Search found 412 matches

by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl men, get a haircut
Replies: 102
Views: 49900

Re: Quizbowl men, get a haircut

At ACF Nationals and ICT in 2013, my teammates and I had an extensive discussion of who the most handsome/stylish quizbowl men were. Here is an (incomplete) list of people associated with quizbowl who dress and groom themselves in ways that work for them, who look damn good, and who you might think ...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Oct 18, 2017 6:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl and Mental Health
Replies: 30
Views: 25047

Re: Quizbowl and Mental Health

I suspect that quizbowl's culture of self-fashioning gives at least some of its players mental health issues. Unsurprisingly, most players value both general knowledge and a certain sort of genteel culturedness. Having "real knowledge" and aesthetic appreciation of increasingly obscure wor...
by The Atom Strikes!
Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:25 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Greatest Upsets in Quizbowl History
Replies: 74
Views: 77806

Re: Greatest Upsets in Quizbowl History

Chris Romero deliberately cultivated upsets by playing cautiously and avoiding negs, especially at high difficulty levels where answerlines are hard to predict and fraud is difficult. An opponent who played incautiously and negged a lot while you did not might hand you the margin you need to win. Wh...
by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Jun 09, 2016 3:47 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: 25 for 25: A Definitive List of the Greatest ACF Players
Replies: 29
Views: 28224

Re: 25 for 25: A Definitive List of the Greatest ACF Players

I remember that Chris Romero (one of stranger nationals-winning team leaders of the pre-2008 era) told me that basically, his Texas A&M team was built around three specialists who were like Billy (could be relied upon to nail one or two questions a round in their specialty areas really early, bu...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:08 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: A plug for my school at Columbia, aimed at CC/older readers
Replies: 3
Views: 800

Re: A plug for my school at Columbia, aimed at CC/older read

So, I took a summer course in Arabic at Columbia a few years ago. A bunch of students in the class with me were GSers. They came from a really impressive variety of different walks of life-- some had worked to care for family members, some were ex-soldiers. My impression, as an outsider, is that it'...
by The Atom Strikes!
Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Thoughts on category boundaries and difficulty
Replies: 11
Views: 5397

Re: Thoughts on category boundaries and difficulty

I think drawing a distinction between "art" and "not art" with various forms of art is a largely wrong, mostly because it creates conundrums like this. It would be a lot more honest to just say that some art is not worth asking about right now; maybe some art just sucks (like th...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Jan 13, 2016 4:50 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Thoughts on category boundaries and difficulty
Replies: 11
Views: 5397

Re: Thoughts on category boundaries and difficulty

Andrew, to what extent do you think that the Fine Arts/Trash division in film is actually about artistic merit? I would guess that say, Quentin Tarantino's films, or Mad Max: Fury Road would fall into the Trash distro at most tournaments, and we wouldn't have a problem with it. But these films don't...
by The Atom Strikes!
Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pointless Predictions for 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature
Replies: 23
Views: 1671

Re: Pointless Predictions for 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature

Yeah, Ms. Alexievich was on the list last year, but not so high, and I also had never bothered to read about her till just now. I'm skeptical a writer of only non-fiction could win; has that ever happened before? (Yes, you can google that for me). Winston Churchill won for nonfiction writing, IIRC....
by The Atom Strikes!
Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: quizbowl and academic careers
Replies: 6
Views: 4731

Re: History Player

(An amusing side note: I've found that quizbowl has been invaluable to me in my post-circuit-retirement career as an academic historian. Being able to instantly contextualize just about anything I encountered or read about is really helpful, as is having enough background knowledge about just about...
by The Atom Strikes!
Sun Jul 12, 2015 4:38 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Acknowledging Marginalized-Group Membership in QB Questions
Replies: 54
Views: 21177

Re: Acknowledging Marginalized-Group Membership in QB Questi

I suspect that from a representation standpoint, we might actually do better by focusing on queer representation within the quizbowl community. As I grew up, I remember being struck by 1: Just how many quizbowl players, and especially good quizbowl players were queer (in fact, it seems like we're di...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Jul 08, 2015 1:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: quizbowl and academic careers
Replies: 6
Views: 4731

quizbowl and academic careers

Split from the " improving as a history player " thread --Mgmt. (An amusing side note: I've found that quizbowl has been invaluable to me in my post-circuit-retirement career as an academic historian. Being able to instantly contextualize just about anything I encountered or read about is...
by The Atom Strikes!
Fri Jul 03, 2015 11:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: History Player
Replies: 20
Views: 12713

