Tossups round 1 center of the known universe open/rollapalooza 1999

TOSSUPS -- ROUND 4 CENTER OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE OPEN/ROLLAPALOOZA 1999

1. Another Roadside Attraction. Skinny Legs and All. Jitterbug Perfume. Still Life with Woodpecker. FTP name the eccentric North Carolina novelist who wrote these, as well as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

Answer: Tom Robbins
2. First identified in 1761 by Gianbatista Morgagni, symptoms may include fever, vomiting, abdominal swelling, brusing or internal bleeding, and jaundice. Because it results from the inefficiency of scar tissue that replaced dead cells, it can be arrested but never reversed. It can be caused by the hereditary ailments Wilson’s disease and hemachromatosis, but usually results from hepatitis or high alcohol consumption. FTP name this liver ailment which thus far (to our knowledge) Andy Wang has miraculously not contracted.
Answer: cirrhosis
3. It was the name of a type of shuffle dance popular in minstrel shows of the 1840s, but made its first appearance in print when the slave child Henry is told to dance and jump in chapter one of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The term now generally refers to laws passed by whites to govern the behavior of blacks, and more specifically to laws designed for the enforcement of segregation in public facilities. FTP what is this two-word term?

Answer: Jim Crow

4. Created by Gregory Widen, then a UCLA student writing a screenplay for class, it features characters in the Quickening competing for The Prize. With movies subtitled “The Quickening” and “The Final Dimension,” it gained a great cult following after the original, starring Christopher Lambert, was released in 1985. FTP, name the set of movies and television series which pits Connor and Duncan MacCleod against other immortals who can only be killed when their heads are separated from their bodies.

Answer: Highlander

5. It was first noted by Heinrich Hertz when a spark discharge from a charged metal sphere was easier to achieve in the presence of light. Phillip Lenard wrote a paper about it, but a 1905 paper by Albert Einstein explained the emission of electrons by a substance when illuminated by electromagnetic radiation. FTP, name this effect.

Answer: photoelectric effect

6. Mario Cavaradossi has been contracted to execute a painting of the Madonna in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, but the Madonna looks a little too much like one of the parishioners for his lover, a temperamental opera singer. Meanwhile, there’s a political prisoner (Cesare Angelotti) hiding out in the church, who recognizes the face of the Madonna as his own sister. Mario agrees to hide Cesare in his villa, but Baron Scarpia, the villainous chief of police who is chasing Cesare, uncovers their scheme, and plots to kill Mario and woo the opera singer himself. For 10 points, thus ends act I of what Puccini opera, named after the singer in question?

Answer: Tosca

7. In perhaps the most disturbing plot element of the work, the main character’s friend Herbert Truczinski, a Maritime Museum attendant, falls in love with Niobe, a wooden figurehead on the prow of a ship. When he attempts to, ahem, consummate his relationship with the figurehead, he is impaled on it by a double-edged ship’s axe. For 10 points, identify this work, in which Oskar Matzerath refuses to grow after his third birthday, the 1959 masterwork of Gunter Grass.

Answer: The Tin Drum

8. Earlier this year, a federal judge decreed that the vision dictated by the 1971 Swann case before the Supreme Court was now a reality, and thus ordered the end of mandated busing of students in this city to achieve racial integration in the first district in the country to impose it. For a quick 10 points, identify this southern city, described by Cornwallis as a "hornet's nest of rebellion", and now home to the NBA team bearing that nickname.

Answer: Charlotte

9. One can determine the pH of this kind of solution using the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Usually, one is a weak acid or base, and further additions to the solution will not affetc the overall stability of pH. FTP, name this stabilizing agent for acids and bases.

