The Swooping Adventures of a Girl and her Noivern @lyssa-fer - Tumblr Blog

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trashboat

i don’t expect this to be very widely known but here in vancouver we’ve had a barge stuck on shore since mid november

we’re going on day 25 of barge simpson not moving a damn inch and i for one hope it never moves

celepom

They put up a sign

mudstickbandit

if kirby had access to the internet he would go on google images and look at pictures of fruit

yeah-yeah-beebiss-1

kirby and yoshi would send each other emails with cool pictures of fruit attached

cirodisegna

futurama

da brothers

youchalice

Cats

guantanamo-bae

Our queen

bloodanddiscoballs

this reminds of these kids I used to nanny. the eldest (8 at the time) taught me how to play chess with this set. I remember him going over the pieces and stated that Luigi was the queen and he, no joke, said “because he’s the nicest and you have to protect someone like that” that has always stuck in my head whenever I see Luigi now

thecuckoohaslanded

I can’t stop thinking about crocodiles for some reason so here’s some cool pictures I found of probably the second largest one in captivity, his name is Utan:

isn’t he beautiful

listen to the SOUND when he bites

and that’s not even a real power bite, that’s mostly just heavy bone falling on heavy bone from his jaws and the air rushing out from between them

specsthespectraldragon

2000 pounds of Good Boy

thecuckoohaslanded

you get me

thecuckoohaslanded

I honestly expected like 5 notes, what HAPPENED here

thecuckoohaslanded

More tags on this ridiculous post:

cn123017-deactivated20181204

Wait, thats the 2nd biggest crocodile? Then what does the biggest one look like?

thecuckoohaslanded

That would be Cassius, a very old Saltwater crocodile who is estimated to be around 114 years old and lives at Marineland Melanesia in Green Island, Australia. His official measurement is 5.48 meters, which makes him the largest in captivity currently. Because Utan is only slightly smaller and much younger, (only in his 50s), he will likely break Cassius’ record eventually. But for now, Cassius holds the title:

He is NOT, however, either the largest crocodile ever captured in Australia OR the largest ever in captivity.

A slightly larger crocodile has been reported (though not yet comfirmed) to have been captured at 5.58 meters.

And while the famous Brutus of the Adelaide River was estimated to be just slightly larger than Cassius at 5.5m, he was driven out of his territory by a younger and even larger crocodile, who as a result has been given the name, The Dominator. He is estimated to be just over 6m.

This is Brutus, with an appropriate caption:

It is believed that he lost that arm in a fight with a Bull Shark.

The Bull Shark lost.

THIS is the crocodile who kicked him out. The Dominator:

And that’s STILL not the biggest.

The largest living crocodile ever reliably measured was Lolong, who for the 1.5 years between his capture and his death was the largest crocodile ever held in captivity, at a whopping 6.17 meters (20 feet 3 inches) and 1075 kg (2,370 lbs). He had been feeding on both humans and very large livestock in the Bunawan creek in Agusan del Sur in the Philippines. It took 100 people all night to drag him to shore during his capture.

And here’s why:

Also, to prevent credit from getting buried on a separate reblog, I have been informed that the above image of the crocodile with the cartoon eyes and halo was made by @rashkah! (And it is wonderful and I would like to thank him for its existence, because it perfectly captures my feelings about terrifying giant primordial reptiles.)

sometimesihavequestions-deactiv

@theonewhocheeps

theonewhocheeps

Holy fuck

simon-newman

As far as Brutus is concerned I was led to believe that he lost that arm when relatively young.

Since then Brutus developed a habit of hunting and eating Bull Sharks.

Here’s him with a prey.

And if you thought that you’ll be safe if you just stay out of Australia then think again!

Meet Gustave the Nile Croc.

This crocodile became almost legendary for both it’s size and the habit of hunting both livestock AND humans.

So how big is Gustave?

No one is sure. Since he was NEVER captured.

His estimated size is of at least 5,5m but some give him over 6m.

The terrifying parts are:

1) He is still growing having only about 60 years.

2) Adult crocodiles often perform a gesture of submission to him - something usually done by young crocodiles toward adults - Gustave is just THAT BIG.

