Ken Jennings can't lose on Jeopardy!!

[smharmon]

he's an alien! DAMN ALIENS AND THEIR SUPERIOR BRAINS!

look at him (it), he's absorbed all of human knowledge in his 30 years of living here

Not Alien, just Mormon, there isn't much difference. Both are trying to take over the world!

(I know, I am one, but shhh, don't tell anyone... if the Southern Baptists find out here in 'Bama, I am a dead man)

 

[smharmon]

the real question is what amount will he give to the mormon church.
He has to give 10%. So will it 10% of a million or 10% after taxes.

The Church recommends you pay tithing before taxes. I won a law suit a few years ago, and paid on the total amount, before any of the other fees/taxes. It is just like we pay tithing on our income before taxes (despite what you may hear, not doing so will affect church standing).
Yep, 10% right of the top... and we like it that way!

 

[~Shard~]

Isn't it possible that the reason there seem to be so many sub-par competitors against Ken is because Ken is MAKING them look like sub-par competitors?

It isnt like he doesnt know EVERY answer! If they were sub-par, then no one would be winning 15,000 dollars after the Jeopardy first round. But as it is, KJ just rings in with the correct answer every time.

I'm glad everyone has all these silly theories ad nauseam, but lets just call it like it is:

Ken just knows his trivia.

Ken is smart, I never said he isn't, but honestly, I've seen WAY smarter people on Jeopardy than the contestants they've put him up against. You don't even see them doing the old, "Pound the buzzer because I know the answer but I can't ring in fast enough" scenario where they get frustrated from not being able to ring in first - it's like they don't even know the answers.

There has been much better competition even when they used to have 5-day champions - even against the brainiacs of past years, the contestants were always better. In fact, I'd argue that I've seen contestants on Jeopardy who are smarter than Ken himself. All I'm saying is that he shouldn't be running away with things as much as he is - bring back some of the old champions and we'll see if he's still leading by $10,000 going into Double Jeopardy...

Ah, it's fun to argue like this for fun...

 

[Mantat]

Can we all agree to stop saying that he is smart and instead say that he has a good memory?

Smart people create things, have ideas, etc...
People with good memory remember things, usefull or trivial...

 

[~Shard~]

Can we all agree to stop saying that he is smart and instead say that he has a good memory?

Smart people create things, have ideas, etc...
People with good memory remember things, usefull or trivial...

Yah, sure, why not... Ken Jennings is not smart and is full of useless trivia... yah, I can live with that....

 

[2A Batterie]

Isn't it possible that the reason there seem to be so many sub-par competitors against Ken is because Ken is MAKING them look like sub-par competitors?

It isnt like he doesnt know EVERY answer! If they were sub-par, then no one would be winning 15,000 dollars after the Jeopardy first round. But as it is, KJ just rings in with the correct answer every time.

I'm glad everyone has all these silly theories ad nauseam, but lets just call it like it is:

Ken just knows his trivia.

Agreed. Even if most people were playing by themselves and had longer to answer each question unopposed, I bet almost none of them would come close to what Jennings is doing against three other people and a time limit. Regardless of if he is going against retards our geniuses, he just knows a ton of ****. Also, he must have the timing of the buzzer done to a science, so I bet he would be killer on some timing/hand-eye coordination stuff like Madden 2005.

 

[agreenster]

That brings up another point. KJ is really quick (mentally).

He can come up with the riddle answers so quickly its ridiculous. In the questions where you have to combine answers (like, for example, "King of England gets scared by dead people" would be "Henry the Sixth Sense")(or de-scrambling words to come up with country names like Argentina)

He's always sweeping those categories. That takes more than trivial knowledge. He can come up with answers very quickly. While most people could eventually mull over somethin and come with the answer eventually, he recalls info instantly.

 

[Doctor Q]

Once or twice a game, Ken buzzes in and then takes a second to think about the answer, I mean question. I think to myself aha, he buzzed by mistake and doesn't know this one. He answers with a rise in his voice (question tone) since he's not sure. And then he gets the answer right anyway!

