Brought forth from the depths of the Earth by demonic instinct, swarming across the land in a great buzzing cloud, the cicada is nothing but pure evil. Sure it can’t bite, or sting, has trouble flying, and is easy prey for squirrels, foxes, and the occasional toddler; these are merely Big Cicada’s lies, told by so-called “professional entomologists.”

Why are we talking about these hellbeasts right now? Apparently Brood XIII (17 year cycle) is about to hatch, promising to overrun the Midwest with the bugs’ distinctive sound. Another swarm – this one of Internet fans – is organizing a massive investigation into Brood XIII using all the latest Internet tools: maps, forums, YouTube, and who-knows-what-else.com.

In many ways, the Internet allows people to immerse themselves so completely in a microscopically-scaled niche that they form mutually supportive groups around any variety of topics. These groups can be benign (like Wookieepedia’s minutiae about Star Wars) or despicable (as in any pro-pedophilia forums out there.) But some people would rather just spend their time on cicadamania.com, and – in the grand scheme of things – that’s not so bad.

Link to Cicadamania

Link on Brood XIII via CNN

Popularity: 8% [?]

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See Also: Bamboo Fiber Shirts,700 Books = 1 Bar,Images of Density,

This entry was posted by Jeffrey Goodman on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Environment, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.