answer: buffer

10. His story would have gone over great on Jerry Springer. He had a son by his sister, only she was disguised during their three-day tryst. Later the boy came to live with him while she stayed married to the man who’d killed their father and left their brothers one by one to be eaten by wolves. With his son’s help he avenged their family’s deaths by whacking a bunch of his nephews; the sister praised his efforts before going into a burning house to die with the bad brother-in-law. FTP name this Norse hero, son of Volsung and father of Sinfiotli and Sigurd.
Answer: Sigmund
11. Critics say her somewhat romantic and mystical terminology obscured the scientific validity of her work, but that the biggest flaw is that her followers ignored her belief in continual research and instead fixated on some aspects of her own approach. FTP name the author of The Secret of Childhood, who advocated a prepared environment full of materials suitable for young children to use in learning at their own pace.
Answer: Maria Montessori
12. It's the title of a 1947 play by Hans Christian Branner. The term is used in existential criticism for both individual and collective neuroses of the post-World War II era, characterized by apprehension and depression. FTP name this concept, especially evident in the works of Sartre and Camus.

Answer: angst

13. The first African-American to hold a coaching job in the major leagues, he had been a Negro Leagues All-Star twice, and led the league in hitting in 1946. By 1948, he'd moved into managing, leading the Kansas City Monarchs to 5 pennants in 8 years. For 10 points, name this player, current chair of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, whose fame rests in some part on his skill as a story-teller in Ken Burns' Baseball.

Answer: John Jordan Buck O'Neil

14. Its terms took five years to work out. Some include a separate agreement signed between Spain and the United Netherlands as part of it, along with the two separate agreements signed by different parties at Osnabruck and Munster. FTP give the collective term for the agreements which in 1648 ended the nasty Thirty Years’ War.
Answer: the Peace of Westphalia
15. It is strange that he was wary of new theories, especially that of Copernicus and the heliocentric system. In 1659 he proposed a planetary system in accord with Tycho Brahe's. Using amazing new telescopes he was able to measure the period of rotation of Jupiter and Mars to within a few minutes of their currently accepted values. Some of his data were used by Ole Romer in 1675 to prove that light had a finite speed. Between 1671 and 1684 he discovered 4 new moons of Saturn. That planet would bring him his most fame when he discovered a division in its ring. FTP name this astronomer.

Answer: Gian Domenica Cassini or Cassini I

16. Coming from the Hebrew word for “scroll,” it refers to each of the first five scrolls of the Bible (Ruth, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther), although without designation, it usually refers to the scroll of Esther that is read on Purim. However, since Esther’s story is so long, it came to mean any tedious or complicated story, and, by extension, anything overwhelmingly big. For 10 points, identify this eight-letter word, commonly used to end the phrase “the whole...”.

Answer: Megillah

17. He worked briefly as a bricklayer and served as a soldier in the Netherlands before taking up the life of a strolling player and writer for Philip Henslowe’s company. His sequel to his first successful play was a total flop, but he survived, collaborating with Inigo Jones on The Masque of Blackness and several other showy masques presented at court. FTP name this playwright, whose non-flops included Every Man in His Humor, The Alchemist, and Volpone.
Answer: Ben Jonson [prompt for more on Jonson]
18. Apart a red curtain in the upper right corner and four pipes on a rack in the upper right center, the wall in the background is unadorned. There’s one man leaning against it, looking over the shoulder of the guy in the beige jacket. And did you ever notice what a lardass the guy on the right in the green coat must be? FTP name this work by Paul Cezanne.
Answer: The Card Players
19. In its most severe fors it can be highly destructive and debilitating, but some of it is perfectly normal, especially in young children upon the birth of a sibling. Toilet-trained kids may lose bladder control, walkers may start crawling again, and so on. FTP name this defense mechanism in which an individual under great stress reverts to responses and sources of gratification that chaarcterized an earlier stage of development.
Answer: regression

EDITOR’S NOTE: Gwad you wiked da questee.
20. He died in prison in 1803, soon after Wordsworth eulogized him in a sonnet; the success of his revolution was actually concluded by his most ruthless lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. He'd actually been recognized for a time by France as Governor-General while they mustered an army designed to oust him. FTP name this former slave from Plaine du Nord who led the independence movement in Haiti.

Answer: Francois-Dominque Toussaint L'Ouverture (prompt on either part of last name)

21. 9 of its 13 states are former kingdoms still governed by their traditional rulers. Its lower house of parliament is the Dewan Negara, with 1 member from Labuan, 20 from Sabah, 27 from Sarawak, and 144 from the main peninsula. FTP name this nation, whose largest city and capital is Kuala Lumpur.

