Not today Justin
oozey mess
One Nice Bug Per Day
Product Placement
shark vs the universe
Claire Keane
hello vonnie
almost home
pixel skylines
todays bird
Sade Olutola
PR's Tumblrdome
d e v o n
Love Begins
$LAYYYTER
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Kiana Khansmith
i don't do bad sauce passes
No title available
Xuebing Du
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Italy
seen from Malaysia
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Maldives
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
@grienbriar
not only do Felix and Luka have the most information of the entire cast between the two of them, but I think their interactions would be so funny/bizarre and I love thinking about it. also I think they should be gay for each other
Aaravos
I'll say that Startouch Elves have stars on their body is the sexiest thing in the world. To whom design and permit this in TDP, THANK YOU！THANK YOU SO MUCH！
港真，黑皮银发什么的直接暗杀我，吸溜吸溜(/ω＼)
Just tried another version~
Thistle Do’Nicely the Witherbloom Warlock, sans hat + hat versions.
the devil is in the details i stg
God I need to fix my tumblr ASAP. I FEEL SO CRINGE LOOKING THROUGH THIS
Haters: “Percy’s helpless without his guns.”
Percy:
hey bi people
Holy fuck
Did you know that beetle wings used to be sewn onto dresses? Like, hundreds of them on each dress? It's equally creepy and beautiful.
oh my stars, anyone have pictures?
Something like this I believe!
that’s one of the famous ones, a Lady Macbeth stage costume from 1888. apparently it wasn’t uncommon in victorian fashion:
we should bring embroidery like this back (but w/ imitation wings). we should all be walking around with beads & wings, clanging
Bring this back in 2019
There’s a youtuber who does historical sewing and costumery who did this recently
https://youtu.be/iA8yVDohZ-4
OH MY BEETLEJUICE
To everyone in the comments- No, the beetles aren’t killed for their wings. These jewel beetles have short adult lives (2-3 weeks) and the wing casings are harvested after their death to ensure their conservation.
The Victorians did not invent beetlewing art. This species of beetle is indigenous to South and South East Asia where beetle wing art actually originated. Thailand, India, Myanmar, China, and Japan all practiced beetlewing art before the Victorians. Most notably, they have been used for centuries in clothing and art in the Thai royal court. Queen Sirikit has promoted beetlewing art in an effort to revive Thailand’s art and cultural history. Queen Sirikit has also forbidden the harvesting of the wing casings prior to the beetle’s death to protect them.
Unfortunately, it is hard to find old Thai art online but here are a couple of examples.
(Date and artist unknown. Thailand.)
(René Mancini, 1980.) Belongs to Queen Sirikit.
please reblog this version of this post, this is amazing
Modern Star Wars by @thisuserisangry
the way my jaw dropped at this bit
Toby: So I wrote a bunch of music for the computer to play. Its going to be epic since the computer can handle so many crazy parts. Orcistra: We’re going to play this. Toby: Ummm...
The God of Grumpy and the God of Petty. What a pair. Could be the cutest couple, I told you that. 💕
The God of Grumpy and the God of Petty. What a pair. Could be the cutest couple, I told you that. 💕
Sweet Pool- Youji
Today, 9 years ago, this game was released, so have a lil’ illustration~ ^^
~Zenya~
Medieval castle stairs were often built to ascend in narrow, clockwise spirals so right-handed castle defenders could use their swords more easily. This design put those on the way up at a disadvantage (unless they were left-handed). The steps were also uneven to give defenders the advantage of anticipating each step’s size while attackers tripped over them. Source Source 2 Source 3
Not really the best illustration since it totally negates the effect by having a wide open space for those ascending. Castle tower staircases tended to look like this:
Extremely tight quarters, with a central supporting pillar that is very, very thoroughly in the way of your right arm.
Wider, less steep designs tend to come later once castles moved away from being fortresses to simply noble family homes with the advent of gunpowder.
Oh! Pre-gunpowder military tactics are my jam! I don’t know why, but this is one of my favorite little details about defensive fortifications, because the majority handedness of attackers isn’t usually something you think about when studying historical wars. But strategically-placed walls were used basically worldwide as a strategy to secure gates and passages against advancing attackers, because most of the world’s population is right-handed (and has been since the Stone Age).
