Comments on: LOL-December 7

By: mkilby

mkilby — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:54:57 +0000

Thanks, Bill. CBS is engaging in silent extraterritorial censorship. Previously, I was redirected to the main www.cbs.com page, but I just tried it again using Hotspot Shield, and it worked OK.

By: CIDU Bill

CIDU Bill — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:16:31 +0000

mkilby, the link goes to a clip (precededed by a commercial, unfortunately) of a Big Bang Theory scene that shows rock/paper/scissors/lizard/Spock in action.

By: mkilby

mkilby — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:46:16 +0000

The cute thing about adding “Spock” to the mix is that there is an obvious hand gesture for the Vulcan (”live long and prosper”). I can’t imagine what the gesture for “Lizard” would be (perhaps “stick out your tongue”?) Adding those two items does reduce the probability of ties (from 1/3rd to 1/5th), but since the result is 5-fold symmetric, the ideal strategy is still an evenly balanced random choice (20% each).

For Rock/Paper/Scissors+Well, I’m guessing that the optimum strategy would use probabilities of 1/3rd each for Paper and Well, and 1/6th each for Rock and Scissors, but I would have to review a couple of chapters on game theory to prove it.

P.S. The link (CIDU Bill @ 24) is broken or outdated, I can’t find anything relevant to rock/paper/scissors on the CBS page that it now leads to.
P.P.S. (Rainey @ 25) Poetic metrics: Rock is the only single-syllable object in the (original) collection.

By: paperboy

paperboy — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:32:39 +0000

Adam West still has his Batman skills.

By: Araxie

Araxie — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:42:43 +0000

Hasn’t anyone here seen Family Guy? “Perhaps the Noid should have avoided ME.”

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:25:22 +0000

This begins to remind me of the moment on SEINFELC when Mickey told Kramer that “rock busts through paper”, at which point the two of them simply go “Rock”, “Rock” from then on, no one winning.

By: Rainey

Rainey — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:10:37 +0000

mkilby: I was taught a version of rock/paper/scissors in which paper covered rock and snuffed dynamite, rock filled well and broke scissors, scissors cut paper and diffused dynamite, dynamite exploded rock and well, and well didintegrated paper and rusted scissors. There was also a reversal on the original game in which scissors lift rock, rock tears paper and paper wraps around scissors. I’ve never heard of a reversal of the “deluxe” version of the game but I’m sure that with enough imagination, one could be made.
P.S. Why in the title of this game, is paper and scissors never mentioned first?

By: Cidu Bill

Cidu Bill — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:48:13 +0000

And then of course there’s rock/paper/scissors/lizard/Spock:

(or watch it in action here)

By: mkilby

mkilby — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:07:56 +0000

@ Todd (23) - There’s another variant of Rock/Paper/Scissors that includes a “well” (fingers and thumb form an open vertical cylinder). Rock and scissors fall into the well, but paper covers the opening (it must be a very large sheet).

In game theory terms, the “original” version is perfectly symmetric, so the best strategy is a balanced random selection (1/3rd probability for each). The additional items (well, dynamite, or whatever) break the symmetry, but do not change the fact that the best strategy is still a random selection. The trick is to figure out the correct percentage proportions.

By: Lost in A**2

Lost in A**2 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:05:44 +0000

Literally. If you didn’t send it in, you aren’t somebody.