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SVNBob

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Posts posted by SVNBob

    S41 Tribe Tracker

    in Survivor

    I thought so too, so I will continue with that for the regularly used emoji, starting at the first episode next time.   I probably ought to put some of the one-off emoji, like the pizza for that group of reward take-alongs or the fire for firemaking in the key just for the appropriate posts, right?

    But not the ones for the idols.  Those are pretty self-explanatory, and the least necessary.

    • Love 1

    S41 Tribe Tracker

    in Survivor

    As usual, I close the Tracker with a request for feedback. 

    I think I'm going to keep using emoji in the next one.  Most will probably stay the same, but I might make a couple changes here and there.  Those will be explained in the key.  There might also be changes for Tribe Codes... if those become relevant again. 

    But what worked and what didn't?  Did anything need clarification?  Ideas for emoji to use for certain events/circumstances?  Any suggestions for tweaks for the Tracker for S42?

    S41.E13: One Thing Left to Do... Win

    in Survivor

    On 12/15/2021 at 10:03 PM, mojoween said:

    Actually, Mr. World Record Holder man, there are 41 Survivors.  Not one.

    Technically, there are 39.  Or more than 50 if you count the International Survivors.

    18 hours ago, KeithJ said:

    Why did it look like that Shan was crying (or ready to cry) every single time they panned the camera to her?

    Because she was "sad" (read: angry) she wasn't still in game.

    18 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

    The Ship Wheel advantages: None of the extra votes actually changed a vote. Not a one. They were used but not coordinated well enough to actually affect the game.

    It may not have been cast to change a vote, but I still say that the extra vote Shantel cast (not that she earned it) was cast effectively in case a vote did get changed.

    Xander's extra vote was also cast for the same reason, but with less hoopla surrounding it.

     

    14 hours ago, survivinmt said:

    I was a bit surprised that DeShawn got a vote and Xander got none. Which makes DeShawn the first runner up, I guess. But no one votes for 2nd place

    Occasionally they do.  Back in SJDS, Reed specifically cast his vote for Jackie, who thus got 2nd place, to make sure that Missy was in 3rd place and didn't get tie for 2nd and get the 2nd place prize.

    It is entirely possible that the vote for Deshawn was cast with similar thinking in mind; Deshawn "deserving" a higher placing than Xander/Xander "not deserving" to tie for 2nd.

     

    5 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

    That said, I would like to see reform to the setup. 

    One way would be to have the final immunity challenge decide all of who makes it to the final three. Last place in the challenge is the final jury member.

    Or another way would be that everybody but the winner of the final immunity challenge has to build fire, and the last person standing gets in.

    I've also been advocating both of these changes, with the FIC in option 1 still being fire-making.

    • Useful 1
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    S41 Tribe Tracker

    in Survivor

    · Edited by SVNBob
    Post limit?

    Final Tracker of the season...not that it's really necessary at this point.  But for the sake of completion....

    Gonna do something a little different though.  I'm just listing TC and the Jury, but each of the 3 TCs separately, with their notes and emoji.  There's also going to be some new emoji, but they're self-explanatory again.  (Also, not going to bother with the key, since everything ought to make sense by now.)

    Final 5

    • Deshawn
    • Erika 🏆🏅
      • Final Advantage
        • Head start of 4 rungs on each ladder in F5IC
          • Automatically used.
    • Heather🍽️
    • Ricard
    • Xander
      • Three-Way Idol 🦋
        • Played for himself
          • Played "incorrectly"

    S41.E12: Truth Kamikaze

    in Survivor

    8 hours ago, watch2much said:

    it was meant in jest....I was giving Xander credit for being able to come up with witty remarks....

    I agree he deserves credit for that.  I mean, he created a new entry for the Lexicon with Mergatory.

    I was pointing out that that particular turn of phrase was not one of his own invention.

    S41.E12: Truth Kamikaze

    in Survivor

    Xander did not come up with "Monty Hall Problem".  That's what it was called when Marilyn vos Savant popularized it in her column in 1990, and since it was first published in The American Statistician back in 1975... both long before Xander was born.

    • Love 1

    S01.E10: Signed, Sealed, Delivered

    in CSI: Vegas (2021)

    2 hours ago, juliet73 said:

    Considering Grissom basically knows everything, I find it difficult to believe that he wouldn't have been reading up on all the latest technology used in law enforcement over the years.  

    Then again, there is a difference between reading about new tech, and actually using it.  There's still some learning curve involved.

