An orb-spinning spider puts its elegant traps together pretty quickly, proceeding easily from step to step according to the instruction manual preprogrammed into its brain. The diagram below shows the major steps.
Every web begins with a single thread, which forms the basis of the rest of the structure. To establish this bridge, the spider climbs to a suitable starting point (up a tree branch, for example) and releases a length of thread into the wind. With any luck, the free end of the thread will catch onto another branch. If the spider feels that the thread has caught onto something, it cinches up the silk and attaches the thread to the starting point.
It walks across the thread, releasing a looser thread below the first one. It attaches this thread on both ends and climbs to its center. The looser strand sags downward, forming a V shape. The spider lowers itself from this point, to form a Y-shape. This forms the core support structure of the web.
The spider easily grips the thin threads with special serrated claws, a smooth hook and a series of barbed hairs on the end of its legs. As it walks along the initial structural threads, it lays more frame threads between various anchor points. Then it starts laying out radius threads from the center of the web to the frames. The spider does not coat the frame and radius threads with sticky material, since it needs to walk across them to get around the web.
After building all the radius threads, the spider lays more non-stick silk to form an auxiliary spiral, extending from the center of the web to the outer edge of the web. The spider then spirals in on the web, laying out sticky thread and using the auxiliary spiral as a reference. The spider eats up the auxiliary spiral as it lays out the sticky spiral, resulting in a web with non-sticky radius threads, for getting around, and a sticky spiral for catching bugs.
The spider sits in the middle of its web, monitoring the radius threads for vibrations. If an insect gets caught in any part of the web, the spider will feel the motion through the radius threads and make its way to the vibration source. In this way, the web extends the spider's sensory system over a much wider area. The spider might also leave the web, to retreat to a separate nest, while monitoring the web via a connected signal line.
Web-spinning spiders have an innate ability to tell the difference between vibrations from insect prey and vibrations from other sources (a leaf falling into the web, for example). Many species can also distinguish the characteristic vibrations of dangerous insects, such as wasps, from their preferred prey.
When the orb web has deteriorated and is no longer useful, many spider species will destroy it, eating up all the threads so it can recycle the raw silk material. Spiders may leave the heavy bridge thread so that they can easily rebuild the web at a later point.
For an animated illustration of how spider works, and a more detailed write-up, please visit: How Stuff Works.
There is a passion that man knows not
A passion only employers seem to understand
The passion they call passion for the job
That accepts all things beyond boundaries
Mediocre pay and many other duties
The dictionary defines passion
Of a very powerful feeling
That goes beyond love hate anger and emotion
The drive to reach and achieve
The unseen impossibilities
A suffering that endures inflicted pain
The state of being acted upon
In subjection to external influence
A disorder of the mind
A kind of madness
To which we choose
A state we express our passion
Of madness or of drive
Is up to employers to define
To a person who wish to join
Only the passionate will they employ
Of one who works the extra mile
With passion and love to die for
Of expressed willingness to take
Beyond ascribed duties for position engaged
The one who is unconcerned for wages paid
The passion only employers understand
Is not a passion any heart can comprehend
It is a passion underlining sufferings
That endures inflicted pain
From external influence imposed
To mean passion in subjection
In bringing disorder of the mind
To drive us crazy far beyond
The state of madness for simple minds
The thing I like about using a public transport stored value card is the freedom to decide even at last minute my final destination. If I board a bus and change my mind where I wish to go, I freely choose to go some place else to disembark. I need not worry about the discrepancy I did not pay or have overpaid, because with the card, charges only deduct when I disembark. So I frequently change my mind where I wish to go in order to build flexibility to cultivate creativity.
Creativity is about observing things differently, seeing things as we have not seen before, reading details we frequently ignore. We sit on a chair daily, yet we seldom really care, to explore and see what material it is made of, whether there are any loosen screws or cushion tear, what mechanism is in it, how it turns, what type of rollers is used, because we fail to see things with a creative mind.
Creativity is also about being always ready for changes, a circumstantial or deliberate act to be different, to do things differently, and to break from routines. We can go to a regular destination by a different route on a different day, or walk a different path to where we work. We can take public transport instead of driving, or take a bus instead of the subway train.
Creativity is about listening or hearing the things that surround us, the noises and conversations people share, the sounds of nature and music everywhere. It is about smelling things in our surroundings, of fragrance and flowers, perfume and odors, food and many others. It is about being sensitive to our five senses.
In a busy world today, the things we see, smell, and hear, we seldom care more than superficial. We take for granted the things we have, and we fail to stop and listen. We do not pay attention because we are too busy, and it is for this reason I occasionally take a break, away from society, to get away from routines, to retreat, recreate, and rediscover self, to restore my soul, to make myself whole. As travelers for a little time while on earth, we need to regularly calm our souls, to enter into a mood of relaxation, to pay attention at all occasions, to close our eyes and ear all things, the likes of birds chirping, cricket and grasshopper calling, the dragonfly buzzing, the pin dropping, even the clock ticking.
An orb-spinning spider puts its elegant traps together pretty quickly, proceeding easily from step to step according to the instruction manual preprogrammed into its brain. The diagram below shows the major steps.
