Search found 854 matches
- Mon Nov 05, 2012 4:12 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion
- Replies: 61
- Views: 13762
Re: ACF Fall 2012 Discussion
On the subject of repeats, I want to mention the "spider" repeat: the spider mythology common-link tossup in the Florida packet and the spider literature bonus part in the Georgia Tech B packet, both of which mention Arachne. I mention this not as part of the piling on about the repeats (w...
- Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:35 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Fall UK at Warwick 03/11/2012
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5970
Re: ACF Fall UK at Warwick 03/11/2012
Hey guys. I wanted to ask about what exactly 'briticising' the set involves. Less US history, or are there other changes to the distribution..? Questions that Kyle and I think will be poorly converted because they are on American topics that are not well-known in the UK (primarily within History an...
- Mon Oct 22, 2012 3:38 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Penn-ance: MIT mirror (10/20)
- Replies: 25
- Views: 10583
Re: Penn-ance: MIT mirror (10/20)
Also Josh from MIT is absolutely ridiculous. 31/5/2?!?! Quizbowl history people, has there ever been anyone else who routinely put up stat lines like that? I don't think I've ever even seen anyone toward the top of a regular-difficulty tournament have more 15s than 10s. Having more powers than tens...
- Wed Oct 10, 2012 1:16 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45121
Re: Fine arts/music
So that's where you're misunderstanding me. Arbitrary judgment is not the same as an ideology and my question was, like you say, intended for a more "abstract" (though I'm not sure if that's the right word) and less quizbowl-practical discussion. How people like Andrew, Tommy, or Jacob wh...
- Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:13 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion
- Replies: 116
- Views: 44933
Re: Question-specific discussion
To me, there would be a much greater chance that someone would have read / studied Herodotus or Cyrus the Great (for Queen Tomyris), whereas I can't think of a single topic that I would study that would lead me to know what an illuminated manuscript is (much less remember the name in a match). I am...
- Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:33 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: College Practices
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3596
Re: College Practices
Yale practiced twice a week for two hours each practice (I speak in the past tense here, since I'm referring to how I ran things, but I suspect Matt Jackson is changing little to nothing). I inherited the tradition from my predecessors of always dividing the practicing players into teams (I didn't r...
- Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:44 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Eligibility of various British institutions
- Replies: 16
- Views: 3493
Re: Eligibility of various British institutions
If anybody wishes to speculate further regarding the eligibility of vague British entities, you are welcome to comment regarding whether you would allow John Lawrence to compete on behalf of the University of London (rather than King's College London, a constituent faculty of the U of L). I propose...
- Sat Aug 11, 2012 9:46 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: WELD discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12489
Re: WELD discussion
Looking over the set, I came across a few small stylistic tics that I think Will should work to improve in the future. 1) Lack of Context. There were a lot of clues that were phrased in opaque ways that lacked the proper amount of context to help players buzz. Truly great clues should jog a player’...
- Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:35 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: KABO Question Specific Discussion
- Replies: 24
- Views: 5054
Re: KABO Question Specific Discussion
The Chopin Preludes tossup was wretched. Every single musical description is some vague, generic, and unbuzzable description; the only buzz-words are nicknames that are rarely used (a fact easily discoverable by Googling them; this leads me to suspect that Wikipedia had too large a role in this toss...
- Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:18 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: KABO General Discussion
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2562
Re: KABO General Discussion
I'm afraid that I'm in the "this totally sucked" camp that Matt Jackson describes: I thought this was the worst tournament I've played (obviously excluding tournaments that I've played only in practices). Part of this was that the average level of tossup construction was poor. There were c...
- Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:48 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Movie Set (Weekend of August 4th at KABO)
- Replies: 33
- Views: 12512
Re: Movie Set (Weekend of August 4th at KABO)
I enjoyed this tremendously and thought it one of the most fun side tournaments I've played in my time in quizbowl. I hope you do this again sometime in the future.
- Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:42 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Acceptable Blitzes
- Replies: 11
- Views: 2482
Re: Acceptable Blitzes
One of my pet peeves is this, because I see that as "this work" all the time. Even worse: "the eighth movement of this work" for the second movement of "Autumn." With collections like Op. 8, that just makes no sense (I can see that perhaps working with Alkan's Études, ...
- Fri Jul 27, 2012 9:21 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open Discussion
- Replies: 85
- Views: 35811
Re: Chicago Open Discussion
Although I liked last year's set much better (except for the music, which I thought was really well done this year), I still enjoyed this year's set quite a bit, so many thanks to Ryan, Mike, Aaron, Ted, and SteveJon. I may have comments once I have a chance to read through the set, but the only rea...
- Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:43 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open Discussion
- Replies: 85
- Views: 35811
Re: Chicago Open Discussion
Yeah, my Princess Casamassima tossup (admittedly not my greatest tossup to begin with, though; sorry) got edited in a way that makes some of the later clues confusing/wrong. Amanda Pynsent isn't raised by a dressmaker and she isn't the protagonist who must assassinate a duke; she is the dressmaker w...
- Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:20 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: WELD discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12489
Re: WELD discussion
Yes, I think there is something wrong with writing a Jerome K. Jerome tossup this way, even at a side tournament. As far as I can tell, none of the other works you're talking about are in print! In order to have read them, I'd have to have borrowed a battered copy from the library, gone hunting for...
- Tue Jul 24, 2012 2:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: WELD discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12489
Re: WELD discussion
These are all good criticisms, and I worried about a lot of these things myself. Certainly the stats show that I should have been more generous with powers, as Mike pointed out. I tried to make the easier answerlines have a smooth difficulty progression in the second half, and while I didn't always...
- Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:16 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: WELD discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12489
Re: WELD discussion
I really enjoyed this tournament, especially in terms of answer selection (when I have a chance to read through the tournament, I may give more detailed comments), which was an excellent mix of sane and insane, with mostly the right kind of the latter. This tournament contained a lot of extremely de...
- Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:02 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: UMD mirror of KABO: Kurtis and Ashvin's Backyard Open (8/4)
- Replies: 75
- Views: 27737
Re: UMD mirror of KABO: Kurtis and Ashvin's Backyard Open (8/4)
Still seeking teammates for this.
- Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:10 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: PRELIM: WELD (Wildly Experimental Literature Doubles)
- Replies: 65
- Views: 22894
Re: PRELIM: WELD (Wildly Experimental Literature Doubles)
Thanks for a very fun lit tournament. I look forward to reading through the set when it is disseminated (hopefully soon?) and I hope you're planning on creating a discussion forum, since this set had some quite distinctive approaches to tossup construction (especially in the writing of tossups on ea...
- Fri Jun 29, 2012 9:18 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: I propose a quizbowl video project
- Replies: 24
- Views: 8420
Re: I propose a quizbowl video project
Now that YouTube can handle longer videos, someone should move the various quizbowl videos on Viddler (Jerry's videos from T-Party, ACF Regionals and Nationals 2009, and FICHTE; and the Minneosta vs. Chicago ACF Regionals 2009 match) to YouTube to get them more views. Most of them are pretty good ex...
- Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:50 pm
- Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
- Topic: Best Subject Teams/Players
- Replies: 29
- Views: 27716
Re: Best Subject Teams/Players
I would add Matt Jackson to the list of great myth players of the current era. The subject heading suggests that we were planning on doing this for other categories (as does the original post). How about it? Some questions I've had about great players in the categories that are dearest to me (but I'...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:38 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45121
Re: Fine arts/music
There is plenty of room in the distribution for serious tossups on important artists of any stripe in the "other academic" section. I do wonder if John's explanation, which I think is an excellent way of framing the issue, undermines Tommy's film arguments a bit. It seems strange to me to...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:32 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45121
Re: Fine arts/music
I think the best distinction between fine arts music vs. pop culture music is the context in which you would theoretically (or actually) study it in an academic realm. Art that fits in "fine art" is something you would study for the intrinsic value or style of the work in the same discipl...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 11:56 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45121
Re: Fine arts/music
Here are my personal answers to your questions: 1) To what extent, if any, does someone like Jaco Pastorius, who considered himself firmly within the "jazz" tradition, is considered by many prominent jazz musicians to be important within the "jazz" tradition, and yet recorded mos...
