Best of the webs
August 30, 2007 8:31 PM   Subscribe

 
High res for the patient (it loads slowly for me) and not easily squicked.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:33 PM on August 30, 2007


When someone tells Ted Stevens something is on the web, that must be what he imagines.
posted by brain_drain at 8:46 PM on August 30, 2007


Ok, that just made me shit my pants.
posted by nola at 8:47 PM on August 30, 2007


best of the web
posted by pyramid termite at 8:49 PM on August 30, 2007


+ 5 points for the post title
posted by the other side at 8:49 PM on August 30, 2007


The brown tint of the caught bugs is the only squicky part about it for me. That's fucking awesome.
posted by danb at 8:53 PM on August 30, 2007


You've really got to appreciate Spiders' ability to pull such an amazing construct out of their arse.
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 8:55 PM on August 30, 2007


Y HELO THAR NIGHTMARE FUEL!
posted by Avenger at 9:02 PM on August 30, 2007 [3 favorites]


Spiders are like information architects.

They both are really unnecessary and usually gross me out.
posted by danny boy at 9:04 PM on August 30, 2007


That guy on the left looks like he just glimpsed something out of the corner of his eye.
posted by Tuwa at 9:31 PM on August 30, 2007


Erm. Other left. His left. Our right. Right.
posted by Tuwa at 9:32 PM on August 30, 2007


This makes me wonder if/how the spiders determine/mark/honor what's "their" part of the web.
posted by Tuwa at 9:34 PM on August 30, 2007


Wait! There in the corner, a message: "SOME PIG".
posted by SPrintF at 9:58 PM on August 30, 2007 [4 favorites]


At this point, I'm not even sure it's a spider web. There's some caterpillar that covers entire trees with silk, I've previously seen one of those. But this web grew pretty quickly which seems odd. I'm looking forward to see what this is. Oh and the third link is definitely spiders, I remember that photo from last year or so.
posted by dhruva at 9:59 PM on August 30, 2007


This web was first found about three weeks prior to the photo and has been spreading slowly. It's out on a point by the lake, probably less than 50 yards from the water. It continues along the park's nature trail for some 200 yards!

I am never, ever visiting that park.

Ever.
posted by rtha at 10:27 PM on August 30, 2007


Does anybody have a higher resolution picture of that first photo? I need it for my desktop.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:27 PM on August 30, 2007




Forget terrorists. We should be going after the GIANT ASS SPIDER WEBS HOLY SHIT.

I think this is why napalm was invented.
posted by Verdandi at 10:48 PM on August 30, 2007


Ah, so beautiful. Like something out of a dream. Texas spiders can spin some big stuff. But for the webs to get this big... something isn't eating the spiders, I imagine. Lack of birds?
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:54 PM on August 30, 2007


Usually, I'm for or against animals based on their evolutionary separation from humanity. That is, for pests in the house, if I had some mice, sure I would put some traps out, but not a big deal. They're fellow mammals - practically on our side. Cockroaches or ants meanwhile, are the enemy. Don't even have backbones.

But somehow, spiders never bothered me much.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 11:04 PM on August 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


I think it's cool to see spiders doing this.

But gad, it's ugly when it's tent caterpillars. That means that trees are dying.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:21 PM on August 30, 2007


It's like the Forbidden Grove from Elfquest.
posted by Brainy at 11:25 PM on August 30, 2007 [3 favorites]


Actual conversation on my couch just now:

Me: How big is that friggin spider?!

Them: It took the picture.
posted by pkingdesign at 11:28 PM on August 30, 2007 [4 favorites]


Last year, there was a blob of web on my banana tree. I thought it was caterpillars. Then I poked it with a stick, and lots of spiders came out!

I can not help but look at this awesome web and imagine thousands of small spiders swarming over the people who dare come too near, choking them by shear numbers, wrapping them up for a feast.

I don't like spiders.
posted by Goofyy at 12:13 AM on August 31, 2007


Gaaaaaaaaaaah.
posted by SassHat at 12:33 AM on August 31, 2007


Did you ever hear that you are never more than three feet from a spider? Is this true or just some fiend's idea of a joke?
posted by Cranberry at 12:34 AM on August 31, 2007


Spiders are everywhere. That area must be remarkably mosquito free. However, the more I think about it, the more I feel that this gigantic and public display of spidery activity might be a distraction from more covert spidery doings. I mean, really, they're just about everywhere.

