Dec 2, 2007

I had been blogging under the title of the delay, but I needed to change tracks. So that's archived and now I'm working beneath a different title.

I thought of the title of this blog while watching a flight of pigeons this morning. They gather on some telephone wires near where I live. At intervals, something will cause them to alight all at once. It's not always evident what causes this. But then they fly around in a flock, figure8s or elongated ovals, passing back over their roost several times before finally taking up the same post again. Watching a flock of birds fly and wheel together is a deeply satisfying experience. I wonder how I would possibly know whether or not, or how, decisions are being made there.

It's hard to say what, if anything, will be different here. I'll leave comments enabled, is one thing.

2 comments:

Brent Cunningham said...

I intend to be the first to comment here.

Providence said...

on the birds...Autocatalysis?

http://www.nutrienergetics.com/tech-quantum-biology.html

According to the OED, there is an Australian/New Zealander dialect
that calls it "camping":

*1879* /Norfolk Archæol./ VIII. 168 ‘The rooks are camping’ is an
expression often heard in the autumn when those birds assemble
together and gyrate in the air.