Skeptic magazine online links to a video of a con in action.
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Select Science Blog Posts
- “Einstein’s Greatest Blunder” was REALLY a blunder! [Starts With A Bang] May 18, 2013
- Simulating a Pendulum [Uncertain Principles] May 16, 2013
- Global Warming Consensus: We can haz it! [Greg Laden's Blog] May 16, 2013
- When Are Nomads Not Really Nomads? (Efe Pygmy Ethnoarchaeology) [Greg Laden's Blog] May 16, 2013
- The Rise and Fall of Supersymmetry [Starts With A Bang] May 16, 2013
Some of My “To Read” List
- Trafficking by Katherine L. Hester : storySouth
- Why Obamacare is a Conservative’s Dream - NYTimes.com
- Misconceptions about Topic-Based Authoring | I'd Rather Be Writing
- What is a topic? What does standalone mean? - Every Page is Page One
- Why forensic science is failing us — and why tonight's NOVA documentary doesn't quite cut it - Boing Boing
This isn’t the first con I’ve seen demonstrated, but it’s always amusing to see. If the pigeon had been honest, he’d have pushed for turning the wallet over to authorities, complete with the cash. I don’t know what I’d have done in his place.
Without any identification, though, there’s practically no chance in the world that it would be claimed. I don’t know what I’d do, either.
If he’d been LESS honest, he would have said, “let’s split it and not bother checking whether anyone’s looking for it.”
True, it’s hard to correctly identify the owner in that case. Another choice for the less honest would be to wait until guy1 was away, then split the money with guy2, but he’d have to have given something like cash (not his wallet) for that to work. I heard a promo for some TV show with a line like “he’s the perfect mark, he’s greedy and thinks he’s smart”. I turned to my wife and said “I’m greedy, and I think I’m smart.” She agreed.