Rare Entries DJT02

Dan Tilque

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Jun 5, 2011, 8:39:31 AM6/5/11

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Welcome to my second Rare Entries contest. I have several changes from
my first contest.

1. Instead of using Mark's rules, I've come up with my own. They're
shorter than Mark's, but I'll expect I'll be adding more as needed.

2. In my first contest, I followed Mark's practice of having the contest
last 20 days. I found that to be way too long, so I've reduced it to
about two weeks.

3. I'm making this contest be sort of a double contest. I'm doing this
by posting the exact same contest to the Straight Dope Message Board.
I'll score the two separately and, if it doesn't look like too much
work, I'll also score the two as a combined contest. I'd appreciate it
if you refrain from entering both contests.

As usual, reply ONLY BY EMAIL to dti...@frontier.com DO NOT post
answers to this newsgroup. Anyone who does will be disqualified.

Entries must reach here by 10 p.m. Friday, June 17, 2011 (Pacific
Daylight Time, UTC -7).

Do not include any of the text from this posting with your answers. Just
send a list of your answers numbered from 0 through 9, plus the name you
want to be credited under (a signature is usually sufficient for this).
Make sure that the subject line includes the string "DJT02". Also,
please answer with plain text rather than rich text.

If you really feel you must include text from this contest, then please
top post your answers so that I can see all of them without scrolling.
I'm considering applying a penalty to those who persist in interleaving
their answers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0. Name a Solar System body that a spacecraft has landed on or impacted.
Atmospheric probes count as impactors, although flying through the coma
of a comet does not count as an atmospheric probe.

1. Name a current or former capital city which was named for a US President.

2. Name a real person who was not a US president and whose image has
appeared on a US coin issued for circulation. Models used by coin
designers are excluded from this question; only a person that an image
is meant to represent is a valid answer. Coins intended only for
collectors and/or investment purposes are excluded.

3. Name a Great Lake.

4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in production.

5. Name an organized sport that has more than one mode of scoring. A
mode of scoring is determined by the number of points (see definition
4.5) scored. All actions that score the same number of points count as a
single mode. Administratively assigned points (e.g. for forfeits or
penalties) do not count as a mode of scoring. Tennis is excluded from
this question; it has only one mode of scoring, but has a funny way of
counting to four.

6. Give a word (definition 4.1) which has the meaning of some shade of
red. Note that pink, orange, and purple are separate colors and not
considered to be a shade of red.

7. Name a prime minister of Canada who served at least 2 years in that
office.

8. Name an album released by the Beatles.

9. Name material that bicycle frames are made of.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rules
=====

For each of the items above, your objective is to give an answer that
(1) is correct, and (2) will be duplicated by as FEW other people as
possible. Feel free to use any reference material you like to research
your answers.

1.0 Scoring
===========

For each item, the score will be set to how many entrants gave a
particular answer. If someone gives an answer no one else gives, they
score 1; if one other entrant gives that answer, both score 2; etc. Each
entrant's total score will be their ten individual scores multiplied
together. Low score wins.

Wrong answers will score the lesser of (1) twice the highest correct
score for that item and (2) half the total number of participants in the
contest.

2.0 Synonyms
============

Synonymous answers will be treated as the same answer. There are two
exceptions to this:

1) A request for a name or term for a single person or object. These, by
their very nature, will all be synonyms, so obviously it makes no sense
to treat them as the same answer.

2) A request for an English word for something. The item must
specifically request a *word* and not a name or something else.
Otherwise, the phrasing of the item does not make a difference.

3.0 More Specific Variants
==========================

On some items it's possible that one entrant will give an answer that's
a more specific variant of an answer given by someone else. In that case
the more specific variant will be scored as if the two answers are
different, but the other, less specific variant, will be scored as if
they are the same.

4.0 Definitions
===============

4.1 *word* means a lowercase, solidly-written, English word found in a
general-purpose English dictionary. (The OED, by the way, is not a
general-purpose dictionary; it's a historical dictionary.)

4.2 *term* may be either a single word or multi-word phrase for something.

4.3 *geographic* means something found on maps of Earth or a part
thereof. Fantasy maps or maps of other planets do not count.

4.4 *cartographic* means something found on a map, either fictional or
otherwise. However, the map must have existed before the contest began
and must be accessible on the Internet.

4.5 *point* -- When referring to sports, "point" will be considered a
generic term for any kind of score, no matter if they are called goals,
runs, strokes, etc. by a particular sport.

5.0 Clarifications
==================

Please email any requests for clarification of an item. DO NOT POST them
to the newsgroup/thread. If I agree that one needs to be made, I'll post
a correction and anyone who's already submitted an entry will be allowed
to change their answer for that item.

