Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@datarama

People are ALWAYS saying that to me.

I wonder if there have ever been migrating army ants?

Ants that don't build a nest and live in the south in the winter then make their way north as the weather warms eating everything in their path?

Maybe army ants just can't make enough progress in a day to get that far.

... but what if they brought back their wings?

@michaelgemar

Mostly they do go deep, but they are also somewhat cold tolerant. But if there are very cold winters it will take longer for the ants to get their numbers back up again.

@violator

It depends on the species. Ants aren't harmed much by staying active in winter if they are used to being more seasonal, the issue is the queen my die younger since she never takes a break from laying eggs. (though tropical species don't take such breaks)

Carpenter ants are very hearty and just making things more cool and feeding them less is good enough.

@michaelgemar

Depends on the species. But some Carpenter ants can tolerate freezing temperatures.

My pet ants aren't very cold (though I do put them in a cooler place for winter) Diapause isn't as extreme as hibernation. An ant may have a small snack or groom her sisters. But mostly they rest.

Starting in the warm days of March they will wake up and begin a big push to increase their numbers for Spring.

The saddest thing about this time of year is the lack of ants.

I have my pet colony, (carpenters) and the ants at the museum. (honeypots and leafcutters) ... but I never see any ants in the park, or on the sidewalk or trees.

It's so lonely.

Have you wondered where all the ants go?

In winter ants like my carpenters enter "diapause" which is similar to hibernation in mammals. They prepare their bodies for cold and move slowly. Deep in the earth and in the trees they rest in a big pile.

@foone

I like the floppy logo.

@foone

Misread the text at first...

MOTOROLA
MOTOROLB
MOTOROLC ...

@Gobabu

There is no way I'm telling her she had to be home alone and have a cat sitter for two days while I paid attention to "some horrible 'dog'"

Me: "Don't jump puppy. STAY."
Puppy: "STAY?!? Oh gosh. Sounds Serious. I hope I'm doing whatever it is right! I really hope I'm doing it right!" *puppy sits still, vibrating with intensity*
Me: "Good puppy. Good STAY."
Puppy: "Good? Me? I'M A GOOD PUPPY! I did it! I did it!"
*jumping with joy*
Me: "STAY."
Puppy: "Uh oh. Oh no I'm doing it wrong. What is it??? This is so hard."
*flops on the ground*
Me: "Stay..."
*puppy stays... mostly*
...
...
Me: "Good-"
Puppy: *jumping for joy* "I DID IT!"

Very obvious trap in the woods baited with several interesting johnson solids... and me caught looking very annoyed.

Honestly it's "jangles keys" level at that point.

Kid on the D train with a dodecahedron puzzle cube. (Think a rubik's cube with 12 faces and 11 facets on each face.)

I'm watching him mess with it thinking he's just playing, but then I realize he's doing a solving algorithm.

That kid's going to show up after break speed-solving a megaminx and I'm frankly a little jealous.

(I was probably staring too much but if you don't want me to stare at you on the train don't wave a colorful platonic solid in my face.)

Can you name three songs that you love?

1. One song that is well known and loved by millions and yes you love it too.

2. One song tragically little known that many could easily love but, for now, loved only by you.

3. And at last one song that you know is hard to love:
(too strange or corney to share) but deep in your heart, that song lives there. Like a worm it lives there.

eg
1. popular
2. should be popular
3. shouldn’t be popular but got damn it you still like it’

@hypolite

“Heel” means: stand next to me and walk with me at the same pace.

“sit” means: sit down and stay there until told to move freely again.

When I start using a new computer the first thing I do is find out how to run programs on it from text files. This could mean installing python, or just running a .bat file, anything really. It's not "my computer" until I can type "python3 test.py" and see the hello world text.

@trabex

Chance is just a puppy. He's trying his very best. I worked with him on "heel" and "sit" while I visited my folks.

The biggest obstacle to learning for the poor dog is that when you praise him for getting it right he gets *so* excited and happy he can't follow the next command.

@ben

No. (They don't have mandibles.)

"Going to get some live bait then I'll catch that big catfish down in the river"

"Dad, that fish will pull you out of the boat. Sometimes catfish try to eat people. Saw it on youTube."

"That's not real."

"I've seen that fish once, and it wants to eat people. I'm certain. Nothing is better when you add 'cat' to the name."

"That's right! Like 'bird'"
"catbird"
"fish?"
"catfish"
"tires?"
"cattires!"
"call"
"catcall?"
"berries!"
"catberries!"
"merand..."
"now you are being simple"
"log?"
"..."