Monday, April 26, 2010

Nation of Quizlam scores 180, adds 32 points to lead in final week of tournament and wins easily

In the end it was not only not close but not close to being close; NoQ scored a 180 and pretty much had the tournament wrapped up by the fourth round on Thursday night.

It looks as if the top two teams in the tournament really stocked up on additional players in the last week. I'll tell you, it really doesn't make a difference. Four people score more than two and six might do a little better than four, but honestly twelve people don't do much better than six.

Three of the top four squads in the tourney ended up being from The Draught Horse, which almost makes me regret all the Temple University academic jokes I toss out during the quiz. (Almost; if you saw the same spelling and guesses on answer sheets I do every week from the non-top teams, you'd wonder out loud how Temple gets accredited too...)

The Nudist Balloonists actually lost ground in the final week but finished a strong second. Lil' Roy as I expected over at 12 Steps was very much alive in the final week. They still hold the record for the highest score ever in this format with a 189. Thundercats Ho! finished an impressive fourth overall. Most of the final 9 teams coming into the last week honestly screwed the pooch in week five, and I won't upset them by running through the sordid details.

NoQ is seen below digging through the Prize Package I put together. It appears that I knew my audience and, lo and behold, geeks like geek stuff. I say this as a fellow geek. The Draught Horse was kind enough to also throw in an NHL Winter Classic hockey stick signed by Chris Pronger of the Philadelphia Flyers, not just a professional athlete but one people have heard of. This week? No more tourney play but the usual prizes at all venues. See you at the quiz.
Digg!Add to Technorati Favorites

Ignorance of this week's upcoming fourth round subjects will be punished

Tuesday, April 27, 9:00pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: THE OLD WEST

Wednesday, April 28, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: SPACE MOVIES

Thursday, April 29, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
(Temple University campus)
Subject Round: GAMES OF CHANCE

Digg!Add to Technorati Favorites

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Four teams still alive in tournament - tonight decides it!

After last night, these are our standings.

Has the lead after 5 games:

Lil' Roy 649


Boston Tea-Bag Party was the only other team to leapfrog Nation of Quizlam this week thus far, but as Lil' Roy has a higher score by more than 20 points the teabaggers are eliminated.


Still alive with one to play:

Nation of Quizlam 598
The Nudist Balloonists 557
Thundercats Ho! 510

Thus:

- Nation of Quizlam's magic number is 178; that or anything above guarantees at least a tie for victory regardless of what anyone else does.

- Lil' Roy need NoQ to score no more than 51 points, Nudist Balloonists to score no more than 92 and Thundercats Ho! to score no more than 139.

- Nudist Balloonists need to beat NoQ by at least 41 and Thundercats to not outscore them by anything over 47 points, all while scoring at least 92.

- Thundercats Ho! need a score of at least 139 and for the two other Temple teams currently above them to decide to do shrooms tonight.

Our highest score thus far this week in both of the other bars was 132; this appears to be a tougher than usual quiz, although you guys at The Draught Horse get a unique Subject round that I have no idea how well you'll do on. I am bringing the Prize Package tonight on the assumption a Temple team walks away with this.
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The five-week tournament will be decided by these quizzes...

Even if you're out of the running for the five-week prize, the usual bar premiums and other prizes will be awarded in isolation as always.

Tuesday, April 20, 9:00pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: INCREDIBLY STUPID TV

Wednesday, April 21, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: GAMES OF CHANCE

Thursday, April 22, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
(Temple University campus)
Subject Round: TWINS

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Nation of Quizlam brings solid but beatable lead into last week of tournament

And then there were nine!

I've whittled the list down to only those teams with a mathematically possibility, however remote, of walking away with this. One team has an excellent chance, some of you need Nation of Quizlam to falter and have an A+ performance of your own, and some of you as you can see are relying upon what the insurance industry considers "acts of God." Best of luck to everyone.


The Prize Package will consist of some very cool books, games and music to tantalize the mind and revive the spirit, including a 110 year old humor tome, the oldest book I've ever given away. Dependent upon how scores shape up I'll do the actual awarding either Thursday night or the following week.