    Tough As Nails - General Discussion

    in Tough As Nails

    On 12/8/2021 at 9:57 PM, Taeolas said:

    Yeah, Lia pulled it off. I think her recognizing the ropes were slipknots were what gave her the edge in the end. The other two were spending a lot of time detangling ropes, while she managed to slip them free. 

    Given that one of the biggest complaints about this series at the end of each of the previous two seasons was that the final challenge appeared to be weighted entirely for a male competitor to win, the cynic in me wonders if hers was the only rope system that contained slipknots as some sort of attempt to "even the odds". 

    S41 Tribe Tracker

    in Survivor

    The first HII found is the last one still in play.  Who would have predicted that?  What with all the silly code-phrases needed to activate them all.

     

    Emoji Key:

    • 🏆: Winner of IC (or 2nd place for a 2-winner IC)
    • 🏅: Winner of RC
    • ⛔: Contestant cannot vote at TC.
    • 🎲: Contestant used their Shot-in-the-Dark.
      • Option ended at F7.

    Viakana (aka Red or Merge) Tribe:

    Jury

    1. Tiffany
    2. Naseer
    3. Evvie
    4. Shantel
    5. Liana
    6. Danny

     

    Pre-Jury

     

      Hide contents
    1. Abraham
    2. Sara
    3. Voce
    4. Brad
    5. JD
    6. Genie
    7. Sydney

     

     Advantage Graveyard:

      Hide contents
    • Steal-a-Vote
      • Earned by Brad at Prisoners' Night Dilemma
        • Valid through F7.
          • Never used.
    • Knowledge is Power Advantage
      • Earned by Liana from Prisoner's Dilemma Trek #3
      • Can ask any other player one of two questions, to which they must answer truthfully:
        • "Do you have an Idol?"
          • Asked of Xander
        • "Do you have an Advantage?
      • If they answer "Yes", holder takes possession of said item.
        • If they answer "No", nothing happens.
          • Answered by Xander.
      • One-time use only.
    • Prisoners' Dilemma #2 Extra Vote
      • Earned by Deshawn.
        • Used by him at F12TC.
    • Prisoner's Dilemma #1 Extra Vote #1
      • Earned by JD
        • Passed back-and-forth between him and Shantel once.
        • Passed back to Shantel again before she helped vote him out.
        • Passed back-and-forth between Shantel and Ricard once.
      • Used by Shantel at F"10" TC #1
    • Three-Way Idol 🐐
      •  Found by Naseer
        • Left game in his pocket.
    •  Three-Way Idol 🥦 
      •  Found by Shantel
        • Left game in her pocket. 
    • Do or Die Disadvantage
      • Earned by Deshawn by being first to lose IC.
      • Played a version the Monty Hall problem at TC.
        • Winning meant immunity.
        • Losing meant immediate expulsion from the game.
      • Won and remained in game.
    • Prisoners' Dilemma #1 Extra Vote
      • Earned by Xander
        • Used by him at F7TC.

     

    Season 41 & 42: Spoilers and Speculation

    in Survivor

    After skipping last week, the final puzzle of the Game within the Game gives a pretty big spoiler.  Namely, that said final puzzle will be in the show proper.

    For those that didn't play along all season, the GwG was in two parts each week.  The first part was the rebus that appeared in every episode.  Solving that led to a word scramble puzzle, where you had to unscramble a jumbled group of letters into a word.  And solving each of those led to the spoilery "strategy test" videos as I brought up throughout the season, along with a reminder you'd need the letters for the final puzzle.

    This week was that final puzzle, and that's when Peachy dropped the final twist.  We didn't need the words, but just the letters exactly as said.  It was a mega-jumble.  They did give clues as to which letters went together and the order for the final solution.  In the end, the final phrase was:

    "Your Treasure Hangs Where The Trees Love To Dance."

    After finally solving that, the final GwG video revealed that that puzzle, with that solution, will be in the finale.  Plus, in the interstitial video after the rebus, Peachy mentioned roleplaying as if you were a member of the F5, and that solving this puzzle first would lead to an advantage.

    Given the mad scramble on the beach we saw in the preview, I'm pretty sure this puzzle is the lead-up to that,

    • Love 1

    Which Podcasts Fuel Your Listening Pleasure?

    in Podcasts

    A podcast I forgot to mention when it first dropped back in June:

    World's Greatest Con.

