2015 Prison Bowl: Question-Specific Discussion

[atai]

If you have feedback about specific questions in the set, here is the place to comment! If you'd like to see a specific question, let me know, and I'll post it.

Some things we have already noted:
-not accepting "breast cancer" for the cancer tossup
-Oedipus and Perseus questions having easy lead-ins
-overlap with the Leibniz bonus and tossup

[jonpin]

I don't have the questions in front of me; if you send those over to me, I can try to flip through them during my break next week and see what stuck out at me, but the most obvious factual error that I saw was mentioning Pentecost (rather than Good Friday) in the "Crucifixion of Jesus" tossup.

[Bosa of York]

A bonus part in round 2 that mentioned post-1800 stuff didn't list United Kingdom as an answer for England/Britain

The tossup on Dante in round 3 required Alighieri, which is nonstandard.

The clue about Naglfar (the Ragnarok nail-boat) was repeated. The second time it was the first line to a tossup.

The round 10 tossup on multiple personality disorder did not appear to accept dissociative personality disorder, which is what it's actually called.

A bonus part on mass said that only photons lack it. Gluons do also, and I think others might as well.

[TonyEgg]

On the whole, I enjoyed playing this set a great deal. However, there were a couple tossups that I felt should be modified a bit:

The tossup on "James Fenimore Cooper" in the final round dropped "Leatherstocking Tales" in what felt like the middle of the question. Considering that it's by far the most famous thing he wrote, it probably should be closer to the end of the tossup.

The tossup on "Moscow" in the prelims (round 3 or 4, can't recall exactly which) dropped a mention of the ring highway around the city in the first line. Based on the reaction of everyone else in the room, that particular clue is probably too famous to be a first line.

I thought the common-link trash tossup on "whip" was really well written and even more fun to play.

I'll post more once I find our team's notes. All in all, I had a great time playing the set.

[High Dependency Unit]

Quick notes:

-something seemed wrong to me on the Rhine tossup, but it may just be me. Can I see that question?
-I believe there was a repeat clue related to Norse ships (perhaps at Ragnarok)
-can I see the following bonuses: the one with of grammatology, de las casas/vitoria/grotius (i think those were the three answers), haywain/constable/wirenhoe park, and the morals one? At the very least, I felt those bonuses were significantly harder than many others in the set.
-regarding the use of grotius, the only high school use of him I can find is as a hard part at the 2012 nsc. I can't find any references to de Vitoria.
-were there two earth science tossups in the game we played against Ithaca? I believe it was taiga and porosity.
-The entire room I was in commented that the Magellan tossup had an easy lead-in/first couple of sentences (I think it mentioned Elcano and how only one ship came back)

[atai]

the most obvious factual error that I saw was mentioning Pentecost (rather than Good Friday) in the "Crucifixion of Jesus" tossup.

Oof. That is a cardinal sin.

The tossup on Dante in round 3 required Alighieri, which is nonstandard.

Agreed. Looking back on the packets, I also noticed some nonstandard answer lines and prompts (for example, our James I tossup did not include the cue "prompt on James").

The round 10 tossup on multiple personality disorder did not appear to accept dissociative personality disorder, which is what it's actually called.

The disorder is formally known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, and was previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder. We accepted both. "Dissociative personality disorder" is not a term for the condition.

[The Polebarn Hotel]

Are you going to be sending the set out to people who attended? I'd like to be able to flip through it myself. I don't have my notebook with me for the next week, where I wrote down some of the things I took note of.

[atai]

-something seemed wrong to me on the Rhine tossup, but it may just be me. Can I see that question?

17. The source of this river is at Lake Toma, though it is called the Vorderrhein until it merges later with the Hinterrhein. At its delta, this river branches into the Nether and Waal. The third branch flows into the Ijsselmeer (“ay­sil­meer”).​This river forms an inland delta when it flows into Lake Constance, and it used to be the northern border of the Roman Empire. In its Alpine course, this river forms the border between Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria. Its delta is close to the Meuse and Scheldt deltas. During its German course, Bonn and Cologne lie on its shore and its main tributaries are the Main and the Ruhr. For 10 points, name this main river of Germany.
ANSWER: R​hine​ River <DM>

-can I see the following bonuses: the one with of grammatology, de las casas/vitoria/grotius (i think those were the three answers), haywain/constable/wirenhoe park, and the morals one? At the very least, I felt those bonuses were significantly harder than many others in the set.

