2024 ACF Winter Specific Question Discussion

[cwasims]

This is a thread for discussing specific questions from 2024 ACF Winter. Until the packets are uploaded to the archive you are welcome to ask to see certain questions, however, I would ask that people also give their reasoning for any such request to encourage more discourse.

[Makorn]

Can I see the tossups on CLT (packet B), handmaids (packet B), depression (packet O), and temperature (packet O)?

Overall, I enjoyed and appreciated that the science covered a broad swath of topics, but I felt as though a lot more tossups were fraudable very early on. (Not all of the requested tossups felt fraudable to me personally, I just want to see if there's a pattern I can see.)

[bkmcavoybickford]

Some minor errata I noticed while playing an otherwise decent set:
- The primary instrument of the noaidi is the drum, the primary instrument of yoiking is arguably the voice (although calling the voice the primary instrument in any musical form that uses things that are more typically called "instruments" sounds very odd to me). Also, joiking is not limited to noaidi. Depending on how this was worded, it's either factually inaccurate or just results in incorrect buzzes.
- The sonic booms bonus apparently made no sense.
- I'm fine with second person bonuses but I have no idea what the smart fridge bonus gained from being second person.
- I'd have to look back at this to confirm, but the clues in the "naming" tu are confusingly worded and maybe non-distinct.
- There were a handful of confusing indicators, including the footprints tu.
- Pragmatics was a cool question but it definitely failed to differentiate different levels of knowledge about pragmatics among my team.
- This is probably unavoidable, but the Pacific Ocean question was generally cool but also was worded in such a way that I was concerned that it wanted the name of some smaller body of water in the Pacific.
In general there were also some fun questions in the set, I liked the Joni Mitchell bonus and the question on Goethe's work with colors especially.

[IslandofRhodes]

May I see the question about the Byzantine Empire/Ottoman Empire? I had a hard time parsing the line about Ghazan Khan and I nearly sent Mamluk Sultanate/Golden Horde from that before realizing that's not a Winter answer line.

[LoganMathis]

May I see the Persian miniatures bonus? It could just be a coincidence with another team submitting a bonus on it, but one of my submissions was a bonus on miniatures that felt like it had been edited into that bonus. (I used a different hard part, but the format of the bonus gave me a bit of deja vu when hearing the other team get it).

[cwasims]

Can I see the tossups on CLT (packet B), handmaids (packet B), depression (packet O), and temperature (packet O)?

Overall, I enjoyed and appreciated that the science covered a broad swath of topics, but I felt as though a lot more tossups were fraudable very early on. (Not all of the requested tossups felt fraudable to me personally, I just want to see if there's a pattern I can see.)

Paul Lévy proved a “generalized” version of this statement, which relies on the concept of alpha-stability. A version of this statement that requires the existence of moments of order 2 plus delta, where delta is usually set to one, was introduced by Lyapunov. After flipping a coin 3,600 times, Abraham de Moivre proved a special case of this statement when measuring the number of “successes” in a series of independent Bernoulli trials. Textbooks often repeat the myth that this theorem provides a good approximation when N is above 30. This theorem underpins statistical inference, not the similar law of large numbers. For 10 points, name this theorem which states that the rescaled sample mean of iid (“eye-eye-D”) random variables converges to a normal distribution.
ANSWER: central limit theorem [or CLT; accept generalized central limit theorem or generalized CLT or Lyapunov central limit theorem or Lyapunov CLT]

In a novel, the name of one of these people is found in the genealogical record by a character raised by Tabitha. Two of these people look into each other’s eyes for the first time via a reflection off the window of Soul Scrolls. While returning from the market, two of these people often stop at the Wall to observe executed bodies hanging from it. One of these people carves a fake Latin phrase meaning “Don’t let the bastards grind you down” into a closet floor. At the end of a novel, Nick tells one of these people that a black van is with the Mayday resistance. At the Red Centre, Aunt Lydia educated one of these people who later plays Scrabble with the Commander behind the back of his wife Serena Joy. For 10 points, Offred is what type of person whose Tale titles a novel by Margaret Atwood?
ANSWER: Handmaids [accept The Handmaid’s Tale; reject “handmaidens”]

