The Quizbowl Resource Center

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I disagree. I can think of few other activities in which one can be exposed to such a wide variety of academic subjects in a condensed period of time. Browsing Wikipedia, as just one example, will expose you to a wide variety of academic subjects in a condensed period of time -- all without having ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

If quizbowl players are motivated by the pure pursuit of knowledge, then they act very irrationally as a whole. Surely, knowledge can be better gained through sitting at home and reading, rather than driving for hours and staying in unheated hotels in Ypsilanti during February all for the reward of ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

...teams leaving early at quizbowl tournaments... is not uncommon at all... I'd say that's actually pretty inaccurate. I've found this practice to be uncommon (as well it should be.) I've only experienced it once (IIT at FUCT 2002) and heard of its having happened perhaps 4 other times. MaS Didn't ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Matt, If I've noticed this after just 2 years in collegiate quizbowl, you should have noticed it by now too, but teams leaving early at quizbowl tournaments, especially if a) They are really young or inexperienced; and b) They are getting slaughtered is not uncommon at all, and it does not seem to b...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Seems like this is akin to asking why there aren't as many major league baseball players as there are minor league baseball players. No; an absolutely crappy quizbowl player can attend all of the college-level tournaments he wants (well, maybe not CBI after 6 years). An absolutely crappy baseball p...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

[Richard Mentor Johnson] is also notable for, among other things, being probably the only US Vice-President who lived with (and had children by) a black woman who he was not married to , and probably the only US Vice-President to be a more-or-less open atheist. Why you hatin', Bruce? Fuck you. Go b...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

(don't take this the wrong way, Bruce, but I think someone who is obsessed enough with niche 19th Century politics to label himself a Whig probably shouldn't use that obsession as the standard for what topics are both worthwhile to ask AND reasonably recognizable for someone with general background...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

No, Bruce, I have never heard of this "battle" of the "Thames" that you speak about. Perhaps you could enlighten me and tell me what continent it took place on? And who is this "Tecumseh" character? This argument strategy would work much better if I hadn't seen you 30 ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

As long as I have my history juices worked up, I'll provide a list of things I think should come up more in the history cannon: Mongrel Tariff Walker Tariff Rivers and Harbors Act of 1846 Rivers and Harbors Act of 1883 Amos Kendall Fries Rebellion Lord Salisbury Lord Sidmouth Lord Liverpool Silver-G...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I'm generally opposed to the writing of tossups on people who are known for only one thing. Richard Mentor Johnson seems to me to be one example of such a person. If we consider him important enough for tossup material, why not every Congressman or Senator who's ever had a bill named after him? Tos...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

ikillkenny wrote: I don't really see how the 1 meta question per packet and things like 1/1 Hip Hop were enjoyable for almost anyone but the writers.

By this you mean to say that 1/1 Hip Hop was way too little, right?

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I'm not going to complain about a tournament that is entirely free of science and literature, but in retrospect I do see some of what Westbrook is talking about. Perhaps more military history and great man tossups next year? The only other things I'll say is that there seemed to be a 1/0 great books...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Full Statistics:
http://bowl.uchicago.edu/results/Chicag ... dings.html

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Statistics are available here:
http://bowl.uchicago.edu/results/Keller ... dings.html

Congratulations to all who distinguished themselves today. I trust that a tournament official will briefly arrive to make a more formal announcement.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

wwellington wrote: My guess would be that this is the main issue. HS players of both genders find other things to do in college, and maybe it's just more noticeable with girls because there are fewer of them to begin with.

Most colleges are majority female these days, are they not?

Skepticism and Animal Feed

ekwartler wrote: Perhaps you're right, minorities have inferiority complexes and think they're not smart enough for quizbowl. What should we do about that, though? Reassure them?

Perhaps we can write the rest of the world a sternly-worded letter to stop whatever societal forces are causing such a mindset.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Who cares if a team has four men, or four women, or four whites, four asians, or four blacks, as long as that's the best team your school can produce? The issue is this (I think): if there's something about quizbowl that "scares away" members of certain demographic groups, then many schoo...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I will be leading a group expedition to Nicky's Chinese all three days of CO.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Bruce wrote: Personally, I shut off my brain whenever I hear a literature bonuses

And apparently I do so when I write about them too.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Somebody should look through recent ACF packets and see how many bonuses of the "name 3 things in the same category" variety there actually are. Personally, I shut off my brain whenever I hear a literature bonuses, but from what little awareness I have during them, it seems that most are &...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Who says computer science has to be about programming? What about rewarding hardware or OS knowledge? I've written questions like this in the past for the NSC. My experience is that legitimate computer science players like David Press think of these the same way that mainstream quizbowl players thi...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

First off, we live and play in the United States of America. We should speak the language of said United States, and that includes several norms of pronunciation. But since that line of argument is unlikely to be popular round these parts, I will go with a different one: Many people learn things by ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Let me add that I don't think limiting academic quizbowl to that which is taught in schools is a good idea. Let me argue by example. Lewis Cass. A great man in American history and a part of the ACF Cannon. But I never learned about Lewis Cass in high school; maybe they teach about him in Michigan, ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Seth Samelson isn't playing at all, if that's what you're asking.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I guess this is my fault for posting that I was playing with Seth Samelson, and then going ahead and playing with Seth Teitler instead.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I distinctly remember Michigan State openly challenging Michigan to a series of mini-tournaments last year on the Yahoo group, so I'm not sure they stick to just CBI.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I still say that we need to rename the "Bonus Conversion" statistic to "Bonage."

