Shock and awe here. Named by a guy who seemed sincerely scared of them.

t giggles

Wow. That's... something.

re: eating healthy, I'm in desparate need of getting back to the gym. I was doing really well for a few weeks, and then I fell right off that wagon.

The ant supercolony freaks me out.

Especially after billytea's ant stories in Natter.

I am in outside clothes and actually sitting at my desk for the first time in a week. Let's see how long this lasts. I do have to go outside-- must venture to the Vortex of Spendiness known as Target.

"And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords"

This part is awesome:

They then matched up the ants in a series of one-on-one tests to see how aggressive individuals from different colonies would be to one another.

I hope they built a little forum and did the thumbs up/thumbs down thing. I'm going to trust that a bunch of Ant PhDs are going to be nerd enough to do this.

Close-up of an ant.

I hope they built a little forum and did the thumbs up/thumbs down thing. I'm going to trust that a bunch of Ant PhDs are going to be nerd enough to do this.

I hope they played that music from Star Trek where Kirk and Spock fought....

Close-up of an ant.

Also, see: [link]

:: squirm ::

Yeah. Ants: not so bad at a distance; icky that close-up.

I'm always fascination by the level of fine detail in such tiny creatures. Kudos, Mr Scola.

Incidentally, there was a case once brought by workers in a chicken abattoir seeking compensation for a work-based condition. The abattoir employed workers, I believe mostly immigrant women, to wring the necks of the chickens before they were processed. The problem is that the chickens, as is the case with many birds, used ants to supply a natural pesticide to their feathers - by irritating the ants, they would spray formic acid on the chickens' plumage, which kept down their numbers of parasites.

Unfortunately, the acid would also wind up irritating the workers' hands and arms (you wring the necks of enough chickens, and you start to build up a significant exposure). I believe the case was decided in favour of the plaintiff, and the judgment included the observation that "it is well known that necking often leads to formication."