Lauren Alloy and Lyn Abramson have argued that this condition is not especially maladaptive. The 5-HTTLPR gene may be associated with this condition, though that gene’s correlation with insomnia is much stronger. An inventory for this condition developed by Max Hamilton strongly correlates with another inventory developed by Aaron Beck, who proposed that a “cognitive triad” is a primary cause of this condition. Symptoms of the atypical form of this condition include weight gain and leaden paralysis. The majority of people with this condition exhibit anhedonia. This condition, which is correlated with an external locus of control and low self-efficacy, is treated by Lexapro and Zoloft. For 10 points, name this mental state associated with persistently low mood.
ANSWER: depression [accept clinical depression; accept major depressive disorder]

An exponential ratio of two values of this quantity is used to calculate a [emphasize] different quantity in the Tetens formula. An integral proportional to the relative difference in the virtual form of this quantity between an air parcel and its environment gives the CAPE, which is often measured on diagrams named for having lines of this quantity at 45 degrees, or “skewed.” This quantity’s negative derivative with respect to altitude gives the lapse rate, which is negative for inversion layers that trap pollutants. An instrument wrapped in moistened cloth is used to measure this quantity’s “wet bulb” form. The value for this quantity that results in a relative humidity of 100 percent is called the dew point. For 10 points, name this quantity that a weather forecast might report in degrees Celsius.
ANSWER: temperature [accept virtual temperature or wet bulb temperature; prompt on T]

I agree that the early and middle clues of several of these tossups did get to well-known and/or evocative (perhaps "fraudable") clues. This is largely by design, however, as 2-dot tossups should not generally feature many lines of novel or very challenging clues. In all of these cases, even if the answer space may not be especially large, I would argue there are still several plausible Winter-level answers throughout most of the question. That's not to say, though, that there weren't cases where the lead-in made you think of the right answer, which then happened to in fact be correct upon hearing the later and easier clues, which is when I think the judgment of "fraudability" becomes most salient.

[cwasims]

Some minor errata I noticed while playing an otherwise decent set:
- The primary instrument of the noaidi is the drum, the primary instrument of yoiking is arguably the voice (although calling the voice the primary instrument in any musical form that uses things that are more typically called "instruments" sounds very odd to me). Also, joiking is not limited to noaidi. Depending on how this was worded, it's either factually inaccurate or just results in incorrect buzzes.
- The sonic booms bonus apparently made no sense.
- I'm fine with second person bonuses but I have no idea what the smart fridge bonus gained from being second person.
- I'd have to look back at this to confirm, but the clues in the "naming" tu are confusingly worded and maybe non-distinct.
- There were a handful of confusing indicators, including the footprints tu.
- Pragmatics was a cool question but it definitely failed to differentiate different levels of knowledge about pragmatics among my team.
- This is probably unavoidable, but the Pacific Ocean question was generally cool but also was worded in such a way that I was concerned that it wanted the name of some smaller body of water in the Pacific.
In general there were also some fun questions in the set, I liked the Joni Mitchell bonus and the question on Goethe's work with colors especially.

Thanks for the comments! I agree that some of these wordings should've been tightened up a bit. There were very few second-person bonuses in the set, and I think the framing of the one that was included hopefully lightened the mood as well as tested knowledge...
In terms of the tossup on pragmatics, I would agree that many of the clues were pretty well-known, although this is also at the higher end of answerline difficulty for ACF Winter. Fundamentally, 2 dot tossups may not always be able to distinguish very well between subject specialists, and I would rather err on the side of being easier for a topic like this.

[cwasims]

May I see the question about the Byzantine Empire/Ottoman Empire? I had a hard time parsing the line about Ghazan Khan and I nearly sent Mamluk Sultanate/Golden Horde from that before realizing that's not a Winter answer line.

Two answers required. One of these two powers constructed “the Beauteous Fortress” during a campaign in which Marshal de Boucicaut (“boo-see-KOH”) aided the other. One of these empires tried to form an alliance with the Ilkhanate ruler Mahmud Ghazan to fight the other after the Battle of Bapheus. Fighting between these two empires destroyed the Hexamilion wall. During an incident between these two empires, one of them refused to follow John Kantakouzenos’s orders by continuing to settle Gallipoli. An emperor supposedly turned to marble after a siege between these two empires that caused the fall of the Paleologos dynasty. For 10 points, what two empires fought each other during the 1453 siege of Constantinople?
ANSWER: Byzantine Empire AND Ottoman Empire [accept Eastern Roman Empire in place of “Byzantine Empire”; accept Turkish Empire or Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye in place of “Ottoman Empire”; accept Byzantine–Ottoman Wars; reject answers that mention “Roman Empire” alone or “Roman Republic”]

Your instincts served you well here - the clue is not extremely straightforward (although that's not uncommon for two-country answerlines) but an answer of Mamluks and Golden Horde appears to be wrong, even excepting the mention of Bapheus. The clue could perhaps have done a better job of warding off a buzz of France/Mamluks which seems to be the more similar case, though (if also not a Winter answerline).

