Slashdot Mirror
Adieu to Ken Jennings
IllogicalStudent writes "The Toronto Star is reporting that the episode of Jeopardy where Ken Jennings (a.k.a. 'The Jeopardy Guy') finally loses aired this evening. It came down to a 2-person finish (3rd had -2600 at the end of Double Jeopardy, and was eliminated) between Ken and opponent Nancy Zerg, with the final category being Business & Industry. Ken answered 'Fed Ex' to the question 'Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year,' when the correct answer was 'H&R Block.' Ken finished his record-streak with just over $2.5 Million."
1. Thanks for telling me AFTER it aired! Now I missed it!
2. Thanks for spoiling! Now I know what happens!
for the spoiler alert.
What?
For our fallen nerd hero.
alas, ken....you were not meant to be a billionaire.
Does anyone else think he just got burned out and decided to be done?
Your ad here.
Those of on the west coast haven't seen this episode yet.
Those of us on the West Coast with TiVo won't see it for hours yet.
Thanks, I've been following this for months, now you spoil it.
Pinheads.
And a job well done.
Fata viam invenient.
The correct incorrect answer is "Who is FedEx?"
finally someone took ken out
he got pwned
Fear the Swarm!
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
When you upgrade overlord speed and allow troop transport, the biggest imbalance in the game occurs.
God spoke to me
Cue the "Zerg rush r0x0rs" posts...
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
OMFG!!ZERG FAG33T!!LOL!!!1!1!
;p
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
(imagines Ken being swarmed by thousands of tiny Nancies....)
"...you can steal my woman, but you ain't done nuthin' smart."
During the little Q&A with Alex tonight, Ken said he was going to keep his job as a software engineer -- said he loves the people he works with, will likely work less hours.
...
Does anybody know what company Ken works for? Or, what tools he uses? I wonder if he's a Java-guy, a Linux-guy, or what
SLL
that apparently Ken does his own taxes :)
What are east and west coast time zones?
"What is, gogogo ?"
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
Good god when will slashdot stop posting shit like this on the front page. Lone Gunmen again!
With that kind of cash, he could sure buy a lot of wives.
What were we thinking when we 'outlawed' polygamy?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
The Lone Gunmen are dead
I'd use UPS from now on if I were him.
Certainly sounds like a robot. Figures, only an automaton could have defeated Ken.
This is a sad day indeed.
Robots 1
Humans 0
(a.k.a. "The Jeopardy Guy")
And here I thought the Jeopardy Guy was Alex Trebek.
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
Nice round number to throw it at '75' games. It looked like he was faking it.
You've killed Kenny!
sigs, as if you care.
How can I get a job with H&R Block?
Jennings lost because he wasn't good at a few categorys. He didn't get any of the Seinfeld ctaegory and was lackluster on a few others. As soon as I saw the seinfeld category I said "Maybe he'll lose because he never watched Seinfeld". I was surpirsed I was right because he seemed like the type who would watch Seinfeld.
In Korea, only old people win jeopardy marathons.
KEKEKEKEKEKEKE, Zerg Rush! ^____^
Seriously though, I bid you farewell good sir.
It's already aired in most time zones. It's not like the rumors weren't around since it was taped in September and the audio on the net this morning. Hell NPR even announced it as a "rumor" this afternoon.
/.'s own "lone gunmen are dead" but couldn't find it. However I did find this Jennings spoiler from 9/9.
Well I searched for
Do you come up with an answer like Fed Ex?
kekekekekeke!!1!
All bets in on Nancy losing tomorrow.
Your ad here.
Ken Jennings gets an endorsement deal with either FedEx or H&R Block. It's the American way!
I downloaded the final Jeopardy! audio clip yesterday from this website, but now the clip has been removed. (Stupid lawyers) Also, good 'ol Wikipedia has a good story, and also had the news/info yesterday somehow.
- Move "Sig". For great justice!
Come on, you were all thinking it.
HA HA!
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
NANCY ZERG RUSH'D HIM!
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
Don't know if he reads Slashdot but it might make for an interesting interview.
"Krista
OnStar Information Specialist"
Now wtf is that?
anyone got a torrent?
G-O-GG-O
H&R Block has offered KenJen free tax preparation for life.
