Search found 325 matches

by NoahMinkCHS
Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Canadian Quizbowl
Replies: 28
Views: 5725

Re: Canadian Quizbowl

Since travel/finances are apparently a burden, have any potential hosts considered holding, say, Ontario Bowl on Saturday followed by, say, a mirror of a US tournament on Sunday? This has been done successfully south of the border (see: Shorter College's NAQT IS/ACF Fall weekend from 2007) and gives...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Triple Elimination
Replies: 12
Views: 3615

Re: Triple Elimination

I played around with it a little bit, and it looks like you could do eight teams in nine rounds Thanks for figuring that out. Which means... I imagine it would be easier for everyone if you just did a playoff round robin bracket than a complicated triple elimination system. Since the latter option ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Housewrites vs. NAQT
Replies: 34
Views: 5395

Re: Housewrites vs. NAQT

Has anyone ever tried a packet submission (optional) HS tournament? I'm imagining a college or HS team doing an essentially house-written tournament but offering significant discounts for writing a packet. You probably wouldn't get many takers, but I'd guess (in a few regions at least) at least 2-3 ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Does this sound Legit?
Replies: 6
Views: 1602

Re: Does this sound Legit?

In my experience, the answer to "Does this sound Legit?" is almost always "No". Usually this involves someone asking me about an "email they got", but websites work the same way. That said, see: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/197/ripoff0197249.htm, among others. ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:16 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic renamed
Replies: 7
Views: 2099

Re: Panasonic renamed

Maybe one day a real quizbowl tournament can get corporate sponsorship...
by NoahMinkCHS
Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Great News! CBI "Susp"Ends!
Replies: 89
Views: 28524

Re: Great News! CBI "Susp"Ends!

Interesting, especially questions like Rate the level of importance you place on the following potential benefits institutions receive from ACUI's partnership with a program like College Bowl (compared to independent participation in academic challenge programs of their individual choice) Network of...
by NoahMinkCHS
Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Chip's Love of Pyramids! (renamed from NAC legitimacy)
Replies: 80
Views: 11004

Re: Chip's Love of Pyramids! (renamed from NAC legitimacy)

Of course the sky is blue -- we should all be sad and blue that so much misinformation has spread about the NAC and its obvious love for pyramidial questions. Clearly :chip: loves them so much, he keeps them all hidden away for himself and only lets out a few per tournament. Why oh why can't you peo...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Jun 10, 2008 7:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Video?
Replies: 18
Views: 3898

Re: Video?

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:Also, if anyone has the ability to split that video up into segments of less than 10 minutes, please let me know. I would be interested in posting it on Youtube.
Indeed. Princeton vs. Agnes Scott needs a sequel!
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Great News! CBI "Susp"Ends!
Replies: 89
Views: 28524

Re: Great News! CBI "Susp"Ends!

I admire your faith, Chris K, but I've played CBI and consequently have less optimism. In my region specifically, among the non-circuit teams, there was usually 1-2 that I could've seen attending SCT or ACF Fall and enjoying it; with a little work, these teams might have done OK, but obviously would...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2008 QU NAC: B. T. Washington (OK) wins!
Replies: 350
Views: 53859

Re: 2008 QU NAC discussion and comment

Hasn't Booker T. Washington been fairly active (at least in Chip) for awhile? Does anyone know what the odds are, if any, of them branching out into NAQT/PACE type stuff? Or maybe to put it another way, are they not coming to mainstream national events due to lack of knowledge that good quizbowl exi...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:33 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Player name pronunciation
Replies: 52
Views: 15855

Re: Player name pronunciation

pblessman wrote:My favorite example is a woman called Schenk who insisted on being called "Skank." Not even kidding...
Maybe she was trying to tell you something beyond the pronunciation of her name...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:58 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QB social science: School District Income v. HSNCT Placement
Replies: 25
Views: 5343

Re: QB social science: School District Income v. HSNCT Placement

Wow, I'm actually really excited somebody did this. Thanks for compiling this data. That said... Caveats about this chart: ... 2. The chart in Matt's post includes private and magnet schools, for which zip code-based data is unlikely to be representative. Umm... that's a bit of a problem, don't you ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Great News! CBI "Susp"Ends!
Replies: 89
Views: 28524

Re: Great News! CBI "Susp"Ends!

