Technophobia 4: Massive Quizbowl Overdose
Bonuses by Stanford A: Jeremy Horwitz, Elliot Mandel, Kenny Easawaran, and Alan Taber.
  1. Answer the following questions about Polish history for the stated number of points.

    A. 10: The son of a wealthy Polish family, he was elected to the kingship of Poland in 1763 to replace Augustus III; all three partitions of Poland happened during his rule.

    answer: Stanislaw II or Stanislaw Poniatowski

    B. 5: Stanislaw Poniatowski's aspirations for the Polish throne were advanced greatly when, in 1757, he became the lover of this future Russian Empress.

    answer: Catherine II or the Great

    C. 5: After a long struggle, Poniatowski finally succeeded in getting this assembly of Polish nobles to adopt a constitution in 1791, only to have it defeated by the Confederation of Targowica.

    answer: Sejm (prompt on "Diet")

    D. 10: This general, also prominent in the American Revolutionary War, commanded the Polish forces during the 1794 rebellion leading to the third and final partition of Poland.

    answer: Tadeusz Koshciuszko

  2. For 10 points apiece, identify the following elusive elementary particles, none of which have actually been found.

    A. This particle, which was postulated by the Scottish scientist after whom it is named in honor of his career in fundamental field work, is supposed to give mass to other particles by interacting with them. Necessary in the electroweak theory, its own mass of 10 teraelectron volts makes it a bit too heavy for detection just yet.

    answer: Higgs particle (or Higgs boson)

    B. One attempt to explain the composition of dark matter involves these particles, which can only interact with other matter through gravitational and weak nuclear forces. Their derogatory acronym does not suggest an abundance of physical prowess.

    answer: weakly interacting massive particles (or WIMPs)

    C. Contrary to popular belief, relativity does allow for the existence of these particles which could only exist above the speed of light and would travel ever faster as they lost energy.

    answer: tachyons

  3. For 10 points each, name the following Beethoven overtures:

    A. This overture in C minor was composed for a German language production of a Shakespeare tragedy about a Roman hero.

    answer: Coriolan or Coriolanus Overture

    B. This overture was written in 1810 for a Goethe tragedy about a Flemish general.

    answer: Egmont Overture

    C. This series of three overtures was written for his only opera, as he was continually unsatisfied with them. Eventually, they were replaced by the overture that shares its name with the opera, but the third one is still traditionally played before the third act.

    answer: Leonore Overtures (I, II, and III)

  4. Sometimes the boom in the night is your militiaman neighbor's weapons lab blowing up.

    A. For 10 points, all or nothing, name the three ingredients used to make black powder the way great-great grandpa did.

    answer: saltpeter (or potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal (in any order)

    For 5 points for 1, 10 for 2, and 20 points for all 3 correct within 5% each, give the proper proportions of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal to make black powder.

    answer: saltpeter: 75% (70-80%), sulfur: 10% (5-15%), charcoal: 15% (10-20%)

  5. Identify the poets from lines for 10 points, or for 5 points if you need names of some works.

    A. 10: Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
    Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgement Seat.

    5: "The Ballad of East and West," "Mandalay," "Tommy," and "Danny Deever"

    answer: Rudyard Kipling

    10: Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs
    Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;
    Where but to think is to be full of sorrow.

    5: These lines are from "Ode to a Nightingale"

    answer: John Keats

    C. 10: Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
    Memory by memory the mind---
    A poem should be motionless in time
    As the moon climbs.

    5: "Ars Poetica," "An Eternity," and "Two Poems from the War"

    answer: Archibald Macleish

  6. Answer the following related questions for the stated number of points:

    A. 5: The movie based on this play, depicting a bitter rivalry in late eighteenth century Vienna, won best picture in 1984.

    answer: Amadeus

    B. 10: Who wrote the play Amadeus?

    answer: Peter Shaffer

    C. 15: What other play by Peter Shaffer features a psychologist who seeks to understand why a teenage boy blinded six farm animals around whom he had formed a cult?

    answer: Equus

  7. Identify the following participants in the Constitutional Convention based on brief descriptions for 10 points each:

    A. With Roger Sherman, he was the co-author of the Connecticut compromise. He later became the third Chief Justice of the United States.

