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Removal of Asian giant hornet 'murder hornet' nest

StukaFox says...

Right after Jackass came out, a couple of friends-of-a-friend decided to stage their own version of the movie -- with a hornet's nest. They found the thing hanging from a tree at the edge of a field and it was not remotely on the small size. Also, this was in late August and the queen had already flown away, leaving the drones to slowly starve to death. Thus, the enormous number of stripey-stripey sting-stings were already good 'n' pissed-off.

They were about to get moreso.

So chowderhead A and chowderhead B have a brilliant plan: they're going to shoot this enormous ball full of astoundingly-irate murderous insects with a shotgun while they're filming it. If you're hearing banjos playing and luke-warm cheap beers being cracked open, you're about in the right frame of mind.

Places, everybody!

The stage is set: on one end, at what's decided to be "minimum safe distance", are our erstwhile David Attenborough/Jonny Knoxville knock-offs. At a decidedly NOT minimum safe distance away is the arthropod version of the T'sar Bomba. All we're missing now is a Mossberg, enough idiocy to think this can end any way but badly, and a camera. With far too much alacrity for what's about to happen, all three are provided.

Aaaaaand, ACTION!

* BOOOM! *

At first, surprisingly, nothing happens. This period of stasis lasts roughly a picosecond. Then, unsurprisingly, things start to happen and they happen far more quickly than the Chuckle Brothers planned on. This plays out in three acts:

Act 1: "Hey, uh, why is the nest still there?"
Act 2: "Uh-oh..."
Act 3: "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!"

Hubris takes many forms, and schadenfreude takes twice as many, but both combined were statistically zero compared to the number of hornets involved in this fiasco. Had the two Mensa escapees who irked said hornets thought this thing through -- stop laughing -- perhaps they would have arrived at the conclusion that 1. a shotgun slug is not the preferred load-out when dealing with a ball made out of wasp puke and 2. being the only two things visible within a 20 mile radius of the ball made out of wasp puke pretty much negates the mystery of who the hornets are going to sting the ever-loving fuck out of.

With their plans in ruins and the nest not, our heroes decide to quit the field. This is the first smart thing they've done since looking at that big ball of wasps and deciding it was redolent with untapped hilarity. The hornets are having none of this white flag nonsense, however, and they decide to quit screwing around and really inflict some pain. It's a quarter mile back to the car and the hornets are going to make them pay for every inch of it.

The final score:
Hornet losses: meh, they were all going to die in a few weeks anyway.
The chucklenuts: 23 stings, a dropped shotgun, and three minutes of footage that they took in the pre-YouTube era and thus is lost to time.

Moral:
Hornets are not toys.

Small-Scale Ant Genocide Yields Small-scale Alien Artifact

grinter says...

1) Don't be confused, and think that I've decided the casting of ant colonies for art is justified. I'm pointing out that the issue is more complex than many, including yourself, may realize. I find the video disturbing... and unlike our resident @ant have not voted for it.
2) Please look up Godwin's law. Using Nazi analogies generally undermines your argument.. it just makes it hard for people to accept that you have thought things through.
3) But hey, assuming that you have thought things through, let's continue with your analogy:
Perhaps the holocaust analogy does work, but to be sure the fire ants are not the Gypsies, they are the Germans. Fire ants are rapidly spreading across the world, drastically reducing both the abundance and diversity of native species. This includes native ant species, as well as a huge range of arthropod prey, potentially plants (through seed consumption), and even small vertebrates (e.g. lizards and ground nesting birds).
If you are arguing from a pacifistic stance, that violence against another creature is never justified, even if it is in the defense of others more helpless or in self-defense, I thoroughly respect that position. Although any violence turns my stomach; I cannot say that I agree.. for sure, the next time I get an infection, I will take antibiotics; the next time I see purple loosestrife, I will tear it from its roots.

A10anis said:

And, setting aside the "obvious arguement" that there are "invasive" religions, cults, armies, colours and creeds, does that justify the extermination of ANY that cannot defend themselves? Your justification for mass extermination on the grounds that it is; "not a particularly nasty way to do it," is quite disturbing as, you may recall, the mass killing of "invasive" species has already been attempted. It was called the Holocaust.

Obamedia Fail

chingalera says...

Yeah? I have always thought it pathetic the way the mob of arthropods here on this site that know the guys' jib give him such a fucking hard-time. SO the guys' a bit simple in his observations of world events, are not we all? I share his frustration with users here who think they have the answers residing somewhere between a self-induced hypnotic state and the aroma of their own farts.

Is it his remedial politics or his lack of a crispy wit?? Fuck political stances, anyone in my estimation who takes sides liberal or conservative, republican or democrats, are complete morons and everyone does not have the gift or command of succulent gab.

I give the maximum amount of credit for long-suffering the mob here an in the case of this offering in particular, after the dick-riders post-Bush and pre-Obama touted the current president cunt as the next best thing to string cheese well, look at the absolute shit that Hepatitis-shaded shill has done to ass-fuck millions of Americans.

Yogi said:

Whoa, let's not start giving QM credit for things, otherwise we'll have to just shut down the sift because I'm pretty sure the founding philosophy was to never agree with him.

Monstrous Turtle Eats Watermelon

Time Lapse of a Sand Dollar at Pismo Beach California

L0cky says...

Haha, I didn't mean it quite so literaly. But generally when I hear/read people giving generalised examples of evolutionary history, it often involves the fish leaving the sea at some point.

Thinking about it though, it depends if fish existed before mammals or not, as they definitely have a common ancestor.

/me goes check

Yeh, so the current understanding is that we have a common ancestor with fish, being a chordate, which can be both vertebrate and invertebrate. But that's a rather subjective take on when evolution left the sea.

