Search found 306 matches

by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Wed Apr 27, 2016 10:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Articles about quiz bowl
Replies: 25
Views: 3842

Re: Articles about quiz bowl

Snap Wexley wrote:Hey, I recall being interviewed by a student reporter after ACF Nationals. Anyone know what came of that?
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/n ... ampionship

EDIT: Wow, you beat me to it.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Tue Apr 21, 2015 10:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: two styles of writing: a close reading
Replies: 77
Views: 31848

Re: two styles of writing: a close reading

Jerry, thanks for posting this. I tend to prefer prefer Jerry's view on question style, but I do want to point out that questions need a balance between the concrete, named clues and the explanatory puzzle-piece type clues. I think Ryan made a comment in the main ACF Nationals discussion thread abou...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)
Replies: 64
Views: 36419

Re: Gorilla Literature Singles (July 20, Chicago)

I thought the basic format was pretty neat, and think that this was a perfect time to use it. The ladder format can handle a few people leaving throughout the tournament to catch flights or start a long drive, which really messes up a typical round robin format. For the last side event of a weekend,...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:38 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Moderators at HSNCT
Replies: 36
Views: 11954

Re: Moderators at HSNCT

When compiling information from the evaluations, it's probably worth looking at the trend throughout the day in addition to the average score. Everyone will probably start to fade towards the end of the day as their voices get tired, but some people will only be able to make it 5 rounds before getti...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon May 26, 2014 7:43 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014 PACE NSC Logistics Discussion
Replies: 10
Views: 3999

Re: 2014 PACE NSC Logistics Discussion

From my perspective as a staffer, it seemed like this tournament ran very smoothly for such a large event. I really liked the location, since it was easy to reach the hotel from the airport and there was a lot of food in easy walking distance. If that neighborhood ever gets connected to the subway l...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sat May 17, 2014 6:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 3M: Chicago Open History Doubles, 7/20
Replies: 47
Views: 27676

Re: 3M: Chicago Open History Doubles, 7/20

I can staff this as well.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Wed Apr 30, 2014 7:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Claude Shannon Memorial Tournament
Replies: 29
Views: 17452

Re: Claude Shannon Memorial Tournament

I would love to play this.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sun Mar 30, 2014 10:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Lederberg 2 Discussion
Replies: 33
Views: 12453

Re: Lederberg 2 Discussion

I had a lot of fun working on this set, and I hope everyone enjoyed it. Many thanks to Eric for letting me help to write it and everyone else who helped write/playtest the set as well. It's a lot of fun to learn about the reactions and molecules that show up while researching for this type of tourna...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cane Ridge Revival at UChicago: 2014-03-08
Replies: 56
Views: 26794

Re: Cane Ridge Revival at UChicago: 2014-03-08

For the teams that are registered, are there any spots on your team still open? Also, are the free agents on the spreadsheet actually planning to play? I have no idea how up-to-date it is, and I don't think I know any of you other than Shan. I doubt I will contribute much, but I would like to play a...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO Matchmaking
Replies: 36
Views: 13693

Re: CO Matchmaking

I'd like to play. I can contribute questions to an early packet and probably answer a few questions in science.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri Jul 12, 2013 5:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open mirror @ Michigan (August 3, 2013)
Replies: 34
Views: 7578

Re: VCU Open mirror @ Michigan (August 3, 2013)

I'd like to play this. Let me know if you need a teammate.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2013 Discussion
Replies: 129
Views: 36408

Re: ACF Nationals 2013 Discussion

From the perspective of a moderator I thought that this was a very good set, and I'm glad that those playing seem to have agreed. There were a very small number of typos and grammatical mistakes in the set, which is impressive given the sheer number of words and sentences in the packets. Also, the h...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2012 Autumn Classic at University of Michigan (12/1/12)
Replies: 10
Views: 4724

Re: 2012 Autumn Classic at University of Michigan (12/1/12)

You might be able to squeeze it in during lunch; say everyone playing has to get back 30 minutes faster than the regular playoff start time. There usually aren't many teams that stick around until after finals are over, and I remember lunches typically giving quite a bit of time while the stats are ...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: KABO: Kurtis and Ashvin's Backyard Open (8/4)
Replies: 83
Views: 30450

