Search found 181 matches

by adamsil
Mon Dec 01, 2014 6:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT SCT at Georgia Tech (2/7/15)
Replies: 14
Views: 7164

NAQT SCT at Georgia Tech (2/7/15)

Hi all, You are invited to the Southeast mirror of the NAQT SCT, which Georgia Tech will be hosting on its Atlanta, GA campus on February 7, 2015. This event will be held in two adjacent buildings--Howey Physics and Ford Environmental Science & Technology, which are located near the intersection...
by adamsil
Wed Nov 19, 2014 8:48 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 3855

Re: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion

To reply to each of those: You're right about the Punic War clue; I think it's probably kosher to say Spanish for that point in history (everyone always says "Spanish city of Saguntum' after all), but not French. It'll get changed for future mirrors after this weekend. For light bulbs and "...
by adamsil
Tue Nov 18, 2014 11:23 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 3855

Re: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion

My statement that the power marks tended to be early was one made mainly off of my experience with the set, which is probably a bit different from the norm. The main reason I thought powers were long was that many questions went into recognizable clues, the kind I associated with the end of power, ...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 16, 2014 7:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 3855

Re: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion

Could I see the tossups on "planets", "edges", and "substrates"? I had some comments on those. The tossup on "planets" opened up with a clue on the Nice model, which is a pretty wide-reaching model that could technically be applied to almost any astronomical ...
by adamsil
Tue Oct 28, 2014 4:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Specific Questions Discussion (2014 Penn Bowl)
Replies: 32
Views: 11615

Re: Specific Questions Discussion

Could you post the tossup on diffusion coefficient? Last week, I was legitimately sitting in class, wondering if it would be possible to write a tossup on that answerline, so I'm curious what some of the earliest clues were. I've personally never heard that dye abbreviated as DCIP--I've always heard...
by adamsil
Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:02 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015
Replies: 3
Views: 3024

Re: PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

Hi all, I wanted to provide a bit more detail about the PACE certification program for writers interested in participating. We are reviewing sets based on the following qualities: Content, Style, Pyramidality, Difficulty and Length, and Miscellaneous. These are similar to the criteria used last year...
by adamsil
Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:24 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 3855

Re: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion

Henry Eckford moved from the US to build ships for this foreign nation. The pirate “Redbeard”, or Hayreddin Barbarossa, sailed for this nation and dominated at the Battle of Preveza. Controversially, Francis I allied with this power during the Italian Wars. The Eastern Question asked what to do abou...
by adamsil
Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:52 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 3855

Re: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion

Since nobody has anything to say, I'll be happy to assume that this set was perfect with no flaws whatsoever. But, to add actual substance: I apologize for not following Canadian politics more closely, since as I finally catch up to my Economist reading this week, I learned that Rob Ford has cancer ...
by adamsil
Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:15 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Earlybird at Illinois - Urbana, IL - 10/4/2014
Replies: 14
Views: 6823

Re: Earlybird at Illinois - Urbana, IL - 10/4/2014

There's a private discussion forum of this set open that you can access from your User Control Panel. Anyone with feedback about the set is welcome to post there or shoot me an email privately. Thanks!
by adamsil
Fri Oct 03, 2014 9:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 3855

2014-2015 BISB Specific Questions Discussion

List any questions you want to see again here: I'll do my best to post them on demand.
by adamsil
Fri Oct 03, 2014 9:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014-2015 BISB General Discussion
Replies: 4
Views: 957

2014-2015 BISB General Discussion

General discussion of the set goes here: difficulty, distribution, general trends about categories/answerlines/powermarking, writing style, bad jokes, etc. The ideology behind this set was basically the same as last year's: relatively easy answer-lines for tossups and easy parts of bonuses, but lead...
by adamsil
Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015
Replies: 3
Views: 3024

PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

Hello, PACE will once again be certifying housewritten HS quizbowl sets for the 2014-2015 school year. I'll be heading up a small group of volunteers responsible for the program. Though there are some administrative changes on our end, the main difference for teams this year is that I will personall...
by adamsil
Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What Works for High School Set Distributions? What Doesn't?
Replies: 21
Views: 9520

