Question Specific Discussion

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Question Specific Discussion

Post by gyre and gimble »

Talk about individual questions here.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Rococo A Go Go »

Can you post the question on evolution?
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by ryanrosenberg »

Could you post the Treaty of Paris question?
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Excelsior (smack) »

Seeing as there is going to be another mirror, I suppose I should point out the following repeats or repeat-like-substances (all packet numbers refer to the order in which they were read at Harvard): Yeats twice in packet 2; Buffalo Bill in packets 1 and 2; I have "Brubeck repeat" written down for packet 3; and "heat repeat" for packet 4.

I felt like there was something amiss about the tossup on "work" in packet 2; if you could post that, that'd be great. Also, the tossup on the word "classical" in packet 11.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

Excelsior (smack) wrote:Seeing as there is going to be another mirror, I suppose I should point out the following repeats or repeat-like-substances (all packet numbers refer to the order in which they were read at Harvard): Yeats twice in packet 2; Buffalo Bill in packets 1 and 2; I have "Brubeck repeat" written down for packet 3; and "heat repeat" for packet 4.
I also have repeats for "Sinai Peninsula" and "Mount Sinai" (although they were different categories, it was enough to give hesitation several people including me), Yeats with the clue "No country for old men" both times, in different packets and the Durand Line was the hard part of a bonus in my packet (Rice) and the hard part of another bonus later in the set.

In the first packet (think it was Caltech), tossup eleven and bonus eleven are both biology. In a later packet, the second tossup was on "Buddha" and the bonus was also religion.

In another later round, on the first tossup, the moderator wanted Toyotomi Hideyoshi's full name after my initial answer of Hideyoshi. I think this was a case of excessive underlining, or it's possible that my moderator misprompted me, I never got a look at the question.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by i never see pigeons in wheeling »

Wasabi wrote:
Excelsior (smack) wrote: In another later round, on the first tossup, the moderator wanted Toyotomi Hideyoshi's full name after my initial answer of Hideyoshi. I think this was a case of excessive underlining, or it's possible that my moderator misprompted me, I never got a look at the question.
I wrote that question and only underlined Toyotomi, as that's his family name. I'm not sure if Stephen changed the underlining in the actual packet.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by i never see pigeons in wheeling »

Wasabi wrote:
Excelsior (smack) wrote: In the first packet (think it was Caltech), tossup eleven and bonus eleven are both biology. In a later packet, the second tossup was on "Buddha" and the bonus was also religion.
Randomization is completely random. Which means a limited number of coincidences w.r.t. matching tossup and bonus categories is likely to happen.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by i never see pigeons in wheeling »

Sulawesi Myzomela wrote:Can you post the question on evolution?
ACF Fall 2013 wrote: 11. Alfred Russell Wallace wrote an essay from Ternate, Indonesia positing this idea. Reverend William McLean

brought a suit opposing the “balanced treatment” that required this idea’s counterpart be given “equal time,” which

was also the subject of the Louisiana case Edwards v. Aguillard. Supporters of this idea brought suit against the

Dover Area School District in 2005 for requiring a statement about “alternatives” to it, and a contentious case about

teaching it involved Clarence Darrow’s cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan. For 10 points, name this

scientific theory about the observed changes in generations of species, scrutinized during the Scopes Monkey Trial.

ANSWER: the theory of evolution by means of natural selection [prompt on “natural selection”; do not accept or

prompt on “intelligent design” or “creationism”]
I wrote this tossup.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by gustavadolf »

I think that the Durand Line came up twice, first in a bonus on the Great Game and then in a tossup on Pakistan.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Red Panda Cub »

Degas came up at least once, and having heard it the first time would help the second time as they both made reference to L'Absinthe. Thebes, Levites, Tancred (though I think these were all different Tancreds) all came up multiple times too, as I recall.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by gyre and gimble »

The repeats have been noted. If there are more, please let me know. However, I'll ask that people refrain from mentioning things like Buffalo Bill, Thebes, and Levites. A bonus part on the e. e. cummings poem that doesn't mention anything about the actual historical figure Buffalo Bill, and another bonus part on the historical figure that mentions nothing about his literary presence, doesn't really count as a repeat. The same goes for the bonus parts on Thebes from history versus Thebes from mythology, or the Levites being briefly mentioned for a clue about Mt. Sinai that didn't overlap with the bonus part on them.

