Search found 181 matches

by adamsil
Sat Jun 24, 2023 10:55 am
Forum: National Tournaments
Topic: 2023 PACE NSC: Thanks
Replies: 2
Views: 4863

Re: 2023 PACE NSC: Thanks

I want to echo the thanks to 1) the playtesters on this set, who provided the most detailed feedback I’ve ever received on science questions; 2) to Ganon, Shahar, Mike, Ethan, Sudheer, and the PACE mentees for submitting creative questions and ideas that I’d never have come up with on my own; and 3)...
by adamsil
Fri May 05, 2023 7:10 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Discussion and Thanks
Replies: 13
Views: 8821

Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Discussion and Thanks

I don’t have much to say about my goals for this set’s Chemistry, which were broadly the same as last year’s. So instead, I want to thank and recognize my outstanding science co-editors, Jon and Hasna. First, selfishly, they provided constant detailed feedback on my questions, especially where my ar...
by adamsil
Mon May 01, 2023 10:21 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 50702

Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion

Also, I want to mention the Hartree-Fock clue in the tossup for "basis sets" (Editors 8, TU9), which says that "Coefficients in these expressions are computed through variational methods like Hartree–Fock." It was my understanding that Hartree-Fock uses a given basis to compute ...
by adamsil
Fri Apr 28, 2023 11:13 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 53
Views: 50702

Re: 2023 ACF Nationals Specific Question Discussion

A minor note re: the manganese tossup in Prelims 6. Heusler compounds can contain any transition metal. While it's true that the first Heusler alloy discovered contained manganese at its center, that first clue is not true of Heusler alloys in general. Thank you for that correction (and for your su...
by adamsil
Mon Apr 11, 2022 5:49 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 30
Views: 11975

Re: ACF Nationals 2022 Thanks and General Discussion

Hi all, First, I want to echo John’s thanks from the OP: this set was a huge team effort, with indispensable contributions across the board from editors, playtesters, freelancers, and proofreaders. I’d like to especially echo the shoutout to Olivia Murton, who provided countless improvements to the ...
by adamsil
Thu Jul 22, 2021 7:55 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: Where Are You Going Next Year? (Collegiate 2021)
Replies: 51
Views: 49018

Re: Where Are You Going Next Year? (Collegiate 2021)

I moved to Boston in April. Feel free to shoot me a note if you're looking for staff at a local tournament, I have a car and am generally happy to help out when available!
by adamsil
Wed Jul 31, 2019 8:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University
Replies: 79
Views: 45610

Re: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University

A question for local Evanston/Chicago folks: Friday night I'll be interested in hitting a local brewpub or two. It looks like Sketchbook is definitely interesting, and maybe Smylie Brothers and Temperance (the last of which looks to be further away?). Are those good calls, and if not, other suggest...
by adamsil
Mon May 27, 2019 10:28 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University
Replies: 79
Views: 45610

Re: 2019 Chicago Open (8/3/2019) at Northwestern University

I finally managed to submit room requests in for 15 rooms in Kresge for both Saturday and Sunday this year. Assuming they go through (and they should), this year's CO should actually be air conditioned! :grin: If you anticipate needing more than that many rooms for your event, please let me know ASA...
by adamsil
Wed Apr 24, 2019 12:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Lederberg 3: General Discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 1893

Re: Lederberg 3: General Discussion

I really enjoyed this set, thanks to all of the writers! (I am very glad to find out now that there were later SHAPE-seq clues in the RNA folding tossup, as I am in the lab that invented it :grin:) For what it's worth, I wasn't hugely thrilled by that algal fuel cell tossup--I feel like it's the sor...
by adamsil
Fri Apr 12, 2019 8:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 50
Views: 9790

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Thanks and General Discussion

