r/Damnthatsinteresting Jan 25 '23

[deleted by user]

[removed]

11.2k Upvotes

307 comments sorted by

2

u/Damnthatsinteresting-ModTeam Jan 25 '23

We had to remove your post.

Image with text posts/claims in the title must have a linked and credible source that backs up the information. Use the word "source" in your comment.

If the title is the only thing that makes your post interesting, you must also source it. OP is responsible for this and it must be done at time of posting. We will not reinstate your post, but you may post again with the correct information

Posts must have a linked and CREDIBLE source that backs up the information. Use the word "source" in your comment. If the title is the only thing that makes your post interesting, you must also source it. OP is responsible for this.

1.6k

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

Ok, but how did he convince the ants to hold onto the pencils.

863

u/ROBERT_BOARATHEON Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23

My best guess is he covered them in something like sugar water to convince them its something worth taking home

353

u/Wonderful-Traffic197 Jan 25 '23

I def misread this as ‘sugar water or cocaine’ 🥴

88

u/ROBERT_BOARATHEON Jan 25 '23

Yeah i made a lil typo lol. Id imagine cocaine would probably entice them to bring them home as well 😀

47

u/igweyliogsuh Jan 25 '23

Believe it or not, in experiments with mice, sugar water works better and is chosen over cocaine 90%+ of the time 😂

57

u/short_insults Jan 25 '23

this is only true if the mouse has other mice to socialize with and it has other sources of stimulation/entertainment otherwise that furry little fuck will be railing tiny lines like it’s going out of style

23

u/Evasor1152 Jan 25 '23

yeah, like people, they generally only turn to drugs if their environment is some kind of hell. If they have what they need, drugs are just...meh... for most of them.

3

u/mayafied Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23

The Rat Park addiction study/experiment was flawed and continues to spread bad ideas about addiction.

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6

u/steelhead777 Jan 25 '23

That’s because sugar is the most addictive substance on earth.

14

u/windyorbits Jan 25 '23

No, that’s Oreos.

5

u/TakingAMindwalk Jan 25 '23

Which is made with...sugar.

12

u/Would_daver Jan 25 '23

Sugar.... in... water...

Egger your skin's hangin' offyourbones

5

u/CrotchRocks Jan 25 '23

MORE....WATER....sugar water... MORE

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4

u/ForumPointsRdumb Jan 25 '23

...and crack.

3

u/StillestOfInsanities Jan 25 '23

Uh, isnt sugar also necessary for the body to function? I thought carbs were broken down into sugars and used to fuel muscles and brain together with oxygen, but shit, what do i know?

2

u/steelhead777 Jan 25 '23

Both can be true.

3

u/StillestOfInsanities Jan 25 '23

Now thats very true.

So, in the spirit of this, are we in agreement thst the most addictive substances on earth besides sugar are water and air?

3

u/steelhead777 Jan 25 '23

Sure, but the difference is that water and air are not added to everyday products to enhance their addictiveness.

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23

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10

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

spends three hours watching videos of ants acting like a very drunk Don Knotts

2

u/HotgunColdheart Jan 25 '23

they may take to the streets

3

u/KORZILLA-is-me Jan 25 '23

Queen! We have brought you something interesting!

0

u/Wonderful-Traffic197 Jan 25 '23

The fact that I missed the typo 😹

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2

u/AntelopeFalse8869 Jan 25 '23

I doubt they got paid properly for this

1

u/OrganizationMore1553 Jan 25 '23

If I were their therapist I'd encourage them to think for themselves

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

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5

u/panda-sec Jan 25 '23

It's in their contract.

They signed it.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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135

u/Amehvafan Jan 25 '23

I doubt they got paid properly for this

211

u/Neshgaddal Interested Jan 25 '23

8

u/GirthyMongoloid Jan 25 '23

Make it happen! I’d sub.

6

u/SummerNightWave Jan 25 '23

This comment deserves a medal.

3

u/AntelopeFalse8869 Jan 25 '23

3

u/myleftnippleishard Jan 25 '23

?

2

u/Moose_Hole Jan 25 '23

!

2

u/Would_daver Jan 25 '23

Wait what and why, Moose?!?!

2

u/Moose_Hole Jan 25 '23

Why not and what not?

2

u/Would_daver Jan 25 '23

Always with the excellent questions, this moosehole....

