South Texas Black Widow

Here are the best of the pictures of the black widow my wife & I found in my Mom's garage. This one was smaller than the ones I've seen in person in the past. This one might've been very close to the size of a quarter. Her legs are just about all spread out in the top image. (Enlarge these..)

And yes, as you'll see, this widow not only had the characteristic hourglass design on her ventral abdomen, but also a very similar-looking shape on her dorsal side. Is it a male? I don't think so, since we busted it wrapping up a little bug in a web. Male's are usually brownish, have orange or yellow markings, and their only function in life is to impregnate females. Supposedly they don't wrap up bugs, nor go on feeding binges to find bugs - they merely eat what they can quickly catch.

Now That's A Dangerous Curve!

Via

This Just In - Barracudas Are Dangerous!

Press play, then continue reading the post..



Koral Wira, 14, was fishing with her parents and a friend near Venice, Fla., when a barracuda went for her dad's bait and ended up biting her instead. Her dad, Rob Parker, submitted these photos and Wira told the story.

After anchoring the boat 4 miles off shore, Parker baited his rod with herring. Wira switched seats to get out of the hot sun, and watched as her dad cast. Moments later, she heard a splash and saw a long silver flash in the air. A barracuda jumped from the water and opened its mouth. As it hit her left arm, it clamped down with razor teeth.

When the fish dropped off her arm, Wira said the angled bites made her skin look like raw hamburger meat from the middle of her bicep to below her elbow. She was more scared than in pain, she said.

As the barracuda flopped around the boat, Wira ran to the bow and ducked. Her mom and friend climbed onto their chairs and screamed, while Wira's dad grabbed his filet knife and stabbed the fish behind the eye.

Wira looked down at the still fish and couldn't believe it had bit her. It was 42 inches long and its blood and her own spotted the boat's floor. Her dad cut the anchor with his filet knife and they zoomed back to the shore.

On the trip back, Wira pressed her dad's Red Sox shirt to her arm to slow the bleeding. Her friend was crying, but Wira said she was too shocked to be upset.

Parker opened the barracuda's mouth to check out its rows of razor-sharp teeth. He noticed the fish had taken in his line, but the hook never penetrated. Parker said he suspected his bait herring attracted the fish, causing it to jump. When it flew out of the water toward the boat, it found his daughter instead.

Wira and her dad stopped for a quick picture (the banner image above) before jumping in the car and heading to the hospital. Wira said she wasn't in pain at the moment, but she was still creeped out by the fish. Her arm needed 51 stitches, and doctors told her they had never treated a barracuda bite. Her stitches are out now, and she said her arm is healing.

The look on her face in that picture is priceless. I can almost hear her saying, "Dad, I can't believe you're making me take another picture.. I'm bleeding, here!"

Source - With a few more images..

Via - (NSFW)

America's Scariest Highways

To identify the nation's scariest highways we sought advice from Mark Sedenquist and Megan Edwards, who run RoadTrip America, as well as from Marree Forbes (no affiliation with Forbes Inc.), who runs the site American Driving Vacations, and Robert Dolezal, author of The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips.

Mark Sedenquist and Megan Edwards' California home was destroyed by a forest fire in 1993. Instead of rebuilding, the couple bought an RV and took to the open road, traveling across the U.S. and Canada for almost seven years.

The couple has since settled in Las Vegas, but they continue to take driving vacations and encourage others to do the same on their website, RoadTrip America, which they run through Flattop Productions, their small business. Sedenquist and Edwards estimate they've traveled over 650,000 miles.

Highway 1 (Florida)

Outside of Key West this roadway turns into a two-lane bridge that crosses an expansive body of shallow water that reflects blinding sunlight. On top of that, "it's really tough for the driver to stay focused because everything around you is so blue," Sedenquist says. This stretch of highway is also troublesome during hurricane warnings because it is the only way out and gets packed with evacuees.


Interstate 70 (Colorado)

I-70 through Denver has one of the highest passes on all the interstates, and its steep hills can be extremely slick in the winter. In bad weather "you just stay in your lane, don't touch your brakes, and hope you make it to the bottom," Sedenquist says.


Pacific Coast Highway (California)

Although it has beautiful views, this elevated, curvy roadway hangs over the water. But not everyone is sold on its scariness. Marree Forbes' clients always ask if this road is safe to drive, and she thinks "it's total, utter nonsense." The highway is "fabulous," she says.


Highway 1 (Alaska)

Because it is surrounded by beautiful scenery and mountains, this roadway is plagued with accidents. Driving along it can be terrifying "because people are sightseeing and they're not watching the road," Sedenquist says.




Continue to the rest of the list.. (Page contains a second link to its partner site.)

Banner Image is the Guoliang Tunnel in China’s Taihang mountains.