Things like Yeats (damn, that was embarrassing), the Durand Line, and Brubeck are all valid, though.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

List of Fighting Spirit characters wrote:
Wasabi wrote:
Excelsior (smack) wrote: In the first packet (think it was Caltech), tossup eleven and bonus eleven are both biology. In a later packet, the second tossup was on "Buddha" and the bonus was also religion.
Randomization is completely random. Which means a limited number of coincidences w.r.t. matching tossup and bonus categories is likely to happen.
I really hope the set was not completely randomized! I don't really remember anything weird like three literature tossups in a row, but I guess I could have been not paying attention. My point is, every effort should be made to avoid awarding a team strong on a particular category (say, biology or religion) with a bonus on that respective category. I'm pretty sure this isn't unprecedented.

Also, now that I think about feng shui, I did not see a single page break while I was reading. Quite frequently, tossup text went from one page to the next, which made things awkward while in the middle of the question.

These things are more general discussion, but since we were on the topic...
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Rococo A Go Go »

List of Fighting Spirit characters wrote:
Sulawesi Myzomela wrote:Can you post the question on evolution?
ACF Fall 2013 wrote: 11. Alfred Russell Wallace wrote an essay from Ternate, Indonesia positing this idea. Reverend William McLean

brought a suit opposing the “balanced treatment” that required this idea’s counterpart be given “equal time,” which

was also the subject of the Louisiana case Edwards v. Aguillard. Supporters of this idea brought suit against the

Dover Area School District in 2005 for requiring a statement about “alternatives” to it, and a contentious case about

teaching it involved Clarence Darrow’s cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan. For 10 points, name this

scientific theory about the observed changes in generations of species, scrutinized during the Scopes Monkey Trial.

ANSWER: the theory of evolution by means of natural selection [prompt on “natural selection”; do not accept or

prompt on “intelligent design” or “creationism”]
I wrote this tossup.
At the GT site, our opponent answered and was prompted on "natural selection" which is fine, but then responded with "competition" before answering "evolution" after the moderator indicated that he wasn't going to take that. We protested this decision but the moderator's decision was upheld. Is that a promotable answer or moderator error?

For the record, the moderator told Adam that it was an immediate correction (which was misleading in my opinion) so Adam dismissed our protest on those grounds.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by i never see pigeons in wheeling »

Sulawesi Myzomela wrote:
List of Fighting Spirit characters wrote:
Sulawesi Myzomela wrote:Can you post the question on evolution?
ACF Fall 2013 wrote: 11. Alfred Russell Wallace wrote an essay from Ternate, Indonesia positing this idea. Reverend William McLean

brought a suit opposing the “balanced treatment” that required this idea’s counterpart be given “equal time,” which

was also the subject of the Louisiana case Edwards v. Aguillard. Supporters of this idea brought suit against the

Dover Area School District in 2005 for requiring a statement about “alternatives” to it, and a contentious case about

teaching it involved Clarence Darrow’s cross-examination of William Jennings Bryan. For 10 points, name this

scientific theory about the observed changes in generations of species, scrutinized during the Scopes Monkey Trial.

ANSWER: the theory of evolution by means of natural selection [prompt on “natural selection”; do not accept or

prompt on “intelligent design” or “creationism”]
I wrote this tossup.
At the GT site, our opponent answered and was prompted on "natural selection" which is fine, but then responded with "competition" before answering "evolution" after the moderator indicated that he wasn't going to take that. We protested this decision but the moderator's decision was upheld. Is that a promotable answer or moderator error?

