vendredi, octobre 22

1. Best Group_ Outkast

2. Best Female_ Anastacia

3. Best Male_ Robbie Williams

4. Best New Act_ Jamelia

5. Best Alternative_ Prodigy

6. Best Rock_ Red Hot Chili Peppers

7. Best Pop_ Anastacia

8. Best Hip Hop_ Beastie Boys

9. Best Album_ Elephunk, Black Eyed Peas

10. Best R&B_ Beyonce

11. Best Song_ Left Outside Alone, Anastacia

12. Best Video_ Hey Ya, Outkast

MTV Europe Music Awards
18 Nov 2004, Roma


1. Best Group
_ Beastie Boys
_ Black Eyed Peas
_ D12
_ Maroon 5
_ Outkast

2. Best Female
_ Alicia Keys
_ Anastacia
_ Avril Lavigne
_ Beyonce
_ Britney Spears

3. Best Male
_ Jay-Z
_ Justin Timberlake
_ Nelly
_ Robbie Williams
_ Usher

4. Best New Act
_ Franz Ferdinand
_ Jamelia
_ Keane
_ Maroon 5
_ The Rasmus

5. Best Alternative
_ Björk
_ Franz Ferdinand
_ Muse
_ Prodigy
_ The Hives

6. Best Rock
_ Good Charlotte
_ Green Day
_ Linkin Park
_ Red Hot Chili Peppers
_ The Darkness

7. Best Pop
_ Anastacia
_ Avril Lavigne
_ Black Eyed Peas
_ Britney Spears
_ Robbie Williams

8. Best Hip Hop
_ Beastie Boys
_ D12
_ Jay-Z
_ Kanye West
_ Nelly

9. Best Album
_ Dangerously in Love, Beyonce
_ Elephunk, Black Eyed Peas
_ Life for Rent, Dido
_ Speaker Boxxx/The Love Below, Outkast
_ Confessions, Usher

10. Best R&B
_ Alicia Keys
_ Beyonce
_ Kelis
_ Outkast
_ Usher

11. Best Song
_ Left Outside Alone, Anastacia
_ Toxic, Britney Spears
_ This Love, Maroon 5
_ Hey Ya, Outkast
_ Yeah, Usher

12. Best Video
_ 99 Problems, Jay-Z
_ Hey Ya, Outkast
_ The End of the World, The Cure
_ Fit But You Know It, The Streets
_ Hardest Button to Button, The White Stripes

mercredi, octobre 20

The Man Booker Prize 2004

[ 54 ] pekar
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Master by Colm Tóibín
[ 42 ] tun teja
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
[ 41 ] mojo +1
- The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
[ 39 ] fatgiant
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Master by Colm Tóibín

vendredi, octobre 15

SCRABBLE WORDS

According to Craig Rowland, Scrabble in North America recognizes five words which, if spelled over two triple-word score squares, and with a premium-scoring tile on the double-letter score square, will award the player 392 points on a single play. These five words are: OXAZEPAM, BEZIQUES, CAZIQUES, MEZQUITS, and MEZQUITE.

According to Tony Kalayzich, QUIZZIFY beats the above words, scoring 410. He reports this word is in Official Scrabble Words, based on Chambers.

John Chew says that OXYPHENBUTAZONE is the highest-scoring word known under American tournament Scrabble rules (OSPD+MWCD). It can score 1778 under suitably contrived circumstances listed and credited in the Scrabble FAQ. The highest-scoring opening plays are MUZJIKS (128) in OSPD and QUARTZY (126) or SQUEEZY (126) in OSW.

Bruce D. Wilner says if we include eight-letter "bingos" that use all seven letters on one's rack plus a letter already on the board, then WHIZBANG, QUETZALS, and HIGHJACK score an incredible 374 points for a single play if the highest-point tile is on a light blue square and both the first and last letters are on red squares. QUIXOTIC and MUSQUASH are right behind, scoring 356 and
338, respectively.

According to James Bartlett, the highest scoring word is QUARTZY, which will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares. BEZIQUE and CAZIQUE are next with a possible 161 points. All three words score an extra 50 points for having seven letters and therefore emptying the letter rack in one go.

Other words yielding high scores are ZYXOMMA (which is not in OSPD) and POPQUIZ.

QI (a life force in Chinese medicine) appears in Chambers. Barry Harridge says, "Its introduction threw the Scrabble world into a tailspin, with some players arguing that the Q should no longer be worth 10 points." Bruce D. Wilner says, "Not only do they allow QI in the U.K., they also allow ZO (a type of hornless cattle). This makes playing U. K. Scrabble much less of a strategic challenge than U. S. Scrabble, which features a host of "blocking tiles," i.e., tiles that cannot form 2-letter words and effectively block off opportunities for your opponent.

ETAERIO (an aggregate or cluster fruit such as the raspberry) is the most likely seven letter word to appear on a Scrabble rack.

The Q without U words accepted in the U. S. Scrabble list are: QAT, QAID, QOPH, FAQIR, QANAT, TRANQ, QINDAR, QINTAR, QWERTY, SHEQEL, QINDARKA, and SHEQALIM (alternate plural of SHEQEL). The combined US/UK list (SOWPODS) adds (from Chambers Dictionary), with their plurals: BUQSHA, BURQA, INQILAB, MBAQANGA, MUQADDAM, QABALAH, QADI, QAIMAQAM, QALAMDAN, QASIDA, QI, QIBLA, QIGONG, QINGHAOSU, QIS, QIVIUT, QWERTIES, QWERTYS, SUQ, TALAQ, TRANQ, TSADDIQIM, TSADDIQ, TZADDIQIM, TZADDIQ, UMIAQ, WAQF, and YAQONA.

Some words containing Q and U but not the QU sequence are QIVIUT, UMIAQ, and BUQSHA.