Search found 52 matches

by e_steinhauser
Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What will NAQT do for their nationals in 2008?
Replies: 100
Views: 36811

How many teams wanted to go to the HSNCT that were left out of the 160 team field? Were there, for instance, enough to get to 192? My impression from several discussions was that there were maybe 10 or so teams who didn't get off the waitlist. How much that translates into additional demand (intere...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What will NAQT do for their nationals in 2008?
Replies: 100
Views: 36811

I don't think expanding supply by having multiple sites is feasible for many reasons, the chief of which is that HSNCT requires a high concentration of people with comparatively rare skills, many of whom NAQT consequently pays to transport in. That cost doesn't scale well with an increase in site n...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Jun 06, 2007 5:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pennsylvania '07-'08
Replies: 15
Views: 7142

Eric, I believe NAQT treats Pennsylvania as two entities: http://www.naqt.com/hs/geographic-exclusivity.html If they can synch up the packets or dates correctly, Charter intends to go to either Pittsburgh, or possibly State College next year. The former would be preferable so that we can actually p...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pennsylvania '07-'08
Replies: 15
Views: 7142

Pitt has generally run two standard NAQT IS tournaments each year, one in the fall (October, usually), and Battle of the Burgh in February. CMU also traditionally runs a NAQT tournament at some point in the year, and we've coordinated A-level sets at various points in the region. Given the geographi...
by e_steinhauser
Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:44 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Thread for People who Like NAC
Replies: 23
Views: 10496

Tegan wrote: At NAQT, the fun can come from drug-referencing physical comedy in the middle of the match by the host ......
I realize this is a typo, but I can totally see R doing that.
by e_steinhauser
Wed May 30, 2007 10:34 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: RESULTS: Maggie Walker wins 2007 HSNCT!
Replies: 138
Views: 52005

Feel free to discuss question specifics. The mirror attending populace knows not to read this I'm sure. Alrighty then. Mods, if this is incorrect, feel free to delete this post. I rang in with "Freya", and was prompted. The correct answer was "Frig". They ruled that Freya was ac...
by e_steinhauser
Tue May 01, 2007 3:19 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Leisure time in Chicago
Replies: 27
Views: 12003

I'll second the suggestion about the Art Institute. My wife and I spent most of the Friday before the tournament looking around last year, and it was an absolute treat. Assuming we get the chance, we'll probably hit the Shedd Aquarium this year. Several friends who grew up in the area highly recomme...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:16 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Trash or Lit?
Replies: 25
Views: 9200

Long, possibly rambling thoughts: SF's major "problem" compared to traditional literature is that it has a much higher barrier to entry for readers (and to some extent, authors). One can start reading Les Miserables without knowing anything about French history and get a pretty good sense ...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2007 HSNCT Field is Full
Replies: 107
Views: 42402

It's doubtless that some teams on the wait list is far superior than some teams already in . . . but that's irrelelvant. If anything, blame NAQT for their severe lack of foresight. I really hope the situation would have improved by next year. Seriously, what would you have them do? They already exp...
by e_steinhauser
Fri Feb 23, 2007 10:49 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Format of science questions
Replies: 58
Views: 26747

For what it's worth (and that's not a whole lot), the lack of an index reference to the Venturi effect in one particular edition of a fluid mechanics textbook is decidedly not indicative of its accessibility or commonality. I would expect any 3rd year mechanical or chemical engineer to know it by na...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: WHO IS THE GREATEST STALKER IN THE RUNNING MAN?
Replies: 7
Views: 4164

Voting for Captain Freedom would sort of be like choosing sideline reporter Steve Tasker as the greatest athlete on the field during a Texans-Raiders game. It might be true, but it sort of goes against the spirit of the question. I had to go with Dynamo for the simple reason that he was relatively t...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MLK Discussion finally open
Replies: 11
Views: 5096

Re: Pitt C's

I don't want to be insulting and say "oh, you just suck," but the challenge is trying to write questions that will discriminate between the top teams and still be gettable for the bottom teams. To do that, the question has to be reasonably long and contain many clues. Just as a random tho...
by e_steinhauser
Sat Feb 03, 2007 12:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Demographic Underrepresentation: questions and rosters in qb
Replies: 43
Views: 20086

Here is where I disagree. Being in the United States, you focus on what impacts the United States. I think there should be AT LEAST one per twenty-two questions through the diversity of the writers, even without a quota. I'll assume you mean one per packet as opposed to 22 questions. Consider the d...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:50 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Demographic Underrepresentation: questions and rosters in qb
Replies: 43
Views: 20086

What I really don't understand is why there were plenty of Asian (I include Middle-Eastern in this just for this particular case) participants, but no hispanics or african-american participants. You shouldn't have to go throughout the school to look for one just to put on the team, but why don't th...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: February Avatars
Replies: 37
Views: 10463

No, no, no ... as was drummed repeatedly into our skulls throughout the NFL season ...