For the record, the moderator told Adam that it was an immediate correction (which was misleading in my opinion) so Adam dismissed our protest on those grounds.
I'm guessing he buzzed on the AR Wallace clue. I suppose it is sort of technically correct to say that he "posited" competition in a loose sense in that there is a section of the paper that talks about how wild animals struggle for survival, but the paper overall is very clearly an early entry in evolution's scientific literature (the title is even On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type) and engages mostly in the subject of the divergence in species' traits due to changes in environment (the part about competition is mostly taken as a given axiom of the natural world). I suppose that we could have an anti-prompt on "natural selection" and perhaps that would solve the problem? Let me know what you think.

Also, I'm not sure exactly how the situation panned out so I can't speak to that, but I do know that I would not have accepted competition.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by adamsil »

List of Fighting Spirit characters wrote:

Also, I'm not sure exactly how the situation panned out so I can't speak to that, but I do know that I would not have accepted competition.
Nor would I, but as I was informed of the situation from the moderator, he explained it that Chattahoochee self-corrected immediately before competition was ruled wrong. I ruled that the answer could be accepted in that case; if there really was a noticeable delay between the player saying competition and evolution, then I'd probably chalk it up to moderator error, but there was nothing I could do with the situation when WKU informed me about it after the round was over.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Cody »

List of Fighting Spirit characters wrote:
ACF Fall 2013 wrote:11. Alfred Russell Wallace wrote an essay from Ternate, Indonesia positing this idea.
I'm guessing he buzzed on the AR Wallace clue. I suppose it is sort of technically correct to say that he "posited" competition in a loose sense in that there is a section of the paper that talks about how wild animals struggle for survival, but the paper overall is very clearly an early entry in evolution's scientific literature (the title is even On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type) and engages mostly in the subject of the divergence in species' traits due to changes in environment (the part about competition is mostly taken as a given axiom of the natural world). I suppose that we could have an anti-prompt on "natural selection" and perhaps that would solve the problem? Let me know what you think.

Also, I'm not sure exactly how the situation panned out so I can't speak to that, but I do know that I would not have accepted competition.
So, if the clue says this idea was posited in a paper Wallace wrote in Indonesia, and the paper does in fact posit competition as you say, then competition is correct. In fact, any idea posited in said paper is absolutely correct for that clue, including natural selection, presumably. I can't say for sure because I haven't actually read the paper, but you can't phrase the clue like that and then say something that is posited in the paper isn't correct because *handwave*.
adamsil wrote:Nor would I, but as I was informed of the situation from the moderator, he explained it that Chattahoochee self-corrected immediately before competition was ruled wrong. I ruled that the answer could be accepted in that case; if there really was a noticeable delay between the player saying competition and evolution, then I'd probably chalk it up to moderator error, but there was nothing I could do with the situation when WKU informed me about it after the round was over.
If the player fully said competition, then under the current ACF rules, the moderator must take that answer (and proceed accordingly); you can only correct an answer if you have completed less than one word of the answer. It seems this rule is often confused with the NAQT rule on the subject.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

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Renesmee LaHotdog Voight wrote:
adamsil wrote:Nor would I, but as I was informed of the situation from the moderator, he explained it that Chattahoochee self-corrected immediately before competition was ruled wrong. I ruled that the answer could be accepted in that case; if there really was a noticeable delay between the player saying competition and evolution, then I'd probably chalk it up to moderator error, but there was nothing I could do with the situation when WKU informed me about it after the round was over.
If the player fully said competition, then under the current ACF rules, the moderator must take that answer (and proceed accordingly); you can only correct an answer if you have completed less than one word of the answer. It seems this rule is often confused with the NAQT rule on the subject.
In that case, I apologize for having the distinction confused; I didn't specifically check ACF rules in the hurry of the protest and thought I had it right.

