c4countdown

Ian Volante

Robert Ring wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2026 4:15 pm How was I supposed to compare your appearances, by just streaming it on Netflix?
If you won 3 more episodes, that says a lot.

I'm just providing valuable insight

Sadly, I won no more episodes...

Ian Volante

yeah, I remembered after I hit post (I'm not that obsessive).

the assessment of intelligence is still the same

I wasn't good enough at the time to do as well as I did. It was a combination of luck, and a small repetitive question base which greatly benefited people who'd religiously watched ...

Ian Volante

Robert Ring wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2026 2:16 pm Explained something to someone who was in a 15 to 1 Grand Final

I never turned up, to be fair.

Ian Volante

Oh...

Ian Volante

A few weeks back, on BBC4 I watched the repeat of Art of Scandinavia , the 1st episode which was about Norway was very fascinating, ... then part 2, regarding Denmark was so dull I started to worry about my actual body like melting into my sofa or something :x

Was there one about Helsinki ...

Ian Volante

Gunther von Hagens, the plastination man. I wonder if he'll be getting done.

Ian Volante

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 10:56 am Terence Donovan. Thought you'd all be rushing to post that.

I had no idea he was Jason's dad.

Ian Volante

Aye, I listened to it the other day. It's okay. The weighting algorithm the chart uses seems to be overly simplistic, and relatively easily gamed (to an extent), leading to the situation we get now with songs just floating around in the chart forever.

Until they reduce the effect of playlists, the ...

Ian Volante

Rhys Benjamin wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 9:24 am
Mark Deeks wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2026 12:05 pm
Rhys Benjamin wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2026 9:05 amPeta, 23 from Essex

Rhys you dirty old bollocks
Glad to see someone got the joke!

It made me think of Marc Almond, but I can't see why that would have been your reference.

Ian Volante

Tracey Anne Mills wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 6:51 pm
Marc Meakin wrote: Sun May 05, 2024 6:49 pm Bernard Hill.
Rip Yosser
Bernard Hill was on Christmas University Challenge representing his former Alumni Manchester Metropolitan University

Not recently I presume.

Ian Volante

Robert Ring wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2026 4:33 pm ITV's program "synopsis" (on the Sky/Freeview I mean) almost never has the city the match is actually taking place in.

Because... well you know why. (they suck)

Would that affect whether you'd watch the match or not?

Ian Volante

Gevin Chapwell wrote: Mon Jun 29, 2026 4:35 pm I thought it was going to be Keir Starmer.

I was expecting Samuel Johnson.

Ian Volante

Sausages?

Ian Volante

Mark Deeks wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2026 11:14 am yeah tbf graeme that one is pretty obvious

I always thought the gunshot was a pretty big clue.

Ian Volante

Some game-changers and those who were streets ahead of their peers have been mentioned, like Bradman (skill) and Bolt ( athletic prowess ). Not necessarily the greatest sportsman ever, but peak Jonah Lomu had all of these qualities I've listed in bold, and deserves a mention.

He was outstanding ...

Ian Volante

I was working in a kitchen when the last Brazil match happened. Great fun apart from the final result. I suspect the restaurant ambience was a bit different that afternoon with us making a proper racket.

Ian Volante

Even without that I don't get how Alex Higgins could be voted as an elite snooker player. Very good on his day, but his "rivalry" with Steve Davies was a work of fiction. Just look at their head to head. Not even the best Higgins to pick up a snooker cue. Spare me all this maverick crap.

Agreed ...

Ian Volante

John Kear, rugby league player, coach, commentator, died on the way home from the cup final last week.

Ian Volante

Watched Nope last night, or at least most of it. Enjoyable, and very odd.

Ian Volante

Nice one, cheers!

Ian Volante

Watched the third SNL UK episode (by accident). Was slickly done, and a sketch referencing the Traitors was quite decent. However, I barely laughed at all. I know that's partly down to a lack of familiarity with the comedians involved, who, I'm assured are very talented. Maybe they'd be great doing ...

Ian Volante

This reminder also made me think of Alex Johnston, who's just set a new mark for tries scored in Australian rugby league (213). Pretty good you might think. Think back then to Brian Bevan, the overall career record-holder with 796.

