Is lemming allowing in the (pseudo) Bricker challenges?
SingleDad, do you mean instant messaging?
Actually, anything is allowed. All I go by is what’s posted. I have no idea what happens behind the scenes. If several people want to I.M. each other to collaborate on answers, they are free to do so.
Let me help.
Lemming is the process by which someone uses someone else’s answers.
It is permitted. I can say this with authority, since Arnold has incorporated the rules I wrote into his Challenge.
I have toyed with the idea of implementing a lemming catcher - that is, a one point credit to the first person to get a correct answer, and one point for every wrong answer which is duplicated by other people.
This would make scoring nightmarish, however, and so I have shied away from it, as the only full time Bricker Challenge staffer I have is my cat Ozzie. Arnold is without even that minimal assistance, so I imagine he feels the same way.
In short, lemming is permitted.
- Rick
But pleeeeeeeeease don’t do it to me. 
I promise to give you full credit for the assist along with chocolate and Grace, SingleDad. I swear!
And I think #17 is a trick question!
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
“Mom, he’s a neo Nazi! He’s a doctor also? Well…” - WallyM7
By the way – so far as I know, the term “lemming” was coined during the AOL trivia chat room games, in which one person’s correct answer would be followed by a horde of others, all trying to get in under the buzzer.
Some games gave lemming points, others did not, and some credited those who posted flase answers that others lemmed. My personal favorite: the question was, “Whose regime was known for making sure ‘the trains ran on time?’” I said Hitler immediately. Everyone followed. Just before the buzzer, I said Mussolini, thus getting credit for the right answer as well as all the lems.
Ah, those were the days.
Historical note: I was ‘TrueBric’ on AOL way back then, someone having already taken ‘Bricker’.
Memories, of the way we were…
- Rick
With all due respect to my esteemed colleague, the term “lemming” was in use on the ImagiNation Network (INN) trivia games at least a year before AOL. I was there… (and it was uphill both ways!)
No matter where you go, there you are.
Well, colour me stupid!
I was debating whether or not SingleDad used a capital “I” or a lowercase l (damn those sans-serif fonts) when he said “lemming”.
Of course, as Bricker said (remember I’m just Bricker lite), lemming is allowed, and actually I’m pretty sure that’s the way everyone has won so far.
Bricker does have the benefit of an assistant. I doubt I could enlist my cat Nougat for that position, since all she does is walk from the couch to the food bowl, the food bowl to the litter pan, and then back to the couch. Sometimes I wonder if this is one of those animals lacking a fore-brain, similar to the living headless chicken about whom Cecil once wrote.
Shayna said
Well, I didn’t mean it that way, but it looks like it is turning out that way! The amount of outdated information that you can find on the internet on the subject (tennis ratings) is staggering. I had found a list (at a reputable site) that, it turns out, was not 100% correct! douglips was on the ball with his statement “though I know there’s been some changes in the rankings towards the end of last season.” Here is the scoop on tennis ratings.
The ITF uses the rankings from the ATP tour (for men) and the WTA for women. Both the ATP and the WTA, until 1 January 2000, used for tournaments (and the public) a complicated ranking system, sometimes referred to as “seeding”, to determine who were the highest ranking players, thus avoiding matches between the very best players in the first game of a tournament.
However, on 1 January 2000, the ATP changed its method (the WTA, as far as I can tell, still uses the same method as it did last year.) This comes straight from the horse’s mouth, i.e. a very patient lady at the ATP (with a distinguised British accent.)
[ul][li]Now the ATP has the ATP entry system (seeding) that is used to determine opponents in tournament play. This is a a rolling 52 week calculation.They also have the “ATP Champions Race 2000” ratings, used for the public. In the ATP Champions Race, players slowly accumulate points during the year, and at the end of the season, the player who has accumulated the most points is the World Number 1.[/ul][/li]I can provide a link to the FAQ on this if anyone is interested. I find it humorous in the FAQ that they say
Of course, the question arises, which list should I use for the answer to question 17? As the lady from the ATP happily confirmed for me, we’re in luck! Currently the same player who is seeded # 1 in the ATP entry system is also leading the pack in the Champions Race 2000.
However, with that being said, I need to revise the scores so far.