    Brian Brushwood, professional magician, YouTuber and host of other podcasts, takes a deep-dive into some of the greatest "con jobs" in history.  The first season is all about Operation: Mincemeat.  But it's not just a dry telling of the facts.  There's personal anecdotes that relate to the story, comparisons to the principles of stage magic, other clever allusions to explain details, and lots of quality production.

    It is only the one season thus far, and only 5.5 episodes long (the .5 is the teaser, and the 5th episode is a Q&A/commentary show about the previous 4 episodes).  But at a total running time of around 5 hours, it's entirely bingeable within a day.

    S41.E10: Baby With a Machine Gun

    in Survivor

    On 12/1/2021 at 7:34 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

    Again, I find it interesting that explicitly saying "let's target the women/men" is a typical part of Survivor gameplay in the dozen or so seasons I've watched all or part of but not "let's target the _______ ethnicity." It might be because Survivor has always had a gender division where you allying by gender was a viable strategy (50/50 from the start, I assume), or it might be because we feel differently about race than gender.

    It may have something to do with there not having been very many POC in most seasons of Survivor.  Before this season, which is the first after the CBS mandate that requires 50% BIPOC contestants on reality shows, only 3 seasons had a 50% or more BIPOC cast; Cook Islands (because of the "Race War" theme), Fiji (which is theorized to have been originally planned to be "Race War 2" before a contestant dropped out very-last second, as that cast was an exact ethnic match to the CI cast), and Second Chances (the season with the audience voting for the players, and they voted in almost all the BIPOC options).

    Outside those seasons, there's typically only been a couple of token non-white players per season.  Definitely not enough to be considered an "ethnic alliance" .  And if there's only one or two people of a given ethnicity, it's a lot easier to target them by name than race.

     

    But then, I'm coming at this whole thing with a white male perspective.  I could very easily be missing something.

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    S41 Tribe Tracker

    in Survivor

    Glad I decided to indicate using the SITD instead of who still had one to use.  That would have been a lot of extra effort for nothing.  I'm keeping it in the Key, but with more information.

    I decided to call the Do or Die a Disadvantage (partially for the alliteration), but it went straight into the Graveyard, with a tiny bit of information listed with Deshawn.

     

    Emoji Key:

    • 🏆: Winner of IC (or 2nd place for a 2-winner IC)
    • 🏅: Winner of RC
    • ⛔: Contestant cannot vote at TC.
    • 🎲: Contestant used their Shot-in-the-Dark.
      • Option ended at F7.

     

    Viakana (aka Red or Merge) Tribe:

    Jury

    1. Tiffany
    2. Naseer
    3. Evvie
    4. Shantel
    5. Liana

     

    Pre-Jury

      Hide contents
    1. Abraham
    2. Sara
    3. Voce
    4. Brad
    5. JD
    6. Genie
    7. Sydney

     

    Advantage Graveyard:

      Hide contents
    • Steal-a-Vote
      • Earned by Brad at Prisoners' Night Dilemma
        • Valid through F7.
          • Never used.
    • Knowledge is Power Advantage
      • Earned by Liana from Prisoner's Dilemma Trek #3
      • Can ask any other player one of two questions, to which they must answer truthfully:
        • "Do you have an Idol?"
          • Asked of Xander
        • "Do you have an Advantage?
      • If they answer "Yes", holder takes possession of said item.
        • If they answer "No", nothing happens.
          • Answered by Xander.
      • One-time use only.
    • Prisoners' Dilemma #2 Extra Vote
      • Earned by Deshawn.
        • Used by him at F12TC.
    • Prisoner's Dilemma #1 Extra Vote #1
      • Earned by JD
        • Passed back-and-forth between him and Shantel once.
        • Passed back to Shantel again before she helped vote him out.
        • Passed back-and-forth between Shantel and Ricard once.
      • Used by Shantel at F"10" TC #1
    • Three-Way Idol 🐐
      •  Found by Naseer
        • Left game in his pocket.
    •  Three-Way Idol 🥦 
      •  Found by Shantel
        • Left game in her pocket. 
    • Do or Die Disadvantage
      • Earned by Deshawn by being first to lose IC.
      • Played a version the Monty Hall problem at TC.
        • Winning meant immunity.
        • Losing meant immediate expulsion from the game.
      • Won and remained in game.
    • Prisoners' Dilemma #1 Extra Vote
      • Earned by Xander
        • Used by him at F7TC.
    • Love 1

    S41.E11: Do or Die

    in Survivor

    · Edited by SVNBob

    On 12/1/2021 at 10:24 PM, 30 Helens said:

     I have no idea at this point who has what. I didn’t know Xander had an extra vote until he played it.

