VETO 2011

Tossups by Washington (Nate Beutel, Carolyn Woods, Peter Senchyna, Andrew Hunter) and Rob Carson

Hastily edited by Rob Carson

1. Pierre Boulez’s composition Pli selon pli, or Fold by Fold, takes its title from a poem by this author about a mist disappearing over the city of Bruges. One of this man’s poems asserts that “Every thought sends forth” one of the title events, which occur in the manner this poet claims they do “even when cast in eternal circumstances from the depths of a shipwreck”. This poet produced a translation of Poe’s “The Raven” that was illustrated by Edouard Manet. Another of this man’s poems opens with the line “These nymphs I would perpetuate” and was adapted into a symphonic poem by Claude Debussy. For 10 points, identify this French Symbolist, who penned such poems as “A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance” and “The Afternoon of a Faun”.

ANSWER: Stephane Mallarme [or Etienne Mallarme]

2. One of its former dynasties featured such kings as Edward the Philosopher, John the Pious, and Alfonso the African. That dynasty took power from the Afonsine Dynasty, this country's branch of the House of Burgundy, after the 1383-1385 Crisis. Power in this country was usurped by the Hapsburgs when they seized the throne in 1580, but its independence was regained when John II led a rebellion in 1640. The dynasty he founded supplanted the House of Aviz and was named Braganza, and its later rulers named Pedro would hold power in Brazil. FTP, name this country, whose more famous Aviz leaders included King John I and Prince Henry the Navigator.

ANSWER: Portugal [accept Portuguese Republic or República Portuguesa]

3. A red biological stain that contains this element can stabilize lipopolysaccharides and inhibits calcium transport through plasma membranes. Trace amounts of it are added to titanium to make it more corrosion-resistant, and an iridium alloy of it is used in the tips of fountain pens. Like osmium and iridium, this element was also first extracted from the residue left behind after platinum ores dissolved in aqua regia. FTP, identify this rare transition metal in the platinum group whose name comes from the Latin name for Russia, and whose symbol is Ru.

ANSWER: ruthenium [accept Ru before it is read]

4. The first edition of this race was held in 1967 and was won by Australian Jack Brabham. The only man from the country where this event is held to win it did so in 1978, and the circuit where that event was held was named after him after he died in a crash in Belgium in 1982; his name is Gilles Villeneuve. In 2011, a lengthy rain delay interrupted this race, and the final lap featured Jensen Button passing Sebastian Vettel to win his first race of the season and the tenth of his career. For 10 points, name this Formula 1 race held on the Ile Notre Dame in Montreal.

ANSWER: Canadian Grand Prix or Grand Prix du (of) Canada

5. One of this composer’s works opens with a “Preambule” taken from his incomplete Variations on a Theme of Schubert and ends with a movement called “March of the League of David Against the Philistines”. That work by this composer consists of 21 pieces connected by an A-S-C-H motif. Another of his works was inspired by Jean Paul’s novel Flegeljahre. This composer of Carnaval and Papillons depicted a cardinal’s elevation in Cologne in the fourth movement of his third symphony. A year after he discovered Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C, he married the pianist Clara Wieck. For 10 points, identify this German composer of the Spring and Rhenish symphonies.

ANSWER: Robert Schumann

6. In an 1832 short story by this author two wounded soldiers flee through a forest from a battle, the elder one eventually succumbing to his wounds by a boulder resembling a tombstone. In a later novel, Miles Coverdale seeks a better life at Blithedale Farm. In one of this author’s more notable short stories, a man leaves his wife and encounters a stranger carrying a staff resembling a black snake, who then leads him to a forest clearing at midnight. For 10 points, name this author of “Young Goodman Brown” and The Scarlet Letter.

ANSWER: Nathaniel Hawthorne

7. Phil Karlton once said there were only two hard things in his discipline: using these entities and coming up with names. Despite the name, a translation lookaside buffer is one of these objects. Modern CPUs often have as many as three layers of these objects, and they can be divided into instruction and data types. They can be write-through or write-back and require a replacement policy such as least recently used. A small, fast piece of memory used to exploit locality, its levels in CPUs are generally labeled L1, L2, and so on. For 10 points, name this device used in computers to store recently accessed data.

