Monday, June 30, 2008

KK Challenge 4—"X-Ray" Revisited

I discussed about a question from the recent Kiwanis Hunt in this blog. It had something to do with the interpretation of "striking catch"; and how I attempted to offer "X-Ray" as the answer. Unfortunately, my X-Ray was rejected.

A few weeks ago, when I was going around to look for possible answers for KK Challenge 4. I thought it would be interesting to give my own version of the X-Ray. If anything, perhaps I can treat it as a revenge; to make up for my failure during the Kiwanis.

Q25) "X-Ray" adopted for a business name?

Within that short sector, there was a Permai Polyclinics. Amongst the kinds of services they provide in that clinic was X-Ray. But since it's not adopted as a business name, I did not accept that as the answer.

My solution was to translate the "X-Ray" into Malay, i.e. "Sinar X". Then expand the idea to convert the X into 10. Most regular hunters are familiar with the practice to treat the digit "0" (zero) as the "same" with the letter "O"; and the digit 1 (one) as the "same" with the letter "i". The required answer:

A25) Sinario Cafe 2 & Catering

Several teams got this intended answer; and I wasn't surprised, because I didn't think that it's a particularly tough question. But what surprised me was the fact that both the top teams gave me Eclipse Bar & Cafe.

Not that it would make any difference to the positions of the teams, whether I accept this answer or not. Both teams can throw away 5 route questions and still win comfortably. No—they were safe as far as their positions were concerned, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss their answer anyway.

According to their analysis, the "X" in "X-Ray" can be interpreted as "no" or "without" or "cancelling out". So in an abstract way, "X-Ray", to them, can mean "no ray". So they considered the "eclipse" as blocking the ray (from the sun). When the ray is blocked, then there is no ray. I spent a few moments to consider this idea before rejecting it.

Maybe the treasure hunt God was smiling upon me yesterday, because as I said no matter what decision I made, it did not affect the result of the hunt. My thinking is that it is true that an eclipse does block the ray from the sun, but not necessarily in all cases. An eclipse can be a total or partial eclipse. In the case of a total eclipse, then the ray is indeed blocked. But in the case of a partial eclipse, we still have ray—only a portion of it has been blocked.

I know this sounds like a mediocre attempt to save my own neck. And to be quite honest, I didn't even realise this possibility when I set the question. But if this is a defense at all, then I will say that although the eclipse can mean blocked ray, it does not always mean so.

I can still remember a time when I set a question involving the ACE as the KING beater. The ACE is commonly referred to in many crossword puzzles as "the king beater". But a team member of Hunters "R" Us did not like that solution, because there are other card games in which other cards have the highest value. Although the ACE beats the KING in many card games, it does not always beat the KING. So perhaps I can also use the same defence here? (smile).

At any rate, apart from applying my authority as the CoC (smile), I feel strongly that my "Sinario" is a better fit than "Eclipse" anyway.

So, OK, all the big guns can start firing at me now!... HAHAHA!

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