Transcript 10/01/09 - Benny Shum (carryover)

[BBTranscriptTeam]

Benny Shum
East Palo Alto, CA
Research Scientist, College Teacher

Meredith asks Benny about his accent. He's originally from Hong Kong, but he's been here for a while, so Benny says he has a corrupted British-Chinese-American accent.

Benny's parents are big fans of WWTBAM in Hong Kong. He's going to send them the tapes of this show.

Question Topics:
* The White House
* The Nobel Prize
* Shakespeare
* Science & Nature
* Business
* Military Bases
* (Health)
* (Movie Stars)
* (Metals)
* (The History Channel)
* (Foreign Terms)
* (Same Name)
* (U.S. Landmarks)
* (Across the Pond)
* (Medical Conditions)

$25,000 * Military Bases
Guantanamo Bay, the infamous U.S. military base, sits on the shore of what body of water?

A: Gulf of Mexico B: Yucatán Channel
C: Straits of Florida D: Caribbean Sea

With 13 seconds left, Benny decides to Phone A Friend.

Benny's PAF team are Randy, San Francisco, CA; Martin, Berkeley, CA; and Rex, Renton, WA.

Benny calls his partner, Randy.

Randy: Gulf of Mexico, Yucatán Channel--wait, what are--

Benny: Straits of Florida, Caribbean Sea. You only have five seconds.

Randy: It's on the Caribbean Sea.

Benny: How sure?

[Time runs out.]

Answer

D: Caribbean Sea ( 10 )

$50,000 * Business
In 2009, Ursula Burns became the first female African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 member when she took over at what company?

A: American Express B: McDonald's
C: Xerox D: FedEx

Benny's not sure, but it's a free guess, so he goes for it.

Answer

C: Xerox ( 17 )

-- Commercial Break --

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Benny was laid off as a research scientist. Now he's a part-time professor and he's in the Hot Seat, going for $100,000. Besides paying off bills from a year of unemployment, the money will help pay tuition on the Ph.D. he's working on. Benny would also like to put some money away in a college fund for his two-year-old niece.

$100,000 * Science & Nature
Where are Fraunhofer lines?

A: In an alpine glacier B: On a human forehead
C: Around the sun D: On tobacco leaves

Benny thought he would know a question in this category, but he has no idea. He walks away with $50,000.

Answer

C: Around the sun ( 10 )

Tournament of Ten Leader Board

1. Keilani Goggins $100,000 - 1:53
2. Jeff Birt $100,000 - 1:53
3. Matt Schultz $100,000 - 2:26
4. Tim Janus $100,000 - 2:44
5. Ralph Cambeis $50,000 - 1:13
6. Robin Schwartz $50,000 - 1:40
7. Alex Ortiz $50,000 - 2:19
8. Fred Roberts $50,000 - 2:27
9. Benny Shum $50,000 - 2:29
10. Alan Carver $25,000 - 0:30


Edited to correct typo in $100,000 question. "Where" not "Whare".

[NellyLunatic1980]

$100K: No clue on this one. Not sure if Mo would know this. He may be of better use for the $250K Shakespeare question. I'll PAF on this one.

[Jeemie]

$100K: No clue on this one. Not sure if Mo would know this. He may be of better use for the $250K Shakespeare question. I'll PAF on this one.

I LOVE astronomy!

DD on the $50K (I eliminated FedEx and McDonald's, was reasonably sure it wasn't Amex, but couldn't completely eliminate it)...otherwise no problem (I'll have to look at his first-day thread to remember if I needed any LLs there- edited- nope, I didn't, so i'm looking at $250K with ATA, ATE, and PAF intact).

[earendel]

Benny Shum
East Palo Alto, CA
Research Scientist, College Teacher

Meredith asks Benny about his accent. He's originally from Hong Kong, but he's been here for a while, so Benny says he has a corrupted British-Chinese-American accent.

Benny's parents are big fans of WWTBAM in Hong Kong. He's going to send them the tapes of this show.

The U.S. version, the Australian version, the Japanese version, or is (was) there a Hong Kong version?

$25,000 * Military Bases
Guantanamo Bay, the infamous U.S. military base, sits on the shore of what body of water?

