my chile rose has dug a small slip trench

[Nicola Dolby]

Hi Scott, try www.dyslexia-parent.com and look under 'software'. There are loads of things there which might be of help.

[Colin D Wilson]

Hi Scott I have used http://www.dyslexic.com/overview in the past for info on software and pocket spell checkers to help out some students

[Bryan_Dennis]

Yeah, i've seen that one plus many others in a similiar vein .... youv'e got to chuckle havent' you.....Still, Arnold would have to have a caddy running up behind him if he really had to account for all the rounds he let's rip.

Heres something on topic and military related..
There where vampire bats in Belize that preyed on cattle at night time. They were a fair size (compared to the usual european variety) and sized in about the same size as a grown mans hand.
It had become a standing task amongst the guys in my platoon to try and catch one and any movements (patrols/exercises etc) at night that took us close to a field with cattle would be searched (regardless of the tactical situation..o).

Anyway the search/capture had been underway for a few months without any luck, so one night while most of the platoon were just lazing around we decided to get some kit together and drive out 20km's to a large open farming area that our usual activity's didn't take us close to. It was a huge area occupied my Mormons so we had to be carefull not to let them discover us as they'd have cut off our milk supply (another story!)......We called it a reconnaissance patrol to justify taking the land rovers..lol

It didn't take long to get there and upon arrival we jumped out of the land rovers, turned our night scopes on and started scanning the open ground. Almost straight away a Lcpl to my left piped up that there were a group of cow like things 9 o clock from his position and fair enough there was.......However they were to far away to be able to see any fine detail (like a bat clinging to it's flank) on the scopes so we sorted ourselves out and started moving slowly and quitely towards them.

We were only 20-30 meters from them when someone whispered "hold it, i think i can see one"..We all stopped dead in our tracks and the concentration level was just the same as if we were in a serious tactical situation.
The guy that made the initial contact started to move slowly towards the targetted cow with his hat in one hand and the scope held to his eye in the other.
Like everyone else i was also very slowly moving towards the cow with my hat held out ready to catch the bat.
As i got closer i could see this dark shape on the flank of the cow..but to me there was something wrong....the shape looked like it could be a bat but it also looked different as well.
All of a sudden the lead guy let a loud shout out at the top of his lungs "f***ing hell it's a f***ing giant spider" and started running away while shouting out at the same time.
Before anyone else could react the cows got a total panic on and started charging all over the place............It was only by the grace of god that none of us were trampled to death by these giant spider wielding mad cows...lol...we escaped the mormons as well..

After that the platoon pastime changed to "who could catch the largest snake, alive"...being won by Cpl Fenton (i'm sure he won't mind being mentioned in this context who managed to bag n gag a 5 meter constrictor..Earnt him stacks of kudo's i seem to remember..

[Colin D Wilson]

Bryan,

That little anecdote interupted an otherwise boring, rainy Sunday.

Thanks for that

Colin

[Nicola Dolby]

That was brilliant Bryan! Couldn't have been a bat-eating spider trying to be clever by any chance? If it was then it'll not try that again!

[scotttaylor]

being TA stayed in UK its funny how many gun toting men and women are scared by spiders lol.
i all ways wonted to be recy but cut backs in arm forces when i was first in got me kicked out
you would love pembrokeshire we have bats all over the place when you go for a work in the night and adders too in day time, funny time for me was we had recruits training ambush and some 1 buggered it up,

i was on prtoling and was not repeat not as i was told to see them lol,
we new wear they were for ages as they left a track a blind man could see lol
a creepy crawly must have dropped on 1 of them as we herd a shout and a comowed person ran out lol, same day we were taken back to school. when a member of my sig was a x member of the sas and we were attacked by just him in brush
and took us 5mins to find him of cores we would have been dead and to make it worse he only had his DPM on and now comow on him at all, we have x regs with us as well, we got in to a ditch and were just putting cover down and looking lol never ask him if he new my uncle same age ruffly when all you had was a map and now toys lol,

[Bryan_Dennis]

Couldn't have been a bat-eating spider trying to be clever by any chance?

I had the same thought at the time...it seemed a little to coincidental that a large spider was just hanging out on a passing cow....Although whether it was an individual spider that had clocked on to a easy meal of bat steaks or whether there was some sort or symbiotic relationship (the spider gets fed while the cow escapes a potential infection caused by the bats bite) between cow and said spider spp i don't know
Even though Belize is on the list of reasonably well explored countries i saw plenty of stuff over there that i've never heard of or seen again on any nature program so theres plenty of scope for undiscovered and or undescribed animals.

its funny how many gun toting men and women are scared by spiders

Much to my surprise i wasn't perturbed at all by these fantastic creatures when i first saw them in the flesh but you are right....I knew plenty of guys that were..In fact there was nothing more fun than planting some big black spider or punchy scorpion in someones hammock and then positioning yourself for the show.....used to crease me up..lol....and before anyone points out how potentially dangerous such a stunt is i just want to say I know.......but we were young(er) and worked hard. It was an unwritten rule that we also should play hard.....No-one ever got seriously hurt..