(corrected) Scores so far
Trout Mask Replica — 23
psycat90 — 0
Bricker — 16 1/2
Fretful Porpentine — 30 (two half-points)
I.M.Kierkegaard — 35 1/2
SingleDad — 1
Shayna/Grace/chocolate — 49
So the race is not over yet, folks! You have until midnight tonight for a last chance at beating the feared Shayna/Grace/chocolate trio.
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When lame doctor Donald Blake strikes his cane on the ground he is transformed into the Norse god of Thunder, The Mighty Thor.
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(2a + 3b)^3 = 8a^3+36a^2b+54b^2a+27b^3 http://www.webmath.com/cgi-bin/web64398/gopoly.cgi?s=%282a%2B3b%29%5E3&back=exponents.html
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“The Time Warp” from Rocky Horror Picture Show
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It means Good or well and the origin is Russian: khorosho/good http://www-scf.usc.edu/~mccarrey/clockwork/nadsat.html
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Lola was the Kinks’ song, and Lolita was Humbert’s interest
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Switzerland. On December 9, 1998, Ruth Dreifuss became the first Jew and first woman to hold the office of president. http://us-israel.org/jsource/breaking/dreifuss.html
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Tasmania
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1969 (Barbra Streisand for the 1968 movie Funny Girl, and Katharine Hepburn for the 1968 movie The Lion in Winter).
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They turn into stone
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Ada Lovelace
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New Mexico
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In 1530, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, as King of Sicily, ceded to the Order the island of Malta and Tripoli, in perpetual fief for the annual rent of a falcon (hence the legend of the Maltese Falcon). Couldn’t find any information on a second animal, except perhaps a bull.
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Antony & Cleopatra http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/antonyandcleopatra/antonyandcleopatra.html
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Men’s 5,000-Meter Records:
World Record: Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), 1998, 12 minutes (and 39.36 seconds) -
The Society of Friends (the Quakers).
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Andre Agassi
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New Orleans
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LaaLaa http://www.pbs.org/teletubbies/pictorials/laalaapic.html
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Nine Inch Nails
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Jackson Pollock was the first "all-over’’ painter, pouring paint rather than using brushes and a palette, and abandoning all conventions of a central motif. He danced in semi-ecstasy over canvases spread across the floor, lost in his patternings, dripping and dribbling with total control. He said: "The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.’’ He painted no image, just "action’’, though "action painting’’ seems an inadequate term for the finished result of his creative process. http://metalab.unc.edu/wm/paint/auth/pollock/lavender-mist/
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Cassowary - New Guinea
Emu - Australia
Kiwi - New Zealand
Rhea - South America
Ostrich - Africa -
Madonna’s daughter is named Lourdes and Bernadette Soubirous saw the virgin Mary appear at Lourdes.
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We’re playing Mah Jongg and mine is worth more.
A Pung of Dragons is worth 4 if exposed and 8 if concealed
A Kong of 1 Bamboo is worth 16 if exposed and 32 if concealed http://www.mahjongg.com/scoreplay.htm
- But morning overtook Scheherazade, and she lapsed into silence.
Dinarzade said, “O my lady, what an amazing and entertaining story!”
Scheherazade replied, “What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night!”
King Shahrayar, with a mixture of amazement, pain, and sorrow thought, “I shall postpone her execution for tonight and many more nights until I hear the rest of her stories. Then I shall have her put to death.”
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Enver Hoxha. “The fact that Hoxha enshrined them in Albania’s supreme law is indicative of how he–like his mentor, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin–exploited his people’s collective memory to enhance the might of the communist system, which he manipulated for over four decades. Only Hoxha’s death, the timely downfall of communism in Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s, and the collapse of the nation’s economy were enough to break his spell and propel Albania fitfully toward change.”
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The perfection of the chronometer in 1759 by the English clockmaker John Harrison allowed navigators at sea to determine longitude accurately for the first time. A mechanical marine chronometer is a spring-driven escapement timekeeper, like a watch, but its parts are more massively built and it has devices to compensate for changes in the tension of the spring caused by changes in temperature. Modern chronometers are electronic, using quartz crystal vibrations to regulate their timekeeping." http://aj.encyclopedia.com/articles/02738.html
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They’re stars in the constellation Orion http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/ori.html
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Rhodes
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Jack London
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West Side Story
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Joseph Baermann Strauss designed the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed and opened to pedestrian traffic on May 27, 1937. http://www.goldengatebridge.org/research/ConstructionBldgGGB.html
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The Marx Brothers’ “A Night At The Opera.” It is from the “contract” scene between Driftwood and Fiorello.