I didn't read this tossup before now (it was classified as history, not science), but putting Alfred Russell Wallace in the leadin to a tossup about evolution is not the best idea for pyramidality's sake, and also because you're drawing a very thin line between evolution and natural selection if you're going to use science-y clues. And since that paper is talking about natural selection in all but name (based on a quick uninformed reading), it probably should have been accepted outright for that clue.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by i never see pigeons in wheeling »

adamsil wrote:
Renesmee LaHotdog Voight wrote:
adamsil wrote:Nor would I, but as I was informed of the situation from the moderator, he explained it that Chattahoochee self-corrected immediately before competition was ruled wrong. I ruled that the answer could be accepted in that case; if there really was a noticeable delay between the player saying competition and evolution, then I'd probably chalk it up to moderator error, but there was nothing I could do with the situation when WKU informed me about it after the round was over.
If the player fully said competition, then under the current ACF rules, the moderator must take that answer (and proceed accordingly); you can only correct an answer if you have completed less than one word of the answer. It seems this rule is often confused with the NAQT rule on the subject.
In that case, I apologize for having the distinction confused; I didn't specifically check ACF rules in the hurry of the protest and thought I had it right.

I didn't read this tossup before now (it was classified as history, not science), but putting Alfred Russell Wallace in the leadin to a tossup about evolution is not the best idea for pyramidality's sake, and also because you're drawing a very thin line between evolution and natural selection if you're going to use science-y clues. And since that paper is talking about natural selection in all but name (based on a quick uninformed reading), it probably should have been accepted outright for that clue.
I originally had the answer to the tossup as "natural selection," but Stephen had me change it to evolution, so I did. I probably should've reexamined that clue specifically for its relevance to the new answer line.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

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The Predictable Consequences wrote:Could you post the Treaty of Paris question?
Wellesley packet wrote:20. One negotiator of this treaty had just been released from the Tower of London two years earlier with the help of Richard Oswald, and was named Henry Laurens. This treaty indirectly led to mass settlement of New Brunswick, and set one national boundary at the St. Croix River. Article 6 of this agreement was violated when one nation failed to vacate forts on the Great Lakes, leading to Jay’s Treaty eleven years later. It set the American border at the Mississippi River to the west and Florida to the south, and this treaty was signed after a defeat for General Cornwallis at Yorktown. For 10 points, name this treaty which ended the American Revolution.
ANSWER: Treaty of Paris 1783
Excelsior (smack) wrote:the tossup on "work" in packet 2
Wellesley packet wrote:4. For charges in a dielectric, this quantity equals one-half the integral of the dot product of the displacement and electric fields. The amount of this quantity due to the expansion of a gas is equal to the integral of pressure with respect to volume. For a moving electric charge, this quantity is equal to the charge times the change in electric potential. According to a theorem named for this quantity and “energy,” this quantity for a process is equal to the change in kinetic energy. It is given for a constant force by force times displacement. For 10 points, name this quantity, the amount of energy transferred by a force acting on a body.
ANSWER: work
(In retrospect, this tossup could have used some more careful thought/answerline instructions on what to do with buzzes that talked about energy and changes therein.)
Excelsior (smack) wrote:the tossup on the word "classical" in packet 11
Ottawa A packet wrote:11. In statistical mechanics, a failure to account for physics not described by this adjective leads to the Gibbs paradox. The WKB approximation is known as a “semi-this” method because it treats h-bar as a small parameter, as is the Bohr model of the atom because it treats electrons as point particles. This adjective describes a limit of the correspondence principle with large quantum numbers, which explains how quantum physics approaches this kind of physics on a large scale. For 10 points, name this adjective that describes physics before the development of relativity or quantum physics, such as the kind of mechanics based on Newton’s laws of motion.
ANSWER: classical
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by coldstonesteveaustin »

I would like to see several questions:
Horus and cosine tossups from Chattahoochee
Cien anos de soledad and open tossups from Dartmouth A
Petrarch, Cadmus, and Cato tossups from Michigan A
Richard I tossup from Northmont
Boston Massacre tossup from Ottawa A
Pluto tossup and Barcelona-Pamplona-Santiago de Compostela bonus from Rice
Lannister tossup from St. John's
Any and all would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Tanay »

