The omnipresent pal-parazzi are stealing social lives and, in a sense, souls. They trample all over friendships to ignore “please don’t post these pics; I am a private person” and publicly blow apart the “sorry I can’t make it to your dance party; I can’t dance” excuses with a single Facebook footloose shot. This problem is so prevalent that CNN contacted etiquette expert Anna Post in December for a look at The etiquette of constant photos, Facebook .

Let’s put aside the public gatherings, press clubs, awards ceremonies or other occasions during which one has essentially invited the photo call, and is in fact thrilled to be recognized for a legitimate achievement.

The holiday season has brought a resurgence in guerilla photography. I’m fairly strait-laced, most of the time, but I can thaw my frost-queen roots with close friends and truly dance as if nobody is watching. The problem is, they are watching. And then I find myself on somebody’s Facebook page above a smug “busted!” observation, and the soul of that friendship has been stolen, too.

Recently I broke a personal embargo and attended a large private gathering. I spent the evening dodging cameras and lurking quietly with small groups of good friends who, while gently teasing me about it, allowed me to hide behind them anyway when the evil soul-stealing-cameras approached.

And then I was caught – lured into what I understood to be a personal memory-of-the-evening portrait with other friends, which was then splashed all over social media with a verbal “gotcha, get over it” message the next day. While we were able to patch this up after an intense conversation, the friend in question still fails to understand my discomfort. “You are a public figure now – and this is the world we live in.”

Does it matter that none of these photos is compromising? No. Even if someone is a public figure (I am certainly not), and acknowledging that indeed “it’s a new world,” this is not what is under discussion. What I loathe in finding my true self pictorially kidnapped is the betrayal – the stealing of my soul and the soul of our friendship. When a friend’s loyalty to Facebook overrides our privately shared memories, it’s time to un-friend in real life.

The obvious answer lies in not attending large private gatherings; hence, my embargo. I have a no-photos rule in social events which I host – small informal evenings that give everyone a chance to put up their feet, literally and figuratively, without fear of landing a holy sock on the social equivalent of a New York Times cover. And wonder of wonders, people love these get-togethers. They are safe in these warm, relaxing little groups where the only ones saying “cheese” are those requesting the Brie.

My friends are not party favors for Facebook pages, and our souls should not be stolen. Dare I declare, “Get over it”?

Pour une perspective à la première personne sur l’exploration des océans et la fonte des glaciers, Here’s Why a contacté explorateur polaire et plongeur Milko Vuille, fondateur d’Explorations ACARSA scientifique. Milko, dont nous avons précédemment décrit comme le James Bond de l’exploration scientifique (sérieusement – il est pilote de course automobile, scaphandrier, archéologue sous-marin, explorateur, pilote, photographe de la nature et bien plus encore), a accepté, très aimablement, l’invitation d’avoir une conversation informelle par email vers ses explorations sous-marines et ses plans pour trouver le navire Eira, ce qui était perdu dans l’année 1881 quand de Benjamin Leigh Smith a fait son expédition à la Terre François-Joseph.

Milko et Here’s Why sont des amis “Facebook” ainsi que nous sommes associés vers une groupe qui se concerne de l’archéologie maritime à LinkedIn. Par accord mutuel, ces conversations ont été édités pour la précision de l’orthographe et la grammaire, avec quelques ajustements mineurs de contenu. Veuillez pardonner nos petites erreurs!

Explorer et archéologue sous-marin Milko Vuille

Here’s Why: Milko, je vous remercie beaucoup d’avoir pris le temps de fournir un point de vue des préoccupations sur le réchauffement climatique. Vous avez effectivement étudié la question de la fonte des glaciers en Suisse. Qu’avez-vous découvert?

Milko Vuille: Tout d’abord je tiens à vous dire que c’est très drôle pour moi que vous me comparez à un James Bond de l’exploration scientifique. Je pense que je suis plutôt un “Marco Polo” moderne qui aime beaucoup les pâtes, ma maman étant italienne et je suis toujours prêt à découvrir de nouveaux endroits de notre magnifique planète bleue et à rencontrer d’une manière amicale de nouvelles personnes, ce qui n’est pas toujours le cas de James Bond !

Pour en revenir à votre question, mon intérêt au sujet de la fonte des glaciers suisses est né avec le début de mon projet d’explorer l’archipel de la Terre François Joseph dans l’Arctique russe, qui se trouve proche du pôle Nord.

Here’s Why Avez-vous enregistré quelques données qui montre pourquoi cela se passe?

Milko Vuille: Pas personnellement, mais comme beaucoup de gens à travers le monde, je suis vraiment préoccupé par le fait que quelque chose d’inhabituel se produit. Les scientifiques tentent d’expliquer pourquoi cela se passe. C’est vraiment complexe; les paramètres influençant le climat sont si nombreux.

