# 2 People Dead After Swarms of Venomous Spiders Invade Indian Town



## Ungoliant (Jun 3, 2012)

2 People Dead After Swarms of Venomous Spiders Invade Indian Town

This suspicious article is making the rounds on the Web.

I am reflexively skeptical of any article about spiders that contains the words "deadly" and "aggressive." (If this spider is swarming, where are the pictures?) Also suspect are claims that "arachnid experts" have not only failed to identify the species, but apparently can't distinguish between families of mygalomorphs.



			
				NewsCore said:
			
		

> Teams of Indian arachnid experts have flocked to the town, hoping to identify the species, but so far they have drawn a blank.
> 
> They say it could be a tarantula, a black wishbone or even a funnel-web spider -- or it could be a whole new species.
> 
> One thing they agree on is that it is not native to the area as there is no record of venomous spiders in Assam. The black wishbone and funnel-web are native to Australia.





			
				NewsCore said:
			
		

> Dr. Anil Phatowali, superintendent of the town's hospital, said they had not administered antivenin as they could not be certain the spider was venomous at all.
> 
> He also pointed out other factors may have contributed to the two reported fatalities.
> 
> *"All the bite patients first went to witch doctors, who cut open their wounds with razors, drained out blood and burnt it. That could have also made them sick," Phatowali said.*

Reactions: Like 2


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## le-thomas (Jun 3, 2012)

If an expert can't tell a tarantula from a "black wishbone" from a funnel-web, they're not an expert in any way, shape or form. The witch doctors killed the people, quite obviously. Hilarious almost.

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark (Jun 3, 2012)

Would somebody give Ungoliant a good hard wap, please? I hate being zapped with paradoxes pre coffee in the morning! :sarcasm:
Upon reading the story I want to roll on the floor in hysterical laughter while feeling sad about the victims. 

Does anyone else visualize a bunch of witch doctors running around some primitive village, slashing people with dirty razor blades while screaming 'deadly spiders!'.

I like the oxymoron at the top of the page in that link. Foxnews.com. Fair and balanced.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## wesker12 (Jun 3, 2012)

The Snark said:


> Would somebody give Ungoliant a good hard wap, please? I hate being zapped with paradoxes pre coffee in the morning! :sarcasm:
> Upon reading the story I want to roll on the floor in hysterical laughter while feeling sad about the victims.
> 
> Does anyone else visualize a bunch of witch doctors running around some primitive village, slashing people with dirty razor blades while screaming 'deadly spiders!'.


I remember living in the village....bites sucked especially being more than 400 from the nearest hospital.

I'm guessing they died from a secondary infection caused by these so called doctors. I have seen some pretty crazy stuff going on in villages when some one gets envenomated.

Still positively iding mygalmorphs is not as easy as some people make it...even the acclaimed Rick West has difficulty positively identifying tarantulas found in the USA (namely the florida vagans/sabulosum).

---------- Post added 06-03-2012 at 06:19 PM ----------




wesker12 said:


> Fear mongering and exaggeration, they went to local doctors who cut them with rusted blades and most likely caused a tetanus infection (been there done that).
> 
> Most likely a few people were bit and the myglamorph is aggressive with potent venom but I doubt it leaps on faces. If it does I need to check it out this summer (going back to my homeland)
> 
> ...


Here is what I wrote on the tarantula portion of this site.

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark (Jun 3, 2012)

Hey wesker12. Since you know the Ganges area well. What highly venomous spiders do you have over there, if any?
BTW, Tetanus can take weeks to debilitate and kill. On the other hand, you have some extremely nasty bacteria in some of those villages that surpass staph on the put you 6 feet under scale.


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## Ungoliant (Jun 3, 2012)

wesker12 said:


> Still positively iding mygalmorphs is not as easy as some people make it...even the acclaimed Rick West has difficulty positively identifying tarantulas found in the USA (namely the florida vagans/sabulosum).


