Sun ‘n’ Fun XI: Ars Longa, Tossups Brevis
Packet by Matt Weiner, Cody Voight, Aaron Rosenberg, and Eric Mukherjee and Editor
Tossups
1. In one of his poems, the speaker describes “Short days./Short nights. / Short years” before being swallowed
up by Leviathan. This author of “So Little” wrote of how life goes on normally and there is no thunder or
lightning when the apocalypse comes, and his collections include Facing the River and The Light of Day. Many of
his poems have been translated into English by his son Anthony, such as “A Song on the End of the World,”
although his “To Raja Rao” was written originally in English. He also wrote an anti-Stalinist work containing
chapters on people named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta, which considers the state of the Eastern European
intellectual in post-WWII Europe. For 10 points, name this Polish author of The Captive Mind.
ANSWER: Czesław Milosz (chess-wav mee-losh)
2. A joint Spanish-Italian invasion of this place ended in a massacre at the Golden Fort, eighty-five years after its
parliament was subdued by Poynings’s Law. An early battle in this country’s history was won by Murchad, on
behalf of Murchad’s elderly father, who was hacked to death by spiteful Norsemen fleeing the battlefield. This
location of the Battle of the Diamond later was the site of the sack of Wexford and the massacre of Drogheda by
the same occupier whose agents Cavendish and Burke were murdered by the Invincibles in its Phoenix Park. For 10
points, identify this island whose autonomy was advocated by Charles Parnell and ultimately secured by Eamon de
Valera and Michael Collins.
ANSWER: Ireland
3. The pyridyl nitrogen of one inhibitor of this class of molecules forms a hydrogen bond with the main chain
amido nitrogen of residue 109, which is found in the ATP pocket. That inhibitor is pyridine-imidazole, and these
enzymes are activated by dual phosphorylation of conserved threonine and tyrosine residues in the activation
loop. In 2003, the pyridol-pyrimidine class of these molecule's inhibitors were shown to have a previously
unseen degree of specificity for the alpha isoform of one class of this molecule, which is activated by
lipopolysaccharide. For 10 points, name this enzyme whose JNK and p38 classes respond to stress stimuli, and
which has a namesake cascade.
ANSWER: MAP Kinases [or Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases]
4. One of this man’s works for organ opens with all the stops pulled out and one key on every manual
depressed, which furthered the development of his idea of “movable clusters.” He included a series of
“microconcerti” in his 10 Pieces for Wind Quintet, and this composer of Volumina called for tuned motor horns
and belching in his only opera, while one of his piano works features a passage marked with eight f’s. This
composer of the “Rainbow,” “Galamb Borong” and “Devil’s Staircase” etudes also wrote a work containing a 48voice mirror canon. He included a love scene betweeen Spermando and Clitoria in the aforementioned opera,
which centers on the character Nekrotzar, or Death and is called Le Grande Macabre. For 10 points, name this
Hungarian composer whose Atmospheres features in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
ANSWER: Gyorgy Ligeti
5. One play whose English title ends with this word features a pastor who is constantly followed around by his
twelve daughters and is named Straw Man. That play, whose title ends with this word, is about a pair that
decides not to get married in order to avoid spoiling a perfect romance. A trilogy whose title ends with this word
concludes with Fleur being saved from an art gallery fire and was followed by The End of the Chapter. In addition
to a play about Falk and Svanhild entitled "love's" this, by Henrik Ibsen, and the "modern" follow-up trilogy to
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy, this word describes a play in which the merchant Aegeon is ransomed from
a death sentence and two servants named Dromio are confused. For 10 points, give this word that describes a
Shakespeare play about a meeting in Ephesus between a pair of twins named Antipholus, which leads to many
"errors."
ANSWER: comedy
6. The main coordinator of this action lived in a house where hams hung from the ceiling, because he followed
an alternative medical regime under which he ate nothing but ham. It was resolved partially due to the efforts
of Australian advisor W.H. Donald, and it was a direct protest of the extension of the Encirclement Campaign for
“bandit suppression.” Culminating in the formation of the second United Front, it involved the capture of a man
who fled to the hills in his pajamas, and was perpetrated by two men who were dismayed by orders to attack
Yenan in order to rout survivors of the Long March. Those generals, Yang Hucheng and Zhang Xueliang, wished an
end to the policy known as “domestic pacification before external resistance,” and thus kidnapped Chiang Kai-Shek
in, for 10 points, what 1936 event marking the beginning of Nationalist-Communist collaboration against Japan’s
occupation of China?
