random facts for quizbowl#2

Q: Name this state led by Greg Abbott.

A: Texas (accept TX)

Q: The law as passed is named for this physical process, because it bans abortions after this is detectable. North Dakota passed the first such law in 2013.

A: heartbeat (accept Texas Heartbeat Bill)

Q: In April 2022 this northeastern state, which is led by Ned Lamont, introduced a law that would prevent state courts from enforcing judgments under the Texas law.

A: Connecticut (accept CT)

what is the trophy shape for a grammy?

a gramophone

Q: Name this Platonic solid that has twelve faces.

A: (regular) dodecahedron

Q: A large dodecahedron appears in Reptiles, a lithograph depicting tessellation by this Dutch artist. His print Relativity depicts unusually arranged doors and staircases.

A: M. C. Escher

Q: A character named the Dodecahedron leads the protagonists to the court of the Mathemagician in Digitopolis in this 1961 novel.

The Phantom Toolbooth by Norton Juster

Q: This adjective describes “love” in the title of a 1964 John Coltrane album. In the title of the head of state of Iran, this adjective modifies “leader.” In the name of a Taco Bell menu item, this adjective follows “Crunchwrap.”

A: supreme

Q: This man was known as the “Hero of the Two Worlds” for his roles in both the French Revolution and the American Revolution.

A: Marquis de Lafayette

Q: Lafayette and George Washington forced the surrender of Charles Cornwallis at this final major engagement of the American Revolutionary War.

A: Battle of Yorktown (or Siege of Yorktown)

Q: The first joint operation between American and French forces was an indecisive siege of Newport, an important port in this New England state.

A: Rhode Island (accept RI)

Q: While developing a numerical model to perform this task, this man pioneered chaos theory and proposed the “butterfly effect.” Who was the man?

A: weather forecasting, Edward Lorenz

Q: This book’s protagonist finds a stick that is “just right for smacking” a tree before he goes sliding. Its collage illustrations received a 1963 Caldecott Medal, a first for a book with a Black protagonist.

A: The Snowy Day [by Ezra Jack Keats]

Q: This future Roman emperor’s fleet won the Battle of Actium.

A: Augustus Caesar (or Caesar Augustus or Octavian or Gaius Octavius or Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus)

Q: At Actium, Augustus’s forces defeated his former ally Mark Antony, who was supported by this Egyptian queen.

A: Cleopatra (VII Philopator)

Q: While Octavian and Mark Antony were allies, they joined with Lepidus to form this group of rulers.

A: Second Triumvirate

Q: In this city, Ellen Gates Starr founded a charitable institution based on London’s Toynbee Hall that was later led by Jane Addams. Hull House formed in this city in 1911, 40 years after it was mostly destroyed in a disaster blamed on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.

A: Chicago, Illinois

Q: This writer criticized “meaningless words” in his essay Politics and the English Language. He invented the word “doubleplusgood” for a novel set in the totalitarian state of Oceania.

A: George Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair)

Q: Oceania is the setting of this Orwell novel, which also introduced the words “doublethink” and “unperson.” This novel is named for a year.

A: Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984)

Q: In Nineteen Eighty-Four, “doubleplusgood” is an example of this restricted form of English, which the government imposes so dissent will become “literally unthinkable.”

A: Newspeak

Q: In 2021, scientists proposed using this body to store an “ark” with the DNA of 6.7 million species. The billionaire Yusaku Maezawa plans to use a SpaceX craft to fly around this body. In 2020, China’s Chang'e 5 spacecraft landed on what natural satellite of Earth?

A: (Earth’s) Moon (or Luna)

Q: They are examples of the “emission” type of these large clouds of gas found in galaxies. Their name comes from the Latin for cloud.

A: Nebulas or nebulae (accept emission nebulas or nebulae)

Q: The phrase “H II” indicates that H II regions contain hydrogen in this state. It typically requires 13.6 eV of energy to shift an atom of hydrogen to this state.

A: Ionized

Q: H II regions are often found where these objects have recently formed. They include red dwarfs and blue supergiants.

A: Stars

Q: In a 1748 work, this man divided governments into republics, monarchies, and despotisms. His treatise The Spirit of the Laws influenced the structure of the U.S. Constitution. A separation of powers into three branches of government was proposed by this French baron.

