rule of three, featuring three chairs, three bowls of porridge, three beds, and the three title characters who live in the house. There are also three sequences of the bears discovering in turn that someone has been eating from their porridge, sitting in their chairs, and finally, lying in their beds, at which point is the climax of Goldilocks being discovered. This follows three earlier sequences of Goldilocks trying the bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds successively, each time finding the third "just right". Author Christopher Booker characterises this as the "dialectical three", where "the first is wrong in one way, the second in another or opposite way, and only the third, in the middle, is just right". Booker continues: "This idea that the way forward lies in finding an exact middle path between opposites is of extraordinary importance in storytelling". This concept has spread across many other disciplines, particularly developmental psychology, biology, economics, and engineering where it is called the "Goldilocks principle". In planetary astronomy, a planet orbiting its sun at just the right distance for liquid water to exist on its surface, neither too hot nor too cold, is referred to as being in the 'Goldilocks Zone'. As Stephen Hawking put it, "like Goldilocks, the development of intelligent life requires that planetary temperatures be 'just right. Adaptations Animated shorts Looney Tunes' Three Bears Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears is a 1944 Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on February 26, 1944, and features Bugs Bunny. Later Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts continued the use of the same Three Bears family, distinguished by a short, irascible father named Henry, a deadpan mother, and a huge, oafish seven-year-old "baby," still in diapers. Jones first brought back the Bears for his 1948 cartoon What's Brewin', Bruin?. Here, Papa Bear decides that it's time for the Bears to hibernate; however, various disturbances interfere. Junior's voice is here supplied by Stan Freberg. Other Three Bears cartoons included Bear Feat (1948) and The Bee-Deviled Bruin (1949). The final golden-age cartoon with this bear family, A Bear for Punishment (1951), parodies cultural values surrounding the celebration of Father's Day. Looney Tunes comic books and more modern TV cartoons have now and then continued the use of the characters, occasionally in starring roles. Terrytoons' The Three Bears A short film by Terrytoons titled The Three Bears was released