I understand that it may be difficult to identify mygalomorphs to the genus or species level, but shouldn't an arachnologist be able to identify them to the _family_ level? An expert should be able to distinguish between a tarantula (family Theraphosidae), a black wishbone spider (family Nemesiidae), and a Sydney funnel-web spider (family Hexathelidae) when examining the actual specimen.

Reactions: Like 1


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## wesker12 (Jun 3, 2012)

The Snark said:


> Hey wesker12. Since you know the Ganges area well. What highly venomous spiders do you have over there, if any?
> BTW, Tetanus can take weeks to debilitate and kill. On the other hand, you have some extremely nasty bacteria in some of those villages that surpass staph on the put you 6 feet under scale.


Your right on the tetanus.
Your absolutely right on nasties that are worse than staph being pretty prevalent.

I haven't been to India (permanently) in over 10 years but from what I recall there are poecilethoeria, several chilobrachy sp. (dyscolus and fimbriatus, andersoni ect), haploclastus, phlogiellus, selencosmia, and thrigmopeus that are commonly found in India that have pretty nasty bites.

I love indian tarantulas - raising C.fimbriatus, P.ornatas, and a few others - have a friend pairing the ornatas soon hopefully I get a good sack soon!

---------- Post added 06-03-2012 at 06:44 PM ----------




Ungoliant said:


> I understand that it may be difficult to identify mygalomorphs to the genus or species level, but shouldn't an arachnologist be able to identify them to the _family_ level? An expert should be able to distinguish between a tarantula (family Theraphosidae), a black wishbone spider (family Nemesiidae), and a Sydney funnel-web spider (family Hexathelidae) when examining the actual specimen.


Your right as well but I don't think India has as many arachnologists that specify on spiders as say America, more likely just generalized invert specialists.

They do have a tentative id on the family I believe (selencosmia)
http://m.timesofindia.com/home/envi...-Assam-town-kill-two/articleshow/13753398.cms


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## Ciphor (Jun 4, 2012)

Good ol' witch doctering! Nothing cures a venomous bite like razors and 3rd degree burns! SMH*

Reactions: Like 1


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## advan (Jun 4, 2012)

wesker12 said:


> I love indian tarantulas - raising C.fimbriatus, P.ornatas, and a few others - have a friend pairing the ornatas soon hopefully I get a good sack soon!


Last time I checked _Poecilotheria ornata_ was native to Sri Lanka.


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## Niffarious (Jun 4, 2012)

The original source for this article was The Daily Fail (The Daily Mail). The 'quotes' are all suspect...well, the whole story is. Basically - a bunch of people are claiming spiders, when at best, some people died after being treated by witch doctors. There's no evidence to support it even has anything to do with spiders. There's no evidence to support there were experts in the area.

There's no evidence for this story being true at all...again consider the original source.


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## arachnidsrva (Jun 4, 2012)

Honestly I think that the Witch doctors will get it taken care of.  They'll probably burn someone in the arm with a hot piece of metal and bury it. 

If their arm starts to blister - most likely it was the spider to blame.

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark (Jun 4, 2012)

I am reminded of when I was working on the Burmese border in a medical capacity and some visiting American group was present at some incident I don't clearly recall. Something to do with an outbreak of insects, maybe spiders in a local village. One of the group was a journalist who documented the incident and was going to publish it in some journal. She wanted to quote me as a medical and entomological expert. She was serious and emphatic! It would lend credence and credibility to her article. Like, lady, I'm a paramedic and infection control specialist. What I scientifically know of xxxxx you could put in your coffee cup and still have room for the joe! :coffee:


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## pitbulllady (Jun 4, 2012)

The latest on this from CNN paints a rather different, and more sensible, picture: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/04/world/asia/india-spiders-swarm/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

pitbulllady

Reactions: Like 1


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## paassatt (Jun 4, 2012)

pitbulllady said:


> The latest on this from CNN paints a rather different, and more sensible, picture: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/04/world/asia/india-spiders-swarm/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
> 
> pitbulllady


It's refreshing to see a media outlet attempting to be sensible and level-headed in its story. I long for the days when the media was responsible, and didn't pander to the sensationalist tendencies of the masses.


