c4countdown

Michael Wallace

Another one that's had me struggling is the Q6 one - an engineer who wrote about something like Alice. It's almost certainly someone whose surname is a country but I just can't pin it down to any particular reference. Without looking at the puzzle, Nevil Shute was some sort of engineer and wrote A ...

Michael Wallace

May be a slight error from the Royal Statistical Society as "square on the hypotenuse" should read "square of the hypotenuse". How dare you besmirch the good name of the RSS :evil: (Square on the hypotenuse is fine, cf. the caption to the top image on wikipedia - it's referring ...

Michael Wallace

Graeme Cole wrote:Like. Many thanks for taking the time to put that together, Michael.

No problem, thanks for your work on the player stats, made things a lot easier

Michael Wallace

Righto, I ran some numbers and have put together a thing that estimates the probability of each player winning the tournament (based on apto-ranks for apterous players, and some jiggery-pokery for non-apterous players). For those interested in the methodology, I've whipped up a short blog post about...

Michael Wallace

Cheers, every little helps

Michael Wallace

Hello all, could do with some help from the apterous regulars for some stats I'm trying to put together for the 30th anniversary tournament. In particular, I'm trying to get hold of as many apto-ranks for the players as I can: so far I've got 26 of the 41, but there are 15 who I either can't find at...

Michael Wallace

Hurrah (for Ryan's crossword, I haven't looked at Charlie's yet, but it's probably rubbish).

Michael Wallace

Any of our resident maths geniuses want to work out the odds of the Champions League draw coming up with the same pairings as the rehearsal? Sky Sports said 5000-1 but it seems like it would be a bit more than that to me. The equation is complicated by the seedings and the fact you can't get drawn ...

Michael Wallace

Can report that this is very good and well worth the money (if only for Ryan's spectacular pieces to camera).

Michael Wallace

Bit late, but by starting this thread you kinda spoilered the outcome of today's show (even without reading it)... Maybe rename it to something like "contains spoilers for $show"?

Michael Wallace

Congrats David! Quite a few tough challengers in your run, you did well to hold steady until the end. Also I felt bad for you in the first numbers round - no doubt you'll have to explain what you were doing to quite a lot of people! What happened? (Or is it something that can only really be explain...

Michael Wallace

Congrats David! Quite a few tough challengers in your run, you did well to hold steady until the end. Also I felt bad for you in the first numbers round - no doubt you'll have to explain what you were doing to quite a lot of people! What happened? (Or is it something that can only really be explain...

Michael Wallace

Ben Wilson wrote:
James's article wrote:He prepared for the competition by playing an old ‘Countdown’ DVD game which he exhausted over a period of three days.
Can't help but feel a slight twinge of guilty aptoelitism here.

Yeah, I found that kinda adorable.

Michael Wallace

Eoin Monaghan wrote:Well done Thomas!

Yep, very good performance. Particularly well done for not getting flustered at the f(x) = x^2 question (which had me confused enough at home, let alone in a studio).

Michael Wallace

I'm surprised nobody has talked about a certain event that's happened (spoilers below): The record breaking jackpot win that happened yesterday. I must say I'm surprised it even broke 20k, but well done to those gentlemen for pulling it off. I'll also take a little pride in coming up with another o...

Michael Wallace

Finally seen this, agree it's just a boring, slow, not-very-difficult quiz. The 'hook' of "things you should know" just renders nearly half the questions pointles, and isn't interesting in itself. (I thought it was going to be cool things where people think "oh wow, how do I not know ...

Michael Wallace

Just stumbled across this page, which has quite a few lists of pointles answers from pervious seasons (not at all complete, and they seem to have given up, but might interest some others here).

Michael Wallace

Fun. I enjoyed ""Psychic energy" was not likely to work in the setting created for the experiment, she said, and her success rate was usually very high."

Michael Wallace

Ciaran Thompson wrote:She so should have been invited back for the 30th anniversary episode

Why did you edit out the part where you highlighted what 'Countdown Team' had edited out of their post?

Michael Wallace

Just watched it. An enjoyable enough romp, although I really don't know what to make of the whole stooge/fake debate. Apparently there were some allegations doing the rounds that he was registered with some acting company/website, with details mysteriously changing after it was brought up, but I can...

Michael Wallace

Matt Morrison wrote:Saw the last few rounds today. Cheating on that 7 declaration looked fucking ridiculous.

What happen?

Michael Wallace

I thought Charlie and I did some stats on the 'benefit' of getting the round 14 numbers pick, did we ever put it on the forum? I seem to remember there is basically zero advantage, but don't have the time right now to go digging up the numbers. I don't remember seeing it. Might be interesting (assu...

