These spiders (jumping spiders) are the only ones I know of that are acutely aware of your presence. They seem to want to interact and look you in the eye which makes them ideal models. This one is lifting his head to look right into the lens which is often the case.
In the 17th century, "Tulip mania" struck the Netherlands driving the price of tulip bulbs to extraordinary levels. Some believe as much as 10 times the anual wage of a skilled craftsman. On one account, 12 acres of land was offered for a single bulb. Fortunes were made overnight until Febuary of 1637 when the bubble popped causing fortunes to be lost overnight. Tulip Mania is generally recognized as the first recorded speculative bubble and is still referenced at the onset of other speculative bubbles.
The boletus genus of fungi have pores rather than gills. There are many varieties of edible boletes with the most widely known likely to be the porcini. Most boletus are symbiotic with trees making them difficult to cultivate. This particular mushroom is believed to be boletus smithii and edibility is unknown.
