Means and Ends

Rain Dance



Perhaps at one time a rain dance seemed to make the rain come and became part of the ritual thereafter. One of my psychology classes mentioned an interesting lab accident. An automatic food dispenser broke and started giving food pellets intermittently. The pidgeons weren't to know this and when the psychologist next took a look, he was surprised to see the birds running in circles, making beak taps, hopping up and down, and other curious things, then rushing to the dispenser. They'd repeat if a pellet appeared, otherwise they'd redo their ritual, adding refinements if it seemed to result in a pellet. The psychologist dubbed it superstitious behaviour. These were screwed up birds by the end of it.

The Moneychangers



3D meets fractal can be fun. Not related to my pic, which shouldn't be too hard to figure out, but The Moneychangers is an old Arthur Hailey book. Rather heavy going compared to Airport. Some speculate that Airport inspired D.B. Cooper. I'd just about convinced myself that D.B. didn't make it when I ran into a parachutist on an online forum, who was of the opinion that D.B. triumphed. There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.

Did the ends justify the means? Did you get your rain? Your gold?

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