Search found 461 matches

by t-bar
Thu Feb 15, 2024 11:55 am
Forum: Community Discussion
Topic: Harris Bunker
Replies: 7
Views: 9072

Re: Harris Bunker

Hey all, I'm reopening this thread to share some personal news and testimony. As a few people already know, I signed up for Be the Match in 2021 at Harris' suggestion and matched with a potential recipient last year. This week, I completed a process to extract marrow from my hip bone, one of two way...
by t-bar
Fri Sep 29, 2023 8:47 pm
Forum: Collegiate Announcements & Results
Topic: EMACS Online Mirror (October 1st)
Replies: 8
Views: 2496

Re: EMACS Online Mirror (October 1st)

Mike Bentley wrote: Wed Sep 27, 2023 7:36 pm When will the tournament start?
I would also like to know the answer to this question.
by t-bar
Sun Jun 26, 2022 11:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Illinois Open 2021 - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 12
Views: 2036

Re: General Discussion and Thanks

Can you post the version of the set that was played at MIT? I have some (complimentary) thoughts to gather into a post, but I'd like to look through the set first to make sure I'm not just relying on vague recollections. This weekend's mirror reminded me that I never made my promised post praising ...
by t-bar
Sat Apr 30, 2022 3:44 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 30
Views: 11975

Re: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion

I just realized that I never actually posted anything in this thread. I have a few points I want to raise, and if they revive the now-dormant discussion going on here, so much the better! I’m glad to see that the set’s reception has been generally positive. If you liked questions in my categories (p...
by t-bar
Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Illinois Open 2021 - General Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 12
Views: 2036

Re: General Discussion and Thanks

Can you post the version of the set that was played at MIT? I have some (complimentary) thoughts to gather into a post, but I'd like to look through the set first to make sure I'm not just relying on vague recollections.
by t-bar
Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Illinois Open at MIT (2/26/2022)
Replies: 3
Views: 2046

Re: Illinois Open at MIT (2/26/2022)

I thought this tournament ran very well. Reading difficult questions all day in masks isn't easy, yet the staffers uniformly performed their jobs with enthusiasm and aplomb. Much thanks to MIT, and to the area staffer(s?) as well!
by t-bar
Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Illinois Open (open to mirrors starting 11/13/2021)
Replies: 14
Views: 11665

Re: Illinois Open (open to mirrors starting 11/13/2021)

I'd also be interested in such a mirror, conditional on a workable date.
by t-bar
Fri Sep 10, 2021 11:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: BHSAT (Spring 2023) [old thread]
Replies: 11
Views: 4507

Re: BHSAT (Spring 2023)

We chose the name in reference to CMST , which also shared its name with an existing but wildly different tournament, The Collaborative Middle School Tournament was long defunct when the open-level CMST set was played. The writers of this set have no reason to believe that there will not be a high ...
by t-bar
Sun Aug 29, 2021 9:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Teammate Appreciation Thread
Replies: 19
Views: 7513

Re: Teammate Appreciation Thread

Now that I've successfully rendered myself no longer a Yale student, I have time to post in this thread about how great my teammates are. (Whoops!) Hasna and Olivia shouted out several deserving Yale quizbowlers upthread. In addition to cosigning everything they said, I want to offer some kudos of m...
by t-bar
Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 NAQT ICT: online, April 10
Replies: 29
Views: 13506

Re: 2021 NAQT ICT: online, April 10

Time begins at recognition , not at the time of signaling. Yale has two players with the same first name. I have three questions about this circumstance, which also may apply to situations in which two players on different teams have identical or similar names. (1) Are moderators under instructions...
by t-bar
Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACRONYM 14: Global Announcement
Replies: 4
Views: 3637

Re: ACRONYM 14: Global Announcement

While reading this tournament's results, I realized that I don't think the ACRONYM 13 set ever got posted. Did I miss it somewhere? If not, could it be posted publicly?
by t-bar
Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:36 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Regionals - Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 39
Views: 15744

Re: 2021 ACF Regionals - Specific Question Discussion

Submissions that I especially loved included those on protein folding with DeepMind clues (TU, Brown A), the Hall–Héroult process (TU, Edinburgh A), ray tracing (TU, George Washington A, converted to rays ), desiccation (TU, Harvard A), position in quantum mechanics (TU, MIT B), relativistic clocks ...
by t-bar
Tue Feb 02, 2021 11:34 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Regionals - General Discussion & Thanks
Replies: 8
Views: 4230

Re: 2021 ACF Regionals - General Discussion & Thanks

I want to thank some people who helped in producing my categories and reflect on some goals I had as an editor. In addition, I'd be happy to provide feedback to any team on their submissions in my categories. Just send me an email at the address in my profile! I edited chemistry, physics, and astron...
by t-bar
Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 IKEA - Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 5520

