CMST: Specific question discussion

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CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

Please post any questions/comments about specific questions here.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

There are several tossups I'd like to see:

swing (packet 1, tossup 4)
thin films (3, 1)
ion trapping (4, 6)
photons (8, 2)
fathers/priests (8, 20)
SDS PAGE (11, 2)
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I enjoyed the film.

I'd like to see the tossup on the 1940's (in film), as I wondering what the unifying thread was there.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by ErikC »

The painting tossup on Weimar Germany was fairly transparent in my opinion - there's not too many "governments" I can imagine would tossup for art history (I'm not expert on this, so perhaps I am wrong?). I was tempted to buzz on the first line because so many questions on "this government" are on Weimar. "This period" would have been much less transparent and I don't think too many people wouldn't figure out the answer line.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by rahulkeyal »

Here you go.
CMST Packet 1 wrote: 4. A track in this genre features a tenor saxophone solo by Tony Pastor against cymbal crashes played by Cliff Leeman; that track was on the B side of a record that included a cover of “Indian Love Call.” It’s not stride, but Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a song in this genre that had a trumpet solo by Clyde Hurley and a tenor saxophone duel between Al Klink and Tex Beneke. Roy Eldridge is labeled as one of this genre’s “Great Soloists” in Gunther Schuller’s book titled for this genre. Don Redman helped create this genre’s sound while working with (*) Fletcher Henderson by using call and response between the brass and reeds. This genre, which often notated consecutive eighth notes as triplets, was popularized on the West Coast by a performance at the Palomar Ballroom. This genre competed for popularity with Dixieland revival, was played by Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, and was widely popular by the time “Sing, Sing, Sing” was performed at Carnegie Hall in 1938. For 10 points, name this danceable jazz genre popular in its era from the mid 1930s to 1940s, which Benny Goodman was the “king of.”
ANSWER: swing jazz [prompt on big band jazz]
<AK, Other Art (Jazz)>
CMST Packet 3 wrote: 1. An important parameter in the creation of these materials is equal to “a-sub-f minus a-sub-s, all divided by a-sub-s,” and is called the misfit strain. A technique that evaluates these materials relies on the equation “rho equals tangent psi times e to the quantity i times delta,” where tangent psi is the amplitude ratio and delta is the phase difference. Better step coverage is an advantage of the “plasma enhanced” variant of one technique that creates these materials. In a model describing their creation, exceeding a value symbolized h-sub-c leads to formation of (*) “islands.” Creating them doesn’t involve indium, but the first step in their preparation is making a wetting layer. Ellipsometry can measure an important property of these materials, which can form through Stranski-Krastanov growth. Sputtering, molecular beam epitaxy, and chemical vapor deposition are used to create these materials, which can cause reflected light to interfere with itself and produce iridescent patterns. For 10 points, name these materials used in semiconductors and optical coatings that have a thickness measured in nanometers.
ANSWER: thin films [or monolayers; antiprompt on semiconductors or quantum dots or crystals]
<AK, Chemistry>
CMST Packet 4 wrote: 6. A team led by Georg Schneider used this technique to measure the proton’s magnetic moment to an accuracy of three parts per billion in November 2017. The quotient of the maximum and minimum field strength is equal to the sine squared of the pitch angle, below which this process does not occur due to the creation of a “loss cone.” A device that accomplishes this process consists of an alternating square arrangement of endcap and ring elements. A method of this process pioneered by Arthur (*) Ashkin can be applied to neutral targets, since it relies on differences in refractive index. Because the magnetic moment is an adiabatic invariant, magnetic mirroring can accomplish this process. The Zeeman effect is utilized by a device named for this process required for Bose-Einstein condensate production; that device which does this “magneto-optically” led to the creation of “optical tweezers.” Paul and Dehmelt created a device for achieving this task similar to one named for Penning that was central to the storage of antihydrogen. For 10 points, what process of fixing the location of particles often results from extreme cooling?
ANSWER: trapping [or ion trapping; or optical trapping or double-trap; accept confinement; accept magnetic mirroring before mention]
<RK, Physics>
CMST Packet 8 wrote: 20. The protagonist of a novel is embarrassed when a person in this profession ridicules the clothing of another group of people in this profession, who he claims are called “Les Jupes” in Belgium. A character of this profession describes a bird emptying a mountain of sand by removing one grain every million years, in order to explain the concept of eternity. It’s not related to teaching, but a character of this profession is told by the Aquinas-quoting protagonist that a funnel is actually a (*) “tundish.” A speech explaining the “triple sting” and “four last things” is delivered by a character of this profession while the protagonist is on a retreat. After hearing that the protagonist broke his glasses at the cinder-path, a character of this profession bats the protagonist’s hand as punishment. Characters of this profession instruct the protagonist at the ClongowesKLONG-gohz Wood and Belvedere Colleges. For 10 points, what profession in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is held by Arnall, who inspires Stephen Dedalus with a “Sermon on Hell”?
ANSWER: fathers [or priests or prefects; prompt on teachers before mentioned]
<RK, Long Fiction>
CMST Packet 11 wrote: 2. The original experiment employing this technique utilized carbon-14 labeling and a freezing-thawing procedure to resolve so-called “ghosted particles” within the head of the T4 phage. One alternative to this technique utilizes a zwitterionic arginine stacking agent and a tricine buffer system to avoid the negative side effects of one reagent in this technique crystallizing at low temperatures. One preparatory step for the standard variant of this technique makes use of the cross-linking agent MBAA in the presence of a TEMEDTEM-ed catalyst and the radical initiator (*) ammonium persulfate. Following that step, samples in this technique are frequently boiled in 2-mercaptoethanol prior to the addition of a dye like bromophenol blue. A solution of tris base and glycine forms the standard running buffer used at each electrode in this technique; that buffer is named for Ulrich Laemmli. The results of this technique are typically visualized following a Western blot or addition of a stain like Coomassie blue. For 10 points, name this variant of gel electrophoresis that makes use of a namesake anionic surfactant to separate proteins.
ANSWER: SDS PAGES-D-S page [or SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; prompt on PAGE or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis] (First clue is Laemmli’s original SDS PAGE paper, second clue is CTAB PAGE)
<RH, Biology>
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Bensonfan23 »

8. A film from this decade includes a scene in which two strangers fight a duel in a gymnasium, but instead of showing the outcome, the camera pulls out of the building to focus on snow falling on the roof. In that film, a character is captured while relaxing in a Turkish bath after a training exercise starts early, and protests that “war starts at midnight!” A film from this decade was shot entirely on a set, but nonetheless culminates in a scene in which (*) Ruth falls off a cliff while attacking Sister ClodaghKLOH-duh, who has just rung the bell calling her fellow nuns to prayer. At the end of a film from this decade, Julian removes the title articles of clothing from the dying ballerina Vicky Page. For 10 points, name this decade in which Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger directed a string of acclaimed Technicolor films, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, and The Red Shoes.

