drears fantastic world

my art, wanderings and meanderings around the world.

[wolfchildrenn]

*makes this noise at you*

[baepsrae]

His name was George Nkencho. This should not have happened. Don't let this go. Say his name.

Link to resources and places to donate to support BLM in Ireland

[vote-for-eggman]

It has been over 200 days now since she was murdered at the hands of Louisville Police.

[politicalsci]

[a-book-of-creatures]

Honestly the biggest disappointment I had researching ABC was that medieval authors did not, in fact, see the creatures they were describing and were trying their best to describe them with their limited knowledge while going “what the fuck… what the fuck…”

[a-book-of-creatures]

Instead all those creatures you know came about from transcription and translation errors from copying Greco-Roman sources (who themselves got them from travelers’ tales from Persia and India - rhino -> unicorn, tiger -> manticore, python -> dragon, and so on).

[downinmybeastheart]

So unicorns are real

[a-book-of-creatures]

behold… a unicorn

[gallusrostromegalus]

I always thought animals in medieval manuscripts looked like the result of having to draw say. A Tree Kangaroo, but your only source for what it looked like was your friend who heard it from a fellow who knows a man who swears he saw one once, whilst very drunk and lost, and I am SO PLEASED  to find out this is, in fact, the case.

[glamourweaver]

Questing Beast

- Neck of a snake

- body of a leopard

- haunches of a lion

- feet off a hart (deer)

So is it

Or….

[weaselle]

don’t forget that some of the legendary creatures they were describing were from other people’s mythos which were passed down in the oral tradition for gods know how long. You know what existed in Eurasia right around the time we were domesticating wolves into dogs?

these beasties. For a long time, science had them down as going extinct 200 thousand years ago, but then we found some bones from 36 thousand years ago. Which, y’know, is quite a difference. Since you can bet that any skeleton we find is not literally the last one of its kind to live, many creatures have date ranges unknowably far outside the evidence.

In South Asia there were cultures that described a man-beast/troll forrest giant  who’s knuckles dragged the ground, and everybody from the west was sure it was superstitious mumbo jumbo, but you know what used to live there?

And did you know that some of the earliest white colonizers of the Americas heard accounts that there were natives still alive who had seen and hunted and eaten a great hairy beast, shaggy like the buffalo but much bigger, with a long thin nose like a snake and two giant fangs… so, like, mammoths, you know? but they were totally discounted because europeans of the time were like, elephants live in Africa and aren’t hairy, you can’t fool us, pranksters!

Anyway, the point is between the early writing game of telephone description thing talked about by OP, and the discounting of native cultural accuracy, I’m pretty sure most legendary creatures are in fact real animals one way or another 

[historyisntboring]

It can’t explain every single legendary creature, but yes, this is super important. Because History relies on written sources, it tends to sweep oral tradition under the rug, even if there’s a lot of interesting informations in it.

And it’s not just living animals that were badly described, or which descriptions got exaggerated over the course of centuries or through translation errors. Sometimes, people finding fossil bones of extinct animals might have also influenced some myths!

By now this is pretty well-known but it has been theorised that the Greek myth of the cyclops was started when people found Deinotherium skulls. Now you might say, uh, how is it possible to think a cousin of the elephant is a huge human dude with one eye?

Well-

- the big nasal opening kinda looks like an eye if you have no idea what kind of animal had this kind of skull (you can read more about this theory in this old National Geographic article if you like).

Here’s a less well-known one; the griffin is a mythological hybrid with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. The earliest traces of this myth come from ancient Iranian and ancient Egyptian art, from more than 3000 BC. In Iranian mythology, it’s called شیردال‌ (shirdal, “lion eagle”). Now, it’s been the subject of some debate and it’s not confirmed, but there’s a theory that people might have seen some Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus fossils in Asia and might have interpreted it as “a lion with an eagle’s head”:

Check the “origin” part of the wikipedia page for “griffin” if you want to find more sources for this theory and for the arguments against it! Again, it’s just a theory, but I think it’s super cool.

[excessively-english-jd]

This is a pretty well accepted theory for why dragons (or animals we group as like dragons, eg wyverns and drakes) are seen in mythos almost worldwide - because people found dinosaur bones, looked at them, and went “oh fuck what’s that? some big…. lizardy thing?” and then created dragons.

[autisticexpression]

Also many deagon legends are simply exaggerations of well-known living reptiles like snakes and crocodilians.a

[injuries-in-dust]

It also explains why dragons can look so different in the myths of the various regions.

