১৮ নভেম্বর, ২০২৫

I love the serendipity of one more chance to use my "insect politics" tag.

This just crawled onto the front page of the NYT:


We're told: "The ant world is filled with Machiavellian dramas.... Now experts have identified a kind of regicide that has never been documented before.... 'It’s like a story out of "Game of Thrones,"' said Daniel Kronauer, an evolutionary biologist.... The discovery was made by an ant enthusiast... not a scientist...."

২৫টি মন্তব্য:

Dave Begley বলেছেন...

Where’s Trump in this story? And Epstein.

James K বলেছেন...

The subtext is the analogy to white colonialism.

Old and slow বলেছেন...

An "ant enthusiast" is not a scientist? Is scientist a particular credential? Richard Feynman was also an ant enthusiast who performed many interesting ant experiments in his dorm room.

Left Bank of the Charles বলেছেন...

For Begley: Epstein didn’t kill himself. It was done by someone under the influence of Trump cologne.

Enigma বলেছেন...

Nature is absolutely packed with opportunism, exploitation, predation, parasitism, manipulation, death, and destruction. This happens at every level in the animal world, and let's not forget the poisonous and spiky plants too.

I wonder if these ant queens got the idea from their DEI intersectionality training courses?

Wince বলেছেন...

A kid with a magnifying glass gets to be the fire breathing dragon in this ‘Game of Thrones.’

narciso বলেছেন...

Like the python sketch about mollusks

narciso বলেছেন...

And kinsey was a butterfly expert who got in over his skis

gspencer বলেছেন...

Hillary herself.

Quaestor বলেছেন...

"...ant enthusiast..."

He hasn't been dabbling in teleportation, has he?

buwaya বলেছেন...

"This just crawled onto the front page of the NYT"
Nice! Sometimes I just come for the humor.

narciso বলেছেন...

Also futurama and whale biologists

Mike (MJB Wolf) বলেছেন...

Guilty of that as a youngin', Wince.

Jamie বলেছেন...

An "ant enthusiast" is not a scientist? Is scientist a particular credential?

Well spotted!

I mean, I suppose it's possible that this "ant enthusiast" is actually enthusiastic only about dressing ants in tiny costumes and taking pictures of them, or putting them into dioramas doing human activities like golfing, but it seems a lot more likely to me that this person is engaging in Science Without A Degree - possibly also Without A Grant, which is an additional if lesser offense.

Bob Boyd বলেছেন...

This didn't work for Hillary.

narciso বলেছেন...

Well hes an evolutionary biologist so hes credentialed

tim maguire বলেছেন...

The discovery was made by an ant enthusiast... not a scientist

A scientist is someone who does science and I don't see any reason why that can't include ant enthusiasts.

tim maguire বলেছেন...

Interesting article. As for the "not a scientist" mini-controversy, the ellipses are doing a lot of work. The story say he's an ant enthusiast, and then in the next paragraph it says he's not a scientist by training.

john mosby বলেছেন...

What’s an ant enthusiast? A guy that realizes jo mama is just too fat, so he moves on to your auntie! CC, JSM

Darkisland বলেছেন...

Trivia from Holland

Ant fucker

When you bother a Dutch person with endless remarks about the minutest of details, they might call you an ‘ant fucker’ (mierenneuker)

John Henry

Darkisland বলেছেন...

But now I see John mosby has another meaning in mind

John Henry

Darkisland বলেছেন...

Classic short story about man vs ants. Spoiler ants almost win but man finally triumphs

Lenigren vs the ants

https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lvta.html

John Henry

Bob Boyd বলেছেন...

The ant enthusiast was probably just trying to get some ants to fight so he could watch, but they were lovers, not fighters...like Michael.

Iman বলেছেন...

Parasitic Queen
Now we're sharing the same dream
And our brains, they think as one
An Ant Farm on the run

h/t Billy Ocean

Josephbleau বলেছেন...

All queens are parasites.

একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন

Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.