Search found 544 matches

by Smuttynose Island
Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45606

ICT Prediction Thread

In the absence of one of these existing, I've gone ahead and made one. Below are my, probably incorrect, predictions for the 2012 ICT, with bad commentary. NAQT ICT: Locks for the Top Bracket: 1. UVA A Although this team’s stats have tended to be somewhat lower than Yale’s, especially on mACF questi...
by Smuttynose Island
Sun Mar 11, 2012 7:01 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Buzzing in faster
Replies: 8
Views: 8695

Re: Buzzing in faster

I've played before were very pyramidal (is that the word?) and these were shorter, which seems to affirm what you just said.. "Pyramidal" just means that the earlier clues are harder than subsequent clues. It has no bearing on how long a question is or how hard a question is. The question...
by Smuttynose Island
Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:24 pm
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Buzzing in faster
Replies: 8
Views: 8695

Re: Buzzing in faster

Unless you are first line buzzer racing on the majority of questions, which means that the set is too easy for the field, learning more is going to help you get more questions than working in "buzzer speed." Which means that it is much more worth your time studying than sitting in a room p...
by Smuttynose Island
Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:00 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2012 VCU Spring Tournament (3/10/12)
Replies: 10
Views: 4876

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2012 VCU Spring Tournament (3/10/12)

The Hothem Hariharan Academy defeated St. Anselm's in a two game final to win this tournament. Maggie Walker came in third.
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Mar 06, 2012 5:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72952

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

[10] These phenomena occur where the Coriolis effect, which is directed outward from the center, reaches equilibrium with a pressure gradient. The polar version of these phenomena is the reason that winds at high latitudes always blow in the same direction. ANSWER: cyclone Yeah so the first sentenc...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72952

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

Would it be possible to see the Coriolis effect bonus? The middle part on cyclones seemed to be describing geostrophic winds, but that wasn't accepted.
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:16 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72952

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

So on that "caldera" tossup, there was a clue that went something like "this thing will form under Yellowstone in the future" and I buzzed with "supervolcano" because the Yellowstone supervolcano is totally a thing. I'm guessing there were clues that excluded this as a...
by Smuttynose Island
Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution at George Mason University (3/3/2012)
Replies: 22
Views: 10628

Re: Peaceful Resolution at George Mason University (3/3/2012)

vcuEvan wrote:Since this is such a small field how would people feel about running a brief tournament (like a single round robin) and then doing a draft or some other exciting reconfiguration of teams?
I'd approve of this.
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:06 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Beyond the canon...
Replies: 96
Views: 17994

Re: Beyond the canon...

I've always thought that Byzantine History is completely underrepresented. Says The Bulgar Slayer. Also, though, back to the point I was making about Chinese and Indian lit. I know that this is relatively obscure right now, but if we're going to have a canon, it seems like including, say the 5 most...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?
Replies: 158
Views: 98934

Re: What Happens to DC-Area Quizbowl Next Year?

I'm bored and don't feel like doing homework, and considering how late it is in the year, I think it's safe to say that we can reopen this topic for discussion without the possibility of any new teams/players emerging as contenders. Doing this is almost always a bad idea. For instance, Jonathan Lei...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:59 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Beyond the canon...
Replies: 96
Views: 17994

Re: Beyond the canon...

There are already more sets being produced than weekends to run them on Yeah, and those sets are all of equal quality and difficulty. Good thing they aren't, because as stated in previous posts, I really like varying difficulty of different sets. You are missing the point which is that many of thos...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Beyond the canon...
Replies: 96
Views: 17994

Re: Beyond the canon...

In my perfect world, a lower quality team could still reasonably play the harder sets, but there would be things they would need to study too. In this "non-perfect world" weaker teams already need to study things! Even good teams need to study things on today's sets. It's not as if every ...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Beyond the canon...
Replies: 96
Views: 17994

Re: Beyond the canon...