ANSWER: 1940s
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Ah, okay, they were all Powell and Pressburger. It's a good tossup in the sense that the clues are very good (I know nothing about Colonel Blimp, but those clues are famous according to Internet reviews, and I completely whiffed on the good description of Black Narcissus). I'm not sure if I would have chosen that answerline as the way to write that tossup (at least for me, there's nothing that identifies these films as distinctly 1940's films), but I guess you can't also do a tossup on "Powell and Pressburger" too...maybe a tossup on the U.K. film industry would have been better? I don't know.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

CMST Packet 1 wrote: ANSWER: swing jazz [prompt on big band jazz]
Was that prompt there during the tournament? I buzzed in with "big band" and was negged.
CMST Packet 11 wrote: ANSWER: SDS PAGES-D-S page [or SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; prompt on PAGE or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis] (First clue is Laemmli’s original SDS PAGE paper, second clue is CTAB PAGE)
<RH, Biology>
I was not prompted here for my answer of "gel electrophoresis," either.

Tossup on photons?
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

Victor Prieto wrote:
CMST Packet 1 wrote: ANSWER: swing jazz [prompt on big band jazz]
Was that prompt there during the tournament? I buzzed in with "big band" and was negged.
It was. This was probably a case of moderator error.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Andruwxnsa »

Tossup on photons?
CMST Packet 8 wrote:2. The first order rate constant for reactions involving these species is called the j-value. Addition of these species can be modeled by the bicycle-pedal and hula-twist mechanisms. Either an alkene and enol or substituted cyclobutanol can be formed after the addition of these species causes the removal of a gamma hydrogen in the Yang reaction. These species catalyze the non-Lewis acid mediated variant of the Fries rearrangement. The cleavage of carbonyls in Type I and II (*) Norrish reactions is catalyzed by these species. The requirement of these species for some reactions is outlined by the Stark-Einstein and Grotthus-Draper laws. The ratio of the number of reacted molecules to the number of these species is the quantum yield. These species can excite a molecule from a singlet to triplet state. These species catalyze abstraction and homolytic cleavage, since the absorption of these species can create free radicals. For 10 points, name these species that are absorbed and subsequently released during fluorescence and are represented by a h-nu over a reaction arrow.
ANSWER: photons [prompt on light, UV, radiation, or photochemistry or word forms]
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

ErikC wrote:I was tempted to buzz on the first line because so many questions on "this government" are on Weimar.
While I do agree that using "this government" does severely limit the answer space (maybe even down to 4-5 answers), do you have any evidence to back this up? Before writing it, I did a little searching to see if this had been done before and didn't find anything. There have certainly been tossups on Germany with this focus, however.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Bosa of York »

Could I see the tossups on doxa, partition coefficient, and the Isenheim Altarpiece, as well as the bonus about Nagarjuna?
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

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Tornrak wrote:Could I see the tossups on doxa, partition coefficient, and the Isenheim Altarpiece, as well as the bonus about Nagarjuna?
A type of “voluntarism” whose name derives from this Greek word was considered conceptually impossible by Bernard Williams. Aristotle added the prefix en- to this word to refer to a more stable version of this concept applied to groups instead of individuals. The Septuagint renders the Hebrew word kavod, meaning “glory,” as this Greek word. It’s not techne, but the distinction between episteme and this term is important to Plato’s epistemology. In On Nature, Parmenides distinguished between two “ways,” one of which is named after the word (*) aletheia and the other of which is named after this word. A type of logic which treats belief as a modal operator has a name consisting of this word plus the letters “S-T-I-C.” For 10 points, name this four-letter Greek word for “opinion” or “belief,” from which English words beginning with the prefixes “ortho” and “hetero” derive.
ANSWER: doxa [accept doxastic; accept dokein]
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The inverse of this quantity is multiplied by the ratio of solvent to feed rate to obtain a quantity symbolized by either E or S. The log of that quantity appears in the denominator of Kremser’s equation, which is used to calculate the number of theoretical plates required for stripping processes. In drug discovery, the difference between the log of this quantity and the log of the IC50 must be large for a compound to have high lipophilic efficiency. This quantity is constant at a given temperature according to Nernst’s Law. This quantity is equal to “V1 times one minus q divided by V2 times q.” The constant value of this quantity explains why doing multiple (*) extractions is more efficient than one large extraction. The environmental safety of organic compounds is often quantified using the octanol-water type of this quantity. For 10 points, name this quantity, also called the distribution coefficient, which is defined as the ratio of the concentration of a compound in two immiscible phases.
ANSWER: partition coefficient [or distribution coefficient before mention; prompt on equilibrium constant or P or D]
<RD, Chemistry>
George Grosz satirized the central scene of this painting in his drawing “Shut up and do your duty,” while Otto Dix mimicked its composition in his painting The War. In this painting, the infant Christ plays with a necklace in an outdoor scene next to a scene under a Gothic tabernacle in which a dark, sickly angel awkwardly plays a viola da gamba. Martin Schongauer’s work surrounds this painting at the Unterlinden museum. This altarpiece’s wings meet at Christ’s knees in the predella and right shoulder in its main scene, possibly in reference to (*) amputation. It features wooden sculptures by Nikolaus Hagenauer. An orange ball of light appears behind and blends with a pale Christ above sleeping soldiers in this altarpiece’s Resurrection, which is next to a Nativity and angelic concert. An inscription reading “He must increase, but I must decrease” next to John the Baptist appears near its central dark crucifixion. Depictions of demons and St. Anthony reflects its commission by an Antonine monastery treating ergotism. For 10 points, name this altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald.
ANSWER: Isenheim Altarpiece
<AK, Painting/Sculpture>
This concept in Buddhist logic asserts that the four possible forms of a proposition P are [read slowly] “P,” “not P,” “P and not P,” and “neither P nor not P.” For 10 points each:
[10] Name this concept that was used in a negative form in the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: “Neither from itself, nor from another, nor from both, nor without a cause, does anything, anywhere, ever, arise.”
ANSWER: catuṣkoṭi (“chah-toosh-KOH-tee”) [or chatushkoti; accept tetralemma; accept fourfold negation]
[10] The aforementioned Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way was authored by this Indian Buddhist philosopher, who founded the Madhyamaka, or “middle way” school of Buddhism.
ANSWER: Nagarjuna
[10] The Madhyamaka school is considered to be part of this branch of Buddhism, which emphasizes the study of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. This “Great Vehicle” branch is often contrasted with Theravada Buddhism.
ANSWER: Mahayana Buddhism
From now on, the editors would like people asking for questions to try to post a short blurb on why they'd like to see a question.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I would like to see the tossup on "anthologies" because I wondered if it was talking about Richard Hakluyt at some point.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

