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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: White Bear who wrote (9781)	6/29/2006 2:22:31 AM
From: White Bear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

I had a "Spinner" that I used at work. It was made to provide an easy way to evenly pour a very "sticky substance" on the front of a plate that was 10 1/2 in diameter and about 5/8 inches thick. I would pour the substance and it would flow outward because of the velocity. When the machine was not being used for a while it looked like it was ready to receive a 45-RPM record that would effectively cover the disc or platform. The excess "sticky substance" would be contained in a circular tray that was about 14 inches in diameter. One day a fly flew onto the edge of this disc or platform. Being round at the edge he looked at the glue and then he walked a bit and looked over the edge of this round disc and the view was the same. He could not fly away because the chemical in this "sticky substance" had drawn him in and he was drugged. I reached over and turned the motor that drove this round disc. The disc reached maximum RPMs within less then 2 seconds I would estimate. There was no clutch and the load was very light for the motor. Guess what the fly did in less then 2 seconds in order to save his life. Remember this is his first time on the spinner and he can't fly. He did a 180 and beat it to the middle in less then two seconds. When I turned it off he walked to the edge and dreamed of his escape once again. There is no moral to this story unless being on the edge is dangerous, the middle is secure, and even a fly knows it. It is also important to try and understand why the fly knew the center was safe. When he turned to face the center before he made his run, did he think should I or shouldn’t I. Did it ever enter his mind that he was better off jumping off the edge? If he didn’t, then why did he go back to the edge the second time? I flicked him off with my finger while he was waiting for the first sign of a vibration or the moment of inertia. I thought about that fly for years, and then I realized that his sensitivity to motion is not the movement beneath him but the change of the wind on his hair and the ability to know the difference by turning 180 degrees. Even the fly knows which way the wind blows.