Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

The Associated Press reports that the “experts” just don’t know what to make of a 600 foot-wide spider web found in Lake Tawakoni State Park in the north of Texas. They write, “Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.”

Well, while the entomologists debate, the rest of us will be preparing defenses in our basement shelters. We don’t need experts to send out research teams to figure it out for us. Giant spider webs are made by giant spiders.

Giant spiders are attacking Lake Tawakoni State Park, putting it under their control, slowly but surely, with their sticky, predatory spider webs. I figure that a 600 foot-wide spider web could only be made by a 50 foot wide spider.

But why Lake Tawakoni State Park? Well, I don’t think that it’s an accident that the giant spiders of Texas have chosen this particular state park as a place to start their attack. Lake Tawakoni is, after all, the primary source of drinking water for the city of Dallas.

Now, think! What else are spiders known for, besides their ability to make sticky webs made out of silk? Their venom!

If only the entomologists would stop their studies and start thinking more broadly, they would see that this is no time to engage in appeasement with the giant spiders of Lake Tawakoni State Park. They have arachnid minds incapable of compassion. They only want to make the people of Dallas their next meals, in a vast chemical weapons attack against Dallas through the drinking water supply coming from Lake Tawakoni!

August 30, 2007 – Thursday

1616 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3733
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70980
(MAXIMUM): 77513
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $447,229,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

August 29, 2007 – Wednesday

1615 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3732
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70749
(MAXIMUM): 77272
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $456,195,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

I was looking for information about cuttlefish this morning when I came across the following three videos, each of which purports to show a cuttlefish attack.

The thing is, looking at the videos, I don’t really know if I see any attacks. In one cuttlefish video, I see nothing more than a cuttlefish swimming in murky water, with a lot of divers circling around it. In another video, I see a cuttlefish come up to a diver, and then for a second swim quickly toward the diver before darting away. Is that an attack?

In a third video, the caption says that the cuttlefish “hit” his mask, put its tentacles on his regulator hose, and then chased him for ten minutes. However, the caption shows no such attack – or, if the video shows what it’s like to be chased by a cuttlefish, then it seems that only the slowest of swimmers would have anything to worry about. It isn’t exactly a James Bond chase scene.

The lesson I take from these videos is that, when there’s room for interpretation, people like to believe that they’ve been attacked – even by cuttlefish. We seem to prefer that things are out to get us, even if they’re really just taking a look and saying hello.

I’m not saying that cuttlefish don’t behave aggressively toward divers, occassionally. There is another, short video which clearly shows a cuttlefish in something like an attack, though brief, against a camera:

Another video showing such an attack, however, makes me wonder about the context of this kind of aggressive cuttlefish behavior. In this video, two divers are following a cuttlefish, which seems to adopt a warning stance before it briefly rushes at one of the divers. It’s a lesson to divers: When swimming with intelligent animals, don’t chase, or you’ll be told to back off.

That lesson is reinforced by the following video, showing two divers harassing a cuttlefish:

August 28, 2007 – Tuesday

1614 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3732
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70749
(MAXIMUM): 77272
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $455,907,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

This morning, my six year-old son walked up to me with a clever kind of smile and asked, “Dad, have you had your coffee yet, and if you did, did it taste different this time?”

August 27, 2007 – Monday

1613 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3728
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70749
(MAXIMUM): 77272
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $455,632,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

August 26, 2007 – Sunday

1612 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3728
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70663
(MAXIMUM): 77183
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $455,521,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

August 25, 2007 – Saturday

1611 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3724
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70604
(MAXIMUM): 77121
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $455,071,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

August 24, 2007 – Friday

1610 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3724
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 27506

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 70359
(MAXIMUM): 767873
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $454,764,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE