Search found 201 matches

by Fond du lac operon
Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Why aren't NAQT bonuses different from all other bonuses?
Replies: 13
Views: 1480

Re: Why aren't NAQT bonuses different from all other bonuses?

The current approach is to say that bonus prompts are meant to be heard in their entirety; if a team interrupts a prompt and says something that fits the clues they've heard but not some later clues, that's the penalty (sometimes) paid for the risky strategy of interrupting bonuses. I don't think t...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT writer feedback thread
Replies: 34
Views: 7937

Re: NAQT writer feedback thread

(13) Chester A. Arthur Loved it. Arthur doesn't get enough respect, in quizbowl or in wider culture. Bonus (9) - weak nuclear force, Steven Weinberg, Z-zero boson Because of timing issues (we were I think about 40 points behind Georgia Tech with seconds left on the clock, and we needed another toss...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: DI specific question discussion
Replies: 40
Views: 9135

Re: DI specific question discussion

So on the Bolzano-Weierstrass clue, it's just kind of begging you to neg with "compactness" -- which is what I did. I get that compactness is closely related to convergence, and B-W is often formulated as being about bounded sequences rather than bounded spaces, but if you've never heard o...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:49 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: DI specific question discussion
Replies: 40
Views: 9135

Re: DI specific question discussion

Can someone post the answer lines to all of the math questions and what packet they appeared in? I think I had some problems with the math in this set, but I'd like to check my memories of it before I say anything. Tossups: curvature (2), Kronecker (3), quaternions (4), Poincaré (8), Niels Abel (12...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Feb 11, 2013 7:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Region 5 SCT - Feb. 9 at UT - Knoxville
Replies: 66
Views: 20930

Re: Region 5 SCT - Feb. 9 at UT - Knoxville

In the grand tradition of Aaron Swartz and Julian Assange (but for way more trivial stuff), I am hereby liberating (some of) the stats for this tournament from the Jeff Hoppes and Steve Burrell-imposed prison of secrecy. DII team stats are here . Thanks to my co-conspirators in obtaining this inform...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Closed discussion
Replies: 50
Views: 12949

Re: VCU Closed discussion

I didn't play the tournament, but I read at the Emory site. I think the fixed 5/5 science distribution in general was a noble experiment that didn't work out that well. People have already mentioned their problems with the mandatory science history (and I'll add that there at least two bonuses on ps...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Feb 02, 2013 9:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Closed: Emory mirror
Replies: 6
Views: 2506

Re: VCU Closed: Emory mirror

This happened. Georgia Tech A swept the field going 10-0, and Norcross and Georgia Tech B I believe both went 7-3, with Tech B taking second on a PPB tiebreaker.
by Fond du lac operon
Fri Nov 16, 2012 3:52 am
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Why is the shortcut icon for hsquizbowl.org a bee?
Replies: 12
Views: 8851

Re: Why is the shortcut icon for hsquizbowl.org a bee?

Also, what do they call middle schools in Canada? The Forbidden Zone? Oh, the many mysteries of quizbowl. This change happened pretty soon after 2012 ICT Guerrilla. I got a tossup on Nova Scotia pretty early, and jokingly called it middle school trivia. Someone on the other team, maybe Weiner, then...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

Note that despite the fact that I am presenting on algorithms related to that conjecture this Tuesday, I would strongly recommend against tossing it up. I'm not sure where people get the idea that I'm in favor of tossing up hard math answerlines. I am very much against this. I am in favor of people...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

So was my dad, but that doesn't mean he could write a good tossup on Feit-Thompson, or anything else. Question writing clearly is somewhat divorced from real knowledge, as can be seen from the fact that I've written history questions that have made it into tournaments, ever in my life. EDIT: There's...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

Yeah, okay, you're probably right, Auroni. I don't think that all science editors have that problem -- Eric's tossup on Feit-Thompson was pretty damn good, just on something far too hard -- but I'll grant that it's easier to find people who understand chemistry and physics and don't understand hard ...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

