Test yer knawledge
Tuesday, March 07, 2006Domestic Affairs:
$200: What Cabinet department would oversee a card-check system?
$400: Which Supreme Court Justice sat on the commission that wrote the Federal Sentencing Guidelines?
$600: What crop receives the largest share of federal agricultural subsidies?
$800: Alain Enthoven worked for DOD in the 1960s. What area of domestic policy is he now known for?
$1000: What kind of environment does IDEA require?
Foreign/Military Affairs:
$200: If Castro died, who is the individual thought most likely to replace him?
$400: What religion do Uighurs practice, and in what country do they generally live?
$600: Who is the president of Kazakhstan?
$800: How many aircraft carriers do the Chinese have?
$1000: What's the next rank after Captain in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, respectively?
Science:
$200: What atomic element comprises most of the mass of the sun?
$400: Sum this infinite series: 4 - 4/3 + 4/5 - 4/7 ...
$600: What do the letters A, C, G, T correspond to? (You don't have to recall precisely what they stand for.)
$800: What does the Black/Scholes formula calculate?
$1000: If visible light just passes through carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, how can that carbon dioxide contribute to global warming?
General Political History:
$200: In 1979, President Carter gave a speech in which he referred to a "crisis of confidence." What popular name is ascribed to this speech? (Bonus: who wrote it?)
$400: Who fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox?
$600: Who was Bush 41's OMB director?
$800: What presidential candidate features in the book "On Wings Of Eagles"?
$1000: What significant vote did Congresswoman Mezvinsky cast?
General Knowledge:
$200: What was the title of Martin Scorsese's movie based on the book "Wiseguy"?
$400: Where is Edgartown?
$600: What is a Dyson sphere?
$800: What comedian worked on Jim Garrison's investigation of the Kennedy assassination?
$1000: Complete the title of a famous article on social network theory: "The Strength Of ____ ____."
Answers below.
* * *
Domestic Affairs:
$200: What Cabinet department would oversee a card-check system? [card check is a way of certifying a union, so Labor]
$400: Which Supreme Court Justice sat on the commission that wrote the Federal Sentencing Guidelines? [Breyer]
$600: What crop receives the largest share of federal agricultural subsidies? [corn]
$800: Alain Enthoven worked for DOD in the 1960s. What area of domestic policy is he now known for? [health care; the Clinton plan was based in part on his ideas]
$1000: What kind of environment does IDEA require? ["least restricted"; it refers to the academic environment provided to children with disabilities]
Foreign/Military Affairs:
$200: If Castro died, who is the individual thought most likely to replace him? [his brother Raul]
$400: What religion do Uighurs practice, and in what country do they generally live? [Chinese Muslims]
$600: Who is the president of Kazakhstan? [Nursultan Nazarbayev]
$800: How many aircraft carriers do the Chinese have? [none, but they are talking about building one]
$1000: What's the next rank after Captain in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, respectively? [Major and Rear Admiral -- the key point is that Captain is a much more senior rank in the Navy]
Science:
$200: What atomic element comprises most of the mass of the sun? [hydrogen]
$400: Sum this infinite series: 4 - 4/3 + 4/5 - 4/7 ... [pi, 3.14159 ...]
$600: What do the letters A, C, G, T correspond to? (You don't have to recall precisely what they stand for.) [the nucleotides which make up DNA and form the genetic code -- adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine]
$800: What does the Black/Scholes formula calculate? [the value of an option contract]
$1000: If visible light just passes through carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, how can that carbon dioxide contribute to global warming? [it absorbs the sun's infrared radiation, which is not visible]
General Political History:
$200: In 1979, President Carter gave a speech in which he referred to a "crisis of confidence." What popular name is ascribed to this speech? (Bonus: who wrote it?) [the "malaise" speech, written by Chris Matthews]
$400: Who fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox? [Assistant Attorney General Robert Bork]
$600: Who was Bush 41's OMB director? [Dick Darman]
$800: What presidential candidate features in the book "On Wings Of Eagles"? [Ross Perot]
$1000: What significant vote did Congresswoman Mezvinsky cast? [the deciding vote in the House for Clinton's economic package]
General Knowledge:
$200: What was the title of Martin Scorsese's movie based on the book "Wiseguy"? [Goodfellas]
$400: Where is Edgartown? [Martha's Vineyard, Mass.]
$600: What is a Dyson sphere? [a hypothetical man-made structure on which people could live that would encircle the entire sun, suggested by physicist Freeman Dyson]
$800: What comedian worked on Jim Garrison's investigation of the Kennedy assassination? [Mort Sahl; his interest in the assassination tanked his career]
$1000: Complete the title of a famous article on social network theory: "The Strength Of ____ ____." [Mark Granovetter, "The Strength Of Weak Ties" -- posits that people obtain more information through "weak ties" (e.g., friends of friends) than close friends and relations, because they have less information that overlaps with what you already know]