In asia, Dragons tend to look very long and snake like:

One of the most common dinosaurs that used to like in the asia region, so would have been the most common fossils found by people:

The Mamenchisaurus, this thing is just all neck and tail! You find just half a fossilised skeleton of this monster, you can easily end up thinking of a long snake-like beast.

South America also has legends snake-like dragons among some of its peoples:

What fossils from pre-historic south America could be found?

The Titanoboa, which can easily grow to be 40 feet long.

In North America there is the Piasa Bird

Which wikipedia tells me comes from “ the large Mississippian culture city of Cahokia,” it’s describes as

What fossils could have been found in that region:

Pterosaur, and Triceratops. Features of both sets of skeletons could have been merged into one legendary creature.

Then we get our European style dragon:

One of the most common fossils that could have been found was a Cetiosaurus 

which, despite being a herbivore, looked to have a mouth of sharp looking teeth, consistant with a dragons.

Dragons amongst the peoples of Africa are even more varied, but most revolve around some kind of giant snake-like creature. As a quick example, we’ll take Dan Ayido Hwedo commonly found in West African mythology.

Fossils in that area could have been included the Aegyptosaurus:

A quick google search tells me that most Sauropods: well known for being long necked and long tailed, are found in Africa.

If you found only a half complete skeleton of this thing; which is likely, because it’s rare to find a complete dinosaur skeleton, you could easily think of a giant snake monster.

[cryptid-stimming]

x

[hopeysl-deactivated20201028]

Ah but to be a waterdrop with googly eyes

[glow-cloud--doodles]

http://chng.it/2TrMRPgFjS

Sign the Petition

STOP ICE FROM POISONING IMMIGRANTS!

Help stop the gassing of Immigrants!!

[milf-adjacent]

We need to do more than sign a petition. Don't shut up about this.

[guiltyidealist]

Hey, followers?

Don't scroll past this.

[dandymeowth]

There are people in the notes saying this isn’t a gassing and it’s “just” a disinfectan0 being sprayed on surfaces to avoid covid, and people are “just” having allergic reactions to it

https://dandymeowth.tumblr.com/post/619934243092561920/your-url-is-problematic-odddior-i-know

That post explains better what this chemical is and what is going on.

“The guards are spraying this disinfectant in retaliation for the report [that revealed the deplorable health conditions in detention centers]. To be clear - HDQ is an industrial-strength disinfectant, which according to the manufacturer is “harmful if inhaled” and “causes severe skin burns and serious eye damage.” The guards are spraying it on everything every 15-30 minutes, according to sources, and immigrants in the center have already experienced severe symptoms including blisters, rashes, bleeding, fainting, breathing difficulties, headaches, stomach pain, and nausea. “

It’s not just allergic reactions. That’s a severe misunderstanding of what disinfectants do and a refusal to acknowledge how serious this is and WHY people are freaking out.

No, they’re not literally being gassed in the grandiose (gore-iose?) way you’d think of - being shoved into an iron chamber like animals that then is filled with gas that melts their skin... But they are still being forced to into small areas with harmful fumes and surfaces covered in chemicals that are made to eat living matter.

If you had to be in a room for days and weeks with bleach or peroxide all over everything, you don’t need to be allergic to start having severe reactions. Cleaning chemicals say to use protective gear and ventilate the area for a REASON.

[tenthdynasty]

[maladi0401]

This is really not okay. It wasn’t okay before, and now it’s worse than it was.

[curiousobsession101]

I work as a university custodian. This is the chemical we’re using to sanitize surfaces we’ve cleaned due to coronavirus. We’re not supposed to spray it directly on any surfaces. We spray it onto a cloth and then wipe surfaces with it. It’s supposed to dry before people come into contact with those surfaces. Once it dries on water fountains it’s rinsed off (I don’t know if it actually does anything to rinse it off when it’s already dried but that’s the procedure - we have to let it dry to make sure it’s had enough time to kill virus particles). That’s in university buildings with extra ventilation that are sanitized twice a day. This is horrifying.

[spliffspiegel-deactivated202104]

You said “Black Lives Matter”.

Well mine is on the line.

If everyone who sees this donates $1, I can meet my goal in no time:

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that the donation minimum in the site is $5. I completely understand that people may not be able to give that much. I was also told I should add my cashapp, it is: $hotpotatojuan. Anything is appreciated, even a reblog! Thank you all so much, the support has been unbelievable!

Help Juani Home, organized by Juani B

Things are looking very bleak for me; I should have been out of my apartment in March and am technically squat… Juani B needs your support f

Please do not pass this without at least reblogging. Please do not hinder me from recieving all possible help I can get. Thank you.