Thank you for your very kind words, Billy, Matt, and Geoffrey. In the entire tournament, I never got the impression of "I needed a leadin so here's a random paper that Google Scholar turned up" that plagues so many other hard sets. This is something that I am very glad worked out, as it wa...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata
Replies: 35
Views: 3819

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata

The breathing question really confused me, because IIRC, all the clues were talking about things that happen in utero.... and the fetus does not breathe in utero! I'd have to see the exact wording to be sure, but I'm not sure the clues actually point to the correct answer. The intent was to be spec...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 31, 2019 6:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata
Replies: 35
Views: 3819

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata

I buzzed in with equilibrioception on the balance tossup and got negged. I said "surfactant production" for the part on breathing in the breathing/alveoli/acini bonus. I'm fairly sure both of these answers should have been accepted. Yeah, these are all my fault for not anticipating accept...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 31, 2019 6:29 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

I liked this tournament, or at least my categor[ies] (in general). Maybe this is colored by my having heard commentary about how hard/unfair it was before playing, but it certainly wasn't the travesty I was expecting. Power did seem stingy though (on the other hand, sucrose gradient centrifugation ...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 31, 2019 1:14 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata
Replies: 35
Views: 3819

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Errata

I told Adam about this one already, but Vestibular schwannomas (also known as acoustic neuromas, acoustic schwannomas, acoustic neurinomas, or vestibular neurilemomas) (cf here: https://www.uptodate.com/contents/vestibular-schwannoma-acoustic-neuroma) Anything happen with this? With an assist from ...
by adamsil
Wed Mar 20, 2019 8:32 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Happy 6th Watkinsgate Anniversary!
Replies: 18
Views: 18210

Re: Happy 6th Watkinsgate Anniversary!

In 2013, we discovered that Andy Watkins is human scum who cheated 3 ICTs worth of people out of a fair contest , including his own teammates. Worse than any other cheater before or after him (Baselius, Cam, Amit Bilgi, Steven Hines, Lane Silberstein, Josh Alman, Scott Putzig, and Joe Brosch), Andy...
by adamsil
Tue Mar 12, 2019 11:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

cisplatin forms crosslinks It is alkylating-like in that it can interstrand crosslink (N7-N7 for instance) despite not having carbons; it's a mechanistic description more than a literal one and cyclophosphamide works similarly stuff: - why did the alkyne question not accept or prompt on "ethyn...
by adamsil
Mon Mar 11, 2019 5:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

I'll have more substantive comments on (mostly) the bio/chem in the set when I've had a chance to play the rest of the packets at practice this week, but for now could I please see the "blastula" tossup? I'll add for now that not accepting the formation name (morulation/blastulation/gastr...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 10, 2019 4:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

ANSWER: helium atom [or He] <AS> (classified as physics) Does this mean the question on _resolution_ in the same packet was classified as chemistry? I thought both questions were good, but the _resolution_ tossup didn't sound like chemistry. Cyclophosphamide, a derivative of mustard gas, and cispla...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 10, 2019 2:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 292280

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Specific Question Discussion

Could I also see the TU on fisheries from packet 4 and the DNA damage bonus from packet 13? I was a bit confused on the "alkylation" bonus part—I thought at least one of the drugs mentioned functions by crosslinking. For sure! David Cushing formulated his match-mismatch hypothesis to desc...
by adamsil
Sun Mar 10, 2019 2:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 PIANO/MO Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 50
Views: 9790

Re: 2019 PIANO/MO Thanks and General Discussion

I really enjoyed the science in this set. Here are a few questions and comments: I thought the physics covered a lot of important topics, except for a lack of material from quantum mechanics courses (at least in the first 13 packets). The set included 1/1 classroom E&M; I thought this was great...
by adamsil
Thu Jan 31, 2019 12:12 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 ACF Regionals Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 43
Views: 20581

Re: 2019 ACF Regionals Thanks and General Discussion

I enjoyed this tournament and think that it did a particularly good job, especially relative to last year, of sticking with answerlines that were accessible to new-ish teams. Our B team was answering most of the tossups by the end. The science had a lot of good clean tossups on solid answerlines (ex...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 25, 2018 12:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Top 25 History Players in the City of Chicago
Replies: 16
Views: 14415

Re: Top 25 History Players in the City of Chicago

cornfused wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:05 pm
Geriatric trauma wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 8:40 pm
cornfused wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 8:22 pm Adam Silverman lives in Andersonville these days, so, uh, you're missing someone.

