Search found 57 matches

by MikeWormdog
Wed May 06, 2009 4:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Tournament Discussion Committee of the First International
Replies: 76
Views: 13095

Re: Tournament Discussion Committee of the First International

There's also some material here that I've never seen before and can't find in my copies of the Eddas: Skirnir's threat to cover the world in ice (could be a translation issue--I do see Skirnir threaten to strand Gerd in the world of the frost giants), Laevateinn as Frey's sword (this seems to be an...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: inclusion of state/local history
Replies: 78
Views: 13099

Re: inclusion of state/local history

User was tempbanned for three days due to backseat modding.
Is this for real?
by MikeWormdog
Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ratio of American History to European/World History
Replies: 68
Views: 19283

Re: Ratio of American History to European/World History

I thought this list was pretty good, but certainly most of them are not household names to non-historians: Thucydides, Giambattista Vico, Edward Gibbon, Leopold Von Ranke, Jacob Burckhardt, Sir Lewis Namier, C. M. Andrews, Perry Miller, Bernard Bailyn, John Murrin I might add E. P. Thompson as well...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ratio of American History to European/World History
Replies: 68
Views: 19283

Re: Ratio of American History to European/World History

I wasn't commenting on Peter Brown's tossup-worthiness, just making a point that he was probably more famous or widely read than most of the other names brought up in that one post (like MacMullen). That said, anyone who takes a medieval survey course or something involving the later Roman Empire/ea...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ratio of American History to European/World History
Replies: 68
Views: 19283

Re: Ratio of American History to European/World History

Since Andy mentioned me, I thought I, as another actual historian who has taught and taken a bunch of actual history classes, might have something to add. I do think a lot of what Jeff has said makes sense, and it's nice having "history people" talking about "history" questions. ...
by MikeWormdog
Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BHSAT XVII (3/29/08) at Yale (New Haven, CT)
Replies: 40
Views: 42596

Re: BHSAT XVII (3/29/08) at Yale (New Haven, CT)

I don't have firsthand knowledge of what exactly happened with the questions this year because I'm not really involved with Yale quizbowl any longer thanks to my dissertation. I just showed up to moderate, having written roughly a packet's worth of questions. That said, I can provide a decent overvi...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Guns of August and the state of quizbowl history
Replies: 31
Views: 15489

History questions don't really reflect what is learned in classes, graduate or undergrad. That's just not true. I don't understand, did your undergraduate classes never include any factual information at all? There is no way to do the higher order analysis taught in graduate courses unless you know...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Guns of August and the state of quizbowl history
Replies: 31
Views: 15489

To clarify a few points made by my long, rambling, late-night post and to comment on others. I didn't go to Bruce's tournament, but I heard that the difficulty was appropriate. I feel the problems were only caused by his (and likely many others') understanding of the history distribution in quizbowl...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:03 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Guns of August and the state of quizbowl history
Replies: 31
Views: 15489

Andy's post on the detriments of "quizbowl history" partly comes from a discussion we had this past weekend. I was in Chicago on Friday and told him not to expect much from the "history" tournament questions unless he had a very dated view of history, which only involved politics...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: the quizbowl canon
Replies: 38
Views: 17846

I wrote a Richard Russo tossup for this past year's BOB tournament. It probably wasn't perfect, but don't recall anyone griping too much about it or thinking it was overly difficult. If someone wants to dig it out and post it, I wouldn't object. By the way, I agree with Andrew's assessment of Straig...
by MikeWormdog
Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT ICT 2007 discussion
Replies: 127
Views: 59082

I wasn't there, so I can't comment on the questions directly, and I agree with many of Jerry's sentiments. One point: the Spanish Riding School is pretty famous, as are the Lipizzaner horses. The school is a major tourist attraction in Vienna--it's part of the Hofburg complex and in every guidebook....
by MikeWormdog
Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: RESULTS: BHSAT (3/3/07) at Yale (New Haven, CT)
Replies: 10
Views: 7154

Just letting people know that there's still room at BHSAT on March 3. The field is shaping up pretty well...you should come if you can. Lots of good teams, lots of good questions.

Contact Brett Lazer for more info.

We hope to see you in New Haven!