- Tue Jun 19, 2012 11:05 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Fine arts/music
- Replies: 117
- Views: 45121
Re: Fine arts/music
Agreeing with Coach Reinstein and Matt Bollinger here. You seem to know a lot about classical music in the real world, but very little about the realities of music questions in collegiate quizbowl. I'm very sympathetic to this, because I was in a nearly identical situation two-and-a-half to three ye...
- Tue May 29, 2012 10:40 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: The best readers
- Replies: 32
- Views: 11290
Re: The best readers
In the Northeast circuit, the best readers used to be Katy Peters (still probably hands down one of the best readers I've heard) and Jerry (before he left Brown). On a National level, the best readers I've heard are probably Yaphe, Jeff, and Matt Weiner. Actually, one of the things I'm proud of in t...
- Mon May 14, 2012 8:38 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO History Doubles: 7/22/2012
- Replies: 131
- Views: 56564
Re: CO History Doubles: 7/22/2012
I should probably be able to help staff this.
- Sat May 12, 2012 1:27 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO Side Event Wrangling
- Replies: 38
- Views: 10600
Re: CO Side Event Wrangling
Predictably, interest doesn't seem too great for the classical music tournament. We're definitely going to hold it eventually, but probably not for CO. We'll see. Enough people have put music down as one of their top preferences that I hope you still consider trying to run it during CO. (Though I s...
- Sat May 12, 2012 1:23 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: PRELIM: WELD (Wildly Experimental Literature Doubles)
- Replies: 65
- Views: 22894
Re: PRELIM: WELD (Wildly Experiment Literature Doubles)
Kevin Koai and I are playing this as a team.
- Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:06 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: BHSAT General Thoughts and Discussion
- Replies: 35
- Views: 14832
Re: BHSAT General Thoughts and Discussion
Lots of tossups in this set used had a sentence (or multiple sentences) of the form describe a work/comma/name the work in ways that are ungrammatical and potentially confusing. For example, in packet 9 tossup 1, we see the sentence "In one of his novels, a cat scratches the Adam's apple of th...
- Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:50 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
- Replies: 119
- Views: 47776
Re: ACF Regionals 2012 Discussion
I probably should have found a more descriptive lead-in for the Glazunov Violin Concerto clue (mentioning how the second movement is enfolded in the first movement), but you are certainly wrong about it also describing the Saxophone Concerto, and therefore about it being non-uniquely identifying. Th...
- Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:22 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season
- Replies: 63
- Views: 32674
Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season
I think whenever I see Yale play, John appears to be scoring more than Matt (which is always against top teams), but Matt finishes higher in overall scoring. I don't know what to make of this, but I have John after Matt simply because of stats. Well, this makes sense if you think about it. A perfec...
- Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season
- Replies: 63
- Views: 32674
Re: Player Poll 2011-2012 Season
Last year, we waited until after voting to have a discussion about how we were ranking people, which was not productive in terms of informed vote-casting. To avoid that, I thought I'd start some discussion. To me, looking at the stats from this year's nationals, there are eleven clear entrants to th...
- Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:53 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: CO Side Event Wrangling
- Replies: 38
- Views: 10600
Re: CO Side Event Wrangling
1. Music
2. Literature
3. Film
2. Literature
3. Film
- Mon Apr 09, 2012 3:05 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 11563
Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread
No, that was not directed at you. Sorry if it came off that way.Cernel Joson wrote:I'm not sure if I'm being read this way, but in case I am, I wasn't attempting to say that this year's nationals would be unfavorable to Yale. My only claim was "Buzzer races happen at ACF Nats, too."
- Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Nationals prediction thread
- Replies: 48
- Views: 11563
Re: ACF Nationals prediction thread
To be a little bit less harsh, I think you may be right that Yale has the more thorough knowledge base. I'm more skeptical of the idea that the lack of powers will really influence much, and I think you're underestimating the number of buzzer races that have historically occurred between top bracke...
