Return of the Solpugid (Sun Spider)
by Eric Fox on Friday, May 4, 2012
Angela found this guy on our porch, by the back door. Possibly waiting to to come in? A bit larger than her thumb, he’s about 1.5 inches long and quite fierce looking, but harmless to people — mostly. If I remember right, they dont really have pincers and their mouths are too small to break your skin.
This guy is pretty good sized, but not the largest we’ve seen. When we moved in nearly a decade ago, there were two that were about the size of my open hand — one on the front porch, and one on the back. We haven’t seen them since then, just some little dime-sized ones every once in a while.
If you ever come across one of these, be kind to them. Its my understanding that they hunt scorpions in addition to other bugs.
Anything that eats scorpions is a friend of mine.
More pictures of the little guy:
Missed: Lurid Meteor Shower
by Eric Fox on Tuesday, April 24, 2012I really should go through my reading list more often. The Lyrid Meteor Shower was at it’s peak this last weekend, and I missed it. (sigh) Hopefully they got some good pictures of it from space. That would be fun.
http://www.space.com/15364-lyrid-meteor-shower-2012-skywatching-archive.html
Twitter Weekly Updates for 03/30/2012
http://t.co/7EZUBFlu An excellent article on why you should take care when deciding to show or hide your address in Google Places. ->
Twitter Weekly Updates for 03/02/2012
A bit creepy at the last frame: http://t.co/EvymjprR -> http://t.co/dilRAicV Huawei Ascend D Quad: Quad Core ICS Android — Possibly the Fastest Android, yet! -> Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine? http://t.co/RaZwjlRC -> Tongue in Cheek, but pretty funny: http://t.co/X7vOmEp7 Time to Close your Facebook Account! ->
Old Hammer Vac
So I found this image on Digg and wanted to share it here, but also wanted to give proper acknowledgement to it’s author, presumably on Flickr. The problem is, whoever posted it to Digg, posted a link to the actual image, not to the Flickr page where they found it. I have wasted more than…Read More »
Energy Efficient Window Damages Car with Sunlight
A woman in Studio City, California, bought a Toyota Prius, but noticed within days that the plastic on her mirrors was melting. “The side view mirrors were melting. Anything that was plastic on the car was melting.” Toyota confirmed that nothing was wrong with the plastic, and after she replaced the mirrors, she noticed the…Read More »
A Bit of Geekyness
I know this is all just a bunch of geeky fun, but I had to share. During my regular day-to-day duties, I provide technical support services for a number of folks. Sometimes when they call, it’s an issue that has to be handled immediately. Such as these, today. I was away from my desk and…Read More »
The Bark Side of the Force
If I have to explain it to you … well, you get the point.
SOPA/PIPA Strike Over?
The Jan 18th SOPA & PIPA strike is over and sites are coming back online. But, I found it to be an interesting experience. About half of the websites I use regularly, perhaps more, were blacked out for the bulk of the day. Of those that weren’t unavailable, they still had blacked out or censored…Read More »
On Strike against SOPA & PIPA
Not much of a post, tonight. Nobody can read it anyway, as I’ve temporarily shut down the site in protest against SOPA & PIPA legislation.
Young Blood as Cure for Aging?
Scientists at the University of Cambridge have recently discovered that blood from younger mice can help cure, or remove, the damage caused by multiple sclerosis and other diseases and age related issues. This is apparently accomplished, partially, because the younger blood cleans out pathogens and debris that builds up over time. I am probably way…Read More »
By any other name …
This is one of Angela’s mini-roses, in a planter on our back porch. Looks like I made it just barely over a week before crapping out on making daily posts. So in order to make amends to myself, I’m tacking these missing three days on to the end of my month — until February 4th. …Read More »
Non-posting
I was going to find something interesting or insightful to write about tonight, but I’m very tired. So rather torture myself, or you when you attempt to read the results, I’ll just drop this non-post here and work on something better in the morning. Does this mean I owe two postings for tomorrow?
Somebody That I Used to Know
For your enjoyment: Somebody That I Used to Know by Walk off the Earth
Virtual “Cloud Ceiling” Improves Performance of Office Workers
German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart, claim that the human mind is geared to work best under an open sky, with passing clouds and varying illumination, that the constant glare of office lighting is sub-optimal. So they have come up with a “Virtual Sky” ceiling as a solution. The…Read More »
2012: Year of the Dragon
I just learned that 2012 is a Year of the Dragon. I find this personnally significant since I was born as a “Dragon.” Hmmm … does this mean I could acquire super-powers this year?
Exoskeletons!
This is pretty cool, the company Ekso Bionics, is preparing to begin releasing a new exoskeleton product in mid-2012 for people currently using wheel-chairs. http://m.spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/goodbye-wheelchair-hello-exoskeleton
Both ends of the Candle
I stayed up way too late last night, then was up again at 4am this morning to watch the Quadrantid meteor shower. It wasn’t as much fun as I was hoping for. We stood outside watching the NNE sky for a bit more than a half-hour and saw less than a handfull of meteors. So…Read More »
Look for Meteors Early Tomorrow Morning
Early tomorrow morning, the northern sky should light up from the Quadrantid meteor shower. The best time to see this show will be between 3am (after the moon sets) until dawn. The meteors will probably appear low on the horizon, so you’ll want to find a vantage point without obstructions in the lower sky to…Read More »
Where will YOU be when the world ends?
The last day of the Mayan Long Count calendar is December 21, 2012. Some folks believe this marks the Mayan’s prediction of an apocalyptic end of the world and are preparing for the worst (who hasn’t seen the movie 2012, yet?), while others are planning travel, holidays, and vacations around this date in order to…Read More »