h a l f b a k e r yWhat was the question again?
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// destroy ... with lasers. // |
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Mosquitoes must be important to some biological system
somewhere, if not here in some other Universe. Just lead
them away home. With warm blood or something. They don't
bite me, so they are my friends. |
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May ten times ten billion spiders infest your bathroom. |
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//Mosquitoes must be important to some biological system
somewhere, if not here in some other Universe// |
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//Mosquitoes must be important to some biological
system somewhere,// |
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I remember talking to a malaria expert about this. The
general gist was that mosquitoes in general might well
be. however, only a small proportion of total mosquito
species bother humans, only a handful of species bite
humans and carry anything nasty, and in the case of
malaria only the 10-20% of the most long lived get to
transmit malaria because of how long the life cycle is. So
if we wiped out a couple of species it would probably be
no biggie, and we don't even need to do that, just find a
way of cutting a day or so off their lifespan. |
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Personally, I think killing them all and observing is the
only sure way to know their full role. For science, you
understand. |
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It's got to be worth a try. |
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Mosquito is such an elegant and sophisticated and romantic
name.
People would be more willing to eliminate them if they
were called vampire gnats. or some such. |
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//Mosquitoes must be important to some biological
system somewhere// I'd go further than [bs] did, a
few lines above. I was talking to one of the guys
who is creating embryo-lethal mosquito mutants
(to breed with, and wipe out, local populations).
He said that in fact very few mosquito species
make any significant contribution to the
ecosystem. A few are pollinators (but only very
minor pollinators, and they are redundant with
other insects). And of course they provide food for
various animals (but again, only as a small part of
a larger menu). It turns out that wiping them out
would probably not be an environmental
disastrophe. Even mosquitologists tend to agree.
They are one of the few groups of animals which
are studied largely in order to help eradicate
them. Human Resources Managers are the only
other example I can think of. |
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//Mosquito is such an elegant and sophisticated
and romantic name// My father, I think, spent
some time in Mosquitoes, Pathfinding. (So,
technically, Mosquito reconnaissance and defence.)
Personally I
never understood how he fitted into one, but
airmen were made of sterner stuff back then. |
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Ah, your lordship...a gap in your training? |
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HR managers are like lawyers - the good ones who are in the business primarily to protect the little guy are clever enough to maintain protective coloration. I know some of both. |
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If a drone has onboard devices for detecting a mosquito,
then possibly the simplest way to kill the mosquito is for the
drone to fly under it and let the airflow of its fans suck the
insect into the fast-moving impeller blades. |
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This may be a stupid question...but why are they called mosquitoes in English, as that's definitely not an English spelling. They must have had an English name in the past... |
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// airmen were made of sterner stuff back then // |
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They certainly were. Some of the poor devils had to fly in Wellingtons, which may keep the wearer's feet warm and dry, but are not notably aerodynamic. |
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// They must have had an English name in the past... // |
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The scotch call them "mudges", although the literal translation of that is "blood-sucking hummingbird". |
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Wouldn't this lead to an escalation, bringing about
mosquitoes with ever-faster drone evasion capabilities and
radar-scattering body angles? |
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// let the airflow of its fans suck the insect into the
fast-moving impeller blades.// |
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That raises an interesting question. In such a
scenario, what are the odds of the mosquito actually
being hit by a blade, rather than just being pulled
between the blades by the airflow? And, if if the
mosquito were hit by the blade, would it be
wrecked? Or is its low mass enough to allow it to
survive the collision? |
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Now, if there were a method by which the drone could be powered by these ingestions... |
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Old English "mycg", well that's what it says on the internet, so it must be true. |
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if you change "mosquito" to "mojito" it doesn't make as
much sense, and may well not make any sense at all. |
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All I'm asking for is some mosquitos with friggin
lasers, is that too much to ask for, really? [+] |
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Hey, [Quest], there you are ! How goes the day ? |
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// is that too much to ask for, really? // |
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" Hey, just what you see pal ! " |
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// They must have had an English name in the past... // |
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Bearing in mind that they're supposed to be tropical and sub-tropical, that ain't necessarily so. I imagine (with no direct evidence) that "mosquito" was adopted by English pirates heading south to prey on Spanish shipping. I'm pretty sure there are some other fragments of Spanish in the speech of the English pirates in "Treasure Island", though I may be confusing it with some other book. |
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