17. I Spy With My Little Eye... A Flaw...

It was just another evening where I have just finished my dinner and I was just lazing around in the living room. My 4 year old cousin was watching television, and at one instance she flipped over to Playhouse Disney. Bored, I decided to see what's on screen at that time.

The scenario was a wicked spider trying to tempt 3 flies into coming into her web (well, in real life it's just a means of going up the food chain, and the spider is then deemed innocent, but let's just assume that the spider is the bad character here.) For easy reference, there were 2 girl flies (coz they were acted by girls in costumes) and a boy fly.

The scene went like this (as far as I can accurately remember it):

Spider: (Turns on seduction tone) Hey there my pretties, why don't you come over and join me at my web?

Girl Fly 1: Don't get too close to the web, you'll get trapped.

Spider: Oh, but I have lots of sweeties! I made sticky cookies, and sticky cake and (takes a huge whiff) Mmm! Mmm! Mmm! (With emphasis) Sticky Pie!

Boy Fly: Ooo, that sounds great! Maybe I'll just have a little bit o..

Girl Fly 2: No! Don't go! She's trying to trick you!

Spider: Oh but am I? Take a look at this sticky pie. Doesn't it look absolutely delicious?

Boy Fly: Oh all right, I'll have some sticky pie then. (Flies towards the spider)

Girl Flies: Hey stop! (Follows the boy fly in an attempt to stop him)


But...it was too late.


Spider: (Cackling) Muahahaha, I've got you my little pretties! I shall eat you all later. Be right back!

Narrator: Uh oh! Looks like the flies are in a sticky situation! If they are to get out of the spider's web, they need to come up with a plan

Girl Fly 1: We need to come up with a plan (Repeating the obvious, thank you). Do you guys have any ideas?

Girl Fly 2: Hm...the spider web is sticky right? Perhaps...we need something stickier. But what do we have that is very sticky?

Boy fly: Maybe...we can use these pieces of marshmallows. They are kinda sticky. It might just work.

Girl fly 1: It's worth a shot. Go for it.


Boy fly: Oh Spiderrrrrrrr!!!!! I have a surprise for you!!!

Spider: Oooooh, I LOVE surprises! What is it?

Boy fly: It's a marshmallow! Here, try it!

Spider: (Takes and consumes it) Mmm... it's so tasty... and sweet... and so sticky... and... and... (begins to struggle) Nooooo!! I'm stuck!

Girl fly 1: It worked! We did it! Now let’s get out of here!

The story concluded by the flies being free. After that skit, they took off their costumes and proceeded with some singing.

I picked on what I had just seen a few minutes ago, and came up with some arguments about the logic regarding that skit.

1. Spider webs should be sticker than marshmallows.

Imagine that if you put a fly on top of a damp marshmallow (reason being a dry marshmallow isn’t sticky). The fly should be able to fly off, but if you put a fly on a spider web, it should be trapped, if not the spider web is useless, and the spider would die of hunger.

2. How did the flies manage to keep the marshmallows?

I’m not a fly specialist, but I do know that most flies aren’t pollinators, and they don’t have specialized pockets (also known as Scopa) to carry pollen around. And if the flies are pollinators, they wouldn’t be in contact with marshmallows. Okay, so I’ll give the benefit of doubt that some humans decide to have some marshmallows and accidentally dropped some or left some behind, and the scent managed to attract the flies. Even so, it’s not like the flies are able to keep marshmallows on themselves. I mean, they are not Doraemon, are they?

3. If the marshmallow is indeed sticky, how did the fly manage to pass it to the spider anyway?

Now this is indeed interesting. The marshmallows cannot be pollen sized (if not the spider can’t eat it), and it should be of certain stickiness in order to stick to the fly. And it’s not like that marshmallows are chewing gum that the spider should be ‘stuck’ anyway.

4. How did the flies manage to fly free after the spider consumed the marshmallow?

I’ve never heard of a magical marshmallow, nor have I heard (or logically reasoned) that a fly should be able to escape a spider web after being stuck on it (and with ease too!). Unless the spider web’s stickiness is fortified by enchantments or spells, and the marshmallow somehow weakened the state of the spider that the enchantments should somehow fail. But then again, I’ve never heard of flies carrying marshmallows, and spiders making sticky goodies for flies to eat…

I think I reason too much…but it is fun and humourous too to come up with such randomness at times…

2. Maggi Mee - Excessive Na compounds inside

For those Bio intolerant people (i.e. AFP syndrome according to Felix), you may skip this brief intro on the properties of Sodium in the body:

Sodium plays a part in affecting your blood pressure. This is because sodium retains water, and the more water in your bloodstream (i.e. higher volume of water), the higher your blood pressure due to the osmotic pressure of water. High blood pressure caused by excess sodium can actually cause blood not to be filtered thoroughly of waste in the kidney, and the kidney has to overwork, and eventually causing kidney failure if the problem develops, and this also complicates high blood pressure. High blood pressure is a serious disease nowadays, probably due to the fact that there are no specific physical symptoms, so a person may be suffering from high blood pressure and not know about it. High blood pressure is defined as blood pressure above 140/90 mm Hg. FDA suggests that the daily intake of sodium should not exceed 2400mg.

So tonight I wasn't really feeling hungry, but yet I needed to eat something to fill my stomach, so I opened my side cupboard and fished out a packet of curry Maggi Mee. While waiting for the water to boil, I decided to check out the sodium content in the nutrition table. The result: 1870mg. (Beef flavour has 1780mg, Indo Mee 830mg). Anyway, that little packet of curry Maggi Mee provides 77.92% of your maximum daily sodium intake. Some of us take two packets because one isn't really filling. So that means you consume 155.8% of your maximum recommended daily intake from those two packets, considering you eat pure bland food for your breakfast / lunch / dinner. This concludes that, one, Maggi Mee will pwn your life if taken consistently. Two, Indo Mee is better than Maggi Mee (2 packets vs 1. Not filling? Drink pure water that you use if you make Maggi Mee soup). Probably there should be a campaign that helps raise awareness that Maggi Mee is comparable to cigarettes or something, but the support from the citizens won't be very promising...