VCU Open 2008—Round 9—Tossups
1. This man pondered the implications of biotechnology in Our Posthuman Future and wrote about “social virtues” in the book Trust. Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx accuses this man of being a poor rehasher of Alexandre Kojève, who had posited in the 1950s that the United States was the fulfillment of communism. Azar Gat says that the “authoritarian capitalism” model, which Gat places in contemporary China and Russia, disproves this man’s major thesis. He has clarified that he did not mean to laud the United States, but rather saw the European Union as the likely beneficiary of the situation described in his 1989 article in The National Interest. For 10 points, name this theorist who argued that representative democracies and capitalistic economies would soon be unchallenged worldwide in his The End of History.
ANSWER: Francis Fukuyama
2. This expression can be simplified by using the Bates-Guggenheim convention, which states that a certain value is equal to 1.5 Alternatives to this equation include ones named for Pitzer and Davies, the later of which is used in when molarity is between 0.1 and 0.5. An extended form of this equation takes into account ion size parameter, and Brownian motion was accounted for in an improvement to it made by Lars Onsager. This equation states that the log of a dimensionless quantity symbolized f or gamma decreases linearly with the square root of ionic strength. For 10 points, name this doubly-eponymous equation used to calculate activity coefficients.
ANSWER: Debye-Hückel equation
3. This book criticizes the Cartesian shift from viewing the mind as equivalent to reason to conceiving of an “inner arena” and relies on earlier critiques of “givenness” put forth by Wilifred Sellars. It borrows from Thomas Kuhn for its idea of what is “normal” and critiques the “veiled foundationalism” being practiced by other thinkers. Laying out its author’s attempt at “therapeutic” or “edifying” philosophy, this text calls for the abandonment of focus on semantics and “pseudo-problems” and a move to pragmatic thought. For 10 points, name this 1979 polemic written by Richard Rorty.
ANSWER: Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
4. In this work, the witch doctor Dastardos puts any being who is sick for a prolonged amount of time out of its misery, while cannibalism among the title creatures produces the "doughnut of life." The “sour” characters in this game will eat seeds, while other destructive forces include the Ruffians, under the leadership of the shovel-wielding Professor Pester, who can be fended off with the Captain’s Cutlass. The genderless mating in this game produces eggs as long as the player gets through a maze in the accompanying minigame. Such species as the Rashberry and Shellybeans comprise the main characters in this game, who begin in black-and-white and add color when they settle on a permanent residence. The goal is to arrange one’s garden in order to best attract the title creatures. For 10 points, name this Rare-developed game on the Xbox 360, in which the player cultivates festive, candy-filled Mexican birthday toys.
ANSWER: Viva Piñata
5. The appearance of the conodont Siphonodella sulcata separates this period from its predecessor, which saw the formation of a landmass known as the Old Red Continent. Ages during this period that are named for Russian cities include the Moscovian and Gzhelian. This geological period saw insects begin to fly and the first amniotes, including synapsids. Occurring from approximately 360 million to 290 million years ago, it followed the Devonian and was the fifth and final period of the Paleozoic Era. For 10 points, name this period that is divided into Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods, and is named for some rich deposits of coal.
ANSWER: Carboniferous period
6. One character in this book invents a hydraulic cement system and valves for controlling floods, but is unable to profit due to lack of patents, and after Agnes drowns in a canal in this work, Frank Sargent kills himself. This book ends with a dream about Ada Hawkes being put in the hospital. The main character of this novel keeps a diary of his activities so that his son Rodman, a sociology professor, cannot have him declared incompetent. A resident of Zodiac Cottage, that protagonist discovers that a woman who married the editor of Scribner’s, Augusta Drake, was likely involved in a lesbian relationship with his grandmother. The bulk of this novel describes the marriage of Susan and Oliver Ward, narrated by their grandson, the retired history professor Lyman. For 10 points, name this novel by Wallace Stegner.
ANSWER: Angle of Repose
7. Moore and Hahn developed constitutive equations for substances with this property, while Green and Weltman used hysteresis loops to study it. Pronounced in systems containing non-spherical particles, this phenomenon is associated with the Bingham equation and is typically caused by the breakdown of flocs. The term rheopexy is sometimes used to denote the anti form of this property, which can apply to a type of non-Newtonian fluid whose viscosity decreases over time as a result of a constant shear rate. For 10 points, name this reversible property exhibited by certain gels, such as ketchup, that are capable of becoming liquid when disturbed, and return to a semi-solid state upon standing.
