A painting by J. M. W. Turner depicts one of these objects on a bridge and is titled Rain, Steam, andSpeed. The American businessman Ratchett is murdered on one of these vehicles in the AgathaChristie novel Murder on the Orient (*) Express. The island of Sodor is home to Thomas, a sentient blue oneof, for 10 points, what vehicles which run on rails and carry passengers?
Downdrafts near the rear flank of one of these phenomena create a distinctive "hook echo" onDoppler radar. These phenomena regularly develop from mesocyclones of supercells, and the (*) Fujitascale quantifies their strength on a numerical scale from F0 to F5. For 10 points, name these funnel-shapedcolumns of air that can cause substantial property destruction when they touch down.
Ironically, violence escalated in this country after a president gave a speech about it under a"Mission Accomplished" banner. Because of tensions over oil, this country invaded its neighbor tobegin the First Gulf War. In 1980 this country invaded (*) Iran under the leadership of Saddam Hussein.The terrorist group ISIS is named for Syria and, for 10 points, what country led from Baghdad?
This author wrote a legendarily unreadable stream-of-consciousness novel which begins with thefinal word of the final sentence, "riverrun". A novel by this author ends with a lengthy soliloquy whichends when Molly declares "yes I said yes I will yes". This author of Finnegans Wake depicted StephenDaedalus and Leopold (*) Bloom in another book. For 10 points, what Irish author wrote Ulysses?
Scrolls containing this text are produced by scribes called soferim and are read from every weekusing a pointer called a yad to avoid touching them. This text is usually stored in an ark and removedfor (*) synagogue services. The Five Books of Moses comprise, for 10 points, what Jewish scripture analogousto the first five books of the Old Testament?
Players defend Odin City in a tower defense game whose title begins with this word. A creature withthis name in another video game was created when its developer incorrectly set the dimensions of apig. In one song parody, the singer declares (*) "aw man" after saying the name of, for 10 points, whatgreen monsters from Minecraft which explode on proximity to the player?
This quantity does not change for adiabatic processes. If a system reaches maximum entropy, thatsystem experiences a "death" named for this kind of energy. Exothermic reactions generate this typeof energy, which can be transferred by (*) radiation, convection, and conduction. For 10 points, name thistype of energy, more of which is possessed by objects with a higher temperature.
This artist excluded shadows from his painting Bedroom in Arles. This artist painted numerousself-portraits, including one "With Bandaged Ear", depicting the aftermath of his (*) cutting his ear off.A cypress tree juts into the left side of one famous painting by this artist, which also features a swirling skyabove the village of Saint-Remy. For 10 points, name this Dutch artist of Starry Night.
According to one myth from this country, there were originally ten suns, but nine of them were shotout of the sky by the archer Houyi. This country's traditional folklore features legendary figures calledthe Eight Immortals and a deity known as the (*) Jade Emperor. Chang'e is the moon goddess of, for 10points, what country whose mythology was influenced by Confucianism and Taoism?
These structures primarily consist of mineralized collagen, and the ears contain three of theseobjects to conduct sound. New blood cells are produced inside these structures. These structures areweakened in (*) osteoporosis, and their interior contains marrow. The femur is the largest of, for 10 points,what hard objects which make up the skeleton?
The Kahama chimpanzee community was disbanded after chimpanzees in Gombe National Parkengaged in this activity, which was documented by Jane Goodall. The Chinese strategist Sun Tzu wrotea book about the (*) "Art" of this activity. The Geneva Convention established laws governing, for 10 points,what activity in which large groups or nations engage in armed conflict?
One symbol of a 1956 revolution in this country was its flag with a hole cut out of the middle; afterthat revolution failed it was led by János Kadar (YAH-nosh KAH-dar), a proponent of "goulashcommunism", named for a popular national dish. This country once formed a dual monarchy with (*)Austria, its western neighbor. For 10 points, name this country now led by Viktor Orbán from Budapest.
Only numbers congruent to 1 or 5 mod 6 can have this property. Numbers of this type which areone less than a power of two are named for Mersenne. According to the fundamental theorem ofarithmetic, every positive integer can be expressed uniquely as a (*) product of these numbers. The Sieveof Eratosthenes can be used to find, for 10 points, what numbers only divisible by one and themselves?
Poems from this country include the Acmeist "Requiem" and one in which the title character duelsLensky for the love of Tatyana. In addition to Eugene Onegin, another work from this country starsIvan, Alyosha, and Dmitri, the title Brothers (*) Karamazov. Raskolnikov commits murder in Crime andPunishment, a work from, for 10 points, what country, where it is set in St. Petersburg?
This country's Dodecanese island group actually consists of fifteen islands. In ancient times, shipswere dragged over an isthmus in this country using a road called the Diolkos. Many migrants toEurope try to reach this country's islands of Kos and Lesbos. (*) Rhodes and Crete are islands in thiscountry, whose capital contains the Parthenon. For 10 points, what country is led from Athens?
