Smart Chicken: Pendulum Passing
My Twitter feed used to contain the occasional update about Smart Chicken, the Chicken that was bred with the intent of creating a smart chicken. However, 140 characters isn't enough to truly capture the nuances of what Smart Chicken does or my frustrations with her. Suffice it to say, tumblr would make an easier place.
Last week's Smart Chicken replaced the regular maze filled with blockades with a series of open routes that were blocked periodically by swinging pendulums of different designs and other similar "temporary" problems. A regular "cuckoo clock" style pendulum was the most frequently employed thing, but slowed down so that Smart Chicken could rush through when the pendulum swung away. Other styles of blockades introduced lengthy logs held aloft by two cords on either end held to mechanical wheels over the maze (or maze-like-route in this week's case, I guess). I think my favorite blockade came from below, however, where a spinning fan with two of the four blades removed, sat just below the route, its blades occasionally passing up through a slot in the floor to block the passage.
Smart Chicken, as always, proved to be either smart or lucky, I'm honestly not sure which. My money is on lucky, but if she isn't smart then the amount of luck may well border on the supernatural.
Those wishing to know the taste of Smart Chicken (probably "like chicken") must, yet again, wait. She made it through the maze without any injuries and stole feed from my stockpile of delicious chicken-feed-and-brain-enhancers.
