In the Stacks

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

While researching for upcoming fish facts I ended up going down a rabbit hole on parrotfish teeth, and I need to share this information in another form than just a fish fact. This stuff is unbelievable. You know the beak of the parrotfish, right? It's formed from the fused teeth of the parrotfish, as an adaptation to have ample biting surface to scrape off and chew on coral, their main food source.

A close-up of the beak of a parrotfish. It has this honeycomb pattern which I find very cool.

Well. To constantly chew on coral, they must have some pretty hard teeth, right? And they indeed do: the teeth of the parrotfish are made up of a mineral called fluorapatite, which forms intricate, chainmail-like woven structures on a microscopic level. Fluorapatite just so happens to be the second hardest biomineral found. This stuff, the parrotfish's teeth?? They are stronger than copper, silver and gold. That's crazy, right!!?? A square inch of the parrotfish's teeth can withstand a whopping 530 TONS OF PRESSURE!! That's the weight of 88 ELEPHANTS on top of a single square inch!!!! The only biomineral that is tougher is the teeth of chitons, that is the single tougher thing in the whole world!!! Not only that, but the stiffness and hardness of the teeth increases the more we get closer to the tip (as the mineral fibers get closer and closer to one another), the very tips of the teeth even surpass the chiton teeth in stiffness!!!

Here are pictures produced through a process called PIC mapping, which shows the size and orientation of crystal fibers at the tip of the teeth.

That feels like it shouldn't be right, no? You'd think that the toughest biominerals in the world would belong to, like, the skull of an animal that rams into rocks or maybe the shell of some animal, not the teeth! The teeth of chitons and parrotfish out of all animals no less! Who would've guessed that the diet of "rock animal" would make the parrotfish require some of the toughest dentition the world has ever seen, huh? That right there is one super good reason why you should never stick your finger in the mouth of one.

Every day I am blown away by how amazing fishes are....

[wlw-webcomic-bracket]

I’m glad the folks at NASA are having fun with XKCD too.

[revilonilmah]

Sleepy Eepy Mareepy

[grasslandgirl]

“no one will notice if you stop posting/talking/texting/etc” is the mind killer. it is the evil. it is the little childhood version of myself who feels so insignificant and unwanted but she IS wanted. I am wanted and loved and noticed even if I can’t see it right now

[cropolite]

[everythingfox]

Here comes the boy

(via)

[evilmidnightlurker]

we are now in the future

Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Creating Massive Franken-Sheep With Cloned Animal Parts

An 80-year-old man in Montana pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony wildlife crimes involving his plan to let paying customers hunt sheep on

This is future crime. This is science fiction crime. You can't tell me this could happen if we were still in the present.

[viralfrog]

[big-catsss]

(by Venkat Krishnan)

[herpsandbirds]

Orange-banded Green Geometer Moth (Eucyclodes gavissima), family Geometridae, Pulau Ketam, Malaysia

Photograph by Valentin Golubkov

[mysticdragon3md3]

Ngl i prefer the 2016 version purple on the right.

[thedoctorknits]

in which I watch other hobbies learn about the problem of getting consistent dye lots

[agrioxoiros-deactivated20240927]

@mamoru

[mamoru]

what you have to understand is lamy dark lilac (2016, the real lamy dark lilac) still gets sold for hundreds of dollars per bottle by resellers when it originally sold for $10. and people bought it because they loved that limited edition ink so much. LDL is one of the grail inks for fountain pen ink collectors, and one of the most common reasons to mix fountain pen ink is to try to imitate it.

but the dyes used in the original lamy dark lilac are no longer even available, and it took several lamy representatives promising it was the exact same ink before anyone told the truth. and remember: THE DYES WERE NEVER AVAILABLE FROM THE START OF PRODUCTION. this is not a matter of inconsistency between batches, lamy knew that the ink would have to be completely different and they called it dark lilac anyway while several of their representatives communicated that it was the exact same ink.

people were fighting and fighting and fighting because it was obviously a different formula, it looked different, but lamy said it was the same, so the person doing the swab of the color must have been wrong, because lamy would never lie. and then when lamy admitted it was a completely different ink, there was fighting about whether or not it is wrong to call a product a re-release of the something while it is completely different. some lamy fans refuse to admit lamy can ever do anything wrong, when they do a ton of shit wrong.

there was no reason to call this ink a re-release of dark lilac other than as a cash grab for any sucker who had the gall to believe that when lamy calls something a re-release of one of the most beloved fountain pen inks of all time, that it would actually be the same ink.

I personally think that if you claim to be re-releasing one of the most famous inks in the world, it should actually be the same ink, or name it something different. lamy deep lilac. lamy new lilac. lamy green lilac because of the green sheen instead of the gold sheen lamy dark lilac became famous for. fucking, anything else

lamy is a piece of work, their quality control has been shit for years, and they make a ton of money by enshittifying their products for people who miss when they were less trash.

damn good thing the entire company just got bought out by mitsubishi pencil company.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

[herpsandbirds]

Black Bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis), family Ardeidae, order Pelicaniformes, Jurong Lake Gardens, Singapore

photograph by Pher Thuan Chong

[wbicepuppy]

I want my friends and followers to be aware of this little guy

[xanaxfarts]

Fanny Liautard: ‘Angel Wing Dress’ Bridal & Evening Collection (2012)

[eriebasin]

Magic Moonstones, c1915

[everythingfox]

Red Cantonese bear dog

(via)

[thoodleoo]

really love how art from the ancient world shows that humans truly have no bound to their creativity. anyway here's a windchime from herculaneum that shows a gladiator fighting his own dick which is also a panther

[piedude]

When someone with a marble statue as their icon tries to tell you that they don't make art like they used to, say you agree and show them this

[odvunir]

strawberry themed dwebble/crustle variant

kofi