Kutuzov
    5: 70 miles west of Moscow

    Answer: Borodino

    C) 10: Napoleon, Gebhard Leberect von Blucher from Prussia, the Duke of Wellington from Great Britain, 1815
    5: 9 miles south of Brussels

    Answer: Waterloo