Re: Sepcific Questions Discussion

I thought this set was great top to bottom, but one erratum from the bonus part on just-noticeable difference resurfaced in my mind just now: [10] Psychophysics often searches for this threshold, defined as the level of stimulus which a subject detects 50 percent of the time. Weber's law suggests it...
by t-bar
Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Even GHOTIer (GHOTI II 2020 Announcement)
Replies: 27
Views: 7182

Re: Even GHOTIer (GHOTI II 2020 Announcement)

Did this happen?
by t-bar
Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2020 - Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 12
Views: 5222

Re: ACF Fall 2020 - Thanks and General Discussion

Like many recent iterations of ACF Fall, this set had lots of questions, both creative and down-the-middle, that were well executed and hewed to an appropriate difficulty level. The editors should be proud of this achievement. Unfortunately, also like many recent iterations of ACF Fall, this set had...
by t-bar
Mon Apr 06, 2020 5:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Internet Charity Tournament (April 4th, 5th)
Replies: 81
Views: 25592

Re: Internet Charity Tournament (April 4th, 5th)

The technical innovations that made this tournament possible were fantastic, and Emily deserves huge accolades for them. I was also very impressed by the amount of goodwill and energy to make quizbowl happen that I saw from this event's writers and moderators, as well as the gratitude displayed by t...
by t-bar
Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Internet Charity Tournament (April 4th, 5th)
Replies: 81
Views: 25592

Re: Internet Charity Tournament (April 4th)

meebles127 wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:47 pm Here is the form to signup to participate as a PLAYER in the 2020 Internet Charity Tournament.
Should we be able to select multiple packets on the second page? I don't see how to.

EDIT: Better now!
by t-bar
Mon Mar 23, 2020 1:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College Nationals and Its Problems
Replies: 132
Views: 54059

Re: College Nationals and Its Problems

I think it's fair to say that at any given time, there are perhaps two dozen college-graduate quizbowlers whose educational choices have a large impact on the top bracket of ICT and ACF Nationals. Some of these quizbowlers are currently enrolled in graduate or professional schools and playing on eli...
by t-bar
Sun Feb 23, 2020 12:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 MWT Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 60
Views: 6387

Re: 2020 MWT Specific Questions and Errata

Overall, this set was fairly easy to read, so I'd like to thank the writers and editors for a decent proofreading job. There were a couple of classes of errors that seemed more prevalent than usual, though, and I'd like to note them for future revisions. My loose impression was that there were more ...
by t-bar
Mon Feb 10, 2020 2:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

As a separate matter, we also currently don't have automated checks for things like "there's a reasonable amount of organic chemistry in this set, but the o chem tossups are all clumped in the last 6 rounds." A heartfelt thanks to Billy Busse for catching and reporting a couple clumping i...
by t-bar
Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT Midwest SCT (2/8/20) at Purdue
Replies: 6
Views: 2794

Re: NAQT Midwest SCT (2/8/20) at Purdue

I do have one issue with the tournament format, however, which as I understand it was beyond the host’s control. There were ten teams in the D1 field, and according to the Purdue staff, NAQT had instructed them to run a full round robin guaranteeing only nine games to teams not in the final. Combin...
by t-bar
Mon Jan 27, 2020 12:48 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 didn't get points for saying "the prologue to Hopscotch" for the bonus part on the Table of Instructions. Was this a moderator error (possibly because of a long or complicated answerline) or was this a genuine omission by the packet? If the latter, I think the answer line should be expa...
by t-bar
Mon Nov 04, 2019 11:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2019 Specific Question Discussion and Errata
Replies: 51
Views: 14551

Re: ACF Fall 2019 Specific Question Discussion and Errata

I thought this set was very good, though I noticed two errata that I don't think have been mentioned yet: Bonus 16.3 in packet C is written in a confusing way: [10] Description acceptable. The horses in The Derby at Epsom have this specific, unusual trait, which was only discovered upon comparison w...
by t-bar
Tue Oct 22, 2019 3:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Penn Bowl - General Discussion Thread
Replies: 26
Views: 3626

Re: General Discussion Thread

This set had a lot of interesting questions that I enjoyed reading. I was bothered, however, by a number of long, complex sentences that were difficult to process. Many of these sentences parse correctly if you have the time to sit down and read them on paper or screen, as I imagine the editors of t...
by t-bar
Fri Jun 07, 2019 9:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: STAR BOWL (2019 Spring and Summer Side-Event)
Replies: 25
Views: 16195

Re: STAR BOWL (2019 Spring and Summer Side-Event)