Red = El Camino Real
Orange = 12 Steps Down
Green = The Draught Horse


Nation of Quizlam 598
The Nudist Balloonists 557

Parent Thesis 539
Boston Tea-Bag Party 523
Lil' Roy 517

Thundercats Ho! 510
Big Bushy Beard Like Merlin 438
Those Four Assholes at the Bar 426

Evile Ukrainian Penguins 382

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Monday, April 12, 2010

This week's upcoming fourth round subjects

Tuesday, April 13, 9:00pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: LANGUAGES

Wednesday, April 14, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: THE U.S. CONSTITUTION: REMEMBER THAT OL' THING?

Thursday, April 15, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
(Temple University campus)
Subject Round: CALIFORNIA

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Your author is not popular over at Scotland.com

Only a matter of time I suppose: American insists Scotland is not a country. See, it's important to note that I'm American, because then you don't need facts. You can just dismiss anything I say. I really don't think they were expecting me to actually appear in the thread when discussing me and linking to this blog. Speak of the devil...


What's funny is that I laid out what I think is a pretty tight argument over a few lonnnnng posts now that I've been arguing this for nearly a year, and now that I did no one seems all that eager to discuss the facts themselves. What I think is the final nail in the coffin - and why didn't I think of this a year ago? - quoting the 1707 Act of Union which melded the Kingdom of England (which by that point included Wales) and Kingdom of Scotland into Great Britain/ the United Kingdom. It's a little hard to tap dance around that particular room elephant.

On the plus side, I got a nice little positive link to the same material on the Geography portion of About.com, the editor of which is as sick of getting attacked for pointing out the obvious as I am. In fact they've been riding him since 2004 so I suppose I don't even know what "tired of" means yet.

I'm learning a whole new slew of British insults, though, so this isn't a total waste of time. I'm apparently a berk and a Yank oik, the latter of which if I recall correctly largely composed Sauron's armies in Lord of the Rings.

The reader might be interested to know that Scotland.com, which is apparently owned by a Pennsylvania company (?!), has acheived full independence from UK.com, which pushes credit cards and insurance. Progress is being made!
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Nation of Quizlam dominates third week of five-week quiz tournament with a 173

These are the overall standings after three weeks. Cumulative totals will be posted weekly.

Once again I sifted out low-scoring teams we don't see at most quizzes on the assumption that they wont be factors, but still have a record of their scores should they return with some degree of success.

Below I've color-coded the teams by bar; keep in mind there will be one overall winner. In the cases in which teams have a general tendency to re-use a name or variations on a name I've listed them below by that usual name instead of what they happened to use this week.

Red = El Camino Real
Orange = 12 Steps Down
Green = The Draught Horse


Nation of Quizlam 453
The Nudist Balloonists 409

Parent Thesis 403
Lil' Roy 385

Boston Tea-Bag Party 377
Thundercats Ho! 361
Big Bushy Beard Like Merlin 316
Those Four Assholes at the Bar 311

Evile Ukrainian Penguins 286
Pies = Punches 262
Fightin' Blue Cocks 234
Northern Iowa Killed Our Brackets 230

Kensington Hookers Against Cockfighting 227
King Shit of Fuck Mountain 222
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper 205

Rape Factory 196
Shrine of the Silver Monkey 196

Just Because I Dress Like a Nazi... 188
Wallbangers 186
Quizzie McGuire 168
Ghosts of Jayson Werth's Beard 167
Clumsy Pelicans 148
Schweddy Balls 125
Doug Blew It 115
Wanton Negligence 113

Derp Derp Derp 108
The Booyesses 98

Does the Pope Shit in the Woods? 97
Yes! We Are That Good-Looking 96
Pool Hall Junkies 93
Zeta Jota 91

Hil-Dog's Period 87

PJ & Noah's Booze Fund 83
The Help 78
Team Primo 74
Dee Donley 67

Lady Raptors 65

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

A year and nearly 120 posts later, Scotland still isn't a country... and I still "talk like a fag"

Last Spring I put up this post about how Scotland is not an acceptable answer for a Speed round quiz question asking for "European countries." Why? Because Scotland ceased to be a country in the early 18th century, and is a constituent unit of a country (now) called the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", a.k.a. the United Kingdom or UK. "Scotland" isn't even in the full name of UK any longer; it's a part of Great Britain.

According to the "devolved" Scottish Parliament's website - and you would think this would end the argument, wouldn't you? - Scotland is a "kingdom" (I still find this a bit of a stretch as its own distinct royalty disappeared in 1707!) in a country called the UK.

The response was harsh and immediate, and has continued with idiotic comments and emails right up through this week. I still get called an asshole for insisting on objective reality. I'm not the only one in that boat.