Re: History Player

Start with something like a standard world history textbook, then pick up survey texts that cover broad swathes of history at roughly the country or civilization-level. The good thing about history as a quizbowl topic is that its elements interrelate, so the more you learn, the easier you will find ...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:47 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: World Leader All-Star Teams?
Replies: 41
Views: 2836

Re: World Leader All-Star Teams?

If we played by Bruce's rules, I believe that we could make a strong case for Team Mughal Empire-- whose four slots would be filled out by Babur, Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. All four were highly intellectually curious and literate men (Akbar, who was probably dyslexic and couldn't actually read...
by The Atom Strikes!
Tue Mar 25, 2014 2:06 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of graduate school (split)
Replies: 28
Views: 6335

Re: Discussion of graduate school (split)

It's also worth pointing out that your odds are (unsurprisingly) much better if you get your Ph.D. from a top-quartile program and that in any case, your odds of winding up in an institution that does a lot of research are pretty bad and get worse as the strength of program decreases. And keep in m...
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of graduate school (split)
Replies: 28
Views: 6335

Re: Discussion of graduate school (split)

That said, university endowments are growing again, and it seems alarmist to believe that the recession-related crunch will last forever. Indeed, the gossip at the university where I am now suggests that the higher-ups are starting to relax again about making more hires. Glad to hear that, but I'd ...
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:20 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of graduate school (split)
Replies: 28
Views: 6335

Re: Discussion of graduate school (split)

I'm having trouble finding it, but I read a post arguing that those "are you employed and how much do you make" surveys sent to new graduates, at least in the case of law school, were quite inflated. I believe the reasons involved things like trusting law schools to provide some of this d...
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:26 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Discussion of graduate school (split)
Replies: 28
Views: 6335

Re: Where Are You Going Next Year? [Collegiate edition, 2014

It's impossible to transplant any one personal experience to another individual; Mike will tell you one thing, and I'll tell you a different thing. But the numbers don't lie: the prospects for turning a history or a literature Ph.D. into full-time employment in academia are slim to none. The only w...
by The Atom Strikes!
Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:58 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Split thread: "Venting and vituperation" and sexism
Replies: 83
Views: 24365

Re: Split thread: "Venting and vituperation" and sexism

I believe that a lot of people's complaints about personal attacks and nastiness on the board have to do with Matt Weiner. I should clarify that in general, I agree with the vast majority of the things that Matt says, and believe that most of the people that he mocks direly need mockery. I respect h...
by The Atom Strikes!
Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT Security Discussion
Replies: 72
Views: 25080

Re: NAQT Security Discussion

Ah, well, perhaps the siblings simply write alike and I am wrong. If this is the case, my apologies to Ketan.
by The Atom Strikes!
Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:16 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT Security Discussion
Replies: 72
Views: 25080

Re: NAQT Security Discussion

Does anybody else suspect that the person posting on here as Ketan is actually Shantanu? The straining-toward-erudition vocabulary, purple prose, and histrionic descriptions are all very much like his. And sock-puppeting as a younger sibling is exactly the sort of thing that he would do.
by The Atom Strikes!
Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:09 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2013 Texas Invitational (Feb. 22-24, Rice) [D1 SCT, ACF Reg]
Replies: 17
Views: 8046

Re: 2013 Texas Invitational (Feb. 22-24, Rice) [D1 SCT, ACF Reg]

Coverage is resuming via SlashNet, the same place it was last time.
by The Atom Strikes!
Fri Feb 22, 2013 10:08 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2013 Texas Invitational (Feb. 22-24, Rice) [D1 SCT, ACF Reg]
Replies: 17
Views: 8046

Re: 2013 Texas Invitational (Feb. 22-24, Rice)

Hey, CoverItLive has unfortunately changed its terms of service on us, so I'm going to continue liveblogging this via twitter

https://twitter.com/HGreyGorman
by The Atom Strikes!
Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Quizbowl
Replies: 22
Views: 11438

Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Quizbowl

So, a few thoughts have been mulling around in my head since the appearance of the latest "women in quizbowl" thread. (Note: I intend this, emphatically, to NOT be another such thread). I was unpleasantly surprised that several posters jumped very quickly to essentialist explanations for q...
by The Atom Strikes!
Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:26 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Is QuizBowl an inherent "con" of knowledge?
Replies: 26
Views: 18471

Re: Is QuizBowl an inherent "con" of knowledge?

