Ep 73: Dom Saric, Robert Lukunic (October 17, 2012; originally aired November 10, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Dom Saric gets his  turn in the champion's seat tonight, and Richard asks him where his studies have taken him.  Dom responds that he went to Vienna last year as an elective, where he did some trauma surgery, plastic surgery, orthopaedics, and tumour surgery.  Richard asks about differences in approach, but Dom says they did things much the same their as here; the only differences he can think of might be in the logistics and how the hospital is run.

Tonight's challenger is Robert Lukunic, who works in logistics and has a degree in architecture.  Robert is particularly interested in both astrology and astronomy, which Richard remarks is unusual.  Robert says that it started with primitive man looking up at the heavens; lacking the scientific approach of today they came up with the myths of the idea of astronomy, like dividing the sky into the 12 zodiac signs and trying to make sense of what they saw around them.  (The way he mentions astronomy here rather than astrology is a little confusing, but I think what he means is that they were attempting to do astronomy but without the right framework of scientific thought they ended up with astrology.)

Robert continues that he thinks the two subjects were blended together strongly in the beginning, one influenced by the other.  Then with the advent of the scientific method, and advances in telescopes and computers and such, astronomy "has really taken off".


Robert started off with a good word that was a little risky but it paid off.  That was, unfortunately, the highlight of the game from him.  He failed to score points in any other round, and Dom swept through them comfortably, including a fairly quick solution to the conundrum.  The final scoreline reflected the disparity, with Dom winning by 52 points to 8.

I had another good game, although I very carelessly dropped a maximum on a late letters round.  Later checking showed that it did not cost me an optimal round, atlthough it was close.  The numbers worked out pretty straightforwardly, and I solved the conundrum in rapid fashion to end up with my third score of 75 in a row.