• for: progress trap, red fire ants, fire ants, progress trap - shipping, unintended consequences, unintended consequences - shipping

• paraphrase

  • Fire ants would be devastating if released in continental Europe and even more all around the Mediterranean Sea.
  • The cost for human economies and well-being would be enormous. Where they have been invasive, they have:
    • displaced native ant and other species
    • damage electrical equipment
  • A genetic analysis of the Italian ants suggests they likely came from either China or the United States.
  • In the U.S., the species causes an estimated $6 billion in damage each year.
  • The insects spread internationally via shipping, especially of plants and soil.
  • Red fire ants have been detected in imported products in Spain, Finland, and the Netherlands, but not as wild colonies.

Example: ant pheromone paths

Within ants, there can be a path left for others to follow, but what about natural paths in our environment that influence us to take them because of the idea of the "path of least resistence" or the effects of having paved cow paths.

Similarly being lead by "the company that you keep".

relathionship to research on hanging out with fat people tending to make one fatter.

Testing annotation -- Concerted like a Concert.

the ants registration can be made more robust by removing the Translate transform and using use initial_moving transform. i do like the transform parameters here:

https://github.com/nipy/nipype/blob/master/examples/fmri_ants_openfmri.py#L202