Flint & Jade

A collection of curios and oddities.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Yesterday was Steve Irwin’s birthday, and his memory was celebrated internationally. Steve was an incredible man who contributed a huge amount to public awareness about reptiles and who inspired a generation of conservationists. But on a day when he’s so heavily featured in the media, we also need to be able to acknowledge and discuss the problems his legacy has unintentionally caused.

Steve’s show popularized a way of interacting with wildlife that isn’t appropriate for non-professionals, and which is now considered unacceptable in most other situations. His fame came from the fact that he purposefully went out and, as we say on this blog, fucked with wildlife. As a trained animal professional, he was able to do that with a high standard for safety and with consideration for the welfare of the animals involved.

Unfortunately, because the planning and welfare concerns involved in filming the show weren’t visible to the public, one of the lasting impressions it left is that it’s fine to go mess with wild animals if you love them and know a bunch about them. Instances where people try to emulate his behavior are frequently responsible for injuries, deaths, and the displacement or euthanasia of the animals involved. Bothering wildlife simply for the pleasure of interacting with it personally is widely recognized as detrimental to welfare, but people frequently justify that it’s acceptable because their idol acted similarly.

Had Steve Irwin lived, I fully believe he would have changed his practices with the times. I’m sure he’d be appalled by the people who go pet / purposefully get injured by wildlife to show off or go viral online in his name. Animal Planet just picked up a new show with an host who is famous for utterly inappropriate interactions with wild animals - getting hurt by them on purpose, or “conveniently” finding tame individuals that will snuggle with him on camera - and it’s being marketed as being inspired by Steve. I can only imagine how much he’d hate to see someone who purports to emulate him teaching public it’s acceptable to disrespect wildlife that way. He was always in it for the value of educating people about how incredible the animals on his show were, not for the personal glory of getting to interact with them.

But the thing is, he didn’t live. And so, with his death, he was canonized as a saint to the people who idolized him when he was alive. That’s left no room for anyone to discuss the other effects of his work and his TV show - because it’s normal for people to get mad when their heroes are criticized posthumously.

The problem is that we need to be able to have that conversation. The fact that people feel entitled to interact with / befriend / tame wild animals - even very dangerous ones - is a well known problem that viral videos are responsible for exacerbating. Any animal professional who interfaces with the public is familiar with how much effort is put into begging and cajoling the public to just leave wildlife alone.

A big part of being able to change the public perception of appropriate interactions with animals is understanding the cultural forces that influence their current actions. We can absolutely love the work Steve did and still remember what a wonderful person he was, while also acknowledging how his influence has shaped a lot of the harmful ways people currently interact with wild animals.

[tastefullyoffensive]

Babylonian era problems. (photo via tbc34)

[dama3-deactivated20210619]

old school hate mail

[jakovu]

Imagine how pissed you have to be to engrave a rock

[thesparkofrevolution]

Ok but there was this guy called Ea-nasir who was a total crook and would actually cheat people ought of good copper and sell them shit instead. The amount of correspondences complaining to and about this guy are HILARIOUS.

[skeletonrex-deactivated20151101]

Are you telling me we know about a specific guy who lived 5000 years ago, by name, because he was a huge asshole

[thesparkofrevolution]

More like 4000 years ago but yes. Ea-nasir and his dodgy business deals.

[prokopetz]

And we haven’t even touched on the true hilarity of the situation yet. Consider two additional facts:

He wasn’t just into copper trading. There are letters complaining about Ea-nasir’s business practices with respect to everything from kitchenwares to real estate speculation to second-hand clothing. The guy was everywhere.

The majority of the surviving correspondences regarding Ea-nasir were recovered from one particular room in a building that is believed to have been Ea-nasir’s own house.

Like, these are clay tablets. They’re bulky, fragile, and difficult to store. They typically weren’t kept long-term unless they contained financial records or other vital information (which is why we have huge reams of financial data about ancient Babylon in spite of how little we know about the actual culture: most of the surviving tablets are commercial inventories, bills of sale, etc.).

But this guy, this Ea-nasir, he kept all of his angry letters - hundreds of them - and meticulously filed and preserved them in a dedicated room in his house. What kind of guy does that?

[ source ]

[sumerianlanguage]

every time this post comes across my dash (which is often) it has even more cool info attached to it

[stevensugar]

Magnus, Taako, and Merle

I just finished catching up with @theadventurezone and I absolutely love it!

Go give it a listen here! Also these designs are super inspired by Carey Pietsch’s Adventure Zone art, go check that out too!

[flint-and-jade]

Questions Which Need Answers

The Askbox is now open. If you have any questions about history, culture, ecology or even myself, don't hesitate to ask. I'll try to answer the best I can or do some research to help you. If you have any questions that are less history or science based please direct them to http://braharajah.tumblr.com/.

