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I’m tired of microblog screenshots that self-censor 😕
Also that’s cool. I’m pretty sure I cannot smell ants. But it’s also possible there are ants everywhere I go, so I can’t discern what part of the background smells are the ants.
FUCK
FUCK
FUCK
My Jewish Jesus appreciates your dedication to the cause.
FUCK
I was watching “deep dives” on Youtube yesterday and was getting confused by all the censoring. Even the word “sex” was censored, and like… what? Not just SA (which I understand censoring), but sex itself? In a video ostensibly designed for an adult (or at least teenage) audience?
It’s hard to follow a story when words get censored that you don’t expect to get censored. In my mind I think something much worse is being said, and have to pause and rewind to ensure I understood correctly. The best part is, the creator wasn’t even from the US, land of the Puritans. I expect Europeans not to be afraid of sex, but I guess this is what Youtube is doing to the world?
That degree of censorship usually implies the content is dual posted to TikTok in my experience
That’s weird, because the videos I watch are 1-2 hours long (or longer.) Informational deep dives are practically the opposite of Tik Tok.
I mean it’s my general experience, not a hard rule. Just because the TikTok algorithm actively promotes content with high interaction without any requirement for accuracy doesn’t mean there’s no educational information on the platform.
Alternatives:
- condensed clips are crossposted to tiktok
- self censorship to the strictest level to minimize risk of demonetization
- self censorship to avoid a mature rating, so viewers don’t have to log in to watch
- self censorship to the strictest degree based on all popular platforms’ requirements because that is “the internet”
People have always doe weird censorship things as both users and admin. Forums used to **** everything. Then things were free. The big companies started facing public pressure for beings the hosts of content and locked down again.
People complaining about the censorship is significantly more annoying than the actual tiny little blur on one single letter in one single word.
Still not as annoying as the people who complain about the complaints.
No smell has ever elevated when I near an ant colony, and I see wild ant colonies all the time. So I’m pretty sure I can’t.
That’s the most useless censoring of the word “Fuck” I have ever seen 😅
Why did you censor a small mushroom?
That mushroom is average-sized my good sir.
What’cha got there, m8?
It looked like it was originally meant to censore word much smalller
What is this, censoring for ants!?
Wow that’s really weird because i thought ants were supposed to be everywhere - at least in summertime when you go outside. If they smell that bad then it must be unbearable just walking around places in the city.
I can only smell them if I sniff a crushed one up close. It’s been a long time - I don’t step on bugs on purpose.
I don’t think they’re talking about the dead/distressed ant smell. To the best of my knowledge, everyone can smell that. They’re talking about a general smell of ants
Wait, everyone can smell dead ants? Pretty sure I can’t
They smell like paint thinner
they smell funky, a bit like a salty battery doused with acid, if it makes sense?
I can’t smell them, but I can hear them
It could be the same smell, maybe just a different concentration of formic acid.
And no, I can’t smell anything from dead or distressed ants. I’ve never smelled anything from an ant, either dead or alive. It’s definitely not an “everyone can smell that” thing.
Edit: I just read this comment which says it’s not formic acid. Though they don’t cite any sources (yet), so I don’t really know.
Same, never smelled ants.
And I’ve watched ants a lot when I was a kid. I still do sometimes.
I used to even bring pieces of food from the pantry to give to the ants.
I’m pretty sure that’s the smell they’re talking about, they make more of it when disturbed or crushed but it’s always a tiny bit there. But pretty sure that’s the smell they’re speaking of.
The reason I doubt that is because I can’t smell ants “all the time”. And I can definitely smell them when they’re disturbed. But most people who talk about smelling ants describe the smell as “damp” or “mouldy” or “earthy”, and I have never smelled an ant that smells like that.
The only smell I’ve ever smelled from them is acrid and acidic, and that only happens when they’re disturbed or dead.
Is it the formic acid?
Yeah
Depends. With North American formica ants, it’s formic acid, but with Canadian odorous house ants, it’s a methyl ketone that smells a lot like blue cheese.
smells a lot like blue cheese
Oh, so stinky feet smell?
Kinda? I’d almost describe it as halfway between stinky feet and the smell that stink bugs give off.
STOP FUCKING POSTING CENSORED SHIT
Yeah, right? As if they were censoring only the victims’ personal info
I think I can hear ants. People probably think I’m crazy. Like if you bend down and get your face really close to their trail. It’s like a buzzing sound. Like static on an old TV. Creepy as fuck.
Could it just be the reflections of ambient noise you also get when you hold your ear close to any surface? The old “If you hold a seashell to your ear, you can hear the ocean” kind of thing.
I usually can’t but when hiking in fall we came to a big anthill and you could hear the leaves rustling below their little legs.
I was so exited as I had never heard that before.
Ants definitely produce sound when they walk. And why wouldn’t they?
You’re the first person I’ve ever heard say you can hear buzzing sound of ants. I don’t doubt you, because why would you lie about something like that, but I would like to hear more people agree they can hear this and I want to read a scientific study.
That person is a liar!! I listen to ants all the time and the only sound they make is smooth jazz.
He said ants, not aunts.
Oh my bad, I’m hard of hearing. Been listening to too many aunts.
All the ones on my block sound like Aphex Twin.
