I thought this train question was really hard

At the close of the second period:

Player	Score
Booker Woodfox	65.11
pwnsall	69.96
toedder	70.05
A.Ertjberg	72.18
ObezyankaNol	72.24
aaronk56	75.04
Dwetzel	75.53
Steve Yzerman fan	84.03
j0nnyb0y	84.76
soah	89.59
TimeLady	90.79
atakpup	93.78
McAvoy	94.62
derwipok	95.31
mic_check12	95.83
Chips Ahoy	97.67
eyebooger	113.39
marek_heinz	116.92
DCIAce	118.42
kokiri	129.79
Alrighty Roo	131.07
NIX	134.03
amplify	138.54
Evene	138.85
AdamSchwartz	141.36
master3004	144.31
kioshk	150.30
hotwings18	154.70
kwami42	155.25
exec771	160.78
filthyvermin	168.00
Treep	168.27
_Mantis_	183.66
C-Dog	218.39

LOL at luckboxing when picking a fairly arbitrary number

Me too. Yay us.

That was one on which I was annoyed that 'pup just snap-answered — I think it should be clear that 2 billion kilometers is impossible. And in a game where the million/billion choice often determines outcomes, a bit of care on that sort of thing goes a long way.

and the fail hard boat only takes one question to drop me like a stone

Don't act like you don't know that hundreds of bears wearing human skin walk among us every day.

You're probably one of them. This strange fascination with hockey, lording over the murders of innocent humans by your kind... I mean, I don't want to go all speciesist here, but...

LOL at Adam's answer on that one

Still some diamonds out there: three Charlie Brown cameo references, and the country the billionaires could buy.<br>

what is the Charlie Brown question?

13. Another Original Six team is the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago was and remains important as the location of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a commodities-trading exchange (as well as the current home of your author). The commodity that is said to have built the CME is the pork belly future. Pork bellies are used to make bacon, which as every Saturday Night Live viewer knows is quintessentially Canadian, and therefore a traditional hockey food.

Glenn Hall, maybe the greatest Blackhawk ever (if it isn't the aforementioned Bobby Hull), and father of the butterfly style:




Bacon:




What more could you want? Hmm...




(OK, so she's not cooking bacon, but it's Thanksgiving [in the States].)

Unfortunately, the CME recently suspended trading in pork belly futures. While changes in refrigeration technology were said to be the cause of the drop in trading activity that led to this event, this author blames the rise in new-age vegetarianism. Many vegetarians get their protein not from bacon but from soybeans. On the CME, soybean futures are quoted in tons, but soybeans are often sold by the bushel.

You say soybeans, I say edamame:




A bushel:




A vegetarian?




How many soybeans are in a bushel?

I can't get past about 10 as far as richest countries, so this is a straight up guess, reasoning second tier euro country is most likely: Spain

The three people, other than Bobby Orr, whom Marcie referred to in the phrase "_______ legs".

Answer: A number of you didn't know how big a bushel is. Well, I'll tell you: it's 4 pecks. (Or ¼ coomb.)

Doesn't help? Well, a peck is two gallons. Except that's dry gallons, which are a little bigger than US liquid gallons; a bushel is about 9.3 of the latter. (Or 7.75 imperial gallons. Like we all use those.)

Can we convert to metric please? When the only country that agrees with you is Burma, maybe it's time to admit that the French were right about something.

A bushel of soybeans averages around 60 pounds. Soybeans vary in size, of course, with 3500 per pound being normal for seed soybeans, to as few as 2500 per pound when they're harvested I used the latter value, which means there are 150,000 soybeans in a bushel.


Your answers:

