Search found 138 matches

by Edmund
Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Age of Empires - Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 11
Views: 801

Re: Thanks and General Discussion

I had to leave before the end of the UK online mirror of this but wanted to come say thanks to Will for the set. It was really fun, probably the most I've enjoyed myself in a side tournament on a subject where I'm totally out of my depth. My dad is a classical archaeologist, so I was especially plea...
by Edmund
Mon Nov 26, 2018 10:09 am
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

17. A simple equation for modeling transport in these systems can be derived by applying a Laplace transform to Fick’s laws and choosing boundary conditions to represent semi-infinite linear diffusion. A common analytic setup uses three of these things, one of which is working, one of which is the ...
by Edmund
Sun May 06, 2018 7:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Smoothing Out Your Set
Replies: 18
Views: 10808

Re: Smoothing Out Your Set

I feel pretty strongly that it's not too much to expect to make an effort towards balancing subdistribution simultaneously on multiple axes - normally three - and across 'macro, meso and microscopic' scales from the set down to the individual packet. Take British history, for example - in a set, I'd...
by Edmund
Sun May 06, 2018 2:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships 2018 (London, May 5th)
Replies: 2
Views: 2919

Re: British Student Quiz Championships 2018 (London, May 5th

Cambridge A (Samuel Cook, Jason Golfinos, Elysia Warner, Yanbo Yin) won the 2018 British Student Quiz Championships. In the combined scores for the top bracket, Oxford A finished 7-0 and Cambridge A finished 6-1. Cambridge then overturned Oxford's advantage in two final games, winning 390-245 and th...
by Edmund
Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships 2018 (London, May 5th)
Replies: 2
Views: 2919

British Student Quiz Championships 2018 (London, May 5th)

BuzzerQuiz in association with NAQT will host the 8th modern incarnation of the British Student Quiz Championships at Imperial College, London, on May 5th 2018. The tournament will be played on an adapted (Briticised) version of the NAQT SCT Division I set. Field: Cambridge A Cambridge B Cambridge C...
by Edmund
Sat Mar 24, 2018 4:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Advice For Someone Who Wants To Edit History Questions
Replies: 3
Views: 3416

Re: Advice For Someone Who Wants To Edit History Questions

I'm not the expert history editor you probably want to hear from, but fwiw: what Bruce says is exactly how I try to lay out the history distribution during the Briticisation process for a BSQC. The very first time I did a BSQC, I wound up setting so many tossups on 19th C British prime ministers tha...
by Edmund
Fri Jun 02, 2017 1:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed
Replies: 27
Views: 19138

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

My bad, fixed along with the erratum concerning Aidan's tournament direction.
by Edmund
Wed May 31, 2017 6:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed
Replies: 27
Views: 19138

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

As a non-student looking in, I wanted to write up my own choices properly this year, so here they are. I emphasise that these rankings are highly subjective and based on a pretty arbitrary value judgement on different skills as a player. As last year I seem to have ranked generalists higher than the...
by Edmund
Sat May 27, 2017 5:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed
Replies: 27
Views: 19138

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

What's the UK group consensus on whether or not we include Marianna Zhang and Nathan Weiser in these rankings, who both played EFT for British universities but have since returned to playing for their regular US teams? Considering active players from the 2016-17 season, they would both deserve a Top...
by Edmund
Sat May 27, 2017 5:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed
Replies: 27
Views: 19138

Re: UK Player Poll 2017: Now With More Tweed

These stats may also be relevant towards the top of people's lists:

ACF Nationals
by Edmund
Sun May 21, 2017 2:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships 2017 (20/5/2017, Warwick)
Replies: 1
Views: 1704

British Student Quiz Championships 2017 (20/5/2017, Warwick)

Oxford A won the British Student Quiz Championships 2017, beating Cambridge A 330-265 in a one-game final. Well done to their team of Charlie Clegg, George Corfield, Daoud Jackson, and Spence Weinreich. Both Oxford A and Cambridge A went 10-1 through the day, with Oxford A's loss in their play-off g...
by Edmund
Tue May 09, 2017 4:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 EMT General Discussion
Replies: 18
Views: 9916

Re: 2017 EMT General Discussion

Edmund, do you know of any sources future editors could use for French pronunciation guides? Hey, sorry, I don't. I rely on knowing the language. For languages I don't know, normally I find Wikipedia + IPA to be trustworthy, especially for things like stressed syllables, silent letters, etc. I didn...
by Edmund
Mon May 08, 2017 8:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 EMT General Discussion
Replies: 18
Views: 9916