Answer: Malaysia

TOSSUPS -- ROUND 5 CENTER OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE OPEN/ROLLAPALOOZA 1999

1. The material was known to the Romans; then word of it was brought to the forgetful Europeans by Marco Polo in the 13th century. It was first commercially mined in Quebec and later in South Africa and the USSR. Its name comes from the Greek word for "inextinguishable", and this group of naturally occurring hydrated minerals has over 3,000 different documented applications. As early as 1890 - 1895 when 16 of 17 employees at a French plant died, its negative health effects started becoming apparent. Not to be deterred by a few deaths, this fiber saw its peak in the late 1970s when annual usage surpassed total pre-1930 application. FTP, what is this carcinogenic flame retardant fiber?

Answer: asbestos
2. Professor Pierre Aronnax, the story’s narrator, boards an American frigate sent to investigate a series of attacks on international shipping. His own ship is sunk, and he is imprisoned along with his devoted servant Conseil and the temperamental harpooner Ned Land. They then spend a year on a worldwide undersea adventure aboard the submarine Nautilus with the enigmatic Capt. Nemo. FTP name this novel by Jules Verne.

Answer: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea [or Vingt Mille Lieues sous le mers]

3. Another econ term introduced by Alfred Marshall, this one gave Charlie the chance to use Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax in an MBA course. When the Once-ler made thneeds, he reaped the profits without having to pay for the environmental damage wreaked by the unwanted byproducts gluppity-glup and schloppity-schlopp. Thus there’s a failure of private costs or benefits to equal social costs or benefits, causing economic inefficiency. FTP give the term for economic activities which affect, for good or bad, parties who are not a part of the activity.
Answer: externality (-ies)
4. The opposing commanders here were not only officially colleagues but also former brothers-in-law. With 20% more ships, and larger ones at that, Antony gambled everything on one grand naval battle, but Octavian’s lighter Librunum vehicles proved more mobile and thus more effective. FTP name this crucial naval battle off Epirus in 31 B.C.
Answer: Actium
5. As introduced by an Alabama senator, it originally outlawed the practice of charging different customers different prices for the same goods, as well as interlocking directorates and acquisition of stock in one company by a competing company, but the final version passed in 1914 included the phrase "where the effect may be to substantially lessen competition." Nonetheless, it represented a dramatic strengthening of the earlier Sherman Act of 1890. FTP name this trust-busting congressional Act.

Answer Clayton Anti-Trust Act

6. He was an oddity: a great painter who also enjoyed a long, full, and happy life. Born in Westphalia where his father had been exiled, he was later a diplomat for the Spanish king and received commissions from the French court as well. After 10 years in Italy he returned to his ancestral hometown, Antwerp, to find himself already renowned there; this led him to establish a studio with such pupils as Frans Snyders and Jan Brueghel. FTP name the painter of Battle of the Amazons, Marie de Medici, and Descent from the Cross.
Answer: Peter Paul Rubens
7. After earning degrees from the University of Prague in math & physics, this Croatian worked to establish new meteorological stations and free them from governmental control. He shifted his interest to geology shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, and owes his fame almost entirely to his detailed investigation of the Kulpa Valley earthquake of October 8, 1909. He correctly interpreted S and P wave patterns to find that there was an outer layer to the Earth and another layer below. FTP give either his name, or the shortened form by which we know that crust/mantle interface which he discovered.

Answer: Andrija Mohorovicic or Moho

8. Among this American's best-selling, if not most distinctively titled, poetry collections are Poems (1821), Poems (1832), and Thirty Poems (1864). Despite his publisher's lack of imagination, the poet himself produced works full of stark images such as "Rizpah," "A Forest Hymn," "To a Waterfowl," and "Thanatopsis." FTP name him.

