Via the IJR, a timewaster while we wait for John Kerry to secure peace in our time in Vienna, the terms of which are reportedly shaping up exactly as you’d expect.

This clip is interesting (assuming the interactions are genuine, which I think they are) but not for the reason intended. You’re supposed to conclude, I guess, that Americans are abject morons in assessing the value of precious metals and/or that Americans are big fat fatties in preferring a quick hit of chocolate to something inedible that’s worth much more. I don’t think it proves either. Many people are morons, no doubt, when it comes to gauging the value of gold or silver, but even a dummy would guess that a bar of silver is worth more than the two dollars it costs to buy the Hershey bar — probably substantially more, which makes it hard to believe they’d prefer the snack even if they were hungry. The behavior you’re seeing is probably more an artifact of them being offered a too-good-to-be-true deal with a camera stuck in their face. If that were me, I might take the Hershey bar too: Obviously there’s a catch if you choose the silver — either it’s fake or the guy won’t really let you walk away with it — so why not just take the chocolate and get out of there? What you’re seeing here is a byproduct of suspicion, not stupidity.

Exit question: You’re not really going to eat chocolate that a suspicious stranger handed you, are you?