In my own real-life study I've history, I've found that the cognitive map of people and events that I've built in my head has frequently been useful for contextualizing both new figures and events that I learn about and their thematic content and helpful for drawing up immediate parallels for compar...
by The Atom Strikes!
Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:27 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What to do to move up to the next level?
Replies: 9
Views: 4016

Re: What to do to move up to the next level?

I might be able to chip in something based on my own high school experience here. Our coach didn't always handle all of the chaperoning/transportation requirements for getting teams to tournaments by himself. My father often helped to take the team to some tournaments-- committed and supportive pare...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed May 30, 2012 1:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The best readers
Replies: 32
Views: 11121

Re: The best readers

I too love Chris Borglum. I also admire Rob Carson's ability to blaze through packets while still making snarky comments about everything. I really love Susan Ferrari's voice-- she's one of the most pleasant moderators to listen to.
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed May 16, 2012 5:02 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowl Central
Replies: 144
Views: 85311

Re: Quizbowl Central

Hey guys, quizbowldb seems to be down at the moment. Is this a permanent situation? Has it moved? Will it come back?
by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Women in college quizbowl
Replies: 21
Views: 12480

Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season

Nothing against your friend, but I think Marshall's reasons are more plausible. It's hard for me to believe that the overwhelming majority of women shy away from quiz bowl because male players are overly flirty. I'm not saying that this isn't a factor, but I can't imagine that it's the major cause ...
by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Women in college quizbowl
Replies: 21
Views: 12480

Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season

Any thoughts? One female friend of mine within quizbowl (although not anybody from my own team or general distant corner of the circuit) has suggested that the paucity of female quizbowl players has to do with the fact that some male quizbowl players have an unfortunate tendency to hit on women who...
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
Replies: 119
Views: 45844

Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion

I liked the fact that this set had bonuses with Part "C"s that were usually not simply a "fuck you." I generally quite enjoyed this tournament. I felt like a few categories-- specifically music-- seemed more difficult than the others on average, although this might just be my own...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Aug 31, 2011 11:47 am
Forum: New Collegiate Teams
Topic: Starting a New Academic Team at Haverford (Urgent)
Replies: 8
Views: 4545

Re: Starting a New Academic Team at Haverford (Urgent)

If you're starting a team at Haverford, you should have a chat with recent LASA grad and skilled quizbowl player Thomas Littrell. I suspect that he would be interested in playing.
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: World Literature and Time-Subdistribution
Replies: 20
Views: 7917

World Literature and Time-Subdistribution

Here, I would like to raise what I see as something of a problem with our literature distribution as it now stands. In literature, we have an explicit geographical subdistribution dividing our answer classes into American, British European, and World, and an implicit temporal subdistribution (it see...
by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ATTN CO attendees: logistics herein
Replies: 44
Views: 15890

Re: ATTN CO attendees: logistics herein

We have an extra room at a Holliday Inn at O'Hare-- we'll give the room to anyone who can pay $50. If you're interested, call me at (302)-507-4075.

Edit: Room taken.
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:26 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CO Lit 2010
Replies: 124
Views: 46956

Re: CO Lit 2010

Hey, Chris Romero and I want to play this.
by The Atom Strikes!
Sat Jun 12, 2010 5:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE NSC: format changes, 2010 information
Replies: 287
Views: 133831

Re: PACE NSC: format changes, 2010 information

Since the process by which we arrived at seeds was, as I said, very deliberate and I prefer to keep it private, I won't be spending much time commenting on individual seeds except where I think the final results were very different from what we expected. A brief question/comment about this remark: ...
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon May 31, 2010 4:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Know your current events
Replies: 42
Views: 14341

Re: Know your current events

Cheynem wrote:Current events should be allowed in the Your Choice part of the distribution. When editing MUT, I used this philosophy.
A lot of the problem is that if something appears in "Your Choice," it will almost certainly remain unwritten in favor of a trash question.
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon May 31, 2010 4:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Know your current events
Replies: 42
Views: 14341

Re: Know your current events

I endorse this product and/or statement.