[cwasims]

May I see the Persian miniatures bonus? It could just be a coincidence with another team submitting a bonus on it, but one of my submissions was a bonus on miniatures that felt like it had been edited into that bonus. (I used a different hard part, but the format of the bonus gave me a bit of deja vu when hearing the other team get it).

The Isfahan school of this art form replicated the delicate style used by Reza Abbasi in works like Two Lovers. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this art form that developed in Persia to illustrate texts like Nizami’s Khamsa and the Shahnameh.
ANSWER: miniatures [or miniature painting; or negârgari; prompt on painting, illumination, or illuminated manuscripts]
[10h] Reza Abbasi specialized in these albums of miniatures that began in Herat under the Timurid dynasty. Many miniature artists switched to painting these albums after Tahmasp I ended patronage for illustrated manuscripts.
ANSWER: muraqqa (“moo-RAH-kah”) [or murakka]
[10e] Along with miniatures, muraqqa collected examples of this art form in the Arabic alphabet. The kalam pen is used in the Islamic form of this decorative writing.
ANSWER: calligraphy [accept khatt]

This does resemble the bonus that SIUE A submitted, but this bonus was in fact based on Virginia Tech A's submission. This situation, while unideal, is pretty unavoidable given overlap in submission material (looking at the ~five teams that submitted tossups on Eric Adams).

[IslandofRhodes]

May I see the question about the Byzantine Empire/Ottoman Empire? I had a hard time parsing the line about Ghazan Khan and I nearly sent Mamluk Sultanate/Golden Horde from that before realizing that's not a Winter answer line.

Two answers required. One of these two powers constructed “the Beauteous Fortress” during a campaign in which Marshal de Boucicaut (“boo-see-KOH”) aided the other. One of these empires tried to form an alliance with the Ilkhanate ruler Mahmud Ghazan to fight the other after the Battle of Bapheus. Fighting between these two empires destroyed the Hexamilion wall. During an incident between these two empires, one of them refused to follow John Kantakouzenos’s orders by continuing to settle Gallipoli. An emperor supposedly turned to marble after a siege between these two empires that caused the fall of the Paleologos dynasty. For 10 points, what two empires fought each other during the 1453 siege of Constantinople?
ANSWER: Byzantine Empire AND Ottoman Empire [accept Eastern Roman Empire in place of “Byzantine Empire”; accept Turkish Empire or Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye in place of “Ottoman Empire”; accept Byzantine–Ottoman Wars; reject answers that mention “Roman Empire” alone or “Roman Republic”]

Your instincts served you well here - the clue is not extremely straightforward (although that's not uncommon for two-country answerlines) but an answer of Mamluks and Golden Horde appears to be wrong, even excepting the mention of Bapheus. The clue could perhaps have done a better job of warding off a buzz of France/Mamluks which seems to be the more similar case, though (if also not a Winter answerline).

Yeah, a skill issue on my part. I think I was trying to think of relevant powers during the time of Ghazan, and the infant Ottoman Empire didn't spring to mind. I really liked the question though, feels like you never hear about the Ottomans until Mehmet the Conqueror and it felt like the question was treading new water.

[TernarySky]

overall i liked the science of this set a lot! i definitely saw a lot of new clues and unique content that i appreciated learning about (oyster reef mention!) :)

a few notes from me:
- depression TU: 5-HTTLPR is described as a gene but i believe it's a polymorphism within the SLC6A4 gene
- molecules TU: could i see this one? i buzzed with alkanes which was antiprompted to hydrocarbons which was antiprompted to molecules. i was surprised that an intended antiprompt for alkanes was not worked into the question; my perception is that newman projection is largely taught in intro ochem for alkane visualisation so i would assume a decent number of players buzz on that. i felt that i got pretty lucky with going in the right direction with the antiprompt because i couldn't really feel out what the vision for the question was
- sequencing TU: i think that nanopore was probably mentioned too early; in recent years it has been becoming a more well-known/popular sequencing method that is starting to get taught at the undergrad level & way more people are now hearing the term "nanopore sequencing" even if they don't know exactly how it works
- protein/h-bond/biotin bonus: imo inclusion of .pdb and mention protein interactions made this easier than a medium; it's not uncommon to give biochem/bio majors "open and look at this protein structure" assignments. i would also add that even though .pdb it's technically a "legacy" file format it's still widely/commonly used today by many. personally i wasn't even aware that it had been succeeded by mmCIF until now because everyone i've worked with just uses .pdb

very minor notes for what i feel like was otherwise a very fun set to play for science, thank you!

