She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it.
Game of Thrones Daily

Kiana Khansmith
Xuebing Du
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NASA

roma★
wallacepolsom

Kaledo Art
art blog(derogatory)

PR's Tumblrdome
Show & Tell
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Jules of Nature

Origami Around

#extradirty
$LAYYYTER
One Nice Bug Per Day
will byers stan first human second

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styofa doing anything
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@inziladun
She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it.
I've just finished reading Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo. (Pictured: US cover on the left, UK cover on the right)
I've been a fan of her writing for many years now, and I am a little biased as she's married to one of my good friends. But I have to say how good this book is and recommend it because I know some of my followers will love it.
It's about a race of humanoid monsters called Guls, who are obligate human-vores, our own exclusive predator species (at one point the protagonist compared them to how koalas can only eat eucalyptus). While many vampire tropes come to mind, the execution here is quite different. They are not hidden but live alongside humans; they have their own culture, behaviours, practices, and even religious beliefs. Guls feel like an inevitable part of life entrenched among humans, much like the social constructs of our real lives which consume us metaphorically or not.
Ariadne is a young human woman who works at a health clinic studying under a human doctor who specializes in Gul medicine. He goes missing, and she is left to treat patients by herself, until a new Gul, Quaint, shows up looking for him. They must follow the clues of his disappearance to the Cabaré club in Rio de Janeiro, where Guls hang out alongside their human lunch...
What I love about Hache's writing is her entirely honest, vivid, unexploitative portrayal of trauma. Anyone who's experienced dissociation or flashbacks will recognize themselves in her imagery. Those who haven't will get a chance at empathy in the sensory descriptions she paints. But yes, this does come with a content notice: A very significant amount of the plot revolves around CSA, and it is not shy about discussing this both in the events that happened, and how they affect the characters involved.
But if you don't have a severe trigger about this, please don't let it dissuade you from checking it out. This is a rare type of writing where the horror feels refreshing. I found myself smiling at many points, because I was just thinking, yeah! someone get it! and the story is not here to traumatize you but to invite you into the headspace of someone who was there and still hasn't healed yet.
This is a story about flesh-eating predators and dictatorships and all the ways people can hurt each other, and it is wrapped in love, love, love.
Give it a try, if that sounds up your alley.
Praia de Boa Viagem, Casa Navio (Atual Edifício Vânia, N° 4000), Bairro de Boa Viagem - Recife Em 1953.
Morgan le Fay
I promise I'm working on more longer posts on crocs in the back (Enalioetes, Quinkana and Mekosuchinae as a whole) Until then, have some videos/images of various crocodilians scratching themselves.
Saltwater crocodile (sadly I do not know the source)
False Gharial (LA Zoo)
American Alligator (Florida's Wildest)
and finally another saltie as a still image (The Cairns Post)
@inziladun
La Passe-miroir collector's editions
Wally Dion, Green Star Quilt, 2019 circuit boards, brass wire, copper tube
I SAW THIS IN THE PORTLAND ART MUSEUM! ITS HUGE!
it shimmers like no gemstones i've ever seen: green as malachite and emerald but shot through with opal, gold, copper. photographs can't do it justice because of how it shines, as well as the way the actual material elements have their own dimensions. you can lean in and study all the fine lines of the circuits or step back and admire how the rearranged whole forms new patterns. it's one of the most beautiful creations i've ever seen.
Unapproved tag query + tagset update
58 hours till nominations close (8pm ET on Thursday)! You can see the tagset and submit your nominations here.
If you prefer to look at a spreadsheet version of the approved tagset, @jhawkgirl has also made one here that she is updating periodically.
I have a few submitted tags that either do not meet the parameters for tags for this event, or require a little clarification. If you have submitted tags, please check below because once I reject a nomination, you do not get your slot back, so I'd like to give people the chance to edit them!
Unapproved Tags If I have questions for you, please reach out to me either in the comments/reblogs of this post, by tumblr dm, on Discord, or via email (in the collection AO3 profile).
David Hockney Bigger Trees Nearer Warter, Summer 2008 / Bigger Trees Nearer Warter, Winter 2008
I stitched a snapshot of Jupiter's atmosphere around the Great Red Spot! Discord thinks it's too inappropriate for private viewing so tumblr is absolutely going to mark it as mature but here goes nothing...
I'm getting tired of eating chicken soup all week, but it's been great because I can just cook the chicken on the bottom of the pot, successively add vegetables based on their cook time, and I dirty just the pot, the knife, and the cutting board.
Do y'all have any low-effort, low-cost soup suggestions for the week?
Chickpea Harissa Soup
In its most basic form, cook some onion + garlic in some olive oil, then add 2 cans of chickpeas (with the liquid!) into the pot + harissa paste to taste + broth/stock/bouillon + whatever vegetables you would additionally like. Finish with lemon juice if desired. I usually serve with egg (poached directly in the soup) + hearty bread but that’s not required ofc.
I like a mushroom and pearl barley soup, even though it takes a little bit of cooking time.
Fry an onion in oil, add sliced mushrooms + salt, fry until the mushrooms shrink a bit (plus more oil, if the pot goes to dry). Add garlic, pepper, thyme or other herbs, cook for another minute or so, then add broth (vegetable or meat, either works) and the pearl barley, about 50 grams per portion. Probably around a quarter cup? I measure mine with a Turkish tea glass, that looks about right in terms of size. Boil until the barley is tender - the one I have currently is coarsely milled instead of whole grains and will take around half an hour.
Fernand Khnopff The Spider Woman ca. 1901
you don't even know about the majestic fragility of the tropical rainforest's soil
rainforest soil sustains the richest and densest biomass of any biome, and it is simultaneously the poorest soil nutrients-wise; you could take a sample of rainforest soil and little would grow on it. this is because the vast vegetation constantly sheds organic matter to the surface, leaves, litter, branches, fruits, etc. the high temperature and humidity accelerates the decomposition and humification process to take weeks rather than entire seasons. at the same time, the root system of that vegetation in tandem with fungal networks process that decomposed organic matter as quick as it decomposes. whatever isn't absorbed quickly is washed from the soil from the also consistent rainfall. it is like a bank account with a weekly income that gets immediately spent on food, never full but constantly providing. it is an edaphic system that produces some of the greatest vegetation communities on earth and it is so efficient at processing humus, that a disruption to the influx of organic matter, for example in the form of clearcutting, instantly renders the soil extremely hard for any plant to colonize, effectively sterile in comparison with its healthy form. isn't that sublime.
Edward Hopper, Approaching a City, 1946
[image description: a painting of an urban train line, approaching a tunnel surrounded by buildings. end description.]
Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 : episode 41 "Holy Mother"