The Idea Shop

For those of you who are like me and don't watch much TV anymore, there is a FOX gameshow now that has a new twist how contestants can make money and how to get people to spill their darkest secrets on national television (which inevitably draws viewer attention). So the idea is that half a million dollars can easily be achieved since all of the gameshow's questions...are about you! Essentially "The Moment of Truth" hooks possible contestants up to a polygraph before the show and asks them about 50-60 questions that absolutely train wreck their image, marriage and lives...all for the possibility of winning 500k. The candidates with the juiciest secrets are then put in front of national television, their friends and families and asked to repeat the answers again while strapped to a polygraph again. Questions about feelings towards ex's, family members, past deeds are all fair game and your job is to tell the truth...according to the polygraph. It seems like one of the most uncomfortable and stupid things to put yourself through especially if you're not going to go all the way (which nobody has ever gotten to before). The host himself says that:

When Walberg talked to Access Hollywood about it tonight, he made mention of the fact that the contestants know the questions before they get onto the stage, so it’s not like they’re surprised by the questions. But he seemed to have a hard time understanding why Lauren went forward with the questions, saying, “I don’t have any problem of the fairness aspect of it. I have a problem with her judgment of then choosing to do it.” Walberg went on to say, “I know people are going to think I was BS-ing but the truth is, I was begging her to stop.”

link

Now, my thing is, after answering questions that have already thrown your image, your family's image and your marriage out the window...why do people stop? Did they plan to go in there for just 100k pricing their worth in the world for that and a few minutes of national shame? I seriously don't understand how people who value any of the aforementioned things can do this show...and for those who don't actually care...how can they not reach 500k? Nobody has gotten past the 100k mark and I just wonder if they just did not realize that it's either money+a lonely but wealthy life or just continue living happily albeit under a false image. If you're dumb enough to sell out your family and pride for money, at least be smart enough not to put it out on sale.

So besides for thinking of how foolish the contestants must be, I was wondering if lie detectors are really that useful. Everybody has heard about the technical things: heart rate, body heat...but the general idea is if you know you're lying and react...it will know. However, imagine this: have two simple questions in your head, one designed for true and one for false.

Ex:
Is your name Joey? (yes)
Are you really the Batman? (no)

Now if somebody asks you a question such as: (real question on show) do you like your mother in law.

Just calm down, and ask yourself the question "Is your name Joey?" of course not out loud...and then with that question in mind, answer out loud. You can even convince yourself that you have answered the last question already. Imagine the show's surprise when every single one of your answers are different from the audition (you're allowed to change as long as lie detector validates it...and this step needed to get on show). Of course this means that during the audition, every question from the most simple of questions must also be answered in this fashion. So now that I know how to beat the game, all i need is somebody to pretend to be my newlywed and let's go chop that money.

Read this somewhere and dunno the answer...

How do you have a fair coin toss over the phone?

Don't read comments till you've tried!!! Also try using anything...not just coins. Maybe guessing the number in your head, or which of your hands has a stone, who's going to hang up first...

I thought that Tim "GnawMit" did a great job writing that reflection. I definitely can't match his way with words and being an econ major...using more words often leads to diminishing returns =P. But the way Tim went about it reminded me a lot about "The Giver", something that most of us read in middle school. That book, too, paints the "condensing" of our past: history, literature, grammer, in a dark light and even pushes it to an extreme, forcing one "Giver" to bear all of the memories of color, heat, and emotions . Most of us, me included, don't bother to learn latin or what happened in countries that are far far away in times long long ago. Obviously when these topics come up in conversation, we tend to feel a little stupid and wonder if we should know these events. Tim called latin "useless" in a light-mannered tone in response to other people's belief that it was a "dead language".

The question is, is learning about our past and languages such as "latin" useless as suggested by popular opinion? Like Tim said, learning our past is important for our society to move forward. If we see Latin/History as our roots, people like Tim are the stem. By understanding how we as a culture developed, we move closer and closer to understanding the amazingly complex system that we call "human interaction". It's just like when you're building a tower of cards and looking to put the next shaky piece onto the already fragile base. As you're putting on the next card, each previous top-layer is a new base, a new beginning. In the case of progress, to find the path of greatest probability of success, one looks for information. This information of how to move from the present to the future is found in the ways in which society has made her moves in the past. Scientists today look to how nature created eyes, ears and hearts millions of years ago so that they can apply the information to mechanical progress. Similarly, the ways of government, culture and hierarchy of Japan were studied by business administrators for more effective ways of using employees. Basically, it is possible to learn from the past...and from our mistakes.

But then what about the rest of us?...Are we the ones that ought to join Tim as stems?

This prefaces George Orwell's novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying. However, it is not the verse that people know. It is instead adapted to his novel, so it's been changed.

I thought it was hilarious.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.... And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money."

-I Corinthians xiii (adapted)

Hope you found it funny as well.

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