Question 13	Guess	Raw	Score	Cumulative
Alrighty Roo	80	3.273	30.00	161.07
derwipok	100	3.176	29.17	124.47
kioshk	1400	2.030	18.64	168.94
atakpup	2000	1.875	17.22	111.00
McAvoy	2946	1.707	15.67	110.30
Treep	3000	1.699	15.60	183.87
Evene	4000	1.574	14.45	153.30
Booker Woodfox	4444	1.528	14.03	79.14
pwnsall	8000	1.273	11.69	81.65
filthyvermin	10000	1.176	10.80	178.80
marek_heinz	10000	1.176	10.80	127.72
AdamSchwartz	14221	1.023	9.40	150.76
amplify	20000	0.875	8.04	146.58
NIX	25000	0.778	7.15	141.18
A.Ertjberg	35000	0.632	5.80	77.98
Dwetzel	35350	0.628	5.76	81.29
master3004	38950	0.586	5.38	149.69
soah	50000	0.477	4.38	93.97
kokiri	65400	0.361	3.31	133.10
_Mantis_	75000	0.301	2.76	186.43
eyebooger	77777	0.285	2.62	116.01
Chips Ahoy	80000	0.273	2.51	100.18
exec771	100000	0.176	1.62	162.40
hotwings18	100000	0.176	1.62	156.32
mic_check12	100000	0.176	1.62	97.44
toedder	100000	0.176	1.62	71.67
Correct Answer	150000
Steve Yzerman fan	160000	0.028	0.26	84.29
j0nnyb0y	250000	0.222	2.04	86.80
TimeLady	300000	0.301	2.76	93.55
aaronk56	350350	0.368	3.38	78.43
DCIAce	500000	0.523	4.80	123.22
kwami42	700000	0.669	6.14	161.39
C-Dog	652987441	3.639	30.00	248.39
ObezyankaNol	1100000000	3.865	30.00	102.24

14. Many fans attend hockey games. Many of these fans attend games in the United States, even though the game was developed in Canada and is still considered to be characteristically Canadian.

Bizarrely enough, even more fans attend other sporting events. More people attend Major League Baseball games every year than fans of any other professional sports league.

National pastime?




As with hockey, baseball games are attended by fans in countries other than the birthplace of the sport. With such draws as the Hokkaido Nippon–Ham Fighters and the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, the Nippon Professional Baseball league also draws fans.



So wait, the Japanese actually watch baseball? Nobody told them that it's the sort of sport you can love only if you grew up with it, which happens only if your father grew up with it, which happens...

Yes, they do, because apparently no, nobody did:




What was the average attendance at Nippon Professional Baseball league games in 2010?

Just to nit it up a bit shouldn't that question say approximately

EDIT: Holy **** I almost nailed it

Answer: In 2010 (the most recent year I could find), average attendance at Nippon Professional Baseball league games was 25,626. For comparison, attendance at Major League Baseball games the same year was 30,080. But quite a few more people saw games in North America than in Japan: the NPB features 12 teams playing 144 games each, while MLB has 30 teams and a 162 game schedule.


Your answers:

Question 14	Guess	Raw	Score	Cumulative
McAvoy	756	1.530	30.00	140.30
AdamSchwartz	8759	0.466	15.14	165.89
soah	9000	0.454	14.76	108.73
Chips Ahoy	10000	0.409	13.27	113.45
NIX	10000	0.409	13.27	154.45
hotwings18	10000	0.409	13.27	169.59
j0nnyb0y	10000	0.409	13.27	100.07
Treep	11347	0.354	11.49	195.36
exec771	11400	0.352	11.42	173.82
derwipok	12345	0.317	10.30	134.77
DCIAce	15000	0.233	7.55	130.77
aaronk56	15350	0.223	7.23	85.65
Dwetzel	17350	0.169	5.50	86.79
marek_heinz	18000	0.153	4.98	132.70
mic_check12	18000	0.153	4.98	102.43
pwnsall	19000	0.130	4.22	85.87
TimeLady	20000	0.108	3.50	97.05
Booker Woodfox	22000	0.066	2.15	81.29
eyebooger	23456	0.038	1.25	117.26
filthyvermin	25000	0.011	0.35	179.15
Correct Answer	25626
Evene	30000	0.068	2.22	155.53
toedder	30000	0.068	2.22	73.89
kokiri	30001	0.068	2.22	135.32
ObezyankaNol	33000	0.110	3.57	105.81
A.Ertjberg	35000	0.135	4.40	82.38
_Mantis_	35000	0.135	4.40	190.82
master3004	37950	0.171	5.54	155.23
kioshk	40000	0.193	6.28	175.22
amplify	47895	0.272	8.82	155.40
kwami42	50000	0.290	9.43	170.81
Alrighty Roo	60000	0.369	12.00	173.07
C-Dog	68000	0.424	13.76	262.15
atakpup	150000	0.767	24.92	135.92
Steve Yzerman fan	260000	1.006	30.00	114.29

No, clearly there are exactly 150,000 soybeans in a bushel. At least in the bushel I decided to use as a benchmark.

Nyah.

Coming up: The weirdest question, and with it the last cumulative score I publish before the end of the game. (Gotta keep the tension going.)

Australia?

Awesome to lolbox the bushel question without knowing what it is

15. When a hockey player commits a penalty he is confined for a period of time to the penalty box. The player who did this the most during his career was "Tiger" Williams, who spent a total of 3,966 minutes in the box. Some of these penalties were incurred during his last season, which he spent with the Hartford Whalers. The Whalers, which were not an Original Six team and have since moved on to become the Carolina Hurricanes, were named in reflection of New England's whaling industry.