[Colloidal Blues]

I enjoyed this set a lot overall, but I do have a couple of comments on the questions.

The question on enthalpy described it as the 'only non-energy potential' in the 'thermodynamic square'; I do not understand by what measure enthalpy is less an energy than the other potentials and couldn't find any justification on a search, apart from the common term for it lacking the word 'energy'. May I ask for clarification?

The question on superconductivity used the presence of Bogoliubov quasiparticles as a clue. While the term 'Bogoliubov quasiparticles' is most often used in reference to superconductivity, they are found and used frequently in most areas of many body physics and so I don't think the clue is unique as stands. For instance, in my undergrad Bogoliubov quasiparticles appeared in spin chains, BECs, and superfluids.

[meshuganater]

Overall this set had much to commend it, but I have comments on the French Revolution VFA TU

First and most problematic - to use "this historical period" as the hypernym for The French Revolution is sub-optimal. This is much better clued as "this event" or "this conflict". This would avoid confusion as to what precisely you're looking for, and avoid people giving vaguer answers. Regency was something we identified as a plausible answer, especially given the content of the Recamier clue, which is more of what one might think of as a period. I had a look at the archive and "event" is by far and away the most common way to clue The French Revolution. Necolassical was going through my head but is not an acceptable answer -I think of it as a movement so didn't buzz, but this could be very easily confused for "period" when we're clearly in VFA.

Secondly, I see it accepts a lot of answers such as the Consulate, the First Empire and Napoleonic France, which are distinctly not contemperaneous with the Revolution - the First Empire seems especially egregious. Someone negged here with "The Reign of Terror", which its too specific and doesn't get any sort of prompt (although I agree several of the works aren't from the Terror, one is and the Academie was shut down during it, whereas none were completed under the First Empire and The Academie was shut down in 1793, years before the Directory, Consulate, Empire or Napoleon was in charge). If you were super duper smart and had heard of Girodet's Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley, what if you happened to say something like the Haitian Revolution? He's from Saint Domingue and there was a Haitain Revolution going on alongside the French one..

Thirdly, the fashion of the Recamier Portrait is not unique to the Revolution. That type of sofa could feasibly be thought of as belonging to the whole eighteenth century and the eary nineteenth or say, The Regency or Georgian Period (and sure, you allow a prompt on 1700s but still...). The necolassical dress and the haircut are not unique to the French revolution either. It's not even clear to me that the salons for which she is famous started until the establishment of the Consulate and the Revolution was over. The painting was began and abandoned after the Revolution in 1800, but only 1790s is given as an acceptable answer.

This leads to feel bads where one can correctly identify the Recamier portrait, know who painted it, know it was on the turn of the 1800s but not know what the question writer wants so feel paralysed from buzzing. I guess its easier from the clues concerning The Intervention of the Sabine Women that we're firmly dealing with the French Revolution, but because of the confusing hypernym, we're left guessing what answer is going to be acceptable. I think if the hypernym was "event" most of the issues go away and you have a much less swervier question.

[cwasims]

overall i liked the science of this set a lot! i definitely saw a lot of new clues and unique content that i appreciated learning about (oyster reef mention!) :)

a few notes from me:
- depression TU: 5-HTTLPR is described as a gene but i believe it's a polymorphism within the SLC6A4 gene
- molecules TU: could i see this one? i buzzed with alkanes which was antiprompted to hydrocarbons which was antiprompted to molecules. i was surprised that an intended antiprompt for alkanes was not worked into the question; my perception is that newman projection is largely taught in intro ochem for alkane visualisation so i would assume a decent number of players buzz on that. i felt that i got pretty lucky with going in the right direction with the antiprompt because i couldn't really feel out what the vision for the question was
- sequencing TU: i think that nanopore was probably mentioned too early; in recent years it has been becoming a more well-known/popular sequencing method that is starting to get taught at the undergrad level & way more people are now hearing the term "nanopore sequencing" even if they don't know exactly how it works
- protein/h-bond/biotin bonus: imo inclusion of .pdb and mention protein interactions made this easier than a medium; it's not uncommon to give biochem/bio majors "open and look at this protein structure" assignments. i would also add that even though .pdb it's technically a "legacy" file format it's still widely/commonly used today by many. personally i wasn't even aware that it had been succeeded by mmCIF until now because everyone i've worked with just uses .pdb

very minor notes for what i feel like was otherwise a very fun set to play for science, thank you!