*/me dons tin foil hat
I don't know the true stories behind the movie Quiz Show, but anyone else remember how the contestants who were given the answers all along were made to take a dive on an easy question? This seems fairly similar I hate to say it. Fed Ex is clearly a blue collar job, not white collar. Certainly anyone whos won that many times on Jeopardy would know the difference.
*/me removes tin foil hat
Or maybe he really is just human after all.
For all those who said he got beat bad, 0wn3d, or intentionally lost, you obviously didn't see the show.
He bet big like he usually does on two Daily Doubles, and lost about $6K on each... they both were more difficult than average questions (IMO), and it seemed that he just didn't know them. If he would've bet 1/2 what he did, he would've been statistically unbeatable going into the final jeopardy question.
(He was leading $14,400 to $10,000 going into the final answer)
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
Jack Protoss, or maybe Diane Terran... Anyway, we all know the match was rigged and that Ken Jennings is really a robot.... or.... got a computer implanted in his brain by the FBI to retrieve information from the Soviets.... whichever it is, we're all doomed anyway. All hail Ken Jennings, future enslaver of the human race.
try { Signature mysig = new CleverAttempt(); } catch(NonCleverSignatureException e) { postanyway(); }
That is the ultimate geek matchup: Ken Jennings vs the Zerg vs 2600.
*******
"What good is science if no one gets hurt?!" - Professor Chromedome
I, for one, welcome our new Zerg overlords.
If anyone has a ReplayTV, missed the episode, and wants it, let me know and I'll send it to you...
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
The Globe and Mail had this on its front page this morning, too, and it was delivered here by 4am. They knew yesterday with plenty of time to print.
Globe and Mail is better than TorStar anyways...
Does this suggest anything?
Is anybody old enough to remember the the "64 Thousand Dollar Question" game show back in the 50s? Remember the isolation booths and the network scandal that resulted after it was discovered that the show was rigged for the ratings? I do!
Was anyone else shocked that he missed the Patton daily double about the Battle of the Bulge? Even Alex seemed a little suprised at that one.
it's the dark swarm + ultralisks.
--; hammer
You Bastards!
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
But they didn't bring in Ben Stein!
I think maybe Jerry Seinfeld paid him off for the publicity. Think about it. The DVDs just came out for the first three seasons which apparently are not the best of the lot. The fourth and the fifth seasons are the real juicy ones. They want to milk it as much as they can. So the whole Seinfeld cast is on Oprah. Jerry is all over the TV these days. What better way to generate publicity than to make sure that Ken Jennings loss show will be one of the highest watched Jeopardy shows. So, they make all those Seinfeld categories and offer Ken another million or two to go down. Now Ken also knows that he might not be able to keep his streak for long. A lot of 'nerds' must have realized that it is definitely a way to make money using their memory skills and they have surely gotten to reading/learning/memorizing things already. A couple of mil right away is always more appealing.
;0
Yeah. Ken Jennings went down on Seinfeld's bribe.
Now I need to go get some beer
Free XBox, PS2
A couple people on the threads have asked this question, and I'm pretty sure the answer is a resounding "no".
First off, how many software engineers do we all know. Most good ones will go to extreme measures, breaking deadlines and spec sometimes, to do the *right* thing, not just to finish the project.
Most (good) programmers want to be badasses. To impress everyone around them with their programming prowess and moxie. Ken Jennings, I believe, is probably a pretty good programmer, one of the reasons being that he is obviously a master of research, and he learns until he *knows* it, not just learning to solve a particular problem and forgetting about it.
I mean, the guy's not stupid. How many of us would sell our souls for a job that paid $150,000 a week to work one (long) day with paid travel and lodging, and the other 6 days off? Even if the job was really difficult, and required constant brainpower, most of us would give up a lot for something like that, even if it was a short term contract.
Nah, I think he would have gone on until he was defeated. I've seen most every episode he was in, and even up to the last one, he attacked the board with the same energy that he always did. The only mistake I think he made was betting bit on that 2nd daily double, when he was pretty far ahead, but he wanted to put the game away. When he didn't, it gave Nancy an opportunity.
Even going into the final, with the two large daily doubles he missed, he still had the lead. The only way to lose was if he missed the question, and she got it right (or they both missed it and she bet weird). And it happened. That situation had come up at least 4 times in the past, and the odds finally caught up with him.
