2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 7

Hey All,

Okay, so yesterday’s quiz has yet to be solved. As there are some people really close to getting it, I will hold out for another day on the answer. By way of a hint, there are two steps to figure out the value for each word, but no special knowledge is needed to figure it out. All you need is two ways to connect letters to a number system and you are good to go……

Now, some old business….

---------------------------------------------- Question #5 Winner -----------------------------------------------------

As promised, here is Andy’s bio and attached is a pic.

· I met Vern at U of Guelph where he quickly took me under his wing and taught me the finer points of volleyball such as:

o No matter how hard it is hit, any ball spike into to the net is worth no points to my team

o Serving over the net is key to winning a point

o Setting to the other team isn’t the best strategy

· My Likes: Advent quizzes sent earlier than 3am (Ontario time), puppies, bikini girls, sarging, and volleyball.

· My Dislikes: having to write bio's, AFC’s

· My fav song of 2009: Sexy Bitch by David Guetta and Akon

And, now for today’s question….

------------------------------------------------ Question #7 -------------------------------------------------------------

Being as today is Monday for man of you, and still early in the week for the rest of ya, I have opted for a super simple question that puts everyone on equal footing. Based on the two images attached, guess the number of M+Ms in the container.

Enjoy your Monday/Tuesday……

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 6

Hey Everyone,

Firstly, welcome to the new participants added from Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver! Also, reminder to the rest that adding people is easy, so let me know if you think anyone else might want to be a part of things.

Second, some old business. Question #4 Winner Bio – Chris H. Okay, so we are getting progressively more creative now, and the connection to reality is rapidly evaporating, but here is Chris’ bio:

· After my break up with Megan Fox last year, I decided to pour myself into Vern’s Advent Calendar Quiz full time. I trained hard. Mental exercises, flash cards, high carb diet... it was a tough regimen to which I was not accustomed.

· But it paid off. I was the first ever highest scoring individual! I'm proud of myself.

· As defending champion, I look forward to this year's competition. In addition, I'm trying for a spot on Jeopardy and looking for a book deal with an independent publisher.

· Figure if I can make something of myself, maybe, just maybe, Meg will take me back...

Question #5 Wrap Up

Great submissions again last night and nice to the see the expressions of creativity! Among the correct entries received were images of: Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears, Ray Allen of the Seattle Sonics, Earl Campbell of the Houston Oilers, the Herbig Haro object, and of course the 34-ruby Victoria Secret bra worn by Adriana Lima.

The logic? Each image corresponded to a number, and when the images were sequenced the result was 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21. The string corresponds to the Fibonacci sequence which came about due to the arguably odd interest one man had in rabbit reproduction. Anyhow, the sequence appears in many ways in modern culture, and the next number in the sequence is 34. For more info:

· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_numbers_in_popular_culture (for interest)

· http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number (if math jazzes you)

Question #5 Winner – Andy B.

Last night’s winner was Andy, who answered in 22 minutes with a conference poster with 34 in it. Stay tuned for Andy’s bio……

And now, time to kick it up a notch with today’s question.

-----------------------------------------------------Question #6 ---------------------------------------------------------

The Vernistanian government, fresh off having cleansed its population of the killer dot virus last year, now faces a new crisis. It fears that details regarding its prisoner compliance tactics (e.g. exposure to incessant puzzles/quizzes, jeopardy re-enactments, on demand charades, etc.) are no more secure those of a Tiger Woods tryst with a NY cocktail server. To remedy this vulnerability, they have codified their language and have assigned a point value to their primary tools of “torture”. Recognizing the collective brilliance of the advent calendar participants, the Vernistanis have turned to us for help. They want us to break the code, and if we are unsuccessful, they will implement their code. If we break it, they will start over.

They have provided us with values for three of their torture tools, and have asked us to give them the value of a fourth, as shown below.

· Uno – 70

· Jenga – 57

· Scrabble – 92

· Life - ?

Happy code breaking….

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 5

Hey All,

Firstly, the bio for Q#3’s winner:

Q#3 Winner – Christophe F. – Bio

I was born in Montreal and I lead a perfectly quiet and normal life until I met Vern, in Guelph, while we were both Biophysics graduate students. That's where I found my competitive edge. Sure, Vern could jump higher, could bench press more, could finish his degree faster, heck, he was even a better pool player (What was the final tally after years of daily games in the grad lounge?... something like 98-54 (games won) in favor of V). But I relished my own (few) little victories against him. For example, I got a higher (Vern Note: and more complex) degree and could stomp him on one or two riddles (haha). And more recently, I ran a faster 10km and half marathon than he (hihi)...

