A small spider on a dawn redwood cone. The animal’s web was stretched across to another branch.
And trapped in the web was a winged-form aphid.
This was a week ago, only a few buds had emerged from the tree.
E.O. Wilson says somewhere you can spend an entire lifetime voyaging around a single big tree and keep making discoveries.
Here, for instance, on the same tree, are the eggs of a Microcentrum genus angle-winged katydid.
***
Trump’s criminal actions about the pandemic keep being revealed. His administration of criminals cited a retracted study on C-19 tests made abroad, using that as the reasoning for not accepting tests earlier. The lack of testing put bullets into the kneecaps of public heath efforts, leading to dead Americans. This Dr. Birx character was right there with him on this. With her recent interview, where she obscenely fawns over him — “so attentive to the scientific literature & the details & the data. I think his ability to analyze & integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit!” — she has forfeited any respect she once had.
T-Rump conveying his familiarity with the scientific literature on Friday: “You call it a germ, you can call it a flu, you can call it a virus. You know, you can call it many different names. I’m not sure anybody even knows what it is, but the children do very well.”
OK, enough with the moral and ethical garbage in DC. Here’s a Weill-Cornell MD on the front lines explaining what you can do to protect yourself, your family, and your community… AND not be fearful.
Backyard and Beyond 
Never see a spider without thinking of Charlotte’s Web. Remember my mother reading me the last part, where Charlotte dies. I must have been all of six at the time. Devastated by the death of this beautiful and creative little creature, I cried myself to sleep.
(for those of you that have not yet had the pleasure, this children’s short novel is by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as “Some Pig”) in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.)
Alaspooryorick – I totally cried my heart out when Charlotte dies!
Thank you Matthew for sharing the doctor’s video. This is so clear and I am passing this on to all my friends who are totally freaking out all the time.
And they keep sending me stuff! Afraid to go and wash their cloths and wondering how to handwash their jeans. Hopefully, this video will calm them down so I can get some rest form my therapy practice (which is totally unlicensed!)
Yes, I found it calming.