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Google Ant

obli writes "In Google's official blog, Dr. Brian L. Fisher (an entomology researcher) writes about a newly discovered species of ant that he has named after Google (Proceratium google). The reason for this name is a tribute to the usefulness of Google Earth in his research. This is not the only species with a company name, there is also the GoldenPalace.com Monkey (Callicebus aureipalatii)." The California Academy of Sciences also has a short piece on the discovery along with a brief background of Dr. Fisher.

134 comments

  1. Finally, Google expands into animals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't wait for Google Dog. I expect it to fetch the paper AND pick out the important stuff based on my personal tastes.

    1. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by WilliamSChips · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And he'll replace all the ads with Google targeted text ads.

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
    2. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by sznupi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I can't wait for Google Calendar...but perhaps I won't ahve to wait that long ( http://calendar.google.com/ - yes, it points to search...but why does it work at all? in opposition to, for example http://nothingtoseehere.google.com/ )

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    3. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by carl0ski · · Score: 2

      Fine by me everytime i open the paper
      a raft of annoying brousures and surveys fall out.
      Then all the full page graphic ads disturbing my reading

    4. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by fm6 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Not funny! 5 years ago, when "Intelligent Agents" were all the rage, lots of people were envisioning little animated creatures on your computer screens that would "fetch" information for you. (Naturally a AT&T commercial featured an talking dog.) The reality never progressed beyond lame little projects like that company (its name escapes me) that soaked up huge amounts of venture capital, and whose only real product was a particularly limited PDA. And of course, there's Microsoft's agent technology, which is known mainly for its irritating avatars such as clippy and Bob.

      I now view all pseudo-biological software with extreme suspicion. Especially after playing with Seaman

    5. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by cmacb · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for Google Dog. I expect it to fetch the paper AND pick out the important stuff based on my personal tastes.

      But will it also take a dump on your brand new carpet?

    6. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by Frankie70 · · Score: 1


        I can't wait for Google Dog. I expect it to fetch the paper AND pick out the important stuff based on my personal tastes.


      You got it wrong. Google Dog fetches your paper & reports back on your personal tastes.

    7. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by StarvingSE · · Score: 1

      I can see this as the next big "google game."

      I remember in college people would waste time trying to formulate a google search query that would return exactly 1 result...

      Now people will waste time typing in http://insertrandomfeature.google.com/ and see if it points to anything.

      --
      I got nothin'
    8. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      And of course, there's Microsoft's agent technology
      (quote)
       
      Good Morning, Mr Andersen. It seems you would like to run away from us. Do you want to:
       
      1. Give up the ghost
      2. Try another Morpheus (v2.0)
      3. Try a sex-change operation to necome the next guy's Trinity
      4. Be assimilated
      5. Search for a Red Dress
      6. Eat a cookie
      7. Try your hand at making a BSOD-coloured pill...
      8. Kill a kitten to help Billigatus of Borg expand his empire
      9. ???
      a. PROFIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
       
      (/quote)
       
      To confirm you're not a script,
      please type the word in this image: condom
    9. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by sznupi · · Score: 1

      Not to worry, it was not me who wasted time like that :P (found on one of "Google blogs")

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    10. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by Hephaestus · · Score: 1

      Are you thinking of General Magic's Magic Cap? Wikipedia

    11. Re:Finally, Google expands into animals by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Yes. Thank you for clearing that up.

  2. RIAA sea cucumber? by hobo+sapiens · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about it? It is a bottom feeder that disembowls itself when threatened! Sounds about right!

    --
    blah blah blah
    1. Re:RIAA sea cucumber? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, if only we could do body parts! The Microsoft Sphincter!

    2. Re:RIAA sea cucumber? by the-amazing-blob · · Score: 1

      So what would the MPAA be then? I shudder to think. :P

    3. Re:RIAA sea cucumber? by cyko500 · · Score: 0

      If the RIAA is a sea cucumber it's bound to have a pearlfish living in it's anus. Maybe that's why they're so grumpy!