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7

u/Fragrant_Delay_1972 Jan 25 '23

I don't think they need payment. they can just take whatever they want

9

u/Nolzi Jan 25 '23

cant have shit in the garden

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83

u/HaileSelassieII Jan 25 '23

You only really need to convince one single ant, then the others will assume they should be helping

47

u/frangipanivine Jan 25 '23

TIL ants be basic af...if I were their therapist I'd encourage them to think for themselves

30

u/Thatparkjobin7A Jan 25 '23

Now now, let’s not judge them until we see what they draw

13

u/deezx1010 Jan 25 '23

The Animorophs had a book where they turned themselves into ants for some mission. They all almost went insane from their minds becoming a part of a hive mind.

11

u/rich519 Jan 25 '23

Those books with the cool covers that I never read?

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3

u/Azrel12 Jan 25 '23

I think it happened when they turned into termites too. Afterwards they decided no more ants or termites.

3

u/deezx1010 Jan 25 '23

Shit you might be right! I need to go to my parents and dig them out!

3

u/Burninator05 Jan 25 '23

Those books were so unrealistic. Everyone knows that ants don't really have a hive mind (where what one knows, all know). They're all just singularly focused on the same thing.

2

u/SuperScabbilicious Jan 25 '23

They kinda do? The chemical markers communicate a lot of info but telepathic who tf really knows? Maybe they operate on some as yet undiscovered organic/biomagnetic frequency.

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3

u/Down_To_My_Last_Fuck Jan 25 '23

And bring about the end of all Ant kind..

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1

u/roguetrick Jan 25 '23

Only free spirits are the male drones. Queens just laying eggs, sterile females doing the work and dying. Male drones flying off to find some strange and dying after doing what they love.

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-1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

They will not assume anything, ants have cognition and a sophisticated scent-based method of communication. Also, this is fake as fuck.

5

u/BonerJams1703 Jan 25 '23

The internet is so quick to label anything impressive as fake or staged.

Are you just assuming that or you have a source?

4

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23

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2

u/JonnySoegen Jan 25 '23

Another comment posted this source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346018/Theyre-itching-skills-Weightlifting-ants-exhibit-superhuman-strength-lifting-PENCILS.html

You think all photos are faked? Serious question as I can't really tell.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

The Daily Mail is a tabloid. Do you believe Bat Boy is real? Serious question as I can't really tell.

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u/SuperSMT Jan 25 '23

The statement still applies. Convince one ant, and his "sophisticated scents" will communicate to the others that they should be helping.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

If I say COME HELP ME and you come help-- there was no assumption made by anyone.

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6

u/apmesmqc Jan 25 '23

Money can make ants do anything!

8

u/dieinafirenazi Jan 25 '23

He told them they'd get a lot of upvotes if they could draw some big tiddy elves and posted them on Reddit.

3

u/SuperScabbilicious Jan 25 '23

Lol jfc the sheer impertinent crassness of your post made me almost shart myself laughing. You crude beast, you

12

u/GarysCrispLettuce Jan 25 '23

He actually had them hold onto cheese straws and Photoshopped the pencils in afterwards.

5

u/UnfortunateJones Jan 25 '23

I’m pretty sure like 5 years ago these kind of pictures were popular. Most turned out to be animal abuse. Or dead animals glued into position.

Video or this is 100% fake

2

u/Ritius Jan 25 '23

Bro, they’re weaver ants. Don’t spare them your sympathy. If they’re like the ones I saw in Sri Lanka, they’ll grab anything that gets close and try and bite it to death. I used to make them do the wave by passing my hand nearby back and forth.

1

u/AssociationLocal1587 Jan 25 '23

I witnessed a war between two weaver ant colonies on a railing at a noodle restaurant in Thailand. It was brutal - a very definite front line with bodies everywhere; small groups would charge across the line and get torn limb from limb by the other side. Their jaws don't have venom, but when they bite you, they'll spray acid from their butts onto the wound. It hurts. On top of all that, their larvae are a delicacy. I'm a fan.

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3

u/Fenixstorm1 Jan 25 '23

Didn't teach them right...

it needs to be held in a stable position between the thumb, index and middle fingers

3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

Can you hold these for me?

2

u/Xevailo Jan 25 '23

"Halt mal kurz"

2

u/skaduush Jan 25 '23

The Cordyceps

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498

u/Mobile_Acadia_3541 Jan 25 '23

Yeah but how are they at coloring in the lines?

11

u/Pizzadiamond Jan 25 '23

They're good at columns and rows

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274

u/hexmode Jan 25 '23

Evidently, he has figured out how to do this with a variety of small objects: source.

