On number one, was the purpose to measure the distance from the earth to the sun?

I can't remember from last year - is there a reason we don't get to know the right answers (to everything but #1 and #4)?

No reason other than last year it seemed like it was fun for everyone to kind of share the ones that they were certain about and etc. But if everyone hates that, then I'll post correct answers sooner rather than later.

Scott's not right about #1, by the way.

I didn't realize the lightning round would involve the same questions, so I looked most of them up & I now need to recuse myself from #1. However, I did not find anything on #4, so here goes:

the luuge?

#4: bobsled

I feel good about 5. CS Lewis, better still about 7. Tecumseh, and right fine about 8. (is it?) Tobacco, rather than tacos. I forget which danged fool countries I guessed for 9, but must have gotten 5 of them. All that was first round. I'm pretty sure I flailed on 2 (not "Pieces of Skylab"), 6 (not "Pepsi"), 10 (not "F Troop"). Leading me to think that I got #3 correct on second effort with "Perry Como," who came to mind thanks to his mention in the comic strip 'Ernie' yesterday.

No, I'm pretty sure #3 was Andy Williams.
Any thoughts on #10? I said Rocky and Bullwinkle, but I wasn't sure.

Heck, my entire set of guesses, which were mostly hand-waving and intellectual flailing:

1. ??
2. Computer viruses.
3. Andy Williams.
4. Ski-jumping.
5. C.S. Lewis.
6. Nutmeg.
7. Thomas Jefferson.
8. Opium.
9. Holland, Russia, the United States, Panama, Norway, Mexico, Canada, France.
10. "Rocky and His Friends."

I said "Howdy Doody" for number 10, which I feel was wrong, since I only got 70 stupid points.

I got Tecumseh, which only leaves 30 - probably a correct second guess and two countries.

Therefore 6) tabasco was wrong; and 3) Engelbert Humperdink was wrong, because I stood pat on those.

What the HELL was number 2? It's driving me crazy.

For #4 I'll guess ice-wall climbing.

And is qiutank new, or an old player in new clothing?

Either way, welcome!

Maybe I only got one country right, plus Pepsi? I must have gotten more than one country, though. Signs point to Como. . .

4. qiutanking

For #1: a line of latitude?

Scott, I miscalculated your score originally. It's actually 150. You got 30 out of 40 for your countries (6 right), plus Tecumseh, tobacco and C.S. Lewis. I counted it correctly but then mistranscribed your score in the standings.

No one has yet gotten the lightning round, but there have been some answers that are warm, in a manner of speaking.

1. A meridian of longitude

4. bill tipper's tongue of fire

Some of the answers floated for #1 are getting closer, but we haven't seen the right answer yet.

1 -- the prime meridian

or

1 -- he mapped the international date line, but still couldn't get to first base. What with baseball not have been invented, for starters.

On #1, we all need to be thinking a bit bigger.

(I am newly motivated to get some lightning points, thanks to punky mcwombat. Plus Grace has just gone down for her nap, so more lightning is fine as long as I keep the thunder down.)

4 -- running with scissors. on a glacier.

Sorry about that, Scott. 'tis a pittance, and you're still in second place.

The equator?

(Measuring the)

One man's pittance is another man's tuppence.

Measuring the earth's orbit

Measuring the earth's girth.

Now I'll lay off and let the non-half-time full-time dads have a chance.

I like that for number one, the question is, "what was its purpose?" and the clue is "its purpose was scientific."

Its purpose was scientific.

Um, again for #1, in case he doesn't accept that - its purpose was to have an astronomer-protected zone, where astronomers could not be hunted.

#4) bull-running at a private bull-running club

#4 -- hiking

1.
Its purpose was to determine the exact radius of the earth, which would verify circumstansial measurements of the circumference. It would also "lock down" other weird astronomical measurements, like the parallax of planetary motions.

2. Gambling!

Actually, I tried to submit "p+ker"* instead of gambling, but your server wouldn't allow me to... said I looked liek a robot! Why, the nerve of the wombat!

Anyway it gave me a chance to come up with a nother wild swing at the thing, so i hereby change my answer to: Curling?

Can't wait to attack round 2... thanks for thinking of us lateys!
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* It's doing it again... what, have you banished the word? P+ker, wherein the + equals and O. But still, I"m sticking with curling.

hey! (aka The Lady B. Yogurt) brings in a more complete version of Scott's answer "girth" which is quite close to the answer as I have it -- to determine the size and shape of the earth. I think that both "girth" (ie circumference) and "exact radius" amount to more or less the same thing, and while "shape" (ie how oblate is the spheroid?) is part of it, I think that both of these are acceptable.

Scott gets the 25 points for being in first, but the Lady with the Exclamation Point gets a bonus of 10 for her more complete explanation.

#4 is still open. I will add that it is an Olympic sport (under one of its two acceptable names), but was only recently reinstated after a long discontinuation. Sir James Coats was speaking of a place in Switzerland where the modern version of the sport is said to have originated.

Oh, and by banishing p-o-k-e-r I keep a lot of comment spam away from the site.

alpine climbing?

'Cause I don't think it's ice-fishing.

curling

x-games/jackass style ice skating

oh wait -- skeleton

(You should post the next one in the wee hours of next Friday to give Art a sporting chance. I feel badly edging ahead based on time zone and having a boss that sleeps for ~2 hours 3 times a day.)

ding!

Scott's answer of "skeleton" (the other, more prosaic version is simply "toboggan") takes it. The Cresta Run, in St. Moritz, is the fabled locale at which skeleton racing originated. From the higher of two starting points racers can reach speeds of 80 mph.

Full rundown of the round one correct answers in a few minutes.

What were the two countries, which are now ten, that his "chain" went through?

And, in what manner is the chain an UNESCO World Heritage site?

Here's a rundown of the answers...

1. To measure the size and shape of the earth.
2. A series of atmospheric nuclear tests in 1963-63. The U.S. never did any more after these.
3. Andy Williams
4. Skeleton
5. C.S. Lewis. The novel is "Out of the Silent Planet"
6. Angostura Bitters
7. Tecumseh. He was defeated at Tippecanoe, Indiana, by the forces led by William Henry Harrison, who used the slogan to run for Presidental office, and then died. William Tecumseh Sherman was named after him.
8. Tobacco
9. The United States (The Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge), Canada (The CN Tower), Panama (The canal, natch), Brazil, Paraguay (sharing the Itaipu dam), The Netherlands -- also accepted was "Holland" (the Delta works, the system of dams and gates that keep out the North Sea), and the U.K. and France (the Channel Tunnel).
10. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (also "Rocky and his Friends")

Boxjam, in answer to your last question, the countries were Sweden-Norway (then one nation) and the Russian Empire. As to how it's a UNESCO site -- well, I guess the points of the survey points (34 of them) are, in aggregate, considered the site. More here:

http://whc.unesco.org/archive/advisory_body_evaluation/1187.pdf

hey, Scott lapped me while I was asleep!

art and i are out of lightening round contention unless you have a alternazone competition, alas...qiutiank is karen - new competitor, old person, ex-wcwm (days of yore between the ages of bt and art)

Sorry about that, Karen -- perhaps next Friday I should start the lightning round at a more Asia-Australia-friendly time...that, or you could load up on Mountain Dew and stay up all night.