1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,080
Speaker 1: This episode of brain Stuff is brought to you by

2
00:00:02,120 --> 00:00:05,519
Speaker 1: Linda dot Com. Linda dot Com offers thousands of engaging,

3
00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:08,760
Speaker 1: easy to follow video tutorials talket by industry experts to

4
00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:12,440
Speaker 1: help you learn software, creative and business skills. Membership starts

5
00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:16,000
Speaker 1: at twenty five a month and provides unlimited seven access.

6
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,720
Speaker 1: Try Linda dot Com free for seven days by visiting

7
00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:22,960
Speaker 1: Linda dot com slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff

8
00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:34,120
Speaker 1: from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi

9
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:37,840
Speaker 1: Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is making my

10
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,920
Speaker 1: backyard sparkle at night? This past weekend. I was cleaning

11
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:46,240
Speaker 1: my desk and I found my headlight lamp. This is

12
00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,640
Speaker 1: one of those little led flashlights with a strap so

13
00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:52,360
Speaker 1: that you can wear it on your forehead. You see

14
00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:56,560
Speaker 1: them in Home Depot and Lows and Amazon in places

15
00:00:56,600 --> 00:00:59,760
Speaker 1: like that. They cost about fifteen dollars. So you know

16
00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,480
Speaker 1: how once you find or buy something like that, you

17
00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,480
Speaker 1: want to try it out. I'm the same way. So

18
00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,520
Speaker 1: I strapped my headlight lamp on. I called the dog

19
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:11,760
Speaker 1: and we went out in the backyard to look around.

20
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:15,679
Speaker 1: I've been doing this big yard project, so there were

21
00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,920
Speaker 1: some piles of dirt in the backyard. I turned on

22
00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,200
Speaker 1: my light and I spun my head around and just

23
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,319
Speaker 1: looked around the backyard with it, and the strangest thing happened.

24
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:31,240
Speaker 1: The backyard sparkled. The pile of dirt that was over

25
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:34,399
Speaker 1: to my left had all these reflections coming off of it,

26
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,600
Speaker 1: like it was covered in little diamonds or something like that.

27
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,319
Speaker 1: I stood and faced the pile and looked at it,

28
00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,959
Speaker 1: and it was still sparkling. There were dozens of spots

29
00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:50,160
Speaker 1: of brightly reflected light. What in the world could that be.

30
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,880
Speaker 1: I assumed it was mica or quartz crystals or something

31
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,400
Speaker 1: mixed in with the clay of the soil and the

32
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,840
Speaker 1: pile of dirt. So I walked up closer to investigate.

33
00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:06,360
Speaker 1: And everyone I investigated was a wolf spider. What I

34
00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,840
Speaker 1: was seeing was the light being reflected off the eyes

35
00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:16,960
Speaker 1: of wolf spiders. Yes, wolf spiders, thousands of them, thousands

36
00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,320
Speaker 1: of thousands. You look around the backyard and they are

37
00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,639
Speaker 1: absolutely everywhere, And if you think about it, there could

38
00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,080
Speaker 1: actually be twice that many, because there could be an

39
00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:28,920
Speaker 1: equal number of spiders facing the opposite direction. That's a

40
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,640
Speaker 1: lot of spiders. So I want to make sure that

41
00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:35,600
Speaker 1: I'm not hallucinating about this effect or the number of spiders.

42
00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,280
Speaker 1: I grab Lee and I take her outside and I

43
00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:40,959
Speaker 1: put the headlight on her head. What do you see?

44
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,560
Speaker 1: I asked her. I've not told her a thing. You've

45
00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:49,280
Speaker 1: discovered diamonds, she asks, She is seeing the same reflections.

46
00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:52,040
Speaker 1: You don't see it with a normal flashlight. I guess

47
00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:54,440
Speaker 1: that the light has to be close to your eyes

48
00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: to get the right angle of reflection so that you

49
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,120
Speaker 1: can actually see the spiders. I tell her to go

50
00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,960
Speaker 1: and investigate one of the reflections. She is not particularly

51
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,120
Speaker 1: happy with me when she finds out what's at the

52
00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,640
Speaker 1: other end. Then I show the kids one by one.

53
00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,040
Speaker 1: They all see it too, and we went on a

54
00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,720
Speaker 1: spider hunt together. They were far more excited than Lee was.

55
00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,120
Speaker 1: Of course, this isn't a new discovery. As soon as

56
00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:21,720
Speaker 1: you go to Google and plug the idea in, you

57
00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:26,400
Speaker 1: can find lots of pages with titles like headlighting for spiders.

58
00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,919
Speaker 1: Apparently people have been seeing wolf spiders this way ever

59
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,120
Speaker 1: since we figured out how to strap lights onto our heads.

60
00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,000
Speaker 1: You might want to try it one night. I live

61
00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:40,520
Speaker 1: in North Carolina. If your location is anything like North Carolina,

62
00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,160
Speaker 1: there may be thousands of spiders out right now staring

63
00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:48,040
Speaker 1: at you. For more on this and thousands of other

64
00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,680
Speaker 1: topics because that house stuff works dot com and don't

65
00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:52,520
Speaker 1: forget to check out the brain Stuff blog on the

66
00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:54,960
Speaker 1: house stuff works dot com home page. You can also

67
00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,120
Speaker 1: follow brain Stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain Stuff

68
00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:05,040
Speaker 1: hs W. Jack Threads has quickly become the online shopping

69
00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,800
Speaker 1: destination for guys. Here's why everything on the side is

70
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,520
Speaker 1: up to eight percent off. They serve up killer contemporary

71
00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:14,240
Speaker 1: and street apparel, accessories and gadgets from brands like Converse, Penguin,

72
00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:16,640
Speaker 1: and Busted t s. Shopping is simple and all styles

73
00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:19,400
Speaker 1: are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen. What's more,

74
00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:21,440
Speaker 1: as a listener of brain Stuff, you can skip the

75
00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,440
Speaker 1: membership waitlist and get instant access at sign up dot

76
00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:26,840
Speaker 1: jack Threads dot com slash brain Stuff