Re: What Works for High School Set Distributions? What Doesn

I largely agree with all of Matt's ideas and just wanted to weigh in on a couple points. a) I don't think 1/1 chemistry is unreasonable, coming from a chemistry person, but a lot of HS chemistry questions are awful, and if you're writing a question about Lavoisier or Boyle's Law to fill the 14, then...
by adamsil
Sat Jul 26, 2014 1:22 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB 2014 Looking for Mirrors
Replies: 5
Views: 7703

Re: BISB 2014 Looking for Mirrors

List of mirrors: UIUC Earlybird, October 4 UCLA Twain, November 15 University of Kentucky Fall Championship, November 22 Brookwood Invitational Scholars Bowl, November 22 Cave Spring Invitational, November 22 Columbia University, December 6 Winnebago HS, January 17 Hallsville Tournament, February 7 ...
by adamsil
Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:25 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB 2014 Looking for Mirrors
Replies: 5
Views: 7703

BISB 2014 Looking for Mirrors

Hello, The 2014 Brookwood Invitational Scholars’ Bowl is looking for mirrors for the 2014-2015 school year. This year’s set will be written and edited by a combination of Brady Weiler and members of the Georgia Tech Academic Team. We are charging $10 per team that attends your tournament in return f...
by adamsil
Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:01 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014 BELLOCO General Discussion
Replies: 3
Views: 1564

Re: 2014 BELLOCO General Discussion

I enjoyed this set--it's the best HS housewrite I've read this year. It was very straightforward--I don't remember very many interesting answerlines, but everything was pretty standard, and the difficulty was at least appropriate. I've been lambasting other housewrites on these forums, honestly, so ...
by adamsil
Tue Feb 25, 2014 9:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of Specific Questions
Replies: 18
Views: 5182

Re: Discussion of Specific Questions

I think some of the biology questions had easy clues very early on. Specifically: *The retina question- it describes retinoblastoma in the second clue which I would argue is one of the two most well known oncogenes and the only oncogene that I can think of that is named for the tissue that it is de...
by adamsil
Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of Specific Questions
Replies: 18
Views: 5182

Re: Concerns with Specific Questions

Yeah, there were two olefin metathesis polymerization clues in that tossup (ADMET and ROMP) but for whatever reason I didn't envision people buzzing with metathesis, which was pretty stupid. I'll clean it up.
by adamsil
Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: General discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 3176

Re: General discussion

I can't write physics for high school, apparently, so kudos to you for writing some good physics questions for this level (I also thought the astronomy was good). As far as chemistry goes, questions on elements, if done correctly, work well. So do tossups on common compounds (ammonia, CO2, etc. etc....
by adamsil
Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: General discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 3176

Re: General discussion

I thought this set was pretty good. Certainly, it was harder than normal HS difficulty. I don't think more than one GA team broke 20 PPB, though we were missing a few of the usual suspects like Chattahoochee. That's okay--but I was expecting somewhat easier. My only major general complaints were sci...
by adamsil
Sat Feb 15, 2014 8:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific question requests and discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4304

Re: Specific question requests and discussion

Mostly on the common links, it was people not knowing what answerline was going for. On invading India, I got "invading a foreign country". I prompted, they said "invading lands on other continents", I asked which country, they said India, the other team protested that the prompt...
by adamsil
Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific question requests and discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4304

Re: Specific question requests and discussion

Overall I did enjoy this set, though it wasn't as good as last year's. Here's my nitpicking. Mostly chemistry because I'm a chemistry snob. The only outright factual error that I remember from the set today was the one on ideal gases that said that the van der Waals equation applies to them--a compl...
by adamsil
Sun Jan 12, 2014 11:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

Yeah--sorry about that. I did my best to modern-ify the current events (which was written in June and July) over winter break, and I'm sorry this one got through. (To be perfectly honest--I didn't know that Castro had said no, and when I wrote the question, he was on a list of potential candidates)....
by adamsil
Sun Jan 12, 2014 10:42 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: General Discussion
Replies: 3
Views: 996

Re: General Discussion

I guess I'll be the first one here, since I did have some pretty strong feelings about this set after WIT yesterday. These are some general criticisms that you probably won't be able to act upon now, but perhaps they could be helpful next year. The set was obviously way too hard. The tossup answerli...
by adamsil
Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 10
Views: 1825