Kudos Ken, you're as good as mascot as Jeopardy could have hoped for. I mean, watch a few episodes, and you can't help but like the guy.
-- Jinsaku
anyone else think this thing was scripted? (here come the -1: troll points)...
logically, why would anyone think fedex only works 4 months out of the year? december and what 3 other months would he be thinking of? He lost of double jeopardy also... with such a dumb look on his face, which he's never had before. Maybe i've seen 'quiz show' too many times.
oh well, that's just my opinion, i could be wrong. conspiracy theorists put on your tin foil hats...
Runnin' On Empty
As Trebek's common-law husband, Jennings has rights, doesn't he???
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Fed-Ex?
What a fucking retard.
is your sig real, or is it just like a goof or something?
Here's his problem - unlike the College Jeopardy champion, he didn't wager $1,337 in the final round.
I donut gno, but I bet she puts out!
If anyone mentions StarCraft I will beat them silly
There is no sig
I still think the whole Ken Jennings was a way to boost ratings.
Jeopardy is a money maker, and with Ken staying in the game so long, it got people hooked big time.
Ratings went way up with him on the show and that little bit the he supposedly won, was a perfect way for ABC to get those ratings.
So many shows you see these days are fake...I doubt if there is any show on tv today that isn't.
Heck, when the osborne's were on mtv I thought it was real, and then later found out it was not.
I'm sick of seeing all these stupid reality shows on tv....someone make them go away!
I'd be satisfied watching Final Jeopardy alone, if anyone had it...
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Ask anyone.
For those who missed it?
what she's gotten herself into.
...his name is Kermin Fleming.
Talk about a geek hero! Imagine what this guy went through in elementary school.
"Come on, let's go drink till we can't feel feelings anymore."
...and it is NBC we're talking about here...
I don't know about being burned out but I do think he threw the game for some reason. He did not have his characteristic energy and speed except for a short burst during double jeopardy. He looked sad the whole game, not just after he lost. I find it difficult to believe that Ken Jennings didn't know Bastogne was the answer to the last daily double. I can believe he might answer wrong but then he didn't have that 'Oh yeah that's right' look once the question was revealed. And in final jeopardy: Most of FED-EX employees are white collar and work 4 months a year? Give me a break! He threw the game.
I, for one, welcome our new Zerg overlord.
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
Of course he missed the answer. With 2.5 million in winnings, the last thing he'd want to think about is H&R Block.
-R
Now that he's $2.5 million richer, I bet she'll be calling him up, along with everyone else who ever knew him... heh, including you no doubt. :)
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
The sweeps are over and in this town that means the budgets get seriously look after (in more ways than one). He had served his purpose, he generated a ton more interest in the show but lets face it, the show cannot afford to have that sort of consistant winner.
Tonight's episode must have drawn huge ratings, due to all the media buzz that Jennings was going to lose tonight. It was probably in Jeporady's interest to leak the fact that he was going to lose to the media.
^______^
But I thought they were mindless drones contolled by Overminds... Wait, she must be Karrigan! Oh no, we're all gonna die! Run away! Stimpack! Every expendible infantryman for himself!
read the bunni comic
who was that other guy that was playing? He had like -$3,200 I think... When I saw the scores I had to laugh at that... 14,000 10,000 -3,200 sorry but looking at that was funny...
So he was.. zerg rushed?
keke
gg
thx
no re
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Seems to me he wasn't trying his hardest. Even I saw that Fed-Ex/some other shipping company was going to be considered blue-collar, not white-collar. Someone else in the house pointed out that 4 months is January-April, where as Fed-Ex would have been only during December (maybe November).
Apparently H&R Block has already called up Ken and offered him free financial services for life...just so he never again forgets about them. (From NYT article.)
"Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible" -Jacob Bronowski
...the correct answer was 'What is H&R Block?'
That was linked to in the friggin' blurb, whore.
Funny, you can't have members of the opposite sex in a BYU dormitory bedroom.
And all the students at BYU have to sign the Honor code, part of which is a promise to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, etc. Another part of the honor code is abstaining from extra-marital sex.
I realize that everyone breaks the rules in college, but do you think someone like KenJen is going to risk being kicked out of school for this?
You clearly don't know any mormons.
A guy named Barry Jones (now a politician) remained undefeated on an Australian TV game show from 1960 to 1967.
Not Today Zerg...D'oh!
My other sig is extremely clever...
You know it had to be said. Along with "all your jeopardy reign are belong to us!"
Does the Final Question seem familiar to anybody? I watch a lot of Jeopardy (DVR it). I've even tried out (Missed it by one :)). I am pretty sure I have see that final jeopardy question before, perhaps it was in the tournament of champions of this year, but I not 100% sure. It might have been worded differently. IIRC correctly I think all the people in Final Jeopardy Missed it. But I could just be nuts.. Does anybody out there remember seeing this before?
To E-mail me, replace the first period in my domain with an @
the mere presence of a spoiler alert regarding the jeapardy show would obviously indicate the demise of ken jennings. think much?
Slashdot. Redefining the term insensitive clog one article at a time.
Ken Jennings was my roomate freshman year at Brigham Young University.
We had both drank a lot - Ken said on the show he is a teetotaler.
--
I worked for NASA for 8 years straight out of MIT undergrad.
I'm an editor for Tom's Hardware Guide
I worked for a particular company that denied another company a lucrative contract just because that company's CTO had bullied my company's CEO when he was in high school
I have TWO friends who work at Bungie
I work on LAMP software and deploy to customer's websites.
I obtained a preview release [of GIMP 2.0]
I'm sorry, but I've got to call your bluff here. You've claimed to do to much stuff and to know too many people. If all this is true, it's quite impressive and you have a life history to be proud of; if not, you need to stop claiming to be so many different things if you want people to take you seriously.
Besides, unless you're claiming that Ken got more moral after leaving BYU - a Mormon institution - you're attributing behaviors to him that the KenJen of the brief show interviews would not have done.
1. This is a how you felt being the defacto uber-nerd/engineer champion, becoming almost an icon to many.
2. This is how smart Alex Trebeck really is.
3. This is the number of minutes of fame you have accumulated throguh this crazy journey (including interviews).
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
It's already started, sort of.
l
http://www.geocities.com/jameskust/jennings.htm
Jeez-a-lou, could you at least not posted the Final Jeopardy question/answer in the summary of the piece?
I'll create an amusing sig when I have something meaningful to post.
Ken is smiling down from Slashdot spoiled TV heaven with the Lone Gunmen.
... a life.
;)
2.5 Mil should buy a decent one too
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
I don't mind knowing he lost. I do mind knowing what the answer to Final Jeopardy was.
Has anyone seen a recording of it online? Oh all the days for my TiVo not to change channels. Arghh!
And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.
Berke Breathed
My first reaction was: wtf is a TV show being discussed on /.? My "geek news" detector was not going beep,beep, beep. But now I see this bloke was a real nerd. I hope he dressed the part too!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Who is Ken Jennings?
To whom does Jeopardy matter? Do nerds sit around and watch TV game shows? Wow. I would not have guessed this.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I'd like to know WHERE FedEx is.
They were supposed to deliver me two packages today and never showed up. Assholes.
That's 2.5 million before taxes. Uncle Sam will take about a third. Then Ken being the clean cut Mormon that he is will tithe 10% to the church. Then he will buy his mother a gold cadillac like Elvis did along with other assorted gift giving leaving him with a little over 1 million.
Then... if we believe that luck is distributed randomly throughout space and time; Ken has flipped the coin 75 times and it came up heads every time. Now he is in luckdebt. His current wife leaves him taking half of the million he has left. Fedex sues him for defamation and inciting labor unrest which burns up the rest of his winnings on attourney fees. Examination of video footage shows that Ken had a squarish hump in the back of his suit jacket ala George Bush in the first debate which prompts an FCC investigation into gameshow fixing leading to his becoming the most reviled man in America. Desperate for fifteen more minutes in the limelight, Ken drives to LA and mocks Gary Coleman with "Whatchoo talkin bout Willis?" until Gary loses his cool and bitch slaps him. The police refuse to file his complaint and the press ignores the incident leading to his complete mental breakdown and a six week bender on peppermint schnapps and cheap wine ending in Ken waking up signed to a one year merchant marine contract on a supertanker headed for the persian gulf. He jumps ship in Mumbai India and spends the next 5 years writing crappy vbscript for an offshoring firm and trying to save enough money to buy a forged birth certificate and plastic surgery so he can re-enter the U.S. under a fake name. Ken gets his wish at long last but is picked up by the Office of Homeland Security at the border and spends the rest of his life at Guantanamo Bay Cuba refusing to acknowledge his true identity but paradoxically answering everything in the form of a question.