Please do not discuss the items or possible answers in the
newsgroup/thread. Doing so may result in disqualification.

6.0 Misc
========

Unless specifically stated in an item, there is no penalty for errors of
spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. so long as it's clear what
you intended.

If you supply an answer which is incorrect, but related to a correct
answer, then I may, at my own discretion, allow it as if you'd given the
correct answer. For example, if an item asks for a national capital city
with certain characteristics and you submit the name of a country, then
I may consider your entry to be that country's capital. However, don't
count on this; it's not automatic.

Only give one answer per item. If multiple answers are supplied for an
item or multiple sets of answers are submitted, the first one will be
considered your submission and the rest ignored.

Entry
=====

Email all answers to dti...@frontier.com Do not post them to this
newsgroup/thread. Anyone who does will be disqualified.

Do not include any of the text from this message with your answers. Your
entry should just have a list of ten answers numbered 0 through 9 plus
the name/handle you want to receive credit under. If you absolutely
*must* include text, then do not interleave your answers. Instead,
please top post your answers, so that I can see them in the message
without scrolling down.

Please answer in plain text and not in rich text format.

You should receive an acknowledgement email within a couple days of your
entry.

--
Dan Tilque

Dan Tilque

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Jun 5, 2011, 4:08:24 PM6/5/11

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Dan Tilque wrote:

>
> 5. Name an organized sport that has more than one mode of scoring. A
> mode of scoring is determined by the number of points (see definition
> 4.5) scored. All actions that score the same number of points count as a
> single mode. Administratively assigned points (e.g. for forfeits or
> penalties) do not count as a mode of scoring. Tennis is excluded from
> this question; it has only one mode of scoring, but has a funny way of
> counting to four.

Ammendment to this item:

Target sports are also excluded.

--
Dan Tilque

Dan Tilque

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Jun 12, 2011, 11:17:48 PM6/12/11

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You have 5 days to enter.

amendment: Target sports are excluded

Dan Tilque

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Jun 16, 2011, 11:44:49 PM6/16/11

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You have one more day to enter.

Amendment: Target sports are also excluded.

Dan Tilque

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Jun 19, 2011, 2:57:34 AM6/19/11

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There were 17 entrants from the Usenet newsroups and 4 from the SDMB.
Since 4 is not enough contestants to do a rare entries contest on, I'm
going to just score a single comnbined contest.

The winner was JOHN GERSON. Runners up were DAVE FILPUS and HARAN
PILPEL. Here are their answer slates (with some abbreviation):

John Gerson Dave Filpus Haran Pilpel
0. Titan Venus Jupiter
1. Lincoln, NE Jefferson City MO Jefferson City
2. Sacagawea John Muir John Muir
3. Lake Superior Huron Superior
4. zodiac Jupiter Merkur
5. Six-red snooker Rugby Chess (W)
6. ruby cardinal raspberry
7. Laurier Borden King
8. With The Beatles Rubber Soul Yesterday and Today
9. 4130 steel Magnesium walnut

There were only 7 wrong answers in total in this contest, a surprisingly
low number. I haven't done any statistics (not even counted them), but
my impression is that there were relatively few 1's compared to previous
rare entries contests.

Here's the complete table of scores. Names marked with an * are entrants
from the SDMB. Those are their handles rather than actual names.

Item number--> 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. 360 John Gerson 4 1 3 5 1 1 1 2 3 1
2. 600 Dave Filpus 1 5 2 5 1 3 2 2 1 1
3. 1800 Haran Pilpel 2 5 2 5 1 W 1 3 1 1
4. 2500 Chronos * 1 5 2 5 5 2 1 5 1 1
5. 2916 Mark Brader 9 9 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 6
6. 4050 panamajack * 9 3 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 6
7. 5040 Gibbs89 * 1 1 1 4 2 2 2 5 3 W
8. 5760 Garmt de Vries 2 3 1 4 5 2 W 2 3 1
9. 7200 Don Pivin 2 2 2 3 2 1 2 5 1 6
10.(t) 8640 Duke 9 5 4 4 1 1 2 3 1 2
10.(t) 8640 Stephen Perry 9 2 5 1 2 2 1 1 4 6
12. 10800 Kevin Stone 9 5 4 1 5 1 1 3 4 1
13. 18000 Bruce Bowler 9 5 5 1 5 2 2 1 4 1
14. 19200 Maus Magill * 2 2 5 1 4 2 2 5 3 4
15. 19440 Rob Parker 4 3 3 5 2 1 2 3 3 3
16. 32400 Calvin 4 5 5 3 3 1 W 3 3 1
17. 38880 Nick Selwyn 9 9 1 5 4 2 2 3 1 2
18. 97200 Lieven Marchand 9 5 4 5 3 3 2 1 3 2
19. 100800 Bj�rn Lundin W 5 5 4 4 2 1 2 3 2
20. 138240 Joseph P 9 2 4 5 4 1 W 1 4 6
21. 324000 Peter Chapman 4 5 3 5 3 1 W 5 3 6

And the scores of the individual items:

0. Name a Solar System body that a spacecraft has landed on or impacted.
Atmospheric probes count as impactors, although flying through the coma
of a comet does not count as an atmospheric probe.