[translesbianethics]

[benepla-deactivated20200506]

[systlin]

Sometimes you see a post and just realize there’s some Wild Shit going on in a community you never knew existed

[unicorncryptid]

[carebear-onion-lizard]

Attached for original context

[the-anime-void]

Finally, I understand

[supreme-leader-stoat]

THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT. THIS WAS THE ORIGINAL POST.

[shoyowo]

Hey remember when US and Russia was all like “We’re the best!!! We’ve won the space race!!!!” But India sent a kick-ass space probe to Mars and the whole mission was fuel efficient, costed less and a roaring success in the first try and then they were like “…..wait no that can’t be true” and still have the audacity to call us “underdeveloped” or only view us as a ‘third world country’? :)

For anyone who needs more info, the probe was called Mangalyaan (which literally means space probe vehicle) or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and you can also get more information here and here

[shoyowo]

Remember when NYT mocked India for this very thing and an TOI (a major indian newspaper) responded with this? :)

They were being racist asf and we were till respectful literally fuck you if you think ‘third world counties’ can’t be better than you

[shoyowo]

white people can and should reblog this

[seriesofnonsequiturs]

and shout out to the women engineers integral to the launch

“Indian staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation celebrate after the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft entered Mars’s orbit.

On November 5, 2013, a rocket launched toward Mars. It was India’s first interplanetary mission, Mangalyaan, and a terrific gamble. Only 40 percent of missions sent to Mars by major space organizations—NASA, Russia’s, Japan’s, or China’s—had ever been a success. No space organization had succeeded on its first attempt. What’s more, India’s space organization, ISRO, had very little funding: while NASA’s Mars probe, Maven, cost $651 million, the budget for this mission was $74 million. 

This was not the only success of the mission. An image of the scientists celebrating in the mission control room went viral. Girls in India and beyond gained new heroes: the kind that wear sarees and tie flowers in their hair, and send rockets into space.”

x

[ambrosiadarling]

there’s a movie adaptation of this! it’s obviously more dramatized/they use different names but i really really loved the movie! it’s called mission mangal and it was the first time i had heard of this and i was so surprised that literally? no one talked about it??? what they accomplished is incredible.

[lastbenchpapers]

ALSO, Mangalyaan launched in 2013 and was meant to be a 6 month mission. It’s been in orbit around Mars now for more than 5 years and has enough propellant to keep going for even longer.

[sunlit-cashmere]

“The kind that wear sarees and tie flowers in their hair, and send rockets into space.”

FUCK YES. THIS IS THE TYPE OF REPRESENTATION I’VE BEEN HERE FOR!!

I love how the dudes at back are pure happy!!

[nevver]

The Past is The Past, Matt Bors

[wha-et-deactivated20210209]

Let’s reblog this until everybody sees it

[colossalfauna-moved-deactivated]

y'all will circlejerk yourself to the mysticisms of faeries and elves in european countries for centuries and take it as fact but the second native americans ask you to respect our spirituality and culture suddenly you're all aetheists

[colossalfauna-moved-deactivated]

non natives can, should, and will reblog this.

[chamomile-bruxawitch]

same goes for african rooted religions.

[ladykalila]

goes without saying, but also Asian and Pacific Islands' indigenous spiritualities and religions.

[callmearcturus]

Some take-aways from the Trump tax thing:

1. The way he’s been able to continue functioning is a classic rich fuck tactic, in which if your business fails to the tune of, say, 15 million dollars, you can carry that loss forward across several years to avoid paying taxes. One massive loss can clear out your personal tax burden for several years, even as you bring in more money with new businesses and investments.

2. Trump is literally a national security risk. If he underwent the same background check other people need to pass to get clearance, he would have fucking flunked it. The NYT piece says there’s a mysterious foreign debt lender on Trump’s records, whom he owes half a billion dollars, and we don’t currently know who the fuck that is. But that debt is personally guaranteed to come due in the next few years, and he doesn’t have the money to even dent it. So, what does a man with no morals do when he owes a shitton of money and has no way to pay? Apparently he runs for president.

3. According to Dan Alexander at Forbes, the actual amount that Trump owes is spread across a lot of his properties and comes to around $1.1 billion overall. Same dude is trying to tally up how much income Trump’s properties bring in. So far, it doesn’t add up to that much.

