Thursday, March 15, 2012

Not so trivial pursuits

Who said this:

"If you are asked to play the Chicken Game and decline the invitation, you have just played -- and lost."

That was one of the questions that contestants tackled last week at the first SAIS Bologna Trivia Night.

The Strategic Studies Career Club hosted the event at Giulio’s Bar to raise funds for their coming trip to Brussels to meet NATO officials and SAIS alumni.

To encourage the 13 teams to adopt a "strategic” outlook, questions went well beyond the typical pub trivia fare of science, history, pop culture and sports. Instead, this contest focused on the academic concentrations offered at SAIS.

Dirty Larry
Fourteen professors offered trivia questions related to their fields of expertise. Questions covered the entire spectrum of SAIS concentrations. There were three rounds of nine questions each, with a bonus question at the end of each round.

Here's a question from Prof. Arntraud Hartmann (International Development):

"Which country produced the architect of the Human Development Indicator?"

From Çiğdem Akın (Economics):

"What term in international monetary economics describes a country that is unable to borrow abroad in its own currency?"

The question on the Chicken Game came from Prof. Marco Cesa (International Relations).

Because the questions were so challenging, professors provided hints that teams could purchase to improve their chances of answering correctly.

The winning team, Dirty Larry, proved its superior trivia knowledge, missing only four questions and getting the three bonus questions correct for a final score of 133 points.

The second place team, Los Banditos, put up an impressive fight, trailing Dirty Larry by 32 points.

Regardless of the point spread, spirits were high as the SAIS Bologna community spent an entertaining and enlightening evening together. Students look forward to the next BC trivia night and their chance to become the next SAIS trivia champions.

Rebecca Dash (BC12)

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