ANSWER: Xian (shee-an) incident
7. This man drafted a project along with Elia Zenghelis which would have provided London with a ceremonial
strip and was to be called “Exodus.” One of his buildings, designed in collaboration with Ole Scheeren, lies in the
Beijing central business district and consists of two towers leaning towards each other and merging in a bent
cantilever. This creator of the CCTV headquarters also designed a multifaceted concert hall for the National
Orchestra of Porto, and this architect of the Casa da Música was also the head editor of the anthology S, M, L, XL.
He also wrote a work which evaluated the “culture of congestion” in the title city and is subtitled A Manifesto for
Manhattan. For 10 points, name this founder of O.M.A, an architect who designed the Seattle Central Library and
wrote Delirious New York, who hails from the Netherlands.
ANSWER: Remmet “Rem” Koolhaas
8. This particle is created as the result of an electron-positron annhilation resonance at 3.095 GeV. The discovery
of this particle is known as the "November Revolution" as it fundamentally shifted the understanding of the
structure of matter and gave rise to the Standard Model. A seminal paper by Matsui and Satz found that the
suppression of this particle was an unambiguous signature of the formation of a quark-gluon plasma, and this
particle is the first excited state of charmonium. For 10 points, name this flavor-neutral subatomic particle
composed of a charm quark and a charm antiquark.
ANSWER: J/psi meson [or gypsies; prompt on charmonium]
9. In Susan Sontag’s final book, At the Same Time, one can find her introduction to the New York Review Books
publication of this work. After his expulsion from the Communist Party and prior to his imprisonment during the
Stalinist Regime the author of this work, born in Brussels-the child of Russian émigrés, was the editor for the
Communist International and wrote other novels such as Men in Prison and The Birth of Our Power. This work,
tracing the degeneration of the Soviet Union into a bureaucratic and corrupt Stalinist state is based on actual
historical events, namely the assassination of Leningrad Party secretary Sergei Kirov, the purges and subsequent
Moscow Show Trials. For 10 points, name this novel beginning with the mysterious killing of the title bureaucrat
and the nearly futile attempts to find the killer the best known work of Victor Serge.
ANSWER: The Case for Comrade Tulayev
10. Two political cartoons depict this candidate dancing for eels in a Charleston market and charming snakes in
front of his supporter John Forney. Known as the “steam engine in britches” for his boundless energy, he was
roundly mocked for declaring that he had to travel from Chicago to visit his sick mother in Clifton Springs, New
York, only to spend a month giving stump speeches in other states. His chances at winning were destroyed when
a faction of his party left to organize a separate convention in Baltimore, which nominated John Breckenridge,
although he lost much Southern support after elucidating the Freeport Doctrine. For 10 points, name this
Democratic nominee for president in 1860 who was known as the “Little Giant” and participated in a series of
debates with Abraham Lincoln.
ANSWER: Stephen Douglass
11. This present-day country saw German hunting parties take two of three wild Equus przhevalskii from this
country's Askanya Nova Natural Reserve during World War II. This country's Kakhovka Reservoir, which is
located within the Kherson Oblast, created a deep water route that allowed ships to sail up its major river. This
country contains steppes commonly referred to as Tavriya. This country's town of Henischesk is the northern
border of the Arabat Spit, which also separates Syvash, or the Rotten Sea, from the Sea of Azov. This country is the
home to the largest section of the Dnieiper River and is separated from Romania by the landlocked country of
Moldova. For 10 points, name this second largest country in Eastern Europe, with some historical steps at Odessa.