Hidehiro Anto wrote:I would like to see several questions:
Horus and cosine tossups from Chattahoochee
Cien anos de soledad and open tossups from Dartmouth A
Petrarch, Cadmus, and Cato tossups from Michigan A
Richard I tossup from Northmont
Boston Massacre tossup from Ottawa A
Pluto tossup and Barcelona-Pamplona-Santiago de Compostela bonus from Rice
Lannister tossup from St. John's
Any and all would be appreciated. Thanks.
In a fight, this god was accidentally hit by a harpoon thrown by his mother, who instructed the weapon to let him go and strike his enemy instead. A symbolic marking representing one part of this deity had pieces that added up to 63/64, with the last piece being magically restored by Thoth. This figure once tricked another deity into eating lettuce covered in his semen, and also beat that rival in a race when he painted his boat to look like it was made of stone. This wadjet-eyed god avenged his father, who was chopped up by Set and scattered all over the Nile. For 10 points, name this son of Isis and Osiris, a falcon headed Egyptian god whose eyes represented the sun and moon.
ANSWER: Horus
This function has a fixed point known as the Dottie number equal to roughly 0.74. This function names a version of the discrete Fourier transform that uses only real numbers, and the Fourier series of an even function has only terms proportional to this function. Its Taylor series has “2 n factorial” in the denominators and begins “one minus one-half x squared.” One law named for this function has a term in which it is multiplied by twice the product of side lengths a and b. That law is a generalization of the Pythagorean theorem. For 10 points, name this trigonometric function which for an angle in a right triangle is the adjacent side length over hypotenuse length.
ANSWER: cosine
A character in this novel is incapacitated when she sits on a hot stove in shock after an invasion by Sir Francis Drake. Another character in this novel dresses his concubine Petra Cotes as Queen of Madagascar, a reference to his wife, Fernanda del Carpio. While folding a sheet, Remedios the Beauty abruptly floats to heaven in this novel, whose opening chapters feature annual interactions between an excitable inventor and a band of gypsies led by Melquiades. This magical realist novel traces seven generations of the Buendía family in the fictional town of Macondo. For 10 points, name this novel by Gabriel García Márquez.
ANSWER: One Hundred Years of Solitude
A theorem named for this type of mapping says that non-constant analytic functions map sets of this type to other sets of this type. All the elements of a topology possess this property with respect to the topology. For a compact set, every cover of this type has a finite subcover. The interior of any set has this property, and every point in a set with this property is an interior point, meaning that it has a neighborhood contained within the set. A set of this type does not contain its boundary points, and intervals of this type on the real line are denoted with round parentheses. For 10 points, name this property, possessed by sets whose complements are closed.
ANSWER: open
This author claimed he “possessed a well-balanced rather than a keen intellect” in one work, in which he declared “mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown.” In a letter to Cicero, this poet told him “it is your turn to be the listener.” This man recounted trying to find an easier path on a trip he took to ascend Mount Ventoux. This author of “Letter to Posterity” and Familiar Letters wrote an unfinished epic poem whose hero is Scipio Africanus, called Africa. He wrote 366 poems addressed to Laura, which are collected in Il Canzoniere. For 10 points, name this 14th-century Italian poet whose namesake sonnet is comprised of an octave and a sestet.
ANSWER: Petrarch [accept Francisco Petrarca]
One of this man's daughters bribed an oracle to advise her husband Athamas to sacrifice his son Phrixus, who fled on a golden ram. This figure was succeeded by Pentheus, the son of his daughter Agave. Wondering how valuable a serpent could be to the gods, this man himself turned into a snake while ruling in Illyria with his wife, who was a daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. This husband of Harmonia was sent by his Agenor to search for a girl who had been abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull, but an oracle instructed him to follow a cow to a place where he killed a dragon and sowed its teeth in the ground. For 10 points, name this brother of Europa who founded Thebes.
