c4countdown

Ian Volante

Here's an excellent short-form battle. Helps that I won.

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?ke ... 6894558574

Ian Volante

Summary since last edition: +ALOHAS (ick) +BLOGGINGS +CHEVIED +CHEVIES +CHEVYING +COGITOS +DIASPORAS +ESCHATONS +FAKEST +FEINTER +FEINTEST +FENNELS (double ick) +HALEST (and HALER, although maybe this is in already) +JOUSTINGS +LARBOARDS +LOATHINGS +MAINER +MAINEST +OKRAS (maybe. IMO no) +OLIBANUMS...

Ian Volante

This forum has been blocked by the firewall at work now. Boo! I'm scoring similarly as ever, beat the two muppets today, and could probably reel off a good dozen Bee Gees songs pretty quickly.

Zoe is indeed amiably vacuous, but this grates after a while. Looking forward to Ken coming back.

Ian Volante

I used to get mildly irritated by people who pronounce "mischievous" as if it were spelt "mis- cheev -us" or - even worse - "mis- cheevy -us". However, I was living in a fool's paradise and didn't know what irritated was until I started hearing that song by Noisettes o...

Ian Volante

And the final spot must be reserved for people who walk straight at you expecting you to dodge out of their way. So much so that I have opted to never again lose this particular game of 'arsehole chicken', and exploit the fact I'm 13 stone and have an overly large torso. :twisted: A couple of tacti...

Ian Volante

My main memory of Essex is a huge trail of shitty bog roll in the airport station.

I've not been there very often.

Actually, that's unfair, I went to a wedding reception in Southend once too.

Ian Volante

Because it came up in another thread, I've decided to start this one. Here's a pic of my regular pub, and if you happen to be passing on a Tuesday night, feel free to drop in and take part. We do have an octochamp member of possibly the longest-serving team at the quiz, but I keep forgetting to ask...

Ian Volante

In the wooden spoon play-off:

Ian V 158, Jon S 144

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=133435

Ian Volante

Derek Hazell wrote:This is a very Iany message board.

If someone called Ian founds something would it be called Ianian?

I'll tell you later.

Ian Volante

Charlie Reams wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:
Ben Wilson wrote:One day in and this will be for years the worst Omeletteundrum spot of all time. 19s ffs!!!!!!
And this will be the best miss...

http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=1 ... 9#r1941159
Kudos for admitting to that.

Shame is something I don't have much of.

Ian Volante

Ben Wilson wrote:One day in and this will be for years the worst Omeletteundrum spot of all time. 19s ffs!!!!!!

And this will be the best miss...

http://apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=1 ... 9#r1941159

Ian Volante

When is Mr Stitcher usually around?

Ian Volante

I'm sort of with you on the Common Market, George. Free trade, and France and Germany not going to war every thirty years, are things we take for granted now, but they weren't a given in the 1950's. The Common Market achieved that. Bringing Eastern European countries in? Fine. Free movement of labo...

Ian Volante

Kirk Bevins wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:
Kirk Bevins wrote:checked it out.
The spirit of Whiteley lives on.
I don't understand this but I now realised "checking out" is also a darts term. A subtle piece of word punnery?

Bullseye!

This post makes me feel slightly Larsenous.

Ian Volante

Kirk Bevins wrote:Richard asked me to let everyone know that the top entry of this poll used to be himself so he was winning in the original poll.

Very kind of you to keep us informed.

Ian Volante

Kirk Bevins wrote:checked it out.

The spirit of Whiteley lives on.

Ian Volante

Kai Laddiman wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:Continuing to pick these off: Conundrum stats bonanza!
BUBBLEGUM? I think I'm misunderstanding something, but...

Aye, it doesn't make sense for me either. Says I've failed four times on AUTHORIAL, yet the list tells me I've got it successfully three times.

Ian Volante

Usually have the radio on, sometimes a random selection from my hard drive suffices, so that could be anything apart from more obscure ethnic music, but if our lass is in the room then I'm stuck with telly more often than not.

