JamesIV wrote:The only repeat-style issue I noticed had to do with Wang Mang and the Han Dynasty. The tossup on the Red-Eyebrow Rebellion (don't remember which packet) mentioned that Wang Mang interrupted the Han Dynasty. "Han Dynasty" was then an answer in a bonus in the Virginia A packet.
The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:JamesIV wrote:The only repeat-style issue I noticed had to do with Wang Mang and the Han Dynasty. The tossup on the Red-Eyebrow Rebellion (don't remember which packet) mentioned that Wang Mang interrupted the Han Dynasty. "Han Dynasty" was then an answer in a bonus in the Virginia A packet.
There were also tossups on both "splicing" and "introns", which is kind of repeat-y if you ask me. I'll have more to say later tonight but I really enjoyed this tournament and want to thank the editors for their work.
Tokyo Sex Whale wrote:I didn't play this tournament, but I noticed that it did a great job in guaranteeing meaningful, acceptable scoring games between teams in the middle bracket, which is a step up from last year. However, I did notice that it got harder near the end of playoffs -- with 6-6 Illinois having under 200 ppg for one example -- and I was wondering if this was intentional or just due to chance. Either way, from the stats alone (and not having seen much of the set), I think this tournament was a correct step in the reduction of difficulty.
The Ununtiable Twine wrote:Also, it seems that Inari and Uke Mochi are the same deity in some legends. I said Inari, I just figured it was wrong, but according to Wikipedia (I know, I know) she and Inari are actually the same according to some legends, so I lost that match by 5, bummer. I might try to find a more credible source after I get off work, but if anyone else finds something before to show whether I'm right or wrong, post away.
Also, could you post the 1Q84 tossup and the Uke Mochi/Nihon Shoki/Susano'o bonus?
Northwestern/USC wrote:After this figure's death, millet emerged from her forehead, and silkworms came out of her eyebrows. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Japanese goddess of food who was killed after failing to please another god with her regurgitated fish and rice.
ANSWER: Ukemochi
[10] The oldest tale of Ukemochi is believed to be in this text that, with the Kojiki, comprises much of the mythology of Japan. It also discusses Japanese history, including the introduction of Buddhism and the Taika Reforms.
ANSWER: Nihon Shoki [or Nihon-gi]
[10] Ukemochi was killed by this brother of Amaterasu, who gained his sword Kusanagi by slaying a drunken serpent.
ANSWER: Susanoo
The Ununtiable Twine wrote:For example, "semi-empirical mass formula" should have been acceptable for Bethe-Weiszacker before it was said because in some resources (such as Krane) it is just known as the semi-empirical mass formula.
Charlie Dees, who wrote 4/0 classical music
The Ununtiable Twine wrote:Also, could you post the 1Q84 tossup and the Uke Mochi/Nihon Shoki/Susano'o bonus?
VCU/Alabama wrote:This novel begins with one of its main characters listening to Janacek's Sinfonietta while riding down an expressway in a taxi. A portion of this novel takes place in the “Town of Cats” in which another of its characters reads stories to his comatose father. One of its characters is ordered by the Dowager to kill the Leader of the cult Sakigake. Its other main character, a math teacher at a cram school, rewrites Fuka-Eri's Air Chrysalis to rave reviews, only to anger the Little People. Set in an alternate Tokyo whose sky contains two moons, it focuses on the connection between Tengo and Aomame. For 10 points, identify this Haruki Murakami novel whose title refers to a book about a totalitarian state by George Orwell.
ANSWER: 1Q84 [or ichi-kyu-hachi-yon]
grapesmoker wrote:The Ununtiable Twine wrote:For example, "semi-empirical mass formula" should have been acceptable for Bethe-Weiszacker before it was said because in some resources (such as Krane) it is just known as the semi-empirical mass formula.
You can blame me for this. My sources named it as Bethe-Weizsacker and while I knew it was a semi-empirical mass formula, I did not think that was a term of art. Looking around more, it seems that you were right. My apologies.
