Spider population explosion!

The numbers don’t lie: the results in progress say the spider population has been surging since June (which is, well, not unexpected and won’t get us published in Nature). I’ll be curious to see if it continues to rise in August, and since we’re seeing a fair number of spiderlings everywhere, I expect it will.

We’re already talking about extending the study a couple more months, at least until the first snow, so we can catch the expected decline. The only problem with that is that we can’t do the intensive survey in September and October that we can in July, since I’ll be back to work teaching, and the students will be back to work learning. Maybe we can do a representative subset, though.

Also, I don’t think my bones can handle simultaneously teaching and doing field work. I’m pretty much worn out already, and am getting up in the morning to take prophylactic NSAIDs to keep going. The exercise is good for me, right?

Totally unsurprising Epsteinism

You just knew that Jeffrey Epstein had to have had this conversation over and over again.

“He hates every story starting with ‘billionaire pervert,’” Mr. Hay said. “Jeffrey had long stories about the difference between pedophilia with very young children and tweens and teens a little older.” He added, “It was his way of trying to talk his way around it.”

“Long stories”? Oh, do tell. Let’s hear them. Was Lawrence Krauss a receptive audience for these stories?

On second thought, no. I don’t have a puke bucket on hand. These may come out in the trial, though, so I think I’m going to have to avoid reading the transcripts.

Here’s something else to avoid reading: the official charges against Epstein. Not safe for work if you move your lips while reading.

Pulp artists needed cephalopod anatomy lessons

I am OFFENDED. There’s this collection of pulp magazine covers featuring cephalopods, and they’re terrible.

Look at this one: I have a thousand questions. Why are they exploring an alien planet in skimpy clothes? Why is the man wearing a space helmet, but the woman apparently doesn’t need one? Why does the cephalopod have its mouth in the wrong place, and why does it have teeth?

Nice headlights, octopus-man. Also, why is his human face a couple of stories tall? Does the artist know nothing of perspective?

This is the worst one of them all. It’s asymmetric, with some arms on the left improbably long, while the ones on the right looking different. It’s got this hunchbacked, bug-like look with appendages coming off the mantle. This was drawn by a person who apparently never saw a cephalopod.

I swear, I’m going to stop this time-machine and turn it back 70 years just so I can slap a couple of bad artists.

A glimpse into the darkness

I police my social media fairly heavily, since I really don’t want to waste time on major bozos. This one snuck through, though.

Yeah, no. Ozone is a greenhouse gas, although a short-lived one that decays fairly quickly. Putting more ozone into the atmosphere isn’t going to help reduce global warming, although the stratospheric ozone layer is a useful radiation filter.

You don’t want to follow that clown. I looked, and it’s all flag-waving MAGA racist garbage, as you might expect.

You missed Convergence?

OK, here’s a cosplay gallery from last weekend.

I recognized a few of the costumes, but that wasn’t what I was into. You know, there’s a heck of a lot going on during a con like this. There was the costume pageantry, the mainstage stuff. I wasn’t into that. There were the musical performances; not my thing. There was board gaming. No, pass. There was video gaming. Completely missed it. There were SF & horror movies playing nonstop. Tempted, but I didn’t feel like sitting down for a few hours. There were anime sessions, which again, I am not into. There were interactive kid demos. Nah, I’m too old. I missed 90% of the con.

I did get into a whole lot of panel discussions, though. That alone kept me busy for four days.

It’s a diverse bunch there — you might find something to entertain you there next year.

Spiders are tiring me out

It’s been a long day — I’ve decided we can survey 8 sites per day, so we did, in the heat and the dirt, with constant drizzly rain, and by golly, we’ll do it again tomorrow. I look forward to the big pile of data I’ll have at the end of the week, and a nap.

Also, I think I’ve downed a couple of liters of iced tea since I got home.

Another billionaire leaps into the presidential race

Oh god no. Not another one. Tom Steyer has announced his candidacy. He doesn’t stand a chance.

I have a suggestion for all the wanna-bes.

Three quarters of you ought to be running for the House or Senate, ‘k? If you want to do some good, there’s where you should be, because you might have a chance of succeeding.

If you are a filthy rich billionaire who has some liberal goals (you’re not going to be promoting leftist/progressive goals, because you’ve already demonstrated a life-long commitment to stealing from workers), I have a different suggestion: run for president on the Republican side. You’ll do more damage to Trump that way, you might peel away the Republicans who are disgusted with Trump, and if you win, either the nomination or even the presidency, you’ll have transformed the Republican party. Also imagine the chaos in the confused media. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Try it. Think outside the box. Trump could be wrecked even before the election, or the Republicans could end up tearing each other apart.

History is going to repeat itself, isn’t it?

Read these old pre-WWII newspaper articles, in which a very nice American Quaker is arguing (to a conference of rabbis, no less) that if Jews throughout the world try to instill into the minds of Hitler and his supporters recognition of the ideals for which the race stands, and if Jews appeal to the German sense of justice and the German national conscience, I am sure the problem will be solved more effectively and earlier than otherwise.

It’s weird. The guy also repudiates the notion of boycotts, because that’s economic violence. Buy from fascists, because capitalism is a hell of a drug. There’s even an article from another person arguing that Hitler’s supporters aren’t racist, they’re just economically anxious.

We’ve been through all of this in the 1930s. Unthinking pacifism didn’t work then, it’s not going to work now.