Bugs

tonyb

....have personalities too. Oh good....maybe I can train one to do circus tricks and fetch the newspaper. How do they know this and why should anyone care ? What...they overheard 2 cockroaches telling each other jokes. 2 spiders and a ladybug walk into a bar....

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/04/even-cockroaches-have-different-personalities-scientists-find

....and who TF is financing this stuff. Seriously ?? I couldn't read more than 2 sentences before stepping on the Rodney Dangerfield of ants under my feet.

BlueFox

"tonyb wrote: »

....and who TF is financing this stuff. Seriously ?? I couldn't read more than 2 sentences before stepping on the Rodney Dangerfield of ants under my feet.

Ask this guy for the financing source.

"Isaac Planas Sitjà, one of the researchers from the Université libre de Bruxelles which uncovered the personalities, "

Moose68Bash

Let's hope that the US government was not behind this profound research finding!

kevhed72

Bah......science, research, vaccinations. It's all hogwash!

BlueFox

That's right. We don't need no stinkin science. Stupidity rocks.

tonyb

BlueFox wrote: »

That's right. We don't need no stinkin science. Stupidity rocks.

Stupidity doesn't discriminate....even science is subject to it, as evident by the article.

mhardy6647

So -- back in my grad school days, I had a colleague who did his PhD in toxicology in the lab of a collaborator of ours. He (with a little analytical help from me, in fact) was studying the glycolipids of cockroach mandibular glands. Now, that sounds a little esoteric, doesn't it? Well... look at it this way. Cockroaches do, basically, two things - eat and reproduce (OK, three things... but work with me, here). They're pests from the perspective of humans. We could get rid of 'em more efficiently if we could fine-tune baits to their tastes... thus did folks use your tax dollars to study cockroach mandibular glands.

Not meant to be a defense of the current topic, but even some apparently pointless research does sometimes have a practical endpoint.

tonyb

Fine tune baits ? Really ? I don't need to study what draws a cockroach, I think we all know that by now. Now if you want to study how to kill them without harming other animals or humans, that's another story.

Unfortunately bugs outnumber humans by magnitudes, you will never kill them all. Shouldn't either, they are important part of the food chain and ecosystem.

Bugs with personalities though ? Does anyone care, and does it matter one iota ? Just asking because to me, the bug who is grumpy and a recluse will get stepped on just as fast as the bug who can do cartwheels and has his own facebook page.

tonyb

How much intelligence do you need to simply eat and reproduce ? Though I know a few humans like that too and somehow the word "intelligent" never comes to mind.

oldrocker

Financing this stuff? Why me, you and everyone elses hard earned tax dollars. Maybe they can learn a thing or two about "good" audio in the process

tonyb

DSkip wrote: »

Its not a question of how much you need, but how much you have. The fact that the Mantis wanted to attack me after that incident showed it knew what cause and effect was. The way they hunt and move in general was fascinating as well.

...and if bugs could talk, I'm sure he had a few choice words for ya. lol I dig PM though, they eat other bugs....and not likely to take up residence in your home, eat your food, watch your TV.

Msabot1

Never underestimate the intelligent traits of insects...check out the flick Starship Troopers if you have any doubt!! ha ha!!

mrbiron

Tony, you have many personalities. Maybe the government should study you as if they dont already.

By the way, if i saw a bug doing cartwheels while editing it's facebook page, i doubt i'd step on it. There's money to be had with that one!

tonyb

mrbiron wrote: »

Tony, you have many personalities. Maybe the government should study you as if they dont already.

By the way, if i saw a bug doing cartwheels while editing it's facebook page, i doubt i'd step on it. There's money to be had with that one!

Actually I'm pretty even keeled. BTW....don't you guys over there eat these things ?

mrbiron

Yeah Massachusetts is a 3rd, some may even consider it a 4th world country. Cockroaches are a main staple but are known to produce heartburn and butt-mud. We are more in tune with eating cow pies and wash it down with bud light. Our bodies burn less calories during the digestive stage. **** in, **** out.

tonyb

lol...Yeah man, I've heard Massachusetts has some real backwoods types out in the burbs.

Just yankin' your chain....working pretty good too I might add. lol

ZLTFUL

This was a pretty photogenic "bug"ger.
Was very interested in what I was doing.

Moose68Bash

There's a difference, as we all know, between intelligence and wisdom.

Much scientific research is conducted by exceptionally intelligent people, but there is not always a lot of wisdom behind the decision to fund such research projects.

These questionable ones are often of considerable interest to the researcher -- e.g., he/she needs a unique topic for a doctoral dissertation or an article that will further his/her academic career -- but these very narrow and obscure projects are of marginal value to the body of taxpayers who may be the source of funding for the research through one government agency or another -- e.g., the Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation.

Wisdom would say to direct the proposed research to a more practical area or let it be funded by the endowment funds of the sponsoring university.

However, the members of expert panels who review proposals to government agencies for sponsored research projects have doctoral students, colleagues, and projects of their own needing funding. Hence, they are not as disinterested in their evaluations as we might like. If they don't "rock the boat" by turning down a dubious project, perhaps a dubious project of theirs or one of their grad students will also not be turned down.

You know, "If I scratch your back, you'll scratch mine!"

Moving snow for three hours today apparently brought out the cynic in me!

mrbiron

tonyb wrote: »

lol...Yeah man, I've heard Massachusetts has some real backwoods types out in the burbs.

Just yankin' your chain....working pretty good too I might add. lol

Who you tryin to get crazy with ese?...Don't chu know i'm loco!!