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#12
11-01-2005, 01:40 PM
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Re: Semi Bragging and a $200 Reward
There are 1304 axelrods and 927 books with at least a contributing axelrod author, looks like they may be close, and probably the winner for > 1000 members. I don't have the time to go through 900+ books and get a unique count.
to continue the axelrod theme: Fudenberg 2 out of 16 Tirole 1 out of 0 (  )Levine - way too many levines Nash - way too many Nashes Von Neumann and Morgenstern are dead, so I guess I will leave them out. 
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#13
11-01-2005, 03:01 PM
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Re: Semi Bragging and a $200 Reward
Hi David:
I think my name might out produce yours. Of course you have to keep in mind that not everyone with my name had it spelt the same way due to the inability of people to speak English when they passed through Ellis Island. Thus Malmud and Malamud are the same name as Malmuth, and the best known writer with our name was Bernard Malamud (who I've been told was a distant cousin). No wonder you work for me. Best wishes, Mason
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#14
11-01-2005, 05:36 PM
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Re: Semi Bragging and a $200 Reward
This contest is absolutely impossible. First of all, it doesn't take into consideration variations on spelling, as Mason pointed out. In my family, for example, several people changed their surnames as they had no boys to carry on the name. So, they're family members, but, technically they can be excluded from the contest, and, since they are not authors, that automatically increases the percentage of authors by default. You would, somehow, have to be able to confirm the different variations and confirm that they are related. The contest definitely does not take into consideration women who get married and change their surname. I mean, is every female Sklansky a cousin or is it possible it is a woman that married your cousin? What about those females who married, changed their surnames, and are published under a different name? Are they now to be included in a different family, the one they married into, or are they still considered under their origninal family name? Lastly, it does not take into consideration small presses such as some university presses, who's books are not sold on Amazon. I have translated books (technically making me "published", however, this is a huge debate in the translation field) that you cannot purchase on Amazon, let alone the countless university professors who's books are not available on Amazon. What about authors published in other countries? So, how can this contest be considered fair? Thank you David, I would like a copy of Theory of Poker for my contribution.
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#15
11-01-2005, 05:48 PM
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Re: Semi Bragging and a $200 Reward
The white pages found 299 Nordquists in the U.S.
I then searched authors named nordquist on amazon ignored duplicate authors. Found 27. So that's not quite 9% of the 299. ( or 6 % of the 1.5 times the white pages number) Barbara K Nordquist Bruce O Nordquist Carol L Nordquist Craig E Nordquist Delmar L Nordquist Elise Dallimore Nordquist Eric Nordquist Gerald L Nordquist Gerda Nordquist Gullog Nordquist John Nordquist Kay Nordquist Kjell Nordquist Lowel E Nordquist Marko Nordquist Marty Nordquist Maxine Winsor Nordquist Myron H Nordquist Niklas Nordquist Olga Nordquist Phillip A Nordquist Richard F Nordquist Sven Nordquist Shari Nordquist Ted A Nordquist Walter S Nordquist Dr. William D. Nordquist It should be noted that I don't myself live in the U.S. but I still wanted to try the experiment, and it wouldn't work in canada because there's only... 120 Nordquists in Canada.
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#16
11-01-2005, 05:52 PM
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Re: Semi Bragging and a $200 Reward
[ QUOTE ]
For the most part you are wrong. Of course if there were some name with thirty members that had ten authors, they automatically win. In fact six for thirty could be called more impressive. But not four out of thity or three out of fiteen or two out of ten. Can't you see that? [/ QUOTE ] But you're bragging about the high percentage of family members that are published authors. So, is it not the percentage that counts then? Two of ten is still 20%, which beats 11-15%. This contest if further complicated by how incredibly difficult it is to get quality data. A search on webpages.com for the surname Aksyonv lists four published and 1 unpublished. Since Vassily Aksyonov is, without a doubt, a published author, that means 1/5 for 20%. However, there are a hell of a lot more Aksyonovs in the U.S. And moreover, this is a country of 300 million people. Are you honestly saying that there could be a family who only makes up .000000033 percent of the population, yet, 20% of that family has contributed to the literary cannon, and that is not impressive?
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#17
11-01-2005, 07:07 PM
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Contest Over
It's closer than I thought so even if I'm right its not quite as impressive as I hoped.
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#18
11-01-2005, 07:13 PM
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Re: Contest Over
So, what's that mean? None of us get a free book for our efforts and contribution? That's analogous to taking it from your cell-mate and not even getting a reach around. I feel so unfulfilled.
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#20
11-01-2005, 11:32 PM
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Re: Semi Bragging and a $200 Reward
I have determined that the whitepages (.com) isn't the most
reliable way to be going about this. Also I now have read that it only displayed the FIRST 299 of the total found ( which it didn't say) and it also finds 27 sklansky's. okay now ancestry.com gave me a much higher number. This is the number of Nordquist's  compared to the staggeringly low ( by comparison ) Sklansky's  * note that these are census results from 1920 P.S. ther were 7 more Sklansky's than Malmuths back in those days.  just something new and interesting in the post, since alot of you have given up.
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