Mark Brader:
> Welcome to Rotating Quiz #271. My thanks to Dan Blum for writing
> the last quiz and choosing a question set that allowed me to win.
>
> Back in 2013, I had an idea for RQ 120 that I thought was
> interesting, but it proved hard enough that it only drew a low
> turnout. I'm reusing the same idea this time, but I've tweaked
> some details to make it easier, in the hope that more people will
> enter this time.
There were 5 entrants, none of them Stephen Perry. At least that's
one more than last time.
And the winner is -- DAN BLUM. Hearty congratulations, Dan!
> RQ 271, then, is about these people... as you have no doubt noticed,
> they were born at 12-year intervals, from 1727 on. Or more precisely,
> their *years of birth* were at 12-year intervals -- 1727, 1739, 1751,
> and so on.
In fact, as you no doubt noticed, I goofed big-time on that.
I intended to recheck my list before posting the contest, but got
distracted while doing the check and proceeded to post without
completing it.
First, for two of the people shown, there is conflicting information
as to their exact year of birth; but at least these discrepancies
are only a matter of a a year or two, not enough to interfere with
the contest. (They are marked with "?" below.)
But, far worse, for one person -- Renoir -- I accidentally used
the date he *died* at age 78 (1919) instead of the year he was born
(1841). Which was *really* stupid of me, because I knew perfectly
well that he was active as a painter earlier than 1919.
> Your task, of course, is simply to give the year of birth for each
> person -- or, equivalently, to put them in order by date of birth.
> The scoring is 25 points for each correct answer, 5 points for
> each answer where you are off by 12 years, and 1 point for each
> answer where you are off by 24 years. So a perfect score is 625.
> In case of a tie, the tiebreaker will be who scored the most on
> the hardest questions; and if necessary, who posted first.
I think the fairest thing way to handle the error is as follows.
Of the years I said were possible answers, the ones nearest 1841
are 1835 (Saint-Saëns) and 1847 (Bell). I'll treat either of those
answers as correct for Renoir, for 25. If you used the answer format
where you could give the dates explicitly rather than sequencing
the people, and dared to give the "impossible" answer of 1841,
or any date between 1835 and 1847, of course that's also the full 25.
And further, if you gave 1847 or any other date during Renoir's
lifetime for Renoir, then for any person born between Renoir's birth
and the date you gave, I'll treat both the actual answer and the
answer 12 years later as correct.
Conversely, if you gave 1835 for Renoir, then I'll extend the same
leeway for people born before him, treating the answer 12 years
earlier as correct. In this case the leeway period will extend back
for as many chronologically consecutive people as it allows you to
score for.
In all cases this leeway affects 5-point and 1-point answers, in
the obvious way, as well as 25-point answers.
(*) in the scores indicates entrants who benefited from these forms
of compensation. I had to do these corrections by hand, so please
let me know if I got them wrong.
Anyway, my apologies for the screw-up.
Below, for your putative interest, I'm showing not only everyone's
date of birth but also the date of death and the place of each.
It was, of course, while filling in these additional details (but
after having posted the contest) that I realized what had happened;
and I then worked out the corrected scoring scheme as set out above,
before looking at how it would affect anyone.
In fact, it turns out that everybody who entered attempted to use
the entry format where they provided a suitably permuted list of
names (and only one got it so badly wrong I had to write a separate
program to fix their entry), so there was nobody in a position to
dare to give the answer 1841.
> 1. Ethan Allen, militia leader.
1739?-89 (Connecticut, colony of Great Britain; Vermont).
25 for Dan Tilque. 5 for Peter and Dan Blum. 1 for Calvin.
> 2. Pamela Anderson, actress.
1967- (British Columbia, Canada). 25 for Dan Blum, Erland,
and Calvin. 5 for Peter and Dan Tilque.
> 3. John Jacob Astor I, businessman.
1763-1848 (Electoral Palatinate, HRE; New York, US). 25 for
Dan Tilque. 5 for Erland.
> 4. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor.
1847-1922 (Scotland, UK; Nova Scotia, Canada). 25 for Peter.
5 for Calvin and Dan Tilque. 1 for Dan Blum and Erland.
> 5. Mark Brader, computer programmer.
1955- (England, UK). 25 for Dan Blum, Erland, Calvin, and Dan Tilque.
5 for Peter.
