According to the Beeb, Nephila Komaci has a leg span of almost five inches.

Which makes my biggest garden/garage spider puny in comparison. I really don’t think I’ll be getting a ruler and stretching out its legs. For which we’re both grateful.

Yes, yes, I’m releasing it today. Not only does it seem to have an imploring gaze when I look at the photos, but yesterday found me searching the garden in vain for some live insect food to sustain it.

I really didn’t plan on reading the comments following the story at Palo Alto Online, but it is hard to stop. Parents, neighbors, current and former students are discussing train speeds, school pressure, parental pressure, inability to get into AP classes, the need for a night patrol at the crossing in question, a chain link fence around the crossing, depression, and the overwhelming need for someone to talk to.

For some ultramarathoners, surgical removal of their toenails solves a painful problem. Nor will they ever encounter that pesky fungal ailment.

In a new book, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, by David Benedictus and Mark Burgess (illustrator), an otter joins the group. Nothing like a character of the female gender to shake things up a bit.

In which the poor beast is compared to Tom Cruise.

I don’t know about you, but headlines like this make my morning a little more cheery.

For a couple of years, the skin on my hands seemed to be deteriorating. There were odd patches that got itchy, healed halfway and then got itchy again. Late last year, my doctor said it was eczema, gave me cortisone cream and told me to stop washing my hands so much. I quit washing dishes, letting family members step up to the sink instead.

Actually, it seemed like the simple act of handwashing had become irritating. Was it something in the water? And how could I stop washing so often? Like many, I use a keyboard all day long. I also do a fair amount of cooking, handling raw meat in the process. I eat at the keyboard. I go to the bathroom. I go outside and plant things in dirt. I knead dough.

Meanwhile, the cortisone cream would heal the patches for a bit. Then they came back elsewhere. I still had spots on the back of my hands when I woke up, raised bumps that were excrutiatingly itchy. They would disappear after an hour or so, only to return the next morning. I was getting patches of itchy skin between my fingers.

Our liquid soap of choice was Softsoap, bottles at all the sinks, including the kitchen. A dermatologist mentioned years ago that Dove was one of the mildest bar soaps. Shower soap was either Dove or Oil of Olay liquid.

Once I read this, out went the Softsoap. And guess what? The eczema is all gone from one hand, and the one patch left on the other is healing. No new patches. No itching.

Check your soaps, dishwashing liquids, toothpaste, acne cleansers, deodorant and hand lotions (yes, even that). You probably don’t want this on your skin and in your system.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not real fond of the rat crowd scenes in Ratatouille and The Tale of Despereaux. While there are many who feel that squirrels are very cutesy-poo, I beg to differ. Rather, I consider squirrels to be, very simply, rats with bushy tails, and there are others who agree wholeheartedly. Which is why I scream when one edges onto my birdfeeding table.

But back to rats. Here’s one that found its way into a hapless UK gentleman’s life in a manner most unusual.

This time of year, flower sales go way up, thanks to graduations and other year-end events. Purple and white leis are in all the supermarkets, various bouquets and festive balloons to hand out to happy new grads.

On the way home from Palo Alto this morning, we passed the train crossing at E. Meadow and Alma, site of two recent suicides by high school students. Thursday night, there was an attempt at another. Fortunately, this was thwarted by the mother and a passer-by. A police presence was promised by the local cops, and there they were, two of Palo Alto’s finest on a brilliant spring day.

Between them, you could glimpse the bouquets of flowers piled up.

Known as brown milk among my family members, it is proving to be better than your average sports drink for muscle recovery after strenuous activity.

An Indian village of 2,000 families has 250 sets of twins. That’s six times the usual rate.

My neighbor in back was flinging large boards around this morning, so I wasn’t aware of any other shaking.

Curious about what Getty scouts are pulling off the flickr archive? Here you go. (Hint: they all tend to have that real polished look. Well, of course.) And no one said they were cheap.

There is no word for autism in the Somali language. Some are calling it the ‘American disease’.

An NYTimes article that outlines the many conditions that can cause severe memory loss and confusion in older people. The comments provide further insight from readers’ experiences.

If you can’t get into the site, go to bugmenot.com, and you will find clarity.

Jeff Bridges will be back. Will it be as good as the original?

The Korean fish with human-like eyes, noses and mouths:

After finding drunken patients, hospitals in the UK have removed the hand cleaning dispensers. Despite the horrible taste, imbibers managed to down the gel by mixing it with juice or soft drinks. Why would someone sick enough to be in a hospital do this?

The stuff is 75 proof.

During Secretary of the Treasury Geithner’s speech, the Dow drops almost 300 pts, the Nasdaq near 50. Still to come, the stimulus bill vote outcome and Bernanke speaks after that. I expect some whipsawing action. Be careful out there.

From India, promise of an amazing product, one that could indeed change the world.

A thought-provoking look into the behavior of the passengers and crew of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson. Plus a stunning photo.

Bloomberg reports that he might be considering it. Within the article is a quote from an irritated Jobs, highly annoyed at the media scrutiny. Apple stock drops over a point, following drops in previous days. Via Briefing.com.

While you’re pondering about our friends across the pond and their chocolatey innovations, consider this: Mo’s Bacon Bar is a chocolate bar studded with applewood smoked bacon.

Clam-shell packaging, while an effective deterrent against thieves, works equally well against buyers. Now, Amazon, Sony, Best Buy and Microsoft, among others, will be offering less intimidating containers, and consumers can begin to put away their pliers, screwdrivers, wire cutters, table saws, drills and other tools necessary to get at the goods. But keep them nearby, not all companies are following suit.

Now, if only the food industry will come up with more friendly ways to present blueberries, tomatoes, and other produce, plus bakery items.

For patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis, a drug usually used in leukemia treatment stops and reverses the effects of the disease.

In drug trials, Alemtuzumab has been shown to actually enlarge the brains of patients, which means that tissue lost to MS is being repaired.

Researchers are addressing side effect issues, but there is hope that the drug will be available by 2010.

Would you not believe the NYT? Tsk.

The next time you find yourself in a vacuum chamber, and you just happen to have some scotch tape with a dispenser, what interesting fun you’ll have.

The Dow has come back almost 500 pts, the Naz near 100 pts. In other words, losses from yesterday have been regained. Via Briefing.com.

Using the stuff of daily life - drinking straws, styrofoam cups, paper plates, fishing line - she produces jaw-dropping works that remind the viewer of clouds, land patterns and bacterial growth. Some of her art can be seen here.

As one who used to get the shakes from a sip of my mom’s coffee, I learned early to avoid caffeine. However, my large, extended family members thought it was funny to give me the last few swallows of their Cokes back in the day when there was no such thing as non-caffeinated sodas. I stayed wired.

Nowadays, there are such drinks as Cocaine, with 280mg of caffeine, equal to eight times the usual amount in a can of cola. Drink enough, and panic attacks set in, not to mention vomiting, chest pain, and other signs of
caffeine overload.

It is named Martialis heureka after Edward O. Wilson exclaimed, ‘Wow, this ant might as well be from Mars, it’s so different.’

It happens, but not very often.

Wolves know that it is better to catch a salmon than to go after a deer. For one thing, they sustain fewer serious injuries. For another, well, there’s that omega-3 thing.

Some journalists have quite the crush on Bristol Palin’s boyfriend. I’ve missed the distinctive voice of New York magazine, maybe I should subscribe again.

What the multi-gold medalist eats on his Olympic days. If you try to follow this diet, you will gain about three pounds a day.

Years ago, a friend and I decided that your hair knows when you’re coming down with something. A really bad hair day just might mean there’s a bug in the system.

Thanks to Olympic pressures, a discovery has been made to detect infection early in athletes. The test, which involves the assistance of a luminescent mollusk, known as the piddock, will help coaches decide when to isolate a team member or to cut short the hard training sessions of a soon-to-be-ill competitor.

But I bet their hair looks like crap too.

It is called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, and was given last September. Pausch died today of pancreatic cancer at age 47 .

A panel of experts at the Center for Environmental Oncology (University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute) have drawn up a list of precautions. Most of them have to do with keeping the phone as far away from the body as possible, suggesting the use of the speakerphone function or a Bluetooth headset.

In yet another astounding find, a diner at a Nigerian restaurant discovered the prophet’s name in his food. Specifically, on the gristle portion of his beef. The inscription survived being boiled and fried. Further, in the kitchen, more beef with the name was found.

This brings up a multitude of thoughts regarding religious sightings on various foods, none of which are tasteful and appropriate. We Californians have been on the receiving end of enough smitings as it is, what with all the lightning-induced fires.

Are you going to line up at the Apple store tomorrow for a new iPhone? Do you keep the packaging that Apple products come in because they are so well designed? Did you know that packaging for said iPhone is made from potato starch?

I won’t be there, although the heat is supposed to ease off, and even though I know there is this device in my future. But I do keep the boxes of all things Apple.

Info via Popgadget.

At 8:30 a.m. the webcam shows thick, luscious fog obscuring the bridge. Tourists might not be pleased, but you can bet the rest of us are jumping up and down to see fog finally showing up after another heat wave. The forecast is still for the 90s inland, but there’s hope.

It may well be that when you view the page, the fog may be gone. But it was here, and it was abundant.

My Mac dashboard reports the Cupertino weather, which seems to be closer to the Sunnyvale forecast than the Mercury News or SFGate. But it keeps changing. Now it’s up to 99° for today and tomorrow. SFGate said inland areas will exceed 100°, and a quick glance at Sacto, Redding and Fairfield temps bear this out.

Meanwhile, the fires keep burning. Now in addition to the exhausting work, many firemen are having to deal with poison oak covering them from head to toe.

Excellent photos via the Chronicle can be seen here.

Coastal fog might be clearing the crap out of the air a bit, but the murkiness is still with us.

This map shows that those of us in the Bay Area and elsewhere are surrounded by fire and smoke.

While I haven’t looked through many of the books she wrote and illustrated, I loved the life she made for herself. She looked like someone from another century, and indeed, felt she was the reincarnation of an 1800s sea captain’s wife.

If they’re so harmless, why did three neurosurgeons get on CNN and say they don’t put them up to their ears?

Thoughtful article from the NYTimes here.

And it’s been there for a year (what’s been happening to all my food?).

In this case, gray squirrels, which are dominating the Northumberland region, once populated with red ones. It’s a highly effective, if somewhat controversial method.

Breaking the monotony of daily prison life in a unique way that rewards the inmates. Televised tomorrow on the Beeb under the title, ‘Miss Gulag’.

Now you might think that this would be news only if the owner were French, for example. In which case, the owner would ignore the cat.

In this case, the cat belongs to a Chinese grandmother, who claims it can say ‘Laolao’, which means grandmother in the dialect of its owner.

It also can say ‘gan sha ne’, which translates to ‘What are you doing?’ Can a cat make the hard ‘g’ sound? Could we see a video, please?

How many cats in the world are asking their non-Chinese owners, ‘What are you doing?’ You have to admit that gan sha ne is probably a lot easier for a cat to say than ‘What are you doing?’ or ‘Where is my food?’

It fits in a mailing envelope, and weighs three pounds less than my current Powerbook G4. Mighty tempting. Mighty. Tempting.