"Funny, you can't have members of the opposite sex in a BYU dormitory bedroom."
"Couldn't" have them at SMU or NTSU either; never stopped us.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Jennings should have consulted with the dinosaur...
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
Sure, I am sad to see him go. Now I have nothing to look forward to when coming home from work. *sigh* Our geek friend did a great job. Also, players do not get paid until they lose. You can't blame the guy for not wanting the money.
CNN has a good story about this. My favorite is the last bit about H&R Block offering him free tax preparations for life. LOL
What could be better than a Ken Jennings viewing marathon? :)
Coming to BYU-TV this summer...
It'll be a while before anyone beats his 75 game record. My congrats to Ken on an impressive performance.
What a PR opportunity for H&R Block too:
/ in dex.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20041130005913& newsLang=en
/. definitely needs to get an interview with Ken; he's defintely reachable, apparently he posts quite a bit on the Jeopardy message boards!
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google
Heh, H&R Block are giving Ken a "lifetime of free tax and financial services."
Congarts to both Ken and Nancy Zerg - of course I fall asleep and only wake up to see the smoldering ruins!
I don't think ANY bookie in his right mind would ever take a bet in which the bettor was a principal capable of affecting the outcome. No FSCKING way.
Enough about the poor unfortunate Mr. Floyd, let's talk about the rich and prosperous Mr. Butch.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
The episode airs here at 12:30 PM CST. The local news on the NBC channel broke the story at 12:00 AM; I also understand it was on the Regis & Kelly morning show. My wife, who doesn't read slashdot (and I certainly didn't spoil it for her a month and a half ago) called and had a fit. I wonder how many other people were pissed.
I thought you were gay.
" opponent Nancy Zerg"
OMG, ZERGRUSH!
This is not the sig you're looking for.
Who would admit to being an editor at Toms Hardware?
Oy. I hope no one takes offence at that.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Weird.
I was watching tonight's episode last Friday, and I remember watching Ken Jennings lose before running out to catch a movie. I told her "that Jeopardy guy finally lost", and I mentioned it to a few friends throughout the weekend.
Then Monday came and there was Ken, buzzer in hand. My mom and I were confused (she watches five nights a week while I'm lucky to see it twice a week when it's not a holiday), sure we had watched him lose three nights ago.
Then we saw the contestants come out to tonight, and we knew what was going to happen, because we had already seen them all. We watched the episode over again and even remembered a few of the answers we probably shouldn't have remembered... and watched Ken lose all over again. Given the lackluster finale, it wasn't nearly as much fun the second time around.
And I even had one friend call me to say "thanks for spoiling it for me!"
I'm thinking our local CBS affiliate aired an episode out of order, but oh well.
If you're calling it NTSU, it's been a while since you were in college. I went to UNT (as it's been called since 1988) from 91-94, and there were pretty much no restrictions on visitors of the opposite sex. Additionally, neither SMU or UNT is a Mormon school.
...I lost the South Florida Spelling Bee on an easy one too.
rj
Who cares about game show? I sure don't.
"What Be Ebonics" His question to the answer about a certain school board who officially recognized the language in 1996. I only saw one of the episodes of him on Jeopardy!, but I am glad I caught that one.
What two Daily Doubles did he miss?
So like the Jeopardy host asked me this question, and I was working up an answer, and all of a sudden I said my answer and the host was like beep beep beebeep beep and my answer turned out to be wrong so I had to think of another answer, and this time it was the right answer, but I wasn't allowed to give it because I'd already lost. It was kind of a... bummer.
About time. Now the show can die peacefully.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Who cares about game show? I sure don't.
Okay, I haven't watched it often over the decade(s) it's been on, but it's just about the only sign of intelligent life on Television.
Tag lost or not installed.
Because they shoot the episodes so far in advance, it was leaked in the summer that he lost on his 75th episode. Though I had my doubts, obviously that was probably a credible leak.
The person who submitted this doesn't seem to watch much Jeopardy!. Otherwise, it would be clear that "Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year" is really the *answer* and not the question.
In a related note:
Tonight was the last night of the November ratings period.
