åtta ben och Jane Austen

Have been reading more about those wonderful spiders. There are the ones that use other spiders as prey. some members of the mimetid family pluck the threads of the webs of other spider species - mimicry of a prey landing in the web. When the web owner rushes out to take care of the assumed prey it is immediately bitten.
Then there are the "stealers". Spiders that live on or near another spider's web. Argyrodes females build webs near orb webs and attachs silk "signal lines" to the hub of the orb web. When the orb web spider has caught a prey and is wrapping it up then the Argyrodes slowly sneaks up to the hub where the prey is stored and takes it away. One observation was made of 45 Argyrodes parasitizing one orb web! You'd think that the host spider would catch on and go somewhere else. Bola spiders are also neat - there is one that "smells" like Spodoptera pheromones and when male moths come close the spider throughs out a sticky thread and catches the moth. Aren't spiders wonderful. Just found a wonderful website with som great spiders pics http://www.bugfeathers.com/ee.php/content/C4/
Another good one is http://www.spiderjoe.net/spiders/.

Now why, you ask, is there a picture of Jane Austen. Well the new movie of Pride and Predudice just came out here and I was reading the review. I love the story about Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. But so few read the books these days. In the review it mentioned the winning concept of letting two people get together and everybody but those two know that they are made for each other - The story is how they come to realize it themselves. A simple theme done over and over, but it works - Is this like traits of spiders - for instance webs that work have been changed, refined, made better - but always the basic theme that works. A few other DN bits - selling the concept rather than the product - like Volvo cars that "strive to stir the soul". Performance is what counts - you have to get everyone's attention, sort of the same in Science today. Good solid work does not necessarily a scientific career make - you have to offer an image, a ready-made experience.

Jane Austen, yes - Some other interesting women - Sally Bauer, swam the English channel; Valerie Solanas, shot Andy Warhol; and playwright (Blasted) Sarah Kane, suicide at 28. Perhaps the most interesing of all is the woman who writes about them all - Sara Stridsberg.