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100

A Type II error in statistics is a failure to reject a false null hypothesis in a test procedure. What is the two-word phrase by which type II error's are more popularly known in day-to-day vernacular?

False negative

100

Which president worked to save football from being banned in the United States?

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President.
At the turn of the 20th century, America’s gridirons were brutal. Armed with little protective equipment, football players suffered gruesome injuries and even death. In 1904 there were 18 fatalities reported during that one season alone. Reports of all the bloodshed led to an outcry for reform or abolishment of the game. The crisis became such an issue that President Roosevelt got involved. Roosevelt had long been an enthusiastic supporter of football, but acknowledged that reform was needed. His son Theodore Jr. then played on the Harvard freshman team so he had a personal interest in reforming the game as well.

Fresh off the heels of negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt met with head coaches and representatives of premier colleges–Harvard, Yale, Princeton–at the White House on October 9, 1905, urging them to curb excessive violence in football. The schools in return released a statement condemning brutality and pledged to keep the game clean and fair. Yet fatalities mounted throughout the 1905 season in what the Chicago Daily Tribune called a “death harvest.” The following season, major universities–Columbia, Northwestern, Duke–dropped football, and Harvard hinted that it would be next. Roosevelt again invited leading football authorities and school leaders to the White House in the offseason, pushing for radical rule changes in lieu of abolishing the game. An intercollegiate conference (the precursor to the NCAA), approved a set of rules changed for the 1906 season, such as legalizing the forward pass, abolishment of mass formations, and creating a neutral zone between offense and defense. The changes did not eliminate all the dangers, but fatalities and injuries greatly declined. A spike in fatalities in 1909 led to another round of reforms that laid the foundation of modern football.

100

“Miracle on Ice” refers to what iconic face-off between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?

The 1980 Winter Olympics hockey game

100

What are the three macronutrients essential for good health?

Fat, carbohydrate, and protein. Each type of macronutrient provides us with energy, but the quality of each type can vary greatly by food. While carbohydrates are most commonly consumed, it is important to eat plenty of protein and fat to help provide important micronutrients and support satiety.

100

Who is the only player in history to hit a walk-off-inside-the-park grand slam home run?

Roberto Clemente......Clemente’s grand slam was hit on July 25, 1956, off Cubs pitcher Jim Brosnan.

200

Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. Which of the giant planets of the solar system is its least dense planet?

Saturn

200

Who was the only man to be elected twice as U.S. Vice President and twice as President of the United States?

Richard Nixon (1913-1994), 37th President.
Nixon served as Vice President to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953-1961 and was elected President in both 1968 and 1972.

200

The 1983 finale of what war-based dramedy drew one of the largest TV viewing audiences ever?

“M*A*S*H”

200

What part of the plant is a POTATO?

The stem. The potato grows underground, so many people think it is a root, but it is actually a swollen part of the plant's underground stem. It serves as a storage organ for the plant, containing nutrients that support its growth and development.

200

Which pitcher started the All-Star Game then played only one MLB game the rest of his career?

J.R. Richard
The Astros fireballer started the 1980 All-Star Game for the National League before suffering a career-ending stroke soon afterward.

300

Microbiology has many branches including virology (studies viruses), parasitology (studies parasites), and nematology (you guessed it -- studies nematodes). What is the more common compound-word name for a nematode?

Roundworm

300

What instrument did Bill Clinton play?

Saxophone

300

What was the first music video played on the newly-launched music TV network, MTV?

“Video Killed the Radio Star,” by The Buggles

300

Which pasta name means “little worms” in English?

Vermicelli. (looks like a thinner spaghetti, with very fine, long strands)

300

Who is the only player to play for all four original expansion franchises and ONLY those franchises?

Nolan Ryan
Ryan pitched for the Angels and Rangers (who entered the AL in 1961 as expansion franchises) and Mets and Astros (who began play in 1962 in the NL).

400

What math-y word is considered a foundational working tool in calculus and can be geometrically interpreted as the slope of the curve of a mathematical function?

