Search found 1364 matches

by vinteuil
Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:25 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: 5th of March Incident
Replies: 13
Views: 9790

Re: 5th of March Incident

(This post is not directed at Emily in particular. It’s also pretty cranky.) Can we stop obsessing and mythologizing over this crap? All of the good stories have been told a zillion times by now, and you can read the anecdotes off of an overlong/injoke-y QBWiki page. There are so many other good qui...
by vinteuil
Mon Mar 02, 2020 2:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 9113

Re: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion

Here you go! In major keys, you can get the chord on this scale-degree by applying the Neo-Riemannian transformation R to the tonic. In Fux·ian counterpoint, lines can only ascend by this interval’s minor form. This interval names three chords that contain either the supertonic, the flat mediant, or...
by vinteuil
Sun Mar 01, 2020 11:37 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 9113

Re: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion

Oddly, the mathematically correct formula for this quantity is a biased estimator of it; hence, for finite sample of size n, this quantity is estimated as one over n minus 1 times the sum of “each sample minus the mean squared.” This doesn't seem to be worded very well. Is this trying to say that t...
by vinteuil
Sun Mar 01, 2020 1:27 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 9113

Re: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion

The only question that I really didn't like was the opera bonus with the "1920s" answer. This seemed like the kind of detail that quizbowl, especially at this level, avoids for triviality reasons. In what sense do you think that knowing this particular piece of historical context (Wozzeck...
by vinteuil
Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 9113

Re: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion

-Rare earth metals was kind of a lame idea. I don't remember the category here but it felt silly because an acceptable answer was "rare earths" where you could buzz off of Chinese mining knowledge. My dislike of this idea is more aesthetic. This was a current events/geography question, so...
by vinteuil
Tue Feb 25, 2020 2:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 9113

Re: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion

rahulkeyal wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2020 7:46 am a gold mine of useful feedback
This is a really fantastic post and we're taking it all into account. Thanks!
by vinteuil
Mon Feb 24, 2020 3:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Errata
Replies: 2
Views: 413

Re: 2020 WORKSHOP Errata

The tossup on "St. Matthew Passion" was packetized directly after the Bach bonus [I don't remember specific content, but there was a part on "preludes" cluing English Suites] in Round 2; those should be moved apart. This has been fixed, along with the round that had three econ b...
by vinteuil
Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP
Replies: 18
Views: 12544

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP

I've been alerted to the fact that I didn't understand Ophir's scale; this set is and has been intended to be regular-difficulty, i.e. Regionals. Sorry for any confusion.
by vinteuil
Sun Feb 23, 2020 9:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 7
Views: 1101

2020 WORKSHOP Thanks and General Discussion

This is your thread for general discussion of the 2020 iteration of WORKSHOP! Please post about specific questions and errata in those threads. This was a huge undertaking, so there are a ton of people to thank: First of all, thanks to our many writers for contributing great questions and being very...
by vinteuil
Sun Feb 23, 2020 9:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 9113

2020 WORKSHOP Specific Question Discussion

If you'd like to see or discuss a specific question, do it here! (Please give a reason for why you want to see it.)
by vinteuil
Sun Feb 23, 2020 9:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 WORKSHOP Errata
Replies: 2
Views: 413

2020 WORKSHOP Errata

Please post errata, typos, packetization errors and other small fixes here!
by vinteuil
Wed Feb 19, 2020 9:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy
Replies: 16
Views: 5811

Re: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy

I like this idea in theory and think it's worth experimenting with. I'll be trying it in future sets.
by vinteuil
Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:05 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy
Replies: 16
Views: 5811

Re: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy

I think this would have a noticeable benefit for the version of the set read at a tournament or posted on the archives. Furthermore, I think it would have an enormous benefit for set production. On every set I've worked on, the most ubiquitous type of comment is stuff along the lines of "is th...
by vinteuil
Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy
Replies: 16
Views: 5811