Ian Volante

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QAvkFS_cgk

Ian Volante

I don't think I understand you. So you're basically saying democracy is good, but when you find an opinion distasteful we should use propaganda against them? Wasn't that the sort of mentality Hitler had? I'm selfish, just like everyone else. Perhaps I'd be more concerned if I paid the licence fee, ...

Ian Volante

On the other hand, I'm kinda glad they did do it the way they did - if they'd just asked normal questions he probably would have made far less of a tit of himself, and hopefully a lot of stupid people who'd've watched for the first time last night would have come away just thinking he's a moron (no...

Ian Volante

Wow! - I got 9 and 24 today so chuffed with an Ian V equaliser on one round :) CCC was easy as they are one of my fav's - Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising and Suzie Q CCC did for me utterly. Got the obvious one, could maybe have got Proud Mary. After that, nay chance... Oh, you're Ian Volante though, so...

Ian Volante

I tend to give up counting now, after missing out a few - once I know it's a right off and I'll not come close to you, Ian. It was about the 15- 18 mark for both I think. But the Jam for 3 in 10 - what a gift! I've been known to score single figures in the past...today was 24 and 24 though, and The...

Ian Volante

Charlie Reams wrote:
Gavin Chipper wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:
Is that why you're so irritating?
Nice one, you made the same joke as me.
Yeah, and I think you just made it again.

Is this entanglement?

Edit: Or is this just someone fucking up the quotes? Sue, what have you done to me?

Ian Volante

Well played by James in Division A:

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=130751

James Robinson 175 - 144 Ian Volante

Ian Volante

Been patchy this week, but I somehow got 24 and 30 today, was especially pleased with guessing the Four Seasons. Was Vivaldi the 3 in 10? :lol: Today I got 24 and 6, although the 6 was mainly caused by someone phoning me during question one and not bloody well pissing off until question ten. Ho hum.

Ian Volante

Been patchy this week, but I somehow got 24 and 30 today, was especially pleased with guessing the Four Seasons.

Ian Volante

Having problems again at this end. Will poke Charlie now. I'm going to read this as you are having problems with your end, and you are going to poke Charlie with your end. Things are a lot more fun this way. Only if he fixes the applet... Have pmed Charlie now, mainly because I'm too lazy to send a...

Ian Volante

I was in the school cross-country team, but never really enjoyed it. I've always been a steady middle-distance runner, never exceptional. Best at 5k is about 20:45, 10k just over 43m, but I've not been running much in recent years due to various injuries and the fact that I don't now live on my favo...

Ian Volante

Having problems again at this end. Will poke Charlie now.

Ian Volante

Craig's on 5Live right now, on iPlayer if you can cope with the excitement of reliving the interview

Ian Volante

Sue Sanders wrote:brave

Aye

Ian Volante

That sounds like you're drawing the population you want from a population that is already in the configuration you want it in! This is why I specified initially that the Smarties are being drawn from a large population. What happens in your method to the probability of drawing a fifth red? It's onl...

Ian Volante

I don't think this method is valid because there's still an 1/8 chance of picking any colour even if you've got the four of any colour you're looking for already. Or am I misunderstanding the reasoning for the change in probability? I was working on the basis that you've got exactly four of the fir...

Ian Volante

curvaceous and scabby

Ian Volante

BTW I think I agree with Gevin. It's always a good starting point. :mrgreen: What method did you use? I used the binomial thing. So I started with the probability of there being exactly four of one specific colour (say red). So I found an online calculator which worked out the probability of there ...

Ian Volante

I'm imagining the image of a large beetle projected into the sky is scaring the good people of Cambridge as we speak.

Ian Volante

You need to specify what population we're drawing from. If it's a large number of each colour, then we can neglect the probability change each time one is drawn. This entails that it is a probability of 1/8 to get any colour on any draw, so there are effectively (1/8)^32 combinations of 32 Smarties....

Ian Volante

which rhymed with

Ian Volante

I blame the salmon mousse.

Ian Volante

Mike Brailsford wrote:Here are some interesting shots of Rachel from the News Of The World.

http://tinyurl.com/yjy24o5

Can't imagine where the inspiration for those came from.