EDIT: possibly Edgewater or Rogers Park
oh really i thought he lived in the lab
valid
can confirm that both of these things are true (even though I suck at history)
by adamsil
Mon Nov 05, 2018 9:52 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Fall 2018 - Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 53
Views: 26558

Re: ACF Fall 2018 - Specific Questions and Errata

This was a mostly quite good set of novice science questions, I can think of very little to nitpick! -It is generally not a very good idea to write a tossup on "photosynthesis" that mixes clues from the light-dependent reactions and the Calvin cycle--in practice that causes a lot of peopl...
by adamsil
Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2018 Thanks and Discussion
Replies: 37
Views: 17211

Re: Chicago Open 2018 Thanks and Discussion

Yeah, I was trying to evaluate why this tournament was much longer than the last few years. I think the game rooms were spread out more (up stairs and in an adjoining building), which didn't help. I liked Evanston as a location--if they could get rooms that were sufficiently cooler that would be ni...
by adamsil
Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:56 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2019 - Weekend of August 3rd
Replies: 98
Views: 76853

Re: Chicago Open 2018 - July 21st weekend

Do we know yet if we are meeting in Fisk, Locy, or somewhere else? My room request for a large meeting room was unfortunately never confirmed, but I'm hoping it'll still be open to us early in the morning, so we're going to plan on meeting in Kresge 2380 tomorrow morning regardless, and if that's n...
by adamsil
Fri Jul 20, 2018 11:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2019 - Weekend of August 3rd
Replies: 98
Views: 76853

Re: Chicago Open 2018 - July 21st weekend

Do we know yet if we are meeting in Fisk, Locy, or somewhere else? My room request for a large meeting room was unfortunately never confirmed, but I'm hoping it'll still be open to us early in the morning, so we're going to plan on meeting in Kresge 2380 tomorrow morning regardless, and if that's n...
by adamsil
Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:16 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2019 - Weekend of August 3rd
Replies: 98
Views: 76853

Re: Chicago Open 2018 - July 21st weekend

Paul Ryan Center for the Musical Arts : Anyway, so has a building location been announced? Will it be in one of those (Kresge or Locy?) that Mike mentioned? The tournament itself will be in Locy (and one room in Fisk, which is adjacent to Locy). I'm still hoping to get confirmation from the adminis...
by adamsil
Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:21 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Your Favorite Question
Replies: 45
Views: 30780

Re: Your Favorite Question

I think it would be interesting for writers to get a sense of the questions that quizbowl players enjoyed the most and why. So, what is your favorite question that you didn't write? I'm hoping that people don't just respond with questions that they got good buzzes on, but ones that were executed so...
by adamsil
Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: WAO II Difficulty and General Discussion
Replies: 40
Views: 10162

Re: WAO II Difficulty and General Discussion

Was furious with myself for negging the S. cerevisiae question with E coli on the first clue despite having actually done amber codon suppression. Moderator kind of mangled the names in the first sentence, recognised the sequences, then just assumed that at least one of the names was Peter Schultz'...
by adamsil
Mon Nov 13, 2017 12:29 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: WAO II Difficulty and General Discussion
Replies: 40
Views: 10162

Re: WAO II Difficulty and General Discussion

Thanks for the response. Overall, I thought you did a good job. We can agree to disagree about the chromatography thing (if you check archives though, you'll notice that it is pretty standard to accept chromatography for column chromatography, so this may not be a hill worth dying on). One thing I'l...
by adamsil
Sun Nov 12, 2017 2:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: WAO II Difficulty and General Discussion
Replies: 40
Views: 10162

