[extropy-chat] Extrospiders

[Amara Graps]

The Queensland Museum in Australia is offering the opportunity to
name a spider.


http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/501


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SYDNEY, 1 August 2006 - For those that have everything, a museum in
Australia is offering a gift with a difference: the chance to name a
spider after someone you love.

With only a limited number of new spiders available, the Queensland
Museum is hoping the bids will be high for the honour of bestowing a
name upon a novel arachnid.

If you are a bloke, add an -i, -ii, or -iae to your name. If you are a
girl, then add -ae, or -iae. You get to choose which spider you like the
most.

Spider-namers, the museum says, will make history, forever recorded into
textbooks and displayed at natural history museums. To authenticate the
name, the Queensland Museum Foundation will give you a certificate that
has your name and a detailed description of the spider.

The naming process will take 4 weeks to authenticate and up to a year to
record in the World Database of Spiders.

The quirky gift idea was conceived as a way to raise money for
Queensland biodiversity research.

Anne Jones, Chair of the Board of the Queensland Museum said "A campaign
donation will help scientists to continue their extensive research into
Queensland's remarkable biodiversity and provide an enduring legacy for
the people of this state."

Some of the research money will go to furthering public understanding of
the spider bites, creating biomedical materials, and adding to more
basic applications of material science and engineering.

The Bank of Queensland was the first to sign up for a spider name. A new
species of ant spider, Habronestes boq has been named after the bank.

David Liddy, managing director at the bank said he is very happy to be
cosying up with a spider, "In line with Bank of Queensland's strategy to
'be different', I'm delighted to be at the forefront of this genuinely
innovative concept."

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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"My, this game does teach new words!" --Hobbes