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CMST Packet 4 wrote:11. An essay opposing these works, which distinguishes between “modern” and “modernist” writers, was written by Robert Graves and Laura Riding, and is called “A Pamphlet Against” these works. In a scene from The Merry Wives of Windsor, Abraham Slender looks for a book of riddles and one of these works. W.R. Paton translated one of these works discovered at the Palatine Library, which included a similar work by Maximus Planudes. The name for these works references the title of one of them by (*) Meleager of Gadara. One of these works published in 1557 by Richard Tottel helped popularize them in Britain. Frank Kermode, Lionel Trilling, and Harold Bloom collaborated on one of these works published by Oxford that was abandoned due to the success of one edited by M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt, whose 2012 ninth edition includes passages from global writers like Hanif Kureishi and Zadie Smith. For 10 points, identify these collections of writings by different authors, one of which is named for W. W. Norton.

ANSWER: anthology [or anthologies; accept miscellanies] (The third sentence refers to the Greek Anthology.)
<RK, Misc Literature>
I generally tried to focus more on core anthologies / their influence on literature, so I'm not sure how well he would have fit in (although his work does seem pretty interesting). I'd love to hear any thoughts / feedback people have on some of the Misc. Literature I wrote (especially this, reading, Arnold, Dickens, and the Sedaris and Esquire bonuses).
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by vinteuil »

I thought
aseem.keyal wrote:
George Grosz...Otto Dix...Gothic...Schongauer...Unterlinden...altarpiece
was pretty transparent, esp. within power. Similar with "Dutch stuff...Rubens" for the Prado and "Naples...still lifes" for Spain.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

vinteuil wrote:I thought
aseem.keyal wrote:
George Grosz...Otto Dix...Gothic...Schongauer...Unterlinden...altarpiece
was pretty transparent, esp. within power.
You're totally right, I thought that at this level the answer space would be big enough to prevent this but after looking at stats I was wrong. I'll see what I can do to make this less obvious early on. I got another complaint about the Spain tossup as well, so I'll cut the word Naples and find another way to describe it. Regarding Prado, that tossup got 2 powers across the NYU, Maryland, and Minnesota mirrors, so I might leave it as is.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I misheard Tottel for Hakluyt; that question is fine anyway.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by The Story of a Head That Fell Off »

I was half asleep so I played like shit all day, but in my mind a lot of the answerlines were strangely tricky - there is a lot of opportunities to neg, especially in art. The tossups on The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living and Saint-Remy stood out as neg bait. It was pretty obvious it was talking about van Gogh in the Saint-Remy tossup, but I reckon I'm not the only person that negged it with Arles or some other point of life in van Gogh's personal history. Yale, who swept the NYU site, did not convert Saint-Remy and I reckon it would have a low conversion because people either (a) just plain didn't know it or (b) is familiar enough with van Gogh's personal history, but chose the wrong time point because a lot of the descriptions of "leaving this place" or "after this place". I personally though Saint-Remy was too obscure and chose Arles because it has more interesting history with Gaugin and is much more well-known (that was just bad gamesense) and probably should have stayed away from buzzing until they dropped more names.

For the Physical Impossibility etc TU, halfway through it was clear it was what it was referring to, but I stayed away from buzzing because I wasn't sure if I remembered the name of the piece completely correctly and just got negged out of buzzing entirely. Maybe if there was a "description acceptable" in the front, people would be more open with buzzing with "Damien Hirst's shark" or something similar, but requiring the whole very long name might have lead to some bad negs or more hesitant buzzes.

Also negged swing with big band, but that's because I forgot big band was a subgenre for swing (I thought they were considered separate genres).

Really loved the type 1 error/significance level TU, stats really needs to come up more.

Can I see the TU on flowers in Chinese lit? I thought I heard something on the first line like "this noun is in the title" when talking about Flowers in the Mirror, which, as you notice, has two nouns in the title.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by rahulkeyal »

Here's the "flowers" tossup. It does look like the question used "these objects" throughout the tossup, so assuming there weren't any moderator hiccups, you should have been able to choose between the two.
CMST Packet 4 wrote:2. These objects are referred to in the original title of a novel in which a man visits the Hall of Beauties and spends all his money in pursuit of the courtesan Jewel. The incarnated spirits of these objects appear in a novel about a journey to lands like the Country of the Intestineless People and the Country of the Sexless People. A man whose nickname derives from the tattoos of these objects that cover his upper body gains fame for uprooting a willow tree. A fantasy novel by (*) Li Ruzhenroo-jun is named for these objects “in the mirror.” In an oft-reenacted scene, a woman buries some of these objects, weeping at their loss and composing an elegiac poem in their honor. Along with fruit, these objects name the mountain home to the magic stone from which Sun Wukong is born. In Dream of the Red Chamber, Lin Daiyu is a reincarnation of one of these objects, just as Jia Baoyu is the reincarnation of a stone. For 10 points, the Water Margin character Pan Jinlian, whose name means “Golden Lotus,” is named after what type of object?
ANSWER: flowers [or hua; prompt on plants]
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by CPiGuy »

Can I see the tossups on Taiwan and P?

Some comments on specific questions:

The tossup on the oil industry felt pretty transparent, especially the clue about "Porcupine Hill" -- gee, what industry involves large, narrow objects sticking out of the ground and clustered together?

Loved the question on fonts, especially since it contained transit content.

I thought the clue in the Triassic tossup about carbon content changing after the Great Dying was more well-known, but the advanced stats from the NYU site don't seem to bear that out, so maybe not.

The 20th Maine/Gettysburg/sharpshooters bonus has two easy parts, and I'm pretty sure this is still true for people not from Maine.

this isn't really a comment on the tournament, but after tragically negging the Jesuits with Opus Dei at ACF Fall 2016, much to Kenji's chagrin, I'm very happy to be able to buzz with that answerline correctly.

Loved the tossup on "moving the capital of Brazil to Brasilia".