9 Earth
4 Titan
2 25143 Itokawa
2 Jupiter
1 Moon
1 Sun
1 Venus

W Io

Big collision on Earth while Mars, 433 Eros, and Comet 9P/Tempel 1 were
left untouched.

The Sun is a questionable answer. The entrant argued that the solar wind
is composed of particles from the Sun's atmosphere and we've sent
missions to study the solar wind. Ergo, those missions are atmospheric
probes. I wasn't real happy about this, but decided to give it to him
anyway.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Name a current or former capital city which was named for a US President.

9 Washington
+ 2 Washington DC
+ 2 Washington AR
+ 3 Washington MS
5 Jefferson City MO
5 Monrovia, Liberia
1 Lincoln NE
1 Villa Hayes, Paraguay

Two people answered Washington without qualification. That omission cost
them dearly. No doubt they were unaware (as was I before this contest
started) that Washington, Arkansas was the capital of that state during
the Civil War after Little Rock had been captured by Union forces and
that Washington, Mississippi was the capital while it was a territory.

Villa Hayes is named for Rutherford B Hayes. Apparently, he's something
of a hero in Paraguay for ruling in that country's favor in a border
dispute. Most US citizens barely know he existed.

Answers not given were Madison WI, Jackson MS, and another obscure one,
Washington-on-the-Brazos, TX, which was the capital of the Republic of
Texas twice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Name a real person who was not a US president and whose image has
appeared on a US coin issued for circulation. Models used by coin
designers are excluded from this question; only a person that an image
is meant to represent is a valid answer. Coins intended only for
collectors and/or investment purposes are excluded.

5 Benjamin Franklin
4 Susan B Anthony
3 Sacagawea
2 Kamehameha I (Hawaii state quarter)
2 John Muir (California state quarter)
1 Jean Baptiste Charbonneau ($1 coin)
1 William Clark
1 Duke Ellington (DC territorial quarter)
1 Meriwether Lewis
1 Prince Whipple (New Jersey state quarter)

I assume Lewis and Clark are on the Missouri state quarter, although I
don't know if that's official or not. There's a boat with three figures
in it which represents their expedition, but I don't know if those
figures are actually meant to represent the men themselves.

Jean Baptiste Charbonneau is the papoose that Sacagawea is carrying on
her back. Prince Whipple is one of the men on Washington's boat crossing
the Delaware.

Answers not given are Caesar Rodney (DE quarter), General Edward Hand
(NJ quarter), Wilbur and Orville Wright (NC quarter), and Helen Keller
(AL quarter).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Name a Great Lake.

5 Huron
5 Superior
4 Ontario
3 Great Lake, Tasmania
1 Erie
1 Great Salt Lake
1 Michigan
1 Michigan-Huron

Technically, Lakes Michigan and Huron are a single lake, since there's
just a fairly wide passage between them rather than a river. I decided
to count it as a distinct answer rather than a less specific answer.

It surprised me that no one gave any of the African Great Lakes as an
answer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in production.

5 Subaru (Japanese "Pleides")
4 Galaxy
3 Astra (Latin "star, constellation")
2 Gemini
2 Orion
1 Daewoo (Korean "great universe")
1 Galaxie
1 Jupiter
1 Merkur (German "Mercury")
1 Zodiac

Everyone, please note the conjunction between "make" and "model" above.
Despite it being "or", most people gave both a make and a model. I was
looking for just one or the other. Obviously I didn't make this clear
enough, so I'll take the blame for it.

Since many of the makes (and some of the models) given were not valid
answers, I decided to take the first name that had an astronomical theme
in each entrant's answer as their answer. Since everyone had at least
one (and a few people had two), no one got a wrong answer, although some
may have gotten a higher score than they'd anticipated.

Several people gave the Ford Galaxy, which I'm going to guess was
usually meant to be the large sedan from the 60s. That car was actually
spelled Galaxie. It turns out that Ford is also making a minivan under
the spelling of Galaxy. So these answers are distinct rather than Galaxy
being treated as a misspelling. All parties benefitted, although the guy
who answered Galaxie got the most benefit (Mark's spelling
anal-retentiveness finally pays dividends.)