Re: 2017 EMT General Discussion

Having read this set at the weekend, it seemed to go over well on the whole. As one criticism of the editing and proofing, the pronunciation guides were really substantially wrong for the French. There were some small issues with a few of the other European languages, but the French introduced extra...
by Edmund
Thu Mar 23, 2017 8:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Oxford Open 2017: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 17
Views: 4378

Re: Specific Question Discussion

I don't think the Waterford question worked at the UK site either, and this is already feedback I gave to the editors. Simply not enough people know that much about Waterford. When I played this question, all four people on my side of the table buzzer raced each other on the word "crystal"...
by Edmund
Wed Mar 22, 2017 3:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cambridge Open 2017 (CamO)
Replies: 9
Views: 7229

Re: Cambridge Open 2017 (CamO)

The general opinion of those who played CamO was that this set was very good. Without wishing to diminish the achievements of any other prior tournament, I think that quite a few people would view it as the best British tournament set yet written. It was inventive and fun, with a lot of attention pa...
by Edmund
Mon Nov 28, 2016 4:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: EFT 2016: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 63
Views: 15102

Re: Specific Question Discussion

You wrote electrochemistry (good for you!) so here's a nitpick. An early precursor to these devices was sketched by William Grove and soaked various metal plates in sulfuric acid. For 10 points each: [10] Name these devices which utilize the reaction between hydrogen and water to generate energy whi...
by Edmund
Wed Oct 26, 2016 6:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Packet submission
Replies: 15
Views: 7441

Re: Packet submission

I'm sure that people will post in this thread a number of benefits to packet submission. Yes, packet submission encouraged people to learn to write. Yes, packet submission meant that new ideas entered quizbowl. Yes, packet submission meant less of being subjected to the editor's peculiarities, pet ...
by Edmund
Tue Oct 25, 2016 5:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PB 2016: General Discussion
Replies: 23
Views: 6625

Re: PB 2016: General Discussion

Victor Hugo's Last Day of a Condemned Man ... So who's going to know about this book, and why? People who know that, among his other social concerns, Hugo came to vehemently oppose capital punishment, and this is the main fictional text in which he communicated these views? Your argument is that pl...
by Edmund
Mon Oct 24, 2016 5:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PB 2016: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 82
Views: 19438

Re: PB 2016: Specific Question Discussion

[10] In this kind of non-Newtonian fluid, the apparent viscosity increases with stress. Examples include printer ink. ANSWER: rheopectic I think this is not accurate. A rheopectic fluid shows increasing viscosity with *continued* application of (shear) stress, i.e. as a function of time. Saying &qu...
by Edmund
Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UK Player Poll 2016: We the East!
Replies: 26
Views: 14335

Re: UK Player Poll 2016: We the East!

Æthelred the Unready Steady Cook wrote: 18.) Tristram Burke (MAN) (96 pts, highest 12th, lowest 0)
*Tristan Burke. Not to be confused with Tristram Cole.
by Edmund
Tue May 31, 2016 8:05 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: UK Player Poll 2016: We the East!
Replies: 26
Views: 14335

Re: UK Player Poll 2016: We the East!

Does Joey Goldman still count as "currently active" for your purposes? He was obviously active in the past tournament year but there's no immediate prospect of him playing another student tournament. There's not much doubt about his placing if you are including him, I should think!
by Edmund
Sat May 07, 2016 6:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships 2016 (7th May, London)
Replies: 2
Views: 3202

Re: British Student Quiz Championships 2016 (7th May, London

Through a round-robin prelim in groups of 6 and a crossover playoff in brackets of 9, Cambridge A went 11-0 and Oxford A went 10-1 to enter an advantaged final. Oxford A (George Corfield, Joey Goldman, Daoud Jackson, Spence Weinreich) overturned the advantage by 510-280 and then 385-380 in a very te...
by Edmund
Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships 2016 (7th May, London)
Replies: 2
Views: 3202

British Student Quiz Championships 2016 (7th May, London)

BuzzerQuiz in association with NAQT will host the sixth British Student Quiz Championships of the modern era on Saturday May 7th 2016. They will take place at St Paul's School, London SW13. Games are untimed rounds of 24 starter questions according to the following distribution: 4/4 Literature 4/4 H...
by Edmund
Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:38 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Greatest Announcing Calls Bracket
Replies: 93
Views: 7884

