You could have gone through: Precambrian->Lantian_formation->Marinoan_glaciation since Precambrian gives you oodles of links.
Duly noted. If no one seconds (give it a week), the motions are dropped and we can continue on our merry way.
Avoiding a list of links (would have been a bit shorter otherwise):
National_Bank_Challenger_Saguenay to It Was Warm and Sunny When We First Set Out (see if you can avoid link lists – it is possible).
Ouch. Tough one - even the link lists were no help to me. I’ve now added a link to one pertinent article that should help. If no one else figures it out in the next day or two, I’ll show you.
National_Bank_Challenger_Saguenay –> Canada –> 1988_Winter_Olympics –> Vancouver –> In_Medias_Res_(band) [is this the link you added?] –> It_Was_Warm_and_Sunny_When_We_First_Set_Out
Next up:
It_Was_Warm_and_Sunny_When_We_First_Set_Out –> … –> Diamond_hoax_of_1872
Maybe we do need a separate thread for the rules. If adding links is allowed, can we subtract links also? :dubious:
Yes, that was the link I added. I didn’t play it because I knew, of course, that was against the rules. But the band really should’ve been mentioned there anyway. Here we go:
It Was Warm and Sunny When We First Set Out > Indie rock > New York City > Manhattan > Art Deco > Art Nouveau > Tiffany & Co. > Charles Lewis Tiffany > Philip Arnold > Diamond hoax of 1872
Next:
Diamond hoax of 1872 > Vittilapuram
Tsk, tsk, tsk. No need to break the rules:
National_Bank_Challenger_Saguenay->Canada->Culture_of_Canada->Canadian_Radio-Television_and_Telecommunications_Commission->Canadian_hip_hop->Dragon_Fli_Empire->Sled_Island->In_Medias_Res_(band)->It_Was_Warm_and_Sunny_When_We_First_Set_Out
But now you’re broken the game:
Sorry. That was what the Wiki “random article” button gave me. Take 2, again random:
Diamond hoax of 1872 > PRL Museum - Wikipedia
PRL Museum - Wikipedia can only be gotten to by breaking the rules. The only thing that links to it is: Museum of Polish History - Wikipedia, and that link only appears in the “Museums in Warsaw” list in any page that contains this link. (If we were allowed to use any links on a page, then I could get there: Diamond_hoax_of_1872->Undertaker->Funeral->Pope_John_Paul_II->Museum_of_Polish_History->Museum_of_PRL).
If your next one is a third strike, we’ll have to call the game.
Well. Rather than take the random-article route, I’ll use the last thing I looked up on Wiki:
Diamond hoax of 1872 >Rain Man
Nobody else want to try this? I didn’t want to be a ball hog.
Diamond_hoax_of_1872->Philip_Arnold->The_Great_Adventure_(TV_series)->Ron_Howard->Far_and_Away->Tom_Cruise->Rain_Man
Rain Man > Palm Springs, California > Cahuilla people > Native American > Mississippian Culture > Mound builder (people) > Newark Holy Stones > Los Lunas Decalogue Stone> Bat Creek inscription > Theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas
Whew! Next up:
Theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas > William Ward Burrows I
I’m an idiot. Next post is correct.
So many interesting ways to get there. How about:
Theory_of_Phoenician_discovery_of_the_Americas->Ezra_Stiles->Oliver_Wendell_Holmes,_Sr.->USS_Constitution->First_Barbary_War->United_States_Marine_Corps->Commandant_of_the_Marine_Corps->William_Ward_Burrows_I
William Ward Burrows I > United States of America > Barack Obama > Nobel Prize > William Shockley > Comstock Prize in Physics > Charles L. Bennett > Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe > CMB cold spot
Next up:
CMB cold spot > Son Nagar railway station
C’mon people. Playing the game is fun and not that difficult. I’ll show you how I work it out and you’ll see how easy it can be.
First off, a fairly straightforward solution:
CMB_cold_spot->Dark_energy->Albert_Einstein->Satyendra_Nath_Bose->India->Ganges->Son_River->Dehri->Son_Nagar_railway_station
I always start with the destination article and the “What links here” link in the leftmost column (under the “Toolbox”). In the list, I first click the “500” in the “View (previous 50 | next 50) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500)” command to see if there’s a lot of back links to choose from. In this case, for “Son_Nagar_railway_station,” there’s less than 50.
The next thing I do is look through the back link list for any wide-ranging topic that itself will have a lot of back links. “Son_Nagar_railway_station” does not have many links to it, so now I have to go through the list and see if the back link has an actual link in the article body and not a link in a picture caption or a link in the additional “Topics” at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages. The first article with an actual link to “Son_Nagar_railway_station” in the article body is “Dehri” (the eighth back link in the list).
So now I repeat the above technique. This time the fifth back link, “Son_River,” is an article with extensive, wide-ranging topics on the back links. The fun part is finding a back link that may offer a shorter path between the source and destination articles, but for here I want to show how easy playing this game is, so I pick something with lots of back links: “Ganges” which is linked from “India.”
Now that I have a really huge topic with many possible paths to it (“India”), I can go forward from the source article. Using the general knowledge banging around in my noggin, I know that the “Bose–Einstein condensate” in physics was a theoretical proposal by an Indian physicist and Albert Einstein. So now I look in the “CMB_cold_spot” article text for a link that will get me to Einstein. There are several, but I chose “Dark_energy.” That has a direct link to “Albert_Einstein” which has a link to “Bose–Einstein_condensation” which has a link to “Satyendra_Nath_Bose” which then links to “India.”
Viola! I’ve solved the challenge using a single piece of knowledge in my head to link the source and destination. I didn’t have to do an exhaustive search, nor a boring iteration through all possible links.
Now that you have a bit of a guide, give it a whirl:
Thanks. Who’s Viola, anyway?
Son Nagar railway station > India > Emperor of India > Monarchy of the United Kingdom > Royal Society > Challenger expedition > Percy Sladen > Clive Forster Cooper > Paraceratherium
Paraceratherium > Candy Rain (film)
Thnaks!
<Sigh> I waited a week, hoping more Dopers would participate, but it twas in vain.
Paraceratherium->Nei_Monggol->China->Taipei->Candy_Rain_(film)
Now do: Candy_Rain_(film) to Rocket_candy (see what I did there?)
Rocket_candy->Rocket_Boys->October_Sky->Joe_Johnston->Honey,_I_Shrunk_the_Kids->Rick_Moranis->Second_City_Television->John_Candy