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## wesker12 (Jun 4, 2012)

advan said:


> Last time I checked _Poecilotheria ornata_ was native to Sri Lanka.


Southern sri lanka to be exact, but yeah I didn't mention them first but then I slipped and said indian tarantulas because I was excited about the pairing.
Here's a great accurate site about pokies!

http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/11/prop/52.pdf


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## advan (Jun 4, 2012)

wesker12 said:


> Southern sri lanka to be exact, but yeah I didn't mention them first but then I slipped and said indian tarantulas because I was excited about the pairing.
> Here's a great accurate site about pokies!
> 
> http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/11/prop/52.pdf


It's not that accurate considering _P. bara_ = _P. subfusca_ not _P. smithi_

Even the latest is not fully accurate. Clicky

Sorry for the derail. Thanks for the link pitbulllady!


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## Thomas2015 (Jun 4, 2012)

I heard earlier that two people died: an old man who was bit by a snake, not a spider, and a boy who died of illness, also not a spider. As a side note, both of them went to faith healers instead of a hospital.


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## Galapoheros (Jun 4, 2012)

Fear sells!  I saw this earlier, more like entertainment imo.


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## The Snark (Jun 5, 2012)

Please see http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?232232-Bite-Reports&p=2042208#post2042208


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## cricket54 (Jun 5, 2012)

The latest news on this that  I saw has a pic with it of what looks like a young hairy tarantula, like maybe a chilobrachy type tarantula. They said the spiders are still unidentified and could be a new species. I suspect its a known species that true people who are knowledgeble of tarantulas have not been consulted to see what they are finding. Could be the pic is not even the same spider that bit people. Tarantulas, when they are juveniles are often brown in many asian species. It even looks a lot like a pet tarantula I had for yrs that I never knew what species it was. She lived for yrs and passed away of old age. All I knew was she was some brown asian species of tarantula. Anyway, if its a tarantula and not a funnel web spider, they only have to treat for infection and not any other crazy thing like cutting open the bite and bleeding it out.

Sharon


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## The Snark (Jun 5, 2012)

*Gag reflex approaching critical.*

Due to insomnia, I web surfed for every bit of information I could find on this incident. A number of interesting tidbits became obvious.
-No authenticated photographs have been made available to the general public.
-No expert has weighed in and been cited. 
-No comparisons to comparable incidents have been referenced.
In other words, the theoreticians are all, pardon, pissing up a rope. As for myself, I am quite interested in this. Not the deaths as they probably aren't related, but the possibility of a mass migration similar to those undertaken by tarantulas in the south western desert. 

So may I please request that anybody who manages to come up with some hard scientific facts to post them?

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ciphor (Jun 6, 2012)

The Snark said:


> Due to insomnia, I web surfed for every bit of information I could find on this incident. A number of interesting tidbits became obvious.
> -No authenticated photographs have been made available to the general public.
> -No expert has weighed in and been cited.
> -No comparisons to comparable incidents have been referenced.
> ...


Lol pissing up a rope. That really is the epitome of futile.


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## ijmccollum (Jun 6, 2012)

nothing scientific to post.  I do find the "swarming/migration" reference interesting though.  also curious that they are unknown to the area -- sounds like an introduction of some sort.......ooooooooo......let's add the conspiracy aspect as well.


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## AmysAnimals (Jun 8, 2012)

Hmmm this is an interesting story.  Why must people fear so much?  I don't have any information about this situation but I hope some new information pops up that actually is of use for example, an expert on the situation!  

I am sorry those people lost their lives but i do not think a spider did it.


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## The Snark (Jun 8, 2012)

AmysAnimals said:


> Hmmm this is an interesting story.  Why must people fear so much?  I don't have any information about this situation but I hope some new information pops up that actually is of use for example, an expert on the situation!
> 
> I am sorry those people lost their lives but i do not think a spider did it.