They’re not poker-related, but the ICM algorithm models these things as iteratively constructed trees. The internal coordinates of these systems can be represented as Z-matrices. These systems are encoded via ASCII (“ASS-kee”) strings in SMILES notation. Three lines meet at a point in front of a circle in a representation of these things called the Newman projection. A field of “mechanics” named for these systems calculates interactions between them via the Lennard-Jones potential. A line-angle formula represents the “skeleton” of these things, which are commonly represented using ball-and-stick models in classroom demonstrations. For 10 points, materials and computational sciences often study the modeling of what systems composed of atoms?
ANSWER: molecules [or chemical compounds; accept proteins; accept molecular modeling or molecular mechanics; prompt on atoms or bonds by asking “what larger things are those found within?”; prompt on conformations by asking “of what things?”] (ICM stands for Internal Coordinate Mechanics.)

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

If you were super duper smart and had heard of Girodet's Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley, what if you happened to say something like the Haitian Revolution? He's from Saint Domingue and there was a Haitain Revolution going on alongside the French one..

super duper co-sign - Justin from Illinois in fact made this exact neg (and I would have as well having covered this painting in a class once)

[roan089]

I really liked the Jesus tossup. Bart Ehrman was one of the people I read during my religious deconstruction. I have not read Jesus, Interrupted (yet), but I might just do it now. Can I see that tossup again? I would also like to see the Mormon Wives tossup (I don't know what the main answerline was).

I really enjoyed this set and am extremely grateful for ACF hosting an online mirror so my teammates and I could compete. Thank you to all the writers, editors, and staffers.

[cwasims]

I really liked the Jesus tossup. Bart Ehrman was one of the people I read during my religious deconstruction. I have not read Jesus, Interrupted (yet), but I might just do it now. Can I see that tossup again? I would also like to see the Mormon Wives tossup (I don't know what the main answerline was).

I really enjoyed this set and am extremely grateful for ACF hosting an online mirror so my teammates and I could compete. Thank you to all the writers, editors, and staffers.

Ben buys Elizabeth from a member of this group for 800 dollars before the number “Whoop-Ti-Yay” in Paint Your Wagon. A member of this group is interrupted by a voice that says “You’re making things up again. Just stick to the approved dialogue.” In 2022, Taylor Frankie Paul revealed that influencers from this group engaged in “soft swinging.” Andrew Garfield played a detective from this group in a miniseries based on Jon Krakauer’s true crime book Under the Banner of Heaven. MomTok influencers from this group are the subject of a Hulu show about their “secret lives.” Members of this group ring doorbells to share “the most amazing thing” in a musical before two of them are sent to Uganda. For 10 points, “Hello!” opens a musical titled for what church’s holy book?
ANSWER: Mormons [or Mormon Church or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or LDS; accept Mormon wives; accept Mormon missionaries; accept Elders; accept The Book of Mormon; accept The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives; prompt on MomTok until read]

This person is thought to be referenced in an early letter from the Stoic philosopher Mara bar Serapion to his son. Books titled for “Misquoting” this person and this person “Interrupted” by Bart Ehrman discuss the criterions of dissimilarity and embarrassment used to evaluate the reliability of claims about this person. A 1906 book by Albert Schweitzer lends its name to “quests” for this historical figure. The two-source hypothesis argues that many of the similarities between two texts about this figure can be explained by their use of the now-lost Q source. This person’s historicity has been confirmed using a reference to this figure’s brother James by the historian Josephus. For 10 points, name this apocalyptic Jewish preacher whose life is recorded in the gospels of the New Testament.
ANSWER: Jesus Christ [or Jesus Christ; or Jesus of Nazareth; accept The Quest of the Historical Jesus or Jesus, Interrupted or Misquoting Jesus]

[Sit Quietly, Alone]

- depression TU: 5-HTTLPR is described as a gene but i believe it's a polymorphism within the SLC6A4 gene

this is simply correct. i'm sorry about that and hope it didn't lead to any negs.

