"Exploding" Termite Species Discovered 158
ananyo writes "A species of termite found in the rainforests of French Guiana takes altruism seriously: aged workers grow sacks of toxic blue liquid that they explode onto their enemies in an act of suicidal self-sacrifice to help their colonies. The 'explosive backpacks' of Neocapritermes taracua grow throughout the lifetimes of the worker termites, filling with blue crystals secreted by a pair of glands on the insects' abdomens. Older workers carry the largest and most toxic backpacks. Those individuals also, not coincidentally, are the least able to forage and tend for the colony: their mandibles become dull and worn as the termites age, because they cannot be sharpened by moulting (abstract)."
Re:maximum age crystals (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no sanctuary
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:5, Insightful)
ANOTHER HINT: Some of the greatest economic growth in this countries history (The USA) occurred when the top marginal tax rate was over 70%. Rich people accumulating money doesn't drive the economy to any great extent. Regular people with money to spend drives the US's economy which is 70% consumer spending.
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:5, Insightful)
HINT: If we start confiscating wealth, then nobody will bother accumulating it in the first place. Your plan will work great for all of 6 months and then the entire world will be in the shitter rather than just large parts of it.
Purely as a matter of empirical psychology(I really cannot stomach another tedious " 'communists' vs. 'free marketeers' " flamefest), I have to wonder if that is true...
As you accumulate more of it, the marginal utility of money plummets. There are only so many luxuries one can actually find oneself capable of enjoying. For that reason, I have to speculate that people who end up accumulating enormous amounts of money(especially if they do so over a number of years, rather than becoming wealthy all at once and then quitting) must have a rather weird relationship with wealth. Unless your job is also the hobby you like most in the world(or unless wealth accumulation is essentially a game that you approach with the zeal of a Korean stereotype), what kind of nutjob are you to still be busting ass at work if you've already made a big pile of money?
Given the dubious rationality of accumulating significant wealth for its own sake, it just isn't obvious that a higher effective tax rate would necessarily change much(though, given the dubious rationality, it could also turn out that spite magnifies the effect compared to the hypothetical 'rational man' scenario).
Re:I believe (Score:5, Insightful)
we should expect that level of Altrusim from political leaders of all parties - ship em to Afghanistan
You don't want to go there. Among termites, the leader lies immobile, too bloated with the next generation of sterile workers to move, constantly licked and tended by fanatical servitors controlled by chemical signals.
Are there really any world leaders that you would want to imagine holed up in the basement of their respective governance structures, their bloated, naked, abdomen stuffed with fetuses to the size of a 747 fuselage, being fanatically tongue-bathed by their aides as they pour forth the next generation of citizens to serve the nation?
Re:The suicide bombers of the insect world. (Score:5, Insightful)
Suicide bombers think they're being altruistic too.
Are they incorrect? Suicide bombing is rather... downmarket... in these days of advanced robotic munitions(and so tends to be done against, rather than for us in particular); but if accepting a mission with a near-100% fatality rate in order to advance your in-group's objectives doesn't qualify as 'altruism', it's hard to imagine what would... Nothing about the definition of 'altruism' requires that your in-group be especially large, or not a bunch of raging assholes.
Another reason /. now sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
Why on Earth is this tagged "idle"? And why are most of the comments jokes? Well, most likely there's lots of jokes because it's "idle". Are there any actual nerds still here?
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:5, Insightful)
I can tell by observing you and me of course, that we're not rich. All my rich friends doesn't concern themselves with luxuries because as you said, there's only so much you can snort. The short-term reasons as you listed out are also valid. Namely doing what you love and money just comes in by accident, and earning it as a number game because all their friends have the Mercedes and the only way to "win" is to have bigger numbers.
Most what I've seen though, is the idea of a rich lineage. This is for both the second gen (born rich) and first gen (made rich) dudes I know. They aren't just concerned with themselves, but with godlike generations after them. It doesn't mean they'll spoil their kids with crazy luxuries. It means that their kids will have a wider range of choices in what to do with their life versus us. And their grand-kids and so on. When your objective is that, you wouldn't mind "more" money really.
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:2, Insightful)
"disincentives to join the taxpaying economy." - yes but only when you are being offered starvation wages anything better is better than welfare.
Welfare has more than one purpose you know?
1. preventing starvation of useful people during depressions
2. suppressing starvation wages as standard
3. suppressing other(physically or sexually) abusive work practices,
4. preventing the formation of a slavery equivalent "indentured worker" class who have signed away their rights because it is (marginally) better than starvation.
5. reducing theft and violent crime, no steal or die situations, and allowing for stricter more punitive punishment as you can always say" you could have taken benefits instead to survive instead of crime"
5. allowing skilled workers to try for suitable jobs with reduced penalty to increase economic efficiency
6. catching people who should have other support but have been lost by the systems meant to protect them
To name just the ones I can think of right now, the indirect benefits are large so think about the knock-on affects before dismissing it
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, be careful. There's a difference between a capitalist who takes their money and spends it on more expansion, workers and research to make more money, and one who guts companies for money to spend at the casino we call "high finance." One of these, idealized as the fabled "Captain of Industry," is an essential component in the success of a nation, the other is a parasite that brings about the destruction of nations.
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:2, Insightful)
>How has India managed to survive without Security Insecurity for the ~4,000 years prior to 1952?
By not caring if most of the people starve in the streets and being a 3rd world hell hole?
Seriously, if your go-to comparision is fucking India, maybe you ought to rethink your comparisions? Or your attitude.
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:2, Insightful)
I notice that the termite queen isn't blowing herself up for anyone and, in fact, is hidden safely away in the colony while others do the hard work. So much for your arguments about the common good.
The queen is queen in name only. She works all day laying eggs, and gives orders to nobody. "Sacrificing" the queen wouldn't help the "common good" of the colony because that'd kill the colony - she's the only one who can lay eggs, after all. 'sides, she's just too damn fat to be of any use for anything else.
The sad fact is that the same scumbags screwing us right now would continue to be the ones screwing us if we switched to communism.
Communism has no one ruling anyone...
GP, on the other hand, is quite funny. I like him:
the poor with curvilinear CRTs
Oh, the horror! Please tell me they at least have the latest iPhone!
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:5, Insightful)
THAT is how it should work
No, we should not have to rely on the whims of a mega-rich individual to do something about malaria. I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to become rich but there is a major difference in scale between a rich man and a billionaire. I don't think it's wise for society to collectively invest billions in a handfull of random individuals and then just hope they do the right thing with it.
Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie (Score:5, Insightful)