IWS #194: RESULTS
 

1. Name an ancient civilization that once ruled all or part of the Middle East.
7 Egypt
6 Rome
4 Persia
3 The Ottomans/Turks
2 Babylon
1 The Phoenicians
1 Greece/Macedonia/Alexander the Great

A pretty good spread here. Do I sense a few Age of Empires players in our midst? (The Phoenicians were pretty boss, in my opinion.)

2. Name a modern-day nation in the Middle East.
14 Iraq
5 Israel
4 Iran
1 Egypt

Apparently Stupid went to Iraq in 2003, or maybe was a private contractor more recently. I can't think of any other reason that Joe American would name Iraq two-thirds of the time for a question this broad (the closest to an eliminator that we had).

3. Name a language (other than Arabic) spoken in the region.
9 Persian/Farsi
8 Hebrew/Jewish
5 English
1 Urdu
1 Turkish

A slightly tighter spread than #1, though I'm kind of surprised no one came up with Kurdish after all the Iraq answers to #2. Does Stupid know of Kurdish, though? Persian and Hebrew certainly make sense as the leaders, and who doesn't speak English these days.

4. Name the Middle Eastern nation with the most peaceful reputation.
7 Saudi Arabia
6 Turkey
4 Jordan
3 United Arab Emirates/UAE
1 Kuwait
1 Lebanon
1 Egypt
1 Qatar

Another good spread. Of course, Saudi Arabia has its issues with women's rights, Turkey hosted that dust-up with the Israeli soldiers at sea... peaceful is something of a relative description in this part of the world, it seems.

5. Give the probability of an autonomous Palestinian state being created within the next 50 years.
14 0%/will not happen
8 50%
1 60%
1 100/1

I was really scared that this would turn into an eliminator when almost all of the early answers came in 0. 50 made a great comeback to get this close.

6. Because I can't resist -- predict which Middle Eastern nation will win the most medals (any flavor) at next month's Summer Olympics.
9 Turkey
7 Israel
5 Egypt
1 Ethiopia
1 Tunisia
1 Iran

I wrote this question without having any idea of the answer myself. Checking the all-time medals tables on Wikipedia showed Iran to lead the way, but Stupid may well know better than I do that the nations of the western part of the Middle East will rule the day in London.

Funnily enough, it was the news coming from Syria that prompted me to go with this topic, yet it did not come up in one question or any answer (other than its absence from your "most peaceful reputation" answers, I guess). So it goes.

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THE RESULTS

Enslaved by the Egyptians:
QuikSand 1200
TRO 2016
StLee 9072
Grover 14700
Dark Cloud 18144

Out of slavery, but stuck wandering the desert of Sinai:
Dutch 25088
claphamsa 25088
Suburban Rhythm 26880
bhlloy 28224
Chief Rum 30240
Alf 35280

Worshiping the golden calf while Moses is standing right next to you:
Coffee Warlord 40824
lighthousekeeper 40824
Shkspr 49392
kcchief19 54432
gstelmack 54880

Made it to the Promised Land only to be enslaved again:
Critch 103680
JAG 120050
Barkeep49 192080
Desnudo 246960

Daniel's buddies, just hanging out in the fire and being righteous:
panerd 317520
DanGarion 345744
nilodor 370440

Messiah of (choose an Abrahamic religion here), and winner of IWS #194:
MIJB#19 537824

Congratulaions to MIJB#19, who scored 69.1% of the highest possible score with Egypt-Iraq-Hebrew-Saudi Arabia-no chance-Israel. Thanks to all of you for handling well a tougher-than-necessary set of questions; I hope you enjoyed them.

Congrats MIJB. Of course this one would be in your wheelhouse!

He just called you stupid HAHA

Bah! Runner up again. Congrats MIJB!

I thought too hard on this one.

I got the top answer 0 times! wow that sucks.

Wait, did QuikSand just come in dead last in an IWS?

I won!? :eek:

He sent his in as I was scoring them. Given that most of his answers were Egypt, I imagine he did it pretty quickly.

QS last, MIJB 1st. Bizzaro IWS :lol:

Unless you question it, the rules state if you aren't sure, then #2 automatically wins....sorry, bro.

:)

#stunned

It seems to me like your calculations are off. I calculate the highest possible score as 777,924 (7 x 14 x 9 x 7 x 14 x 9), and MIJB's as 691,488 (7 x 14 x 8 x 7 x 14 x 9), which is 89% of the max score rather than 69%.

Am I calculating things an incorrect way, or might there be an error in the spreadsheet?

Aah, good catch. I double-checked, and he answered Israel for #6. That change makes up the calculation difference.

These were some great questions britrock. I felt as good as I have ever done with this one but I guessed the wrong Ira for #2 and that was an eliminator. Also only one other person heard "ancient" and "middle east" and immediately though of Babylon?

Congrats !

Thanks, bhlloy! I tried my hardest to avoid eliminators and questions with a really wide playing field. #1 probably skewed toward being a little wide, but it was interesting to see what answers came in.

"I can't think of any other reason that Joe American would name Iraq two-thirds of the time for a question this broad"

Other than the fact that we've had troops there off-and-on for like 2 decades now, and it's constantly in the news? Of course, that's also why I figured "English" for #3. I am kicking myself for changing my answer on #4 from "Saudi Arabia" to "Jordan" to go away from the stupid answer to the what-I-thought was the more correct one. That was stupid of me.

Well, I hinted at the most recent Iraq affair with the first part of that sentence. I wondered if our friendly relations with Israel and our growing rivalry with Iran would tilt the balance away from Iraq.