ANSWER: Cadmus
According to Plutarch, the last significant male of this family name befriended Marphadates and made an unarmored last stand at Philippi. To prevent interference with Cicero’s prosecution, Clodius sent another member of this family to Cyprus. One member of this family advocated overworking slaves in “On Agriculture” and reportedly ended every speech with the phrase "Carthage must be destroyed." The most famous member of this family tried Catiline for proscription and joined Pompey against Caesar before committing suicide in Utica. For 10 points, give this name shared by a 2nd century BCE statesman and a Stoic, respectively known as the "Elder" and "Younger."
ANSWER: Cato [accept Marcus Porcius Cato, since both of the famous people were named that]
This monarch forced his father to concede Auvergne in a treaty signed at Azay. Hubert Walter administered this king’s lands while he was away, and his fervent backing of Guy of Lusignan's claims led to accusations of his complicity in Conrad of Montferrat's death. While returning home from one war, this man was captured by Leopold of Austria. In one his campaigns, this man struck a truce with his primary adversary after sighting Jerusalem so that he could block Philip Augustus' designs on his Angevin holdings. That campaign saw this English king capture Acre. For 10 points, name this English king who fought Saladin during the Third Crusade, nicknamed for his valor.
ANSWER: Richard I [or Richard the Lionheart; or Richard Cœur de Lion]
Right before this event, Ebenezer Richardson shot a twelve-year-old named Christopher Seider. A speech given in response to this event noted, “Facts are stubborn things.” Troops were removed to Castle Island in its aftermath, and in a depiction of this event, a lone cat stands in the foreground amid billowing white smoke in front of a church. It occurred on King Street and resulted in the deaths of Samuel Gray and James Caldwell. This subject of a Paul Revere engraving resulted in the death of the African American merchant Crispus Attucks. For 10 points, name this March 5, 1770 confrontation in which British troops fired on a crowd in Massachusetts.
ANSWER: Boston Massacre [accept Incident on King Street before “King Street” is read]
One moon of this body was nearly named Vulcan due to an endorsement from William Shatner. This object was the most notable nearby object discovered by the use of a blink comparator. The existence of this object was inferred from observations made by Percival Lowell, and its name was suggested by the 11-year-old Venetia Burney, though it was actually discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. This object, the destination of the New Horizons probe, exhibits at 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune, whose orbit it occasionally intersects when viewed from above the ecliptic. For 10 points, name this dwarf planet that forms a binary system with Charon, formerly the ninth planet.
ANSWER: Pluto
For 10 points each, name these culturally significant cities of Spain.
[10] This capital of Catalonia in the northeast corner of Spain contains La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that has not been completed after 131 years of construction.
ANSWER: Barcelona
[10] This city near Spain’s northern coast, the historical capital of Navarre, is home to an annual “running of the bulls.”
ANSWER: Pamplona
[10] This capital of the autonomous community of Galicia contains a cathedral that purports to house the remains of Saint James the Great, for whom this city is named. It is the destination of a very popular pilgrimage route.
ANSWER: Santiago de Compostela [prompt on Santiago]
Along with King Mern of the Reach, the forces of this family were defeated at the Field of Fire. One member of this family was captured at the Battle of the Whispering Wood and later captured again by Vargo Hoat, who ordered his hand to be cut off. That member of this family was accompanied by Brienne of Tarth, to whom he revealed why he had killed Aerys Targaryen, an act that earned him the nickname “Kingslayer.” This family also includes Tywin, the grandfather of Joffrey Baratheon through his daughter Cersei. For 10 points, name this family created by George R. R. Martin that wars with the Starks in HBO’s Game of Throne, and includes Jaime and the dwarf Tyrion.
ANSWER: House Lannister
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Victor Prieto »