[joshxu]

The one question that received unanimous criticism at the Claremont site was the Pacific Ocean tossup in packet B.

The discovery of pre-Clovis sites prompted theories about a “kelp highway” along this body of water as an alternative to an “ice-free corridor.”

This sentence makes it clear that it's asking for a body of water along which Native Americans migrated into the Americas. At this point, the tossup reduces to a game of chicken over who's going to say the one large body of water that lies between Asia and the Americas. I know several players balked on buzzing out of fear it was asking for a marginal sea of the Pacific.

[rhn26]

- molecules TU: could i see this one? i buzzed with alkanes which was antiprompted to hydrocarbons which was antiprompted to molecules. i was surprised that an intended antiprompt for alkanes was not worked into the question; my perception is that newman projection is largely taught in intro ochem for alkane visualisation so i would assume a decent number of players buzz on that. i felt that i got pretty lucky with going in the right direction with the antiprompt because i couldn't really feel out what the vision for the question was

This was definitely an answerline oversight on my end; Newman projections are definitely most commonly used in introductory organic classes to visualize alkanes in particular, which I was going for with the clue but somehow didn't think to put "alkanes" specifically in the answerline. I'll add explicit accepts for alkanes, cycloalkanes, and hydrocarbons. Sorry about that! (To the team that received a neg for "formulas" on the SMILES clue, I've also added a directed prompt for that as well.)

The question on enthalpy described it as the 'only non-energy potential' in the 'thermodynamic square'; I do not understand by what measure enthalpy is less an energy than the other potentials and couldn't find any justification on a search, apart from the common term for it lacking the word 'energy'. May I ask for clarification?

This was just an ill-advised clue that I shouldn't have included; the fact that enthalpy doesn't contain the word "energy" in its name does not in fact detract from it being a kind of energy in comparison to the other thermodynamic potentials. Apologies for this clue, which will be replaced in the uploaded version of the packets.

[Lipwigzers]

I felt like the Social Science in this set was very Linguistics and Econ heavy, and felt like there was almost no Anthropology and Sociology, but that's a relatively minor complaint and a more one off issue.

[flanders]

First college tournament for me, and it was a fun set overall :)

2 minor notes:

- I wonder if "Blue Shirts" and "New Life" came much too early in the ROC tossup—that's high school stock, and I hesitated for a long moment there because "is there another, more obscure Blue Shirts society in a non-China country?", letting the other team get the tossup.

- The bonus "thumb position" answer line felt a bit weird, in the sense that it was basically describing the technique and asking you to name it. I haven't played cello in many, many years, so maybe that's why I didn't know the specific terminology for the technique, but it tripped everyone up in my room as what the question was asking for was not very clear.

[Sit Quietly, Alone]

I felt like the Social Science in this set was very Linguistics and Econ heavy, and felt like there was almost no Anthropology and Sociology, but that's a relatively minor complaint and a more one off issue.

my social science distribution ended up as such:
4/4 psychology
4/3 economics
2/2 anthropology
2/2 sociology
2/2 linguistics
2/3 mixed & other (the "inequality" tu and "oppositional gaze" bonus were here, for instance)

of course, not everyone heard every packet.

[beep]

I might be misremembering, but I thought the Lake Tanganyika TU had a clue about cichlids when it was played? the version on the archive doesn't seem to include this, so if it would be possible to see the changes/"original" version of that TU I would appreciate that.

[cwasims]

I might be misremembering, but I thought the Lake Tanganyika TU had a clue about cichlids when it was played? the version on the archive doesn't seem to include this, so if it would be possible to see the changes/"original" version of that TU I would appreciate that.

The Lake Tanganyika TU was unedited between the tournament and the packet upload. The first clue is referring to the sleek late perch, but none of the clues are referring to cichlids. (Would be difficult to clue them in a way that was uniquely identifying as various of the African Great Lakes are home to cichlids.)

[beep]

ah okay, thanks. I misheard the reader saying "sleek late" as them not knowing the pronunciation of cichlid. thanks for the clarification, I totally agree with the part about it not being uniquely identifying. appreciate the fast response.

[IslandofRhodes]

Minor error, but the Gogol tossup (J19) says

The title object is wrapped in cloth and thrown off the St. Isaac’s Bridge in a story by this author before it is found in a loaf of bread by a barber.

This is incorrect, as the barber throws the nose off of the bridge after he finds it in his bread.