All of the articles out there that point out that Scotland isn't a country also tend to point out that England, Northern Ireland and Wales aren't countries either. Yet nobody from those places nor with ancestry from those places seems perturbed by this. Only on the Scotland portion of the issue do people suffer from some form of fact-impervious mind-melt that precludes all reason on the issue.

In the case of the Scots I imagine some sense of shame over the region's domination by England, combined with the contrasting (largely) successful revolt of the Irish to create the Republic, and perhaps one too many viewings of Braveheart, have combined to make this a very touchy subject. A lot of Scots or people claiming some ancestry (in the latter case this is a bad joke; you're completely American culturally) have stated in comments on this blog and in other forums that Scotland "is a country in their heart" and for some reason the rest of us need to recognize that officially as reality, and I need to accept that as a quiz answer.

Among other problems, this leads to people claiming that Altoona "is the capital of Pennsylvania in my heart" and so forth, and would pretty much be the end of any and all trivia games anywhere.

One poor delusional fellow writing in from Scotland - who maintains a Scottish nationalist blog with what appears to be an, um, interesting version of history - spent about 7 weeks trying to sell me on the idea that the United Kingdom never existed/doesn't exist as a country, a "delusion" that I have because I'm an ignorant American who doesn't understand the political culture. At this point I had to wade into the literature and found out pretty quickly exactly what one would expect - that even the devolved Scottish Parliament recognizes the supremacy of the Westminster Parliament and agrees that they are now, have been and for the forseeable future will be a province-style chunk of the UK, with local government powers akin to those the Tenth Amendment cedes to US states.

Interestingly I've asked him or any other Scottish resident - that is to say a UK citizen who lives in Scotland, much the same as an American citizen who resides in Nebraska - to produce any form of document that makes even an informal reference to the "Country of Scotland", in the same way that a driver's license or birth certificate would read "State of New Jersey." A lifelong resident of the place, he admits he couldn't come up with one. Not one. Not a single instance of the Scottish political entity itself using the word "country."

For some reason, this hasn't shut people up either. I've gotten emails, I get blog posts, I had one person come up to me with computer print outs of internet pages (which after a very quick review, using basic reading comprehension skills, actually bolstered my arguments...)

The UK has no formal constitution as such that would lay out "The UK is comprised of nouns we offically call _________s ...", so this seemed like giving him a sporting chance, since he was pretty civil if also arguing some fairly bizarre lines of argument. From there I expected to enter into an argument over the difference between what Scotland means by "country" in context and what "country" means in an international context, akin to how Vermont is not the equal of Belgium even though in some context in certain usages both are sometimes called "states."

So far as I was concerned, the inability of the other side of the argument to produce threads of evidence to even get that far should have killed the debate dead.

What you have in a lot of cases are dictionaries and encyclopedia entries - not all but a few, and that's all it takes when Googling a phrase you'd like to read - that make a quick reference to Scotland and/or the other UK parts as "countries." Some of these are even written in the US, and none of them I'm abundantly sure were written by poli sci people. This is what I get triumphantly quoted at me by people who think that 10 seconds of selective Googling an educated response makes. More on this below.

In the case of Americans who've been arguing that Scotland is a country who don't seem to have an ethnic ax to grind on the issue, the trend has been far more disturbing. There's a rabidly anti-intellectual angle to both the tone and content of the arguments from some people that I've likened to Idiocracy, to creationists, to the Obama birthers, to the 9/11 truthers.

The facts simply don't matter. A person can Google "Scotland + country", find any sentence with the two together, then post this as a logical "proof." Any attempt to point out how many of these references are flat out incorrect, or need to be interpreted in context, is dismissed out of hand as me "talking like a fag" to use the Idiocracy term. The "common folk" call Scotland a country, and the anonymous person who updated the Wikipedia entry on Scotland, and an intern over at infoplease.com who condensed an article on Scotland used the word "country", thus I am both wrong and a pompous ass for suggesting anything else can be true.

I've also been hit with the (unstated) postmodernist argument that Scotland is a country because the hearer of the question believes that to be true, either because the listener determines the reality of what I meant when I used the word, or because the reality of what countries are is determined by the listener. Why even have a quiz, then? Why even go on living, in your world without sanity?

The fact that I have a political science degree from a top school, the fact that I worked for the US Department of State for a short time, the fact that I spent a year and half heading a geographic encyclopedia project, the fact that I spent 7 years working for a UN-registered geography teaching NGO as the head of the Research Department - are these points in my favor? Certainly not!