    answer: Oliver Ellsworth

    B. A former governor of South Carolina, he was one of the principal speakers for the Southern states and for the protection of slavery. At the same time, he believed in a strong central government and, as head of the Committee on Detail, inserted the Necessary and Proper Clause into the Constitution.

    answer: John Rutledge

    C. A strong believer in individual liberties, he opposed slavery and the continuation of the slave trade. The declaration of inalienable rights in his draft of the Virginia state constitution influenced Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

    answer: George Mason

  8. Sometimes, you just have to get ready to meet your Maker, or the God of the Underworld, depending. For 10 points each, given the culture, name the deity of the dead in that culture's pantheon.

    A. Egypt

    answer: Osiris

    B. Norse

    answer: Hel

    C. Celtic

    answer: Bran

  9. Name the artist from clues 30-20-10

    A. They perform the theme to TV's Spin City

    B. Lead singer Chris Barron recently lost his voice--he expects to never sing again.

    C. Their début album Pocketful of Kryptonite included the hits Two Princes and Little Miss Can't Be Wrong.

    answer: The Spin Doctors

  10. Your bonus.

    A. This American author of popular historical biographies, such as Lust for Life and The Agony and the Ecstasy, was also the founder of the Academy of American Poets. First, name him for 5 points.

    answer: Irving Stone

    Now, for 5 points each, identify the subjects of these biographies by Irving Stone:

    B. Lust for Life

    answer: Vincent Van Gogh

    C. The Agony and the Ecstasy

    answer: Michelangelo Buonarroti (accept either)

    D. Sailor on Horseback

    answer: Jack London

    E. Love is Eternal

    answer: Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln

    F. The Origin

    answer: Charles Darwin

  11. For 10 points each, answer questions about these events, all of which happened tomorrow, November 14.

    A. On November 14, 1792, he became the first Englishman to enter San Francisco Bay. He also explored the coast of what are now British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, and named Puget Sound.

    answer: Captain George Vancouver

    B. On November 14, 1834, this future Scottish mathematician and physicist entered the University of Glasgow at the ripe old age of 10 years and 4 months. His contributions range from serving as a scientific consultant at the laying of the first Transatlantic Cable to seminal work on hydrodynamics and thermodynamics.

    answer: William Thomson (accept Lord Kelvin)

    C. On November 14, 1940, German air raids destroyed large portions of this city in the West Midlands of England, including most of St. Michael's Cathedral. Sometime in the 11th century, Lady Godiva rode through the town naked.

    answer: Coventry

  12. Martyrdom was big well before Cassie Bernall. Given a mode of death, name the apostle who died that way for 10 points each.

    A. Crucified head down

    answer: Simon Peter

    B. Thrown from the pinnacle of the temple, then beaten to death

    answer: James the Just or James the Lesser (prompt on "James" alone.)

    C. Killed by spear thrust in India

    answer: Matthew

  13. Identify the following Arctic seas for 10 points apiece.

    A. The rivers Yenisey and Ob both flow into this sea, located off Western Siberia between the islands of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya.

    answer: Kara Sea (accept 'Karskoe more')

    B. Located east of the Kara Sea and west of the East Siberian Sea, this body of water is named after two Russian brothers who mapped its shores during the 1730s.

    answer: Laptev Sea (accept 'more Laptevyh')

    C. Finally, this sea is connected to the Baffin Bay by the Robeson Channel and is located almost directly north of Greenland.

    answer: Lincoln Sea

  14. Name the common number from science 30-20-10-5

    A. Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken's most famous result discusses a property of this number

    B. The number of elements in the smallest non-commutative group

    C. The number of equations in Maxwell's equations

    D. The number of sides of a rhomboid

    answer: 4

  15. Name the common date (month and day) from clues 30-20-10-5

    A. Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church in 1517.