 

[jefhatfield]

Once or twice a game, Ken buzzes in and then takes a second to think about the answer, I mean question. I think to myself aha, he buzzed by mistake and doesn't know this one. He answers with a rise in his voice (question tone) since he's not sure. And then he gets the answer right anyway!

he gets at least a couple of thousand each night on that tactic...buzz first, even if you don't know the exact answer, and then use the few seconds they allow you to have so you can make an educated guess

when you buzz first, you kill the chance of a competitor, who may know the answer dead on, from getting it

if you get three out of five on guessed answers, like ken seems to do, then you still win out in the end

of five guessed answers, ken will guess one wrong

and of five guessed answers, he just will say, "i don't know"

but he easily gets three out of five on ones he is not sure of

but that being said, when he answers in general on any question, he knows the vast majority of his answers dead on and that alone makes him have a commanding margin over his competition

...so in a nutshell, if you can guess over half of the unsure ones, you are still ahead and you prevent your competition from capitalizing on those questions

 

[jefhatfield]

That brings up another point. KJ is really quick (mentally).

He can come up with the riddle answers so quickly its ridiculous. In the questions where you have to combine answers (like, for example, "King of England gets scared by dead people" would be "Henry the Sixth Sense")(or de-scrambling words to come up with country names like Argentina)

He's always sweeping those categories. That takes more than trivial knowledge. He can come up with answers very quickly. While most people could eventually mull over somethin and come with the answer eventually, he recalls info instantly.

ken has a great combination going

1) he is smart, perhaps very smart

2) he knows a lot of facts and trivia, no matter how inconsequential like the difference between a sea breeze mixed drink and a cosmopolitan mixed drink which only a bartender or wino would know on instant recall, scandinavian royalty from two generations ago, and books written as commissioned porn known for s and m techniques and "self pleasuring" (i am sure he can recite everything dr.ruth has said, too)...he he...nothing is useless information for this man who makes his living in "information technology"

3) he knows how to control the buzzer, even when he may not know the answer...he takes chances and knows that on average, it pays off for him

future players of jeopardy should have these ideal qualities...many people only retain information that they are interested in or agree with...ken seems to know stuff that may not be to his liking, like mixed drinks and their exact recipies

i had a great professor in grad school who once stressed that for doing a thesis, one should have an open mind and even read some of the most distasteful/disagreeable stuff in order to see both sides...my professor was african american but she said every minority in america shoud read "mein kampf" and "the turner diaries"

when i was in a christian group that focused on evangelism, the leader of the group urged everybody to read to koran to fully have the perspective of the judeo-christian ethic...it's not just two major world religions that start off with adam and even and have abraham in its chapters

my roomate in college was a middle east peace activist married to a jewish man, but was married before to a plo leader...she had a good grounding on why both sides believed what they did, and it helped give her a better perspective than most americans on the conflict in isreal

...

so in baseball terms, he is like willie mays

1) bats for home runs
2) bats for average
3) fields extremely well

just like willie mays was a rare player, so rare in fact that people still talk about him years later, ken jennings will be remembered by hardcore jeopardy fans for years to come...and even if people don't remember his exact name, his innocent boyish looks with his combover are impossible to forget

 

[2A Batterie]

Kind of like a video game...

I think the novelty of Ken Jennings will wear off soon, as people will eventually grow tired of the same thing everyday... Big ol' Ken whoopin' up on some quiz bowl flunkies. The producers of Jeopardy should follow the scheme of a video game... after our Hero (Ken) beats the tar out of all the weak-ass henchmen in the level, he needs to take on the boss to complete the mission and be either a hero or a wussy. In this case, the boss should be Trebeck. I think it would be terribly interesting, boost ratings, and even more entertaining if Ken could reduce Alex to a version of Sean Connery from the SNL Jeopardy spoof.

"I <3 boobs"

 

[mac-er]

It always reminds me of a teacher that called it "mental garbage."

People who say that are just jealous that they have no general knowledge of anything.

 

[mac-er]

he knows a lot of facts and trivia, no matter how inconsequential like the difference between a sea breeze mixed drink and a cosmopolitan mixed drink which only a bartender or wino would know on instant recall,

what wino do you know that drinks cosmo's?

I cannot get this image out of my head of the crackhead from the P.J's drinking one.

 

[jefhatfield]

what wino do you know that drinks cosmo's?

I cannot get this image out of my head of the crackhead from the P.J's drinking one.

some winos i know are my rich clients on the monterey peninsula...think the oc but more money...they just hide it better and pass out onto versace sheets instead of a gutter

 

[alanbuilds]

End of the Line for Ken (Without Losing or Resigning)

A few weeks ago, The Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut ran a column about Ken's streak, including a brief phone interview with Ken, and stating as fact that he had finished taping his entire jeopardy run in February!

