2020 FLopen - Specific Question Discussion

[TaylorH]

Talk about specific questions here.

[VSCOelasticity]

From the 11 packets everyone heard at the main site, I edited the following history questions. Any issues with them should be addressed to me.

• Tossups: Tupac Amaru II, Algerian War of Independence, Lepidus, IWW
• Bonuses: French revolution stuff, Sandanistas, cacerolazos/Chavez/Allende, three unifiers of Japan

[The Sawing-Off of Manhattan Island]

Can I the computer science tu on motion? I remember buzzing on what I think is a clue about sift and not knowing what to say, then negging with feature transforms (which I think should be promptable?)

[VSCOelasticity]

Can I the computer science tu on motion? I remember buzzing on what I think is a clue about sift and not knowing what to say, then negging with feature transforms (which I think should be promptable?)

Note to moderators: please read the answer line carefully before reading the question.
4. Description acceptable. The Hamburg Taxi sequence tests algorithms that estimate this process. This process is estimated by an algorithm that switches to the small diamond search pattern when minimal block distortion occurs at the center point of the large diamond search pattern. Algorithms that step down Gaussian pyramids, applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm at each step, can estimate this process at large scales. The aperture problem refers to the ambiguity inherent in using optical flow to estimate this process. Max Wertheimer’s notion of (*) common fate motivates the use of this process in image segmentation. This process appears to occur in a different direction than it actually does in the barber pole illusion. Small rubber balls are attached with reflective tape to suits in order to record this process. For 10 points, 3D models can be animated by capturing what general process?
ANSWER: motion [accept answers indicating that objects in an image or video are moving; accept descriptions of bodies moving; accept motion capture; accept answers of specific types of motion including, but not limited to: rotation, sliding, translation, circular motion; accept pixel motion; accept apparent motion; accept optical flow until it is read; accept tracking] (The second clue references the diamond search algorithm for block-matching.)

I don't believe the diamond search block-matching clue applies to SIFT (if that's the one you buzzed on). However, it looks like it is reasonable to have a directed prompt on identifying/detecting local features given the motion estimation clues.

[The Sawing-Off of Manhattan Island]

Can I the computer science tu on motion? I remember buzzing on what I think is a clue about sift and not knowing what to say, then negging with feature transforms (which I think should be promptable?)

Note to moderators: please read the answer line carefully before reading the question.
4. Description acceptable. The Hamburg Taxi sequence tests algorithms that estimate this process. This process is estimated by an algorithm that switches to the small diamond search pattern when minimal block distortion occurs at the center point of the large diamond search pattern. Algorithms that step down Gaussian pyramids, applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm at each step, can estimate this process at large scales. The aperture problem refers to the ambiguity inherent in using optical flow to estimate this process. Max Wertheimer’s notion of (*) common fate motivates the use of this process in image segmentation. This process appears to occur in a different direction than it actually does in the barber pole illusion. Small rubber balls are attached with reflective tape to suits in order to record this process. For 10 points, 3D models can be animated by capturing what general process?
ANSWER: motion [accept answers indicating that objects in an image or video are moving; accept descriptions of bodies moving; accept motion capture; accept answers of specific types of motion including, but not limited to: rotation, sliding, translation, circular motion; accept pixel motion; accept apparent motion; accept optical flow until it is read; accept tracking] (The second clue references the diamond search algorithm for block-matching.)

I don't believe the diamond search block-matching clue applies to SIFT (if that's the one you buzzed on). However, it looks like it is reasonable to have a directed prompt on identifying/detecting local features given the motion estimation clues.

Oh, I was referring to the line "Algorithms that step down Gaussian pyramids, applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm at each step, can estimate this process at large scales." - I see now its referring to something about optical flow, but the stepping down Gaussian pyramids and large scale estimation part both sounded a ton like SIFTs Difference of Gaussians step to me at the time. I don't know if that is actually problematic or just a weird quirk of how I played the question, oops

[Auroni]

The only question I remember not liking was the tossup on Tlön, because the way it played it out in all instances I was aware involved early recognition of what story was being described (since there's a limited pool of details from which the question could draw), followed by a testing of the player's memory as to which of the three title entities it could be, which is very hard given that the fantastical nature of the relationship between the three is of course the whole appeal of the story. So in other words, the entire difficulty of the question seemed to be mentally disambiguating between the three answers after parsing clues delivered at game speed, which doesn't seem to be the type of knowledge test well suited to a tossup.

[modernhemalurgist]

Can I see the Lagrange's Thm / Primes / OST bonus? I might have misheard the Cauchy's theorem clue (not that it matters much given the Euclid clue right after it) but I thought it was stated oddly.

[VSCOelasticity]

Oh, I was referring to the line "Algorithms that step down Gaussian pyramids, applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm at each step, can estimate this process at large scales." - I see now its referring to something about optical flow, but the stepping down Gaussian pyramids and large scale estimation part both sounded a ton like SIFTs Difference of Gaussians step to me at the time. I don't know if that is actually problematic or just a weird quirk of how I played the question, oops

Oh, that makes sense, especially hearing "Gaussian" and "pyramids" at game speed. I included the bit about the pyramid representation rather than just cluing the details of Lucas-Kanade to indicate we are talking about computer vision (if the pattern clue hadn't already indicated that). I'm sorry it misled you! I'm not sure how much it will prevent negs, but I rephrased the clue taking into account what you've said.