Ian Volante

Whatever one thinks of people like Ian Huntley and Ian Watkins (or anyone called Ian), prisons should be able to protect them from other prisoners.

Having seen who's allegedly done him in, I'm wondering if that person thinks he's higher on the moral crime scale compared to Huntley. If so, we're ...

Ian Volante

Philip Wilson wrote: Sat Mar 07, 2026 9:02 pm A bit cheeky having Zero as the first number with 4 letters in its name! (21/2/26).

Yes, without defining where counting starts, or indeed what word would or would not be acceptable to describe the value of 1-1, that's nasty, and pretty poor in general.

Ian Volante

This is not really a coincidence, but it is a good story that I thought I would share.

At the start of last summer, one of my cousins was out playing with his dog, throwing a tennis ball to it. At one point, the ball went behind a tall fence. My cousin thought he was up to scaling the fence, so ...

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 8:20 pm Runner Jeff Galloway who "Jeffing" (meaning run/walking) was named after.

Is that the same as fartlek?

Ian Volante

Marc Meakin wrote: Sat Feb 28, 2026 7:57 pm Ayatollah Khomenei

He died in 1989. Khamenei was his successor.

Ian Volante

It would be great to get ELO ratings for players out of this.

What are ELO ratings? I'm not fully knowledgeable on those.

Elo, rather than ELO, ratings are based on head-to-head matches. Not entirely unlike the Pro Ranks on Apterous, except that uses the Glicko-2 system instead, which ...

Ian Volante

Mark Deeks wrote: Mon Feb 16, 2026 3:31 pm How come some glass lets light through but some reflects you right back at you?

It's a solid object. Some photons hit it and bounce back.

Ian Volante

It seems doomed to be resurrected every decade or so, only to be deemed to be not very good and dumped again.

Ian Volante

sean d wrote: Tue Jan 20, 2026 4:25 pm
Ian Volante wrote: Tue Jan 13, 2026 5:18 pm
sean d wrote: Tue Jan 13, 2026 3:22 pm Has any contestant had the same 9 letter word appear more than once in their games? And did they spot it?
Me

Probably others too.
Cool! What word and did you spot it?

RELATIONS. Didn't go for an exciting variant.

Ian Volante

Apparently so.

Ian Volante

sean d wrote: Tue Jan 13, 2026 3:22 pm Has any contestant had the same 9 letter word appear more than once in their games? And did they spot it?

Me

Probably others too.

Ian Volante

Reece Prescod is joining the Enhanced Games . I thought it was anything goes but apparently:

The Enhanced Games launched as a concept in 2023, with some doping measures permitted under medical supervision.

Only substances approved by the United States' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can be ...

Ian Volante

Mark Deeks wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2026 7:25 pm What's it all about when you go deaf in an ear for a few seconds for no obvious reason and then it's fine?

I don't get that as such, but it sounds similar to when an additional burst of tinnitus to the usual, which fades quite quickly.

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 1:19 pm
Ian Volante wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 12:51 pm
Gavin Chipper wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 6:32 pm

Does it? What sort of competitions are you thinking of?
What have you got against canicross?
Well there was that guy who used to steal most of the first places at my local parkrun by having his dog drag him round...

Ha, now I see the problem...

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 6:32 pm
Marc Meakin wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 5:49 pm
Gavin Chipper wrote: Sat Dec 27, 2025 4:08 pm People who enter their dog into competitions.
Depends on the competition
Does it? What sort of competitions are you thinking of?

What have you got against canicross?

Ian Volante

I watched all of Lazarus the other day. It was quite interesting and reasonably well done, with a few false trails chucked in (or were they?). The odd surprise too. 7/10, wouldn't watch again.

Ian Volante

Gavin Chipper wrote: Tue Nov 18, 2025 11:31 pm It's better than that 500 Miles song. I've always said so.

Absolutely, and a bigger hit too, at least until 2007.

Ian Volante

When Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses is misusing French sayings, "Bonnet De Douche" means shower cap. I mean, I've put this in the "obvious" thread, but I'd say it's pretty niche. I'm not sure why anyone would know this without quite good French knowledge or looking it up.

Both bonnet and ...