Re: Marking bonus parts as hard, medium, and easy

Context matters a lot as to the difficulty of a bonus part. Some of this is based off of difficulty level, and some of it is based off of clue selection. You could make someone like George Washington a hard part at any level. I feel like this undermines the value of these hypothetical markings. How...
by vinteuil
Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 78
Views: 16699

Re: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion

A Passacaglia splits the second act of this opera. Let the record note that this is also, famously, true of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth (which inspired Britten). And, while I think Amahl's mother is unnecessarily hard (and unnecessarily "I can prep for this tournament by studying the stuff tha...
by vinteuil
Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 78
Views: 16699

Re: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion

Could I please see the bonus on Witold Gombrowicz and Anais Nin's diaries? To my recollection, the last bonus part asked for "a work of this type" when referring to Nin's erotic diaries - we weren't sure whether to say "erotica" or "diaries" and there didn't seem to be...
by vinteuil
Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

I agree with Victor that this makes more sense for timed tournaments, but even for those I think having some kind of warning would be helpful. The problem might be mitigated by having more "Note: Description acceptable" or "Note: author/composer/artist/etc and type of work required&q...
by vinteuil
Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:16 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals and SCT Fee Schedules
Replies: 6
Views: 1631

Re: ACF Regionals and SCT Fee Schedules

cwasims wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:07 amat U of T we have lots of staffers who are generally willing to staff tournaments for a staffer pay mostly to cover lunch costs and the like ($10 or $15).
Congratulations!

(I like the idea you have for shorthanded team discounts.)
by vinteuil
Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cross-Post: NAQT Timing Discussion
Replies: 37
Views: 9476

Re: Cross-Post: NAQT Timing Discussion

CPiGuy wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:05 pm Yeah, I honestly think 5 is kind of on the high end for tossups
Why?
by vinteuil
Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

I should say that, in laying the blame on the set editors above, I was working from the assumption that the subject editors did their jobs well. If they didn't, that creates far more work than you could possibly expect two or three set editors to handle. (Of course, the problem of editorial "ov...
by vinteuil
Sun Feb 09, 2020 2:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

I don’t think it would be justified for me to criticize the overall editing of this set, because, as far as I could tell, there was no set editing, overall. I don’t mean “the editors of this set did nothing.” I’m sure the subject editors did their job of making sure clues were buzzable, correct, and...
by vinteuil
Sat Feb 01, 2020 9:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: What are you allowed to talk about? (re: set content)
Replies: 4
Views: 1688

Re: What are you allowed to talk about? (re: set content)

This is a great topic to bring up. Personally, I let my own sense of how long people remember passing information govern my choices regarding the "statute of limitations"—if I mentioned something in passing over a year ago, or clued it in an unused submission two years ago, I won't feel gu...
by vinteuil
Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 66
Views: 25362

Re: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata

I wish that the Sappho bonus had indicated that the opening words in Greek would be acceptable; since their translation was given, I assumed it couldn't be. (But a good idea for a hard part!)
by vinteuil
Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:33 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 66
Views: 25362

Re: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata

Could I also see the bonus on Mengzi? I recall the hard part on yi connecting it to the anecdote of the child in the well. But in the text (2A.6), the story about the child is connected to "commiseration"—not any of the sprouts precisely, but certainly closer to ren than to yi . (Actually,...
by vinteuil
Sun Jan 26, 2020 2:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Regionals Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 23
Views: 7819

Re: 2020 ACF Regionals Thanks and General Discussion

I quite liked this set overall. There were numerous things I've been waiting to hear come up. Phrasing was clear, length was controlled, clues were interesting, and difficulty was pretty darn consistent. I admire the restraint taken with tossup answer difficulty. I thought the mythology questions we...
by vinteuil
Sun Jan 26, 2020 1:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 66
Views: 25362

Re: 2020 ACF Regionals: Specific Questions and Errata

Could you please post the question on "healing"? Aside from the eyeroll-y content, I wasn't able to deduce from the question until quite late that it didn't want some much more specific answer.