This process is estimated at large scales by applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm down a pyramid representation.

[VSCOelasticity]

Can I see the Lagrange's Thm / Primes / OST bonus? I might have misheard the Cauchy's theorem clue (not that it matters much given the Euclid clue right after it) but I thought it was stated oddly.

Sylow’s first theorem is the strongest partial converse to this theorem. For 10 points each:
[m] Name this theorem that states that for a group G, the order of any subgroup of G divides the order of G.
ANSWER: Lagrange’s theorem
[e] Another partial converse to Lagrange’s theorem is Cauchy’s theorem, which requires the order of the subgroup to be one of these numbers. Euclid proved that there are infinitely many of these numbers.
ANSWER: primes [or prime numbers]
[h] Two answers required. For a group G that acts on a set S, Lagrange’s theorem can be invoked to prove that the size of this set is equal to the index of this other set in G. For an element x of S, one of these sets is the subset of S obtained by the action of G on x, while the other set is the subset of G that leaves x fixed under the group action.
ANSWER: orbit [accept orb of x; accept O-sub-G of x] AND stabilizer [accept stab of x]

Briefly editing to say: yeah, the Cauchy's theorem clue is a little awkward and imprecise.

[The Sawing-Off of Manhattan Island]

Oh, I was referring to the line "Algorithms that step down Gaussian pyramids, applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm at each step, can estimate this process at large scales." - I see now its referring to something about optical flow, but the stepping down Gaussian pyramids and large scale estimation part both sounded a ton like SIFTs Difference of Gaussians step to me at the time. I don't know if that is actually problematic or just a weird quirk of how I played the question, oops

Oh, that makes sense, especially hearing "Gaussian" and "pyramids" at game speed. I included the bit about the pyramid representation rather than just cluing the details of Lucas-Kanade to indicate we are talking about computer vision (if the pattern clue hadn't already indicated that). I'm sorry it misled you! I'm not sure how much it will prevent negs, but I rephrased the clue taking into account what you've said.

This process is estimated at large scales by applying the Lucas–Kanade (“kah-NAH-dey”) algorithm down a pyramid representation.

I think that's a good change, thanks for taking my feedback into account! I should definitely have said this earlier, but computer vision is a pretty underasked topic so I was quite happy to see it being tossed up, and I quite appreciated this topic covering stuff I'm doing in my computer vision class this semester (I was tweaking some optical flow stuff we're doing for a project as I wrote this post up :O)

[AlexLi]

Can I see the tossup on vibration? I may be mistaken but if I remember correctly the pronoun was something like “this motion” which I feel overly narrows down the answer space once you realize it’s quantum chem (past packets seemed to use “this process”). In any case I enjoyed the tossup and am interested in seeing the early clues.

[Smuttynose Island]

Can I see the Lagrange's Thm / Primes / OST bonus? I might have misheard the Cauchy's theorem clue (not that it matters much given the Euclid clue right after it) but I thought it was stated oddly.

Sylow’s first theorem is the strongest partial converse to this theorem. For 10 points each:
[m] Name this theorem that states that for a group G, the order of any subgroup of G divides the order of G.
ANSWER: Lagrange’s theorem
[e] Another partial converse to Lagrange’s theorem is Cauchy’s theorem, which requires the order of the subgroup to be one of these numbers. Euclid proved that there are infinitely many of these numbers.
ANSWER: primes [or prime numbers]
[h] Two answers required. For a group G that acts on a set S, Lagrange’s theorem can be invoked to prove that the size of this set is equal to the index of this other set in G. For an element x of S, one of these sets is the subset of S obtained by the action of G on x, while the other set is the subset of G that leaves x fixed under the group action.
ANSWER: orbit [accept orb of x; accept O-sub-G of x] AND stabilizer [accept stab of x]

Briefly editing to say: yeah, the Cauchy's theorem clue is a little awkward and imprecise.

A couple of thoughts on fixes:

"Another partial converse to Lagrange's theorem is Cauchy's theorem, which asserts the existence of a subgroup whose order divides the size of the G and has this property."

Alternatively you could throw away the mention of Cauchy's theorem and instead mention that fact that Sylow's first theorem promises the existence of subgroups of order p^n.

EDIT: I did in fact mean "asserts."

[VSCOelasticity]

Can I see the tossup on vibration? I may be mistaken but if I remember correctly the pronoun was something like “this motion” which I feel overly narrows down the answer space once you realize it’s quantum chem (past packets seemed to use “this process”). In any case I enjoyed the tossup and am interested in seeing the early clues.

A doubly degenerate energy level of this motion is split by l-type doubling, which is analogous to how unpaired electrons induce lambda-type doubling. In molecules like water that belong to the C2v point group, the reducible representation corresponding to this motion is a combination of the A-sub-1 and B-sub-2 Mulliken symbols. This motion is analyzed by diagonalizing the mass-weighted Hessian (“HESH-en”) of the Born–Oppenheimer potential energy surface. The energy levels of this motion are shifted down by the square root of two when (*) deuterium is substituted for hydrogen. If the derivative of mu with respect to Q is nonzero for this motion, then it is active in a technique that prepares solid samples with nujol (“NEW-jahl”) oil. This motion must cause a change in polarizability to be Raman active. For 10 points, what periodic motions in a molecule absorb IR light?
ANSWER: molecular vibration [accept vibrational modes or normal modes until “mode” is read; accept specific vibrational modes: asymmetric, symmetric, wagging, twisting, scissoring, and rocking]

I'm glad you enjoyed the question :) This request reminded me to accept specific modes, which I forgot to do after the first mirror.

