c4countdown

Ian Volante

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 8:54 pm Is it only mammals that yawn?
Ive seen most mammals yawn at some point but not other species

Edit Giraffes don't yawn

Most vertebrates do apparently.

Ian Volante

My name is Paolo Barresi, I'm from Rome and I work at the Ministry of Culture of my country. I have always been a fan (and a champ) of “Paroliamo”, the Italian version of this game. At the moment, I hope I improve my English thanks to Countdown. I love cats, 70s music and science fiction. Words lon...

Ian Volante

Ah thanks, I thought I'd been through all the options, but didn't seem to spot that lot.

Ian Volante

In the last day or so, comments on my watched topics in this forum have been triggering an e-mail to me. This hasn't happened in years, and I can't seem to stop it happening. What did I do?

Ian Volante

MARBLERAKE

Ian Volante

Paul Worsley wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 9:21 am David McCallum 1933-2023 RIP

Paul Worsley wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 12:20 pm Sir Michael Gambon...82

Got something against Gambon?

Ian Volante

Swimming faced a similar problem: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/full-body-swimsuit-now-banned-professional-swimmers/story?id=9437780 There's also the javelin redesigns that reduced the potential distance one could be thrown, although they reset the records at the same time. This was at least part...

Ian Volante

Yeah everyone should run bare-footed a-la Zola Budd Well yes. Some people think that these new shoes are somehow "cheating", but unless you ban all shoes, then where do you draw the line? How good does a shoe need to be before it "artificially" aids your performance? I suppose t...

Ian Volante

The Whatsapp group mentioned above certainly isn't just to talk about Brand by the sound of it. It's necessary in other groups too where wronguns continue to prey. Where bad/criminal behaviour can be dismissed by perpetrators with more power as consensual, or due to drunkenness, misunderstandings, &...

Ian Volante

Graeme Cole wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2023 11:56 pm "Click and collect". What's the point of it? Who's using it?

I occasionally use it for DIY stuff when I'd otherwise probably spend half an hour searching for the right type of paint and the right size of screws.

Ian Volante

Again, I'll be at the other end of the country on this particular weekend.

Ian Volante

Staying in instead of going to the pub. Eating asian food. Can't think of much else.

Ian Volante

The podium shots are really weird by the way. Only showing the winner rather than a proper shot of all three and it has this weird sponsor background rather than just being out in the open in the stadium. Really horrible to look at. I was quite happy that the medals were handed out immediately afte...

Ian Volante

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 7:48 pm Last one for now.
Are subtitles on TV shows generated by AI?

I think it's a mix of computer voice recognition and stenographers, I don't know if any of the software in use would count as AI, but I assume there are learning models used.

Ian Volante

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 7:31 pm Another thermal related question.
Warm water freezes faster than cool water, why?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect
This appears to be the answer but I'm still confused

I don't see anything conclusively presented there as the answer.

Ian Volante

Watched Rambo III the other day, again late night telly. Amused at an American film with the Afghans as the goodies. Predictable bollocks, but Stallone excels in running towards the camera as something explodes in the middle distance behind him.

Ian Volante

No thoughts of bumping up the K factor for finals games?

Ian Volante

Oh yeah, I'd get rid of hurdles too. One problem with multi-discipline events is that it's completely arbitrary which events you include so how much weight you give to different skills. Also they're all clearly athletes that couldn't quite make it at any particular event. So best overall athlete by...

Ian Volante

Yes, and the new tech which flashes up the result as they cross the line is shite. Much worse that it used to be. I suspect AI is to blame.

Ian Volante

I'll be honest, I still don't really get it. It's like when they say that molecules (or atoms or whichever it is) are made up of electrons or whatever orbiting nucleuses through magnetism, meaning they are mostly just loads of empty space. How can everything be made up of mostly empty space! And wh...

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Aug 18, 2023 12:24 pm If certain insects that find their way into your kitchen are prone to instant drowning as soon as they come into contact with a drop of water, why don't whole species go extinct when it rains?

They hide in dry places, and raindrops push them out of the way as they fall.