11. This author coined the term “différance”, with an “a”. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this philosopher who formulated analysis through deconstruction.
ANSWER: Jacques D​errida​[or Jackie Élie D​errida]​
[10] Derrida wrote of deconstruction in this 1967 book, which was translated into English by Gayatri Spivak. This book lays out a history of writing, and a sentence from it has been translated to “there is nothing outside the text”.
ANSWER: O​f Grammatology ​[or D​e la grammatologie]​
[10] Derrida was an Algerian­born poststructuralist social critic from this country. Other social critics from this country include Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault.
ANSWER: ​France​ [or F​rench]​<AG>

6. Identify some important figures in the early development of international law, For 10 points each:
[10] This friar famously engaged in the Valladolid debates with Sepulveda on the agency of native peoples, and helped push through the
passage of the New Laws outlying slavery of natives in the Americas.
ANSWER: Bartolomeo de L​as Casas
[10] This Salamanca School thinker is known for his theories on just war, and declared that colonial conquest was illegal when conducted without clear provocation. He also argued that native peoples had collective ownership of their lands, and that such title was inviolable.
ANSWER: Francisco de V​itoria
[10] This Dutch jurist is best known for his theories on the freedom of the seas, as expounded in M​are Liberum,​and his namesake conception of international society remains popular today.
ANSWER: Hugo G​rotius

12. Adam Smith wrote a T​heory of [these] Sentiments.​For 10 points each:
[10] Name this term that describes the principles on which people base their judgements. A system of ethics may be based on this concept.
ANSWER: m​orali​ty [or m​orals​]
[10] This American psychologist proposed six stages of moral development based on the work of Jean Piaget. He created the "Heinz dilemma", in which Heinz must decide whether to steal an unaffordable cancer drug to save his wife.
ANSWER: Lawrence K​ohlberg
[10] The last two stages of Kohlberg's theory are given this term. This level of morality includes social contract­ and universal principle­based morality.
ANSWER: p​ost­conventiona l​<AG>

7. In this painting, smoke emanates from Willy Lott’s Cottage, and a brown spotted dog walks along the edge of a body of water. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this painting in which an ox­drawn cart attempts to traverse a stream.
ANSWER: T​he Hay Wain
[10] The Hay Wain is a painting by this English romantic artist. He included a rainbow in one of his many depictions of Salisbury Cathedral.
ANSWER: John C​onstable
[10] This other landscape painting by Constable features some men fishing in the middle of a lake next to two swans. Black and white cows can be seen in the foreground of it.
ANSWER: ​Wivenhoe Park​<AT>

I wasn't in charge of the first three of these bonuses, so I'll let their editors comment on them. I did, however, write the last one. I think that The Hay Wain and Constable were adequate medium and easy parts; the former comes up a lot in quiz bowl and most arts players should know what it looks like, while Constable is pretty famous too. While a quick search on Quinterest says that Wivenhoe Park doesn't come up a lot in Constable questions, according to Wikipedia, it's quite well known, so I felt that good teams should be able to identify it, too.

were there two earth science tossups in the game we played against Ithaca? I believe it was taiga and porosity.

Taiga was actually classified under biology, as it mentioned lots of plant life. Some clues were borrowed from earth-science though, so I see where you're coming from. Frankly, porosity was a bad, formula-heavy question that was WAY too hard for HS. I've thrown it out of the set.

[RexSueciae]

The source of this river is at Lake Toma, though it is called the Vorderrhein until it merges later with the Hinterrhein.

Mentioning the primary tributaries of the Rhine by name, especially when those names are "Anterior Rhine" and "Posterior Rhine," is maybe not a good idea.

it used to be the northern border of the Roman Empire.

If you're referring to the Limes Germanicus, this could also apply to the Danube (although to your credit you did at least include uniquely identifying information prior to this clue, up to actually name-dropping "Rhine" in German during the lead-in).

