Don't quite get it........or maybe I do? I have just scored 27/30.........fair enough, but.............

In definitions I got one wrong........now unless an answer accepts two different definitions given, surely it is impossible to get ONE wrong, because if one is then another must also be wrong?

You can have swapped definitions between three questions.
Or, as I have done on occasion, you may have selected the same answer twice.

Just checked, I've scored 27 twice in the last week.

I've done even worse - I reached a score of 29/30 on several occasions. As Jabberwok pointed out, it's quite easy to select the same answer twice (wittingly or inadvertently).

Yup, done that too.

What's annoying is when I want to change my answer to 1, and I change it to 10 instead.

That misclick giving 29 is especially galling when a Daily Challenge is to get at least 30 out of 30 - that will be the one day in the week when I don't do it.

Best time ever (118) in Mind Melt. 6th overall for the site. 93 melting points. That ain't right. I targeted this month to get a top ten finish. I think it should be an overall score (2764 X 30 for example) that counts toward a monthly badge. I know some people will say "not everybody has the same set of questions". So what? I don't know what group I am lumped into, but even a sub 200 second score will rarely get you into the 25th percentile in the sets I have been competing against. Thoughts?

I have been able to get 3 correct in a really quick time.

negativism is related to quality

negativism means "characterized by habitual skepticism and a tendency to deny or oppose or resist suggestions or commands"
quality means "an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone"

Aren't these opposite in meaning? Or do we say a person's qualities include their lying, cheating and slothfulness. Characteristics or traits, but not qualities.

Qualities need not be positive. The word is sometimes used in that sense, but it need not be at all.

I can't seem to find any websites that use 'quality' as a negative unless they say bad or negative qualities. All the others redirect to 'characteristics' or traits'. The connotation of 'quality' for most people is a positive feature, isn't it?

While saying something has quality, or meets quality standards, with the implication that this is a good thing, is certainly a very common contemporary usage, it is not strictly the meaning of the word. This wikipedia entry gives a bit of a discussion of the philosophical use of the word quality, which is a concept that can be good, bad or neutral. I have several books on my shelf, but no time to locate scholarly discussion online at the moment, since I am at work and taking a short coffee break.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_%28philosophy%29

Quality is merely a measure - good or bad - of conformance to some applicable set of definitions or specifications. It is Madison Avenue that has twisted the meaning to imply the idea of a high standard, one sided connotation. A thing may be a foot wide hunk of gold and covered with diamonds and rubies but it could be low quality if the item was to be a dog. In this case a dead dog would need some engineer's input as to whether it met the prescribed standard or not. If it was intended in final use to be a child's companion it would be poor quality. If it were meant to be a model in a life drawing class, the fact that it doesn't move would make it high quality. Same dog, different measures of quality.
When someone says they bought a quality set of ski boots, they mean that to them the fit, functionality and price were better than other available items of the same sort. Those are internal, personal sets of requirements that have been met to warrant the use of quality as an adjective.
Sloth then is indeed a quality, one that may be undesirable (as in the dog not moving), but a quality none-the-less.

Quality answer, Michael!

Ssabreman, you answered your own question in the very beginning when you acknowledged the concept of "negative quality"! :P

Not really. It needed the adjective to clearly differentiate 'negative' qualities from the other qualities, which are generally positive.

Ah, I have to disagree. I acknowledge that when one says 'quality', the presumption is that it is a positive one, but I don't think prefacing it with 'negative' or a similar term is necessary in order for it to mean a non-positive one.

coppersmith is related to
wigmaker is related to

with options "shaper" and "journeyman".

I'd have said that the coppersmith matches the shaper (after all, a wigmaker rather assembles than shapes), but the game thinks otherwise.

When I think of perukes, I think too much shaping has taken place.

Here's an idea. When two questions/answers are completely interchangeable, allow both answers to be correct.
Today's version of this maddening circumstance:

nabumetone is related to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

You said: NSAID

nabumetone means "a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (trade name Relafen)"
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug means "an anti-inflammatory drug that does not contain steroids"

ibuprofen is related to NSAID

You said: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

ibuprofen means "a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine (trade names Advil and Motrin and Nuprin) used to relieve the pain of arthritis and as an analgesic and antipyretic"
NSAID means "an anti-inflammatory drug that does not contain steroids"

Why are ties not given the same amount of melting points within a daily set? You never know what time you have to beat since you never know what set you will be placed into. Same time should equal same daily melting points.

Not really a big deal, just wondering...

Today (April 20, 2013) MM, Quiz 26

Opposites Part

Active and Activeness were both words in the list.

The opposite of antagonistic is active

antagonistic means "opposing or neutralizing or mitigating an effect by contrary action"
active means "producing activity or change"

The opposite of inactivity is activeness

inactivity means "a disposition to remain inactive or inert"
activeness means "the trait of being active"

I answered both with active...I went for the 29 instead of risking getting both wrong.

You would have been safe matching the two adjectives with each other, and the two nouns together.

I've been thinking about this one and can only suggest that "smith" implies a skilled craft that requires an extended apprenticeship whereas wigmaker could include someone working on an assembly line that required training rather than an apprenticeship.

And "maker" fits with "shaper" in the grammatical sense, which is sometimes how these definitions seem to be ordered.

And whilst "shaper" describes metalwork very well, it also pertains to wigs which afterall are useless until they are styled or shaped.

I've done my best to appease the Mind Melt gods here!