Derivative

400

Perhaps due to chronic depression, this president is said to have slept up to 11 hours a day and always took an afternoon nap lasting at least 1-2 hours?

Calivn Coolidge (30th President) 

Coolidge had a penchant for hour long naps after lunch, a habit that earned him amused scorn from his contemporaries. But when the prescient missed a nap, he would fall asleep in afternoon meetings. Some political scientists argue that Coolidge’s affinity for sleep became more extreme after the death of his son, Calvin Jr., in 1924 during the first year of his presidency. The president’s slumbering expanded into a pre-lunchtime nap, a 2-3 hour post-lunch nap, and 11 hours of shut-eye a night.

400

Which two Olympic-bound figure skaters made global headlines after one was accused of attacking the other before a competition in 1994?

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan

400

What is eggshell primarily made up of?

Calcium. Egg shells are composed of approximately 94% calcium carbonate.

400

What 300-game winner accumulated the same number of hits at the plate as he did wins on the mound?

Warren Spahn
Spahn amassed 363 victories and 363 base hits in his 21-year career, split proportionately among the three teams he played for: Braves (356 wins and 356 hits); Mets (4 and 4) and Giants (3 and 3). He also matched wins and hits in his postseason appearances (4 and 4).

500

Two consecutive elements on the periodic table have the same atomic number as the number of letters in their English names. What are they? We need the names of both.

Boron (5) and Carbon (6)

500

Nathanial Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter and other American classics, died while on a leisure trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire with this president?

Franklin Pierce (1804-1869), 14th President.
Pierce and Hawthorne became fast friends when they both attended Bowdoin College.  Their friendship deepened over the years and when Pierce became president in 1853, he gave Hawthorne the job of U.S. consul in Liverpool, a highly prized and well-paid position at the time. 

Pierce struggled as president and was an unpopular figure, mostly because of his pro-slavery views. He found it difficult to accomplish anything in the White House and by the time his term ended in 1857, he had even lost the support of his own party. While in England, Hawthorne wrote a book of essays entitled Our Old Home (1863) and dedicated it to Pierce. Hawthorne’s publisher begged him not dedicate the book to the former President fearing that it would sink its sales, but Hawthorne refused. The dedication did end up angering some people, including Ralph Waldo Emerson who is said to have ripped the dedication page off before adding the book to his library. 

By 1864, Hawthorne was ill and he asked Pierce to accompany him on a trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire with the hopes it would improve his health. On May 18, 1864, the writer and former president stopped at the Pemigewasset Hotel in Plymouth, NH for the night. After dinner and a cup of tea, Hawthorne retired to bed–and never woke up. Pierce found his friend’s body in the middle of the night and recounted the event in a letter to his sister.

“It is a singular and happy circumstance,” wrote the New York Herald, “that friends who have lived so many years upon terms of unrestricted intimacy as Franklin Pierce and Nathaniel Hawthorne should in the final hours of one still be so near to the other as to enable the survivor to hear, as it were, the last whisper of his friend as entered the portals of eternity.” 

Left: Nathaniel Hawthorne (between 1855 and 1865). Right: [Franklin Pierce, head-and-shoulders portrait, three-quarters to the left] (between 1856 and 1860). Prints & Photographs Division.


500

Kit Kittredge and Felicity Merriman are the names of what?

American Girl dolls

500

Which healthy food has more vitamin C than any other?

Red pepper. Red peppers stand out as one of the healthiest foods due to their exceptionally high vitamin C content. They offer a substantial amount of this vital nutrient, providing well over 100% of the recommended daily intake in just one pepper.

Beyond their nutrient density, red peppers boast antioxidant properties that help protect cells from damage, promoting overall health. Additionally, their vitamin C content supports a robust immune system, reducing the risk of infections. Incorporating red peppers into your diet can contribute to radiant skin health, thanks to their role in collagen production.

500

Of the sluggers with more than 600 career home runs, who is the only one to never win an MVP award?

Jim Thome
Thome’s highest MVP finish was a 4th place for the 2003 Phillies.