[flint-and-jade]

The Living Canvas: A History of Tattooing

Part 1: Ancient Origins

Despite the increasing number of individuals with tattoos, the practice remains somewhat frowned upon. It's been criticized as being shallow, overly flashy or a mistake to be regretted in later life. However, much like other frowned upon practices (primarily drug use, homosexuality and intoxication through alcohol) it is a common trend in human history and as much a part of humanity as religion or language.

It is thought that tattooing was a common practice throughout Eurasia as far back as the Neolithic period. The oldest known tattoos come from a body of a frozen man that dates back to around 3300 years BC, a specimen that has become known as Ötzi the Iceman. Ötzi had 57 separate tattoos, seemingly made with soot. Patterns collaborating with bone damage seem to suggest that the tattoos were medicinal, possibly the result of acupuncture. Ötzi came from the Ötztal Alps in Europe proving that tattoos were an ancient custom in Europe and there is even greater evidence for tattooing in Central and Eastern Asia thanks to mummies and records from China and preserved bodies found in tombs scattered across the Eurasian Steppe.

  2,500 year old preserved skin from the right arm of a Scythian Chieftain, discovered in Russia, and a study of the Chieftains other tattoos.

The Siberian Ice Warrior, dating from around 500 BC, displaying his Elk Tattoo.

Whilst tattoos seemed to be rare in the Mediterranean during the Classical Age (apart from as a means of identifying slaves) they were common amongst the peoples of central and northern Europe, particularly the Germanic Tribes, the Picts and the Celts. Caesar records the Picts as being particularly heavily tattooed with elaborate blue designs. Sadly, as Christianity rose to be the central religion of these people the practice of tattooing was seen as a pagan practice, outlawed by many rulers and the art was largely lost from Europe for many centuries and the old designs with it, burial customs and climate rarely preserving bodies from the period. 

In many other regions of the world however, the art of tattooing continued and bloomed. In the continuation we'll look at the practice's importance in island based cultures and how this in turn resulted in a resurgence of tattooing in Europe.

[beybad]

[qvotetm-deactivated20160606]

Community’s Beetlejuice Easter Egg

I love this show more and more.

[flint-and-jade]

The real impressive thing is the stretched it out over three seasons. I doff my hat to you Community people.

[flint-and-jade]

This looks like the most beautiful documentary on mankind I've ever seen. Everyone should probably watch this if they can.

[creepylittleworld]

[flint-and-jade]

During the Bubonic Plague, doctors wore these bird-like masks to avoid becoming sick. They would fill the beaks with spices and rose petals, so they wouldn’t have to smell the rotting bodies. 

A theory during the Bubonic Plague was that the plague was caused by evil spirits. To scare the spirits away, the masks were intentionally designed to be creepy. 

[stevelecouilliard]

[flint-and-jade]

unatheblade:

Just for the sake of interest, here’s a counter-point to the Women in Reasonable Armor question, Men in Wildly Impractical Real-World Battle Dress. 

As the guy who runs the Reasonable Armor tumblr has noted, practicality isn’t the end-all and be-all of military costume. In some cases though, you have to wonder if it was given any thought at all.

(Click through the images for a better view)

[abloodycloak]

[flint-and-jade]

Aeron Greyjoy, The Damphair

[abloodycloak]

[flint-and-jade]

Beric Dondarrion, The Lightning Lord

[flint-and-jade]

I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON

Due to technical difficulties, involving the purchase of a new computer and internet connectivity woes, Rajput Wednesday was unfortunately missed. Fear not though fellow lovers of turbans and beards, next Wednesday will now fill in, and hopefully do a better job of it.

[thepriest]

[flint-and-jade]

thepriest:

Wilder was initially hesitant, but finally accepted the role under one condition:

When I make my first entrance, I’d like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk toward the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk toward them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I’m walking on and stands straight up, by itself… but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause.

When Stuart asked why, Wilder replied, “because from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth.”

[flint-and-jade]

One last volley

It's time to wrap up Gunday, and I hope that you found the stuff I've posted to be interesting. It is a great aim of mine to expose people to little interesting tidbits of history and cultures with the result being that people take the time to learn a little more themselves. I have one last treat however, a close up of another Middle Eastern pistol, showing the extraordinary level of detail and craftsmanship that went into the device. Like the previous one, this one is inlaid with coral.

Now I must be away, likely spending the next two days gathering resources for Rajput Wednesday, which will be a much more daunting task.

[flint-and-jade]

An Ottoman flintlock pistol. While European pistols tended to be somewhat plain, pistols in the Middle East often had inlaid jewels, engravings and other embellishments which turned them into works of art.

[flint-and-jade]

For some reason, there is something just undeniably cool about the way a lever action rifle ejects it's cartridges. Same goes for a pump action shotgun. The video is from a youtube channel ironically called StaySafe4Families, presumably because there is nothing that will keep your children safer than being in close proximity to some of the deadliest weapons ever devised by man.

[flint-and-jade]

ANZAC troops using periscope rifles at Gallipoli. The modification was designed by Sergeant William Beech, and enabled the user to aim and fire his rifle without exposing his head above the trench.