Answer William Cullen Bryant

9. It followed a personal truce between the king and the Duke of Mercoeur, who had for a time turned Brittany into a pro-Spanish stronghold. Universities, charitable institutions, and civil offices were to be open to all regardless of creed, and Protestants were allowed to open their own schools and cemeteries in the towns where free worship was allowed. FTP name this decree issued by Henry IV in 1598, giving greater toleration to his Huguenot subjects.
Answer: the Edict of Nantes
10. His new album, under his real name, goes for a sort of thrash-punk sound. Yawn. Some of his lesser known works include “Life is a Fantasy,” “Havin’ a Roni,” and “Rosta Man.” He appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Claiming to be from the streets of Miami and Dallas, he also claimed he was a motocross champion, which he was not. FTP, name this rap star whose 1990 platinum single “Ice Ice Baby” inexplicably rocketed him to stardom.

Answer: Vanilla Ice

11. In 1677 his Hebrew Grammar was published. His 1670 book Treatise on Religious and Political Philosophy discusses a kind of pantheism. He may be best recalled for the work called Ethics and for being a Jewish-Dutch lensgrinder. FTP, name this philosopher.

Answer: Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza

12. One of his stranger theories was that life arrived here from outer space, probably on meteorites. His work with message transmission by submarine cables led to his establishment as a leading authority in the field. He invented the reflecting galvanometer and the siphon recorder, but it best known for something really, really cool. FTP name the developer of the scale for absolute temperature.

Answer: William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (acc. Thomson)

13. Like Kilimanjaro, it’s an extinct volcano with snow-capped twin peaks. The cultivated lower slopes give way between 5,000 and 15,000 feet to dense woodlands inhabited by leopards and elephants, then to glaciers near the top. FTP name this mountain just south of the equatorm the second highest in Africa, which shares its name with the nation it lies in.
Answer: Mt. Kenya
14. The apparent pregnancy of girlfriend Sally Athelney, forces the clubfooted protagonist to reexamine his life; even though she turns out not to be pregnant, Philip Carey, chooses to marry her anyway. This was an improvement on his humiliating relationship during medical school with the selfish waitress Mildred Rogers. FTP name this semiautobiographical 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
Answer: Of Human Bondage

15. His interest in Asian occult themes was so strong that he learned Sanskrit to read the Hindu texts in their originals. Hindu scales fascinated him too, and both interests can be seen in his opera Savitri and his Hymns for the Rig-Veda. FTP name the composer of the orchestral works Egdon Heath and The Planets

Answer: Gustav Holst
16. The only U.S casualty there on Mar. 16. 1968, accidentally shot himself in the foot. Although the 1st platoon of Charlie Company entered the town without being fired upon, they systematically killed between 400 and 500 civilians there. FTP name this small town in Quang Nai province of Vietnam, site of the war's most notorious incident.

Answer: My Lai

17. Robert Fick hit the last home run there; Dean Palmer got the last hit; and Todd Jones recorded the last out. Indeed, the home team left happy, beating the Kansas City Royals 8-2 on September 27 of this year. For 10 points, identify the stadium in which these events took place, formerly known as Navin Field and Briggs Stadium, but always residing at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

Answer: Tiger Stadium

18. He defined a bad leader as one who ignored the people's welfare and treated them unkindly and said the people would be justified in deposing or killing one. He was born in the state of Zou in modern-day Shantung; we know little else about this 4th century B.C.E. philosopher. FTP name this Confucian, best known for the then-novel assertion that human nature is good.

Answer: Mencius or Meng Ke; do not accept Meng-Tzu or Mengzi (that's his book)

19. Also known as the dictyosome, it may contain up to 30 cisternae, although more typically it’s about six. In pnat cells, both organic and inorganic scales are formed here before being transported to the periphery. In animals, it unites or disunites sugar units with proteins and then wraps them and secretes them through vesicles. FTP name this organelle, named for its discoverer, co-winner of the 1906 Nobel in Medicine and Physiology.
Answer: Golgi apparatus or complex or body
20. Family financial problems forced him to leave Harvard and take a job as a subway construction timekeeper; eventually an admirer, Pres. Teddy Roosevelt, found him a sinecure at the U.S. Customs House. He devotd years to long blank-verse narratives on Arthurian legends, but he’s better remembered for short poems, many set in Tilbury Town. FTP name the author of “Many Are Called”, “Mr. Flood’s Party,” “Richard Cory,” and “Miniver Cheevy.”
Answer: Edwin Arlington Robinson
21. In 1807, he was made governor of Louisiana Territory. He had been a personal secretary of Thomas Jefferson. He had taken the Marias River in returning from Fort Clapstock. His 1809 death at an inn along the Natchez Trace is shrouded in mystery, but his expedition with William Clark is not. FTP, name him.