Fiorello: Can you read?
Driftwood (struggling to read the fine print): I can read but I can’t see it. I don’t seem to have it in focus here. If my arms were a little longer, I could read it. You haven’t got a baboon in your pocket, have ya? Here, here, here we are. Now I’ve got it. Now pay particular attention to this first clause because it’s most important. It says the, uh, “The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.” How do you like that? That’s pretty neat, eh?
Fiorello: No, it’s no good.
Driftwood: What’s the matter with it?
Fiorello: I don’t know. Let’s hear it again.
Driftwood: It says the, uh, “The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part.”
Fiorello: (pausing) That sounds a little better this time.
Driftwood: Well, it grows on ya. Would you like to hear it once more?
Fiorello: Uh, just the first part.
Driftwood: What do you mean? The… the party of the first part?
Fiorello: No, the first part of the party of the first part.
Driftwood: All right. It says the, uh, “The first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract” - look, why should we quarrel about a thing like this? We’ll take it right out, eh?
Fiorello: Yeah, it’s a too long, anyhow. (They both tear off the tops of their contracts.) http://www.oxford.net/~gmarx/contract.html
34. Constantin Brancusi http://www.noguchi.org/brancusi.html
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This is the formula to calculate Farenheit into Celcius
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A pirouette (in ballet)
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“Howl” by Allen Ginsberg
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Boron, Carbon, Fluorine, Hydrogen, Iodine, K-Potassium, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosporus, Sulfur, Uranium, Vanadium, W-Tungsten, Yttrium.
Neither T nor G can be found on the periodic table of elements. http://www.chemicalelements.com/graphics/table.gif
- “Once Upon a Time in the West” (With Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson)
Brett McBain is preparing a welcoming feast for the woman he married the month before in New Orleans when he and his three children are gunned down by desperadoes. Frank (Fonda), the most hardened villain, works for the railroad that will pass through the land Jill McBain has inherited. A
OK, it’s all over now!
The winner is Bricker, posting for Shayna/Grace/chocolate.
Congratulations everybody for your fine efforts.
Final Scores
Trout Mask Replica — 23
psycat90 — 0
Fretful Porpentine — 30 (two half-points)
I.M.Kierkegaard — 35 1/2
SingleDad — 1
Bricker, posting for Shayna/Grace/chocolate — 50
Please e-mail me if you want the prize.
Official answers will follow.
Imitation Bricke challenge #3: Official answers.
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New York City Dr. Blake once found a cane that, when tapped on the ground, transformed him into mighty super-hero ____.
A: Thor.
From the Marvel Comics series. -
(a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2
(2a + 3b)^3 = ?
A: 8a^3 + 36(a^2)b + 54ab^2 + 27b^3
(Shayna, I can’t believe you found a web page that had this exact math problem on it!) -
With the internet, anyone can be famous, like the person below. What is his name?
http://www.geocities.com/jacquesrk/sd/accordion.gif
A: Mahir.
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/1999/11/04/mahir/
http://members.xoom.com/primall/mahir/
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In dance class I’m learning a rocking new dance. I can picture the steps in my mind: jump left, step right, hands on hips, bend knees in tight, and pelvic thrust; but, oh the horror! I can’t remember what it’s called, and it’s driving me crazy! (What is this dance called?)
A: The Time Warp.
From the Rocky Horror Picture Show. -
In Anthony Burgess’ novel “A Clockwork Orange”, Alex and his droogs often use the word “horrorshow”. What is the etymology of this word?
A: From the Russian choroshoo, good. -
Humbert Humbert had never heard of the Kinks, but the title of one of their songs might have reminded him of his kinky obsession. (name the song and Humbert Humbert’s obsession)
A: The Kinks - Lola, Humbert Humbert’s obsession - Lolita.
The Kinks hit tune “Lola” appeared on their 1970 album “Lola Vs. Powerman & The Moneygoround, Part I.”
Humbert Humbert fell in love with teenage Lolita in the novel by Nabokov. -
Which European country was the first to have as president a Jewish woman?
A: Switzerland.
Ruth Dreifuss was president of Switzerland in 1999. -
The satanic fauna of this island still survives, but the indigenous human population, originally several thousands, dwindled to 200 less than thirty years after the first European settlement in 1803. By 1890 the aboriginal human population was extinct. (Name the island.)