-On the roof
-In the cupboards
-Crawling up waterspouts
-In the corners of your room
-Under your bed


Oh no, look out!
posted by Mister Cheese at 12:46 AM on August 31, 2007


Makes you wonder what these suckers would do if you gave 'em some drugs.

Not that I'm volunteering. At all. A lone spider is bad enough, but when they start working together...
posted by Myeral at 4:18 AM on August 31, 2007


Cool. Lovely. Spiders are wonderful.
posted by malaprohibita at 4:27 AM on August 31, 2007


I'll never forget the morning I woke up to see that it had snowed in the park outside. We went out in it to play.

It wasn't snow.
posted by -harlequin- at 4:47 AM on August 31, 2007 [3 favorites]


Hyeagh. I can't look at those photos without feeling all itchy. Imagine walking under one and accidentally knocking a branch with your head and having sixty squillion spiders go pouring INTO YOUR CLOTHES.

I'm sorry. But. That's where my brain is right now and I'll not suffer alone.

Did you ever hear that you are never more than three feet from a spider? Is this true or just some fiend's idea of a joke?

It sure as hell is true in Florida.
posted by cmyk at 5:05 AM on August 31, 2007


how do i shot web
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 5:12 AM on August 31, 2007 [1 favorite]


this is highly controversial.
posted by yonation at 6:18 AM on August 31, 2007


"...now that he noticed them for the first time dangling in the shadows, to see a dwarvish foot sticking out of the bottoms of some of the bundles, or here and there the tip of a nose, or a bit of beard or of a hood."
posted by Zinger at 6:49 AM on August 31, 2007


Everything's bigger in Texas.
posted by Balisong at 6:59 AM on August 31, 2007


Do. not. touch. I've dreamed these scenes many times, usually when I felt I wasn't in control of my life.
posted by yoga at 7:09 AM on August 31, 2007


It's like John Wyndham's "Web" come to life.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:16 AM on August 31, 2007


Metafilter: a Rainbow Gathering, for hippie communal spiders
posted by CitizenD at 8:44 AM on August 31, 2007


Wait, has it been confirmed that this is indeed a spider web? I think it's tent caterpillars too.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:32 AM on August 31, 2007


For the doubters:
The first link (and my hi-res comment link) are described by the last link, the CNN news story. The second link is, if you scroll about, on a page about social spiders. The third link has "spiders" written on it. So these are definitely spider webs, although I have seen tent caterpillar stuff and they do look similar.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:50 AM on August 31, 2007


HELO HUMANS INTERWEB! WE IS OFERING PEER AGREEMENT!!1
posted by Anything at 11:58 AM on August 31, 2007


Also touched on previously
posted by -harlequin- at 12:36 PM on August 31, 2007


More shit about social spiders.

Googling species names from the 2nd link gets you some good pictures. Not much on Wikipedia about them though which I assume means they don't actually exist.
posted by public at 1:19 PM on August 31, 2007


Did you ever hear that you are never more than three feet from a spider? Is this true or just some fiend's idea of a joke?

That sounds silly to me. It might be true for the outdoors, but the concentration is probably lower in a clean indoor environment, just because there wouldn't be as much food available for them. And I bet any environment that's designed to be sterile would be relatively spider-free.

Even so, I bet most of the spiders included in that (true or false) factoid are really tiny ones.

So tiny you can't even see them.

You probably inhaled a couple just now, in fact.
posted by Many bubbles at 3:21 PM on August 31, 2007




Spider town, heart of their empire.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:17 PM on August 31, 2007


I believe most spiders are unnecessarily large. Nothing I've seen here makes me change my mind.
posted by tommasz at 4:47 PM on August 31, 2007


Hey, good find, Harlequin. A cool post and related as well. I should definitely have had that in there at least secondarily. Your filter-fu exceeds mine.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:23 PM on August 31, 2007


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