Month: November 2013

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Remember these guys?

I wrote a month or two ago about the local tarantulas.

At the time I said there were two varieties indigenous to this area. Don’t ask me to be all that specific about the phylum, species, and all that. It’s been way too long since I had to even think about it. 

The nail in my Phylum, Species information came when an Asian coworker pointed out that many birds are called different species when only their plumage was a different color and perhaps beaks were slightly different.

My co worker went on to point out that the birds could in some cases cross mate and their diets were identical. This coworker made the same points about fish.

Then came the coup de gras. 

Why, my co worker asked, don’t we apply the same rules to people?

TILT! “Danger Will Robinson!, Danger!”, “Illogical, Illogical, Norman, please coordinate”

All That hard work, from Mrs Vincent, Mrs Sharp… Undone in a moment!

Anyhow… I managed to get a photo of the Blond Tarantula. So here is my matching set for your enjoyment.

The first little beastie, the Black Tarantula (Aphonopelma reversum) I photographed in late August.

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The second beastie, the Blond Tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes). I photographed a couple of days ago.

As you can see they really do look quite a bit different.

My next door neighbor came and got me when they saw blondie hiking across the street. I took several pictures of the spider as he crossed my driveway. This one was also a lot more timid than the black tarantula.

I don’t think this guy was quite sexually mature, since he doesn’t have the “hooks” on his front legs. He’s also significantly smaller than the black tarantula in the photo to the left. You can’t really tell because there is no scale in the photos. Just take my word for it. That may have accounted for the timidness.

20 years here and I’d only seen one indigenous tarantula here. Now in one year I’ve seen both types. How cool is that? 

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Apparently I’m missing something

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I use Twitter. 

I enjoy watching the day unfold through the eyes of people that are mostly like me.

The news media says something and before I can say “WTF?” Other people on Twitter are asking the same question.

Granted a lot of folks talk politics, or religious beliefs, or peoples rights.

Some people would find those conversations uncomfortable, and in fact many people actively try to shout down those with opposing viewpoints.

Often the shouting and attendant obscene language and sometimes what could only be defined as hate speech is coming from über liberals and it directed at the more conservative elements having discussions on Twitter. 

It’s the speed with which the liberal elements descend to these tactics that I have found interesting over time. 

I continue to read the points that people are making, I weigh out what I see as the merits… or not of their point and if I have time will read the links to news organizations. 

I like the photos, sometimes they’re beautiful, sometimes they’re cartoons, and sometimes well… taste is a matter of perspective isn’t it?

Occasionally I’ll comment. I’ll express my thoughts and sometimes, I’m told I’m wrong. Often a kind person will take the time to explain why. Other times I’ll share an opinion or belief and another person will send a message something like “Hey thanks, I hadn’t thought about <subject x> that way.”

To me this is what Twitter is. 

I’ve thought of it as a well ordered meeting in a virtual town square. The order is imposed by a 140 character limit and you have to make your point or you’ll be lost in the shuffle. 

I’ve been using a service that supposedly deletes your tweets after a set period of time. My Tweets are in fact deleted from my timeline but I’ve been wondering lately why someone would offer such a service for free, after all what do they get out of it?

The reasons I want my tweets deleted after a certain period of time is that I see no need to keep them. In the unlikely event that I run for political office I don’t want to be hamstrung by a moronic reporter in my opponents pocket, asking questions formulated to destroy my candidacy from out of context tweets.

I’d find this especially embarrassing if the reporter in question didn’t know the difference between ‘reaped’ and ‘wrought’ as I saw in an article this morning.

I suppose you could call my removal of tweets the digital equivalent of the Hikers Code. “Leave no trace behind”

I’ve always been dimly aware of a certain competitiveness regarding the number of followers one has on Twitter.

Only recently did I learn that your number of followers and the number of people you follow back affect the chances of being sent to the Twitter Gulag. Who the heck knew there was a Twitter Gulag?

I to my knowledge have never been sent to the Twitter Gulag, I suppose it’s possible I would have simply thought Twitter was experiencing technical difficulties and moved on to other things.

I’ve been seeing more and more of “I follow/unfollow back”

This confuses me. If I’ve followed someone it’s because I thought they said things that were interesting enough that I wanted to hear more. I had no expectation that they would follow me unless my comments were interesting to them as well.

If someone becomes un-interesting to me for a long period of time, then I’ll stop following them and I expect the same treatment. It’s not offensive, after all we all change over time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m always very flattered when someone follows me. I hope that my comments or humor will entertain, challenge or delight them. But I don’t want anyone to feel obligated to follow me, I sure as hell don’t feel any obligation to follow anyone.

But there seems to be something more, something I’m missing in all this follow / unfollow business.

I don’t look at Twitter as a popularity contest although I suppose it is.

I can’t hang my self esteem on something as arbitrary as the number of followers or how it changes day to day.

If I tailored my comments to generate maximum approval in order to gain followers, how long before I’d be speaking “Group Truth” instead of my own?

Shorter: How long until I’m a politician with no moral fiber and no core beliefs?

I like the “Twitter as Town Square” metaphor. Remember in this case the Town Square is global.

I like a free for all exchange of ideas and even philosophies from the people themselves not a book in a library. I prefer for a person to be able to explain how they came to a conclusion or came up with some innovation. Often folks on twitter will tell you exactly why or how they came up with something.

I still believe that most of the average or “common” folks on this planet are in fact pretty darn smart. Spelling or grammatical mistakes aside, humans are inherently problem solvers and creators. That aspect of us should be celebrated and encouraged.

Twitter has the capacity to do that. 

Imagine a farmer having a problem with a particular crop, being able to float a question to every farmer on the planet. How about someone trying to solve an engineering problem?

To me this is the best the internet can provide. It’s the basis in my mind, of information being free.

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I’m not comfortable with Twitter as a training ground for politicians. 

Yes, I took a lot more than 140 characters…

Follow me… or not if any of my truth caught your interest.

All the best for your upcoming week.

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Happy Veterans Day

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Happy Veterans Day.

I hope that those of you who can are going to be with family and friends among those people you love and who love you.

Thank you Veterans for all you do and have done to secure our home.

Be safe