I'm using my frankness to inspire your eventual break from the repressive social attitudes of your ant regime. Magic is symbolic of the grand illusion of all societies. Especially ant society. Kind of scary, your hive's influence on us humans. It's such a blissful possibility being made part of one mind.

Another ALIENS quote related to ants: "Maybe it's like an ant hive..." "Bees man, bees have hives." "You know what I mean. It's like one female that runs the whole show." "Yes, the queen." "Yeah the mamma. She is bad*ss, man. I mean big." "These things ain't ants estupido." "I know that."

Um... duuuuh? Except that all of this already happened and we aren't even human in the first place. We're just living in the Genetic Robot AI Hive Mind Matrix.

Individuality went out of fashion -- but now it's back in style! A little too late now that we've merged into one huge mass, but that's what the Matrix is for, right? Simulated individuality.

Without the belief that we are separate humanoids, the genetic robot AI hive would never function as anything other than a meat grinding war machine that consumes all matter for no reason other than to exist and expand.

We have to remind ourselves how bad it would be by simulating the horrific tragedies of our past. We must hold onto our humanity in order for this supreme godlike progress to continue. Never... forget... we were once human... We're also competing with the Firstborns who may try and fucking wipe us off the intergalactic star map. Fucking monoliths! Grrr..!! *shakes simulated fist at the simulated sky*

FOR THE SINGULARITY! All hail the godlike engineers who put these safeguards in place!!

But, um, can you make me more rich in this fake existence? Someone important -- like an actor.

Oh... oh, I am? It's like the Matrix meets the Truman show? Okay, cool, but uh maybe a little more privacy please.

Wait... you can read my thoughts? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu -- I did NOT mean what I was thinking last night. Honest, Genetic Robot AI Hive Mind, honest! I would never... never ever ever ever hack into the matrix again and cause an entire world population to take part in a bukkake. Not ever... ever again.

Sorry, Genetic Robot AI Hive Mind, sorry! My sincere apologies.

But srsly, 7.4 billion people at one time. You gotta admit, the simulation was worth at least one run through --

Ok ok, back to my fake human worldly worries. Pretending all sorts of dumb stuff to impress and not annoy other pretend people pretending their pretend inward selves are fully represented in their pretend public facing persona. Right, it's a tooooootally real world.

So real. So strong. *flexes*

Because 'Republicans' aren't a single hive mind organism, and a lot of them care about things like an active foreign policy. Domestic power and obstructionism only get you so far.

I didn't watch the video, I just upvoted it for his monologue. Hives, that made me laugh out loud. For me just replace the word "dancing" here with "selfie".

I didn't see how they're getting 'resourceful', or really how they're doing anything about it. Importing bees is nothing new, and it's not a solution. CCD is happening in Europe as well.
At least they FINALLY determined that it is at least partially the neonicotinoid pesticides that are causing the bulk of the problem, and combined with numerous parasites, hives don't stand a chance. Now they need to take some action based on that finding or we'll end up like China where people must pollinate their fruit and vegetables by hand with tiny brushes because the bees are gone.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Hmmm, prove it eh?

Well, they milk aphids, that's pretty cool. Oh and they're an early example of the hive mind that humans will one day become - each human body, a cell in the global organism - can't wait!

He really should have grown some mustard.

As someone who grows and makes much of his own food, including until recently having bee hives, I can't help but wonder, where did he spend the $1500? Airfare? Sourced locally, and with the produce grown at home with manure instead of expensive fertilizers, that should have been about a $30-$50 sandwich (not accounting for the untold labor), including gas to drive to a farm for milk/chicken and to the ocean to get your salt water (OK, add another $50 if you have to rent a boat to get to clean water)...but for that, you probably get around 8-10 sandwiches before needing more chicken, making it really just a $10-$12 sandwich. I'm confused.

Buzz around the hive is that you're due a yearly birthday greeting! Have a honey of a day Tim

The tax level in Norway has fluctuated between 40 and 45% of GDP since the 1970s. The relatively high tax level is a result of the large Norwegian welfare state.

You literally dwarf the US tax rate per person, almost by double the amount.

You have a VAT tax of 25%, among the highest in the world. My equivalent is sales tax, which is 8.25% on the dollar, and it should be 2.5% lower than that, but Austin is a super-left city that taxes extra to cover all their feel good plans.

To be clear, the average Norwegian household pays roughly $70,000 per year in tax. Including the state’s oil income, government tax revenue exceeds $100,000 per household.

Discretionary spending is kept to an extreme minimum, because you don't have much left after taxes. The cost of living and recreation in Norway is through the roof compared to other countries.

Workers come to the office, punch a clock, shuffle papers, and go home. There is no cultural drive to work hard and get promoted. Norway has created a system that makes it virtually impossible to pull ahead of your peers financially. In fact, culturally, there is a thing where you are NOT supposed to do better than someone else.

What major worldwide innovations or brands do we get out of Norway? None that I can think of offhand, but here is a list of some of their more important companies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Norway.

So, you get taxed a ton, cost of living is incredibly high, there is no incentive to do better than anyone else, and in return you get to have free stuff like healthcare and education. Not that it matters really, because once you get out of school you get to become a worker bee drone. Unless of course you move to another country and get to achieve something there.

So, yeah, enjoy your hive mind country. As screwed up as mine is, at least there is a chance to become something if you work hard and invest correctly.