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Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!

We wish all our readers happy holidays and a merry Christmas! And if you're not christmassing we wish you a great time anyway.

To continue our blog's Christmas tradition, we have a little fun quiz for you. In times of Google it's actually not easy too come up with something that is neither too difficult nor too easy to answer. However, since Google is still working on their picture recognition software here's a pixelized question. Whose noses are these:



Hint: These are all very well known (living) scientists in the high energy physics/quantum gravity community.

The correct answer is an ordered list of six names. The first who posts the correct answer in the comments wins the 2010 Hubble wall calendar, and I put on top a NORDITA pen and a neck lanyard. If it looks like you're not getting anywhere, I'll leave more hints in the comments. Ready? Set. Go!

The day will be coming when your phone does recognize noses...

42 comments:

  1. Hi Bee,

    I’m still pondering this puzzle which asks the question as who has the nose for theoretical physics. Can we make this like one of those quiz shows where we guess at separate component (letters) and then see who gets them all right in the rush to the end, as I think I knows two for sure:-) Until you respond and without giving which nose it be I think two of them may be Gerald t’Hooft and Laurent Freidel.

    Best,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Phil,

    Well, at least this year the quiz was not solved within a matter of minutes :-) I was thinking of something similar to what you suggested: If somebody offers a list of 6 names and it's not entirely correct I'll let you know how many are correct (correct meaning the right name at the right position). Best,

    B.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cyrano de Bergerac they are not!

    ""My nose is Gargantuan! You little Pig-snout, you tiny Monkey Nostrils, you virtually invisible Pekinese-Puss, don't you realize that a nose like mine is both scepter and orb, a monument to me superiority? A great nose is the banner of a great man, a generous heart, a towering spirit, an expansive soul--such as I unmistakably am, and such as you dare not to dream of being, with your bilious weasel's eyes and no nose to keep them apart! With your face as lacking in all distinction--as lacking, I say, in interest, as lacking in pride, in imagination, in honesty, in lyricism--in a word, as lacking in nose as that other offensively bland expanse at the opposite end of your cringing spine--which I now remove from my sight by stringent application of my boot!"

    - Edmond Rostand,
    Cyrano de Bergerac, Act 1

    Not being interested in rhinology beyond this, I wish the other readers the best of luck!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Bee,

    Sounds fair enough, only I would ask if we are allowed only one answer before being disqualified? This is also interesting just to see how many can come up with six names. I then challenge Arun rather than have his nose in the air to have it come to the ground as to lend in aiding us to sniff this one out:-)

    Regards,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  5. No, you can guess how often you want (it has to be an ordered list of six names though.) The disadvantage of guessing is that everybody else will know the same as you. Best,

    B.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Phil, my only guess is that (3) is female; but I cannot put a name to it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Arun,

    I had the same feeling thinking first it might be Lisa Randal but when comparing it doesn’t seem to fit.

    Merry Christmas,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Phil,
    It's definitely not G.Hooft!

    Shivang.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Bee,

    This indeed is a ponderous task, yet as I shortly have to get ready to be at my daughter’s home for Christmas Brunch and just to get things going with the likelihood none are right here’s my first guess.

    1 Laurent Freidel
    2 Ed Witten
    3 Lisa Randall
    4 Max Tegmark
    5 Nima Arkani-Hamed
    6 Gerald t’Hooft

    “It is open to every man to choose the direction of his striving: and also every man may draw from Lessing’s fine saying, that the search for truth is more precious than its possession. “

    -Albert Einstein

    ”Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

    -Alfred Lord Tennyson

    Merry Chriistmas Sabine, Stefan and all,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1) Gross

    2) Witten

    3) .....

    4) Brian Greene

    5) Lisa Randall

    6) Susskind

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hints needed Bee!!
    At least tell us if the people are really famous(i.e to an outsider).

    Shivang

    ReplyDelete
  12. 1) David Gross
    2) Ed Witten
    3) Lisa Randall
    4) Max Tegmark
    5) Fotini Markopoulou
    6) Leonard susskind (him or Lee Smolin or John Moffat but I'm going with Lenny)

    And Phil Warnell as The Beaver

    ReplyDelete
  13. Phil: No, hits, sorry.