A: Tasmania.
Home to the Tasmanian devil.
Tasmania: European exploration -
In which year did two people tie for the Academy Award for Best Actress?
A: 1969.
The two actresses were Barbra Streisand, for “Funny Girl” (1968 movie), and Katharine Hepburn, for “The Lion in Winter” (1968 movie). -
According to Scandinavian folklore, trolls only come out at night. What happens to them in the daytime?
A: Sunlight turns them to stone. -
Who was the USA Defense Department honoring when it named its computer programming language Ada?
A: Augusta Ada King, countess of Lovelace.
The daughter of Lord Byron, she helped finance and program what is considered to be the first computer, the “analytical engine” designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. -
Of the contiguous 48 states, only four did not have Burma Shave signs along their roads. Massachusetts, because most of its roads were winding (making it difficult to put the six signs in a straight line); Arizona, Nevada and _______ because they had very little traffic. (Fill in the blank)
A: New Mexico. -
Emperor Charles V of Spain ceded the island of Malta to the Knights of Malta, in exchange for a token gift of two animals each year. Which animals did he request?
A: Live peregrine falcons.
The yearly payment was made from 1530 to 1798, when the religious order was dispossessed by Napoleon. (This was also mentioned in Dashiel Hammett’s novel “The Maltese Falcon.”) My source said two falcons a year, not one. -
Which Shakespearean play takes place in 37 different locations - more than any of his other plays?
A: Antony and Cleopatra. -
What is the world record time for running 5000 metres? (You can round down to the nearest minute.)
A: 12 minutes.
Men’s World Records
5000m 12:39.36 Haile Gebrselassie ETH Helsinki 13.6.1998 -
My friend is a Christian, but the Christian religious group she belongs to has no form of outward observance of the sacraments; baptism and communion are spiritual only. This group was founded by George F. in 17th-century England. (Name the religious group)
A: Society of Friends, aka Quakers.
The founder of the Society of Friends was George Fox. -
Who is currently the number one world ranked male tennis player?
A: André Agassi.
Currently the top-seeded player in the ATP entry system, and also the leader of the ATP Champions Race 2000.
ATP Tour Official Site -
I live in a city in the United States, and my home is below sea level. Where do I live? And no, it’s not in California.
A: New Orleans. -
Which teletubby wears a yellow outfit?
A: Laa-Laa.
Laa-Laa’s Gallery -
Trent R. (et al.) recorded their dark and depressing hit 1994 album in the same house in which Charles Manson and his followers murdered Sharon Tate (talk about a downer!) (Name the band.)
A: Nine Inch Nails.
Trent Reznor is the leading band member. Their 1994 album was The downward spiral. -
Some say I expressed myself abstractly, some say I was an action painter, but everyone agrees that when I dripped paint on canvas I produced some great works in the early 1950s.
A: Jackson Pollock.
American painter, one of the leading exponents of Abstract Expressionism, particularly the form known as Action Painting. After considerable stylistic experimentation, he developed about 1947 the radical “drip painting” technique that became his hallmark. A whole series of paintings–beginning with “Full Fathom Five” and proceeding through “Summertime” and “Number Ten, 1949” to the mural-size canvases of 1950 such as “One,” “Autumn Rhythm,” “Lavender Mist,” and the black and white “Number Thirty-two, 1950”–display the infinite variety of effect and expression that this method–poured painting–permitted him. -
Match the ratite to its habitat.
Cassowary, emu, kiwi, rhea, ostrich.
Africa, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, South America.
A: Cassowary - New Guinea; Emu - Australia; Kiwi - New Zealand; Rhea - South America; Ostrich – Africa. -
I can’t remember the name of the daughter of pop singer Madonna, but for some reason Bernadette comes to mind. Why?
A: Madonna’s daughter is called Lourdes. Lourdes (a town in France) is famous for the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. -
I have a pung of green dragons, you have a kong of one bamboo. Which is worth more, and what are we playing?
A: Mah Jongg. The kong of one bamboo is worth more.
Pung of green dragons = 4 points. Kong of one bamboos = 16 points.