Michael Wallace

I thought Charlie and I did some stats on the 'benefit' of getting the round 14 numbers pick, did we ever put it on the forum? I seem to remember there is basically zero advantage, but don't have the time right now to go digging up the numbers.

Michael Wallace

Johnny Canuck wrote:
Kirk Bevins wrote:I think last time everyone got a trophy for taking part and the winner something bigger?
I seem to recall the winner of the Supreme Championship got a flight to Paris to see the final of "Des Chiffres et des Lettres".

Shame Australian Countdown isn't still running...

Michael Wallace

I think I might hold a record in that I'll have been on with 3 different presenters in 3 different studio locations (Whiteley in Leeds, Stelling in Manchester for the special and Hewer in Salford). Presumably you share that with Nick Wainwright and DO'D at least? (Deso in Leeds, Stelling in Manches...

Michael Wallace

What will be the prize for the winner btw? I think I might hold a record in that I'll have been on with 3 different presenters in 3 different studio locations (Whiteley in Leeds, Stelling in Manchester for the special and Hewer in Salford). Presumably you share that with Nick Wainwright and DO'D at...

Michael Wallace

I noticed this the other day on the Tube (as a poster), before I knew it was any sort of competition. It's quite a cool thing to have to stare at whilst waiting for a train, as it can keep you distracted for quite a long time (and our local pub quiz always has a three point 'cryptic stations' questi...

Michael Wallace

Ian Volante wrote:Is there a post I'm missing that would offer some context?

Something to do with "gay" in the dictionary?

Charlie is a gay.

Michael Wallace

(I actually thought that might've been a tad unfair to have an -OUR conundrum on our Canadian challenger.) Actually, my understanding is that Canadians tend to keep the British U in that sort of thing (cf. here for example). Oh, that's good. Nice to know that. Thanks. :D No probs - I just spent a m...

Michael Wallace

James Robinson wrote:(I actually thought that might've been a tad unfair to have an -OUR conundrum on our Canadian challenger.)

Actually, my understanding is that Canadians tend to keep the British U in that sort of thing (cf. here for example).

Michael Wallace

This is the first episode I've caught in forever, which leads me to this: How does someone to have achieved as much as Fiennes has, and so publically, think he can get away with that wig? and is it just me who finds his Corner contributions weirdly rubbish? Admittedly I've only watched one of his sh...

Michael Wallace

Thanks for the heads-up on this. As a massive game show nerd, I was left kinda wanting more details on how the game actually worked. I find it hard to believe that all she was allowed to pitch was that tiny first round example question, but at the same time that's all they alluded to in their 'discu...

Michael Wallace

Are you allowed to choose when the vote happens? And do you have to be alive? I reckon a self-sacrifice-to-save-the-planet (a la what happened in that movie, I can never remember which one the dude dies in, and which one he doesn't, but there's definitely an asteroid) with an immediate poll afterwar...

Michael Wallace

Disgusting.

Michael Wallace

I think if I was doing a system on rankings, it could use Aptoranks/some other prior knowledge for round 1, but then recalculate the ranks based on the tournament once it's started. So only the round 1 games would be pre-determined. The first round could even be random. Particularly with the moveab...

Michael Wallace

The fairest system would probably be one that gives each player opponents that best reflect the whole opposition on offer. So, if you have six opponents, you might have one from the top sixth, one from the next sixth and so on. And I don't think people would have a problem with this. I think some o...

Michael Wallace

That is an excellent advert, thanks for that. I'm glad I don't need any of the AA's services, otherwise I'd be torn between their failure at maths and their use of raccoons in adverts.

Michael Wallace

Are there plans for a third Co:Lon this year after the successes of the previous two? No plans for this year, no. This was always going to be a difficult year for me to organise something, and now there's been a London event this year I'm not sure there's much need for another one within a few mont...

Michael Wallace

Amie says she doesn't want to run another coblivilon No way, that's pretty gutting. We fancied going but it was at pretty much the worst possible time (we've just moved house and CF has just started at a new hospital, so we had no idea what we were going to be doing that weekend (and as it turns ou...

Michael Wallace

I think the worst was Cleverdicks on Sky Atlantic, which was almost hard to keep up with a lot of the time, and most of the questions were ridiculously hard, although you could argue that was part of the game. :P I've finally watched a full episode of this now it's on Challenge, and I have to say I...