There's a number of answers no one gave: Saturn, Mercury, Comet, and
Astro are a few.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Name an organized sport that has more than one mode of scoring. A
mode of scoring is determined by the number of points (see definition
4.5) scored. All actions that score the same number of points count as a
single mode. Administratively assigned points (e.g. for forfeits or
penalties) do not count as a mode of scoring. Tennis is excluded from
this question; it has only one mode of scoring, but has a funny way of

counting to four. Target sports are excluded from this item.

3 rugby
+ 1 rugby league
2 bowling
2 cricket
2 hurling
2 judo
1 arena football
1 Australian Rules Football
1 (English) billiards
1 Canadian football
1 Gaelic football
1 gliding
1 Kabaddi
1 (muggle) Quidditch
1 six-red snooker

W chess

Chess is not a sport (it's a board game), but even if it were, it does
not have more than one mode of scoring. The numbers usually assigned for
taken pieces (e.g. 1 for a pawn, 3 for a knight, etc.) are just an
informal way of keeping track of who's ahead and have no official
status. In fact, they're actually rarely used even informally, as far as
I can tell.

Some day American contestants are going to learn that rugby is not a
single sport and thus do better on these contests. Don't hold your breath.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Give a word (definition 4.1) which has the meaning of some shade of
red. Note that pink, orange, and purple are separate colors and not
considered to be a shade of red.

2 cardinal
2 carmine
2 carnelian
2 puce
2 scarlet
1 coquelicot
1 flame
1 incarnadine
1 maroon
1 raspberry
1 ruby
1 vermilion

W rufous (adjective)
W ruddy (adjective)
W blood
W falu red (two words)

Rufous and ruddy are adjectives meaning "reddish". I was looking for a
noun. For a few of the answers, I had to look in a large number of
dictionaries to find one that defined it as a shade of red. "Flame" and
"carnelian" were notable here. I checked over a dozen dictionaries, both
on-line and off, and couldn't find any that defined "blood" as a shade
of red.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Name a prime minister of Canada who served at least 2 years in that
office.

5 Sir John Thompson
3 Richard Bedford Bennett
3 William Lyon Mackenzie King
2 Sir Robert Borden
2 Sir Wilfrid Laurier
1 Jean Chr�tien
1 Stephen Harper
1 Sir John A. Macdonald
1 Alexander Mackenzie
1 Brian Mulroney
1 Louis St. Laurent

One entrant gave a conditional response based on two possible
interpretations of the item. That sort of thing is not allowed. I'll
always take the first answer given, as it says in the rules. The entrant
who did this is from the SDMB, so it's understandable that he was
unaware of this.

It turns out neither of the two interpretations he gave was completely
correct. "Serving two years in office" means a total of 730 days no
matter how many terms those days are spread across. Fortunately for the
entrant, the first answer he gave was a valid one.

I do wonder if there are any valid answers from before 1867. I'm not
that familiar with the colonial government from that era, but perhaps a
Canadian on the list might be.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Name an album released by the Beatles.

4 The Beatles [The White Album; Los Beatles]
3 Beatles for Sale
3 Revolver
3 With the Beatles
1 Beatles 65
1 The Beatles' Christmas Album
1 The Beatles' Long Tall Sally (Canadian release)
1 The Beatles' Second Album
1 Magical Mystery Tour
1 Rubber Soul
1 Something New
1 Yesterday and Today

I couldn't find anything on the internet about "Los Beatles", so I
assumed it was just the Spanish release of the White Album. Long Tall
Sally was an extended play (EP) record in most countries, but was the
name of an album released only in Canada.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

9. Name material that bicycle frames are made of.

6 bamboo
4 wood
+ 1 plywood
+ 1 walnut
+ 1 Bubinga wood
3 steel
+ 1 4136 ChroMoly
+ 1 SAE grade 4130 steel
2 carbon fiber
2 titanium
1 6061 aluminium alloy
1 magnesium
1 plastic

W molybdenum

I was unhappy about the scoring of a few answers here. But I'd be
unhappy no matter how I scored them.

Molybdenum was scored wrong, as no frames are made just of that metal.
No doubt the entrant was thinking of chromium-molybdenum-steel alloy,
usually known as chromoly. 4136 Chromoly and SAE grade 4130 steel are
two very specific forms of this alloy. This scoring seemed to be
unquestionable on its face.

But then you get to the wood bicycles. The only bike frames I could find
made of walnut or Bubinga wood are from Renovo Hardwood Bicycles. And in
both cases, the frames are made of two different woods laminated
together. So, unlike all the other materials in the above list, for
these two types of wood, the frames are not made completely from the
material.