    Giotis: 3 hits! (Though I want to complain that your list is incomplete.)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Giotis,

    Not willing to offer a guess at number three. Actually all I was certain of is that number six was not either Lisa Randall or Sabine Hossenfelder:-) Then of course Bee might have cut facial hair from one photo and pasted onto another. Yet I don’t truly believe that, as she respects nature and as it’s been said nature may be subtle but she’s not malicious:-) Now I really have to go as to not tempt another lady to prove Einstein to be wrong :-)

    Best,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  15. Steven: 2 hits (keep in mind that a hit means the right name on the right place)

    Shivang: I'm not sure what you mean with "famous." 4 of the 6 people have written at least one book. Except for one, they've all been named already.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi Bee,

    He may be incomplete yet by way of what I said and him with your response then out of Gross , Greene Randall and Susskind three must be right. My sense is that the Randall guess is wrong leaving the other three as correct. Then again who nose for sure:-)

    Best,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  17. 1) Gross

    2) Tegmark

    3) Fotini Markopoulou

    4) Brian Greene

    5) Lisa Randall

    6) Susskind

    How many hits now?

    ReplyDelete
  18. 1) Gross

    2) Brian Greene

    3) Fotini Markopoulou

    4) Weinberg

    5) Lisa Randall

    6) Susskind

    How many hits now?

    ReplyDelete
  19. 1 Gross
    2 Witten
    3 Tegmark
    4 Greene
    5 Markopoulou
    6 Susskind

    ReplyDelete
  20. Giotis's list v1.4

    1) Gross ----

    2) Greene

    3) Fotini Markopoulou -------

    4) Tegmark---

    5) Lisa Randall --------------

    6) Susskind-----------


    Shivang

    ReplyDelete
  21. 1) Gross ----

    2) Greene

    3) Markopoulou

    4) Freidel

    5) Randall

    6) Susskind

    ReplyDelete
  22. Phil: Also 5 hits! (Hint: I already mentioned above at least 4 of the noses have written at least 1 book.)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Giotis's list v1.5

    1) Gross ----

    2) Greene

    3) Fotini Markopoulou -------

    4) Michio Kaku

    5) Lisa Randall --------------

    6) Susskind-----------


    Shivang

    ReplyDelete
  24. 1) Gross
    2) Greene
    3) Fotini Markopoulou
    4) Penrose
    5) Lisa Randall
    6) Susskind

    ReplyDelete
  25. Phil: Congratulations!!! You have them all correctly together! I hope the noses didn't interrupt you Brunch :-) We'll be in touch regarding the shipment.

    Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you!

    B.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hi Bee,

    That was fun as usual, yet as I one last year I think Giotis should take it for having the most initially correct. All I did was use a little logic and put my nose to the grindstone.


    Cheers,

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  27. Phil: Thanks so much for your generous offer :-)

    Giotis: Will you accept Phil's offer? If so, I will need your postal address. Please send it to hossi[at]nordita.org

    ReplyDelete
  28. No Phil. Rules are rules. You won and congrats:-)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hi Giotis,

    You are truly the one with the keenest nose and wit so please accept Bee’s prize because you really know your noses.

    Merry Christmas all.

    Phil

    ReplyDelete
  30. Ok then...I will not insist. Thanks:-) I will send my address to Bee.

    Merry Christmas to all.

    ReplyDelete
  31. All hail Giotis! His guess was on the nose! No misdiagnose! He may blush and declaim, but we don't accept his noes. He knows his noses!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Can I get a booby prize for being the first to guess Fotini, even if I got her and Randall switched? Say a free pass to Toronto's C-N Tower? Wait, I don't have the money to go to Toronto. Nevermind, and congrats Phil. You really are The Beaver, and nice logic puzzle, thanks, Bee

    ReplyDelete
  33. 1. Gross
    2. Gross
    3. Gross
    4. Gross
    5. Gross
    6. Really Gross. Yuck!

    ReplyDelete
  34. There is already a working image search which I once successfully used to track an author of a painting.
    http://www.tineye.com/

    It didn't work for this puzzle though.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I arrived too late to play the Nose Game. I would have guessed 5 of them correctly although not in any order. Fotini is not in my mind - because I wouldn't know how the heck Bee managed to get a picture of her beautiful nose.

    Greetings to Drs Mr & Mrs Scherer for a wonderful informative blogwork in 2009, and may you both enjoy the best of health and happiness in 2010. I will be glued to Backreaction's take on LHC finally doing TeV work.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Tkk: Not much of a mystery there, the photos can all be found via Google image (here's Fotini's photo).

    ReplyDelete

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