Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with prize

Did IPCC contributors each win the Nobel prize?

PercussivePaul — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:37:58 -0800

If someone contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's work on climate change, for which the organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, is this person a Nobel laureate? If not, what are they? I ask because I know a few professors who were IPCC members and/or contributors and they tend to talk about it in their bios. Usually it's "X contributed to the IPCC's work on climate change, for which the IPCC was awarded the Nobel prize". However, just now I came across someone who says "X contributed to the IPCC's work on climate change, for which he [i.e. X] was awarded the Nobel prize".

This latter use seems improper, but I'm not sure. What do you think? When an organization wins a prize, how are the contributors properly credited?

Prizes for competitions

lilyflower — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:08:30 -0800

How does prize money effect entry to free to enter competitions? I would like to know how prize money effects entry rates on free to enter competitions.

Are there studies which compare entry rates on competitions where everything is the same except the prizes that are on offer?

Does the style of competition effect entry rates regardless of the prizes available? Will someone enter something they aren’t interested in because there is a prize available (prize motivated), and will someone enter something they are interested even if there is no prize available (motivated by the thrill of getting something right and winning)?

How do entry rates for competitions (such as the ones listed below) vary due to the effort involved in entry? If a prize is subsequently factored in how does that affect the entry rates?

1. Picking numbers like the lottery, low effort
2. Answering a simple multiple choice question where the wrong answers are meant to be clearly wrong, low effort
3. Picking the winner of a sporting tournament, low effort
4. Picking the winner and runners up of a sporting event, medium effort
5. Picking the winners of every match in a sporting tournament, high effort

Are people only interested in the first prize or do they also like to see runner up prizes? Do prize amounts affect their interest in entering the competition?

To summarise:

Do prize funds affect people’s motivation to enter competitions?

Are people motivated by 1st prizes only or do they want to have runner up prizes and what ratios should the prize amounts be?

Do prize funds affect people’s motivation to enter high effort competitions?

Do prize funds affect people’s motivation to enter high effort competitions that they are already interested in (a game where getting something right is a reward in itself)?

I would prefer to receive information on studies, scientific experiments, and research into the psychology of entering competitions and how the effort to enter, prizes involved and motivation to play affect people.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

Fun prizes for hackers

godawful — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:08:20 -0800

Can you suggest prizes and trophies for a software/hardware hacking competition? Hey hivemind.

I'm running an creative, open source hack weekend at my university (link if you're interested) and I have around 150 Great British Pounds to spend on prizes and trophies for the winners in at least three categories:

Best overall software hack

Best overall hardware hack

Most creative project

Heroic failure award

This isn't much money, particularly since I have either to find a prize that a team of 4 or 5 can share, or buy five little things.

One thought would be to buy something totemic or trophy-esque for each category and just split up the rest of the cash as a little bit of beer money for the team.

Do you have any thoughts on techy, shareable prizes or nice cheap trophies?

I appreciate it!

Incentives for Jaded High Schoolers?

Alabaster — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:58:34 -0800

Think-Back-To-High-School-Filter: What incentives / prizes / privileges really motivated you? (Aside from grades) I'm looking to compile a huge list of incentives for high school aged students who, on the whole, do not care about grades.

I'm not looking for general motivation or classroom management tips -- I simply want tons of ideas for incentives that the students can work towards.

Looking for individual, small group/team, and whole-class incentives -- to be awarded for meeting certain checkpoints, going x days with y behavior, winning competitions/games, successfully attempting extra-credit assignments, and other, more silly or random .

I think I have the "stuff" covered -- candy, small toys, goofy prizes, etc., although I'm always willing to hear more ideas.

But I'm mainly looking for privileges, honors/accolades, team prizes, whole-class activities (e.g. pizza party), etc. Less "stuff," more

Silly and outlandish is OK, for example:

-"The person with the best answer will be called 'Your Majesty' for the rest of the day"
-"The group who meets the following objectives fastest gets to sit in comfy teacher chairs for a week".
-"Any student who makes
-"If the entire class successfully completes these 10 projects by the end of the month, I'll show you my (very bad) breakdancing moves."

The kids are fairly cynical but they tend to respond to silly things, and just about *any* positive reinforcement tends to perk them up a bit. Unfortunately, grades aren't enough -- for most of my kids a D is just as good as an A, as long as they pass.

I'm not looking to get cutesy here, just to keep it interesting, keep the tone of the classroom a bit silly, and give kids something tangible to compete for. The longer my list of ideas, the more I can keep them guessing.

So think back to your high school days. What kinds of things made it worth your while to put a little extra effort into that project? What made you want to help the remedial kid along so that the class would excel? Did you have any teachers with strange/silly (or just effective) reward systems? Bring 'em on.