ANSWER: Ukraine
12. David Whitcomb developed Scorpion molecules for use in this assay, which can also use a reporter that has a
FAM fluorescent reporter tethered to a TAMRA or MGB quencher. Dimers can be detected by adding a
dissociation stage at the end of this assay and searching for spurious peaks. A common method of analyzing the
data in this assay is the REST software, or if efficiency is set to 1 the delta-delta Ct method is sufficient. GAPDH
or Hexokinase are commonly used housekeeping genes in this assay, which also employs either Taqman probes
or SYBR green fluorescent dye. Operating on the assumption that a more abundant DNA molecule will amplify
more quickly, for 10 points, name this variation of PCR often used in gene expression studies, which is capable of
assaying for the amount of transcript or sequence in a sample.
ANSWER: RT-PCR [or Real time PCR or Quantitative PCR or qPCR or any combination of those two, prompt on
PCR; or quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction]
13. Problems in translating these two texts include the meaning of the term “katechon,” which means either
“the power that restrains lawlessness” or “an agent of Satan.” That term appears near a passage that reminds
listeners that the end of the world will not come until after the “lawless man” is revealed. Both John Smith and
Vladimir Lenin used as a slogan a passage from one of these texts, "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."
The first of these texts also condemns the mourning of the dead, because the dead will be resurrected. Usually
placed between Colossians and First Timothy, this pair of texts is notable for the lengthy thanksgivings which open
each one. For 10 points, identify these New Testament epistles, addressed to converts made by Paul in Macedonia.
ANSWER: First and Second Thessalonians
14. The first dated Bombay lithograph of this work was published in June 1893, in the hand of the calligrapher
Mishkin-Qalam. Split into two parts, the second engages in theological proofs and contains the popular, “Tablet
of the True Seeker.” Composed in two days and nights, the first part deals with the foundational tenets
regarding the progressive and interrelated nature of revelation manifested in the other Abrahamic traditions as
evinced by the verse, “Muhammed, Himself, declared: I am Jesus.” Written as a response to the questions posed
by the maternal uncle, a Muslim, of Siyyid Ali Muhammed Shiraz, also known as el-Bab or “The Gate,” regarding
the ontological validity and final causes of the Bab, for 10 points, name this chiefly theological work written by
Mizra Husain-Ali, or Baha’u’llah the founder of Baha’i.
ANSWER: The Book of Certitude or Kitab-i-Iqan
15. This man after having the son of Ariston, his co-regent Damartus, overthrown because he had initially
frustrated this man’s plans to depose the Aeginetans who had submitted to Persia. This man overthrew
Damartus by urging Leotychides to invalidate Damartus’ claim to the throne via claims of false lineage. After
bribing the Delphic Oracle to favor with Leotychides, who became king himself in 491 BCE, this man the son of
Anaxandrides II, along with his new co-regent successfully arrested and deposed the Aeginetan collaborators.
Going insane, according to Herodotus, he returned to Sparta and was arrested by his half-brothers, Cleombrotus
and Leonidas. For 10 points, name this eventually murdered Agiad king of Sparta, the father of Leonidas’ wife
Gorgo.
ANSWER: Cleomenes I [no need to prompt]
16. In one step of this process the hemiacetal hydroxyl group located on carbon 1 of the glucose 6-phosphate is
converted into a carbonyl group via dehydrogenation, which then generates a lactone and a NADPH. Also in that
same phase, oxidative decarboxylation occurs, wherein a NADP+ becomes an electron acceptor, producing
another molecule of NADPH, CO2, and ribulose 5-phosphate. The primary rate controlling enzyme in this process
is glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. In plants, it is suggested that this process is used primarily to produce
intermediates for new plant constituents such as ribose for RNA and erythrose 4-phosphate. Consisting of an
oxidative and non-oxidative phase, for 10 points, name this alternative pathway to glycolysis, which occurs in the
cytosol and creates 5-carbon sugars.
ANSWER: pentose phosphate pathway [accept phosphogluconate pathway or hexose monophosphate shunt]
17. The author of this work initially presents descriptions of Gnosticism and Neo-Platonism, as they represent
two opposing visions of one of his title subjects. In a later section of this work he presents a succinct summary of
the “nature of poem,” and presents the religious, organic, rhetorical and metaphysical illusions that are present
within poetry. This text presents his concept of the “dialectic of revisionism” and clarifies its function for strong
poets and strong critics, a topic he has taken up in other works such as The Anxiety of Influence. Relying on the
scholarly studies of Gershom Schloem and Isaac Luria’s “misreading” to the trace the evolution of the title subject
from the medieval book of Zohar, for 10 points, name this work of literary criticism which examines the mystical
Jewish tradition written by Harold Bloom.
ANSWER: Kabbalah and Criticism
18. When asked about her subjects this artist noted, “Beauty is itself an aberration, a burden, a mystery, even to
itself.” This artist studied at the New School under Lisette Model. Norman Mailer suggested that putting a
camera in this artist’s hand was like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child, a direct reference to a
photograph taken by this artist, which was used for a 1984 album cover by the Canadian post-punk band SNFU.
Another of this artist’s photos features a rather milquetoast look fellow with an American flag and a “Bomb Hanoi”
button and ne of this artist’s most recognizable photographs is of Eddie Carmel, known as the “Jewish Giant” at
home with his parents. For 10 points, name this American photographer often depicting marginalized or deviant
subjects such as dwarfs, giants and transvestites.
ANSWER: Diane Arbus
19. Experiments in this field include Lawrence Sherman’s Minneapolis research as well as the product of
research into six hundred events in Philadelphia by Marvin Wolfgang. The first person to use a statistical
approach in this field was Adolphe Quetelet, who noted the "astonishing constancy" of the male/female ratio.
Its other luminaries included a man who wrote a namesake textbook, Edwin Sutherland, the inventor of
“atavism,” Cesare Lombroso, and a figure who wrote of the disconnect between social goals and available means
causing “strain,” Robert K. Merton. Samuel Romilly was one of the first people to put ideas of this field into
practice, having been influenced by the work of Cesare Beccaria. For 10 points, identify this field which studies
people such as Richard Speck, Bernie Madoff, and John Gotti.
ANSWER: criminology
20. For this statistical approach, even if the parametric space usually labeled omega is zero, and thus a singleton,
hypothesis testing can still proceed if one assigns a positive probability to pi sub naught, for the simple
hypothesis. In this statistics, one can choose a prior density giving equal weight to all possible values of theta, in
the case where little information can be obtained regarding past events, which are known as non-informative
priors. The central feature of this statistical approach is the synthesis of the prior distribution and current sample
data into a posterior probability distribution. Utilizing its namesake’s theorem, which relates the conditional
probability and its inverse, and first discussed in the 1763 essay “Towards Solving a Problem in the Doctrine of
Chances,” for 10 points, name this statistical method named after an English Presbyterian minister.
ANSWER: Bayesian statistics
Bonuses
1. Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin closes with a movement of this form. For 10 points each:
[10] Identify this musical form developed during the Renaissance and baroque periods, usually written to show off
dexterity on the keyboard. Bach paired a noted one of these with a fugue in D minor.
ANSWER: toccata
[10] This composer from Ferrara published two books of toccate which raised the form to new levels of complexity.
This servant of Cardinal Aldobrandini is also noted for his Fiori musicali.
ANSWER: Girolamo Frescobaldi
[10] This other Italian also published two books of toccate, but his keyboard output is dwarfed by the 555 sonatas
of his son Domenico.
ANSWER: Alessandro Scarlatti
2. This Governor of Massachusetts during his second term in office, advocated for veteran’s benefits, reduced
working hours for women and children, and vetoed a bill allowing the sale of alcohol in the age of Prohibition, for
10 points:
[10] The governor of Massachusetts in question was this Republican and fan of chicken diversity, who became
President four years later upon Warren Harding’s fatal heart attack.
ANSWER: John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. [Editor’s Note: You will have to ask Weiner about “chicken diversity.”]
[10]Coolidge first gained national attention upon his 1914 election as majority leader in the state senate, when he
delivered this speech in praise of democratic capitalism. It noted that, although “In some unimportant detail some
other States may surpass her,” legislators should perform the title action with respect to the independence of
courts and the funding of colleges.
ANSWER: “Have Faith in Massachusetts”
[10]Signed just one-month into Coolidge’s term as President this treaty limited the naval tonnage of the signatories
involved.