While a quick search on Quinterest says that Wivenhoe Park doesn't come up a lot in Constable questions, according to Wikipedia, it's quite well known, so I felt that good teams should be able to identify it, too.

[internal screaming]

Frankly, porosity was a bad, formula-heavy question that was WAY too hard for HS.

Yeah, a quick search on Quinterest shows it being tossed up at ACF Nationals 2013 and Chicago Open 2014, so...maybe a bit hard for high school regular difficulty?

[Thaumatibis gigantea]

it used to be the northern border of the Roman Empire.

If you're referring to the Limes Germanicus, this could also apply to the Danube (although to your credit you did at least include uniquely identifying information prior to this clue, up to actually name-dropping "Rhine" in German during the lead-in).

I believe in our room, the other team buzzed with Danube at that clue and then expressed some frustration that it wasn't...

For a teammate of mine, could I see the net-neutrality and phase-change tossups (both from I believe round 1)? We had a few issues with pronouns/acceptable answerlines in those two. Also Isabella of Castille from Round 7 had difficulty issues (dropping "expelled all the Jews from her country" in what felt like the first or second line). To avoid posting in both threads needlessly, the set did have a lot of interesting content and besides what has already been mentioned I enjoyed it a lot. Thank you!

[The Polebarn Hotel]

I do remember the bones tossup being really confusing because it kept being referred to as an organ.

[Cody]

I do remember the bones tossup being really confusing because it kept being referred to as an organ.

I don't see a problem here; bone is obviously an organ.

[The Polebarn Hotel]

I do remember the bones tossup being really confusing because it kept being referred to as an organ.

I don't see a problem here; bone is obviously an organ.

Everyone in my room was confused, and the tossup referred to properties of bone tissue, iirc. I could be wrong. My moderator said something to that extent. I won't profess to be a science person, so I wouldn't know. I just remember it as a spotty area, which is why I'm reporting it here. Sorry it wasn't as obvious to some other people. Could I see the tossup?

[atai]

For a teammate of mine, could I see the net-neutrality and phase-change tossups (both from I believe round 1)? We had a few issues with pronouns/acceptable answerlines in those two.

11. One opponent of the regulation of this principle was billionaire Mark Cuban, who said it would create a “whack­a­mole environment.” A proposal regulating this was put into effect in 2010, but in a 2014 case, the DC Circuit Court determined that companies would not be affected unless they were reclassified. Over a million public comments were elicited by a 2014 proposal, which would allow companies to build special fast lanes, and were sent to the FCC led by Tom Wheeler, an ex­cable lobbyist. For 10 points, name this alliterative principle which in 2015, the FCC ruled 3­2 in favor of by reclassifying broadband internet as a telecommunications service.
ANSWER: n​et neutrality​<WX>

In retrospect, I'm not a big fan of the line "Over a million public comments were elicited by a 2014 proposal, which would allow companies to build special fast lanes, and were sent to the FCC led by Tom Wheeler, an ex­cable lobbyist." either, as it really doesn't refer to anything. I know one of your team members had some gripes over the phrase "the regulation of this principle," but I'm not sure why.

13. This is not superconductivity, but Landau formulated a theory of these phenomena divided into universality classes by their critical exponents. This non­magnetic phenomenon occurs in the 2­-dimensional Ising model when aligned magnetic moments become disordered at the Curie temperature. Second­order ones are continuous and first­order ones involve latent heat. A diagram of these for water is shaped like a Y and plots pressure against temperature. They occur at critical points, when several forms of a substance can coexist. For 10 points, name these transformations including melting and boiling.
ANSWER: p​hase transition​[accept c​ritical transition​ before “critical points"] <SH>

Agreed: should've accepted phase changes or other clear knowledge equivalents.

[atai]

I do remember the bones tossup being really confusing because it kept being referred to as an organ.

I don't see a problem here; bone is obviously an organ.

Everyone in my room was confused, and the tossup referred to properties of bone tissue, iirc. I could be wrong. My moderator said something to that extent. I won't profess to be a science person, so I wouldn't know. I just remember it as a spotty area, which is why I'm reporting it here. Sorry it wasn't as obvious to some other people. Could I see the tossup?