I agree about the pronoun/referent. I didn't want to be coy, but it does pretty much narrow the answer down to like...vibration or rotation.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I'd be interested in seeing the tossup on the Oaxaca Valley. I recall buzzing on the clue about "Glyph C" with "Yucatan" since there's an identically-named glyph that identifies a bunch of gods in Maya tradition. I think the clue specified something about Glyph C being on a headdress, which appears to be a way of depicting Cocijo, but I believe many of the Maya figures in question are also shown with headdresses; I'm curious if there was other disambiguating information in the clue (i.e. "thunder god" or something). Thanks!

[VSCOelasticity]

A couple of thoughts on fixes:

"Another partial converse to Lagrange's theorem is Cauchy's theorem, which exerts the existence of a subgroup whose order divides the size of the G and has this property."

Alternatively you could throw away the mention of Cauchy's theorem and instead mention that fact that Sylow's first theorem promises the existence of subgroups of order p^n.

Thanks for the suggestions! I think you meant "asserts"? Although abstract algebra is tiring.

I used some of your verbiage to rewrite the question text:

Another partial converse to Lagrange’s theorem is Cauchy’s theorem, which asserts the existence of a cyclic subgroup of G for each divisor of the order of G that has this property. Euclid proved that there are infinitely many numbers with this property.

[VSCOelasticity]

I'd be interested in seeing the tossup on the Oaxaca Valley. I recall buzzing on the clue about "Glyph C" with "Yucatan" since there's an identically-named glyph that identifies a bunch of gods in Maya tradition. I think the clue specified something about Glyph C being on a headdress, which appears to be a way of depicting Cocijo, but I believe many of the Maya figures in question are also shown with headdresses; I'm curious if there was other disambiguating information in the clue (i.e. "thunder god" or something). Thanks!

14. The “lightning in the sky” step fret design is found in Mound 195 of a Xoo phase secondary center of this region. Glyph C is typically found in the headdress of a god depicted with projecting teeth and forked tongue on urns from this region. Coqui-xonaxi (“KOH-kee sho-NAH-shee”) couples shared rulership of queches (“KAY-chez”) in this region, whose eastern arm includes the salt production center of Lambityeco. The primary center of this region contains more than 300 (*) stone bas reliefs of rubbery figures with strange markings near their genitalia called either nadaores or danzantes based on their position. Ceramics from this region have been found in the Nochixtlán Valley in Mixteca Alta northwest of it. For 10 points, Monte Albán, a center of Zapotec civilization, is located in what valley in southern Mexico?
ANSWER: Oaxaca Valley [or Valley of Oaxaca; prompt on southern Mexico; prompt on Mesoamerica; prompt on Central America; prompt on Central Valleys or Valles Centrales; reject “Valley of Mexico” or “Valle de México”] (The god is Cocijo/Cociyo.)

I wrote this question, and it didn't get much editing. I apologize for misleading you with the description of Cocijo. It might be good to either do as you suggest and describe Cocijo's role, or describe the glyph (which is something like stacks of maize and a waterfall?), or even invert the sentence so the "projecting teeth and forked tongue" comes first.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I wrote this question, and it didn't get much editing. I apologize for misleading you with the description of Cocijo. It might be good to either do as you suggest and describe Cocijo's role, or describe the glyph (which is something like stacks of maize and a waterfall?), or even invert the sentence so the "projecting teeth and forked tongue" comes first.

Oh, no worries - it happens when things are in a rush, totally understandable. I think it's probably best to give the role, though the forked tongue in particular, from googline around a bit, does seem to be a fairly distinct feature of Cocijo statues. In any case, I appreciate that this question existed and these other clues are quite good.

[VSCOelasticity]

I wrote this question, and it didn't get much editing. I apologize for misleading you with the description of Cocijo. It might be good to either do as you suggest and describe Cocijo's role, or describe the glyph (which is something like stacks of maize and a waterfall?), or even invert the sentence so the "projecting teeth and forked tongue" comes first.

Oh, no worries - it happens when things are in a rush, totally understandable. I think it's probably best to give the role, though the forked tongue in particular, from googline around a bit, does seem to be a fairly distinct feature of Cocijo statues. In any case, I appreciate that this question existed and these other clues are quite good.

Thank you! I inverted the sentence to put Glyph C at the end to try to prevent similar negs. The clue in question now reads:

Depictions of a lightning god from this region typically show them with projecting teeth, a forked tongue, and a headdress with Glyph C on it.

[modernhemalurgist]

A couple of thoughts on fixes:

"Another partial converse to Lagrange's theorem is Cauchy's theorem, which exerts the existence of a subgroup whose order divides the size of the G and has this property."

Alternatively you could throw away the mention of Cauchy's theorem and instead mention that fact that Sylow's first theorem promises the existence of subgroups of order p^n.

Thanks for the suggestions! I think you meant "asserts"? Although abstract algebra is tiring.

