Search found 476 matches
- Wed Jan 03, 2024 6:54 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: The Dead of 2024
- Replies: 60
- Views: 4602
Re: The Dead of 2024
An ideal points system would probably take into account odds of dying (incorporating age and known illnesses) and extra points for the better known they are. I don't think you could really formulate a robust enough system for that. Does the frail 95 year old or the very ill 70 year old have a bette...
- Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:39 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Unpopular opinions you genuinely hold
- Replies: 276
- Views: 32307
Re: Unpopular opinions you genuinely hold
"genuinely" You've changed Perhaps this is how it starts, you start saying right wing opinions when at a party as a 'joke' and then 10 years later you're a racist. To actually offer something genuine: - Everything Everywhere All at Once might be the worst film I've ever seen. Crazy how ma...
- Thu Dec 21, 2023 1:26 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Co-Event Suggestion Box
- Replies: 181
- Views: 15461
Re: Co-Event Suggestion Box
Does anybody have some low effort high impact suggestions for reducing the % of botched printed conundrum reveals? I had a botched conundrum given to me in at least 5/8 of the events I attended in 2023 which had paper conundrums. Reasons for botched conundrums reveals could be any of (but not limit...
- Tue Dec 05, 2023 1:33 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Unpopular opinions you genuinely hold
- Replies: 276
- Views: 32307
Re: Unpopular opinions you genuinely hold
- Tax here is too high, and actually given that high earners have already paid a lot of tax the marginal rates should be inverted: earnings over 125k should be taxed at 20%, whereas up to 50k should be more like 40% - While investing in public transport should be encouraged, cycling should be banned...
- Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:22 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: What's the minimum time you have to be resident in the British Isles in order to qualify for Countdown?
- Replies: 52
- Views: 6803
Re: What's the minimum time you have to be resident in the British Isles in order to qualify for Countdown?
Am I still a sociopath and a trash person if I do this after retiring? Assuming the show holds up until then. Note that even if I lost early I wouldn’t mind. I’d keep living in and enjoying the UK for a while. I like your generally laid-back culture. Why don't you try to live here for a bit anyway?...
- Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:57 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 13th January 2023 - CoC XVI QF 2
- Replies: 29
- Views: 3288
Re: Spoilers for Friday 13th January 2023 - CoC XVI QF 2
Very well played Dan. Took the early opening and held your nerve through the match, strong tactical play getting the call in round 14 right. Really feel for you Elliott: Dan was on form today and the way the letters fell made it tricky to get ahead before the conundrum. I missed the 1st numbers watc...
- Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:24 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Tuesday 3 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 2
- Replies: 31
- Views: 2846
Re: Spoilers for Tuesday 3 January 2023 - CoC XVI, Prelim 2
Very accomplished performance from Elliott among some tricky rounds. Great work from Elliott today. Can't wait to see if tomorrow's conundrum is: ADAGIETTO Though I doubt it. Damian knows the game and the players well enough to know that he can get away with two in a row, but if you go further then ...
- Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:03 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: Your preferred format for CO-events
- Replies: 74
- Views: 32680
Re: Your preferred format for CO-events
Overall Lincoln-style is probably more fun with more talking and socializing. But Bristol-style offers advantages for more serious competition: - everyone plays from the same selection which is fairer. As points are used to break ties on wins having some extra nines available or fewer impossible num...
- Mon Aug 16, 2021 5:44 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1615
- Views: 652271
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
This is probably the best introductory video I've seen.
- Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:55 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Olympics 2020
- Replies: 135
- Views: 16542
Re: Olympics 2020
Japan doing really well to come 3rd. It does seem like the host nation tends to do better than they normally would. And this time it can't be down to home support. I'm guessing some events confer some inbuilt home advantage (familiarity with the track/venue, or conditions) but mostly is because they...
- Sun Jul 25, 2021 8:13 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Olympics 2020
- Replies: 135
- Views: 16542
Re: Olympics 2020
Have gone big on Slovakia bandwagon too at 24/1.