  3. Very appropriate by mcgroarty · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Any webmaster who's watched his logs spike from ten megs to one hundred can tell you that, much like ants: Once Google finds something on your site it likes, you'll come back to find it's all over everything.

    1. Re:Very appropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh shit! I forgot to leave the Ants.txt note in the garden this morning.

  4. Big deal. by bigtallmofo · · Score: 3, Funny

    My dad's had an ant named after him for years and he didn't have to come up with a fancy search engine to do it. He's only a carpenter.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:Big deal. by Meagermanx · · Score: 1

      Just an ant? Pfft. You guys ever hear of the Industrial Painter Parrot? Yeah.

    2. Re:Big deal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? I've never heard of the Jesus ant!

    3. Re:Big deal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carpenter ants nearly destroyed my house, you insensitive clod!

      If I ever meet your dad, I'm going to kick him in the bizalls.

    4. Re:Big deal. by Verteiron · · Score: 1

      As I recall, Gary Larson (the Far Side guy) has some kind of louse named after him: Strigiphilus garylarsoni. Lives on owls, apparently.

      --
      End of lesson. You may press the button.
  5. Can we change by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can we change the /. icon for google now to an ant?

    1. Re:Can we change by tommertron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How about they name the ant Keyhole? They were the ones who invneted "Google Earth" anyway.

      --
      Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
    2. Re:Can we change by Wiwi+Jumbo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Unfortunately, there's always a difference between inventing and popularizing.

      Sure Xerox invented the GUI, but Apple gets the credit for giving it to the people....

      --
      Wiwi
      "I trust in my abilities,
      but I want more then they offer"
    3. Re:Can we change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Keyhole ant would be misleading.

      I'm picturing an ant that likes to make nests in unused keyholes, and jump out en-masse to attack people who try to insert a key in like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorylinae these lovely little critters.
      (Apologies, I have yet to master the fine art of URLS)

      Then again, to those who know where the name Google comes from, having an ant called Google is... um...
      *is now picturing a Googol of Google ants forming a Katamari ball and rolling over a hapless town*

  6. Meh.... Nothing new by technoextreme · · Score: 5, Funny

    Im fairly sure that a bunch of scientists all ready have done this sort of thing before. Im fairly certain they named some of their discoveries after people like George Bush. Unfortunately, I have no idea which species of animnal they used his name for because almost all searches for any refrence of animal and George Bush gets me websites for how he is an idiotic monkey.

    --
    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
  7. *correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sp/ant/ass

  8. Trademark Infringment? by VikingDBA · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did he ask if he could use that name for the ant? Hmmmmm?

    1. Re:Trademark Infringment? by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

      Why should he have to?

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  9. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by technoextreme · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.news.cornell.edu/Stories/April05/slime- mold.Bush.Cheney.ssl.html Im not sure if this is a great honor or a backhanded insult.

    --
    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
  10. Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by Oh+the+Huge+Manatee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Two hundred years from now, this ant species will probably still exist. But the name will seem just as silly and puzzling to the scientists of that day as if Dr. Fisher had named the new species Proceratium petsdotcom.

    In the long run, this little stunt will probably harm Dr. Fisher's reputation more than it will help Google's.

    1. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by the-amazing-blob · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why would it harm him? I personally think it's quite funny, and wouldn't dislike him in the least for it.

    2. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by WilliamSChips · · Score: 2, Insightful

      At worst, they'll think he misspelled googol.

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
    3. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by Bonhamme+Richard · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Yah! He should have named it something meaningful, like some sort of vauge latin description that the average human being cannot understand.

      At least he gave the name as a gesture of thanks, instead of naming it after himself or his pet.

    4. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Informative
      In the long run, this little stunt will probably harm Dr. Fisher's reputation more than it will help Google's.
      Ah - the wonders of slashdot, anyone without knowledge can post and get ranked insightful.

      The reality is that there are [dozens|hundreds|thousands?] of the types of joke/pun names scattered across the taxonomy tree. In the long run, this will be forgotten and no one's reputation besmirched.