I used some of your verbiage to rewrite the question text:

Another partial converse to Lagrange’s theorem is Cauchy’s theorem, which asserts the existence of a cyclic subgroup of G for each divisor of the order of G that has this property. Euclid proved that there are infinitely many numbers with this property.

This sounds much better to me, thanks. At game speed I thought this was claiming that Cauchy's theorem applies only to groups of prime order.

[Grace]

Could I see the myc biology tossup? I think it's a fun and good idea, but a number of the clues sounded (to me) like they could apply to any transcription factor; indeed, I spent much of the tossup thinking "which transcription factor do they want?" I would love to get a look at the question text.

[VSCOelasticity]

Could I see the myc biology tossup? I think it's a fun and good idea, but a number of the clues sounded (to me) like they could apply to any transcription factor; indeed, I spent much of the tossup thinking "which transcription factor do they want?" I would love to get a look at the question text.

I'm glad you liked the idea! Let me know what you think after getting to read the question text.

14. Transient torsional stress during elevated transcription of this gene melts its far upstream element, or FUSE (“fuse”), allowing FBP to bind to FUSE, after which FIR binds, slowing down transcription. The BET (“B-E-T”) inhibitor JQ1 downregulates transcription of this gene. Along with K-Ras (“K-ras”) and AR-V7, the intrinsically disordered product of this gene is the most studied “undruggable” cancer target. This gene can potentially be targeted with small molecules that inhibit the binding of Max to its product, a basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper (*) transcription factor. Takahashi and Yamanaka used Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and the product of this gene to create induced pluripotent stem cells. This gene is translocated in the most common of Burkitt’s lymphomas. For 10 points, give this member of a proto-oncogene family named for Avian myelocytomatosis virus, whose name is frequently prefixed with a “c.”
ANSWER: c-myc (“mick”)

[Grace]

Thank you! I really enjoyed the "theme" of drugging myc, which is very academically relevant, fresh, and timely.

Part of the reason I was a bit lost through the tossup was that one of my favorite labmates actually worked for Jay Bradner, so I've heard all about JQ1 as a bromodomain transcriptional inhibitor, but it was never clear to me that the BRDs were specifically upstream of myc, as opposed to "(oncogenic) transcription generally." This was somewhat compounded by the next couple clues, which pointed very clearly to a transcription factor (intrinsically disordered, undruggable, helix-loop-helix) without nailing one down. As far as I know, Max actually binds a number of transcription factors, although perhaps if I'd thought harder, I would have figured out that myc was the only tossup-able one! As it was, I sat until all the other Yamanaka factors were named, since I was pretty sure all the Yamanaka factors were also transcription factors, haha.

[heterodyne]

Could I see the Nietzsche bonus (centered around The Antichrist I think? I can't remember exactly.) I'm rather sure that one of the answerlines needs to be altered or expanded, but I should double-check the text first.

[VSCOelasticity]

Thank you! I really enjoyed the "theme" of drugging myc, which is very academically relevant, fresh, and timely.

Part of the reason I was a bit lost through the tossup was that one of my favorite labmates actually worked for Jay Bradner, so I've heard all about JQ1 as a bromodomain transcriptional inhibitor, but it was never clear to me that the BRDs were specifically upstream of myc, as opposed to "(oncogenic) transcription generally." This was somewhat compounded by the next couple clues, which pointed very clearly to a transcription factor (intrinsically disordered, undruggable, helix-loop-helix) without nailing one down. As far as I know, Max actually binds a number of transcription factors, although perhaps if I'd thought harder, I would have figured out that myc was the only tossup-able one! As it was, I sat until all the other Yamanaka factors were named, since I was pretty sure all the Yamanaka factors were also transcription factors, haha.

Oh wow! I hope they were excited that it was clued in a quiz bowl question lol.

I had hoped those clues would pick out "myc" as the answer, but it looks like they failed, and I'm sorry they didn't reward your knowledge. I'll revise the clues about it being "undruggable" and its relationship to Max to be more precise. Thanks for your feedback!

[VSCOelasticity]

Could I see the Nietzsche bonus (centered around The Antichrist I think? I can't remember exactly.) I'm rather sure that one of the answerlines needs to be altered or expanded, but I should double-check the text first.

Yeah! Here it is:

A thinker argued that this process resulted in reproduction being regarded as sinful and caused life to be seen as a mere “investment” in prospects for the afterlife. For 10 points each:
[h] Name this process explained in The Antichrist as the reversal in which certain systems of morality elevate the weak over the strong. The thinker that coined this term wrote that this process inverted the natural order of master-slave morality.
ANSWER: transvaluation of values [accept Umwertung]
[e] Transvaluation and master-slave morality are among the key moral concepts presented by this German thinker in books like The Antichrist and On the Genealogy of Morals.
ANSWER: Friedrich Nietzsche
[m] A later section of The Antichrist claims that the clerical class inspires piety through the weaponization of a “holy” one of these things. Earlier, Nietzsche prefigured the postmodern theory of language in an essay on these things and their opposites “in a nonmoral sense.”
ANSWER: lies [accept The Holy Lie; accept untruths; accept falsehoods or falsities; accept “On Truth and Lie in a Nonmoral Sense”]

[TaylorH]

The only question I remember not liking was the tossup on Tlön, because the way it played it out in all instances I was aware involved early recognition of what story was being described (since there's a limited pool of details from which the question could draw), followed by a testing of the player's memory as to which of the three title entities it could be, which is very hard given that the fantastical nature of the relationship between the three is of course the whole appeal of the story. So in other words, the entire difficulty of the question seemed to be mentally disambiguating between the three answers after parsing clues delivered at game speed, which doesn't seem to be the type of knowledge test well suited to a tossup.