Re: TENNIS
I’d say Federer’s early career advantage probably evens out with Djokovic’s current advantage. But maybe you’ve got to give Federer extra credit for raising the bar in what was conceptually possible and winning more than 50% of slams and threatening on every surface over several years in a way that ...
- Mon Jul 12, 2021 11:50 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: The C4C Football Thread
- Replies: 1265
- Views: 196463
Re: The C4C Football Thread
The whole match felt so similar to the World Cup semifinal loss to Croatia. A strong start and an early goal before a superior midfield started to control the game. It's just so difficult to keep attacking when your instinct is to defend. This is when you need leadership on the pitch, and ideally in...
- Mon Jul 12, 2021 11:30 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: The C4C Football Thread
- Replies: 1265
- Views: 196463
Re: The C4C Football Thread
But already the hype machine is saying it puts them in a great place to win the World Cup. Calm down ffs. Italy actually won the thing and I bet they're not talking about winning the world Cup before the qualifiers are even over. It's no wonder the players feel the pressure. This is a bitter loss, ...
- Thu Jul 08, 2021 11:08 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: The C4C Football Thread
- Replies: 1265
- Views: 196463
Re: The C4C Football Thread
I don't think it was a penalty. England would have had a strong chance of winning it in ET any way. When Italy won the World Cup in 2006, they beat Australia due to a last minute dive for a penalty (they would have had to play extra time with 10 men). Also, the Copa America has a very silly format t...
- Tue Jun 29, 2021 9:57 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: The C4C Football Thread
- Replies: 1265
- Views: 196463
Re: The C4C Football Thread
The tension must come from having a vested interest (being English or German). From my perspective, the game was just incredibly boring. It didn't have a fraction of the excitement of yesterday. I think this was just to be expected. It's probably not a coincidence that the two last-16 games with th...
- Mon Dec 21, 2020 2:44 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Special Spoilers for Monday 21st December 2020 (Special S47)
- Replies: 24
- Views: 6990
Re: Special Spoilers for Monday 21 December 2020
METALOPH in the POLYMATH round too.
- Sat Dec 19, 2020 9:53 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 18th December 2020 (Series 82, Grand Final)
- Replies: 42
- Views: 11084
Re: Spoilers for Friday 18 December 2020 (Series 82, Grand Final)
Luke’s very first word (on the show, not as a child) was POSTGAME, so I think he learnt the endings too.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Dec 19, 2020 7:36 am With MAGESHIP and MAEGBOTE, I wonder if Luke just learnt all the words that started with the same four letters and happened to get really, really lucky.
- Sat Dec 19, 2020 9:51 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 18th December 2020 (Series 82, Grand Final)
- Replies: 42
- Views: 11084
Re: Spoilers for Friday 18 December 2020 (Series 82, Grand Final)
Mega-congratulations to Luke and commiserations Sam. That was a great final. Despite not crunching the stats Luke was around a 75% favorite in my mind heading into this because of his solidity on the letters and the occasional surprising miss from Sam. But Sam didn’t miss anything easy: MAGESHIP, MA...
- Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:18 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 16th December 2020 (Series 82, 1st Semi-Final)
- Replies: 20
- Views: 4810
Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 16 December (Series 82, First Semi Final)
Very well played Luke, and unlucky Ian. Luke again maxing all the letters rounds! That numbers was the first round which Luke has lost despite having a valid word/numsol. i.e. the first time he has scored raw points that haven't also scored properly. Chinks in the armour? If Sam beats Leo tomorrow w...
- Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:10 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 10th December 2020 (Series 82, 1st Quarter-Final)
- Replies: 19
- Views: 5274
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 10th December 2020 (Series 82, QF 1)
Amazing stuff Luke, supreme performance. MAGNESIC in particular was nowhere near.
She announced I was on for a max game after rd 13 vs Chris Hawkins.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Dec 11, 2020 3:13 pm True, but has she ever done it on the day of the game? She'd need to at least find out for herself.
- Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:38 am
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: How to host an event (for dummies)?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 35279
Re: How to host an event (for dummies)?
When I was researching venues, I found that £1000+ was often the going rate for a Saturday in central London at an accessible venue that fit 50+ people [...] Assuming you are talking about the Brighton Oval (I originally did not realise there was a Brighton one and thought you were absolutely mad f...
- Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:48 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Events
- Topic: How to host an event (for dummies)?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 35279
Re: How to host an event (for dummies)?
I think a key thing for a Co:Event is keeping the costs down. Event costs keep creeping up to the participant, and while a cost to offset the facility hire is inevitable, a decent proportion of it seems to be spent on the nick-nacks and individuality that I don't really want anyway. By the time tra...
- Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:25 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: People you shouldn't trust
- Replies: 921
- Views: 407285
Re: People you shouldn't trust
People who say 'The Rona' to mean Covid-19.
- Mon Nov 16, 2020 7:40 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: RIP Howard Somerset
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4860
Re: RIP Howard Somerset
Really sad to hear this. I had the pleasure of meeting Howard at a few events. He had a really sharp mind and a terrific sense of humour.
- Sun Oct 25, 2020 9:38 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Deathwatch 2017
- Replies: 467
- Views: 218457
Re: Deathwatch 2017
Been a rather quiet year, all things considering. Bit suspicious really.
- Sun Oct 25, 2020 2:02 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Re: Ticket #5803: ZoomDown - evidence of potential cheating
- Replies: 72
- Views: 23269
Re: Re: Ticket #5803: ZoomDown - evidence of potential cheating
In hindsight, it would have been better to bring up the overlay beforehand, but I didn't even think of possible accusations of cheating. I had something I'd made in Python tkinter which was potentially going to be used by the ZD production team but wasn't ready in time. Personally, I find it makes q...
- Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:10 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Three words
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4416
Re: Three words
I should probably say, this was a black IPA with blueberry and maple syrup in it, which should go some way to explain 1 and 3. And well, what do you know - looked up vaccinium and apparently we're talking blueberry. Thanks Conor! Is that a word you know? Not really, but it didn't seem like it could...
- Wed Oct 21, 2020 10:13 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Three words
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4416
Re: Three words
Vaccinium?
Re: TENNIS
Thiem looks like the best shot for getting to No. 1 outside the big 3. I can see one or more of Medvedev, Zverev, Tsitsipas making a breakthrough and winning a grand slam in the coming years but they don't have the consistency to challenge for no. 1. Especially as Djokovic is super consistent in bot...
- Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:17 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You've just been made producer of Countdown...
- Replies: 88
- Views: 28847
Re: You've just been made producer of Countdown...
I don't agree with going back to 9 rounders. If the problem is too many one-sided games then you should try to reduce these rather than shortening the whole show. I'd allow past contestants to reapply. Not just 'unlucky losers' but everyone (series champions etc). There'd be a min number of years be...
- Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:58 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 156620
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
What I would suggest is that we don't have to decide right now what we should do in a year or two years or whatever if things haven't changed. It would obviously be a big problem if no vaccine proves effective and we can't keep the virus under control without big restrictions on our lives. And I th...
- Sat Aug 08, 2020 10:02 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Offensive Words
- Replies: 57
- Views: 25767
Re: Offensive Words
Regardless of your position about the offensiveness of a word taken out of context or used in a quotation, there is still a double standard here. Strong swear words are expressly forbidden before the watershed in any context but this word is not. Whatever process deemed the F-word unsuitable for br...
- Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:19 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Joke Items
- Replies: 250
- Views: 83287
Re: Joke Items
The word "garlicky". Such a horrific construction with "licky" in it and the k is arbitrary anyway. It should be "garliccy" and that's how I will spell it from now on (if I ever need to write it). Similarly it should be "panicced", not "panicked" (t...
- Sun Jul 26, 2020 5:25 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
With the collusion case, it might not be explicitly overheard but it would likely be pretty obvious what it is going on at a Lincoln style event. The host would pick up on it and if this was the game to decide who makes the final there’d be some spectators to witness it too. But at a Bristol style ...