It's not easy to find a phylogenic tree with a marker saying which species left water first.

/more checking

So what I meant by "fish jumping out of the sea and sprouting legs" were the tetrapods, which evolved from chordates leading to out of water compatible lungs; then fins to limbs etc.

However, they weren't the first creatures out of the sea. There were arthropods for starters (invertebrates, which also became insects).

My point was really that I can see this type of creature (an echinoid) evolving to be amphibious before either the arthropods or tetrapods; mostly because they would have a simpler path of evolution to be able to do so.

>> ^BoneRemake:

>> ^L0cky:
People talk about fish jumping out of the sea and sprouting legs as part of evolution. I think it'd make more sense to be something like this.

Where the F have you heard of people believing fish sprouted legs and thrust themselves out of the water ? Pro Tip: do not hang around those people.

ant (Member Profile)

dystopianfuturetoday says...

Cat Phylum = Chordata


In reply to this comment by ant:
Ugh, my bad. I thought you said arachnid. Haha.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Vespoidea

In reply to this comment by ant:
"How wude!" I am an insect!

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
It's all yours, arthropod.

In reply to this comment by ant:
You're going down, kitty. Your #4 spot is going to be mine soon.

dystopianfuturetoday (Member Profile)

ant says...

Ugh, my bad. I thought you said arachnid. Haha.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Vespoidea

In reply to this comment by ant:
"How wude!" I am an insect!

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
It's all yours, arthropod.

In reply to this comment by ant:
You're going down, kitty. Your #4 spot is going to be mine soon.

ant (Member Profile)

dystopianfuturetoday (Member Profile)

ant (Member Profile)

pro life, pro choice, and the war on drugs (Femme Talk Post)

peggedbea says...

i think there is an overall underlying psychology to the movement as a whole that is about power and control. but i think on an individual level, individual people actually think it is about life and death......... which is the problem with religion, and possibly even political structures and capitalism (thought i haven't thought those two through in depth yet). the over all structure is about maintaining power and control and on the micro level.. people just want to live and love and be good and take care of their families and feel something passionately.

the last rally i went to was about 500 people with 20 or so pro life counter protesters... a few hours into it this mad woman showed up and started screaming at the top of her lungs "ABORTION IS MURDER!!ITS MURDER!!" and then some other insanely gruesome things. which, of course, started a shouting match. so we left. because 1. i didnt want my kids hearing the horrific things she was yelling. and 2. i make it a rule not to argue with the mentally ill... but that woman certainly believed it was about life and death. and i do very much believe she would do what she could to financially support a young a pregnant woman and the child.

i think i love the psychology of societies.



ps. my 5 year old son is sitting on the couch across from me babbling various facts about arthropods. and my daughter was just in the backyard making a daisy chain sort of thing out of lavender, clovers and cucumbers.. chasing our dog through the garden......she just ran inside, locked the front door and said she had to lock it because she saw a snake and got scared. i said "... snakes cant open doors. and you're not afraid of them" and her reply ..."oooh.. i meant a velocipator then"

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

I get the feeling that the pro life movement is more anti sex than anti abortion. I can't tell you how many times I've discussed the issue and heard pro lifers characterize young sexually active women as sluts and whores. They talk about motherhood as more of a punishment for promiscuity than a joyous and profound part of the human experience. Usually the slut talk comes out when you get them a little angry.
It's interesting that these beliefs are held by a patriarchal segment of society whom are usually pretty OK with violence, poverty, torture, the death penalty, war, shock and awe, etc. I'm convinced that this seeming conradiction isn't a contradiction at all, because this issue isn't about life, it's about power. More specifically, male power over female sexuality.
Sometimes I ask pro lifers (both genders) if they would be willing to carry a woman's unwanted unborn child for her in order to save its life, assuming technology advanced to a point where it was possible. "No, it's not my responsibility" is the common answer, which supports my gut feeling that this issue is not actually about life. Another argument I use is "would you be willing to financially support a poor pregnant mother?", which also ilicits some telling (read: ugly) responses ("I wouldn't want to give financial incentive to unwed motherhood.") Shifting the responsibility from the mother to the pro-lifer is a good way to get to the subconscious core of these belief systems.
If the pro life movement was a bit more pragmatic, I think they could find some compromise with the pro choice movement, because people on all sides of the issue find abortion tragic and traumatic. I think more restrictive abortion regulation might be accepted in trade for more honest, more effective, more present sex education, counseling and free and easy access to birth control. Abortion is a symptom of unwanted pregnancies. Child abuse and neglect are also symptoms of unwanted pregnancy. What if we combined movements and focused on the root cause? Then again, if I'm correct in my hunch that this issue has more to do with sex and power than life, sex ed and free rubbers would be more offensive than abortion itself.
Good stuff, bea.

Giant Mother Garage Spider

entr0py says...

>> ^peggedbea:

i honestly will never understand people's spider/insect/snake phobias.
but then again, i'm afriad of pickles and mayonaisse.


People with a fear of spiders are less likely to be killed by spiders. Those whack arthropods will bite you, old school.

Drive By Rimshot (15 secs)

ant (Member Profile)

Japanese Bug Fights - Round the 6th

entr0py says...

Anyone else think this is a bit fucked up? Yes arthropods have primitive nervous systems and simple brains, so it doesn't compare to the cruelty involved in dog fighting. But I just worry about people who find it entertaining to force animals to kill each other for sport.

I understand on one level, it is interesting what natural defenses and hunting skills these things evolved. But why not just watch one of the countless nature programs where researchers document the behavior of animals without interfering?

But this. . . it's like watching a child who takes joy in slowly tearing the wings off of flies. Even if you don't give a damn about the flies, you still worry about the psychology of the child.



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