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Spider Missing After Trip To Space Station
Garabito writes "A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program was lost. Two arachnids were sent in order to know if spiders can survive and make webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container. NASA isn't sure where the other spider could have gone. I, for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords."
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I for one, welcome our ne.....
Damn you summary for stealing our memes!
If I were those astronauts, I'd be hoping the spider bites me.
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Is the other spider suspiciously... Larger?
Lost.
That's what the other spider claims, anyway. In other news, that spider just submitted a replacement for ReiserFS.
Samuel Jackson just got a 3AM phone call ...
We've probably all seen the video on youtube with the stoned spiders, and the kooky webs they make. I wonder what the effects of cosmic radiation will be on this spider who will be waiting a long time for a snack to buzz into his web. Unless, by space-surviving spider, they mean he can eat non-living things like dust? I think he likely drifted off like the $100000 tool belt that one space-walking astronaught lost yesterday. At least this loss wasn't as expensive. However it's possible this is a mutated spider that craves the media attention for the lulz, in which case it's possible that the spider unlatched the tool-belt in order to make a getaway, and build his own Evil Spider Space Station, with his newly acquired tool set, and other classified missing materials (that would not be reported)!
Although in another scenario, the tool belt will fall to earth with the spider riding it, Slim Pickens style, to crash land and obliterate some curious bystander, ala Dead Like Me. I still think it is more likely the spider will crash land somewhere and start another internet meme (link site contains articles that are 100% NSFW).
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
All your webs are belong to us
there were redundant spiders. A must in space applications.
Boy Bitten by Radioactive Spider Dies of Leukemia (Sorry, couldn't source the original)...
The arachnid was sent in order to know if spiders can survive and makes webs in space...
makes? I makes teh webs and yous gives mes teh bugs. Otherwise, I eats other spiders.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
If right now, I were an astronaut wearing a spacesuit, I guess I'd be feeling kind of itchy all over...
Step 1: "Lose" toolbag in space
Step 2: "Lose" spider in space
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Space domination
If I can not smoke in heaven, then I shall not go. -- Mark Twain
Black widow spiders typically prey on a variety of insects, but occasionally they do feed upon woodlice, diplopods, chilopods and other arachnids.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow_spider
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
Only one spider could read.
If this was the result of spider cannibalism, it'd be easier to just find the dessicated spider husk left in the container. They probably checked for that.
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...check the lid.
-- A cat is no trade for integrity!
To everyone (including myself) whose first thought was that the one spider ate the other, I'd suggest we consider how spiders eat.
Spiders don't swallow prey whole. If it'd been two or three octopuses, fish, snakes, frogs or any other sort of animal, this would make sense. But I'd be willing to bet one spider eating the other wouldn't have gone unnoticed for at least a couple of reasons. First, spiders don't eat quickly. One spider eating something the same size would be sucking the juices out of the other for quite a long time (hours). Second, the spiders are messy in the sense that they tend to leave dried out carcasses laying around after they're done.
So... that's probably not what happened.
All spiders can only ingest liquid food, and in fact have two filters to prevent solids from getting in.
From there it gets funnier:
- most spiders simply inject the prey with enzymes that liquefy its innards, then suck the resulting liquid lunch. In this case they'd still find the empty chitin shell of the spider.
- some actually "chew" the food while flooding it with enzymes to dissolve it, but I'm guessing even in this case they'd still find legs and whatnot from the dead spider.
I guess the big question at this point is exactly what species of spider were these two.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I can't believe nobody's made a "Spiders From Mars" reference.
You never expect irony, do you?
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...make webs in space? There's nothing to catch. Or did they take a box of flies (or maybe ants, since the spiders' prey didn't need wings to hit the webs) to feed the 8-legged beasties?
It's not really missing. It's just busy working on a collaboration with David Bowie.
This guy's the limit!
