The Quizbowl Resource Center

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:16 pm**

christino wrote:Could I see the neutrophil tossup that was the subject of the protest, and the geckos tossup?

Where (and what) was the protest, exactly?

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:30 pm**

HSNCT round 14 wrote:At the beginning of this play, Aethra prays that her son Theseus will assist the title women. For 10 points each--

A. Name this play in which Argive mothers seek to bury the sons who died near the gates of Thebes.

answer: The _Suppliants_ (or _Hiketides_ or The _Suppliant Women_; do not accept "(The) Suppliant Maidens")

B. ~The Suppliants~ was written by this dramatist, who employed a deus ex machina in his play Medea.

answer: _Euripides_ [Although Aeschylus also wrote a play titled The Suppliants, this work dealt with different subject matter from The Suppliants of Euripides.]

C. In Euripides's play Bacchae, this Theban king is torn to pieces when he tries to defy Dionysus.

answer: _Pentheus_

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:32 pm**

Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon wrote:
christino wrote:Could I see the neutrophil tossup that was the subject of the protest, and the geckos tossup?
Where (and what) was the protest, exactly?

That "macrophages" should be acceptable for a buzz midway through the second sentence.

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:43 pm**

bird bird bird bird bird wrote:
HSNCT round 14 wrote:At the beginning of this play, Aethra prays that her son Theseus will assist the title women. For 10 points each--

A. Name this play in which Argive mothers seek to bury the sons who died near the gates of Thebes.

answer: The _Suppliants_ (or _Hiketides_ or The _Suppliant Women_; do not accept "(The) Suppliant Maidens")

B. ~The Suppliants~ was written by this dramatist, who employed a deus ex machina in his play Medea.

answer: _Euripides_ [Although Aeschylus also wrote a play titled The Suppliants, this work dealt with different subject matter from The Suppliants of Euripides.]

C. In Euripides's play Bacchae, this Theban king is torn to pieces when he tries to defy Dionysus.

answer: _Pentheus_

Alright, thanks. I guess I should have been listening.

Posted: **Fri Jun 06, 2014 10:19 pm**

bird bird bird bird bird wrote:
Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon wrote:
christino wrote:Could I see the neutrophil tossup that was the subject of the protest, and the geckos tossup?
Where (and what) was the protest, exactly?
That "macrophages" should be acceptable for a buzz midway through the second sentence.

I emailed my immunology professor about this who has also read at several quiz bowl tournaments for us, and she said she would not have accepted macrophages.

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2014 1:36 am**

Well, i have a few comments.

To begin with, most of the graph theory questions within the tournament (including the infamous cycles one) were written confusingly, and had incomplete answer lines (in my and Dr. Prince's opinion)... and that led me into more than one protest. The best idea in this case would be to pull in specialists from the fields in question, but that's not really possible in all cases. Sad to say that for me, the burden of knowledge was very hard to bear.

"Accretion disc" was also quite confusing. The selection of clues almost sounded like ones for other things; this almost led me to neg.

The tossup on Charlotte Amalie was very hard. I got it before FTP, but only barely. Really, canon expansion should focus more on geography concepts than random places.

The 2048 tossup was a nice touch, though the first two variants mentioned were the ones I played most. I almost fear you got them from this list: http://phenomist.wordpress.com/2048-variants/. If so, try not to use single sources.

The Mexican football team: Please post that question. I vaguely remember hearing something about not getting past the round of 16 (they did so twice), but I most likely misheard.

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:48 am**

HSNCT round 21 wrote:This national soccer team has lost in the Round of 16 at each of the last five World Cups; its only quarterfinal appearances came while hosting the 1970 and 1986 events. It employed four different head coaches in 2013, during which it lost a fourth consecutive (*) Dos a Cero game in Columbus, Ohio. "El Tri" is the nickname of--for 10 points--what national team that plays home games in the altitude and smog of Estadio Azteca?

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:49 am**

Helmeted Myna wrote:most of the graph theory questions

Most of the…one and a half of them? :-)

Helmeted Myna wrote:the infamous cycles one

There is no such question. Assuming you meant the tossup on vertices (in the context of geometry; no clue in that tossup was specific to graph theory) that you negged with "cycles", Jeff posted it above; I am happy to discuss it further, but I was quite confident with the resolution of that protest — it is true that cycles can be ears, which as far as I can tell and have heard is the "clue" you buzzed on, but they cannot be classified as mouths, nor are all ears cycles, nor is the classification as ears based on the adjacency of cycles (a definition of which I am having trouble even finding, although I am assured that there is a sense in which cycles can be called adjacent).