(While you're at it, I could also use a few some strange or unique consequences/punishments for small-time "offenses." Consequences the students would want to avoid but won't stir up a lot of hostility in the room--e.g. if a student forgets his book, he sits in the creaky wobbly chair for the day, if anyone in the class gets question 4 wrong, I play polka music in class for 3 days, etc.).

Help me spend my company's money on me

KirTakat — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:57:21 -0800

My company has offered to spend $25,000 on 35 people for an activity in February. What do we do? We're currently working on a big project at my company, and if we meet our target date, our company has ponied up $25,000 to do *something* for us. The target date is January 31st, so it would probably end up being some time in February or March.

Here's the conditons:

-There's 35 of us (or there abouts)
-$25,000
-Mostly male, but there are a few females
-Fairly wide age range
-At least one person in the group isn't very "mobile", and would have a hard time doing something like bungee jumping
-Several people have children
-We're at least starting from Chicago

Suggestions? So far my best suggestion is a 3 day trip to the Carribbean, but the company couldn't afford to bring along spouses if we did that. Other suggestions I've heard: Murder Mystery train trip, pool table/arcade for the office, and cash.

Where to go?

Atom12 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:00:31 -0800

I won a trip! But where should I go? I've got six choices. I have my choice of one of six travel packages. All come with business class airfare and five nights in a hotel w/ complimentary breakfast.

The cities I can choose from are Dublin, Venice, Amsterdam, Geneva, St. Maarten and wherever the Latin Grammys are going to be held. Some are tied to events, such as Geneva, which comes with tickets to the Montreaux Jazz Festival.

I've been to London many times, Germany and we honeymooned in Italy near Florence. The Latin Grammys are pretty much at the bottom of the list. Criteria for us are things like good food, reasonable prices (I don't think we get any spending money) and funky shopping.

I'm leaning toward Amsterdam but the others still sound really good too. It's a nice problem to have. If it matters, Amsterdam is in November. I think all the others are in spring/summer of 2009. Any tips?

Make Small Money Sound Big

my homunculus is drowning — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:09:07 -0800

I need a really great, somewhat poker related prize (or a couple of prizes) that will cost less than $1200. I'm giving it away in early August (somewhat flexible on the date). Right now the best I can think of is a trip to Vegas for 2 and a $500 gift card. . . but I'd like something even better/cooler/more expensive sounding than that. I'm also considering a trip to Commerce Casino in LA with Disneyland tickets and stuff, so anything is possible. Travel anywhere is definitely an option, local events are an option. . . it just really needs to sound good.

Help me create a database to give money away

kc0dxh — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:41:03 -0800

Help me design a small Access application to run a prize drawing. As I see it, the MC will open the application and click the Draw button, which will select from the available prizes for that month. Once drawn, that prize becomes unavailable. MC will then type in the winner's name and click Save, setting the form ready for the next contestant. Specs and examples follow. Prizes will be one of the following dollar denominations: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, or Consolation Prize.

There may be more than one prize of a particular denomination, that will change from month to month.

Prizes should be chosen randomly.

Prizes cannot be given more than once. (obvious)

As an example, this months drawing may have 12 $5 prizes, 9 $10 prizes, 5 $20 prizes, 2 $50 prizes, 1 $100 prize, and 50 consolation prizes.

The application will need to be opened and closed a few times before the month's drawing is complete. Freeware applicaitons that interface with Access or Excel will be considered.

Photography Laureates - info please

ObscureReferenceMan — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:09:04 -0800

Is anyone familiar with the web site Photography Laureates? My Dad (a retired aerospace engineer) works as a professional photographer taking pictures of local high school and little league sports. Although relatively new to the field, he is quite good - both technically and artistically. But he has not been "in the game" for a long time to know the ins & outs, and potential scams.

He found a web site that runs photo contests. It is photolaureates.org. He submitted a photo, and they let him know he was a finalist for the $6500 prize. However, to confirm his entry he must pay a fee ($59).

Doing a google search on Photography Laureates resulted in a LOT of links to photography forums where people are asking the same question: is it a scam. And the concensus is, it is.

On the other side of the coin, I managed to find a link to a PR statement from Photography Laureates saying that they they are legitimate company, don't believe what people are saying, blah blah blah.

My feeling is Photography Laureates is like "Who's Who". You pay a fee to be listed in the book, then you buy the book, and can show your friends that you're in "Who's Who".

One other data point... One of the forum links I found asking "Is it a scam" was a recent one. This guy was told that he had to respond by November 3 to enter the 2007 contest. My Dad just recently got his email, but it is also for the 2007 contest. And his deadline is 12/4. (One yearly contest/month??)

So... My question is not is this a scam (I am 99% convinced that it is). But rather, does anybody know anything about this company at all? How long have they been around? How often do they run contests? Stuff like that. Thanks!