Answer: Meriwether Lewis

TOSSUPS -- ROUND 6 CENTER OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE OPEN/ROLLAPALOOZA 1999

1. He died of myasthenia gravis in 1996. His later works included The Windfall, on the Adam and Eve story, and The Hollow in the Hills, on his personal philosophy. After the death of his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in the 15 years after his father died, he felt free to write the autobiographical Enchanted Places and The Path Through the Trees. But his literary success was eclipsed by his father’s works that "filched from me my good name and had left me with nothing but the empty fame of being his son." FTP name this Briton, who himself renamed his favorite toy bear from Edward to Winnie the Pooh.

Answer: Christopher Robin Milne (accept Christopher Milne)
2. His Il Cavallo, at 24 feet high, the largest equine statue in the world, stands today in Milan, where Duke Ludivico Sforza commissioned it in the 15^th century. Of course, it was only unveiled this month, after Nina Akamu oversaw its creation from the original plans in New York. For 10 points, name this artist, born in Florence in 1452, who also never saw the full fruition of another of his ideas -- the helicopter.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci [accept either Leonardo or da Vinci]

3. Its generic name is methylphenidate; its most common side effects are decreased appetite and difficulty falling asleep. It works by prolonging the time during which dopamine and norepinephrine remain active. FTP name the drug most often used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Answer: ritalin

4. It became a constitutional monarchy in 1964 and a republic in 1974. While many Third World nations became independent around that time, this one was European. It had been controlled by Phoenicia, Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Arabs, the Normans in Sicily, Spain, France, and Great Britain, as well as the Knights Hospitallers. FTP name this island nation with its capital at Valletta.

Answer: Malta

5. In learning theory it's used as an equivalent for interference by prior or subsequent learning, while in psychoanalytic theory it means control by the superego of impulses from the id. It differs from repression in that restraint is applied before the impulse is expressed. FTP give this term for the restarint of an impulse, drive, activity, or desire, which in Rod Stewart's “Tonight's the Night” is used 180 degrees wrong.

Answer: inhibition

6. You might think any question with the words “Bolivian coast” is just wrong. That’s because Chile seized the entire Bolivian coast, including the port of Antofagasta to forestall Bolivia’s threatened confiscation of a nitrate operation in the Atacama Desert. By 1880 Bolivia was landlocked and for good measure Chile was whipping up on Peru. FTP name this Latin American war of 1879 to 1883.

Answer: War of the Pacific

7. Odin’s Valkyries could only carry half the fallen warriors to Valhalla. The others were personally claimed from the battlefield by this first wife of Odin, who in Teutonic variants is often one and the same with his second wife Frigga. FTP name this Norse goddess of love and beauty.
Answer: Freya
8. Its definition does not include any reference to angles. You can determine its area by determining the product of its diagonals and dividing by 2, or by multiplying its base by its altitute. Examples can be found on playing cards. FTP name this quadrilateral with two pairs of straight, parallel sides, all of equal length.

Answer: rhombus

9. The King of Bohemia. The Archbishops of Cologne. Mainz, and Trier. The Count of the Rhenish Paltinate. The Margrave of Brandenburg. And the Elector of Saxony. FTP these seven officials had vested in them the right to choose, FTP, what office?