My god people, is slashdot actually linking to ABC action news? I mean come on, firstly the summary (of the summary) is woefully incomplete.. Even though the original link also belongs to ABC at least it doesnt have the word "action" attached to "news". I'm just waiting for ABC's next upgrade to SEXY, ACTION NEWS... a bit elitist? Maybe.. but at least the original link clarifies the story rather than leaving out information in order to make the story more "exciting".. From TFA: "NASA isn't sure where the spider could have gone." Doesn't mean they don't have an idea..
From the original article: "Kirk Shireman, deputy shuttle program manager, says that while only one spider is visible, that doesn't mean the other is missing. 'We don't believe he has escaped the payload. I am sure we will find him spinning a web somewhere in the next few days."
That's why Heidi let the bag go yesterday. I know my wife runs out of the room screaming when she sees a spider.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
"I for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords."
Why would you do that? Why would you put a classic reply in your summary of the article and rob some poster of a 5 Funny rating? You're just mean.
I have had it with these motherf***ing spiders on this motherf***ing space station!
(Sorry, couldn't resist...)
The spider webs in space experiment was already tried in 1973 aboard Skylab.
Did they check the tool bag? Oh, wait...
Best "String" Ever!
...an alien probe named S'pdr will encounter the USS Enterprise.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
"I would guess: outside the container!"
Found it!
There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
Stupid spiders, what do they expect to catch! Spiders are dumb.
Nah, its off filming the sequel to Snakes on a Plane... Spiders on the Shuttle
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The missing spider had GPS, but was unfortunately outside* the service range.
*above
Spiders on drugs is just as interesting. (Video) (Pictures)
Think about that before your next Jolt Cola.
A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program
And they say we don't spend enough on education.
Think about that before your next Jolt Cola.
I like how the spider on THC did better than the one on caffeine. We should outlaw caffeine and legalize pot.... clearly the caffeine is more dangerous ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Because for every spider we send to space, that's one less left here on earth trying to eat us.
The only reason that THC is illegal and caffeine is legal is because Big Caffeine is so powerful. Fuckin' JFK killed in Dallas, same place Starbucks started. Makes you think, don't it?
Don't bogart that thing, man. Pass it over here.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Another case of news media sensationalizing what really happened. There are two spiders in the habitat (spider habaitat, not ISS human habitat). The goal is to see how two spiders will interact in micro-gravity.
For about the first 24 hours after launch only one spider was seen. After that BioServe Space Technologies at CU Boulder (the group responsible for the habitat) located the other spider. It had simply been outside of the view of the camera.
So we've got a spider with 8 arms, a bag of sophisticated tools, and a good source of mutagenic cosmic radiation. I don't like the look of this.
Hypothetically let us say that the spider somehow ended up outside the space shuttle. The question is what would happen to a spider if we left it floating in space for a week or two? Considering that they're cold blooded and their circulatory system is rather basic and non-pressurized (since all the organs bathe in a pool of copper based blood) will the spider die? And, if so, from what?
Arachnophobia is the most common phobia, certainly in the western world. It's certainly not innate. Babies show no fear of spider at all. We pick arachnophobia up from our parents and from those around us, and it's easy to see why. When people around you, and almost everyone you see in contemporary media displays arachnophobia, it's hard not to be arachnophobic. Hollywood's use of spiders, and spider like creatures, as stock horror objects is actually a self perpetuating.
I would compare this to the slightly less common, and more substantiated, fear of wasps and bees. People will become very, very nervous around wasps and bees, jumping up from their seats, running away, or trying to kill the creature. But the reality is that these creatures will rarely sting unless you disturb them or their nest(at least in europe). Nevertheless fear of wasps is much more acceptable than fear of spiders, but only slightly more justifiable, and it's just as irrational.
Some people are so arachnophobic that they will actually kill any spiders they see. It's a very ugly thing to see someone quite viciously slam down a shoe or newspaper on a spider as it tries to scurry to safety. There is no reason to it. At least people who stand on chairs aren't taking it out on the spider. Apparently a cure for a phobia is gentle exposure. A friend of mine went to a spider museum in Prague and apparently lost all apprehension around spider entirely. I'm not sure I'd recommend this for your wife though.
