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Rare Entries Contest 2

From: Garmt de Vries <G.deVries~at~phys.uu.nl>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:44:23 +0200 (CEST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Dear friends,

After the rare entries contest that I ran a few weeks ago, some people
asked if there would be a second round. I have plenty of questions left,
so here we go.

The purpose of this game is as follows: for each of the questions, your
objective is to give an answer that (1) is correct, and (2) will be
duplicated by as FEW other people as possible. More details can be found
in the rules.

In order to participate in the contest, send your answers to me by email
(g.devries~at~phys.uu.nl) before the deadline. It is of course essential that
nobody sees the answers given by other entrants before the deadline, so
please do NOT send your answers to any mailing list I used to distribute
the questions! Make sure you don't use the 'reply-to' address; use the
'from' address instead.

Make sure you have read the rules before submitting your answers!

You can find the questions and the rules at
http://www.phys.uu.nl/~gdevries/rare/

Deadline: May 18, 12:00 CET

The questions

0) Give the name of a brother or sister of Jules Verne.

1) Name a person who, at some moment in his life, was the head of state of
a European country, and with whom Jules Verne corresponded, or talked in
person. The correspondence or conversation does not have to have taken
place at the time when the person was head of state.

2) Name a character who lived on the island Lincoln in the novel L'Ile
mystérieuse.

3) Name a work by a relative of Jules Verne, which was published under the
author's own name.

4) Name an island in the Mediterranean that is described in a work by
Jules Verne in more than one paragraph.

5) Name an actor who played Phileas Fogg in an adaptation of Jules Verne's
novel Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours.

6) Name a novel that Jules Verne wrote a sequel to.

7) Name a Voyage Extraordinaire that was written in collaboration with
André Laurie.

8) Name a city where a restaurant or bar called 'Jules Verne' can be
found.

9) Name two brothers who are both characters in a work by Jules Verne.


The rules

* 1. The Game

For each of the questions 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; but when you have found enough
possible answers for your liking, you are expected to choose on your
own which one to submit, WITHOUT mechanical or computer assistance:
this is meant to be a game of wits.


* 2. Scoring

The scores on the different questions are MULTIPLIED to produce a
final score for each entrant. Low score wins; a perfect score is 1.

If your answer to a question is correct, then your score is the number
of people who gave that answer, or an answer I consider equivalent.

A wrong answer, or a skipped question, gets a high score as a penalty.
This is the median of:
 - the number of entrants
 - the square root of that number, rounded up to an integer
 - double the largest number of entrants giving the same answer (right or
wrong) as each other on the question

* 2.1 More Specific Variants

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

* 2.2 Scoring Example

Say I ask for a type of flying vehicle described in a Voyage
Extraordinaire.
There are 27 entrants: 19 say "balloon", 2 say "hot air balloon", 4 say
"helicopter", 1 says "Victoria", and 1 says "flying saucer".

The 4 people who answered "helicopter" get 4 points each. Since "hot air
balloon"
is a more specific variant of "balloon", those who said "balloon" get 21
points
each, and those who said "hot air balloon" get 2 points each. "Victoria"
is not a
type of flying vehicle, but the name of one individual balloon, and Jules
Verne never
described a "flying saucer", so these answers are both wrong. The persons
who gave
them both get the penalty score, which is the median of:
 - number of entrants = 27
 - sqrt(27) = 5.196+, rounded up = 6
 - double the most popular answer's count = 21 x 2 = 42
or in this case, 27.


* 3. Entries

Entries must be emailed to me personally by email: g.devries~at~phys.uu.nl.
Do NOT send your answers to the mailing list I used to distribute the
questions!

In general there is no penalty for errors of spelling, capitalization,
English usage, or other such matters of form. Sometimes a specific
question may imply stricter rules, though. And if you give an answer
that properly refers to a different thing related to the one you
intended, I will normally take it as written.

Once you intentionally submit an answer, no changes will be allowed,
unless I decide there was a problem with the question. Similarly,
alternate answers within an entry will not be accepted. Only the
first answer that you intentionally submit counts.

* 3.1 Translations

Because entrants may have read some works only in translation, I will
be lenient with regard to foreign spellings of toponyms and proper
names. As far as characters are concerned, slightly different versions
of their names (e.g. Peter instead of Pierre) are acceptable, but
names that are completely different (e.g. Harding instead of Smith)
are wrong.

Works by Jules Verne should be referred to by giving their French title.

* 3.2 Clarifications

Questions are not intended to be hard to understand, but I may fail
in this intent. (For one thing, in many cases clarity could only be
provided by an example which would suggest one or another specific
answer, and I mustn't do that.)

In order to be fair to all entrants, I must insist that requests for
clarification must be emailed to me, NOT POSTED in any mailing list.
But if you do ask for clarification, I'll probably say that the
question is clear enough as posted. If I do decide to clarify or
change a question, all entrants will be informed.

* 3.3 Supporting Information

It is your option whether or not to provide supporting information
to justify your answers. If you don't, I'll email you to ask for
it if I need to.

If you provide any explanatory remarks along with your answers, you
are responsible for making it sufficiently clear that they are not
part of the answers. The particular format doesn't matter as long
as you're clear.

In the scoring example above, "balloon in Cinq semaines en ballon" would
be
wrong, just like "Victoria" would be wrong; "balloon (e.g. in Cinq
semaines
en ballon)" would be taken as a correct answer with an explanation.


* 4. Meaning of commonly occurring terms

These are general rules that apply unless a question specifically
states otherwise.

* 4.1 Voyage Extraordinaire

A "Voyage Extraordinaire" is any of the novels published under this title,
including the posthumous ones (re)written by Michel Verne, or any of the
short stories published in a volume of the Voyages Extraordinaires under
the name of Jules Verne.

* 4.2 Work by Jules Verne

A "work by Jules Verne" is any published text written by Jules Verne,
and intended for a general audience. This includes poems (even though
Verne never meant some of them to be read by others), and excludes
private correspondence as well as interviews given by Verne.

* 4.3 Character

When I say "character" I mean a fictitious character.

* 4.4 Movie

A "movie" can be any movie, whether shown in theatres or on television,
or issued directly on video. This excludes tv series, mini series and
the like. Whether something is a movie or a series is determined by its
listing in the Internet Movie DataBase (www.imdb.com).

* 4.5 Country

"Country" means a nation that was/is independent at the time relevant
for the question. Dependencies are not independent countries. Whether
or not a place is considered an independent country is determined by
how it is listed in reference sources.

* 4.6 Web Pages

If I ask for material on the WWW, what you cite must already have
existed before the contest was first posted.


* 5. Judging

As moderator, I will be the sole judge of what answers are correct,
and whether two answers with similar meaning are considered the same,
different, or more/less specific variants. I will do my best to be
fair on all such issues, but sometimes it is necessary to be arbitrary.

I may rescore the contest if I agree that I made a serious error and
it affects the high finishers.


* 6. Results

Results will normally be posted within a few days of the contest
closing. They may be delayed if I'm unexpectedly busy or for
technical reasons.

Best regards,
Garmt.
Received on Fri 23 Apr 2004 - 15:12:37 IDT

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