Totally a fair critique. With the answerline I was just trying to avoid TUing up "this story" since I find that people have a hard time with that full title. I guess by doing this I also made it harder for some players. Sorry about that.

[jinah]

Could I see the tossup on justice (from one of the earlier rounds)?

[TaylorH]

Could I see the tossup on justice (from one of the earlier rounds)?

A paper by David Sachs claims that an earlier thinker committed the fallacy of irrelevance by
equivocation of this concept with possession of a “balanced soul.” After forbidding all ordinary definitions of
this concept in frustration, one man rhetorically asks how he can know what twelve is without saying it is two
times six or three times four. Series of three “proofs” for why one should pursue this concept are an appeal to
(*) psychological health and the two seemingly redundant “pleasure” proofs. Near the beginning of a dialogue,
Cephalus and Thrasymachus’s ( “thruh-SIM-uh-kus” ) definitions of this concept as paying one’s debts and the
“interest of the stronger” are dismissed by Socrates. In that dialogue, Glaucon claims that anyone with the Ring of
Gyges ( “JYE-jeez” ) would not act in this way. For 10 points, the Republic seeks to define what concept by
describing characteristics of an ideal city-state?
ANSWER: justice [accept being just or acting justly ; accept dikaiosyne ; prompt on virtue ]

[jinah]

Could I see the tossup on justice (from one of the earlier rounds)?

A paper by David Sachs claims that an earlier thinker committed the fallacy of irrelevance by
equivocation of this concept with possession of a “balanced soul.” After forbidding all ordinary definitions of
this concept in frustration, one man rhetorically asks how he can know what twelve is without saying it is two
times six or three times four. Series of three “proofs” for why one should pursue this concept are an appeal to
(*) psychological health and the two seemingly redundant “pleasure” proofs. Near the beginning of a dialogue,
Cephalus and Thrasymachus’s ( “thruh-SIM-uh-kus” ) definitions of this concept as paying one’s debts and the
“interest of the stronger” are dismissed by Socrates. In that dialogue, Glaucon claims that anyone with the Ring of
Gyges ( “JYE-jeez” ) would not act in this way. For 10 points, the Republic seeks to define what concept by
describing characteristics of an ideal city-state?
ANSWER: justice [accept being just or acting justly ; accept dikaiosyne ; prompt on virtue ]

Thank you! Fun tossup, feels like a good balance of helpfully contextual but not transparent clues (which I would say was true of most of the philosophy questions I remember).

[touchpack]

Can I see the question on (presumably nucleophilic?) addition? I got a little confused and I heard in other rooms there was further confusion that led to a neg and I think there might be room to improve the answerline directives.

[Smuttynose Island]

I'd like to see the tossup on bismuth from round 11? The clue about Dirac points (?) tripped me up.

[Zealots of Stockholm]

The only question I remember not liking was the tossup on Tlön, because the way it played it out in all instances I was aware involved early recognition of what story was being described (since there's a limited pool of details from which the question could draw), followed by a testing of the player's memory as to which of the three title entities it could be, which is very hard given that the fantastical nature of the relationship between the three is of course the whole appeal of the story. So in other words, the entire difficulty of the question seemed to be mentally disambiguating between the three answers after parsing clues delivered at game speed, which doesn't seem to be the type of knowledge test well suited to a tossup.

Totally a fair critique. With the answerline I was just trying to avoid TUing up "this story" since I find that people have a hard time with that full title. I guess by doing this I also made it harder for some players. Sorry about that.

I thought this tossup was illustrative of really the only issue I personally had with this set's literature questions, namely that they occasionally featured answerlines which probed, in my opinion, "too deep" into the subject matter the question was asking about. Both this question on Tlon, and the question on the monastery from The Brothers Karamazov, which confused a teammate of mine who said he had just read the novel pretty recently (it didn't help that I negged him out of the question, haha), seem to fit this mold. Overall I thought this set was really good and fun, and I enjoyed the literature as a whole, I just thought these questions, and probably a few other examples that I can't remember off the top of my head, had this issue.

[VSCOelasticity]

Can I see the question on (presumably nucleophilic?) addition? I got a little confused and I heard in other rooms there was further confusion that led to a neg and I think there might be room to improve the answerline directives.

The bond between carbon and the L substituent is anti·peri·planar to a newly forming bond in a model of this type of reaction that assumes the M substituent has little effect. The stereochemistry of this type of reaction is reversed when B·O·M is used as a protecting group because it participates in chelation. A base-catalyzed reaction of this type forms cyano·hydrin. A species takes a non-perpendicular approach close to the small group in the Felkin–Anh model of asymmetric induction during this type of reaction. Enolates (“EEN-oh-layts”) attack (*) Michael donors in a reaction of this type that forms 1,4-products rather than 1,2-products. In the Wittig reaction, an elimination follows this type of reaction involving a phosphonium ylide (“IH-lid”). For 10 points, in what type of reaction does an electron-rich species form a new bond with the electrophilic carbon of a ketone or aldehyde?
ANSWER: nucleophilic additions [accept 1,2-nucleophilic additions; accept 1,4-nucleophilic additions; accept nucleophilic conjugate additions; prompt on addition]

[VSCOelasticity]

I'd like to see the tossup on bismuth from round 11? The clue about Dirac points (?) tripped me up.

