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There is a species of parasite that infects ants, making them climb blades of grass so they are eaten by wandering bovines. The cow was the target all along, n
by throwawaymsft 12y ago
There is a species of parasite that infects ants, making them climb blades of grass so they are eaten by wandering bovines.
The cow was the target all along, not the ant.
- differentView 12y agoWho's who?
- wishinghand 12y agoFoundationDB is the parasite, wanting to be eaten by the cow (Apple). It was eaten up by ants(companies that need noSQL, ACID databases) and they brought its attention to the cow.
- lalos 12y agoThe parasite is the DB company, the ants are the users and the bovine is Apple
- collyw 12y agoAll of them are a steaming pile of cowshit?
- rylee 12y agoHey, isn't that a quote from a book? Could have sworn I heard it ages ago in a book I enjoyed very much! I think it was Peeps.
- poglet 12y agoYou can find some more info here (not about the book): http://www.damninteresting.com/a-fluke-of-nature/ http://www.damninteresting.com/a-fluke-of-nature/
- notduncansmith 12y agoPeeps, IIRC, was trematodes[1]. After the opening action sequence, the narrator rambles about how trematodes infect snails to get to the birds that eat the snails. Still involves the intermediate host[2] concept, though. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trematoda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trematoda [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_host http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_host
- riffraff 12y agopeeps is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps_(novel) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peeps_(novel)
- _nedR 12y agoThe life-cycle of the parasite is also illustrated in a great oatmeal comic : http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins
- trhway 12y agoor in the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIs_rikRREE&list=PLHZxQw_SbVz6K6VAE_sfoYrPUrjFW1lu9&index=5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIs_rikRREE&list=PLHZxQw_SbV...
- arvindnatarajan 12y agoI first heard this incredible story about the lancet fluke from Daniel Dennett. http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes?lang... http://www.salon.com/2006/02/08/dennett/ http://www.salon.com/2006/02/08/dennett/
- fnord123 12y agoSnail parasites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw
- lectrick 12y agoThe parasite is money, isn't it? The ant is FDB and the bovine is of course Apple
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- crimsonradish 12y agoThe even better parasite story is the one that enters into a rat and crosses it's wires so that it is sexually attracted to cat pee. It goes into heat when it sees the cat and naturally gets eaten - the goal was the cat brain the whole time. As heard on NPR http://www.wbur.org/npr/9560048 http://www.wbur.org/npr/9560048.
- collyw 12y agoThings like these make me question evolutionary theory a bit. It almost seems too planned to have happened through random mutations.
- toufka 12y agoIt's being run backwards and looks great that way. Imagine playing a couple of pool games and then singling out that one really cool shot you made, and start by saying, "that pool shot is how I play pool." The parasites did their thing just fine for each individual organism. But that one random one that happened to cross wires in just the right way ended up doing orders of magnitude better. A rare occurrence, but very advantageous once it happens.
- meej 12y agoMutation is only one of several mechanisms of evolution, though.
- collyw 12y agoWhat else are you thinking of that would contribute to such changes, these almost look planned.
- steego 12y agoI get it. The sequence of events seems very analogous to a Rube Goldberg machine, and one would conclude if the sequence of events didn't go as planned the parasite would have been doomed. My theory is the parasite community for that species can survive other ways just fine, but has stumbled across a scenario that serendipidously gives it an extra boost at the change of reproducing. I would imagine that most species that benefit from these complex interactions tend to have left-over backups for survival and reproduction. When species over-adapt to specific scenarios, it seems likely they'd become to susceptible extinction or their populations would be periodically thinned out. That's one guess.