Author: Joel Reyes Noche

21st Philippine Mathematical Olympiad (Region 5)

Ateneo de Naga University is the Regional Testing Center for Region V of the 21st Philippine Mathematical Olympiad.

The Philippine Mathematical Olympiad, a nationwide mathematics competition open to all junior and senior high school students of the Philippines, is carried out in three stages.

The qualifying stage (to be held on October 20, 2018, Saturday) consists of a written exam administered in fourteen regional testing sites. The exam consists of fifteen multiple-choice questions worth 2 points each, ten multiple-choice questions worth 3 points each, and five answers-only questions worth 6 points each.

The area stage (to be held on November 24, 2018, Saturday) consists of a written exam administered in testing sites for the four areas (Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and National Capital Region). The exam consists of twenty answers-only questions and three open-ended questions that require full solutions.

The national stage (to be held on January 26, 2019, Saturday) consists of a written exam and an oral exam administered in Metro Manila. The written exam consists of four open-ended questions that require full solutions to be answered in 4.5 hours. The oral exam (which is open to the public) consists of 30 questions read to the participants and to be answered within a specified time for each item.

Each school may send up to thirty participants (students with a final grade of 88% (or its equivalent) in mathematics in the previous school year). The participants with the top fifty scores in the qualifying stage per area will qualify for the area stage. The participants with the top twenty scores (national ranking) in the area stage will qualify for the national stage. The national finalists will be qualified to join the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Camp (MOSC). The representatives of the country to the International Mathematical Olympiad will be selected from the participants of the MOSC.

Advertisements

A Super Day

The first thought that came to my mind when I saw the “TH” logo on this 2015 Ford Mustang GT was “So that’s how it looks in real life.”

I looked at the tires, saw that they were Real Riders, and saw a gold circle flame logo on the card behind the model. (An ordinary Treasure Hunt would have a gray circle flame logo on the card.) The body has Spectraflame paint.

It was next to an “ordinary” version of the 2015 Ford Mustang GT, so I got that one too for comparison.

The wheels are plastic (and not rubber), there is no circle flame logo on the card, and the paint is not Spectraflame.

The Super Treasure Hunt doesn’t have a collector number (such as “222/365”) on top right of the front of the card. The backs of the cards are also different. The Super Treasure Hunt has a toy number “FJY37-D7C3,” a collector’s code “Z2S2L,” and a base code “K40″ (embossed on the base of the model and on the upper left of the back of the card). The ordinary model has a toy number ” FJY35-D7C3 G1,” a collector’s code “8GE25,” and a base code “L10.”

This is my first Super Treasure Hunt. I never thought I would be able to find one “in the wild.”

All Star Comics #8

I was looking at a recent Sunday Internet Comics, Animation, & Art Auction of Heritage Auctions and was surprised to see this lot, which had a comic book in very bad condition and yet had a bid of a few thousand dollars.

The condition of a comic book is usually assigned a grade from 0.5 (the lowest) to 10.0 (the highest). Nobody buys a comic book graded at 0.5 unless it is extremely collectible (like an Action Comics #1). It was only when I read the description of the lot that I understood why it was commanding such a high price.

All Star Comics #8 (DC, 1942) CGC PR 0.5 Off-white pages. This Golden Age key made a big jump on Overstreet’s 2017 version of Top 100 Golden Age Comics list with a whopping 49% increase in value over the prior year, in the process climbing from 15th to 12th place. That marked the highest percentage increase in value of all books on the list! Expect another notch or two climb this year! A CGC-certified copy in FR 1.0 fetched $21,000 in April, 2018! The big deal, of course, is the origin and first appearance of Wonder Woman. Starman and Dr. Mid-Nite join the JSA in this momentous issue. CGC notes, “Cover completely split and detached. Page 1 detached. Page 36 missing, does not affect story. Incomplete.” Overstreet 2017 GD 2.0 value = $15,000. CGC census 6/18: 7 in 0.5, 109 higher.

Right now the current bid is $5,040.00 ($4,200 without the Buyer’s Premium), but I expect it to go higher when the auction ends tomorrow (June 24, 2018).

I looked for previous auction results at Heritage Auctions and found the following lots with the same grade (the prices include the BP):

  • Lot 14036 “PR – Incomplete and coverless” (PR 0.5) (“The origin and first appearance of Wonder Woman story is missing from this copy.”) March 18, 2012, $131.45
  • Lot 14024 “Incomplete” (PR 0.5) (“Centerfold missing”) May 27, 2012, $2,031.50
  • Lot 92040 “CGC Apparent PR 0.5 Moderate to Extensive (C-4) Cream to off-white pages” (“Restoration includes: color touch, pieces added, reinforced, panel cut out of page 1, affects story. Tape on cover, interior cover, & interior. Incomplete.”) May 20, 2017, $13,145.00

The following selected results show that prices have been increasing very sharply in the past decade.

  • Lot 41009 “CGC Apparent VF/NM 9.0 Moderate (P) Cream to off-white pages” May 22, 2008, $8,365.00
  • Lot 93265 “CGC Apparent VF/NM 9.0 Extensive (P) Cream to off-white pages” Jul 27, 2012, $4,182.50
  • Lot 93010 “CGC VF 8.0 Cream to off-white pages” Jul 27, 2012, $56,762.50
  • Lot 91041 “CGC FN+ 6.5 Cream to off-white pages” Feb 22, 2018, $92,612.50

    (Do note that the first two items have been restored, and so have prices much less than those for unrestored items.)

    The recent interest for this comic book seems to be due to the Wonder Woman movie released last 2017.

Justice League Batmobile

(This blog post is actually about two Batmobiles, not just the Justice League Batmobile, but I’ve run out of ideas for titles of blog posts about Batmobiles.)

The Justice League Batmobile is new for 2018. The first release was in flat black and this dark metallic blue version is the second release. Quite noticeable is the “massive rail gun.”

The TV Series Batmobile might be the most popular version of the Batmobile. The Hot Wheels Wiki lists 23 versions of it starting from the prototype released in 2007.

Wedge cars

I’m not a fan of supercars in general, but I do love wedge cars, especially those of the 1970s. Here are some of my scale models of wedge cars that I haven’t blogged about before.

For me, the best color for a 1977 Lotus Esprit S1 is white with black trim, and the second best is black with gold trim (like the color for the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am used in the movie “Smokey and the Bandit”).

The only Lamborghini that I like is the Countach. (The other models are too curvy for my taste). This Lamborghini Countach Pace Car is a first casting. The red metal body and plastic base go very well with the blue plastic windows and emergency lights.

Another beautiful wedge car with emergency lights is this Tomica Hyper Blue Police 01 Blue Phoenix. The glass roof windows are really nice. Unlike the Esprit and the Countach which are very recent purchases, this HBP01 was bought many years ago. (I’ve forgotten what year.)