The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:grapesmoker wrote:The Ununtiable Twine wrote:For example, "semi-empirical mass formula" should have been acceptable for Bethe-Weiszacker before it was said because in some resources (such as Krane) it is just known as the semi-empirical mass formula.
You can blame me for this. My sources named it as Bethe-Weizsacker and while I knew it was a semi-empirical mass formula, I did not think that was a term of art. Looking around more, it seems that you were right. My apologies.
This reminds me of something. I accepted that answer based on knowledge (with Magin's permission). Can we open a discussion of whether its ok to do that?
Long-tailed Sabrewing wrote:TU on technical analysis (finance/econ)
Long-tailed Sabrewing wrote:Bonus on aggregation problem/capital/Joan Robinson
Eric claimed Susan rewrote a bonus to be about her thesis.
marnold wrote:There was plenty of classic Magin social science ("hey, these are what people think about stuff - maybe these are preferences or attitudes or opinions or any number of other terms that, yes, if I had perfect knowledge I could pick out, but since I don't I have to sit here wondering when I should guess as the entire question goes by")
Cheynem wrote:As my friend Bruce Arthur would say, though, now that Marnold has let the "Bruce writes on what he wants" cat out of the bag, I might offer some rumblings that it seems like Eastern Europe history was coming up quite a bit.
Galen Strawson argued against this concept a 1983 work which examined the "cognitive phenomenology" of belief in it. In a paper which concerned this idea and the "Concept of a Person," Harry Frankfurt argued that it is connected to second-order desires, and paradoxes concerning this idea are sometimes known as “Frankfurt cases,” due to a 1969 paper of his. John Martin Fischer has proposed a "Garden of Forking Paths" model of this idea, and in a book in which he coined the notions of sphexishness and intuition pumps, Elbow Room, Daniel Dennett wrote about the "varieties" of this which are "worth wanting." Non-causal, event-causal, and agent-causal accounts of this idea belong to incompatibilist theories of it, while compatibilist theories of this idea attempt to reconcile it with determinism. For 10 points, identify this philosophical idea, which is usually presented as the possibility of doing something other than what you actually did.
Answer: freedom of will (accept logical equivalents)
women, fire and dangerous things wrote:The clue about the Frankfurt cases could have been worded better. I negged with "determinism" on that clue (obviously the first two clues unambiguously point to free will, but I didn't know them). As I understand them, Frankfurt cases are situations where causal determinism is true, under the assumption that determinism is true if an agent cannot have done otherwise, and yet the agent still seems to be morally responsible for their actions. So, they directly have to do with determinism, not free will.
women, fire and dangerous things wrote:The clue about the Frankfurt cases could have been worded better. I negged with "determinism" on that clue (obviously the first two clues unambiguously point to free will, but I didn't know them). As I understand them, Frankfurt cases are situations where causal determinism is true, under the assumption that determinism is true if an agent cannot have done otherwise, and yet the agent still seems to be morally responsible for their actions. So, they directly have to do with determinism, not free will.
Amon Goeth wrote:I didn't play this tournament, so I don't know how this tossup played out, but I do think the Frankfurt clue is a bit early, considering that much of the compatibilist/incompatibilist debate over the past few decades revolves around the validity of Frankfurt cases.
I am unsure about other people, but I certainly wasn't expecting anything egregiously Bruce (this is Nationals after all) until I heard the Reptile Fund tossup & the bonus on the Bone Wars, the "Bruce Arthur-iest" questions in the world, as Mike Cheyne might put it. After those, I was definitely under the impression that Brucian topics were coming up too much.Skepticism and Animal Feed wrote:I don't believe that this is either egregious or out of whack with regular tournaments. Rather, I suspect that there is a priming effect going on here: based on my reputation, you are expecting egregious amounts of eastern european history to show up, so when a tossup does show up, you make more note of it than you would if it came up in a set edited by somebody else.