Here’s Why: A votre avis, est-ce que la fonte des glaciers pourrait abaisser les températures du monde enttier au point où l’équilibre pourrait revienne, avec une tendance au refroidissement?

Milko Vuille: C’est un scénario possible, surtout si un jour le Gulf Stream, l’un des plus forts courants océaniques décide de ralentir fortement. Le soleil, les jet-streams, les nuages, la température des océans, le déplacement de la terre, les volcans, le CO2, le méthane, etc. et peut-être même certains phénomènes cosmiques inconnus pourrait créer une nouvelle ère glaciaire ou peut-être l’inverse, une forte augmentation des températures.

Here’s Why: Pourriez les calottes polaires fondre complètement? Combien de temps cela pourrait-il prendre?

Milko Vuille: J’espère que cela n’arrivera jamais et je préfère ne pas penser à une telle éventualité. Nous ne devons pas oublier que les glaciers du monde entier et les glaces des pôles fournissent un équilibre qui est essentiel à la vie sur Terre. Dans certaines régions, ils apportent l’eau et la nourriture nécessaire à des milliards de personnes, animaux, végétation, etc. De plus, s’ils fondent complètement, ils vont submerger de vastes territoires où il y a une vie abondante, l’homme inclus.

Here’s Why: Faire partie d’une équipe de plongée en eau profonde doit avoir un effet sur l’esprit et le point de vue. Ca fait comment là, loin en dessous de la glace?

Milko Vuille: C’est pour moi un monde magnifique, plein de différents types de vie, de couleurs incroyables, surtout dans les eaux peu profondes où il y a le soleil joue avec les habitants de la mer. Ce paradis m’apporte la sérénité. Vous n’avez pas besoin d’aller en profondeur pour découvrir ce monde merveilleux. Lorsque vous décidez d’aller plus profond c’est parce qu’il y a quelque chose de spécial que vous voulez voir et en ce cas, il y a des règles de sécurité à apprendre et à respecter. Beaucoup de mes plus belles plongées ont été entre 20 cm et 5 mètres de profondeur.

Here’s Why: Avez-vous eu des rencontres mémorable de la faune?

Milko Vuille: J’en ai eu beaucoup, dans différentes mers, océans et aussi dans les lacs suisses. Les dauphins, requins, tortues, phoques, pingouins, iguanes, clownfish, brochets, etc. sont toujours des rencontres fascinantes pour moi. Depuis de nombreuses années j’ai un rêve, je voudrais aborder avec une attitude respectueuse une baleine et son baleineau.

Here’s Why: Avez-vous une expérience exceptionnelle qui a resté avec vous?

Milko Vuille: Je me souviens d’un jour particulier quand j’étais à l’île de Darwin aux Galapagos. J’étais avec palmes, masque et tuba, entouré par des centaines de dauphins quand soudainement deux énormes spécimens, probablement des sentinelles, sont venus m’inspecter très attentivement, du haut de ma tête jusqu’au bout de mes palmes. Quand ils eurent fini, j’ai pu ressentir qu’ils m’autorisaient à nager aux côtés des bébés dauphins et de leurs mères. Ce fut un immense privilège que la nature peut décider d’offrir quand elle comprend que vous êtes en parfaite harmonie avec elle.

Here’s Why: Vous cherchez de commanditaires pour votre prochaine expédition dans l’Arctique à l’archipel de Franz Josef Land. Que ferez-vous là, et comment les gens peuvent soutenir votre travail?

Milko Vuille: Ce projet est né en 2003-2004, pendant la période où j’ai vécu à Saint-Pétersbourg en Russie. Au fil du temps, j’ai développé un réel intérêt pour cet archipel arctique de 131 îles.

Un de mes objectifs est d’aller sur les traces de Benjamin Leigh Smith, un explorateur britannique qui a navigué deux fois en 1880 et 1881 à bord du yacht Eira, de l’Angleterre à la Terre François Josef. J’espère trouver l’épave ou du moins certains éléments de l’Eira qui a coulé, broyé par les glaces en quelques heures au Cap Flora en août 1881.

Je souhaite également organiser avec des scientifiques, des recherches sur le climat du passé et du présent, puis de les comparer avec celles des glaciers alpins en Suisse. Bien sûr, les ours polaires, les bélugas, les narvals, les oiseaux et autres espèces sont des créatures que je tiens à observer et photographier.

Il manque quelque chose d’important pour réaliser ce projet: le soutien d’un sponsor principal. La logistique d’une telle expédition, dans l’une des parties les plus reculées du monde est particulièrement coûteuse.

Here’s Why: La NASA s’interesse au changement climatique depuis l’espace. Leur dernier projet, Aquarius, sera de mesurer les changements dans la salinité des océans dans le cadre d’une mission conjointe avec l’Argentine. Avez-vous remarqué une participation internationale encore plus forte dans le suivi du changement climatique?

