Ken Jennings Gets a New Challenge

insomniakxz writes "Producers of Jeopardy announced Tuesday a "Super Tournament," which will pit Jennings in a final match against two survivors of a competition between nearly 150 past five-time winners with a prize of $2 million. Host Alex Trebek called the tournament the "quest for Ken.""

Re:this is news for nerds/stuff that matters?

[higuy48]

Ken Jennings, software engineer, went on an unprecedented 75-show tear without losing on JEOPARDY! He won $2.5 million. He became a hero to nerds everywhere, making this /. newsworthy.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire mistake

[macdaddy]

I was watching a WWTBAM episode back when that was happening. It was a celebrity show that night. I remember they asked a Fastest Finger question where they screwed up the answer. Basically it was 'put these movie titles in chronological order based on the day of the week mentioned in their title.' One of the choices was "Any Given Sunday". I don't recall the rest. When the answers were tallied that movie however was listed last in the answer (ie, they said the week started on Monday instead of Sunday). A "week" is defined in the Gregorian calendar system as "a period of seven consecutive days starting on Sunday." And of course the Gregorian calendar is used throughout most of the modern world. Opps. A small mistake on their part. I'm actually quite surprised that simple of a mistake got through their editors and research dept. I've never seen a mistake quite so simple on Jeopardy before. They probably put out a lot more effort than WWTBAM did.

Re:Who Wants to be a Millionaire mistake

[Monsieur_F]

So, weekends consist of Friday and Saturday ?

Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] says: "According to the ISO 8601 norm the week begins on a Monday."

Anybody get the pun?

[proggoddess]

"The quest for Ken" is a bit of a word-play. According to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, ken is "the range of perception, understanding, or knowledge."

Ha ha ha! Alex Trebek kills me!

Re:Ken Jennings is a...

[Hangtime]

Ben Stein Bio:
Undergrad in Econ from Columbia - Honors
Yale Law School - Valedictorian
Speech Writer and Lawyer for Nixon
Columnist and Editorial Writer for the WSJ
Written seven novels and nine non-fiction books
Commercial, TV, and Movie actor

And in Ferris Bueller's Day Off that is him just a lecture from one of his classes, none of it was scripted

Answering your question, yes he is that bright. :)

http://www.benstein.com/bio.html

Re:More importantly

[OwnedByTwoCats]

He can click the buzzer faster than any human mind could comprehend. He wins becuase no one else gets a chance to answer

That's not how Jeopardy is played. A half second after Alex finishes reading the question, a light goes on. If you buzz in before the light goes on, you're locked out for a little while.

The trick is to be the first person to buzz in after the light goes on. If you're waiting for the light to go on, you'll not get in. You have to get into Alex's reading tempo and the speed of the guy running the light, so that you anticipate the light going on and not wait for your reflexes to react to the light.