These only serve to make people angrier with me, because as a college boy with my fancy book-learnin', I refuse to see the simple truths perceived by the common people when they read a quick dictionary defintion, or any other line, out of context. Or add their own context, because what any of us thinks is presumably equally valid as anyone else. (Not my thoughts, though, because I have formal experience in the area; this only works in one direction.)

In fact HOW DARE I even mention the fact that I spent about 14 years of academic study and professional, compensated work days dealing with precisely these issues. This is the homeopath's retort to the (normal, effective) doctor, and the creationist's answer to the biologist: your experience and education is an active negative, because I have Google and basic reading (if shaky comprehension) skills. A degree is a liar's license, and professional experience counts for less than shit.

Thus I also hear that "we're both right", which is precisely to say that the people insisting on one objectively correct answer are wrong.

The frightening bit is that everyone insisting that Scotland is a country also insists that it's my responsibilty to prove that it is not, thus reversing the Enlightenment. Somehow we now believe that burden of proof is on the the person refuting a positive assertion without supporting evidence. "Salem Witch Trials, here we come!" Argument from ignorance is the order of the day, dominating most aspects of American debated life and "winning" more often than not, and we should believe anything we'd like to be true in the meantime, while the egghead fag-talkers attempt to prove a negative.

Repeatedly people will introduce a reference which specifically backs up my argument, but because they have poor reading comprehension or because they read selectively, this somehow simply doesn't matter.

Facts simply don't matter to the majority. Most people can't determine the difference between a fact and a fallacy, and as long as this condition doesn't confront them with ugly truths, are content to live that way.


My "favorite" few proofs for Scotland = country thus far:

- Showing me an article written by a poli sci professor which lays out some ways we could define a "country." Some of the items lend some support to a Scotland bid (most didn't). The word "Scotland" did not appear in the document. This of course was one poli sci professor; all of the other ones who would lay out some other criteria for countries - as well as the objective reality of the international community of nations - are to be ignored. The kicker: this guy had a link to a commonly accepted list of the world's countries. The UK was on the list and Scotland predictably wasn't. Somehow this was not acceptable as a point in my favor.

- There are a lot of dictionary definitions for the word "country", thus when I ask a trivia question asking for "countries", I should accept the answers the listener thinks I meant, regardless of the context of the question and all other answers to that or similar questions. Hand in hand with this, it's perfectly OK to switch out different numbered definitions of one word in a sentence occuring once, regardless of context. Presumably then Red Sox fans, as a "nation", are a country the way that France is. Amish Country is a similar unit to Bolivia. Delaware, as a "state", is a like unit to Canada. [My eventual counterargument to this is to ask if a cop knocks on your door and says "We think your 6 year old son may have a gun!", should we take this as granting permission? Think that'd hold up in court..?]

- The UK doesn't exist as a country, because if Scotland left then the Kingdom wouldn't be United any longer. [Wales? Northern Ireland..? What about them..?] Thus the UK - which simultaneously doesn't exist - is a larger entity than country, and Scotland is a country inside of it. Except when it isn't inside of it, because it never was part of the UK to begin with.

- "Assume nothing." Except, apparently, to assume that you're correct and I'm wrong.

- Showing me a section of a Googled 1930 [?! - this was the best we could do?] US customs training document which noted that someone might list "Scotland" as a country of origin for goods. And it's true, they might. [A person might also answer "Yes" to Sex? ______ on a job application...] The document went on to say paragraphs later that "Great Britain" or "UK" might also be listed, and to treat all as "UK." But we ignore these bits.

- The dictionary-definition crowd will use an edition of a dictionary that refers to Scotland as a country en passant, but this edition won't have that definition for Wales, while simultaneously claiming in a separate entry that the UK is "four countries", including Wales, also deemed correct. Thus if Wales is a region on one page of the book, but a country on another page of the same book, they'll go with the second if that supports the Scotland argument. If neither Wales nor Scotland are called countries in that dictionary, we drop it and pick up a different one with "more favorable" definitions. The UK is usually also claimed to be a country, meaning that the UK can be defined as 1, 2, 3, 4 or FIVE countries, simultaneously, depending on which combination of definitions in which dictionaries one chooses to use at the moment. For some reason it's perfectly OK to mix editions, mix publishers, mix British and American publications... just to keep moving, just to keep the argument "in play." When I point out that varying definitions are clearly a reason the dictionary is the wrong tool to use for this, and this is clearly not what the UN (for example) is using, I am ignored. When I point out most of the world doesn't speak English, I am ignored. When I bring up my educational background in this and suggest using a comparative politics method instead of abusing dictionary.com, I am accused of using an appeal to authority argument - which is exactly what is used when claiming that condensed dictionary writers are infallible in all matters... even when they contradict themselves from one portion of a book to another.