Not only are they wrong, but there's also no reason to make these (incorrect) pronouncements about ACF vs. NAQT, since I think it's already been well-established in this thread , by ACF members, that the way NAQT is organized puts them in a vastly superior position to do something about this vacuum ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue May 27, 2008 11:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2008 QU NAC: B. T. Washington (OK) wins!
Replies: 350
Views: 53859

Re: NAC Schedules

I'd be shocked if a tournament that used only two rooms at a time didn't run smoothly...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue May 27, 2008 12:41 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Cavalier Classic XIII (10/25/08) at UVA
Replies: 70
Views: 22278

Re: Cavalier Classic XIII (10/25/08) at UVA

Will, can you send me an email or something and let me know some contact info for you or the UVA team? I'll be in law school there this fall, and while I doubt I'll play much -- if at all -- I'd certainly be interested in helping y'all out with reading and stuff. (I would've just emailed you but app...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon May 19, 2008 10:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: LaTeX and packets
Replies: 95
Views: 36659

Re: LaTeX and packets

Also, for the self-described Luddites: AFT is actually less newfangled than Word. It's platform-independent plain text! Beyond robot readers and databases, there are plenty of reasons to eschew a proprietary, error-laden file format that only complicates the writing, submission, editing, formatting...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon May 19, 2008 4:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: LaTeX and packets
Replies: 95
Views: 36659

Re: LaTeX and packets

Regarding automatic scoring: there was a room at ICT where this was done, and it was awesome . It had a scoreboard, what tossup we were on, countdown timers for bonus parts, and even a little indicator for which player had buzzed. It was pretty amazing. This type of thing is the one thing that I wo...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon May 19, 2008 3:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Collegiate quzbowl in South Carolina?
Replies: 12
Views: 2880

Re: Collegiate quzbowl in South Carolina?

What are you looking to do with this information? Are you trying to come up with places to apply next year or something? If so, have you considered looking outside the state? UGA, for example, would only be 30 minutes farther from Myrtle Beach than Clemson (according to Google Maps) and is, of cours...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sun May 18, 2008 11:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Greatest Quiz Bowl team ever?
Replies: 41
Views: 14771

Re: Greatest Quiz Bowl team ever?

Disregarding powers and negs, that implies getting 22 tossups and converting on EVERY single bonus part on a given NAQT packet plus 5 more points. :shock: Don't disregard powers, then. I am almost entirely sure that such a team would not make the playoffs at PACE today. They may have been good for ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sat May 17, 2008 7:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: LaTeX and packets
Replies: 95
Views: 36659

Re: LaTeX and packets

AFT seems trivially easy to implement. If anyone can't figure out how to use that, they were probably going to screw up their packet in Word anyway, and at least this way it's seriously just plain text. I think Andrew Hart is correct about GDocs not really playing well with markup language. I don't ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon May 12, 2008 1:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 2007-2008
Replies: 268
Views: 71813

Re: Georgia 2007-2008

AlphaQB: I'd be surprised if the easy-medium-hard parts were invariably in that order. A good bit of the time, it makes sense to do it in a different order -- like work from plot (middle difficulty)/author of that work (easy)/other work by author (hard).
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue May 06, 2008 4:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Larry Bird's College Coach
Replies: 2
Views: 1193

Re: Larry Bird's College Coach

That's awesome. This might even be a cooler connection than that Celtics stats guy...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon May 05, 2008 4:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Two-tournament weekend at VCU August 16 & 17?
Replies: 40
Views: 11772

Re: Two-tournament weekend at VCU August 16 & 17?

I'll actually be moving to Virginia about a week before this (thanks to the date change), so I might be interested in playing or helping read or something.
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon May 05, 2008 4:52 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: New Tournament Calendar Available on the Quizbowl Wiki
Replies: 14
Views: 3824

Re: New Tournament Calendar Available on the Quizbowl Wiki

Well it depends on what preferred status confers. If it is just a "PACE Seal of Approval" I think it's a great idea -- it's saying, hey, these people went to this Bootcamp and now (theoretically) know more than they used to about running tournaments; as such, this tournament should be of d...
by NoahMinkCHS
Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT Community College Championship
Replies: 20
Views: 4299

Re: NAQT Community College Championship

All I'm saying is that there need to be a certain number of participants even in the CC field to make the championship legitimate. If this means that the DII field is effectively 24 teams (plus however many CCs are competitive enough to break into that number), well, I don't see an inherent problem...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Hypothetical Unfair Result
Replies: 12
Views: 2865

