Reminds me of [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Saeed_al-Sahhaf"]Baghdad Bob[/URL], aka Comical Ali.

Hmmmm...
 

[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq7VsVh1coc"]Jonathan Frakes Asks[/URL]

Apparently there are passports that open all doors and some are really easy to get. Did you know that nowadays any person with money can literally buy citizenship in many countries?

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/accidental-cat-filter-appears-on-pakistan-officials-briefing[/url]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;519545][URL]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/accidental-cat-filter-appears-on-pakistan-officials-briefing[/URL][/QUOTE]
Ccould have been worse. Are there video filters for snake heads, the grim reaper, or satan?

'Epic photo': huntsman spider eats pygmy possum
 

From a link associated with the "cat filter" story on the Guardian.

TRIGGER ALERT FOR ARACHNOPHOBES!

[SPOILER]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/18/epic-photo-huntsman-spider-eats-pygmy-possum-in-tasmania
The author(s?) seem fairly ignorant of spiders. There are frequent references to "Attempting to eat" when it seems likely that the spider is actively feeding on the possum. I thought that spiders feed by extracting "precious bodily fluids" from the paralyzed prey.
[/SPOILER]

[QUOTE=kladner;519574]From a link associated with the "cat filter" story on the Guardian.

TRIGGER ALERT FOR ARACHNOPHOBES!

[SPOILER]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/18/epic-photo-huntsman-spider-eats-pygmy-possum-in-tasmania
The author(s?) seem fairly ignorant of spiders. There are frequent references to "Attempting to eat" when it seems likely that the spider is actively feeding on the possum. I thought that spiders feed by extracting "precious bodily fluids" from the paralyzed prey.
[/SPOILER][/QUOTE]A smaller relative (Heteropoda venatoria) has been introduced in Florida and other southern US locales. Occasionally they hitch rides north in shipments of produce. I saw one of these hitchhikers once, in Colorado Springs. Biggest spider I've ever seen with my own eyes. Mercifully, they're not as big (or as hairy) as tarantulas.

In their usual southern US locales, their prey items include cockroaches.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;519598]Biggest spider I've ever seen with my own eyes. Mercifully, they're not as big (or as hairy) as tarantulas.[/QUOTE]I've held a tarantula (species not now known to me) which was about as big as my (above average size) hand.
It was in the collection of a zoo near Cambridge (UK, not MA). Like all spiders, they are very delicate animals and need to be handled very gently in case you hurt them.

To me, spiders have much in common with kittens. Small, furry, active and rapid movers, natural hunters, ... I really like them, both spiders and kittens.

We returned to La Palma a week ago and was pleased to see that we have another kitchen spider taking up residence on the ceiling. It's doing its bit to keep the more objectionable bugs under control. The previous inhabitant died last November.

The video in a sidebar at the above link is quite amazing. A huntsman spider works to drag a mouse up the side of a refrigerator. It slips, but recovers. Unfortunately, the video cuts off before it makes it to the top.
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/24/australia-giant-spider-mouse-carry-horrifying-impressive[/url]

[QUOTE=kladner;519625]The video in a sidebar at the above link is quite amazing. A huntsman spider works to drag a mouse up the side of a refrigerator. It slips, but recovers. Unfortunately, the video cuts off before it makes it to the top.
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/24/australia-giant-spider-mouse-carry-horrifying-impressive[/url][/QUOTE]
Yipes! Ranks right up there with praying mantises eating hummingbirds. But it's nothing compared to [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/qhbm7/if_we_pull_this_off/]Gary Larson's imagination[/url]...

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;519708]Yipes! Ranks right up there with praying mantises eating hummingbirds. But it's nothing compared to [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/qhbm7/if_we_pull_this_off/]Gary Larson's imagination[/url]...[/QUOTE]

Or the glorious era of 50s/60s SciFi "giant bug" movies. Two I especially remember from late-Saturday-nite creature features growing up:

[url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048696/]Tarantula[/url] (1955) -- Starring John "Mr. Shirley Temple" Agar, Leo Carroll - who later played the chief Dr. Waverly on [i]The Man from U.N.C.L.E.[/i] - as the mad scientist, and a bunch of Universal contract players, including a very young Clint Eastwood as the pilot of the napalm-dropping plane at the end of the movie.

[url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050294/]The Deadly Mantis[/url] (1957) -- Starring Craig Stevens of soon-to-be [i]Peter Gunn[/i] fame and William Hopper, best-known as Raymond Burr's private-detective sidekick on the long-running [i]Perry Mason[/i]. This one was done up by the MST3K guys - one scene has Stevens and the leading lady smooching in a car, to which Crow riffs, "I've got a mantis in my pantis."