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Just got an email from Mare and Raigan about the prizes from that long ago N v2.0 Holiday Contesque... they're almost ready!! Zap, I think you can finally stop pestering them every 5 seconds now. :-P

M&R wrote:hey everyone,

If you're reading this, it's because you placed in the top 10 of our N v2.0 Holiday Contesque, which took place many long years ago. Sorry for the delay -- things have been utterly crazy around here -- but it's finally time to hand out your prizes!

To thank you for participating and to commend you for your skill, we've got some fun stuff to send you! We're still printing a few things and waiting to hear about a few others, so my hope is that we'll be able to send out your packages in time for Christmas.

I'll need a mailing address to send your stuff, so please email back! We promise not to share your address with anyone else or send you anything weird. :)

thanks, and thanks for playing N!
Mare and Raigan

golfkid's perception of time:

end of contesque - mid-january 2012 Earth time = initial time t0

current time - mid-september 2013 Earth time = 20 months later

golfkid apparently sees a blog post from me to M&R about contesque prizes every 5 seconds. i've sent 20 of these reminders, so golfkid time has advanced 100 seconds since t0

relativistic gamma factor = 20 months / 100 seconds = 5.26*10^5

golfkid spent the last 20 months travelling at 99.99999999964% of the speed of light.

assuming he started on planet Earth, (also he must have been travelling in tight circles and stayed within the solar system otherwise M&R's email wouldn't have reached him yet) the energy needed to power his spaceship is 4.7*10^24 joules, assuming an extreme reasonable minimum combined mass of golfkid and spaceship of 100 kilos.

golfkid posted last year that he was 24, making him born in approximately 1988

in comparison, the entire world energy consumption since 1988 to 2010 has been 9.8*10^21 joules (source US energy information administration; it didn't have stats for 2011)

to extrapolate for the missing year, total world energy consumption since golfkid's birth until contesque end is about 1.03*10^22 joules, which is way less than what would have been needed to power his spaceship.

therefore golfkid could not possibly have built this spaceship using only Earth's resources. seeing as Earthlings have not currently developed the capability of utilising resources from other planets/moons/etc,

that means:

GOLFKID IS AN ALIEN. Q.E.D.

Oh no! I've been found out!

/hovers to spaceship to change back into human costume

/utilizes memory wiping device on Zapmeister and sets it up to erase the memory of anybody else who views this post

You saw nothing...

I expected nothing less from you, 999, when I read that "5 seconds".

I got one too just for making the top-10. I have to say, glad to be getting something I wasn't expecting to get. I'd like to get something with an autograph on it for prosperity... would other winners feel the same?

Something autographed would be pretty nice, I wouldn't mind that at all. Beyond that, what I'm hoping for would be a t-shirt or something along those lines, don't really have any other expectations otherwise. Hoping for more than just a couple stickers or decals, something more lasting.

my expectations rise in line with the amount of time it takes them to do these things

a few months ago i mentioned that it had reached the point where the value of these prizes equates to an all-expenses-paid trip to see M&R in toronto

now i'm expecting nothing less than a two-month round-the-world all-expenses-paid cruise on a luxury liner with all the other top10 placed people, together with M&R and the other v2 developers

don't let me down, M&R...

I have it on good authority that the winners of the holiday contesque will receive autograph merchandise.

:)

so M&R just sent out an email detailing the contents of the contesque prizes...

i'm mildly disappointed that i didn't get an all-expenses-paid flight to toronto to see m&r, or some outrageously enormous cash prize scaled in line with scoreboard ranks, or even a couple of bitcoins, in line with my expectations after an eager two year wait for the prizes, but this'll do.

finally i get something physical to visibly show off my prowess at playing n!

999_Springs wrote:so M&R just sent out an email detailing the contents of the contesque prizes...

i'm mildly disappointed that i didn't get an all-expenses-paid flight to toronto to see m&r, or some outrageously enormous cash prize scaled in line with scoreboard ranks, or even a couple of bitcoins, in line with my expectations after an eager two year wait for the prizes, but this'll do.

finally i get something physical to visibly show off my prowess at playing n!

If only we were given those couple of bitcoins each back when we won! (I mean, technically, we'd still have the same 2 bitcoins - but you know what I mean.)

So did you guys get anything yet? I received something but I'm in an another city so all I know is a tshirt with n++ on it. I don't think I was first, though, since I'm probably the furthest from Canada from all the winners.

Yep I received mine this Tuesday: an N++ T-shirt, a signed diploma, and loads of stickers and pins.