Re: Hypothetical Unfair Result

Interesting. I, myself, have never been a huge fan of bonus conversion as a sole tiebreaker. That said, of course, ANY statistical tiebreaker is going to have its flaws. I'm willing to accept the currently prevailing notion that BC is less-flawed than other methods, and am curious to see how common ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 2007-2008
Replies: 268
Views: 71813

Re: Georgia 2007-2008

Alpha points out exactly what the problem is with your logic. On the anonymous works question, it's entirely reasonable to think that a less-knowledgeable team might only know Dickinson did that, while the more knowledgeable team would know about Dickinson, Austen, and others. If the answer had been...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ghetto Warz discussion
Replies: 22
Views: 4243

Re: Ghetto Warz discussion

If I recall correctly, I think we played some Ghetto Warz packets at Moon Pie last year... and they were terrible then. I can only imagine what would possess someone to reuse questions that were known to be bad AND plagiarized.
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:12 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Presidential Candidates association test
Replies: 16
Views: 2079

Re: Presidential Candidates association test

It looks like they tried to do two "good" pics and two "bad" pics of each candidate, but I gotta say, one of the Obama pics was just awful -- it was really grainy and he looked homeless or something. That was just reflex for me to hit the bad key, even on the "Obama=Good&quo...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:21 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 2007-2008
Replies: 268
Views: 71813

Re: Georgia 2007-2008

EFG, I'm from Macon, which (as you may know) is roughly half an hour north of Warner Robins. To be honest, HS quizbowl in Middle Georgia is unfortunately not as strong as it should be/could be/has been in the past. The three big Houston County schools, in particular, all seem to be good-to-great pub...
by NoahMinkCHS
Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT's Post-ICT Survey
Replies: 84
Views: 20188

Re: NAQT's Post-ICT Survey

I think the logic is that, while there are cases like Valencia '04, and while there are always a couple competitive CCs in middle brackets, most CCs end up doing poorly in the bottom bracket -- case in point, this year 5 of the bottom 6 were CCs. Personally, though, I would only be in favor of split...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What got you into Quizbowl?
Replies: 90
Views: 18958

Re: What got you into Quizbowl?

Was the book The View from Saturday ? In my case, my elementary school had a team that was run by the gifted program teacher. The team was open to 5th and 6th graders, but every once in awhile, she would bust out the Quiz-a-Matic and questions from Patrick's Press or Campbell's for younger classes. ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: My withdrawal from the Missouri market
Replies: 27
Views: 5368

Re: My withdrawal from the Missouri market

Yeah, would it be feasible either for Missouri to adopt NAQT A-series or for someone to try to get NAQT to do one of those custom sets they do, but in MO format? It seems like the option that would be most likely to result in decent questions while being cost-effective. Unless NAQT doesn't want anyt...
by NoahMinkCHS
Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Jeopardy finally finds a way to avoid quizbowlers.
Replies: 23
Views: 6823

Re: College Jeopardy finally finds a way to avoid quizbowlers.

Bryce, does Ken now write for the show? That's the only way your response makes sense... Unless you think Jeopardy! repeats questions, and that some that appeared on the Jennings episodes (which were also on national TV ) might recur. But unlike crappy HS question writers, I don't believe Jeopardy! ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:00 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2008 NAQT HSNCT Announcements
Replies: 33
Views: 12642

Re: 2008 NAQT HSNCT Announcements

So what's the over-under on how many years before we see a 200-team HSNCT? Any aspiring HSQB bookies out there?

(Just kidding. Gambling is bad. But really, I think the annually-increasing size is both a symptom of good things in the HS circuit, and a good thing in itself.)
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Art Names
Replies: 47
Views: 8463

Re: Art Names

I never once said I actually believed it should have been ruled incorrect. Except here: then I personally feel no remorse for that person if and when he is ruled incorrect. On a separate point, what makes Night Watch more "correct"? Just because all good quizbowlers learned it that way? T...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Sunday fall tournaments
Replies: 49
Views: 8434

Re: Sunday fall tournaments

I think a lot depends on how far away we're talking about. You're right, Athens to Tuscaloosa on Sat night and back on Sun night just wouldn't happen. At the same time, I can tell you that we would not have brought six teams to ACF Fall last year had it been on Saturday instead of Sunday. We would h...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:36 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Great Middle School Pyramidal Experiment
Replies: 105
Views: 51642

