Invitation to Trouble | Working decoys Law of attraction Distraction to conceal |
S
itting duck. These decoys frozen in the lake ice are humorous. A real live duck flying overhead and glancing down must consider this bizarre. Perhaps out of curiosity a closer look would be warranted. Because they interact and influence each other, all groups develop dynamic processes that differentiate them from a collection of random individuals. All this speculation of duck cognition and group dynamics reminded me of the biological fact that ducks are categorized in a wastebasket taxon. They are classified into an artificial bird group whose true relationships are unknown, being obscured by ecomorphological similarity. Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks do not quack, including these decoys.
“If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.” - Douglas Adams