This element is the heaviest of the elements in the mineral kawazulite, which exhibits 2D weak anti-localization, as well as possessing a Dirac cone near the gamma-point. Russia’s SVBR-100 and China’s Qixing III (“three”) are test reactors cooled with a eutectic of lead and this element. This element’s ferrite is a multiferroic with a small band gap and a high remanent polarization, making it apt for photovoltaic devices. A compound of antimony and this element was used to realize the first 3D (*) topological insulators. Previously thought to be the heaviest stable element, this element’s 209 isotope actually decays, but with a halflife longer than the age of the universe. The +3 (“plus-three”) state of this most diamagnetic element is more stable than its +5 (“plus-five”) state because of the inert pair effect. For 10 points, name this group 15 heavy metal found in Peptobismol.
ANSWER: bismuth [accept Bi; accept bismuth ferrite]

That clue was supposed to signal that kawazulite was a topological insulator, as I didn't want to outright say that yet.

[Smuttynose Island]

I'd like to see the tossup on bismuth from round 11? The clue about Dirac points (?) tripped me up.

This element is the heaviest of the elements in the mineral kawazulite, which exhibits 2D weak anti-localization, as well as possessing a Dirac cone near the gamma-point. Russia’s SVBR-100 and China’s Qixing III (“three”) are test reactors cooled with a eutectic of lead and this element. This element’s ferrite is a multiferroic with a small band gap and a high remanent polarization, making it apt for photovoltaic devices. A compound of antimony and this element was used to realize the first 3D (*) topological insulators. Previously thought to be the heaviest stable element, this element’s 209 isotope actually decays, but with a halflife longer than the age of the universe. The +3 (“plus-three”) state of this most diamagnetic element is more stable than its +5 (“plus-five”) state because of the inert pair effect. For 10 points, name this group 15 heavy metal found in Peptobismol.
ANSWER: bismuth [accept Bi; accept bismuth ferrite]

That clue was supposed to signal that kawazulite was a topological insulator, as I didn't want to outright say that yet.

I misparsed the "as well" as referring to "this element" and not "kawazulite." This led a, admittedly risky, buzz with "carbon" (well graphene) because it, I think, also has a Dirac cone near its gamma-point. I'm not sure if it is worth breaking up this compound sentence in order to add some clarity. To be clear, my answer was absolutely wrong, but it might nonetheless be worth reworking the original lead-in.

[VSCOelasticity]

I misparsed the "as well" as referring to "this element" and not "kawazulite." This led a, admittedly risky, buzz with "carbon" (well graphene) because it, I think, also has a Dirac cone near its gamma-point. I'm not sure if it is worth breaking up this compound sentence in order to add some clarity. To be clear, my answer was absolutely wrong, but it might nonetheless be worth reworking the original lead-in.

Ah, that's a good point! What do you think of this phrasing?

This element is the heaviest of the elements in the mineral kawazulite, which exhibits both 2D weak anti-localization and a Dirac cone near the gamma-point.

[rahulkeyal]

Could I see the tossups on "gaze" and "ringing a bell' (in drama)? For the former, I remember being a bit confused by the wording of the first line (particularly the inclusion of the title Sidelong Glance) as it made me mentally rule out an answer like "gaze", but I may have misheard the lead-in. As for the latter tossup, I wanted to take another look at the lead-in (which I think was from Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread?) and also see where the later clues went.

[VSCOelasticity]

Could I see the tossups on "gaze" and "ringing a bell' (in drama)? For the former, I remember being a bit confused by the wording of the first line (particularly the inclusion of the title Sidelong Glance) as it made me mentally rule out an answer like "gaze", but I may have misheard the lead-in. As for the latter tossup, I wanted to take another look at the lead-in (which I think was from Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread?) and also see where the later clues went.

You were right about the lead-in to the lit tossup (it was classified as Other Literature because of the later clues)! Here's the questions:

Griselda Pollock used Robert Doisneau’s (“dwah-NO’s”) photograph Sidelong Glance as a visual metaphor for how an idea described by this term can be negated. This is the final word in the title of a Bracha L. Ettinger book that presents her theory of “matrixial trans-subjectivity.” Tourists seeking authentic heritage experiences engage locals in a relation described by this word according to a book by sociologist John Urry. Shared, repressed, and (*) interrogating types of a relation described by this term characterize the repressive experience of Black women according to a 1992 bell hooks essay titled for its “oppositional” type. Laura Mulvey’s paper “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” popularized the use of this term to refer to a depictorial relation in which women are reduced to sex objects for the pleasure of men. For 10 points, give this term used in social theory to describe a prolonged look.
ANSWER: the gaze [accept the male gaze; accept the female gaze; accept the shared, repressed, interrogation or oppositional gaze; accept the matrixial gaze; accept the tourist gaze]