Mah Jongg Museum. -
I’m reading a book of tales, and in the book I see this sentence hundreds of times. But morning overtook ___________, and she lapsed into silence. Then _________ said, Sister, what a strange and entertaining story! ___________ replied, What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live! (fill in the blanks)
A: But morning overtook Shahrazad, and she lapsed into silence. Then Dinarzad said, Sister, what a strange and entertaining story! Shahrazad replied, What is this compared with what I shall tell you tomorrow night if the king spares me and lets me live!
From the Arabian Nights. -
China - Ma
Please let the record reflect the winner is Shayna/Grace/chocolate. I was posting in my capacity as their agent, not in my own right.
- Rick
Congratulations to the winners, and their “agent.”
This was a lot of fun. Regretfully I didn’t get here until I was almost out the door for the week last week, and didn’t get back until the whole shouting match was over this morning, so hopefully I’ll be able to spend a bit more time and compete a bit more in the next go round.
Being new around here, I must say that I enjoy the intelligence of the discussions and challenges on this board. My hat is off to all of you who participated, and to our host for coming up with a worthy challenge.
–I am Soren Kierkegaard.–
“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”
All right, as long as I see a post from one of the principals authorizing you to act as their agent. (With your vast knowledge of the law, you know that one can never be too careful! :D)
When you called the ATP, did you also speak to a British lady?
Welcome aboard, I.M.Kierkegaard! You did very well on your first challenge. Now all you have to do is become more adept at lemming, and you should win hands down next time. 
Thanks for the welcome! I will try to polish my lemming-ness next time! It would help more if I just had more time, I think!
Anyway… I look forward to the next challenge.
–I am Soren Kierkegaard.–
“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”
Suggestion from the outside:
Why don’t you say the first person to answer a question correctly gets in, and no one else gets credit? (If you answer twice, only your first answer is accepted.) That way both speed and accuracy are rewarded. (Of course, you’d need to give prior notice as to when to expect the next Challenge. . .)
It wouldn’t exactly be fair, but it would be fairer than the current system, which rewards waiting and scavaging.
Your Quadell
are there any new posts here? Will this make them appear?
Quadell, that’s a clever idea, but then that would remove the motivation for someone to find the answer to the one or two hard questions that are left until the end.
Good point. How about this?
Only the first person to answer a question correctly gets the point, but later questions are worth more points. The first question answered correctly is worth 1 point, the second answered is worth 2, etc., and the last one answered is worth 50 points. That way, the last two questions (presumably the hardest ones) are worth about as much as the first 14 (the easy ones.) That way there’s a reward for getting the easy ones early, and a different reward for getting the late ones.
Sure, tallying up the points would be slow as Christmas, but. . .
Your Quadell
Woo Hoo! Thanks, Rick baby! You don’t mind if the chocolate prize is actually drizzled on me, do you?
Another fun challenge, Arnold. Thanks! 
But I have a beef with you, my friend…
However…
And
Ahem. You led us astray. Otherwise I most certainly would have had that one answered much sooner and without additional assistance.
Quadell, I agree, there really should be some disincentive for people to steal other people’s answers. I can’t even begin to tell you how long I searched for the answer to #49 (and now seeing that Cecil answered it and I could have found it right here, just chaps my hide - LOL). If someone had swiped that, there’d have been heck to pay!
But the idea of giving points for the first person to answer things, doesn’t seem quite fair either. I never look at anyone else’s answers while I’m working on mine, and I hold off posting anything until I’ve answered everything, in the hopes that I’m right about all 50 and there’d be no point in anyone stealing any from me because I’d have been the first one in with all 50 right.
The way you suggest, if I waited until I had all my answers, but others had answered most of them first, I couldn’t possibly win, even though I might have more correct than they did. I hope that made sense.
Oh, and Arnold, not that I want to give away all my secrets, but you’re smart enough to figure this out on your own anyway…
I did not find a web page that happened to have the exact math question you asked. What I did was use http://www.webmath.com If you go to that page, scroll down to “Algebra” and choose “Powers” under the heading of “Simplifying Expressions,” you will get to http://www.webmath.com/exponents.html
Once there, you will find a box where you can type any algebraic equation containing exponents that you want, and it will do the simplification for you, giving you the step-by-step of how it arrived at the result. I simply typed in the given (2a+3b)^3 and it did the math for me, which is the page I linked with my answer.
Thank you again to everyone who helped; Chocolate, Grace, SingleDad and Bricker! You guys are the best and I share this win with all of you.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
“Mom, he’s a neo Nazi! He’s a doctor also? Well…” - WallyM7