3) His sheer size makes it difficult for him to catch agile prey Nile crocs tend to feed on - hence why he developed a habit of hunting either larger prey like Hippopotamus or creatures which are not good at spotting danger in the first place like livestock and humans.

And this is NOT ALL.

Gustave actually has a noticeable scars on his body - he was shot at east 3 times and stabbed with a spear or something similar at one occasion.

He lived to tell the tale - my question is:

What happened to that one dude who attacked Gustave with a spear?

thecuckoohaslanded

*Crocodile Dundee voice* Mate, that’s not Gustave:

THIS is Gustave:

And he is the PERFECT CROCODILE. He is the perfect example of what I mean when I talk about (as I do) how the morphology of extremely large crocodiles adapts to the changing physics of their bite.

This is a typical adult Nile Crocodile:

And THIS is a god among his kind:

This is it, folks. The Final Form. THIS is what peak performance looks like.

Crocodiles and physics have an interesting relationship. Crocodiles have, by a CONSIDERABLE MARGIN, the strongest bite of any animal on Earth. EVER. Scaled up estimates (based on Nile and Saltwater crocodiles) give the extinct Deinosuchus an estimated bite force MORE THAN DOUBLE the recently updated Tyrannosaurus bite estimates. Living crocodiles have bite forces measured in the range of 5000 pounds per square inch, for an individual around 15-16 feet. It is estimated that modern crocodiles in the range of 18-20 feet would have bit forces around 7-8000 psi or more.

That’s a problem.

Because a crocodile’s skull is only designed to handle so much pressure. Go beyond that limit and the force of impact when those jaws snap shut could literally shatter their own skulls.

But evolution has spent hundreds of millions of years perfecting crocodiles, so PHYSICS ISN’T GOING TO STOP THEM. What ends up happening in the skulls of these extremely large crocodiles is they will increase dramatically in mass to compensate for the increased forces. A crocodile’s skull is almost exclusively solid bone, with only minimal space for nasal passages, a surprisingly advanced brain, and some slightly porous looking framework that helps the bone distribute the force over a larger area. The effect is by far the most pronounced in Nile crocodiles, which most regularly feed on larger prey and need to make use of all that power.

Compare, 26 inch skull:

vs 29 inch skull:

Both of those are Nile crocodile skulls (or rather, replicas thereof).

And just for fun, here are the skulls of completely different (and very extinct species), Deinosuchus:

and Purussaurus:

The bigger the crocodile (within a given species), the more massive the skull needs to be to compensate for that UNBELIEVABLE bit pressure. This is one way to see from a distance whether you are looking at a normal sized crocodile:

and a truly extraordinary individual:

One of the things about Gustave that’s so impressive is how healthy his teeth look. A lot of large crocodiles, in their old age, have very worn down and often missing teeth. They do replace them many times over a lifetime, but when they get very old this slows down. Gustave, at least in every picture taken of him, had teeth that were in very good condition.

Even crocodiles much smaller than Gustave’s reported size (probably similar in size to Dominator or Lolong) tend to have smaller or more worn teeth:

than the pinnacle of his kind:

muchymozzarella

Lolong! It means Gramps or Grandpa, because he’s a relic of an ancient world where crocs more massive than he was walked the earth. His body is on display somewhere right now though I forgot where.

elvarasokazokakurvaelvarasok-de

jurassic-parks-and-rex

kaijuno

Look at her lil face she’s just like “is this really for me??” It’s so cute I wanna cry

emmeetslawschool

This is missing the very necessary follow up

letmebegaytodd

Couldn't stop thinking about this little man

So i got on ebay and found him

Effervescent

letmebegaytodd

i see we're all on the same wavelength today

thenatsdorf

MA? MAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAM?!?!…MAAAA oh there you are!” (via)

drtanner

The IMMEDIATE change in the tone of the meow when he sees her, oh my god.

youmaycallmeyourhighness

Yeah

iguanamouth

this mug i bought has a cat sitting at the bottom

goodbye kitty

dutchster

tayisoutofthewoods

I’M SO MAD

ferretteeth

can someone like let the human body know that we don’t die at 40 anymore? that i and my family live in suburban Europe and we are not going to die at like 25 from hunting mammoths and i actually do need my teeth and my spine to last for more than 20 fucking years? can someone let evolution know?? our last patch update was “able to digest lactose” (i didn’t get it) and like can we speed it up

ferretteeth

neil-gaiman

This may sound mean, but...