Re: KABO: Kurtis and Ashvin's Backyard Open (8/4)

I'll play this at the Ann Arbor site. Let me know if you are looking for a teammate.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri May 04, 2012 3:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Announcement: Minnesota Open V (11/17/12 at UMN)
Replies: 94
Views: 40801

Re: Announcement: Minnesota Open V (11/17/12 at UMN)

I would like to play this; let me know if you are looking for a teammate.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:29 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72530

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

I'm going to bed--I'll leave Mike Cheyne's statement as the last I have to say on the larger issue of nonproliferation. As for whether this tournament will be officially released, I'm not going to decide now or without consulting Ike and the others. Finally, the best thing you could do (related to ...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72530

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

2. The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is an example of one of these reactions, which proceeds using iron in a water-gas shift reaction. ANSWER: hydrogenation This leadin is a good example of the confusion I had with what type of answer was requested. For reference, the Fischer-Tropsch process is a react...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Mar 05, 2012 8:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72530

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

I generally enjoyed this tournament, and my biggest complaint of bonus variability has already been discussed. I also had a really hard time judging how specific an answer many of the science tossups were looking for, and I don't think that was entirely from lack of QB-playing rust. Could someone po...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)
Replies: 82
Views: 33886

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)

Heyyy, we need some science, one of you want to play with us? Sure, that would be fun. Hey, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I'd emailed Jerry a while ago and he finally got back to me before I noticed this. We should definitely play the next convenient open tournament together! No problem. Anyone ...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:33 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)
Replies: 82
Views: 33886

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)

Ukonvasara wrote:Heyyy, we need some science, one of you want to play with us?
Sure, that would be fun.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:10 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)
Replies: 82
Views: 33886

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)

I would like to play this, and am looking for teammates.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Nov 21, 2011 11:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion
Replies: 121
Views: 44722

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

I really enjoyed this tournament a lot. A few of the answers seemed unnecessarily hard / overly specific, but in general the really hard questions seemed to be on interesting topics worth learning about. My only real (small) complaint comes is the way the giveaways were structured on tossups like Ja...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MOO Discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 11553

Re: General Discussion

the idea was that Tubman could be made the easy part by linking William Tubman to Harriet Tubman and then asking for the last name. I agree it's a little gimmicky, but I wanted to write a bonus that rewarded knowledge of Taylor and Jenkins-Roberts, and I think that asking for Tubman is an appropria...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Minnesota Open IV (Nov. 19-20)
Replies: 72
Views: 25468

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Minnesota Open IV (Nov. 19-20)

I'm hoping to make it to this. Let me know if you are looking for a teammate.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 33637

Re: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 33637

Re: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion

Round 7: Should "parallel" be promptable or acceptable for "multi-core" processors? I looked into this and it doesn't look like this is a thing. Are you confusing this with parallel processing perhaps? This is far from my specialty, but I think the issue is what do you do if som...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Tue Aug 09, 2011 11:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 33637

Re: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion

Evan and Cody, thank you for making all these changes. A few more things I thought of: Round 1: Poxviridae should be in the answer line for pox viruses, in case anyone answers that. Round 2: If peptidoglycan is supposed to be an easy part, you should probably mention the word "bacteria" so...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 33637

Re: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion

I'll make the answer line more inclusive on the Arab revolt tossup and add some early clues to the Churchill tossup. I moved the Klein clue much deeper on the "blue" tossup. Cody's working on the science. Could the Sargasso Sea tossup be improved by referring to it as a "body of wate...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion
Replies: 151
Views: 33637

Re: VCU Open 2011 Thanks & Discussion

Thank you for writing the set. There were quite a few questions I was happy to see, but there are plenty that still need work. For whatever reason, I got the sense that an unusually large number of those ended up in packet nine, so I'll start there. Maybe I only noticed them more because it was a cl...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: VCU Open 2011 (08/13-08/14)
Replies: 96
Views: 29606

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: VCU Open 2011 (08/13-08/14)

Judging from the outcry, I guess we should have done this, but I feel it is worth noting that last year's Chemistry distribution (if distributed at a rate of 1/1 Chemistry per packet) would have only filled 11/16 packets, and th at distribution was not announced by anyone from the VCU, Michigan or ...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: VCU Open 2011 (08/13-08/14)
Replies: 96
Views: 29606