Ian Volante

When Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses is misusing French sayings, "Bonnet De Douche" means shower cap. I mean, I've put this in the "obvious" thread, but I'd say it's pretty niche. I'm not sure why anyone would know this without quite good French knowledge or looking it up.

Both bonnet and ...

Ian Volante

The "general knowledgeness" of almost all mythology stuff (e.g. Greek, Norse) is purely sustained by quizzes and essentially has no existence outside them.

Seems an actually good candidate for the thread - depending on what you mean by almost all. Certainly there's lots of obscure stuff on ...

Ian Volante

If you google What nationality were The tweets?, you get a long list of conspiracy theories about Twitter/X

I asked ChatGPT who assures me they were British

Well all my sources say they were British, possibly just referring to Henry Hadaway, the producer who decided to put the tune out in the ...

Ian Volante

I Swear biopic of John Davidson sufferer of Tourettes.
One of the best films of the year very sad but also very funny.
People of a certain age may remember John from the documentary John's Not Mad

If it's that one we greatly enjoyed at school, then yes. Finest entertainment since Joey Deacon ...

Ian Volante

Philip A wrote: Sun Oct 05, 2025 9:08 am Common mispronunciations that irk me:

- sudoku as “su du ko”
- turmeric as “chew muh rick”
- asterisk as “Asterix” (the Gaul)

Metathesis innit

Ian Volante

Tracey Anne Mills wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 12:36 pm Robert Redford 1936-2025

The winning team in my quiz last night was Redford Deadford Redemptionford.

Ian Volante

Just came here to suggest that Eoin's not going to be happy. Glad I played the duel at midnight.

Ian Volante

For many years I had an old Mac computer that failed to load apterous through the Java console periodically after an update. Every time that happened (probably more than five times), I reported it to Charlie, and every time he invested effort to get it up and running again for me within a week or ...

Ian Volante

I've visited a couple of times, no reason to work there though.

Ian Volante

I didn't have to do it first time, so I haven't a clue.

Ian Volante

Aye it would be nice to see Charlie being more prominent. It feels like other things in his life are more important nowadays.

I've no idea whether his prominence is related to how quickly problems get fixed, or whether they always get fixed as quickly as possible, so there's no point me making any ...

Ian Volante

My trajectory thus far has been Android --> Windows --> iPhone.

Ian Volante

Similar problems at the moment. Coincidentally, I just came across someone who's trying to solve this problem by loading unwanted crawlers with vast amounts of data to in theory break them.

https://ache.one/notes/html_zip_bomb

Ian Volante

Around that now (470) and it's struggling.

Ian Volante

It is said that we can only taste five basic tastes with our tongues - sweet, sour, bitter, salt, umami - but smell contributes most to flavour, with about one squillion flavours experienced through our sense of smell. So why not outsource it completely to our noses? One squillion flavours is fine ...

Ian Volante

For football:
Bramall Lane
Kirklees Stadium
Old Trafford

For rugby league:
Anfield
Old Trafford
Elland Road
Kirklees Stadium
St James's Park
Tynecastle
Murrayfield (also one union match)
Wembley (old and new)
Gigg Lane
Burnden Park
(also Headingley, Barley Mow, Belle Vue, Mount Pleasant, Kingston ...

Ian Volante

Charlie Reams wrote: Sun Jul 06, 2025 11:55 am Yes. (Power issue at our cloud provider, apparently.)

I hope that wasn't to do with someone hoovering again.

Ian Volante

Philip A wrote: Tue Jun 24, 2025 5:53 pm The most boring sport imaginable is synchronised swimming. Golf, cricket, motor racing aren’t even close.

You may be correct that this is unpopular, but I can't say I've yet seen evidence of anyone arguing that artistic swimming isn't boring.

Ian Volante

This is interesting (YMMV)

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/15/ai_model_collapse_pollution

TL;DR - so much ChatGPT generated content on t'intertubes that AI is learning from AI generated content and quality gets lower and lower.
Don't throw away that set of encyclopaedia Brittanica just yet ...

Ian Volante

As far as I'm aware, it's generally quite a smooth process these days, especially on the same operating system, as I suspect those phones are likely to be.

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