What a mystery! --- Ken doesn't go on forever, but how could he possibly lose? One poster on this thread suggested what seemed to be the only logical and likely solution, that he voluntarily resigned at some point. “Likely,” because of Ken's apparent humility, but also because of the need to go back to work to support his family for the intervening minimum (if he quits this month) 8 month delay before he can collect any of his prize money (Jeopardy’s insurance against premature leaks of the top-secret outcome).

(There must have been some clues to what's going on on Monday of last week [July12] though, when, as he was approaching the million-dollar mark, he was scheduled to appear on both Good Morning America and Late Night with David Letterman [Long day!]. I didn't catch either show, though, and since none of the other posters on this thread mentioned his T.V. interviews, I guess you guys also didn't watch them.)

But the mystery was solved this Monday, July 19th, when Alex Trebeck announced that the show is just about to end for the season (& switch to August reruns?).

So, Prediction: Ken goes the distance, undefeated.

But does he come back next season?

(Regarding how he does it, I’ve believed from the outset that he almost certainly hacked into the Jeopardy computers, just because, unlike any other player I’ve ever seen, he doesn’t ever seem to have to THINK about the answer, with a couple of exceptions thrown in -- to break the boredom -- that just seem like really bad acting. I know it’s not really polite to speculate about what amounts to someone’s honesty, and my apologies to Ken, but I’m amazed that more of you who just finished a frenzy of reading and joining in the cracking of the member-hacked MSNBC/Newsweek server secret ipod story last weekend, aren’t discussing at least the theoretical possibilities.)

 

[jefhatfield]

A few weeks ago, The Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut ran a column about Ken's streak, including a brief phone interview with Ken, and stating as fact that he had finished taping his entire jeopardy run in February! What a mystery! --- Ken doesn't go on forever, but how could he possibly lose? One poster on this thread suggested what seemed to be the only logical and likely solution, that he voluntarily resigned at some point. “Likely,” because of Ken's apparent humility, but also because of the need to go back to work to support his family for the intervening minimum (if he quits this month) 8 month delay before he can collect any of his prize money.
(There must have been some clues to what's going on on Monday of last week [July12] though, when, as he was approaching the million-dollar mark, he was scheduled to appear on both Good Morning America and Late Night with David Letterman [long day!]. I didn't catch either show, though, and since none of the other posters on this thread mentioned his T.V. interviews, I guess you guys also didn't watch them.)
But the mystery was solved this Monday, July 19th, when Alex Trebeck announced that the show is just about to end for the season (& switch to August reruns?).
So, Prediction: Ken goes the distance, undefeated.
But does he come back next season?
(Regarding how he does it, I’ve believed from the outset that he almost certainly hacked into the Jeopardy computers, just because, unlike any other player I’ve ever seen, he doesn’t ever seem to have to THINK about the answer, with a couple of exceptions thrown in -- to break the boredom -- that just seem like really bad acting. I know it’s not really polite to speculate about what amounts to someone’s honesty, and my apologies to Ken, but I’m amazed that more of you who just finished a frenzy of reading and joining in the cacking of the member-hacked MSNBC/Newsweek server secret ipod story last weekend, aren’t discussing at least the theoretical possibilities.)

my first instinct tells me he is very honest, and very smart

but in the back of my mind, there's this possibility that he's a good actor, a hacker, and yes, very smart

 

[aloofman]

A few weeks ago, The Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut ran a column about Ken's streak, including a brief phone interview with Ken, and stating as fact that he had finished taping his entire jeopardy run in February! What a mystery! --- Ken doesn't go on forever, but how could he possibly lose? One poster on this thread suggested what seemed to be the only logical and likely solution, that he voluntarily resigned at some point. “Likely,” because of Ken's apparent humility, but also because of the need to go back to work to support his family for the intervening minimum (if he quits this month) 8 month delay before he can collect any of his prize money.
(There must have been some clues to what's going on on Monday of last week [July12] though, when, as he was approaching the million-dollar mark, he was scheduled to appear on both Good Morning America and Late Night with David Letterman [long day!]. I didn't catch either show, though, and since none of the other posters on this thread mentioned his T.V. interviews, I guess you guys also didn't watch them.)
But the mystery was solved this Monday, July 19th, when Alex Trebeck announced that the show is just about to end for the season (& switch to August reruns?).
So, Prediction: Ken goes the distance, undefeated.
But does he come back next season?
(Regarding how he does it, I’ve believed from the outset that he almost certainly hacked into the Jeopardy computers, just because, unlike any other player I’ve ever seen, he doesn’t ever seem to have to THINK about the answer, with a couple of exceptions thrown in -- to break the boredom -- that just seem like really bad acting. I know it’s not really polite to speculate about what amounts to someone’s honesty, and my apologies to Ken, but I’m amazed that more of you who just finished a frenzy of reading and joining in the cacking of the member-hacked MSNBC/Newsweek server secret ipod story last weekend, aren’t discussing at least the theoretical possibilities.)