To me, your manifesto reads "I want more hard math questions because I'm totally good at them. For evidence, look at all the obscure named things I can mention." You're going to need a more convincing argument Since I have maybe a 5% chance of going to grad school next year, I don't reall...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:31 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

I'm pretty sure that the number of math answers that come up is limited because math is probably the single hardest subject (or at least, jointly the hardest subject with computer science) for lay people. And it's also a difficult subject to write for people who are otherwise good writers or editor...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:04 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

Re: Minnesota/Penn Open IV Discussion

To be clear, I wasn't dissing social science people, I was dissing Lacan, who's pretty infamously obscure, isn't he? Maybe I should have said Derrida instead -- then I'd at least have the backing of, like, John Searle. My point is more that just like most quizbowl players don't get Derrida or Lacan ...
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths
Replies: 42
Views: 14636

math math math a hundred maths one thousand maths

This topic was split from the discussion of Minnesota Open 2011 . --mgmt. So, um, since I just only saw the set a couple days ago, I'm going to post my (inflation-adjusted) $0.02 on the Feit-Thompson tossup and the more general phenomenon of quizbowl math. First, full disclosure: I would have total...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Ideal Schedule
Replies: 13
Views: 2826

Re: The Ideal Schedule

I would argue Early College Novice should be pushed back to allow for new teams that have just formed to be able to attend (it took about 2 months for Kentucky to get put together, with me pushing it along, to the point where it could send a team of more than one person to a tournament). Well, this...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF editors and dates for 2012-2013
Replies: 29
Views: 9114

Re: ACF editors and dates for 2012-2013

Hey, so I know it's a little early, but since I'm writing questions for VCU Closed and WIT right now anyway, do we know what the packet submission deadlines for Regionals are going to be?
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion
Replies: 61
Views: 13672

Re: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion

[10] Karl Popper formulated this criterion, which rejected scientific claims that could not be DIS proven scientifically. Thomas Kuhn argued against it in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . Or, in fewer words, I think changing so little in that bonus part rather hurts your argument, Eric. ED...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12
Replies: 40
Views: 17669

Re: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12

I have one question: why was Centre advanced to the top bracket over Alabama B? According to the current stats Centre was 4-2 and Alabama B was 5-1. This is not a good thing to have happen! I know the team did not do that great after Harrison "Heisham" Brown went to read but that is quite...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Nov 05, 2012 6:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12
Replies: 40
Views: 17669

Re: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12

I do want to stress that it was a fun event, both as a player and as a reader, and I've seen everything I listed as problems done way worse. But my impression was that Vanderbilt hadn't had much experience hosting tournaments and I'd like to help them improve as much as possible. I would also like t...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12
Replies: 40
Views: 17669

Re: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12

So I was hoping someone else would do this, but since no one's stepped up, I'd like to provide some (hopefully constructive) criticism of Vandy's hosting practices. I'll start by saying that I know from experience that running a tournament is hard, and shit happens, and that Vanderbilt being active ...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:26 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion
Replies: 61
Views: 13672

Re: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion

On the positivism bonus, the only thing I can find that makes falsifiability unacceptable for verifiability is that Popper was only loosely associated with the Vienna Circle instead of being a straight up member. Not sure if that's a problem or not. Pretty sure it's not actually, I'm just annoyed f...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion
Replies: 61
Views: 13672

Re: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion

From my limited perspective as a reader both this year and last year, I want to commend the editing team for making a set which, it seemed to me, was considerably better at a cosmetic level -- i.e., fewer typos, fewer sentences that were hard to parse on-the-fly, fewer obvious factual boners (althou...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12
Replies: 40
Views: 17669

Re: ACF Fall South at Vanderbilt University 11/3/12

I am coming with Alabama with the expectation of serving as a moderator, by the way, in case you need to know how many moderators people are bringing. (I will also happily play if you have sufficiently many experienced moderators.)
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Oct 31, 2012 9:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: VCU Closed: February 2, 2013
Replies: 38
Views: 18818

