c4countdown

Gavin Chipper

Great Notley parkrun for this obviously.

Gavin Chipper

I think it was just the best use of 30 minutes I have seen on TV it has humour, drama, it's heartbreaking and clever in equal measures. It takes a lot to move me and this does every time and it gets better with every viewing. I would be interested, what your best 30 minutes of tv is outside of a Ri...

Gavin Chipper

Why does the UK persist with BST? It serves no practical purpose We've had a couple of threads on this before. But I think basically, it seems that people don't like it to be too dark in the mornings in the winter (so we need GMT), but other than that they want it to stay light as late as possible ...

Gavin Chipper

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:41 pm Why does the UK persist with BST?
It serves no practical purpose

We've had a couple of threads on this before.

Gavin Chipper

Matthew Perry.

Gavin Chipper

Yeah so basically Israel have taken this terrorist attack as a green light to indiscriminately bomb Palestinian civilians, and the Tories, Starmer etc. are just saying "Israel has an absolute right to defend itself". What they are doing has nothing to do with defence. It's outrageous. Plus...

Gavin Chipper

"explored the idea"

Gavin Chipper

One of the tea-time teasers was BEENBALD, and Colin made a point of spelling the BEEN part. Lucky I looked up at the screen just before it went off, because I thought I was trying to solve BEENBOLD!

Gavin Chipper

On the morality thing, a lot of people will argue that there is no such thing as objective morality. It's also not at all clear that adding a god changes anything. See the Euthyphro dilemma . If something becomes moral because god has decided so, then it's just based on his arbitrary whims, and not ...

Gavin Chipper

If someone's willing to drive me there! (I mean, I haven't signed up or anything yet, but I probably will.)

Gavin Chipper

I suppose it doesn't matter too much. It's not like it's true...

Gavin Chipper

I'm not sure this is that obvious, but "swing" in elections doesn't mean what I thought it did. If a constituency goes from e.g. 40% Tory and 20% Labour to the opposite, I always thought that was a swing of 40%, but actually it's not that . Edit - It seems the swing is half what I thought ...

Gavin Chipper

Haydn Gwynne from Drop the Dead Donkey, The Windsors and probably some other stuff.

Gavin Chipper

There's no committee meeting about it. DC gets the word, and Susie decides on the fly whether she needs to give a definition. Sometimes the decision might not be the one someone else would make. That's all it is.

Gavin Chipper

Im starting to wonder if this generation will be the last to reach old age Probably not, because the definition of "old age" will change to reflect the age people are generally living to. Back in Methuselah's time, 100 was probably considered young. Didn't it turn out Methuselah's age was...

Gavin Chipper

Rishi Sunak has visited Israel and is cosying up to the war criminal.

Gavin Chipper

Well there was a question in the Ask Graeme thread about who picked the most vowels in their octorun. If he'd won eight playing like that, he would have been at least tied for top and probably uniquely top.

Gavin Chipper

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 4:39 pm Not according to the Guardian

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67122609

I'm looking forward to Owen Jones comments

Do you think it's anti-Semitic? The Shylock link seems tenuous at best.

Gavin Chipper

Do a sentence please. I don't think I ever got back to you on this. Something like "The reason we are doing this is is". I think Jess Phillips does this a lot. Am I being stupid for not following at all? Are we talking about a stutter rather than a deliberate choice to say "is is&quo...

Gavin Chipper

I think that was a good post, Adam. I know you probably think I've posted things that have gone a bit far over the years, but I think we're basically in agreement over this. The vast majority of the civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli, are not where people's anger should be directed. Hamas is ...

Gavin Chipper

My Beef with Owen Jones is he was having a discussion with an MP who was visibly upset as she had only recently visit the Kibbutz that was ritually slaughtered with unspeakable terror. Jones was giving counter opinions far too soon after the event. It was too soon and not really the platform to hav...

Gavin Chipper

He's not defending Hamas.

Gavin Chipper

What in particular about Owen Jones?

Gavin Chipper

Marc (and anyone else), I just want to make it clear why I have posted what I have posted on this subject. The point is that Hamas's attack on Israel has been pretty much universally condemned as an appalling terrorist attack (except by a few fringe lunatics), so merely repeating this is not what I ...

Gavin Chipper

Are you Owen Jones publicist? No, but I think he's said some sensible stuff on the matter. But the leader of the SNP, Humza Yousaf, has condemned Israel is this too, and Novara media have made some videos on it. This I worth a read though https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/10/11/why-is-owen-jones-m...

Gavin Chipper

Israel committing war crimes becomes far easier for them to do when they think they have the support of the "international community". So when the Tories and Keir Starmer endorse what they are doing, it's not just harmless words coming out of their mouths. It's a disgrace. It's worth watch...

Gavin Chipper

C2 leads C1 by 15 points going into the last letters game. C1 declares a 9. C2 then declares a risky 9. C1's word is just the letters spelt out as they are in the selection and disallowed. C2's word is a valid 8 with an S on the end - plausible but disallowed. The lead remains at 15 points. C1 then ...

Gavin Chipper

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 3:31 pm People who have toasted marshmallows. How is that a thing? It's such an arbitrary thing to do. Excuse me a minute while I stir fry some gummy bears.

Found this video of some stir-fried gummy bears.

Gavin Chipper

Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 10:53 pm
Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:07 am People who say "is is" when it doesn't make sense (which is most of the time).
Do a sentence please.

I don't think I ever got back to you on this. Something like "The reason we are doing this is is". I think Jess Phillips does this a lot.

Gavin Chipper

Speaking of activity tracking - people who do a run/race that is a set distance in miles or km, but always just leave their watch in the other unit rather than changing it for the event. (I've seen a lot of people log their parkrun in miles.) People who log their runs on Strava but just leave them ...