One way of looking at it is that the only difference between molybdenum
and these two types of wood is that you can point to a section of the
wooden frames and say "here's this type of wood", whereas you can't do
the same with a chromoly frame and molydbenum. So it doesn't seem quite
right to score one wrong and the other two right.

The alternatives seem to be to score the three as either all right or
all wrong. Neither of these seem to be a perfect answer. So I'd like any
thoughts anyone has on this dilemma.

Thank you for playing everone.

--
Dan Tilque

Kevin Stone

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Jun 19, 2011, 4:50:31 AM6/19/11

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> 8. Name an album released by the Beatles.

> I couldn't find anything on the internet about "Los Beatles"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_discography

Listed as a separate album in 1965...

--
Kev

Kevin Stone

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Jun 19, 2011, 4:50:59 AM6/19/11

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> 4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
> astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in
> production.

> I was looking for just one or the other.

You quite clearly stated OR....

...I think you should disallow any answer that didn't answer the question
asked.

--
Kev

Dan Tilque

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Jun 19, 2011, 5:19:50 AM6/19/11

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Definitely not the White Album, then. Wrong year. I'll rescore it after
I get more feedback.

--
Dan Tilque

Erland Sommarskog

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Jun 19, 2011, 5:22:40 AM6/19/11

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Dan Tilque (dti...@frontier.com) writes:
> 3. Name a Great Lake.
>
> 5 Huron
> 5 Superior
> 4 Ontario
> 3 Great Lake, Tasmania
> 1 Erie
> 1 Great Salt Lake
> 1 Michigan
> 1 Michigan-Huron
>
> Technically, Lakes Michigan and Huron are a single lake, since there's
> just a fairly wide passage between them rather than a river. I decided
> to count it as a distinct answer rather than a less specific answer.
>
> It surprised me that no one gave any of the African Great Lakes as an
> answer.

I didn't enter because there was several questions I did not like. Exactly
what is a Great Lake? Spelt with capitals, one could interpret it as it
exactly one of the five lakes on the border between the US and Canada.
But apparently other answers were allowed, as some contestants found out.
So if there is Great in the name, that's OK? What is someone had answered
the Capsian Sea which is a very great lake? The salt lake in Utah may
have have Great in the name, but there are lot of lakes that are greater
than that one.

It's part of the game that if you decide to bend the question that you
don't know exactly how the quizmaster will rule the answer. But at least
you should have an idea what the quizmaster has in mind, and think
this question fails that test.

--
Erland Sommarskog, Stockholm, esq...@sommarskog.se

Dan Tilque

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Jun 19, 2011, 6:08:54 AM6/19/11

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Based on the way the game has been played in the past, any ambiguity in
the phrasing of an item can be exploited, although you run the risk of
getting a wrong answer. That's part of the game.

I'll admit that I deliberately left this item somewhat open. I was
prepared to accept any answer which could legitimately be a Great Lake
with capitals. Since the names of lakes are capitalized, then any lake
with "Great" and "Lake" in its name would be acceptable. However, if a
reviewer on the internet says that a particular lake was a "great lake
for fishing", that would not be acceptable. The Caspian, despite being a
very large lake, would not qualify unless the entrant came up with a
good rationale for why it's a Great Lake and not just a great lake.

--
Dan Tilque

gaactn_0...@internode.on.net

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Jun 19, 2011, 7:08:27 AM6/19/11

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Interesting one Dan
To me, the Great Lakes were always those lakes between Canada and the
USA. However:
Not trying for an argument, but just a question.
How would you mark:
Smiths, Myall or Wallis Lake(s)?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Council>
<http://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/destinations/destination/australia/nsw/
northcoastnsw/greatlakes/>

Mark Brader

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Jun 19, 2011, 12:26:48 PM6/19/11

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Dan Tilque:

> Villa Hayes is named for Rutherford B Hayes. Apparently, he's something
> of a hero in Paraguay for ruling in that country's favor in a border
> dispute. Most US citizens barely know he existed.

And for people who *do* know he existed, in many cases what he's most
famous for is coming to power in an election more dubious than any
until 2000.

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 3. Name a Great Lake.

...

> It surprised me that no one gave any of the African Great Lakes as an
> answer.

I considered it, but I felt that going that way was the obvious tricky
answer, so I was afraid of the sort of collision that I got into
by answering Earth for question 1. Also, there doesn't seem to be
complete agreement as to which ones count; and the term "great lakes"
isn't used for them all that much, so I wasn't even sure if they would
be accepted. If I'd guess that lakes of the form "Great <something>
Lake" would be, I might've named one of the two big ones in Canada.