A: Montesquieu (or Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu)

Q: Name this geological epoch that followed the Pleistocene and which most scientists reckon we are still currently in.

A: Holocene Epoch

Q: “Holocene” is a song by this indie folk band whose debut album is called For Emma, Forever Ago. This band fronted by Justin Vernon is featured on Taylor Swift’s song “Exile.”

A: Bon Iver

Q: The later part of the Holocene is sometimes called the Anthropocene due to the impact of this species on the world’s ecosystems.

A: Modern humans (or Homo sapiens)

Q: In one game, this character fights robots called EMMIs and Raven Beak, a Chozo leader. The planet Zebes explodes after a fight between Mother Brain and this woman, whose Power Suit can form a Morph Ball. A 2021 game partly named Dread stars—what hero of the Metroid series?

A: Samus Aran

Q: Name this composer of works named after The Washington Post and the Marine Corps motto “Semper Fidelis.”

A: John Philip Sousa

Q: Sousa was dubbed the “king” of this genre often performed by military bands.

A: March(es)

Q: This Sousa march, originally intended for his operetta The Devil’s Deputy, was renamed after a U.S. landmark. It was later used as the theme tune for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

A: Liberty Bell March

Q: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge painted what animals “playing poker”?

A: Dogs

Q: Name this function that, for a positive integer n, is defined as “n, times n minus 1, times n minus 2, and so on down to 1.”

A: (n) factorial function

Q: The factorial function is denoted by this punctuation mark.

A: Exclamation point or exclamation mark (accept bang)

Q: This is the only value that is the result of the factorial function for two different numbers.

A: 1 [0! = 1! = 1]

Q: Studies of this body led to predictions of an unseen body by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier. Shakespearean characters name many of this planet’s moons, such as Miranda and Oberon. An axial tilt of over 90 degrees is exhibited by what seventh planet from the Sun?

A: Uranus

Q: In a 1937 children’s book, Marco imagines an increasingly fantastical procession along what title street?

A: Mulberry Street

Q: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was the first children’s book by this writer and illustrator, who later wrote The Cat in the Hat.

A: Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)

Q: The second children’s book by Dr. Seuss was named for this boy, whose “500 Hats” incur the wrath of King Derwin.

A: Bartholomew Cubbins

Q: In 2022, unrest spread from this country’s city of Zhanaozen after it ended price caps on gas. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s regime shot protesters in this country who opposed its ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Name this Central Asian nation led from a city once named Astana.

A: Kazakhstan

Q: The fastest-growing religious movement in the world is what evangelical Protestant movement whose practices include speaking in tongues?

A: Pentecostalism

Q: The Azusa Street Revival took place in this most populous city in Southern California.

A: Los Angeles

Q: Pentecostalism arose from the teachings of this man and his brother Charles, who were the British co-founders of the Methodist church.

A: John Wesley

Q: This constitutional amendment is the only ratified one to be signed by the president. It banned practices like peonage “except as a punishment for crime.” Name this 1865 amendment that abolished “involuntary servitude” and slavery.

A: Thirteenth Amendment

Q: The wheel on the center of the Indian flag symbolizes this concept.

A: Dharma

Q: Dharma is also one of the Three Jewels of this Indian religion founded by Siddhartha Gautama.

A: Buddhism

Q: One of the earliest references to dharma occurs in this oldest of the Vedas, which begins with the Gayatri mantra.

A: Rigveda

Q: Amy needs to know how many nickels she has, given that she has 3 times as many pennies as nickels, and the total value of her coins is 48 cents. By expressing the number of nickels as x and the number of pennies as 3x, she computes what number of nickels?

A: 6 nickels (and 18 pennies)

Q: Mount Everest is on the border of China and this country, which features the world’s only non-quadrilateral flag.

A: Nepal

Q: An AK-47 is featured on the flag of this country, which shares its name with the channel separating Madagascar from mainland Africa.

A: Mozambique

Q: In 2009 this country adopted a dual flag called the Wiphala to represent its indigenous people. The colonial Spanish silver mines at Potosí were in what is now this country.

