Search found 1443 matches

by Sima Guang Hater
Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals discussion
Replies: 121
Views: 62684

Re: ACF Nationals discussion

1. Is there a reason the situs inversus bonus didn't accept "midline" for the second part or "Kartagener syndrome" for the third (unless they were mentioned in the question and I didn't hear it)? Not that it matters a ton, but we 30'd, like, 3 bonuses all tournament and I want m...
by Sima Guang Hater
Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals discussion
Replies: 121
Views: 62684

Re: ACF Nationals discussion

In fact, I have proof, because I broke my own rule and tried to get fancy and challenging with that tossup on the Poincare recurrence theorem which just didn’t play well. It didn't? I thought it was fantastic! I'll have more expansive commentary on the science (and other things) later, but in gener...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:03 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)
Replies: 61
Views: 34066

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)

My cowriters so far include:
Aakash Patel
Geoffrey Chen
Steven Silverman
Paul Lee
Jonathen Settle
Jaimie Carlson
Anson Berns
Fred Zhang
Sohum Shenoy
James Lasker (also editing Astro)
Justin French
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:20 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)
Replies: 61
Views: 34066

ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)

I'm quite pleased to announce Lederberg Trinity, a science subject tournament to be played at ICT 2019. The distribution will be as follows (all tossups): 5 Biology 5 Chemistry 5 Physics 2 Astro 2 Math 2 CS 2 Data Science/Stats/Applied Math 1 Earth Sci Difficulty will be similar to previous incarnat...
by Sima Guang Hater
Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Division I ICT: specific question discussion
Replies: 64
Views: 8268

Re: 2018 Division I ICT: specific question discussion

-The tossup on cervical mucus is confusing - ferning is usually used to determine whether amniotic fluid is present. There's even a rule of thumb for it, pool/dye/fern (though the question is correct, as I discovered later, that the actual ferning happens with a mixture of mucus and amniotic fluid) ...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:27 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: College QB In the News
Replies: 7
Views: 6217

College QB In the News

Thanks to NAQT hiring that PR firm, we're all getting lots of coverage. OSU: http://www.dispatch.com/entertainmentlife/20180412/quiz-bowl-offers-ohio-state-students-another-avenue-for-knowledge Penn: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/video/category/news/3844109-upenn-students-preparing-for-super-bowl...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Quizbowl, College Admissions, and Choices
Replies: 8
Views: 1607

Re: Quizbowl, College Admissions, and Choices

For a long time, I regretted going to Brown (being locked in early decision not by choice, long story) and not holding out for Harvard, Stanford, or Princeton. But I met Jerry there, and that made all the difference.
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:11 pm
Forum: Scheduling reform
Topic: What Does an Ideal Season Look Like?
Replies: 16
Views: 17160

Re: What Does an Ideal Season Look Like?

I think a regular tournament in early December is a good idea
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF and Powers
Replies: 20
Views: 9153

Re: ACF and Powers

I support this proposal, at the very least for fall and possibly regionals. A history lesson - before 2008, ACF did its bonuses differently. You would not be told whether you got each part (slash what the right answer was), and then you discover at the end of the bonus whether you got each part and ...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Mar 30, 2018 1:29 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: What is the most pressing concern in college quizbowl today?
Replies: 68
Views: 60621

Re: What is the most pressing concern in college quizbowl to

The interim data suggests it might be time to discuss trending down regular difficulty to somewhere around EFT level.
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Mar 30, 2018 12:43 pm
Forum: Scheduling reform
Topic: Quizbowl Needs a Scheduling Committee
Replies: 50
Views: 38560

Re: Quizbowl Needs a Scheduling Committee

As one of the original people in the conversation, let me outline the problems I saw and what I wanted to accomplish with this. This year, there were not enough regular difficulty tournaments in the fall, huge gaps between tournaments in the spring, tournaments that were confusingly named (CMST is t...
by Sima Guang Hater
Mon Mar 26, 2018 2:31 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Where are You Going Next Year (Collegiate 2018)
Replies: 27
Views: 20030

Re: Where are You Going Next Year (Collegiate 2018)

