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If you thought you spied Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek around town this week, you weren't mistaken. The formerly moustachioed game show personality was back again this year to host the annual National Geographic Bee, which finished up today by crowning Eric Yang, 13, a seventh-grader at Griffin Middle School in The Colony, TX, with the first place title.
The winning question was: Timis County shares its name with a tributary of the Danube and is located in the western part of which European country? Do you know the answer? The final series of questions (and their answers) are in the video above.
Yang takes home an impressive $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and, new this year, a trip to the Galápagos Islands with Alex Trebek. No joke. Sounds like a hoot.
Second-place winner and recipient of a $15,000 college scholarship was Arjun Kandaswamy, 14, an eighth-grader at Meadow Park Middle School in Beaverton, OR. Third place and a $10,000 college scholarship went to Shantan Krovvidi, 13, a seventh-grader at Ligon Middle School in Raleigh, NC.
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Steroids.
Or a culture of fiercely competitive educational meritocracy.
This contest is f'ing hard! I've watched it in years past.
Trebek, a 13-yr old with an overwhelming desire to please his elders, and a tropical island...there will be a chaperone, yes?
Buckfutter!
I prefer Will Ferrell's Jeopardy -
http://www.hulu.com/watch/73362/saturday-night-live-jeopardy
For championship questions, those were pretty easy.
Okay, I'm aware they're only 13 years old, and when I was 13 I'm not sure I could have answered the Nunavut question, Nunavut not existing at that time, but, really, identifying the country in which is found the Timis river for the win? Has nobody else heard of the major and historically significant western Romanian city of Timisoara, site of the rebellion that sparked the overthrow of Ceaucescu? I sure had when I was 13.
(Oddly, Timisoara is not located on the Timis, but is just very close by. You wouldn't need to know that to get the question, though.)
your capacity for self-absorbtion is rivalled only by bounty
I competed in my school's geography bee all three years. I got second place the first two years and finally won it the third (spring of 93) after the guy who won the first two graduated. I never knew they had a whole national championship, though. I wonder if that was something they added later. I should have gotten to go to a regional bee if they did, right?
I don't remember there being a national competition either. I'm pretty sure I won my school's once also. Maybe our schools were just "indie."
First it is a Spelling Bee, then the National Geographic Bee, and then Aunt Bee. Just saying; slippery slope.
Trebek should ask the kid on his left to spell the last name of the kid on his right. Eliminated: One Kid.
pretty kick-ass competition today, if i do say so myself.
(disclaimer: i'm the editor for the bee, and you can see me at the end of the video)
these were some pretty bright kids this year. congrats to all 55 competitors!
Nice job. I love this event.
Asian domination.