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1 Million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth (wired.com)
34 points by alex_c on Sept 24, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments


I remember that species of spider; they're scary as hell, and have killed somewhere around 20 people through fear alone. The good news is that they're not aggressive. I bumped into one of their freakishly strong webs once, and thought I had hit a tree branch (!), but when I looked up I saw an enormous spider cowering above me.


>killed somewhere around 20 people through fear alone.

Do you mean without even biting them? How do the people die? Panic attack/heart attack?


They either have a heart attack or walk off a cliff. This is rare, but there are a lot of these spiders. In areas where they live, it's common to see them sitting in giant webs above streets and hiking trails. Waiting.



Talk about scalling an operation. How many companies have one million employees?


Reminds me of the Human League song 'Being Boiled' about silkworm usage.

Good article!


dupe




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