2016 ICT: "Comment on my questions" thread

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2016 ICT: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by Corry »

I wrote a lot of tossups for this set, and as usual, I'd really appreciate any feedback. I rarely write at this difficulty level, so it's always a challenging new experience. My questions:

Skanderbeg
Constantine the Great
Gallipoli
Jozef Pilsudski
Levellers
Czechoslovak Legion/Nicholas II/Mad Baron Ungern-Sternberg
Amazon River (anthro)
Spanish Civil War (photography)
England and Scotland
Imagined Communities
Charles of Anjou
Mount Ararat
Kenai Peninsula/Good Friday/prince William Sound
Mao Zedong
Uzbekistan
Frederick Wilhelm I, the Great Elector
Singapore/Malacca/Penang
Georgia (country)
Hundred Days Reform
Matteo Ricci
South Africa
Ghana
Colorado River
Lebanon
Roger Casement
Menachim Begin

In particular, I'm curious to see how my question on Charles of Anjou played, as it was probably the single most-difficult question I wrote for this set.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by vinteuil »

Corry wrote:In particular, I'm curious to see how my question on Charles of Anjou played, as it was probably the single most-difficult question I wrote for this set.
That question was awesome, it was nice to hear about his non-Sicilian Vespers exploits for once.

EDIT: Andrew or some other mod should probably move this to the "writer-specific" thread.

Moved. --Mgmt.
Last edited by vinteuil on Tue Apr 12, 2016 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Question-specific discussion: 2016 DI ICT

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Hey, I wrote a few questions for this in scattered areas. I'll mark what packets they were in and how heavily they were edited. I'm pretty sure a lot of these got converted to D2 questions as well, though I haven't checked thoroughly. In any case, I'll echo Matt Jackson's past comments in saying that writing for ICT is a great process because it gives you tremendous creative freedom - within the (relatively loose) confines of NAQT's format and style - and that it's a really enjoyable process. I tried to take advantage of this freedom to write on some things that I hadn't really heard many questions on before, as well as some more standard fare stuff with "new" approaches (since I thought the set was quite challenging and could use more of those) but you be the judge:

(EDIT: I've bolded some of my favorites that I'd particularly like to hear about)

Packet 1: Elbe / Saxony / Kiel, Singer-Prebisch thesis / dependency theory / Netherlands
Packet 3: Crete (geo); Pentecostalism / Azusa Street / South Korea
Packet 4: Xuanzang, Abu Simbel; Sassen / London / immigrants
Packet 5: Galicia (geo)
Packet 7: Pietro da Cortona (yeah this was tough)
Packet 8: Cathars / Waldensians / Free Spirit, Meditations / Marcus Aurelius / phantasia
Packet 9: Gary Johnson; Carlos Castaneda / Peru / dreams, Hurrians / Kassites / Canaanites
Packet 10: Burkina Faso (CE); coins / Muziris / Parthians
Packet 11: Persians; aggregate supply / capital / Sraffa, Herder / Volk / Condillac (heavily edited)
Packet 13: Indonesia (archaeology); Mount Fuji / ryokan / Lake Biwa
Packet 14: Luang Prabang / Laos / Golden Triangle
Packet 15: Nineveh; Peter Berger / angels / Max Weber (heavily edited), Bohai Sea / Harbin / Manchuria
Packet 16: Paul Klee (heavily edited), _collective_ (action problems/bargaining; econ)

EDIT: Since this is now in a general, I'll mention my D2-specific questions as well (a lot of the above were down-converted):

Packet 7: Marshall Plan / Christian Democrats / Mezzogiorno
Packet 8: Frankfurt (philosophy)
Packet 14: Huitzilopochtli
Packet 15: Rogier van der Weyden
Last edited by naan/steak-holding toll on Tue Apr 12, 2016 1:16 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by theMoMA »

I've split off this thread for people to list the questions they wrote and others to offer commentary if they desire. Writers, if you'd like to make such a post, please do so in this thread and not the "question-specific discussion" thread.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by The Stately Rhododendron »

Corry- liked the mention of Mick Taussig in Amazon (though the linking is kind of weird, he didn't do much work with people on the Amazon proper)

Will- I loved the mention of Carlos Casteneda (haven't heard about him since my phase of reading Pinchbeck and McKenna). I have to say though - he's not really an "anthropologist," as you described him, considering he probably made up Don Juan while tripping balls.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by Chaac and Ayyy »

Corry, the DII versions of the Gallipoli campaign and South Africa tossups were delightful. I was able to power them both, off "I order you to die!" and necklacing, respectively. Really well done.
Will, I'm pretty sure your Galicia tossup was converted into a general question about Spain for DII. Thankfully, my sophomore year Spanish project about La Compostela came in handy once "The French Way" was read. Great job!
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

I wrote some stuff. I have no responsibility for how my DI questions were downconverted to DII.