[ota97]

I'm not sure if this clue in the valkyries tossups is correct: "Wolves are called the horse of one of these figures in a common kenning"

I checked a kenning index and found these relevant for wolves: "horses of the giantess", "the starved loping stud-horses of the giant’s mother", "horses of the troll-woman", "grey stud-horses of troll-women", "stud-horses of Gjǫlp" and "the horses of the evening-rider"

That last one could be meant to identify valkyries, but I couldn't find "evening-rider" being used to refer to them. I think the clue is wrong entirely, but it at least would need a clause mentioning "it's not a giant or troll".

[rhn26]

Minor error, but the Gogol tossup (J19) says

The title object is wrapped in cloth and thrown off the St. Isaac’s Bridge in a story by this author before it is found in a loaf of bread by a barber.

This is incorrect, as the barber throws the nose off of the bridge after he finds it in his bread.

Not sure how I didn't catch this, but you're right! My apologies for the typo.

[mniebur]

Mostly enjoyed the science, but I was curious as to why "archaeology" is promptable for the "dating" question (H14)? At least to me this is really stretching what should be promptable, since no clue refers to any other task in archaeology except for dating, and establishing chronologies is arguably not even really the biggest goal of archaeology anymore.

[benchapman]

The question on superconductivity used the presence of Bogoliubov quasiparticles as a clue. While the term 'Bogoliubov quasiparticles' is most often used in reference to superconductivity, they are found and used frequently in most areas of many body physics and so I don't think the clue is unique as stands. For instance, in my undergrad Bogoliubov quasiparticles appeared in spin chains, BECs, and superfluids.

Sorry about that oversight — my initial Googling only showed results mentioning superconductivity but I should have been more diligent ensuring it was 100% unique.

[benchapman]

Mostly enjoyed the science, but I was curious as to why "archaeology" is promptable for the "dating" question (H14)? At least to me this is really stretching what should be promptable, since no clue refers to any other task in archaeology except for dating, and establishing chronologies is arguably not even really the biggest goal of archaeology anymore.

This was a suggestion I added in from playtesting feedback since I saw that possibly being ruled promptable on protest. I agree with you that it was probably too generous though; I wouldn’t prompt if I did it again. Glad to hear you enjoyed a lot of the science!

[benchapman]

- The sonic booms bonus apparently made no sense.

Very sorry about this one, I changed clues around at some point and the answerline didn’t get fixed to account for that. I also could have done a better job warding off answers of “breaking the sound barrier” — it seems like lots of teams at our site said that at least.

[Gene Harrogate]

Overall this set had much to commend it, but I have comments on the French Revolution VFA TU

First, I apologize for not including "Reign of Terror" in the answerline. That's simply an oversight. Second, I apologize for not including some phrasing in the Jean-Baptiste Belley clue to ward off buzzes with the Haitian Revolution. The portrait depicts him in his capacity as a deputy in the National Convention, but that's certainly an ungenerous line to draw when one is likely to have encountered it in the context of learning about events in Saint-Domingue.

I'm sorry that you didn't like the tossup, but the indicator recommendations seem misguided. The French Revolution is a period and just about any online reference work will characterize it as such. "Event" might work, but has the drawback of pointing players toward more discrete moments in the 1790s. "Conflict" points toward one of the many conflicts that occurred during the Revolutionary period.

The intent of this tossup is to test knowledge of the French Revolution as one of those unique moments in which aesthetic trends--in painting, sculpture, fashion--responded sharply to a political change. 1793 is the important year for that purpose, hence why I felt comfortable not drawing somewhat pedantic lines at the more continuous political transformations of the Consulate and the (technically-not-really-correct) First Empire.

I get that it's a little unpleasant to know that a painting is being clued and not be able to buzz on it, but the purpose of that sentence is to reward an additional level of contextual knowledge regarding the notable fashions and styles the painting is depicting. It's actually intended that not everyone who recognizes the painting buzzes there (a straightforward description of the Portrait of Madame Récamier in a tossup on David or France would be a fairly soft second line). But, hopefully, players who don't get it are then primed for the clues to come. Now, are the fashions being clued unique? These things are tricky, but I think they pretty fairly point in the right direction. Even if one doesn't trust Wikipedia's characterization of her sofa as in the Directoire style, the Titus cut and the high-waisted gown that eventually became known as the "Empire line" were, at least, popularized during and because of the Revolution. If this clue is sub-optimal, I'm inclined to think it's sub-optimal in the direction of asking players to think too hard.

