Relevant link: https://abc7chicago.com/man-uses-blowtorch-to-kill-spiders-s... The Fresno Fire Department said a man who was house-sitting for his parents set the home on fire after he used a blowtorch to kill black widows...
"Mission accomplished"
Myth of the Brown Recluse
81–90 of 158 posts
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wish I could tell some system who I designate as authorities for given subjects. And then I could see the news annotated by the authorities I chose. Or by the people they acknowledge have authority over those subjects. Linus Torvalds is an expert on Linux. John Carmack is an expert on computer graphics. Tiger Woods is an expert on Golf. Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change. I don't care what Tiger Woods th…
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…
The Taleb thing (going furter off topic) seems too reliant on an “efficient market.”
I bet bad surgeons harm patients at a higher rate than good surgeons throw bad suregons out of the boat.
https://forbetterscience.com/2016/02/21/macchiarini-and-karo...
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#83This is an odd claim. I live in Riverside where this article was written and found two brown recluse spiders in the last year. One outside by the front door and the second inside my bedroom. The tell tale identifier is the small violin shape in its back. They may not be common in California but they're common in my house in Riverside California just down the road from UCR.
You sure it's not one of the other violin species that were discussed in the article (loxosceles deserta, for example)?
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#84Working in a midwest auto repair shop, we get our share of spiders and such. Brown recluse spiders are just that, reclusive. Ive seen them take up residence in old tire piles mostly. Ive rarely seen a recluse, but our shop bathroom has a small window where a particularly large hobo spider has set up shop. We named him Biggie because, well, its a huge spider that just sits on a web all day munching bugs and judging yo…
This made my morning. Thank you.
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wish I could tell some system who I designate as authorities for given subjects. And then I could see the news annotated by the authorities I chose. Or by the people they acknowledge have authority over those subjects. Linus Torvalds is an expert on Linux. John Carmack is an expert on computer graphics. Tiger Woods is an expert on Golf. Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change. I don't care what Tiger Woods th…
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…
I am a human with limited time and resources. If you want me to name right now one human being that I trust to guide me in the right direction on Climate Change, it's Al Gore.
Al Gore would then, as I have seen him do, put actual scientists up on a pedestal. His most important role would be to help me find the REAL, underlying authorities.
I would as likely be to say, "I would likely trust any of the authors of the IPCC."
And again, yes, I would trust Neil deGrasse Tyson to help me find authorities. I would have trusted Carl Sagan to help me find authorities. I would trust Bill Nye to help me find authorities.
If you picture the world in some kind of N-Dimensional space of authority and ignorance, I think Al Gore, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Carl Sagan, and Bill Nye are pointed in the right direction. And I think they're aware (or were aware) that they were not themselves the sources of that authority, but merely spokespeople for it. I'd start with them. Because I don't honestly know who to REALLY listen to.
After I've started on my path, I'd hope to find out the differences within the schools of thought on any given subject. And I'd hope I'd be open to having my mind changed, on anything.
I am completely aware of the problem of the bubble. Another thing I want to do is to specifically find people who share ALMOST ALL of my views, but differ with me on some important subject. Because I think a discussion between me and them would be based on shared views, and would be very fruitful.
I'd also like people to volunteer information about themselves (aggregated and anonymized), so that I can find out, "Out of US Citizen, Christian, college-educated people earning more than $100k per year, how many of them believe in anthropogenic climate change?" And other questions like that. Yes, huge bias, because of self-reported people, etc. But still. Being able to even sample HN or Reddit on those kinds of questions would be super interesting.
And I'd desperately want to keep bots out of this, and I'd often want to filter out people who aren't KNOWN to be from the US or living in the US. Often I'd care what people in other countries think, but often I just don't.
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#86Yep, tons of spider in Missouri... I used to be somewhat freaked out about brown recluse spiders as a child but now as an adult I could care less. There is one with a web setup in my basement that I walk by every day, I just let it be since there is a pile of dead bugs under the web. I remember one kid in high school got bit and had a nasty necrotized spot on his ankle, other than that I have only heard of a few peop…
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.
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#87In a similar vein, supposedly a lot of "spider bites" are not spider bites (according to source): https://www.livescience.com/37974-he-surprising-cause-of-mos... I've known people to theorize that many small welts are caused by spider bites even though they didn't see the spider or know when they got bitten.
If clicking something with a clickbaity name isn't your thing, I can save you a click. The cause is "more likely to be bites or stings from other arthropods such as fleas, skin reactions to chemicals or infections."
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#88There’s this concept that any time you see a new story where the topic is your area of expertise, it’s baffling how completely inaccurate the story is. And then we all keep reading stories about areas in which we aren’t experts, and it doesn’t occur to us that are likely equally misleading. Because if we all factored that in, we wouldn’t believe any news. And I guess we feel better thinking we know what’s going on, r…
I really wish I could tell some system who I designate as authorities for given subjects. And then I could see the news annotated by the authorities I chose. Or by the people they acknowledge have authority over those subjects. Linus Torvalds is an expert on Linux. John Carmack is an expert on computer graphics. Tiger Woods is an expert on Golf. Al Gore is an expert on Climate Change. I don't care what Tiger Woods th…
I want to flag a comment, "I disagree, but this is the most persuasive point someone has made."
In theory, that is my understanding of the voting system on HN. Based on the downvotes I have received over the years, it's obviously not perfect in that respect. But upvote the comments that contribute positively to the conversation, and you might rarely downvote a comment that detracts. I click the up button for plenty of comments with which I have strong disagreement. But if it's a well-thought comment that makes me have to think about a good counter if I disagree, then it's worth an up click.
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not that I don't believe you (the word 'necrotizing' sends shivers up my spine) but since you didn't catch the spider itself, are there any other species of spider that may have been the biter?
I live in the Bay Area in a warmer microclimate. We've got widows, sizable orb weavers, and supposedly tarantulas (although I've never seen one and have my doubts). I've twice been bitten by something while either under my house or in my basically wild yard and gotten nasty infection. One bite was on my elbow and become necrotic. It was treated only with antibiotics. It now looks like I took a bullet. The other was o…
> Although I have my doubts
I take it your never been to Mt Diablo during mating season then? The place is filthy with tarantulas. Just a random YouTube but at certain times of the year, the road is covered in them: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g4w5UbvaYy0
Re: Myth of the Brown Recluse
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not that I don't believe you (the word 'necrotizing' sends shivers up my spine) but since you didn't catch the spider itself, are there any other species of spider that may have been the biter?
I live in the Bay Area in a warmer microclimate. We've got widows, sizable orb weavers, and supposedly tarantulas (although I've never seen one and have my doubts). I've twice been bitten by something while either under my house or in my basically wild yard and gotten nasty infection. One bite was on my elbow and become necrotic. It was treated only with antibiotics. It now looks like I took a bullet. The other was o…
The tarantulas are out in the hills around the bay for the most part, especially the East Bay hills and down around the Santa Cruz mountains.
My experience with BW bites was my dad getting bit a couple times growing up out in the Central Valley. He had bad flu like symptoms for a few days from the bites. FWIW