Folly of the Faithful Canine

Last June, a team discovered a new species still unnamed
Within the Propostira genus. Now they have proclaimed
The moniker “ballista spider” thanks to how it hunts.
The method is resourceful—one of nature’s greatest stunts.

At dusk, the north Australian spider starts to seek a site
Upon the forest floor where green tree ants may pass at night.
The spider picks a place and weaves a small, wrapped silken cone,
Which researchers suspect contains specific pheromones,

Because an ant will bite it; that’s the trigger of a snare
With many tension lines to send the biter through the air,
Perhaps a foot at 15 times the G-force from a jet.
Intended destination? As you’ve guessed, it is a net.

This trap can take the spider four whole hours to complete.
Considering its body size, that’s one impressive feat.
It doesn’t seem to target any other type of prey,
Which makes it quite the specialist. I hope that it will stay.

So much for my plan to read Sabaa Tahir's threequel within two years. While I mostly remembered the setup, I had completely forgotten that Laia could turn invisible, a power awakened in Book 1. Nonetheless, I never felt a need to consult Book 2.

( Cut for length )

Up next is Jim Butcher's Grave Peril. The title looks appropriate for Halloween, no?

The title of Richard Osman's first fiction book rang a bell. I credited the reputedly middling 2025 Netflix adaptation. Little did I realize that both my parents had read the whole series to date. They were quite pleased to learn that I was starting to take interest.

( Cut for length )

Now to play it safe by continuing a series I already liked, with A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir. A dark tome seems appropriate for October.

In 1868, a theater sprayed perfume around
For one play scene to offer smell as well as sight and sound.
This constitutes the first known time a theater would attempt
That level of immersion (no, the house was not unkempt).

At several movie theaters, from the aughts to ’33,
Some similar endeavors let folks smell as well as see.
The studios had never asked, concerned about distraction.
What’s more, the vast perfume amounts could cause a bad reaction.

In ’39, Hans Laube at the New York World’s Fair
Debuted his method Scentovision, quick to fill the air,
Which may have led to General Electric’s Smell-O-Rama
And then AromaRama for some competition drama.

Producer Mike Todd Jr. got involved with Scentovision
And changed the “Scent” to “Smell”—perhaps his only wise decision.
Although the system had improved in 27 years,
The movie Scent of Mystery would end it all in tears.

It’s not that any odor was particularly foul,
But all took long to dissipate; the mixture made folks scowl,
Unless they sat too far away and had to sniff real loud.
Delays and hissing pipes would also irritate the crowd.

Since then, not many venues have tried spraying stuff to whiff.
A slightly common method has been cards to scratch and sniff.
More recently, a research group unveiled the smelling screen.
Considering the pricing, we will never be that keen.

Most viewers of 2000s DVDs have likely seen
The words “You wouldn’t steal a car” appearing on a screen
In kicking off a PSA that Warner Bros. made
To say that movie piracy’s a crime. Were people swayed?

It seems they weren’t, at least in the direction that was meant,
For piracy reportedly increased to some extent.
The ad was roundly ridiculed, as car theft would deprive
The owner of the car of the ability to drive.

By contrast, movie piracy does not remove the flick
From anyone’s possession. The analogy won’t stick.
Sure, piracy unchecked could kill the movie industry,
But dubious comparisons hurt credibility.

The ad itself was rumored to infringe on copyrights
Regarding both the music and the typeface. Well, it might,
But some folks say it got confused with other PSAs.
Since those were anti-pirate, that’s ironic anyways.

The lightning bugs or fireflies are neither bugs nor flies.
At least, that’s what our modern entomologists advise.
Along those lines, the wingless types called glowworms can’t be worms.
That’s quite a bunch of errors from our common parlance terms.

They’re beetles in the family Lampyridae, whose light
Was likely once a warning that we shouldn’t take a bite
Because they tasted icky. Later on, it was a way
To draw a mate’s attention, more polite than shouting, “Hey!”

Just what creates their bioluminescence? Here are facts:
They first produce an enzyme called luciferase that acts
Upon another compound, called luciferin, and where
The ions of magnesium, with ATP and air,

Are present, this reaction makes a light that we call “cold”—
No infrared or ultraviolet frequencies, I’m told.
Some species might look bluish from the Purkinje effect,
But yellow, green, and red are all the colors we expect.

My hometown used to get a lot of fireflies each summer.
They’ve dwindled, and I haven’t seen them this year; what a bummer.
My favorite kind of insect, they looked magical to me,
As if they made a fairyland of Washington, DC.

My nephew at age one had mispronounced my name as “Sheep.”
I know he meant no insult, but the nickname sure would keep.
Some seven years elapsed, and both my nephew and my niece
Will still say “Uncle Sheep” as if I’d grown a woolly fleece.
In part, I have encouraged it by bleating in response.
To them, it’s never old as I exude my nonchalance.
I certainly prefer it to their erstwhile “Uncle Eve,”
At which I gently made it clear I found the name a peeve.

Early on, I was taught that the primary colors
Were always red, yellow, and blue.
A later source said that’s for pigments, not light,
Which swaps green in for yellow. What’s true?

It turns out no set of real lights or real colorants
Mixes to make every shade.
No primaries form a canonical set,
Yet familiar tradition has stayed.

Most scientists favor the additive model
With red, green, and blue for the light
Or cyan, magenta, and yellow for making
Subtractive predictions. All right?

In printing, we tend to use CMYK,
Where the K stands for black (fair enough).
Who says there should only be three hues to mix?
Colorimetry’s actually tough.

I've found a peculiar pattern
In rock bands' and rockers' names,
From Queen to Queens of the Stone Age,
Alice Cooper to Alice in Chains.

You've probably already noticed
The Violent Femmes are all men,
Along with the Barenaked Ladies
And others since I don't know when.

Iron Maiden and Marilyn Manson,
All the Mothers of Invention,
Marcy Playground and Molly Hatchet...
Just what was the namers' intention?

The Scissor Sisters, Sister Hazel,
And Twisted Sister are bros.
We don't get much of the opposite,
And why should that be? Who knows?

Some think the QWERTY layout was designed to make us slow
So typewriters would jam less. Proper sources tell me no.
It’s true that many letters often paired are far apart,
But alternating hands makes typing faster, so it’s smart.

I know the right-hand index finger rests upon the J,
Among the rarest letters, but that’s hardly in the way.
It simply is a vestige of a layout from the past,
Based largely on the alphabet, in case you had to ask.

Another legend holds that QWERTY’s meant to let us type
Out “typewriter” with just the upper row for extra hype.
While nobody can formally substantiate the claim,
It’s nice to think the practice was impressive all the same.

You might prefer a Dvorak board, all vowels on one side,
For ergonomic purposes. More recently applied
Are Colemak and a handful of less common English tries,
But thanks at least to habit, still old QWERTY gets the prize.