BOFFIN UPDATE
Now the crazy bastards are putting radio transmitters on ants.
(Thanks to catmanmax)
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April 22, 2009
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The fun is that they make the tracking electronics this small but the battery pack needed to run it would squash and ant!
Posted by: gp | April 22, 2009 at 09:25 AM
Okay, this is cool. I would so do this. Does that make me a boffin?
Posted by: BoffinSherly | April 22, 2009 at 09:28 AM
The answer to white collar crime among ants. Along with Community Service, which they are already doing anyway.
Posted by: Horace LaBadie | April 22, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Well, how else will we know where the ants are going? What? Just watch them? Hmmm. Sounds crazy but it just might work!
Posted by: Lairbo | April 22, 2009 at 10:53 AM
So I guess the Ant economy is okay since there were no bad ant house loans and collapse of the ant credit industry, since they are better than humans at house hunting.
Posted by: Margaritaville | April 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM
If they look like this you're too close...
Posted by: Steve Haller | April 22, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Well little bugs have littler bugs
Up on their backs to bite 'em
And the littler bugs have still littler bugs
And so ad infinitum
Thanks to The Grateful Dead and O'Henry
Posted by: Brian | April 22, 2009 at 11:29 AM
The picture shows an RFID tag, like those used in passports, toll responders, pet implants, and newer antitheft/tracking tags on merchandise. They bounce a signal back from a nearby transmitter; no batteries required. If you buy a dildo or a copy of Science Fair with an RFID tag, you can be pinged all over town.
Wal-Mart is gung-ho on requiring RFID tagging by suppliers; maybe a few hundred antbots in their distribution centers would convince them they need a system less subject to abuse. Workers of the world, unite!
Posted by: Ralph | April 22, 2009 at 01:00 PM
snork @ Brian.
Posted by: NotSherly | April 22, 2009 at 02:05 PM
NSherl, that was a poem that I learned to ponder in...ahem..."hazy moments" back in school days. It's also a Dead song.
Posted by: Brian | April 22, 2009 at 02:48 PM
Bug, "It doesn't matter."
Hazy bug, pondering.
Posted by: NotSherly | April 22, 2009 at 04:22 PM
Brian: Actually, it's from Jonathan Swift. Were you in school 300 years ago?
Posted by: Ralph | April 22, 2009 at 07:20 PM
It does seem that long ago sometimes. I realized that but was too lazy to type a retraction. And I did say it was a bit "hazy".
; )
Posted by: Brian | April 22, 2009 at 07:41 PM