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Comment by boreas | Hacker News Reader

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEjQX8HVtG4

It annoys me slightly how - at least of the questions that make it to air - some are almost totally unanswerable unless you went to a private school and studied classics. I can sometimes go the best part of a series without getting a Physics or Mathematics one wrong, but some questions just do not represent knowledge actually held by all but few of the student populace (considering the name of the show).

http://s-f-walker.org.uk/pubsebooks/2cultures/Rede-lecture-2...

Then again, if it comes down to Eloi and Morlock, you're part of the culture higher on the food chain (well, at least in the far, far, future).

It's not a cultural divide amongst academics, just that the questions often feel like they were drafted by recruits of the Cambridge five back in 1935. Quite often no imagination at all, i.e. You can usually get a point on most pop music rounds by guessing Bon Dylan.

I'd been hoping the Cambridge five were what the Sex Viri changed to after Haldane, but they added a member instead of subtracting one, becoming the Septem Viri in a fit (worthy of classically-trained cunning linguists?) of prudishness.

https://www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/about-us/history/establishing-the...

As to Dylan, Bob Roberts is worth a shufti. The soundtrack wasn't available at release, but from what I've seen floating around the interwebz, it, like The Onion, has been outstripped by reality.

Anyway: if the Cambridge five were more up-to-date, wouldn't they be setting questions like "which Alexandrov tune has been set to english lyrics by both Paul Robeson and Greg Camp?"

As an ex-competitive Science Bowl participant, I’m mildly annoyed by the extra stall time allowed by registering with a long last name and being able to prefix your answer with “is it” :/ In Science Bowl you’re referred to by {A,B}{1,2,3,4} and prefixing your answer is an instant stall disqualification. It’d be interesting to see someone go and train them to buzz based on the extra time they get…

Mispronunciation notwithstanding, that was fast and spot on. Impressive.

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