As far as I know, he keeps coming back until he loses. The current season ends on Friday (tomorrow as I write this). If he doesn't lose, he comes back again at the beginning of the next season. All of the shows for each season are taped together, then production is halted for a few months during the summer and also around holidays. Several shows are taped each day, so it doesn't take long to rack up a bunch of shows to broadcast later.

The shows are also usually taped with a specific air date in mind. That's why Alex sometimes makes reference to a holiday or a category might be related to an anniversary of an event on the air date. This also explains why Ken Jennings was on all the talk shows around the time he passed $1 million. Those shows are taped live (or earlier in the day) and the Jeopardy people know when his episodes are airing. Of course Jeopardy likes the publicity and putting KJ on all the shows is good for ratings.

At any rate, all of the shows are taped for the same season, so they halt production for most of the summer. It has happened before that a returning champion has to come back for the start of the next season, but obviously not with this kind of streak on the line.

I'm just impressed that no one has leaked the results yet. Think about it. Each episode has a studio audience (although many of them carry over to multiple episodes) so all those people witnessed the streak months ago. But there was no buzz ahead of time. They've got their production honed so well that a lot of people think it is taped each day.

By the way, entertaining article on KJ on ESPN.com (by Bill Simmons) and there's also a drinking game on Slate.com

 

[Awimoway]

my first instinct tells me he is very honest, and very smart

but in the back of my mind, there's this possibility that he's a good actor, a hacker, and yes, very smart

Thanks. I needed a good laugh.

 

[Awimoway]

By the way, entertaining article on KJ on ESPN.com (by Bill Simmons) and there's also a drinking game on Slate.com

Excellent read.

 

[Mantat]

Eh guys, I think you have seen too many hacker movies.

The questions of the games are probably kept safer than anything you own. An audit firm must make sure that everything is fool proof and I really doupt that anything transit via a network, even less so on the internet.

If he cheats, its because he either know someone from the inside or they supply him the answer. I doupt both possibilities. The more likely answer is that they are picking weak opposition.

As for him needing money, he doesnt. He can easely go to the bank and ask for an advance of, let say, 50k$ and they will give it to him so money cant be a problem.

My guess is that he keep winning until he loses. Resignation would be way too stupid.

 

[alanbuilds]

Replies!

(Excuse my sounding like an idiot,but . . . )

Replies!! How cool is this! (I've never entered an on-line discussion before -- REAL newbie! I also haven't yet figured out how to use smilies, quotes from previous posts, italics/underline, or links to websites yet -- so feel free, anyone, to direct me to an instruction page, or just explain . . .) THANKS!

Jeopardy's website has a streaming video (on it's FAQ page) of Alex Trebeck explaining how they tape five shows a day, six days per month, so they really did end this way back last February!

I agree about the astounding lack of leaks, especially given the huge national interest in, and coverage of, this story. Ken's motivation to keep mum is clear (not jeopardizing [pun; sorry] the pending prize money), but what kind of Draconian non-disclosure agreement do audiences have to sign --- ten million dollar penalties? First-born child? First- and second-born child?

I've always thought Apple Computer's super-secure lack of leaks betters by far anything in the government -- FBI, CIA, White House, Pentagon -- there's always someone willing to spill the beans; but if Seve Jobs wants to tighten the screws on notch tighter (after Toshiba drives,etc.), he'd do well to discover the secret of Jeopardy uber-security! (Need those smilies!)

 

[jefhatfield]

(Excuse my sounding like an idiot,but . . . )

Replies!! How cool is this! (I've never entered an on-line discussion before -- REAL newbie!

I've always thought Apple Computer's super-secure lack of leaks betters by far anything in the government -- FBI, CIA, White House, Pentagon

lmao...he he...you must really be a newbie

read back at the apple inc/mac leaks that end up here historically...ipod, cube, lcd imac, os x, etc...appleinsider.com used to get most of the stuff right, too

everything has leaks

 

[FredAkbar]

(Excuse my sounding like an idiot,but . . . )

Replies!! How cool is this! (I've never entered an on-line discussion before -- REAL newbie! I also haven't yet figured out how to use smilies, quotes from previous posts, italics/underline, or links to websites yet -- so feel free, anyone, to direct me to an instruction page, or just explain . . .) THANKS!

