Sunday, December 6, 2009

Life and art and SPIDER ALERT!!!

A favourite book of mine is Dairy of a Nobody about Mr. Charles Pooter. It's pretty gentle humour but I like it and sympathize with Mr. Pooter.
Now, I find that Pooter is not a nobody anymore.He has a spider transfer apparatus named after him. See it in action here. Or not, for those of the arachnophobic persuasion.
The spiders are collected using a contraption called a 'pooter' which sucks the spider up safely into a container.

BUT
Ten years ago, a team of archaeologists from the University of Bradford carried out a major survey of the nearby Chapel Fell cave.
At the end of each day, they took their equipment to a nearby house to store overnight.
In doing so, they accidently carried with them spiders hiding among the equipment.

One would have thought that the maniacal laughing of the spiders would have alerted the scientists. Possibly they were thinking of twin studies that they would like to be doing.

29 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

A colony of huge cave spiders are finally heading home after 10 years.

Wisconsin?
~

Hamish Mack said...

The Cheneys?

Smut Clyde said...

Picture a man with a motorised pooter.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I said I was getting you a motor POOTER for Christmas, so stop crying!

Hamish Mack said...

a picture of a man with a motorised pooter
Crikey he's a Colonel, That's pretty high up. It must be a very dangerous job or extremely complicated, eh?

Jennifer said...

One would have thought that the maniacal laughing of the spiders would have alerted the scientists.

Exactly!

fish said...

That's no pooter, Smut Clyde is just trying to lure us to a motorized Tupperware party.

Hamish Mack said...

It's the free jar of Vaseline with every pooter that is the give away.

Smut Clyde said...

a motorized Tupperware party.
With unipeds!

Jennifer said...

It's the free jar of Vaseline with every pooter that is the give away.

LOL!

So the pooter is really an evacujack aka autosuck?

Smut Clyde said...

Clearly it is time for a post about the remarkably good vision and clever prey-seeking strategies shown by salticid spiders of the Portia family. Just to bring the tone back out of the gutter.

Hamish Mack said...

I would not buy a Portia, it really is showing off. The 911 sux anyway

Smut Clyde said...

The Portia is not a car. It is a kitchen appliance for straining milk that has dripped from heaven.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

The 911 sux anyway

I believe you are trying to say 911 Is A Joke.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Who here ate my spider comment?

Smut Clyde said...

Perhaps you posted it on ITTDGY's blog by mistake.

One would have thought that the maniacal laughing of the spiders would have alerted the scientists.

Learning to ignore maniacal laughing is part of basic scientical training. Did you skip that class?

fish said...

Just to bring the tone back out of the gutter.

If you throw the Evacujack in reverse it is also good for cleaning gutters.

Smut Clyde said...

Is it powerful enough to fire a dead rat over the tree and onto the neighbour's roof? If not, I will stick to my potato cannon.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

why are you using dead rats.

I begin to question your commitment to this endeavour.

tigris said...

So the pooter is really an evacujack aka autosuck?

This would explain why the spiders weren't noticed: they weren't laughing maniacally because they'd rolled over and gone to sleep with little smiles on their faces.

Smut Clyde said...

The live ones will not stay in the barrel long enough.
Also, with several easily-bored cats in the house, dead rats are a renewable resource.

Hamish Mack said...

Indeed the firing of dead rats is almost a waste of time. LIVE rats however, might be very effective.
Live zombie rats even more so

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

The live ones will not stay in the barrel long enough.

they do if you put 'em in headfirst.

fish said...

they weren't laughing maniacally because they'd rolled over and gone to sleep with little smiles on their faces.

You think they would have at least noticed several hundred tiny, burning cigarettes. I hope they didn't burn the mattress.

Smut Clyde said...

Rats work best when you load them down the potato cannon tail-first, because the fur puffs out at ignition and stops the pressure leaking round the side; load them head-first and the fur lies flat, so you need a sabot or something to retain pressure for maximum trajectory.

For smaller rodents like hamsters, the trick is to fit a paper cone around their bellies that fits the barrel snugly. They fly out of the muzzle like shuttlecocks, or perhaps like little rodent ballerinas. But perhaps I am over-sharing.

fish said...

monster

Hamish Mack said...

It is precisely because I was at the maniacal laughter classes that I can ignore it. Spider maniacal laughter might be a bit high pitched?
You think they would have at least noticed several hundred tiny, burning cigarettes.
What do spiders smoke?

tigris said...

Caven A's.

Jennifer said...

What do spiders smoke?

Evil...