May the Maths Be with you!
From the more detailed article: "
Kirk Shireman, deputy shuttle program manager, says that while only one spider is visible, that doesn't mean the other is missing. 'We don't believe he has escaped the payload. I am sure we will find him spinning a web somewhere in the next few days.'"
This is why I don't trust any form of "Action" news.
Worry not, I'm sure NASA is already firing up their ion cannon to fight the beast. It masquerades by day as a mild-mannered Earth sensing satellite.
Starbucks was actually founded in Seattle.
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STATUS CHECK 11/19/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
STATUS CHECK 11/20/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
STATUS CHECK 11/21/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH MISSING, PLEASE VERIFY
STATUS CHECK 11/22/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
STATUS CHECK 11/22/08 16:05 UTC: ION CANNON COORDINATES RECIEVED. FIRING
STATUS CHECK 11/23/08 00:00 UTC: EARTH PRESENT
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This has "Sci Fi Channel Original" (Movie) written all over it.
Andrew Borntreger
Champion of cinematic disasters
I admit, I LOLd.
Well I don't know I
Heard it started
Out
Of a
Small town just outside Dallas
However I might be wrong.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
"But the reality is that these creatures will rarely sting unless you disturb them or their nest(at least in europe)."
No way. I grew up in Pennsylvania with a swimming pool in my backyard. You wouldn't believe how much insects a pool in that area attracts. Many, many times if a few friends were over to swim, and the wasps felt threatened of their water source (for their nests in our attic) then they would get very aggressive. They would even just randomly sting people lounging out on the deck. Bumble bee's are one thing, but wasps just don't even want you nearby (even if you were there first). Also, you preyed everytime you mowed the lawn that you wouldn't disturb an underground nest...
Shuttle Flight: $500 million
Spider habitat: $9
Losing half of test subjects: Priceless
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
Anecdote :
When I lived out in rural farmland, our house had a spider living behind the toilet. He had a small web there and he didn't seem to bother us so we left him there. We named him Boris. We'd find other spiders in the house fairly often, and we would catch them alive and drop them on Boris' web. It was very interesting to watch the battles, since the foreign spider would instinctively(?) know that they were in danger being on someone else's web, and would freeze for long periods of time not moving a muscle. Eventually when they would try to leave, out would fly Boris from his crack in the wall and attack. After killing the other spiders he'd usually pull his prize into his hole in the wall. Fairly positive he ate them as well, but I can't say that for certain.
Not sure where you got your information but they will definitely attack each other.
Arachnophobia may not be innate (I think you could argue either way on this--my daughter cried when she saw a spider crawling along the rail of her crib--and as far as I know, that's the first time she ever saw one), but it's a reasonable response.
Spiders are venomous. For an average person, identification of spiders at any distance isn't easy, so the "danger! move away" response is the safe one. And eliminating spiders in a child's bedroom, for instance, is pretty much a no-brainer.
Here in California, one of the common spiders is the Black Widow. When I was a child, my father wound up in the hospital after being "bitten" by a Black Widow. Which again means that the "danger! move away" response makes sense.
With bees and wasps, you've got people who know either first or second hand about the pain of a sting, so again, I don't think a moderate amount of fear is unreasonable, no matter that the danger of being stung is pretty low. For people like myself (where anaphylactic shock is a possibility) moving away from the vicinity of bees is not only reasonable, but wise.
All that to say that I don't think some degree of concern about spiders, bees, and wasps is completely unreasonable--which is what a phobia implies.
By the way, I used to scoop up spiders and carry them outside when I found them indoors. But since I've been married, I usually have to vacuum them up. Sheesh--lose track of one spider on the way to the front door and you'll never live it down :-)
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In Hawaii, only the tourists are scared of our big-as-your-palm cane spiders. Everyone else doesn't mind having them in the house because they eat all the other bugs.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
but I kill them because I don't want bugs in my house.
