Tag Archives: snakes

How the King Cobra Maintains Its Reign

Yesterday’s Science Times had a cool article about cobras, “How the King Cobra Maintains Its Reign.” (Don’t click that link if you don’t like pictures of snakes).

I wanted to post a link to that article because I thought it was interesting. It popped up because I have a google alert set for cobras, not because of Halloween.

Still, snakes are pretty spooky, so they make good Halloween post fodder. Yesterday’s Washington Post contained an article, “Evolutionary psychology explores ancient and newer roots of instinctual fears,” that was pretty interesting.

Cars kill a lot more people than spiders, bats, snakes and wolves, but why don’t we fear them in the same visceral way? When’s the last time you saw a jack-o’-lantern carved in the shape of a BMW?

The drugstore Halloween images of dark and hairy critters touch off sensations deep inside us, pointing bony fingers at instincts that go back millions of years, evolutionary psychologists say.

On a related note – I don’t know about your house, but mine has become the Kingdom of the Spiders lately and I’m not enjoying it. I know we’re not alone in our neighborhood, the local hardware store is doing a brisk business in glue traps. Yuck.

p.s. if you read these posts via email, I apologize for the last post you received. The email you received was of an early draft and it was a mess. The correct post is on the site.

Invasion of the Giant Pythons

Did you watch Invasion of the Giant Pythons this weekend on PBS? Me neither, but my Tivo, Overlord II, recorded it for me so I’ll watch it soon.

In related news, I’m still marveling over this story out of Maryland: a woman claimed she was bitten by a cobra she picked up in the parking lot of White Marsh Mall after she mistook it for a stick. That was the best story she could come up with? Snakes can look like sticks, sure, but the more fundamental question would be, why would you pick up a stick in a mall parking lot.

Meanwhile, her story – that she had come across the highly poisonous monocled cobra in the parking lot of the White Marsh Mall – immediately raised eyebrows among the snake-savvy.

Experts say the animals, normally found in Southeast Asia, could not survive outdoors in Maryland in January. And finger bites are typical of injuries to careless snake handlers during feeding.

Actually, an even more fundamental question would be, why would you go to White Marsh Mall in the first place? I’ve only been there a few times, but the place always smells like tires to me and it gives me a headache.

Martha vs. the Giant Python

Victor Garber is one of our favorite actors. His new show, Present Laughter, was in rehearsals when we were in New York a few weeks ago.

We opted for dinner with some friends instead, but as a consolation prize we Tivo’d an episode of the Martha Stewart Show wherein Martha terrorizes Garber with power tools. But first, she makes him sit with a 15 foot python across his lap. I can’t embed the video of the show intro but it’s worth going to the site to watch it, so you’ll have to follow this link.

Seriously. Go check out the video. I know it’s says it’s 12 minutes long, but just go watch the first couple of minutes because Martha is extra-super-crazy when she’s got a huge python as her straight man.

Garber just bought Gypsy Rose Lee’s house so Martha taught him how to build a plant stand. Husband needs to make me a plant stand.

what? no! argh.

Fossils from northeastern Colombia reveal the biggest snake ever discovered: a behemoth that stretched 42 to 45 feet long, reaching more than 2,500 pounds.

“This thing weighs more than a bison and is longer than a city bus,” enthused snake expert Jack Conrad of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was familiar with the find.
“It could easily eat something the size of a cow. A human would just be toast immediately.”

On the other hand, big snakes are better than small ones in many ways. No chance something that big could hide in your house or surprise you. More than once, anyway.