2016 Current Events Study Guide

This is where all of the games are discussed.

Moderators: alietr, trainman, econgator, dhkendall

Post Reply
9021amyers
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 1478
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:22 am
Location: Atlanta

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by 9021amyers »

All-Star pitcher Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins dies aged 24, in a boat accident.
User avatar
BigDaddyMatty
Hoping not to get pruney this time
Posts: 3300
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 11:05 am
Location: Anderson, IN

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by BigDaddyMatty »

In the last regular-season broadcast of Vin Scully's legendary 67-year career, the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their fourth straight National League West Division title with a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers tied the game on a home run in the bottom of the ninth by presumptive NL Rookie of the Year Corey Seager and then won it in walk-off fashion in the tenth with another homer by former Rockie Charlie Culberson.
Sprinkles are for winners.
User avatar
MarkBarrett
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 16471
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:37 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by MarkBarrett »

BigDaddyMatty wrote:In the last regular-season broadcast of Vin Scully's legendary 67-year career, the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their fourth straight National League West Division title with a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers tied the game on a home run in the bottom of the ninth by presumptive NL Rookie of the Year Corey Seager and then won it in walk-off fashion in the tenth with another homer by former Rockie Charlie Culberson.
Today was Vin Scully's last game to call at Dodger Stadium. He will be behind the mike at AT&T Park next Sunday, Oct. 2nd and that will be his last game.
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

Brangelina is no more; Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are divorcing.

China's first space station, Tiangong-1, will uncontrollably descend into the atmosphere and will crash on earth in late 2017.
Expect a Skylab reference if they use this one.
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

Ooh, this one I like from a trivia standpoint:

Obama has nominated Jeffrey DeLaurentis to be our first ambassador to Cuba in 55 years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37491380
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
User avatar
earendel
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 767
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:22 pm
Location: mired in the bureaucracy

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by earendel »

Shimon Perez, former president and prime minister of Israel, dies at age 93.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."
IronNeck
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 12:26 am

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by IronNeck »

earendel wrote:Shimon Perez, former president and prime minister of Israel, dies at age 93.
Not that it makes a difference for Jeopardy pronunciation purposes, but it's always spelled "Peres". And the relevant portion is that he had several terms as prime minister. President is a purely ceremonial, irrelevant post in Israel.
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

IronNeck wrote:
earendel wrote:Shimon Perez, former president and prime minister of Israel, dies at age 93.
Not that it makes a difference for Jeopardy pronunciation purposes, but it's always spelled "Peres". And the relevant portion is that he had several terms as prime minister. President is a purely ceremonial, irrelevant post in Israel.
Not always. https://www.google.com/search?q=shimon+ ... imon+peres

Pretty sure if I dug up my old World Almanacs from the 90s they'd say 'Perez' too since that's how I remember it in print and that's the only place I would've found it.
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
User avatar
Cat Hammarskjold
Feline Secretary-General
Posts: 1013
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 12:35 am

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Cat Hammarskjold »

IronNeck wrote:
earendel wrote:Shimon Perez, former president and prime minister of Israel, dies at age 93.
Not that it makes a difference for Jeopardy pronunciation purposes, but it's always spelled "Peres". And the relevant portion is that he had several terms as prime minister. President is a purely ceremonial, irrelevant post in Israel.
It was relevant in the "Naming the First President" category at the last ToC.
IronNeck
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri May 13, 2016 12:26 am

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by IronNeck »

Cat Hammarskjold wrote:
IronNeck wrote:
earendel wrote:Shimon Perez, former president and prime minister of Israel, dies at age 93.
Not that it makes a difference for Jeopardy pronunciation purposes, but it's always spelled "Peres". And the relevant portion is that he had several terms as prime minister. President is a purely ceremonial, irrelevant post in Israel.
It was relevant in the "Naming the First President" category at the last ToC.
Wow, right you are. Very surprised they asked for it, although it was a bottom-row clue in a ToC game.
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

It's Nobel week! Sorta like pledge week, except the average age of drunken revelers is 3-4 times as high.

Up first, Physiology or Medicine
http://gizmodo.com/nobel-prize-awarded- ... 1787349898
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Japan’s Yoshinori Ohsumi for furthering our understanding of autophagy, the biological process wherein the body eats some of itself in order to survive.
I can see autophagy being a bottom row ask.
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
Bamaman
Also Receiving Votes
Posts: 12898
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:39 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Bamaman »

Volante wrote:It's Nobel week! Sorta like pledge week, except the average age of drunken revelers is 3-4 times as high.

