Reality TV and Jeopardy

Do you ever find yourself wondering, "why do dead bodies always float face down?" Well, here's your answer:
Why do dead bodies float face down

I finally got a TV yesterday and yes, it has changed my life from a lonely silent existence to a life full of talking heads and reality tv. Last night I watched Couples Fear Factor. The first stunt was a physical activity where the man and woman held on to opposite ends of a rope while hanging by their ankles at opposite ends of a beam while the beam spun around faster and faster. It kept going until one of them let go of the rope, which made them both fall in the water. Because of the setup, the force exerted by the rope on each of them was proportional to the body weight of the other person. In other words, the women were at a huge disadvantage because they were all smaller than the men. Immediately afterwards in the boat that picked them up, the men were huge jerks - all but one of them were ripping into the woman for letting go. In reality, once the force (which was increasing with the speed of the spinning) exceeded her grip strength, the rope would slide out of her hands - none of them just let go.

Fortunately, several of the women were vindicated during the next stunt when they had to use their mouths to find coins in pies made of maggots and stuff, and then drink a shake made of ground maggots, duck heart, etc. One of the mean guys threw up, which almost got them kicked out and another guy couldn't drink the shake (they were drinking it together, so the woman drank most of it). Sissies.

I always assumed that they made sure that the stunts had no potential dangerous health effects. (I mean, is it reallly safe to eat live maggots?) But then I read a New Yorker article about leeches in which someone from a leech farm said that Fear Factor had contacted them about buying some leeches, but never asked if they were safe to eat.

You will not be seeing Ed and me on that show anytime soon. But if you tune into Jeopardy tonight, you will see our friend Michael Shirts go up against a guy whose been on for 15 or so episodes.