This is a very interesting comment showing deep introspection. What is with this fear? Where does it come from? We certainly aren't born with it. Why do we learn it? Why is it so hard to get over?


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## Michiel (Jun 8, 2012)

Fear of spiders is said to be inhibited be several behaviourists, as experiments have showed that baby's,  are afraid of spiders...This is what I was told in psychopathology courses....I did not research it myself...I do know that my kids are not scared of scorpions and tarantulas, because I keep these...my 3 year old does fear flies for some reason....  my 1 year old seems scared of baby goats and cute animals, more then spiders, so I don't know...it might differ per child, cultural bavkground etc etc....Fear is interesting stuff I tell you...
India is known for press releases like "5 year old with 4 arms and 6 legs performs brainsurgery on pregnant 98 year old grandmother" so I am not taking it too serious....

Verstuurd van mijn GT-I9001 met Tapatalk


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## Michiel (Jun 8, 2012)

The Snark said:


> Would somebody give Ungoliant a good hard wap, please? I hate being zapped with paradoxes pre coffee in the morning! :sarcasm:
> Upon reading the story I want to roll on the floor in hysterical laughter while feeling sad about the victims.
> 
> Does anyone else visualize a bunch of witch doctors running around some primitive village, slashing people with dirty razor blades while screaming 'deadly spiders!'.
> ...


This made me laugh very hard, as I immediately saw it before me, lol!

Verstuurd van mijn GT-I9001 met Tapatalk


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## Stan Schultz (Jun 16, 2012)

On June 5 Global National News (of the Canadian Global TV Network) aired a 2 minute spot about the "ASSAM TARANTULA INVASION." The broadcast version was a reasonably intelligent report without major gaffs about the incident if one allows them some slack because English is a second language for most of those interviewed, even the scientists and doctors. It clearly showed adult male theraphosid tarantulas that were not poecilotherids. And, it stressed that the deaths were not the direct results of the tarantula bites, but rather the results of local village shamans trying to drain the venom using unclean instruments and techniques.

*Here* is another written report by the Associated Press.

It was obviously a good year for marching males, no doubt made worse by the impending monsoon season.

While this entire fiasco did nothing to endear tarantulas in the minds of almost all viewers (it is very hard to overcome convictions ingrained by decades of propaganda), in the long run it almost surely will be forgotten by all by Canada Day/Independence Day, a fact we can all be thankful for.

BTW, I have the entire Global news clip on DVD but have no idea whatsoever how to get permission to put it on Youtube, much less how actually to go about uploading it so others can review it. By now it probably wouldn't be worth the effort anyway. Old news is no news.

Enjoy your little, 8-legged, breaking news!


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## DannyH (Jun 16, 2012)

Just out of curiosity, do they have any pictures of the spiders?


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## Anonymity82 (Jun 17, 2012)

Fox news + witch doctors + "teams" of "arachnid experts" who weren't able to find or at least identify one specimen (seeing how there were swarms viciously attacking people one would think there'd be a couple specimens lying around) = ridiculous. To be frank and honest, any anecdotal reports coming out of India get categorized into my "fiction" folder.


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## pitbulllady (Jun 17, 2012)

Michiel said:


> Fear of spiders is said to be inhibited be several behaviourists, as experiments have showed that baby's,  are afraid of spiders...This is what I was told in psychopathology courses....I did not research it myself...I do know that my kids are not scared of scorpions and tarantulas, because I keep these...my 3 year old does fear flies for some reason....  my 1 year old seems scared of baby goats and cute animals, more then spiders, so I don't know...it might differ per child, cultural bavkground etc etc....Fear is interesting stuff I tell you...
> India is known for press releases like "5 year old with 4 arms and 6 legs performs brainsurgery on pregnant 98 year old grandmother" so I am not taking it too serious....
> 
> Verstuurd van mijn GT-I9001 met Tapatalk