ANSWER: Washington Naval Treaty [accept Five-Power Treaty]
3. Time seems to last forever for the title figure of this poem because she is without her love, "To one, it is ten
years of years." For 10 points each:
[10] Name this poem about an emparadised woman who "leaned out / From the gold bar of Heaven."
ANSWER: “The Blessed Damozel”
[10] “The Blessed Damozel” is one of the most famous poems by this painter who helped found the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. His Bocca Baciati marked the emergence of his namesake women.
ANSWER: Dante Gabriel Rosetti
[10] The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood established this magazine, which was only published from January to May of
1850 and saw the debut of “The Blessed Damozel.”
ANSWER: The Germ
4. This geometry can be transformed to trigonal prismatic by a Bailar-twist. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this molecular geometry exhibited by sulfur hexafluoride.
ANSWER: Octahedral
[10] This hexadentate ligand usually forms octahedral structures with the transition metals. Its sodium salt is found
in many commercial products such as soap and beer, where it traps trace amounts of transition metals that could
potentially catalyze the decomposition of the product.
ANSWER: EDTA 4- [or Ethylenediaminetetraacetic]
[10] EDTA is also this type of small molecule that bonds very tightly to metal ions, making them chemically inert,
which is why EDTA is the medically approved treatment for lead poisoning.
ANSWER: Chelating agent [or chelator; accept word forms]
5. Major von Crampas falls in love with the title character of this novel, which leads her husband to challenge him
to a duel. For 10 points each:
[10] Identify this novel in which the title character marries Baron von Innstetten but cannot find a place in Kessin
society, and loses custody of her daughter Annie after a divorce suit.
ANSWER: Effie Briest
[10] This German realist wrote Effie Briest as well as Jenny Triebel. A longtime member of the journal Tunnel über
der Spree, he got his start with historical novels like Von der Sturm, set during the Napoleonic wars.
ANSWER: Theodor Fontane
[10] The character Theo Wuttke in this man’s novel Too Far Afield is known as “Fonty” due to his obsession with
Fontane. This man may be better known for a work starring the dwarf Oskar Mazareth.
ANSWER: Günter Grass
6. The artist of this work painted the same subject three different times. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this work which is in the “Sibiu,” “Antwerp,” and “London” varieties.
ANSWER: Crucifixion
[10] This Italian artist of his Crucifixion also painted a version of St. Jerome in His Study and Ecce Homo.
ANSWER: Antonello da Messina [accept Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio]
[10] This other Italian painter is famous for his Baptism of Christ and The Holy Family. He also showed two angels
gliding in his Adonis Led by Cupids to Venus.
ANSWER: Francesco Albani [accept Albano]
7. The general properties of this operation can be explained by the Pontryagin duality. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this operation used to decompose "generic" functions into a superposition of "symmetric" functions,
usually sines and cosines.
ANSWER: Fourier transform
[10] This other operation, unlike the Fourier transform, is capable of analyzing nonstationary data by localizing a
function in both space and scaling. Ingrid Daubechies (DOHB-shee) laid the mathematical foundation for it.
ANSWER: wavelet transform
[10] This third operation is unique in that it is applicable to both nonstationary and nonlinear systems; it consists of
empirical mode decomposition and Hilbert spectral analysis and can reveal the true physical meanings in data.
ANSWER: HHT [or Hilbert-Huang transform]
8. During this war, the principality of Brandenburg switched sides from Sweden to join the coalition in support of
John II Casimir Vasa. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this 1655 to 1660 war, in which Sweden acquired Skåne and inflicted the Deluge upon another country,
which was forced to recognize the legitimacy of Charles X’s ascession in Sweden.
ANSWER: First Northern War
[10] The war began when Sweden invaded this state, which was already dealing with Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s
Cossack rebellion. During the occupation, Janusz Radziwiłł unsuccesfully tried to end this country’s union with
Lithuania.
ANSWER: Poland
[10] The First Northern War included Sweden reacquiring Skåne from Denmark, an action which had been
attempted ten years earlier during this conflict. In this war, Sweden and Holland united against Denmark to protest
the Sound Dues, tolls which Christian IV had enacted against foreign ships sailing through Danish straits.
