From aceska@cue.bc.caSat Apr 1 11:34:32 1995 Date: Sat, 1 Apr 1995 00:02:16 -0800 From: Adolf Ceska To: ben@cue.bc.ca Subject: BEN # 97 BBBBB EEEEEE NN N ISSN 1188-603X BB B EE NNN N BBBBB EEEEE NN N N BOTANICAL BB B EE NN NN ELECTRONIC BBBBB EEEEEE NN N NEWS No. XCVII (SPECIAL FOOLPROOF ISSUE) April 1, 1995 aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Victoria, B.C. ----------------------------------------------------------- Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2 ----------------------------------------------------------- ADMINISTRATIVE ENCIRCLEMENT AND LE CHATELIER'S PRINCIPLE Le Chatelier's Principle: "Complex systems tend to oppose their own proper functions." In the field of human organizations, probably the outstanding example of this Le Chatelier's Principle occurs in connections with the Goals and Objectives Mania, a specialized manifestation of a very ancient and widespread phenomenon known as Administrative Encirclement. Let us take an example the case of Lionel Trillium, a young Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany at Hollyoak College. Trillium's Department Head, Baneberry, has for some years now failed to initiate new and interesting hypotheses about the behaviour of the Slime Molds, his chosen area of specialization. Paralleling this decline of scientific pro- ductivity, he has exhibited increasing interest in improving the "efficiency" of his Department. Baneberry has actually gone to the extreme of checking out of the library some recent publi- cations on management science, and his mind is now buzzing with the terminology of Information Retrieval Systems, etc., and above all, Management by Goals and Objectives. He fires off a memo to the staff of his Department requiring them to submit to him, in triplicate, by Monday next, statements of their Goals and Objectives. This demand catches Trillium at a bad time. His studies of angiosperms are at a critical point. Nevertheless, he must take time out to consider his Goals and Objectives, as the wording of the memo leaves little doubt of the consequences of failure to comply. Trillium doesn't want to think about his real goals and objectives. He only knows he likes Botany. But he can't just reply in one line, "I like botany and want to keep studying it." No, indeed! What is expected is a good deal more formal, more organized, than that. It should fill at least three typewritten sheets, singlespaced, and should list Objec- tives and Subobjectives in order of priority, each being jus- tified in relation to the Overall Goal and having appended a time-frame for completion and some criteria for determining whether they have been achieved. Ideally, each paragraph should contain at least one reference to DNA. Trillium goes into a depression just thinking about it. He puts it off as long as possible, but still it interferes with his study of angiosperm. He can't concentrate. Finally he gives up his research, stays home three days, and writes the damned thing. But now he is committed in writing to a program, in terms of which his "success" can be objectively assessed by his Chief. If he states that one objective for the coming year is to write three papers on angiosperms and he actually writes only two, he is only 67 percent "successful," even if each of the two papers is a substantial contribution to his field. His failure to achieve his stated objectives is demonstrable in black and white. The next step is even more catastrophic. Because Trillium has clearly stated his Goals and Objectives, it is now possible with rigorous logic how he should spend his waking and working hours in order to achieve them most efficiently. No more pottering around pursuing spontaneous impulses and temporary enthusiasms! No more happy hours in the Departmental greenhouse! Just as a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, so an efficient worker will move from Subobjective A to Subobjective B in logical pursuit of Objective K, which leads in turn toward the Overall Goal. Trillium can be graded, not only on his achievements for the year, but also on the efficiency with which he moves toward each objective. He has become administratively encircled. The ad- ministrators, whose original purpose was to keep track of writ- ing supplies for the professors, now have the upper hand and sit in judgement on their former masters. Only one step remains to complete Trillium's shackling in the chains he himself has helped to forge. On advice of the Univer- sity administrators, the legislators of his State establish by law the number of hours a Professor of Botany must spend on each phase of his professional activities. Trillium may feel impelled to protest, but how can he? The lawmakers are only formalizing what he himself has told them, through his Goals and Objectives statements, he wants to do! Objectives, designed to improve Trillium's efficiency and measure his performance as a botanist, has gotten in the way, kicked back, and opposed its own proper function. Once more the universal validity of Le Chatelier's Principle has been demonstrated. Abbreviated from: Gall, John. 1975. Systemantics: How systems work and especially how they fail. Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., New York. 111 p. A NEW MODEL FOR LAND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT - ACRONYMS From: LUCO - British Columbia Government, unnamed document, page 2. ALIC ADM's Land Information Council CLIB Common Land Information Base CLISP Corporate Land Information Strategic Plan CORE Commission on Resources and Environment CRII Corporate Resources Inventory Initiative FRDA Forest Resources Development Agreement GIS Geographic Information System GLIDE Government Land Information Data Exchange LICC Land Information Coordination Committee LII Land Information Infrastructure LIMF Land Information Management Framework LIS Land Information System LISC Land Information Strategic Council LRMP Land and Resource Management Plan LUCO Land Use Coordination Office PAS Protected Areas Strategy RIC Resource Inventory Committee TRIM Terrain Resource Information Management Program THE TALES OF NASRETTIN HOCA - JUST AS HE WAS GETTING USED TO IT A protracted winter reduces the amount of barley available for Hoca's donkey. So, Hoca gradually cuts down on the barley with which he feeds his donkey: There is less from one day to the next. And then he feeds the donkey once every two or three days. What should he see when he enters the barn one day: The donkey is dead. "Pity!" mumbles Hoca. "Just as he was getting used to it, he died." From "The Tales of Nasrettin Hoca." Told by Aziz Nesin, Retold in English by Talat Halman. DOST Yayinlari, Istanbul. 1988. GOETHE ON SEX IN PLANTS It is approximately sixteen years ago [Goethe wrote this in 1820, when he was 71 years old] that Professor Schelver, curator of the Grand-ducal Immediate Botanical Garden under my direc- tion, disclosed to me in strictest confidence, in that very garden on the same paths where I still take my walks, that he had long had his doubts about the theory ascribing two sexes to plants and that he was now fully convinced of its untenability. [Schelver's book, "Critique of the Theory of the Sexuality in Plants," appeared in 1812.] In my nature studies I had religiously accepted the dogma of sexuality in plants and was, therefore, taken aback now to hear a concept directly opposed to my own. Yet I could not consider the new theory wholly heretical ... Now his brilliant theory takes on substance through Henschel's monumentous study ["On the Sexuality of Plants" published in 1820]; it is earnestly demand- ing its place in science, although one cannot fortell how that place will be found. For the instruction of young persons and ladies this new theory will be extremely welcome and suitable. In the past the teacher of botany has been placed in a most embarrassing position, and when innocent young souls took textbook in hand to advance their studies in private, they were unable to conceal their outraged moral feelings. Eternal nuptials going on and on, with the monogamy basic to our morals, laws and religion disintegrating into loose concupiscence - these must remain forever intolerable to the pure-minded! ... Indeed, we recall having seen arabesques in which the sexual relations within a flower calyx were repre- sented in an extremely graphic way. Ref.: Goethe's botanical writings. Translated by Bertha Mueller. Ox Bow Press, Woodridge, CT. 1989. IS BENJO A PLACE FOR BEN? I asked my Japanese friend: >Can you tell me what "ben" means in Japanese? >I read somewhere that it means convenient, or useful? Here is his answer: You know, Japanese use the Chinese characters. The characters are ideograms or ideographic characters and we cannot understand the exact meaning of a certain sound without hearing the whole sentence. Several things come to my mind with the "ben" sound: valve, petal (Ka-ben in Japanese), speech, dialect (Kansai-ben = kansai accent), convenience, and excreta (Dai-ben = feces or stool). These words are usually distinguished by Chinese characters. The same Chinese character is used for "ben" of both benri and benjo: benri = convenience benjo = lavatory or W.C. (ben is convenience and jo is a place) Another my Japanese friend confirms that excreta, Dai-ben (= feces or stool), are the first thing that comes to his mind when he hears "ben" [or "BEN" ?].