"Rep. Holt beats Watson the super-computer at 'Jeopardy!'"

He's a Democrat — even though his first name is Rush — but he's not your run-of-the-mill Democrat: "He's a five-time "Jeopardy!" champion and a nuclear physicist..."

Congrats to Rush Holt! Or do you think the MSM is in the tank for the Dems and rigged this somehow?

The computer beats the nerds.

On "Jeopardy!"

"The last stunt like this was when another IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue beat Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov at chess."

"Has anyone talked about chess since then?"

IBM's computer "Watson" beats Ken Jennings on "Jeopardy."

Interesting. I think the really unfair part of the matchup was at the buzzer-skill level.

Feliks Zemdegs!

That's the world record: 6.77 seconds. (Via Bloggingheads.)

She had a good feeling about it.

That's all.

"Russ Feingold received a suspicious package on his doorstep in Middleton Saturday, which police deemed a prank..."

It turned out to be a board game and a letter signed "Thomas Jefferson."

The Dane County Bomb Squad searched the package...

Although the sender of the package has yet to be found, police traced the return address to a postal office in Illinois. The incident came on the heels of the recent interception of explosives headed for Jewish organizations in Chicago....

So it came in the mail? It was on his doorstep because that's where the postal worker left it? Who is supposed to call the bomb squad when an unsolicited package comes in the mail? (I get packages in the mail from addresses I don't recognize. Should I call the police?)

How is it even a prank? Someone sent him a joke gift. If Feingold shouldn't be getting packages delivered to his house, why does the Post Office deliver them? What does this have to do with "the recent interception of explosives"? It wasn't an inception. It was a delivered package. And there were no explosives. 

Is this a nonstory, the sort of non-"incident" that happens all the time, which we're hearing about because of the election? 

By the way, what board game was it? It was supposed to be funny in combination with Thomas Jefferson.

Carl Paladino's "Cuomo Land" ads.

There's this spoof of the children's game:



What is he accusing Cuomo of there? The Daily News says:

Paladino, who staunchly opposes gay nuptials, accused Cuomo of being a hypocrite for touting his support for same-sex weddings now - but being "all but invisible" when the issue was before the Legislature last year.

"He was asked by those pushing for the measure to call three wavering senators," the Paladino campaign said in the first of what it promises will be daily "Cuomo Land" attacks.

Political pros were puzzled that Paladino would attack Cuomo on gays, given that the Tea Party darling's campaign unraveled this week after he delivered an anti-gay diatribe.

Veteran Democratic operative Hank Sheinkopf called it a "bad choice of a first issue" for the "Cuomo Land" attacks.

Well, look at the illustration. The whole "Cuomo Land" idea seems to be some crazy fantasy about luring children into homosexuality.

"A simple question from a six-year-old about hangman turned into another analysis obsession that made me play 15 million games of hangman recently."

Bottom line: the best hangman word is "jazz."

Via Metafilter.

"Stop following your non-rules."

= the only rule in the word game we were playing, as we distracted ourselves while hiking 7 miles over rough terrain.

A bingo card for the upcoming Kagan debate.

I'm told this is making the rounds in Washington, D.C.



(Enlarge for easy reading.)

ADDED: I'm told this bingo card was distributed by Senator Cornyn's office for the Roberts confirmation:

The lawprof on "Jeopardy."

Going back to that Saturday post reminds me to link to the rest of the "Jeopardy" series by my colleague Shubha Ghosh. Part II:

At various points during the green room briefing, each of the contestants was called into a side room for make-up.  Our make-up artist also does Vanna White and had just come back from a shoot in the Philippines with the hostess and famous right of publicity plaintiff.  Between applications of powder and eyeliner, I learned that make-up artists in Los Angeles are all free lance and look around on a day by day basis for gigs like the one in Jeopardy.  I wish I had more time to talk with the make-up artist, and not only about how better to highlight my features....

Ha ha. (Shubha is a guy.)