And I even recently moved to Germany, to do research at a MaxPlanck Institute and to be in a timezone more favorable to get an early crack at the daily advent riddle thing ;)

Question #4 - Answer

Last night’s question was more about a great story than a crazy challenge. Bo Kimble, of Loyola Marymount University is pictured. In brief, he and teammate

Hank Gathers, a 6’7” power forward, were the core of the team. Gathers was a solid performer, progressing to become the NCAA Men’s Division 1 scoring and rebounding le

ader – an amazing thing to do given that both are very different skills. Sadly, tragedy struck in 1990, when at 23, Hank collapsed during a game, and could not be resuscitated despite rapid and continued CPR. It was confirmed following death that Hank suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

As a tribute to his teammate, Bo Kimble shot the first of his free throws in each game of the 1990 NCAA Championship tournament with his left hand despite being a right handed shooter. The connection was that Gathers was also right

handed, but as he was a weak shooter, had previously experimented with shooting with his left hand. Bo made every left handed shot he took in the tournament, and despite being a #11 seed and not having their best player, advanced to the Elite Eight, a mere three games from the championship. Sidenote, they lost to my favourite basketball team of all time, UNLV.

Read more for yourself here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Gathers

Q#4 Winner – Christopher Hamade

Answering within 13 minutes was Chris Hamad

e.

Stay tuned for a bio of Chris, who was also last year's overall winner ---- he is your target!

And now, time to get your thinking caps on ….

-----------------------------------------------------------Question #5 ---------------------------------------------------

Suggest a suitable picture to replace the “x” in the image provided.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 4

Hey All,

So the answers to last night’s quiz question were interesting in the sense that most all were correct. In the end, it was all about moving the decimal around. It also helped to convert everything to a common unit, like the meter, as has been done below. As the table shows, the answer to a) is 1,000,000 aL, and to b) is 10,000 μL.

Measurement	In Meters	Order - Small to Large
1,000,000 aL	1.0x10^-12	1
100 pL	1.0x10^-10	2
100,000 fL	1.0x10^-10	2
0.001 μL	1.0x10^-9	3
0.0001 mL	1.0 x 10^-7	5
1000 nL	1.0x10^-6	6
0.0001 dL	1.0x10^-5	7
0.0001 L	1.0x10^-4	8
1mL	1.0x10^-3	9
10,000 μL	1.0x10^-2	10

Answering within 39 minutes of the initial question release was Chris Fares. Stay tuned for Chris’ bio and pic --- as he resides in Germany, I haven’t been able to reach him today.

As an aside, if you have a genre or type of question you want to see, let me know as the mix of questions is flexible.

Now, for a total change of pace, today’s question is below.

------------------------------------- Question #4 ---------------------------------------------------------------

Many of you know I am a crazy basketball fan. But, it is Friday, and I don’t wanna drive ya nuts over the weekend, so I’ll keep the question straightforward. What is the story behind the attached picture?

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 3

Hey All,

Another great night of answers, and some wicked dialogue and trash talking amongst some members. If time allows, I might take this quiz to a blog and open up the mouthing off for all to join in! By far the most common answer was 38. But, as with last night, the common answer was wrong!

The actual answer is 34 minutes, and I’ll let last night’s winner explain it in his own words:

· Winnie and her flamboyant friend Chris go first (4 mins.). Chris comes back as he likes to hang out with the boys (4 mins.).

· When he gets there, Kim and Rob ditch him 'cause they don't swing that way (20 mins.).

· When they meet up with Winnie, she says we are jerks and goes back to get her flamboyant friend Chris (2 mins.).They both join us afterward (4mins.) but we're still not comfortable around Chris as continues to ogle us.

The winner was Kim Ly, who answered within 22 minutes of the question being thrown out. Kim too has offered up a mini profile as shown below.

Q#2 Winner – Kim Ly

· Born in Cambodia, raised in Quebec City, educated in Ontario, and now live in beautiful BC.

· Married and a proud father of a little baby girl, Kayane is 6 weeks old.

· List of passions in life is very long, I find joy in almost everything and everyone, but I particularly enjoy this advent calendar quiz.

· I make my cheese by wholesaling financial products to banks and independent financial firms across BC.

· I have conquered anorexia but I'm now battling obesity, I eat when I'm sad and I'm sad because I eat...it's a vicious cycle.

And so with the winner announced, here is the next challenge……

------------------------------------- Question #3 ---------------------------------------------------------------

How Big is Big? How Small is Small? Why Did Bart Lose His Lunch?