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
> astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in production.

> Everyone, please note the conjunction between "make" and "model" above.

> Despite it being "or", most people gave both a make and a model.

Of course -- that's how you avoid the trap of just giving "Washington"
instead of "Washington, DC". (If only I'd thought to *do* that on
question 2...) If you meant a model *name*, you should have said so.

> Several people gave the Ford Galaxy, which I'm going to guess was
> usually meant to be the large sedan from the 60s. That car was actually
> spelled Galaxie. It turns out that Ford is also making a minivan under
> the spelling of Galaxy. So these answers are distinct rather than Galaxy
> being treated as a misspelling. All parties benefitted, although the guy
> who answered Galaxie got the most benefit (Mark's spelling
> anal-retentiveness finally pays dividends.)

Harrumph.

Anyway, my answer wasn't the Ford Galaxie, it was the Ford Galaxie 500.

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 5. Name an organized sport that has more than one mode of scoring. A
> mode of scoring is determined by the number of points (see definition

> 4.5) scored. ...

> Chess is not a sport (it's a board game),

Agreed.

> but even if it were, it does not have more than one mode of scoring.

It does by your definition -- 1 for a win, � for a tie.

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------

> 7. Name a prime minister of Canada who served at least 2 years in that
> office.

...

> I do wonder if there are any valid answers from before 1867.

The English-language term "prime minister" is normally only used in the
federal government. In the pre-1867 colony of Canada, it was "premier",
the same as in the provinces today.

> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 9. Name material that bicycle frames are made of.

...

> I was unhappy about the scoring of a few answers here. But I'd be
> unhappy no matter how I scored them.

On top of these points, there's the matter of whether bamboo counts
as a type of wood, which people seem to disagree on.

> But then you get to the wood bicycles. The only bike frames I could find
> made of walnut or Bubinga wood are from Renovo Hardwood Bicycles. And in
> both cases, the frames are made of two different woods laminated

> together. ...

I'd be inclined to score them as wrong, in that case.
--
Mark Brader "It is hard to be brave", said Piglet, sniffing
Toronto slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal."
m...@vex.net -- A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Calvin

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Jun 19, 2011, 6:14:40 PM6/19/11

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I'd suggest just marking the first answer given and ignoring anything else.

--

cheers,
calvin

Calvin

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Jun 20, 2011, 12:35:21 AM6/20/11

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On Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:57:34 +1000, Dan Tilque <dti...@frontier.com>
wrote:

> 4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
> astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in
> production.
>
> 5 Subaru (Japanese "Pleides")
> 4 Galaxy
> 3 Astra (Latin "star, constellation")
> 2 Gemini
> 2 Orion
> 1 Daewoo (Korean "great universe")
> 1 Galaxie
> 1 Jupiter
> 1 Merkur (German "Mercury")
> 1 Zodiac
>
> Everyone, please note the conjunction between "make" and "model" above.

It's just dawned on me that people probably gave both in order to make
your life easier when checking answers.

--

cheers,
calvin

Dr Nick

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Jun 20, 2011, 2:22:45 AM6/20/11

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Calvin <cal...@phlegm.com> writes:

I think it's more that for many people "Ford" is a make of car, but
"Ford Galaxy" (I've never heard of a "Galaxie") is the model.

I saw an advert for a Ford yesterday, can't remember the model, but the
website was www.fordwhatever.com

"What model of car did you learn to drive in?" - "a Hillman Hunter"
(named after Orion the hunter, obviously).

Me, I'd be quibbling over whether a state capital is a reasonable answer
to a question requiring an unadorned "capital" - how about a county
town?

But as I didn't enter it would be unfair to do so.
--
Online waterways route planner | http://canalplan.eu
Plan trips, see photos, check facilities | http://canalplan.org.uk

Dan Tilque

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Jun 20, 2011, 2:43:00 AM6/20/11

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In that case, they should have put the make in parens after the model.
One person did that. One person did the reverse -- he put the
astronomical model name in parens after the make. I was tempted to give
him a W, but decided to be lenient.

There is some discussion on this contest in the SDMB which you may want
to follow. Here's a link:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13933050#post13933050

--
Dan Tilque

Dan Tilque

unread,

Jun 20, 2011, 3:41:56 AM6/20/11

to

Dr Nick wrote:
>
> Me, I'd be quibbling over whether a state capital is a reasonable answer
> to a question requiring an unadorned "capital" - how about a county
> town?

By the usual usage of the word, either national or state/province
capitals are valid and county towns are not.

