It's 13:11 in Crawley, 14:11 in Uppsala, 20:11 in Shanghai, 00:11 in Auckland . Post a message
what bird?
Posted from
194.74.0.10
shouldn't passports be a little more sober than that?
passport
Posted from
81.179.101.247
my new passport is bird themed! a bird on every page
Fame
Posted from
81.19.57.154
at last.
Well nearly!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5203440.stm
and
Posted from
194.74.0.10
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALE!
top 10 lists of lists
Posted from
81.179.101.247
1. the best 10 lists...EVER!
...
what is it about lists?
Posted from
194.74.0.10
just another way to be competitive without killing people?
25
Posted from
194.74.0.10
but it's a silly list - topkapi palace....nice place to keep cool, but just go to the Grand Vezir
list culture
Posted from
81.179.101.247
i hate it
except country bagging, obviously..but we don't place those in any order but alphabetical and geographical
Matthew
Posted from
218.79.135.103
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALE!
No.
Posted from
194.74.0.10
Might go whale-watching on the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry, but that's only three days and only involves about four hours in a foreign country.
Matthew
Posted from
218.83.90.154
Photos are up!
Andy, I would say it is your turn to go on holiday... plans?
Hot ears
Posted from
194.74.0.10
Sounds very suspicious. What were you hiding from them?
Matthew
Posted from
125.215.145.181
And all because my ears appeared to be very hot on the infrared camera...
Matthew
Posted from
125.215.145.181
Well that was fun...
Got stopped at HK International Airport because they suspected I might have bird flu. To cut a long story short, I don't.
Back to Shanghai tonight!
first one's ok
Posted from
194.74.0.10
but 50p seems awfully expensive...
Matthew
Posted from
202.175.206.7
The 10/50 rule: go on holiday to countries with 10p icecream and 50p beer!
it was charlwood
Posted from
194.74.0.10
so near enough...show off manila boy, I see my relevance to this game diminishing, especially after richard's second asian trip....(mistake! stay in europe!)
Matthew
Posted from
222.126.118.18
x is "unknown" in terms of devising a strategy, but you can count how many coins there are, you you know it for a particular situation
nope
Posted from
88.108.145.177
you posed the question such that x is unknown. anyway, depends whether you ant an equal number of heads or tails
Matthew
Posted from
222.126.118.18
Coins... sorry, you are in fact right :D you just expressed the answer differently.
If there are 100+x coins, then flipping all of them, then flipping 100 is of course the same as just flipping x (which is the 'original' solution)
Matthew
Posted from
222.126.118.18
Good evening Manila!
i fail to believe
Posted from
88.108.145.177
it could be hotter anywhere than here. Thank god for determining my own work schedule, otherwise i might die in my un-air conditioned office
does this mean crawley?
Posted from
194.74.0.10
"Britain is sweltering on its hottest recorded July day as temperatures hit 36.3C (97.3F) near Gatwick Airport."
I hope so. Better fame than Jawad. It's no more than a nice warm summer's day here, you wouldn't know it's so hot in the homeland.
ralph
Posted from
86.133.183.68
The non mathematical solution: switch the light on
no
Posted from
163.1.210.168
if i have 100 head and 1 tail
turn them over, leaving 100 tails 1 head
take 100. lets assume i'm not 'lucky' and my pile includes the head
the pile left is one tail
the pile i have is 99 tails 1 head
turn my pile over
both piles now have 1 tail
Matthew
Posted from
125.215.144.113
Either way apparently, I prefer dispatch.
Matthew
Posted from
125.215.144.113
No. Suppose, for example, there were 101 coins.
100 heads, 1 tail
--> turn them all over
100 tails, 1 head
--> take 100, turn them over
if you're very lucky, you pick the 100 tails, and end up with two piles each of which have zero tails.
Otherwise you'll end up with a pile of 100 coins with 1 tail, and a "pile" of 1 coin with 0 tails.
Your strategy must work regardless of how many coins there are and regardless of which ones you choose to flip...
a little bird tells me
Posted from
88.108.145.177
turn over all the coins (so there are 100 tails)
take 100
turn them over
both piles have the same number of tails (100 - number of tails taken in second pile before turning)
also
Posted from
194.74.0.10
which is the more proper spelling, dispatch or despatch?
but
Posted from
194.74.0.10
I have been to a 'special entity recognised by international agreement' - that's near enough isn't it?
(this new verification code is working very well, good idea)
Matthew
Posted from
125.215.145.180
You can feel how many coins there are, but not which way up they are.
Special Administrative Region bagging: Matt 2, Andy 0, Richard 0.
of those
Posted from
194.74.0.10
1. ok
one back at you
Posted from
88.108.145.177
the john butler trio - sunrise over sea
of those
Posted from
88.108.145.177
1. ok
2. got it
3. ok
4. got it
5. ok
6. ok
7. ok
8. ok
richard -
Posted from
194.74.0.10
choice of cds that you might like me to bring for you next week:
bruce - seeger sessions (v. good)
gillian welch - time (the revelator)
madeleine peyroux - dreamland
ryan adams - heartbreaker
amadou & mariam - dimanche a bamako (at cambridge)
plus the following on order, which will hopefully have arrived by then:
john martyn - one world
ella fitzgerald - gold
steve earle - copperhead road
plus hopefully some more from crawley library...
hello
Posted from
194.74.0.10
i've been on my first business expenses trip. to bedfordshire...
i've been swimming in the sea. twice. weymouth did a very good impression of the costa del sol at the weekend, right down to the clientele.
am I allowed to feel my coins to work out what side they're on?