I am aware of some problems with how the answer line to the chromatic number tossup was interpreted, and it is possible that the answer line itself could have been better (by being more or less restrictive, or merely clearer about how to handle certain types of answers), but I am not aware of any problems with the clue content or phrasing of the question; if there are any, please let me know.

Helmeted Myna wrote:The best idea in this case would be to pull in specialists from the fields in question, but that's not really possible in all cases. Sad to say that for me, the burden of knowledge was very hard to bear.

If specialists would like to write questions for NAQT, we welcome their applications. Please see http://www.naqt.com/jobs.html for details. We can always use more writers, including for mathematics questions. However, I am not convinced that the questions were actually problematic.

Helmeted Myna wrote:"Accretion disc" was also quite confusing. The selection of clues almost sounded like ones for other things; this almost led me to neg.

I don't know what specific issues you're talking about here, but I think it might be telling about the issues you had with (at least) the vertices question. "The selection of clues almost sounded like ones for other things" suggests to me that you may not have been paying a great deal of attention to the clues that were presented in terms of the relationships between various words and phrases that the sentence structure entailed. To be a little more blunt, the impression I have is that on the vertices question, you heard "ear" and math words and buzzed with a term related to one meaning of the word "ear" in mathematics. Yes, cycles are related to graph-theoretic ears. But it's not correct given what was being said about ears, or as a result of several other things that had already been read as of your buzz. I don't wish to impugn your style of play, but this sounds like a reflex buzz that had some knowledge behind it, but not a whole lot of attention to the game.

Posted: **Sat Jun 07, 2014 12:46 pm**

Since my name got brought up, I'll add my two cents. I did think the wording was more confusing than it needed to be in a few spots, particularly evident with graph theory. Given that there were three tossups, IIRC, involving graph theory (I am including _independent_ here) and one bonus and that (1) Anton got no tossups from graph theory knowledge (2) we 10ed the graph theory bonus (3) Anton has to be one of the only players in the entire HSNCT field to have taken a full semester graph theory course, something seems amiss. If anyone should be able to comfortably power those tossups, it should be someone like Anton, and if Anton cannot, I question who can.

Still, I think the issues were more minor than the impression I got from Anton's post; I would describe them as annoying rather than rage-inducing. Jonah has already agreed to talk to me personally about my complaints and suggestions, so I will save my comments until then (unless other people really want to talk about it, I guess).

Posted: **Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:37 am**

Sniper, No Sniping! wrote:For the Fujita scale bonus, can someone explain why the answer of "F5" is not acceptable or promptable?

This is a bit late, but I'll chime in here since I wrote this bonus. The bonus text was something along the lines of "On the Enhanced Fujita scale, this numerical value is the highest classification of a tornado's wind speed." (I'm not sure what the policy on someone other than Jeff posting verbatim question text is.) So, answers of just "5" or "EF5" would have been acceptable. The reason that F5 listed as a "do not prompt" is because the criteria for "5" on the F scale are not the same as the criteria for a "5" on the EF scale. This was a decision that, to my recollection, was made after a brief discussion with Seth on this issue.

My thought was that the phrasing "numerical value" would hopefully clue teams in that all they needed to do was say the number. In hindsight, however, I realize this bonus part would have probably been better if I had written it as something along the lines of "On both the Fujita and Enhanced Fujita scales, this numerical value..." If any other teams got tripped up by that, I apologize.

On a brighter note, the Angels in America tossup was mine as well, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Always been one of my favorite plays.

Posted: **Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:12 pm**

HSNCT round 6 wrote:B. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, tornadoes with an estimated wind speed of over 200 miles per hour are given this highest possible numeric classification.

answer: _5_ (accept _EF5_ or _Enhanced F5_; do not accept or prompt on "F5")

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 1:04 am**

Sniper, No Sniping! wrote:Can you post stats and question text for U of Texas, memorizing the Q'uran, Thomas Hardy, and Egypt? Thanks.

HSNCT round 12 wrote:In 20 years as coach of this school, Darrell Royal won three national championships. The Heisman Trophy-winning running backs Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams both played for this school, whose team was coached by (*) Mack Brown until 2014. This team beat USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl behind quarterback Vince Young. The Red River Rivalry is between Oklahoma and--for 10 points--what school that plays home games in Austin?

answer: University of _Texas_ at Austin (prompt on "UT")

HSNCT round 7 wrote:A traditional term for a person who has accomplished this task is hamil. It is encouraged, but not required, of a qari. A term translating as "guardian" denotes a person who has accomplished this action, which was necessary before Caliph Uthman (*) compiled a holy text in written form. A hafiz is a person who has accomplished--for 10 points--what mnemonic task, in which a person learns a certain holy book by heart?

answer: _memorizing the Qur'an_ (accept any answer that indicates _learning the Qur'an by heart_; accept _becoming a hafiz_(a) before "hafiz")

HSNCT round 2 wrote:This man wrote of skeletons awakened by gunnery drills in "Channel Firing." This man, who wrote that a "consummation" had "jar[red] two hemispheres" when the Titanic sunk in "The Convergence of the Twain," described "lean[ing] upon a (*) coppice gate" in "The Darkling Thrush." He turned to poetry after the harsh reception of a novel including the characters Sue Bridehead and Arabella Donn. For 10 points--name this author of Jude the Obscure.