- Sun Jul 26, 2020 5:20 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
With the collusion case, it might not be explicitly overheard but it would likely be pretty obvious what it is going on at a Lincoln style event. The host would pick up on it and if this was the game to decide who makes the final there’d be some spectators to witness it too. But at a Bristol style e...
- Sun Jul 26, 2020 2:45 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
If you show the scores but not the standings, it might solve the error correction problem, but for the prevention of potential tactical antics, that's almost the worst of both worlds. The majority of players, who are just naturally curious about where they're finishing in relation to others, now ha...
- Sat Jul 25, 2020 7:50 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
I don't like this idea, and not (only) because it would mean the loss of that sweet Atropine videprinter action. I think players like being able to see the running standings. At every event with a public-facing display, there's always a crowd of people gathering round the monitor as tables finish. ...
- Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:05 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
It's the "coming to an agreement" thing that makes this bad, not the individual decisions by each player to play conservatively in the hope of not dropping too many points, which itself is of course within the letter and the spirit of the rules. But in Gevin's example they also came to an...
- Wed Jul 22, 2020 8:03 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1740
- Views: 700095
Re: Ask Graeme?
I've had a tacit assumption that over the years the standard of the top contestants has generally risen while the standard of 'most' contestants has slightly dipped. I don't think there's much point testing the first part, but how about the second? I'd suggest something like comparing the average ma...
- Mon Jul 20, 2020 11:21 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
I don't like redoing it if it's an -S plural but not if it's an -S third person singular verb. The former might be explicitly forbidden in the Contestant guidelines, but plenty of people attend Co-events without having been on the show: how would they know? A regular viewer might have reasonably not...
- Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:40 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Offensive Words
- Replies: 57
- Views: 25767
Re: Offensive Words
It also makes the game more inaccessible, since you'd need to know exactly which words (many of which are in common usage) have been removed.
- Tue Jul 07, 2020 10:45 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1740
- Views: 700095
Re: Ask Graeme?
ANGRIEST stems with 19 I think. I'd be surprised if that can be beaten. For which words stem with any vowel: http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_8s http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_7s http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_6s Ahh very nice - I thought something like this would likely have already been co...
- Sun Jul 05, 2020 12:38 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Ask Graeme?
- Replies: 1740
- Views: 700095
Re: Ask Graeme?
ANGRIEST stems with 19 I think. I'd be surprised if that can be beaten.
For which words stem with any vowel:
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_8s
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_7s
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_6s
For which words stem with any vowel:
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_8s
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_7s
http://wiki.apterous.org/Fruitful_6s
- Fri Jun 26, 2020 8:25 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
All things being equal, I think most players are inclined to copy their opponent’s word just because of an instinctive loss aversion.
- Thu Jun 25, 2020 10:35 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: You Are The Ref
- Replies: 355
- Views: 150628
Re: You Are The Ref
For those that think it's fine, when declaring your word second, to have written down 10-15 plausible words and then just point to the one your opponent says... would you prefer if apterous was coded in this way, instead of the perfectly logical way it's coded now? It would be stone cold mental to ...
- Wed May 27, 2020 2:39 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Weird celebrity crushes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 12227
Re: Weird celebrity crushes
Ursula von der Leyen
- Sat May 23, 2020 4:00 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Is picking the letters an advantage?
- Replies: 33
- Views: 11815
Re: Is picking the letters an advantage?
To test Jack's hypothesis that this is a bigger factor for the strongest players, I looked at games where both players were in the Pro Ranks top 25 at the time the game was played. This leaves about 30,000 rounds. In this case, the picker expects to score 6.58 points per round versus the receiver's...
- Tue May 19, 2020 10:24 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Weird celebrity crushes
- Replies: 27
- Views: 12227
Re: Weird celebrity crushes
She's also 25 years older than me, which isn't conventionally attractive. But here we are. It might be that most people who are 25 years older than you aren't conventionally attractive, but that's a very weird way of putting it. You could get a freak who doesn't age and is 104 years old, and is ver...