110

u/_that_random_dude_ Jan 25 '23

I wouldn’t say small, those pencils look quite above average, one might even say big

24

u/33427 Jan 25 '23

Great pencil personality too.

3

u/MeMeWhenWhenTheWhen Jan 25 '23

Can confirm those pencils are fucking massive 👍

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4

u/theobvioushero Jan 25 '23

This article makes me pretty skeptical. His pictures are of weaver ants, which can carry up to 0.5g of weight. Yet, he shows single ants carrying entire chili pepper, which weigh about 45g. The math just doesn't add up.

2

u/HumpyFroggy Jan 25 '23

The one lone ant carrying that skyscraper of a pepper looks sketchy af. But..what's up with the daily mail site? If you scroll too fast they keep sending you to another random article, such a scum of a site.

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u/AbeRego Jan 25 '23

Mostly peppers, apparently

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

[deleted]

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u/MediocreX Jan 25 '23

5

u/6chan Jan 25 '23

That subreddit makes me cringe more than /r/cringe

I could crush my skull gnashing my teeth so hard with the cringe from /r/humblebrag

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100

u/Flat_Bodybuilder_175 Jan 25 '23

The mere fact that they agreed to hold the pencils

77

u/beluuuuuuga Jan 25 '23

Ants are easy to bribe with sugar water

22

u/_bal- Jan 25 '23

Aren't we all

96

u/Budget_Pop9600 Jan 25 '23

This will soon be in every school library across America with an “inspiring quote”

32

u/Mynoodles_mostmoist Jan 25 '23

5 on the table if it’s something about teamwork.

21

u/Budget_Pop9600 Jan 25 '23

“Alone we can do little, but with teamwork we can achieve greatness”

But I like how “teamwork” is actually just a hive-mind in this instance

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u/Imadethosehitmanguns Jan 25 '23

And then removed from every school because it supports the gay ant agenda.

7

u/Budget_Pop9600 Jan 25 '23

Dont worry Florida schools dont have libraries anymore because they burned all the books

3

u/Stanky_Fangers Jan 25 '23

Replace the gay pencils with Assault rifles, and you'd make a ton of money selling these in the south.

2

u/Budget_Pop9600 Jan 25 '23

Make sure you print it on 1/2” thick steel sheets

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u/Firm-Ad-2109 Jan 25 '23

Mans said hold my pencils

10

u/Larry-fine-wine Jan 25 '23

It sounded a little pervy, but the ants gave him the benefit of the doubt.

1

u/paulmp Jan 25 '23

I read that in Tom Segura's voice for some reason "HOL MAH PENCILS"

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

[deleted]

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u/frangipanivine Jan 25 '23

Istg I thought the pencils were the point of this...maybe they'd eat them? Then I was like wait that's termites. Then I wondered if they were drawn to the colors? But it appears it's just food to them (sugar water) Pretty incredible mos def tho.

34

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing something nice in a sphere with a whole lotta rubbish.

9

u/Professional_Flicker Jan 25 '23

Apparently if a man had the proportionate strength of a weaver ant, we could lift 9 tons.

2

u/harrypottermcgee Jan 25 '23

Yea, but if an ant was the size of a man it would probably suffocate due to slow gas diffusion or some stupid thing like that. Being proportionally strong is like being pretty fly for a white guy.

8

u/humakavulaaaa Jan 25 '23

Flip it upside down, repost, profit!

12

u/BriggsWellman Jan 25 '23

Oh come on...roygbiv

5

u/runningwaffles19 Jan 25 '23

Thank you! You're a photographer/artistically inclined, and you don't put this in rainbow order? I'd also accept VIBGYOR

3

u/3_T_SCROAT Jan 25 '23

THAT WOULD TURN THE FRIGGIN ANTS GAY

9

u/SWBxisxKING Jan 25 '23

He should've brought them a coloring book too

6

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

[deleted]

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u/Helenium_autumnale Jan 25 '23

Is this another photographer glueing animals to props to make cute poses, like that Indonesian (iirc) guy?

Otherwise I find it HIGHLY unlikely that this photo could be naturally generated.

10

u/Filled_banana Jan 25 '23

Gay ants

3

u/rpgguy_1o1 Jan 25 '23

Waiting for Alex Jones' rant about chemicals turning the ants gay

1

u/Jerb322 Jan 25 '23

"Now the ants are woke!" Dumb ass right wingers!

7

u/kesapwanan Jan 25 '23

Is this colorblind test?

