I walk into the Computer Science department today morning and I couldn't help notice little containers randomly placed on tables. I had a class on Computational Complexity and as usual I was running a little late so I decided to investigate later.

I walk into class, nod my usual apology to the lecturer and sit down. There on my table was one of them. Then I looked around and there was one of these on every table! Whats happening here?

They are little containers with unmarked white pills in them. Hmm... unmarked white pills? There is no text on the containers saying what the pills might be about. Strange. The only text on them says "JUST BE" in largish red letters on a white label under which there is a url in small font. Aaah.... the whole department was exposed to this stuff. And what a lot of victims they are, they are computer scientists - they hardly ever notice what they are eating. I would not have noticed myself had it not been for my temporary heightened sense of precense I acheive out of being late from time to time.

So what can this be? What sort of tablets would someone label "JUST BE"? A halucinogen? Some new form of crack? Birth control pills? After i went over all the usual possibilities, I started to panic. What if this is one of the secret government test thingies? Maybe a a neural inhibitor? or better a yet, a thought tranfer or a mind control pill? Then it struck me that this reminded me a lot of something I saw on the X-files many years back called "PURITY CONTROL"... JUST BE - PURITY CONTROL ... muuaaahhhaaa...

What sort of agency would expose the department? Maybe the whole campus to these? I decided to pocket one of these to examine it in detail later for clues. As I was doing so, I noticed the url - the url was for a cs department webpage for "WIC". I have heard that name before.. they did it! The "Women In Computing". The WIC exposed the department to unmarked white pills, which many of us would unsuspectingly eat. Why would the WIC want to do that? And what could be in those tablets? Come to think of it I dont know what the WIC really do... they are an organisation of some sort, yes (in most cases their membership is based on some marginal excuses). Why? Why?

This general general thought caused my mind to think about some WIC members. Aah.. well, lets skip that bit for a public blog shall we? And why has there been so much care taken to disguise these tablets to look like common mint? What would happen to me if I were to eat one? I decide to risk it all and try it. After all better take the risks here in the precense of people than to accidentally eat one one when I am alone at home with these tabs.

I flip the container over to try one and then I see this -

What? It expires today? Also it looks like it has been ripped open.. someone has eaten one of these! Something happened here because the victim is missing!

Then the sense and the safety in all of this becomes clear to me. It is a feminism thing.. and these tablet things are most likely just mint or mind control pills or something safe like that after all. And they were there as a show of good will. :) Some small details seem to have been missed, in this case the expiry date... details. After all who cares about details?

All this brought my Complexity lecture to an end. I guess I will have to find another muse for another day.