Technophobia 3 UCLA Bonuses 1. Answer these questions about the latest craze sweeping through string theory, for ten points each. A. Branes are membrane-like objects that can come in up to 9 dimensions. Especially important are D-branes, which describe surfaces on which strings can end. For ten points, after what 19th century mathematician are D-branes named? Answer: Paul _Dirichlet_ B. Recently, physicists have used things called Dirichlet-branes to verify a prediction made by Stephen Hawking and Jacob Bekenstein that the area of a black hole's horizon is proportional to, for ten points, the black hole's what? Answer: _entropy_ C. This Harvard physicist of Argentinian descent used D-branes to construct both a quantum field theory similar to Q.C.D. in the ordinary four dimensions and a 10-dimensional string theory. Since the latter includes gravity, the unification of all four forces may now be more attainable. For ten points, name him. Answer: Juan _Maldecana_ (Read answer as: Ehhhh! Mal-dah-SAY-nah!) 2. Identify these medieval schoolmen for ten points each. A. Perhaps the most important of the schoolmen, he was one of the first philosophers to stress science and experimentation. In his work "Opus Majus" he argued that there were four causes of ignorance. Answer: _Roger Bacon_ (prompt on Bacon) B. He was a Franciscan who held that there was no difference between being and essence, so differences of form, and not matter, distinguished things. His followers opposed classical studies, and as a result a term for an ignorant person is derived from his name. Answer: John _Duns Scotus_ (prompt on partial answer) C. He was the greatest of scholastic logicians and a student of Duns Scotus. In 1328 he was excommunicated because he felt that priests should abandon their vows of poverty. Answer: William of _Occam_ 3. For ten points, identify each South American nation's second-most populous city. A. Peru Answer: _Arequipa_ B. Venezuela Answer: _Maracaibo_ C. Ecuador Answer: _Quito_ 4. Given a dead actor, name the sitcom they appeared in at the time of their death, for ten points each. If you need another clue, you'll get five points. (10) Freddie Prize (5) He committed suicide in 1977 at the age of 22. Answer: _Chico and the Man_ (10) Nicholas Colasanto (5) He died of a heart ailment in 1985 at the age of 61. Answer: _Cheers_ (10) Florence Halop (5) In 1986, she died of cancer, which is also what killed the actress she herself replaced on the show a year earlier. Answer: _Night Court_ (Selma Diamond was the first actress) 5. Given a nonfiction work, name the author 30-20-10. (30) Island of the Colorblind (20) An Anthropologist on Mars (10) Awakenings Answer: Oliver _Sacks_ 6. Identify these mathematical terms for ten points each. A. This is a collection of subsets of a space including the empty set and the whole space, and closed under finite intersections and arbitrary unions. Answer: _topology_ B. This is the typical term for an element of the topology of a space. Answer: _open_ set C. This is the term for any subset which can be generated from the open sets by repeated applications of countable unions and countable intersections. Answer: _Borel_ subset 7. For ten points, given an admiral, identify the most significant naval battle they lost. You'll get 5 points if you need the admiral they lost to. (10) The losers were co-commanders Pierre-Charles de Villeneuve and Don Federico Gravina. (5) The victor was Horatio Nelson. Answer: _Trafalgar_ (10) Though not everyone thought so at the time, the loser was Reinhard Scheer. (5) The victor was John Jellicoe. Answer: _Jutland_ (10) The loser was Zinovi Rozhdestvensky. (5) The victor was Togo Heihachiro. Answer: _Tsushima_ 8. Identify these Russian artists of the ealy 20th century for ten points each. A. He published a manifesto to propagate suprematism. One of his most famous works is the 1918 "White on White" Answer: Kasimir _Malevich_ B. This leader of constructivism was both a painter and a sculptor. His 1915 "Corner-reliefs" was a mixed media relief suspended on wire. Answer: Vladimir _Tatlin_ C. A painted, designer, and architect, he was a part of both suprematism and constructivsm. His series of paintings and drawings "Praun" applied geometric forms to art and architecture. Answer: Eliezer (El) Markovich _Lissitsky_ 9. Answer the following film questions for the stated number of points. A. No black-and-white or flashbacks. No genre stories or superficial action. No special lighting or extra sound. No