I don't desire a dichotomy, ... tournaments geared for top level teams. I don't understand! How do you have some tournaments geared for top level teams, some tournaments geared for not-top teams, and still not have a dichotomy?!? Because, my idea of a "dichotomy" is where bad teams answer...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Beyond the canon...
Replies: 96
Views: 17994

Re: Beyond the canon...

Byzantine history is way too hard for high schoolers outside of a few obvious answers. I'd say the same thing about post-Mao China: there are a couple things you could ask about, but even Deng is really pushing it as a tossup (and got poor conversion numbers last time he was tossed up, as I recall)...
by Smuttynose Island
Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:31 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: INTEREST CHECK: May Tournament
Replies: 3
Views: 1203

Re: INTEREST CHECK: May Tournament

Irvine High is interested in hosting an NAQT IS Standard Saturday tournament on the week of May 19th (after AP tests and before HSNCT), and we felt that our location in Orange County would be a great compromise for LA County Schools and SD County Schools. Please reply if your team would be interest...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 46146

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

In Texas, we moderators had a long discussion about the antiprompts. For example, in the two treatises of government tossup there was an instruction to antiprompt players who buzzed with the answer "second treatise of government". To me, such an answer seems like it should just be wrong s...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 46146

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

I'm not sure it would mean anything; if the bonuses are consistent throughout, what does it matter that there's a harder tossup in there somewhere? Suppose we have four players: A, B, C, and D. A is you: a not-great econ player, but one who can get someone like Myrdal on a giveaway thanks to quizbo...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 46146

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

You literally have no idea what you're talking about. This is one of the most important, maybe the most important experimental physics effort ever conducted. This is like every wonder of the ancient world rolled into one. Just to give you some examples, landmark experiments from not-that-long ago, ...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:58 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals Texas (Feb 18-19)
Replies: 8
Views: 5111

Re: ACF Regionals Texas (Feb 18-19)

Out of curiosity, why did some teams only play 8 games? Was this decision made by the teams or tournament director? If it was made by the tournament director was there really no way to have those teams play more games?
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:10 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 46146

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

Because it's an expectation that exists in the field? Like, maybe we should just do more to disabuse people of that assumption, but we shouldn't just say "FUCK THEM IF THEY DON'T KNOW HOW ACF WORKS," because that's not a strategy that will get a lot of new teams coming back. Not that I'm ...
by Smuttynose Island
Sun Feb 19, 2012 10:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 46146

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

I don't see the problem with duplicate answer lines unless they repeat clues. I don't know about time (although it seems like they didn't repeat), but Alexander the Great didn't repeat clues. Most people generally rule out answer lines that have already come up, though, don't they? At least in the ...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:35 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution at George Mason University (3/3/2012)
Replies: 22
Views: 10628

Re: Peaceful Resolution at George Mason University (3/3/2012)

I'm interested in playing this tournament on an open team, if others care to join me.

EDIT: David Seal, Evan, and I are looking for teammates.
by Smuttynose Island
Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:11 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)

This argument began with my contention that a good question writer or editor with average math knowledge would be able to produce better math questions than a bad question writer or editor with a lot of math knowledge.The reason why Max's critique of IMSANITY's math TUs is pertinent is because Adam ...
by Smuttynose Island
Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:39 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT: Difficulty
Replies: 146
Views: 29297

Re: Difficulty

The reason we're using linguistic approximations for these statements is because we have made these arguments eleven billion times. Of course, if I were feeling argumentative, I'd say that raises the question: is there something wrong with the DII set that people keep making these arguments People ...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

Your TUs did have difficulty cliffs, largely as a result of using too hard clues and then throwing in, in general, a really easy giveaway. Let's reexamine IMSANTIY I's TU on the number 23: This is the smallest number of people needed to guarantee at least a 50 percent chance that some two will share...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

To try to better get my point across and perhaps make my ideas clear, I've provided a short explanation and a long explanation of what I'm trying to say for several of my points in this post. "Most" math questions are bad is an exaggeration. But even in some high school sets that are other...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

