Playing dead.  Colloquial term for a universal phenomena.  Exhibited by vertebrates and invertebrates alike.  Seen on land, sea, and air.  Practiced by birds, fish, snakes, possums, frogs, ants, spiders, ducks, rabbits, chickens, sharks, and even humans.  Tonight, our study a specific strain of human – engineered sometime after WWII and manufactured on an industrial scale.  Yes, tonight we are about to witness the modern suburbanite’s version of playing dead.