The Quizbowl Resource Center

MLafer

I also noticed that while most bonuses did have an easy part, that easy part was often made deliberately vague and made certain bonuses very frustrating. I will try to find some examples when the set is posted.

MLafer

Again I'm disturbed by this tendency to defer to so-called experts when determining what is and isn't askable in quiz bowl. Do we really want to say "Charlie Dees and Hannah Kirsch haven't heard of this, so it shouldn't come up"? Compare this to Jerry's post -- he doesn't say "I am a physicist! I ha...

MLafer

I am looking for a teammate for this.

MLafer

I have to take issue with Seth's comments about W-R stars...I am not an astronomer/astrophysicist, but a cursory google books search gives over 1500 results for Wolf-Rayet stars, while the more reliable Google Scholar gives over 16,000. I don't even feel the need to empirically test how many results...

MLafer

If anyone else is interested in the 2000 NAC, the qbwiki article is pretty good, including a primary source document written by myself: http://www.doc-ent.com/qbwiki/index.php?title=2000_NAC As for the blender question, I didn't actually play on it, but I was watching in the audience at the time. I ...

MLafer

Looking at it, it is a pretty bad question. I agree with Andrew that saying something is directly proportional to a constant is pretty nonsensical and the Kelvin clue is too early. Full disclosure: I did not do any editing on this question, and probably should have because the clues are clearly more...

MLafer

edited version: According to the Stokes-Einstein relation, the Brownian diffusion of a particle under the influence of a chemical potential gradient is directly proportional to both temperature and this other value. The Kelvin scale is derived by multiplying the fundamental temperature by this value...

MLafer

I'd love to see this question, if someone wouldn't mind posting it for me. Hans Phaf created a connectionist model of this concept, SLAM. Eriksen and St. James developed the zoom-lens model of this concept in contrast to the spotlight model of it. Daniel Kahneman developed a model of this concept b...

MLafer

GTPases should be acceptable for G proteins. I'd be curious to see the text of the question here. This class of molecules shares its name with a protein that associates with BiP and calnexin in the endoplasmic reticulum after being produced in the secretory pathway of the vesicular stomatitis virus...

MLafer

results

1st: some crazy red haired guy that knew a lot about comics & Rom
2nd: me and sorice

3rd or possibly 4th: trygve and rob carson
4th or maybe 3rd: micah and chris v.

MLafer

I will play this. Would be interested in teammates that know non-Marvel well.

MLafer

I will be there

MLafer

Does anybody know if University Liggett has a quiz bowl team? My niece might be going there and is interested in quiz bowl

MLafer

i think i am playing this but i might have to leave at some point since my flight is pretty early. Voting tossup only!

MLafer

i will play...ryan westbrook you wanna team up??

MLafer

Ryan Westbrook, Evan Nagler and I will have a team...possibly looking for one more competent player/writer.

matt dot lafer at gmail dot com

MLafer

This was a phenomenal improvement over last year's set. There were a lot of interesting and creative tossup answers, though there were also quite a few duds that tried too hard (tossup on "historians" for instance)

MLafer

So Andrew had over 3 times as many powers as any team of two, and almost 4 times as many powers as the next person. As Jim Rome would say, phenomenal

MLafer

wow, the championship team has about the most balanced stat line i've ever seen

MLafer

Congrats to Rom for his decisive victory!

MLafer

I guess I'll vote for Darjeeling Limited though I'm getting sick of W. Anderson. I've never heard of this other movie, and there's already a very famous parody of Rififi (Topkapi) so I don't expect too much interesting there.

MLafer

I think that is a valid interpretation. As Carsten said, if we look at the girl's story in a straightforward manner, it makes little sense. She goes to Paris but she just sits around in cafes and graveyards not doing anything at all. The Paris scenes as a dream attempt to have a shared experience wi...

MLafer

we also 20'd that bonus, missing the last part. The other Russian lit bonus (Platonov) seemed much harder.

MLafer

I definitely sympathize with Carsten. I do like the style of cinematography (still shots with deep focus, usually a diagonal angle) but it does get extremely ponderous after almost 2 hours. It is a rare case that what we are looking at is any more interesting than something I could see by looking ou...

MLafer

Bentley Like Beckham wrote:I'd be interested in using the skills that got me to second place on the Silver Screen Test with Brick Barientos to play in this tournament. If anyone wants a teammate, let me know.

isn't this a singles tournament?

MLafer

Seen both of these but voting The Big Sleep for my own self-interest because it is shorter

MLafer

sign me up

MLafer

playing with Westbrook

MLafer

i'll play

MLafer

since i'm playing with Matt Weiner I should probably be on the list

MLafer

Ahmad Ragab is playing on my team.
I believe Selene is Yaphe's 4th.

MLafer

looks like one of WUSTL's old advisors, Steve Frappier, is also on this week.

MLafer

myself and Ryan Westbrook will have a team.

MLafer

Current team: Matt Lafer, Ray Luo, Kelly Tourdot

Looking for: person who can answer some questions and help write a packet

MLafer

I will play.

MLafer

Aharanov-Bohm, excitons, and Reissner-Nordstrom come up often enough so that non-physicists have at least heard of them and are given the opportunity to read more about them if they so choose. Wigner was palatable only because of the giveaway about his "friend", which you mentioned adding. I can't ...

MLafer

I was just rereading Ray Luo's old post "Biology in the modern QB era" (http://www.hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2218) and noticed that now might be a good time to revisit some of these issues, in light of continued commentary on the difficulty of science at the ACF nationals level. Al...

MLafer

I am coming to Chicago just to play this tournament so it better be good Jonathan Magin

MLafer

i think dan passner can answer these

MLafer

Ray Luo and I are looking for some teammates that know things.

please e-mail me matt.lafer at gmail.com

MLafer

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TfpuN2XQ4f4

MLafer

I remember in 9th grade my US History teacher noted that I knew a lot of "useless" info so she brought me over to W.S. Beamon (history teacher at my school, Plymouth Salem, and probably one of the greatest figures in HSQB history) where we talked about quiz bowl a bit. I had no interest at the time ...

MLafer

The White Album is better than Revolver. So are Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road. Revolver was definitely a turning point (Rubber Soul still had quite a few mediocre songs) but was really just the beginning.

MLafer

Omaha the Cat Dancer wrote:Better question: Who dislikes the Beatles?

Matt Weiner

MLafer

As far as I know, Subash simply went through every NAQT packet from the previous years, wrote down the lead-ins and studied only those, using NAQT's irritating tendency to recycle lead-ins to great effect. See also Sudheer Potru's less notable accomplishments in 2004. This is in 2003, I have no idea...

MLafer

This tournament was a lot of fun, and a lot more playable than you'd think a tournament written by Westbrook without having to temper the difficulty level would be. Of course, the field being exemplary had a lot to do with it. I think the "draft" idea was a great one, because it required one to be a...

MLafer

Can someone please explain the schedule of tournaments for next weekend? I've not even heard whether Westbrook or Hart's tournaments are even going to happen, much less what time they are happening.

MLafer

so is this still happening at IO?

MLafer

I think we need to remember that we're arguing with not only a Chip sycophant and official lightswitch-flicker, but also the person that allowed this packet into an academic tournament:

http://quizbowl.stanford.edu/archive/uci99/ASU_B.html

MLafer

GT: HUR DUR DUR, if anyone wants to play.

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