    5. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by Idarubicin · · Score: 2, Informative
      There's a longstanding tradition in biology of giving amusing names to species that are otherwise completely irrelevant or uninteresting. Two hundred years from now, nobody is going to know why somone named a spider Calponia harrisonfordi, either.

      See Arnold Menke's Funny or Curious Zoological Names and Douglas Yanega's Curious Scientific Names for a lot more weird names.

      I doubt that the reputations of these scientists are harmed by the knowledge that they may have had senses of humour.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    6. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by Kohath · · Score: 2, Funny

      If Google goes out of business, just eradicate the species of ant.

      Do I have to solve every problem for you people?

    7. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by Helios1182 · · Score: 1

      My dad named a virus (maybe a bacteria) after his Medical Practice. He got a little blurb about it in some journal. It was a new strain of something common, although the details escape me.

    8. Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your comment applies to you too, you know.

      You failed to distinguish between humorous and commercial. There's nothing jocular about "google". It's different from the joke/pun names.

      I don't want to see the remaning taxonomy space become under sale to "sponsors", which is where this would lead.

  11. wtf? by Phil246 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought it was apache :(

  12. name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why did he not call this new species the sycoph-ant? Ohh, whoops, I suppose he did....

  13. Louse! by students · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is a louse named after Gary Larson.

    I pitty the species that gets named after SCO Group.

    1. Re:Louse! by 0rionx · · Score: 1
      Actually, although it's not as well known as the louse tidbit, there's also a butterfly named after Gary Larson...

      Entomologists have named a louse and a butterfly after Larson.

  14. I will name my children... by TheCarlMau · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am going to name my child "Google" or "Googlina"!

    1. Re:I will name my children... by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Funny

      "I am going to name my child "Google" or "Googlina"!"

      When I was a kid, my name was "What'd you break?!" My nickname was "Dammit!"

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:I will name my children... by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Funny

      I named my son "Microsoft" and girls won't date him :-(

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    3. Re:I will name my children... by nacturation · · Score: 2, Funny

      Just don't name your kid GPL, as everyone will want to stay away to avoid the virus effect.

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    4. Re:I will name my children... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And with a joke like that, it would be a miracle if you had kids :)

    5. Re:I will name my children... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shame he'll get his ass kicked around the playground along with that Iuma kid.

    6. Re:I will name my children... by kaligraphic · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but he'll be a real playa. He'll have hundreds of illegitimate code forks... er, bastards.

      --
      You are standing in an open server west of a blue house, with a boarded front door. There is an Exchange mailbox here.
    7. Re:I will name my children... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what would you call them for short? Goo? Gooie?

  15. Sim Ant? by adolfojp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For a moment I thought that Google had adquired the rights to a Sim Ant Sequel.

    So much for google games :-(

    About the Golden Palace Monkey. I think that having private coorporations sponsoring this kind of research in exchange for branding is a great idea. It benefits all of us. And the name "Golden Monkey" doesn't sound half bad after all. ;-)

    1. Re:Sim Ant? by obli · · Score: 1

      What if someone hoarded a lot of money to call it spanked monkey, then?

    2. Re:Sim Ant? by adolfojp · · Score: 1

      It would be the greatest moment in science in history! :-D

    3. Re:Sim Ant? by AndroidCat · · Score: 1

      Isn't Golden Palace the place that one of their "monkeys" jump into a swimming pool during the Olympics with their URL marked on his body? (Or maybe it was the streaker at the Superbowl? After a while, the jerks all blend together.)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    4. Re:Sim Ant? by NexFlamma · · Score: 1

      Well, at least it wasn't so bad until they made the monkey tattoo GoldenPalace.com across it's ass...

  16. Googleverse by Guy+LeDouche · · Score: 4, Funny

    When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.

    1. Re:Googleverse by emurphy42 · · Score: 1

      Hey, you forgot Disneyplanet!

    2. Re:Googleverse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Planet Starbucks.

      Hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but you already live there dude.

    3. Re:Googleverse by Archangel_Azazel · · Score: 1

      Mod points....damnit....don't have any..

      nice one anyway :D

      A.A

      --
      Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's been opened.
    4. Re:Googleverse by Raynach · · Score: 1

      Aye, nice one. But, alas, no mod points.