ANSWER: thixotropy [accept word variants, such as thixotropic]
8. After one character in this play claims to have had a dream of an angel telling him to leave, another responds that it must have been a pagan god. Another character refuses to eat any food purchased with “the devil’s money” in this play, leading to the death of Mary Rua. Some merchants appear after Shemus makes three entreaties for the demons of the woods to come to his house, after the departure of the title figure, who regrets not carrying more money and invites the peasants to come to the castle the next day for more charity. Aleel and Oona both realize they cannot live without the title character, who ends the local trade in souls by selling her own for half a million crowns. For 10 points, name this play about the infernal response to a famine in Ireland, written by W.B. Yeats.
ANSWER: The Countess Cathleen
9. A document issued by someone who gave himself this title was to implement racial equality, independence, and a ban on non-Catholic religions, and a man was swept into this office on the Army of the Three Guarantees. That person was the first to hold this title and had earlier fought off José María Morelos at Valladolid before issuing the Iguala Plan. The second person to hold this title was married to the insane Carlota and was executed at Querétaro over the protestations of Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi. For 10 points, name this office allegedly held by Agustin de Iturbide and Maximilian in a Latin American country.
ANSWER: Emperor of Mexico
10. One of his works opens with the title character having a dream about a snakebite, then going to church and falling in love with Panfilo. In a narrative poem by this author, a man tries to kill himself after seeing a vision of a boar attacking his beloved, but is stopped by Pandaro. Hector prevents the populace from burning down a house at the start of that poem, in which the main female character is traded for Antenor. In addition to that basis for Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, he wrote about a crazy guy who pretends to kill his children and makes his wife prepare for his wedding to another woman, and recounted such plots as “Tancred and the Golden Cup” and “The Pot of Basil.” For 10 points, name this author of Fiametta and Il Filostrato, who included the story of Griselda in his book about people fleeing the plague and telling stories, the Decameron.
ANSWER: Giovanni Boccaccio
11. A concept crucial to this book is defined in four parts, as having an agent, an end, a situation, and a relation. It advances the theory of a "normative orientation" between goals and chosen methods, meaning that, apart from what the author calls “error,” the choice of means to achieve a given desire is not random. Its introduction is labeled “The Problem” and asks “Who anymore reads Spencer?”, and its first chapter explains the “unit act,” which is analogized to the iron atom making up the bridge that is the title entity. For 10 points, name this work of structural-functionalist sociology, written by Talcott Parsons.
ANSWER: The Structure of Social Action
12. SILAC is a method used to quantify this process, which is controlled by the enzyme SUV39. The CheR protein helps catalyze it when it occurs on certain chemotaxis proteins receptors. Detected by bisulphite sequencing, this process can be inhibited by the binding of SeqA. Silenced heterochromatin is a result of this process on lysine 9 of the histone H3 tail, and it can lead to inactivation of an X chromosome in female mammals. This process occurs to the CpG island in sufferers of fragile X syndrome, and in post-replication repair, it occurs via DAM on newly replicated DNA strands. For 10 points, name this process that is responsible for genomic imprinting and attaches its namesake CH3 groups.
ANSWER: methylation
13. He was a frequent subject of editorials in La Libre Parole, the newspaper of Édouard Drumont. Senator Auguste Scheurer-Kestner and journalist Joseph Reinach were among this man’s allies. Despite the forgeries of Hubert Henry, Georges Picquart continued towork on this man’s behalf. Twenty thousand copies of Aurore were sold after that newspaper became involved in his cause. Handwriting analysis eventually showed that Frederic Esterhazy, and not this man, was the true culprit. For 10 points, name this man defended in Emile Zola’s J’Accuse, a Jewish officer in the French army accused of spying for Germany.
ANSWER: AlfredDreyfus
14. The narrator of this book believes that everyone has a sword used on special occasions, because he was given a sword in celebration after the defeat of Napoleon. That man wants to enters politics after dumping his girlfriend for being lame in the leg, but his proposed respectable wife marries Lobo Neves instead. A mysterious package of cash becomes the trust fund for Dona Placida, and the main character begins an affair with Virgilia, in this book. A beggar who appears more prominently in another novel by the same author steals the watch of this novel’s protagonist. In addition to that minor appearance of Quincas Borba, this novel boasts a frame narrative in which a man who contracts pneumonia at age sixty-five and dies decides only then to write his autobiography. For 10 points, name this novel by Joaqim Machado de Assis.
ANSWER: The Posthumous Memories of Brás Cubas [or Epitaph of a Small Winner; or Memórias póstumas de Bras Cubas]
15. This action was made easier by internal strife in the targeted region, caused by Mulay Abu Hassan and Abdullah az-Zagal. It became inevitable after the capture of Ronda, Almeria, and Malaga, and this action marked the end of the Nasrid Dynasty when it caused the exile of Muhammad XI Boabdil. The treaty legitimizing this event contained provisions for the protection of Jews and Muslims which were almost immediately ignored. For 10 points, name this last action of the Reconquista, a 1492 movement by Ferdinand and Isabella into the location of the Alhambra and last Muslim kingdom in Western Europe.
