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Nifty!
I need to really buckle down and start figuring out the questions for the game at this year's Christmas thing. Luckily, I've found a new source of questions.
I'm trying to design questions that are long and will get progressively easier as the question continues. This obviously makes it a good match for the IMDB Game. Well, it turns out there's a new source for these kinds of questions, using SCIENCE!
Amazon's been using its "Search Inside" feature to do nifty things with books. For example, it lists the first line of a book, as I discovered when I started looking for the answers I didn't know in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
acroarcs's first-line-of-the-book meme. It also lists "Statistically Improbable Phrases" (or "SIPs"), which are phrases that occur "a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside! books." So, bingo, I've got a list of things that are more-or-less unique identifiers for a given book. And if there aren't enough, the "CAPs" (which are, unsurprisingly, common capitalized phrases) can help flesh things out.
I haven't been in the NPL chat room or the local NPL parties, so I have no idea if this has already been noted and exploited. But it's still a great source of clues. Here are a few books that I wouldn't be able to use for my family's party. They're also books I'd reasonably be able to grab from my room, if I were doing the first-line meme and if I were in my room. SIPs and CAPs have been included or left out to make things more interesting. One correct answer per person:
I'm trying to design questions that are long and will get progressively easier as the question continues. This obviously makes it a good match for the IMDB Game. Well, it turns out there's a new source for these kinds of questions, using SCIENCE!
Amazon's been using its "Search Inside" feature to do nifty things with books. For example, it lists the first line of a book, as I discovered when I started looking for the answers I didn't know in
acroarcs's first-line-of-the-book meme. It also lists "Statistically Improbable Phrases" (or "SIPs"), which are phrases that occur "a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside! books." So, bingo, I've got a list of things that are more-or-less unique identifiers for a given book. And if there aren't enough, the "CAPs" (which are, unsurprisingly, common capitalized phrases) can help flesh things out.I haven't been in the NPL chat room or the local NPL parties, so I have no idea if this has already been noted and exploited. But it's still a great source of clues. Here are a few books that I wouldn't be able to use for my family's party. They're also books I'd reasonably be able to grab from my room, if I were doing the first-line meme and if I were in my room. SIPs and CAPs have been included or left out to make things more interesting. One correct answer per person:
- Cement dragon, graveyard dirt, phonograph needle, obsidian knife, supernatural horror, Ninth Sonata.
- Chief acolyte, dojo master, his broom, fifth surprise. (Identified by orenr)
- Jerks the rope, gazes into distance. (Identified by thedan)
- Libidinal multiplicity, melancholic structure, univocal signification, primary bisexuality, homosexual cathexis, binary restriction, discrete gender, happy limbo, signifying economy, heterosexual constructs, paternal law, taboo against homosexuality, prohibitive law, heterosexual contract, cultural intelligibility, juridical law, master gene, culturally intelligible, maternal body, gender configurations, straight mind, juridical structures. (Identified by megustamayer)
- Little golden key, Long Tale, Eighth Square, Beau-ootiful Soo-oop. (Identified by saxikath)
- Ornate tails, hundred sides, five regular solids, fourth dimension. (Identified by joenotcharles)
- Purple waves, tapestry bag, our clues, wax dummy. (Identified by acroarcs)
- Tithing trains, hot klah, southern venture, eye ridges. (Identified by storme)
- Vidphone receiver, empathy box, mood organ, false animal, laser tube, brain unit. (Identified by yendi)
- Zeli fruit, government pills, flower sickness, sky sickness, unshared reality, hospitality flower, skull ridges, probability field, buried artifact, reality mechanism, flower remembrances, your blossoms, space tunnels.
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Is #2 Small Gods (Terry Pratchett)?
Is #5 Flatland (A. Square)?
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And I haven't read it, but I wouldn't be shocked if either 4 or 10 is Brave New World.
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