Think Different 3: The 1990s

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Sheepulator
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by Sheepulator »

Man, I coulda been a contender if only I would not shoot myself in the foot.

This was one of the most fun Think Differents that I can remember.

Congratulations to gamawire, Vanya, and JTrivial on outstanding performances.

I can't believe Jurassic Park was not a #1 bestseller. Seemed like everybody I knew read that book and it had such mindshare. Bridges of Madison County was my alternate, but I thought JP was safer.
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!

Post by JTrivial »

Thanks to Jeff for putting this together! It was a great question set, and a great decade (at least one I am old enough to remember!).

The submission was indeed at the 11th hour. I had written down my 'final' answers on a sticky note at work yesterday but couldn't send them in since my PM privileges hadn't yet been granted. Around 8:55 PST yesterday, I realized, "CRAP! It was due at midnight Eastern, not Pacific!" Thankfully I had just enough time to submit at that point! In any case, thanks again, and I look forward to more TD fun :-)
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billiej
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by billiej »

Baa ram ewe!!!

Good game. An 80's version would be fun.
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dhkendall
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by dhkendall »

jeff6286 wrote:(1)Alanis Morrissette
dhkendall
The sole reason I got this was just the day before I was watching Family Guy's "Empire Strikes Back" parody (I think it was that one) "Something Something Something Dark Side" where Emperor Palpatine (Carter Pewterschmidt) was offering Darth Vader (Stewie) his CD collection, and one of the albums was "Jagged Little Pill", he said that "this was the soundtrack to my '95". I figured that made that answer a good choice. ;)
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jeff6286
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by jeff6286 »

dhkendall wrote:
jeff6286 wrote:(1)Alanis Morrissette
dhkendall
The sole reason I got this was just the day before I was watching Family Guy's "Empire Strikes Back" parody (I think it was that one) "Something Something Something Dark Side" where Emperor Palpatine (Carter Pewterschmidt) was offering Darth Vader (Stewie) his CD collection, and one of the albums was "Jagged Little Pill", he said that "this was the soundtrack to my '95". I figured that made that answer a good choice. ;)
You should have included that anecdote with your submission; you might have gotten bonus points. That album was around forever. I think it may have been the soundtrack to my '95, '96, and '97.
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billiej
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by billiej »

jeff6286 wrote:
dhkendall wrote:
jeff6286 wrote:(1)Alanis Morrissette
dhkendall
The sole reason I got this was just the day before I was watching Family Guy's "Empire Strikes Back" parody (I think it was that one) "Something Something Something Dark Side" where Emperor Palpatine (Carter Pewterschmidt) was offering Darth Vader (Stewie) his CD collection, and one of the albums was "Jagged Little Pill", he said that "this was the soundtrack to my '95". I figured that made that answer a good choice. ;)
You should have included that anecdote with your submission; you might have gotten bonus points. That album was around forever. I think it may have been the soundtrack to my '95, '96, and '97.
It was definitely the soundtrack to my 1996, the year of my divorce.
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by dhkendall »

jeff6286 wrote:
dhkendall wrote:
jeff6286 wrote:(1)Alanis Morrissette
dhkendall
The sole reason I got this was just the day before I was watching Family Guy's "Empire Strikes Back" parody (I think it was that one) "Something Something Something Dark Side" where Emperor Palpatine (Carter Pewterschmidt) was offering Darth Vader (Stewie) his CD collection, and one of the albums was "Jagged Little Pill", he said that "this was the soundtrack to my '95". I figured that made that answer a good choice. ;)
You should have included that anecdote with your submission; you might have gotten bonus points. That album was around forever. I think it may have been the soundtrack to my '95, '96, and '97.
I was unaware there were bonus points to be had.

Besides, I was unsure as to the year that the character said (it was either 94 or 95), I looked up the quote after (ie today)
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by gamawire »

Just back from vacation and what do I find - my second place finish followed up by a win! I better stop while I'm ahead. Thanks for the fun game, and congrats to the others on the podium. :D
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by barandall800 »

To think I had the lead early on...those were the days. (OK, so it was less than a day ago. Whatever. :mrgreen: ) Thanks for a terrific game, Jeff (this child of the 90s loved it, even though said child of the 90s had trouble with a few of the questions, naturally...even, let's see, the question in my biggest wheelhouse...), and congrats to the inhabitants of the podium. :)
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by Peggles »

Gratz to the winners and big thanks to Jeff for a great game.
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gnash
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by gnash »

jeff6286 wrote:Okay, given that there were no real strong opinions one way or the other, I will stand by my original ruling and leave the answers of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine incorrect. I think Ivan had the right stance on it, that it is interesting to learn the history of those countries' UN membership, and the affected players will probably learn more from their incorrect answers than if I had simply ruled them right initially, and we're all in this to learn, aren't we? Plus now I don't have to change the scores, which means less work for me, which is always a plus. With that out of the way, scoring for questions 7 through 10 will now proceed.
As I said in the PM, I think Russia should be treated the same as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and FR Yugoslavia (which is missing from your list of correct answers and should be there, but it doesn't matter since nobody used it as the answer). Possibly Czech Republic and Slovakia, too, but I can't vouch for that. They are/were all legal successor states to defunct UN member states. Whether they "joined" in the 1990s or not is debatable, but it seems to me that either they should all be incorrect (which would make the clue a cruel joke, so not a good choice) or all correct.
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by dhkendall »