Re: Greatest Announcing Calls Bracket

Auks Ran Ova wrote:accidental use of a euphemism
Bless them, but it was definitely not accidental.
by Edmund
Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Greatest Announcing Calls Bracket
Replies: 93
Views: 7884

Re: Greatest Announcing Calls Bracket

Yesterday's featured article on en.wikipedia was cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew, which ought to have drawn worldwide attention to the stand-out winner the last time this poll was conducted publicly in the UK. Supposedly the mass public hilarity caused by this radio broadcast caused a two-mile tr...
by Edmund
Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2016 at Warwick
Replies: 2
Views: 4068

Re: ACF Regionals 2016 at Warwick

Oxford A cleared the field 10-0 to enter an advantaged final against Oxford B (9-1). Oxford B won the first round of the advantaged final by 240-235. Oxford A then took the final by 355-145. Due to some appalling weather and the unreliability of cheap coach operators, the tournament ran dramatically...
by Edmund
Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2016 Individual Question Discussion
Replies: 37
Views: 14274

Re: ACF Regionals 2016 Individual Question Discussion

From the reader's perspective, the "give a formula" part of the Beer's law bonuses seemed confusing. Besides sounding difficult to parse when read aloud, I don't think that it's generally agreed that the base of the exponent in Beer's law is decadic rather than natural. I note that Wikiped...
by Edmund
Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:09 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2016 General Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 15143

Re: ACF Regionals 2016 General Discussion

editorializing about how some rulers are terrible or whatever else. I like these, but I'd prefer if this kind of thing were kept to opens, as we're trying to professionalize ACF for a larger and larger market. This was my feeling. Some of the commentary, not even confined to lead-ins, came close to...
by Edmund
Tue Sep 01, 2015 1:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MKULTRA - Online Mirror?
Replies: 20
Views: 9967

Re: MKULTRA - Online Mirror?

How does this compare to those "British-ized ACF Fall" questions that have been read in the States at times by Marshall? Those are usually insanely hard for Americans. I think it would play fine for the most part. Agreed - the experience would probably be similar to ours going the other w...
by Edmund
Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2015-16 Schedule, Discussion
Replies: 79
Views: 46561

Re: 2015-16 Schedule, Discussion

It's very possible that we'll be able to offer Oxford Open as a regular-minus set for the early December slot this year. The target difficulty is around that of WIT 2013/MUT 2015 if people would be interested in mirroring that. On the basis of last year's experience I think you should be careful ab...
by Edmund
Thu Jul 16, 2015 6:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: quizbowl and academic careers
Replies: 6
Views: 4731

Re: History Player

I keep meaning to record a discussion about how quizbowl is useful in academic careers, so I'll keep this in mind. Quizbowl has been useful in my private sector career too. It's nice to have heard of stuff you've never actually studied, or even better, to know something about it! When it comes to l...
by Edmund
Sat Jun 06, 2015 6:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Liveblogging my trip to NSC with Max Schindler
Replies: 80
Views: 30014

Re: Liveblogging my trip to NSC with Max Schindler

blizzard wrote:False, there are literally zero redeeming qualities to driving through Indiana.
Nope. In 2013 I voluntarily drove through Indiana for holiday, and I got to paint the:

World's Largest Ball of Paint
by Edmund
Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Human-computer quiz bowl match at the 2015 HSNCT
Replies: 25
Views: 14715

Re: Human-computer quiz bowl match at the 2015 HSNCT

Hugely impressive. I enjoyed reading about the science that went into this; great to see the video too.

Question: How much time did you invest in getting QANTA to sound more like Sinistar before committing to a live game?
by Edmund
Mon May 25, 2015 3:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships (London, 16th May 2015)
Replies: 2
Views: 3831

Re: British Student Quiz Championships (London, 16th May 201

Now that ICT DII is clear, you can enjoy a video of the final here:

Final
by Edmund
Sun May 17, 2015 12:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships (London, 16th May 2015)
Replies: 2
Views: 3831

Re: British Student Quiz Championships (London, 16th May 201

There were 14 eligible teams and one exhibition team consisting of three student players from different London universities. Round robins were played in groups of 8 and 7, followed by a playoff with a single crossover rebracket. Oxford A cleared the field and won the tournament outright. They were f...
by Edmund
Mon May 04, 2015 4:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: British Student Quiz Championships (London, 16th May 2015)
Replies: 2
Views: 3831

British Student Quiz Championships (London, 16th May 2015)

BuzzerQuiz in association with NAQT will host the fifth British Student Quiz Championships of the modern era on Saturday May 16th 2015. They will take place at St Paul's School, London SW13. Games are untimed rounds of 24 starter questions according to the following distribution: 4/4 Literature (of ...
by Edmund
Mon May 04, 2015 12:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MUT 2015 Specific question discussion
Replies: 45
Views: 10145

Re: Specific question discussion

Ok, I respect the decision to follow pragmatism over rigour, though I don't agree with it.