(I have been unable to confirm that the reason Tiger Williams was so violent on the ice was that while with the Vancouver Canucks he was forced to wear the ugliest uniforms in NHL history.)


The whale most responsible for the success of whaling in New England was the sperm whale. Sperm whales are not very similar to human sperm, but one similarity is that each swims. Human sperm, perhaps not surprisingly, swim slower than sperm whales.






Wait, what about the inevitable hot-woman-sperm pic? Trust me:



How long, in hours, would it take a human sperm to swim the length of a regulation NHL hockey rink?

lol wtf was I thinking?

Jim Thorpe

Answer:

Now some of you may be surprised to learn that if a sperm were the size of a salmon it would be swimming its seven inch journey at five hundred miles per hour. If a sperm were the size of a whale, however, it would be traveling at fifteen thousand miles per hour or Mach 20.

Now imagine, if you will, four hundred million blind and desperate sperm whales departing from the Pacific Coast of North America, swimming at fifteen thousand miles per hour, and arriving in Japanese coastal waters in just under forty five minutes. How would they be received? Would they realize that they were carrying information? A message? Would there be room for so many millions? Would they know that they had been sent for a purpose? (Laurie Anderson, Mach 20)

Yes, that really is a Laurie Anderson song. I've seen her perform it live.

But no, it isn't correct. Sperm don't swim all that fast, so a sperm-whale-sized sperm wouldn't be going 15,000 miles per hour, but rather more like 40. Which is a bit faster than whales actually go, but not enough to make a song out of it. Though I guess maybe Laurie Anderson, questionable scientific prowess notwithstanding, can accomplish a lot (hey, she brought us the tape bow!), so who knows.

But what about regular-sized sperm? Well, their speed varies a lot, particularly as a function of temperature. At room temperature they're really slow, but they speed up as you approach body temperature. I couldn't find data on how fast they would go if it were freezing (I did ask about them swimming the length of an ice rink), but I think I can work that the speed of frozen sperm out for myself, and it wouldn't make for much of a question. So I'm going with body temperature.

The most credible-looking number I found for human sperm at body temperature (ram sperm are faster, btw) was 56 μm (that's micrometers, millionths of a meter) per second. At that speed, it takes a pretty long time to make it up the fallopian tube (a few inches), much less the 200 foot length of a regulation NHL rink. The latter, if for some reason a sperm were to do it, I estimate would take it 302.38 hours, or 12 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes, and 51 seconds. In other words, plenty of time to go pick up the Plan B.


Your answers:

Question 15	Guess	Raw	Score	Cumulative
McAvoy	0.5	2.782	29.12	169.41
Treep	1	2.481	25.96	221.33
Steve Yzerman fan	2	2.180	22.81	137.10
Booker Woodfox	6	1.702	17.82	99.11
filthyvermin	12	1.401	14.67	193.82
Evene	13	1.367	14.30	169.83
NIX	16	1.276	13.36	167.81
DCIAce	20	1.180	12.35	143.12
marek_heinz	20	1.180	12.35	145.04
derwipok	30	1.003	10.50	145.27
Dwetzel	35	0.936	9.80	96.59
kokiri	45	0.827	8.66	143.98
mic_check12	48	0.799	8.37	110.79
_Mantis_	50	0.782	8.18	199.00
hotwings18	50	0.782	8.18	177.77
soah	60	0.702	7.35	116.08
toedder	60	0.702	7.35	81.24
amplify	74	0.611	6.40	161.80
Chips Ahoy	96	0.498	5.22	118.66
atakpup	100	0.481	5.03	140.95
kioshk	150	0.304	3.19	178.41
TimeLady	300	0.003	0.04	97.09
exec771	300	0.003	0.04	173.86
Correct Answer	302.38
A.Ertjberg	350	0.064	0.66	83.05
aaronk56	350	0.064	0.66	86.32
master3004	420	0.143	1.49	156.72
kwami42	1000	0.519	5.44	176.25
C-Dog	1235	0.611	6.40	268.55
Alrighty Roo	2000	0.820	8.59	181.66
ObezyankaNol	2200	0.862	9.02	114.83
eyebooger	3333	1.042	10.91	128.17
AdamSchwartz	3846	1.104	11.56	177.45
j0nnyb0y	10000	1.519	15.90	115.97
pwnsall	17000	1.750	18.32	104.18

Babe Diedrickson