And, as you note, you end up with MORE bugs in your house, because the spider isn't batting cleanup anymore.
Unless it's a hazardous spider I generally leave it alone.
I don't read AC A human right
So catch them and take them outside. It's not at all difficult.
Perhaps you should work more on sealing your house to outsiders instead of killing the ones that wander in.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
People, remember, this is s rigorous scientific experiment based on literally billions of dollars worth of equipment.
If you look at this scientifically, the obvious conclusion is that spiders in space have a 50% chance of spontaneously developing teleportation powers. This vital experiment should put to rest all the loonies who claim space can't do that to people, we have hard proof now.
The more pressing question is why didn't NASA talk about the gecko heat vision experiments in the next chamber over?
-Charlie
Actually, JFK was killed in Seattle, and THEY want you to think it was Dallas. That is how powerful THEY truly are.
"But this one goes to 11!"
The spider left after it found a robots.txt file.
[Insert pithy quote here]
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Help test the
This is a shamless plug to my photography site but I taken some hardocre photos of spiders, wasps and mantises over the years. If you have a fear of spiders and wasps, this might be the gentle exposure you need.
H ow c a n the people k n ow s o little about ho w S t arbucks j oined the CIA, the Ma f ia, and the K nights Templar to take out JFK?
But JFK shot first...
Because it gets kids interested in science and space. There's little "new" stuff to learn from it, but there is a HUGE future benefit to getting kids directly involved in science projects like that. They learn the scientific process, how to think about things logically, and so on, and are attracted to it because it is such a big thing. It's not some silly chemistry lab experiment, they actually get to talk to astronauts and stuff.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
How about an asian giant hornet? I think any fear of them would be justified.
Those long-range wasp cans are frickin' awesome, as are the wasp traps. You put them out in the spring, and they never really get a foothold.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
It's good to see NASA testing out the major airlines' new inflight meals....
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
That would certainly make me nervous, however the camel spiders I met during my time in 'the Iraq' nearly made me scream. I know they're not spiders per se...but they're pretty much what you would get if a spider had sex with a nightmare.
-=Bang Bang=-
Last piece of evidence was a spun note left in the box: "Jokes on you b*tches!" Yours truly -Charlotte
The 14'th amendment was was created to be an option.
Does your wife know the chances of a spider surviving a trip through the vacuum cleaner? Unless you have a fine grained impeller on the sucker, that things gonna walk right back out again. Just like running it down the sink.
So that's why Frodo survived.
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Actually youve probably eaten more spiders than spiders have eaten you.
so far
Actually, in Australia at least there are plenty of good reasons to be extremely arachnophobic. We have numerous potentially deadly spiders, many of which can be found in and around ordinary homes, and some of which display aggressive behaviour. Amongst the catalogue are those that just really, really hurt, those that kill you quite rapidly, and those that induce nice things like necrotised (sp?) flesh.
Although the rate of deaths from bites is very low, I would suggest that is because most people in Australia are smart enough to know that some spiders are quite dangerous and to either kill them, remove them, or stay the hell away from them. Personally I remove things like huntsmen spiders (which can bite, but won't kill you), and kill things that look like redbacks and other dangerous breeds.
And I disagree about the fear not being innate - my personal experience is that there is something hard-coded into me which induces an irrational burst of fear when I see a spider. I don't get the same thing from animals I know to be at least as dangerous, such as snakes (which are also very poisonous and very dangerous in Australia before you start on that topic).
Read Pynchon.
That would certainly make me nervous, however the camel spiders I met during my time in 'the Iraq' nearly made me scream. I know they're not spiders per se...but they're pretty much what you would get if a spider had sex with a nightmare.
Holy fucking shit.
And here I thought the reason I never joined the military was my fear of being shot or exploded. Little did I know there was a much better reason my subconscious kept me far away!
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