Re: Question Specific Discussion

A few things I remember from reading today (and I'm pretty sure there's a lot more that I could point out if you sent me the packets, thanks!): The activation energy bonus says it's the energy between transition state and products; it should be energy between TS and reactants. I also found the wordi...
by adamsil
Sun Dec 15, 2013 4:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

It sounds to me that if I put a descriptor along the lines of, "Title or common description acceptable..." before the start of this bonus prompt, things would go more swimmingly?
by adamsil
Fri Nov 29, 2013 1:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

In response to Sam's comments: I can't speak for Mostafa, as he wrote the Ibsen question, but I wrote a pretty similar tossup on James Joyce, and I think our plan was to reward people who had read the plays by filling them with what we (and Sparknotes) considered memorable quotes. I'm just not sure ...
by adamsil
Tue Nov 26, 2013 12:16 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

Me, and you're welcome. 1. Evaluate each of the following functions for an input of one, for 10 points each: [10] What is the natural logarithm of one? Any natural number raised to this power equals one. ANSWER: zero [0] [10] What is the arctangent of one? Express your answer in radians and over the...
by adamsil
Wed Nov 20, 2013 8:24 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

In one story by this author, the title character is a salesman who fails to convince the narrator that the center of a room is the safest place during a storm. In a novel by this author, Daggoo is a 6’5” man who works for Flask and Father Mapple gives a hellfire sermon. In another story by this auth...
by adamsil
Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

Venice was given de facto independence after this leader’s negotiations with Nikephoros I ushered in the Pax Nicephori. The different regions of this ruler’s empire were overseen by counts known as centenarii, who were aided by officials called the missi dominici. After the Battle of Fontenoy, this ...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 17, 2013 11:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

This president vetoed the McNary-Haugen Farm Bill twice due to objections to establishing price ceilings. He was criticized for his leadership during the “Great Mississippi Flood.” This man signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law. This president capitalized on dissention in the opposition party b...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 17, 2013 7:11 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

I think I see what you might have done: Swyer syndrome is caused by a defect in this structure. A defect in the AZF region of this structure can cause Sertoli cell-only syndrome. TDF is encoded by SOX genes, which have their locus on this structure. Because it cannot undergo recombination, this stru...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:52 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

Hitoshi Igarashi was killed by this leader’s forces. Mike Wallace asked this leader if he was crazy in a segment on 60 Minutes, which occurred weeks after his first PM, Bazargan, resigned. At this man’s state funeral, upset mourners seized the body and nearly tore it to shreds. This non-Chinese lead...
by adamsil
Wed Nov 13, 2013 8:47 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB General Discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 2887

Re: BISB General Discussion

Personally, I liked the lead-in to the bonus about Feynman. ("A bonus on Richard Feynman? Surely you're joking!") Although that makes me wonder if it would be feasible to write a trash bonus about Richard Feynman using stories from his autobiographies. That man did some amazing stuff. I a...
by adamsil
Wed Nov 13, 2013 8:26 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

A string quartet by this composer is based on a Matthias Claudius poem and is characterized by sudden dynamic changes from fortissimo to pianissimo. Another work by this composer represents a horse’s movement with running triplets, as a father and son are pursued by the title creature. This composer...
by adamsil
Mon Nov 11, 2013 11:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

I think the difference is that one of the photos in the tossup did specifically focus on the Sea of Tranquility, while none of them focused on space, and I don't think calling space a "location" really makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, you're absolutely right that this should be acc...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:54 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

The Descartes and Beowulf overlaps are definitely not a problem, but our moderator did not accept or prompt on "talking to the dead." Giving that answer might also imply that he's still in the realm of the living and is simply summoning the spirits of the dead, though. Also, I was curious...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

The answerline for the Underworld tossup did specifically say, "accept same-knowledge equivalents like 'leaving the Underworld' or 'entering the Underworld'", so I'm inclined to say that "visiting the Underworld" would count as the same thing. I would have accepted talking to dea...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 10, 2013 9:31 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: California Cup at UC Berkeley (April 19-JV Only)
Replies: 17
Views: 14504