Mike Wehrman, Yale
by MikeWormdog
Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: BoB Question
Replies: 2
Views: 2625

yeah, go ahead. There aren't any mirrors planned or anything.

Mike
by MikeWormdog
Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:28 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: BOB (12/9/06) at Yale
Replies: 13
Views: 7481

ok, sorry for taking so long...I fixed a few typos and stuff and the questions are available for "trade/consumption." I'm sure I missed some stuff, but whatever. I've sent the packets out to people who have contacted me already about them...if I've forgotten anyone or if anyone else is int...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: BOB (12/9/06) at Yale
Replies: 13
Views: 7481

Hey, sorry for the delay. I've been both busy and gone. I need to fix typos and stuff and haven't really had time. The questions will be available soon after Christmas.
by MikeWormdog
Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: BOB (12/9/06) at Yale
Replies: 13
Views: 7481

The field is: 2 Rutgers-Newark 1 Rutgers 2 Columbia 2 Brown 1 Amherst 1 Yale House So, 9 teams. We do have rooms...I'll know for sure where those rooms are Thursday afternoon. Time: try to show up around 9. We want to get rounds started at 9:30. Directions can be found at http://www.yale.edu/ysac I'...
by MikeWormdog
Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: TRASH regs discussion
Replies: 77
Views: 37384

Re: Another example

Perhaps I over-generalized. I have no idea where to put Full House and Airwolf with respect to each other on the Great Chain of Being. My point is this: I have an idea where to put Full House and Airwolf. As someone who has a tv and has spent a great deal of time watching it, I can confidently say ...
by MikeWormdog
Fri Dec 01, 2006 10:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: RESULTS: FAcT (11/11/06) at Yale (New Haven, CT)
Replies: 10
Views: 5984

You can find results on Yale qb's web page...

http://www.yale.edu/ysac

There's a link at the top for FACT.
by MikeWormdog
Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:36 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SEC tournament?
Replies: 33
Views: 13923

I'm sorry Chris doesn't like BoB. Sorry Robert never responded to your email three years back. Maybe that's why Princeton isn't coming this year. I don't think that's why tournaments in the northeast aren't well attended, though. There are several reasons not to come to New Haven for our tournament,...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:39 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Illinois Open discussion
Replies: 17
Views: 8524

Seth's reply brings me to ask the following question: how much do people actually care about seeing their questions get used? People who write questions for tournaments want to see their questions get used, at least I do. Otherwise, there's no point in their writing, other than saving a few bucks. ...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: BOB (12/9/06) at Yale
Replies: 13
Views: 7481

Hey everyone, looks like the first deadline is fast approaching. Here's the tentative field so far: Brown 2? Amherst 2? Harvard 1-2 Rutgers 1 Rutgers-Newark 1-2 Yale house 1 Expressed interest: Nathan Freeburg Let me know if I've forgotten anyone. Also, there's still room for more teams if anyone's ...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: BOB (12/9/06) at Yale
Replies: 13
Views: 7481

hey, just wanted to let people know about BOB on December 9. I've gotten some interest from a few teams, but let me know if you're planning on coming or have questions regarding packets or whatever. Also, the questions from last year's tournament will be put on the archive sometime in the very near ...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PARFAIT II
Replies: 20
Views: 8911

The problem with this question is basically that both "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Planet of the Apes" are equally well known, so there's not much to distinguish the 20 from the 10. The problem I had with it is that, while those movies are well known, the author of the books ...
by MikeWormdog
Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Minnesota Deep Bench predictions
Replies: 20
Views: 9197

[quote]Born in present-day (*) Belarus, after the revolution, he served as art director of the Moscow Jewish State Theater. Known for fantastic portrayals of shetlt life, for 10 points, name this painter of “I and the Villageâ€
by MikeWormdog
Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: On high schools competing in college tournaments
Replies: 20
Views: 8842

Believe it or not, this is illegal in Illinois. I have no clue why. While I doubt it's really "illegal," most states with any sort of bureaucratic tie-ins between quizbowl and high school activities associations would restrict colleges and high schools from playing each other. By the same...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:29 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pronunciation
Replies: 67
Views: 33565

