The Saga of the Cannibal Ants in a Soviet Nuclear Bunker

[conuly]

I remember reading about this a while ago. Apparently the general public was so moved by the plight of the isolated sub-colony that they insisted the researchers mount a rescue effort.

These are people who, no doubt, would feel nothing of squishing any individual ant careless enough to stray into their paths.

I feel, firmly if obscurely, that this true story is somehow connected to this fictional story about how humans make pets out of anything.

Comments

[jack]

Huh.

Yeah, I don't know how much that's the "that sounds horrible, even for ants" effect, and how much that's the "now I noticed it I can't keep ignoring it" effect.

I mean, it's much the same as if it was flooded and all the ants that fell down just died instantly, they're pretty much gone either way.

I am inexplicably reassured they did test that the secret mutant cannibal ants did act like normal ants when they let them out, that did feel like a disaster waiting to happen :)

[conuly]

Except that they weren't gone either way, they were trying to hold on until their nestmates rescued them.

Keep yer hatchet sharp an’ yer powder dry

[nodrog]

There’s one small problem with that Reddit story - it might be totally 180 degree wrong.

Have you ever actually seen a praying mantis?  They are insect Terminators - deadly, voracious, tough murder-machines.  They are also the coolest-looking thing - they look indeed like little green machines.  Fascinating.

Meanwhile, here’s another eating machine that literally crunches its way through aphids, which are a pest:  The adorable ladybug, depicted on artsy-craftsy everywhere.

And then there’s the shy, inoffensive, furry tarantula spider - Screech!

Arachnophobia is a thing.  Mantis phobia?  No.  They’re “cute.”  But spiders are different.  Insects have six legs - they have eight.  Insects breathe through spiracles - they have book-lungs. (?)  Many insects fly - spiders alone spin webs, of a material we still can’t make ourselves, for all our technology.  And spiders alone scare the bleep out of people - irrationally, instinctively.

Some speculate, based on all this, that spiders are of extra-terrestrial origin.  Panspermia - millions of years ago a meteorite broke open to reveal an egg-sac.

If that’s true, what will our reaction be to real honest-to-pete Aliens?

«greetings we come in peace for all mankind»

“Quick, Henry - the Flit!®”

„Wenn ich einen Alien sehe ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!”

As Egon Spengler said in Ghostbusters, “It would be bad.”

[siderea]

We almost couldn’t have a new engine core because one of our humans ‘liked’ our old one so much. ‘They don’t make them like this anymore!’ he said and I said, that’s right because they develop irreparable radiation leaks after 4 trillion light years and he didn’t even care. He said he’d figure out a way to fix it, and then went and formed a club for the preservation of Mk 3 engine cores with several other humans who were also extremely dismayed about the upgrade.

It me. Written on my 2009 MacBook Pro, running OS 10.6.8, in FF 48.0.2, the last FF to run under Snow Leopard. It's okay, the order for my new MBP went in today. I'm sure it will be fine. "You might want to upgrade the cores to future-proof it." "Oh god yes please."

[archangelbeth]

*checks OS*
10.9.5.

You win. O;>

[siderea]

waves small sad banner in tragic victory

[archangelbeth]

Mine has a non-working E key on the integral keyboard and thus I have a USB aircraft carrier keyboard lying across the integral one, though!

[siderea]

Oh, I'm on a Microsoft Natural Elite which has a PS2 connector, and a PS2 to USB dongle, which is how I have it plugged into my MacBook Pro. Discontinued 2011. I've been buying them off Ebay and Craigslist.

(But I have a 2019 Microsoft Sculpt right here still in the box waiting for me to get around to deploying it.)

[siderea]

P.S. You realize you're talking to someone who bluetooth tethers her Palm T|X (2005-2009) to her Motorola Razr V3xx (2006-?) to share its DUNS connection just about every day?

P.P.S. A patient, seeing what I was noting my schedule into, upon confirming that, yes, that was a Palm Pilot, breathed with wide eyes, "You're a time traveler!!"

[sylvaine]

*delighted giggling*!

[archangelbeth]

*belated admiration!*

[sylvaine]

Yeah I'm feeling very "auuuggghhhh those poor ants D:" about that story, heh. Although I'm also not a huge fan of killing them in the day-to-day, I would argue that I'd feel way less upset about a similar situation that would kill them instantly. I think it's the slow creeping horror of the whole situation that really gets to me.