This event signals the beginning and end of a passage of a play in which two women repeatedly sing phrases like “think it is” and “lovelovelove” and quickly ask, “Philip need help you sir?” In a different play, this event occurs after a man misidentifies Hemingway as the author of The Sound and the Fury. A character in another play states, “experience teaches us that” when one observes this event, “it’s because there is never anyone there,” but is proven wrong by the entrance of the (*) Fire Chief. The line “Excuse me. Is this chair taken?” follows the first of many instances of this event that “reset” a conversation between Betty and Bill in David Ives’s play Sure Thing. The first line of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” mentions one of these events that marks the “parting day.” For 10 points, Victor Hugo’s Quasimodo performs what action at Notre Dame Cathedral to signal the hour?
ANSWER: ringing a bell [or ringing a doorbell; accept tolling a bell; accept a knell; prompt on jumps or breaks in time by asking “what sound accompanies those jumps in time?”; reject “ringing of a telephone”] (The play mentioned in the first line is Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread.)

[touchpack]

Can I see the question on (presumably nucleophilic?) addition? I got a little confused and I heard in other rooms there was further confusion that led to a neg and I think there might be room to improve the answerline directives.

The bond between carbon and the L substituent is anti·peri·planar to a newly forming bond in a model of this type of reaction that assumes the M substituent has little effect. The stereochemistry of this type of reaction is reversed when B·O·M is used as a protecting group because it participates in chelation. A base-catalyzed reaction of this type forms cyano·hydrin. A species takes a non-perpendicular approach close to the small group in the Felkin–Anh model of asymmetric induction during this type of reaction. Enolates (“EEN-oh-layts”) attack (*) Michael donors in a reaction of this type that forms 1,4-products rather than 1,2-products. In the Wittig reaction, an elimination follows this type of reaction involving a phosphonium ylide (“IH-lid”). For 10 points, in what type of reaction does an electron-rich species form a new bond with the electrophilic carbon of a ketone or aldehyde?
ANSWER: nucleophilic additions [accept 1,2-nucleophilic additions; accept 1,4-nucleophilic additions; accept nucleophilic conjugate additions; prompt on addition]

Yeah, I think a directed prompt on "addition" to say "what kind of molecule is being added?" would improve the way this played in some rooms. (my brain correctly recognized that "addition" was not going to be the answer by itself, but I couldn't come up with "nucleophilic" so I sat until the Michael clue (where saying "conjugate addition" got me points), while I know at least one other player negged).

[VSCOelasticity]

Yeah, I think a directed prompt on "addition" to say "what kind of molecule is being added?" would improve the way this played in some rooms. (my brain correctly recognized that "addition" was not going to be the answer by itself, but I couldn't come up with "nucleophilic" so I sat until the Michael clue (where saying "conjugate addition" got me points), while I know at least one other player negged).

Thank you for the suggestion! I've updated the answer line. To whoever negged, sorry about that!

[touchpack]

I'd like to see the tossup on bismuth from round 11? The clue about Dirac points (?) tripped me up.

This element is the heaviest of the elements in the mineral kawazulite, which exhibits 2D weak anti-localization, as well as possessing a Dirac cone near the gamma-point. Russia’s SVBR-100 and China’s Qixing III (“three”) are test reactors cooled with a eutectic of lead and this element. This element’s ferrite is a multiferroic with a small band gap and a high remanent polarization, making it apt for photovoltaic devices. A compound of antimony and this element was used to realize the first 3D (*) topological insulators. Previously thought to be the heaviest stable element, this element’s 209 isotope actually decays, but with a halflife longer than the age of the universe. The +3 (“plus-three”) state of this most diamagnetic element is more stable than its +5 (“plus-five”) state because of the inert pair effect. For 10 points, name this group 15 heavy metal found in Peptobismol.
ANSWER: bismuth [accept Bi; accept bismuth ferrite]

That clue was supposed to signal that kawazulite was a topological insulator, as I didn't want to outright say that yet.

Small nitpick here: adding the sentence "A derivative of salicylic acid containing this element is used for its anti-inflammatory and antacid properties" before FTP might make this rather challenging tossup gradate a bit better towards the end.

[VSCOelasticity]

Small nitpick here: adding the sentence "A derivative of salicylic acid containing this element is used for its anti-inflammatory and antacid properties" before FTP might make this rather challenging tossup gradate a bit better towards the end.

Fair point. I've changed the FTP.

For 10 points, name this group 15 heavy metal found in a derivative of salicylic acid used for its anti-inflammatory and antacid properties, Pepto Bismol

[Smuttynose Island]

I misparsed the "as well" as referring to "this element" and not "kawazulite." This led a, admittedly risky, buzz with "carbon" (well graphene) because it, I think, also has a Dirac cone near its gamma-point. I'm not sure if it is worth breaking up this compound sentence in order to add some clarity. To be clear, my answer was absolutely wrong, but it might nonetheless be worth reworking the original lead-in.

Ah, that's a good point! What do you think of this phrasing?

This element is the heaviest of the elements in the mineral kawazulite, which exhibits both 2D weak anti-localization and a Dirac cone near the gamma-point.

This is definitely clearer.

[kidgib]

Could I see the "hard problem of consciousness" tossup? I remember hearing it drop philosophy of the mind words early, and was frustrated I didn't buzz.

[VSCOelasticity]

Could I see the "hard problem of consciousness" tossup? I remember hearing it drop philosophy of the mind words early, and was frustrated I didn't buzz.