ANSWER: Torstenson War
9. He replaced Adam Smith as the Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, for 10 points:
[10]Name this Scottish philosopher who built his epistemological theory out of Ciceronian concept regarding the
community, his works include Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man.
ANSWER: Thomas Reid
[10]That Ciceronian concept came to define and name Thomas Reid’s school of thought regarding the source of
knowledge. Give this term, which implies that all sufficiently developed individuals are capable of accessing it.
ANSWER: Common Sense [accept sensus communis]
[10]This work by Reid advocates for direct realism and outlines the principles of his Common Sense philosophy as
its title suggests. It was this work, which gave the recognition Reid needed to achieve his professorship.
ANSWER: An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense
10. Name these works by the author of Stephen Hero that are not short stories written while he was in Trieste, for
10 points each:
[10]As its title suggests, each of these “apples” that comprise this collection of thirteen poems were sold for a
shilling. Originally rejected for publishing by Ezra Pound, this collection includes such works as “Tilly” and
“Bahnhofstrasse.”
ANSWER: Pomes Penyeach
[10]This play, which shows influences from Ibsen’s “When We Dead Awaken,” revolves around the danger of a
tryst between Richard Rowan’s wife and his journalist friend Robert hand.
ANSWER: Exiles
[10]Essentially a rewriting of Stephen Hero, this Kunstlerroman tells of the formative years of Stephen Daedalus.
ANSWER: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
11. This period took place between the Kamakura and Muromachi period, for 10 points:
[10]Name this period in Japanese History, in which a certain regent attempted to wrest control from the shoguns
with the aid from the provincial warrior Kusunoki Masahige. It would be the last major attempt until the Meiji
Restoration.
ANSWER: Kemmu Restoration
[10]The Kemmu Restoration was led by this Emperor, who came from the junior imperial line, the Dakakuji, and
plotted against the Hojo Clan in his bid for regency.
ANSWER: Go-Daigo
[10]The Kemmu Restoration was a failure, in part because Go-Daigo’s policies alienated this ally. This member of
the Ashikaga family, after revolting against Go-Daigo, would found the Muromachi bakufu.
ANSWER: Ashikaga Takauji
12. This term was originally a part of the Nicene Creed, for 10 points:
[10]Name this Christological doctrine that comes from the Greek word for “same essence,” that claims that Jesus
was ontologically equal with God the Father.
ANSWER: homoousia
[10] This heresy, named after a 3rd century African theologian, also known as modalism or modal monarchism,
accepted the homoousian formulation, but claimed that the Trinity represented three aspects which presented
themselves to the believer rather than three metaphysically distinct entities.
ANSWER: Sabellians
[10]This theologian, along with St. Alexander, was a strong advocated of the homoousian formula at the Council of
Nicea, which put him in direct conflict with Arius, a position he seemed to enjoy.
ANSWER: Athanasius of Alexandria
13. The leaves of this plant contain diterpene glucosides. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this plant, whose glycoside Rebaudioside A is used in the natural sweetener Truvia.
ANSWER: Stevia rebaudinia
[10] Rebaudioside A and stevioside are converted to steviol by this process. This chemical process also breaks the
pyrophosphate linkages of ATP to form ADP or AMP.
ANSWER: hydrolysis [prompt on desphosphorylation]
[10] Preliminary experiments show that Rebaudioside A stimulates insulin secretion from pancreate cells by
inhibition of ATP-sensitive K-channels, which makes it a potential drug for this disease. This disease can occur due
to insufficient insulin production.
ANSWER: Type II diabetes
14. It is based on a historical interregnum which occurred following the capture of Vaclav II. For 10 points each:
[10] Identify this opera in which mayor Volfram attempts to reclaim his daughters from the title group of invaders,
led by Jan Tausendmark.
ANSWER: The Brandenburgers in Bohemia [or Braniboři v Čechách]
[10] This Czech dude composed The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Bartered Bride.
ANSWER: Bedrich Smetana
[10] In this Smetana opera, the title character has killed the Burgrave of Ploskovice in revenge for the death of his
friend Zdeněk. In a plot strikingly similar to Fidelio, the Burgrave’s sister Milada falls in love with the title character
and attempts to break him out of prison.
