Australian spiders perish

The Sidney Morning Herald, Sydney, Australia ^ | February 2 2003 | Sidney Morning Herald

[FreedomCalls]

Australia's eight "spidernauts" are among the casualties of the space shuttle disaster.

Students and scientists involved in the project were eagerly waiting to see if the Australian Golden Orb Weaver spiders have been able to spin webs in space.

They had spent 16 days in the space shuttle Columbia as part of a project to see if webs built at zero gravity are different to those created on the ground.

Low resolution video images of the spiders suggest they have successfully built webs.

If this had proved correct, scientists would have attempted to mimic the spider silk in aerospace structures and space stations.

The spiders were bred at Melbourne Zoo in a four-year joint project by NASA and students from Glen Waverley Secondary College and RMIT University.

The spider were due to be retired to the Melbourne Zoo's new World of Bugs and Butterflies display once their mission was complete.

[FreedomCalls]

I thought I made my point. I thought the headline was tasteless. I still do. I just don't have anymore to say about it. I think it diminishes the tragedy of the event. It reminded me of the old-timer who said that if the New York Times would cover the end of the world the headline would read: "World Ends; Women and Minorities Hit Hardest." Here we have the equivalent of "Space Shuttle Columbia Explodes; Australian Spiders Perish."

[JudyB1938]

Speaking of bats, vampire bats are what gives ME the willies! Due to loss of natural habitat, they are turning to domestic cattle for blood. I wonder how long it'll be before they extend their range up here from Mexico and South America - except WE will be on their agenda! Oh, wait. I think a certain species of them are already here. They are called "illegal immigrants".

Listen to the sounds of a bat colony.

[JudyB1938]

Ok. I understand. I misintrepted your intent. There's people on FR who get their jollies by being negative. It's become a pet pieve of mine, so I jumped an early gun. Please accept my heart-felt apology.

[Cicero]

The fate of the spiders reminds me of one of Robert Lowell's most powerful poems:

Mr. Edwards and the spider

I saw the spiders marching through the air,
Swimming from tree to tree that mildewed day
In latter August when the hay
Came creaking to the barn. But where
The wind is westerly,
Where gnarled November makes the spiders fly
Into the apparitions of the sky,
They purpose nothing but their ease and die
Urgently beating east to sunrise and the sea;

What are we in the hands of the great God?
It was in vain you set up thorn and briar
In battle array against the fire
And treason crackling in your blood;
For the wild thorns grow tame
And will do nothing to oppose the flame;
Your lacerations tell the losing game
You play against a sickness past your cure.
How will the hands be strong? How will the heart endure?

A very little thing, a little worm,
Or hourglass-blazoned spider, it is said,
Can kill a tiger. Will the dead
Hold up his mirror and affirm
To the four winds the smell
And flash of his authority? It's well
If God who holds you to the pit of hell,
Much as one holds a spider, will destroy
Baffle and dissipate your soul. As a small boy

On Windsor March, I saw the spider die
When thrown into the bowels of fierce fire:
There's no long struggle, no desire
To get up on its feet and fly--
It stretches out its feet
And dies. This is the sinner's last retreat;
Yes, and no strength exerted on the heat
Then sinews the abolished will, when sick
And full of burning, it will whistle on a brick.

But who can plumb the sinking of that soul?
Josiah Hawley, picture yourself cast
Into a brick-kiln where the blast
Fans your quick vitals to a coal--
If measured by a glass,
How long would it seem burning! Let there pass
A minute, ten, ten trillion; but the blaze
Is infinite, eternal: this is death,
To die and know it. This is the Black Widow, death.

[Robert Lowell]

[kancel]

>>If this had proved correct, scientists would have attempted to mimic the spider silk in aerospace structures and space stations.<<

Actually this is a great article about the reasons that this tragedy should not stop our space program. Maybe an illtimed article but still a good contribution. I bet you tomorrow this tragedy will be fuel for why we should abandon the space program, people aren't going to wait to mourn. Here is an article about what we still can learn and eventually apply but only by keeping on despite this.

I'm not saying we should be throwing memorial services for the arachnids (among my least favorite of Gods creatures) but through them we can show one of the important things these astronauts were doing. If the experiment had been sucessful we might have had a new material with which future astronauts could have been safer and more comfortable.