I always wondered why people were so insistent on the "correct" pronunciation of Roger Taney's name as "Tawney" but not of the correct pronunciation of the just-as-dead James Buchanan and Joseph Pulitzer. For those names you often hear people say "Byoo" or "Pyoo&qu...
by MikeWormdog
Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:14 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: high school - college retention
Replies: 72
Views: 31105

I just wanted to add a couple of names to Chris's list from 2002 DII nationals. In addition to the stellar Robert Beard, both Kyrill Kunakhovich and Bill Schmedlin were both active players on Yale's teams for the past few years and were on subsequent NAQT nationals teams. I believe both of them also...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:21 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: Underwhelmed
Replies: 141
Views: 153944

First off, I think the topic of this thread shouldn't be underwhelmed but perhaps just "whelmed". The questions were NAQT, and there were some good ones and some not so good. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the lit questions; there were many in other fields I didn't really care for. ...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: does anyone know about this NAQT rule?
Replies: 11
Views: 7922

Think what you may of how fair that is (as previously noted in this thread, the intent is to dissuade host teams from fielding their better staffers--presumably DI players--on house teams), but I find it hard to see how anyone hosting an SCT can reasonably claim ignorance of this rule. well, I thou...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: does anyone know about this NAQT rule?
Replies: 11
Views: 7922

you really think so? is it better to have a D2 player play by himself to see whether he can sew up a team's nationals appearance? I think we're the old lady with the nail clippers here.
by MikeWormdog
Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:49 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: does anyone know about this NAQT rule?
Replies: 11
Views: 7922

does anyone know about this NAQT rule?

Hey, As you might know, we at Yale hosted a sectional last weekend. We asked for our automatic bid to be in DII, and since we were low on staff, I played solo as a D1 team in order to try to get two teams qualified. However, as you may have noticed from the results Yale's automatic qualification spo...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: THE thread for NAQT SCT discussion
Replies: 99
Views: 57484

Glad someone mentioned the incorrect Odoacer bonus part--for those who missed it, it said something like "given the barbarian, name his tribe" with choices Ostrogoth, Visigoth, Vandal, Hun, or none of the above. the Three others were right (I think they were Theoderic, Geiseric, someone el...
by MikeWormdog
Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regs discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 51764

As far as I know, The Fall of Icarus is at least as common as Landscape with the Fall of Icarus . The idea that "Landscape" has to be included is dumb...I think the words "Landscape with" come from (or at least became popular because of) the title of a poem about the Brueghel pai...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regs discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 51764

All those things are very historical. They also have the various advantage in quizbowl that they have proper names. Social history, while obviously important, doesn't have convenient labels that you can attach to everything and that everyone agrees on, and that makes it difficult from a practical s...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regs discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 51764

A couple of things... A reply to Mike Sorice's question about my dislike of "culture" and "magic" tossups etc. As far as I remember, the one about magic pointed to something that seemed to be "'religion' but not quite as 'advanced' anthropologically." I couldn't decide ...
by MikeWormdog
Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:12 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regs discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 51764

A few quick comments to earlier posts and the questions in general: Overall, this was a very good set. The editors should be congratulated. About the only thing about the questions I didn't like was the "vague answer" tossups like "magic" and "culture" which I saw as be...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: geography
Replies: 36
Views: 21040

I think I agree with most of the people here that questions about lame islands and insignificant political entities should be few and far between. The idea that "geography must be non-historical" seems to be another remnant from bygone times. It also serves to over-compartmentmentalize the...
by MikeWormdog
Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BHSAT at Yale February 18, 2006
Replies: 14
Views: 7643

BHSAT at Yale February 18, 2006

Yale Quiz Bowl is pleased to announce Bulldog High School Academic Tournament XV (BHSAT), which will take place on February 18, 2006. BHSAT annually features a number of top teams from around the country. As in the past, the questions will be written and edited by members of the Yale Quiz Bowl team....
by MikeWormdog
Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:44 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: ACF Fall discussion
Replies: 107
Views: 103677

Just wanted to add some comments about the tournament. Eric did a nice job putting the packets together, but I think the editor(s) next year should not ask for full packets from competing teams. When people know that most of their questions are going to be unused because of such a large number of te...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:09 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: personal stats data analysis
Replies: 55
Views: 29839