The tossup on "discrete" really needs to accept "totally disconnected" on the topology clues or at least prompt on it. I'm pretty sure that some of those clues are actually true of all totally disconnected spaces, and you're asking for a property held by all of these topological spaces. The discrete topology is totally disconnected.

The dinoflagellates tossup should prompt both on plankton and algae, since they are both of those things.

The tossup on Saint-Remy was confusing because it said "the artist"; one of my teammates thought it required both the artist and the place. Perhaps just make it a tossup on "Van Gogh in Saint-Remy" or replace "the artist" with "a certain artist"?

I didn't like the tossup on "epsilon-delta definitions", not least because I was worried it would be something specific like "the epsilon-delta definition of [limit/derivative/continuity]". I knew a lot of the clues but didn't buzz. I would have used the pronoun "this proof technique" or "this type of statement", because an epsilon-delta definition isn't really a "statement" in the sense of the word that it's usually used, that is, a specific mathematical result.

That's all I've got -- thanks again for a great tournament!
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by The Story of a Head That Fell Off »

rahulkeyal wrote:Here's the "flowers" tossup. It does look like the question used "these objects" throughout the tossup, so assuming there weren't any moderator hiccups, you should have been able to choose between the two.
CMST Packet 4 wrote:2. These objects are referred to in the original title of a novel in which a man visits the Hall of Beauties and spends all his money in pursuit of the courtesan Jewel. The incarnated spirits of these objects appear in a novel about a journey to lands like the Country of the Intestineless People and the Country of the Sexless People. A man whose nickname derives from the tattoos of these objects that cover his upper body gains fame for uprooting a willow tree. A fantasy novel by (*) Li Ruzhenroo-jun is named for these objects “in the mirror.” In an oft-reenacted scene, a woman buries some of these objects, weeping at their loss and composing an elegiac poem in their honor. Along with fruit, these objects name the mountain home to the magic stone from which Sun Wukong is born. In Dream of the Red Chamber, Lin Daiyu is a reincarnation of one of these objects, just as Jia Baoyu is the reincarnation of a stone. For 10 points, the Water Margin character Pan Jinlian, whose name means “Golden Lotus,” is named after what type of object?
ANSWER: flowers [or hua; prompt on plants]
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Ah, was probably too tired to parse everything. The TU is perfectly fine, didn't neg it, and people that are paying attention definitely would choose the right noun.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

geremy wrote:It was pretty obvious it was talking about van Gogh in the Saint-Remy tossup, but I reckon I'm not the only person that negged it with Arles or some other point of life in van Gogh's personal history. Yale, who swept the NYU site, did not convert Saint-Remy and I reckon it would have a low conversion because people either (a) just plain didn't know it or (b) is familiar enough with van Gogh's personal history, but chose the wrong time point because a lot of the descriptions of "leaving this place" or "after this place". I personally though Saint-Remy was too obscure and chose Arles because it has more interesting history with Gaugin and is much more well-known (that was just bad gamesense) and probably should have stayed away from buzzing until they dropped more names.
During his time at this location, the artist recreated a Delacroix (“duh-lah-KRAH”) lithograph depicting a Pietà (“pee-ay-TAH”) he had accidentally stained. Towards the end of his time here, the artist painted a series of thatched cottages from memory that he titled “reminiscences of the north.” The artist returned to a muted palette for a painting set here in which a group of trees frame the entrance to a quarry. While at this location, the artist revisited an earlier drawing of a man sitting by a fireplace with his head in his hands titled Worn Out for a painting titled At Eternity’s Gate. During his time here, the artist reproduced several depictions of workers in (*) wheatfields by Millet (“mee-YAY”). After leaving this location, the artist painted Charles Daubigny’s (“sharl doh-bean-YEEZ”) garden at his final residence of Auvers-sur-Oise (“oh-vair-soor-WAHZ”). A garden here inspired an 1889 depiction of Irises, while the view through an iron-barred window led to a painting with a cypress tree to the left of a swirling night sky. For 10 points, name this French commune that van Gogh moved to after his time in Arles, home to the Saint-Paul asylum where he painted Starry Night.
ANSWER: Saint-Rémy (“san-ray-MEE”)-de-Provence [accept the asylum or hospital where van Gogh stayed before “asylum” is read; accept Saint-Paul asylum/hospital or Saint-Paul-de-Mausole]
The reason I wrote this question is that I've seen the Arles tossup done before, and I wanted to write on something new. This was one of the hardest Painting/Sculpture tossups for this set, but I felt it was worth including because it was an important and distinctive phase of Van Gogh's career in which he primarily reinterpreted previous works by himself and other artists due to several limitations. I personally don't think the tossup is confusing in its wording and does make a case for its importance. Regarding people negging this tossup with Arles, I think that there's not really a way to dissuade players from buzzing in with that, and I also think it's okay to neg players who mentally say "It's Van Gogh, so it's gotta be Arles". As a side note, quite possibly the most rewarding buzz a player got on one of my questions was Matt Bollinger buzzing on the leadin to this tossup.
geremy wrote:For the Physical Impossibility etc TU, halfway through it was clear it was what it was referring to, but I stayed away from buzzing because I wasn't sure if I remembered the name of the piece completely correctly and just got negged out of buzzing entirely. Maybe if there was a "description acceptable" in the front, people would be more open with buzzing with "Damien Hirst's shark" or something similar, but requiring the whole very long name might have lead to some bad negs or more hesitant buzzes.
This artwork was displayed at the Met from 2007 to 2010 alongside two American paintings and Francis Bacon’s Head I (“one”). The “Re-Object” exhibit paired this artwork with giant paintings by its artist like Iodomethane-13c. Don Thompson’s book on the economics of the art world is titled in reference to this work. In one exhibit, this piece was installed in front of a giant portrait made of children’s handprints titled Myra by Marcus Harvey. Its artist made variations on this piece titled The Kingdom and Beautiful Inside My Head Forever. This artwork is an entry in its artist’s Natural History series, which also includes Mother and Child (Divided). After it was sold to (*) Steven Cohen in 2004, part of this piece was replaced due to deterioration. An object shown in the window of an electrical supplies shop was exhibited at the Stuckism International Gallery to criticize this artwork, which was included in Charles Saatchi’s Sensation exhibit. For 10 points, A Dead Shark Isn’t Art parodies what Damien Hirst work consisting of a shark preserved in formaldehyde?
ANSWER: The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
Regarding this question, I was apprehensive for using it as Will wrote it for this reason, but I included it because I think a couple questions requiring players to remember a rather long title are okay and we needed more questions on specific pieces of art. As for transparency, I think if the description halfway through this tossup makes you think "this is a Hirst piece", then you have a fair amount of knowledge of Hirst's career in my opinion.
Last edited by aseem.keyal on Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by The Stately Rhododendron »

geremy wrote: For the Physical Impossibility etc TU, halfway through it was clear it was what it was referring to, but I stayed away from buzzing because I wasn't sure if I remembered the name of the piece completely correctly and just got negged out of buzzing entirely. Maybe if there was a "description acceptable" in the front, people would be more open with buzzing with "Damien Hirst's shark" or something similar, but requiring the whole very long name might have lead to some bad negs or more hesitant buzzes.
I had exactly this problem. It was an excellent question in all other respects, I just wished that "Damien Hirst's :capybara:ing Shark" had been acceptable!
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