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Giving people a sense of familiarity with the game they played in high school, and bringing them along slowly, gives them a foundation to build on. That's why I like the idea of having ACF Fall at its current level and other similar-difficulty tournaments, so new players can see that "hey, thi...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I'd definately chalk it up to the huge jump in difficulty between high school and college. I know that when I first started attending practice last year, I was absolutely stumped and had no real clue as to what was going on around me. I'd consider it a "good practice" if I got one tossup, ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Quizbowl is an allegedly academic game. So it can't be divorced completely from that background (what "in this day and age" is supposed to mean, I don't understand; did things use to be different?). Part of studying anything is learning the facts surrounding that subject, which is the lev...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Since when is quizbowl supposed to reflect what is actually learned in school? That may be the official myth that we're all supposed to play along to, but I think that it is absurd in this day and age. Maybe not in Science, but certainly in, say History. The sense I get is that most history departme...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

As a dog person, I found myself feeling discriminated against by this particular set of questions.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Seth Samelson and myself are on a team that will contend for the Undergraduate Title at Chicago Open.

If you are an undergraduate who is really good at science, we desperately need you. Please get in contact with me.

EDIT: Nevermind, something just came up for Seth.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Behold:
http://bowl.uchicago.edu/results/JSMill ... dings.html

Congratulations to the Housing Discrimination All-Stars for winning and R. of "You Offend Our Sense of Quiz Bowl Aesthetics" for taking the top scorer position with 49.29 PPG.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Is this really a difficult concept? Do none of you play differently based on the margin of the score in the game? I certainly do. Examples in which playing to get the most points is antithetical to trying to win-- A. You have a lead of 85 points with 2 questions left in an mACF format (or, for that...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I don't entirely agree with compucomp, but a tournament using a PPG tiebreaker should keep in mind that it will cause a team to try to play aggressively even while winning handily or playing a weak opponent purely for the purpose of racking up points, and this purpose can be antithetical to the pur...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I believe I qualify to answer this. I can tell you that the perception you mentioned is certainly a big issue, or has been in the past... but, to be fair, I don't base my opinion of ACF solely on these half-heard remarks. Some of my teammates and I have looked over some recent Nats, Regs, and Fall ...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Chicago will be fielding a house team of myself, Jared Sagoff, Ray Sun, and Peter Austin.

Other Chicago people (Susan, Ed, Kannan, etc.) will also be playing in some form, but I'll let them announce their teams by themselves if they so choose.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

vandyhawk wrote:Obviously we would be involved in the leg work prior to the tournament, but just wondering if it would preclude us from playing.

Michigan not only played ACF Nats in Michigan, but was a serious contender and nearly won.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Yes, god forbid that people should be expected to know one of the most hyped free agent signings in America's national pasttime. Perhaps Johjima should have been a bonus part, and not a tossup. If that's what you're saying, I agree. But to say that he should not have come up is absurd, unless you'r...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Kenji Johjima Yes, god forbid that people should be expected to know one of the most hyped free agent signings in America's national pasttime. Perhaps Johjima should have been a bonus part, and not a tossup. If that's what you're saying, I agree. But to say that he should not have come up is absurd...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Really? Trophies? I got one last year at ICT, it was a little plastic plaque that said something about my place individually in D2. Maybe this is my "ACF bias," and maybe it's self-righteous, but I don't need pieces of plastic to tell me how well or not well I did at a tournament. Most ac...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

There were a couple of moments where I looked at my teammates and uttered the words "I hate NAQT", but they were mostly after frustrating losses and had more to do with my own performance (and that of my team) than with problems with the tournament. But overall, I don't think this tourname...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Allowing more rest and more flexible schedules over two days does indeed have its benefits, but starting at 6 PM Friday is problematic. Something like 8 teams were late to the ICT this year because of DC-area traffic that was basically normal for that time of day. I'd rather see an all-day Saturday...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Craig Barker and Mike Burger knew exactly what they were doing with stats and determination of the "wild-card" team entering the top playoff bracket. Really? It's not that I didn't enjoy getting stomped on by the best teams in the country instead of having some competitive games with team...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

cornfused wrote: RODAN, with an A, originally starred in "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster," in which he helped Godzilla and Mothra defeat King Ghidorah. He looks like this.

Lies. Rodan starred in his own movie first. In fact, there were two of them in the original Rodan movie.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

L and R are very similar consonants, so close that native speakers of languages with only one of them (or without either of them) often cannot distinguish between the two.

If I were to adopt or propose a rule about acceptable consonant variation, lr and r would certainly be in there.

Skepticism and Animal Feed

I decided, for reasons unknown, to look at the CBI Region 5 statistics. Those of you with long memories might recognize the name of Patrick Hunter-Kilmer (from Radford) as the first club president of the George Mason team. He was the 7th-leading scorer at Region 5 and was also the leading scorer at...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

The question should be asked: why do people who write questions as of right now write them, despite the fact that it is a seemingly irrational thing to do? (See my post above) I'm going to go out on a limb and hypothezise that many of them are not motivated by late/early fees at all. Maybe I'm de-se...

Skepticism and Animal Feed

Because editors write or otherwise obtain (through mirrors or whatever) enough questions to run the tournament anyway, teams will be able to play at a tournament whether or not they actually write questions. So, discounting things like self-improvement or saving a late fee, there's no incentive to w...

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Gottfried Keller Results

Re: Pre-discussion questions

JS Mill Results

Re: ACF Nationals discussion

Re: Out of the blue in CBI Region 5