[mandmandam]

> It's like the elephant thinking about the ant.

Accidentally a perfect analogy, because elephants do think about ants, and take steps to avoid them. The only other small animal they avoid is bees (not mice).

And just like ants, the EFF are one group that could have lots of tiny little warriors scaling up inside Facebook's fleshy trunk.

[birdman3131]

Mythbusters showed them avoiding mice. Shocked the crew as like many people the really expected it to be an old wives tale

[mandmandam]

Imo that segment used a flawed design.

> The MythBusters hid a mouse under a ball of elephant dung, planning to flip the dung over and reveal the mouse when the elephants approach it. When they flipped the dung and revealed the mouse, the approaching elephant was startled and quickly moved away from the mouse. The MythBusters then flipped dung without the mouse under it, but the elephants did not react at all. They then repeated their first experiment to confirm their results, and the elephant noticed the mouse and actively avoided it. Even though the elephants did not panic at the sight of the mouse, their acting cautiously around them was enough to have the myth be considered plausible, as it was not known whether the reaction was due to fear of or empathy for the mouse.

... Note how they were wild elephants, in an unnatural environment, facing weird dirt behavior.

In any case, elephants still avoid ants.

[Terr_]

Similarly, I think there's something poetic about how elephants aren't blocked as much by fences--even if those look more significant to us humans--compared to trenches.

With a fence, the mass of the elephant helps to knock it over. With a ditch or a hole, the elephant's mass works against it. It risks getting stuck or breaking important bones that are already under a lot of stresses.