The Stately Rhododendron wrote:
geremy wrote: For the Physical Impossibility etc TU, halfway through it was clear it was what it was referring to, but I stayed away from buzzing because I wasn't sure if I remembered the name of the piece completely correctly and just got negged out of buzzing entirely. Maybe if there was a "description acceptable" in the front, people would be more open with buzzing with "Damien Hirst's shark" or something similar, but requiring the whole very long name might have lead to some bad negs or more hesitant buzzes.
I had exactly this problem. It was an excellent question in all other respects, I just wished that "Damien Hirst's :capybara:ing Shark" had been acceptable!
Hmm based on the number of these complaints the question is getting, I might change the answer to "shark" or something similar for future mirrors.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Mnemosyne »

Here are a few issues I encountered that probably aren't a huge deal.

For the volva tossup, I buzzed in with "female giant" when the clues were describing Hyndla. In the books in which I've read the story, she's just referred to as a giantess (even though I see now wikipedia just says volva). I feel like that should be prompted or the answer of giantess excluded somehow.

On the St Remy question, I said Auvers on the Daubigny's Garden clue before it was mentioned. I guess this is my fault for not being able to fully parse the question, but I think maybe the sentence could be reworked so that doesn't happen.

Could someone post the Betrayal tossup? I didn't check all the advanced stats, but it seemed really hard to power. I've read that recently and thought I knew it pretty well, and I was shocked after it felt like half a tossup went by and I realized it was on something I had read.


The only thing that in this set that actually bothered me is the Kate from She Stoops to Conquer tossup. This is more of a complaint to all of QB, but I hate when people use characters as answer lines unless the characters are truly important/unique literary characters. In general, I think people who read books remember "evocative" plot points, while people who study clues from flashcards remember character names. I don't see any reason I should have the name "Kate" memorized from that play. I knew every clue in that tossup after the first sentence and the only notable name I could think of from that play is Charles Marlow. I would have done better on the tossup if I put the plot summary on a flashcard instead of reading the play. (I understand other people probably converted this fine, but I still don't agree with making questions artificially harder for no reason - I don't see why that was better than a She Stoops to Conquer tossup)
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

My team, which contains several decent to good American history players, only 10'ed that Maine Civil War bonus. It's not the hardest bonus in the world, but it also definitely does not have two easy parts (unless we really misheard something in the sharpshooters part).
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by vinteuil »

CPiGuy wrote: The 20th Maine/Gettysburg/sharpshooters bonus has two easy parts, and I'm pretty sure this is still true for people not from Maine.
it's not
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by ErikC »

aseem.keyal wrote:
ErikC wrote:I was tempted to buzz on the first line because so many questions on "this government" are on Weimar.
While I do agree that using "this government" does severely limit the answer space (maybe even down to 4-5 answers), do you have any evidence to back this up? Before writing it, I did a little searching to see if this had been done before and didn't find anything. There have certainly been tossups on Germany with this focus, however.
A quick scan of Quintrest does show some variation in the use of "this government", but it's usually reserved for French, German, and Japanese history (which is fairly easy to rule out early on in the question). The use of a German name makes it easier to further narrow this down.

Upon reflection some of the jumps you could make require some knowledge already, so perhaps it is not so bad. But I'm not a fan of using "this ___" statements that narrow things a bit too much.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by women, fire and dangerous things »

Yeah, I wrote on the 1940s because I couldn't write a tossup on "Powell and Pressburger," for obvious reasons. I may have overestimated how well it would play since I tend to think of movies alongside their years of release, but maybe most people simply don't do that.

I'd also be interested to hear how the Vincente Minnelli tossup played - I think it's a fine answerline at this level given how extremely important Minnelli is, but it's also one of those cases where many players will probably be much more familiar with the films themselves than who directed them.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by women, fire and dangerous things »

I'd also like to apologize for a clue in the egocentrism tossup that wasn't locked down enough. Though Piaget designed the three mountains task to test for egocentrism, you could accurately say "theory of mind" on that clue instead (which at least a couple players did).
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Can I see the Minnelli tossup? Like the 1940's one, I thought it was good but again, hard, although I was again blanking on some pretty notable stuff. The Bad and the Beautiful clue was kind of a curveball because it's so atypical from his other famous films (musicals)--this obviously isn't a problem (it's a notable film) but it further added to the hard nature of the tossup I think.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by vinteuil »

How did other people feel about the epsilon-delta tossup? I knew most of the clues in the second half but was utterly thrown off by "this statement" (which I guess I took to mean "this result"). Is there any pronoun that's even more neutral?
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by women, fire and dangerous things »

CMST wrote:This director placed a car on a specially-designed turntable to film a scene in which Georgia Lorrison drives recklessly through a torrential rainstorm while sobbing. A film by this director uses non-diegetic (“non-die-uh-JET-ick”) shots of a ghostly ship, a skull in the desert, and an egg to imply that a play has flopped. A film by this director includes a shot in which a girl dancing with her grandfather passes behind a Christmas tree and emerges from the other side dancing with her lover, John. In a film by this director of (*) The Bad and the Beautiful, Adam has a daydream in which he is the soloist, the conductor, all of the members of the orchestra, and an enthusiastic audience member during a performance of a piano concerto. That film climaxes with a lavish seventeen-minute ballet sequence featuring Leslie Caron (“kah-ROHN”) and Gene Kelly, set to the music of George Gershwin. For 10 points, name this husband of Judy Garland who directed musicals like The Band Wagon, Meet Me in St. Louis, and An American in Paris.
ANSWER: Vincente Minnelli
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Sam »