The guy that had like -$2300 and never made into Final Jeopardy.
He was on what will probably be the most memorable Jeopardy episode ever, and he got totally creamed.
Maybe he's Forest GIMP?
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Sorry, but this information is just blatantly incorrect. Mormon is a nickname that members of the LDS church use for each other. It's not the official name, but most members won't be too offended if you call them that.
Also, if you are a member of the LDS church then you don't practice polygamy at all. Polygamy is grounds for execution. There are a few "splinter groups" of crazies that split off from the LDS church and started their own polygamy cults, but they are not acknowledged by the church or it's members, and are generally considered to be wackos by most sane people.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Ken definitely threw that game. Come on, he had $2.5M and was gonna give half of it away anyway, so he figures that he is only making half of what he will earn anyways. Plus he isn't a greedy guy so he obviously doesn't care for earning insane amounts of money. Personally though, on that one daily double about hats or something, he bet $6200!, when he was only $4000 up on the lady in double Jeopardy! I watched Ken every day on Jeopardy and he is never that reckless! He would have bet $200, usually. He repeated this again, when he bet $4200 on some category about plants or somthing whilst only being $2000 ahead. Although one must admire the delicate planning in leaving the sports category until last against the woman and the man that seemed obviously unintersted in sports (haha). I think Ken knew better on the final Jeopardy too. His response obviously contradicts the obvious fact that FedEx is blue collar, not to mention the fact that they are definitely not seasonal. He definitely threw it.
You have got to be kidding me... Fed Ex?? For someone so smart, that sure was an idiotic answer. Come on... Do you think that he REALLY thought that FedEx only worked 4 months out of the year? I think that he either got bored of winning, or they forced him off because the producer may have thought that the viewers were bored of seeing him on the show (it becomes predictable when the guy wins 70 or so shows).
Dang, used all my mod points. But he nailed it.
This was reported back on September 8th that he lost.. granted it was a rumour back then, but it was reported by multiple sources, including this site.
At least he could rule out UPS... browned-collar workers there....
Also NPR had a small blurb on their Talk of The Nation show about how the stream "may" be over, this was also earlier in the day:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4192614
"Amsterdam Vallon" is a known troll, although I haven't seen him around in a while. I'd easily bet that there's not even a hint of a germ of truth anywhere in the GP post.
3.5 million dollars.
Thats $2.5 million from the folks at Jeopardy! and a cool $1 million from the folks at Fed-Ex for the great product placement they got there.
WTG KEN!
I work at a CBS affiliate, so we get the shows 2 days early. Nancy Zerg loses in the Wednesday episode. Talk about wasting a win to just lose it the next day.
I think a DVD set of Jennings' streak would be a great focal point for the occasional obsessive trivia gathering.
Wow, that would be a beautifully nerdy party. I can see myself settling down on a Friday night in front of a few episodes of Ken, too, just to unwind.
Agreed. I go to BYU and it would never happen. I've never known anyone here who drinks.
Am I the only one who saw the odd similarity to the moment when the character played by Ralph Fiennes in the movie "Quiz Show" purposely loses? It is a movie from 1994 so it is easy to rent a copy and it is a terrific movie. It is based on a real event from the 50's.
I saw the Wednesday's episode right after Tuesday's one aired. I work at a CBS affiliate, and we get the episodes two days in advance.
...If anyone will bring us an army of robotic sex slaves, it is they.
Take it from someone who started at CMU and fled: worst women EVAR.
That's how I would beat Ken if I had to play him in a match of Starcraft. Of course, If I were named Zergling, I would just hold him off until I could build a huge fleet of guardians and a few scourge escorts, then fly my wave of destruction slowly over his base until he had nothing left but his primary building. Then it's a simple matter of amassing all my units while he watches helplessly and crushing him in one final jeopardy salvo! Muahahaha!
Does anyone else find it curious that this extremely anticipated and sure-to-be-talked-about moment in television just happened to prominently feature the brand names of two very large companies with very deep pockets for advertising and sponsorship?
Not only that, but the timing is fascinating... FedEx is gearing up for holiday season, and H&R Block is gearing up for tax season. It's a crucial time for both companies, and the perfect time for am aggressive advertising ploy from both companies.
I wonder if this could possibly be a coincidence, or if perhaps Jeopary is following the lead of The Apprentice in shameless brand placement...
