Technophobia 4: Massive Quizbowl Overdose
Boni by UCI X-Men Fan Club (Willie Chen, Jun Tokeshi, and Matt Adams)

  1. Given the Shakespearean character, identify both the way they died and the character who killed them for 5 points each:

    A. Juliet in Romeo and Juliet

    answer: stabbed by Juliet or herself (prompt on "suicide")

    B. Hamlet in Hamlet

    answer: poisoned by Laertes' sword

    C. Desdemona in Othello

    answer: smothered (or asphyxiated or choked) by Othello

  2. For 10 points each--name these lovers or objects of affection from Greco-Roman mythology:

    A. This woman-hating sculptor fell in love with a statue of his own creation, which Venus turned into a living woman.

    answer: Pygmalion

    B. Each night, the goddess of the moon, Selene, kisses and caresses this shepherd boy in his perpetual slumber.

    answer: Endymion

    C. This huntress fled from Apollo, only to be turned into a laurel tree by her father Peneus, a river-god.

    answer: Daphne

  3. For 10 points each--see how much you remember about the summer of 1999:

    A. This author of The Godfather died.

    answer: Mario Puzo

    B. This Apollo 12 astronaut, the third American to land on the moon, died in a motorcycle accident in Ojai, California.

    answer: Pete Conrad

    C. The world found out that this tennis player, who shone at Wimbledon, is the daughter of Dr. J, the basketball player.

    answer: Alexandra Stevenson

  4. For 10 points each--answer the following questions concerning the recent events surrounding Major League Baseball's announcement of its All Century Team, which has re-ignited a running controversy in baseball:

    A. Name the NBC reporter whose contentious interview on national TV with all-time hits leader Pete Rose drew great controversy, resulting in many New York Yankee players' refusal to his interviews.

    answer: Jim Gray

    B. Name the former Justice Department lawyer who headed baseball's four-month investigation into Pete Rose's activities.

    answer: John Dowd

    C. Name the Franklin, Ohio, restaurateur who was identified by his attorney as Rose's principal bookmaker. He later served two years in prison for cocaine trafficking and tax evasion.

    answer: Ron Peters

  5. Answer the following questions about American labor relations for 10 points each:

    A. Identify the man who, as CIO president from 1952-1955, led the drive for union with the AFL.

    answer: Walther Reuther

    B. What man became the first president of the unified AFL-CIO in 1955?

    answer: George Meany

    C. What union, founded by Reuther in 1936, did he remove from the AFL-CIO after disagreements with Meany?

    answer: United Automobile Workers or UAW

  6. For 10 points each--recall your high-school biology class and answer the following questions on marine life:

    A. What type of bodily symmetry do the animals in the phylum Cnidaria possess?

    answer: radial symmetry

    B. The ray-finned fish in the class Osteichthyes possess what gas-filled sac near the gut that permits them to change their buoyancy?

    answer: swim bladder

    C. Lampreys and hagfish belong to what class of fish, whose name literally mean "without a jaw"?

    answer: Agnatha

  7. 5-5-10-10--If the following English sentences were recast into Latin, identify the case of the specified noun:

    A. The sentence is "The old man stirs the cinders thrice." The specified noun is "man."

    answer: nominative

    B. The sentence is "The old man stirs the cinders thrice." The specified noun is "cinders."

    answer: accusative

    C. The sentence is "I am standing by the bank of the river." The specified noun is "bank."

    answer: ablative

    D. The sentence is "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" The specified noun is "Father."

    answer: vocative

  8. 30-20-10. Name the entertainer from clues:

    A. At a recent sports auction at an Atlantic City casino, he sold a signed hair dryer for $375, which went to benefit underprivileged children. He currently goes around Hollywood pitching his latest script The Sixteenth Minute in which he plays a talk show host with ADD who interviews the fleetingly-famous, such as Ross Perot.

    B. His latest gig is Showtime's "Beggars and Choosers," in which he plays a pool boy who wears a T-shirt that reads "As Seen on TV." His house overlooks Kevin Costner's home.

    C. A close friend of Charlie Sheen, Bill Maher, and Pauly Shore, he stumbled onto the national scene four years ago as a real-life court jester in "The Trial of the Century" and made Marcia Clark look stupid.

    answer: Kato Kaelin

  9. Pencil and paper may be necessary. Answer the following physics questions for 10 points each.

    A. Quadrupling the current in an electric circuit with a resistor of constant resistance has the effect of changing the power dissipated in the resistor by what factor?

    answer: 16

    B. A 2 meter wire carrying a current of 0.60 Amps oriented parallel to a uniform magnetic field of 0.50 Tesla experiences a force of what magnitude in Newtons?

