Top Five Sonofabitch
(Okay, so I got beaten out by Sonofabitch.com, but I suppose that’s to be expected)
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:05pm Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under: Eli's Obsession With The GoogleArchive for June 22nd, 2006
Science + Spiders = Awesome!
Try to imagine a world without spiderwebs:
The classic spider’s web, like Charlotte would have woven, was invented just once, way back in the Cretaceous period some 136 million years ago, scientists report.
Called an orb web, it’s the generally circular style spun by two major types of spiders, which had raised the possibility of the two groups evolving this form separately.
But a paper in Friday’s issue of the journal Science says a comparison of the spider genes related to web making shows that the orb web developed just once.
(snip)
While the two groups probably developed orb-web spinning from a common ancestor, they came up with different ways of making the web catch prey.
Araneoid webs have glue droplets that make prey stick to the web, while deinopoids wrap their threads with a different type of silk fiber that ”the spiders comb, until it almost has the appearance of Velcro under a microscope, and they snag insects that way,” Garb reported.
On the other hand, I think jumping spiders are kinda cute…
(And there are Velcro spiders? I had no idea.)
2 comments June 22nd, 2006 at 09:54pm Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under: Photoblogging,Pittsburgh,ScienceRandom Braindead Photoblogging
Ugh. Too fried to post anything intelligible, so I will instead attempt to dazzle you with photographic not-quite-mediocrity.
This actually ended up looking a lot better than what I saw in the viewfinder…
Yes, please.
These robots are clearly too primitive to play chess. The RUSHHOUR Traffic Jam Game might be just about their speed, though.
(And when they jam you with their robot cars, you can’t break free. Because they’re made of metal, and robots are strong.)
Also probably not much of a chess player, I’m thinkin’…
4 comments June 22nd, 2006 at 08:38pm Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under: Photoblogging,PittsburghPittsburgh LOVES Chimpy!
I’ve actually been sitting on the first photo for a few months, and recently realized that I now have enough photos in the same vein to support a full post demonstrating just how beloved our fearless leader is here in Pittsburgh.
When I saw all the NASCAR and girlie stickers, I expected to find a whole bunch of Bush/Cheney stickers as well. I guess I was sort of right…
(You may need to click on the pic for a better view, and be sure to check out the homemade duct-tape sticker)
Another satisfied customer.
Come to think of it, oil does seem to have the same effect on Dubya as Cocoa Puffs have on that crazy bird…
9 comments June 22nd, 2006 at 07:37am Posted by Eli
Entry Filed under: Bush,Photoblogging,Pittsburgh,Politics