Ian Volante

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=128574 I may be cracking up but, in round 8 of this game, Apterous reckons the exact target is not gettable but I think it is. Obviously I was a little too slow so I didn't get the points but I think it's do-able. 10x10x2x4=800 (800+6)*5=4030 4030-7+6=4029 ...

Ian Volante

Are the books regarded as canonical these days? The trouble (using the word with extreme looseness) with HHGG is that unlike, say, Doctor Who or Star Trek , there is no canon. Douglas seemed to take almost wilful glee in making each new incarnation of the story for a different medium irreconcilably...

Ian Volante

I recommend 'The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy' by the late Douglas Adams. Helped by the awesome BBC Radio 4 adaptations I used to eagerly look forward to This is a surprisingly common misconception. The books were of course adapted from the radio series, not the other way around. I thought it wa...

Ian Volante

By the way when and why did "cunt" become the rudest swear word that is apparently miles worse than any other? I don't actually remember this always being the case, although perhaps when I was growing up, I wasn't aware that there was a ranking list out there and I hadn't met so many weir...

Ian Volante

No. When I started teaching they called them INSET days and I had to ask what this was and they looked at me funny! We always called them teacher training days (self explanatory) but nowadays they like to call them INSET. They were always called INSET days when I was at school - maybe it's an LEA s...

Ian Volante

Maybe we could get Jan Moir to do a more positive piece on the show.

Ian Volante

Surprisingly, they don't work in this version of IE.

Ian Volante

Martyn Simpson wrote:I've never really bought into the "journalists having an agenda" argument

You must read the sensible papers then...

Ian Volante

I can relate to a lot of what Kirk is saying; I never ever read novels anymore - like Kirk, if I try, I find myself pretty much just proofreading the novel but not really taking it in as a story - and I find responses like George's above common ("you don't see the whole thing playing out in yo...

Ian Volante

Derek Hazell wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:Witcher
You might be wondering why you haven't seen him around much lately.
Well he's concentrating on his new job painting road markings.

They call him the "Witcher tar line man"

I'm pointing at the door.

Ian Volante

Alec Rivers wrote:Certainly an interesting and useful page, but aren't the following typos, or am I missing something?
Countdown Wiki wrote:the ODE admits only VERTABRAE and not VERTABRAS as the plural of VERTEBRA

If only you could correct it...

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote:
Marc Meakin wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:I could just have suggested The Hungry Caterpillar if an easy read is what we're looking for here.
I wouldn't recommend that due to the holes in the plot
This.

Indeed!

Ian Volante

Okay, so it's a challenging read, but I was aiming for something that's not simply a "happy ever after" type thing, and may entail further reading and thoughts. I could just have suggested The Hungry Caterpillar if an easy read is what we're looking for here. It's not that it's challengin...

Ian Volante

This is meant to be a book for Kirk , not just a list of your favourite books. Personally I'd rather eat my own hand than read any more Harry Potter, but they're more likely to appeal to someone who hasn't read much than, say... Baudolino by Umberto Eco. It is fiction, although it's based around an...

Ian Volante

Nope, you have to play at least a 2-letter word, even on turn 1. i think Marc's question might need rephrasing! Aren't there four countries without indigenous snakes? Those mentioned and Greenland. Greenland is not a sovereign country in it's own right, Lucy. It is a colony of Denmark. But I'm sure...

Ian Volante

Today? 24, 30, 2.

Ian Volante

Michael Wallace wrote:
Bob De Caux wrote:2) In which athletics event is the women's record better than the men's?
I think that's open to discussion?

Literally, not relatively!

Ian Volante

Baudolino by Umberto Eco. It is fiction, although it's based around an interesting period of history involving the Holy Roman Empire and the sacking of Byzantium, and becomes an allegory for various strains of Christian philosophy. It was a good story which opened up various avenues of further learn...

Ian Volante

Bob De Caux wrote:Two personal faves:

1) Which three countries have no snakes?
2) In which athletics event is the women's record better than the men's?

1) Ireland, Iceland?, erm, Malta apropos of nothing.
2) Discus.

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