tarting up the location with props; no optical tricks; no camera work that isn't hand-held. For ten points, these are some of the tenets of what recently created international cinematic movement? Answer: _Dogma_ 95 B. For ten points, filmmakers in what country are most associated with Dogma 95? Answer: _Denmark_ C. The most renowned adherents of Dogma 95 are, for five points each, what directors of Breaking the Waves and the Celebration? Answer: Lars _Von Trier_ and Thomas _Vinterberg_ 10. Given a clue, name the man recently in the news, 30-20-10. (30) He is the author of the just released biography, "King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero." (20) He also wrote the prize-winning Lenin's Tomb about the breakup of the Soviet Union, which he witnessed firsthand as foreign correspondent for the Washington Post. (10) After Tina Brown's departure, he was named the new editor of the New Yorker. Answer: David _Remnick_ 11. Identify the celestial object, 30-20-10. However, you only get to guess at one level, so if you're not sure, pass. 30-- It is the target of the Japanese spacecraft Nozomi, launched earlier this year. 20-- One of NASA's major goals is to launch a mission in 2005 that would return a sample from it back to Earth in 2008. 10-- A spacecraft to be launched in January will land on it next December. Since it will have a robotic arm capable of digging a meter below the surface, the question writer suggested calling it the Edgar Rice Burrower, but a blander name prevailed. Answer: _Mars_ (Mars Polar Lander) 12. Given a description of a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, name it for ten points each. A. The history of a society ruled by the random, invisible, and godlike Company. Answer: The _Babylon Lottery_ B. A unique wartime spy story about an impossible book and a mythical labyrinth. Answer: The _Garden of Forking Paths_ C. A detective story in which the ineffable name of God is the principal clue. Answer: _Death and the Compass_ 13. For ten points each, answer these questions about one of the world's most popular spoof religions (besides Scientology): the Church of the SubGenius. A. Who is the pipe-smoking SubGenius icon? Answer: j.r. "Bob" _Dobbs_ (prompt on Bob) B. What one-syllable term, meaning "perfect luck, effortless achievement" is the central tenet of the Church? Answer: _slack_ C. Name either of the Church's founders. Answer: Ivan _Stang_ or Philo _Drummond_ 14. Given a description, name the World War II military Operation, for ten points each. A. The Allied invasion of French North Africa, commanded by Eisenhower, was named this. Answer: Operation _Torch_ B. General Rommel's drive to the Nile, perhaps his most tactically brilliant offensive, costing the British Eighth Army 75,000 men and 100 tanks, was referred to as this. Answer: Operation _Aida_ C. This was the codename for the proposed U.S. invasion of Japan, whose high casualty projection of at least 250,000 influenced Truman's decision to use the bomb. It was further subdivided into Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, and Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu. Answer: Operation _Downfall_ 15. Most people assume that in a string of numbers sampled randomly from some body of data, the first non-zero digit is equally likely to be a number from 1 through 9. But in a wide assortment of number sequences-- including random samples from a day's stock quotations, the populations of towns, and the half-lives of radioactive atoms-- this is not so. A. For 20 points, to within 1%, what is the probability that the first digit in such a distribution will be the number one? I will not tell you the correct answer if you are wrong, since you'll get another chance to answer later. { IF INCORRECT, DO NOT REVEAL ANSWER } Answer: _30%_ (Accept 29-31%) B. The following law gives the probability of any number "d" from 1 through 9 being the first digit in such a distribution: log base 10 of the quantity 1 + 1 over d. {WRITTEN AS log (1 + 1/d)} for ten points, name this important statistical law. Answer: _Benford_'s Law (ONLY READ FOLLOWING IF PART A INCORRECT) C. Now for ten points use Benford's Law to calculate to within 1% the probability that the first digit in such a distribution will be the number one. Answer: _30%_ (log base 10 of 2; Accept 29-31%) 16. Given a brief description, identify the Martin Amis novel for ten points. A. Amis's first book, it tells the story of Charles Highway's sexual conquests and his obsession