Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@jmopp @penny

money-brained people have only one idea and it's terrible.

@apLundell @Wyatt_H_Knott

Wrong Answer: There is no "lead ant" since the river of ants extends all the way around the world and it never ends. BEHOLD!

@apLundell @Wyatt_H_Knott

You are thinking of army ants and driver ants. This has been studied and there are some wonderful diagrams showing how they explore and decide where to go. It varies by species. But, there isn't a lead ant. There are forward exploring ants, and through a kind of building minimal consensus the main body will follow in the most promising direction.

But also, driver ants "know" the area around the bivouac. So they already have a sense of where they might go next.

@skinnylatte

#PicaTheCat is 18 and still has zoomies.

She loves to play "run under the rug" and "OH NO gotta run and bounce of the wall around the corner"

@clew @Wyatt_H_Knott

I have not seen ants trying to pick each other up, but I did see two minums fighting over who would carry a much younger (and much larger) major somewhere. They both were struggling to move her since she was so much larger, but if one would rest the other would take the big ant's mandible and run off with her as the other one followed.

@Wyatt_H_Knott

Is that why everyone kept talking about eggs during the last election?

@Wyatt_H_Knott

But "ant leadership" is very small and local. Maybe one ant leads five or six sisters at most.

But never any large portion of the whole colony. That is a network.

@Wyatt_H_Knott

Older more experienced ants will take charge and heard others. Or simply ants that feel they have better information.

If an ant *really* wants another ant to come to a location and she isn't following she may pick her sister up and simply carry her to the task or problem she wants help with.

(I sometimes wish someone would do this with me.)

@alper @quinn

I mean I love lobster and crayfish so it's really just a learned thing.

@anne_twain @Waitnwallflower

Give love like a dog, but accept it like a cat.

@Joannanewsomsuperfan

There are many stories and traditions about "the great king gets perspective"... I also like the tradition that if you were some great Roman general being cheered by a crowd you should have a guy who follows you about whispering "memento mori*" in your ear.

These are things we have understood for a long time in many human cultures.

Now why am I going on about this and feeling exasperated? Hm.

*remember you will someday die

@alper @quinn

The exoskeleton isn't most of the bug... I think the muscle tissue and fat is what contains the calories and nutrition. We can't digest cellulose either but eat a lot of it with vegetables.

Now... I don't eat any bugs. And probably never will. But that's just "cultural" as in I don't get it, and it makes me sad.

But, they are highly nutritious. And some of them taste good. (enough people claim this I believe them.)

@SkilledAlpaca

I think that's just a free sample. You can get the the whole thing with a library app for free, or buy the audio book with a service. It's 14 hours and goes by fast!

@poleguy

Funny for you to imply there might be any other possible reason.

@Virginicus

Nah.

The youth are out for vengeance.

Think positive:

In an Ordovician sea of radiodonts be a radioDO

Commentary:

In reality ant queens don't lead their people much at all. But, I don't think the story works unless Solomon encounters a tiny version of himself.

I do think ant queens feel immense responsibly to lay eggs. And all ants think they are doing the most important project in the world. The scale of the adversaries only proves this more.

Solomon told his soldiers to walk with more care and let the queen go back to her people.

After that, as he looked down from his flying carpet at the tiny rows of his own men, he found he had much to contemplate.

He might be magnificent, but on whose palm did he rest? Would any of his works or achievements be anything if not for nature and the world made by God?

The End.

"I suppose I must be. I am responsible for many thousands and must guide them past perils like the feet of your soldiers!" Said the ant.

Solomon laughed at this but the ant queen did not join him.

"But you are tiny!" he tried to explain. "How could you be greater than a King like me?"

"We are more alike than not." Said the ant "And anyway, who is resting on the hand of the great King? It is I, isn't it?"

She said.

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