- Fri Apr 06, 2012 2:36 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Chicago Open?
- Replies: 46
- Views: 9043
Re: Chicago Open?
My vote is for a weekend of literature side tournaments. Also, I'd enjoy that classical music tournament, but I suspect the audience for it won't be all that large. A heartfelt second to the former, and the equally heartfelt hope that even if the latter does not materialize as a side event (due to ...
- Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:57 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21778
Re: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
Actually, I was going to post to the effect of requesting buzzers soon. Yale has only one functional buzzer at this point, so all other buzzers need to come from outside. Can any other teams bring buzzers? (Hunter? Kellenberg?)
- Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:12 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21778
Re: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
Sorry. Forgot to make that update to the team list. Thanks for the reminder.jonpin wrote:Hey, just checking in. I emailed you several days ago about registering. Could you confirm that Bergen's in the field?
- Sun Mar 11, 2012 6:12 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21778
Re: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
This may be the most bimodal field in history. Any thought of doing a very quick rd of prelims to separate Schindler, Northmont, and Hunter from everyone else? Ridgewood may be here; not yet sure, but we'll sort it out this week. Is there a final deadline? The bracketing will depend on the final nu...
- Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:41 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Repeated Toss-Up Answer Lines in a Set
- Replies: 14
- Views: 5249
Re: Repeated Toss-Up Answer Lines in a Set
I am not aware of this.Cheynem wrote:There was a music bonus that also used Alexander the Great's name as well.
- Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:31 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Peaceful Resolution Mirror at Harvard (3/3/2012)
- Replies: 19
- Views: 7491
Re: Peaceful Resolution Mirror at Harvard (3/3/2012)
No official Yale team is coming. I don't know if any individual members are planning to come as free agents.
- Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:25 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: NAQT-ACUI Region 1 SCT at Harvard
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7474
Re: NAQT-ACUI Region 1 SCT at Harvard
Speaking of which, it's been forty-eight hours...Are stats forthcoming?t-bar wrote: The official stats...
- Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:40 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2012 SCT individual question discussion
- Replies: 114
- Views: 25189
Re: talk about individual questions here
I think his point is not so much that that clue is too easy to be a lead-in at this level, but rather that it is easier than the clues that follow it, thus making the tossup unpyramidal. I would agree with him.
- Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:55 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21778
Re: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
Another thread bump to note a field update.
- Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:22 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Bowl (Jan 28th, 2012)
- Replies: 48
- Views: 27153
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Bowl (Jan 28th, 2012)
My thanks to Penn for hosting this, and to Eric for head-editing this. However, I do have significant complains against this set, which I'll bring up in a discussion sub-forum, once one is established. I am thankful that Penn Bowl exists. It is wonderful to have a meeting between the Northeast and M...
- Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:51 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ACF Regionals Northeast at Brown (2/18/2012)
- Replies: 19
- Views: 11517
Re: ACF Regionals Northeast at Brown (2/18/2012)
Yale is bringing three teams, and hopefully at least one buzzer. Something has cropped up that has made it nearly impossible for me to come and moderate, as I had originally hoped. I'll keep you posted, though, if this changes.
- Mon Jan 16, 2012 4:00 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: How to train more good science writers and editors
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1983
Re: How to train more good science writers and editors
I'm obviously not at all a science player, but reading through this thread gave me a couple of thoughts. I'm curious if people agree with these. It seems to me that there are several levels of competence as a writer. Here's a slightly over-simplistic breakdown: Level 1: The minimal level of competen...
- Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:56 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
- Replies: 36
- Views: 21778
Re: BHSAT XXI at Yale University (March 24, 2012)
Just a thread bump to let people know that registrations are beginning to come in, and to happily announce that we have just received PACE Platinum certification.
- Fri Jan 13, 2012 6:45 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Bowl (Jan 28th, 2012)
- Replies: 48
- Views: 27153
Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Penn Bowl (Jan 28th, 2012)
Yale is bringing one team.
And seconding requests for that field update.
And seconding requests for that field update.