    This is why I've been doing the Tracker thread for the past few seasons.

     

    On 12/2/2021 at 12:15 AM, Andyourlittledog2 said:

    Having the Do or Die be a simple game of chance with a two to one chance of losing was awful. I thought they'd have to do something real like make fire or do a puzzle or something. But no, just pick a box, any box. It was like some carnival game of chance.

    As noted, not a carnival game of chance, but the very specific final game from Let's Make a Deal, and the relatively well-known Monty Hall Paradox.

    20 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

    I’m not a conspiracy-minded person, but I felt like the outcome was predetermined. Jeff did not open that first box without knowing what was inside. And I think Deshawn’s chosen box contained whatever the producers wanted it to. This is not the type of game show that is regulated for fairness. Manipulation is allowed, and I don’t trust them to just let the game play out. Not any more.

    Of course he knew.  That's how the problem works.  Monty (and now Wayne Brady) always knew where the Zonks were.  And in every description of the problem, the "host" character also always knows.

    It could screw up the problem if the host didn't know.   Hypothetically, if the host didn't know what each option was, and the player picked incorrectly, the host could accidentally reveal the correct option when making the offer to switch.  Then the game is over.

     

    18 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

    No doubt that Jeff knew which symbols were in which boxes. The producers started the season off leaning hard on the Prisoner's dilemma, and now they decided to dive into the Monty Hall Problem. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

    When given a choice among three options, and shown that one of the options that you didn't pick is undesirable and then given an option to switch, actual math says you should switch. This is counter-intuitive, because the average person thinks that the two unknowns have a 50-50 shot at being the preferred choice. But actually, the probability of one choice among three being correct is 33 percent, and two choices among three is 66 percent. The revealed "bad" choice and the unrevealed choice still collectively have a 66 percent chance of being the correct one.

    This is why it's also called the Monty Hall Paradox.

     

    16 hours ago, fishcakes said:

    In general, I feel that since twists have always been part of the game, there's no such thing as an unfair twist, but the Monty Hall problem comes damned close. It's not so much that someone can go out without a vote, since that can happen with rock draws as well, but at least there, you have the option of flipping your vote and not having to go to rocks. In this specific instance though, it was really Deshawn's only chance. If he hadn't played in the IC, he would have been voted out. If he played and didn't win, he would have been voted out. Getting a second shot at immunity and then actually getting it by random chance was really the only way he could be saved. So it worked out for him, but I'm still not crazy about the twist.

    Not that he knew that going into the challenge.

    11 hours ago, himela said:

    I'm also impressed with Xander who knows at 20 about the Monty Hall problem. I'm 40 and I still don't get it. :P

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

    Professor Christian appeared on RHAP:Know-It-Alls with Cesternino and Fishbach to explain the problem.  To summarize what he said:

    Initially, you've got a 1/3 chance of choosing the right option, which means you've got a 2/3 chance of choosing wrong.  When Monty Probst offers the chance to switch after revealing one of the wrong options, what he's really offering is either your original choice (still a 1/3 chance), or the better of the 2 other options (a 2/3 chance consolidated into 1 option). 

    That's why it's mathematically better to switch.  Deshawn just defied the (literal) odds.

     

    9 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

    Just wanted to pop in here to say I think the title of the episode should have been "The Monty Hall Problem". 

    Isn't Xander in IT?  He might have learned of this in school. 

    His on-screen job title is "App Developer".  Which means he's likely had some computer courses and had thus heard of the problem.

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    S41.E10: Baby With a Machine Gun

    in Survivor

    2 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

    But IIRC, Danny is the only contestant who has not had his name written down once.

    This is correct.

    There is someone on the Survivor subReddit that does weekly "Perfect Game"-watch threads, chronicling who in the game has the chance to pull off a game where they receive no votes until FTC when they get all the votes. (Something that has only happened twice in Survivor history). 

    As of the end of this episode, Danny is the only one still in contention for a Perfect Game this season.  Everyone else has received at least one vote.

    • Useful 1

    Tough As Nails - General Discussion

    in Tough As Nails

    16 hours ago, NYGirl said:

    Also when did Phil start sounding like Jeff Probst during the challenges?