gnash wrote:
jeff6286 wrote:Okay, given that there were no real strong opinions one way or the other, I will stand by my original ruling and leave the answers of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine incorrect. I think Ivan had the right stance on it, that it is interesting to learn the history of those countries' UN membership, and the affected players will probably learn more from their incorrect answers than if I had simply ruled them right initially, and we're all in this to learn, aren't we? Plus now I don't have to change the scores, which means less work for me, which is always a plus. With that out of the way, scoring for questions 7 through 10 will now proceed.
As I said in the PM, I think Russia should be treated the same as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and FR Yugoslavia (which is missing from your list of correct answers and should be there, but it doesn't matter since nobody used it as the answer). Possibly Czech Republic and Slovakia, too, but I can't vouch for that. They are/were all legal successor states to defunct UN member states. Whether they "joined" in the 1990s or not is debatable, but it seems to me that either they should all be incorrect (which would make the clue a cruel joke, so not a good choice) or all correct.
He could add FR Yugoslavia, but it would be against the spirit of the quiz as the UN's website itself says that FR Yugoslavia joined on November 1, 2000, after the purview of the quiz.

As to "legal successor states", the UN takes the view that only one state is the legal successor - I notice you didn't add Tajikistan or Azerbaijan, but the UN considers the Russian Federation, and only the Russian Federation, as the legal successor state of the USSR (which is why Russia is a permanent Security Council member). While it isn't as clear (as the defunct states weren't Security Council members), I think that it considers the Caech Republic as the sole successor state to Czechoslovakia, Serbia (previously Serbia & Montenegro, previously FR Yugoslavia) as Yugoslavia's.

I maintain that to be unambiguous, it's best to go with an authoritative voice on the matter, and you can't get much more so than the UN's own list (which I think barandall used in the first place), which lists Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine in 1945, but Czech Republic, Slovakia, all other former Soviet states, and all former Yugoslav states as 1990s (except for Serbia in 2000 (considered to be FR Yugoslavia under a new name) and Montenegro in 2006). That way he isn't influenced by anyone on list, but uses an official, third party source.
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by jeff6286 »

From Wikipedia:
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia aspired to be a sole legal successor to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but those claims were opposed by other former republics. The United Nations also denied its request to automatically continue the membership of the former state. Eventually, after the overthrow of Slobodan Miloševi? from power in Serbia in 2000, the country rescinded those aspirations and accepted the opinion of Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession, and reapplied for and gained UN membership on November 2, 2000. From 1992 to 2000, some countries, including the United States, referred to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as "Serbia and Montenegro".
Czechoslovakia joined the UN as an original member on 24 October 1945, with its name changed to the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic on 20 April 1990. Upon the imminent dissolution of Czechoslovakia, in a letter dated 10 December 1992, its Permanent Representative informed the United Nations Secretary-General that the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic would cease to exist on 31 December 1992 and that the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as successor states, would apply for membership in the UN. Both states were admitted to the UN on 19 January 1993
So you are correct that most of the former members of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia are considered to be successors of their former countries, but nonetheless each individual country did still apply for admission to the UN, and they each have their own date of admission listed on the UN website. The Russian situation appears to be unique, in that Russia was able to inherit the seat previously held by the Soviet Union without having to reapply for admission, therefore the admission date of Russia remained 1945.

Like you said, had all of these countries been excluded from my answers, the question would have been some kind of cruel joke, and that was certainly not my intention. I intended for all of the "new" countries that emerged in the 1990s to be potential answers, and I was just using UN membership as a way to define what exactly was a country. I failed to recognize the unusual circumstances behind the UN history of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, thereby leaving 3 player with answers that I feel were technically incorrect as I had written the question. I am just glad that none of the affected players were near the top of the leaderboard, so at least no one was denied a spot on the podium by what I feel was a poorly written question on my part.

All of this is why I should probably stick to sports and pop culture questions, because there is no room for debate on who was named the 1996 NL MVP, who won the 1992 Stanley Cup, who was awarded an Oscar in a given year (Marisa Tomei excepted), or who won a Grammy in a given year. (Milli Vanilli excepted) I was just waiting for someone to claim that Scottie Pippen should have been ruled a correct answer, since he did win the All-Star Game MVP in 1994, and I didn't specifically state that only regular season MVPs would be accepted...oops, I guess I shouldn't have pointed that out. ;)
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by gnash »

dhkendall wrote:He could add FR Yugoslavia, but it would be against the spirit of the quiz as the UN's website itself says that FR Yugoslavia joined on November 1, 2000, after the purview of the quiz.

As to "legal successor states", the UN takes the view that only one state is the legal successor - I notice you didn't add Tajikistan or Azerbaijan, but the UN considers the Russian Federation, and only the Russian Federation, as the legal successor state of the USSR (which is why Russia is a permanent Security Council member). While it isn't as clear (as the defunct states weren't Security Council members), I think that it considers the Caech Republic as the sole successor state to Czechoslovakia, Serbia (previously Serbia & Montenegro, previously FR Yugoslavia) as Yugoslavia's.
Serbia/S&M/FRY is definitely not considered the sole successor state to SFRY. But I forgot how late FRY was admitted back to the UN. That clearly excludes it. My bad.
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Re: Think Different 3: The 1990s

Post by gnash »

jeff6286 wrote:Like you said, had all of these countries been excluded from my answers, the question would have been some kind of cruel joke, and that was certainly not my intention. I intended for all of the "new" countries that emerged in the 1990s to be potential answers, and I was just using UN membership as a way to define what exactly was a country. I failed to recognize the unusual circumstances behind the UN history of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, thereby leaving 3 player with answers that I feel were technically incorrect as I had written the question.
I think you convinced me that Russia can indeed be treated differently from the successor states to SFRY and Czechoslovakia. So I withdraw my complaint.
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