4. Trump’s businesses are almost exclusively real estate, hospitality, and attractions. All of them were hit hard by COVID. This readily explains why he was so adamant about reopening the country as quickly as possible; his loan repayments depend on that income.

5. Also explains why he spends so much time away from the WH and at his own properties. When we talk about how much the taxpayer spends on Trump’s outings and golf trips, if that money is paid to the Trump Organization, it’s essentially an attempt to funnel money out of the US Govt and into his pockets to, again, prepare to pay off his massive debts.

6. He’s essentially using the IRS as a loan provider. That massive 72.9 million dollar tax return from the IRS that he’s being audited over, it’s essentially him taking out a ‘loan’ to try to pay down other prior debts.

7. Oh yeah and he stealthily wrote off a bunch of money in “consulting fees” that were paid to fucking Ivanka. Imagine using your own daughter to dodge taxes, jesus.

Basically, Trump has done the billionaire version of taking out a credit card to pay off other credit card debt, and the time is running out for him to make payments. His entire presidency is a money-making scheme of someone who is coming up on major deadlines on his loans and doesn’t have the money to pay.

There’s a lot of reading to do, but I personally suggest this thread from the Forbes guy, which outlines how much Trump is in debt for each of his properties, and then how much operating profit is allegedly coming in.

[joshpeck]

jeff bezos do this challenge

[eridansheeran-moved-deactivated]

the whole “fiction doesn’t affect reality” argument is actually kinda racist…

[eridansheeran-moved-deactivated]

people talk about like how finding nemo and jaws are great examples but nobody ever talks about how fiction has shaped our perceptions of different racial and ethnic groups like do you think the media has no hand in why alot of ignorant white people think africa is a desertland and not a continent of different countries, full of rich and diverse cultures, beautiful buildings and riches? or why they think asia is only japan, korea and china? when asia is also india, bhutan, the Philippines, nepal, etc? do you think that media and fiction hasnt allowed whites to view black people as ignorant and lazy thru cartoons and minstrel shows? like if you really think what youre seeing on tv doesnt affect reality and how people think then like. you must be fuckin stupid.

[mrsgojosatoru]

there are several studies which prove this by the way. like how black children (and white girls) self esteem is negatively impacted by media.  

studies show our perception about asian americans, and their perceptions of themselves are impacted by media.

there are harmful psychological effects on native americans thanks to sports mascots. 

stereotypes of latino/latina/latines in media have - you guessed it - harmful effects - including political ones 

how about how inaccurate race and poverty images in the news effect our views on welfare?

positive images of disability effect disabled people positively, where as negative images effect them negatively 

the availability of GLB roles on TV positively impacts the gay community

and i honestly i could go on and on and on and on 

i know i know water is wet, all these studies to tell you what common sense could. but like … there is very real research out there that shows fiction has a very real harmful impact on minority communities. and that positive representation has a positive effect on these communities. 

so no. fiction is never just fiction. and frankly people who think fiction is just fiction can fuck off.  

[nutheadgee-deactivated20190314]

Wait this version is better.

[ashten009]

this is important to spread around!!! minorities keep asking for positive representation ANYWHERE and THIS IS WHY!!!! it makes us feel like we mean something, like we belong! give me a trans poc disabled kid who is a really skilled hacker or watever GIVE US REPRESENTATION

[sighdumbb]

[shavingryansprivates-deactivate]

holy shit

[josukekun-deactivated20130906]

JESUS

[tramampoline]

omg

[itsvondell-deactivated20180104]

wh

[transhumanisticpanspermia]

it’s back

[arcticsirius]

wat

[mage-of-time]

I have yet to witness something as fucked up as this

[ttrust-no-one]

WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ

[runawayalters]

wow

[actualmonster]

Holy shit

[swagakuya-brogami-deactivated20]

This is an ace attorney trial

[overtheblueridgemountains]

“Now comes the exquisite twist”

[duckiedyke-deactivated20220716]

The son had actually murdered himself

[postmastered]

it’s a big murder cycle

[karlaaqualight]

What the actual fuck?!??!!

[mrneighbourlove]

How the Examiner kept needing to recorrect his autopsy. Love this completely bizarre scenario. 

[quicksilverlightning]

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.

[moved--306389]

Bro what in the f

[aphony-cree]

This is a fictional scenario made up by a forensic scientist, Robert Mills, for a speech he gave at a banquet. It gets falsely attributed as “a true story from Associated Press” because they were in attendance at that banquet

It’s a great scenario though and Mills is apparently happy that it still gets told and was even used in a movie

[draskireis]

…This is a pretty good crim law exam hypo.