Horace Hunley developed one of these vehicles for the Confederacy, but it went down three times,the second of which killed Hunley himself. A Soviet one of these vehicles, K-129, was salvaged by theCIA after it sank. In 1915, the RMS (*) Lusitania was sunk by one of these vehicles, which the Germanscalled U-boats. Periscopes are used by, for 10 points, what naval vessels which can travel underwater?
Dust clouds in this object create a "Zone of Avoidance" which impedes astronomers' observationsof the sky beyond it. The center of this object contains the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* ("Astar"), and this (*) galaxy is orbited by the two Magellanic clouds. This galaxy is predicted to collide withAndromeda in three billion years. For 10 points, name this galaxy in which we live.
People in one of these places wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, causing theSupreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines. The National Guard protected the Little Rock Nine as theyattended one of these places. The Supreme Court reversed the (*) "separate but equal" doctrine in a caseabout these places. Brown v. Board desegregated, for 10 points, what places where students go to learn?
One poem by this author calls its title entity "fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action". In hismost famous poem, this man calls his home city "Tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads,and City of the Big Shoulders". The line "The (*) fog comes in on little cat feet" was written by, for 10points, what American poet of “Grass” and “Chicago”?
This state's northwest is home to Shiprock, an eroded volcanic plug held sacred by the region'snative population. The White Sands National Monument lies in the southern part of this state, betweenthe cities of Alamogordo and Las Cruces. It's not Nevada, but this state's city of (*) Roswell is associatedwith an alleged UFO. For 10 points, name this Southwestern state whose capital is Santa Fe.
[10] Name this religion founded by Baha'u'llah which is based from the Universal House of Justice. This religion believes in the equal validity of all other faiths and is symbolized by a nine pointed star.
[10] The aforementioned Universal House of Justice is located on Mount Carmel in this country's city of Haifa.
[10] Bahá'ís must do the "obligatory" type of this religious action once a day. Muslims perform this action five times a day at specified times, which are called out by a muezzin.
[10] The rain-shadow effect results in very dry regions on one side of these large geographical formations. These landforms block the movement of moisture-containing clouds over them; American examples include the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies.
[10] South Asia experiences an extremely rainy season during the middle of the year, which is given this name, which also refers to seasonal winds which blow moisture from the ocean to the Indian subcontinent.
[10] This regularly-occurring phenomenon can cause wet, rainy weather in the southern United States, along with dry, warm weather in Southeast Asia. Its most obvious sign is a horizontal band of warm Pacific ocean water.
[10] At the behest of the FBI, this city's police department drugged young black activist Fred Hampton and shot him 99 times in his sleep. More recently, this city's police department has come under fire for running an extrajudicial "black site" at Homan Square.
[10] The Chicago Police Department falsely claimed to the media that Hampton had been killed during a chaotic gunfight with members of this civil rights activist organization named for a type of wild cat. No such gunfight occurred.
[10] The FBI also sent this man a blackmail letter demanding that he commit suicide. This man delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington.
[10] Name this first novel in which Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which transport Meg, Calvin and Charles through Space-Time, a novel by Madeleine L'Engle.
[10] In A Wrinkle In Time, the characters land on the planet Camazotz where they meet this main antagonist of the novel, who kidnaps Charles Wallace.
[10] Meg and Calvin's parents in A Wrinkle in Time both have this general occupation also held by Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin.
[10] Name this nitrogen-fixing legume which is the most valuable U.S. agricultural export. A "textured vegetable product" made from this crop is a common meat substitute.
[10] This company, which has been acquired by Bayer, made a genetically modified soybean that was immune to its Roundup pesticide and the first commercial potato plants that produced the insecticide Bt.
[10] Soybeans are primarily grown in the U.S. in the Midwest, a region which is also noted for its production of this crop. This food can be eaten "on the cob" or processed into a namesake "high fructose syrup".
[10] Name this short-period comet which becomes visible from Earth once every 76 years.
[10] This author was born in 1835, the same year Halley's Comet came, and said that he expected to go out with it. He did so, dying in 1910, after creating such characters as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
[10] The earliest known depiction of Halley's Comet is on the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts this battle in which William the Conqueror defeated Harold Godwinson and cemented his conquest of England.
[10] Identify these facilities, which trans activist Gavin Grimm also won the right to access in another state in a lawsuit against the Gloucester County school board.
[10] Grimm is a resident of this state, whose state legislature includes trans woman Danica Roem and which passed a namesake "Values Act" in 2020 granting sweeping legal protections to LGBT+ people.
[10] Roem's campaign was described as "really, really boring" for focusing heavily not on her gender but on her commitment to fix this problem on Route 28, an important commuter artery in her suburban district. Among the solutions she proposed to fix this problem were fewer stoplights and more overpasses.
[10] Name these phenomena, examples of which include those carrying light and sound. These phenomena also occur on bodies of water, where they can hurt ships if they are sufficiently large.
[10] This quantity is the magnitude of the maximum displacement from the equilibrium position during an oscillation and is always positive. It effectively measures the height of waves.
[10] When two waves collide, this phenomenon occurs. It has both "constructive" and "destructive" types and involves the waves affecting each other.
