Since returning to Caltech, I have taken advantage of the (usually) wonderful local weather enjoyed eating my lunch outside of Chandler
Cafe (nee Dining Hall). [Please ignore my lack of appropriate accents in pertinent words.] Over the last few weeks, however, this has led to my being glommed by
Angry Hornets who distract and mock me as I attempt to eat my food. It starts out with one and then the others decide that I apparently am not receiving enough attentions, so they join in. (Some people get glommed by members of the opposite sex. I get glommed by hornets. Go figure.) A couple times, I've even had to retreat indoors.
Things tend to be milder when I am eating lunch with others. However, I have noticed that the hornets seem to to virtually ignore the people with me in favor of orbiting around me. (Other people have noticed the unusual attractive hornet field that emanates from my location.)
Not to jinx myself, but they haven't bothered me for a few days. Maybe they'll leave me alone now. <
>
On a given day, they do seem to pick a couple of targets and stick to those unfortunate few, leaving the rest of the dining populace unaffected. I wonder if color of clothing affects this? I know it does with bees, but I doubt it matters so much with other stingy-flying-things.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd hardly call them angry. They just want to make friends! You should be more generous, share your lunch, and maybe even try to give them a hug--they'll recipocate with a "love poke," I'm sure!
I haven't thought about whether the color of my clothing has had any effect. I was thinking that perhaps the garlic in my food was "helping" me out, but that theory seems to have failed.
ReplyDeleteOne reasonably recent one was a bit unfortunate. It landed in my gravy, which I used as a focus to cast slow on it. Too bad for it.
Yeah, shirt color was the first thing I thought of when I read this as well. Lloyd shirts as hornet-magnets, anyone?
ReplyDeleteOne other theory I need to add: GT's teams are called the Yellowjackets, so maybe these hornets thought that I missed Georgia Tech and wanted to make me feel at home?
ReplyDeleteI've always thought hornets and yellowjackets were pretty different, except that they both sting. But maybe that's what they were trying to remind you of, perhaps. :)
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that it's either the shirt color, or just something about you. For example, I rarely have problems with mosquitos. They just ignore me. Other people I know get hunted by the same mosquitos that are ignoring me. So either I can mind-control mosquitos, or there's same parameter about people that is indicative of attractiveness to small flying things that sting/bite.
(So, did I misspell mosquito?)
Not to talk down my own hypothesis, but the shirt color wrt bees at least is (I think) because it looks like flowers from far away (bright colors and all), which I was guessing isn't as likely for wasps/hornets (which are more similar to each other than they are to bees, at least, I think, maybe).
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I know is that irony came and bit me in the ass. After I made that post, I had the worst time I've had yet with the hornets at lunch. I counted 5 hornets just in the tight formation over my plate. I couldn't take a bite without my arm bumping into a few. Eventually had to move tables. I take back all the crap I've given you, Mason. :)
Lemming: I've had _several_ lunches like that! (Sometimes they followed me to the next table after some time delay and then I had to retreat inside.) I remember one time you and Randy came and it was just like what you describe above. It's so bloody distracting that it's impossible to eat. (Naturally, they completely ignored everybody else at the table that time. It must have been those bite-me pheromones I secrete.)
ReplyDeleteZifnab: As far as I know, yellowjackets are one type of hornet. The wikipedia entry on yellowjackets briefly calls them a type of wasp and then a specific example of them a type of hornet, so it didn't clear things up entirely. Hornets and wasps are definitely closer to each other than either is to bees.
Also: My parents' house once had an infestation of yellowjackets until the queen didn't survive winter. That was not fun. I'd wake up in the morning and multiple dozen of these things would be swarming over my head, so there's a history here...
Next time: When hornets attack!
Okay y'all on the subject of mosquitoes I once read that they can sense high cholesterol in the blood and they are like totally into it. So they will come from three counties over as fast as their fat little wings will carry them to feast on my sorry ass.
ReplyDeleteAnd since high cholesterol is hereditary, henceforth hang around Arcane Gazebo if you need air cover from the mosquito population.
Yeah, I remember getting swarmed by mosquitos in Houston. One of Berkeley's many fine qualities is a relative lack of bloodsucking insects.
ReplyDeleteYellow jackets are another matter--for a while there was a nest right by the side door I usually took into the physics building. We kept a tally of the number of people in the lab who got stung until the department finally took care of it. One day I was walking by and a yellow jacket flew straight into the back of my head, got lost in my hair, and decided to sting its way out. That wasn't fun.
:) There was also that butterfly who chose to lay three eggs on your rain jacket as supposed to the natural surroundings in montreal garden. Hm... I see a theme here. -- jing
ReplyDeleteGazebo: Mosquitos love me too.
ReplyDeleteJing: You counted the number of eggs? (I was going to try to find the picture, but the GT math server where I think I have the picture seems to be down at the moment.) Later, this led to the following quote: "Do you think Mason is a good place to have babies?" (which I have kept around for posterity; Gazebo might remember this line) Except that I don't want to have any love children with either hornets or butterflies. And I'm perfectly natural. :)
Mason, i do believe you have the general feel of what i said. my memory fails me, but i claim that my quote is far more intelligent... there was another person in the elevator who was amused by our conversation. Oh, the picture, I'll get it for you tomorrow, right now i cannot get to them either! Three eggs for sure. The butterfly was playing the number game. -- jing
ReplyDeleteHere is the picture that Jing took in Montreal. (This was at the botanical gardens, which is well worth a visit if you end up in Montreal. It was way cool!) It looks like there _could_ be 3 eggs there, but there seems to be uncertainty in their number (so we should presumably know their phase better as a result).
ReplyDeleteAs for the quote, I wrote it down on the same day, and I think it's pretty intelligent as stated above. :) It basically depends on how many layers one wants to penetrate (in another of my really great choices of phrasing). Anyway, I like the quote very much.
There were quite a few amusing things that week (like my successful confirmation of Newton's laws).
First I've gotta call you out on that one, Mason--the uncertainty principle only places an upper bound on information, not a lower bound. But you already knew that. :P
ReplyDeleteAfter yesterday, there's at least one strong correlation I can report wrt attracting them dang bugses. It's been the worst every time I've had chicken. It's not a necessary condition, mind you, but it is certainly sufficient.
Actually, the version of the uncertainty principle I was using is the one involving number of atoms and phase, as in a squeezed state in a BEC. There were some very important experiments (on which the blogger Chad Orzel that Travis cited is one of the authors; it comes from Kasevich's group at Yale) in which they observed uncertainty between the number of atoms and their relative phases. (This was the whole "number squeezing" deal.)
ReplyDeleteOh wait, your comment is slightly different from what I thought. Anyway, this was the setting I had in mind with my comment above.
mason, are you saying that the wavelength of the individual eggs are much larger than the egg size?
ReplyDeletei don't know much about BEC, but ... my impression was that the surface of your jacket was at room temperature ;)
- jing
(i know i'm beating a horse to death, but i say the burden is on you to prove that there are more than three.)
OK, fine then consider the number squeezing problem from optics, which should be doable at room temperature.
ReplyDeleteI'll get my theory of quantum eggs to work, damnit!
speaking like a true theorist. - j.
ReplyDelete