vinteuil wrote:How did other people feel about the epsilon-delta tossup? I knew most of the clues in the second half but was utterly thrown off by "this statement" (which I guess I took to mean "this result"). Is there any pronoun that's even more neutral?
Maybe "this method" or "this technique?"
women, fire and dangerous things wrote: I'd also be interested to hear how the Vincente Minnelli tossup played - I think it's a fine answerline at this level given how extremely important Minnelli is, but it's also one of those cases where many players will probably be much more familiar with the films themselves than who directed them.
I recognized clues from The Bandwagon and An American in Paris but did not know Minnelli directed them. I don't know if there's a better way of asking that question, though.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Man, that Minnelli tossup is brutal in my opinion. I like all of the clues, but a lot of them are hard...I know in retrospect I guess what that Band Wagon and Meet Me in St. Louis clues are about (although those are nowhere close to the most famous aspects of those films--granted, the most famous scenes are all musical, which I suppose the question was trying to hide), but it was hard at game speed without any other context to both place the film AND think of the director. I feel like the tossup was overestimating people's knowledge of both those films and the fact that they were directed by Minnelli.

I should note that I think both this question and the 1940's one were very good questions on underexplored areas of film, just very hard. I don't consider myself a chump when it comes to these types of movies, but looking at the tossups, it was a little jarring to see I wasn't sure what was going on until just before the giveaway (and at least according to the stats at our site, I was the first person to buzz too). Just a FYI for the future, I guess.

Moving away from film, I want to praise the religion, particularly the monotheistic religion, was being good. In particular, feel like this tournament did a nice job of not turning Christianity into Bible Bowl or Heresy Bowl but still realizing that reading and studying the Bible/being part of Christian culture is a thing that should be rewarded (Moab, the excellent bonus on covenants, the interesting bonus on televangelists).
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by rahulkeyal »

Mnemosyne wrote: The only thing that in this set that actually bothered me is the Kate from She Stoops to Conquer tossup. This is more of a complaint to all of QB, but I hate when people use characters as answer lines unless the characters are truly important/unique literary characters. In general, I think people who read books remember "evocative" plot points, while people who study clues from flashcards remember character names. I don't see any reason I should have the name "Kate" memorized from that play. I knew every clue in that tossup after the first sentence and the only notable name I could think of from that play is Charles Marlow. I would have done better on the tossup if I put the plot summary on a flashcard instead of reading the play. (I understand other people probably converted this fine, but I still don't agree with making questions artificially harder for no reason - I don't see why that was better than a She Stoops to Conquer tossup)
I wrote that question. Here's the question for reference.
CMST Packet 11 wrote:7. When a suitor requests a taste of the “nectar of [this character’s] lips,” she responds that there are no French wines around. This character asks her maid if her dress makes her look like Cherry from The Beaux’ Stratagem. This woman is concerned by a man’s timidity in an “interview” during which she is forced to complete his sentences for him, but is later impressed when he describes being nicknamed “Rattle” at the Ladies’ Club. As her father and Sir (*) Charles watch from behind a screen, this character’s suitor remarks on her “refined simplicity” and confirms their love. This character is referred to in the title of a play that includes a subplot about a love triangle between Hastings, Constance Neville, and this character’s step-brother, who calls her a “talkative maypole” while at the Three Pigeons Inn. After Marlow sees this character in plain clothes, she pretends to be a barmaid to judge his personality. For 10 points, name this character who “stoops to conquer” in an Oliver Goldsmith play.
ANSWER: Kate Hardcastle [accept either underlined portion]
<RK, Drama>
I'm sorry to hear that this was the case, and do empathize with your point that often, knowing characters' names isn't exactly rewarding the right type of knowledge for those who have engaged with a text. The general inspiration for this tossup was trying to approach something that I thought had been asked about a fair bit (She Stoops to Conquer) with a new approach that would allow to pick out salient / under-asked points from the play that, as you say yourself, people generally remember, but from a different context. I'm curious to hear if people think that the issue of remembering names is moreso true with something like drama (where it's certainly possible to all but ignore names while reading a play or watching a performance), or more of a widespread issue across genres. For example, were tossups on characters like Augie March or Konstantin Levin less problematic than this or Martha?
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Amizda Calyx »

I really liked the first three bio bonuses in this set, although the dynamin one didn't seem to have an actual pronoun? It was clear what it intended to ask about anyway though.

Can I see the tossup on Ras? I can't remember if there was something in the first line that distinguished the Ras pathway from the other pathways whose defects lead to a Vul phenotype.

SOD is a pretty difficult answerline that I definitely should have gotten much earlier considering I work closely with four of the five C. elegans SODs. I don't remember any of the clues apart from the ALS one though, so I'd like to see it.

I'm still not sure how I feel about referring to viruses as "organisms", although at this level I think just saying "virus" would probably be okay.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

Amizda Calyx wrote:I really liked the first three bio bonuses in this set, although the dynamin one didn't seem to have an actual pronoun? It was clear what it intended to ask about anyway though.

Can I see the tossup on Ras? I can't remember if there was something in the first line that distinguished the Ras pathway from the other pathways whose defects lead to a Vul phenotype.

SOD is a pretty difficult answerline that I definitely should have gotten much earlier considering I work closely with four of the five C. elegans SODs. I don't remember any of the clues apart from the ALS one though, so I'd like to see it.

I'm still not sure how I feel about referring to viruses as "organisms", although at this level I think just saying "virus" would probably be okay.
Defects in a pathway dependent on this protein may result in the vulva-less “bag of worms” phenotype in C. elegans. Murakoshi et al developed a single molecule variant of FRET (“fret”) utilizing a YFP-tagged line of KB cells to observe the activation of signaling complexes containing this protein. The scaffold protein KSR is named for its suppression of this protein. This protein is rendered constitutively active in its G12V mutation, and different isoforms of this protein are associated with the (*) Harvey and Kirstin types of a certain disease. Lisch nodules in the iris and “café au lait” (“kah-FAY oh LAY”) spots are symptoms of a disease caused by the absence of a regulator of this protein that functions through the action of an arginine-finger motif. The activation of this protein is mediated by GAP and GEF proteins, and this activator of the MAP (“map”) kinase cascade is mutated in nearly all cases of pancreatic cancer. For 10 points, name this G-protein and oncogene named for its discovery in rat sarcomas.
ANSWER: Ras [accept H-ras or K-ras or N-ras] (The diseases mentioned are Harvey/Kirstin sarcoma and neurofibromatosis-1, respectively.)
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The activity of this protein is mimicked by a penta-aza-macrocyclic compound known as M40401 and a cisplatin nephrotoxicity treatment known as TEMPOL (“tempo-L”). A nutritional supplement combines melon extract, which contains high amounts of this protein, with gliadin, which complexes with this protein to protect it from digestive enzymes. The CCS gene encodes a chaperone metalloprotein that provides a metal for the active site of an isoform of this enzyme. The A4V and G93A mutations to a gene encoding for this enzyme are linked to familial ALS. The oxidation of a (*) ubiquinone radical between complexes I and III in the ETC produces this enzyme’s substrate, which in eukaryotes uses a copper and zinc active site to perform a disproportionation reaction on a diatomic radical. For 10 points, name this enzyme, an antioxidant that produces either hydrogen peroxide or diatomic oxygen from its namesake oxygen radical.
ANSWER: superoxide dismutase [or SOD; or PC-SOD; or SOD-mimetic agents; or glisodin; or CuZnSOD; or anything with SOD in it really]
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Yeah, the SOD tossup was probably too hard for this set. Any feedback on clue selection or suggestions for clue replacement is welcome.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by csheep »