Re: WAO II Difficulty and General Discussion

For the most part, I enjoyed this set, and it was a good effort by relatively inexperienced editors. I have just two general comments I'll make here: Answerlines, particularly in science, particularly in chemistry, were not extensive enough. Things like hydroxyl/alcohols have been extensively confla...
by adamsil
Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2017 NSC set discussion
Replies: 85
Views: 53849

Re: 2017 NSC set discussion

In quantum mechanics, operators corresponding to observables must have eigenvalues with this property, meaning the operators must be self-adjoint and Hermitian. Aren't self-adjoint and Hermitian the same thing? I didn't write this one, but yes. (I guess one technically refers to the operator and on...
by adamsil
Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:33 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2017 NSC set discussion
Replies: 85
Views: 53849

Re: 2017 NSC set discussion

Pascal Plays Poker wrote: I appreciated the mosquitoes tossup; They are underrepresented in quizbowl.
People gotta learn about gene drives at some point! :grin:
by adamsil
Wed Jun 14, 2017 10:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2017 NSC set discussion
Replies: 85
Views: 53849

Re: 2017 NSC set discussion

Hey all, I wrote a large number of exclusively science questions for this set, essentially the bulk of the bio, chem, and physics. Many thanks to a few people, especially Eliza Grames and Shan Kothari, for their excellent contributions in areas of bio at which I'm not so competent, and Auroni, Eric,...
by adamsil
Sat May 20, 2017 3:00 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: The 70 Greatest Players of the Last Eight Years: A Ranking
Replies: 56
Views: 73540

Re: The 70 Greatest Players of the Last Eight Years: A Ranki

I'm not sure you could pick either me or Dylan as Northwestern's MVP this year--we traded being the top scorer in games all year long, and I think he generally fared better than I did in games against good teams. He also improved a lot between last year and this year, whereas I got worse in every su...
by adamsil
Thu May 04, 2017 8:27 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Subject-specific player polls
Replies: 29
Views: 16546

Re: Subject-specific player polls

To be less hyperbolic--Max and I split science this year pretty much 50-50, and he took a mostly-chemistry-tiebreaker tossup against us in the ICT playoffs, so Dylan's high praise isn't totally true, and my best game at Nats was the one against Yale, so that might color Jacob's opinion too. I also d...
by adamsil
Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:38 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 Division I ICT: specific question discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 7304

Re: 2017 Division I ICT: specific question discussion

Could I see the Rd. 2 tossup on clay tennis courts? I only started paying attention when I heard the name of an actual tennis tournament and am curious to see what the first sentence was going on about. As an aside, I thought the Z^N/N! was a great hard part and the only part that was confusing abou...
by adamsil
Sun Feb 19, 2017 3:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 ACF Regionals - thanks and general discussion
Replies: 39
Views: 13470

Re: 2017 ACF Regionals - thanks and general discussion

If anyone wants feedback on their bio and chem submissions, email me at adsilverman627 at gmail dot com and I will do my best to respond quickly. The submissions tended to cluster very heavily toward a few areas (especially organic functional groups and elements), so if you wrote a question that got...
by adamsil
Sun Feb 19, 2017 3:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 30770

Re: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion

Can I see the exact phrasing of the "vibrations" tossup, especially the lead-in about PQR branches? I might be remembering wrong, but I think that part was more applicable to transitions between vibrational states than to the act of vibrating itself. I'm not sure there's really a fundamen...
by adamsil
Sun Feb 19, 2017 1:20 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 30770

Re: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion

Can I see the albinism question please? In case it's unclear, the second sentence is referring to the OCA2 gene, one of the proteins that gets lost/mutated in Prader-Willi, so I think the clue is fine as it reads. Perhaps it's unclear because albinism isn't the most famous symptom of Prader-Willi, ...
by adamsil
Sun Feb 19, 2017 1:12 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 30770