    B. Harry Houdini died on Detroit of gangrene and peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix in 1926.

    C. Indira Gandhi was assassinated on this date in 1984.

    D. Strangely enough, the first movie featuring Michael Myers was released on October 17th, not on this date.

    E. Zero point clue: This year, Halloween fell on this date.

    answer: October 31st (accept Halloween)

  16. Name the Top-40 song from a lyric and year for 10 points, or, if you need the band's name, you'll get 5 points.

    A. 10: "She only plays one night stands" (1965)

    5: The Beatles

    answer: Day Tripper

    B. 10: "She only drinks coffee at midnight" (1998)

    5: Train

    answer: Meet Virginia

    C. 10: "She only sleeps when it's raining" (1996)

    5: Matchbox 20

    answer: 3 AM

  17. Identify the following types of numbers for the stated number of points:

    A. 5: The numbers used to describe a position in a list, starting with the natural numbers and continuing with omega, omega plus one, and many others.

    answer: ordinal numbers (or ordinals)

    B. 5: The numbers used to describe the size of a set, starting with the natural numbers and continuing with aleph zero, aleph 1, and then infinitely many more alephs whose subscripts are the ordinals.

    answer: cardinal numbers (or cardinals)

    C. 10: These numbers invented by William Rowan Hamilton form the only non-commutative field containing the real numbers.

    answer: quaternions

    D. 10: These numbers, invented by John Conway to deal with game theory, include all the real numbers, plus various infinite numbers and infinitesimally small numbers.

    answer: surreal numbers (accept nimbers)

  18. They say you're safer in a plane than in a car. In the case of these athlete fatalities, the point is moot.

    A. First, for 10 points, name the golfer whose 600-mph Learjet crash carved a 10-foot crater into the South Dakota ground on October 25, 1999. He had been on five of the last seven Ryder Cup teams and won his second U.S. Open this year.

    answer: (William) Payne Stewart

    B. Next, for 20 points, name the Canadian racer who was killed October 31st in the Marlboro 500 when his car crashed into a wall. This driver was the youngest ever to win a CART event, at age 22.

    answer: Greg Moore

  19. Identify the Civil War battle from clues for 10 points each.

    A. General Irwin McDowell commanded for the North, Generals Joe Johnston and P.T. Beauregard for the South.

    answer: First Bull Run or First Battle of Manassas, prompt on either without "First."

    B. Battlegrounds include Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge; the Confederate commander was Braxton Bragg.

    answer: Chattanooga

    C. 115,000 Union troops under Hooker clashed with 60,000 Rebels at sites such as Zoan Church, the Wilderness, and Getmenna and Eli's Fords.

    answer: Chancellorsville

  20. Isn't the iMac cute?

    A. For 5 points each, name the original five iMac flavors.

    answer: Strawberry, Tangerine, Lime, Grape, Blueberry (do not accept "Pink," "Orange," etc.)

    B. Now, for a final 5 points, name the unappetizing color that the new Special Edition iMac comes in.

    answer: Graphite

  21. For 10 points each, name these straits that border on Danish islands.

    A. Oslo is on this strait north of the Jutland peninsula, which borders Sweden and Norway in addition to Denmark.

    answer: Skagerrak

    B. This strait just north of Copenhagen separates the southern end of Sweden from Denmark.

    answer: Kattegat

    C. This strait separates Greenland from Iceland

    answer: Denmark Strait

  22. Name the Sylvia Plath poems from lines, for 10 points each:

    A. The dew that flies
    Suicidal, at one with the drive
    Into the red

    Eye, the cauldron of morning

    answer: Ariel

    B. I have done it again.
    One year in every ten
    I manage it...

    Dying
    Is an art, like everything else,
    I do it exceptionally well.

    answer: Lady Lazarus

    C. Every woman adores a Fascist
    The boot in the face, the brute
    Brute heart of a brute like you.

    answer: Daddy

  23. Every sport has its goons: football has Romanowski and Wisnewski, baseball had Ty Cobb and Lenny Dykstra, but in ice hockey, you really have to be nasty to stand out from the crowd. For 10 points each, name the player who led the NHL in penalty minutes in 1998-1999, his team, and the number of penalty minutes within 5.

    answer: Rob Ray, Buffalo Sabres (either is acceptable), 261 (256-266)