HSNCT round 11 wrote:In March 2014 a court in this country's city of Minya sentenced 529 people to death for killing a police officer. Peter Greste is one of three Al Jazeera journalists imprisoned in this country, where a December 2013 car bomb in (*) Mansoura was a pretext to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group. General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi faces only token electoral opposition in--for 10 points--what most-populous Arab country?

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 6:58 am**

Can I see the George RR Martin tossup?

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 12:16 pm**

HSNCT round 19 wrote:This author wrote about telepaths who investigate a suicidal alien religion in the Hugo Award-winning novella "A Song for Lya." The shared universe anthology Wild Cards was edited by this author, whose "Dunk and Egg" stories depict events prior to Robert (*) Baratheon's uprising. The feuding Lannister and Stark families were created by--for 10 points--what author whose series A Song of Ice and Fire began with A Game of Thrones?

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 3:53 pm**

Could I see the tossup on absinthe (and, if possible, its conversion rate)?

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:05 pm**

HSNCT round 15 wrote:A 1908 Swiss ban on this substance was prompted in part by Jean Lanfrey's murder of his family. Pablo Picasso used blue, orange, and yellow dots of paint to decorate a sculpted bronze cup in his (*) "Glass of" this substance. It was often prepared with water drops, a sugar cube, and a slotted spoon. Bohemian artists often claimed they had hallucinations after drinking--for 10 points--what wormwood-infused green drink?

answer: _absinthe_ [AB-sinth] (accept _Glass of Absinthe_ or _Absinthe Glass_)

5/72/9 in 84 rooms

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:57 pm**

Could you post the Joyce Carol Oates, Snapchat, and Pinterest questions (and conversion data)?

Posted: **Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:07 pm**

HSNCT round 17 wrote:This author created a character who listens to Bobby King on the XYZ Sunday Jamboree but is interrupted by the arrival of a gold convertible. In another of her works, Bernie Malin gets shot after sleeping with Loretta Botsford. This creator of Jules and Maureen in Them wrote a story in which (*) Arnold Friend kidnaps Connie. For 10 points--name this American author of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been."

6/11/3 in 46 rooms

HSNCT round 10 wrote:This product's mascot was named after Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah. The FTC recently leveled charges against this product for failing to secure an exploit that led to the leak of 4.6 million user phone numbers and for misleading claims, as the content handled by this service does not truly (*) "disappear forever." Facebook failed to buy out--for 10 points--what app through which users send self-deleting pictures?

35/50/7 in 85 rooms

HSNCT round 20 wrote:In May 2014 this company announced that it had completed a new $200 million round of funding, after which it was valued at $5 billion; it also introduced a search engine known as "Guided Search" built specifically for its apps. This company, which is headed by Ben Silbermann, runs a website that centers on (*) boards to which content is attached. For 10 points--name this "visual discovery tool" that uses bookmarks called "pins."

0/15/6 in 16 rooms

Posted: **Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:59 pm**

Can you post the sojourner truth tossup please?

Posted: **Fri Jun 13, 2014 8:50 pm**

HSNCT round 9 wrote:This individual promised to "tell you what time of night it is" during a speech given to the "Mob Convention." This author of lyrics for "The Valiant Soldiers" used that song to recruit African-Americans for the Union in the (*) Civil War. This person, who was born with the name Isabella, claimed to "have as much muscle as any man" in her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. For 10 points--name this abolitionist and women's rights activist.

answer: Sojourner _Truth_ (or Isabella _Baumfree_ or Isabella _Van Wagener_)

Posted: **Mon Jun 16, 2014 3:00 am**

Could you post the same-sex marriage question (I'm curious to see why only one team powered it) and the Strom Thurmond question? Thanks.

Posted: **Mon Jun 16, 2014 11:39 am**

HSNCT round 3 wrote:A May 2013 bill in Nigeria proposed a 10-year prison sentence for merely witnessing this kind of event. Dominique Venner committed suicide on the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral, ostensibly to protest this practice, which in August 2013 became (*) legal in Uruguay and New Zealand. In February 2014 the Church of England reaffirmed that it will not allow its priests to perform--for 10 points--what kind of wedding?