"THIS IS OUR COUNTRY!"
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: February Avatars
Replies: 37
Views: 10463

In case someone hasn't seen it yet ...

http://www.bearvscolt.com/

Oh, and Ditka is, as always, god-like in his awesomeness.
by e_steinhauser
Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: exit, voice and loyalty
Replies: 85
Views: 39313

The open tournament based on packet submission is dead. And I don't really care. This statement speaks volumes about the current state of the circuit. It's been apparent for a while that the level of questions demanded by the cadre of active, involved players far outstrips the production capacity o...
by e_steinhauser
Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:26 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Worst Question EVER...
Replies: 92
Views: 38562

OP_Huskies wrote:Well, while we're here, my friends and I are planning a "tournament" filled with questions like:

TU 3: Literature.

The derivative of x squared plus 5 x is 2 x plus 5. Who wrote "War and Piece?"

(Leo) Tolstoy (prompt on 2 x plus 5)
Sounds like :chip:
by e_steinhauser
Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Recruiting "Troubled" Athletes
Replies: 9
Views: 3552

I think the bigger crime is when a university passes over a more deserving student just to save a spot for an athlete whose grades maybe make the minimum to enter, but in fact are worse than other perspective students. The problem with this statement is that it just doesn't square with the realitie...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:07 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Team in Tournament?
Replies: 28
Views: 11627

I'd echo the sentiment that if a tournament is written in-house, it's generally poor form to field house teams, unless that team is made up of much younger players and used to round out the field. One big thing to consider is that if your questions are written in-house, fielding house teams eliminat...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:54 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Southern Virginia Tournament?
Replies: 43
Views: 18461

Generally a sound principle, but would it be preferable for this tournament to be played on inferior (college) intramural questions? In this case, an IS is preferable. IS sets are more rigorous and generally of a significantly higher competitive value than the annual IMs. IMs are intended for use a...
by e_steinhauser
Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2007 NAQT High School National Championship
Replies: 40
Views: 15057

I think the dissatisfaction with the Chicago location isn't that Chicago is boring, it's that the Crowne Plaza is a 45-minute train ride from actual Chicago. The last two years, it hasn't been feasible for us to spend extra time there, so there was no way to actually go do Chicago stuff. The extent...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:32 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2007 NAQT High School National Championship
Replies: 40
Views: 15057

Interesting to see the date shift to late May, right before Memorial Day, instead of continuing to grab the first weekend in June. My guess is that it accomplishes a few things: * Since most folks will have Monday off, travel arrangements will likely be easier for everyone. * Earlier date means les...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Nov 02, 2006 12:22 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SEC tournament?
Replies: 33
Views: 13923

I thought I remembered some sort of reason for the Conference name at least in one of the years, but perhaps this was a hypothetical rather than actual restriction. I do remember a lot of talk about the above sort of absurdity but I guess it was just a "why this should not happen" discuss...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Aug 03, 2006 6:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

Matt, I don't think it's really all that odd. There are some hard numbers on the relative popularity of various things throughout the culture (ratings, attendance figures, sales, etc), and if something reaches a particular threshold of popularity, it probably demands at least a few token questions t...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Aug 03, 2006 2:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

When I ran Pitt's trash events back in the day, we combined TV and movies into one big Visual Media category. I still like this idea, particularly since it has the flexibility to include the non-traditional stuff that's so popular among the college crowd these days. I'm intrigued by this. So would ...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Aug 02, 2006 4:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

And while I understand that it's sometimes too easy to write a tossup on something popular within a subfield of that topic that most people have never heard of, there should be enough around to write enough good, answerable tossups. If you expand "pop lit" to include things like comic boo...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

The only thing I think is systematically wrong with most coarse trash distributions as such is the exclusion or marginalization of videogames, which are both ripe for questions and as popular as television or movies by some metrics. While gaming may be quite popular, is it really all that ripe for ...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:32 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

Well, to be even more bizarre, I wonder where culturally-related topics belong. Sure, we have comic books, but there is also anime, Bollywood and cable shows on programs in which English isn't a native language. Comic books and anime would fit solidly under the "other" category. Non-Engli...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:26 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

Just to answer my own questions: When I ran Pitt's trash events back in the day, we combined TV and movies into one big Visual Media category. I still like this idea, particularly since it has the flexibility to include the non-traditional stuff that's so popular among the college crowd these days. ...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

What's "gender related"? Several trash tournaments have, in the past, required a certain percentage of "female-friendly" questions. Usually they ended up as things like feminine hygeine products, "My Little Pony," and grrrl power trivia. Not a bad idea in theory, but t...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Ideal trashy distribution?
Replies: 32
Views: 15953

Ideal trashy distribution?

