[Console]

Okay, well, I have your posts hidden by default, so if you could point out where you said that than I should be most grateful.

[MK Chris]

In answer to Tophers question (the actual point of which some people don't seem to have grasped), the first strand is created either by the spider physically crawling (do spiders technically crawl?) to from the start to finish, or (if outside) by letting out a strand into the wind and letting it catch on something.

Thanks (it was Andy B's question originally.)

[Munki Bhoy]

Okay then.

In answer to Tophers question (the actual point of which some people don't seem to have grasped), the first strand is created (if outside) by letting out a strand into the wind and letting it catch on something.

Incidentally, isn't that how Spiderman does it too? He just flings it in the general direction of a building until it sticks, then he tightens it from his end.

[Console]

Spider-man's is more of an powered ejection, as opposed to just being released, but I suppose that it is pretty similar, yes.

[Ballbag]

Spider-man's is more of an powered ejection

You could call it an ejaculation.

[Console]

I suppose you could, but it would be incorrect to do so.

[Ballbag]

Go on the Console... humour me. Why is it wrong?

[Yudster]

Different species do it in diferent ways.

Some spiders can jump,very effectively. Others will use air movement to help either the thread, or indeed in many cases themselves to bridge the gap (ie they attach a thread, then launch themselves into the breeze in the general direction of where they want to go.

I am however reliably informed (being honoured to work in the company of experts in invertebrates) that mostly they just scramble from one fixing point to another any which way they can.

[Andy B]

But we're talking about relatively HUGE distances here and there wasn't much breeze last night to carry it. As I've said the crawling thing is out the window for me as the web was very high up and the breeze thing is also scuppered because the web should be at an angle between the two parralel planes of the wall of my house and the fence along side it...instead it is almost perfectly perpendicular.....I don't believe either of these things. Also the topmost thread was almost perfectly level with the ground.

I'm marking this up as one of life's unsolved mysteries like how bees fly and how they built these ancient stone monuments that people would be unable to reproduce these days even using modern tools...like the pyramids and stuff.

[CassieJackson]

mostly they just scramble from one fixing point to another any which way they can.

This sounds very like my approach to life.

[Sunny So Cal]

That's just for Toph and Lottie

Okay, well, I have your posts hidden by default, so if you could point out where you said that than I should be most grateful.

Hahahaha.

[MK Chris]

That's just silly. Fictional things aren't scary, neither (as someone has said previously) are pictures. Sure, they're not very pretty and at first glance I feel a bit uneasy, but my phobia is based on real creatures and ones that are there with you.

[Console]

Fictional things aren't scary

Some people find ghosts scary. People find Daleks scary, too. Fictional things can be quite scary, infact scariest, I think fictional things can be the scariest things in the average persons life.

[Andy B]

My misus is scared of all insects particularly flying insects...we went to longleat and they've got a butterfly house there...after much protesting and my bribing her with the promise of an icecream afterwards she reluctantly agreed to go in. She kept her eyes closed most of the time and was screaming like she was in a horror film!

Oh and the other day while eating breakfast in the lounge a huge spider with a long legs and a tiny body descended from a thing strand so it was dangling from the celing right in front of her face (basically little miss muffet syle except with cheerios instead of curds and whey)....I ended up with a lounge covered in cheerios and the neighbours came round at 8am because they thought someone was being murdered!

[Sunny So Cal]

Better?

[SAV1OUR]

The Bogeyman.... See? The human imagination is just * incredible otherwise nightmares wouldn't exist, nightmares largely constructed by a restless brain that has real fears, our own mortality is what makes us tick, paranoia is only ever a corridor away.

That said though, nightmares can sometimes be overrated, sure, a cold sweat is something deeply unpleasant, but the little * blighters I see a picture of above scare the shit out of me, bees, wasps you name it. I jump just seeing one fly past the window, reminding myself that a sacred pane of glass protects me. Also reminding me that I am not indeed a big girl's blouse where these are concerned, its just a genuine phobia that makes my skin crawl. Death itself is an enviable option rather than coming within a metre of the little spawns of satan.


*and breathe*

[Sunny So Cal]

I don't mind wasps or bees. I think they are industrious little fellows. We used to have a wasp nest outside my son's bedroom window and it was fascinating to watch them every year. That said, spiders, ticks and * make my flesh crawl. I will scream (much like Andy's missus) and cry. The worst movie scene ever for me was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" when Kate Capshaw's character is covered in bugs. Gaaaaah. Even now when I watch that movie I need to stand up. I can't sit. I feel like things are crawling on me!