A: Bolivia

Q: This hero gave up control of Argos to his cousin Megapenthes after accidentally killing his own grandfather Acrisius with a discus. He carried a helm of invisibility and a reflective shield when he decapitated a Gorgon. Name this hero who slew Medusa.

A: Perseus

Q: In 2019 a brick thrown by protestors killed janitor Luo Changqing in this city.

A: Hong Kong

Q: The protests were sparked by a bill that would have added China to the list of countries with which Hong Kong could engage in this legal process.

A: Extradition

Q: Despite the protests, this president of China ensured the passage of the Hong Kong National Security Law in June 2020.

A: Xi Jinping

Q: After this monarch’s envoys were killed by Shah Muhammad II, this man’s general Subutai brutally conquered the Khwarazmian Empire. His third son, Ogedei, finished off the conquest of the Jin Dynasty that this man started in 1211. Name this founder of the Mongol Empire.

A: Genghis Khan

Q: This illness is sometimes colloquially called “hydrophobia.”

A: Rabies

Q: In the 1800s, this French scientist developed the first effective human vaccine for rabies with Émile Roux. He also advanced the germ theory of disease.

A: Louis Pasteur

Q: Pasteur and Roux also developed the first vaccine for this bacterial infection, whose name refers to the coal-black lesions it forms on the skin. Sheep are particularly susceptible to this disease.

A: Anthrax

Q: This type of mathematical construct can be called “telescoping” if most of its terms can be canceled. If the partial sums of this type of construct approach a limit, it is called “convergent.” Name this type of mathematical construct formed by adding the terms of a sequence.

A: Infinite series

Q: In the Gospel of John, this figure says, “unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” He performs miracles including exorcisms, feeding a multitude, and walking on water.

A: Jesus (the) Christ (or Jesus of Nazareth or Yesua or Yeshua or Iesous)

Q: Jesus miraculously turns water into wine while visiting this kind of celebration at Cana.

A: Wedding (accept marriage ceremony, wedding feast, or marriage feast; prompt on “feast”)

Q: Jesus tells Peter that he will find a coin for paying the temple tax at Capernaum in the mouth of one of these animals. Peter’s previous profession involved capturing these animals.

A: Fish

Q: The final stanza of this poem notes that “all the world wondered” at the achievement of the title group, which is ordered to move “half a league onward.” “Into the valley of Death / rode the six hundred” is a refrain in this Alfred Tennyson poem set during the Crimean War.

A: The Charge of the Light Brigade

Q: The name of these features comes from a Norse word for “to gush.” These geologic features intermittently erupt superheated water and steam.

A: Geysers

Q: A geyser is a dramatic example of this geologic feature, which is a point where groundwater from an aquifer flows directly out on the surface.

A: Springs (accept hot springs)

Q: Geyserite, which forms in the pipes of geysers, is mostly made up of this mineral. This material common in sand is often made into moisture-reducing, gel-like beads.

A: Silica (accept silicon dioxide; prompt on “quartz” or “SiO₂”; do not accept or prompt on “silicate(s)”)

Q: On the shores of this lake, the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness is in Manistee National Forest. A strait connecting to this lake, called “Death’s Door,” is the namesake of Door County, Wisconsin. The shores of what Great Lake are home to the cities of Milwaukee and Chicago?

A: Lake Michigan

Q: As of April 2022, there are less than 40 inmates at this detention camp created in 2002 during the “War on Terror.” Located in the Caribbean, this place remains open despite calls for the president to shut it down.

A: Guantánamo Bay detention camp (accept Gitmo or Camp Delta)

Q: The Guantánamo Bay camp is on this island, which an American-backed force attacked in the Bay of Pigs invasion.

A: Cuba

Q: This other prison was central to an Iraq War scandal in which U.S. soldiers were photographed mocking and torturing naked prisoners.

A: Abu Ghraib

Q: The SI base unit for this quantity is defined in terms of the hyperfine transition of cesium-133. Special relativity is set in a four-dimensional manifold that combines space and this quantity. Distance traveled equals speed multiplied by this quantity measured in seconds.

A: Time (accept spacetime after “space”; do not accept or prompt on “second(s)”)

Q: Most of the Danube delta lies in this Eastern European country, which contains the historical regions of Moldavia and Wallachia.

