51–60 of 197 posts
The more I learn about various living beings around us, the more I'm convinced that they are all unique, individual people, with unique opinions and desires. They have unique DNA and unique personalities. If you've ever spent an extended period of time with any animal, you know that they all have different personalities and opinions that differ from other animals of the same species, eerily similar to humans. They tr…
I saw a bold jumper [1] a few months ago and it was truly beautiful. It was quite large, black and white, and had iridescent mouthparts. It really felt like coming across a shiny Pokemon IRL. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidippus_audax
Not only are they cute (the have a fuzzy look about them) but they tend to eat the stuff we hate. I tend to have one or two in my back yard almost every summer.
I could do with out the black widows
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> How could they avoid it? By making up results, obviously. That's exactly what I was saying the first time.
These are real questions that people have been thinking hard about, and finding solutions for, for centuries. It would be valuable to explore them, IMHO.
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These are real questions that people have been thinking hard about, and finding solutions for, for centuries. It would be valuable to explore them, IMHO.
That's actually a good point. The spider people should have looked into this instead. Much better ROI if they could solve it. Maybe they could even incorporate jumping spiders somehow. It would be excellent marketing.
I forget who said this or exactly what they said, but someone has pointed out that the more research humans conduct the more we find that animals and even plants are more complex, more intelligent and more sophisticated than we thought. It is worth keeping this in mind the next time someone tells you a small creature (perhaps a crustacean) cannot feel or think or do something that would mean we ought to be less cruel…
One of the craziest things to me when looking at a jumping spider is the unbelievable size and mass difference between us. An 80kg person is ~6,000,000x heavier than the average jumping spider. Whereas a blue whale is only like 2,000-3,000x heavier than that 80kg person (if I'm doing my math right). They are obviously tiny, but I wouldn't have imagined what titans we must be from their perspective.
The more I learn about various living beings around us, the more I'm convinced that they are all unique, individual people, with unique opinions and desires. They have unique DNA and unique personalities. If you've ever spent an extended period of time with any animal, you know that they all have different personalities and opinions that differ from other animals of the same species, eerily similar to humans. They tr…
Alan Watts used to say, it's ok to eat plants and animals, as long as when you cook them, you make something beautiful out of them to respect their sacrifice. It's the least you can do. I feel there is some truth to this. Eventually, your body will be consumed by insects.
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There's a reasonable pet trade for them. I never had the heart to put one in a box though. The most interesting interaction I had was watching one hunt a fly. The fly landed, and it crawled down on the side of the board the fly was on, out of sight. It emerged behind the fly, then snuck up on it, similar to how a cat does (move, pause, move, pause). Then, when it attacked, it didn't jump at the fly, but jumped up in…
Jumping spiders have definitely helped me get over arachnophobia a bit. They're just too cute to be afraid of.
I think the scientific consensus for cognition and brain size has been for a long time that the size matters much less than we previously thought. For instance, ravens/crows show remarkable problem solving skills and intelligence on par with much larger animals and their brains are extremely small. Given how much meat we as a society consume, and how we treat animals generally, it makes sense that we'd collectively a…
Anyone who's ever interacted with any kind of animal knows how they are intelligent. The lack of science on this matter is not the reason we still consume meat and more science won't change anything. We've always found ways to justify/accept our need for meat and wel'll continue doing this as long as science doesn't find an equally nutritious alternative that can be produced at scale.
Anyone who's ever had backyard chickens knows they are not intelligent. Nature gave them a brain to keep the spinal cord from fraying.
I forget who said this or exactly what they said, but someone has pointed out that the more research humans conduct the more we find that animals and even plants are more complex, more intelligent and more sophisticated than we thought. It is worth keeping this in mind the next time someone tells you a small creature (perhaps a crustacean) cannot feel or think or do something that would mean we ought to be less cruel…
That's great, but if I ever see a jumping spider in my house then I will not hesitate to murder it in cold blood.