ANSWER: the capture of Granada by Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella [accept anything that gets the point across]
16. This piece quotes from a popular music hall tune of the day, “My rock of Saint-Malo” and contain such humorous lyrics as “It was a very nice rock! Very sticky!” Its second movement contains an intentionally poorly played attempt at part of Chopin’s Funeral March, while a section of this work marked “like a nightingale with a toothache” is a parody of Rossini, and the whole work ends with a pastiche on Beethoven’s Eighth. Its movements are titled for such things as an “Edriophthalma” and a “Holothurian” or sea cucumber. For 10 points, scientific specimens of various crustaceans inspired what comedic composition of Erik Satie?
ANSWER: Dessicated Embryos or Embryons desséchés [accept similar translations]
17. This place is seen next to an arrow that moves along a map, representing the hurricane that just misses it. Eventually, people parade through its streets holding pictures of a corpse with the words “for justice” written on them. Landmarks in this place include the Hotel of the Rich Men, and Joe is killed by Trinity Moses in a boxing match held here. It is founded by a group including Leocadia Begbick, and Jenny Smith brings a gaggle of prostitutes here from Oklahoma. Alaska Wolf Joe and Bank Account Bill are among its residents, as is Paul Ackermann. For 10 points, name this place where Jimmy Gallagher is sentenced to death for having no money, a conurbation created by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in a play about its “rise and fall.”
ANSWER: the City of Mahogany
18. This artist depicted a white dog with brown ears and patches which has just received a bath in the bucket on the left in Barbaro After the Hunt. In another of this painter’s works, a few obscure figures watch the scene from the hill on the top right, while one building can be seen in the distance on the left. In the foreground, men in white and blue-green shirts attempt to control their animals, with a brown one rearing up in the center to the left of a group of white ones. For 10 points, name this painter of The Horse Fair, who had to wear pants and disguise herself as a man in order to gain access to her subjects.
ANSWER: Marie Rosalie "Rosa" Bonheur
19. Epicharis mentioned this plan to a naval officer, but did not give details under torture. The secretary Epaphroditos was finally informed of it by Milichus, and its members were thwarted before they could begin to implement this agenda. This scheme was to culminate with Faenius Rufus presenting the namesake senator to the Praetorian Guard, and its other members included Sulpicius Asper and Subrius Flavus.Its most notable outcome may have been the forced suicides of such literary figures as Lucan, Petronius, and Seneca. For 10 points, name this failed plot to overthrow Nero.
ANSWER: Piso's Conspiracy or the Pisonian Conspiracy or so forth
20. One explanation for their popularity says that they symbolize a tongue of flame reaching towards heaven, while another says that they are used alongside unusually heavy crosses which must be anchored inside. Distinguished from the Byzantine-influenced "helmet" kind,some of the most notable examples of these alternate green and red bands or have red and green stained glass on them, while the wooden Intercession at Vytegra has twenty-four of these. Notably adorning the Ivan the GreatBellTower and St. Basil’s Cathedral, for 10 points, name these bulbous summits of church spires, characteristic of Russian architecture and named for their resemblance to a root vegetable.
ANSWER: onion domes
21. At an event hosted by these people, Sishupal, the king of Chedi, was beheaded by a thrown wheel after insulting a god. They were once saved from a plan to assassinate them by fire when Widira found out in time. Later, they spend thirteen years in exile after losing a dice game. They are the offspring of Madri and Kunti, and include among their number Shadeva, Nakula, and Yudhishthira. These virtuous counterparts of the Kauravas eventually win back their collective bride Draupadi and their kingdom after their most notable member hears the Bhagavadgita. For 10 points, name this group of five people, including Arjuna, who are the heroes of the Mahabharata.
ANSWER: the Pandava brothers
22. In one of his positions, this man tried to re-institute slavery thirty-two years after that practice had been outlawed. Following his landing at La Paz, he declared the independence of Sonora and Lower California, which no one really cared about. A year later, he got the backing of the Accessory Transit Company, which included Cornelius Garrison and Charles Morgan, and spent just under ten months as a national leader. Later, he was captured and shot by the British during his last venture in Honduras. For 10 points, name this man who sought to expand the power of slave states by carving new land for the U.S. to annex out of Mexico and Nicaragua, a noted filibusterer of the 1850s.
ANSWER: William Walker
VCU Open 2008—Round 9—Bonuses
1. It was satirized in a similarly titled poem by Byron. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this poem by Robert Southey which pictures George III received with open arms in Heaven.
ANSWER: A Vision of Judgment [do not accept The Vision of Judgment or Vision of Judgment]
[10] The title character sets out to battle the sorcerers of the Domdaniel in this epic by Robert Southey.