    To be fair, it's not like Phil can do live commentary like this on TAR all the time.  Even ignoring the timing issues, Detours totally preclude commentary (as that could require Phil to literally be in two places at once), and doing it for Roadblocks wouldn't be fair. 

    The closest he's had on TAR were the Head-to-Heads that were literally right before and in sight of Pit Stops.

    Given that he's still learning how to do commentary like this, it's not too surprising that he's aping the style of the host of the long-runner on the same network who has been doing live commentary for a lot longer.

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    S41 Tribe Tracker

    in Survivor

    I mean...they're making this so easy for me.  There's only two advantages left in the game, and Xander has them both.

    One temporary but appropriate emoji for this week for indicating the tagalongs at Reward.  Ricard got the usual medal for his win.

    Emoji Key:

    • 🏆: Winner of IC (or 2nd place for a 2-winner IC)
    • 🏅: Winner of RC
    • ⛔: Contestant cannot vote at TC.
    • 🎲: Contestant used their Shot-in-the-Dark.

    Viakana (aka Red or Merge) Tribe:

     

    Jury

    1. Tiffany
    2. Naseer
    3. Evvie
    4. Shantel

     

    Pre-Jury

      Hide contents
    1. Abraham
    2. Sara
    3. Voce
    4. Brad
    5. JD
    6. Genie
    7. Sydney 

     

    Advantage Graveyard:

      Hide contents
    • Steal-a-Vote
      • Earned by Brad at Prisoners' Night Dilemma
        • Valid through F7.
          • Never used.
    • Knowledge is Power Advantage
      • Earned by Liana from Prisoner's Dilemma Trek #3
      • Can ask any other player one of two questions, to which they must answer truthfully:
        • "Do you have an Idol?"
          • Asked of Xander
        • "Do you have an Advantage?
      • If they answer "Yes", holder takes possession of said item.
        • If they answer "No", nothing happens.
          • Answered by Xander.
      • One-time use only.
    • Prisoners' Dilemma #2 Extra Vote
      • Earned by Deshawn.
        • Used by him at F12TC.
    • Prisoner's Dilemma #1 Extra Vote #1
      • Earned by JD
        • Passed back-and-forth between him and Shantel once.
        • Passed back to Shantel again before she helped vote him out.
        • Passed back-and-forth between Shantel and Ricard once.
      • Used by Shantel at F"10" TC #1
    • Three-Way Idol 🐐
      •  Found by Naseer
        • Left game in his pocket.
    •  Three-Way Idol 🥦 
      •  Found by Shantel
        • Left game in her pocket.

    S41.E10: Baby With a Machine Gun

    in Survivor

    On 11/24/2021 at 8:01 PM, mojoween said:

     She said there’s no hard feelings, but her parting comments show that was a lie.

    Well she did admit at TC that she was a liar...as was everyone else.

    On 11/24/2021 at 8:17 PM, LadyChatts said:

    Also props to Erika, I understand why she wanted to split the vote, because she knew she was in danger.  It was bold and maybe have exposed her as more of a gamer.  She's clearly being underestimated. 

    Given that they all keep calling her "sneaky", I don't think they're underestimating her.  But she's been tinted purple enough by the edit that the viewing audience might be underestimating her.

    On 11/24/2021 at 10:02 PM, Hera said:

    As for not flushing Xander's idol, Xander isn't calling any shots right now. There's no urgent need to get him out and given that he didn't use his idol to save Tiffany or Evvie, it's a safe bet that he isn't going to hand it over to anyone else who might be in trouble. Erika said he doesn't really have any connections to anyone in the game, which makes me wonder if he's actually the goat of the season, despite his reasonably positive edit.

    Which he himself noted at TC.  He lamented the fact that his very public "hidden" idol has effectively made him a persona non grata... until he's needed as a number in a vote like this one.

     

    • Love 2

    Mystery Science Theater 3000 - General Discussion

    in Mystery Science Theater 3000

    2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

    The Mask 3D

    "A young archaeologist believes he is cursed by a mask that causes him to have weird nightmares and possibly to murder. Before committing suicide, he mails the mask to his psychiatrist, Dr. Barnes, who is soon plunged into the nightmare world of the mask."

    This is the first ever Halloween special movie, and the first in 3D (with Kinga-vision)

     

    2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

    The Christmas Dragon

    "A group of orphans goes on a journey to restore the lost magic and save Christmas."

    And this is the ultra-special episode that's a crossover between all the active hosts and their respective Bots.

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