Milko Vuille: Oui et j’espère que les nations vont augmenter de plus en plus leurs collaborations sur terre, mer et dans l’espace, comme c’est par example déjà le cas aujourd’hui avec l’ISS la Station Spatiale Internationale. Le climat ne connaît pas de frontières !

Here’s Why: Vous avez récemment assisté au lancement final de la NASA d’Endeavor. Félicitations – et comment avez-vous réussi à le faire? Et pour tous les “space geeks” d’entre nous, comment était cette expérience? (Voir des vidéos du lancement Endeavor avec la permission de Milko Vuille)

Milko Vuille: Quand j’étais gamin, je voulais être un plongeur de la Calypso avec le commandant Cousteau, pilote de chasse et astronaute. Après avoir vu à la télévision Apollo 11 atterrir sur la Lune, j’étais vraiment convaincu qu’un jour je serais du voyage pour aller sur Mars. Quelques années plus tard, avec la technologie actuelle, je suis bien conscient qu’il sera quasiment impossible pour moi d’avoir cette chance. Mais bon, s’ait-on jamais !

Mais une chose est certaine, grâce à Internet et Twitter, j’ai eu l’immense privilège dans ma vie d’être invité par la NASA pour assister à la session Tweetup STS-134 pour l’ultime lancement d’Endeavour. Ce fut pour moi comme un rêve et j’ai passé des jours fantastiques en compagnie de gens passionnés au Centre Spatial Kennedy.

Here’s Why: Le concept de réchauffement de la planète semble si grand, et parfois nous donne le sentiment d’être plutôt impuissants. Que devons-nous savoir, et que pouvons-nous faire dans notre vie quotidienne pour faire une différence?

Milko Vuille: Nos petits gestes peuvent faire une différence, mais bien sûr nous aurons besoin de l’aide des nouvelles technologies et des énergies respectant l’environnement. Nous aurons aussi à partager équitablement les ressources vitales que chaque homme a besoin. Chaque jour, nous ne devrions pas oublier que la vie est précieuse et qu’il est de notre devoir de la respecter et de préserver la nature, ainsi que tous les types de vie qui partagent cette belle planète.

Here’s Why: Milko, je vous remercie beaucoup!

Milko Vuille: Merci à vous Anne, tous mes meilleurs pour vous et vos lecteurs!

For a first-person perspective on ocean exploration and melting glaciers, Here’s Why contacted deepwater polar explorer Milko Vuille, founder of ACARSA Scientific Explorations. Milko, whom we have previously described here as the James Bond of scientific exploration (seriously – race car driver, deep sea diver, underwater archaeologist, explorer, pilot, wilderness photographer and so much more), has kindly agreed to a casual conversation by email about his underwater explorations and his plans to search for the lost vessel Eira from Benjamin Leigh Smith’s 1881 expedition to Franz-Joseph Land.

Milko and Here’s Why are Facebook friends as well as being connected through Linkedin’s Maritime Archaeology group. By mutual agreement, these conversations have been edited for accuracy in spelling and grammar, with some minor content adjustments.

Explorer and Underwater Archaeologist Milko Vuille

Here’s Why: Milko, thank you so much for taking the time to provide some insight into the world of a nature explorer and the growing concerns about global warming. You have actually explored the issue of melting glacial ice in Switzerland. What have you discovered?

Milko Vuille: First of all I would like to tell you that it’s very funny to me that you compare me to a James Bond of scientific exploration. I think I’m more a modern “Marco Polo” who loves pasta – my mom is Italian – and I am always ready to discover new places of our wonderful blue planet and meet in a friendly way new people, which is not always the case of James Bond!

Coming back to your question, my interest about the Swiss glaciers melting was born with the start of my project to explore the Franz Josef Land Archipelago in the Russian Arctic, which is located really closed to the North Pole.

HW: Have you recorded any data that shows why this is happening?

Milko Vuille: Not personally but like many people around the world, I’m really concerned by the fact that something unusual is occurring. Scientists try to explain why this is happening. It’s really complex; the parameters influencing the climate are so numerous.

HW: Could melting glacial ice lower global temperatures to the point where the balance could shift back to a cooling trend?

Milko Vuille: This is one possible scenario, especially if one day the Gulf Stream, one of the strongest ocean currents, decides to slow sharply. The sun, the jet streams, clouds, ocean temperatures, the movement of the earth, volcanoes, CO2, methane, etc. and perhaps even some unknown cosmic phenomena could create a new ice age or perhaps the opposite, a sharp increase in temperatures.

HW: In your view, could the glaciers ever melt completely? How long might that take?

Milko Vuille: I hope it will never happen and I prefer not to think about such an eventuality. We must not forget that the world’s glaciers and polar ice caps provide a balance that is essential to life on Earth. In some areas they bring water and food to billions of people, animals, vegetation, etc. In addition, if they melt completely, they will submerge vast territories where there is an abundant life, man included.