Pre-Columbian towns near the Mississippi and on the East coast did this too. They usually surrounded their towns with palisades, and they would build the entrance to the palisade wall in a zigzag – always with the wall to the right as you entered, to hinder attackers and give an advantage to the defender. Here’s some gates with some examples of what I’m talking about:
Notice that, with the exception of the last four (which are instead designed to congregate the attackers in a space so they can be picked off by archers, either in bastions or on the walls themselves) and the screened gate (which, in addition to being baffled, also forces the attackers to defend their flank) all of these gates are designed with central architectural idea that it’s really hard to kill someone with a wall in your way. In every culture in the world, someone thought to themselves, “Hey it’s hard to swing a weapon with a wall on your right-hand side,” and then specifically built fortifications so that the attackers would always have the wall on their right. And I think that’s really neat.
Ooh, ooh, also: Bodiam Castle in Sussex used to have a right-angled bridge so any attacking forces would be exposed to archery fire from the north-west tower on their right side (ie: sword in the right hand, shield on the useless left side):
These tactics worked so well for so long because until quite recently lefties got short shrift and had it trained (if they were lucky) or beaten out of them.
Use of sword and shield is a classic demonstration of how right-handedness predominated. There’s historical mention of left-handed swordsmen (gladiators and Vikings), and what a problem they were for their opponents, but that only applies to single combat.
A left-handed hoplite or housecarl simply couldn’t fight as part of a phalanx or shield wall, since the shields were a mutual defence (the right side of the shield covered its owner’s left side, its left side covered the right side of his neighbour to the left, and so on down the line) and wearing one on the wrong arm threw the whole tactic out of whack.
Jousting, whether with or without an Italian-style tilt barrier, was run shield-side to shield-side with the lance at a slant (except for the Scharfrennen, a highly specialised style that’s AFAIK unique.) Consequently left-handed knights were physically unable to joust.
There’s a creditable theory (I first read it in “A Knight and His Horse”, © Ewart Oakeshott 1962, 1998 and many other places since) that a knight’s “destrier” horse - from dexter, “right” - was trained to lead with his right forefoot so that any instinctive swerve would be to the right, away from collision while letting the rider keep his shield between him and harm. (In flying, if a pilot hears “break!” with no other details, the default evasive direction is right.)
The construction of plate armour, whether specialised tournament kit or less elaborate battle gear, is noticeably “right-handed“ - so even if a wealthy knight had his built “left-handed” it would be a waste of time and money; he would still be a square peg in a world of round holes and none of the other kids would play with him.
Even after shields and full armour were no longer an essential part of military equipment, right-hand use was still enforced until quite recently, and to important people as well as ordinary ones - it happened to George VI, father of the present Queen of England. Most swords with complex hilts, such as swept-hilt rapiers and some styles of basket-hilt broadsword, are assymetrical and constructed for right handers. Here’s my schiavona…
It can be held left-handed, but using it with the proper thumb-ring grip, and getting maximum protection from the basket, is right-handed only. (More here.) Some historical examples of left-hand hilts do exist, but they’re rare, and fencing masters had the same “learn to use your right hand” bias as tourney organisers, teachers and almost everyone else. Right-handers were dextrous, but left-handers were sinister, etc., etc.
However, several predominantly left-handed families did turn their handedness into advantage, among them the Kerrs / Carrs, a notorious Reiver family along the England-Scotland Borders, by building their fortress staircases with a spiral the other way to the OP image.
This would seem to be a bad idea, since the attackers (coming upstairs) no longer have their right arms cramped against the centre pillar - however it worked in the Kerrs’ favour because they were used to this mirror-image of reality while nobody else was, and the defender retreating up the spiral had that pillar guarding his right side, while the attacker had to reach out around it…
For the most part Reiver swords weren’t elaborate swept-hilt rapiers but workmanlike basket-hilts. Some from Continental Europe have the handedness of my schiavona with thumb-rings and assymmetrical baskets, but the native “British Baskethilt” is a variant of the Highland claymore* and like it seems completely symmetrical, without even a thumb-ring, which gives equal protection to whichever hand is using it.
*I’m aware there are those who insist “claymore” refers only to two-handers, however the Gaelic term claidheamh-mòr - “big sword” - just refers to size, not to a specific type of sword in the way “schiavona” or “karabela” or even “katana” does.