Answer: Holy Roman Emperor

10. It was made of crystal, ivory, and brass. We never learn the name of its inventor. We do find out that as the sun and moon are dying, giant crabs are the dominant animal life on Earth, and we also learn of an earlier phase (in the 803,000th century) with the enervated Eloi and their dependence on the brutal Morlocks. FTP name the object that gave us such knowledge, and you’ve named the 1895 novel by H.G. Wells.
Answer: The Time Machine
11. He owns Leapfrog, which makes toys that teach kids reading, and Children’s Discovery Centers of America, a chain of 270 day care centers. He owns part of Nobel Education Dynamics and has ties to both Hasbro and Mattel. He & his brother Lowell have given over a thousand teachers $25,000 cash awards for excellence -- and his foundation doesn’t ask for applications, since some might be squeamish about seeking money from a convicted felon. FTP name this poster child for ‘80’s insider trading, whose philanthropy hasn’t quite blocked out memory of his 22 months in the Federal slammer for securities fraud.
Answer: Michael Milken
12. It’s typically flanked to the south by either grassland or deciduous forest. Animals tend to be small ones living on seeds and twigs because plants suitable for grazing are crowded out by the dominant spruce, pine, and fir. It’s characterized by severe winters and persistent snow covers. FTP name this biome, extensive in Canada and Russia, which grades unevenly into tundra to its north.
Answer: taiga (accept Northern coniferous forest; do NOT accept tundra)
13. His collaboration with Igor Stravinsky continued after Stravinsky’s death with Symphony in Three Movements, Violin Concerto, and Duo Concertante. This was almost half a century after he’d choreographed Le Chant du Rossignol and Apollo for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. FTP name this Russian-American cofounder of the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet.
Answer: George Balanchine
14. At the age of 16, she was found unconscious by Colonel Wolfman with amnesia and a scar on her left cheek. Three years later, she is a special agent working for "Delta Red", a special forces division of M-16 and is later told that she once was Bison's lover. For ten points, name this female introduced in Street Fighter II.

Answer: Cammy

15. Matty Windrave is a British child who survives the fire-bombing of London, but the trauma of the event causes him to lose his memory, and his burnt skin makes him an outcast. He finds refuge in a used book store, where he meets two girls attempting to fire-bomb a young Arab prince who attends their school – Matty foils their attempt, falling on the bomb himself in order to save the prince. For 10 points, identify this 1979 novel about grace and sanctity, written by William Golding.

Answer: Darkness Visible

16. The protagonist is insensitive to the people closest to him, especially the two women he's dating -- the schoolteacher Indigo Downes and the singer Clarke Betancourt, whom he eventually loses to his saxophone

player. FTP name this examination of the life of jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam, a 1990 joint by Spike Lee.

Answer: Mo' Better Blues
17. A protege of ardent eugenicist Otmar von Verschuer, he is presumed to have drowned in Brazil in 1968, where he'd managed to escape thanks to the absence of the customary SS tattoo under his left armpit. Wounded on the Eastern front, he got a less risky assignment which allowed him to pursue his special interests in twins and dwarves. FTP name this physician, infamous for his sadistic "medical" experiments at Auschwitz.

Answer: Josef Mengele

18. What little is known of her life is that her husband died in 1001 and that she entered the service of the Empress Shoshi in 1005. Her Sarashina Nikki or diary reveals both humility and pride about the fame of her novel by 1021. FTP, name this Japanese author of The Tale of Genji.

Answer: Murasaki Shikibu

19. Without observations of this, we could not analyze the spectra of transition metals. Electronic spin resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance exemplify it with regard to unpaired electrons and nuclei. As predicted, the impact of applied magnetic fields on atomic or molecular energy levels may be observed in their optical spectra, FTP name this effect, whose discoverer shared with H.A. Lorentz the second Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902.
Answer: Zeeman effect
20. He reigned for two decades in Judah and solidified the peace with the northern kingdom, perhaps by subordinating himself to Ahab. Despite his alliance with the sinful Ahab, he sought to counter the cult of Baal and appointed Levites to most of his judiciary posts. FTP name this Biblical king, for whom there is no evidence that he ever did any jumping.

Answer: Jehoshaphat

21. It includes the story of the dentist, ironically named Dr. Lincoln, who refuses to treat the author's teeth for reasons of race. It also describes the five years the author remained silent, fearing her words had the power to kill after her uncles murdered the man who raped her at age 8. FTP name this autobiography, the first in a series by Maya Angelou.

Answer: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings