My DW happened to notice this act - just like a circus. The Fireants crossing over from one part to the other. "Helping hand" for support. When she actually saw there was a chain of about 4-5 ant-length distance between the spots. I rushed with the cam and saw the chain. But by the time I could sit and get ready, the chain broke probably they got excited with my arrival. I had to pull the brick closer to re-make the shot. They finally cooperated, but not as spectacularly as the earlier chain.
One more.
What a wonderful nature shot!
Ants are fascinating creatures to watch and learn from. In the learn and play stores they still sell ant farms for children to learn some of natures mysteries. Your pictures show them using their bodies to build a bridge in order for them to span the gap. I have seen such bridges with small black ants that spanned areas that were up to 5 inches across so they could reach food that was cut off from them by water on the ground. The colony literally walked across on the backs of their own to get to the other side. By emulating their cooperation we learn that united we can accomplish the seemingly impossible.
Hello Zany,
It's been a long time since we met in the same thread, ain't it? Hope you've retained your original wit! Thanks for the informative post. A bridge of 5 inches is incredible. But again, in Nature, these seemingly unimaginable things are possible. Unity is strength.
Dinu were did you learn that Southern word ain't?
Don
Well, Dinu does live in southern India. . .
Well, probably through reading. I now can't trace back the steps, can I? It's hard, ain't it? Took one more pic of the nest up close, but a poor shot resulted (my fingers were in danger of being attacked by the angry fire ants).
Dinu, I too love to watch the ants and in fact all insects deal with the world. They all seem to figure out how to do what is necessary for survival without too many problems and I find them extremely interesting. Back when I was a small child my Dad taught me a lot about insects and how they relate to humanity. Those were wonderful lessons that I remember to this day.
Thank you for the memories and the great photos.
Lani
Welcome, Lani. Keep an open eye, an open ear and your mind open. We'll learn so many things from around us. It's a continuous process.
Dinu
I am slowly catching up on some of the posts since I returned. There are so many new forums and people now that Iadmit to feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Thank you for remembering me.
When I was growing up my Mother would correct me any time I used ain't. "Ain't" is not a word she would tell me. To prove it she would show me it was not in the dictionary. Now it is in common use and is in the dictionary but I still feel awkward using it.
I have never been around fire ants. Do they bite as bad as I have read they do?
The 5 inch bridge was fascinating because it was created by ants that measure only about 1/8 inch.
Yes Zany. Zany-amuse. Your sense of humour in those days (when there were hardly 3 or 4 thousand people in DG) was really amusing. Just 3 days back I had been remembering you and wondering where you are now. Lo, there appears a post from you!
Telepathic waves. I too do not like usage of certain expressions. This e-communication has been spoiling the beauty of the language. I do not know what they save by using r for are and u for you etc. Given a choice, I would not want to use, really. We are here influenced by the British English in those days of education and so I have an inclination towards that.
Fire ants... they do give a painful sting. One more shot this morning.
r = are u = you such shortcuts are common though annoying it's true ;~)
My mothers family are from northern Kansas and when we visited them in the summer when I was growing up their favorite pass time was to listen to us use the word yall. A true southern word and the butt of many jokes from them. Of course they were always going down to the creek which sounded funny to me sense it was in my world a kreck if you were to pronounce it our way.
Don
Yes Don, each one of us have some little story or other behind the many things we have learnt in childhood. English is not our spoken language but it is a fashion to speak where our local Kannada would be required more. Many use English to 'show off' their 'knowledge'! They do it without any sense of grammar or punctuation. And argue that it is communicating that is important and not its correctness! School and college going students are the ones that 'kill' the beauty of the languages - they hold their mobiles to their ears and speak English!
Another word wrongly used is 'your' for 'you are'. Hope you too have noticed it. (When written, that is.)
Dinu it is acceptable to write you're for you are... using the apostrophe for the 'a'... doesn't make much sense as one types as many symbols. Oh look, I used a apostrophe for the o in not right then without evening thinking about it. LOL
wonderful pictures, dinu. i love watching ants. i had no idea that fireants were common in your country. are they a recent arrival or have they always been there? yours look much redder in color than those here in the south. ours are dark brown to black.
it is good to see zanymuse posting again... she probably doesn't remember but i have a piece of "artwork" named for her.
This message was edited Jan 26, 2007 7:02 PM
i couldn't add in the picture of "zany" on my edit. here it is.
Tracks,
Wonderful art of a peacock design (our National Bird!). Yes, it's nice to have Zany back again. We have many types ants from very tiny to this type. There is also the black variety that can sting very paifully. It's not in my garden though. Am planning to post a thread showing all type of ants here in my house (a big problem) and garden.
Blooms,
I know "you're" is correct. But some spell wrongly as just "your" to mean you are or you're. I read in some paper in a column where English words are discussed. The writer was a bit unhappy to observe the slow exit of the apostrophe and the hyphen. People are using them lesser these days. Those with a classical inclination will not accept any alteration to the traditional spelling.
Dinu
Try listening to someone say "I seen it" without correcting them. Or how about "I borrowed him/her money", or what a man behind the counter at the library said to me the other day "Someone must have took'en them". Before I thought of myself I corrected him.
It is as follows:
I saw, you saw, we saw, they saw. I have seen, you have seen, we have seen, they have seen.
I loaned her/him money. You borrow money, someone else loans money.
I took, you took, we took, they took. I have taken, you have taken, we have taken, they have taken.
This was drilled into us in English class when I was in school. It is difficult for me to believe it is still not taught in schools these days, but one of my grandsons assured me he had never heard it taught.
No wonder we are on our way to becoming a third rate country.
in my humble opinion, we will always be first rate.
We are indeed a first-rate country, Trackinsand, and always will be, for a variety of reasons.
LC, please don't teach people to say "I loaned him/her money." Loan is a noun. There has been a recent deplorable tendency to use it as a verb, and although some dictionaries are now forced to acknowledge its use as such, it still isn't proper English. The verb is lend: "I lent him/her money."
I asked Peter to lend me money so I could repay my loan to Paul. Anyway you say it I am borrowing funds from one source to reimburse another and am deeply in debt. And at some point both Peter and Paul were generous enough to loan me the money.
"Usage Note: The verb loan is well established in American usage and cannot be considered incorrect. The frequent objections to the form by American grammarians may have originated from a provincial deference to British critics, who long ago labeled the usage a typical Americanism. Loan is, however, used to describe only physical transactions, as of money or goods; for figurative transactions, lend is correct: Distance lends enchantment. The allusions lend the work a classical tone."The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
This message was edited Jan 27, 2007 5:44 PM
Zany, I suppose it all depends on the reference books you use. Eric Partridge says: "Loan as a verb for lend is good American, but it is not good English." Oxford American Dictionary says: "Careful writers prefer lend over loan as a verb." Patricia O'Conner, on the other hand, says: "Only the strictest grammarians now insist that loan is the noun and lend is the verb." So, I suppose I stand corrected, and the use of loan as a verb is "good American," but I enjoy being in the same category as the "strictest grammarians" and I would never object to being described as a "careful writer."
trackinsand, I remember it well and remain flattered to be associated with such a delightfully whimsical artwork.
Zuzu, that is why English is such a difficult language to master. It is a living language that changes and grows.
I have an Aunt who will try to gently correct anyone who uses a word incorrectly. She does not intend it as a criticism but one stranger was offended by her corrections. His response was to ask her for a definition of the word manners. " If I say to you that it is not good manners to correct a persons way of speaking, am I using the word properly?" Without batting an eye, she replied " Yes, that would be a proper use of the word. Now we have both learned something today"
Point taken, Zany.
I actually do run into hundreds of errors each day without ever feeling the need to correct anyone, but in this particular case, someone was offering instructions in a highly condescending tone, and I couldn't resist.
Zany: I agree with you about English being a growing and living language. It's fascinating to see it change.
Having said that, I have to add that it is sad how "formal" language skills seem to have deteriorated among the "younger" generation. My mother was an English teacher, so perhaps I am over -sensitive, but I receive resumes from prospective employees and papers written by college students, with glaring grammatical and spelling errors. I have to wonder how these folks graduated from H.S. with these poor skills. You can also observe this reading posts and emails. Spelling is a lost art/science/skill???
Deb
(Praying I don't have any spelling errors above. ;> )
;~) That's okay, I grit my teeth when I hear someone say crick instead of creek.
DebinSC, The rules of English are not being taught like they were when I was in school. My Granddaughter is graduating high school this year with excellent grades and has never diagrammed a sentence!
Zanymuse - you brought back a memory from my DH's late father who quit school because he hated diagramming sentences. That was back in 1909!
Zuzu - I agree with you. Having been in the mortgage business for so many years we gave mortgage loans. We'd never have said, "We loaned them the funds".
i believe that's why they (the mortgage companies) are referred to as the "lender", not the "loaner".
Exactly!
The lend-loan thing is part of a trend of turning nouns into verbs. That particular one doesn't bother me so much. But then, for example, I hear an ad that says, "This is the steering system that will obsolete all others." and I just want to scream! :) Another: "He was tasked to get the information."
Aaarrgghh! (as Charlie Brown would say)
Deb
neither a borrower or a loaner be? nah, i don't think so. lol
Debin and Debi - Aaarrgghh is right! I shudder at "grow your business".
Don't forget, "very unique"! :)
Deb
Dinu, what wonderful pictures of the fire ants! I'm glad none of them got your finger while you were taking the pics though! Thank you for sharing them with us. :o)
mgh, thank you, too, for putting me back on track. i sometimes forget what the original post intended (aka hijacking). dinu's pictures are always so interesting and well-taken. hopefully he had a zoom lens on that camera!
trackinsand, I'm guilty of getting off track sometimes (a lot of the time!) too. ;o)
lol, it's the nature of the beast.
Speaking of zoom, tracks... I use a zoom which is in fact, a lens that is having an 'f' of about 5 inches or so (from my old toy film projector!). I have stuck it to a hole in the cardboard which I hold in one hand right in front of the cam lens to add more 'power' to its own. That way, I can go nearer the object. Otherwise, my cam macro won't take me that closer. I'm going to hold two similar lenses to get pix of smaller ants - which in on the cards for another thread on ants.
