trained flies

I realise that its too soon to complain about my state of listlessness, my holidays are now suddenly packed full with the impending ISMS, PLURAL. And no rest. I do realise its fatigue eating away at my bones, but what can i do?
A simple wish of curling up for a few days at home or on a beach with NO homo sapiens around might be too much to ask for. To do something non-work related, to squander away time legally, and happily, and not with the constant axe above your neck.

At least im going to be doing what i like. The happiness was palpable when the boss finally answered that nagging question - is this material paper-worthy? YES. I have a goal now.
And Doc Don, ever the nicest prof ever, has been so accomodating to my requests and sent me home with a few readings to help me along the biosemiotic way - id been looking for Temple Gradin's Animals in Translation for so long and now its dumped right on my lap. Gradin, being a rahter severe autistic woman, is able to see what the animals percieve better than the general homo populace. In short, she provides a very objective view on the subjectivities that science so much shuns. A new perspective here on ethology and behaviour would do nicely right now. Grin. One more book to devour.

And speaking of beahviour, lookit this:



Eyebrow twitchy isnt it? My take? the flies are drugged. If you'll notice, all the flies have their probisci fully extended - very unnatural - i only see this when they get doused in alcohol. They look rather sluggish too. All flies move darn fast, and especially for this fly, a tabanus, or horse fly, is a blood sucker on (you guessed it) horses. Since horse tail makes a mighty good fly swatter so you'll bet their reflexes are lightning. Only now in this clip, you see them behaving like ineberated men.

Oh i do hate that silly jap guy eyes a-bulging going OOOO OOOO OOOO like it was some midget giving birth to elephant kind of scene. Damn japs.

Anyway, i'd say the turn-around was probly caused by either some physical trick (pulled by strings or blown down - im betting on that), or that the flies in their drugged state react to the finger and the shadows cast by the finger. From here on it gets easy - the playing with the balls is just the fly's motor-reflex to walk, hence rolling the ball around like any good circus bear.

So in the end, id bet the fly is in alot of discomfort and probably pain if it could feel it - extension of the probisci say as much. As ive always said, japs are wierd. Sick ol lady. We'll see what beachball you'll be rolling around, with your tongue permanently sticking out of your lockjaw, after we drug you wont we?

nyeh.
yc out