Second math tossup I found in the last HSAPQ ACF-style regular-season set on their site: 12. This theorem is generalized by de Gua's Theorem. The traditional proof of this statement made use of the "windmill." When using only integers, it is the highest possible case allowed by Fermat's L...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 3:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Peaceful Resolution at Chicago (3/3/2012)
Replies: 82
Views: 33924

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

Maybe this isn't the best place to inquire about such things, but is there any more information on the mirrors of this set? Specifically, does GMU still plan on holding their mirror of this event. I'd like to know so that I can work of finding a team to play on at that mirror site. EDIT: Thanks for ...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

If I need someone to write math questions for my set, especially at the HS level where being especially knowledgeable about a given area is not terribly important, I'd take a good editor or writer with an average understanding of math over the type of person that you described first in your post. T...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

If I've got a decision to make between someone who understands even just the basic axioms of quizbowl (like what a "clue" is and why they need to go in hard-medium-easy order in a tossup) and was a math enthusiast in college - anywhere from math major to Ph. D. - OR someone who doesn't do...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 1:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT: Difficulty
Replies: 146
Views: 29297

Re: Difficulty

Yes, let's just get rid of DII so that high school students from Alabama have to go from nonpyramidal tossups about the Mona Lisa to tossups about "Darwin Among the Machines," that's an excellent idea that won't discourage anybody. I'm not sure if you understand what people have been sayi...
by Smuttynose Island
Tue Feb 07, 2012 2:29 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 50 Million Math Question Fans Can't Be Wrong! (OR CAN THEY)
Replies: 64
Views: 11949

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

So although it's a little bit of a sidetrack I think that this is a decent opportunity for me to point out a few of what I consider to be "fundamental" errors of thinking when it comes to how a fair number of people determine whether or not a question is good. Sure, a lot of math tossups i...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:33 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT individual question discussion
Replies: 114
Views: 24204

Re: talk about individual questions here

Don't know about the former, but I would think the end of power would be right before Pinipat for Mughal empire. I seem to remember that coming up a lot in highschool sets You are correct that the Battle of Panipat comes up a lot in HS TUs; however you are incorrect in your implied claim that that ...
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 NAQT Canadian SCT Region 2 at the University of Toronto
Replies: 17
Views: 5127

Re: 2012 NAQT Canadian SCT Region 2 at the University of Toronto

alexander wrote:Since the stats don't appear to be posted online, do the organizers object to me uploading them to the hsquizbowl database so that anyone can see them?
They are right here on NAQT's website: http://naqt.com/stats/tournament-teams. ... nt_id=4105
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:13 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2012 STANLEY CUP @ Georgetown Day (2/4/12)
Replies: 24
Views: 11033

Re: 2012 STANLEY CUP @ Georgetown Day (2/4/12)

Is there a reason why the combined stats lack PPB?
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 06, 2012 2:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Assorted Freshmen Problems
Replies: 18
Views: 4041

Re: Assorted Freshmen Problems

A lot of these problems go away after a player has played several tournaments and gained confidence. Encouragement always helps, but I don't think that you have much to worry about now
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Feb 06, 2012 1:18 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: On-going Season Rankings V2.0 - Herp Derp
Replies: 255
Views: 104391

Re: On-going Season Rankings V2.0 - so is this where i complain?

Still crossing my fingers--any hope of getting stats from Springfield NAQT Invite? (it was January 21) We go to one good tournament this year and get one shot at the rankings and this is what happens. Fred does his best to get stats from every good tournament that he can find. Odds are if the stats...
by Smuttynose Island
Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT: Critique my questions
Replies: 28
Views: 6994

Re: Feedback thread on my questions

Fred wrote: Stephen Douglas
I'd like to applaud you on this TU. I didn't get to see a lot of it, but I love it when people use important/interesting/suitably well-known quotes by or describing people in their TUs, which I thought this TU did well.
by Smuttynose Island
Sun Feb 05, 2012 1:03 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Are 20 Questions Enough?
Replies: 24
Views: 6833