Can you post the tossups on silver, refugees, and the Ambassadors?
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coldstonesteveaustin
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by coldstonesteveaustin »

Wasabi wrote:Can you post the tossups on silver, refugees, and the Ambassadors?
Maryland B wrote: [Note to teams: Description acceptable.]
4. Following the 8888 Uprising, the KNU protected thousands of these types of people of the Karen ethnic group
who settled in places like Nong Same. Following the Secret War, Vang Pao led a group of Hmong with this status after the 1975 Pathet Lao takeover of Laos. The UNHCR, which secures their rights, received the 1981 Nobel Peace Prize for providing services to the Boat People, South Vietnamese who fell under this category after the fall of Saigon to escape Communist forces. For 10 points, name this type of people, commonly from Indochina in the 20th century, who seek asylum in foreign countries.
ANSWER: refugees who flee their home countries [accept only the previous answer after “asylum” is read; accept obvious equivalents like “people who move to another country” or “people who emigrate” before that point]

18. A crucifix in the upper left of this painting is partially hidden behind a green curtain. This painting also depicts a partially open book about arithmetic and a psalmbook near a lute with a broken string. One figure in this painting is Georges de Selve, the Bishop of Lavaur, and this painting also depicts Jean de Dinteville, who holds an ornate dagger and wears a pendant indicating that he belongs to the Order of St. Michael. The bottom of this painting famously features a anamorphic, or distorted, skull. For 10 points, name this double portrait containing a still life of several musical and scientific instruments, a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.
ANSWER: The Ambassadors [or The French Ambassadors]
I don't have the silver tossup.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Tanay »

Wasabi wrote:Can you post the tossups on silver, refugees, and the Ambassadors?
The city of Shemnitz was known for its production of this resource in medieval times, while the Grecian city of Laurium was a major source of this resource in the ancient world. Its discovery in one nation led to boomtowns like Virginia City. European powers’ replacement of this trade medium led to the Opium Wars. The Spanish used the mita system to provide labor for the mining of this resource at sites like Potosi. In the US, using this to back currency was promoted by the bimetallism movement. For 10 points, name this resource that was championed in William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold Speech and is frequently used in coins and jewelry.
ANSWER: silver [or Ag]
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Agggron »

I think there was also a science-related Silver tossup in Dartmouth A, but I don't have it.

EDIT: Actually now I am second-guessing myself as to whether that Dartmouth A science was on Ag or Cl since the only clue that I remember was about the AgCl precipitate. Either way, could you post that question, as well as the Golgi Apparatus question? Thanks.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by The ChatSack Triple-Play »

Agggron wrote:I think there was also a science-related Silver tossup in Dartmouth A, but I don't have it.

EDIT: Actually now I am second-guessing myself as to whether that Dartmouth A science was on Ag or Cl since the only clue that I remember was about the AgCl precipitate. Either way, could you post that question, as well as the Golgi Apparatus question? Thanks.
It was on Ag.

Also, can I see the tossups on string theory, reflection, Euler, and Python?
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by coldstonesteveaustin »

Maryland B wrote:3. One type of this phenomenon causes a phase shift in polarized light known as the Goos­-Hanchen effect. In that type of this process, an evanescent wave propagates on the boundary of a medium. Under certain conditions, this process will impart a 180­-degree phase shift to a wave undergoing it. Above an angle given by the arcsine of the ratio of refractive indices, known as the critical angle, a light wave is trapped in the medium with the higher refractive index in the “total internal” type of this process. In the specular type of this process, the angle of incidence equals the angle at which a light ray departs. For 10 points, name this phenomenon in which waves bounce off a surface.
ANSWER: reflection [accept total internal reflection until mention]
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by MorganV »

The leadin for Master and Margarita seems to be poorly worded:

"7. In this novel, Varenukha’s shadow ceases to be visible after he is bitten by a young redhead vampire. Hella, that

character’s companion, goes by Koroviev and meets the landlord Bosoi after Berlioz is decapitated by a streetcar."

The "young redhead vampire" is Hella and Koroviev is a separate character.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Tanay »

MorganV wrote:The leadin for Master and Margarita seems to be poorly worded:

"7. In this novel, Varenukha’s shadow ceases to be visible after he is bitten by a young redhead vampire. Hella, that

character’s companion, goes by Koroviev and meets the landlord Bosoi after Berlioz is decapitated by a streetcar."

The "young redhead vampire" is Hella and Koroviev is a separate character.
As I originally wrote the tossup, the phrasing went "...after he is bitten by a young redhead vampire, Hella. That character's companion goes by Koroviev," so one of us probably changed the punctuation on accident.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by MorganV »

Yeah, I assumed something like that happened. Just wanted to point it out for future mirrors
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by t-bar »

