There’s just something hypnotic about maps. Ken Jennings More Quotes by Ken Jennings More Quotes From Ken Jennings Eratosthenes, the mapmaker who was the first man to accurately measure the size of the Earth, was a librarian. Ken Jennings earth men firsts Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, has argued that geography seems less relevant than ever in a world where nonstate actors -- malleable entities like ethnicities, for example -- are as powerful and important as the ones with governments and borders. Where on a map can you point to al-Qaeda? Or Google, or Wal-Mart? Everywhere and nowhere. Ken Jennings ethnicity government powerful When you make a decision you need facts. If those facts are in your brain, they're at your fingertips. If they're all in Google somewhere you may not make the right decision on the spur of the moment. Ken Jennings google decision brain I always bring my kids vacation souvenirs printed in Comic Sans, so they know I love them but not unconditionally. Ken Jennings vacation comic kids The thing you like/are good at is a sacred thing. Ken Jennings things-you-like sacred-things sacred Being a nerd really pays off sometimes. Ken Jennings nerd pay sometimes People are using GPS systems to find millions of little hidden objects throughout the world - often as simple as a piece of Tupperware hidden in the woods. You go to a website, you get the latitude and longitude to get the specific location of a certain specific hiding space, and then you go there and see if you can find it. Ken Jennings gps space simple I have always loved maps. Ken Jennings maps I always feel a certain sense of reverence in libraries, even small city ones that smell like homeless internet users. Ken Jennings library smell cities You live overseas, you see these exotic places and you want to know about them. But, weirdly, it also made me homesick for all these very prosaic places in America. Ken Jennings exotic-places want america I can't relax and sink back in the couch and watch 'Jeopardy!' the way I used to. Ken Jennings relax watches way Twitter makes you a comedian in the same way that digital cameras make you a photographer Ken Jennings comedian cameras way I would read the atlas for pleasure. I knew it was weird. It was weird. Ken Jennings atlas pleasure I have condemned my kids to a lifetime of geographic illiteracy. Ken Jennings illiteracy lifetime kids I remember one of my last shows, the Final Jeopardy! clue was something like 'These two boys' names are top 10 boys' names in the U.S., they both end with the same letter, and they're both names of Jesus' apostles.' Now, obviously that's not a knowable fact. Ken Jennings names boys jesus If I start outsourcing all my navigation to a little talking box in my car, I'm sort of screwed. I'm going to lose my car in the parking lot every single time. Ken Jennings car littles talking I threw the opening pitch at a Blue Jays game, and after the pitch, the mascot asked me if I wanted him to sign the game ball, which I thought was funny. What would he write? "Best Wishes, Some Guy in a Bird Suit"?" Ken Jennings games blue writing We regret the insinuation that Mr. Alex Trebek is a robot, and has been since 2004. Mr. Trebek's robotic frame does still contain some organic parts, many harvested from patriotic Canadian schoolchildren, so this technically makes him a 'cyborg,' not a 'robot.' Ken Jennings robots patriotic regret For me, it started as a child with one of those little wooden jigsaw maps of the U.S., wheres theres crocodiles on Florida and apples on Washington state. That was my very first map. Ken Jennings florida apples children If youre a vegan who ran a marathon & got your dogs from a shelter, how do you decide which thing to wedge into the conversation first? Ken Jennings shelter dog firsts
