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joshmarlow

Yep! Watts' novels are how I first heard about Portia. I can't wait for the third in the trilogy.

In general, I love a good novel with a bibliography.

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For people who don't believe that spiders can be cute:

https://adlayasanimals.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/u2byv.jpg

Also, I got interested and tried to find some documentation on Portia Labiata after reading Watts' book, and there's very, very little, but what he says appears to be true. They do have telescopic eyes with vibrating retinas. They do spend ages painstakingly scanning a scene before moving. They are absurdly intelligent for insects. I don't know if Watts' suggestion that they timeshare pattern-matching areas of their brains is true, but it seems plausible.

Here's a good article: http://www.dichotomistic.com/mind_readings_spider%20minds.ht...

If you're afraid of spiders, I would suggest not clicking on that link. I was hoping for cute, but that is just a very large closeup of a spider, and it definitely just hit the fear instinct.

That one is ugly. The jumping spiders have a neater look due to their colors. The really colorful ones with big eyes might not hit fear instinct so hard. Try this one I cherry-picked:

http://www.arachne.org.au/_dbase_upl/spi_mm.jpg

More colourful cutie: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143940344@N06/31492457834/in/d...

And a nice fluffy white one with very stubby legs: http://www.jumpingspiders.co.za/images/main/187.jpg

Via https://www.reddit.com/r/awwnverts/comments/5o7nmg/my_favori... and https://www.reddit.com/r/awwnverts/comments/5lar18/floof_spi...

Those do look neat. The white one looks like the old, wise men of spiders. Haha.

maybe to balance these we should have some pictures of terrifying kittens...

Props for sourcing your images! That is often overlooked by just about everyone (especially when trying to meme for a buck) and breaks at least the spirit of the web.

The ugly scary spider is much cuter with the green channel inverted.

http://imgur.com/gallery/WWoRX

Ugh, unfortunately that trick doesn't work for every ugly scary image.

http://imgur.com/gallery/SeAi3

Lol. People that coast through life on acid would use these as additional justifications their way of living is more pleasant. I find it dangerously misleading, though. ;)

Palate cleanser (warning pic of a spider)

http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uuuploads/jumpi...

This one has to win for cutest spider, it's even smiling:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ef/ca/4d/efca...

Clearly cute is in the eye of the beholder. It looks like it's begging to be petted!

In English is it correct to say spiders are insects? In my native language (portuguese) it would be not accurate, as they are arachnida class, along with scorpions,mites and ticks.

Spiders are not insects; from Wikipedia:

"terrestrial arthropods, such as centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, and spiders, are sometimes confused with insects"[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect#Phylogeny_and_evolution

No, it's not.

It's not correct, but it's a pretty common mistake to refer to bugs in general as "insects."

And even saying "bugs in general" is technically inaccurate!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiptera

A good word for something that encompasses all things creepy, crawly and tiny without involving scientific classification is "bug". Most english would agree that most spiders, ants, bees, centipedes and other like it are all bugs.

This breaks down in Australia where the spiders are as big as your head or in Puerto Rico where the foot long centipedes eat bats. Those aren't bugs, those are nightmare fuel.

'Bug' in that context is mostly American dialect. I'm British, and 'bug' in that context is infantile; by adults, it's either a verb or a small device planted by MI5.

But the OP is right, of course. Spiders are not insects. Although I suspect that most people I'd talk to in the UK would call them such. I'll have to hand in my Pedant's Society card (which is actually made out of plastic)...

Then again the little grey oval Pill bug is a crustacean not an insect and not an arachnid.

And also another source of British vs. American dialect difference/confusion. In my experience, they're known in the U.K. as "woodlice", but in the US it's entirely reasonable for grown adults to refer to them as "roly-polys"

The American use of "critter" also bemuses

"critter" is a corruption of "creature" and distinctly southern USA (to my Midwestern ears).

Not among biologists :)

In real life many people call spiders insects, either from ignorance or from not caring about the distinction.

Mostly, though, to humiliate them.

No, they are not referred to as insects in (correct) English either, they are arachnids - though sometimes people do not make the distinction.

To refer to both insects and spiders & similar in one term you could use the (rather less formal) terms "bugs" or "creepy crawlies". I can 't think of anything more formal off the top of my head.

>They are absurdly intelligent for insects.

You know what I'm going to say don't you.

What, it's a trilogy? Has Watts confirmed a third novel?

Last I saw, was what looked like a video game based on Blindsight.

What, there's a video game?

He mentioned it in a blog post sometime ago [0].

No news on it's status, alas.

[0] http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5438

I will admit that it won’t be quite as upbeat as my other endings.

I'm now more excited for this than winds of winter, wow.

> [not] quite as upbeat as my other endings.

Wow, this guy sure knows how to make a statement.

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