- Mon May 18, 2020 2:21 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And How Will We Feel Fine?)
- Replies: 17
- Views: 6639
Re: It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And How Will We Feel Fine?)
Hopefully a full review into the mainstream media here in the UK. Its reporting has been far too concerned with "gotcha" questions for the government and asking rubbish. A review into the mainstream media would be a good thing, but how they phrase questions to elected officials is far dow...
- Sun May 10, 2020 7:34 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday January 10th (Birthday Prelim 4)
- Replies: 48
- Views: 12446
Re: Spoilers for Thursday January 10th (Birthday Prelim 4)
So much discussion spawned by FLORUITED over the years. Personally I see it as an open and shut case, and anyone who thinks it should be disallowed is an idiot and a savage. No, but really, I'm surprised there was ever so much discussion. 2 of the 3 Lexico example sentences use an inflected form of...
- Sat May 02, 2020 12:27 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Countdown Lookalikes?
- Replies: 390
- Views: 227457
Re: Countdown Lookalikes?
Series 80 runner-up Elliott Mellor:
![Image](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ArOq1wriL._AC_SY400_.jpg)
Irish singer Christy Dignam
![Image](http://wiki.apterous.org/images/4/4c/Elliott_Mellor.png)
![Image](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ArOq1wriL._AC_SY400_.jpg)
Irish singer Christy Dignam
![Image](http://wiki.apterous.org/images/4/4c/Elliott_Mellor.png)
- Fri May 01, 2020 3:56 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1615
- Views: 652271
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
Well no, that's the point. If you just throw away wrong answers, I can just list off every possible 'answer' to a question, regardless of whether it actually fits the specifics of what is being asked. For example, if the question is "name a European country with [unusual attribute]", I ca...
- Fri May 01, 2020 2:38 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1615
- Views: 652271
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
How do they actually go about asking 100 people for Pointless. Like what if the topic is 'Masters Winners in the last 40 years' and they ask a golf trivia expert and they just rattle off all of them. What do they do? Ignore that guy, scrap the round, allow an impossible round to go through (I doubt...
- Fri May 01, 2020 11:42 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1615
- Views: 652271
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
How do they actually go about asking 100 people for Pointless. Like what if the topic is 'Masters Winners in the last 40 years' and they ask a golf trivia expert and they just rattle off all of them. What do they do? Ignore that guy, scrap the round, allow an impossible round to go through (I doubt ...
Re: Religion
In addition to Callum's points: most religious people are brought up that way. It's a basis for their moral modus operandi, and if that works for them, I can certainly get why many don't dig too deep to find out if it's actually true. I don't think religious people generally have different morals f...
Re: Religion
In addition to Callum's points: most religious people are brought up that way. It's a basis for their moral modus operandi, and if that works for them, I can certainly get why many don't dig too deep to find out if it's actually true. In contrast, most people who hold these sort of fringe beliefs li...
- Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:28 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1615
- Views: 652271
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
Would one of each be enough? I know I didn't define what it means for the human race to survive (as in for how long), but getting through one more generation won't be enough to satisfy anyone considering this. And when animals are endangered they often talk about the number of breeding pairs needed...
- Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:49 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1615
- Views: 652271
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
If every human above a certain age were to die instantaneously, what is the minimum age that could be for the human race to still survive into the future in some form? I think it'd be somewhere under 1 year old. As Phil mentioned, there have been cases of children being raised by wild animals. Ther...
- Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:30 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Focal Talk podcast Episode 2 out now (featuring Ben Wilson and Conor Travers)
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6131
Re: Focal Talk podcast Episode 2 out now (featuring Ben Wilson and Conor Travers)
Also, I noticed you referred to Conor's natural skill at the game at the start (before he actually came on), and this general subject came up again towards the end, but I thought it would have been interesting to hear Conor's take on it a bit more. To what would he attribute his skill - how much do...