      --
      - A
  17. Golden Palace by Speare · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am getting very tired of Golden Palace's penchant for putting their name in every possible attention-grabbing place. Paid tattoos, Jesus sandwich auctions, and now taxonomy for hire. All for a stupid casino ad campaign. I swear that they're gonna pay Carly Simon some obscene amount just so she'll announce that her 1973 hit song is about their business.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:Golden Palace by nucal · · Score: 1
      Can you really feel that way after seeing their Official Monkey Website?

      GoldenPalace.com is doing what any other company is doing, matching their advertising to their clientele ... mainly folks who like goofy tech, web oriented stuff, quasi-religious objects and who are despirate to strike it rich.

    2. Re:Golden Palace by bombadier_beetle · · Score: 1

      Maybe you'll be gratified to know that at least one person, me, has never even heard of Golden Palace and has no idea what it is.

      Take that, Golden Palace, whoever or whatever you are!

      --

      If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
  18. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought they were Republicans and intended it as a compliment?

    Which explains a lot about Republicans, really :)

  19. GoldenPalace Monkeys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Karolyne Smith is a GoldenPalace Monkey.

  20. Poor kids. by game+kid · · Score: 1

    Not for their name, just that they'll grow up to become geniuses that get asked for trivial information (and to bring the mail) all the time.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  21. Slashdot by wnholmes · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    All Google, all the time.

    1. Re:Slashdot by shitfuck · · Score: 1

      Slashdot has become a cess pool of Google fanboys. Hopelessy unfunny people jockeying for Karma.

      I'm going back to Tubgirl...

      --
      In Soviet Russia, beowulf clusters imagine you.
    2. Re:Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...when it's not Apple.

      I miss the SCO days, don't you?

  22. Text of Google release by Oh+the+Huge+Manatee · · Score: 5, Informative
    Ants unearthed with Google Earth

    9/30/2005 10:37:00 AM Posted by Brian L. Fisher, Associate Curator of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences

    At a time when the power of information technology doubles every 12 to 15 months and extends to capture every scrap we have, digitizing biodiversity information is a final frontier for IT. It's an essential step to ensure society maintains and hopefully increases bio-literacy. Toward this end, there's Antweb. It's a project from the California Academy of Sciences that has incorporated the Google Earth interface to provide location-based access to the diversity and wonder of ants: from your backyard to the Congo Basin.

    As society advances, literacy increases and bio-literacy decreases. If you're illiterate, you may view a library as thinly sliced stacks of firewood; a Google search engine is meaningless. If you are bio-illiterate, a forest is at best a green blob to be consumed. If you are bio-literate, you see the diversity of the forest and understand that each animal, each plant, tells a story and has a place.

    Google has helped us achieve free and democratic access to information, but now, with Google Earth, it's taken an important step to promote bio-literacy. Together with other institutions in the Bay Area, Google is uniquely poised to take on this enormous task.

    There are two ways people need to access information on biodiversity: either have a name for which they want more information, or they are at a location and want to know what they will find there. On Antweb, you can access information about ants via location - and Google Earth allows for any scale of access via location. So you can be in Santa Clara County and see what ants you are likely to find. Soon you will be able to create a field guide for ants in any location defined in Google Earth.

    We tried to get NASA's help to develop such a system for years with their mapping expertise and data, but Google Earth answered the call first. I am so impressed with Google that I have named an ant I recently discovered in Madagascar Proceratium google. Its bizarrely-shaped abdomen is an adaptation for hunting down obscure prey: spider eggs. Here's what it looks like.

    I hope that Google will continue applying its skills to serve biodiversity data to conservation planners and the general public. Google has given us a tool to connect the 6 billion people on earth with our remaining biodiversity. Antweb welcomes any form of collaboration to help achieve this goal - and may the ants be with you.

  23. Google by miffo.swe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where i live google is even a verb. When you want to search for something you google for it. I imagine this is pretty annoying for the other search engines *cough*MSN*cough*. Im sure Microsoft would like to have their name on some bugs too...
    ohh, wait, forget that last one....

