Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A spider built its web by my door last Sunday. A butterfly dropped its wing. The spider is a Black and Yellow Arigiobe, Arigiobe aurantia, a common garden variety orb spider. It must be a female, because it is large, and in arachnids as well as insects, the females are almost always larger than the males. The vertical zig-zag on her web is evidently made by the smaller male, who attaches his subsidiary web to hers. Butterflies are not on the list of things this spider likes to eat; mosquitos, gnats, blue bottle flies, and wasps are on the menu. A good neighbor, then, that plucks such pesky viands from the air. The butterfly wing looks like it came from a Monarch, Danaus plexippus; the bold colors are meant to warn its predators that it will give them a bad tummy-ache. 7:37:10 PM    comment []

DR. OMED'S DAILY KOS DIARY: An Okie from Muskogee dreams the Impossible Dream   and runs where the brave dare not go. Jerry Pippin, a 65 year old Internet broadcaster working out of Muskogee, Oklahoma, has rented a small storefront in downtown Muskogee, and is collecting signatures on a petition to impanel a Muskogee County grand jury to “investigate the alleged criminality of U.S. President George Walker Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney.” Now, doesn’t that just tilt your windmill? Read on>>> See also: Keith Purtell's article on Pippin in the Muskogee Phoenix: Muskogee Man seeks grand jury to investigate President 6:50:50 PM    comment []