Ballooning (spider)

Ballooning, sometimes called kiting, is a means by which spiders, and some other small invertebrates, can move through the air by releasing one or more gossamer threads to catch the wind. By this means they are wafted aloft and are at the mercy of the air currents. This procedure is mostly used by spiderlings to disperse, but larger individuals have been observed using it. The spider climbs to a high point, stands on its toes and points its abdomen to the sky, releasing fine silk threads from its spinnerettes until lift off occurs. Journeys achieved vary from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres. Even atmospheric data have collected samples of balloons at five kilometres above the earth and ships in mid-ocean have reported spider landings. Mortality is high.

Description

Ballooning is a behaviour in which spiders and some other invertebrates use air-borne dispersal to move between locations. A spider (usually limited to individuals of a small species), or spiderling after hatching, will climb as high as it can, stand on raised legs with its abdomen pointed upwards ("tiptoeing"), and then release several silk threads from its spinnerets into the air. These automatically form a triangular shaped parachute which carries the spider away on updrafts of winds where even the slightest of breezes will disperse the arachnid. The Earth's static electric field may also provide lift in windless conditions.

Spider (portal)

Strathclyde Personal Interactive Development and Educational Resource (SPIDER) is a virtual learning environment used by the University of Strathclyde to provide an online platform for class material, support and more.

History

SPIDER began in 1998 as a web project to convert a single course module into an interactive web environment. Originally in 1998 SPIDER was a "static" website and was coded in HTML. This type of coding became a flaw to development as hand scripting HTML became very time consuming.

Development Timeline

The development of SPIDER is documented from its creation in 1998. The following bullet points give the main development from previous versions.

Spider (DC Comics)

"Alias the Spider" is a comic-book feature from the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books that appeared in Quality Comics' Crack Comics for nearly three years, starting with issue #1 in 1940. He was created by writer-artist Paul Gustavson.

The original, Golden Age version of the character is in public domain, but the rights to all subsequent versions are owned by DC Comics.

Publication history

Only one adventure of the Spider has ever been reprinted by DC Comics, which acquired the Quality Comics stable of characters when that company went out of business in 1956: The story from Crack Comics #25, in Detective Comics #441.

The Spider later made sporadic cameo appearances in All-Star Squadron and The Young All-Stars. As a Quality Comics character, he was one of the heroes who went with Uncle Sam to protect Earth-X during World War II, becoming part of the Freedom Fighters. This was the fulfillment of a storyline that began in Justice League of America #107-108, which introduced most of Quality Comics' characters to the DC Universe. Previously only Plastic Man and Blackhawk had been used.

Spider (pulp fiction)

The Spider is an American pulp-magazine hero of the 1930s and 1940s.

Background

The Spider was created in 1933 by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications as direct competition to Street and Smith Publications' vigilante hero, the Shadow. Though similar, The Spider was millionaire playboy Richard Wentworth, who had served as a Major in World War I, and was living in New York City unaffected by the financial deprivations of the Great Depression. The ninth pulp has him as the last surviving member of a rich family.

Wentworth was easily identified as The Spider by his enemies in a number of earlier novels and was arrested by the police but quickly escaped, adopting a disguise and associated alias Tito Caliepi, donning make-up, a wig of lank hair, a black cape, and slouch hat. Later in the pulp series, vampire-like makeup appeared and then a face mask with grizzled hair; a hunchback was then added to terrorize the criminal underworld with The Spider's brand of violent vigilante justice. (Actor and comedian Harold Lloyd previously had used a similar mask, lank hair wig, and hunchback in the comedy film Dr. Jack (1922)). Caliepi sometimes begged, utilizing Wentworth's talent with a violin.