Dr. Who's Reading Room

Rise above plastics

Photograph courtesy Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International Development
Trees shrouded in ghostly cocoons line the edges of a submerged farm field in the Pakistani village of Sindh, where 2010’s massive floods drove millions of spiders an possibly other insects into the trees to spin their webs.
Beginning last July, unprecedented monsoons dropped nearly ten years’ worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week, swelling the country’s rivers. The water was slow to recede, creating vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside. (See pictures of the Pakistan flood.)
“It was a very slow-motion kind of disaster,” said Russell Watkins, a multimedia editor with the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID), the organization tasked with managing Britain’s overseas aid programs.
According to Watkins, who photographed the trees during a trip to Pakistan last December, people in Sindh said they’d never seen this phenomenon before the flooding.
(See pictures: “World’s Biggest, Strongest Spider Webs Found.”)
As for what exactly had spun the webs, Watkins said: “There wasn’t a scientific analysis of this being done. Anecdotally, I think it was pretty much any kind arachnid species, possibly combined with other insects.
“It was largely spiders,” he added. “Certainly, when we were there working, if you stood under one of these trees, dozens of small, very, very tiny spiders would just be dropping down onto your head.”
Editor’s note: Corrected November 30, 2011, after it came to our attention that it’s not certain that all the silk pictured was spun by spiders.
—Ker Than
Updated November 30, 2011

(via Pictures: Trees Cocooned in Webs After Flood)

Photograph courtesy Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International Development

Trees shrouded in ghostly cocoons line the edges of a submerged farm field in the Pakistani village of Sindh, where 2010’s massive floods drove millions of spiders an possibly other insects into the trees to spin their webs.

Beginning last July, unprecedented monsoons dropped nearly ten years’ worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week, swelling the country’s rivers. The water was slow to recede, creating vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside. (See pictures of the Pakistan flood.)

“It was a very slow-motion kind of disaster,” said Russell Watkins, a multimedia editor with the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID), the organization tasked with managing Britain’s overseas aid programs.

According to Watkins, who photographed the trees during a trip to Pakistan last December, people in Sindh said they’d never seen this phenomenon before the flooding.

(See pictures: “World’s Biggest, Strongest Spider Webs Found.”)

As for what exactly had spun the webs, Watkins said: “There wasn’t a scientific analysis of this being done. Anecdotally, I think it was pretty much any kind arachnid species, possibly combined with other insects.

“It was largely spiders,” he added. “Certainly, when we were there working, if you stood under one of these trees, dozens of small, very, very tiny spiders would just be dropping down onto your head.”

Editor’s note: Corrected November 30, 2011, after it came to our attention that it’s not certain that all the silk pictured was spun by spiders.

—Ker Than

Updated November 30, 2011

(via Pictures: Trees Cocooned in Webs After Flood)

occupyallstreets:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Poland Signs ACTA

Poland’s ambassador to Japan, Jadwiga Rodowicz-Czechowska, signed the controversial ACTA in Tokyo earlier today despite huge demonstrations in Warsaw Street and the hacking of governmental websites since the weekend.

Poland’s Prime Minister Tusk insisted that his government would not “succumb to blackmail”. But over 10,000 have taken the streets Wednesday across the nation to protest against censorship.

Later today, hundreds of people took to the streets of the eastern city of Lublin to express their anger over the treaty.

Young people held banners with slogans such as “no to censorship” and “a free internet”.

Demonstrators fear that Acta, which is to be ratified by the European Union, will be as pernicious as Sopa, the Stop Online Privacy Act which was withdrawn by the White House and the US Senate after a mass protest by hundreds of major user-generated content websites.

Credit

alanajoy:

Truth.

(Source: icanhasinternets.com)

Suckville

Cyclone Funso teases Mozambique’s coast »

Cyclone Funso as a major cyclone (hurricane). Image Credit: NASA

Cyclone Funso, the 5th named storm for the 2012 Indian Cyclone season, formed in the Mozambique Channel in…

Last transit of Venus in 21st century will happen in June 2012 »

Have you been watching Venus in the evening sky? It’s beautiful – especially on January 26, 2012, when it’s near the moon. Here’s something fun to think about as you gaze at Venus. By June…

Jan. 26, 2012: The Writer's Almanac »

Thursday’s Poem: “The Beautiful Sandwich” by Brad Ricca, from American Mastodon. Thursday’s Literary Notes: It’s the birthday of British playwright Christopher Hampton, born in Faial in the Azores…

Day One Screenshot on Flickr.

The best part of the Day One Journal software is the ability compose entries on the fly from the menubar, without having to load up the program itself.