I woke up today, looked at my degree on the wall, and let out a deep sigh as I rolled over to prepare for another exciting day at work as a "customer service representative" at medium-sized call center. But while I was relishing in my brief moment of emo-flavored self-pity, an article I saw on wired reminded me of just how luck I am.

"One million spiders make golden cloth." At first glance it sounds and looks pretty cool, until you read on realize that 70 people in Madagascar spent four years of their lives picking giant biting spiders off of telephone poles. Now I can't say, "Thank you for calling ________. This is Nancy. How may I assist you today . . .?" fast enough!

Read the full story and learn about the kevlar-like properties of spider silk here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/spider-silk/