Time Magazine
Illustration★★★★, May 19 th , 2003) of presidential hopeful John Edwards kneeling, holding the hand of a little girl and looking up intently into her face, surrounded by TV cameras and other onlookers. The caption could have read: I must find out what this little girl thinks of where America’s headed. Cameras? What cameras?
Oh, those! I hadn’t noticed. The US Treasury Department has a special group of people whose job it is to track down counterfeiters. They are not trained by spending hours examining counterfeit money.
Rather, they study the real thing . Self-deception: A man bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee, and to celebrate, he and his four friends drank a lot of beer and went duck hunting. They got the hunting dog, guns, decoys, dynamite, more beer, and drove onto the frozen lake. First they had to blow a hole in the ice for the decoys, but it was too risky to plant the dynamite and run for it.
They might slip over. So they decided to toss the dynamite. The Jeep owner felt he was the best thrower, so he walked out a few metres, lit the fuse, and threw it as hard as he could. Now, remember the hunting dog?
Born, bred and trained to retrieve, he tore off after it as soon as the stick left his master’s hand. Five men yelled frantically at the dog, but the dog ignored them, grabbed the stick, and headed back, tail wagging.
His master got his gun and shot at the dog, but couldn’t stop the dog with duck shot. Realising that his master was totally insane, the dog ran for cover – under the Jeep Cherokee. Moments later, there was an explosion, and the dog and the Jeep sank to the bottom of the lake. Baboons are inquisitive creatures.
In order to catch one in the Kalahari Desert, the bushman digs a hole in solid rock large enough for a baboon’s hand to pass through while extended. He does this while making sure the baboon is watching. Then he drops in some nuts.
The baboon is so curious that after the man has gone, he goes to the rock to investigate and puts his hand in the hole to get the nuts. Once his hand is in the hole, the bushman runs to catch him, because as much as the baboon wants to escape he will not let go of what’s in his hand, and he cannot get his clenched fist back through the hole. The bushman then feeds the baboon salt, making him extra thirsty.
As soon as the baboon is released, he leads the bushman to water.
The point
Multiple anecdotes about authenticity: politicians' self-deception, law enforcement studying real money to catch fakes, and the baboon trap of greed.