It's the end for me as well. I'll be moving to Yale to do an internship at Waterbury Hospital for a year, then to Nashville to start a dermatology residency and post-doc at Vanderbilt. I'll definitely have time to staff and play opens while I'm in Nashville (I hope), so looking forward to showing up...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:37 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Your Favorite Question
Replies: 45
Views: 30845

Re: Your Favorite Question

Can I ask why you like this? To my novice eye brought up in an age with different standards, the first half of this seems kind of heavy on Eponymous Reactions, the syntax seems kind of strange to me ("by way of adding iodine"; "an example of one of these, the geminal type"), and...
by Sima Guang Hater
Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:40 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Your Favorite Question
Replies: 45
Views: 30845

Re: Your Favorite Question

This functional group is the result of the Woodward Modification, which features substitution by a benzoate anion followed by hydrolysis. That reaction modifies the Prévost Reaction, which also produces these compounds from alkenes by way of adding iodine. The Upjohn method for producing them is si...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:55 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive
Replies: 64
Views: 54291

Re: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive

The Dear Prudence thing is an awesome idea and should implemented if for no other reason than that there'll be a way of aggregating issues people have. On that note, does anyone think it would be beneficial to have like an actual climate survey type thing? Anonymous of course. I think I could get m...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: On talking about high schoolers
Replies: 14
Views: 10799

Re: On talking about high schoolers

Here is a small sampling of anonymous messages sent to me after I got really pissed at Will Alston for being a sexist piece of shit: -- "I'm not really a member of any stigmatized group and he [Will Alston] makes me not want to do things like volunteer for National tournaments." -- "...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Feb 15, 2018 3:50 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive
Replies: 64
Views: 54291

Re: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive

Jakob is entirely correct on this issue. I've moderated an order of magnitude more tournaments than either of you (and have told Wilton Rao to shut up on more than one occasion), at a very good pace, and always manage to find time for the occasional "good buzz" or some laughter/merryment/m...
by Sima Guang Hater
Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:05 am
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive
Replies: 64
Views: 54291

Re: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive

This is a non-obvious one of which I’m a huge offender: it’s extremely demoralizing to other players in the room (at practice, in tournaments, on your team, on the opposing team) when you consistently buzz on something before anyone else does and proceed to say something like “Wow what a bad buzz” ...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:13 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive
Replies: 64
Views: 54291

How Can We Make Quizbowl More Approachable and Inclusive

Hello quizbowl. I thought I could start a constructive discussion about in-game and out-of-game behaviors that may be offputting to new teams, old teams, or really anybody (but mostly new teams). I started this with some people on a Discord and I thought I would open it up further. A FEW BEHAVIORS I...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum
Replies: 35
Views: 18565

Re: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum

I suppose the issues feed off each other, but I was originally suggesting that more women in leadership positions within the quizbowl community would attract more women to the community. As an empirical matter, this has been correct in my experience (when Sarita Jamil became president our gender re...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum
Replies: 35
Views: 18565

Re: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum

A forum thread every six months or so criticizing the lack of/treatment of underrepresented groups in qb is really, really frustrating when nothing comes of it. There seems to be a general consensus in this and other threads that a) there aren't enough underrepresented prominent players/editors/gen...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Feb 11, 2018 3:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regionals detailed stats
Replies: 47
Views: 23106

Re: 2018 ACF Regionals detailed stats

Tells people not to generalize based on their experience Generalizes based on his experience Not everyone shares your outlook, and not everyone is galvanized into getting better by trudging through a set with 8-lines of unbuzzable (to them) clues. There's a significant number of people who are tell...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Feb 11, 2018 12:46 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regionals detailed stats
Replies: 47
Views: 23106

Re: 2018 ACF Regionals detailed stats

...but the best teams already hit 23-25 PPB quite often on regular difficulty! You forgot this one, but UVA 2014 also got 25 ppb on Penn-ance. Your point is taken; I usually think of Penn Bowl as somewhere just above regular, but if that's the case Regionals this year was even harder. This year's p...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regionals detailed stats
Replies: 47
Views: 23106

Re: 2018 ACF Regionals detailed stats

Given the experiences of Sebastian and other new-to-quizbowl people on ACF regionals, and given the fact that first buzzes seem to be occurring at around 1/3 of the way through the question...I actually see no problem with driving down "regular" difficulty to something just above where EFT...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:30 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum
Replies: 35
Views: 18565