For DI I wrote the following 45 stuffs. In order of appearance:

space and time (philosophy), Euthyphro/aporia/Stephanus pagination, Legal Tender cases/Chase/Coxey, Malawi/corn/escarpments, Benedict/culture of honor/etic-emic, Rappacini's garden, Italy (north-south divide politics), thunderwords/McLuhan/Joseph Campbell, Weems in art, Levi-Strauss/cyborgs/Ian Hodder, Yangtze/Sichuan/Dujiangyan irrigation system, rakshasas/Ravana/Kumbakharna, the owl of Minerva/Hegel/Empire, apricots in literature (Duchess of Malfi/Rodolphe Boulanger/Armenians), the US presidency, poetry, Pomona/Metamorphoses/Iphis, Seattle/$15-an-hour minimum wage/Kshama Sawant, optative mood, gunas, scientific racism/cranial capacity/Types of Mankind, God and the State, impeachment/Samuel Chase/John Pickering, Pirithous/shepherd/Ascalaphus, Chukwu/Satan/loas, Newport, John Dewey, Buddhist art (buddhas/mandalas/thangka), Russia(n Orthodox Church)/autocephaly/hesychasm, Stanislavsky, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Saint Irenaeus, Memphis (mythology), Francis I/Barbarossa/Bacri-Busnach families, Land of Confusion/Disturbed/Superman, Aaron Beck, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an, Dhoom/The Fast and the Furious/Chicago, trichromatic vision/Gestalt/David Marr, William James/dead options/W.K. Clifford, Simeon/holy fools/icons, second language acquisition, modularity of mind, African-Americans in art/collage/Kara Walker, Proto-Indo-European/Anatolia/Emile Benveniste

On top of whatever got downconverted from the above, I wrote the following for DII:
"why I am not..." (Hayek/Russell/O'Hara), Luther/Dominicans/Leipzig, James Fenimore Cooper, "1" in psychology, "whales" in Moby-Dick

Apparently, the Genesis version of "Land of Confusion" has different lyrics in the bridge than the Disturbed cover; Phil Collins actually says "And the sound of your laughter" where the Disturbed cover has "In the wake of this madness". Sorry if that tripped up anybody.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by women, fire and dangerous things »

Adventure Temple Trail wrote:I wrote some stuff. I have no responsibility for how my DI questions were downconverted to DII.

For DI I wrote the following 45 stuffs. In order of appearance:

space and time (philosophy), Euthyphro/aporia/Stephanus pagination, Legal Tender cases/Chase/Coxey, Malawi/corn/escarpments, Benedict/culture of honor/etic-emic, Rappacini's garden, Italy (north-south divide politics), thunderwords/McLuhan/Joseph Campbell, Weems in art, Levi-Strauss/cyborgs/Ian Hodder, Yangtze/Sichuan/Dujiangyan irrigation system, rakshasas/Ravana/Kumbakharna, the owl of Minerva/Hegel/Empire, apricots in literature (Duchess of Malfi/Rodolphe Boulanger/Armenians), the US presidency, poetry, Pomona/Metamorphoses/Iphis, Seattle/$15-an-hour minimum wage/Kshama Sawant, optative mood, gunas, scientific racism/cranial capacity/Types of Mankind, God and the State, impeachment/Samuel Chase/John Pickering, Pirithous/shepherd/Ascalaphus, Chukwu/Satan/loas, Newport, John Dewey, Buddhist art (buddhas/mandalas/thangka), Russia(n Orthodox Church)/autocephaly/hesychasm, Stanislavsky, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Saint Irenaeus, Memphis (mythology), Francis I/Barbarossa/Bacri-Busnach families, Land of Confusion/Disturbed/Superman, Aaron Beck, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an, Dhoom/The Fast and the Furious/Chicago, trichromatic vision/Gestalt/David Marr, William James/dead options/W.K. Clifford, Simeon/holy fools/icons, second language acquisition, modularity of mind, African-Americans in art/collage/Kara Walker, Proto-Indo-European/Anatolia/Emile Benveniste

On top of whatever got downconverted from the above, I wrote the following for DII:
"why I am not..." (Hayek/Russell/O'Hara), Luther/Dominicans/Leipzig, James Fenimore Cooper, "1" in psychology, "whales" in Moby-Dick

Apparently, the Genesis version of "Land of Confusion" has different lyrics in the bridge than the Disturbed cover; Phil Collins actually says "And the sound of your laughter" where the Disturbed cover has "In the wake of this madness". Sorry if that tripped up anybody.
Many of my favorite questions are in this list; the questions on L2 acquisition, modularity, and David Marr especially asked about real, important stuff. It would have been nice if the Pine Ridge question had dropped the pronoun earlier - as it was, when I heard a clue along the lines of "After working with the Yurok, Erik Erikson worked..." I assumed the question would ask about the other tribe he worked with, so I buzzed with the Lakota Sioux.
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Re: Question-specific discussion: 2016 DI ICT