[10] Name this Greek primordial deity, father of the Titans, who was defeated by his son, Kronos. He is the personification of the sky, and is the only specifically Greek deity to have a planet named after them.
[10] These fifty-headed, many-armed giants, another set of children of Ouranos and Gaia, helped the Olympians overthrow the Titans. They included Cottus, Gyges, and Briares.
[10] According to Hesiod, the fight between Kronos and Ouranos led to the birth of this Greek goddess of love and beauty after Ouranos's blood dripped into the sea.
[10] Name this American president who issued the Specie Circular and was nicknamed 'Old Hickory'.
[10] As president, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which forcibly relocated Indian tribes to Oklahoma along this route.
[10] Jackson won this battle during the War of 1812, which occurred after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed.
[10] Name this ballet featuring Prince Siegfried and his lover Odette, who has a spell put on her by Von Rothbart, causing her to transform into one of the title birds.
[10] This Russian composer wrote Swan Lake in addition to The Nutcracker.
[10] During the first act of The Nutcracker, this object grows to a massive size as mice fill the room on the stroke of midnight.
[10] You might read r/quizbowl ("R slash quizbowl"), one of the thousands of communities on this website where posts are upvoted and downvoted, with more popular posts rising to the top.
[10] You might use this other communications platform for discussing quizbowl. In 2020, this company changed its motto from "Chat for Gamers" to "Your place to talk".
[10] If you actually want to play quizbowl online, you might use this videoconferencing software that has become widely popular during the coronavirus pandemic. After early criticism over poor digital security features, it took a 90-day break from releasing non-security features to address concerns.
[10] Name this set of numbers, which are denoted by a double-struck Z. This set of numbers includes all of the whole numbers and their negatives.
[10] This theorem concerns a general class of Diophantine equations. It states that if you know the remainders when a number is divided by several integers, you can uniquely determine the remainder when that number is divided by their product.
[10] One of the most famous Diophantine equations is the subject of this French mathematician’s “last theorem”, which states that that the equation "a to the n plus b to the n equals c to the n" has no solutions in the integers if n is greater than 2 and was finally proved by Andrew Wiles in 1995.
[10] Name this European capital city on the River Liffey, whose other statues include one of the folk song figure Molly Malone, as well as a memorial to the victims of an 1840s potato famine.
[10] Dublin is the capital of this country, from which millions of people emigrated to the United States during the potato famine.
[10] One of these buildings on Dublin’s O’Connell Street is famous for serving as the headquarters of the Easter Rising. One of these buildings in New York City is engraved with a motto beginning “neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night”.
[10] Identify this title character of a Shakespeare play who attempts to expose King Claudius's treachery.
[10] This lover of Hamlet and daughter of Polonius drowns herself in the play's 4th act. She too gives her own soliloquy after Hamlet rejects her in a fit of madness.
[10] Hamlet is an example of a Shakespearean tragedy, a genre of play contrasted with this other genre. This genre describes plays and other works intended to cause laughter or amusement, and modern performers like John Mulaney practice its "stand-up" variety.
[10] Name this Roman emperor who was the first emperor to commit suicide, after learning that he had been sentenced to death in absentia.
[10] After the Great Fire of Rome, Nero singled out members of this religious group for persecution. Constantine the Great was the first emperor to convert to this religion, establishing the Roman state church which would eventually give rise to this religion's Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches.
[10] Under the rule of Emperor Nerva, Christianity was recognized as a separate religion by making Christians exempt from the annual tax placed on members of this other religion. This religion's holiday of Tisha B'Av commemorates the destruction of its temple by the Romans.
[10] Name this short story in which the protagonist confesses to murdering his landlord after hearing the title object beating under his floorboards.
[10] This American author penned "The Tell-Tale Heart." He is also known for poems such as "Annabel Lee" and "The Bells."
[10] This other story by Poe takes place at a masquerade ball hosted by Prince Prospero in order to hide from the title plague. A mysterious figure dressed as a victim of the disease arrives at the ball and kills the guests in this story.
[10] Name this Eastern European country which was led by Nicolae Ceaușescu ( chow-SHESS-koo) until 1989, when he fled its capital and was executed by firing squad.
[10] Ceaușescu was executed on this holiday. A "truce" named for this holiday occurred when British and German troops abandoned their arms to play soccer on it during World War I.
[10] Ceaușescu banned this practice in Romania, leading to many children being abandoned. This medical procedure was the subject of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.
[10] Name this sculpture whose subject is sitting with his hand supporting his chin in a contemplating pose.
[10] The Thinker was created by Auguste Rodin for The Gates of Hell, a sculpture based off of this Italian author's Inferno.
[10] Auguste Rodin also created this sculpture depicting six leaders of a French city that was besieged during the Hundred Years' War.
[10] Name this organ which resembles an oversized lymph node and which filters blood by destroying old red blood cells.
[10] Many immune conditions, such as Hodgkin's disease and mononucleosis, can result in splenomegaly, a condition in which the spleen undergoes this kind of change. A description is acceptable.
[10] The spleen lies against the wall of this digestive organ, which contains gastric acid and in which food is broken down and digested.