I sympathize with finding the tossup unintuitive, or with feeling that it just didn't click in some way. I know that when I've played questions like these, I've sometimes struggled to collate the sort of aesthetic and historical knowledge that quizbowl likes to silo off. But if I've spent too much time on this one question, it's because I want to draw a distinction between question components that are technically unsound, and components that are matters of taste.

[meshuganater]

Thanks for the considered reply, I appreciate you taking the time and being receptive and I should say I liked the concept of the toss-up, even if I had issues with the execution.

On the indicator point, I would just gently say that in the last ten years at college level, the French Revolution has been clued only as either "event", "general event" or "conflict". If that was problematic, I don't think it would have been allowed to become the convention. I'm not saying its not a period, but, on balance, the difficulties of saying period are larger than those of event, and I think the successful use of the other indicators I proposed is evidence of the same.

On the fashion of Recamier point, do you not think that the very fact its called the "Empire" silhouette is problematic in saying its fashion that is "of" the Revolution? Of course, you're accepting The First Empire in the answerline but It's surely just as reasonable to say its a fashion of the early 1800s or the decade 1800-1809 which is not acceptable. I don't think its by any means egregious to have approached it how you did, and I agree, the next clue ought to be helpful in figuring out what to buzz with, but there's a certain inelegance and potential for feel-bad that need not be there.

Anyway, thanks for responding, and if you were involved in the other VFA content, I was very happy overall.

[Lipwigzers]

Also wanted to chime in to say the Vonnegut question was great. His work on the shape of stories is some of his best, and Welcome to the Monkey House is severely underappreciated.

[Hypersmart]

IIRC, there is a bonus part that says Herbert Spencer invented the paper clip. It seems like he didn't https://dundeedesignhouse.com/everyday- ... paperclip.. Although he did invent a precursor to something that resembles a cotter pin.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Social Science in this set but I staffed and didn't play.

User was reminded to enable a complete signature. --Mgmt.

[machgielis]

2. This craft was used for a set of “Poor Boy” items bought in every color by Audrey Hepburn and designed by
Sonia Rykiel. The fashion house Missoni worked with a “flammata” form of this craft on Raschel machines to create
colorful zigzag designs popular in the 1960s. Apocryphally, designs in this craft were used to identify dead
fishermen in the Aran Islands. Fair Isle is one technique to incorporate colorwork in this craft, which can be done by
hand using English or Continental methods. Linda Muir designed the guernseys made from this craft worn in Robert
Egger’s film The Lighthouse. A purl is a basic stitch in this craft for creating patterns like stockinette and cable. For
10 points, jumpers and pullovers are often made in what craft by interlacing yarn loops with needles?
ANSWER: knitting [accept knitwear or knits; prompt on fashion or making textiles, fabric, or clothing; reject
“sewing” or “weaving”]
<Other Fine Arts>

8. Harry Wade works at one of these locations, where he insults the number-one man in the title profession, in
Martin McDonagh’s play Hangmen. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name these locations where characters watch the protagonist win a mule race from the window in another
play. Pegeen, who works at one of these locations, spurns the protagonist in a play set at one of these locations.
ANSWER: pubs [or taverns or bars]
[10m] McDonagh set a trilogy of plays at the Aran Islands, where this author set his play Riders to the Sea. This
author used a pub as the setting for his play The Playboy of the Western World.
ANSWER: John Millington Synge (“sing”)
[10e] McDonagh used Synge’s plot element of the return of the murder victim for his play A Skull in Connemara,
which takes its title from Lucky’s monologue in this absurdist play by Samuel Beckett.
ANSWER: Waiting for Godot [or En Attendant Godot]
<British Literature>

Speaking of fisherman knits, I’m excited to dust off my Arans and Guernseys, two styles historically associated with fishermen around the North Sea. If lore is to be believed, these sweaters used to carry patterns distinctive to specific families, making them something like heraldic crests. Supposedly, when the poor, dead bodies of drowned fishermen washed ashore, families could identify their loved ones by their knitwear. As far as I can tell, there are no firsthand accounts of anyone’s body being identified this way. I’ve long suspected this story is drawn from a moving passage in John Millington Synge’s 1904 play Riders to the Sea, in which a woman identifies her dead brother by his stockings. In any case, the story hints at a kind of bittersweet nostalgia, which is why I imagine the knitwear industry perpetuates it.

Not a real packetization fail; I just found it funny because of how both reward Real Knowledge.