Matthew
Posted from
125.215.145.177
Woo, it was definitely worth spending 300 quid on a camera, so I can take arty photos of my lens cap
http://www.mattmayer.com/gallery/v/art/nikon_small.jpg.html
bloody phylogenies
Posted from
163.1.210.162
the generation length evolves at a rate inversely proportional to the generation length, now infer the generation length everywhere only knowing the value now.
Matthew
Posted from
219.78.68.105
Nope, I did mean tails
Re: Coin puzzle
Posted from
82.111.18.83
Surelly you meant equal number of HEADS in the two piles?
Matthew
Posted from
219.79.2.58
That comment was a bit back to front
Matthew
Posted from
219.79.2.58
Good evening from HK, where my money is leeching away at an alarming rate!
New camera!
Matthew
Posted from
61.170.157.27
Fun... http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/dancing.html
wish i could get a chewing gum company to sponsor me to go around the world :p
Matthew
Posted from
218.79.135.59
Richard - http://www.hw-ielts.com/ is the place I mentioned in Beijing
Matthew
Posted from
218.79.135.59
Return of the coins puzzle:
You are in a very dark room, with some coins in front of you in a table. You can't see if the coins are heads or tails. You do know that 100 of the coins are heads, the rest are tails. You may flip some of the coins over if you wish. Then split the coins into two piles, so that there are an equal number of tails in each pile. How do you achieve this?
boo
Posted from
88.108.172.167
see what happens when you don't cross your fingers
sorry
Posted from
194.74.0.10
didn't realise you'd already lost
working weekends is really throwing me out of sync
i'm not crossing my fingers
Posted from
194.74.0.10
unless i get a cut of the winnings
fingers crossed
Posted from
88.108.238.78
for a Nadal win and a first goal between 31-40 minutes
china
Posted from
194.74.0.10
no gambling allowed?
Matthew
Posted from
58.35.153.122
OK, bets placed and computer problems fixed :)
louise
Posted from
172.203.168.214
MATT COULD YOU RING HOME AS WE HAVE A COMPUTER PROBLEM NEEDS SORTING
mum
Matthew
Posted from
58.35.153.122
Need help from someone in UK with placing a bet on the World Cup Final...
Matthew
Posted from
61.173.48.106
How exactly can you mess up getting your passport photo taken?
Country Bagging
Posted from
81.19.57.154
Bah!
What about who can have the most photos rejected by the passport office?
I know someone who would get off to a flying start!
Matthew
Posted from
218.79.135.59
cough, cough, small countries tour?
shameless
Posted from
88.108.229.240
utterly shameless
Matthew
Posted from
61.173.43.88
Sorry, misunderstood. No, it's just a quick trip to HK (and possible a quick trip from HK somewhere else nearby :D)
Not UK though.
to recap
Posted from
194.74.0.10
are you coming back here to get a new visa, or just popping over to hk again?
well that list is silly
Posted from
194.74.0.10
but it gets me to a glorious 39! I like this: country bagging without leaving dorset!
Matthew
Posted from
218.80.185.21
Anyway, I count 75 for Paul based on http://homepages.tesco.net/~paul.hider/html/travel.html
Good going!
Matthew
Posted from
218.80.185.21
I agree our definitions are very conservative, but if you're not careful you end up with something ludicrous like http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org/
If you accept places like Puerto Rico (which I accept have a strong claim to countryhood) then you also have to accept places like Guernsey (which sadly don't).
can i be extremely picky?
Posted from
194.74.0.10
If we're going with wikipedia, and calling it country bagging, then surely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries is the thing. Does it have to be renamed state-bagging? I claim 34 'countries'! (seriously, maybe we should do both, there are lots of places that would represent major achievement in reaching (although I'd lose Finland), and richard would still not get martinique!)
nice
Posted from
88.108.229.240
I like the way major international events have started showing up on country bagging
Matthew
Posted from
61.173.41.236
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states for a complete list, countries only get added to my page when one of the three of us has visited it though :)
Matthew
Posted from
61.173.41.236
Hi Paul, we have quite strict rules which means only sovereign nations count (effectively UN members) :D
Yes, I need a new China visa since it runs out after 6 months, and due to a administrative cockup I can't get it renewed here.
new visa?
Posted from
194.74.0.10
for china? you're not off around the world again are you?
Paul Hider
Posted from
60.160.25.243
Greetings from another country bagger! I visit my 86th country next month, in pursuit of the mystical century! I've got 4 letters of the alphabet unvisited too, with 3 scheduled for 2007! Do you have a list of countries outside of Europe as you have for Europe on your homepage?
Matthew
Posted from
218.79.126.168
Dunno. Many people have asked for a Premiership Predictions, i think it would be quite popular, just a question of whether it could be monetarised...
On holiday from 15th to 23rd this month, gotta go pick up a new visa.
is the move necessary?
Posted from
194.74.0.10
how are you planning to maintain the popularity of ffac.com after the world cup finishes?
Matthew
Posted from
61.173.41.230
slightly delayed, but:
"Now it's Gelsenkirchen in the industrial Ruhr, part of an urban sprawl that offers little ease to the eye. The first arrivals here last week compared it immediately to some of Britain's less beautiful towns. Crawley, Slough, Newton Abbot and Dudley all earned a mention before someone came up with the name that stuck - Gelsencroydon"
Matthew
Posted from
218.83.92.28
My personal site now has its own hosting, separate from fantasyfacup.com
From now on you can access the guestbook via http://www.mattmayer.com/guestbook
Links to the old site should continue to work
glad i missed that match
Posted from
194.74.0.10
it would have upset me
Matthew
Posted from
61.173.42.165
Oliver Neuville: "We had the luck to do it - it was typically German"
so true