c4countdown

Peter Mabey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Great ... hedron.png

Peter Mabey

Pity for Ed that PINDAREE is Scrabble only.

Peter Mabey

However, SONGSTER does beat DC.

Peter Mabey

I was taught to spell frustum as frustrum and was similarly distraught when I discovered the mistake. Me too. I also remember being told when I made a spelling mistake at school that I'd have to do the word right ten times. So after referring to Febuary, I carefully submitted "The second month...

Peter Mabey

Matt Morrison wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:I'd like to abstain, but you've given that as an option, so I'm now suffering existential doubt.
If it helps, you can also abstain by pissing on a man's chest.

Don't you mean a sailor's chest?

One of the boxes conceals a spring-loaded poison dart.

Peter Mabey

I didn't pick 7 because I thought it was going to be most popular.
So did everyone else

Peter Mabey

I'm not a computer scientist, just a long-retired software engineer (CITP, CEng) :), so may not be using the term in a technically correct way. What I understood by a meta-language was one for studying the common features of assembly languages at that level, without going down to the fundamentals, b...

Peter Mabey

The question then can be posed - is a meta-assembly language possible? As I found it wasn't difficult to pick up the assembly language for a totally different machine after learning my first one, that seems quite likely. Job control language is another matter, as I discovered on encountering IBM's c...

Peter Mabey

I'll nominate Gary McKinnon :arrow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon Bit of a difference between Asperger's and savantism! I was thinking of his hacking skill as evidence of savantism. I wondered whether Einstein would be mentioned, but the evidence for his autism is really much too weak....

Peter Mabey

That happened in the US last month

Peter Mabey

I'll nominate Gary McKinnon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_McKinnon

Peter Mabey

Although I've never been diagnosed with it, I'm sure that it is the reason I have never found the secret of chatting up, so all the girls I've ever fancied have married someone else before I'd even begun to approach them. :cry: It's likely that the problem was exacerbated by the circumstance that at...

Peter Mabey

At home - juice (usually orange or grapefruit), then a banana, sliced with bran & cornflakes. Tea & toast come later, as a mid-morning snack. Hotel - grapefruit; then scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and sometimes a hash brown; might finish with a croissant or toast. Then I w...

Peter Mabey

I assume by "rugger" you mean rugby union (judging by my experience of rugby league players/fans who are about as likely to use the word rugger as they are to stop wearing flat caps and eating whippets for tea), or are you encompassing two of the top four team sports together? Waah, waah,...

Peter Mabey

There are many sporting events which occupy time on the main TV channels which could be less boringly used - in the worst case displacing more enjoyable programmes from their regular spots. After all. there are now special Sport channels where fans can get their fix without disturbing the rest of us...

Peter Mabey

Derek Hazell wrote:
Peter Mabey wrote:That reminds me. I must post a poll that I expect will kick off a lot of argument
If it's about politics, Mr. Liberal Democrat, we've already done that http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2218

Nope - Sport

Peter Mabey

I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that the majority of Mensa members regarded their membership as an opportunity to meet like minded people, rather as a cachet of superiority, being under no illusion about the restricted field which yhe entrance test covers. Fortunately, I converted to Life M...

Peter Mabey

I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner%27s_Song was no.1 in the week I was born, though I don't recall having ever heard of it before I looked it up just now, Paul Whiteman's "valencia" and Sophie Tucker's "Some of These Days" I do know, though didn't top the charts ti...

Peter Mabey

That reminds me. I must post a poll that I expect will kick off a lot of argument

Peter Mabey

Nobody the sane year, though it's International Astrology Day ;) A good assortment from other years - e.g. Fourier Mussorgsky Pierre Renoir, the director Skalkottas Paul Tortelier Russ Meyer Peter Brook Wikipedia mentions several pop musicians, but I don;t know whether any of them could be called ce...

Peter Mabey

The only person I've found is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Herbert_Ernst
- I see one of his ancestots was born in the same town as me.

Peter Mabey

My toaster broke today - when I switched it on all my power sockets died :twisted: So after unplugging, reset circuit breaker and restarted computer and TV etc. Good news is that shock to system has cleared fault which had made this machine automatically log me off again as soon as I logged on, so I...

Peter Mabey

There a huge number of genres that have been lumped together under the the "other" option. I like Indian music; have been recently trying to appreciate Japanese, but wouldn't put in as a favourite yet. My other favourite is pre-Classical instrumental music, as performed by David Munrow's E...

Peter Mabey

It's also worth looking to see if the target is at or near a multiple of one of the small numbers,
As a result of doing non-Countdown number puzzles, I can usually spot factors of any 3-digit number immediately, but don't recommend this as it often leads me to an answer more than 10 away.

Peter Mabey

I can only remember having had a cola once in my life - it was a blazing hot day in Washington forty-something years ago, and no other cold soft drink was to be had. :x (I don't recall which variety it was - but it certainly didn't "hit the spot" :( ) Normally I drink dry cider, or a fruit...