Seven Valleys / Book of Certitude / Shoghi Effendi
Yama / Yamadutas / Ushash
I often teach players unfamiliar with writing that, to control difficulty, the best and easiest step is to ask yourself a question: Can I use the same basic information in the tossup I've written, but point it to a much easier answer line for people to convert? A good writer could really be overwhelmed by the sheer number of such possibilities in regards to the Battle of the Allia (Sack of Rome by the Gauls, Sacking Rome, Gauls, etc.). A good writer could be.Sack of Rome by the Gauls (submission was Battle of the Allia River, I believe)
It sounds like this maybe used to be more popular among some groups of Jewish people in the middle ages. Oh, who cares, I bet Matt Jackson will get it, pull the trigger!Tu Bishvat
SUBMISSION WAS LAKE NYOS??????Cameroon (submission was Lake Nyos)
This isn't necessarily a difficulty issue (but as one tossup was rewritten into "Mongol invasions of Europe," I'd be willing to bet it was that, too!) as much as a matter of pride in your product. Whoever is putting this packet together needs to take some responsibility here. If you're in a bind because the deadline is looming, send the packet and tell the editor that you'll be replacing the question presently. Or, you know, just check to make sure you don't write two tossups on Hungarian history. And maybe also stop liking Hungary so much.Yale B submitted two Hungarian history tossups.
DumbJaques wrote:It sounds like this maybe used to be more popular among some groups of Jewish people in the middle ages. Oh, who cares, I bet Matt Jackson will get it, pull the trigger!Tu Bishvat
I haven't seen the tossup itself, but in my opinion that's not too difficult an answer line (if appropriate clues can be found). It is typically taught in Hebrew school curricula, at least.Mechanical Beasts wrote:I don't know, maybe I'm being too much my own stereotype, but I knew that holiday since eighth grade just from having some Jewish friends. I guess I don't know anything super-deep about it, so a tossup seems unreasonable, but still.DumbJaques wrote:It sounds like this maybe used to be more popular among some groups of Jewish people in the middle ages. Oh, who cares, I bet Matt Jackson will get it, pull the trigger!Tu Bishvat
Horned Screamer wrote:Ave Maria
Anonymous wrote:naqt is much worse than plagiarism could ever hope to be
jonah wrote:I haven't seen the tossup itself, but in my opinion that's not too difficult an answer line (if appropriate clues can be found). It is typically taught in Hebrew school curricula, at least.Mechanical Beasts wrote:I don't know, maybe I'm being too much my own stereotype, but I knew that holiday since eighth grade just from having some Jewish friends. I guess I don't know anything super-deep about it, so a tossup seems unreasonable, but still.DumbJaques wrote:It sounds like this maybe used to be more popular among some groups of Jewish people in the middle ages. Oh, who cares, I bet Matt Jackson will get it, pull the trigger!Tu Bishvat
I think you misunderstood my parenthetical; maybe I didn't state it well. I definitely agree that sufficiently many clues of appropriate difficulty and appropriately graded difficulty are a requirement for a tossup answer to be good. I haven't tried to write a tossup on Tu b'Shvat, so I'm not sure offhand whether such a clue selection exists. However, if such clues exist I think the answer is fine, and even if they don't it would be a fine bonus part.DumbJaques wrote:This actually betrays one of the problematic ways of thinking about difficulty that goes into creating the issues we're talking about. "If appropriate clues can be found" isn't a proviso to "that seems like a good answer line," it's a prerequisite of it! I don't know much about Jewish holidays, but it seems to me that there's about 3 lines of meaningful, useful, pyramidal gradation for a tossup on Tu Bishvat, and anything beyond that would be extraneous. If that's the case it ought to immediately indicate to you that the tossup is a bad idea.jonah wrote:I haven't seen the tossup itself, but in my opinion that's not too difficult an answer line (if appropriate clues can be found). It is typically taught in Hebrew school curricula, at least.Mechanical Beasts wrote:I don't know, maybe I'm being too much my own stereotype, but I knew that holiday since eighth grade just from having some Jewish friends. I guess I don't know anything super-deep about it, so a tossup seems unreasonable, but still.DumbJaques wrote:It sounds like this maybe used to be more popular among some groups of Jewish people in the middle ages. Oh, who cares, I bet Matt Jackson will get it, pull the trigger!Tu Bishvat
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