Dec 1 2022 - At least 20,000,000,000,000,000

 

Continuing on my thoughts on how much the things on the planet weigh, I wondered about ants versus humans.  There are a lot of ants on the planet.  I wondered if there are enough of them to weigh more than humans.  It turns out that just this year,  scientists have  figured out just how many ants there are and how much they weigh.. As recently as 2014, a BBC wildlife presenter claimed that the the total number of ants weighed as much as humans, with the estimate then of the total number of ants being 100 trillion.  At the time the top-down method of calculation was used assuming ants comprise about 15 of the world's estimated insect population. This time,  a bottom-up approach used standardized methods for collecting and counting ants.  Not many details were given on this activity, but it does seem extensive to me to get representative samples. "... next step was to work out how much all these ants weigh. The mass of organisms is typically measured in terms of their carbon makeup. We estimated that 20 quadrillion average-sized ants correspond to a dry weight or “biomass” of approximately 12 million tonnes of carbon. So we humans weigh 316 million tonnes compared with 8 quadrillion ants.  For every human there are 2.5 million ants." I can barely imagine a  trillion.  So 20 quadrillion is 20,000 trillion.  Written out - the number is  20,000,000,000,000,000.  I hope that's correct as I copied and pasted it in. One of the scientific conclusions is that the weight of the world's ants exceeds that of all wild birds and mammals combined.  It is equal to one-fifth of the total weight of humans.  So that's our answer of the day to who weighs more - humans or ants. Here's a quote from one of the articles:  "It's very easy to weigh an ant. You buy a small electronic balance, and you place the ant on the balance," says Ratnieks. But he advises you refrigerate it first. "That way it doesn't run away."   Today we see the detail modelling of some wonderful layouts. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

On the Street Where You Live

There seem to be two kinds of ant jokes - those that start with ant, and those that conclude with ant.  How many jokes could there be with words that start with ant? There are almost 5,000 words. In comparison there are only 533 words that end with ant.  These seem to be the funniest jokes. The pavement ants seem to have concluded their nest-cleaning activity as there are little bits of ant rubbish on the driveway.  My street is a very quiet one so I can sweep the grass edging without any worries of any cars - careening or even creeping on my street.   Did you know that the busiest road in the world is Highway 401?  It carries 420,000 vehicles per day.  Remember our Niagara Falls statistics of 13,000,000 million visitors - they might make a contribution to the load. We can find out the busiest intersections in the world.  Here's the list - look how many US intersections there,  and even 2 in Canada.  I can't imagine this is on someone's bucket list - but it has to be with 7.5 billion people and various bucket lists. Place Charles de Gaulle- Paris, France The “Magic Roundabout” - Swindon, UK Nanpu Bridge Interchange - Shanghai, China Porta Maggiore - Rome, Italy Knight St and SE Marine Dr, Vancouver, Canada “The Plough” - Hemel Hempstead, UK The “Beijing Intersection” - Beijing, China Spaghetti Junction - Atlanta, USA Spaghetti Junction - Birmingham, UK Armdale Rotary - Halifax Flamingo Road and Pines Boulevard - Pembroke Pines, US Gibraltar Airport, Gibraltar I-95, I-287, NJ 440, and CR 514 Intersection - Edison, US Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange - Los Angeles, USA Kathipara Junction - Chennai, India Times Square - New York, USA Meskel Square - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Ha Noi Intersection- Hanoi, Vietnam Shibuya Crossing - Tokyo, Japan You can see a picture of each intersection HERE. We're in downtown Toronto today for the flags that oversee the clock tower on Queen Street at City Hall.

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More Ants

The ants are still milling on the pavement this morning.  Perhaps they are having a start to summer celebration.  there were so many funny ant jokes yesterday to choose from that I decided I could continue them today.     What do you call two teenage ants running to Vegas? Antelope How many ants are needed to fill an apartment? Tenants What do you call an ant who likes to be alone? Independant What is the biggest ant in the world? Elephant What ant is even bigger than that? Giant What do two Parisienne ants each for breakfast?   Croiss ants What game do ants play with elephants? Squash Why don"t anteaters get sick? Because they are full of antibodies What do you call an ant from overseas? Important What do you call an ant with frogs legs? Antphibian What"s the difference between writing your will and owning an ant farm? One is a legacy and the other is a sea of legs. Why did the ant race along the boxtop? Because the box said: "Tear Along Dotted Line."     What kind of ant is good at adding things up? Accountant What did Pink Panther say when he stepped on an ant? Dead Ant, Dead Ant....Dead Ant, Dead Ant, Dead Ant... Who do you call for injured ants? The Ant-bulance! What do you call an army ant? Militant What is the top ranking ant in the military? Lieutenant Our countdown to July 1st continues.  This one at the border through the windshield.

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We are berserk about the smallest things:  How to get rid of ants in your driveway. There are dozens of these articles on how to kill this nuisance.  Doesn't it fascinate you to see these mounds of brown and go up it to find out it is a swarm of ants. This happened in the garden a few weeks ago, and I wondered what brown plant that could be. These ants are Pavement Ants. They were studied on the International Space Station in 2014.  Pavement ants have visible grooves on their head and thorax, with a single pair of spines on the thorax alone. They do have stingers. Pavement ants get their name because the often nest under sidewalks, driveways, and building foundations. During the winter, pavement ants may nest inside structures near a heat source. A mound of displaced soil near a paved area is probably a sign of pavement ants. Very often they build their nests along sides of garages and houses, and parts of houses which are constructed on concrete slabs. They may enter homes and businesses through small openings windows and doors, basement walls, or concrete floors. During the winter months, they can be found indoors as they are forced to look for food and water. There are dozens of sites that headline their articles "facts, identification, profile" and conclude with extermination.  The supposed danger is that "they can contaminate human and pet food and can carry germs and disease" - they do come indoors. I don't see any articles about any injuries, illnesses or deaths due to pavement ants. Main.govindicates that the stinger is too weak to damage human skin. So it would seem that this is some socially accepted obsession with neatness on the driveway.  Imagine 19th or early 20th century farm and home owners worrying about ants on the sidewalk or in the drive.  It seems unlikely. So let us conclude with light-heartedness of the last day of school and Ant Jokes, given that's our interest today. Did you hear about the ant that won the Nobel Peace Prize? He was brill-ant.  Where did the ants go on a date? To the school dants. What kind of ants always admit when they’ve done something wrong? Penance.  What is the biggest ant in the world? An elephant. What do you call an ant who skips school? A truant. Where do ants go for a vacation? Frants. What do you get if you cross some ants with some tics? All kinds of antics. What do you call a 100-year old ant? An antique. The countdown to July 1st starts with this picture.