Actually, the studies did NOT show that babies are "afraid" of spiders, only that babies showed more interest or reaction to pictures of spiders and snakes.  The reaction was not one of fear or distress, however.  They just seemed to take more notice of those images than of animals like cats and dogs or inanimate objects like chairs.  The people who conducted the study came to the conclusion that humans' brains must be "hard-wired" to notice snakes and spiders moreso than other animals, for whatever reasons, and that this would make it easy to LEARN to be afraid of those animals at an early age IF we have a reason to connect their images with unpleasant emotional situations, like seeing a parent freak out at the sight of a spider or being punished by a parent after approaching a snake.  We are not actually born being afraid of either; that fear is still learned, and since babies can't talk, all scientists have to go on with regards to a baby's emotional state is its behavior or facial expressions, which are rather limited at that stage in life.  

pitbulllady


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## The Snark (Jun 17, 2012)

pitbulllady said:


> Actually, the studies did NOT show that babies are "afraid" of spiders, only that babies showed more interest or reaction to pictures of spiders and snakes.  The reaction was not one of fear or distress, however.  They just seemed to take more notice of those images than of animals like cats and dogs or inanimate objects like chairs.  The people who conducted the study came to the conclusion that humans' brains must be "hard-wired" to notice snakes and spiders moreso than other animals, for whatever reasons, and that this would make it easy to LEARN to be afraid of those animals at an early age IF we have a reason to connect their images with unpleasant emotional situations, like seeing a parent freak out at the sight of a spider or being punished by a parent after approaching a snake.  We are not actually born being afraid of either; that fear is still learned, and since babies can't talk, all scientists have to go on with regards to a baby's emotional state is its behavior or facial expressions, which are rather limited at that stage in life.
> 
> pitbulllady


Since we've hijacked this thread anyway... pitbulllady, perhaps you've encountered this or similar. I read an article long ago and I am very fuzzy on what all was in it. The jist was the human mind, being on a divergent path from the animal, operates partly from genetic code, but our more sophisticated brain is 'sensitized' (I remember that was the word used) where it has these mnemonic instructions but rather than directly utilize them, fright flight syndrome and so forth, it hands them over to other parts of the brain for us to formulate them, creating a unique, personalized instruction. Our brain is the meeting of these two divergent roads with thousands of these sensitized mnemonic situations built in, sort of primed for hyper learning, so we create our own operating manual from the mnemonics and interaction with our environment. 
I suppose a fear of spiders would be an example. The baby has no direct instruction set how to deal with animal X, action=reaction, but the brain is primed by one or maybe several mnemonics, so it looks for external stimulus for the correct action.
This make any sense? If you have heard of this or similar articles could you post link(s)?


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## PrettyHate (Jun 17, 2012)

And then the witch doctor, he told me what to do, he said that....Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla, bing bang...


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## wesker12 (Jun 17, 2012)

PrettyHate said:


> And then the witch doctor, he told me what to do, he said that....Ooo eee, ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla, bing bang...


Close, more likely he said "areh yay tho mackri may biss he or jharwani hoay ga"


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## lizardminion (Jun 17, 2012)

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm beginning to lose faith in Fox News. I mean, _even I_ am losing faith in them.
I hate news reporters.

If those are arachnid experts, then I'm an octopus.


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## The Snark (Jun 18, 2012)

lizardminion said:


> I never thought I'd say this, but I'm beginning to lose faith in Fox News. I mean, _even I_ am losing faith in them.
> I hate news reporters.
> 
> If those are arachnid experts, then I'm an octopus.


I'm not going to fathom the possibility of your relationships with cephalopoda but how about this:
"He who speaks to only one man gains only that mans knowledge. He who speaks to a group of people, shares only the knowledge of that group. He who asks of every person he meets shares in the knowledge of each; but he who neither believes nor discounts what he hears gains wisdom." -Webs of Deceit-

On the other paw, I would be willing to bet that, thanks to a certain news media company, there are now several million Americans who gained the knowledge that swarms of dangerous spiders invaded a town in India.