Re: The Great Middle School Pyramidal Experiment

Hey Ford, have you/would you consider having some of the quarters (probably the bonus quarters) be only longer questions, and the others be only shorter? It sounds like you're mixing both types together, which is fine I guess, but can be frustrating because it changes the rhythm of the questions. If...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:25 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Art Names
Replies: 47
Views: 8463

Re: Art Names

Did you know that the sculpture is more commonly known as "The Thinker" and just said "The Poet", or is that really the only name you know (well, knew) for it? Giving more esoteric/obscure equivalents, while technically fine, is sort of frowned-upon. If you want to show off super...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 24, 2008 2:31 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Distance Proofreading
Replies: 9
Views: 2962

Re: Distance Proofreading

If I were the TD, I would likely be losing my mind worrying that the network would go down, either in my building or at the copy editor's end. Having real-time editing would cut it a little too close for me. Still, I'd be interested to see how this might turn out.
by NoahMinkCHS
Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:29 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT Subject Distribution
Replies: 38
Views: 13995

Re: NAQT Subject Distribution

Maybe because of overlap? Where do you count Homer and ancient stuff that (re)tells a myth?
by NoahMinkCHS
Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT Subject Distribution
Replies: 38
Views: 13995

Re: NAQT Subject Distribution

I think it would be easier and more balanced to do packet distribution. A lot of people feel that way, but I can see why one might prefer the tournament-based. If you require every subject to come out to a whole number of questions per round, you can over/under-represent certain subjects from your ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT Subject Distribution
Replies: 38
Views: 13995

Re: NAQT Subject Distribution

That's a pretty common complaint about NAQT, especially with regard to general knowledge and especially geography. It has not changed much since the IS-50s, although I imagine general question quality has probably increased. (Not that it was bad then...) If you weren't aware, remember that NAQT has ...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Vanderbilt ABC XXXV - April 5, 2008
Replies: 23
Views: 4565

Re: Vanderbilt ABC XXXV - April 5, 2008

Athena Starwoman wrote:Dorman is going to the Minnesota tournament the same day that is using these questions.
Dorman? Minnesota? Wow...
by NoahMinkCHS
Thu Mar 06, 2008 3:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Pronunciation question
Replies: 24
Views: 6255

Re: Pronunciation question

I think ezubaric raises a good point that exposes a flaw in the consonants-correct -> word-correct rule. Sorice's rule sounds reasonable, but it's hard to enforce; on stuff like Taika/Taiku it's obvious where it would fall, but not so much on Borodin (as this thread indicates...) English-speakers te...
by NoahMinkCHS
Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Productive discussion about expanding to new schools
Replies: 59
Views: 13923

Re: Productive discussion about expanding to new schools

We usually just have people take personal cars and carpool, and reimburse for gas or have the people riding with them split it. (Just make sure the financial arrangements are clear to all parties!) When you take 3, 4, 5 teams... just take 3, 4, 5 cars. It kinda sucks for the people that have to driv...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:52 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 2007-2008
Replies: 268
Views: 71813

Re: Georgia 2007-2008

I understand what you're saying, and it makes sense -- I think power matching is great for this, as is re-bracketing like a lot of college tournaments do. However, the standard among high school tournaments in this area has been (in my experience, which is substantial but not comprehensive) a set of...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:40 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Tournament at the Arch (Varsity/JV) on March 1st @ UGA
Replies: 10
Views: 3110

RESULTS AND THANKS

EDIT: Updated with JV stats I'm pleased to report the results from UGA Quizbowl's Second Annual Tournament at the Arch. We welcomed 22 varsity and 12 JV teams to our campus. We thank all of them for their patience with some early delays with opening the second building (hopefully, we'll have the who...
by NoahMinkCHS
Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:15 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Georgia 2007-2008
Replies: 268
Views: 71813

Re: Georgia 2007-2008

So, as the tournament director/bracket-setter/lots of other things, I thought I'd jump in and say a few things. I do really appreciate the feedback, and will be soliciting coaches for more when I send out a wrap-up email tonight or tomorrow. (The very next thing I'll do after this, BTW, is make a re...
by NoahMinkCHS
Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:40 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Building a buzzer
Replies: 15
Views: 10946

Re: Building a buzzer

A friend of mine built a buzzer for the You Don't Know Jack! computer game. That game used keyboard input as its buzzer, so I believe he just took an old keyboard and figured out what it did to tell the computer it was pressing space bar or whatever... from there, it was pretty simple to wire up a b...