There have been hundreds of miles of accumulated column inches produced about the 2009 season of the British quiz programme ‘University Challenge’.
The primary reason for many of the column miles – in the run up to the final – was Gail Trimble, a leading member of the Corpus Christi (Oxford University) team, one of the two teams of finalists.
In the (media inspired) hype running up to the final Gail was dubbed ‘The Human Google’ because of her ability to regurgitate facts and figures with the speed of a savant.
An idiot savant, perhaps.
You’ll see, in a moment, why I make what many outsiders may feel to be such an unkind statement.
The secondary reason for a similar amount of column miles was the post-Final revelation that one of the Corpus Christi team (Sam Kay) had left student life (even though he had stated in the Final that he was studying chemistry) and had taken up employment as a trainee accountant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Naturally it didn’t take the mainstream media long to unearth this deception and the Corpus Christi team have been stripped of their 2009 Season Championship title for failing the eligibility test.
And there, as Shakespeare would have put it, is the rub – the point of the title to this post.
Sam Kay, a member of the Corpus Christi University Challenge Team that won (and a week later lost) the 2009 Season Championship may have been bright, but he wasn’t very intelligent was he?
But let’s not forget one thing.
The Team Captain for Corpus Christi must have known about Sam Kay’s change in circumstance too, no? I find it incredible to believe that this could not have been the case.
And who was the Team Captain for Corpus Christi?
Step forward Gail Trimble, aka ‘The Human Google’.
As the title of this post has it once again, being ‘bright’ does not mean being ‘intelligent’ and this leads back to my earlier reference of Gail perhaps being an idiot savant.
Indeed.
They’d never have beaten Scumbag College.
I want a rematch!
One also has to wonder about the intelligence, or otherwise, of the researchers…
Damn you Masher, you beat me to the Scumbag College line!
I thought the point about your post, Brennig, was that an encyclopaedic recall of facts does not equate to intelligence, but rather a very good memory. I’ve met many people who could, for example, follow a process repeatedly but came horribly unstuck if anything changed.
No point remembering whether an approaching animal is dangerous, fast, colour-blind or endangered if you can’t think fast enough how you’re going to avoid being eaten by it!
And never mind whether she has more info her head than a library of encyclopedias, can she complete the campus bar crawl without throwing up on her own feet, has she ever woken up in a strangers room wearing nothing but her shoes and with no recollection of how she got there AND has she been out round her university town dressed as a schoolgirl before cling-filming her friend to a bus stop? Because if the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’ then she has no place giving herself the title ‘student’.
Vicola, at the risk of being dangerously familiar… I would have *loved* to have gone to uni with you if that’s a sample of your past activities! 🙂
Tragically that IS a sample of my uni days and it isn’t even a comprehensive list of all the embarassing and potentially dangerous crap I did while under the influence of 30 units of Russian paint stripper misleadingly labelled as ‘vodka’.
If you had read up about this properly you would she he didnt sheat or do anything wrong so you cant really comment until you do your own research about it
Oh dear James. What a marvel of modern education you’re not! Your parents and your teachers must be very proud of your deductive reasoning and your command of the English language.
That, in case you fail to recognise it, is irony James.
Please demonstrate and explain where I have used either the word ‘sheat’ (which I don’t believe is a real word, I think it’s one that you have made up) or the word ‘cheat’. Please feel free to use diagrams to illustrate your point.
I think you’ll find that one day, when you’re able to surpass your current but terribly tragic lack of ability to communicate, you will be able to read what I have said and you’ll be able to understand every single syllable.
Until that day arrives though James, you’re probably best advised to keep your mouth shut for fear of showing yourself up even further.
The truly sad thing James is that you sailed in here from Swansea University with a google search of ‘sam kay’. I hope you’re not a student at Swansea University because let’s face it, you’re hardly a shining example of educational excellence are you?
I also note by your email address that your surname is ‘kay’. Are you defending the family honour in some misguided way?
If you are capable of reading the original post again and understanding it you’ll see that what I actually said was that neither person named was very intelligent. Sadly this is a category that you have firmly placed yourself in too.
And while we’re talking about your less than able qualities, you adequately demonstrate to anyone with a half-decent IQ that comprehension is not your strong suit. Perhaps this will come to you one day. Though on your current track record, I doubt it very much.