Ian Volante

Also, in addition to all apparently being made of empty space with the occasional magnetic lump in it, how can basically everything - from the shorts I am wearing right now to the pencil on the table over there to the table itself to the bit of wood that just hit the window - all be made of carbon?...

Ian Volante

I'll be honest, I still don't really get it. It's like when they say that molecules (or atoms or whichever it is) are made up of electrons or whatever orbiting nucleuses through magnetism, meaning they are mostly just loads of empty space. How can everything be made up of mostly empty space! And wh...

Ian Volante

"Honk if you like X" bumper stickers are not supposed to illicit fans of X to honk. It's a private joke for the driver that if they make someone mad enough to honk at them they can console themselves that the person isn't mad at them but just really likes X. Not sure I've ever seen someth...

Ian Volante

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Thu Aug 17, 2023 9:33 am What actually is/happens in a black hole? How can there just be nothing?

A lot of this was beyond my undergrad, but it is theorised that black holes, via Hawking radiation, re-emit the information that they swallowed in the past place, and eventually evaporate. Due to quantum.

Ian Volante

What rating do you give randoms who turn up on telly with no form? 1000?

Ian Volante

All YouTube videos are available in YouTube music, which is the streaming service I happen to subscribe to. If you like anything niche then that's the obvious choice. The sound quality is often not great admittedly. Were these versions easy to download as opposed to stream? As far as I can remember...

Ian Volante

1. Could you provide examples of music that isn't available to stream? I would have thought it would be extremely niche by now. And there is vastly more music available to stream than buy physically or download (I'm including YouTube here). I made a playlist on Deezer recently of an old dance compi...

Ian Volante

Why, when your voice gets louder, does it also go higher? Mine doesn't generally as far as I'm aware, but maybe that's with some self-taught projection practice in the context of pub quiz presenting. I suppose if you shout, it's maybe easier on the larynx to go to a higher register to deal with the...

Ian Volante

1. Could you provide examples of music that isn't available to stream? I would have thought it would be extremely niche by now. And there is vastly more music available to stream than buy physically or download (I'm including YouTube here). I made a playlist on Deezer recently of an old dance compi...

Ian Volante

Johnny Canuck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 25, 2023 9:18 pm Also, what's the current opinion regarding the 14-round format? Is it cool? Or is it anathema like Mariah after she did Glitter?

Surely she was much older than his other victims though.

Ian Volante

OK, if you take 7 members of one family, get them to pick 8 songs each, then pick a few more between you to get it up to 64 and then do a knockout voting tournament, which song do you think wins? It may surprise you, but the answer is Instant Crush by Daft Punk featuring Julian Casablancas (from Th...

Ian Volante

The men's final was on another planet from the women's. I've thought that a good way of stepping the women's matches up a notch (as a possible precursor to five-set matches) would be to move them to four set matches. First to three, but a champions tie-break if it reaches 2-2. I would absolutely lo...

Ian Volante

Watched 'What Remains' over the weekend. It was quite surprising given the set-up, and turned out to be reasonably entertaining.

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:55 pm The men's final was on another planet from the women's.

I've thought that a good way of stepping the women's matches up a notch (as a possible precursor to five-set matches) would be to move them to four set matches. First to three, but a champions tie-break if it reaches 2-2.

Ian Volante

Is it accessible without an Insta account? "Threads currently isn't available to everyone. To create a profile on Threads, you'll need to sign in with your Instagram account. If you don't have an Instagram account, you can create one. You can create one profile on Threads for each Instagram ac...

Ian Volante

Is it accessible without an Insta account?

Ian Volante

I've also seen various bits of research pointing out that drivers are more careful around cyclists without helmets on. As usual, it's a balance of risk. A helmet's almost always helpful if you crash, but as mentioned elsewhere, it may affect the risk level you put up with. As for helmet promotion, a...

Ian Volante

why did evolution make mossie/midgie/other annoying insect bites itch? I'd be happy enough for mossies to feed off me if it didn't itch like a bastard afterwards. Must make them much more likely to get killed/swatted Depends on the person. Mossie and midge bites don't bother me at all, but black fl...