While the two-hander was the biggest sword in common use it was the claidheamh-mòr; after it dropped out of fashion and the basket-hilt became the biggest sword in common use, that became the claidheamh-mòr.
When Highlanders in the 1745 Rebellion referred to their basket-hilts as claymores, they obviously gave no thought to the confusion they would create for later compilers of catalogues…
Also, muskets had their whole “Flint and steel and gunpowder” thing on the right side so if you tried firing it lefty you’d get a face full of fire. More recently, rifles eject their spent shell casings to the right, so if you’re a lefty you get some hot metal in your eye.
good post this is a gOOD POST
@moonlitskinwalker
FINAL FANTASY XIV | FAVORITE MOUNTS
The most tragic love story of our time
I feel like Neil and Andrew wouldn’t get married until it became an issue that they weren’t married.
Like, Neil is in the hospital (because he’s an idiot) and Andrew storms in and demands to know what room he’s in because he’s actually going to strangle him this time but the nurse refuses to give him any information since he’s not related to Neil. Andrew tries just standing there with his “I’m going to kill you if you don’t give me what I want” face until she gave in but nurses do not give a fuck and she just says she’ll call security if Andrew doesn’t move and he decided getting arrested for beating up security guards is not the solution to this particular problem. (Progress!)
So when Neil gets out of the hospital a few hours later there’s a box with two matching rings inside it on the passenger seat and Neil is like “???” And Andrew just starts driving and he drives them to a courthouse and Neil is like, rings… courthouse… “Are we getting married?” And Andrew just gets out of the car and starts walking and Neil gets out and catches up to him and goes “Is this your way of proposing to me?” “238%” and Neil laughs. (Kevin is the witness, Andrew called him after he found out Neil would be released soon and told him to be at the courthouse in 20 minutes) (Kevin protested because he was practicing) (Andrew threatened to light every exy stick he owned on fire if he wasn’t there in 20 minutes) (Kevin was at the courthouse in 15 minutes).
So they get married but Neil is kinda concerned because he can’t wear his ring while he’s playing or practicing, which is like 80% of what Neil does, and he’s worried he’s gonna lose it and he doesn’t want to lose it because it’s important. And then one day he comes out of practice to find his ring where he left it in his bag except now it’s on a simple silver chain and he looks over to Andrew who’s changing out of his gear and he sees Andrew’s ring on a chain around his neck and Neil just smiles and puts the chain on but he never says anything about it and neither does Andrew.
When the rest of the foxes find out there is hell to pay (Except Kevin). It’s at one of their annual get togethers and Katelyn is showing the girls her engagement ring because Aaron may be a dick but he is sappy as fuck for Katelyn and Allison makes an off hand comment to Neil like “We should start a bet on who proposes between those two first.” And they all laugh and start debating it and then Neil speaks up and says “Andrew did.” And they all turn to him and are like,,, he what. And then they have the following conversation:
Dan: You guys are engaged?!
Neil: No.
Matt: But you just said-
Neil: We’re married.
Nicky: YOU’RE WHAT
And Nicky is upset because how dare they get married without him there, and Allison is upset because how dare they get married and not let her plan it. And Neil just looks at Andrew like, why are they upset I’m confused and Andrew doesn’t even look at him he’s just staring out the window look incredibly bored with this entire conversation. They’re all confused when Neil explains that they only got married for legal reasons really and Aaron says “at least now if Josten dies all his money will go to Andrew,” and Andrew gives his twin a look that is clearly a warning and Aaron just smirks because he knows it means ‘don’t talk about him dying that’s not funny’. Aaron gets that look a lot.
And Andrew and Neil are happily married and the media never really finds out although they speculate that Neil and Andrew has a secret wedding and then went on a secret honeymoon to Hawaii and Neil laughs so hard at that because they didn’t mean for it to be a secret they just never felt the need to tell anyone. But Neil can’t deny that every time he feels the ring against his chest or sees it dangling around Andrew’s neck he feels a little rush of warmth because it’s a reminder that Andrew has decided that this is permanent and for a man who’s lived his whole life on the run and another man who bounced from miserable foster home to miserable foster home, they both know how important promising permanency is.