Re: VCU Closed: February 2, 2013

All teams comprised of people who go to the same actual school may participate. Though this tournament is intended for colleges, high schools are welcome under the below conditions. Weird edge cases like people who go to a branch campus without a team who wish to play for their university system's ...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn-ance at Ohio State (10/27/2012)
Replies: 32
Views: 9562

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn-ance at Ohio State (10/27/2012)

I'm not sure that Michigan's team should count as a Michigan team, since they apparently had a Tang Dynasty poet playing alongside them...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

I'd just like to say that for the sphere tossup, certainly disc and maybe circle should be accepted or at least promptable. The Mobius transform notably maps the plane into the unit disk. Quick note that a disc isn't a sphere, it's a ball. Once again, these are different things and should not be co...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

Jerry: Okay, that's good to know. I of course did buzz and say "solar system"; feel free to draw conclusions about my reasonableness and intelligence, or lack thereof, as you see fit. 18. The protagonist of this work is asked by an engineer to change the patenting rules for Yoyodyne, a com...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

I'm confused as to how "resupply transports" makes the railroad one transparent--unless I'm confused, doesn't it just refer to transports bringing supplies? How does that imply the actual project is transportation related? I could need resupply transports to bring food and drink to people...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

I know that several of the clues in this tossup do specifically refer to the Oort cloud, but I still wonder if you shouldn't prompt on "solar system" -- certainly clues like the Gliese 710 clue, the Tyche and Nemesis clues, and a buzz after "scattered disc" refer to the solar sy...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:27 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

I'm going through the packets I didn't hear Saturday, and you probably already caught this, but the bonus in Packet 11 on the Philippines mentions the answer to the last part in the clue to the first part. Also, I love that there's a question about the planet in Alpha Centauri like two days after th...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Oct 21, 2012 11:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

I think according to the proof I know you have to have some sort of solid structure there, so I don't think anything homeomorphic to a sphere can be duplicated in this way. So I looked up the proof of Banach-Tarski, and in fact you can decompose a sphere in the Banach-Tarski manner -- actually it's...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Oct 21, 2012 3:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance: MIT mirror (10/20)
Replies: 25
Views: 10537

Re: Penn-ance: MIT mirror (10/20)

TheKingInYellow wrote:Also Josh from MIT is absolutely ridiculous. 31/5/2?!?!
Quizbowl history people, has there ever been anyone else who routinely put up stat lines like that? I don't think I've ever even seen anyone toward the top of a regular-difficulty tournament have more 15s than 10s.
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Oct 21, 2012 2:26 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 12581

Re: Penn-ance Question Specific Discussion

I'll second everything Cody said about the Laplace transform question. In fact, both Jake and I buzzed after the Dirac delta clue with the intention of saying "integration," since that applies to both the Dirac clue and the convolution clue. It might be worth adding "It's not integrat...
by Fond du lac operon
Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:19 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Interest in southern Minnesota Open mirror?
Replies: 7
Views: 2649

Re: Interest in southern Minnesota Open mirror?

I'm interested, although (a) I would need to figure out transportation and (b) I'd be more able to come if it were the 25th.
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

This is a pretty minor quibble and I doubt it would make much of a difference in any actual match, but it's bad practice so I'll mention it anyway: You have an art tossup on Ophelia that mentions her drowning herself and then a bonus part on committing suicide that mentions Ophelia.
by Fond du lac operon
Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: QUARK at Alabama (10/13)
Replies: 33
Views: 11233

Re: QUARK at Alabama (10/13)

Team results: 1. Billy Beyer 10-0 2. Alabama A 6-4 3. Auburn A 6-4 4. WKU 5-5 5. Alabama B 3-7 6. Auburn B 0-10 Top scorers: Billy 117 ppg Matthew Riggle, WKU: 36.5 ppg Jonathan Thompson, Bama A: 30.0 ppg Joey Mannor, Auburn A: 29.0 ppg Nick Conder, WKU: 27.5 ppg Full statistics to come when Jake re...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:07 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: QUARK at Alabama (10/13)
Replies: 33
Views: 11233