ANSWER: caches [or caching]

8. They were alleged to have been produced with a Woodstock typewriter, and were dated from January 5 to April 1, 1938, thus allegedly revealing an acquaintance with George Crosley that persisted beyond mid-1936. Their procurer was a hunt-and-peck typer, so it's likely that his wife Priscilla typed them up before he returned them. Some showed pictures of fire extinguishers and life rafts, and in all they totaled 65 retyped pages, five rolls of 35mm film, and 4 handwritten copies of State Department cables. For 10 points, name these documents used by Richard Nixon in the case against Alger Hiss, briefly hidden by Whittaker Chambers in a namesake vegetable.

ANSWER: the Pumpkin Papers [accept equivalents to “the documents that Alger Hiss stole” before Hiss's name]

9. It can be stimulated extrinsically via the TNF mechanism, or via the Fas-FasL meditated model where the interaction between those two receptors results in the formation of DISC. It can begin intrinsically when the Bax protein increases permeability in the outer mitochondrial membrane, resulting in the release of cytochrome-c which then binds to caspases. At the end of this process, blebs form on the cell membrane. Brenner, Horvitz, and Sulston studied it in C. elegans, and the p53 tumor suppressor gene plays a key role in inducing this process in extensively damaged cells. Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie differentiated it from its analogue, necrosis. FTP, identify this process of programmed cell death.

ANSWER: apoptosis (accept “programmed cell death” early)

10. Prior to a 2010 Supreme Court decision, organizations of the same type as this one did not exist, but now there are at least 100 others, which are notably distinct from there more limited predecessors. When asked what he would do with money obtained by this organization, its founder responded “Give it to me and let’s find out.” According to its creator, this organization would allow its supporters to “have a voice, in the form of my voice, shouted through a megaphone of cash.” For 10 points, name this organization also known as “Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow”, which was approved by the FEC and created by a comedian who hosts a namesake “Report”.

ANSWER: Colbert Super PAC [accept Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow until it’s read]

11. This stratovolcano has been dormant for nearly 2000 years and its west summit is 21 meters taller than the eastern one. Alternate names include Jin-Padishah and a word meaning “Mount of Happiness” in the Adyghe language, and its most common name is derived from that of a legendary mountain in Persian mythology whose name means “high watch.” Its icecap connects to 22 glaciers which feed the Baksan, Malka, and Kuban Rivers, the last of which flows to the Sea of Azov. FTP, name this peak near the Russia-Jordan border in the western Caucasus that is the highest point in Europe.

ANSWER: Mount Elbrus

12. This nation's government recently distributed a photograph of its president and newly appointed governor Naem, which many claim was doctored to make them appear to be in the same room. Intense violence in its city of Homs has broken out in recent days, some of it between Sunnis and Alawites. The country’s revolt began approximately four months ago, escalated in part by a national call for a Day of Dignity. For ten points, name this country currently controlled by president Bashar al-Assad.

ANSWER: Syria

13. In one scene of this novel, the female protagonist tasers her rapist and inks his stomach with the words “I AM A SADISTIC PIG AND RAPIST.” Earlier, the male protagonist had enlisted her help in his investigation at the behest of an obsessive industrialist consumed by his daughter’s supposed murder. For 10 points, name this novel by Swedish author Stieg Larsson that chronicles the efforts of Mikael Blomqvist and Lisbeth Salander to discover the fate of Harriet Vanger.

ANSWER: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [or Män som hatar kvinnor; or Men Who Hate Women]

14. Works by this artist include a pastel drawing of a red haired woman in a green dress riding a white horse, and a series of depictions of the black-hat- and red-scarf-clad Aristide Bruand. This painter’s regular models include Yvette Guilbert, La Goulue, and Jane Avril. A balustrade cuts across the lower left corner of another of his paintings; that painting also prominently depicts a woman whose heavy white makeup glows an eerie green. For 10 points, name this postermaker and painter of At the Cirque Fernando and At the Moulin Rouge.

