Search found 201 matches

by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season
Replies: 63
Views: 32094

Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season

Ludicrous ICT statlines like 35/10/0 over 13 games (as near as I can tell, that's more 15s per game than everybody besides Eric and Bollinger [though, granted, he was in the second bracket at ICT] If you're willing to trade second-bracketness for a smaller sample size, he was fourth in powers in th...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:59 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Odd Ways of Learning Things
Replies: 177
Views: 198091

Re: Odd Ways of Learning Things

This is pretty late to mention, but what the hell. I powered the Nation of Islam TU at Penn Bowl this year thanks to knowing Five-Percenter mythology because of Wu-Tang Clan songs. The lesson here is that Wu-Tang is for the quizbowl-playing children.
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 ACF Nationals Discussion Thread
Replies: 106
Views: 25602

Re: 2012 ACF Nationals Discussion Thread

Bonus on aggregation problem/capital/Joan Robinson I'm very interested in seeing this bonus, as I've long privately thought quizbowl needed more material on Robinson, Sraffa, etc. (Also, Bruce, if you're going to count Galarraga, you might as well count Ernie Shore, Harvey Haddix, and Pedro Martine...
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:41 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MUT at Tulane (4/14)
Replies: 23
Views: 10611

Re: MUT at Tulane (4/14)

Unfortunately Alabama won't be able to make it either. Sorry for the late notice!
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:04 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
Replies: 48
Views: 11489

Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread

Cheynem wrote:Scott Brosius has three championships.
Despite not being very good, is my point.
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:03 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
Replies: 48
Views: 11489

Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread

Man, Mike Cheyne, you couldn't trash-talk Harvard/UVA/Yale/Maryland by comparing them to, like, Scott Brosius?
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
Replies: 48
Views: 11489

Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread

That loser Auroni, beating Harvard and barely losing a tiebreaker to UVA for the top bracket! Well, it's not like ICT tiebreakers mean that much, since it's a tiny sample size of randomly chosen topics. It's possible Auroni got lucky. But yeah, I think it's pretty ludicrous to argue that the #1 ove...
by Fond du lac operon
Fri Apr 06, 2012 4:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 ICT: question-specific discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 14333

Re: 2012 ICT: question-specific discussion

I know nothing about VAWA, but our law-student team member buzzed on the Morrison clue too, so anecdotally it does appear to be better-known than the writers/editors maybe thought.
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 05, 2012 10:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MUT at Tulane (4/14)
Replies: 23
Views: 10611

Re: MUT at Tulane (4/14)

Hey, is this still happening? It's scheduled for a week from now, but the field is, um, kind of small, so...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 ICT: question-specific discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 14333

Re: 2012 ICT: question-specific discussion

Out of curiosity, can I see the philosophy tossup on water? I buzzed in the middle of a description of Putnam's Twin Earth, and it was still in power, which seemed a little late to me (I know, nitpicky) but also made me curious what the clues after it were.
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Apr 03, 2012 2:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Questions Concerning Technology
Replies: 15
Views: 7102

Re: The Questions Concerning Technology

Ah, so hard as in "hard tournament," rather than "hardware" or "hard science fiction."

My interest is climbing even further in that case.
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Questions Concerning Technology
Replies: 15
Views: 7102

Re: The Questions Concerning Technology

4 Hard Computer Science What exactly does "hard computer science" entail? Presumably tossups on Half-Life don't count, and presumably stuff like flip-flops do, but what about a tossup on, like, C++? Or PSPACE? Or Turing machines? Or von Neumann architecture? (I'm definitely interested, es...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 ICT: question-specific discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 14333

Re: 2012 ICT: question-specific discussion

The one (DI) tossup I remember that I felt had a possibly too-easy lead in (or at least the one that the lead-in difficulty affected the outcome of a game I played) was the one on "satisfiability" -- Gordon from WUSTL and I buzzer-raced on it after "Horn" was mentioned. It's enti...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:22 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Buzzer Races
Replies: 6
Views: 1885

Re: Buzzer Races

One thing that I think helps a player win a couple of buzzer races more than average is doing something like "priming an answer in your mind." In this case, always have like a "If I buzzed now, what would I say?" type answer ready to go. Obviously in some categories this is impo...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Apr 02, 2012 2:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31
Replies: 57
Views: 24061

Re: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31

'Twas fun, even if we went 1-5 and I answered probably fewer than 15 tossups the entire time. Props to Mike for setting it up, and thanks to everyone who volunteered their rooms. BTW, anyone who wants an excuse to yell at me, I'm happy to hear criticism of my questions (yeah, even my GUERRILLA quest...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

1. $20 coming your way, just send me an address I can mail a check to in a PM. 2. I was two spots off, geez. The nitwit loses despite pulling his famous card. We have to end this annoying discussion immediately. Also, I'm severely disappointed nobody saw Delaware coming in DII. Was one of their pla...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:33 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

Maybe this year the Valencias, Harvards, and UVA's of the world will still be the favorites, but unless our schools start taking ICT a lot more seriously, we are going to fall behind the Icelandic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IcelandicCompulsoryEducationPie.svg America will be fine as long as...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:03 pm
Forum: New Collegiate Teams
Topic: LSU
Replies: 7
Views: 4587