Up first, Physiology or Medicine
http://gizmodo.com/nobel-prize-awarded- ... 1787349898
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Japan’s Yoshinori Ohsumi for furthering our understanding of autophagy, the biological process wherein the body eats some of itself in order to survive.
I can see autophagy being a bottom row ask.
One minute ago I had never heard of autophagy, so my knowledge of it has been furthered. A well-deserved Nobel.
User avatar
MinnesotaMyron
JBOARDIE OF THE MONTH!
Posts: 3428
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2011 12:53 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by MinnesotaMyron »

In October 2015, Kersti Kaljulaid became the first woman elected president of this Baltic state
Spoiler
What is Estonia?
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

The third most asked about Nobel on J!, Physics!

Short post, this is going to be edited when Ars Technica releases their summary because I'm not a fan of Reuters' writeup.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel ... SKCN1240VO
Three British-born scientists won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for revealing unusual states of matter, leading to advances in electronics and potentially helping work on future quantum computers.
The big takeaway is gravitational waves did -not- win.
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
User avatar
lbligh
Valued Contributor
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2016 2:27 pm
Location: Northern Virginia
Contact:

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by lbligh »

The winners did their research decades ago. The Nobels often have significant lag time until discoveries prove their value.
Auditioned most recently via Zoom, June 2023
Strengths: Literature, History, Classical Music
Insurmountable weaknesses: Sports, Pop Music, Anagrams

"It's easy if you know it, it's hard if you don't."
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

lbligh wrote:The winners did their research decades ago. The Nobels often have significant lag time until discoveries prove their value.
Gravitational waves would be like the Higgs boson. Both were predicted decades ago but only recently has technology allowed us to prove their existence.

Further research into this, it seems g-waves were already kinda Nobelled back in 93.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulse-Taylor_binary
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
User avatar
Blue Lion
Watches Jeopardy! Way Too Much
Posts: 1515
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:12 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Blue Lion »

A couple of deaths worth noting:

Curtis Hanson, age 71. Director. His films include The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), L.A. Confidential (1997), Wonder Boys (2000), and 8 Mile (2002).
Gloria Naylor, age 66. Author. Best known as the author of The Women of Brewster Place (1982), which follows the lives of seven African-American women.

And a general question to the group: Should we continue with this thread since it's still calendar year 2016 or should we start a new thread after this week's online tests? I'm on the fence.
User avatar
boson
Trivial
Posts: 1719
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:01 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by boson »

Volante wrote:The third most asked about Nobel on J!, Physics!

Short post, this is going to be edited when Ars Technica releases their summary because I'm not a fan of Reuters' writeup.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel ... SKCN1240VO
Three British-born scientists won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for revealing unusual states of matter, leading to advances in electronics and potentially helping work on future quantum computers.
The big takeaway is gravitational waves did -not- win.
I always send people to read the citation and popular information on the Nobel prize web site: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes ... pular.html

This one is (relatively) close to my expertise: the winners study theories which explain the behaviour of materials where topology is important: phase transitions in magnetic and superconducting materials, mostly. In this case topology means that some 2-dimensional materials have circulating current or magnetic fields, and their behaviour leads to weird and wonderful quantum mechanical effects at low temperature.

David Thouless (one of the three winners) actually worked here as a professor in the physics department at Queen's university in the 1970s before moving on to greener pastures. After Art McDonald won the prize last year, that means two laureates in a row were professors here! Take that Harvard, Cambridge and Stanford!
User avatar
Volante
Harbinger of the Doomed Lemur
Posts: 9254
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:42 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by Volante »

Blue Lion wrote: And a general question to the group: Should we continue with this thread since it's still calendar year 2016 or should we start a new thread after this week's online tests? I'm on the fence.
I figure calendar year.
boson wrote: I always send people to read the citation and popular information on the Nobel prize web site: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes ... pular.html
With this one, I've been needing multiple sources. Different writeups result in different explanations of the same phenomenon, making it more likely that one of them will click. And as promised, the Ars link... http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/ ... ansitions/
The best thing that Neil Armstrong ever did, was to let us all imagine we were him.
Latest movies (1-10): Everything Everywhere All at Once (10), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (6), Black Sunday /1960/ (6), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (7)
User avatar
boson
Trivial
Posts: 1719
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 9:01 pm

Re: 2016 Current Events Study Guide

Post by boson »

Volante wrote:
boson wrote: I always send people to read the citation and popular information on the Nobel prize web site: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes ... pular.html
With this one, I've been needing multiple sources. Different writeups result in different explanations of the same phenomenon, making it more likely that one of them will click. And as promised, the Ars link... http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/ ... ansitions/
Yup - this is a tough one to explain : the important thing about it is that a vortex (a whirlpool of electric current or magnetic field) is topologically different than other sorts of systems : you can't change gradually from a system with no vortex to one containing a vortex. This difference helps to explain the behaviour of some exotic materials, and the transition as they are cooled to very low temperature. Unlike some recent prizes, this one is subtle and needs good analogies to be explained.
Post Reply