HW: Being a part of an deepwater dive team must have a profound effect on a person. What is it like there, far below the surface?

Milko Vuille: It is for me a magnificent world, full of different types of life, incredible colours, especially in shallow waters where there is the sun playing with the inhabitants of the sea. This paradise brings me serenity. You do not need to go deep to discover this marvellous world. When you decide to go deeper it’s because there is something special you want to see and in this case, there are safety rules to learn and to respect. Many of my best dives were between 20 cm and 5 meters deep.

HW: Have you had any unusual wildlife encounters?

Milko Vuille: I had a lot in different seas, oceans and also in the Swiss lakes. Dolphins, sharks, turtles, seals, penguins, iguanas, clown fishes, pikes, etc. are always fascinating encounters for me. For many years I’ve had a dream: I would like to approach with a respectful attitude a whale and her calf.

HW: What outstanding experience has stayed with you?

Milko Vuille: I remember one particular day when I was at Darwin Island in the Galapagos. I was diving with mask, snorkel and fins, surrounded by hundreds of dolphins when suddenly two huge specimens, probably sentries, came to inspect me very carefully, from the top of my head to the end of my fins. When they had finished, I could feel that they allowed me to swim alongside the babies’ dolphins and their mothers. It was a great privilege that nature may decide to offer when she understands that you are in perfect harmony with her.

HW: You are seeking sponsors for your next Arctic expedition to the Franz Josef Land Archipelago. What will you be doing there, and how can people support your work?

Milko Vuille: This project was born in 2003-2004, during the period when I lived in St. Petersburg in Russia. Over time, I developed a real interest in this Arctic archipelago of 131 islands.

One of my goals is to go in the footsteps of Benjamin Leigh Smith, a British explorer who sailed twice in 1880 and 1881 aboard the yacht Eira, from England to Franz Josef Land. I hope to find the wreck or at least some elements from the Eira that sank, crushed by ice in a few hours at Cape Flora in August 1881. I would also hold with scientists’ research on the climate of the past and present and then compare them with those of alpine glaciers in Switzerland. Of course, polar bears, belugas, narwhals, birds and other species are creatures that I would like to observe and photograph.

It lacks something important for this project to be realized: the support of a main sponsor. The logistics of such an expedition, in one of the most remote parts of the world, is particularly costly.

HW: NASA has an eye on climate change from space. Their latest project, Aquarius, will be measuring changes in ocean salinity as part of a joint mission with Argentina. Are you seeing increased global participation in monitoring climate change?

Milko Vuille: Yes, and I hope that nations will rise to have more collaboration on land, sea and space, as is for example already the case today with the ISS the International Space Station. The climate knows no boundaries!

HW: You recently attended NASA’s final launch of Endeavor. Congratulations – and how did you manage to do that? And for all of us die-hard space geeks, what was it like? (View Endeavor launch videos courtesy of Milko Vuille)

Milko Vuille: When I was a kid, I wanted to be a diver on the Calypso with Captain Cousteau, a fighter pilot and an astronaut. After seeing on television Apollo 11 landing on the moon, I was really convinced that one day I would travel to Mars. A few years later, with current technology, I am well aware that it will be almost impossible for me to have that chance. But hey, you never know!

But one thing is certain, thanks to the Internet and Twitter, I had the great privilege in my life to be invited by NASA to attend the TweetUp STS-134 for the final launch of Endeavour. For me it was like a dream and I spent fantastic days in the company of enthusiast people at Kennedy Space Center.

HW: The concept of global warming seems so big and makes many of us feel rather helpless. What should we know, and what can we do in our everyday lives to make a difference?

Milko Vuille: Our little actions can make a difference but of course we will need the help of new technologies and energies respecting the environment. We will also have to share fairly vital resources that every man needs. Every day we should not forget that life is precious and it is our duty to respect it, and to preserve nature and all types of life who share this beautiful planet.

HW: Milko, thank you so much!

Milko Vuille: My pleasure Anne, all the best to you and your readers!

I write lifestyles features, though. As my bio says, I have tackled subjects ranging from street kids to spas, and I specialize in maritime issues. My English as a second language textbook, “Life Goes Wrong for Harvey,” has just been released on Kindle by my publisher, JAG.

Horror? Horrors!

So how did this happen? Why did I end up with a guest post on Wicked Writers, a short story published in Pill Hill Press’s “The Bitter End ~ Tales of Nautical Terror,” requests from student filmmakers to produce screenplays for their horror flicks, and a developing snarl-a-minute werewolf novella?

Well, here’s why.

Obviously, the current thirst for fictional blood in lupine, vampirical or zombie form – Seth Grahame-Smith’s brilliant “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” anyone? – is behind some of it.