And what was the logic behind calling bebop a "genre"?
by vinteuil
Fri Jan 17, 2020 9:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: JORDU: A Jazz Side Event (Summer 2021)
Replies: 33
Views: 11950

Re: JORDU: A Jazz Side Event (Summer 2020)

i am Here for this
by vinteuil
Sun Jan 12, 2020 11:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Should quizbowl reform the three-part bonus?
Replies: 18
Views: 5223

Re: Should quizbowl reform the three-part bonus?

I agree that bonuses (the teamwork part of the game!) should be more impactful. Has anybody worked out the implications of changing to 15 points per bonus part? or 4-part bonuses?
by vinteuil
Tue Jan 07, 2020 11:44 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Who has two thumbs and wants to edit CO?
Replies: 9
Views: 2638

Re: Who has two thumbs and wants to edit CO?

Cheynem wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2020 11:02 am Approaching? What categories does that not cover?
Should've clarified: Joseph and Evan volunteered to contribute, not edit, so the set needs another lit or arts editor and an RMPSS editor (and/or, I suppose, another history editor0.
by vinteuil
Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:56 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Who has two thumbs and wants to edit CO?
Replies: 9
Views: 2638

Re: Who has two thumbs and wants to edit CO?

When we first put out our call for editors, we got responses from Will, Wonyoung, NourEddine, Ryan Humphrey, Jonathan Settle, Joseph Krol, Evan Lynch, and James Lasker; that's approaching a complete editing team.
by vinteuil
Tue Dec 24, 2019 4:20 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Terrapin Open (Spring 2020)
Replies: 43
Views: 19221

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Terrapin Open (Spring 2020)

If Maryland is so concerned about revenue, then why haven't they more proactively sought out mirrors in other regions?
by vinteuil
Tue Dec 24, 2019 2:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Terrapin Open (Spring 2020)
Replies: 43
Views: 19221

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Terrapin Open (Spring 2020)

I don’t want to wade into the particular dispute here, but this should be an object lesson for every future head editor: delegate the responsibility of soliciting mirrors to somebody who is willing to do so. It’s a lot of work! And it’s an absolutely vital task—the fact that there’s still no midwest...
by vinteuil
Tue Dec 10, 2019 9:15 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Best Song of the 2010s Bracket
Replies: 349
Views: 2323227

Re: Best Song of the 2010s Bracket

#1 Lana del Rey - Video Games vs. #16 Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian at Best #8 Childish Gambino - This Is America vs. #9 Weyes Blood - Movies #5 M83 - Midnight City vs. #12 Mark Ronson (ft. Bruno Mars) - Uptown Funk #4 Azealia Banks - 212 vs. #13 Fiona Apple - Every Single Night #6 Adele - Rolling ...
by vinteuil
Mon Nov 25, 2019 3:28 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Stamina during Nationals
Replies: 7
Views: 4499

Re: Stamina during Nationals

The jury's still out on how much your brain is "like a muscle" (c.f. the replicability problems of Roy Baumeister's "ego depletion' idea), but it sure does use energy. Echoing Matt: I find that a huge portion of quizbowl mental fatigue can be mitigated by judicious application of snac...
by vinteuil
Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Fall Open Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 66
Views: 14356

Re: 2019 Fall Open Specific Question Discussion

For an easy part, I think the packet 1 bonus on Janissaries is pretty rough; since they're more famously kidnapped Christian children, hearing the word "hereditary" was enough to make us second-guess ourselves and miss the answer.
by vinteuil
Sun Nov 17, 2019 1:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Fall Open General Discussion
Replies: 20
Views: 2632

Re: 2019 Fall Open General Discussion

I liked this set overall. Billy Busse said something like "lots of cool ideas, and more of them worked than didn't"—I think that was true across the board. The infusion of underasked topics like archaeology was refreshing. There were some inconsistencies. Some of the hard parts (literature...
by vinteuil
Thu Nov 07, 2019 12:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP
Replies: 18
Views: 12544