Since discussion of the Gottfried Keller event has sparked some criticism of its distribution and those of other trashy events, I figured it might be worthwhile to ask people for their ideas on the ideal trash / pop culture packet distribution. The general distribution for most trash packet submissi...
by e_steinhauser
Thu Jun 29, 2006 4:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pronunciation
Replies: 67
Views: 33567

Proper pronunciation (and spelling) are just trivia compared to the knowledge of subjects which are tested in quizbowl. Moderators should have broad discretion to accept reasonable equivalents, particularly when a player is demonstrating clear and complete knowledge. I tend to be fairly lenient when...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

One thing to note is that NAQT's distribution does not have a traditional RMP category. I believe that religious questions are spread between the literature, history, and philosophy categories, depending on their content.
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

[quote="Frankel]I didn't closely examine the religion in the ECSO set, because it's just not my category (but it still belongs in), but the set was criticized as having balance problems in other categories. Maybe you're just annoyed at that?[/quote] If there was any imbalance in the RMP distrib...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

Maybe it's just me, but I find the trend of tossups on the more minor books that go "In Chapter Whatever, such and such happens, and in another chapter, the titular prophet says something quasi-memorable" to be pretty annoying. They seem to be one of those questions that are either gotten ...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

Half-decent education my a**. I have a BS and JD degrees, and I don't think my education suffered because I didn't take a theology class of any kind in college. Sorry for the tone, but I take great exception at the statement that any religion forms a foundation of a "half-decent education.&quo...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
Replies: 32
Views: 20052

Re: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?

I don't think you're going to get any support for this notion here. You're pretty much 100% offbase in your comments. Like it or not, religion has played a huge part in human culture and history for the past 6,000+ years. To refuse to have questions based around this fact is simply burying our colle...
by e_steinhauser
Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Online Quizbowl
Replies: 5
Views: 3685

Has anyone ever tried playing a round using a Teamspeak or Ventrilo server?
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:55 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Are there ever an open NAC-style tournaments?
Replies: 13
Views: 7069

The question style focuses more on reaction, riddles, and showmanship. I don't disagree with the rest of your post, but that's not inherently bad? Perhaps I just can't understand why anyone would want questions that rely on these sorts of things. Or have audio tossups whose answer is "blender&...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Are there ever an open NAC-style tournaments?
Replies: 13
Views: 7069

I'll go ahead and bite with a serious, explanatory response. My guess is that pappy and I have similar HS backgrounds -- my school (Friendswood HS, Texas) only did the Texaco Star Chip thingy during my freshman and sophomore years, playing only 2-3 games per year before we were eliminated in the TV ...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:33 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Are there ever an open NAC-style tournaments?
Replies: 13
Views: 7069

Re: Are there ever an open NAC-style tournaments?

E.T. Chuck wrote:and we all thank God there is no college Decathlon circuit.
Amen, though I suspect we might have different reasons ... :wink:
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QU-The field in Chicago
Replies: 144
Views: 65702

Any good quiz team player should know to say both the title and the author if they're not sure what the question is asking for. You are correct in that a player who doesn't know whether the question is asking for the creator or the creation should use the old blitz rule. However, good question writ...
by e_steinhauser
Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:12 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2006 NAQT HSNCT
Replies: 309
Views: 144941

Since when is the weaker team supposed to have a chance? Isn't the point of the game to figure out the smarter team? No, I think the point of the game is to determine who is able to accumulate the most points on a particular set of questions during the course of a tossup+bonus buzzer game. Knowledg...
by e_steinhauser
Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: high school-to-college thread, redux
Replies: 11
Views: 5594

KilroyWasHere wrote:Does anybody know if Dwight Kidder's contact list is being updated for 2006?
As far as I know, he's always in the process of updating / maintaining it.
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 06, 2006 5:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2006 NAQT HSNCT
Replies: 309
Views: 144941

umm, because they answered it correctly? You don't want a team to get bounceback points scored against you, you answer it correctly first, it's fairly simple. I like games that are more knowledge-based like that. They answered nothing; the other team beat them to the tossup. Whether or not the toss...
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 06, 2006 5:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2006 NAQT HSNCT
Replies: 309
Views: 144941

So, anyone care to explain why a team should earn bonus points when they never did anything to warrant a bonus in the first place?

You want the bonus? You get the tossup. It's that simple.
by e_steinhauser
Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:33 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2006 NAQT HSNCT
Replies: 309
Views: 144941

A couple of very general observations about the HSNCT from a reader's perspective: 1. Contrary to some of the posts here, I didn't notice any shift in distribution or emphasis from previous sets. I think some of the reaction may be coming from the use of some current event-type leadins to other ques...
by e_steinhauser
Sun May 28, 2006 12:55 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: HSNCT Question
Replies: 9
Views: 5297

Don't assume that last year's format will be used this year ... there is a larger field, and the logistics of these kind of tournaments is nuts. Last I heard things weren't finalized, but based on what I have been told, it would be safe to assume that teams won't have too much time between matches u...
by e_steinhauser
Thu May 25, 2006 10:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Discussion on why short tossups are terrible
Replies: 38
Views: 17501

Re: SO TO FOLLOWUP...

On the opposite side of the aisle, we engage in short pyramid questions all the time in writing bonus questions. Not to pick nits here, but I don't think this is true at all, unless you count the (increasingly unpopular) 30-20-10. Bonuses test a different set of knowledge and skills than tossups. B...