The tossup referred to bone as a tissue, not an organ (though technically, it can be classified as both). From what I heard, the confusion was caused by the fact that the tossup didn't accept bone marrow, which some of the later clues referred to (though the first did not). "Anti-prompting" can be a problem in quizbowl, but I think accepting bone marrow would be appropriate. After all, we want to reward knowledge here -- and knowing that mesenchymal stem cell production originates in the bone marrow is a display of it. Will change.

9. Wolff’s law states that this tissue will adapt to external stresses placed on the body. This tissue’s Haversian canals contain lacunae, which are spaces between its concentric lamellae. Certain locations of this tissue is covered by hyaline tissue, which consists of a chondroitin sulfate and type II collagen matrix. This tissue is the source of mesenchymal stem cells and B cell production. It is mostly comprised of cells that become osteocytes when they become entrapped by this tissue’s dominant material, calcium phosphate. For 10 points, name this connective tissue that provides structural integrity through the skeletal system.
ANSWER: b​one ​<SC/AT>

[The Polebarn Hotel]

Okay, sorry about that. I just remembered that there was some confusion about that.
Can I see the Moliere tossup? I have my notes in front of me and I remember that being really easy. I think it name-dropped a Tartuffe character really early.

[RexSueciae]

Okay, having had the chance to read at a mirror of this tournament, I’m going to list a few more things that I found of interest.

• The tossup on Francisco Franco mentioned the Nationalists (and, for that matter, Spain) before it mentioned the Rif Wars. This was probably a mistake. The Rif Wars are a perfectly valid (if slightly overused) earlier clue for Francisco Franco. I truly hope that it was not moved until later because of its common use, though – an early clue that gets used too often doesn't become a later clue, it becomes a stock clue and should be eventually abandoned. Also, mentioning the Nationalists early (and everything else) could’ve maybe been justified if the intention was to produce an easier tossup for lower-level teams, but the rest of this tournament really didn't look like that. If anything, some of the bonuses were outright impossible for regular difficulty.
• Prompting on Napoleon is...well, I suppose it’s like the John Adams issue, but accepting only “Bonaparte” is definitely iffy, just as accepting only “Hapsburg” for a question on Philip II would be nonstandard in the extreme.
• The tossup on Utilitarianism started by mentioning the hedonic calculus in the first sentence. Then, after a bit of fumbling, there was a confused mention of Jeremy Bentham and the specifics of his hedonic calculus again, and...honestly, I’m not sure where this question was going. And that made me sad, because Jeremy Bentham is totally my spirit animal.
• The question on Justinian I did not include “Justinian the Great” as an alternate answerline. You can see that flawed accept lines are becoming something of a theme in this tournament.
• J. D. Salinger wrote many things besides The Catcher in the Rye, but maybe – just maybe – that novel ought to be mentioned at least a few times during the tossup, instead of just the giveaway. Maaayyyyyybbbeeeeee.
• From what I’ve read, describing the Black Hole of Calcutta as a “method of execution” is moderately misleading. I mean, a bunch of prisoners got thrown in there, and lots of them ended up dying, but I was under the impression that it was more of a prison that had a very low survival rate.
• Describing Baghdad as “notorious for” its many libraries was hilarious.
• Did the Torres Strait Islanders inhabit Australia and not, in fact, the Torres Strait Islands? Are you sure of the wording of that tossup?
• The bonus part on “crust” tricked a bunch of people into naming layers of the atmosphere in my room, although I do not remember the exact wording of the question. (I’ve got the packets on my computer, but I’m too depressed to go back and consult them.)
• I think the Parthenon got mentioned at least once before it got tossed up. This was not the only repeat, but it was one that stuck in my mind.
• The bonus part on the Uighurs had a stray “For 10 points each:” in the middle of it. Seriously.
• An answerline on the Second Seminole War?! Is there any reason why the question couldn’t have just asked about “the second of these conflicts”? Why, in the name of all that is holy, would—never mind, I’ve stopped questioning the logic of this set.
• No, Sherlock Holmes was not addicted to opium. He is addicted to cocaine, although he uses opium while incognito in “The Man with the Twisted Lip.”
• Pretty sure the answerline for “The Picture of Dorian Gray” only required “Dorian Gray,” which isn’t common practice at all.
• A brief note on the Iconoclasts: the religious group most commonly referred to as the Iconoclasts were Greek Orthodox and came to prominence in the Byzantine Empire. People who destroyed religious imagery in other countries and religions can theoretically also be considered iconoclasts, but mentioning a bunch of German Protestant-sounding names and then expecting teams to pull “Iconoclasts” based on a passing mention of them destroying icons...
• The first bonus of Round 7 was missing its final answerline, and there were numerous other formatting errors and little eccentricities that added that unique Prison Bowl flavor.
• Most questions on Garcia Lorca usually require both of his surnames.
• The Beijing bonus part in Round 8 inexplicably begins with “this movement” then mentions (but never identifies by name) “that play” and then asks for “this city.” I’d expect this sort of thing on Battle of the Brains, at Chip Beall tournaments, or in high school quizbowl circa 2005, but not in a tournament held in 2015 and written by a supposedly reputable program.
• A tossup on the Ottoman Empire mentioning the Osmanlilar. The House of Osman founded the Ottoman Empire. The name “Ottoman” comes from the name Osman. This is like that disaster of a question on the Rhine all over again. Don’t mention your answerline in the question itself, especially not the lead-in.

