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100 volts

Since at least the days of of Darwin, we’ve known that spiders could fly, miles up and hundreds of miles away. They don’t have wings, but they can thrust out strands of silk and float away. It was thought that their silk caught the wind, like a kite.

But, in fact, it seems that spiders take advantage of Earth’s electric field — spiders can sense it and the air can be charged with as little as about 100 volts, which launches them.

To recap: Spiders, flying hundreds of miles, fueled by the high voltage of thunderstorms. Got it. Sweet dreams. [The Atlantic]
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69 percent

According to University of Chicago researchers, owning an iPhone is the most reliable indicator of whether someone is rich. “Across all years in our data, no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016,” they wrote.

Previous brands that occupied this dubious role were Land O’ Lakes butter in 2004, and Grey Poupon Dijon in 1992. Pardon me, do you have any iPhone? [Gizmodo]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/signific...ly-9-2018/

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