In my case, it is all about being a writer taking a leap into the unknown. For several years, I’d played around with flash fiction for my own amusement, presenting it at writers’ conferences before anyone even knew what it was. “I don’t even know how to critique that,” said one workshop leader, gently. But what I called “verbal photographs” drew the attention of filmmakers, not for money’s sake, but because they got it. From there, I was introduced as an observer to the world of 48-hour film competitions, and that led me to explore New York City Midnight Madness. As fortune would have it, they were offering a brand new type of 48-hour competition: flash fiction. One thousand words, to include an assigned word, genre and location, and to be completed in 48 hours. I jumped right in.

Pacing as I awaited my specifics, I begged the Muses, “Not sci-fi and not horror, please … ” and at 9 p.m. PST, midnight EST, I was emailed “word: ruler; location: police station; genre: sci-fi,” and the accompanying phrase, “Good luck!” With that, my short story “The Light Chasers” came to be. It was – and still is despite tweaks – a bit quirky and tricky to follow if you aren’t into science, but it did well enough to get me into the semi-finals, with a new assignment.

Same pacing, same pleas to the same Muses; the assignment arrived. “Word: piggy bank; location: moving van; genre: horror.” I logged in to the NYCMM live chat to commiserate with other equally shocked writers, and wondered if writing about being assigned this genre would qualify as a horror piece. They laughed, or at least their avatars did.

What followed was one of the most successful pieces I have ever written, in terms of acclaim. I called it “The Last Hunter,” and it was of course a werewolf story. It did well enough to send me to the finals – “Attic; butcher knife; romantic comedy” – and was the beginning of my little fan club, the Wolf Circle. Who knew? Everyone kept asking for more, and I sent out other stories with the same character to my readers, and soon I had a good start on a novella. It might even be longer, but I like short, punchy, action-filled pages.

By this point, I had the confidence to write short fiction for public reading. I knew I could write maritime-themed stories. On a whim, I typed “maritime flash fiction” into Google one evening, and nearly dropped my coffee cup when a call for submissions to Pill Hill Press appeared. It was the only item on the page. Upon closer inspection, I found the genre: horror; and the deadline was in two days. “Of course,” I laughed, picking up my coffee and walking away from my computer – and an idea hit me. I hesitated for only a moment; I’ve written horror now, I can do this. Right? Walk the plank, woman, do it! I wrote “The Thing in the Crosstrees,” ran it past a couple of readers, and submitted it. A week or so later I received an email from Pill Hill’s editor, Jessy Marie Roberts, with a contract and a letter of acceptance.

Dang.

Each of these adventures has given birth to another. “Crosstrees” led to a speaking engagement on a writers panel at the San Diego Maritime Museum. This year I am branching out to learn 48-hour competitive scriptwriting, and of course the film teams have asked me to write horror. There’s no money in it, but there wasn’t when I was entertaining myself with “Tales From the Streetlamp,” either. It’s about stretching, pushing, facing the scariest demon any writer can encounter: the one with the twisted face who says, “Oh, I can’t really do that kind of thing.”

Blast that demon. Go out there and stake your writing claim.

To aid in this, we are grateful to Rod Crawford, curator of arachnids at the Burke Museum in Seattle, WA, who very kindly addressed our questions via email. In this installment of the Spider Quest series, we will talk about why people are scared of spiders, how big tarantulas can get in real life vs. in Hollywood, what spiders eat, and even what they taste like in a good recipe.

So put down the bug spray (it won’t work) and set aside the idea that spiders are out to get you (they aren’t), and see why Hollywood spiders are really no more than scary thoughts.

As always, many thanks to Mr. Crawford for his detailed and helpful answers:

Here’s Why We read somewhere that the starburst pattern is an ancestral memory that promotes the fight-or-flight reaction – flight, mostly! Yet we adore starfish and many cultures eat king crab. Are we hard-wired to fear spiders, or is there some other reason we go pale and shaky around them?

Rod Crawford I don’t have any scientific data because that’s not my field of research – I study spiders, not silly frightened people. However, I do interact with a lot of the latter, of all ages, and as a result of this experience I can definitely state that spider fear is caused by nurture, not nature.

I give many spider programs to first-grade classes. Only a few kids in these classes are really afraid, and the vast majority are very willing to hold a live spider once they’ve seen their peers do so. Very often, in these classes there’s one kid who thinks it’s funny to yell and scream when he touches a spider and tries to startle the other kids into doing the same. Gradually, from this type of antisocial kid, from fearful relatives and teachers, and from Hollywood, the kids pick up spider fears.

At each grade level the percentage of fearful ones is higher until by 6th grade only a few kids in the class have completely escaped it. At some point in the process, cultural differences between girl-culture and boy-culture set in and the girls start to get it more than the boys – but the boys get plenty, and the sex difference is not really that marked among kids. Some people lose their fears as adults, but it seems to be predominantly men who do so, probably because adult-male culture encourages bravery more than adult-female culture does.