On that note, I would be rather happy to see current events appear in college tournaments sometimes. Maybe as an occasional history question in the Bruce Arthur "Modern World" vein?
by The Atom Strikes!
Sun May 23, 2010 8:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Spring Offensive at HSNCT (5/29/2010)
Replies: 217
Views: 87747

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Spring Offensive at HSNCT (5/29/2010)

Sir Thopas wrote:
The Atom Strikes! wrote:It turns out that the Chris Romero team will not be happening. As a result, I am now a free agent for this.
Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:I am definitely out. Sorry, Guy and Auburn kids who were added.
I see no problem here.

I endorse this solution to a situation.
by The Atom Strikes!
Sat May 22, 2010 9:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Spring Offensive at HSNCT (5/29/2010)
Replies: 217
Views: 87747

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Spring Offensive at HSNCT (5/29/2010)

It turns out that the Chris Romero team will not be happening. As a result, I am now a free agent for this.
by The Atom Strikes!
Sun Feb 28, 2010 1:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals Texas (2/21/10)
Replies: 10
Views: 3329

Re: ACF Regionals Texas (2/21/10)

Stats . We really have to tolerate team pseudonyms for every school? Really? I understand that some of these were high school teams that could face sanctions or something? Anyway, Mamas & Papas were Texas A&M, Alice in Chains was Rice, Rascals were UT, and Boys II Men were Oklahoma. Don't k...
by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:30 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Academic WorldQuest
Replies: 9
Views: 2236

Re: Academic WorldQuest

I've done this a few times. Just read the things mentioned in their study guides. If you do that and keep abreast of current events (reading a respectable newspaper or the Economist will do this for you), you should have no trouble.
by The Atom Strikes!
Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: D-value projections
Replies: 12
Views: 3063

Re: D-value projections

Another note: we played the tourney on DI questions.
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:03 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Announcement: NAQT SCT Europe in Oxford, 6 Feb 2010
Replies: 43
Views: 17710

Re: Announcement: NAQT SCT Europe in Oxford, 6 Feb 2010

I would agree with Mike Bentley's commentary above. Given that the ACF and mACF tournaments that are played all over America aren't played in the UK, and, I would imagine that most players in the UK did not play the game in its pyramidal form in high school, and the different foci of education syste...
by The Atom Strikes!
Sun Feb 07, 2010 6:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Access to SCT discussion forum
Replies: 42
Views: 9859

Re: Access to SCT discussion forum

The Atom Strikes!= Henry Gorman, played at Rice.
by The Atom Strikes!
Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Why we can't have nice things
Replies: 141
Views: 27606

Re: Why we can't have nice things

In response to the initial controversy that started things off, I'll remark that while Coach Grant's posts were very inappropriate, Matt's response as a board administrator was a severe overreaction. If somebody is posting inappropriately, a moderator or administrator might simply post telling them ...
by The Atom Strikes!
Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:32 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Where is the line between "literature" and "trash"?
Replies: 43
Views: 7945

Re: Where is the line between "literature" and "trash"?

I'm actually curious about the general question of genre fiction. I'm not talking about something like tossing up Robert Jordan (god forbid) or even somewhat meritorious but completely popculturally ubiquitous authors like Tokein. But what about a contemporary author of deep, intellectually engaging...
by The Atom Strikes!
Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:05 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: What to do with apathetic/unmotivated players
Replies: 32
Views: 7764

Re: What to do with apathetic/unmotivated players

The truth of the matter is that in truth, most of the utility one derives from playing or preparing for quizbowl is simply enjoyment of acquiring knowledge and competing on questions about it. Thus, there really is little motivation for a person who does not care about those things to work harder. I...