[RIGHT IN SEATTLE]

Children this, children that...............

who cares about ants in Hillaryland!

[CAPPSMADNESS]

Judy - you are suppose to warn people before you post a picture of Tom Dasschole!!!

[spetznaz]

I think looking at just this one article is rather myopic. If you look at the Australian papers you will notice there were a lot of articles showing sadness and condolence ....it just seems one article expressed the fact that an Australian experiment of spiders also got destroyed.

They did not mean any harm whatsoever and i think chastizing them is meaningless.

For example if you look at terrorist events across the world, for example the Bali bombing or the African Embassy bombings where hundreds died, and if you look at most American papers you will notice they mostly ocncentrated on the American dead (eg 9 Americans die in Nairobi bombing would be a headline, and within the writing you would see that over 200 kenyans died and over a thousand injured).

But that is 'okay' because news is specific. And in this case the same applies ....the spider experiment was something the Australians had been planning for for a long time.

And the most improtant thing is this ......the Australian people (and even the media) expressed sadness and regret for the lost Astronauts. However it is very easy to pick one article and use it to paint the whole Australian continent (or the Australian 'liberal' media) as nonchalant ,callous and mean-spirited.

Which is not true.

[crazykatz]

BUMP

[gd124]

Double bump...

[MrNeutron1962]

Uncle Bob sure wrote some great poetry.

[leadpenny]

The death of any and all spiders is a good thing. I hate them with all my being, and there should be a government program to eradicate them from the earth.

You can't mean that.

Years ago I was having an adult beverage with a friend in his beautiful spacious back yard. He had one of those bug zappers with the purple light. Poking a bit of fun at him I suggested that the thing was probably just attracting more critters to the funerals of those already deceased. He said he didn't care. As far as he was concerned he'd have been happy if there had been no bugs. Period. I made some comment about the birds and their food source. He said he didn't care, he didn't want them around either. I gave up. Can't argue with that kind of logic.

[JudyB1938]

You think you're REEE-lee funny, don't you? As vile as that critter is, it isn't as low as Dash-Hole. Now you take it back! It's not safe to mock the Creatures of the Night. Don't believe me? Check out Clintoon's Body List again.

(I started out kidding you, then somehow ended up in a Truism, huh?)

[JudyB1938]

Most of us agree with you, spetznaz; but it's FP's perogative not to. I actually think he'll feel better about it once the shock of this horrible thing subsides a little.

Our own newspapers are now reporting those kinds of losses ... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834318/posts

[FreedomPoster]

I think you've got me confused with FreedomCalls on this one.

[FreedomPoster]

BTW, I had also thought the same thing when reading this item earlier, that our own newspapers are doing the same thing, as a result of also having seen the item to which you linked.

[skinkinthegrass]

Can we ALL agree that liberals (RAT & GOP), are the lowest form of all celluar
and multi-cullular lifeforms (native and aliens)...Apology to all cellular, mineral & gasous creatures, not the American standard liberal.
IMHO, ALL of the DNC are Clintoons' rump rangers (dash-hole,
media sycophants) along w/ >than 90% who voted for GORON,
the other 10% (the dead, insane felons and the handicapped)

[T Minus Four]

OK, since it appears that the headline in question was not the sum total of Australia's comment on the accident, I concede that it's ok for them (and others) to regret the loss of their science experiments, AFTER they have of course felt shock, grief and sorrow over the loss of the lives of the seven astronauts.

But after the day of nonstop media coverage and grief for the families of the astronauts, it came as a bit of a shock to read that.

I suppose its like having your house burn down, and then later bursting into tears because you remember some small personal article lost in the fire.

[CAPPSMADNESS]

ahhhhhhhh! De Cleatures of de Night!!!!

nope! I won't take it back and you can't make me! A bloodsucker is a bloodsucker is a bloodsucker!

[swarthyguy]

Remember the inital total lack of coverage during the Moscow hostage crisis.

And Decemember 13 2001, the same day the Indian parliament was attacked...Indian TV had riveting video of the firefight, not shown at all on US TV because the Osama video was out.

Apparently the blowdried fluffernutters as US tv networks can only focus on one story at a time -- all of them -foxcnnmsnbc etc -- look at the shuttle coverage..it's like Iraq or the recent bomb in Lagos Nigeria doesn't exist anymore.