Peter Mabey

ACCENTOR

Peter Mabey

On the subject of plurals, maybe you'd know about this Lesley, what's up with this? Hexanes & Heptanes, allowed. Methanes, ethanes, etc, not allowed. Ethanols, and Propanols allowed, Methanols, Butanols, Heptanols and all of those aren't allowed. Interesting! But dunno. I wondered if it might b...

Peter Mabey

Craig Beevers wrote:I reckon ERGONOMIC is easier to spot because it's a more common word structure.

Same here - also, I would have doubted ECLAMPSIA, having only heard of PRE-ECLAMPSIA.

Peter Mabey

Phil Reynolds wrote:
Kai Laddiman wrote:Fantastic is the new fabulous.
Excellent.

Absolutely

Peter Mabey

To get away from the studio, anyone in the UK can enjoy the facilities of the Manchester City Library online.
http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scrip ... mentID=110
This includes the big OED etc..

Peter Mabey

NIOBIUM to beat BRINK

Peter Mabey

R2: MULLEINS

Peter Mabey

R12: ^WINDLE is apparently good in Scrabble - according to Chambers, it's a Scottish appliance for winding yarn.
I didn't actually know that, but might have risked it, too.

Peter Mabey

Not counting reference sites such as Wikipedia (or the porn

), my favourite is Derek Harrison's crossword centre http://www.crossword.org.uk/.
Its message board is pretty wide-ranging, though (as here) you do need to get to know some of the regulars who take part.

Peter Mabey

Jon Corby wrote:It would be pretty twattish of me not to tell you the answer.

I would have to be some kind of colossal bell-end not to.

As those were supposed to be clues, what was their relevance?

Peter Mabey

Am I losing my mind or did Innis just call Rachel 'Ian' at the start of the first letters round? Either it was a somewhat indistinct "hello again" or he called her "hen", as in the Scottish term of endearment. According to the subtitle, he said "Hi again, Rachel" - but...

Peter Mabey

Another victim of the Prokofiev effect - his death coinciding with Stalin's crowded him out of the news.

Peter Mabey

Kai Laddiman wrote:Did he say DOZIEST?

According to subtitle, he said ^DOSIEST, which is invalid.

Peter Mabey

Alternative second numbers: (7+7+9)x6=138

BTW, nobody's commented that Rachel put up ^GAMETS for GAMUTS (subtitle was wrong, too)

Peter Mabey

I always believed the plural of Quorum to be Quorae, apparently not, Quorums it is. Is this because the archaic Latin bits are being fazed out or does my 30 year old Latin grammar escape me? Yes (assuming you meant 'phased' - classical Greek's going, too ;) ) and yes: the plural of QUORUM would be ...

Peter Mabey

Third numbers:(50-9+1)x(10+4)=588

Peter Mabey

First numbers:(9x5+4)x(9+4)=637

Peter Mabey

Matt Morrison wrote:That was the most obviously unhelpful bit of Susie I've ever seen. Clearly Jacqui was thinking of THORACIC, and it would have been more constructive to point this out rather than laugh at her.

... especially as she didn't bother to look it up, and so gave a wrong definition.

Peter Mabey

Junaid Mubeen wrote:
marc meakin wrote:Are they lyrics to a song or words from a poem?
The fomer. ...

OK - I've no hope of solving this, as 99% of the time I have to rely on Google for anything to do with pop music.

So what's the answer?

Peter Mabey

Another alternative (small only): (10x8+5)x7

Peter Mabey · Re: Spoilers for Thur 18 June 2009 [Series 60- 2nd SF] RETICLES

RETICLES

Peter Mabey

Using the circle ratio to define pi is an incidental aspect of its properties.

Using the Euler identity, we have pi = ln(-1)/sqrt(-1).

Peter Mabey

Innis Carson wrote:
Daniel O'Dowd wrote:
(!4)
What function is this? Looks pretty helpful.

!N is the subfactorial, which gives the number of arrangements of N objects, none of which are in their original positions: it is the nearest integer to N!/e.

Peter Mabey

Kirk Bevins wrote: Surely there aren't this many in the ODE2r, the Countdown word source.

... and how many are accepted by Lexplorer?

Peter Mabey

Gavin Chipper wrote:
Peter Mabey wrote:HOO-OO is the winner, proportionally
A

AA

Peter Mabey

HOO-OO is the winner, proportionally

Peter Mabey

I always ignore American crime shows (which leaves depressingly little I'd like to watch), so had to Google CTU to discover what this was about.

Peter Mabey

Sue Sanders wrote:Ooh, erm, Peter -Stoutest needs 3 't's' ....weren't there only 2???

Peter Mabey

STOUTEST

Peter Mabey

Less obvious way for first numbers: (9x100-6)/(8-6)

Peter Mabey

Have just caught end on 4+1: saw HERITOR to beat THEORY -now will go away to watch rest on 4oD.

Peter Mabey

SQUARISH in round 1

Peter Mabey

3rd numbers alternative: 6x8x(10+1)

Peter Mabey

First round: FRAPPED

Peter Mabey

BEADSMAN

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