[ExI] two observations

[Mike Dougherty]

2010/5/31 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
> Observation 2, just today, I learned that earwigs can fly!  I never even
> knew they had wings.  I wasn't sure I was believing what I saw, until I
> googled and found the following comment on Wiki:

"I done seen 'bout ever'thing fly but never seen no earwig fly"

I think it's interesting the way spiders fly.  A small spider will
produce a strand of silk that catches enough breeze to carry the
spider up into the air.  Maybe it's not technically self-powered
flight; it's a cool trick though.  I imagine it as a metaphor for
human diaspora to the stars - our puny boats won't carry a whole
civilization but a largest enough number of seeds cast to the [solar]
wind might eventually be lucky.  Given our inherent sense of
self-preservation, those seeds will probably have to be digital copies
else the failure rate would be depressingly prohibitive.