I can also cite precedent. In one of Mark's RE contests, he asked for a
current capital city in Canada. I'm fairly certain he did not otherwise
qualify the word "capital". National, provincial, and territorial
capitals were all acceptable answers (I answered Iqaluit and got a 1). I
don't know if Canada has county towns (they have counties, though) but I
doubt if one would have been a correct answer.

--
Dan Tilque

Dan Tilque

unread,

Jun 20, 2011, 5:52:00 AM6/20/11

to

Mark Brader wrote:
> Dan Tilque:

>
>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
>> astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in production.
>
>> Everyone, please note the conjunction between "make" and "model" above.
>> Despite it being "or", most people gave both a make and a model.
>
> Of course -- that's how you avoid the trap of just giving "Washington"
> instead of "Washington, DC". (If only I'd thought to *do* that on
> question 2...) If you meant a model *name*, you should have said so.

I've already said that it could have been made more explicit. My bad.

>
>> All parties benefitted, although the guy
>> who answered Galaxie got the most benefit (Mark's spelling
>> anal-retentiveness finally pays dividends.)
>
> Harrumph.
>
> Anyway, my answer wasn't the Ford Galaxie, it was the Ford Galaxie 500.

You've already won the anal-retentiveness award for the week. Was it
really necessary to take a victory lap? :)

>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 5. Name an organized sport that has more than one mode of scoring. A
>> mode of scoring is determined by the number of points (see definition
>> 4.5) scored. ...
>
>> Chess is not a sport (it's a board game),
>
> Agreed.
>
>> but even if it were, it does not have more than one mode of scoring.
>
> It does by your definition -- 1 for a win, � for a tie.

But that's points in the chess tournament, not in that particlar game.

>
> On top of these points, there's the matter of whether bamboo counts
> as a type of wood, which people seem to disagree on.

Bamboo is neither tree nor shrub, so as far as I'm concerned, it's not wood.

>
>> But then you get to the wood bicycles. The only bike frames I could find
>> made of walnut or Bubinga wood are from Renovo Hardwood Bicycles. And in
>> both cases, the frames are made of two different woods laminated
>> together. ...
>
> I'd be inclined to score them as wrong, in that case.

It's been pointed out (by one of those who gave one of those answers)
that the item didn't say that the frame must be completely made of that
material.

I'm inclined to leave it as scored, unless someone can give a good
argument to change it.

--
Dan Tilque

gerson

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Jun 20, 2011, 1:10:07 PM6/20/11

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"Dan Tilque" wrote

> Mark Brader wrote:
>> Dan Tilque:

>> On top of these points, there's the matter of whether bamboo counts

>> as a type of wood, which people seem to disagree on.

> Bamboo is neither tree nor shrub, so as far as I'm concerned, it's not wood.

Well, it's grass, 'though interpreting Merriam-Webster, it's a woody grass resembling a tree,
but then it's still grass, or *a* grass.

> It's been pointed out (by one of those who gave one of those answers) that the item didn't say that the frame must be completely
> made of that material.
>
> I'm inclined to leave it as scored, unless someone can give a good argument to change it.

The question said "material", not "a material", and I think interpretable such that the above's
ok, but I wasn't sure, so I put something that had to be right, that is the steel alloy, and
got away with a one !

Also, I wondered whether its being "material", not "a material", was a tyop ?

Dan Tilque

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Jun 21, 2011, 5:57:31 AM6/21/11

to

gerson wrote:
>
> Also, I wondered whether its being "material", not "a material", was a tyop ?
>

Definitely a tyop. Hadn't even noticed it until now.

--
Dan Tilque

Dan Tilque

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Jun 21, 2011, 6:06:00 AM6/21/11

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gaactn_0...@internode.on.net wrote:

> Not trying for an argument, but just a question.
> How would you mark:
> Smiths, Myall or Wallis Lake(s)?
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Council>
> <http://au.totaltravel.yahoo.com/destinations/destination/australia/nsw/
> northcoastnsw/greatlakes/>
>

Based on what I said earlier, I'd probably accept it.

--
Dan Tilque

Kevin Stone

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Jun 21, 2011, 6:09:13 AM6/21/11

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>>> 8. Name an album released by the Beatles.

>> I'll rescore it after I get more feedback

Ready for that rescore?

--
Kev

Dan Tilque

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Jun 22, 2011, 1:49:02 AM6/22/11

to

Here's a rescore of the Rare Entries contest.

I made two cahnges, both to Kevin Stone's answer slate. One was to
change Los Beatles to a 1, the other was to make 4136 Chromoly a wrong
answer. After investigating, I determined that that alloy does not
exist. As far as I can tell, all the references on the net to that alloy
are either to this contest or a link to the same eBay posting. It's
obviously a typo.

The winners did not change. Stephen Perry moved from a tie for 10th to
9th; all the other changes in the standings were in places lower than that.

