exactly. this would actually support the argument that amazon's lower prices would not affect these local bookstores that sell "hard to find" books. of course, that's not what the french government is trying to do. they're trying to protect all french bookstores at the expense of the average french consumer.

How about we decentralize the leader. In other words, the King *has* to call on everyone an arbitrary number of times. Who cares who the leader is? Make everyone the leader. You always flip the same way, that way being the way you flipped the chalice the first time you went into the room. Since k n*k, as long as someone has flipped it n*k +1 times, he knows that every other prisoner has gone in (mind's a bit mushy, so that math may be off). The only problem left then is that the King might decide to call everyone in once, in which case they'll never go free....but its closer...