However, among professional arachnologists, the sex ratio is practically 50:50, which shows that women are just as likely as men to go all the way to a full-time enjoyment of spiders. In fact, this seems to be more the case in arachnology than in very many other scientific fields.

Only a small percentage of the fearful are full-fledged phobics. These latter tend to attribute their fears to some specific incident in their childhood. But I have no idea whether that’s really correct, or maybe they’re just reasoning after the fact based on psychobabble they’ve heard. Check out this article (in a library – it’s not available online): Hadley, Tad N. 1988. Entomophobia: The case for Miss Muffet.Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America 34(2): 64-69.

HW Hollywood loves to show these huge, hairy, roaring, screaming beasties pursuing helpless humans in the dark. I have two questions about that. The first relates to your earlier post – and many thanks for that – about spider noises. Would we hear a hunting spider shrieking after us?

RC The question about Hollywood spider sounds is closely connected with [the spider noises] post. They sure wouldn’t growl or snarl. If you could hear them (which is a big if – you’d need very high-tech amplification, or the ability to make yourself small like the Incredible Shrinking Man) many would probably sound like a cricket’s or grasshopper’s chirp. Some would probably sound like running a stick along a picket fence. Some higher-frequency ones might sound like a hiss. Wolf spider stridulations are rather sophisticated and can vary in speed and frequency within a single sound event. As I implied before [see Musical spiders? Well ... yes] , at least one sounds like a motorcycle (when amplified).

Also, a spider would not stridulate at its prey! If you’re being chased by a giant spider, don’t expect to hear anything except footsteps.

HW My second Hollywood scary spider movie question is more of an engineering one. In theory, and all conditions being ideal, how big could a spider get before being unable to move on those big hairy legs? Big enough to eat people? Further to that, in real life, how big is the biggest spider in the world? Would it run from us? What is the biggest thing it might attack?

RC The biggest spiders are tarantulas. Although there’s some difference of opinion, Theraphosa leblondi (a.k.a. Theraphosa blondi, an incoorect spelling) is usually considered the biggest. Wild specimens of leblondi reportedly max out at 10 inches leg tip to leg tip, though typical specimens would be substantially smaller – my one specimen is 6 inches. I have heard that a 12 inch specimen has been captive reared but had to be hand fed because it couldn’t get around well enough to catch its own food. So that gives us a pretty good idea of when size gets beyond the “design limits” of basic spider structure.

A spider or insect of monster-movie scale would collapse into a pool of quivering jelly. The external skeleton wouldn’t hold it up (they have no internal bones). Also the respiratory systems wouldn’t get oxygen to that much tissue, and the open (no veins) circulatory system wouldn’t work either.

Tarantulas practically never attack anything as big as or bigger than them. A very big one (or smaller spiders with very strong webs) can on rare occasions catch a small vertebrate, but nothing bigger than a hummingbird or the smallest mice or lizards. No spider lives primarily on a vertebrate diet.

HW I’d like to ask a couple of food questions. Many world cultures eat crab, and some eat spiders. Are spiders and crabs related?

RC Spiders and regular crabs are no more closely related than spiders and insects. They’re all arthropods (exoskeleton, no bones) so have some basic structural similarity. Spiders are a bit closer to “horseshoe crabs” which are not true crabs at all. I don’t know offhand if horseshoe crabs are ever eaten.

HW The Burke Museum recently held a bug-feast and mentioned something about offering edible spiders. Did they really? Would you know if the rumor is correct that roast tarantula tastes like peanut butter? What is the nutritional value of spiders?

RC We often have David Gordon the “bug chef” at our annual Bug Day event. I’m happy to sample his dishes, including tarantula. As prepared by David, the tarantulas taste like whatever sauce he used. Orbweaver abdomens have more of a vegetable flavor, like raw potato or cabbage. According to W.S. Bristowe who studied entomophagy and arachnophagy in Thailand, their local tarantulas tasted like the “marrow of chicken bones.” Personally, my favorite edible insects are grasshoppers and crickets, much the best tasting. This year David experimented with cooking a giant centipede. He and I both agreed it wasn’t one of his greatest culinary successes – too much exoskeleton and not enough meat.

Bristowe analyzed the Thai edible tarantulas and found them to be 63% protein, far higher in protein than any other component of the local diet except fresh fish, which were not always available. There are several web sites on food insects that give similar statistics. Insects *must* be nutritious – all the best arachnids eat little else!

HW Thanks to your information here and in other posts, Mr. Crawford, we know that spiders don’t go trick-or-treating for humans and would really rather be out of our paths. Can you recommend any ways for arachnophobes to overcome our fears?

