The monkey experiment I was talking about last night

Got this at work yesterday:

See if this sounds familiar to you.

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, all of the monkeys are sprayed with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

Pretty soon, none of the monkeys will try to climb the stairs. Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water.

Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here !

And that, my friends, is how company policy begins...

For robinbloke, <user site="livejournal.com" user="autumn_storm

Spaniels in the Night

Tai Chi

"Wave Hands like Clouds" was today's new move, no 36 of 108, meaning we now have about a third of the total. However, Sam said we have mastered the first hurdle as there will be far fewer completely new moves, just one now and then, the rest being made up of some (and slight alterations thereof) we've already done (we're already doing "Single Whip", "White Stork spreads Wings", the "three pushes" twice and other things as well).
I feel like I've learned a lot and yet I'm so far away. Even when I've learned all of the set, this is just beginners mode, no hardcore yet and definitely no refinement.
Still, if I can keep it up and continue for the rest of my life (which I'd like to do), I might not end up a physical wreck before my time. There was a man at the intensive, by face I'd say he's at least 70 but he moved better than many of the others. If this is what Tai Chi can do, I'm sold.

Practicing Tai Chi while watching Enter the Dragon might be a bit silly but it's better than sitting on my arse.