21

u/S0rb0 Jan 25 '23

If it was, why would they put up all grey pencils silly?

3

u/m0useoo Jan 25 '23

Am I the only one annoyed they aren’t arranged per ROY G BIV?

3

u/Boobsnbutt Jan 25 '23

I don’t believe it. The purple one is being held by one ant’s head and another’s arm.

10

u/DatRandomHooman Jan 25 '23

Idk why but this low-key seems fake, I saw a army of ants carrying a potato chip on the wall in my grand parents house and they were struggling

5

u/Medium-Impression190 Jan 25 '23

Have you seen weaver ant? They pulled leaves and branches to weave into their nest. Their bite is strong enough that South East Asian parents used to tie their misbehaving kids to tree infested with these ants.

4

u/ginyuforce Jan 25 '23

Their bite is pain as fuck tho, and they are everywhere.

They will bite anything if u shove it to them

0

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

This is high key very fake. A pencil weighs ~16 grams, a weaver ant weighs ~5mg. They can carry 50x their weight max, and that's generous.

16g / 5mg = 3,200

It would take 64 ants each lifting 50x their bodyweight to carry a pencil, and even then they couldn't just dangle it from the long end like that.

There are only 2 ants on that purple pencil, and they're barely touching it.

This is mathematically fake as fuck.

7

u/becausefrog Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 25 '23

YSK those are not full-sized pencils. They are 'golf' pencils with colored lead, which is essentially wax as opposed to graphite. They weigh about 2 grams.

Weaver ants can lift 100x their body weight.

Do the math, but do your research first. Yes, it's still sus, but more correctly so. (I suspect the two ants are in the process of dropping that one pencil on the end. The photographer was using a high enough shutter speed to capture it before it dropped.)

The average full-sized #2 pencil weighs 6-7 grams. It appears that you took 16g from the first hit on Google which was a math quizlet question using a hypothetical number set that does not reflect reality because it's meant to illustrate a math concept rather than a fact about pencils. It's an easy mistake to make, which is why you should always check several sources, and make sure to click on them and analyze the value of the source before trusting it.

Google is a great tool, but it will do you wrong if you don't double check and verify.

2

u/Vik0BG Jan 25 '23

Schooled.

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u/Aggressive_Chain_920 Jan 25 '23

Pfft, I could hold all that with one hand.

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u/point_breeze69 Jan 25 '23

Biggest brains per body weight on the planet too.

2

u/_Pill-Cosby_ Jan 25 '23

Damn! That IS interesting!

2

u/duckduckbananas Jan 25 '23

Don't let Fox News see this, the next news cycle will be about the ants going 'woke'

2

u/hopelessnecromantic7 Jan 25 '23

How do the ants hold onto it? Are the compressing their arms together or do they have tiny microscopic hooks like Tobey Maguire?

2

u/Jerb322 Jan 25 '23

Just wait. Some right wing ass "now the ants are woke!"

2

u/Spanktronics Jan 25 '23

pffft that’s not so strong, even I can lift a little pencil

2

u/adamgoodapp Jan 25 '23

What's the human equivalent?

4

u/clonexx Jan 25 '23

Average ant weighs .00001 KG. Average human in the US is around 77KG. So a human is 7.7 million times the weight of the average ant. Average pencil weighs .006 KG. Two ants are holding each pencil, so in effect they are each holding 300 times their body weight. That’s the equivalent of a 77KG person lifting 23,100 KG or about 50,900 pounds.

Yes, I’m bored.

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

My toddler son would love this picture

2

u/GreatDayneToBeAlive Expert Jan 25 '23

"Mom! Thanh is in the backyard trying to feed the ants colored pencils again."

2

u/T1m3Wizard Jan 25 '23

Did he just pull out some coloring pencils and be like "hold this"?

2

u/BessYaBa7ar Jan 25 '23

Anyone anyone knows that ants can’t move a rubber tree plant! But he had high hopes, high apple pie in the sky hopes! 🎵

2

u/batdog20001 Jan 25 '23

Oh God, first the frogs and now the ants?! They're turning everything gay! /s

2

u/mightyFoo Jan 25 '23 edited Jan 26 '23

Did he dip the pencil butts in honey?

2

u/PanspermiaTheory Jan 25 '23

There are about 100 metaphors here

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

The they/them ant army

2

u/jterwin Jan 25 '23

Alternative title: sadistic photographer baits ants with tasty looking objects

2

u/Inevitable-Syrup8232 Jan 25 '23

ROY G BIV!!!!!! Missed opportunity!