RC Well, learning more (starting with Spider Myths of course ) is usually going to have some impact on fears that are based on ignorance and misinformation. But this may not be enough to combat a true phobia. I’m sorry to have to break this to phobics, but what they have is a mental illness. Fortunately, phobias have a surprisingly high cure rate with professional psychotherapy. They’re using high-tech methods now that seem to have a high success rate.

HW So there you have it. There is no such thing as a Hollywood-style monster spider, and the biggest, scariest monsters are all in our minds. As a recovering hard-core arachnophobe, Here’s Why can strongly recommend the links and sites below. Though we aren’t quite up to holding the little guys yet, we no longer swoon and call the fire department when we spot one on the wall.

Actually … they really are quite lovely.

*******
Once again, many thanks to Rod Crawford from the Burke Museum in Seattle. Don’t miss Mr. Crawford’s Spider Myths website. It’s a fascinating (sometimes very funny!) look at the craziest stories ever told about spiders. You might want to visit his Spider Collector’s Journal as well. Both of these sites have gone a long way to helping this former arachnophobe appreciate the beauty of spiders.

Take a look at the Burke Museum’s post on house spiders and why we shouldn’t be scared of them, with more information from Mr. Crawford.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RELATED: Why do spiders have eight eyes?

RELATED: Why do spiders and bathtubs go together so well?

RELATED: Musical spiders? Well … yes.

This tier would not issue retroactive payments (99ers would start receiving benefits once the tier became active) and the same job search requirements would apply. The Act also extends payroll tax breaks for employers hiring the unemployed.

Again, many thanks to the Unemployed Friends forum for bringing this to the foreground. We encourage you to visit UF for its excellent resources and current information, as well as for the invaluable solidarity and advice on many topics affecting the unemployed.

Could that be true? Well … sort of. We went on another Spider Quest to find out.

First of all, we looked at the spider page fom The Animal Communication Project by Washington State science writer Stephen Hart. (Check this out! He writes about everything from octopi to elephants, dragonflies to bats.).

Mr. Hart explains that certain boy spiders pluck “notes” on the web-strands of girl spiders, so the girl can tell that her date – not her dinner – has arrived. It’s a bit like strumming a guitar outside her window. How romantic!

It’s not all sweetness, though. We also found an amazing video from Arkive: Images of Life on Earth
of a female spider declaring her intent to take over an existing web by plucking the strands of the web’s owner. If you are uncomfortable with spider closeups, you might want to skip this one. But if you are fascinated by the beauty and elegance of arachnids, then by all means you should see this.

For more information, we contacted Rod Crawford, our favorite arachnologist and the curator of arachnids at the Burke Museum in Seattle. His Spider Myths website is a fascinating (sometimes very funny!) look at the things we should not believe about spiders. You might want to look at his Spider Collector’s Journal as well.

Here’s what Mr. Crawford says about musical spiders in a Q&A via email:

Here’s Why: I really have seen house spiders bouncing (as if doing pushups) on my walls when I’ve played classical guitar music (particularly J.S. Bach) on my stereo. Am I imagining this, or are they actually enjoying it?

Rod Crawford: “Enjoy” wouldn’t be the right word, since they don’t actually have enough brain cells to feel human-like emotions. But if your stereo has enough of a woofer to send vibrations through the floor and walls, spiders would certainly feel that and react in their automatic, robot-like fashion. If any of the tones mimic the pitch of a fly’s wing vibrations, some spiders could detect that through the air as well.

HW: Would certain rhythms mimic the vibrations of prey or of a mate, or do spiders just like to dance on the walls?

RC: Some certainly could mimic prey vibrations. Nobody has made enough studies of the pitch of house spider stridulations to be able to tell if musical pitches could mimic those, but it’s possible. Spiders don’t actually “like” or “dislike” in our sense.

HW: If male spiders pluck “notes” on web strands, is there an actual music to it? Has anyone heard or recorded the sound of this plucking?

RC: To my knowledge, there has been little if any acoustical study of the plucking and stridulation of web-making spiders. One research group has studied wolf spider stridulation extensively (wolf spiders make no webs, so no plucking is involved) and I’ve heard some of their amplified recordings – you might even be able to locate a sound file online, though I have no link handy. A few species have even been discovered by differences in stridulation. One of my colleagues once wanted to name a new species “harleydavidsoni” after its sound, but this noble ambition was quashed by a humorless administrator.

HW: Could a spider actually “like” classical guitar music? Could it “disllike,” so to speak, heavy metal?

RC: Not in those terms, but there could be differences in reaction depending on what realm of spider behavior was evoked by the specific vibes: prey capture, mating, fighting, predator avoidance, etc.

HW: Are there any sounds that they particularly “like” or “dislike”?

RC: I just answered this.

HW: Would certain kinds of music or vibrations scare spiders away (as opposed to grabbing the bug spray or a large shoe)?