If you send me an ask containing links to Good Omens fan fiction you think I should read, I'll delete it. Do it again and I'll (regretfully) block you. This is a general blanket sort of thing -- I don't want to read it, legally I can't read it, no I won't make it into the next series, and, no matter how pure your motives, it's crossing a line.

neil-gaiman

I’m reading a lot of baffled responses to this. People, I’m showrunning and co-writing the Good Omens TV series. I can’t legally read unsolicited plot ideas. Think of Netflix. Their terms of service include

8.2. Unsolicited Materials. Netflix does not accept unsolicited materials or ideas for Netflix content and is not responsible for the similarity of any of its content or programming in any media to materials or ideas transmitted to Netflix.

…and you’ll find similar clauses out there for other production entities. They are trying to safeguard themselves. There are people out there who are certain that a hit film or TV series is based on their stolen idea. The easiest way to avoid that is to make sure that their ideas can’t get to you.

It’s nothing to do with not approving of what you do. It’s about not putting me, the producers, the BBC or Prime Video at risk — or about having to throw away plans for the future because someone did that in fanfiction first. I can’t legally read unsolicited scripts or story proposals or manuscripts and sending me a link to your or someone else’s Good Omens fiction counts as those things. If I read your story and then did something close to it you could sue. So I’m not going to read it. There’s no emotional baggage in this. I’m definitely not telling you that what you are doing isn’t valid. (And If I wasn’t showrunning I wouldn’t be so Please Don’t and I Will Delete about it. But I am. So don’t. Thank you!)

sepdet

Reminder that "By Any Means Necessary," one of the best episodes of Babylon 5, nearly didn't get made because some fan suggested a similar idea (a workers' strike on the space station, dealing with workers' safety and labor issues at a time when Star Trek: TNG was still on the air).

I can't remember how far along the episode was in production — I think a rough draft of the script had been written —but showrunner J. Michael Straczynski had to pull the plug on the episode until they finally tracked down the fan who'd suggested a "workers' strike" story on Usenet and get legal documents signed that the fan wouldn't sue or ask for a cut of the proceeds. AND the documents had to be watertight enough that Warner Bros' legal dept was satisfied all financial/legal risk had been eliminated. In other words, it wasn't up to JMS to make the call.

Sadly, after that, he could no longer participate in the old Babylon 5 Usenet discussion list, where he used to interact directly with fans, answering questions. It was just safer if he stayed away, because that way nobody could accuse him of lifting ideas for the show. We don't want Neil to have to pull back for the same reason.

A lot of creators avoid social media for the same reason. Those that are here @neil-gaiman , @dduane , have a hard and fast rule not to look at unasked solicitations.

And now that Babylon 5 might get a reboot, JMS has issued a similar request:

One of the most ambitious sci-fi series ever made, Babylon 5, is potentially coming back for a reboot series at The CW.

neil-gaiman

Reblogging for people who think I'm overreacting or whatever.

orteil42

What's your favorite building?

guerrillatech

simariethehawk

and hilariously that is not why it is called that.

It is the circle of the bears cause of ursa major and ursa minor, and the circle without bears cause ya'know opposite part of the sky.

We lucked right into that one....

nerdfighterwhatevernumbers

#so what you’re saying is#the stars dictate whether bears do or do not exist in places

team-bear-arms-deactivated20220

Astrology is real but only for predicting where bears will be

tauforged

yesterday while i was @ target i was in the like arts and crafts-y section looking for stuff i could use to wrap gifts and i saw the cutest little fucking felt garland for party decorations and it was like, vines and flowers, and i was like ‘omg i wish that existed when i was little i would’ve KILLED to have that in my room haha’ and then walked away. not even five minutes later i realized that, being a grown man with my own money, i can literally just. buy it anyway. and put it up in my room. and nobody can stop me. anyway i’m 8$ poorer now but the the back side of my bedroom door looks fucking excellent i’ll have you know

tauforged