6

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

r/damnthatsfake is that you?

4

u/redditcruzer Jan 25 '23

Perhaps even antman doesn't have those convincing powers.

Good photoshop?

0

u/Affectionate_Bus7056 Jan 25 '23

If it is 'good photoshop' why aren't they holding up a Russian T-72?!???!

2

u/ph00p Interested Jan 25 '23

Bad photoshop.

2

u/m_t_w Jan 25 '23

I could easily lift those pencils

2

u/mikejpatten Jan 25 '23

Don't let those pink Floyd fans see this, might start burning ants in their bottomless pit of insecurity.

2

u/6chan Jan 25 '23

Dont show this to republicans lest they announce a genocide of woke ants :O

1

u/guest758648533748649 Jan 25 '23

And now you stole it to post on Reddit

0

u/PoopFartCumToe Jan 25 '23

This is cool. I also realized, as an American, if I went to a Vietnamese restaurant and all the menus Items were just peoples names I wouldn’t even notice. Could I open an American restaurant over there and just have menus items like Tom Arnold, Suzanne Portsmouth, or the Eric Cummings and they’d just be like “yea that sounds yummy”?

4

u/kanemano Jan 25 '23

I'll have a Tom Collins and she'll have a Arnold Palmer, and to eat we'll share a Rueben

2

u/rpgguy_1o1 Jan 25 '23

I looked into it once and Tom Collins isn't a real person, but it has an interesting back story.

Tom comes from the type of gin that was originally used, Old Tom Gin, which is actually in reference to tom-cats rather than a man named Tom.

It's a play on a John Collins cocktail, which was a real person, using specifically Old Tom Gin, rather than any other London dry. Nowadays, Tom Collins is the ubiquitous cocktail, regardless of the type of gin used, because of The Great Tom Collins Hoax Of 1874 in the USA.

4

u/tenkohime Jan 25 '23

I've been to restaurants where the menu is people's names as a gimmick, so it could work.

1

u/Chas_80 Jan 25 '23

Kaaaaaaang

1

u/omninode Jan 25 '23

Big deal. I could probably lift 10 colored pencils.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '23

LGBTQAnt

1

u/nnomae Jan 25 '23

Alex Jones is going to lose his mind when he sees that chemicals are now turning the ants gay.

1

u/RiotSkunk2023 Jan 25 '23

We don't deserve ants

1

u/demetri47 Jan 25 '23

Gay ants

1

u/ZUckazz9Z Jan 25 '23

Seems a little gay

1

u/Decent_Birthday358 Jan 25 '23

Cue Alex Jones ranting and raving about Vietnamese communists turning the ants gay.

0

u/Upbeat-Locksmith-677 Jan 25 '23

Fuck my ass that’s incredible

6

u/arno911 Interested Jan 25 '23

Fuck my ass

Is it thick?

7

u/Upbeat-Locksmith-677 Jan 25 '23

Yeah baby

2

u/Kahnza Jan 25 '23

Clap dem CHEEKS!

1

u/Jerb322 Jan 25 '23

Slap me silly and call me Sally

0

u/knopsi Jan 25 '23

Why add ‘in his parents back garden’? Is this a comment on the Vietnamese housing market?

-2

u/Low-Requirement195 Jan 25 '23

No one else is confused as to why this photographer just happened to have a pocket full of baby sized color pencils?

0

u/OktayOe Jan 25 '23

Maybe read the title again and you will know why.

0

u/QuitBSing Jan 25 '23

Maybe he got the idea and knew where ants are

0

u/CupQuakeBE Jan 25 '23

So we have LGBTQ insects now...

0

u/splita73 Jan 25 '23

It kinda makes me sad that soon A.I. wil get credit for any image and genuine wonders will seem... meh.

-1

u/the_AnViL Jan 25 '23

oh please, i could hold at least ten times that many pencils in one hand!

also - don't expect ants to back you up in a switchblade fight.

-10

u/Embarrassed-Spite975 Jan 25 '23

This is not incredible

3

u/Ragingbull444 Jan 25 '23

I’d like to see you lift 10x your own body weight upside down

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u/shukaji Jan 25 '23

those fuckers on the left casually holding the dark blue pencil wit one arm and a pair of mandibles

1

u/halica84 Jan 25 '23

OSHA would like a word with these ants.

1

u/Iancreed Jan 25 '23

What exactly makes them so strong biologically?

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