[Andy B]

Ahh what a great opening to a film though.....

"Antidote? To what?"

"To the poison you just drank!"

[MK Chris]

Fictional things aren't scary

Some people find ghosts scary. People find Daleks scary, too. Fictional things can be quite scary, infact scariest, I think fictional things can be the scariest things in the average persons life.

Each to their own, but as long as you know they're fictional, why would they be scary?

Wasps for me are odious, spiteful bastards that have nothing to lose by stinging you. Bees, in contrast, are hard-working, essential and have quite a lot to lose by stinging you. I don't like flying, buzzing things until I'm sure they're not a wasp.

Have you seen Arachnophobia, Sunny So Cal?

[foot-loose]

While I don't "mind" wasps - they are pointless little *.

I'd love to know exactly what role they fill in the world, other than annoying every other creature out there. Bees,on the other hand, are bloody important. If only because they helped us find the earth last weekend.

[Sunny So Cal]

Ahh what a great opening to a film though.....

Absolutely. Brilliant film. Plus he looks hot in his tuxedo!

Have you seen Arachnophobia, Sunny So Cal?

Yes! *shudder* That shower scene is straight out of my nightmares. It's happened to me before and I only realized it as I was rinsing shampoo out of my hair. I looked up and there it was. The size of an Audi. Just hanging there like it had nothing better to do with itself but taunt me! How defenseless a position. Aaarrggghh. Worse story ever though is my oldest childhood friend sitting on the toilet when she was pregnant in a tiny restroom. She went to pull the loo roll and as it unravelled, coming along with the paper was a big arse spider. It's extremely difficult to rise from so low a position when you're pregnant but she said she jumped up so fast she nearly wedged herself between the toilet and the shower.

While I don't "mind" wasps - they are pointless little *.

Oh, I disagree. They've quite a point on them.

[S4B]

the neighbours came round at 8am because they thought someone was being murdered!

Do you live in the flat below Viv?

[Munki Bhoy]

Orange Walks. It amazes me that in the 21st century we permit groups of people whose very raison d'être is to ensure supremacy of their brand of religion over another to not only exist as a group, but to allow them to flaunt their beliefs in a manner that disrupts every day life.

Tonight I came across them on my way home from playing five-a-side football. Previously I have been awoken early morning by their "practicing" for Glasgow walks near where I lived. All the more impressive given my proximity to the relatively noisy Glasgow Airport flight path.

Worst of all was the day I was intimidated half way across Glasgow by their hangers-on. My crime? Wanting to go for a few drinks with a few mates in a pub which on matchdays is usually full of Celtic fans but on this particular day may as well have been any pub at all. Not even a Jazz Festival on George Square in Glasgow could protect us from them.

The Orange Order claim that they are a tourist attraction and have every right to express their beliefs and march the Queen's Highway. The reality is they make Glasgow a virtual no-go area for any sane person that knows what they actually stand for.

Oh yes, and best of all? They mainly celebrate the Battle of the Boyne. Boyne being in Ireland. You'll probably have seen them on the news over there. But we get subjected to them here in the West of Scotland too. I'm not sure how much further they spread, but as far as I know the majority of the UK never sees them. Consider yourselves lucky.

[foot-loose]

Rangers and Celtic fans annoy the * out of me. That's maybe a bit harsh actually - I get on fine with both Rangers and Celtic fans, but when it comes to football you both lose the plot. I sat with a Celticer about a fortnight ago and spent a (very enjoyable) afternoon sitting in a beer garden and him telling me why Celtic is better than Rangers.

I pretty much argued his case down (and dont get me wrong, he put forward a strong case) to "they hate us so we hate them". I cannot understand why that is logical.

So... having argued with both sides of the fence - i've decided that yous are all mental.

[Munki Bhoy]

Yeah, I agree, the vast majority of Celtic and Rangers fans are mental. There are varying degrees of mental, but ultimately mental nonetheless.

Personally, I hate the hatred. You can have rivalry without it, but try telling them that. And by them I mean Celtic and Rangers fans.

Worse still, it's ridiculously easy to get caught up in it all. You want mental? If Celtic play Rangers, there are friends that I will point blank refuse to text, phone or otherwise speak to until the game is long out of the way. How is that possibly rational? Yet I do it anyway to keep the peace.

And I'm probably one of the more sane ones too. I take it back, its not the vast majority, its all of us.