    --
    HTTP/1.1 400
    1. Re:Google by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1
      you google for it.

      Yahoo!ing for something doesn't have quite the same ring.

  24. The real question: by game+kid · · Score: 1

    Who pays for exceeding the ol' bandwidth limit, the site owner or the search engine?

    I don't [yet] run a site for which I pay for data transfer; I wonder what hosts, if any, have SearchEngineCrawlsDoNotCountOnTheBill® technology...

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    1. Re:The real question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Anyone who's seriously worried that Google is going to cost them money can simply make a robots.txt file. Personally, although my sites haven't exactly been comparable to MSN, Yahoo or Google, I can't say google took up that much bandwidth really, although yes, it sure did visit a lot. I guess it's because I like clean, tidy, efficient web design.

    2. Re:The real question: by game+kid · · Score: 1

      Ah, yes yes, robots.txt. One forgets the obvious things first...

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    3. Re:The real question: by jrockway · · Score: 1

      Robots.txt is nice if google feels like playing nice. But nothing is stopping google or anyone from completely ignoring it. If you don't want a search engine to find something, don't make it publicly available!

      --
      My other car is first.
    4. Re:The real question: by mcgroarty · · Score: 1

      Google obeys robots.txt completely. Yahoo too. Some other spiders seem to treat anything listed in a robots.txt as a "start here first!" guide. Yes, the appropriate answer is to put it behind passwords if it's sensitive data. But for something you want available to any visitor without a login, but which you don't want indexed and rechecked completely - say a web-based dictionary with 100,000 words - it can be frustrating when bots don't respect robots.txt.

  25. No, NO. by game+kid · · Score: 1

    We live on Planet Earth Sponsored By GamesOfGondor.com!

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  26. Finally it fits the original quote by Viper+Daimao · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords."

    --
    "In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
    1. Re:Finally it fits the original quote by ettlz · · Score: 1

      ...and this poster thinks it's about —king time.

    2. Re:Finally it fits the original quote by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 1

      I killed an ant in my kitchen, and now none of my relatives want to come to visit.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    3. Re:Finally it fits the original quote by nacturation · · Score: 4, Informative

      "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords."

      Two things: I can't believe it took over a half hour for someone to post that. Secondly, I can't believe the parent post got modded offtopic given that the Simpsons episode it's from had ants as the inspiration for that quote.

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    4. Re:Finally it fits the original quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and I bet your uncle was a little upset...

  27. The Ants by airuck · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those of you who have not seen The Ants by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, it is definitely worth a read. The drawings alone are worth the price of the book.

    For those of you how are not impressed by ants, try to build one.

    --
    First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
  28. One more example. by utenaslashed · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a butterfly named "Deudorix eagon" after the company named "Eagon" http://www.eagon.com/. The story I heard : the company(they make paper so they need lots of big logs) made a tremendous contribution to Solomon Islands and a doctor (John Tenant? I'm not sure) named his new discovery after the company's name.

  29. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Im not sure if this is a great honor or a backhanded insult.

    Indeed, the phrasing of the author is elogious at first sight and slightly ambiguous:
    We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular.

    While it sounds positive but something tells me if it had been complimentary, it needed not to include Rumsfeld for instance, and it would have been:
    We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of defending American values and are doing the very difficult work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy.

    (replace "American values" with "Universal Human Rights" if you want). I, for one, truely admire this post-doctorate student joke, which got worldwide publicity.

  30. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sorry to be this way, but it's only irony if you are referring to the fact that they are beetles, but are named after humans. Remember, irony is a way of using words to imply a meaning that is very different from the literal definition of those words.

    If you are saying that you dislike Bush and Cheney, then "slime mold beetles" would be appropriate, not ironic.

  31. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by Meagermanx · · Score: 1

    TFA also says they named one after Darth Vader. And their ex wives. Those might be clues.