with the title character. It was turned into a bad movie starring Ione Skye. Answer: The _Rachel Papers_ B. Perhaps Amis's biggest critical success, it tells of the self-orchestrated extinction of the femme fatale Nicola Six. Answer: _London Fields_ C. This novel takes the formula of a weekend of misunderstandings at an English country house and adds a strong element of the grotesque. Answer: _Dead Babies_ 17. Recently, two remarkable offensive football accomplishments were performed by teammates in the same game. A. First, Tom Dempsey's NFL record for longest field goal was tied. For five points each, name the kicker who now shares the record, what yard-line he kicked his field goal from, and what yard-line Dempsey kicked his field goal from. Answer: Jason _Elam_, Elam from his own _47_ yard line, Dempsey from his own _37_ yard line (both were 63 yards but goal post moved back after 1970). B. Later in the game, Terrell Davis became only the third back in NFL history to rush for over 1000 yards in just 7 games. For 5 points for one and 15 for both, name the other 2. Answer: O.J. _Simpson_ and Jim _Brown_ 18. Been listening to "Peter and the Wolf" lately? Given each instrument or group of instruments, name the character it stands for. A. The oboe Answer: The _duck_ B. The bassoon Answer: The _grandfather_ C. Three horns Answer: The _wolf_ 19. Given a pair of U.S. cities, name the interstate highway that joins them for ten points each. A. Philadelphia, PA and Miami, FL Answer: _95_ B. Boise, ID and Portland, OR Answer: _84_ C. Amarillo, TX and Lubbock, TX Answer: _27_ 20. Identify the American writer from his novels on a 30-20-10 basis 30: "In a Yellow Wood," "A Search for the King," and "Dark Green, Bright Red" 20: "Kalki," "Williwaw," "The Smithsonian Institution," and "Julian" 10: "Burr," "Lincoln," "The City and the Pillar," and "Myra Breckinridge" Answer: Gore _VIDAL_ 21. Identify the year on a 30-20-10 basis. 30: Jacob Riis publishes "How the Other Half Lives" and America witnesses its first electrocution. 20: The Battle of Wounded Knee takes place. 10: The Sherman Antitrust Act goes into effect. Answer: _1890_ 22. Identify these structuralist linguists from their works for ten points each. A. "Indo-European Language and Society" and "Problems in General Linguistics" Answer: Emile _Benveniste_ B. "Early Slavic Paths and Crossroads" and "The Framework of Language" Answer: Roman _Jakobson_ C. "Syntactic Structures" and "Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar" Answer: Noam _Chomsky_ 23. Identify the following Pacific nations. You'll get 10 points for naming each according to its location, and 5 if you need the capital. 10: It's directly south of Western Samoa and directly east of Fiji 5: Its capital is Nuku'alofa Answer: _Tonga_ 10: It's directly south of the Solomon Islands and directly north of New Caledonia 5: Its capital is Port-Vila Answer: _Vanuatu_ 10: It's east of Mindanao, north of Irian Jaya, and west of the Federated States of Micronesia 5: Its capital is Koror (although a new one is being built) Answer: _Palau_ 24. Name the man, 30-20-10. (30) A Vietnam vet and ex-Navy SEAL, he has also appeared in several films, including, appropriately enough, the Running Man. (20) Going into Tuesday's election, this former mayor of Brooklyn Park, running as a Reform Party candidate for governor, garnered over 25% of voters in pre-election polls. (10) Before running for governor of Minnesota, he first gained fame as a professional wrestler. Answer: Jesse "the Body" _Ventura_ (also accept James _Janos_) 25. Consider the following champagne measures: Balthazar, Jeroboam, Methuselah, Nebuchadnezzar, Rehoboam, Salmanazar. Choose any subset with at least three of these measures, and place them in order from smallest to largest. You'll get five points for each in the correct place, but no points if you make a mistake. Answer: _JEROBOAM_; _REHOBOAM_; _METHUSELAH_; _SALMANAZAR_; _BALTHAZAR_; _NEBUCHADNEZZAR_ 26. Given the work, identify its Italian author, for ten points each. A. The Confessions of Zeno Answer: Italo _Svevo_ B. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Answer: Italo _Calvino_ C. The Truce Answer: Primo _Levi_ 27. As of last Sunday, Nov. 1st, there were seven undefeated Div. 1 college football teams. You'll get 10 points for naming any 3, and 5 more points for each one you name thereafter. But be careful, an incorrect guess stops you. Answer: OHIO ST., UCLA, KANSAS ST., TENNESSEE, WISCONSIN, ARKANSAS, TULANE