Search found 1269 matches
- Mon May 18, 2020 8:05 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Higher or Lower
- Replies: 127
- Views: 43094
Re: Higher or Lower
I'm not convinced that a valid answer to picking a number is to say that your number is a normal distribution with mean of x and standard deviation of y, but even if it is, the best you can say is that your method produces a chance higher than zero of winning, and I have shown that the chance is low...
- Mon May 18, 2020 5:59 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Higher or Lower
- Replies: 127
- Views: 43094
Re: Higher or Lower
I know what a normal distribution is. It was you that brought it up and it's got nothing to do with the question.
- Mon May 18, 2020 4:28 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Higher or Lower
- Replies: 127
- Views: 43094
Re: Higher or Lower
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the two numbers are picked at random, but from a large but finite range, and that they differ by 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Let's call that number X. Let's also have a very small number, say 0.0000000000000000000000001, which we call Y. If the ...
- Mon May 18, 2020 3:44 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Higher or Lower
- Replies: 127
- Views: 43094
Re: Higher or Lower
But the difference between the two numbers is finite, so the probability of the number you pick being between them is zero. Not necessarily. In particular, if you choose your own random number according to, e.g. a normal distribution, then it has a non-zero probability of landing in any given finit...
- Mon May 18, 2020 3:32 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: 6824
Re: It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And How Will We Feel Fine?)
We will go into lockdown any time anyone sneezes in China. If coronavirus had happened before bird flu and ebola, SARS and MERS, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have blithely ignored them in this country.
- Sun May 17, 2020 11:37 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Weird stuff that's happened to you
- Replies: 24
- Views: 11005
Re: Weird stuff that's happened to you
I imagine she thought "Oh God, it's that weird kid in my daughter's class, just standing there, waiting to get past. Should I just ignore him? Would that be rude? I've got to say something. But what?"
- Sat May 16, 2020 11:28 pm
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Higher or Lower
- Replies: 127
- Views: 43094
Re: Higher or Lower
I should probably read all this again, because it all seems too simple now. The strategy is to pick your own number first, then go lower if it is lower than the number you see, higher if it's higher. You win every time if your number is between the other two, it's 50/50 if it isn't. But the differen...
- Tue May 05, 2020 7:48 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Joke Items
- Replies: 252
- Views: 92796
Re: Joke Items
A more consistent and even saltiness is exactly what many uses of salt are trying not to achieve. Good examples that you must (but obviously won't) be able to appreciate would be chocolate stuff - a bar of dark chocolate with sea salt or sea salt in a brownie or something. You don't want to make th...
- Mon May 04, 2020 12:49 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: REALLY obvious things you've just realised
- Replies: 647
- Views: 337403
Re: REALLY obvious things you've just realised
It's a discussion that I've seen come up a few times recently. It makes sense that it might have been a thing with mechanical typewriters. I can't see it. With a mechanical typewriter, the full stop occupies a whole space. With two more empty spaces, that's three spaces between the last word of the...
- Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:39 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: What TV programmes have you been watching lately?
- Replies: 774
- Views: 685787
Re: What TV programmes have you been watching lately?
Have there not been similar debates about Countdown auditions in the past? Didn't they have to change some of the letters selections because someone posted the ones they used in his audition? I scrambled through an audition with mainly sevens, but would have done a whole lot better if I'd realised y...
- Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:32 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 8th April 2020
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2750
Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 8th April 2020
Not often I get one that someone hasn't beaten me to, but FROIDEUR in Round 1.
- Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:31 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
At least in those long-distant days the chances of any individual actually having the virus was probably (literally) a million to one. Frequent hand-washing seemed a good idea when it was first advised. It's a sobering thought that any random individual who crosses your path today is maybe a hundred...
- Mon Apr 06, 2020 12:24 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
I think it's valid. Suppose it was established that having a meal in a restaurant with an infected person gave you a 50% chance of being infected. Sheer chance, different immune systems, whatever. How many people would you expect to be infected if that person spent the same amount of time at a speed...
- Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:43 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
Suppose you have a bottle of poison with five lethal doses in it, and another bottle of 100 pills, five of which are poisonous. If one person consumes the whole bottle they die. If two people share the whole bottle, both of them die. Up to five people it's essentially the same. But if 100 people sha...
- Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:47 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
The report in today's Times is headlined "Woman fined £660 for a crime that 'doesn't exist'".
- Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:57 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
I'd very much hope she was actually fined for doing something against the law, which was aggravated by her refusal to give her name. If the police ask for your name and what you are doing, you are perfectly entitled to respond "Going about my lawful business, officer". (Do not try this at...
- Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:57 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
I'd very much hope she was actually fined for doing something against the law, which was aggravated by her refusal to give her name. If the police ask for your name and what you are doing, you are perfectly entitled to respond "Going about my lawful business, officer". (Do not try this at ...
- Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:48 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 1st April 2020 (Series 82, Prelim 65)
- Replies: 6
- Views: 3479
Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 1st April 2020 (Series 82, Prelim 65)
But who know's what Nick's throwaway line was when he revealed the answer? Not hard to envisage something inconsequential at the time that would be offensive now.
- Tue Mar 31, 2020 4:47 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
- Replies: 503
- Views: 161082
Re: COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread
Fake news.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:41 pm The police dyed a blue lagoon black to deter visitors. Talk about police state.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-22843481
- Fri Feb 28, 2020 2:41 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 27th February 2020
- Replies: 9
- Views: 4924
Re: Spoilers for 27th February 2020.
But if you were ordering, perhaps you'd say "One beef and two muttons"? And them's the rules. I think the restaurant rule does go too far, and you get some very contrived plurals. It was brought in because words like LAGER were only given as mass nouns, which is simply a deficiency of the ...
- Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:39 am
- Forum: Games and Puzzles
- Topic: Chess - advice for a beginner?
- Replies: 24
- Views: 14343
Re: Chess - advice for a beginner?
The trouble with knowing how to solve the tactical positions you will see in a newspaper is that you will only get to one of those positions very rarely, and only if you have outplayed your opponent up to that point. In any case a game between two beginners is usually just a succession of blunders, ...
- Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:35 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Best lexico example sentences
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5941
Re: Best lexico example sentences
I don't know if the definition of woe is well known, but it's in the NODE so it dates back at least 20 years. Liverpool fan at the OUP?
Lexico wrote:‘the Everton tale of woe continued’
- Thu Jan 16, 2020 5:16 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Monday 13th January 2020
- Replies: 14
- Views: 6556
Re: Spoilers for 13th January 2019
Has anyone ever scored less points than a member of the audience before?
- Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:22 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743767
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
But so what? That's like saying that Coronation Street is the most popular TV soap, so everyone is expected to know all about it. So, if you expect some clarification as to what the Champions League is, you would also expect some clarification about Coronation Street? I thought the general idea was...
- Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:44 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Questions you've always wanted answered
- Replies: 1617
- Views: 743767
Re: Questions you've always wanted answered
Newsreaders assuming knowledge of this sort of stuff is annoying. Also quizmasters. On Pointless Richard Osman says things like "teams in the 2018-19 Champions League" and I have no idea what that means. I know the names of some football teams, so I could have a wild guess, but I have no ...
- Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:01 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Who are Countdown's unluckiest losers?
- Replies: 27
- Views: 10176
Re: Who are Countdown's unluckiest losers?
Reminded by the Dictionary Revival thread. Helen Wrigglesworth, who lost by two points having suffered a 15 point swing through having ROADSIDE disallowed, because the COD10 economised on space by omitting compound words whose meaning was clear. They did give her another go, and dropped COD10 after ...
- Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:17 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Who are Countdown's unluckiest losers?
- Replies: 27
- Views: 10176
Re: Who are Countdown's unluckiest losers?
There's more than one way to be unlucky. You can get drawn against a top player in the heats. You can have a valid word disallowed (or your opponent can have an invalid word allowed). You can get an 'impossible' crucial conundrum when you are behind, or a trivial one (50/50 shot) when you're ahead. ...
- Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:54 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Baby Riley-Kovalev
- Replies: 55
- Views: 33459
Re: Baby Riley-Kovalev
Any clue to be derived from the baby's initials?
- Thu Dec 05, 2019 10:12 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Series 81 finals predictions
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5233
Re: Series 81 finals predictions
I'm sure we're all relieved that Chris Evans ensures there is no Bevins number discontinuity.
- Tue Dec 03, 2019 2:36 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Monday 2nd December 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 110)
- Replies: 6
- Views: 4356
Re: Spoilers for Monday 2nd December 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 110)
It's very strange though. It used to be in, so someone has taken a conscious decision to take it out. They have noticed that people nowadays are more gouty, not goutier like they used to be.
And I may not have been concentrating all that hard, but did both contestants get 500 as 50/10*100?
And I may not have been concentrating all that hard, but did both contestants get 500 as 50/10*100?
- Tue Nov 26, 2019 8:40 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Celebrity Countdown - Tuesday 19th November 2019
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6326
Re: Spoilers for Celebrity Countdown - Tuesday 19th November 2019
It may be your (and my) opinion that you can't pluralise an exclamation, but the point at issue is where this is laid down. And the usage in the example sentence could be pluralised. On balance I agree with you, but I'm not seeing quite enough to overrule the onfield decision.