A: Romania

Q: The Danube River empties into this sea north of Turkey.

A: Black Sea

Q: The Danube’s delta is the second-largest in Europe; the largest river delta is that of this river, the longest in Europe, which empties into the Caspian Sea.

A: Volga River

Q: This president ordered the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox in the “Saturday Night Massacre.” Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward investigated this president with help from the informant “Deep Throat.” He resigned in 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal.

A: Richard M(ilhous) Nixon

Q: Gravy and cheese curds are poured over french fries in this dish, which is especially popular in Canada.

A: Poutine

Q: In the Netherlands, fries are most commonly dipped in this condiment made from oil and egg yolks.

A: Mayonnaise

Q: In 2016, McDonald’s restaurants in Japan began selling fries coated with this ingredient, which forms the outer layer of Pocky.

A: Chocolate

Q: This team set an NFL playoff record with 28 first-quarter points in a January 2021 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. It reached the playoffs in 2020 three years after losing all 16 games in 2017. Baker Mayfield was the quarterback of this NFL team in Ohio.

A: Cleveland Browns

Q: This person was known as the “Maid of Orléans.” She was canonized in 1920, centuries after being burned at the stake by a pro-English bishop in 1431.

A: (Saint) Joan of Arc (or Jeanne d’Arc)

Q: Joan of Arc’s birthplace at Domrémy is now located in this European country.

A: France

Q: Joan assisted a French king with this name in reaching his coronation ceremony. The tenth French king with this name was overthrown in the July Revolution.

A: Charles (accept Charles VII or Charles X)

Q: This plant family includes a night-blooming cereus pollinated by bats. Plants in this New World family are mostly succulents to help them conserve water. The saguaro belongs to this family of plants, which often have spines instead of leaves and usually grow in dry environments.

A: Cactus (Cactaceae)

Q: A 1386 treaty of this name established the oldest alliance in the world between England and Portugal. St. George’s Chapel is in a castle of this name in Berkshire. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha changed its name to this.

A: Windsor (accept Treaty of Windsor, Windsor Castle, House of Windsor, or Windsors)

Q: What branch of zoology studies birds?

A: Ornithology (accept ornithologists)

Q: Before 2021, a journal now called Ornithology was named after this flightless bird that went extinct in the 19th century. It lived in coastal areas of the North Atlantic, including Canada and Iceland.

A: Great auk (or Pinguinus impennis; accept The Auk: Ornithological Advances)

Q: A sister journal, also renamed Ornithological Applications in 2021, was previously named after this type of vulture. The "California" species of this bird has the largest wingspan of any bird in North America.

A: Condor (accept California condor; accept The Condor: Ornithological Applications)

Q: In this novel, Granger recalls the myth of the phoenix after observing a nuclear strike. The protagonist, Guy Montag, works as a “fireman” who burns books.

A: Fahrenheit 451 (by Ray Bradbury)

Q: This creator of Sherlock Holmes said that Edgar Allan Poe’s character C. Auguste Dupin “breathed life” into detective fiction.

A: Arthur (Ignatius) Conan Doyle

Q: An acrostic poem dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe is among the rare poems by this horror author, who is better known for creating the evil deity Cthulhu.

A: H. P. Lovecraft (or Howard Phillips Lovecraft)

Q: This author of the novel It claims that Edgar Allan Poe “wasn’t just a mystery-suspense writer. He was the first.”

A: Stephen (Edwin) King

Q: In 2018, this country unveiled the largest statue in the world, a depiction of a former deputy prime minister called the Statue of Unity in its state of Gujarat.

A: India (or Republic of India or Bharat(iya) Ganarajya)

Q: Shah Jahan used marble in a mausoleum complex for his wife near Agra, creating this world-famous structure.

A: Taj Mahal

Who is the Pulitzer Prize awarded to?

a news organization, never an individual

what shape is the Pulitzer prize.

a circular coin known as a Pulitzer’s gold

what is the oscar trophy holding?

a crusader’’s sword

What is an oscar award officially called?

Academy Award of Merit

during what war was the oscar award statuette made of plaster?

WW2