Re: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion

Can I see the exact phrasing of the "vibrations" tossup, especially the lead-in about PQR branches? I might be remembering wrong, but I think that part was more applicable to transitions between vibrational states than to the act of vibrating itself. I'm not sure there's really a fundamen...
by adamsil
Sun Feb 19, 2017 8:58 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion
Replies: 90
Views: 30770

Re: 2017 ACF Regionals - specific-question discussion

For the gram negative bacteria bonus (don't remember which packet, sorry), I'm pretty confident that "injectisome" should have been acceptable, or at least promptable, for the part on the Type 3 Secretion System. Yep, that's totally my bad. I added that late to the list of acceptable answ...
by adamsil
Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:56 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Surviving Graduate School: Twelve Thoughts
Replies: 7
Views: 1482

Re: Surviving Graduate School: Twelve Thoughts

1. Make sure you want to go. The flip response to the question "should I go to graduate school?" is frequently no, which I disagree with. Let me be clear, though. Graduate school is not for everyone, and professors do a disservice by simply urging every talented undergraduate to go to gra...
by adamsil
Sat Nov 26, 2016 10:32 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: On Exactitude in Science Writing
Replies: 45
Views: 27401

Re: On Exactitude in Science Writing

Well, your experiences trump my claims, so I'll concede these specific examples. :) More than a lot of writers, I value concise clues when writing--I find simple sentences to be the most effective in quizbowl settings. So I stylistically oppose clarifying or flowery language if it's at all avoidable...
by adamsil
Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:08 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: On Exactitude in Science Writing
Replies: 45
Views: 27401

Re: On Exactitude in Science Writing

Another thing I wanted to note, and which was mentioned (with different examples) by Adam in the Terrapin general discussion: Players can gather context from clues outside of the specific content you are cluing. For example, in a tossup on yeast, describing an obscure metabolic pathway characterize...
by adamsil
Fri Nov 25, 2016 2:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2016 Terrapin General Discussion
Replies: 30
Views: 7512

Re: 2016 Terrapin General Discussion

I don't have much to add other than thanks for a really great set, especially to Sam, Billy, and others for a very well-executed science distribution. I also thought the literature was excellent. There was one packet that seemed to have two CS bonuses (I think it was round 10? The first round of pla...
by adamsil
Sun Oct 23, 2016 10:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: EFT 2016: Tournament Goals/Philosophy and Discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 2986

Re: EFT Tournament Goals/Philosophy and Discussion

Just wanted to chime in to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this set, but especially the science; Andrew + others, you did a tremendous job to keep it real but also accessible. There were a lot of hard parts in this set that would be in a gray area between middle and hard at Regionals, but worked great...
by adamsil
Mon Aug 01, 2016 5:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 49386

Re: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion

I'm a little disappointed that several clues were added to the Trypanosoma tossup that I had specifically avoided because they were non-unique -- there seems to have been a conflation between kinetoplastids or trypanosomatids and Trypanosoma , despite important other kinetoplastid genuses existing ...
by adamsil
Sat Jul 30, 2016 9:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 49386

Re: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion

so like 50% of the chem I played this tournament was orgo, in particular 4/5 of the playoff rounds I played had orgo tus for chem I don't think there was a single tu on inorganic chem? What's wrong with 50% orgo? That seems to be about standard in most college tournaments I've played (ACF Nats this...
by adamsil
Fri Jul 29, 2016 10:06 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion
Replies: 110
Views: 49386

Re: Chicago Open 2016 Set Discussion

1) The bio was very, very biochemistry heavy and had almost no questions on human/medicinal bio (the only things that I can remember off the top of my head were the biochemistry-heavy tossup on osteoclasts and the bonus on antibiotics). Also there were a ton of "this organism" questions. ...