Everyone simping after him in the notes and I'm just sitting here smug like, Sorry guys, he's taken
Anonymous asked:
My brother's ex-fiancee didn't think that penguins were birds. I couldn't believe it when she said that.
aha! here we get to another pitfall of human psychology!
when we put things into mental groups, like the group of "bird", we tend to have an archetype for that group in our brain. For birds, that's usually a songbird - something like a robin or a sparrow, maybe a pigeon. Small, flighted, perches on things. Things that fall outside of that archetype, if you're not familiar with them, don't compute - and we refuse to allow them into the grouping.
This is why the grouping thing is such a problem - our archetypes can never actually capture the diversity of a group we perceive, even if that group is a real thing. This is why stereotypes exist. This is why people still think of dinosaurs as lizards, because their archetype for dinosaur resembles a lizard more than a bird (even if it shouldn't). And this is why some people will refuse to believe that penguins or ostriches are birds.
we have to stop thinking that our brains are good at describing nature, because clearly, they are not.
This is also why people call so many things dinosaurs that are not dinosaurs, because their mental archetype of a "dinosaur" is usually something like "big, toothy and prehistoric". So the only real way to better inform people about what is and isn't a dinosaur is to talk about dinosaur in a way that helps people adjust that mental archetype, because without specific practice using cladistics and stuff we're just so naturally inclined to group things based on perceived similarities, even if those similarities are straight up incorrect!
i wanna go on a rant about centaurs but idk if im up for drawing the illustrations this rant needs
i’m just gonna use photos.
HERE’S MY BIGGEST ISSUE WITH CENTAURS THAT I SEE DONE MOST FREQUENTLY: THE HORSE PART IS TOO BIG.
‘but roach, horses are big. if you have a human-sized human half and horse-size horse half of course it’s going to be an awkward mis-match.’
no! the thing is that gigantasaurus horses are a really recent, modern, rich bitch status symbol kind of horse and have warped the popular conception of how big a horse is, or should be. like, look at this horse:
a friesian horse. this is the SUV of horses. it’s a huge, intimidating status symbol that consumes so many resources it’s not actually very good at sports or utility or even being a vehicle. it mostly does dressage, which is kind of like horse dancing. this is not a normal size of horse.
this is a clydesdale. it’s a carthorse. it was built to pull extremely heavy wagons in a straight line and, importantly, to look like hot shit while doing so. it is also not a normal size of horse.
this is a belgian draft horse. it also pulls heavy loads, traditionally plows, stumps, rocks, timber, and as such it’s disconcertingly buff. that huge neck and massive shoulders give it enough strength to haul the shit out of anything you can wrap a chain around, but again, it is nowhere near a normal horse.
this is a mustang, a horse designed to be ridden for significant periods of time and over significant amounts of land, for herding cows, for not being too fussy, delicate, or high maintenance. note how much smaller it is than the purpose-built superhorses up there.
and this….
this is a Przewalski’s horse, a mongolian wild horse. i don’t think they’re the exact ancestor of domestic horses, but they’re pretty darn close. mongolian domesticated horses are still built very similarly, and they’re about the size of a bike.
for most of history, horses have been about this big. the romans rode horses this size. mongolian nomads ride horses this size–the mongolian derby is the longest in the world. they can basically carry their own body weight for hours at a time, and a team of them can pull thousands of pounds of gear. a horse this size might look like a dinky toy compared to carthorses, drafthorses, dressage horses, even american trail horses. but it’s actually a standard and extremely functional size for a horse.
and if you want to draw a centaur that doesn’t look like a toothpick stuck into a log, it’s the size of horse you should be looking at.
THANK YOU, YES
I know ppl go wild for king/knight and king/jester relationship dynamics on this website but I do want to pitch: knight/jester. Loyal warrior who's not been known to suffer fools and the fool who wants nothing more than to be suffered by them, working under the same leige. Think about it and get back to me
Feels weird to say this cause 40k is a setting dripping with sauce but I really feel like it lacks the sauce of Warhammer fantasy. Not taking questions at this time
What no Landsknechts does to a universe
boyfriend and i got into an argument about whether or not gnomes live underground. he has stormed off to look for his “gnome book”
motherfucker has a gnome book
Tell your boyfriend his little gnome book is wrong, (Scandinavian) gnomes live in barnes, stables, attics and haylofts😤😤😤
the happy ending to this story is actually that he admitted some gnomes can live above ground, after i was appropriately impressed by his gnome book
I'm Danish, I can confirm! Throughout my childhood, every December we would make porridge and put it in the attic for our resident gnome. Farm gnomes love porridge
While it is correct that the Tomte/Nisse lives in barns and other assorted farm buildings, the Gotlandic gnomes called Di sma undar jordi (literally "The small ones underground") very much live in communities beneath the earth. Folklore actually states you have to shout and warn them before throwing out bowling water because if they get scalded by recklessly tossed water they get might cross
i love shrikes because they’re horrible little carnivores whose feeding habits are grim enough to earn then the nickname ‘butcherbird’ but they look like this
you ever find a piece of clothing and feel like you just stumbled upon an essential bit of your character design
Prehistoric Planet finally gives us the True Rival to the Tyrant Lizard King and it’s NOT a Dinosaur.