    answer: zero

    C. A 0.6-Farad capacitor is charged by a 600-Volt battery. What is the charge on the capacitor in coulombs?

    answer: 360 coulombs

  10. Name these economists for 10 points each:

    A. This Monetarist won the 1976 Nobel Prize in economics and began the "Chicago School" of Monetarist economics.

    answer: Milton Friedman

    B. A Cambridge Fellow, he became the editor of Economic Journal of Britain in 1911. He married a Russian ballerina and joined the Bloomsbury Group, eventually playing a key part in the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.

    answer: John Maynard Keynes

    C. This Yale graduate contributed the mathematical index numbers, which we now use to measure share values and inflation.

    answer: Irving Fisher

  11. Identify the following Japanese things for 10 points each:

    A. What is a traditional Japanese inn called?

    answer: ryokan

    B. What is the traditional Japanese art of floral arrangement?

    answer: ikebana

    C. What Japanese mode of transportation means "man, power, vehicle"?

    answer: jinricksha or ricksha

  12. For 5 points each, and a bonus 5 for all correct, name the directors of the following 1999 films:

    A. The Straight Story

    answer: David Lynch

    B. eXistenZ

    answer: David Cronenberg

    C. Bringing out the Dead

    answer: Martin Scorcese

    D. The Sixth Sense

    answer: M. Night Shyamalan

    E. Bowfinger

    answer: Frank Oz

  13. For 10 points--name the legal terms from description:

    A. The process by which prospective jurors are questioned by attorneys to ascertain if there is cause to strike them from the jury.

    answer: voir dire

    B. Defamation that is spoken or not preserved in permanent form.

    answer: slander

    C. A legal doctrine whereby the oldest son alone inherits the property of his ancestors.

    answer: primogeniture

  14. For 10 points each--identify the modern composers of the following operas:

    A. Duke Bluebeard's Castle

    answer: Bela Bartok

    B. Ghosts of Versailles

    answer: John Corigliano

    C. A Streetcar Named Desire

    answer: Andre Previn

  15. Name the chairs of these Senate committees for 10 points each:

    A. Foreign Relations

    answer: Jesse Helms

    B. Judiciary

    answer: Orrin Hatch

    C. Rules and Administration

    answer: Mitch McConnell

  16. 30-20-10. Identify the philosopher from clues:

    A. A native of Elea, he revealed his philosophical views by writing an epic poem consisting of three parts.

    B. The first part of his epic poem is entitled "The Way of Truth," and is famous for tackling the semantic problems inherent in phrases such as "It is not."

    C. The only possibility in the present universe, according to this author of On Nature is "It is." His views, related in a Platonic dialogue named for him, were later challenged by the Eleatic school.

    answer: Parmenides

  17. For 10 points each--identify the following layers of the atmosphere:

    A. This lowest region of the atmosphere extends from the Earth's surface up to about 10 km.

    answer: troposphere

    B. This layer is right above the troposphere. It is where ozone blocks out most of the UV rays from the sun.

    answer: stratosphere

    C.This layer lies further up from the thermosphere. It is where Earth's atmospheric boundary with space is formed.

    answer: exosphere

  18. Answer the following questions about African locales for 10 points each:

    A. What country is referred to as South West Africa by South Africa?

    answer: Namibia

    B. Stanley found Livingstone at what port on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika?

    answer: Ujiji

    C. What name did Ptolemy give to the deep and unknown regions of Africa, also an African name for South Africa?

    answer: Azania

  19. His first novel was entitled Leaf Storm, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. For the stated number of points:

    A. For 5 points--name this magic realist author.

    answer: Gabriel Garcia Marquez (prompt on partial answer)

    B. For 5 points--name Garcia Marquez's most famous novel, which tells the story of one Colombian family, house and town from its mythic genesis through centuries of war, history, and politics.

    answer: One Hundred Years of Solitude

    C. For 10 points each--name both the family and the town featured in One Hundred Years of Solitude, both of which also appear in Leaf Storm and the novel In Evil Hour.

    answer: Buendía family and Macondo

  20. For 10 points each--name these stars:

    A. This yellowish star, named for a famous mythological twin, is the brightest star in the constellation Gemini.

    answer: Pollux or Beta Geminorum

    B. This red supergiant star, whose name refers to "the giant's shoulder," has a diameter greater than the orbit of Mars and is the 10th brightest in the sky.

    answer: Betelgeuse or Alpha Orionis

    C. This blue-white supergiant, also in Orion, comprises the left leg of the giant and is 50 times bigger than the sun.

    answer: Rigel or Beta Orionis

  21. For 10 points each--identify the female African-American author of the following novels:

    A. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

    answer: Mildred Taylor

    B. Tar Baby

    answer: Toni Morrison

    C. Possessing the Secret of Joy

    answer: Alice Walker

  22. What to do during that hour between dinner and "Ally McBeal"? Watch "7th Heaven." For 5 points each, name any six of the seven offspring of Reverend Eric and Annie Camden.

    answer: Matt, Mary, Lucy, Simon, Ruthie, Samuel, and David