Day: April 26, 2009

Night Dwellers (part 1 of likely many throughout the year)

One of my chores, if you will, is to take our dogs out before retiring for the night.  Due to the potential for coyotes and other non-friendly pet wildlife we coexists with out in the country, this involves hitting our flood lights which illuminates our entire porch and a large section of the yard.  You cannot be too careful when taking care of a 5 pound dog.  This instant light tends to surprise animals, insects and the like.  As a result, I tend to see some interesting (and sometimes scary) things previously undercover of the night.  I decided to snap a few shots to share the experience with my readers – especially those people who have not experienced the country life.

The first subject for the night dwellers collection is the Wolf Spider.

Wolf Spider

Interesting enough, I have often heard these spiders referred to as Timber Spiders, but I was unable to find that name on the web.  It may be time to hit the bookstores and pick up a spider reference book since at least once a week a new species pops up around here.  They are not venomous to humans, but their hairy texture and potentially large size have a tendency to provoke pretty aggressive stomping by those caught off guard.  As an FYI, the Brown Recluse is really the only venomous spider we have to worry about around here.  Those tend to avoid any contact and therefore not a big concern but I do give a quick scan of the woodpiles and such just in case.

Wolf Spider

My general rule is to let all insects and arachnids live if they are not found inside the house or are smaller than a Loon coin.  This specimen was definitely on the larger end of that (if not bigger) but since it tolerated my flash photography it was given a second chance.  I have a new lens coming for my camera that will give me much sharper shots, but hopefully you can tell these things are extremely hairy and look quite formidable.  The eye reflection was pretty neat through the glass, but did not really make it through the reduction process which makes the image web friendly.  By eye, I mean the reflection coming off of one or more of their eight eyes.

Follow the jump to see another image of the wolf spider taken a few days later.  That one has an egg sac.

Continue reading Night Dwellers (part 1 of likely many throughout the year)

Newspapers RIP 1690 – 2009

Newspapers Tombstone“Newspapers … Black and White but Never Re[a]d and Therefore Dead”

At the beginning of April, I came across a web article where the New York Times Editor Bill Kerry stated that “Saving the New York Times now ranks with saving Darfur as a high-minded cause.”  I was absolutely stunned by this opinion for a number of reasons.  First being the ironic aspect that without disasters such as Darfur, Somalia, Virginia Tech etc. etc. most of these print rags wouldn’t have anything to pontificate their Liberal views about.  As a result, Bill thinks the industry based on talking about what other people do is more important than the actual event.  Second is an assumption that the emerging generations do not actually bother getting their fingers dirty reading newspapers.  There are way to many avenues for information flow these days from the ubiquitous nature of the web and the instant gratification of a Tweet.  Additionally, once a readership is obtained, the roving journalist is no longer tied to a media outlet much like musicians no longer need the middleman to reach their listeners.

The other major issue newspapers have is the press time lag.  As of late, I have been teasing my wife at the breakfast table.  She will start reading me an article she finds interesting in the local paper and I’ll quickly give her the details from the Yahoo News, Drudge Report or local news webs I read at least a day or more previously.  Quite frankly, the only reason I get the newspaper these days is for the Sunday adds and the Police Beat of the Local Section … with a little effort I could even obtain this information on the web.

But there is still one reason Bill’s comments are way off base.  That reason is pure and simply the fact most articles are horribly written or do not focus on the aspects I want to know and care about.  I have scanned in a few articles from our paper to help prove this point.  Follow the jump to see them.
Continue reading Newspapers RIP 1690 – 2009