Showing posts with label Spiders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiders. Show all posts

Sunday 9 June 2013

Ampleforth, Spiders and Evolution

Still feeling the after effects of whatever I've had , but well impressed with the cotage which sensibly has it's own wifi , though I feel this will be a growing trend. Ironic that I cant get a phone signal so cant recieve calls or texts but can use my phone to surf the net and listen to online radio stations. You can see the cottage here.

Anyway this was up during the night and noticed a spider in the bath (there are lots of arachnid vistors to this cottage but what can you expect is such a rural area). This morning it was still there and it got me wondering. Spiders are essentially intelligent creatures and ceramic baths have been around for 150 years or so , so why have they not learned to climb out of a bath yet. More pertinently a spider arriving in a bath from the plug hole is like a driver arriving in a cul-de-sac . Eventually you realise that you've made a mistake (unless the place you want to go is in the cul-de-sac) and then you leave the way you came, This is one area where spider show a distinct lack of intelligence.

Lot's of people can't be doing with spiders and it's basically humans cannot deal with creatures with more legs than them that move faster than them. I'm generally ok with spiders as they cull the insect population , but would prefer it if they keep out of my way.

Given the amount of arachnid action today there can only be one one song for the June's Tunes:


Tuesday 2 March 2010

Charlie Brooker: Danger Man!






Just coming home I noticed a human derelict on the steps of our local William Hills drinking from what looked like a 2 litre bottle of Strongbow and bumming cigarettes from anyone entering or leaving the establishment , which , for a change , today wasn't me (entering the establishment that is not being the human derelict!). I mention this only as an aside and for the fact that the titular Mr Brooker would have undoubtedly written a decent article based on the situation.

I'm currently working my way through "Screen Burn" and this is a dangerous thing to do in a public place. Before you read Charlie Brooker it helps to have a good dose of misanthropy and disdain for the scum that seem to impinge on our daily lives, and if TV and Charlie Brooker are to be believed make up about 95% of the population. TV is his target , which he hits as unnerringly as Kevin Costner in the undiscarded takes of Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves.

Anyway if you read him in public the people near you are going to thing you are mad as you continually burst out laughing , you have become the loony on the bus, YOU are the one they don't want to sit next to. I managed to sidestep this by warning the person I sit next to that I'm going to be laughing for the next half hour at a very funny book , so at least they are warned.

In the book Brooker admits he's an arachnophobe and no amount of "They're more scared of you than you are of them" will sway him. Charlie , this is the thing with spiders:
  • They keep the insect population from getting out of control
  • Any creature that's smaller than us and has more legs than us that we can't kill frightens us
That's it!!




Another thing Charlie Brooker hypothesises the Joe McElderry / Rage Against The Machine situation , suggesting that we buy "Ace Of Spades" by Motorhead and make it the Christmas Number One. At the time the competition was from Popstars and Fame Academy. It's a though and you could do worse than downloading it here!