Is this still happening at NSC? I understand that Victor is very busy with the real event, but is it possible to delegate organization to someone else?
by t-bar
Thu May 16, 2019 5:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CANONEXPANSION, an experimental science side event ('18-'19)
Replies: 8
Views: 7751

Re: CANONEXPANSION, an experimental science side event ('18-'19)

Amizda Calyx, in another thread wrote: Thu May 16, 2019 5:00 pm Are there any plans to run CANONEXPANSION at NSC? I won't be able to make it to HSNCT.
I'd also be interested in this.
by t-bar
Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content
Replies: 90
Views: 46667

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content

I enjoyed this tournament a lot, though it was a reminder of how difficult it is to lead a team at this difficulty. I don't have an overarching thesis to put forth, but I do want to single out some questions and sets of questions I particularly enjoyed. Some of my favorite questions fell outside of ...
by t-bar
Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:31 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 - 4/13-14/2019 - University of Pennsylvania
Replies: 105
Views: 82606

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 - 4/13-14/2019 - University of Pennsylvania

Steven's proposal is essentially dual to what Dwight and I have done in the past--we start at the bottom and iteratively work up, rather than starting at the top and working down. It's not immediately obvious to me that one method or the other will lead to intuitively "better" or less disr...
by t-bar
Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Sun God Invitational Specific Question Request and Discussion
Replies: 125
Views: 21960

Re: 2018 Sun God Invitational Specific Question Request and Discussion

I enjoyed the large majority of this tournament’s science questions. In the categories in which I have deeper knowledge, topic and clue selection was generally very good. There were some early clue drops, confusingly worded sentences, and very difficult bonuses, but most sets suffer from all those d...
by t-bar
Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Science (2018 Sun God)
Replies: 50
Views: 19895

Re: Science (2018 Sun God)

To backtrack a bit, I thought the three computational physics bonus parts in this tournament were all clear and straightforward ways of testing for important knowledge. Perhaps the wording has been fine-tuned a bit from the first mirrors, but I didn't find any of them confusing. Tree traversals are ...
by t-bar
Sun Dec 02, 2018 11:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Sun God New England at Brown
Replies: 9
Views: 8690

Re: Sun God New England at Brown

This tournament ran very well--in particular, it was very well staffed, allowing advanced statistics to be collected without much hassle or delay. I'm glad to see Brown return to the hosting scene after a two-year hiatus!
by t-bar
Sun Nov 11, 2018 1:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Player tossup etiquette
Replies: 23
Views: 16363

Re: Player tossup etiquette

PACE"s rule D11 is similar but slightly stricter and slightly more explicit: 11. If the moderator has begun reading a tossup and has not yet read a verb, or a proper noun, or a word within quotation marks, or a noun or adjective which is a technical term in an academic field, (e.g. "Next t...
by t-bar
Mon Nov 05, 2018 12:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2018 - Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 13745

Re: ACF Fall 2018 - Thanks and General Discussion

In general, I thought that topic and clue selection in this set were excellent. Many topics that come up often at ACF Fall feel very well-trod, but I found this set fresh and interesting to read. Players seemed to enjoy the set as well. Other people have mentioned the typos and the dearth of pronunc...
by t-bar
Mon Nov 05, 2018 11:18 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2018 - Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 53
Views: 26559

Re: ACF Fall 2018 - Specific Questions and Errata

There's a lot of criticism in this thread, so I want to make a point of saying that I really enjoyed reading this set and thought it was quite good. That said, a couple other errors I noted: -Enrique Peña Nieto was AMLO's predecessor, not successor. (CMU A etc.) -The main carbon atom of an ester is ...
by t-bar
Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Penn Bowl - Specific Question Discussion Thread
Replies: 50
Views: 10328

Re: Specific Question Discussion Thread

I don't think I worded this as clearly as I could have, which is my fault, but the other clues rule out morphemes ("sounds," infants hearing the differences between them). In addition, it doesn't say that phonemes are the smallest meaningful unit of language - it says that they are the sm...
by t-bar
Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:48 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Announcement: Penn Bowl 2018
Replies: 23
Views: 23851

Re: Announcement: Penn Bowl 2018

Again, I'm not sure what I could have done here (outside of seeding the playoffs differently, which was decided on before the tournament). Can someone from Penn elaborate on what this method for seeding was? I can think of several defensible ways to seed the playoffs, none of which are consistent w...
by t-bar
Thu Oct 18, 2018 2:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: EFT 2018 - Detailed stats
Replies: 24
Views: 7716

Re: EFT 2018 - Detailed stats

The Midwest, it seems, is the land of generalists. Here are the top 6 players across all sites ranked by their third -best category BPA: 1. Jakob Myers (Michigan State): History 38.979, Other 29.000, Literature 23.896 2. Matthew Lehmann (Chicago): History 24.932, Literature 23.091, Thought 21.955 3....
by t-bar
Wed Oct 17, 2018 6:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Introducing BPA, a new evaluation metric using detailed stats
Replies: 10
Views: 8375