  32. Whatever. by game+kid · · Score: 1

    If it can build a pile of spider eggs as well as Apache Ant can build programs, then I'll accept either.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  33. ahahah what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Google has helped us achieve free and democratic access to information
    which is why they allow the chinese to block stuff?
    1. Re:ahahah what by Jeremi · · Score: 1
      which is why they allow the chinese to block stuff?


      us, man, helped us. The Chinese are "them". (The ants, on the other hand, are "Them")

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  34. Pronunciation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder how to pronunciate that name in latin. You know, unlike English Latin doesn't have the all vowels screwed up, so an A sounds like 'Ah' like in any other normal language, an O sounds like 'Oh'.

    'Goh-oh-gleh', is that correct?

    1. Re:Pronunciation by donutz · · Score: 1

      Sounds about right to me. At least, if you go by this Latin pronunciation guide.

  35. I for one... by xv4n · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ..welcome our new Google Ant overlords.

  36. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    According to an article in a recent science magazine, they are conservative biologists, which is rare, and they managed to find each other and work together, which is rarer. Also, they didn't pay much particular attention to the beetles themselves when assigning them names; if they had, they said, they would have tried to pick beetles or presumably some other creature that would have a more substantial link to their namesakes.

  37. next: Goatsezemia by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    A condition whereby your ass keeps itching so bad that you scratch your anus off.

  38. Steve Ballmer..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is getting dangerous now. What if somebody pays to name a monkey and we have Steve Ballmer in monkeys too? Oh Wait..

  39. Wish I had mod points by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep... free and democratic information... Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Motorola et al are all bending over when the Chinese authorities ask them to limit information or provide tools to track the opinions of their own citizens. George W Bush is green with envy that he can't easily do the same.

  40. MJ's nose by Gertlex · · Score: 2, Funny

    There should be a chameleon named after Michael Jackson's ever changing nose.

  41. I can see it now, Ballmer "Kill Google!" by layer3switch · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Obligatory"
    Dr. Flake: Mr. Ballmer! Mr. Ballmer! They found new ant! The news was even slashdotted!
    Ballmer: Just tell me it's not Google.
    Dr. Flake: umm.. yes, it's google.. but...
    Ballmer: What the fuck! Ants? Google now searches ants now?
    Dr. Flake: umm... actually no...
    Ballmer: Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill that ant.
    Ballmer: .. ? C'mon! Speak up, damn it! I didn't hire you with big money to mumble!
    Dr. Flake: This entomology researcher named Dr. Fisher used Google Map to find his ants, sir...
    Ballmer: FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! (throws chair across the room)
    Dr. Flake: It's quiet facinating and in his research which it recites ...
    Ballmer: Shut the fuck up, Flaky. You talk too much.
    Dr. Flake: ... umm.. yes, sir.
    Ballmer: Flaky, Quick! Find me one of them smart research scientist to find me a diabolical giant ANTEATER!
    Dr. Flake: umm.. yes, sir... but our search doesn't cross link between search and map, sir...
    Ballmer: Geee, Flake! Do I have to think of everything? Just fucking Google it!
    ---

    --
    "Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
    1. Re:I can see it now, Ballmer "Kill Google!" by computerdude33 · · Score: 1

      FLAKY! GET ME A DANISH!

      --
      computerdude33's stuff: My blog of wonder.
    2. Re:I can see it now, Ballmer "Kill Google!" by WilliamSChips · · Score: 1

      No, Strong Bad is too cool to be Steve Ballmer. I'd go with the Blue Laser guy with the raspy voice. Something like this:

      Minion(Kai-Fu Lee): Sir, I'm leaving.
      Commander(Ballmer): For where?
      Minion: Google, sir.
      Commander: I'll "freaking"(The Brothers Chaps want H*R to be family-friendly, and they've talked about how hard it is to make Strong Sad not say "Oh, fuck this". Now back to your regularly scheduled program.) bury Google! I've done it before and I'll do it again!
      Minion: Sir, they've always beaten us.

      I'm no Brothers Chaps, and if the real Brothers Chaps did this, it'd be much better.