Absolutely amazing scene, I am consistently impressed with how this show does fights between prehistoric creatures. There’s been more action and physical confrontations in this season but every one of them feels totally natural and like a real animal interaction!
Idk I just love to see dinosaurs that have like, a Normal Animal level of self-preservation instinct. Like, could a T. rex totally wreck a Quetzalcoatlus in an all out brawl? probably yeah. But also is it worth it for this particular individual? probably not, and so he retreats! I’ll take this any day over a Dino Fight™ that’s basically just a kaiju battle.
Also yeah just to illustrate the sheer scale of Creature that is going on here:
Here’s a guy
Reblog if you had a Tumblr for 5+ years
hwaet! memory-mother, in meadhall sing the hatred, from heartlocks broken, of achilles peleusson, cursed by his people, wreaker of woes unending. often his spear made the mighty drink to dogs, food for the feathered, strong souls banished to breathe in the dark.
deep it was driven, the doom of zeus, since they stood sundered, bitter in boasting, atreusson the people-king, and sun-bright achilles. but who in heaven struck up their strife? the son of leto, livid at the king, spelled sickness, and the people perished, for atreusson harmed his holy priest, chryses.
spear-greeks he sought by the swift sea-steeds, daring, undaunted, his daughter to ransom, bearing garlands of the arrow-guiding god on a golden staff. he sank before spear-greeks, saying to them and the sons of atreus, people-guides: “sons of atreus, and strong-scaled spear-greeks, may the mighty gods in their mountain-helming halls give you Priam’s gore-gold, and glorious homecoming. only unchain my child, in exchange for this ringhoard, with honor for him, the arrow-hailing son of zeus.”
is this the illiad as a norse saga? i’m in love.
Sumerian-style addition!
Bitter is the wail for you Achilles,
The wail I sing for you!
Bitter is the wail for you Achilles,
Of which the goddess sings!
Lo, the storm of his devastation was falling,
The baleful storm reaping itself upon the host of the Achaeans,
The baleful storm, which takes no mercy,
The storm of devastation, which takes no mercy,
Wrought by his anger.
The dark-headed people,
A thousand went to dust below the earth,
In that wind which swirled like hot clay,
The dogs were abandoning their bodies, to the winds,
The birds were abandoning their bodies to the winds,
The insects were abandoning their bodies to the winds,
Zeus was abandoning them, their bodies to the winds,
Open the copper chest with iron locks;
The tablet of lapis lazuli tells the story.
Long since Agamemnon, Mycenae’s wild bull,
And Achilles, Thetis’ son, the black-beared Aurochs,
Did emperil like lions the sheepfold of Troy- the dark-headed people mourn!
Truly the creator had compelled them to strife- the dark-headed people mourn!
Leto’s son, and Zeu’s son Apollo- the dark-headed people mourn!
He let forth the shroud of pestilence upon the city- the dark-headed people mourn!
The hot winds stirred it forth- the dark-headed people mourn!
And the pestilence shrouded the city like the dead.
The twelfth year having gone, the month ended,
Atreus’ son of princely office,
Atreus son of princely office,
Chryses in his holy house,
His temple of lapis and cedar,
His mighty name with unclean hands dishonoured.
At last! A second chance to share my Gilgamesh by way of Homer!
Sing to me, Nissaba, of the great might and the far reaching travels
by which came knowledge of many things to the bright son of Ninsun
two parts divine mortal Gilgamesh, strongest of men, king of Uruk.
Wisdom he sought from the deluge survivor, from Uta-napishti
driven by fear while bitterly grieving his dearest companion
fighter by his side, his equal in strength, wild-born Enkidu.
First he brought grief and then he brought happiness equal in measure
to his own people in holy Eanna, in long-walléd Uruk.
When a bull in a rage wanders abroad in the fields in the evening
no rest is given to shepherds who lead their flocks wearily trudging
always he rushes swift at them and both men and sheep run in panic.
So the streets fill with the running of people in long-walléd Uruk
when the king goes on the rampage bringing much grief for all fathers
whose sons are slain by his hand as he challenges young men to combat.
Maidens and wives too he ravishes and many tears shed all mothers
Hearing the motherly prayers, the gods in high heaven took counsel.
woops it’s been a bit! life’s busy right now haha. anyway! i have some more fakemon for my paleo-inspired dex! a bunch of two-stagers.
- Forgossil and Phantaxon: pure Ghost types, based around the concept of ghost lineages!
- Troal and Carbonferno: Grass/Fire types, based around scale trees!
- Tademon and Toadevil: Poison/Fire types, based on Beezelbufo–the frog from hell!
For being something that you use for maybe 10 minutes in the early game, the skyrim iron helmet sure has had a lasting cultural legacy
I mean you could say the same about the traditional Johnny Darksouls outfit. What miniscule fraction of players actually ran around in the Elite Knight set for a notable time of their playthrough?
For being something that you use for maybe 10 minutes in the early game, the skyrim iron helmet sure has had a lasting cultural legacy
#skyrim#like i know it was because it was in the trailers#but it truly is like 90% of depictions of 'skyrim dude' that has that helmet#ask yourself; how often do you actually use it?#tbh this might just be a me thing#but i like playing warriors in skyrim so i feel i would have worn it more#TES#Elder Scrolls
