Half and Half, originally uploaded by curious_spider.

Today's subject: the clematis leaf.

I'm a big fan of the patterns contained in leaves -- especially the ones above, because they look like little suburban streets, tiny photosynethetic avenues leading to well-manicured lawns and pastel homes and sensible automobiles.

Leaves are a bit like nature's mandalas: gaze into the pattern, and find truth.

Or, alternately, lose your eye to a hummingbird beak, since we've had a hummingbirg occasionally flit around our clematis plant (never captured him on film, sorry--he's elusive, like The Yeti).

Conversations With The Ghost, originally uploaded by curious_spider.

Mister Mantis (aka "Stinky") continues to grow, grow, grow. He molted once more, wriggling free from his uncomfortable skin late yesterday morning. We continue to give him snacky-treats of stupid little ants.

Here, Mister Mantis regards the mask of his old skin.

Also: he looks a lot like Zorak.

For reals.

Pinky, originally uploaded by curious_spider.

Our sedum is already popping, which surprised me. It's obviously taking human growth hormone. Call the commissioner!

What makes the protocol buffer so popular with the pretentious little shits? Aside from wanting to put it on the CV they send to Google every three months, it’s got scalability written all over it. Oh, scalability: the problem that tens of thousands of engineers yearn for, but only six actually have.

Green Fairies, originally uploaded by curious_spider.

One could argue that these little green blobs are some form of corporeal fairy spirit instead of being just water drops.

Alternately, one could argue that this is what you see in your mind when you go buckwild with a bottle of absinthe (aka, "The Green Fairy").

Or, one might simply suggest that these are waterdrops and nothing more.

But that person, I'd chide for having no imagination. Then I'd push him into a mudd puddle and laugh as he had to scoop mud out of his mouth and off his powder blue Polo shirt.

Hahaha, stupid person. You're covered in dirt!

...

What?

Boing Boing!, originally uploaded by curious_spider.

Another jumping spider, this one quite a bit bigger, and a lot more pale. With a shiny green back (a better shot of that will be coming in a day or three).

I love fortuitous photo events, where I'm trying to take a picture one one thing, and then another thing comes ambling into my viewfinder.

Here, I was trying to take some spider web droplet shots, and then from between our fencepost and gate comes:

Jumping Spider!

He poked his many eyes out, and slowly crept out, doing this Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi dance move. He was mostly fearless, allowing me to get the camera good and close for his arachnid portraiture.

We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they're willing to try to do what you do. We call them "T-shaped people." They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T -- they're mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That's what you're after at this point -- patterns that yield ideas.

Radovan Karadzic has spent his first night in a cell at the special war crimes court in Belgrade, after 13 years on the run.

This was the arrest many people in the Balkans and beyond had come to believe would never happen.