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: 2020 WORKSHOP

Is there any update on the progress of this set or plans for mirror sites? Our logistics team started contacting potential hosts last week—we hope to have sites decided in the coming weeks. Anyone interested in hosting after February 15, particularly on February 29th (pre-nationals) or May 2nd (pos...
by vinteuil
Tue Oct 29, 2019 2:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Call for 2020 CO Editors
Replies: 3
Views: 2393

Re: Call for 2020 CO Editors

I’m not sure if this point has been mooted publicly, but I remember Auroni bringing up the (excellent) idea that players with current collegiate eligibility should, generally, edit CO—that helps mitigate burnout among the relatively limited pool of writers who can edit Nats and ICT. Honestly, I’d be...
by vinteuil
Tue Oct 22, 2019 7:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: No prizes is better than insulting prizes
Replies: 22
Views: 11010

Re: No prizes is better than insulting prizes

I'll also add that we have always provided lunch at every tournament we have hosted - even taco bars - so if you are going to complain about prizes please consider folks who provide lunch too - this is often a major cost that I rarely see when I travel to other tournaments. I can't speak for anybod...
by vinteuil
Mon Oct 21, 2019 3:18 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: No prizes is better than insulting prizes
Replies: 22
Views: 11010

Re: No prizes is better than insulting prizes

While certainly nobody wants tech manuals, I dunno about not giving out "battered copies of hyper-canonical books every top scorer will have as prizes." I guess I've rarely been a top scorer (I was, once! Seriously! At ACF Regionals, no less!), but I've never minded getting a copy of The ...
by vinteuil
Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: No prizes is better than insulting prizes
Replies: 22
Views: 11010

No prizes is better than insulting prizes

This post was prompted by my experience at Michigan's Penn Bowl mirror this past weekend, but my intent isn't so much to call them out as to raise this issue more broadly: that was far from the first time that I've seen a selection of books that frankly nobody wants handed out as "prizes."...
by vinteuil
Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Penn Bowl - General Discussion Thread
Replies: 26
Views: 3626

Re: General Discussion Thread

This set had many good ideas, clues, and questions—Aseem's visual art was an especially bright spot. For the most part, the questions were intelligibly worded and the clues were/seemed accurate. That said, there were a lot of problems, and I thought this was by far the weakest Penn Bowl I've played....
by vinteuil
Thu Sep 12, 2019 11:08 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 6
Views: 5385

Re: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

Thanks for the quick response, and for all the thoughtfulness that seems to have gone into implementation!
by vinteuil
Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 6
Views: 5385

Re: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

This is very exciting!

Will teams be given electronic access to the sets played at tournaments they attended, or only to sets of practice questions that they purchased?
by vinteuil
Thu Aug 15, 2019 12:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31823

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

TaylorH wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 11:49 am The PDF packets that were just posted seem to be corrupted and cannot be opened.
We are aware of this and working on fixing it; expect them to work by tonight.

EDIT: This should be fixed. I think our use of an emoji in the subtitle may have screwed things up...
by vinteuil
Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:26 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Pre-announcement: unnamed early 2021 open
Replies: 3
Views: 3262

Re: Pre-announcement: unnamed early 2021 open

This is very exciting! Who else is on the writing team?
by vinteuil
Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:39 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31823

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

I endorse Sam's analysis, particularly on the difficulty of estimating conversion when the numbers get very small. This is partly because experts in a subject---the only ones who know the answer---are the most likely to neg if the answerline is so out of left field!
by vinteuil
Wed Aug 07, 2019 11:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31823

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

For philosophy, I think it's way more dispersed - some people engage with philosophy through studying it as its own academic discipline, but I would wager that many more people encounter it as a lens on other disciplines which they are exploring, e.g. philosophy of science, literary theory and crit...
by vinteuil
Wed Aug 07, 2019 11:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO 2019 Discussion
Replies: 48
Views: 31823

Re: CO 2019 Discussion

This drug addict supposedly told his wife Louisa, “My poor darling, you have killed [me]” after realizing that she had mixed up his magnesia and chloral bottles. This scientist liked to wow audiences by catching a falling glass cylinder during Christmas lectures. This man, whose reputation suffered...