Assorted Geekeries

she/her. queer Pagan with a penchant for tree-climbing, writing, & getting overly excited about esoterica. I post stuff on AO3. Formerly a CQL/Untamed blog, now multifandom plus landscapes, cats, bugs, & whatever strikes my fancy.

[halfsey]

i would like 151 episodes, 2 manga tie-ins, an arcade beat-em-up, and at least 3 theatrical films of this. please

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)

Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.

Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.

This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.

The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).

Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.

Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.

[m3bl3kuch3nn3]

I had to do it hehe

og image

[ilinit]

Make a Beaft with me!

Beaft Maker

Welcome to the beaft maker! Make a beaftsona! Make a heraldic beaft! Make the beaft of your dreams! You will need to reposition some acce

Beaftmaker by the incredible @draconym

@spones-in-my-bones @cookieloveranddaydreamer @radwolf76 @mr-stendahl @misscandyla @boywithantlersao3 @wherethegoldenleavesfall @p1nkparader

And everyone who wants!

(Again when tasked with remembering my mutuals my mind goes blank)

[spones-in-my-bones]

How majestic!!! 100000/10 beafts!!

@muiromem @adenil-umano @spocksbedsidemanner @vanillatumbleweedscoffee @cosleia @enterprisetrampstamp and anyone else who wants to make one!

[spocksbedsidemanner]

Thank you Spones! So lovely!! 💜💜💜💜💜 Presenting my beaft~

Tagging @elvencantation @vvitchering and the person reading this right now 👀 you know you want to make a beaft 👀👀

[elvencantation]

finally got to this beauty!!!! tagging @thursdayplaid, @ori-flails, @karetahana, @thereismusicinmysoul, @livenarrator, @aspiring-warrior-librarian, @morwentrouble. @feanna

[morwentrouble]

yesss favorite in a while

@the-snail-queen @5ellaal5 @zelkwin @sunlit-capybara @abellandapomegranate @arag0ns @flamingwell join me in some mediæval whimsy ^_^

[without-ado]

Strawberry Full Moon over Ely Cathedral l VeronicaJoPo

[master-john-uk]

29th June 2026. This year's Strawberry Moon was extremely low in the sky, which made it look very large and bright. (A perfect photographic opportunity!)

[vividciggy]

How I imagine Camilla cuffing Harrow went

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Sam Handwich.

[sufficientlylargen]

If Pikiwedia says it it must be true.

[zooperdoopers]

I made Pikiwedia real. Works for any Wikipedia page. Use this wisely :)‌

[sufficientlylargen]

Oh, wary dell vone

[zooperdoopers]

Goodmorning to the Anthropic Claude AI training scraper that suddenly decided to request 660 thousand pages (exactly the number I had remaining on the starter plan) and brought Pikiwedia down. 

Sudden switch from diverse user agents like chrome, safari, messenger preview to Just Claudebot. I'm not even mad though, this is maybe the funniest thing possible, because I've inadvertently poisoned their training data with thousands of fucked up articles with normal urls. 

Pikiwedia perseveres, back up with a better robots.txt. I hope Anthropic has a gery vood time with Pikiwedia's data :))

[cozy2000]

time to post my favorite far side comic of all time

[bareniabirkin]

😟😳😳😳

[squadron-of-damned]

#idk what this means or if i do this but ig i'll just hold my phone with my pinky stuck out from now on?? 

Good question, also no that won’t help.

shitty MS Paint 3 minutes doodle, nto entirely accurate: When you have your pinky hooked on the “bottom” edge of the phone for the extra security so it doesn’t slide out of your hand that easily, you’re wreaking damage on your hand, since the pinky is extremely askew from it’s resting position. You might have noticed that when you hold your phone like that for long time it begins to hurt, like when you are gripping a pen too tightly for example.

Green lines - the fingers are going their natural way. Red line - the pinky is way off, that’s bad.

[theclockworkjudas]

Me: Oh, good thing I never-

Me, looking down at hand: By talos this can't be happening

[64mpg]

“my friend is ALWAYS sick and cancelling our plans” it sounds like your friends life suuucks and you should check on them

[lottafeelingsinhere]

One of the worst parts of being chronically ill is how lonely it gets. You need a community to help you but you realize just how conditional your friendships are on you being able bodied.

[morwentrouble]

if you've ever debated whether or not to invite a friend bc you know it's even odds that they'll cancel on you, or rolled your eyes when they do, please read any random dozen of the tagsets on this post I'm begging you

most spoonies I know have lost at least a few friends over the years specifically because people have a hard time sitting with the reality of illness that doesn't get better, or get too frustrated when their friend "is flaky" & can't keep up with their healthy peers' social lives. don't be that person.

[couture-heaux-blog]

Details at Chanel Spring 2009 RTW

[life-on-our-planet]

Dragonfly larva eats mosquito larvae ©rarasukekun

[wifiwuxians]

this scene in the stage play was absolutely terrifying. at the same time, i was surprised by how physical everything was; every other adaptation was very quick, very cut and dry, and on stage we see the buildup, the pointless struggle...

[figtional]

photos from hirokolele on instagram

[morwentrouble]

fucker died of a broken heart [.]

[5ellaal5]

More like, his body refused to carry what his heart was dishing out, after hardening against the intensity of it for many years, and it refused by ripping itself apart.

(The aorta is the first artery to carry oxygenated blood after the heart as it distributes blood to all the body including the heart itself)

[morwentrouble]

@5ellaal5 yes. you get it

[fer7adami]

A world full of colors

Full color wheel challenge, what a fun challenge <3

[fer7adami]

A world full of colors

Full color wheel challenge, what a fun challenge <3