rahulkeyal wrote:
Mnemosyne wrote: The only thing that in this set that actually bothered me is the Kate from She Stoops to Conquer tossup. This is more of a complaint to all of QB, but I hate when people use characters as answer lines unless the characters are truly important/unique literary characters. In general, I think people who read books remember "evocative" plot points, while people who study clues from flashcards remember character names. I don't see any reason I should have the name "Kate" memorized from that play. I knew every clue in that tossup after the first sentence and the only notable name I could think of from that play is Charles Marlow. I would have done better on the tossup if I put the plot summary on a flashcard instead of reading the play. (I understand other people probably converted this fine, but I still don't agree with making questions artificially harder for no reason - I don't see why that was better than a She Stoops to Conquer tossup)
I wrote that question. Here's the question for reference.
CMST Packet 11 wrote:7. When a suitor requests a taste of the “nectar of [this character’s] lips,” she responds that there are no French wines around. This character asks her maid if her dress makes her look like Cherry from The Beaux’ Stratagem. This woman is concerned by a man’s timidity in an “interview” during which she is forced to complete his sentences for him, but is later impressed when he describes being nicknamed “Rattle” at the Ladies’ Club. As her father and Sir (*) Charles watch from behind a screen, this character’s suitor remarks on her “refined simplicity” and confirms their love. This character is referred to in the title of a play that includes a subplot about a love triangle between Hastings, Constance Neville, and this character’s step-brother, who calls her a “talkative maypole” while at the Three Pigeons Inn. After Marlow sees this character in plain clothes, she pretends to be a barmaid to judge his personality. For 10 points, name this character who “stoops to conquer” in an Oliver Goldsmith play.
ANSWER: Kate Hardcastle [accept either underlined portion]
<RK, Drama>
I'm sorry to hear that this was the case, and do empathize with your point that often, knowing characters' names isn't exactly rewarding the right type of knowledge for those who have engaged with a text. The general inspiration for this tossup was trying to approach something that I thought had been asked about a fair bit (She Stoops to Conquer) with a new approach that would allow to pick out salient / under-asked points from the play that, as you say yourself, people generally remember, but from a different context. I'm curious to hear if people think that the issue of remembering names is moreso true with something like drama (where it's certainly possible to all but ignore names while reading a play or watching a performance), or more of a widespread issue across genres. For example, were tossups on characters like Augie March or Konstantin Levin less problematic than this or Martha?
I am in 100% agreement with the general principle of Nick's post (i.e., oftentimes, people who read a book don't remember character names), but I did not find any of the examples - Kate, Martha, Levin - to be particularly problematic. I thought they were all reasonable names to ask for and did not feel they were oppressively difficult to recall. Nick obviously had a different experience with Kate. I've never read Augie March so I don't know about that.

Similarly, I thought the name of the shark is distinct and memorable enough to be a reasonable answerline. There is some value in quiz bowl asking for the precise name of the thing instead of just describing the thing.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

CMST Packet 8 wrote:2. The first order rate constant for reactions involving these species is called the j-value. Addition of these species can be modeled by the bicycle-pedal and hula-twist mechanisms. Either an alkene and enol or substituted cyclobutanol can be formed after the addition of these species causes the removal of a gamma hydrogen in the Yang reaction. These species catalyze the non-Lewis acid mediated variant of the Fries rearrangement. The cleavage of carbonyls in Type I and II (*) Norrish reactions is catalyzed by these species. The requirement of these species for some reactions is outlined by the Stark-Einstein and Grotthus-Draper laws. The ratio of the number of reacted molecules to the number of these species is the quantum yield. These species can excite a molecule from a singlet to triplet state. These species catalyze abstraction and homolytic cleavage, since the absorption of these species can create free radicals. For 10 points, name these species that are absorbed and subsequently released during fluorescence and are represented by a h-nu over a reaction arrow.
ANSWER: photons [prompt on light, UV, radiation, or photochemistry or word forms]
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The pronoun "species" in the context of this question is misleading. In chemistry, the word "species" refers to a molecule or ion of some sort - I've never heard it used to describe a photon. The photo-Fries rearrangement and the Norrish reactions (which is where I buzzed) are both reactions carried out via radical mechanisms. I actually didn't know that they were radical mechanisms, but I knew they were activated by light, and since the choice of pronoun was "species," I figured that meant it was a radical created by light. According to the stats though, this apparently didn't trip anybody else up, which is further confusing the hell out of me.

I asked to see the tossups on thin films, ion trapping, and fathers/priests because all three would have been the subject of protests in matches my team had. The first I just messed up. The second I negged with cooling because that is also a process that happens in a magneto-optical trap, but reading over it again, the wording of that clue is specific to "trapping." This tossup was negged in all six rooms at NYU, though. Harvard buzzed in late on the priest tossup with "abbot," but it didn't affect the course of the game so the protest was thrown out.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by ryanrosenberg »

Could the tossup on "Pavia" be posted? It was negged in almost every room it was read. I don't know much about the topic, but I'd be interested in hearing from people who do.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