- Tue Nov 26, 2019 12:28 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Celebrity Countdown - Tuesday 19th November 2019
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6326
Re: Spoilers for Celebrity Countdown - Tuesday 19th November 2019
Does it say anywhere that you can't pluralise an exclamation? In fact it's being used as a count noun in the example sentence "A big cheerio to Bill, who's not been in the best of health of late." (Haven't watched the programme, so I don't know what was actually said.)
- Mon Nov 25, 2019 12:36 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Politics in General
- Replies: 1646
- Views: 1817039
Re: Politics in General
Let's not forget that in the second half of the 1970s the top income tax rate was 83% on incomes over £20,000 and the basic rate was 33%. It's not as if a 75% rate is a complete leap into the unknown. The top rate was reduced to 40% in two stages in the 1980s, and the basic rate to 20% over a longer...
- Thu Nov 07, 2019 11:44 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 7th November 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 93)
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2475
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 7th November 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 93)
Didn't think anything of it myself, but the editing didn't do him any favours when he had COOTED disallowed, Jenny Eclair spoke up and said something like "I'm doing my best for you" in his direction, they panned over, and it looked as if he wasn't even listening.
- Wed Nov 06, 2019 12:40 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Politics in General
- Replies: 1646
- Views: 1817039
Re: Politics in General
Never understood why people are so against Inheritance Tax, even people who are never going to pay it. One objection is that it's supposedly being taxed twice on the same money, yet typically it's someone leaving a million pound house they paid half a crown for during the war, a profit that's comple...
- Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:38 am
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Politics in General
- Replies: 1646
- Views: 1817039
Re: Politics in General
If tax rates are very low, increasing them generates more revenue. Keep increasing them, and if you reach a point when a rate increase doesn't increase the revenue, you conclude that going above that point would actually reduce the revenue. There's a rate that maximises the return. Lengthy theorisin...
- Mon Nov 04, 2019 7:33 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: Politics in General
- Replies: 1646
- Views: 1817039
Re: Politics in General
What assumptions have you made about changes in behaviour of those affected? I imagine it's pretty well-documented as to what happened when the top rate went up from 40% to 50% and down to 45%. (I have a feeling it didn't change the total tax take very much, but I haven't checked it out.) The troubl...
- Thu Oct 31, 2019 8:17 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Wednesday 30th October 2019
- Replies: 13
- Views: 7095
Re: Spoilers for 30th October 2019
It's probably always been like this and I've only just noticed, but I see that the budget extends to four of the posher poppies, but contestants have to make do with the basic model. Saves buying new ones every year, I suppose.
- Tue Oct 22, 2019 1:24 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Baby Riley-Kovalev
- Replies: 55
- Views: 33459
Re: Baby Riley-Kovalev
My first appearance coincided with Susie's first appearance after the birth of her daughter, who would have been about four months old at the time. She had brought the baby with her, and I think her sister was looking after her in the dressing room while filming went on. I mentioned this to her when...
- Thu Oct 17, 2019 11:17 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 17th October 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 78)
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1793
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 17th October 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 78)
Or (25-7)*(50-7+1)
Can anyone tell me if Gloria Hunniford is really good at Countdown or a shameless cheat. Most people I think I can read, but not her.
Can anyone tell me if Gloria Hunniford is really good at Countdown or a shameless cheat. Most people I think I can read, but not her.
- Mon Oct 07, 2019 11:03 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Monday 7th October 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 70)
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2507
Re: Spoilers for Monday 7th October 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 70)
I awarded myself seven points for CAGEFUL without a moment's doubt. Wrongly. Comes up a lot more in daily life than RODENTIAN, I would have thought.
Re: Religion
One thing I don't understand is why being a committed Christian is a source of comfort. I don't imagine God has changed his views much in the last couple of thousand years, so pretty much everyone in this country is going to hell.
- Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:57 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Tuesday 13th August 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 31)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5429
Re: Spoilers for Tuesday 13th August 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 31)
Astonishingly, that is a logical explanation of the completely inexplicable!Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:08 pmAgreed, pretty amusing. All I can speculate is that she must have remembered that 9 9s are 81 and "spoonerised" that.David Williams wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:44 pm Did she actually say "Eight eights are ninety-one"? Was I dreaming?
- Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:44 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Tuesday 13th August 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 31)
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5429
Re: Spoilers for Tuesday 13th August 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 31)
Did she actually say "Eight eights are ninety-one"? Was I dreaming?
- Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:06 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 9th August 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 29)
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2766
Re: Spoilers for Friday 9th August 2019 (Series 81, Prelim 29)
I rather liked (5+2) x (6+1) x 7 + 100
- Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:32 pm
- Forum: Off-topic
- Topic: How many in a baker's gross?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4904
Re: How many in a baker's gross?