Re: QUARK at Alabama (10/13)

Incidentally, we are writing trash tossups to be played for "fun" before the real rounds, in the spirit of QUARK at Michigan. (Only with an Alabama quizbowl flavor; expect references to hard math, Arkansas politics, analytic philosophy, obscure Nintendo games, college sports, David Foster ...
by Fond du lac operon
Wed Oct 03, 2012 2:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

Whether a task is completed or uncompleted affects this phenomenon, according to an effect named for a student of Kurt Lewin, Bluma Zeigarnik. One model of this phenomenon was originally a two-stage model, but later incorporated the “sensory” type of this phenomenon; that model was developed by Atk...
by Fond du lac operon
Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

It's entirely possible that I'm remembering a round that we read in practice, or making it up altogether, but was there a round in which there was a tossup on cytokines and a bonus that dealt with cytokinesis? And one of the clues for the cytokine tossup had to do with cytokinesis? If so, that shou...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

It's entirely possible that I'm remembering a round that we read in practice, or making it up altogether, but was there a round in which there was a tossup on cytokines and a bonus that dealt with cytokinesis? And one of the clues for the cytokine tossup had to do with cytokinesis? If so, that shoul...
by Fond du lac operon
Mon Oct 01, 2012 12:31 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

So looking at the Chisholm entry on the SEP, it seems like that clue came from this section? I'm a big fan of the SEP, but obviously not every sentence from it makes a good clue, just like, say, "Sharp contrasts and elements of the grotesque characterize much of his music" would be a bad c...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Sep 30, 2012 11:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

18. This city’s Advertiser and Tribune newspaper blamed its rival, led by William Quinby, for inciting its 1863 race riot by printing stories charged against African-Americans. The book Arc of Justice discusses a black man who was tried for defending his own home from a racially charged mob in this...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion
Replies: 116
Views: 44733

Re: Question-specific discussion

I feel like these types of threads don't often have praise for questions, but I want to commend Michigan for the bonus on snarks. Combinatorics is probably somewhat underrepresented in quizbowl, and it'd be fantastic if this were the impetus for people to write more graph theory questions, even if t...
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: General discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 3076

Re: General discussion

One of the weird things that we noticed was the sheer quantity of tossups with cities as answerlines -- I'm pretty sure there was at least one in every round (or perhaps all but one), and round 2, I think, had 3 such tossups(!). There's nothing inherently wrong with this, of course, especially since...
by Fond du lac operon
Thu May 03, 2012 3:40 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Fall 2012 schedule discussion
Replies: 52
Views: 11461

Re: Fall 2012 schedule discussion

I guess I'll pile on and mention that Alabama's looking to write/co-write a regular difficulty tournament for 2012-13. PM me if you're interested in teaming up, Avengers-style.
by Fond du lac operon
Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MUT 2012 Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 12052

Re: MUT 2012 Discussion

For context: Timothy Glowers called for a boycott of journals run by this company for its support of the Research Works Act, and this publication is the subject of the Cost of Knowledge protest movements. For 10 points each: [10] Name this Dutch publishing company, which runs the Science Direct and...
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Women in college quizbowl
Replies: 21
Views: 12481

Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season

EDIT: Ah, bad joke in the wrong thread. Delete this, mods!

It's been moved to the right thread, but it was still a terrible joke. - mgmt
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Women in college quizbowl
Replies: 21
Views: 12481

Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season

If you're talking about the player poll, I'd say: because there aren't many women in quizbowl. If you're talking about the "why aren't there women in quizbowl" thread, I'd say because it should probably be spun off as a separate thread so people with an opinion (and you know what they say ...
by Fond du lac operon
Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Women in college quizbowl
Replies: 21
Views: 12481

Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season

Henry, I don't think claiming that a lot of women are turned off by hypercompetitiveness is a necessarily essentialist claim (feminist words!). Girls are, in general, socialized to be a lot less competitive and aggressive than boys. It's possible -- hell, likely-to-certain -- that some women are tur...