Search found 197 matches
- Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:12 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open 2009 Discussion
- Replies: 153
- Views: 51876
Re: Chicago Open 2009 Discussion
Just popping to offer a brief comment on the music distribution, which I agree came out flawed. I'll also note that while Eric was kind enough to give me a shoutout, all I really did was playtest arts question and offer minimal commentary about difficulty or clue ordering. I didn't promise or delive...
- Tue Apr 29, 2008 11:12 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF nationals discussion
- Replies: 89
- Views: 18519
Re: ACF nationals discussion
O I don't mind somewhat formulaic tossups on composers, of course within reason. Some works just don't lend themselves well to tossups. Personally, I'm a little tired of clues like saying the second movement is an andante con molto in E minor, followed by a scherzo in G major. If these sections are...
- Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Problems with Packets
- Replies: 32
- Views: 6004
Re: Problems with Packets
Teams not adhering to a distribution is less excusable, but, again, there weren't really clear guides on what you wanted. Obviously having people write 4 literature tossups on 20th century American novels is not acceptable, but I find it hard to criticize people for submitting things like two opera...
- Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:27 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Problems with Packets
- Replies: 32
- Views: 6004
Re: Problems with Packets
I've got a longer, more substantive post in the making, but I'm quite sleep deprived at the moment and will save it for a few days later. First off, I apologize profusely to Eric, the rest of the editors, and everyone who attended Nationals, for my failure to live up to my commitments. Some of the t...
- Mon Feb 11, 2008 9:25 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Private Sectionals Discussion Forum Signup and Access
- Replies: 94
- Views: 17769
- Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:39 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Guns of August and the state of quizbowl history
- Replies: 31
- Views: 15496
Not being an active circuit participant and not having seen Bruce's set, but to throw my hat in the mix very quickly, I invite everyone to recall the discussion over the history set I wrote for last year's CO. One of the main characteristics of that tournament was an increased presence of questions ...
- Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:40 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Gauging Interest in Chicago Open History Singles
- Replies: 30
- Views: 13790
- Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:45 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: posting stats
- Replies: 19
- Views: 8044
- Thu Nov 30, 2006 7:29 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: SEC tournament?
- Replies: 33
- Views: 13929
Also, doesn't Princeton hold a gigantic high school tournament every year that brings in a ton of money? Maybe that's not the case anymore, but you certainly had one in 2005, which drew over 30 teams, if I'm not mistaken. That hardly sounds like a poor club that needs to plead for money from the ad...
- Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:44 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: SEC tournament?
- Replies: 33
- Views: 13929
This, pretty much. Also, depending on where you place the tournament, it's questionable whether Columbia/Princeton or Dartmouth/Harvard would make the trip, as many teams don't have the transportation to make even a 200 mile trip. Just look at the field for Yale's BoB, which is about halfway betwee...
- Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:10 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: wit results
- Replies: 23
- Views: 11312
I skimmed the packet just now, though I'm too lazy to go to the trouble of an e-mail. General observations are that most of the questions, per se, are decently written, and that this packet as-is would not be totally out of place at a TTGT11-type theme deal. That said, I'd be pretty annoyed to be pl...
- Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Southern Virginia Tournament?
- Replies: 43
- Views: 18466
I think Jason Loy is from Maryland or Virginia. Seth Samelson and Kannan seem to have talked about playing against him in high school, at least. You know, it took five minutes to look up some old HSNCT results (http://www.naqt.com/hsnct/2004/2004-hsnct-results.html) and confirm that Jason played fo...
- Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:14 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall Commentary
- Replies: 44
- Views: 18033
But packet randomizing should really be rather nonrandom; you want the history, science, and lit tossups spaced out within the packet with everything else randomly scattered around. This is definitely true. Another important thing to take into account is that it is preferable to make sure the layou...
- Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:37 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall Commentary
- Replies: 44
- Views: 18033
- Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Vancouver Estival Trivia Open question packets
- Replies: 52
- Views: 42106
actually, Niemoller is relatively well known (and certainly a household name in the history of theology). I'd even forgotten that quote was attributed to him... however, certainly we need tossups on Bonhoeffer (have there ever been any) and on the Confessing Church before ones on Niemoller. ACF Nat...
- Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:38 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19079
If this were a normal forum, this would just have been a brief edit message, but my possibly unclear point in the above post was to say that I was never trying to say that biography clues were inherently illegitimate or that people were less worth asking about than events so much as that tossup answ...
- Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:19 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19079
- Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:17 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19079
A few quick thoughts. In writing something like the New Model Army tossup, I didn't claim to be innovative, nor was I making the claim that I was the first person to put the topic in the canon. What I did claim to be doing is attempting to take a very gettable answer that hadn't been explored much i...
- Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:05 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19079
Well, after some waffling, here's my general response to Ryan's initial concerns. First, I will freely concede that the history set was lacking the polish necessary to turn an acceptable/slightly above-average set into a high quality one. As many of you may know, I was in a pretty hectic rush to fin...
- Mon Jul 31, 2006 9:59 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19079
I'm still stalling for my eventual response, having just got home from work and being exhausted, but, in the mean time, I'll post the distribution I used to shed some more light onto how the set was constructed: 1/1 British (English/Scottish/Irish up to the English Civil War/Protectorate era) 1/1 Br...
- Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:25 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles Criticism
- Replies: 43
- Views: 19079
I'm going to wait and see how this thread develops before addressing any specific points. I'll just note that my set also contained TU's on Mehmed II and the Treaty of Lausanne, and that, much to my great disappointment, the final round was not read (my intent was that it would be read regardless of...
- Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:27 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
- Replies: 27
- Views: 14294
Jeff, e-mail me ([email protected]) if you'd be interested in getting the packets and working on some mirror arrangement.
- Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:13 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
- Replies: 27
- Views: 14294
- Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:39 am
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: July 15 to 24: Recruiting team members
- Replies: 45
- Views: 44239
Re: Pre-discussion questions
3) Diversity: do you have any specific strategy, a best practice, or a general team philosophy that welcomes girls/women and others from non-Caucasian or non-Asian demographic backgrounds? What works best in this case? Why should this be an issue at all? Why not just concentrate our efforts into ma...
- Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:24 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
- Replies: 27
- Views: 14294
- Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:34 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
- Replies: 27
- Views: 14294
Few logistical questions to throw out: 1. We're covered on moderators. I have Eric, Zeke, Dave, and now Seth Teitler and Matt Nance. Andy and Ahmad, if you decide you want to help out, you can do so as well. 2. It seems like the field is somewhere between nine and ten teams, with ten being highly pr...
- Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:24 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Bonus Policy in ACF
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6692
- Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:04 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Subject Tournament
- Replies: 27
- Views: 14294
I'm going to provide a quick update re: the history tournament, which is happening in Chicago on the evening of Friday the 28th. Teams are: Beyer/Platzer Borglum/Kendall Burte/(Rosenberg?) Lafer/Westbrook Passner/Stratton Turner/Arthur Vinokurov/Meigs Weiner/ROME.RO SMASH Yaphe/Kemezis I also had tw...
- Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:50 pm
- Forum: Best of the Best
- Topic: Recent Literature: General Thoughts/Who Makes the Cut?
- Replies: 31
- Views: 38035
- Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:27 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
- Replies: 47
- Views: 23505
I got a reply from him just now. It's not noteworthy enough to post (damn!), but he basically says two things. First, he defends his article on the claim that he intended his hyperbole to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I can see that to an extent, but I think the parts he cites as such could be interp...
- Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:57 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
- Replies: 47
- Views: 23505
I just e-mailed him my letter, a 7 page long tome with footnotes and an appendix (providing examples of quality questions to contrast with those of NAC). I will keep you all updated on responses, and I certainly agree now that it would be better to forward any rude replies to his superiors rather th...
- Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:59 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
- Replies: 47
- Views: 23505
- Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:00 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: archive of TRASHionals cryfest flap?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 13300
I'll preface this post by saying that I have no personal stake in this controversy since I've never met Robert or Alma and I don't play trash, but I can't help but be bothered any time I hear someone calling for speech or behavior to be proscribed because it offends someone's personal sensibilities....
- Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:06 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: archive of TRASHionals cryfest flap?
- Replies: 25
- Views: 13300
In Passner's defense, the sort of kneejerk rants he laments is already having a chilling effect in the academic quiz bowl world as well. Witness how one Eric Kwalter [sic] explicitly rejected the proposal of Ryan Westbrook and myself to write a rape theme packet for his MATTE subject tournament, for...
- Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:13 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Triple H questions: Quizbowl worthy?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3059
Re: Triple H questions: Quizbowl worthy?
Am I alone in thinking that Triple H Questions are worthy of Quizbowl? I think you're right too, but I hope in calling for more questions, you won't neglect his days as Terra Ryzin and Jean-Paul Levesque. Who can forget his early feud with "Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright (the one with both a...
- Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:55 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 20058
Maybe so, because I didn't see the above ratio and I don't know which questions were written by the original packet authors or added by an editor (I know this happened too many times last Saturday). Consider my objections dropped if this ratio is supposed to be in place for NAQT/ACF/etc: 1:1 ratio ...
- Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:47 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Bible/Old Testament Questions: Un-Quizbowl worthy?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 20058
If you know diddly-squat about the Mahabharata or the Qu'Ran or Buddist teachings, you have missed out on a huge chunk of literature, considering that much of literature (particularly the really important/influential stuff) alludes or refers to these and other works in some form. Hence, your litera...
- Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:12 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Some constructive ECSO criticism
- Replies: 17
- Views: 9125
- Sun Jun 25, 2006 9:36 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
- Replies: 47
- Views: 23505
Does anyone have an e-mail contact for the columnist (Peter Applebome)? I've been trying to get one through the NYTimes website, but they seem to expect to pay for some silly subscription just to be able to get in touch with the author. If someone here has said subscription, posting an e-mail link w...
- Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:37 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Quizbowler in the New York Times
- Replies: 47
- Views: 23505
- Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:24 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ECSO Discussion
- Replies: 18
- Views: 10991
- Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:50 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Editing of posts is disabled
- Replies: 21
- Views: 10937
I've always expressed my opinions to Matt privately, but I'll just repost them here. I don't get the purpose of punishing the whole forum, which has been well-behaved for over a year, because one user who has been here less than a week screws up and does some editing for what was more likely the pro...
- Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Southeast Tournaments: Fall 2006
- Replies: 31
- Views: 14924
- Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:21 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: QU-The field in Chicago
- Replies: 144
- Views: 65706
- Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:23 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: QU-The field in Chicago
- Replies: 144
- Views: 65706
Sorry, but I'm just not seeing the connection. Some spectators shushing each other does not really say much to me about the tournament's focus. I think what he's saying is that Chip's refusal to discourage (or, more accurately, his encouragement of) what your average circuit tournament (let alone a...
- Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:07 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Survey: Computer Science in Quiz Bowl
- Replies: 16
- Views: 8123
- Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:36 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: the most annoying thing about quizbowl
- Replies: 22
- Views: 12541
- Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:08 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: high school - college retention
- Replies: 72
- Views: 31108
Well, this post is just to reply to Chris' interest in seeing some sort of D2 stats, as I got bored and did something to that effect. I looked at all the ICT's that had been hosted since my freshman year, took the top 5 teams from D2, and compared them to my general memory of seeing their names arou...
- Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:04 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: QU NAC in DC
- Replies: 62
- Views: 36233
While Matt's argumentative style has always been more aggressive than most people would care to endure, it seems to be artificially enhanced in threads like these by the propensity of Chip supporters to flippantly dismiss every attempt to back up NAC criticisms with first hand experience, statistica...
- Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:06 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: QU NAC in DC
- Replies: 62
- Views: 36233
That is certainly a fine selection of questions that serve to prove what exactly? It seems a bit like using selected facts to prove a conclusion. Would it be impossible to also find perfectly reasonable questions among the archives? I just read two days ago and don't seem to recall feeling that the...