RC: Fear, an emotion of us big vertebrate mammals, is not part of the spider’s mental universe. A vibration (such as human footsteps) that denotes an object too big to prey on, frequently evokes some sort of predator avoidance behavior. However, that is just as likely to be freezing-in-place as running-away. Also, spiders (particularly short-sighted indoor species) can’t easily tell the direction vibrations are coming from. They are not detecting these vibrations with ears, but with certain specialized hairs, which are non-directional. If they run, they are as likely to run toward as away from the source. Some run toward the nearest shadow (they can see shadows, but not images). That shadow might be yours! Of course if they could actually see you they’d likely run the other way.

********

Mr. Crawford also adds one more interesting facet to spider communication, caled “stridulation”:

RC: [ Note from HW: We emailed Mr. Crawford about our intentions of writing a web plucking post] I would have liked to see whether you discussed spider stridulation (which is even more prevalent than web-plucking). Lots of spiders – in a moist north temperate zone environment, perhaps as many as 40% – can produce sounds as a means of communication (mostly with potential mates) but only in very few is there any chance of a human hearing these sounds without amplification.

You probably already know how crickets stridulate, but in case you don’t, here’s a nice article from the Scarabs web site http://crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth31.html Similarly, spiders that stridulate have a file on one body part and a scraper on another. The Linyphiidae (sheetweb weavers and microspiders, maybe 35% of the entire U.S. spider species list) have a file on the sides of the chelicerae (jaws) and a scraper at the base of the pedipalps. Some also have a separate apparatus with a file on the book lung covers (underside of abdomen) and a scraper at the base of the 4th legs. Spiders in various families have a file on the back end of the carapace and a scraper on the front end of the abdomen.

There are other possible variants that are less common. Even images of spider stridulatory files are scarce online, but I found one: http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content-nw/full/209/6/1074/FIG6

************

So isn’t this fascinating? Now we know that spiders don’t only pluck to serenade, some also do a kind of violin thing as well!

As for “dancing spiders” – it sounds as if Here’s Why simply has a good imagination.

Again, many thanks to Here’s Why‘s arachnologist of choice, the generous Rod Crawford for his time and his detailed answers. Please do check Mr. Crawford’s Spider Myths website and his arachnology section at the Burke Museum’s website for some more captivating spider information.

ADDENDUM Sept. 8, 2010: Read the Burke Museum’s post on house spiders and why we shouldn’t be scared of them, with more information from Mr. Crawford.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RELATED: Why do spiders have eight eyes?

RELATED: Why do spiders and bathtubs go together so well?

RELATED: Spiders and Hollywood and Phobias – oh my!‏

A quick look:

State unemployment insurance is retroactive, so payments will be sent to eligible recipients starting in two to four weeks (check your state).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE 7/19: 4213 should be addressed again on Tuesday, July 20. From the Democrats Senate Floor Calendar : “Votes: 2:30pm roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture with respect to H.R.4213, which extends Unemployment benefits through November.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

According to the Senate legislative calendar, amendments to H.R. 4213 are under discussion again today, July 12, 2010.

H.R. 4213 would extend the unemployment insurance filing deadlines (see H.R. 4213 discussion this week; no fifth tier before year’s end) from June, but as of yet there is still no Tier V.

Keep an eye on H.R. 5618 this week as well. It does not address COBRA or the weekly stimulus payments, but it does deal with the infamous “temping penalty” that often stops or reduces benefits after someone accepts two or more weeks of temporary employment. (See PASSED: H.R. 5618: Extends deadlines and stops ‘temping penalty’)

The House Ways and Means Committee has a
status page for 4213 and 5618.

To keep an eye on proceedings according to party affiliation, check these links:

Here are the recent modifications to H.R. 4213: American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act from the U.S. Senate Commission on Finance (Max Baucus, Chair). Note that this is a fluid situation and there is more under discussion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to reader Steve for his eyes on this while Here’s Why was otherwise engaged today.

UPDATE 7/1/10: H.R. 5618 has passed the House today at a vote of 270-153. See who voted for and against.

Next step is a Senate vote, which could take place July 12.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This could be an exciting development on June 30, if H.R. 5618 can make it past the opponents.

Though there is no provision for the upkeep of the $25 weekly stimulus payment, nor is there yet a Tier V, H.R. 5618 stops the benefits reduction penalty for those who accept temporary employment. This is a huge incentive and of great help to those people who have accepted temp work for two weeks or more, only to find their benefits have been cut upon reapplication for unemployment insurance.

Keep an eye on this one, and also on S. 3520 if it doesn’t fly.

Thanks again, Steve!

From the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, follow today’s proceedings as they are recorded. There is also a selection of live video, audio and podcast feeds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related:

S.3520: Extension may come in stand-alone bill

Senators Kerry, Reed move to stop benefits penalties for temp work