Pardon me for a bit of levity when there’s the very scary threat of war in the headlines (thought this provided a useful look at some key issues), not to mention yet another winter Armageddon that’s shut down my region (that’s enough, winter!!). But this snippet from Jerry Brown yesterday on how he’s worried that legalizing pot would reduce productivity reminded of this interesting research on spiders I recalled reading about years ago.
“The problem with anything, a certain amount is okay. But there is a tendency to go to extremes…And all of a sudden, if there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation?”
Spiders…are infinitely interesting when they get stoned because the effects of the drug are clear in the odd-looking webs they build afterwards.
Basically, when spiders get high, their productivity as measured by web production, does in fact seem to fall pretty dramatically as the pictures below reveal. Now, I recalled reading something else about this that found that spiders on pot eventually finished their webs but they just weren’t all in a big, spidery rush about it. (I imagine they uncharacteristically stopped and just observed their work—“wow…I can’t believe this awesome web I’m building…I’ve never really stopped to look at before…amazing…”)
And just to be clear, the spiders on caffeine—a highly abused substance in workplaces across the globe—didn’t have such great outcomes either.
What a mess. Things would be more clear if the west had been an example to follow in recent years, but it hasn’t. Both east and west are a mess.
The only thing I can conclude from the pictures is that our engineers should not smoke pot but our politicians should start ASAP.
Said the cunning Spider to the Fly, “Dear friend what can I do,
To prove the warm affection I’ve always felt for you?
I have within my pantry, good store of bodacious sh*t;
I’m sure you’re very welcome — will you please to take a hit?”
“Oh no, no,” said Governor Moonbeam, “kind Sir, that cannot be,
I’ve heard what’s in your pantry, it’s not needed economically!”
I guess governor Moonbeam is Eric Hoffer’s new convert and true believer.
How could pot be any worse than sitting on the couch and watching Jersey Shore?
the lesson we have learned here is dont get stoned if you are trying to catch insects…
or that if you are too stoned, you might start eating insects.
I have heard that Black Widow spiders – whose webs are a tattered mess of strands when abstaining – actually clean their act up and make nice orderly webs after they have a hit or two.