I’m also terrified of having insects inside of the house. So it’s possible this is some kind of psychological reaction (?) rather than actually hearing them? But to me it “sounds” as I describe in the above post. Maybe someone can find something more scientific, like a study, I too would be curious.
Are we talking formic acid from crushed ants or just there is an ant around and they can smell it?
Not just crushed ants, I smell it when they’re scared and running, but undamaged, as well. Calm ants though, they don’t smell to me. I always assumed it was a warning chemical to other ants, or a deterrent for predators with more sensitive sniffers than I.
Exactly, ants literally spray formic acid at anything that threatens them
I never knew about this. Is this the same gene which makes people like/dislike bitter foods?
Years ago at a place I worked at, food manufacturers, the R&D team did a taste workshop. 5 cups of flavours, salt, bitter, water, umami, sweet. The bitter one just tasted of water to me. They called it “bitter blind”
Probably makes you easier to poison. I will keep that in mind.
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decay and loamy undergrowth
That’s about the closest descriptor I can think of as well. Ants are more metallic to my scent than mushies but that’s it.
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I haven’t tried truffles.
Funnily enough I like mushrooms. The smell of ants never used to bother me that much either; finding out it’s selective is intriguing.
There’s a couple different chemical compounds that can activate your bitter receptors (caffeine for instance) but there are a few bitter chemicals like Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) or N-Propylthiouracil (PROP) that have been linked to variations in a specific gene (TAS2R38). Where I used to work we used PROP strips you’d just put on your tongue to categorize participants into tasters, non-tasters, and potential super-tasters. If it tasted like nothing, you didn’t have the genetic variant. If it tasted like bitterness, it could either be not that bad or, for example in my experience, it’s really really terrible and takes some effort to remove from the tongue.
It smells so weird and strong. I’m surprised not everyone can smell this. I wonder how common this is?
Now I need to know what I’m missing out on… I know the smell of formic acid, and can smell it if andts are really pissed off - but do they just smell?
I usually only smell it after they are agitated. I assume that’s what they meant? But usually when I’m smelling ants they are agitated.
Can you smell other insects or is it just ants? Any type of ant?
Most insects don’t have a strong odor. It’s all types of ants as far as I’ve noticed.
With ants I typically notice it on my hands after I’ve touched them. So it’s strong enough to linger in that way.
I don’t think I’ve touched an ant since I was a kid.
I don’t know. This is the first time in my life I have ever heard about people smelling ants. I have a really good sense of smell normally, but I have never smelled ants. Never heard anybody say they could smell them either. So, I think it might be quite common.
Omg the ants are so smelly
I’m not exactly sure. My sense of smell has been shot since I got covid. It feels so weird. Some smells don’t exist, some are much stronger, some remained the same.
One good example is burning anything while cooking.
I can just feel it though. If I’m itchy while in my kitchen, 9/10 it’s ants (ground floor old apartment)
Is this like how some people can smell if a dude jorked it that day?
no wonder why people avoid me.
I know I should quit vaping, but I’m also so glad my nose isn’t sensitive enough to smell that from random guys walking by anymore. It was constant tmi
jorked. ok
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The threads I’ve seen have a lot of replies of people who say they can smell it. One replied to me here. I suppose I tend to believe them because it would be a pointless thing to lie about and also the say it smells like sex so it seems plausible.
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Damn I’m naive. Well, guess I helped perpetuate it. Yeah I can’t find many studies on people randomly having really sensitive olfactory senses either. Unless you count individual people who can smell stuff like Parkinson’s
So correct but I recommend some editing.
some ants when attacked do produce a small (probably by spraying chemicals that is supposed to paralyses/repel other small insects). that I can smell but I can’t smell an ant peacefully walking around.
Does everyone agree that ladybugs smell terrible??!
Yes, beetles in general don’t smell great to me. They leave a fecal-like scent on my fingers when I hold them (Which I’ve always assumed is some sort of musk and not actual feces). I can smell ants too, but it’s only when they’re scared: They seem to release a chemical that smells to me like Windex the moment they realize they’re possibly in danger. I didn’t know that made me special, but I do know that others might not be able to smell it as I’ve had conversations about this with people who didn’t know wtf I was talking about. I’ve heard that it might be formic acid? Not sure.
Funny because I don’t normally have a very sensitive nose. And I’m not a super-taster, cilantro tastes like cilantro to me (Fresh and herbally).
Yes! I’m not super sensitive to them, but one time in school I had one land on me and curiosity got the better of me. Never again!
Not all of them do. I always thought of them as “good” and “bad” ladybugs. The bad ones stink. I have a feeling it correlates with lighter color. More orange than red. But this is purely anecdotal 😋
If you live in the US, the orange ones may be Asian lady beetles, an invasive species. They don’t smell great.
The ones that come into your home in the winter are probably Asian lady beetles, as true ladybugs overwinter outside.
This reminds me of when I chatted with someone who had synesthesia.
Some people can smell ants. Some people can smell Parkinson’s disease.
I don’t think I can smell either of those but I can smell B.O.
I’ll bet you CAN taste ants though
I know what ants taste like. I don’t want to know, but I do.
I used to eat them as a kid to freak out my friends. I don’t remember them tasting like much of anything. Maybe a bit like dirt or something.
I’m pretty sure I’ve smelled a dead fly before, but not like Lee Mack.