A: Gulf of Mexico B: Yucatán Channel
C: Straits of Florida D: Caribbean Sea

With 13 seconds left, Benny decides to Phone A Friend.

Benny's PAF team are Randy, San Francisco, CA; Martin, Berkeley, CA; and Rex, Renton, WA.

Benny calls his partner, Randy.

Randy: Gulf of Mexico, Yucatán Channel--wait, what are--

Benny: Straits of Florida, Caribbean Sea. You only have five seconds.

Randy: It's on the Caribbean Sea.

Benny: How sure?

[Time runs out.]

Answer

D: Caribbean Sea ( 10 )

It's on the south side of the island, so it has to be D.

$50,000 * Business
In 2009, Ursula Burns became the first female African-American CEO of a Fortune 500 member when she took over at what company?

A: American Express B: McDonald's
C: Xerox D: FedEx

Benny's not sure, but it's a free guess, so he goes for it.

Answer

C: Xerox ( 17 )

I had no idea. I still have all my lifelines, so let's use one. I don't think ATA will help, so it's either ATE or PAF. I think I'll ATE because PAF is more likely to be useful further up the stack.

$100,000 * Science & Nature
Whare are Fraunhofer lines?

A: In an alpine glacier B: On a human forehead
C: Around the sun D: On tobacco leaves

Benny thought he would know a question in this category, but he has no idea. He walks away with $50,000.

Answer

C: Around the sun ( 10 )

I have a problem with this. Fraunhofer lines are the absorption lines in the visible spectrum of sunlight that helped scientists determine the elemental composition of the sun (and stars) and, indirectly, showed that stars were in motion (because of the Doppler effect on the lines). So "around the sun" isn't a good answer. It's the best of the four choices, but it's a bad question.

[MarleysGh0st]

$100,000 * Science & Nature
Whare are Fraunhofer lines?

A: In an alpine glacier B: On a human forehead
C: Around the sun D: On tobacco leaves

Benny thought he would know a question in this category, but he has no idea. He walks away with $50,000.

Answer

C: Around the sun ( 10 )

I have a problem with this. Fraunhofer lines are the absorption lines in the visible spectrum of sunlight that helped scientists determine the elemental composition of the sun (and stars) and, indirectly, showed that stars were in motion (because of the Doppler effect on the lines). So "around the sun" isn't a good answer. It's the best of the four choices, but it's a bad question.

Ah! I thought I had remembered that was what Fraunhofer lines are. Then when the answers were revealed, I wondered if I was misremembering--could it be something like the corona? So my hunch was right and the answer writing was wrong!

Do you think this would make enough of a difference for Benny to file an appeal?

[Jeemie]

So "around the sun" isn't a good answer. It's the best of the four choices, but it's a bad question.

Yeah- I wonder if the question-writer misread his/her source material, since the GASES that produce Fraunhofer lines are the cooler gases at/above the surface of the sun (so the gases could be considered to be "around the sun").

Either way, it was a decently hard $100,000 question.

[Jeemie]

Do you think this would make enough of a difference for Benny to file an appeal?

Well- the lines are not associated with/caused by any of the other listed answers.

[tanstaafl2]

Benny Shum
East Palo Alto, CA
Research Scientist, College Teacher
$25,000 * Military Bases
Guantanamo Bay, the infamous U.S. military base, sits on the shore of what body of water?

A: Gulf of Mexico B: Yucatán Channel
C: Straits of Florida D: Caribbean Sea

With 13 seconds left, Benny decides to Phone A Friend.

Benny's PAF team are Randy, San Francisco, CA; Martin, Berkeley, CA; and Rex, Renton, WA.

Benny calls his partner, Randy.

Randy: Gulf of Mexico, Yucatán Channel--wait, what are--

Benny: Straits of Florida, Caribbean Sea. You only have five seconds.

Randy: It's on the Caribbean Sea.

Benny: How sure?

[Time runs out.]

Answer

D: Caribbean Sea ( 10 )

Didn't think he would know this one but at least he gets points (not to mention more money) for having a PAF that was either geographically competent or had the good sense to have a map!

Not the easiest 50K Q they have had.