> 6. Rachel Carson, scientist.
1907-64 (Pennsylvania, US; Maryland, US). 25 for Dan Blum (*)
and Calvin (*). 5 for Peter and Erland. 1 for Dan Tilque.
> 7. Charlotte of Cambridge, princess.
2015- (England, UK). 25 for everyone -- Peter, Dan Blum, Erland,
Calvin, and Dan Tilque.
> 8. Stephen Crane, author.
1871-1900 (New Jersey, US; Baden, Germany). 1 for Dan Blum.
> 9. Pierre Curie, scientist.
1859-1906 (Seine, France; Seine, France). 25 for Calvin (*).
5 for Peter and Erland. 1 for Dan Tilque.
> 10. John Kerry, politician.
1943- (Colorado, US). 25 for Peter, Dan Blum, Erland, and Calvin.
1 for Dan Tilque.
> 11. Pierre Laval, politician.
1883-1945 (Puy-de-Dôme, France; Seine, France). 1 for Erland
and Dan Tilque.
> 12. Kawhi Leonard, basketball player.
1991- (California, US). 25 for Peter, Dan Blum, and Calvin.
5 for Erland and Dan Tilque.
> 13. Elisha Otis, inventor.
1811-61 (Vermont, US; New York, US). 5 for Dan Tilque. 1 for Peter.
> 14. Aleksandr Pushkin, author.
1799-1837 (Russia; Russia). 25 for Peter.
> 15. Auguste Renoir, artist.
1841-1919 (Haute-Vienne, France; Alpes-Maritimes, France).
> 16. Babe Ruth, baseball player.
1895-1948 (Maryland, US; New York, US). 25 for everyone, with a
(*) in Dan Blum's case.
That should have read George "Babe" Ruth, of course.
> 17. Sacagawea, expedition member.
1787?-1812 (Shoshone lands; Dakota territory, US). 25 for Dan Blum.
5 for Dan Tilque.
> 18. Camille Saint-Saëns, composer.
1835-1921 (Seine, France; Algeria, colony of France) 1 for Peter,
Erland, Calvin, and Dan Tilque.
> 19. William Shatner, actor.
1931- (Quebec, Canada). 25 for Peter, Dan Blum, and Calvin.
5 for Dan Tilque.
> 20. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, author.
1751-1816 (Leinster, Ireland; England, UK). 25 for Calvin
and Dan Tilque. 5 for Dan Blum.
> 21. John M.W. Turner, artist.
1775-1851 (England, GB; England, UK). 25 for Dan Blum and Dan Tilque.
5 for Peter.
> 22. William "Boss" Tweed, politician.
1823-78 (New York, US; New York, US). 5 for Dan Blum. 1 for
Dan Tilque.
> 23. Nik Wallenda, daredevil.
1979- (Florida, US). 25 for Peter and Dan Blum. 5 for Erland
and Dan Tilque.
> 24. Quvenzhané Wallis, actress.
2003- (Louisiana, US). 25 for Peter, Dan Blum, and Calvin.
> 25. James Wolfe, general.
1727-59 (England, UK; New France, colony of France). 25 for Dan Blum,
Calvin, and Dan Tilque. 5 for Peter.
Scores, if there are no errors:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ...
Dan Blum 5 25 0 1 25 25 25 1 0 25 0 25 0 0 0 ...
"Calvin" 1 25 0 5 25 25 25 0 25 25 0 25 0 0 0 ...
Peter Smyth 5 5 0 25 5 5 25 0 5 25 0 25 1 25 0 ...
Dan Tilque 25 5 25 5 25 1 25 0 1 1 1 5 5 0 0 ...
Erland Sommarskog 0 25 5 1 25 5 25 0 5 25 1 5 0 0 0 ...
... 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 TOTALS
Dan Blum ... 25 25 0 25 5 25 5 25 25 25 342
"Calvin" ... 25 0 1 25 25 0 0 0 25 25 307
Peter Smyth ... 25 0 1 25 0 5 0 25 25 5 262
Dan Tilque ... 25 5 1 5 25 25 1 5 0 25 241
Erland Sommarskog ... 25 0 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 153
So now it's back to Dan Blum, I hope, for RQ 272.
--
Mark Brader "...there are other means of persuasion
m...@vex.net besides killing and threatening to kill."
Toronto --Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon