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Myth of the Brown Recluse

spiders.ucr.edu

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Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#121

Post by macintux »

lifeformed wrote: post #117
aidenn0 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Santa Barbara area, and bugs are way less, probably because of how dry it is compared to the midwest. In mid MO I've seen ticks large enough to keep as pets! However, we do have a lot of black widows. They aren't super aggressive towards humans, but they tend to go in places that you only sometimes visit (the back of that one drawer in your toolchest you don't use very often, woodpiles, Christmas decora…

Don't forget to check if they're in your gloves too!

Yep, I put my hand into a glove once only to find a spider there. Despite my general affection for spiders, that was not a happy moment.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#122

Post by VikingCoder »

lisper wrote: post #105
jngreenlee wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry couldn't help but LOL and sorry for getting off-topic. >Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change. Might need to rethink that. He's a fundraiser and tv personality. Think 'evangelist'. It's not evident that he understands complex systems or probabilities better than say, Taleb. AFAIK, so far all his historic projections have been incorrect. This is the danger of 'celebrity'. Similar with Neil DeGasse. That said, I…

> It's not evident that he understands complex systems It's not evident that he understand evangelizing either. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Al Gore. The world wold be a much better place if he had won the 2000 election. But the one image that sticks with me is the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al is being driven around in the back seat of a plush town car. A more tone-deaf image in that context is…

I've seen people call Gore a hypocrite for flying around.

He believes in carbon offsets.

He's also not opposed to capitalism.

So, spending money on luxury goods, and spending money to buy carbon offsets, is entirely in line with what he's stated are his views.

You're welcome to your opinion on the matter, of course, but I wanted to highlight that I don't perceive riding in a plush town car is being out of line with his message of acting on Climate Change.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#123

Post by VikingCoder »

wmeredith wrote: post #119
lisper wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not evident that he understands complex systems It's not evident that he understand evangelizing either. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Al Gore. The world wold be a much better place if he had won the 2000 election. But the one image that sticks with me is the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al is being driven around in the back seat of a plush town car. A more tone-deaf image in that context is…

I also found that humorous/obnoxious. He is literally a limousine liberal. (I say this as someone with a liberal streak myself.)

Russell Brand, of all people, caught my attention one time. He said when he criticized the flaws of capitalism when he was poor, people called him jealous. When he criticized the flaws of capitalism when he was wealthy, people called him a hypocrite.

They're all ad hominem attacks. But when he's criticized for being both too poor, and for being too rich, and his message didn't change, it's particularly obvious that people just don't want to hear his position, and will do anything to discredit him.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#125

Post by lisper »

VikingCoder wrote: post #122
lisper wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not evident that he understands complex systems It's not evident that he understand evangelizing either. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Al Gore. The world wold be a much better place if he had won the 2000 election. But the one image that sticks with me is the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al is being driven around in the back seat of a plush town car. A more tone-deaf image in that context is…

I've seen people call Gore a hypocrite for flying around. He believes in carbon offsets. He's also not opposed to capitalism. So, spending money on luxury goods, and spending money to buy carbon offsets, is entirely in line with what he's stated are his views. You're welcome to your opinion on the matter, of course, but I wanted to highlight that I don't perceive riding in a plush town car is being out of line with h…

I'm not criticizing Al Gore for riding in a limo. I'm criticizing him for choosing to put a scene of himself riding in a limo in a movie about climate change.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#126

Post by skygazer »

VikingCoder wrote: post #123
wmeredith wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also found that humorous/obnoxious. He is literally a limousine liberal. (I say this as someone with a liberal streak myself.)

Russell Brand, of all people, caught my attention one time. He said when he criticized the flaws of capitalism when he was poor, people called him jealous. When he criticized the flaws of capitalism when he was wealthy, people called him a hypocrite. They're all ad hominem attacks. But when he's criticized for being both too poor, and for being too rich, and his message didn't change, it's particularly obvious that p…

I agree with your sentiment and like your example, but in fairness to "the people" criticizing him, it's probably different people in each instance of criticism. We personify groups of people, and then treat them as fungible units of a universal (if hypocritical) collective. Individuals will criticize everything, if given enough time and resources.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#127

Post by Terr_ »

lifeformed wrote: post #117
aidenn0 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Santa Barbara area, and bugs are way less, probably because of how dry it is compared to the midwest. In mid MO I've seen ticks large enough to keep as pets! However, we do have a lot of black widows. They aren't super aggressive towards humans, but they tend to go in places that you only sometimes visit (the back of that one drawer in your toolchest you don't use very often, woodpiles, Christmas decora…

Don't forget to check if they're in your gloves too!

This is my paranoia, and why I always squeeze old work-gloves flat from the outside before putting them on.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#128

Post by jayashe »

aidenn0 wrote: post #96
atwebb wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be a black widow.

In Virginia? I never saw one in 17 years. Now that was all in Piedmont and Tidewater; perhaps the valley has them, but I doubt it.

saw one while working at a swimming pool in nova a few years back

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#129

Post by Matticus_Rex »

partiallypro wrote: post #110
mikestew wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as black widows go, I have only seen/caught a couple of them and never heard of anyone being bit by one. You need to get a bit east, say, North Carolina. You'll want to look carefully when pulling up those old pieces of wood out by the shed. Wear gloves.

I think Black Widows are more common in the American South West than anywhere else. I'm in Tennessee and brown recluse spiders are very common, but I've only ever seen one black widow, ever. Black Widows are less aggressive afiak and are usually outdoors. Brown recluse love cardboard boxes and storage areas, indoors...so their bite is more common.

NC native here -- I've found black widows in nearly every apartment and house I've lived in, which is saying something. Only one of those locations was outside a city.

Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse

#130

Post by tibbon »

Matticus_Rex wrote: post #129
partiallypro wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Black Widows are more common in the American South West than anywhere else. I'm in Tennessee and brown recluse spiders are very common, but I've only ever seen one black widow, ever. Black Widows are less aggressive afiak and are usually outdoors. Brown recluse love cardboard boxes and storage areas, indoors...so their bite is more common.

NC native here -- I've found black widows in nearly every apartment and house I've lived in, which is saying something. Only one of those locations was outside a city.

Grew up in Greensboro, NC. Tons of black widows in most sheds/barns, etc.

I always thought there were brown recluses around too - but I guess this research is saying they aren't in NC?

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