Double-Minded

Double-minded man (i.e., field mouse) Driving in country at night when headlights showed up a field mouse dead ahead. He first started toward the left, then right, then left, and finally stood still as the car passed over him.

Source unknown

To Catch a Fly

From the often austere letters column of the scientific journal Nature comes advice on the best way to swat a fly: “A piece of tissue paper is taken in each hand and the fly approached from the left and right, keeping the hands equidistant from the fly and moving to and fro slightly. Then both hands simultaneously pounce.”

The advice is soundly grounded in “fly-neuroscience.” Dr. Edward Gray of England’s University College, London, wrote: “The fly cannot cope with this situation, since its central-nervous-system circuitry is geared to avoid approaching movement in only one part of its visual field at a time. Two simultaneously approaching threats render the fly immobile, for its central nervous system now cannot compute at which angle to take off.”

Boston Globe