Spider webs

Didn't NASA do some experiments with spider spinning webs in space?

Yes Dadpad, they did. Also National Geographic had photographs of some webs woven with the spider under the influence of LSD. Check back issues around the sixties.

NWI, Honeybees also have done some math with the shape of their honeycombs for instance.

If one decides whether or not they possess brains or not would depend on ones definition of brain I suppose.

It's amazing to me how much functionality can be stored in such tiny brains.

I don't for a minute think that a spider understands what it is building, in the same way that we understand it. But still, the elemental urge to string webs on branches and then re-inforce them (resulting in an efficient snare) is amazing given the physical limits of spider brain.

Imagine what a tiny shred of our brains must go into riding a bicycle (the equivalent of building a web for a spider).

Here's a spider I recently discovered in Dallas, the basilica spider. The whole web complex is two feet in diameter. What impressed me was the net-like webbing of the dome. When the female is ready to leave the web she cuts the silk holding the dome part down, and it springs up over the egg cases above. She then tightly wraps the egg cases in the dome silk and leaves to construct another web.

think of the birds nests put together by various species. I have a hummingbird nest in my office perched in a planter . Everyone comments on it and some examine it closely to see the engineering behind it.

Great thread, NW. I think that at one time, bullet proof vests were filled with some sort of spider webbing. There is a distinct difference between a cobweb and a spider web. When I was a kid, there used to be, what some folks called, a common garden spider. The cobweb was on my English boxwood and and in the center was the spider. In the early morning, when the dew was on that web, it was a work of art. I think, perhaps, that spiders operate in the spinning through pure instinct, however:

The diadem spider web:

I knew an artist who would add spier webs to his paintings. Hed go outside, find a good web, then hed chase the spider (didnt wanna hurt it. Then he would spray the spider web with KRYLON and then run his canvas right into it. Always made a neat little counterpoint to his main subject.

That ain't art fm. That's pretentious twittery.

This is awesome.

Normal web:


Spider on LSD:


Spider on Mescaline:


Spider on Hashish:


Spider on Caffeine:

HOW DO THEY MAKE THOSE LITTLE CUPS IN WHICH TO POUR COFFEE FOR THE SPIDERS?

I don't see how any natural phenomenom is more "awesome" or "artistic" than any other. My little toe nail for example.

Thats cause your soul is dead shpendi. Many of us are in a constant state of amazement about how others merely dopple through life missing the falcon overhead, or the occasional whale. Youve got to first notice so you can be amazed
You, apparently see all you need through the small opening that is your anal orifice.

I wanna know how they get 'em to snort cocaine . . .

fm wrote-



Only a deeply religious person could think such a thing. A scientific materialist knows that soul is the same as body and as I'm very much alive, as writing this proves, my soul cannot be dead. Thus, by a very simple logic, your first sentence is pure crap which leaves a scientific materialist wondering why it was written.

The second sentence has no necessary connection to the first and one presumes the writer assumes that A2K readers are too stupid to notice and will draw the conclusion the writer hopes for which is that fm has a soul and is one of the "many" (a very religious word when not quantified) who notice falcons and whales and thus have a monopoly on being amazed as if falcons and whales exist for the purpose of his using them to claim his superiority over those who "dopple" through life. (A bald assertion with no evidence to support it- again a religious notion and one which justifies others using assertions for their own purpose.)

The third sentence is so obviously true as to be hardly worth the effort of writing it and it's presence on the www suggests the writer thinks some of us are still in nappies.

The "many" have thus been corraled by base flattery to associate themselves with the general sentimentalities expressed which on slight examination are void of content.

I'm glad it is only "apparent" to this easily cajoled "many" that I only see things through my anal orifice. I have no comment to make on apparitions as they are entirely personal to the victim but it is worth noting that no explanation has been offered as to why there is anything special about spider's webs, falcons or whales except possibly that fm has noticed them and that is the source of their beauty as they provide an opportunity for an invidious comparison between fm and his happy band of "manies" and those of us who are deemed to only dopple our way through life gazing through our anal orifices.

As spider's webs, falcons and whales are determined by evolutionary processes in the same way as rats, scorpions, slugs, dandelions, the bark on trees and the little toe-nails of the doppling brigade they are obviously all more or less of equal beauty and one presumes that the " many" view their little toe-nails with some disdain having not noticed them and are thus disabled from being amazed at them or, indeed, being amazed at rats, scorpions, slugs, dandelions and the bark on trees.

One senses that spider's webs, falcons and whales are being used here as status symbols signifying a higher form of intelligence in much the same way that nice curtains and other gee-gaws are commonly used and are therefore being patronised.

One thing fm has seemingly not noticed is human language use and he thus cannot, along with his "many", be amazed at it as I am along with everything else in this wonderful world we live in.

Possibly the view through the anal orifice is more panoramic than the view through the rose-tinted catheter of the highly developed ego and thus to be recommended and especially so to those who have been denied the opportunity to gaze with subjective and self-serving awe upon spider's webs, falcons and whales and are condemned to dopple their way through life as a result.

. Once again, by not having a clue, you prove my point.

Once again there is no explanation of the aesthetic difference between a spider's web and my little toe nail. There's just a snooty attitude to dopplers everywhere. Camera work's the main thing. Got nothing to do with spiders. Spiders are stupid. They've had a lot longer than us to work on it and they can't even think up a fridge. Light patterns captured by the new range of camera.

I was once watching a spider's web and I was lucky enough to see a fly hit it. I glanced up at the lair and I could have sworn I saw the spider's eyes gleam before it set off to do its work. I was a kid then. Gobsmacked. Not just with spider's webs. When I noticed girls I was more amazed than I imagine I could be seeing a falcon in the sky or a whale blowing off.

I had a spider's web in the corner of the cab once and when my tacho was checked once by an officious officer he found a whole rake of them instead of the disc.

Well- never mind. I know you can't so you needn't bother trying as you not having done suggests that.

Spider's webs are not so beautiful when you're scraping them off a barn wall.

What would you do fm if you were a guest at a posh dinner party and you noticed a nice spider's web in the chandelier? Would you drop the butler in the **** by drawing attention to its beauty?

Isn't it obvious? You feed it flies that have snorted the cocaine...



You forgot to say "therefore, farmerman is deeply religious," although you might as well have. And that would be so insightful.

You don't have to disprove the soul to us. Just because people use the word does not mean they believe in the asanine biblical definition.

And as a matter of fact, people with scientific interest generally are a great deal more intrigued by the wonders of nature...that is why they dedicate their lives to studying it, as opposed to destroying it for economic profit...

stuh wrote-



I agree. There are other reasons such as conspicuous consumption which might be classed as economic profit if you like. There might be bloody-mindedness.

What do you think about jetting off to far away cities to "meet" a tiny proportion of other A2Kers for a few days? You seem to be saying that they can't have much scientific interest unless you say they are not contributing to the destruction of nature.

What about fm having to clean a wodge of "sea-food" (wow-that is anthropomorphic) out of his bow-thrusters.

Wouldn't a proper scientist focus his interest narrowly rather than require a montage of novelties to pass before his eyes.



I did say it. With the "only".

I'm not invited, and it sounds a little silly, but it doesn't bother me. Does it bother you? Are you suggesting that by flying in a plane they are wasting resources which contribute to the destruction of nature? Because if you are, that's just silly; we all use resources, and transportation to meet with friends is hardly a wanton usage...



Does that mean something?



Even a narrowly specialized person has time to observe what is passing before his eyes.