king of research - season 2

I can think about changing it if people think it's bad. I think it has encouraged good research before in rounds like 'The ___ ___ of ____', where candidates really dug in to find better and better answers, once they realised that the fire was fierce in their rivals! But maybe it's wrong for earlier rounds, where repeat posts with tiebreaker concerns can lock out latecomers?

Could there be a limit to the number of entries? Like you get one repeat entry but that's it, maybe on the second day of the round to make it fairer for people who are not around in the morning when the question is announced?

3 goes each like some field events in athletics

ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown with ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams

Patriarch Kirill I and President Vladimir Putin.

Getting antsy now, I found a better one after searching for a bit longer, but I don't want to post until we get the final call re.acceptable number of entries

the beard round! this plays right into my skillset tbh

I see that ShariVari got to (and discounted) Santa Claus before me - clearly a more discerning researcher. I'll be back with a proper one...

Dalai Lama & Dean Evenson

German president Joachim Gauck with Rabbi Shneur Trebnik

I may need to up my beardage quotient :-(

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef & President Shimon Peres, 14 August 2013

yisroel dovid weiss w/ Iranian President Ahmadinejad during meeting in Tehran, 5/15/2011

President Vladimir Putin with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar

George W. Bush with Archbishop Demetrios.

(my skills as a researcher and knowledge of world affairs are evident when you know that I found that at the end of a trail started by searching for 'ZZ Top with president'.)

Was Ahmadinejad head of state? I thought that in Iran the Supreme Leader rather than the President is head of state?
(Not trying to grass up johnny crunch, it's just that i picked Ayatollah Khomeini for my HOS, so if he doesn't count I mat need to try another entry.)

officially the President of Iran is head of state aiui

Damn, that's what I get for relying on wikipedia.

king of half-arsed, inaccurate research.

Parkash Singh Badal and PM David Cameron

Aye, scrap my one of Gordon Brown, as the Queen is the head of state. Here she is with Rabbi Aryeh Sofrin

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_11Ys6wmW_BM/TI5qzODvWrI/AAAAAAAABV8/66iG9kErgXk/s1600/Queen+Rabbi+and+Handshake.jpg

The ayatollah is head of state.

http://media.elnuevoherald.com/smedia/2013/01/23/16/56/830-KOyAq.St.138.jpeg

Putin with Ilia II, current Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and the spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, 24/01/2013

I think for this round only people should be allowed to revise their entries tomorrow since we weren't clear on that, but from then on we should only be allowed the one. Take us away from the current rapid fire situation to a tense standoff - we all have our beards ready, but who's going to give the game away by drawing first?

Willie Nelson and Jimmy Carter

don't forget the beardo has to have glasses too.

wha? I totally missed that. Also, Willie doesn't have a huge beard. Oh well, might post another and see if I receive mercy from the rules gods

this pic is an epic answer to the question

only 1/2 bespectacled but yeah p good

yeah that was one of the mid-points between my search for 'ZZ Top with president' and my eventual answer (sadly I don't know who any of those guys are).

the guy in the foreground to dubya's immediate left is rabbi shemtov - chief chabad rabbi of philadelphia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Shemtov

Often called the "Rebbe's ambassador to DC",[1] Shemtov developed extensive connections and friendships in Washington. He regularly leads Chabad-Lubavitch delegations to the White House and played a pivotal role in the relationships formed between Schneerson and U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.[2]

Multiple entries is necessary to stop people just coming in at the end and sniping the prize - it may disadvantage people who don't have much time, but not as much as single entries disadvantage people who aren't available at the end of deadline.

More importantly, it keeps the thread rolling and fun. Which would you rather have - a dead thread where people just post one entry and that's it, or a thread full of people posting excitedly, discussion and argument?

xp wiki is meshichist

Anyway, I'm actually finding this pretty hard, so here's my placeholder: Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni with Rabbi Bentzion Butman

I was confident with my photo but with this laissez-faire attitude to multiple entries I'm getting a bit worried. May have to call off all my appointments over the next few weeks.

Basically if multiple entries get banned I might not even bother. What's the point? It's meant to be fun, and if someone else 'steals' your entry and you can't find another then maybe you don't deserve to be crowned the king of research?

yeah I think when it comes to the threat of people posting dozens and dozens of answers early in the round then a basic 'don't be a jerk' rule should suffice.

i'm mad at jerry garcia right now for never meeting a president. ya damn hippy!

I think pointing out the parameters of the question to others is a no-no, if they can't read the question right, then they don't deserve to be a king of research either.

I thought this was meant to be fun

Nicholas II with not one but two beardos

I thought Rasputin w/ Nicholas II would coast in this, so much beard - but apparently they were never photographed together.

all the best games are those that straddle the line between 'fun' and 'lengthy intense tearful argument'.

yeah I think when it comes to the threat of people posting dozens and dozens of answers early in the round then a basic 'don't be a jerk' rule should suffice.

I think I've posted five, but only because I noticed that three of them don't actually fit the criteria after I posted them, hope I haven't been a jerk.

well, it's not the best, but here's

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) speaking with Hassan Khomeini (M) the grandson of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Iran's intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi during a death anniversary of the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad, in Tehran,Iran on May 6, 2011.

imo a set number of do-overs is a good compromise (two? three?) because yes, if one isn't online at the time of deadline it could be annoying

but i remember last time people just swamped it trying to one-up themselves in one particular round and by the time late-comers got there it seemed like there was no point

I think I was responsible for getting over-excited and doing that a bit, so yeah, I am amenable to a compromise. Or at least, until the numbers go down - certainly by the time we get to a head-to-head we should be revving up the competitive element.

Here is my much better real entry after that relatively poor placeholder:

The head of state of Serbia & Montenegro, President Svetozar Marovic, with a whole bunch of Serbian Orthodox peeps.
This very important event was attended by Republic of Serbia Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, as well as by His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, His Grace Bishop Irinej of Backa, His Grace Bishop Vasilije of Srem, His Grace Bishop Fotije of Dalmatia, His Grace Bishop Gerasim of Gornji Karlovac, His Grace Bishop Profirije of Jegar, His Grace Bishop Milutin of Australia, and His Grace Bishop Lukijan of Osijek Polje and Baranja.
http://www.spc.rs/old/Vesti-2004/09/orden-v.jpg

Booming beards/post.