2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 11

Hi All,

Hopefully you enjoyed the Google test last night! In the end, Rob submitted an entry that was both topical and exceedingly close (5440) to the 5420 value being aimed for. See attached for the winning search string. With this win, Rob clearly vaults into the lead, so it is time for everyone else to step up!

So, for some reason, I am reminded of th

e following video today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3VJgkL

SFws

Kidding!

But as I will be celebrating the anniversary of my arrival into this world, I will officially abstain from thinking this afternoon and evening. See the way I see, you all can think on my behalf by tinkering with the puzzle below…… enjoy. While amusing, it is sadly not as tough as the Vernistanian question thrown out on the 11th of last year ;)

By the way, if anyone in Van i

s up for a drink, send me a txt as I will be having a couple post Christmas party drinks in town.

Lastly, answers and the winner for Q#9 will be coming shortly .......

--------------------------------- Question #11 -----------------------

The image attached shows four prisoners stuck in body-sized pylons, each wearing g a hat. Let’s call them A, B, C, and D. Each man is functionally paralyzed by the pylons so they cannot turn their heads or otherwise move their bodies. Between A and B is a wall that none of the men can see through, around, or over. Each is wearing a black or white hat, but none of them know the colour of their hat. They do know, however, that there are four of them and that two are wearing white hats and two are wearing black hats. They are also aware that they are separated by the wall in the way pictured below. All men are hooked to an electric grid and the warden is making his way from the local pub to throw the switch and “toast” the group upon arrival. The warden, being a passionate sort, has said the following: “if any one of you can correctly yell out the colour of your hat with 100% certainty, I will free you all”. “If you get it wrong, however, you will all perish”.

The prisoners are not permitted to talk to one another and no other form of communication is allowed. They have 5 minutes to figure it out. After two minutes, one of the prisoners correctly calls out the colour of his hat and saves the group.

Which one saved the day, and how did he do it?

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 10 Leaderboard

Hey All,

Although not yet referenced in the quiz, this will be the site of the most recent leader board for the 2009 quiz.

As of the 10th, this is where we stand.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 10

Hey All,

Amazing effort on last night’s quiz – thanks all! It will take me a bit to step through the submissions and figure out who won. It will be close as there were many nearly complete submissions!

Now, for some old business

------------------------------------ Old Business - Question #8 ---------------------------------------------------

So, in response the Santa challenge, I have now received four photos. An oversight on my end was not mention that the photos were to be taken after the challenge was issued. So, three of the photos fall into this category in that they were taken this year, but not in advance of the challenge. The fourth, however, was a bonafide post-challenge shot. So, what to do?

After consulting with the quiz judging panel (a most difficult lot consisting of me, myself, and I), I have opted to do the following. Rob wins the challenge outright and gets three drinks because he sat on Santa’s lap following the challenge being issued. But, each of Chris F., Simon, and Alicia get a drink for getting in the Christmas spirit in 2009. Special note to Chris F., as he is posing with the original St. Nick, his inspiration for Santa Claus.

Alicia’s Bio:

· I am alicia and from Toronto and my friend Chris added me to this crazy challenge. A Toronto girl who hates the cold but lives here anyways.

· Love my high heals but hate winter boots so i make sure I travel lots to places with no snow.

· A bishops university and U of T grad. I am proud to be fishing with Santa.

· Happy holidays!

Simon’s Bio:

During some wacky adventures in New Zealand back in 04, Simon met Vern as he plunged 180 meters into Mokai Canyon, at 160 km/h in a death arm lock. During the days, Sven plies his trade at good old Vancity, where he helps to mold the minds of new employees and locks into Johari conversations with his internal clients. He also enjoys spending lots of time with Rotary, watching re-runs of South Park and trying to discover his youthful body through a rigorous workout schedule. No luck yet. He is proud that he was able to get one answer right, even if he had taken a picture with Santa during a very rowdy Christmas work party!