Granny Soberer wrote:Could the tossup on "Pavia" be posted? It was negged in almost every room it was read. I don't know much about the topic, but I'd be interested in hearing from people who do.
This city’s taverns and brothels were celebrated by an anonymous wandering writer called the Archpoet, who wrote that “not a road but leads to venery (“VEH-nuh-ree”)” in this city. A treaty signed in this city in 1329 split the possessions of the Wittelsbach (“VIT-uls-bahk”) dynasty between the sons and nephews of Louis IV. Boethius (“boh-EE-thee-us”) was executed in this city and was buried in its cathedral, which also contains the remains of Saint Augustine of Hippo. Romulus Augustulus officially abdicated the throne after Odoacer (“oh-doh-AY-sur”) laid siege to this city. Charlemagne’s siege of this city ended with the overthrow of (*) Desiderius. A king captured at a battle here wrote to his mother Louise of Savoy “all is lost save honor” and was forced to cede massive amounts of land in the Treaty of Madrid. For 10 points, name this capital of the Lombard Kingdom, which was also the site of a 1525 victory of Charles V over Francis I.
ANSWER: Pavia [accept Treaty of Pavia; accept Battle of Pavia; accept Ticinum]
<BL, European History>
I'm not a history person, so I can't comment on the validity of this, but I heard that many people might have negged this tossup with Ravenna.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

Granny Soberer wrote:Could the tossup on "Pavia" be posted? It was negged in almost every room it was read. I don't know much about the topic, but I'd be interested in hearing from people who do.
I collected this info for the 17 rooms at NYU, UMN, and UMD:

Pavia - 16
egocentrism - 15
Joachim Murat - 12
Alawites or Alawis - 11
dinoflagellates or armored dinoflagellates - 11
Lakshman or Lakshmana - 11
paramagnetism - 9
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

Mnemosyne wrote: For the volva tossup, I buzzed in with "female giant" when the clues were describing Hyndla. ... I feel like that should be prompted or the answer of giantess excluded somehow.

On the St Remy question, I said Auvers on the Daubigny's Garden clue before it was mentioned. I guess this is my fault for not being able to fully parse the question, but I think maybe the sentence could be reworked so that doesn't happen.

Could someone post the Betrayal tossup? I didn't check all the advanced stats, but it seemed really hard to power. I've read that recently and thought I knew it pretty well, and I was shocked after it felt like half a tossup went by and I realized it was on something I had read.
One of these figures describes being covered in snow, rain, and dew before a god responds that he knows of the bright benches and gold platforms of heaven. In that poem, that one of these figures thrice ends lines with “I speak under duress; now I will be silent” before describing a god’s son not washing his hands or combing his hair. One of these figures assists in the wooing of Menglod in a poem in the Poetic Edda. A large one of these figures recounts the lineage of Ottar to FreyjaFRAY-uh as they ride on a wolf towards Valhalla. In an episode from the Poetic Edda titled for (*) Baldr’s dreams, Odin rides to Hel in the form of Vegtam and resurrects one of these figures to ask it questions. The first episode of the Poetic Edda is named after these figures, with one telling Odin about the events of Ragnarok. Groa and Hyndla are these figures, which display an unmanliness called ergi, are named for the staff they carried, and practiced sorcery called seidrSAY-thur. For 10 points, name these female prophetesses of Norse mythology.
ANSWER: völvas [or vala; or spákona or spækona; prompt on sorceress; witch; or equivalents]
<AK, Legends>
I had "A large one of these figures" in the question text for this exact reason, but I agree that it's very easy to miss and I'll emphasize it more and add a prompt on "giantess".

Sorry about the phrasing in the Saint-Remy tossup, I said "After leaving this location, the artist painted Charles Daubigny’s garden at his final residence of Auvers-sur-Oise." Do you think adding italics for emphasis would be enough, or is there a way I could word this better?
A character in this play asks a woman “Have you ever been to the Sahara Desert?” after comparing his love for her to a whirlwind. That character in this play claims that the “prince of emptiness, the prince of absence, the prince of desolation” reigns in the “state of catatonia” in a scene that ends with him grasping another character’s arm. A man in this play argues that the absence of his children makes Wessex Grove “not a home.” A character in this play recalls riding a (*) speedboat to read Yeats at Torcello alone, and frequently challenges another man to squash. At this play’s beginning, a character admits that she is having an affair with the never-seen writer Roger Casey during a conversation in a pub in 1977. The handwriting on a letter sent to Venice prompts a publisher to suspect his wife’s infidelity in this play, which ends with a scene at a party where a drunken Jerry declares his love for Robert’s wife Emma. For 10 points, name this Harold Pinter play whose scenes are mostly in reverse chronological order.
ANSWER: Betrayal
<JN, Drama>
This tossup does read a little hard to me too, as I've read the play as well and wouldn't buzz until "Yeats at Torcello."
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by ErikC »

My take on the films questions: perhaps just tossing up one of them would have been better? I'm not sure how you would distinguish but Peeping Tom is becoming pretty famous separately from their collaborations.

Having both film questions (that I heard, I haven't played all the packets) being English language from the same period is a tad odd, but it's such a small amount that I didn't mind.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Andruwxnsa »

Victor Prieto wrote:The pronoun "species" in the context of this question is misleading. In chemistry, the word "species" refers to a molecule or ion of some sort - I've never heard it used to describe a photon. The photo-Fries rearrangement and the Norrish reactions (which is where I buzzed) are both reactions carried out via radical mechanisms. I actually didn't know that they were radical mechanisms, but I knew they were activated by light, and since the choice of pronoun was "species," I figured that meant it was a radical created by light. According to the stats though, this apparently didn't trip anybody else up, which is further confusing the hell out of me.
Yeah, I can see how the pronoun choice for this question could have been confusing. Do you have a recommendation for a better pronoun to use for this tossup?
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

It would necessitate rewriting a bunch of clues and the answerline, but "this variable" or "these reaction conditions" might work better.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by Judson Laipply »

Victor Prieto wrote:It would necessitate rewriting a bunch of clues and the answerline, but "this variable" or "these reaction conditions" might work better.

I hate tossups using “this variable” in bio and reaction chem since that immediately narrows it to an answer space of 3 or 4. “These reaction conditions” might be better but I think that leaves it vulnerable to figuring it out pretty early.

Not sure what the solution is though.
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Re: CMST: Specific question discussion

Post by aseem.keyal »

Aircraft catapult wrote:
Victor Prieto wrote:It would necessitate rewriting a bunch of clues and the answerline, but "this variable" or "these reaction conditions" might work better.

I hate tossups using “this variable” in bio and reaction chem since that immediately narrows it to an answer space of 3 or 4. “These reaction conditions” might be better but I think that leaves it vulnerable to figuring it out pretty early.

Not sure what the solution is though.
With help from Billy Busse, we decided to just accept answers of "free radicals" in the first half or so, and transition to "this reactant" and "this particle" later in the question where that answer is no longer valid.
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