As an aside, I believe that getting a neg entails more than just -5 for your team. For the most part, other teams (at competent levels) usually pick up 10 (not counting bonuses) after your neg, so the usual PPG scores are inflated if someone just buzzes in a lot. That is, it underestimates the effe...
by MikeWormdog
Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Best Powers
Replies: 161
Views: 76662

Even though you knew that geography was probably the last category, you were still lucky on that Tivoli question, since the answer could just as easily have had something to do with Rome (Tivoli's an ancient resort on the outskirts of Rome, site of Hadrian's villa, etc.) Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Nov 03, 2005 3:46 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: Technophobia Discussion or Monologue, Really
Replies: 56
Views: 61418

a couple things from someone who also hosted a tournament this weekend (Bulldogs over Broadway)...hopefully the things I say aren't painfully obvious. In general, when you edit a tournament, be prepared for shitty packets. When you get these bad packets, you have to rewrite a lot of the questions in...
by MikeWormdog
Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:11 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bulldogs over Broadway at Yale--Oct. 29, 2005
Replies: 8
Views: 6224

ok, don't discuss the question specifics because these are going to be used in mirrors at Tulsa (this saturday) and Georgia sometime in January. if you'd like to post your general feelings on the questions (which i think turned out pretty decent) go ahead. Hope everyone enjoyed the tournament....the...
by MikeWormdog
Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bulldogs over Broadway at Yale--Oct. 29, 2005
Replies: 8
Views: 6224

Ok, the tournament will take place in the centrally located Willliam L Harkness Hall (WLH), which is on the corner of Wall and College streets. We will convene in WLH 208 at 9 and hopefully start rounds by 9:30. Parking is located a block away in a lot on Temple Street. For a map, go here: http://ww...
by MikeWormdog
Mon Oct 24, 2005 3:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bulldogs over Broadway at Yale--Oct. 29, 2005
Replies: 8
Views: 6224

ok, I'll get info out to the teams as soon as it's available...I'm not sure where on campus the tournament will be held yet, but here's a team list as of now: Columbia 2 (maybe 3) New School 1 Penn 1 Rutgers 1 Rutgers-Newark 1 Rochester 4 Yale House 1 Brandeis 1 maybe Brown 1 maybe Most of the packe...
by MikeWormdog
Sat Oct 01, 2005 1:33 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bulldogs over Broadway at Yale--Oct. 29, 2005
Replies: 8
Views: 6224

hey, thought I'd give an update to move this thread higher up the list. I sent the packets from last year's tournament to the folks at Stanford, so they should be up on the archive soon. As for this year, so far I've heard from (these are mainly probables, nothing confirmed--so don't freak out if yo...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Sep 13, 2005 4:02 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Yale University HS Tournament - FACT: October 15, 2005
Replies: 0
Views: 1889

Yale University HS Tournament - FACT: October 15, 2005

Yale Quiz Bowl is pleased to announce the return of its Fall Academic Tournament (FACT). FACT, which will take place on October 15, 2005, will be an official National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC (NAQT) event. This means that the tournament will use questions produced by NAQT (Invitational Series ...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Sep 13, 2005 12:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bulldogs over Broadway at Yale--Oct. 29, 2005
Replies: 8
Views: 6224

Bulldogs over Broadway at Yale--Oct. 29, 2005

Hey everybody, This is to let you know that Yale is hosting its annual college tournament, Bulldogs Over Broadway (BOB), on Saturday, October 29, 2005 in scenic New Haven, CT. Due to schedule conflicts, it's going to be a little earlier than our traditional first weekend of December date. Fees: Base...
by MikeWormdog
Sat Feb 26, 2005 11:00 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: HS Seniors Bound for College Thread
Replies: 155
Views: 83889

To answer some questions about yale that haven't really been answered...Frankel's pretty much right on. We do have a team and are generally, along with Harvard, the best team in the northeast. We don't travel to too many tourneys (generally 8 or so a year, incl. nats) because nobody at Yale has a ca...
by MikeWormdog
Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:14 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: SCT commentary
Replies: 67
Views: 75863

I disagree about the pyramidality of the tossup...if a question becomes a buzzer race, does that mean it's not pyramidal? You don't seem to be saying that it wasn't really pyramidal, just "step-pyramidal" where everyone knew the same part. The first part was clearly harder than the giveawa...