I performed a massive update and reconfiguration this evening of the server hosting this site.  My intent was to make it ready for the implementation of new features (and to make those services available to other sites running on the same server).

While my testing indicates no problems, mileage can always vary. . .

So please speak up if you run across any problems.

Likewise, expect to see some changes coming soon (e.g. more security around comment submissions, like CAPTCHA images or other challenge/response systems, automatic blocking of trackbacks based on source page/server information, and so on).  You see, I’ve grown quite tired of the constant deluge of spam comments and trackbacks (>5,000 this week alone, all of which I have to check to ensure no valid comments were caught in the filter).  By inducing automatic checks against these, I hope to reduce the number of comments I have to look through each day while not terribly inconveniencing anyone who wants to leave a comment or submit a trackback.

We’ll see how it goes.

All I ask is that you tell me the moment you run across a problem or something that seems a bit off.  I’ll appreciate the feedback while hoping to make the site a little less easy for spammers—and a lot less inconvenient for me to manage.

[Update] I’ve now added a challenge/response system for comments based on simple math.  I find CAPTCHA very anti-accessibility.  That is, they render comments useless to those using screen readers who can’t see the images.  Therefore, I’ve added a new comment field based on simple math that can be seen/read by a screen reader.

So from now on when you want to leave a comment, you have to answer a basic number problem.  I can’t imagine anyone will find these challenges too problematic.  They’re simple and accessible.

contemplate the obvious

show appreciation to the heavens

succumb to great predators with reverence

the unexpected should be honored

appreciate the smallest of gifts

halt in the face of discovery

We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

— H. L. Mencken

[Kazon]

I’ve not done one of these in a long time, but a handful of cool items have crossed my desk recently, so I thought it only polite to share.  It’s possible I’ll start doing them on an infrequent basis as I continue stumbling upon things I want to share but simply haven’t the time to process.  We’ll see. . .

Another “human trait” exposed as a product of evolution: “A person who excitedly approaches infants and speaks to them in a high-pitched, musical voice has a behavior in common with female monkeys, suggests a new study, which found that female rhesus macaques use ‘baby talk’ when they see another monkey’s offspring. Since ‘baby talk,’also known as ‘motherese,’ may be an evolved trait in certain primates, the finding indicates this gentle way of vocalizing could play a key role in promoting positive relationships between parents and babies, as well as between adults and other grown-ups.”

Orphaned hedgehogs adopt cleaning brush as their mother.  You have to see the photo and read the article.  Too cute!

We’ve been discovering water outside our own solar system at an increasing rate, and now we find an entire solar system deluged with cosmic showers.  “NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed a dusty star system being soaked with a ’steamy rain’ of water vapor. The water, pulled from gassy stellar leftovers into a dusty disk, provides what astronomers think is the first direct look at how the life-giving liquid makes its way into planets. The disk is the same sort of thing that forms around many stars and, in the case of our sun, was the seedbed for planet formation. The amount of water in the newly observed disk is thought to equal more than five times that of all oceans on Earth.”

This video is too much fun.  It’s quite simple: a handful of kittens playing with an empty box.  Need I say more?

Cosmic Blank Spot Puzzles Astronomers: “Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That’s got them scratching their heads about what’s just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That’s an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday. Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the universe where nobody’s home. In fact, one such place is practically a neighbor, a mere 2 million light years away. But what the Minnesota team discovered, using two different types of astronomical observations, is a void that’s far bigger than scientists ever imagined.”  [via xocobra]

After my work schedule changed and I found myself not on call this weekend, I moved some of the annual vet visits back.  But now I have something else to do this weekend: a road trip to Lake Tawakoni about 50 miles (80 kilometers) outside of Dallas.

Why am I going there?  To see a spiderweb, but not just any spiderweb.

Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.

[. . .]

Spider experts say the web may have been constructed by social cobweb spiders, which work together, or could be the result of a mass dispersal in which the arachnids spin webs to spread out from one another.

Although the article has a small photo, it’s not very impressive because of its size and angle.

Imagine a series of interconnected spiderwebs 200 yards (183 meters) long that span from the top of the trees to the ground.  Better yet, think of it this way: it’s as long as two football fields placed end to end, and it’s as tall as the tallest tree along the path.

Imagine the sight of it!

I have to see it for myself.  And I will be taking photos.

But why am I rushing out there when it’s already been pointed out the web will likely last until autumn?  Because I want to see it before the weather and/or people destroy it.

Anyway, check this out:

“At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland,” said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. “Now it’s filled with so many mosquitoes that it’s turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs.”

Cool!  Awesome, dude!

I can’t wait.  I intend to go either Saturday or Sunday morning depending on the weather and park hours, though I suspect Sunday morning would be best.

I will share with you whatever photos I can of this monstrous wonder of nature.

[Update] Check out this much larger version of that original photo shown in the CNN article linked to above.  The biggified version gives much better detail.  Spectacular!  I can’t wait to see it.

Oh, and the species has been identified.  It’s the Southeastern Social Cobweb Spider (Anelosimus studiosus), a communal arachnid that lives in colonies of vast numbers (e.g. there was a nest that “measured over 25 feet in length, 6 - 8 feet in width, and 4 - 5 feet in height and may have contained over fifty thousand spiders.”).

[Update 2] A different photo of the web from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.  My excitement is growing at the very idea of seeing in person such a fantastic natural wonder.  I can’t wait to feel its presence surrounding me, to let my senses feast on the experience.

[Update 3] There now appears to be more confusion and discussion regarding the species and the web itself.  It might not be a communal structure after all, but instead might be the remnants of a dispersal event involving countless spiders, each moving on to its own destiny (perhaps from the family Tetragnathidae (Long-jawed Orb Weavers).  The mystery grows as the investigation balloons.

If you talk to the animals, they will talk to you,
and you will know each other.
If you do not talk to them, you will not know them,
and what you do not not know you will fear.
What one fears, one destroys.

— Chief Dan George

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” is one my favorite movies.  Of all time!

So why in the world would Keanu Reeves be chosen to play Klaatu?  If anything, he should be Gort, the robot.

But Klaatu?  Gimme a break.

Okay, I’ll admit there’s the tiniest of possibilities he can pull this off, but that is such a minuscule percent of the whole that it’s almost not worth mentioning.  Klaatu (originally played by Michael Rennie) is stately, refined, equal parts magnificently approachable and eerily standoffish.  Reeves?  Ha!

I will of course see the film.  I own the original.  But like the remake of “The War of the Worlds,” I suspect I’ll be so disgusted that I’ll have to toss up a lung just to get through it.

Keanu Reeves as Klaatu!?!?  WTF!?

Now’s when we need to be saved.  Say it with me: “Klaatu Barada Nikto.”

Talk about confusing asshattery with acting . . . or diarrhea with depth.

How long will it take humankind to learn to be truly humane and kind to every human and every other being?
Hatred can never cease by hatred.
Hatred can only cease by love.
This is an eternal law.

— The Buddha