HSNCT round 11 wrote:In 1954 this man defeated the "Barnwell Ring" and was elected a U.S. senator on a write-in ballot. In 1964 this man switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party. Fielding Wright was the vice-presidential nominee with this man, who gave a 24-hour-and-18-minute (*) filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1948 the "Dixiecrat" presidential nominee was--for 10 points--what long-time senator from South Carolina?

Posted: **Mon Jun 16, 2014 12:45 pm**

I've done a project on the chromatic number of the plane, can I see that tossup please? My team didn't attend so I didn't have the opportunity to hear it.

Posted: **Mon Jun 16, 2014 1:06 pm**

HSNCT round 4 wrote:The Hajos construction creates a graph for which this value is no less than some specified number; such graphs are called "critical" since removing any part of them would decrease this value. This property of a graph is the least positive root of a namesake polynomial, and a special-case (*) upper bound on it was proved in 1976 by computer. For 10 points--name this property that is never more than four for a planar graph.

answer: _chromatic number_ (of a graph) (accept any answer indicating the _number_ of _color_s needed to color a graph; do not accept or prompt on "colors")

Posted: **Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:53 am**

Can I see tossups on:
2048
Dark horse
Pompeii
William Jennings Bryan
Mafia
Madonna
Lil Wayne/Drake/Childish Gambino bonus
Kendrick Lamar
Jay Z
Hotel California
Dallas Cowboys

Posted: **Wed Jun 18, 2014 12:56 am**

jeremylu wrote:Can I see tossups on:
2048

Please at least read the thread before asking to see contextless lists of questions. The 2048 question has already been posted (on the last page, even!), and some of the others may have been as well.

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:11 am**

Any rough estimate of when these packets will be published on quizbowlpackets.com?

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:21 am**

crash bandicoot wrote:Any rough estimate of when these packets will be published on quizbowlpackets.com?

Ahahaha. Alas, NAQT does not publicly post its packets.

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:22 am**

crash bandicoot wrote:Any rough estimate of when these packets will be published on quizbowlpackets.com?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 3:55 pm**

Ukonvasara wrote:
Yellow-throated Honeyeater wrote:
Strange Fascination wrote:Can we see that tossup and then also can who wrote it come forward for questioning?
That's not really how NAQT works. If NAQT editors determined that the question was too difficult, they could have used it at an SCT or ICT, or they could have just rejected it. Writers propose a difficulty when they submit a question, but that difficulty is often changed by the editors.
Frankly, I don't think I want to live in a world where I can't just arbitrarily demand that someone associated with the production of a question present themselves to me for satisfaction.

I was being sarcastic.

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 4:43 pm**

Strange Fascination wrote:
Ukonvasara wrote:
Yellow-throated Honeyeater wrote:
Strange Fascination wrote:Can we see that tossup and then also can who wrote it come forward for questioning?
That's not really how NAQT works. If NAQT editors determined that the question was too difficult, they could have used it at an SCT or ICT, or they could have just rejected it. Writers propose a difficulty when they submit a question, but that difficulty is often changed by the editors.
Frankly, I don't think I want to live in a world where I can't just arbitrarily demand that someone associated with the production of a question present themselves to me for satisfaction.
I was being sarcastic.

I WASN'T

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 8:10 pm**

Could I see the tossup on "Ulysses?"

Posted: **Fri Jun 20, 2014 8:14 pm**

HSNCT round 13 wrote:This poem compares experience to an arch that frames the world and knowledge to a "sinking star." The speaker of this poem declares "I am become a name" and rues having to "mete and dole / (*) unequal laws unto a savage race." Its speaker, an "idle king," leaves "the sceptre and the isle" to Telemachus and vows "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." For 10 points--name this Tennyson poem titled for an Ithacan king.

Posted: **Sat Jun 21, 2014 3:29 pm**

Ukonvasara wrote:
crash bandicoot wrote:Any rough estimate of when these packets will be published on quizbowlpackets.com?
Ahahaha. Alas, NAQT does not publicly post its packets.

Haha, I got the same answer from a friend (and a sarcastic laugh at my stupidity) 2 minutes after posting. Thanks anyway, Rob.

Posted: **Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:45 pm**

Can I see the tossup on "If"?

Posted: **Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:56 pm**

HSNCT round 7 wrote:This poem describes Triumph and Death as "two impostors" and cautions against making "dreams your master" or "thoughts your aim." The abilities to "fill the unforgiving minute / with sixty seconds' worth of distance run" and to "keep (*) your head when all about you / are losing theirs" are among several conditions in this poem. The speaker declares "you'll be a Man, my son!" at the end of--for 10 points--what poem by Rudyard Kipling?

The Quizbowl Resource Center

2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion

Re: 2014 HSNCT discussion