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02-28-2013, 12:34 PM | Topic Starter |
Immanentize The Eschaton
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A Break From The Alex Smith Drama: Urbanization Is Supersizing Spiders
City living brings with it a few shifts in lifestyle compared to rural habitation: shorter commutes, accessible shops and, often, an over-reliance on restaurant dining and fast food. Another side effect of the congested, cramped, cement-laded city life is that the temperature tends to be a little warmer year-round, a shift known as the “urban heat island” effect.
As it turns out, these changes aren’t only affecting cities’ human populations. In Australia, where spiders already have a propensity to be terrifyingly large, new research by University of Sydney PhD candidate Lizzy Lowe, says The Age, found that Sydney’s higher temperatures and easier access to food are driving the spiders to grow even bigger. She studied the golden orb weaver in three types of environments in and around Sydney – urban parks, remnant bushland and continuous bushland. Twenty sites were studied and, for each spider web found, she assessed its proximity to man-made objects and vegetation. Comparing the sizes of the spiders, she found that the city spiders outpaced the country spiders. And, though her research focused only on Golden orb weaver spiders, she suggests that the same effect can probably be seen in other species. A female golden orb weaver spider. Photo: Arthur Chapman http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...izing-spiders/ |
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02-28-2013, 12:36 PM | #2 |
Bono & Grbac wasn't enough
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Holy ****! Now back to the alex smith threads...
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02-28-2013, 07:49 PM | #3 |
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02-28-2013, 12:36 PM | #4 |
Immanentize The Eschaton
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Here's a pic of the "Clock Spider" linked to the text "terrifyingly large" in the original article:
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02-28-2013, 06:07 PM | #5 | |
special teams
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Quote:
CLOCK SPIDERS
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02-28-2013, 12:36 PM | #6 |
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I like spiders as long as they
1. don't bite me 2. eat all the other little fugtard insects in and around the house 3. I don't see them |
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02-28-2013, 02:02 PM | #7 | |
Sauntering Vaguely Downwards
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Quote:
I've also seen the necrosis on dogs from recluse bites. So a recluse scares the bejesus out of me, especially since they live in shoes and the bites rarely hurt until your flesh starts to rot. So I pick up my golf shoes last summer and I see a couple of soft brown spiders no bigger than a penny. I get pretty close to take a look at them..."MOTHER OF GOD!" Went and looked online again to be sure, yup, a pair of recluses living under my golf shoe. I called the exterminator and told him to nuke the site from orbit. Fire, floods, whatever it took. He didn't really believe me, but when he was done he confirmed that he found a few in the garage. Yeah, I'm an irrational pussy when it comes to that one single type of spider.
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02-28-2013, 11:05 PM | #8 | |
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02-28-2013, 12:38 PM | #9 |
Mahomes Dynasty
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SCAH-REWWWWW THAT !!!!
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02-28-2013, 12:40 PM | #10 |
Immanentize The Eschaton
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I love spiders. Just something about them. They are fun to watch and have some complicated behavior patterns, and such a variety of forms. I really feel bad about it when they surprise me. Because I will, almost without fail, shriek like a little girl and stomp them into goo.
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02-28-2013, 12:52 PM | #11 | ||
¡RIOS MIO!
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Quote:
Quote:
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02-28-2013, 12:57 PM | #12 |
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VARSITY
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Whenever there's a thread about spiders, I have to look behind me to be sure that one isn't about to climb up on my neck or shoulders. I can't help it.
And spiders are like offensive linemen. The best ones do their job and you never see them.
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02-28-2013, 12:59 PM | #13 |
World's finest morphius
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Damn, I killed a few recluses last year, but I'm damn glad none were as big as the ones in listopencil post. uck.
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02-28-2013, 08:09 PM | #14 |
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02-28-2013, 01:00 PM | #15 |
sorta mod-ish
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**** this thread. **** listo. **** everything.
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