Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - Henderson NV
< previous day | archives | next day >
I'm camped tonight at Green Valley Ranch Resort and Casino in Henderson, NV for a couple of days.
Cousin Ken and I and a few other folks took a day trip today to check out the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
Night camp
Parking lot - Green Valley Ranch Resort, Spa and Casino, Henderson NV
- I don't remember if Verizon cell and EVDO service are available here but I assume so.
- Find other references to Green Valley Ranch
- Go to the Green Valley Ranch website
- List the nights I've camped here
- Check the weather
Five Trillion Spiders
Spiders begin their hunting with a few handicaps. They're often smaller and weaker than their prey, and they have no wings to give chase in the air. Some species extend their legs by hydraulic pressure, using the same liquid that carries oxygen from their lungs, so they have a hard time running and breathing at the same time. Even their poison may be no match for their victim's: a crab spider's bite is to a honeybee's sting as "an air-gun compared with an elephant rifle," John Crompton wrote. Yet spiders kill at an astonishing pace. One Dutch researcher estimates that there are some five trillion spiders in the Netherlands alone, each of which consumes about a tenth of a gram of meat a day. Were their victims people instead of insects, they would need only three days to eat all sixteen and a half million Dutchmen.
From Spider Woman by Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker magazine, March 5, 2007, page 69