Michael Wallace

Convert first letter of employee name to a number (A = 1, B = 2, etc.), add/subtract this from the wage? Could pick any letter in their name this way to make it less decipherable (although this won't keep the same numbers the same for different people). Probably neater solutions but that was my firs...

Michael Wallace

Am I the only person who thinks this programme is actually quite good? :roll: No, I've seen some of it, and while it's slow in pace (although they defo tried to quicken it up between shows 1 & 2), the format is an intriguing and exciting one. There do need to be some tweaks, obviously, but comp...

Michael Wallace

Thanks for the heads up, I'd completely missed this. Having now caught up I agree with Eoin*, it's spectacularly dull - you spend far too much time watching the slider moving back and forth and then nothing much happening. More generally it feels a bit like something you'd be more likely to see in a...

Michael Wallace

Innis Carson wrote:
Michael Wallace wrote:What was the clue?
"Be confidential if you talk bad about a Greek island", so DISCREET makes more sense.

Cool, thanks (saved me trawling through 4oD

).

Michael Wallace

The solution to the second TTT in today's show was given as "DISCRETE" in the subtitles, even though the correct spelling "DISCREET" had already appeared on the screen by this point. So clearly the subtitles are done by only one pair of ears, and not a single eye. As if that was...

Michael Wallace

http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a387708/kenneth-branagh-kate-winslet-gary-barlow-on-queens-birthday-honours.html Thought I'd post this here as he's DC alumni, thoughts? It always saddens me when I hear that someone has accepted one of these. Would you be saddened if someone accepted one, but...

Michael Wallace

Yep, haven't read a recap in ages, but this was good, so thanks and all that.

Michael Wallace

A+

I particularly enjoyed the reference to the seminal "we love Countdown/we go to town" rhyme in the opening verse.

Michael Wallace

While we're here, if the Queen has an "official" birthday, will she have an official deathday as well? Feasibly she could carry on reigning after she's died if her official deathday isn't for a while later. Alternatively her official deathday might come first, which would make sense becau...

Michael Wallace

Agree with Gevin about Sweden. I really don't see why it was such a huge favourite (and I wonder if being a huge favourite before the contest gives a song an advantage). My personal favourites were Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. I also really enjoyed Turkey's weird boat transformation thing (didn't t...

Michael Wallace

I managed to guess 8 of the 10, my two wrong ones were the biggest punts (Belgium and San Marino instead of Hungary and Albania, both of whom I thought were really dull but I clearly undervalued how many friends they have). Reckon Romania and Moldova are the ones to watch out for in the final, altho...

Michael Wallace

Couldn't really find a good topic for this, thought this one would suffice. An American reviews Countdown . "Countdown is the most pleasant game show on television. It might also be the most British. It’s a prim game of letters and numbers in which the winners receive not cash but a porcelain t...

Michael Wallace

Phil Reynolds wrote:I asked explicitly in this very topic and received a highly implausible answer, so I'm guessing the real answer is Chutney Ferret.

I only just noticed this (thanks to Ryan's reasonable guess). Not sure why you think that's so implausible.

Michael Wallace

Jon Corby wrote:
Michael Wallace wrote:
Stewart Gordon wrote:Maybe I'll think of an event to hold on Christmas Day, 31 October 2012....
I would be interested in the results of a survey asking people when they thought Easter Saturday was and when they thought Christmas Day was.
tbf Coon, 31 OCT = 25 DEC.

Michael Wallace

Stewart Gordon wrote:
Michael Wallace wrote:If only Tony had put the date down as well to avoid any possible ambiguity.
Maybe I'll think of an event to hold on Christmas Day, 31 October 2012....

I would be interested in the results of a survey asking people when they thought Easter Saturday was and when they thought Christmas Day was.

Michael Wallace

We are running CO:REA (Countdown in Reading) on Easter Saturday, 7th April 2012 How has this discussion progressed so far without a single person already noticing that you've got the dates completely mixed up? Easter Saturday is the 14th this year. I've always thought Easter Saturday was the day be...

Michael Wallace

This is definitely one of the more mental things I've seen on the Internet, and that's saying something.

Michael Wallace

Defo in.

Michael Wallace

Top performance from Heather I thought. Think she would have been better off in the final by herself, given the time wasted by having to buzz and passing. Did herself proud though, good banter, some really cracking answers too.

(This is how you chat up women, right?)

Michael Wallace

Bit weird that a couple who couldn't get one individually then got one in the tie break (not saying it's beyond the realm of possibility of course, just a bit odd). Wonder if there's any chance that when they have to do a coin toss (which was after 3 incorrect attempts in the tie break back in serie...

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