Now riddle me this. Why is it that when truth is mandatory all information is just building blocks in a hypothesis, to be systematically challenged. Yet when watching the average mainstream media news, everything is normally taken as true and contrapuntal information from an alternative news source is usually met with cynicism? When and why did news become entertainment and scientific methodology got tossed out the window?


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## pitbulllady (Jun 18, 2012)

The Snark said:


> I'm not going to fathom the possibility of your relationships with cephalopoda but how about this:
> "He who speaks to only one man gains only that mans knowledge. He who speaks to a group of people, shares only the knowledge of that group. He who asks of every person he meets shares in the knowledge of each; but he who neither believes nor discounts what he hears gains wisdom." -Webs of Deceit-
> 
> On the other paw, I would be willing to bet that, thanks to a certain news media company, there are now several million Americans who gained the knowledge that swarms of dangerous spiders invaded a town in India.
> ...


I wish I could answer that, Snark, but I've been scratching my head and asking the same question over and over myself.  Even Don Henley released a hit song about it back in 1982, so by that time, news had become entertainment, and it's just gotten worse since then.
Thanks for another cool quote, though 

pitbulllady


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## Ciphor (Jun 18, 2012)

The Snark said:


> I'm not going to fathom the possibility of your relationships with cephalopoda but how about this:
> "He who speaks to only one man gains only that mans knowledge. He who speaks to a group of people, shares only the knowledge of that group. He who asks of every person he meets shares in the knowledge of each; but he who neither believes nor discounts what he hears gains wisdom." -Webs of Deceit-
> 
> On the other paw, I would be willing to bet that, thanks to a certain news media company, there are now several million Americans who gained the knowledge that swarms of dangerous spiders invaded a town in India.
> ...


Answer is simple, when Rockafeller got his fingers into the media. It has, become "entertainment tonight" ever since.


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## Stan Schultz (Jun 18, 2012)

DannyH said:


> Just out of curiosity, do they have any pictures of the spiders?


About 1/3 of the 2 minutes is of the tarantulas themselves in various settings and different lighting. The portion of the report shot in India is of rather low quality. I might guess that it's either shot with someone's cell phone (in which case it's remarkably good), or professionally at low resolution in *PAL* format, then converted to *NTSC* or *ATSC* formats so we could view it. Such a conversion can introduce a lot of garbage, especially on older equipment.

---------- Post added 06-18-2012 at 12:18 PM ----------




The Snark said:


> ... When and why did news become entertainment and scientific methodology got tossed out the window?


When Adam took that apple.

Now, if you know anything about the real story (you biblical scholar types can fill in the details if you want to stick your necks out), that is a joke within a joke. The rest of you can live on in ignorance. It's safer that way.


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## The Snark (Jun 18, 2012)

pitbulllady said:


> I wish I could answer that, Snark, but I've been scratching my head and asking the same question over and over myself.  Even Don Henley released a hit song about it back in 1982, so by that time, news had become entertainment, and it's just gotten worse since then.
> Thanks for another cool quote, though
> 
> pitbulllady


Narcotizing dysfunction. Mindlessly staring at their programming stations while mumbling 'Yes, master'.
"They say it's quality programming... but who wants to be programmed?"

PBL, how about Zappa's 'I'm the slime'?


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## Ciphor (Jun 18, 2012)

The Snark said:


> Narcotizing dysfunction. Mindlessly staring at their programming stations while mumbling 'Yes, master'.
> "They say it's quality programming... but who wants to be programmed?"


Complacency is the enemy. No one to blame but ourselves unfortunately. I mean who needs real substance when you have Xbox and 16 different types of CSI?


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## Stan Schultz (Jun 18, 2012)

*More drivel!*

In a never ending effort to carry this thing to the maximum possible ludicrous conclusion, I offer you these YouTube videos from this afternoon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wajEaDWef_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69VqrBxYJDA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvHbVel6DtA

At least they may offer visible clues to the questions some of you have been asking.

Look carefully at the tarantula photos. Are there more than one species?


Enjoy!

Or not.


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