Off-topic: Reading those lecture notes has ruined my day.
by Edmund
Mon May 04, 2015 9:11 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MUT 2015 Specific question discussion
Replies: 45
Views: 10145

Re: Specific question discussion

Thanks, as every year, to Minnesota for this set. We had a good day. One thing that stood out for me reading was a few misplaced or lax clues in the physical science tossups. Off the top of my head: - Using "length scale proportional to square root of time" as a lead-in for _diffusion_ see...
by Edmund
Wed Apr 22, 2015 4:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: two styles of writing: a close reading
Replies: 77
Views: 31848

Re: two styles of writing: a close reading

Probably it's not correct to call them strictly Scottish, but both have increased weighting north of the border. Off-topic, but of likely interest, is this map: http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Map.aspx?name=WILSON&year=1998&altyear=1881&country=GB&type=name There's not the specific...
by Edmund
Wed Apr 22, 2015 3:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: two styles of writing: a close reading
Replies: 77
Views: 31848

Re: two styles of writing: a close reading

An extreme faction of this group, including men such as David Hackston and Donald Cargill, published a pamphlet called the Informatory Vindication. Their numbers included the teenager Margaret Wilson, who became one of the “Wigtown Martyrs” after she and an elderly woman also named Margaret were pu...
by Edmund
Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:41 pm
Forum: Trash
Topic: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements
Replies: 577
Views: 455157

Re: Clearinghouse for Random Packet Announcements

Dave Knapp has uploaded the Lowbrow Oxford Open (LOO) here. http://trash.quizbowlpackets.com/1679/ In its original incarnation, the tournament was played on the Sunday morning of Oxford Open weekend, and was won by the Trashtards. There are 13 packets of 21/0, roughly half written by packet submissi...
by Edmund
Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:02 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Oxford Open 2015: General Discussion
Replies: 23
Views: 4877

Re: General Discussion

Thanks for going through the packet in more detail; it's all interesting to know. The two tossups you cited were ones I was iffy about in the first place and it's good to know that these didn't work well, in their final forms. I would say that in an average packet Briticisation, starting from 20/20 ...
by Edmund
Mon Feb 02, 2015 9:55 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Oxford Open 2015 - Ewan's Questions
Replies: 12
Views: 2694

Re: Oxford Open - Ewan's Questions

Thanks Cody - makes sense. Particularly looking back at the giveaway I can see it's poor. Must Try Harder.
by Edmund
Sun Feb 01, 2015 8:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Oxford Open 2015 - Ewan's Questions
Replies: 12
Views: 2694

Re: Oxford Open - Ewan's Questions

The tossup on solving ODEs made it clear it wasn't integration or differentiation, and that led me away from the actual answer line. This was one of mine. I was interested to hear how it played. Do you think the idea for the answer line was unsound? The dominant practical methods (especially numeri...
by Edmund
Sun Feb 01, 2015 8:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Oxford Open 2015: General Discussion
Replies: 23
Views: 4877

Re: General Discussion

The "OldOUQSonians" packet was particularly poor... the entire field had 2 ppb less than any other round. I will wait for the set editors to comment on the various issues to do with "de-Briticisation", or lack thereof, but as the lead author of the said packet, I wonder if you c...
by Edmund
Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: DEES UK Mirror University of Warwick 28/02/2015
Replies: 4
Views: 4210

Re: DEES UK Mirror University of Warwick 28/02/2015

I will probably offer to moderate anyway but... are the rules concerning open teams the same as at the original US sites?
by Edmund
Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Penn Bowl Mirror @ Oxford, 29/11
Replies: 1
Views: 2190

Re: Penn Bowl Mirror @ Oxford, 29/11

This was fun but for various reasons the tournament ran spectacularly late and we only got through the eight-team round-robin plus one placing game. Oxford A won unbeaten. Lots of people from different universities played well, including Jonathan Elliott (Sheffield) who deserves a special mention fo...