Watson goes DOWN!

Good news: The evil trivia-genius rampage of Watson the sinister supercomputer has been halted. Monday night, in an exhibition game, Watson took on several current members of Congress, and Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) came out on top. My pals at Salon scored a brief interview with the champ, but it shouldn't surprise anyone: Dude is himself a five-time Jeopardy! champ, he represents the state of my birth, he used to be a nuclear physicist (yeah, like that'll help you on Jeopardy!) and like me, he's an alum of Carleton College, where you can actually major in trivia (well, not really, but de facto when I was there, that's for sure).

That is all. You may go back to thinking about Charlie Sheen.

Tomorrow night: We're replaced, and I comment upon it

The end is nigh. Get ready to not have the pod bay doors open. Tomorrow night, Watson, IBM's trivia-genius supercomputer, is making its debut on Jeopardy!
Yes, it sounds impossible, but it is true: A bunch of people even nerdier than Big Quiz Thing fans have designed a computer that can actually comprehend and answer trivia questions (even in Alex Trebek's obnoxiously accented voice). And after a number of impressive trial runs, Watson—as he/she/it is known—is taking on two of Jeopardy!'s all-time greatest champs, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter (not Jonathan Corbblah, unfortunately). This epic clash between titans of flesh and metal will take place over three nights, starting tomorrow; I find it sadly appropriate that this is happening on Valentine's Day. 7pm, your local ABC affiliate.

And I will be there, cyberspacely: I will be watching, and tweeting my reactions to the event, at twitter.com/bigquizthing. Will I know more than Watson? Will I consider the proceedings fair? Will I cry for the future of trivial competition? Log on to find out, and keep me company, why don't you?