Re: Introducing BPA, a new evaluation metric using detailed stats

This is awesome! Thanks for putting the work into coming up with this. This is also an interesting statistic to look at on a game-by-game basis, though you have to take the results with a grain of salt. Here are the top 10 games from 2018 ACF Regionals by total BPA : Winner Loser Score Winner BPA Lo...
by t-bar
Tue Aug 07, 2018 8:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Boston Summer Open I
Replies: 59
Views: 30489

Re: Boston Summer Open I

We played FILM and Human Use of Human Beings as shootouts. For FILM , Raynor read all 10 packets at least once over the course of the weekend, with people coming in and out as available. There were superpowers for 20 and powers for 15. Isaac Kirk-Davidoff came out on top; standings were as follows (...
by t-bar
Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Boston Summer Open I
Replies: 59
Views: 30489

Re: Boston Summer Open I

Jacob can't come anymore, so Adam Fine, Nitin Rao, and I are looking for a teammate. Lit and arts knowledge especially appreciated, but we're happy to play with anyone. My email is in the sidebar.
by t-bar
Thu May 03, 2018 1:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACRONYM 11 @ HSNCT - Friday Night
Replies: 35
Views: 21343

Re: ACRONYM 11 @ HSNCT - Friday Night

I'm interested in joining any open team that is looking for a fourth player. When we read a packet from an old ACRONYM in practice I scored the greatest number of points, so I infer that I'm better than Jacob Reed at high school trash.
by t-bar
Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 NAQT ICT: April 14, Chicago
Replies: 30
Views: 20007

Re: 2018 NAQT ICT: April 14, Chicago

Has the exact DI tournament format been determined?
by t-bar
Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 NAQT SCT: February 3
Replies: 20
Views: 13486

Re: 2018 NAQT SCT: February 3

Is there any way to make either the D-value table (at https://www.naqt.com/stats/rating-values.jsp) slightly narrower or the scroll window in which it resides slightly wider? In Firefox 58, the rightmost four columns are cut off, notably including the final D-value; this holds regardless of zoom le...
by t-bar
Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 NAQT SCT: February 3
Replies: 20
Views: 13486

Re: 2018 NAQT SCT: February 3

Is there any way to make either the D-value table (at https://www.naqt.com/stats/rating-values.jsp) slightly narrower or the scroll window in which it resides slightly wider? In Firefox 58, the rightmost four columns are cut off, notably including the final D-value; this holds regardless of zoom le...
by t-bar
Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 NAQT SCT: February 3
Replies: 20
Views: 13486

Re: 2018 NAQT SCT: February 3

Is there any way to make either the D-value table (at https://www.naqt.com/stats/rating-values.jsp) slightly narrower or the scroll window in which it resides slightly wider? In Firefox 58, the rightmost four columns are cut off, notably including the final D-value; this holds regardless of zoom lev...
by t-bar
Mon Jan 29, 2018 9:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Announcement: 2018 ACF Nationals (April 21-22 at MIT)
Replies: 64
Views: 72976

Re: ACF Nationals qualifiers and registration information

What is the adjustment from raw to final A-value? The raw A-value is determined by using the strength of schedule (SOS) factor to adjust each team's actual points per game. Then, at a particular tournament site, if team A places higher than team B but has a lower A-value, then they are both assigne...
by t-bar
Sun Jan 28, 2018 11:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regs packets, recordings, and detailed stats survey
Replies: 67
Views: 32184

Re: Packets, recordings, and detailed stats warm-up survey

the answerline is the thing the editors won't have changed.. This is an incorrect assumption. Editors will often rework a submitted question to be on a different answerline that preserves the theme of the question, since, as Will suggests, achieving a consistent difficulty across packets is the ove...
by t-bar
Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regs Specific Questions and Errors
Replies: 63
Views: 18930

Re: Specific Questions and Errors

Also, if anyone could post up the Kubrick tossup, that would be lovely. It was got on the first line when I played it, and I'd be interested to see what the rest of the clues were for it. In one of this director’s films, a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy is played backwards during a scene in which...
by t-bar
Sun Jan 28, 2018 12:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regs Specific Questions and Errors
Replies: 63
Views: 18930

Re: Specific Questions and Errors

[10] Finally, for the private key one selects an integer d that has this relation to e modulo the totient of n. 3 and 5 have this multiplicative relationship modulo 7. ANSWER: multiplicative inverses Probably a small point here, but shouldn't something along the lines of "the product is congru...