Welcome . If you look at the lower-right area of everyone's posts, you should see a Quote button. Click that, and it will automatically take you to the Reply to Topic page with the quote all set up in your reply. You can quote someone manually, like this (I've misspelled QUOTE in the example so that you can see what it looks like before it gets translated by the forums):
[QUTE=alanbuilds](Excuse my sounding like an idiot,but . . . )[/QUTE]

That's all the Quote button does; it automatically adds those tags in (spelled correctly though) at the beginning of your post, with the text of the person you're quoting in between the tags.

For bold, italic, etc., there are little buttons above the text field where you type your text in the reply page (i.e. what I'm looking at as I type this reply right now). Or some people (like me) just like to type in the tags directly. It's like HTML except it uses brackets instead of < and > for tags. The letter B enclosed in brackets (so [ B ] without the spaces) turns bold on, then you type the stuff you want in bold, then type [/b] to turn it off again. Anything within those matching B tags is displayed as bold. Same for italics (I tags) and underline (U tags).

And to the right of where you type your text are all the smileys. If you click a smiley, it just inserts the character combination that makes the smiley, like a semicolon followed by a close-parenthesis turns into a winking smiley, for example.

Hope that helps!

 

[~Shard~]

Welcome . If you look at the lower-right area of everyone's posts, you should see a Quote button. Click that, and it will automatically take you to the Reply to Topic page with the quote all set up in your reply. You can quote someone manually, like this (I've misspelled QUOTE in the example so that you can see what it looks like before it gets translated by the forums):
[QUTE=alanbuilds](Excuse my sounding like an idiot,but . . . )[/QUTE]

That's all the Quote button does; it automatically adds those tags in (spelled correctly though) at the beginning of your post, with the text of the person you're quoting in between the tags.

For bold, italic, etc., there are little buttons above the text field where you type your text in the reply page (i.e. what I'm looking at as I type this reply right now). Or some people (like me) just like to type in the tags directly. It's like HTML except it uses brackets instead of < and > for tags. The letter B enclosed in brackets (so [ B ] without the spaces) turns bold on, then you type the stuff you want in bold, then type [/b] to turn it off again. Anything within those matching B tags is displayed as bold. Same for italics (I tags) and underline (U tags).

And to the right of where you type your text are all the smileys. If you click a smiley, it just inserts the character combination that makes the smiley, like a semicolon followed by a close-parenthesis turns into a winking smiley, for example.

Hope that helps!

And one other friendly suggestion - posts like this and inquiries like this should be posted in appropriate discussion forums, not in threads like this. When you ask questions like this in threads with specific topics, it's considered an off-topic thread, and the Moderators don't like this - sometimes they will remove your post. There are plenty of general discussion forums so it's better for you to post your questions there rather than in a thread like this one which is supposed to be discussing Ken Jennings.

I know you're a newbie and didn't know, which is why this is just a friendly suggestion - I'm not trying to ream you out or anything...

 

[JoePike]

Publicity stunt

My theory, as others have mentioned, is that this guy and his whole streak are a publicity stunt shenanigan. They hand the guy a list of questions and answers before each show, he memorizes them, and then goes out and kicks tail. Thus the buzzing in before he even really thinks about the answer - he just makes sure he buzzes first, and then it takes him a second to pull the answer out of short term memory.

Ever seen the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray? Same deal.

Sure, call me a big pessimist, but it sure looks like this is working out nicely for the network, doesn't it? They've got all of us talking about it and writing about it on chat boards (which should be for Apple!), they've enticed umpteen million Americans to tune into watch a show that was probably previously the very last thing on their minds see this nerdy little freak show trounce the feeble-minded competitors. I'm betting that the cost of a 30 second commercial has gone way up during this run, too.

It's all a big fraud. Even if he's exposed.....or, rather, WHEN he is exposed, what does the network care? They still keep the money, the ratings went through the roof, and it'll all come crashing down. So what? They were probably kicking around cancelling Jeopardy anyway, and Alex Trebek has to be getting sick of hosting that show by now. This way they'll take it off the air with a big bundle of cash.

You heard it here first!