Interesting that he lost on 75...that's the current record for the most consecutive wins on a game show, currently held by Ian Lygo...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Lygo
They get taxed? Here in the UK game show and lottery winnings are tax free.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour Isaiah 3:5
We had both drank a lot - Ken said on the show he is a teetotaler.
Oringinal quote
I'll never forget the time I brought a really smart girl home who also happened to be very attractive. We had both drank a lot on a Thursday night, but unfortunately I had a Friday morning class.
We. As in the OP and the Smart Girl.
Now obviously a slashdotter talking to a girl, let alone "fooling arround" with an attractive one, it very unlikely, however he never claimed that he and his roommate drank.
Nightline ran a special on Ken's loss tonight and, who should be the sponsor at the first station break? FedEx, of course!
There was Cowboy Neal at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land.
name was Zurg, not Zerg.
You know you read too much Slashdot when you recognize trolls more readily than athletes or media stars.
So some wanker on some wanky TV show watched only by other wankers did something. Big hairy deal. What makes this either "news for nerds" or "stuff that matters"?
I would recommend putting them in the microwave. It's disgusting how they cripple the root user, even once it's enabled.
Grrrr.... I have a story which I'll save for another time.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Ken finished his record-streak with just over $2.5 Million
It was $2,520,700 to be exact.
Your point is probably right in mathematical terms... but... if you think that $20,700 is so trivial as to be referred to as "just over," then please come play poker with me.
The question was not all that hard. I don't watch the show very often, but I think I remember that question from another episode. I think Ken provided a plausible-yet-wrong response just to go home. To me, it was ridiculously simple. When you think of industries that simply don't exist outside of their "season", it doesn't take long to zero-in on taxes.
Then again, maybe not. I saw the show when it was on TV, my wife watched it later on tape. I paused the VCR during final jeopardy to ask my wife if she knew the answer. Much to my surprise, she didn't.
Kind of ironic though. A guy who wins $2.5 million is going to be dealing quite a bit with income tax issues.
I can't wait until they use this on the show:
Answer: "This is an unlikely company to do Ken Jennings' tax return; it's mere existance got him kicked off of Jeopardy."
Question: "What is H & R Block?"
Ken Jennings is a physical manifestation of google. I guess even Google is wrong from time to time.
"It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one." - Voltaire
It's such a waste that 10% of that money is going to that cult of his. They have enough money. Why not give it to a real charity and not some self-perpetuating oppression device?
(I know it's his to do with whatever he wants, of course, but I have the right to think he's a fucking idiot because of it.)
Let me get this straight. You fooled around with Ken?
The Truth About Slashdot
Plural marriage, and the advocation of its practice, came first. Killing came later.
Former BYU quarterback Jim McMahon. But then again, he's not Mormon.
That's right, Ken is a Java guy.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
I wonder if his software engineer job was outsourced to India or China?
I do not think that it was rigged. Ken Jennings just had the right stuff for the show, the ability to stay unfazed while his opponents got nervous. Some folks are good at it; he's the top of the curve.
Having seen Nightline last night, which was about Jeopardy, and prepared in advance in secret, to be aired when the show where he lost was aired, I see how secure the questions were. It's highly unlikely that anybody could have been feeding him the questions (not the answers -- it's Jeopardy -- duh!). And given the stakes, it's unlikely that they were cheating at all, even if it were to improve ther ratings and profits. Merv's credibility is on the line, after all.
But Jennings himself explained that much of the trick was in the button. It does not get activated until Alex Trebek is finished giving the "answer", and if you press too soon, you get locked out for a fraction of a second. So there's some logic behind the button mechanism.
I was on a TV quiz show once. I do believe that particular one was rigged. No names -- it was probably before most current Slashdotters were born. It too used a button. And I noticed that one team's buttons -- the designated winners' -- responded differently than my team's. Of course those were the days of mechanical relays; game shows weren't computerized yet. It can be quite subtle, but a fraction of a second in timing can make all the difference.
I just found Ken's observation interesting.
1) 42
aaaand...whee!
EOM
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
I just checked and didn't find any Jeopardy shows on suprnova.org
I can't believe that with all the geeks on /. no one made the obvious joke about Ken Jennings getting Zerged (by nancy ZERG, get it?)