Gavin Chipper

https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/1710798417805394113 Not quite in the news but what do we think? Someone claims to have cheated on Countdown. I agree with the reply that says no one who has been on Countdown would call the numbers game the maths section. Maybe no-one on this forum or Apterous et...

Gavin Chipper

OK, you can forget that last facetious comment. Watch this Owen Jones video on the Israel/Palestine situation. I think it's very good.

Gavin Chipper

OK, one could do a full statistical analysis, but I've definitely noticed that women's track times have come down more than men's (whatever the reason might be for that). For some reason the 400m hurdles has had massive gains for both men and women, but other than that I'd say women have had bigger ...

Gavin Chipper

Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2023 4:18 pm Could do with some overages right about now

Would you take a 50/50 gamble where you get either some overages or a sarcoid?

Gavin Chipper

I watched Captain Phillips last night. They must have cut out the bit where the Tom Hanks character gets stuck on an uninhabited island for a large section of the film.

Gavin Chipper · Re: Co:Liv II - Saturday 24 February 2024 Football zealots ruin everything.

Football zealots ruin everything.

Gavin Chipper

When you have two terrorist organisations going at each other full guns blazing, it's never going to end well.

Gavin Chipper

On the track I'm not sure times have overall massively improved on average. It seems that the fastest have just widened the gap - in some events anyway. Here's one discussion thread on Kiptum. A lot of nonsense gets posted on that forum but a couple of things are that he came out of nowhere to be th...

Gavin Chipper

Maybe not better drugs but on the track more flagrant drug taking is at least a possibilty.

Gavin Chipper

With all the world records, maybe we'll have to resurrect this thread soon. I wonder what could be causing all these records to tumble all of a sudden... Better shoes and and better drugs! Edit - Shoe technology has helped more on the road than the track because the maximum allowed stack height for...

Gavin Chipper

With all the world records, maybe we'll have to resurrect this thread soon.

Gavin Chipper

Do you have a quick way to produce a list of teapot owners, who won their first game by <10 points, and solved one of the numbers rounds in the same way as their opponent after declaring second? https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/1710798417805394113?t=SmwfDZeMD38Yg7KOX8EnYw&s=19 That's amazing...

Gavin Chipper

Sam Cappleman-Lynes wrote: ↑Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:25 pm
Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2023 8:04 pm (until Kelvin Kiptum blows his times away but most people haven't heard of him yet)
He might gain some notoriety now.

Yes, I was going to post about this. New world record!

Gavin Chipper

Oh no!

Gavin Chipper

Mark Deeks wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 10:01 am If you drink an orange juice within about an hour of brushing your teeth, why does it taste like actual arse?

Good question but I only brush my teeth once a day and that's before I go to bed. No more orange juice for me. Only water allowed.

Gavin Chipper

OK, so Blackpool on 16th September : 13 (1). Thomas Carey - 22:01 (58.59%) (800 points) 63 (2). Callum Todd - 26:34 (48.56%) (600 points) 98 (3). Stephen Read - 29:42 (44.95%) (400 points) 120 (4). Fiona Titcombe - 31:49 (56.16%) (200 points) And the table: 1. Thomas Carey - 4557 2. Dan Byrom - 2910...

Gavin Chipper

Speaking of citizen's arrests, if you believe that a policeman is falsely arresting you or otherwise acting illegally, presumably you could place them under citizen's arrest.

Gavin Chipper

I'm looking forward to the day when 80-year-olds get IDed for buying cigarettes.

Gavin Chipper

Some controversial stuff there Marc! I think really it should be about the quality of the punditry, male or female.

Gavin Chipper

Gavin Chipper

Steve Hyde wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 7:47 pm Virginia Bottomley - I'm an evil Tory bigot

This one's good.

Gavin Chipper

It will be predominantly technique rather than physique that governs the difference I expect. Of course some people will always benefit more than others. But the variances in that study are huge. I highly doubt that there is a comparable technological change in any other sport which so drastically ...

Gavin Chipper

I've always found the conundrum a slightly awkward and clunky part of Countdown, as it's the only part that's subject to the whims of the organiser and open to bias. It's basically impossible to make it completely "right" in that respect, so you just have to do the best you can. One thing ...

Gavin Chipper

Everyone is different physically, and it seems inevitable that some clothing items will assist some athletes more than others. Recent research showed that a properly fitting running bra increased performance. Now I'm only speculating, but I imagine that this would benefit a larger breasted athlete ...

Gavin Chipper

Interesting, thanks. But what if shoes in general (versus bare feet) benefited some runners more than others? Would that be a problem?

Gavin Chipper

Jon O'Neill wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 7:34 am
There is also increasing evidence that some runners are much more responsive to the benefits of the shoes than others, which is completely unfair. That, to me, is a bigger problem.

Where did you hear this? It seems a bit strange if true.

Gavin Chipper

Quelle Surprise https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66857551 He's confirmed he's kicking the petrol/diesel car ban down the road from 2030 to 2035. He's acting like the ban would be quite an extreme thing, but it's only for new cars, so petrol and diesel cars would still exist for several years ...

Gavin Chipper

Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2023 1:14 pm Socks.
Specifically the expectation for me to wear socks at work in the summer.
Probably because bending down is not good for me

People who don't wear socks.

Gavin Chipper

You know in tv shows, kids and even adults get upset when their parents divorce. I've never understood this. Divorce was only legalised in Ireland in 1997 or something like that so even the idea of couples being separated was pretty taboo and I remember the first set of kids I met who came from a &...

Gavin Chipper

Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 10:27 am That's definitely true and they do have certain restrictions on running shoes but they could go further. They certainly could have earlier but these records exist now so maybe the cat's out of the bag.

They could have a maximum retail price and only shoes available to the public.

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