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
  42. Am I the only one... by cr0sh · · Score: 1
    When I first saw this headline, I had visions in my head of Google rolling out some new kind of search engine technology based on "ant trails" (not literal ants or trails, but "digital droppings" or something - maybe user cookies?) to enhance their current system.

    Oh, well...

    --
    Reason is the Path to God - Anon
    1. Re:Am I the only one... by tezbobobo · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      And the follow up sig. - God is Dead - Nitsche

  43. Sorry by ImaLamer · · Score: 1

    Picking items out based on your personal taste is already patented by Amazon.

  44. From Google by DJStealth · · Score: 1

    I'll see you ants in court

  45. savy by xipho · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dr. Fisher is an awesome collector- he has taken many new ant species (and passed on many other undescribed species to other experts in the field). Systematist like him will likely name tens or hundreds of species in their lifetimes, coming up with names for all of them is just a little icing on the cake- but it can get boring too. Fisher's website is one of the better "biodiversity" sites out there in terms of "web-tech". Perhaps his ulterior motive- associating his work in any way possible with a giant like google can only help his work in the long run, particularly in biodiversity/systematics studies which are notoriously underfunded...hint hint.

    --

    only infrmatn esentil to understandn mst b tranmitd
  46. Anyone else do a URL search? by saskboy · · Score: 1

    I tried going to ant.google.com but nothing came up. I guess the Google ant was Slashdotted or something? ;-)

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  47. Better to start early by Frankie70 · · Score: 1

    Since the USA (and then the world) is going to become
    one big Google company town, I guess it's best to start
    early with the naming thing.

  48. I'm waiting for Google Ant 2.0 by AlysseumWarrior · · Score: 0

    I hear it will run Linux

    Anyone know when it iwll be out of Beta?

  49. And..MS will announce... by wasteg8 · · Score: 0

    "The Gates Dodo Bird" at next years Comdex in Vegas!!!

    --
    News for Whiners!!
  50. Evil naming by simgod · · Score: 1

    Similar things happened half a century ago...

    Where do you think the name Anophthalmus Hitleri for a CAVE BEETLE comes from:

    http://slonews.sta.si/index.php?id=12&s=1

  51. I'll call my next cheese Googonzola by Begemot · · Score: 1

    as a tribute to the usefullness of the full zoom at Google moon

  52. I agree!!! by antdude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I suggest an ant head icon!

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  53. FUNNY lol lol lol (you get the point) by drachenstern · · Score: 1

    It's too bad nobody has mod points while looking at this article. This parent deserves mod + for funny.

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    2^3 * 31 * 647
  54. Proceratium spiff-arino by marciot · · Score: 1

    In other news, man unearths fossilized remnants of giant man-eating ants in his backyard and sends it in to the Smithsonian Institute with the proposed taxonomy of "procreatium spiff-arino"

  55. Who's the real monkey? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I always thought that this woman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karolyne_Smith was the real Goldenpalace.com monkey.

  56. Re:Sllime mold beetles... Irony at it's best??? by tsunamifirestorm · · Score: 1

    According to Popular Science the scientists who discovered the beetles are conservative.

  57. Waiting for google bastards ? by himanshuarora · · Score: 0
    --
    Spam: Any activity on internet to gain popularity without paying to advertising companies like Google.
  58. Dominican Republic by nictuku · · Score: 1

    I wonder if that will return to the Dominican Republic. IMHO it's wrong to remove fossile and major cultural pieces (like mummies) from its original locations. These important findings should stay there, fostering local economy development.

    Obviously it's not the case here, but many countries see their so valuable fossile disappear in the black market. Private collections in Europe seem to be the primary destination of these artifact. Only if it went to public, serious museums..

  59. Disappointed by fbg111 · · Score: 1

    What, an insect? I thought this story was announcing a cool new Google version of Ant. :(

    --
    Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams
  60. Naming rights by milgr · · Score: 1

    Why not sell the naming rights to your kids on Ebay? Perhaps it would help defray the cost of college, and councelling for being stuck with a name like "Grease Monkey Jones"

    --
    Where law ends, tyranny begins -- William Pitt