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: VCU Open 2011 (08/13-08/14)

First, people playing this tournament next week might want to know that it only has about 3.5/3.5 science per round, with all of the removed 0.5/0.5 coming from chemistry. I realize the distribution wasn't posted, but people should be able to expect something close to a typical distribution if not o...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2011 Discussion Thread
Replies: 32
Views: 7205

Re: Chicago Open 2011 Discussion Thread

This tournament was a lot of fun to play, and was probably the most fun main event I have ever played. Thank you to the editors and everyone else for making it awesome.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Aug 04, 2011 7:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Split topic on CO science
Replies: 104
Views: 23563

Re: Split topic on CO science

Do I think that a tossup on the Siemens process would ever be a good idea? Absolutely not Jerry, the answer to the tossup was "silicon," which I think is a perfectly reasonable answer line. I guess that wasn't clear. The point I was trying to make is that there are very important topics o...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Split topic on CO science
Replies: 104
Views: 23563

Re: Split topic on CO science

I'd like to point out that, although there is a pretty uniform science curriculum that covers many important topics, there are plenty of important, interesting, tossup-worthy topics that are rarely if ever seen in classes. For instance, I would like to think that the silicone chemistry I work on eve...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:11 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Michigan 2011-12
Replies: 76
Views: 30312

Re: Michigan 2011-12

I was very impressed with how Utica improved over the year, and they should probably be in any top 5 discussion.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:49 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Michigan 2011-12
Replies: 76
Views: 30312

Re: Michigan 2011-12

I'm working on getting a Midland Dow team active, and briefly talked to the adviser. Midland High was apparently a decent team this year (for the area), so perhaps I'll be able to get them to travel a bit too. I think I'll be able to get Dow to a few tournaments this year, but hosting something woul...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Open and Trash 2011 @ DCC (Aug 6-7)
Replies: 77
Views: 19339

Re: VCU Open and Trash 2011 @ DCC (Aug 6-7)

I'm a free agent for the main tournament, and could probably read for trash.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Events that are on the docket
Replies: 110
Views: 28492

Re: Events that are on the docket

I just don't understand why "college student" versus "not a college student" is any kind of valid distinction. To me, that seems like as strange of a dichotomy to draw as "player who likes pepsi" versus "player who likes coke." There's absolutely no reason wh...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Sat Apr 23, 2011 2:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VETO?
Replies: 67
Views: 16369

Re: VETO?

I'd play some sequel to NGST as well.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?
Replies: 13
Views: 3869

Re: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?

marnold wrote:I was actually just being an ass, making fun of the fact Charles Hang was voicing a concern very explicitly addressed by 2 of the 4 posts in this thread.
I was pretty sure I had answered it already. Maybe the third post will clear that up.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?
Replies: 13
Views: 3869

Re: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?

If this happens, I would try to make the majority of answer lines reasonably accessible to non-engineers. There will certainly be overlap with things in chemistry and physics (and maybe bio if I can figure out how) in what I had initially been thinking of, but if there isn't much interest I could ad...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open Side Event Wrangling
Replies: 42
Views: 11576

Re: Chicago Open Side Event Wrangling

I don't care where mine would get played, if anyone actually would want to play it. Longer events would probably be a good idea.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?
Replies: 13
Views: 3869

Re: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?

I was afraid of that. If this actually happens, I would try to keep answer lines as accessible to non-engineers as possible. If it doesn't, I may end up writing some of the questions anyway and just posting the questions.
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?
Replies: 13
Views: 3869

Interest in All-Engineering Mini Side Event?

I've been thinking about writing some sort of all-engineering side event for a few months. It would consist of somewhere around 40 or 50 mostly short tossups, with no bonuses. There will probably be a bias towards chemical engineering and materials science, but I'll try to include topics relevant to...
by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat
Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Where Will You Be Going to College Next Year?
Replies: 67
Views: 22257

Re: Where Will You Be Going to College Next Year?

I have already started work at Dow Corning, a silicones company in Midland, MI. I'm probably done playing non-open tournaments, but I plan to make it to as many opens in the area as I can.