Re: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum

I have modified the post to fix these errors.
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:05 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum
Replies: 35
Views: 18565

Re: We Need an Alternative to the Women in Quizbowl Forum

If you are a minority in quizbowl, what do you want quizbowl to look like? What is a safe community to you? I'm not white. It's not a card I particularly enjoy playing, but it pays the price of admission. I want a community where my and my friends' arguments aren't reflexively contorted beyond reco...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Feb 09, 2018 12:54 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl men, get a haircut
Replies: 102
Views: 50025

Re: Quizbowl men, get a haircut

What exactly are you accomplishing by doing this at the University of Waterloo, a liberal institution of higher learning, represented in parliament by a Liberal of Indian Descent , surrounded by quizbowlers who almost universally support the rights of LGBT people? These are bad, BAD things to say, ...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Feb 08, 2018 11:20 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl men, get a haircut
Replies: 102
Views: 50025

Re: Quizbowl men, get a haircut

The intersection between gender identity and notions of professionalism is a fascinating one that we're not going to be able to untangle in a forum thread; suffice to say, it is more than possible to appear professional while holding true to your identity, as the many LGBT people in the corporate wo...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:35 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl men, get a haircut
Replies: 102
Views: 50025

Re: Quizbowl men, get a haircut

There's an inevitable tension that arises in threads like this between professionalism and nonconformity. As a group of, for lack of a better term, "nerds", many quizbowlers (including myself) grew up with interests and obsessions that lie outside of the mainstream, and actively or passive...
by Sima Guang Hater
Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:47 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Welcome to the 2018 SCT Discussion
Replies: 1
Views: 289

Re: Welcome to the 2018 SCT Discussion

Our copy of the set is quite janky and off-center, indicating that it was copied from a paper copy rather printed directly from the PDF. Furthermore, we only have one copy of it, and several of our members what to study it closely. I'll continue my annual plea to allow distributing electronic copies...
by Sima Guang Hater
Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:44 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Division I SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 2308

Re: 2018 Division I SCT: specific question discussion

-Cafe au lait spots are more commonly associated with neurofibromatosis than Fanconi's anemia. -The malonic ester synthesis starts with deprotonating the alpha carbon between the two ester groups; should carbanions be acceptable? -The leadin to the primer question is pretty obscure, and the next clu...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Feb 02, 2018 7:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT field expansion discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 3978

Re: ICT field expansion discussion

A great step forward.

Curious about one thing - what will the playoff format be now?
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Feb 02, 2018 7:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 NAQT ICT: April 14, Chicago
Replies: 30
Views: 20037

Re: 2018 NAQT ICT: April 14, Chicago

Awesome!
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:07 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regs Specific Questions and Errors
Replies: 63
Views: 18968

Re: Specific Questions and Errors

Ki67 labelling - not just for tumors.
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Feb 01, 2018 12:39 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regs packets, recordings, and detailed stats survey
Replies: 67
Views: 32315

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

There may be a useful statistic for cliffing - places in a tossup where an abnormal number of buzzes happen at once. That'd require figuring out what the standard distribution of buzzes across a tossup is though.
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Feb 01, 2018 12:33 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regs packets, recordings, and detailed stats survey
Replies: 67
Views: 32315

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

My predictions: -Hard parts were significantly harder than middle parts, leading to a "wall effect" around 20 ppb -Science bonuses were, on average, harder than literature bonuses -If you plot a histogram of players organized by # of first buzzes, it will have an exceptionally long tail th...
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:59 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: New NAQT Individual Player NCT - April 15, Chicago
Replies: 55
Views: 28979

Re: New NAQT Individual Player National Championship Tournam

Still no ICT field expansion though, huh
by Sima Guang Hater
Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)
Replies: 48
Views: 36036

Festivus (Dec 23rd, 2017)

Quizbowl Festivus will be held this year on actual Festivus, Saturday, December 23. As in recent past years this will consist of an open reading of guerilla packets on various themes (or not). There will be no “airing of grievances.” This year Festivus will move to quizbowl’s Discord server and begi...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Oct 26, 2017 11:59 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PB 2017: Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 43
Views: 10405