Round 8 was when the problems with capitalization, punctuation, and phrasing started to actually hinder the reading. They’d been atrociously common before then, but it was plainly apparent that even less proofreading had been done on the later packets. I was having to revise sentences on the fly, and at least once had to toss out a question entirely (the first bonus of Round 7 got thrown out for obvious reasons). There were issues with Prison Bowl this year that could have been solved by a cursory reading by someone with a middle-school reading level. That is not good.

Was this question set read at all between its use at Hunter High School and today? Did the students of Hunter High School care enough to actually put in token effort for this tournament? After the criticism following its debut, how much was actually followed up on? Were any efforts taken not only to fix voiced criticisms, but to prevent future ones from arising?

Let me tell you something: there were a lot of lower-level teams at VCU today, and a few who may have been at their first tournament in awhile, and this sort of experience is not the sort of thing that keeps them coming back. When even the best teams present are raging at the cascading catastrophe that is your question set, it cannot have been considered a success in any way, shape, or form. I rate this year’s Prison Bowl somewhere around the original iteration of DAFT back in 2009. Reading it for ten rounds was painful.

It saddens me that apparently nobody at Hunter from previous generations with experience in writing and editing tournaments stayed behind and helped train the next generation in the finer details of answerline choice, pyramidality, and basic grammar. It distresses me that even the most basic issues of style and English were neglected and abused. It alarms me that this year’s Prison Bowl required twenty-five writers (not counting outside consultants who are not enrolled in Hunter High School) – there’s a quizbowl axiom floating around somewhere about the inverse relationship between number of writers and quality of questions. Was there at any point a designated head editor, or anyone at all with some sort of responsibility for making sure Prison Bowl attained some basic level of quality? Whoever they were, they failed, and they failed so completely that they should be deeply ashamed.

You’ve got one week before your third and last mirror. I do hope, for their sake, that at least something is done.

[RexSueciae]

In order to avoid giving off the wrong impression, I'd like to specifically note that the Rhine tossup that appeared in the finished set was much better than the original, especially once its lead-in had been fixed. That being said, a ton of issues remain, such as instances of truncated questions or missing words. (Also - just a handy tip, but "titular" is not a very good word to use in questions. If you're referring to something which is mentioned in the title of a work, use "title"; use "titular" to refer to the Kingdom of Jerusalem after it no longer held any actual lands, or the position of Executive Vice President at a large and corrupt business.)

[misterchilton]

Thank you for your feedback, everyone. I will make sure each of these items is addressed before this weekend. As the adult in charge of the program, I am ultimately responsible for the quality of the question set. Any personal comments or further grievances anyone wishes to make may be sent to me directly at [email protected]. Please do continue to post feedback about the questions themselves.

[JKHtay]

I got negged on the derivatives tossup when I buzzed in with partial derivatives right as they said Jacobian, does the clue before that exclude partial derivatives?