... I have to admit my heart skipped several beats as the door was opened and a short walk down the hallway revealed the Board and the glaring neon blue and silver of the contemporary Jeopardy stage.  Recent repeated viewings of the broadcast had imprinted  the design, totem-like, on my brain.  The set had a familiarity beyond the television viewings....

Part III:

... We saw how the Board was set and  reset, where the videoclues were displayed, how the sidelights came on and off indicating when we could buzz in... We practiced a game with easy questions, some involving Sony products, to get used to the feel of the buzzer, the flash of lights, the cadence of the questions as they filled the sound stage. I fumbled with the buzzer, kicked myself for not getting “what is a walkman?,” and ever so briefly worried whether I had on too much make-up....

Part 4:

... At one point, the judges stopped the game for an interminable period of time to see if my answer “prehistorical” was close enough to what they wanted “prehistory.”  What the…?...

At the end of it all, a dollar separated me from a tie with first place....

As they tape the end credits, the contestants stand on the stage next to Alex Trebek and engage in banter.  Alex asked me what kind of law I was involved with, and I said intellectual property. “That must be really interesting with the Internet and all, “ he said.  “Yes, the Internet and other things,” I replied, launching into a law professor shtick on the reasons intellectual property is interesting. He interrupted me: “Well, I think all you need to protect intellectual property is a good gun.”  I stared back at him: “Yes, well, that seems to be how the rap industry operates.”  Blank stare back.....

Wow, awkward banter with Alex Trebek! How many people get to do that?

Rare games.

"When a [bridge] partner starts to slip, you can’t trust them. That’s what it comes down to."

"It’s terrible to say it that way, and worse to watch it happen. But other players get very annoyed. You can’t help yourself."

Very old people play bridge and stave off dementia.

Don't be afraid.

It's Ted's Toys.

Althouse is inside. With chattering teeth:



And Ted...


(Enlarge.)

... the Evil Toymaster:



Now, get out of here:


(Enlarge.)

"Woke up from dream I was starring in reality TV game show with ambiguous rules that I could not figure out."

Chuck b. has a dream. Reality shows aren't really too real. And dreams are not real. Make it a lucid dream and go all Jeff Probst and simply announce and impose some rules. Go from there. Is your life a reality show with ambiguous rules? Make some rules! Identify someone with permission to break the rules. Proceed!

I don't particularly understand these men who say they don't like women who "play games."

What's wrong with games? Maybe you need better games. Like you know you go over to one friend's house and they have Scrabble and Risk, and then you to to another friend's house and the best game is something like — what's the crappiest kid game? — Ants in the Pants.

IN THE COMMENT: Chip Ahoy said:

This question, amusing as it is, suffers the equivocation fallacy whereby the use of a term with more than one meaning is switched.

The men who complain about women who play games, ridiculous on the surface because men play games too, are referring to emotional games of the sort one of my sister excels. Having such a sister has taught me what to look for here, she glees at her ability to provoke observable emotion in her subject. Jealousy? That'll do. Anger? That works. Rage? Best of all possible observable emotions.

Our hostess knows this, and we know she knows this, but she playfully switches the term from emotion games to formal games within the proposition. So the answer is, "Yes, of course, better games would be an improvement." Games like Lawn Darts at Forty Paces, or Horseshoes Without the Poles, Naked Barbed Wire Twister, Paintball Without Armor, Cowboys and Indians with Real Weapons, Pack One Another's Parachute, Ski the Grand Canyon, Boxing With Gauntlets, Riding Lawn Mower Rodeo, Human Piñata, Hunting on the Island of Doctor Moreau, Beanbags Filled with Nails, Barefoot Jellyfish Collecting, William Tell, Ninjas VS. Ballerinas, Survive the Viper Pit, Chainsaw Badminton, Grenade Tennis, Komodo Dragon Roundup, Geisha High Wire Race, Find the Short in the Flooded Basement, Hide and Go Seek in the Shark Tank, White Water Rafting Tag.