Agggron wrote:Either way, could you post that question, as well as the Golgi Apparatus question?
Dartmouth A packet wrote:2. Ethylene is oxidized to ethylene oxide using a catalyst of this element. Alexander Borodin helped discover that carboxylate salts of this element react with bromine to form alkyl bromides. In basic solutions, this element’s cation is reduced by aldehydes, but not ketones. Chloride ions can be detected by the cream-colored precipitate formed when this element is added, usually in the form of its hand-staining nitrate. Halides of this metal are used in cloud seeding and photography. It has the greatest electrical conductivity of any element. With copper, it forms the alloys shibuichi, Britannia and sterling. For 10 points, name this element with symbol Ag.
ANSWER: silver [Accept Ag before mention.]
Chattahoochee packet wrote:8. Sar1 (“sar one”) binds to the membrane of this organelle, and according to a classical model, shuttle vectors move between the “stable” components of this organelle. The somewhat lower pH of this organelle prevents KDEL from acting as a retention sequence, creating a COP-I (“cop one”) vesicle leaving this organelle. Clathrin is produced at the trans end of this organelle, whose most common model states that its cisternae “mature” as they move through it. Glycosylation of secreted proteins occurs in this organelle. For 10 points, name this organelle which is responsible for packaging and sorting proteins into vesicles, named for an Italian scientist.
ANSWER: Golgi apparatus [Accept Golgi body or Golgi complex.]
HopefullyUnknown wrote:Also, can I see the tossups on string theory, reflection, Euler, and Python?
Northmont packet wrote:2. Considering this model in an anti-de Sitter space leads to its equivalence to certain field theories in the AdS/CFT correspondence. In this model, the Nambu-Goto action governs the movement of objects, which move along surfaces known as D-branes. Many versions of this model are unified in an eleven-dimensional extension of it known as M-theory. One of the primary goals of this theory is to explain quantum gravity by unifying quantum physics with general relativity, producing a “theory of everything.” For 10 points, name this theory which attempts to explain all physics via the vibration of its namesake one-dimensional objects.
ANSWER: string theory
St. John's packet wrote:13. This man proved that arctan of one-half plus arctan of one-third equals pi over four, and was one of two people who found continued fraction expressions for the arctangent. This mathematician solved one problem by observing that all but two of the nodes in a certain graph must have an even number of edges. A formula named for him relates the complex exponential function to cosine and sine, and when phi equals pi, that formula gives that the exponential of i pi plus one equals 0. This man pioneered graph theory by solving the Seven Bridges of Konigsburg problem. For 10 points, name this Swiss mathematician who introduced a constant equal to about 2.718 and written e.
ANSWER: Leonhard Euler
Ottawa A packet wrote:4. Version 3.0 of this language, released in December 2008, is notably incompatible with previous versions. Code examples in this language often use the variable names “spam” and “eggs.” In this language, one can use a negative index to count backwards from the end of a list. This language uses the Tkinter (T-K-“enter”) package to provide graphics and implements a dynamic but strong typing system called duck typing. This interpreted language, which spells out the keywords “and” and “not” instead of using symbols, is designed to have easily readable syntax. For 10 points, name this programming language named for a sketch comedy show whose name begins with “Monty.”
ANSWER: Python
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

Could you post the tossup on Northern Ireland?
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

As someone who programs in Python all the time, I have to say that tossup is not so hot. First of all, while there are some incompatiblities between 3.0 and the previous versions, I find it weird to call them "notable." Second, citing code example variable names is a silly and worthless figure-it-out clue. Third, it is highly unlikely that Python is the only language to use negative list indices. Fourth, the Tk interface is not inherent to the language in any way; it's just a graphical toolkit that Python has bindings for.

You could write an interesting tossup about Python, which has slime genuinely neat features. This question is not it.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by pajaro bobo »

Am I the only one who thought that "viewless wings of Poesy" in the first line of the Keats tossup was way too easy?
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by coldstonesteveaustin »

AlexLiu wrote:Am I the only one who thought that "viewless wings of Poesy" in the first line of the Keats tossup was way too easy?
Nope, Stanford B beat me to a buzzer race on that.
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Re: Question Specific Discussion

Post by coldstonesteveaustin »

This is kind of late, but about the Hollande tossup from the Dartmouth packet, the UMP and the FN aren't the same thing.
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