- 2+2 = 4 [which is somehow its own formal math proof now?!], thus 2+2 can't equal 5 [I'm pretty sure a math professor would not follow this path]. Thus 2+2 =4 means that an infinite number of negatives were just formally proven, thus it's possible to prove a negative, and I have the burden of proof to refute the non-documented assertion that Scotland is a country. And until I do that, Scotland is a country.

- Showing me an OED reference that called Scotland a "country in the UK." The same sentence listed "Ireland" as a country in the UK, which is plainly wrong. The claim was then that the word "Ireland" actually just means "Northern Ireland." (I assume that this was a very old and/or biased reference; I wasn't shown the original nor given a date.) And what was the "proof" that the word "Ireland" is used by British people only to mean "Northern Ireland"? Some quoted chat room discussion from Britain in which some Brits noted that they hated it when people say "Ireland" just to mean the north. Thus the chat room discussion proves that sometimes Brits are wrong about what to call Northern Ireland, as was the person who wrote the OED entry, which therefore proves the same author who goofed on Ireland was therefore right about Scotland. This might be the most tortured argument I've ever encountered on any subject, and I still have trouble trying to understand how these steps connect in any fashion.

It's all very simple, don't you see?
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Baseball is back, and dominates the subject rounds this week

A few people have emailed or asked in person about what would be the third annual Ray's Happy Birthday Bar All-Baseball Quiz. The quiz is basically dead over at Ray's through lack of general interest among bar regulars in anything other than staring forward and drinking, or reruns of 24 and Lost. (If you were to combine those two shows by the way... that's what the daytime regular crowd experience is pretty much like...)

So I asked my old friend Paulie about doing the all-baseball quiz as a one-off and he says we should shoot for doing it during the All-Star break. Sounds good to me.

Tuesday, April 6, 9:00pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: BASEBALL I

Wednesday, April 7, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: BASEBALL II

Thursday, April 8, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
(Temple University campus)
Subject Round: BASEBALL III

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Tournament standings after the second week of play

These are the overall standings after two weeks. Cumulative totals will be posted weekly.

Once again I sifted out low-scoring teams we don't see at most quizzes on the assumption that they wont be factors, but still have a record of their scores should they return with some degree of success.

Below I've color-coded the teams by bar; keep in mind there will be one overall winner. In the cases in which teams have a general tendency to re-use a name or variations on a name I've listed them below by that usual name instead of what they happened to use this week.

Red = El Camino Real
Orange = 12 Steps Down
Green = The Draught Horse


The Nudist Balloonists 291
Nation of Quizlam 280

Lil' Roy 273
Boston Tea-Bag Party 254
Parent Thesis 247
Thundercats Ho! 238
Northern Iowa Killed Our Brackets 230
Kensington Hookers Against Cockfighting 227
King Shit of Fuck Mountain 222
Evile Ukrainian Penguins 206
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper 205

Rape Factory 196
Shrine of the Silver Monkey 196
Those Four Assholes at the Bar 194

Big Bushy Beard Like Merlin 192
Wallbangers 186
Pies = Punches 175
Clumsy Pelicans 148
Schweddy Balls 125
Wanton Negligence 113
Just Because I Dress Like a Nazi... 112
Fightin' Blue Cocks 106
The Booyesses 98
Does the Pope Shit in the Woods? 97
Zeta Jota 91

The Help 78
Team Primo 74
Dee Donley 67

Quizzie McGuire 61

Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Thursday, April 1, 2010

No joke - The 100 Best April Fool's Day Pranks of All Time

Great piece available over at The Museum of Hoaxes site.
I should note that although tonight's Subject Round is "Fools", there will be no hoax questions in the quiz.
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites

Teabonics

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." - John Stuart Mill

These people aren't even classic conservatives, are they? Some sort of lazy proto-fascist would be a better description. In any event, enjoy this gallery of photos of Ammerica's Foks Newz vuerrers atemptting too spel.
Digg!
Add to Technorati Favorites