No. No there aren't giant spiders on Mars

I have mellowed a lot over the years, and even look at some of the old posts here and shake my head thinking "What was I thinking?"

But my distrust/disfavor for the media . . . ohhhhhh, that's a constant. 

There is no reason for EVERY. SINGLE. MEDIA SITE to run versions of the same misleading headline. Clearly, they mean to imply that spiders have been spotted on Mars, even if that belief is only held by the reader long enough to click and read the article. 

Ratings/engagement/clicks - that's what matters. 

Once you do read it - if you do - they quickly explain what it really is (and it ain't 8 legged arachnids). To quote a USA Today summation: 

The features known as "spiders" form when the weather starts to warm during the Martian springtime.

As the sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months, the ice begins to melt and the warmth causes the lowest layers of ice to turn to gas. The carbon dioxide gas warms and builds up before eventually breaking through slabs of overlying ice, dragging dark dust with it to the surface that shatters through like a geyser.

So no harm no foul, right?  I mean, they even put spiders in quotes, so who were they fooling? Except that after decades of the media dumbing down America, no one bothers to read the article, or think on their own. They just spout off in the comments, quoting their own moronic conspiracies. Take a look at this - I could have included page after page of this stuff. 

God help us all.