Ian Volante

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Thu Jun 29, 2023 10:06 am Per AP style, you write out numbers up to and including nine, then use numbers for 10 and upwards.

Unless they start a sentence, then words for any number.

Ian Volante

This definitely niche I only learned this week that "amygdala hijack" is a thing that scam artists and charlatans like mediums play on to phish for gullable people to fall for their scams Do we then need a thread for things you just found out that weren't at all obvious in the first place?

Ian Volante

New parkrun record! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66010152 That's some parkrun debut. (There are some miserable feckers on twitter - "I thought parkrun was about participation not speed" etc... - it is, but there's still a record and it just got broken!) It's a perfect course for...

Ian Volante

I was impressed the Axl Rose has managed to get himself fitter than he was a few years ago, and I suspect has pragmatically decided to stop being an arsehole to enjoy their status as rock elder statesmen. That said, his voice is certainly nowhere near where it was, but he managed, and the show was m...

Ian Volante

You might like this thread: http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=9519

Ian Volante

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Wed Jun 21, 2023 9:31 pm I mean it's not niche, although I can't speak for other supermarkets

I think the point is that it's not really obvious as per the thread title. Maybe if most people here were Thai-based, it might be different.

Ian Volante

Mark James wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 1:42 pm
Ian Volante wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 12:08 pm
Mark James wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 10:19 pm 90% of gambling addicts stop just before they're about to win big.
I don't get this one at all. Can you explain?
I'm baiting degenerate gamblers to keep gambling.

Ah okay. I forget that sometimes a post might not be serious!

Ian Volante

Mark James wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 10:19 pm 90% of gambling addicts stop just before they're about to win big.

I don't get this one at all. Can you explain?

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 10:01 am Series 56 and 82 player Ian Volante:

Neo-Nazi podcaster James Allchurch:

Full story available here.

Ha, impressive!

Ian Volante

I find that things are usually too dark in dark mode.

Ian Volante

Callum Todd wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:04 am
Ian Volante wrote: ↑Wed May 31, 2023 11:46 am So why would Keys proving himself a bellend lead to Stelling leaving Countdown, which appeared to me to be the cause and effect being pointed out.
Keys being a bellend = more Sky work for Jeff = Jeff quits Countdown

Gotcha

Ian Volante

So why would Keys proving himself a bellend lead to Stelling leaving Countdown, which appeared to me to be the cause and effect being pointed out.

Ian Volante

Well Jeff managed SS and Countdown for three years, and only dropped Countdown when Richard Keys proved to the world what a bellend he was. He could easily do both I've had a look around for anything around this, and all I can see is that Keys suggested Stelling should have left the programme at th...

Ian Volante

He sold it in 2018.

Ian Volante

2. I've also listened back to Finland's entry and to be honest I'm even more bewildered by it's success. For anyone who liked it, is it purely just the singer, energy and entertainment value? Or did you actually enjoy the music? To my mind, it was very much tailored to the competition rather than b...

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon May 15, 2023 3:14 pm Do we have a lot of Lithuanians in this country?

About 150,000, although they may be more strongly motivated to vote than the Poles, who are at around 700,000. They're the largest former Soviet national group.

Ian Volante

----- Not great but at least unique ----- 19. Germany It might appear unique to you, but this might as well have been track nine on an unremarkable nu-metal/industrial album of 2010, the sort of song that's churned out endlessly by unremarkable bands of the genre. If such a track is going to succee...

Ian Volante

Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Wed May 10, 2023 10:04 pm a guy at uni

uh-huh

Ian Volante

I'm hoping to get to see it on Saturday. I don't understand the appeal of the semi-finals - doesn't that just dilute it all and spoil the surprise? Clearly not for many it seems!

Ian Volante

Inter Milan and AC Milan play each other in the champions league. They famously share a stadium. Away goals don't count any more but if they did there could have been a chance that someone could be knocked out on away goals while playing in their own stadium. Was wondering if this had ever happened...

Ian Volante

I think the amount of dignitaries from other countries that came to the coronation implies a level of respect from the heads of state anyway. Wrong way round. Britain is still powerful enough for some other countries to think it worth keeping in with, so they go "if it matters to them, we'll k...

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