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

YAGHH I typed up a whole 4 paragraphs and then my computer froze so I lost all I had. But I'll restart, with a shorter version; Yeah, this is extremely optimistic. Let's say that you do move to 24/24 rounds. That means that it is reasonable to expect that every 5 rounds you've essentially added an ...
by Smuttynose Island
Sat Feb 04, 2012 11:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT individual question discussion
Replies: 114
Views: 24204

Re: talk about individual questions here

I had an issue with the Paris Commune TU. The Paris Commune that Adolphe Thiers put down was technically the second Paris Commune as a Paris Commune existed during the French Revolution. I was originally negged for giving that answer. It would probably be prudent to add "Second" to the ans...
by Smuttynose Island
Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: VHSL States
Replies: 18
Views: 5716

Re: VHSL States

George Mason graduated Asher and their second best player I believe, so I doubt that they will be contenders, although it is possible if no other team steps up. I don't think that they've showed up to any non-VHSL tournaments, which lends credence to the belief that they've graduated those members, ...
by Smuttynose Island
Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Closed: February 2, 2013
Replies: 38
Views: 18838

Re: VCU Closed: February 2, 2013

I think it goes without saying that I am not playing this tournament That is fine with the people running this tournament. They appear to think that the people who ought to be allowed to play quizbowl consist of a narrowly-defined set of Virginians. As it happens, I think that idea was brought forw...
by Smuttynose Island
Fri Feb 03, 2012 11:55 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Are 20 Questions Enough?
Replies: 24
Views: 6833

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

The reason I proposed 24 is because there is already a precedent for having that many questions in a match. 20 and 24 are both already arbitrarily chosen cutoff points, but nearly every single non-NAQT set uses the former. I don't think questions have to be as short as NAQT to make this work on tim...
by Smuttynose Island
Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Are 20 Questions Enough?
Replies: 24
Views: 6833

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

I don't think that increasing the number of questions purely to increase the length of the game is a good objective. The reason to increase the number of questions is that the high school distribution lends itself better to 21/21 or 22/22 than 20/20, and 24 is the next nice round number. I think th...
by Smuttynose Island
Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:17 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Are 20 Questions Enough?
Replies: 24
Views: 6833

Re: Are 20 Questions Enough?

These are just some of my thoughts on the matter so take them as you will: It also has the potential to make sets harder. By increasing the number of questions that you have to write in "hard" areas, you start writing on even harder answerlines, which can negatively impact the game. If you...
by Smuttynose Island
Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Bulldog Bowl III @ Drake University 2/18/2012
Replies: 8
Views: 1740

Re: Bulldog Bowl III @ Drake University 2/18/2012

nhscody wrote:Are alternates allowed? We had two alternates at the history bowl that could switch out between rounds, so I thought it might be the case here too.
NAQT allows up to 6 people per team I believe, but only four may play at a time as was mentioned earlier.
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:54 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: OLEFIN is looking for mirrors!
Replies: 7
Views: 5116

Re: OLEFIN is looking for mirrors!

This set was mirrored by Rock Bridge and got great reviews. If you are still looking for a mirror and OLEFIN hasn't been mirrored near you, OLEFIN should be available.
by Smuttynose Island
Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:45 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Sports Side Event/Tournament Set (Need Writers!)
Replies: 28
Views: 9410

Re: Sports Side Event/Tournament Set (Need Writers!)

e are looking to make the set harder than High School trash, but not anything too difficult that it would limit the better sports trash players. Not to sound like a dick, but you could make this tournament a lot harder than "HS Trash" and still not alienate many of the "better' sport...
by Smuttynose Island
Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Bowl (Jan 28th, 2012)
Replies: 48
Views: 26360

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Bowl (Jan 28th, 2012)

UVA won the tournament undefeated by beating Yale in the last two games of the tournament. Harvard placed third and Maryland placed fourth I believe. Columbia and OSU A also made the "top" bracket.
by Smuttynose Island
Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:09 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: VHSL States
Replies: 18
Views: 5716

Re: VHSL States

From having seen both teams play, TJ is a vastly superior team to Maggie Walker this year, enough so that I think it is extremely unlikely that they won't win AAA.