What's a cone of silence?

[Bill McBlueState]

Why not a sphere or a dodecahedron?

More seriously, is this just Rick Warren's terminology for the equivalent of the isolation booth from Family Feud, or does "cone of silence" have some specific meaning I'm missing?

[Whalestoe]

1. It's sort of like a dunce cap, but for Christians. n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. Get Smart (the show).

It never worked correctly. Kinda like the bush administration.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. Wikipedia's definition of the "cone of silence..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_silence

It appears Warren's "Cone of Silence" worked as well as CONTROL's...:rofl:

[dflprincess]

17. In fact, it amplified the sound (eom)

[Muttocracy]

3. a whole threadful of ideas:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6654883

[Bill McBlueState]

11. oops, sorry for the dupe!

funny thread there.

[Muttocracy]

14. no worries - we can't all read every thread! glad to know I wasn't the only one! nt

[Orangepeel]

4. Ha! Believe it or not, it's a "Get Smart" reference

nothing like taking terminology from a 1960's Mel Brooks TV show.

:rofl:

[Bill McBlueState]

15. Oh, figures

I'm not the youngest guy around, but you don't have to be *that* young anymore not to get a 60's tv reference.

[kansasblue]

5. "designed to protect the most secret of conversations"

wikipedia

The Cone of Silence is one of many recurring joke devices from Get Smart, an American comedy television series of the 1960s.

Invented by "Professor Cone", the device is designed to protect the most secret of conversations (aka "C.O.S. security risks") by enshrouding its users within a transparent sound-proof shield. Unfortunately, Control had purchased the device from a "discount place" rather than the federal government, so it has never worked properly. Naturally, this frustrating situation provides fuel for comedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_silence

[lisa58]

6. Did you ever watch Get Smart?

The cone of silence was a gadget they used for top-secret conversations between Control Agents - and as was pointed out on DU earlier today - it never worked.

[InNeedOfUserName]

7. Hmmmm...watch this youtube vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLZKEre3yJ0

[valerief]

22. Excellent! nt

[WeDidIt]

8. A picture is worth a thousand words

[npincus]

9. here you go (pic):

[Barack_America]

12. Here's McCain's interpretation...

So you see, it wasn't necessary for McCain to enter a "cone of silence" because he perpetually exists in one!

[ben_meyers]

13. Not only that but I hear McCain got the questions

in advance on his shoe phone!

[grantcart]

16. In the TV show before they would offer really sensitive information Maxwell Smart

would insist on playing it by the book and use the Cone of Silence.

It would come down and then nobody could hear themselves and they would end up shouting the secrets so that people in the next state could hear.



also sometimes like this



or this

[Life Long Dem]

18. Try listening through the wall when your not even near the wall

WARREN: My first question, was the cone of silence comfortable you were in just now?

MCCAIN: I was trying to hear through the wall.

[JuniperLea]

20. I think it was a big "wink wink nudge nudge" moment

Like the rest of the world NEVER watched Get Smart... and we didn't know the cone of silence was a joke, that it didn't work, and whatever was said inside was heard by all.

Idiots just piss me the hell off! The whole thing was a joke, but this bit about not being able to hear Obama's comments is an out and out lie.

Lying in the name of God should be punishable by lightening bolt. We don't see enough of that action from the Bearded Cloud Dude. He should be far more pissed of than he lets on.

[HardWorkingDem]

19. See, the cone of silence is this...

It's when the MSM has its head stuck up the ass of a candidate so far that it can only hear the rumblings of that candidates ass and those rumblings drown out all other noise from outside the rectal...oops....echo chamber.

[valerief]

21. As we learned in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the cone of silence will not prevent lip reading. nt

[Igel]

23. Metaphor and snarky hyperbole.

Oddly, most people that seem to want it to be literal also miss the point *were* it literal.

A 'cone of silence' would just mean that McCain wouldn't hear the questions. That's all. Whether he could have, whether he was phoned them, whether he or both were given a list ... immaterial. It's not the questions, it's the answers that matter in a debate, the ability to rebut the opponent's answer--and, if possible, not give him a chance to reply. If you want to separate but parallel interviews, that's the main point.

However, the 'cone of silence' in Get Smart (the series) had an additional problem: Those in the cone of silence couldn't hear each other, those outside could. So most real communication between A and B in the 'cone' actually proceeded from A, to somebody outside the cone, and then from that person (either shouting or writing) to B.

But there wasn't a literal 'cone of silence' involved, so anything based on that premise is immediately, well, Smartish.