There are severe penalties for selling underweight bread. Your scales are not consistent. So for an order of 12 loaves you throw in an extra 8.33% which gives you what you deem to be a decent confidence level of being within the law. For an order of 144 loaves, for that level of confidence you do no...
- Tue Jun 25, 2019 4:01 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Kryptonite
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12714
Re: Kryptonite
Huh?
- Tue Jun 25, 2019 12:52 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Kryptonite
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12714
Re: Kryptonite
Is it just me, then? It's not kryptonite. It doesn't look anything like what kryptonite would look like if it existed. Giving someone a trophy made of kryptonite would in any case be totally inappropriate and highly dangerous. It wasn't funny the first time Nick said it, yet it comes up every time. ...
- Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:42 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Kryptonite
- Replies: 20
- Views: 12714
Kryptonite
A fictional, green, crystalline substance, absolutely nothing like perspex. Given as a trophy to convey the message "Well, we've just established you're not Superman, you loser".
- Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:19 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: So, who will be the founding member of Countdown's "1000 CLUB"?
- Replies: 129
- Views: 94110
Re: So, who will be the founding member of Countdown's "1000 CLUB"?
With these averages, his score would convert to 1048.15 in the old 15 format (still over 131 per game) and 636.9 in the 9-round format (about 79.6 per game). Given that the 8-game record for 9-rounders was 535, that would put him over 100 ahead! I know the current dictionary has more words, but it'...
- Fri Jun 07, 2019 3:59 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Baby Riley-Kovalev
- Replies: 55
- Views: 33459
Re: Baby Riley-Kovalev
Why has this thread apparently disappeared? You have to search to find it. Is it simply mentioning the name of "she who must not be spoken of"?
PS It's reappeared now!
PS It's reappeared now!
- Wed May 29, 2019 9:40 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers For Tuesday 28th May 2019 (Series 80 Prelim 90)
- Replies: 11
- Views: 8023
- Sun May 26, 2019 9:08 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 24th May 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 88)
- Replies: 17
- Views: 8914
Re: Spoilers for Friday 24th May 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 88)
What's the average margin in QF1? 50 points? I actually think Seed 8 might score higher against Elliott than some other Seed 1s. You might lose one or two more letters games, but you'd hope for 40 points in the numbers games. If you get a maximum you score points no matter how good your opponent is....
- Sat May 25, 2019 4:15 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Friday 24th May 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 88)
- Replies: 17
- Views: 8914
Re: Spoilers for Friday 24th May 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 88)
Isn't that true of every 8th seed nowadays?Fred Mumford wrote: ↑Sat May 25, 2019 8:30 amAt least the 8th seed can console themself with having had several good on-screen performances prior to their sadistical and gruesome slaughtering.
- Fri May 24, 2019 11:25 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Baby Riley-Kovalev
- Replies: 55
- Views: 33459
Re: Baby Riley-Kovalev
Carol?
- Fri May 24, 2019 11:41 am
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Negative picking
- Replies: 20
- Views: 14251
Re: Negative picking
If my opponent has 140 points going into the last numbers game and I've got 40, then you could say picking six small was being negative. If he's got 140 and I've got 125 . . . ? No-one would argue that picking anything other than one large or four vowels every time is negative, would they?
- Fri May 24, 2019 7:28 am
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Thursday 23rd May 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 87)
- Replies: 24
- Views: 10491
Re: Spoilers for Thursday 23rd May 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 87)
It seems to be established that you can't rely on what you see on TV for this.Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2019 11:28 am. . . fastest time to get all 8 conundrums record . . .
- Thu May 16, 2019 11:23 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Wednesday 15th May 2019
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3298
Re: Spoilers for Wednesday 15th May 2019
What's this nonsense with the fake going high on the 4-large? If you're doing e.g. 75×50/25, you don't start with 75×50. Poor form. If I've got this right, 75x50=3750 3750/25=150 is poor form, when you could say 75/25=3 3x50=150. But 75/25=3 3x50=150 when you could say 100+50=150 is OK? If you're s...
- Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:05 pm
- Forum: Countdown - Spoilers
- Topic: Spoilers for Monday 8th April 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 54)
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1774
Re: Spoilers for Monday 8th April 2019 (Series 80, Prelim 54)
Did Susie actually say that DEATHLY was an adverb? Surely not. Sacking offence I would have thought.
- Fri Mar 01, 2019 2:42 pm
- Forum: Countdown - General
- Topic: Will an 'ordinary' person ever win a series again?
- Replies: 76
- Views: 25838
Re: Will an 'ordinary' person ever win a series again?
It's a pretty small proportion of the non-apterites applying to Countdown who would even consider the possibility of winning a series. And they would be interested enough to do a bit of research, and find sites like this, even though they weren't prepared to put in the hours and the effort. And when...