Supposedly insects are completely programmed by nature, too small to have a brain with anything in it but evolved strategies for survival, and certainly without emotion. At least, this is what I remember being taught. But here are some things I've observed, and at this point they add up enough in my view to require a challenge to science as dogma.
Incident with spider and ants
When I first moved to Columbia, I lived in an apartment where I smoked, because in some immature part of my mind, I thought it would make me look glamourously troubled. I always smoked on my porch, where a small brown spider had a web in the upper corner facing out to the sky. One day, a larger spider moved into the opposite corner. I had a bad feeling about its intentions towards the smaller spider, which I thought of as a friend since it never once made a move to come inside, or walked about menacingly when I was smoking and staring at the stars.
Well, one day the big spider destroyed the small spider and when I came out for a cigarette that night, it was in the smaller spider's web, looking especially large. It made me angry. I went and got a can of Raid, gave it a tremendous blast, and ran inside because I hate to see the scary way they jump around when they die. The next morning I went out to glare in triumph at its corpse, the nasty creature !!
At first I couldn't find the corpse. Then I noticed a small platoon of ants behaving very strangely. They were carrying small pieces of pine needle - none more than an inch in length - and laying them on a small mound that appeared to be composed of pine needles. It was the size of a 50-cent piece. I suspected the spider was under it and with a stick, I disturbed the pile. The spider was under it.
A friend of mine suggested that the ants were marking it as poisoned food. Normally they would eat another dead insect, but this one was covered with Raid. Well - maybe.
Incident of the yellow-jackets
One time there were a couple of yellow jackets around my porch. I've always heard these are mean, though since this incident I've moderated my views. Wanting to get rid of them, I took careful aim and swatted one. It died immediately and I left it on the ground, then went away to do something else. About fifteen minutes later I came back to go inside. But I saw that another yellow jacket was meandering in the air around the porch.
I was looking around for the flyswatter, my eyes on the second yellow jacket, when it discovered its dead friend. I mean, it just had to be a friend. The second yellow jacket had been juuuuuust buzzing along, with no particular direction or apparent intent, and then when it saw the dead yellow jacket, everything changed.
It's buzz went from a laid-back "bbbbzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzz," to something that sounded terribly upset and distraught, more like "BZ! BZZZZZZ !!! BZZZZZ !!! BZZ BZZ BZZ !!!" (I was astonished - it really sounded in tone and rhythm strikingly like a human saying, "George ! Oh my God - GEORGE !!") While I watched, it landed by the body of the first yellow jacket and, with obvious distress, examined it. When it saw the first one was completely dead, the buzz dropped in tone to something like, "bzzzzzzzzzzzz... bzzzzzzzzzz." It sounded much lower and quieter, which made it sound sad. Then with great effort, it picked up the first, dead one, and flew away with it.
Now I don't hit yellow jackets.
Incident of the ant
In my Cupertino townhouse, especially after rain, tiny black sugar ants try very hard to come inside. I've found and caulked most of their entries, and now they are reduced to coming in through pipes around sinks. Two days ago, I sprayed a sink with Raid. Yesterday, there were some dead ants that had tried to come up and suffocated from the smell, and I cleaned them up because who wants dead bodies in their sink?
But one more must have come up or maybe I missed one. Anyway, this morning I saw what appeared to be a deformed, elongated ant. On closer inspection, I saw that it was a living ant carrying one of yesterday's dead ants. I didn't molest it, and it went back in the sink and I haven't seen any more ants since.
What's the deal with all of that? I suspect science is simplistic and inaccurate in its estimation of the life, even the insect life, we share the world with.
My awesome idea for a start-up!!
I want to create a little robotic dragonfly that has a ball-point-pen-sized cannister of ink and is remote-controlled, in the same way those lightweight hobby aeroplanes are. Standing safely out of sight (or within sight, but possibly disguised!) I will fly my dragonfly up to traffic lights that are armed with those cameras that take pictures of traffic and automatically generate tickets for infractions. With the gentle push of a button, the ink cartridge will squirt a perfectly marvellous blot of opaque, super-sticky ink onto the camera lens, and then the dragonfly will return to me for a new cannister!
I haven't figured out how to monetize my idea yet, but even if I never figure that part out I would still:
1. become an urban legend (I've always longed to be a legendary international diamond thief, but I'll settle for this in a pinch)
2. have far more job satisfaction than I have right now!
3. truly feel I was doing something inarguably beneficial for fellow human beings (a problem for my alternative diamond thief aspirations).
Are you an investor? Please contact me.
Three cameras at this modest intersection near Stanford!
Full circle
Friday I was chatting with one of my co-workers. We were talking about mobile phones and how they can ruin your life - by shorting out and not ringing or vibrating, by not delivering messages when they are left, and by eating all of your data. She said she had realized about a month ago that if she lost the data in her phone, she could never replace it because for several years, that was the ONLY place she entered or stored new numbers for business connections or friends she had met and made. The realization made her uneasy, and she went through her phone contacts and wrote down, on paper, all of the information.
Guess what? Two weeks later, the phone ate her data!
That's not surprising. What about this is surprising?
She backed up her digital data on paper!
Guess what I'm doing tonight?
The humble Honda
I drive a Civic. I really like it, although it doesn't excite much admiration for overall visual styling or designed luxury. One thing I really like about it is that it starts, and never breaks down or leaves me stranded. When I first bought it, after a marathon of Saturdays in Pep-Boys watching NASCAR and reading car muscle magazines while my old car ruthlessly ate all my extra money for the month, just the fact that it was so polite that it turned the lights on for me when I unlocked it was enchanting. And it turned the lights off after I walked away from the car! As a female, I love that. It makes me feel more secure in a dark parking lot.
Compared to my previous car, which I had to actively plan to park on a hill to ensure I could start it on cold mornings, it was a dream come true. The dream of not having to rely on reluctant strangers to help me when it misbehaved, of not having to buy lunch or dinner for inconvenienced acquaintances who didn't really want to spend their time rescuing me, of not having to worry that the man with the battery cables is an axe murderer...
So today I got my car an oil change. It hasn't had one for three years, or any other care since its first scheduled maintenance four years ago, for that matter. And I drove it from SC to Texas in winter, then from Texas to California in summer! This is because I can not bring myself to spend one more afternoon waiting for my car in a concrete waiting room full of NASCAR magazines.
Guess what the mechanic said?
A little bit low on oil, but that's very common. Air filter so-so, but not bad (I replaced it). Timing belts fine. Everything good.
After three years with NO care.
WOW!! When I finally have to trade it in, I want another just like it!
Christmas in the Park in San Jose
No, I don't want to go. Christmas is supposed to sparkle and enchant, and I hate that so many of the displays are so shabby and in desperate need of refurbishing or retirement. Children don't notice, but I do. It seems a strange thing to feel so strongly about, but I do feel strongly about it.
See the lights in Willow Glen? Yes! I love that!
deborah64554
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