How much is a "lifetime supply?"

amyms — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:43:58 -0800

When companies sponsor contests to win a "lifetime supply" of their product, how do they decide what constitutes a lifetime supply? My friend and I were pondering this today after my son asked me last night. He had heard on the radio about someone winning a "lifetime supply" of soda/pop (he couldn't remember which brand) and he asked me, "How do they know if the winner will want to drink one can per day or 10 cans per day, or do they set a limit?"... Are there any Mefites who work in the marketing or contest fulfillment industries (or any contest winners) who have first-hand knowledge of how those kinds of prizes work?

What was that book of fantasy illustrations with the secret prize?

hydrophonic — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:25:45 -0800

Lost book question: When I was a kid, our upstairs neighbors lent me a book of wild fantasy illustrations that contained a hidden puzzle. There was a sizable prize for whoever figured out the riddle. This would be from the late seventies or early eighties, so I could be remembering a lot of things wrong. The book had little or no text. The illustrations were lush, vibrant and detailed--think prog rock album cover, but not Boris Vallejo-style fantasy art. Light-hearted, but definately for the adult hippy/fantasy fan, not kids. There was a mediaeval theme; I think there was a short jester holding a large key. The clues led you to the location of the prize. Or maybe you had to mail in your answer. The prize was worth $50,000--but of course I was a kid with no concept of money, so maybe it was $500.

Am I making this up? Was it a hoax? Did someone actually find the prize?

How can I win this writing bursary?

Chorus — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 01:35:08 -0800

How can I win this writing bursary? A new writing bursary has come to my attention, the award is DOUBLE my current salary [go read that again - DOUBLE] and is essentially for a prospective author to take a year off and concentrate on finishing a novel. Needless to say, the prospect of anything that's double my salary hurls me into throes of ecstasy, but this is "getting paid to write, no really, it is," so my hunger to win this is... huge.

It's a simple enough procedure to apply: just outline ideas for the novel, how I intend to spend the 12 months off [uh, writing?], and a 2k-word-long writing sample. I feel that what they want in the application is so fiendishly simple, it'll be hard going against and standing out with every MaryJane and their Chick Lit shenanigans wanting to win it too. [I write fantasy, btw]

This is the sort of award that would literally - literally now - change my life. I really can't stress that enough. I'd be writing this novel anyway, even if there wasn't a chance of winning this bursary, but come on, double my salary and a whole year off!

Ahem. I need advice on sounding confident and capable on the application form. Any tips on what the writing sample should be like would help too. Has anyone ever won a big bursary like this?

[And no, I don't kid myself in thinking all I have to do is enter to win, I'm sure there'll be hundreds of others applying. I just want to put my very best foot forward and be content within myself that I did the very best application I could]

Thank you, thank you very much!

Still room at the bottom?

sergeant sandwich — Sat, 19 Nov 2005 23:33:11 -0800

In 1959, Richard Feynman gave a now-famous talk at Caltech titled Plenty of Room at the Bottom in which he challenges the scientific community to write the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica on the head of a pin. Has anybody ever done this? In this speech, Feynman offers a prize of $1,000 to anyone who can write a page of a book at 1/25000 of its original size, which is the reduction required to fit the entire encyclopedia on a pinhead. I understand this prize was claimed in 1985 by a graduate student at Stanford, Tom Newman. But has anybody ever actually gone all-out and put the entire EB on a head of a pin?

Time-share Scam?

jacquilynne — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 05:11:01 -0800

Scam? I've been contacted and told I was selected to win a prize as a thank you for filling out a survey a few months ago. I have to go to a lunch and draw for which prize I'll receive out of 5. Presumably this is a scam, and I imagine it's a Time Share sales thing. So my question is this, if I go, and withstand the stupid timeshare marketing thing, will I actually get a prize? Or will I be scammed out of that, too? The company in question is 'The Vacation Store' and this is local to Toronto, since there are a lot of Vacation Stores out there on the net.

Win Fabulous Prizes!

ontic — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 18:59:15 -0800

Has anyone here ever won either the grand prize or a major prize from one of those "instant win" games on cereal boxes, candy bars, fast food promotions, or soda cans? Has anyone ever known someone who has won or known someone who knows someone? [More inside] I'm interested mostly in the big prizes, notably cars, trips, or more than $1,000US in cash, not free Big Macs or cans of soda. Of course, the deeper question is whether these prizes really do go out to real people.

For every contest, there used to be a list of winners one could send away for. Has anyone here ever sent away for it or know any write up about someone who did and tracked the people down?

Anybody ever heard of saprizo.com?

codger — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 14:10:32 -0800

[scamfilter] Anybody ever heard of saprizo.com? [+] (self link) I wrote about it here, but there are far more readers here. Basically they've got a slightly new angle on scamming. They tell me I've won a prize (in a contest I didn't enter) but I need to pay for the shipping.

With a debit card. And I need to provide them my card number, expiration date, and PIN. Does this sound fishy yet?

As of the time I am posting this, saprizo.com is unregistered. How can there be a site there, and is there anything I can do about all of this?