Today’s question is dedicated to Bart Simpson. In the Bart the Genius episode, he is sent to a gifted school where the smart kids promptly swindle him out of lunch by offering to trade super small amounts of their lunch (e.g. nanolitres of milk) for large parts of his (e.g. half a sandwich). Before he knew it, Bart was left with nothing for lunch.

Funny to watch, but would you do any better? Let’s find out!

a) Assuming Bart wants to keep as much of his milk as possible, which of the following should he offer up to get a sandwich? (i.e. which represents the least amount of milk).

b) Assuming Bart instead has a sandwich to trade, what represents the best value for his sandwich? (i.e. which represents the greatest amount of milk).

· 1000 nL

· 0.0001 dL

· 1mL

· 100 pL

· 0.0001 L

· 10,000 μL

· 100,000 fL

· 0.001 μL

· 1,000,000 aL

· 0.0001 mL

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 2

Hey All,

Great response to yesterday’s first question - thanks all! Not sure if it’s because most of you know what I do for work, or just that it’s on everyone’s mind these days, but H1N1 was far and away the most popular guess. Sadly, that wasn’t right.

It was actually a Strawberry.

The first correct guess, coming in x minutes after the question was fired out, was Rob. Rob has offered up a brief. He has thrown down the gauntlet!

Q#1 Winner – Rob Madsen

· What Keeps Him Busy: Self Storage VP – U-Lock Mini Storage

· Self Description: Hard working entrepreneur, who loves the heat of the challenge, rioting with his family, socializing with his friends and Vern’s Annual Advent Calendar.

· Photo Details: The end of a another good night in Las Vegas!

And now, today’s question……..

------------------------------------- Question #2 --------------------------------------------

Four people, Winnie, Chris, Rob, and Kim are about to enter a tunnel that ultimately leads to a party they just can’t miss.

The problem is that the tunnel is pitch black, and the only source of light they have is a glow stick leftover from Rob’s Las Vegas rave the night before. They can travel through the tunnel solo or as a pair walking side by side, but only one pair can be in the tunnel at any one time. The glow stick must be used by those travelling in the tunnel and cannot be thrown back into the tunnel for others to retrieve. In other words, for all people to get through the tunnel, there will be some back and forth required.

Whenever a pair travels in the tunnel, they move at the speed of the slowest person in the pair, and the time to travel through the tunnel each way for each person is as follows:

· Winnie: 2 minutes

· Chris: 4 minutes

· Rob: 10 minutes

· Kim: 20 minutes

The group wants to get to the party as fast as possible, so how do they do it and how soon can they get there?

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 1

Boys, and Girls, Ladies, and Gentlemen, and Anyone in Transition,

I know that a great many of you have no doubt been waiting in breathless anticipation for the start of this year’s second annual Advent Calendar Quiz (ha!). With a mere 340 days since our last quiz question, I am sure you are all well rested and ready to roll.

So in the

words of big John McCarthy, “Let’s get it on”.

Firstly, an overview:

· For each of the first 25 days of December, I will email out a quiz question for you to ponder.

· The first correct response that I receive via email for a given question will yield a prize/goodie. As with last year, each correct answer will give a person a free drink of their choice, paid for by yours truly. I will make every effort to buy said drink(s) in 2010, even for those for those of you who are far afield. So, in essence, you may be helping to govern my travel plans for 2010.

o 2010 Update: In 2009, drinks were cashed in in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Toronto, and Vancouver, but opportunities were missed for Bali and Singapore.

o 2010 Update #2: This year I am also offering a $50 gift certificate from a book retailer in your country of residence.

· If no correct answers are received for a given day’s question, the prize will carry over to the next day and will be added to that day’s prize. In short, the longer we go without a correct answer, more drinks to be awarded when a correct answer is ultimately provided.

· I will announce the previous day’s winner when the next question goes out. If you want to submit a pic and/or description of yourself to gloat and/or amuse the rest of the participants, feel free to do so. It will help bring about competition, so naturally, self-deprecating versions are preferred.

o 2010 Update – I may create fake bios if so inclined J

· The field again varies wildly in terms of education, ethnicity, age, and background, I have tried to build questions from a variety of subject areas, and have also tried to create questions that are not easily Googled.

o 2010 Update – Google is becoming more and more powerful, so this will be harder for me!

· Questions will be sent out at all times of the day to avoid Blackberry users in Vancouver from having a leg up.

· If you don’t want to receive the remainder of the Advent Calendar Quiz questions, just let me know, and don’t worry, I will take no offence.

· If you have an alternate email address that you would prefer that I use, please let me know.

· If you want someone added to the list, just let me know.

And with that covered, here we go with Question #1, an easy one to get things started.

What is pictured in the attached image?