And now, for today’s question/challenge……

------------------------------------------------------- Question #10 -----------------------------------------------------

Okay, so most of the time, I am trying to steer you all away from Google as it generally undermines my efforts to come up with a decent challenge. Today, I embrace Google! You see the advent quiz is what we call a 5420. That is to say, a search for “vern’s advent calendar quiz” yields 5400 hits (as pictured).

Your challenge today is to search for something else that returns as close to that many search results as possible. So, the search string that comes closest to 5420 wins for today. As the number of pages on the web changes every second, I will need a screenshot to show the number of hits, like the one shown attached with the string and the number of results. In the unlikely event of a tie, the first one in wins.

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 9

Hey All,

Thanks for another night of very interesting submissions! I will take one more day to decide on a winner for last night’s challenge as I have to pull out the rulebook ;).

In the meantime, a big welcome to Showtime joining us from Ontario!

And now, tonight’s question ….

----------------------------------------- Question #8 --------------------------------------------------

The other day, for reasons unknown, I started to think about famous pairings, be they people, animals, expressions, etc. So, I thought I would compile a list of pairs for you to run through and identify.

To do so, I have uploaded a bunch of photos, and have created a simple spreadsheet template for you to fill in your guesses (attached). In terms of filing out the information, if the people are playing characters on film/TV, use their character names.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=vernsadventcalendarquiz&target=ALBUM&id=5413490170352236225&authkey=Gv1sRgCOO-naT6wKqMUg&feat=email

The winner will be the first person with everything correct. If nobody gets them all correct, it will be the person who answers the most correctly that wins. If tiebreakers are needed, the most full names used will win .....

In most of the cases, both objects/people in the pair are shown, but if only one object/person is shown, I am looking for an expression that involves the picture subject and something else.

Incidentally, this quiz should be one that eliminates BBY/Iphone advantages as doing it on the phone would be very challenging.....

Happy puzzling.....

2009 Advent Calendar Quiz - Day 8

Hey All,

So, clearly there is an appetite for a “pure guess” type of question on occasion. Not only did the answers flood in, but people took it upon themselves to rescind their initial guess in favour of a more accurate submission.

It didn’t matter in the end, as the closest guess (350) came in within 7 minutes of the question going out. The actual number of M&M’s was 365. Ya, that’s right people, one piece of chocolate goodness for Vern each and every day for a year, booyah!

The correct answer was “hoisted aboard” by Derek, who’s bio is found below.

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

I guess I would say as a general description 'born to fish, forced to work'

Livin' the dream, and apparently have a skill counting M&M's which I may attempt to forge into a retirement gig when I reach 'retirement' age in a couple years :). Keep the easy ones comin'!

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

Although it pains me to no end, Question #6’s winner is the first repeat winner of this year’s quiz. Despite early signs suggesting the amswer would be wrapped up yesterday, a correct answer only found its way into my inbox a couple of hours ago.

In the end, last year’s winner, Chris H., correctly answered the value of “Life” as 47. To do so, he took the alphabetical position of each letter in the word (i.e., 1-26) and added it to the value of the same letter on the number pad of a phone (i.e. 2-9).

And so, with that behind us, a new riddle….

------------------------------------------------- Question #8 ------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, tonight’s question is actually a challenge, and to reflect that, tonight’s prize is worth two drinks, with a possible bonus drink. Not only would winning give you the satisfaction of successfully competing, but in this case, it would also give you full on lead in the game.

So, here it goes:

Last weekend, I was Santa for about 300 kids at a local school. It was truly an experience, like when one responded to my “what do you want for Christmas” with “I already emailed you!”, while throwing me the stink eye! Nice!

Anyway, I think you all could use some holiday spirit, so your mission, quite simply, is to take a picture with a Santa. Sit on his lap, and you get a bonus drink!

And by Santa, I mean a fully costumed Santa Claus, not a Salvation Army bell jingler with a Santa hat on. And no, your significant other in costume does NOT count.

First photo in wins, simple. This question stays alive until claimed.

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….