Re: LSU

LSU has sent a team to a couple of events in the Southeast this season (ACF Fall at Alabama, and the Delta Burke mirror at Tulane). Since they came to ACF Fall here, someone at Alabama presumably has contact info for someone at LSU; I'll try to find out.
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Mar 26, 2012 1:22 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

In an attempt to restore some jokey spirit to this thread: $10,000 bet says you don't finish in the top 10. CODY VOIGHT IS MITT ROMNEY IN "ILL-CONCEIVED AND TERRIBLY ANNOYING INTERNET ARGUMENTS" Edit: Actually, that just came off as bitchy, which is because I'm annoyed, because no one outs...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

Jake + Harrison put up 15 PPB on Penn Bowl. To be fair, that was an ACF and not an NAQT tournament, but it shows pretty well how they scale up on harder questions. I don't think that level of play on DII SCT questions is an accurate predictor of DI ICT performance, but I don't know that cherrypicki...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

Noobish question, but if Alabama has the number 9 seed and played sectionals without Harrison Brown, then why is everyone so low on them? I thought the D values were supposed to adjust for all of this. More seriously, from what I understand, there are numerous reasons; some of them are justified (c...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31
Replies: 57
Views: 24061

Re: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31

BTW, if anyone else is still interested, I've reversed my position on adding teammates (not least since Mark may not get into Chicago until like 4 AM on Saturday...) I'd prefer it if they could write a couple questions, but that's not strictly necessary. PM me if you have any interest. This tournam...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31
Replies: 57
Views: 24061

Re: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31

BTW, if anyone else is still interested, I've reversed my position on adding teammates (not least since Mark may not get into Chicago until like 4 AM on Saturday...) (EDIT: Team is full now) I'd prefer it if they could write a couple questions, but that's not strictly necessary. PM me if you have an...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

dseal wrote:17. Alabama- Inspired by Rick Santorum's recent win in the Alabama primary, the team decides to refuse to answer a bonus on hardcore pornography against Ohio State A. They lose by 10 and fall to the third bracket.
Wait, Marshall Steinbaum's writing for ICT?
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Prediction Thread
Replies: 111
Views: 45213

Re: ICT Prediction Thread

If I seeded this tournament: Bracket A Yale, UVA A, Maryland, Harvard, Chicago A, UCSD, Michigan A, Ohio State A Yes, I'm a cruel bastard, but it still makes more sense than the World Cup seeding. Bracket B Brown, Penn, Chicago B, UVA B, Illinois B, CMU, Texas A&M, Guelph Quiz bowl is forgone in...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Statistics for 2012
Replies: 12
Views: 3112

Re: Statistics for 2012

Why is Georgia Tech X'ed out for SCT? Will Butler + Greg Peacock = close enough to their "A" team for government work. It's certainly not like Regionals, where everyone minus Butler was evenly split among three teams... Also, pretty sure Jarrett Greene does not play for Tech, and Will Butl...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowl Central
Replies: 144
Views: 85311

Re: Quizbowl Central

IIRC, there was a way to fix questions that somehow ended up in the wrong category back in the day. Is this feature gone from the new site, and if so, are there plans to re-implement it?
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Mar 14, 2012 1:09 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31
Replies: 57
Views: 24061

Re: GUERRILLA IV - Chicago, IL - Saturday, 3/31

Ok, in that case the field is closed unless people want to join the Mark Morris team which to my knowledge has just 2 people, or if they can find another team to take us up to 7 total teams. FWIW, we're (about) done with our packet, and we're not terribly interested in additional players (yes, obvi...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 11, 2012 11:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn Bowl Mirror (Athens GA) March 10, 2012
Replies: 55
Views: 14975

Re: Penn Bowl Mirror (Athens GA) March 10, 2012

It's amazing that Seth Kendall managed to buzz on 21 out of 20 questions against Georgia B.
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:36 am
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: Georgia Coach?
Replies: 13
Views: 6364

Re: Georgia Coach?

Hey Nikhil -- I know the Webb Bridge coach is really involved with their team. He might not have the time to coach a HS team as well, but it might be worth asking him if he could recommend someone.
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:34 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

11. The set of sentences which are true in structures with this property are not generally decidable or effectively enumerable as shown by Trakhtenbrot's theorem. A language is regular if and only if its Myhill- Nerode relation has this kind of index. The generating set for any ideal in a Noetheria...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

There's a sentence in the "finite" tossup that begins, "With the axiom of choice, this property..." If the first clause wasn't heard clearly I imagine the second would be confusing. I'm interested in how that sentence continued, if only because I can't imagine what AoC has to do...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The royal road to being a better writer
Replies: 6
Views: 2206

Re: The royal road to being a better writer

(2) Use the New Writer Feedback Program. Great idea in theory. Hasn't worked for my hypothetical person in practice, I assume because the hypothetical person who was supposed to provide feedback is busy with hypothetical med school (which is understandable). Hey, if the person assigned to give you ...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:28 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The royal road to being a better writer
Replies: 6
Views: 2206