ANSWER: Dalibor
15. One of this author’s best known work takes its title from a letter written by its titular emperor to his adoptive
successor, for 10 points:
[10]Name this French novelist of Alexis and The Abyss, one of the earliest female members of the Academie
Francais, who also wrote a critical essay on Yukio Mishima entitled A Vision of the Void.
ANSWER: Marguerite Yourcenar
[10]This historical novel of Marguerite Yourcenar’s describes the dying days of one of the Five Good Emperors and
his personal testimony left for his nephew Mark.
ANSWER: Memoirs of Hadrian
[10]In this Youcenar novel, set in the Baltic in the aftermath of WWI, Erick von Lhomond’s diffident treatment of
Sophie eventually results in a retributive gesture in front of a firing squad, and as its French title indicates, is a blow
of mercy.
ANSWER: Coup de Grace
16. It is a stochastic process whose conditional probability distribution depends only on the current state, for 10
points:
[10]Give this eponymous statistical process used in such fields as bioinformatics and dynamic programming
algorithms like the Viterbi Algorithm.
ANSWER: Markov Chain [accept Markov Process]
[10]Examples of a Markov Chains are versions of this process, which can be used to model Brownian motion or
derivative markets.
ANSWER: random walk
[10]For Markovian processes this dually-eponymous equation relates the joint probability of different sets of
coordinates in a stochastic model and is thus equivalent to an identity on transition states; it is named after a
British and a Russian mathematician.
ANSWER: Chapman-Kolmogorov equation
17. This historian’s doctoral thesis on the social history of his family’s native region, Franche-Comte, and the role
that Philip II would play, began his work in developing a historie social, for 10 points:
[10]Name this French historian, whose works include The Coming of the Book and The Problem of Unbelief in the
Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais, who would establish an important school of historiography.
ANSWER: Lucien Febvre
[10]This is the name of the French school of historiography that Lucien Febvre and Martin Bloch would found.
ANSWER: Annales School
[10]This other member of the Annales School helped to found the University of Sao Paolo with Claude Levi-Strauss,
and wrote such works as A History of Civilizations and The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age
of Philip II.
ANSWER: Ferdinand Braudel
18. Their ancestral homeland is Dinetah, which is found around Four Corners. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Native American tribe who abandon their hogans when a death occurs in one.
ANSWER: Navajo
[10] In Navajo Mythology, we are currently in this World, which the Maya believe will start at the December
solstice of 2012.
ANSWER: Fifth [or Five, etc]
[10] These beings are how the Navajo ascended from the Third World to the Fourth, and the Fourth to the Fifth. In
Greek mythology, Pan's pipes are made of these.
ANSWER: big male reed [or big female reed]
19. In this author’s article “Why McChrystal Did It” the answer is, he wanted to get fired, for 10 points:
[10]Name this American sociologist and author of Unthinking Social Science and Utopistics, who developed the
ideas of the core and the periphery.
ANSWER: Immanuel Wallerstein
[10]Immanuel Wallerstein’s core/periphery/semi-periphery distinctions are contained in this general theory for
interpreting the interactions between groups of people on the planet and are distinguished from nation-state
methods of analysis.
ANSWER: World Systems Theory
[10]Wallerstein cites this Columbia professor, author of such works as The Sociological Imagination and The Power
Elite, as an important influence on his early rejection of both liberalism and to a lesser degree traditional Marxism.
ANSWER: C. Wright Mills
20. A leaked internal memo revealed that this company will no longer "release...an OpenSolaris 2010.05 or later
distribution." For 10 points each:
[10] Name this company that recently sued Google over the use of the DalvikVM, and who completed its
acquisition of Sun Microsystems on January 27, 2010.
ANSWER: Oracle Corporation
[10] This patent troll is known for its litigation against companies that make use of SDRAM or DDR technology, and
this company recently granted patent licenses to Nvidia for SDR memory controllers.
ANSWER: Rambus Incorporated
[10] Google and this company recently released a join proposal regarding net neutrality. This largest US wireless
carrier recently added the Droid 2 and Droid X to its mobile lineup.
ANSWER: Verizon Communications, Inc.