Andy Clark’s so-called meta version of this problem asks whether or not this is a problem at all, while a Francis Kammerer paper asks why the illusionism answer to this problem is unacceptable. Uriah Kreigler has subdivided this problem into the sub-problems of qualitative immediacy and indescribability. A paper by Ned Block referencing a Star Trek episode imagines a creature that is functionally the same as humans but physically distinct in extending this problem to account for (*) multiple realizability. New mysterianism is the position that this problem cannot be solved by humans. Solving this problem is sometimes analogized to “bridging” the explanatory gap. David Chalmers named this problem, which asks why brain events are accompanied by phenomenal qualia. For 10 points, name this problem from the philosophy of mind contrasted with the “easy problem.”
ANSWER: the hard problem of consciousness [accept the harder problem of consciousness; prompt on qualia; prompt on the problem of consciousness; prompt on multiple realizability until mentioned]

[kidgib]

Could I see the "hard problem of consciousness" tossup? I remember hearing it drop philosophy of the mind words early, and was frustrated I didn't buzz.

Andy Clark’s so-called meta version of this problem asks whether or not this is a problem at all, while a Francis Kammerer paper asks why the illusionism answer to this problem is unacceptable. Uriah Kreigler has subdivided this problem into the sub-problems of qualitative immediacy and indescribability. A paper by Ned Block referencing a Star Trek episode imagines a creature that is functionally the same as humans but physically distinct in extending this problem to account for (*) multiple realizability. New mysterianism is the position that this problem cannot be solved by humans. Solving this problem is sometimes analogized to “bridging” the explanatory gap. David Chalmers named this problem, which asks why brain events are accompanied by phenomenal qualia. For 10 points, name this problem from the philosophy of mind contrasted with the “easy problem.”
ANSWER: the hard problem of consciousness [accept the harder problem of consciousness; prompt on qualia; prompt on the problem of consciousness; prompt on multiple realizability until mentioned]

Thanks! I defaulted to thinking about "the hard problem" because of the word "problem" in the question, but this is probably due to my limited knowledge of the college canon.

[AGoodMan]

The only question I remember not liking was the tossup on Tlön, because the way it played it out in all instances I was aware involved early recognition of what story was being described (since there's a limited pool of details from which the question could draw), followed by a testing of the player's memory as to which of the three title entities it could be, which is very hard given that the fantastical nature of the relationship between the three is of course the whole appeal of the story. So in other words, the entire difficulty of the question seemed to be mentally disambiguating between the three answers after parsing clues delivered at game speed, which doesn't seem to be the type of knowledge test well suited to a tossup.

Totally a fair critique. With the answerline I was just trying to avoid TUing up "this story" since I find that people have a hard time with that full title. I guess by doing this I also made it harder for some players. Sorry about that.

I thought this tossup was illustrative of really the only issue I personally had with this set's literature questions, namely that they occasionally featured answerlines which probed, in my opinion, "too deep" into the subject matter the question was asking about. Both this question on Tlon, and the question on the monastery from The Brothers Karamazov, which confused a teammate of mine who said he had just read the novel pretty recently (it didn't help that I negged him out of the question, haha), seem to fit this mold. Overall I thought this set was really good and fun, and I enjoyed the literature as a whole, I just thought these questions, and probably a few other examples that I can't remember off the top of my head, had this issue.

I think I am sympathetic to Chandler's point of view regarding the Tlon tossup. On the other hand, while I also negged the Karamazov monastery TU (with "Karamazov house"), I chalk that up to my own lack of confidence in the correct answerline (I think I briefly thought "surely not?"). I feel like Brothers K is very much core-content that it is reasonable to toss up something pretty specific from the book, though perhaps a tossup on a character may have been less confusing to people?

[VSCOelasticity]

Thank you! I really enjoyed the "theme" of drugging myc, which is very academically relevant, fresh, and timely.

Part of the reason I was a bit lost through the tossup was that one of my favorite labmates actually worked for Jay Bradner, so I've heard all about JQ1 as a bromodomain transcriptional inhibitor, but it was never clear to me that the BRDs were specifically upstream of myc, as opposed to "(oncogenic) transcription generally." This was somewhat compounded by the next couple clues, which pointed very clearly to a transcription factor (intrinsically disordered, undruggable, helix-loop-helix) without nailing one down. As far as I know, Max actually binds a number of transcription factors, although perhaps if I'd thought harder, I would have figured out that myc was the only tossup-able one! As it was, I sat until all the other Yamanaka factors were named, since I was pretty sure all the Yamanaka factors were also transcription factors, haha.

Ended up changing two of the middle clues (mostly just the one about Max) to hopefully pinpoint the answer more precisely.

The product of this gene is part of an interaction network with Mga, MNT, members of the Mad protein family, and Max. The product of this gene is a basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper (*) transcription factor that was used along with Oct3/4, Sox2, and Klf4 to create induced pluripotent stem cells by Takahashi and Yamanaka.

[Grace]

I think this change is great and points very directly to myc. Thanks for taking my (only semi-informed) feedback into account!

[The Hands Resist Him]

Could I see the bonus part about rock edicts cluing from Ashoka? Our team answered "steles" instead, which I think should at least be prompted, although I might be missing something.