Re: PB 2017: Specific Questions Discussion

Okay, the rest of this question clues good and important things, and of course seeing Hamilton-Zuk clued gave me great joy, as Penn Bowl is unwittingly playing into my devious plan to make UMN's EEB department dominate ecology / evolution quizbowl. But digging up the paper this clue is based on -- ...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Oct 19, 2017 4:25 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Quizbowl and Mental Health
Replies: 30
Views: 25075

Re: Quizbowl and Mental Health

This thread is wonderful and needed. In lieu of talking about my own experiences (maybe later), I'd like to offer some responses to things people have said. Googling around, it does seem like "find a hobby you enjoy" is often recommended as a treatment for situational depression. This is c...
by Sima Guang Hater
Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:50 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PSA - Don't be a Luddite
Replies: 62
Views: 30606

Re: PSA - Don't be a Luddite

A full set of instructions was sent that Thursday night. The update sent Friday night consisted of packet passwords and an additional instructional video. Unfortunately I dont think that's soon enough. If I were hosting a tournament I'd want to know before even signing up to mirror that I was oblig...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:23 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SCT and ICT policies for 2018
Replies: 43
Views: 21973

Re: SCT and ICT policies for 2018

Here's another question; will NAQT have an official policy on employees or contractors who threaten customers?
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Sep 22, 2017 5:12 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Board Game Recommendations
Replies: 23
Views: 1853

Re: Board Game Recommendations

Thread might be dead, but Arkham Horror and its various expansions are a ton of fun.
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Sep 22, 2017 2:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SCT and ICT policies for 2018
Replies: 43
Views: 21973

Re: SCT and ICT policies for 2018

Sima Guang Hater wrote:And is it still 2 seconds to answer?
by Sima Guang Hater
Fri Sep 22, 2017 2:01 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SCT and ICT policies for 2018
Replies: 43
Views: 21973

Re: SCT and ICT policies for 2018

Important Bird Area wrote:Finally: NAQT has decided to maintain its current policy and continue to not post packets online for any level of play (including college).
And what about allowing people to buy electronic copies of packets? And is it still 2 seconds to answer?
by Sima Guang Hater
Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:34 pm
Forum: Scheduling reform
Topic: 2017-18 Tournament Schedule: Planning, Discussion, etc.
Replies: 40
Views: 43187

Re: 2017-18 Tournament Schedule: Planning, Discussion, etc.

To be fair, Chicago and Stanford are both contributing to Penn Bowl.
by Sima Guang Hater
Sat Sep 09, 2017 12:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Your favorite RPGs
Replies: 9
Views: 1259

Re: Your favorite RPGs

I'm going through the first two installments of Golden Sun again and it's honestly better than I remembered. Alongside KOTOR these two series are the best I've played. It's a very open-ended question what with plot, gameplay, etc, but which are your best experiences? Golden Sun! What a wonderful ga...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sat Aug 26, 2017 7:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MSTP (Summer 2019)
Replies: 5
Views: 4981

MSTP (Summer 2019)

I'm pleased to announce Medical School, The Postscript (MSTP) to be run sometime in the summer of 2019. I'm graduating and I have to take another board exam, so I can use this opportunity to foist a bunch of questions on the public. The tournament will consist of 8-10 packets, tossups only, drawn en...
by Sima Guang Hater
Sun Aug 20, 2017 11:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Barbarism of Monetization
Replies: 128
Views: 57391

Re: The Barbarism of Monetization

The Quest for the Historical Mukherjesus wrote:So...what's the status of this within NAQT
The year's starting up again, surely the meetings that were supposed to have happened, have happened. Can we expect any kind of movement on this policy soon? Because I really don't want this to die out as it always does.
by Sima Guang Hater
Sat Aug 12, 2017 11:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Naveed Bork Memorial Tournament Discussion
Replies: 5
Views: 3631

Re: Naveed Bork Memorial Tournament Discussion

A lot of tossups on topics I like This is kind of the running theme for this set. If your interests didn't align with the author, you weren't really going to like this set. That's to be said about any vanity set (the other one that comes to mind is that Will Nediger set played at Crime), so it wasn...