ANSWER: Henri de Toulouse-Latrec

15. “You did not come, and marching Time drew on, and wore me numb” opens his poem “A Broken Appointment” in which a man waits for a woman who does not love him, a recurring theme in this author’s work. One of this author’s poems describes an object formerly filled with “salamandrine fires” and “jewels in joy designed / to ravish the sensuous mind”. That poem tells of how the “Spinner of the Years” created an iceberg as the “sinister mate” of that object, the Titanic. In a more notable poem by this man, a bird has “little cause for carolings Of such ecstatic sound” on a bleak winter’s day, which the speaker observes while leaning “upon a coppice-gate”. For 10 points, name this author of “The Convergence of the Twain” and “The Darkling Thrush” who embraced poetry after the poor reception received by his novel Jude the Obscure.

ANSWER: Thomas Hardy

16. Some stories of his creation say that he sprang from a living rock or tree, but a sculpture on Hadrian’s Wall which also includes the earliest known representation of the twelve signs of the Zodiac shows him holding the Sword of Truth and Torch of Light while bursting from a Cosmic Egg. Created on December 25, this god fought against the first living creature, which a raven instructed him to follow after it escaped. His worshipers often convened underground or in dark rooms decorated like caves and he created the living world from the bodily fluids of a slain bull. FTP, name this deity worshiped in Persia and later glorified in a mystery cult followed by many soldiers in the Roman Empire, Sol Invictus.

ANSWER: Mithras (prompt on “Sol Invictus”)

17. The farthest headwater of this river is the North River in the Mesabi Iron Range near Hibbing, Minnesota, 1,900 milesfrom the mouth. Its various islands include the “Cemetery of the Gulf”, Anticosti Island, and an archipelago that includes Wolfe, Carleton, and Wellesley Islands. The origin of this river is found between Kingston, Ontario and Cape Vincent, New York, and it flows mostly through Quebec before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. This river is home to the Thousand Islands. For 10 points, name this river which flows east out of Lake Ontario and forms part of the Canada-USA border, as well as a namesake seaway.

ANSWER: St. Lawrence River [or Fleuve Saint-Laurent]

18. One of this man’s writings was titled “A Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed”. On the question of Jesus Christ, he argued against Pelagius’ contention that Christ was merely an example to follow and that salvation can be achieved without any divine assistance. Scholars have discussed the Ciceronian influences present in the fourth book of his On Christian Doctrine, while another of his major works describes the conflict of the title structure “against the pagans”, people dedicated to earthly pleasures who live in the City of Man. For 10 points, name this fourth and fifth Century theologian who created the idea of the “City of God” and who described his conversion to Christianity in his Confessions.

ANSWER: Saint Augustine of Hippo

19. One of these involving a happy or unhappy messenger extends another typically taken to involve cyanide. Another, intended to question hidden variable theories, has since been implemented in practice. One, generally called a certain type of “paradox”, involves brothers moving at different speeds. Including such things as Schrodinger’s cat, the twin paradox, Laplace’s demon, Maxwell’s demon, and the Brownian Ratchet, for 10 points, name these imaginary hypothetical situations used to explain a physical concept or interpret a theory.

ANSWER: thought experiments [or Gedankenexperiment]

20. One character in this work doesn’t have the naturally sunny disposition of his mother and doesn’t want to try to find the house with the hidden panel. Another character in this work extols the virtues of the Coca-Cola stock-owning Edgar Atkins Teagarden. That character’s wife puts money into a jukebox for their daughter June Star to dance to when the central family of this work stops at The Tower to eat Red Sammy’s Famous Barbeque. Bailey and John Wesley are the first of its characters to be led into the woods, followed shortly by the mother, June Star, and the baby. Then, despite deriving no pleasure from it, The Misfit shoots the grandmother three times in the chest. For 10 points, name this Flannery O’Connor short story whose title describes the decadence of the times.