Grrrrrrrrrrrr

49/50 on the quiz olympics again due to a bad question.

Asked for the pH of Distilled water.

I gave 6 as the answer as many many sites say that it starts at 7 but, within 24 hrs, soon drops to 6 and even lower. Therefore I was as correct as those who gave the answer as 7.

What chance altering my score to 50/50?

And again!

49/50 due to bad question.

Asked for answer about graticule. The dictionary says this is the drawing of lines of longitude and latitude. They can appear on maps AND on globes so I answered "All of them". Very cross when the answer was given merely as maps.

What chance altering my score to 50/50? That is worlds 1 and 3!

Me too. 49/50 due to bad question. Mine asked who said "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it", which Winston Churchill said, but he was paraphrasing an earlier quote by George Santayana, and both were listed as options. Please change George Santayana to a less confusing wrong answer.

Idézet: FriendlyCheese - 2011.06.19. 10:42:38

I think the "end of a movie" part is definitely confusing. I can't think of any movies that have crawlers at the end. In my experience, crawlers are most common on news and sports channels, so I think it would be clearer to ask something like "What is the term for the display of moving text on the bottom of a TV screen, often seen on news and sports channels?"

Idézet: FriendlyCheese - 2011.06.21. 10:33:31

Actually, it can be whatever, depending on how experienced a person was who distilled it

Seriously, it will always be below 7.

I am not a profi, but wiki lists all four of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophets_of_Christianity

Maybe some extra condition is needed that distinguishes one from other 3.

David was a king but through the many psalms he composed he did prophesise about Jesus quite often. So i changed it to Samson

distilled water: It is 7 as soon as it is distilled. So i changed the question right after distillation. The skill of the person is not a factor since the ideal conditions are taken as granded.

Crawler: Removed end of movie so now is "Although they sometimes scroll by quickly, what is the display of moving text on the bottom of a TV screen called?"

Santaya said: Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. Pretty close but not what the question asks. CHurchill missquoted him so the actual answer for the exact quote is only Churchill.

Idézet: stekkos - 2011.06.22. 15:11:09

It would be strictly 7 if you add "distilled under inert" to the question. Under normal athmospheric conditins even immediately after distillation pH is below 7 due to contact with carbon dioxide always present in air.

Yes but it is still close to 7. It takes a while to reach closer to 6 than 7

"Eddie Goodell is famous in baseball history for what?"

i'm guessing he means Eddie Gaedel, but the spelling isn't even close.

Idézet: stekkos - 2011.06.22. 15:11:09

You have got to be kidding me. If you google the exact quote, the entire first page says Santayana. You have to actually scroll down a page to see Churchill. I'm not arguing that the person who said the precise quote in question was Churchill, but by all the standards of this quiz, including Santayana makes it an ambiguous question. Please just change the Santayana wrong answer to P.T. Barnum or some other often-quoted person.

No, he's not kidding. The sentence in the quiz question was said by Churchill, he was distorting Santayana's original. The two sentences are similar but not identical so I don't see any reason to change Santayana in the answers, it's a nice twist to make us watch more carefully


Idézet: ImLittleJon - 2011.06.23. 00:10:28

Idézet: Pogaxa - 2011.06.23. 08:20:09

When you ask a question about who said quote X, you want the person who said it originally. I hope we can all agree on that much. In this context, if someone attempts to quote someone buts gets it a little off, they do not get credit for a new quote, unless you explicitly state otherwise. Even though these are not the words that Santayana used, he is credited as the originator of all of them:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them.
Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

If you really want to keep Santayana in the answers, you need to change the question so that it states that it is asking for who said those specific words, and not the original form of the quote.

Which of these is poisonous?
Iron
Mercury
Titanium
Hydrogen

Obviously, you wouldn't want to be drinking mercury. But I'm sure the other options would do pretty much the same thing to you if you ingest them.
"All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."
-Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim

Idézet: Wtfakkeltje - 2011.06.23. 17:45:58
That might be so, but your blood consists loads of iron, in fact it's pretty vital to your survival. Hydrogen is also abundant in every cell in your body, so calling it poisonous is the same as calling water poisonous, literally. Titanium is used in most sunscreen and loads of cosmetics, as well as in jewelery, and body implants, precisely because it's non-toxic, that leaves mercury. I sure wouldn't want any of that on my skin or in my food.

Exactly. Mercury is toxic for humans, therefore a poison. All other elements are not toxic, but ofcourse can cause damage if you overdose on them. Still, this does not make them poisonus.

LittleJon, what you suggest needs to be agreed as a rule then. I have no objection, if any evaluator or player has a different opinion please post. For now quote is considered who said the exact words. Do we change that according to Jons sugggestion?

Idézet: MartinBV - 2011.06.23. 23:17:26

Actually, water can be poisonous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication.
Iron, while vital for life, can also be poisonous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_poisoning
Even titanium, considered in many cases to be inert, can be poisonous: http://consumercide.com/health/dent-toxtitanium.html

The entire thing is that when you start looking at things in more detail, everything is potentially poisonous, it is only a question of dosage. Morphine for example is used as a pain killer, but a small increase in dosage and you stop breathing.

Of the substances mentioned in the question, Mercury is the most poisonous. Even then, mercury is not acutely toxic (i.e. you don't die immediately from getting it in your food or on your skin) but rather mercury causes damage that can kill you hours or even months later.

Simply chaining the question to "Which of these substances are the most poisonous to humans?" would solve everything.

I said to a previous post about another question that i dont want this quiz to become a legal document were everything has to be defined at extreme detail. When we say poisonus, we mean it is toxic to humans. Water is NEVER toxic. At great quantitys it can cause even death due to cell membranes dessolving, but that is not what the question asks. Same with iron and titanium, anyone can find a way to kill you with them but they are not a poison to humans. Especially when talking about water or iron, they are essential for life.

So to avoid every little detail being contested, some things has to be taken for granded.