Top 3 slates:

John Gerson Dave Filpus Haran Pilpel
0. Titan Venus Jupiter
1. Lincoln, NE Jefferson City MO Jefferson City
2. Sacagawea John Muir John Muir
3. Lake Superior Huron Superior
4. zodiac Jupiter Merkur
5. Six-red snooker Rugby Chess (W)
6. ruby cardinal raspberry
7. Laurier Borden King
8. With The Beatles Rubber Soul Yesterday and Today
9. 4130 steel Magnesium walnut

Revised table of scores. Names marked with an * are entrants from the

SDMB. Those are their handles rather than actual names.

Those marked with < at the end of the line changed their scores,
although not necessarily their position.

Item number--> 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. 360 John Gerson 4 1 3 5 1 1 1 2 3 1
2. 600 Dave Filpus 1 5 2 5 1 3 2 2 1 1
3. 1800 Haran Pilpel 2 5 2 5 1 W 1 3 1 1
4. 2500 Chronos * 1 5 2 5 5 2 1 5 1 1
5. 2916 Mark Brader 9 9 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 6
6. 4050 panamajack * 9 3 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 6
7. 5040 Gibbs89 * 1 1 1 4 2 2 2 5 3 W
8. 5760 Garmt de Vries 2 3 1 4 5 2 W 2 3 1

9. 6840 Stephen Perry 9 2 5 1 2 2 1 1 3 6 <
10. 7200 Don Pivin 2 2 2 3 2 1 2 5 1 6
11. 8640 Duke 9 5 4 4 1 1 2 3 1 2
12. 12960 Rob Parker 4 3 3 5 2 1 2 3 3 2 <
13. 13500 Bruce Bowler 9 5 5 1 5 2 2 1 3 1 <

14. 19200 Maus Magill * 2 2 5 1 4 2 2 5 3 4

15. 28350 Kevin Stone 9 5 4 1 5 1 1 3 1 W <

16. 32400 Calvin 4 5 5 3 3 1 W 3 3 1
17. 38880 Nick Selwyn 9 9 1 5 4 2 2 3 1 2
18. 97200 Lieven Marchand 9 5 4 5 3 3 2 1 3 2
19. 100800 Bj�rn Lundin W 5 5 4 4 2 1 2 3 2

20. 103680 Joseph P 9 2 4 5 4 1 W 1 3 6 <

21. 324000 Peter Chapman 4 5 3 5 3 1 W 5 3 6

And the scores of the individual items:

0. Name a Solar System body that a spacecraft has landed on or impacted.
Atmospheric probes count as impactors, although flying through the coma
of a comet does not count as an atmospheric probe.

9 Earth
4 Titan
2 25143 Itokawa
2 Jupiter
1 Moon
1 Sun
1 Venus

W Io

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Name a current or former capital city which was named for a US President.

9 Washington
+ 2 Washington DC
+ 2 Washington AR
+ 3 Washington MS
5 Jefferson City MO
5 Monrovia, Liberia
1 Lincoln NE
1 Villa Hayes, Paraguay

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Name a real person who was not a US president and whose image has
appeared on a US coin issued for circulation. Models used by coin
designers are excluded from this question; only a person that an image
is meant to represent is a valid answer. Coins intended only for
collectors and/or investment purposes are excluded.

5 Benjamin Franklin
4 Susan B Anthony
3 Sacagawea
2 Kamehameha I (Hawaii state quarter)
2 John Muir (California state quarter)
1 Jean Baptiste Charbonneau ($1 coin)
1 William Clark
1 Duke Ellington (DC territorial quarter)
1 Meriwether Lewis
1 Prince Whipple (New Jersey state quarter)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Name a Great Lake.

5 Huron
5 Superior
4 Ontario
3 Great Lake, Tasmania
1 Erie
1 Great Salt Lake
1 Michigan
1 Michigan-Huron

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Give the make or model of an automobile or light truck which has an
astronomical theme. The vehicle does not have to be currently in production.

5 Subaru (Japanese "Pleides")
4 Galaxy
3 Astra (Latin "star, constellation")
2 Gemini
2 Orion
1 Daewoo (Korean "great universe")
1 Galaxie
1 Jupiter
1 Merkur (German "Mercury")
1 Zodiac

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Name an organized sport that has more than one mode of scoring. A
mode of scoring is determined by the number of points (see definition
4.5) scored. All actions that score the same number of points count as a
single mode. Administratively assigned points (e.g. for forfeits or
penalties) do not count as a mode of scoring. Tennis is excluded from
this question; it has only one mode of scoring, but has a funny way of
counting to four. Target sports are excluded from this item.