Post by ryanrosenberg »

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote: Singer-Prebisch thesis / dependency theory / Netherlands
Could I see this bonus? Didn't hear it in our game but am very interested.
Packet 11: Persians;
I'd like to see this as well; I think there was a buzzer race to neg this with "Inca".
_collective_ (action problems/bargaining; econ)
I really enjoyed this tossup.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

women, fire and dangerous things wrote:It would have been nice if the Pine Ridge question had dropped the pronoun earlier - as it was, when I heard a clue along the lines of "After working with the Yurok, Erik Erikson worked..." I assumed the question would ask about the other tribe he worked with, so I buzzed with the Lakota Sioux.
It was hard to both make sure people didn't get hosed with "Yurok" and get the pronoun out early with the character cap in place, but perhaps it would have been better to say something like "It's not in California, but..." to make it clearer that it was a place. Worth thinking about.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Mods, feel free to take these down if I'm not supposed to post stuff:
Packet 1 wrote:This statement is rooted in the idea that {secondary goods} have a higher price {elasticity} of demand. For 10 points each--

A. Identify this economic "hypothesis" that the price of commodities declines relative to {manufactured goods} over time.

answer: _Singer-Prebisch_ hypothesis or thesis (or _Prebisch-Singer_ hypothesis or thesis; prompt on answers mentioning "Singer" or "Prebisch" singularly)

B. The Singer-Prebisch hypothesis is a pillar of this economic theory, which argues that resources flow from "periphery" states to "core" states.

answer: _dependency_ theory or _world-systems_ theory (accept _dependence_; do not accept or prompt on "imperialism" or "colonialism" or "Marxism" or similar answers)

C. Commodity dependency may lead to the decline of other industrial sectors in the "disease" named for this country, whose economic expansion was aided by exports of commodities from its colonies in Indonesia.

answer: (Kingdom of) The _Netherlands_ (or Koninkrijk der _Nederland_en; accept _Holland_; accept _Dutch_ disease)
Packet 11 wrote:These people invented a {water} distribution system with a sloping tunnel and vertical shafts dug every 30 meters. A road in this people's empire included 111 stations for couriers called ~{chapars}~. These inventors of the ~{qanat}~ system conquered the city of Anshan during the reign of (*) Teispes [tay-ISS-peez]. Their empire's {royal road} ended in the east at the old Elamite [EE-luh-"might"] capital of Susa. The Medes [meedz] were conquered by--for 10 points--what ancient people whose rulers, such as Cambyses [kam-"BY"-seez] II, descended from Achaemenes [ah-KAY-meh-neez]?
I assume people were confusing chasquis and chapars if they buzzed with "Inca" but they're very wrong in any case. The Incas sure aren't the only empire with a famous road system!
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by Corry »

The Stately Rhododendron wrote:Corry- liked the mention of Mick Taussig in Amazon (though the linking is kind of weird, he didn't do much work with people on the Amazon proper)
Glad you liked it. FYI, Seth edited the tossup so that it'd accept the Putumayo River if you buzzed only on that first clue.
Chaac and Ayyy wrote:Corry, the DII versions of the Gallipoli campaign and South Africa tossups were delightful. I was able to power them both, off "I order you to die!" and necklacing, respectively. Really well done.
I'm actually really happy to hear this. When I was converting my D1 questions down to DII, I kept those two clues largely out of vanity-- neither clue had really come up in quiz bowl before, but they were just really cool things that I wanted to ask about anyways. Glad to hear that somebody was able to buzz on those clues after all!
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy »

Adventure Temple Trail wrote:I wrote some stuff. I have no responsibility for how my DI questions were downconverted to DII.

For DI I wrote the following 45 stuffs. In order of appearance:

space and time (philosophy), Euthyphro/aporia/Stephanus pagination, Legal Tender cases/Chase/Coxey, Malawi/corn/escarpments, Benedict/culture of honor/etic-emic, Rappacini's garden, Italy (north-south divide politics), thunderwords/McLuhan/Joseph Campbell, Weems in art, Levi-Strauss/cyborgs/Ian Hodder, Yangtze/Sichuan/Dujiangyan irrigation system, rakshasas/Ravana/Kumbakharna, the owl of Minerva/Hegel/Empire, apricots in literature (Duchess of Malfi/Rodolphe Boulanger/Armenians), the US presidency, poetry, Pomona/Metamorphoses/Iphis, Seattle/$15-an-hour minimum wage/Kshama Sawant, optative mood, gunas, scientific racism/cranial capacity/Types of Mankind, God and the State, impeachment/Samuel Chase/John Pickering, Pirithous/shepherd/Ascalaphus, Chukwu/Satan/loas, Newport, John Dewey, Buddhist art (buddhas/mandalas/thangka), Russia(n Orthodox Church)/autocephaly/hesychasm, Stanislavsky, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Saint Irenaeus, Memphis (mythology), Francis I/Barbarossa/Bacri-Busnach families, Land of Confusion/Disturbed/Superman, Aaron Beck, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an, Dhoom/The Fast and the Furious/Chicago, trichromatic vision/Gestalt/David Marr, William James/dead options/W.K. Clifford, Simeon/holy fools/icons, second language acquisition, modularity of mind, African-Americans in art/collage/Kara Walker, Proto-Indo-European/Anatolia/Emile Benveniste

On top of whatever got downconverted from the above, I wrote the following for DII:
"why I am not..." (Hayek/Russell/O'Hara), Luther/Dominicans/Leipzig, James Fenimore Cooper, "1" in psychology, "whales" in Moby-Dick

Apparently, the Genesis version of "Land of Confusion" has different lyrics in the bridge than the Disturbed cover; Phil Collins actually says "And the sound of your laughter" where the Disturbed cover has "In the wake of this madness". Sorry if that tripped up anybody.
Could I see the tossup on the optative mood? Naveed was unable to power it in practice despite his extensive knowledge of Romanian grammar, so I'm curious to see what that clue was (and the others too, obviously).
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by Valefor »

Here is a list of my stuff for D1, by round:

1 -- impeaching Dilma Roussef
4 -- Love Never Dies / Phantom of the Opera / Meg Giry
5 -- Mathis der Maler || Sallie Gardner at a Gallop / all four hooves are off the ground / Leland Stanford || Jeff Koons / Michael Jackson and Bubbles / readymades || Symphony of Sorrowful Songs / Poland / Totus Tuus
6 -- salvation / Romania / General William Booth (Enters Into Heaven)
7 -- War of the Bucket / Guelphs / Legnano
8 -- Marie / Wozzeck / Alban Berg
9 -- The Hell Screen || The Artist is Present
11 -- Lincolnshire Posy / Percy Grainger / George Frideric Handel
12 -- president of Haiti || Alberich || Julia Wolfe / Kronos Quartet / John Henry || The Origin of the World / Gustave Courbet / Khalil Bey
13 -- October Crisis / "Just watch me" / notwithstanding clause
14 -- Heinrich Schenker / Ur- / 3 or 5
15 -- Mapp v. Ohio
16 -- Guillame du Fay / cantus firmus / tenor || Ushuaia / Beagle Channel / Navarino Island || the moon / William Safire / "(to) touch the face of God"
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by gimmedatguudsuccrose »

Adventure Temple Trail wrote:I wrote some stuff

On top of whatever got downconverted from the above, I wrote the following for DII:
"why I am not..." (Hayek/Russell/O'Hara), Luther/Dominicans/Leipzig, James Fenimore Cooper, "1" in psychology, "whales" in Moby-Dick

Apparently, the Genesis version of "Land of Confusion" has different lyrics in the bridge than the Disturbed cover; Phil Collins actually says "And the sound of your laughter" where the Disturbed cover has "In the wake of this madness". Sorry if that tripped up anybody.
I particularly enjoyed concept and the execution of the "why I am not..." bonus. Also, the Disturbed bonus was quite fantastic.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by setht »

2016 DI ICT round 8 wrote:In Romanian, this word form is inflected identically to, and often equated with, the conditional form. The New Testament expression "me genoito!", often translated "by no means!", is in this form, which is rare in Koine [koy-nay] but often occurs after the words "eithe" or "ei gar" in ancient Greek. Most living Indo-European languages ~lack~ this (*) irrealis mood, though it exists alongside the imperative and subjunctive in Proto-Indo-European. For 10 points--name this verbal mood that expresses hope or wishing.

answer: _optative_ mood
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Re: Question-specific discussion: 2016 DI ICT

Post by Inifinite Jest »

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote:Packet 7: Marshall Plan / Christian Democrats / Mezzogiorno
Even though this was a pretty tame bonus I really enjoyed it; I recently read Tony Judt's Postwar and this bonus did a good job hitting on a lot of really important and underasked things.

Also, whoever wrote the D1 bonus part on Ian Hodder, you're the best.
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Re: "Comment on my questions" thread

Post by shrey96 »

Adventure Temple Trail wrote:Dhoom/The Fast and the Furious/Chicago
Amazing bonus. Unfortunately my team wasn't the one that got it, but it was still delightful to hear.

Also, to whoever wrote the polydispersity index tossup: you are the best. That was probably the best power of my quiz bowl career, and it was really cool to feel like those long nights running GPC experiments in my first lab ever actually paid off in some way.
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