DailyDirt: Our Eight-Legged Friends

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Spiders are tough little invertebrates, and some of them have pretty amazing adaptations to their environments. Here are just a few more interesting links on these eight-legged creatures.

• The little Argyroneta aquatica spider is the first known spider to live its entire life under water. It still needs to breathe air, so it creates a little diving bell that also seems to act like a gill. [url]
• It might not be so cruel to pull a couple legs off of spiders... since spiders can survive just fine on 6 legs. Five-legged spiders, though, are definitely handicapped. [url]
• About 40 new species of spiders were found in the Philippines -- along with a lot of other new species of invertebrates and fish. Apparently, "the Philippines has more diversity on land and sea than any other place on earth." [citation needed?] [url]
• Here's a quick fact/fiction summary about the camel spider. First fact: the camel spider isn't really a spider. Thanks for playing. [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: invertebrates, philippines, spiders

Filipino Gov't Loses Court Case Because It Relied On Wikipedia

from the but-was-the-info-accurate? dept

A few years back, we discussed whether or not it was appropriate for judges to cite Wikipedia, noting that some were against the idea. Now, Slashdot points us to a case over in the Philippines, where the Filipino government has lost a recent lawsuit, in large part due to relying on Wikipedia to counter claims, rather than bringing in an expert witness.

However, what's odd, is that the judge in the case seems upset about the use of Wikipedia itself, with no specific attempt to determine if the citation was accurate or credible. It appears that the government was really using Wikipedia to call up the infamous psychologists' bible DSM-IV, in order to explore whether or not one of the participants in the case had a real personality disorder. While citing Wikipedia might not be the wisest of decisions, it still seems a bit harsh to dismiss it entirely because of the source, without any effort to determine if the content itself was legitimate.

Filed Under: philippines, wikipedia