The royal road to being a better writer

So, hypothetically, let's say that I, or someone else, is interested in becoming a better player/writer/etc. Certainly the best way to do this is to write questions, which I don't think anyone has a problem with. The problem is, that if you're just writing questions in a void, you won't get better a...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:26 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn Bowl Mirror (Athens GA) March 10, 2012
Replies: 55
Views: 14975

Re: Penn Bowl Mirror (Athens GA) March 10, 2012

Got an idea, Joey? I'm willing to hear ideas. Message me. Keep in mind the field *may* go to 12 teams which then means 11 games. I'm waiting on two schools to get back in touch with me. If we have fewer than 10 teams, do a round-robin then split into smaller fields, as is fairly standard? I guess i...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

FWIW, I never called Jerry stupid, because he's a fantastic player with a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and I am not (completely) insane. I said he made a dumb argument, and I stand by that -- or at least, I think he presented his argument shittily. Maybe that's not worth pointing out if I agree with someo...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

This is objectively untrue. Lots of people really do know who Serra is; he is literally the single most important person when it comes to the Christianization of California. This doesn't depend on how many times he shows up in packet archives or whether or not Matt Bollinger is good at quizbowl. It...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

You have no idea what you're talking about, here or in general. Probably true, but horribly unhelpful if you want me to actually know anything. Anyway, I don't dispute that the Georgia bonus was hard, and I might even be wrong in thinking that the Serra clue was mostly fine, I just wanted to point ...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

Jerry may well be right, but his position is poorly argued. I'm not going to claim that statistics are the final arbiter of what is good and true in quizbowl, but I think they're a decent first approximation, and Junipero Serra appears on the Stanford packet archive barely more than Mircea Eliade. I...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

Shorter Jerry Vinokurov: The Junipero Serra clue was way too easy because I know it; the Georgia politics bonus was "impossible" and "stupid" because I didn't know it.
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

As for Georgian politicians, actually I thought Richard Russell was the easy part. Vinson is nearly impossible for anyone not from Georgia or currently serving aboard the USS Carl Vinson, or unless you're very familiar with Lyndon Johnson's congressional career (which is why I know who he was). Or ...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution Discussion
Replies: 210
Views: 72506

Re: Peaceful Resolution Discussion

For 10 points each, name these politicians from Georgia. [10] This man reached office representing the Farmers Alliance, then became a Populist and William Jennings Bryan’s running mate on that ticket. As a Senator, he supported the lynching of Leo Frank. ANSWER: Tom Watson [10] This highly influen...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Mar 03, 2012 2:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Peaceful Resolution at George Mason University (3/3/2012)
Replies: 22
Views: 10599

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

Will the draft order be posted, so that we can judge all of you from afar, Mel Kiper style?
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:08 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: "Son of a sailmaker"
Replies: 3
Views: 4958

"Son of a sailmaker"

So cluing Grignard as the son of a sailmaker is like, the stock "stock clue." But weirdly, I can't seem to find stuff -- at least online -- to back up that this was ever in really wide use as an early clue for Grignard. (And considering how rarely Grignard the guy appears as an answerline ...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:53 am
Forum: New High School Teams
Topic: How can we explain the rules more clearly?
Replies: 26
Views: 10066

Re: How can we explain the rules more clearly?

[L]et's say it was a tossup on "dogs", which specified to prompt on "beagles" because of some super-famous clue in the middle. If the player says "beagles" but doesn't know what "prompt" means, asking them to be "more specific" is misleading, and as...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: A couple points about Philosophy clues
Replies: 1
Views: 1229

Re: A couple points about Philosophy clues

If you want some other classes of clues that are more helpful, there are plenty that I don't think are used frequently enough that can be helpful. The people who have done English translations of foreign philosophy, for example, are often very important and authoritatively linked to a particular ph...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: YMIR- Mythology tournament- 6/9/12 at PACE
Replies: 62
Views: 30959

Re: Mythology set

Why is Polynesian part of the "American" part of the distribution? Doesn't Polynesian/Aboriginal mythology warrant its own, albeit a small, part of the distribution? Presumably because of our imperialism leading to control of Hawaii. Maybe it should be separate, but I'm not really sure it...
by Fond du lac operon
Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 45844

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

Bartleby wrote:Sorry... are you saying that you played on a packet containing questions that you wrote?
Practiced on it. Didn't play it at the tournament (actually, didn't hear it at the tournament either, since we had an even number of teams.)
by Fond du lac operon
Fri Feb 24, 2012 2:38 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 45844

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

I actually think that this is a fantastic leadin for exact reasons you cited for it being bad. First of all, let's break down the levels of association that you stated yourself to support the case for this question being fraudable. You have to know who the Situationists are, you have to know that t...
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Feb 23, 2012 11:57 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: It will NEVER be matched
Replies: 28
Views: 17372

Re: It will NEVER be matched

Further hilarity: as the winning team that year, we managed all of 13 powers on the whole set. Last year's champion Yale had 85. Times sure have changed. Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twic...