Re: California Cup at UC Berkeley (Sat, Nov 9 / Sat, Nov 23)

There's a private discussion thread set up for this set which you can access through your User Control Panel. It's getting heard by more than 100 teams next weekend, so if there's any issues to fix, now would be a good time to know! Thanks.
by adamsil
Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)
Replies: 21
Views: 9027

Re: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)

With special thanks to Cody Voight, the stats report has been updated to be actually readable. And separated into prelims/playoffs/combined. Thanks!
by adamsil
Mon Nov 04, 2013 11:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 8197

Re: Question Specific Discussion

Nor would I, but as I was informed of the situation from the moderator, he explained it that Chattahoochee self-corrected immediately before competition was ruled wrong. I ruled that the answer could be accepted in that case; if there really was a noticeable delay between the player saying competit...
by adamsil
Mon Nov 04, 2013 10:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question Specific Discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 8197

Re: Question Specific Discussion

Also, I'm not sure exactly how the situation panned out so I can't speak to that, but I do know that I would not have accepted competition. Nor would I, but as I was informed of the situation from the moderator, he explained it that Chattahoochee self-corrected immediately before competition was ru...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 03, 2013 11:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)
Replies: 21
Views: 9027

Re: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)

Ethnic history of the Vilnius region wrote:Similarly, although USC's Myndert Papenhuysen (best name in quizbowl?) is wont to neg, 21 negs against Auburn A seems a bit harsh.
Also fixed. Thanks for pointing these out.
by adamsil
Sun Nov 03, 2013 10:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)
Replies: 21
Views: 9027

Re: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)

AlexLiu wrote:Dorman is listed as having 11.67 PPB against Hooch. Too many tossups, it looks like.

Also, although this is a pretty minor problem, I'm missing a reg in Tech A's game against Vandy. I guess it was attributed to someone else.
Fixed.
by adamsil
Sun Nov 03, 2013 9:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)
Replies: 21
Views: 9027

Re: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)

Congrats to Dorman for winning this event. The next three teams in the top bracket were Vanderbilt, who won the UG trophy, GT House A, and Chattahoochee. Stats: http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournaments/1662/stats/acf_fall_southeast_2013_gt/ Special shout-out to Dorman for having a 30 PPB round, whic...
by adamsil
Fri Nov 01, 2013 1:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)
Replies: 21
Views: 9027

Re: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)

This is the current field (to be emailed out with more information later today) Auburn A Auburn B Auburn C College of Charleston Chattahoochee Chipola Clemson Dorman Dunwoody UGA Georgia State North Georgia South Carolina Vanderbilt WKU + 3 house teams = 18 teams. We will bracket into 6/6/6 and then...
by adamsil
Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)
Replies: 21
Views: 9027

Re: ACF Fall 2013 Southeast, Georgia Tech (Sunday 11/03/13!)

Are the two "Dorman A" teams in the list of registered teams just a typo, or is one of them supposed to be Dorman B? There's just one Dorman team coming. Speaking of, I've updated the field/interested in the first post. I'm going to cap the field at 24 due to lack of rooms, so if you're g...
by adamsil
Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:30 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

I very much appreciate the nitpicking and will make adjustments appropriately. As is probably evident, I like trying to reward knowledge that people learn in actual science classes--in my mind, notation is one of those things that people do know, but I wasn't aware on a lot of these about varying no...
by adamsil
Sun Oct 06, 2013 4:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB General Discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 2887

Re: BISB General Discussion

Here's the religion distro (8/7; philosophy was 6/7): Job meditation Santeria Shinto shrines kissing lions Hinduism kashrut Confucianism/Tao te Ching/Falun Gong Torah/Haftorah/Talmud Moses/rock/Book of Mormon Francis/Catherine/Christopher memorizing the Koran/crown/surah Matthew/"love"/&qu...
by adamsil
Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BISB Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 59
Views: 9788

Re: BISB Specific Question Discussion

I really apreciated those warnings before tossups with multiple answers and important italicized words; I'll need to start doing that more. Well done. My comments: -No matter what the world or the dictionary says, that bonus on chords was a pleasure to read. -the NOT tossup was a well-executed idea...