thehappiestshrimp

a blog where i, a shrimp, share things that please my little shrimp heart (it's me blaise)

[lesbx]

Ant wars are the most badass thing in the entire world i’m so serious

“bugs fight ten million wars every day” statistical error, most bugs chillax like crazy. Ants on the other hand have waged bloody war for millions of years and have trained their bodies and minds for battle from birth as modern day tiny spartans and are an outlier

[geopsych]

Heading into the woods

[apoemaday]

Brilliance

by Mark Doty

Maggie’s taking care of a man who’s dying; he’s attended to everything, said goodbye to his parents,

paid off his credit card. She says Why don’t you just run it up to the limit?

but he wants everything squared away, no balance owed, though he misses the pets

he’s already found a home for — he can’t be around dogs or cats, too much risk. He says,

I can’t have anything. She says, A bowl of goldfish? He says he doesn’t want to start

with anything and then describes the kind he’d maybe like, how their tails would fan

to a gold flaring. They talk about hot jewel tones, gold lacquer, say maybe

they’ll go pick some out though he can’t go much of anywhere and then abruptly he says I can’t love

anything I can’t finish. He says it like he’s had enough of the whole scintillant world,

though what he means is he’ll never be satisfied and therefore has established this discipline,

a kind of severe rehearsal. That’s where they leave it, him looking out the window,

her knitting as she does because she needs to do something. Later he leaves a message:

Yes to the bowl of goldfish. Meaning: let me go, if I have to, in brilliance. In a story I read,

a Zen master who’d perfected his detachment from the things of the world remembered, at the moment of dying,

a deer he used to feed in the park, and wondered who might care for it, and at that instant was reborn

in the stunned flesh of a fawn. So, Maggie’s friend — Is he going out

Into the last loved object Of his attention? Fanning the veined translucence

Of an opulent tail, Undulant in some uncapturable curve Is he bronze chrysanthemums,

Copper leaf, hurried darting, Doubloons, icon-colored fins Troubling the water?

[geopsych]

After two and a half weeks under the snow, look who’s shown up ready to continue blooming as if nothing happened! Snowdrops have their name for a reason. (Believe me, the snow is still 8 to 10 inches deep almost everywhere else but these are along a south-facing light colored wall.)

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Crystal Rod

Artist: Amy Weber TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[thehappiestshrimp]

baguette de cristal

[70sscifiart]

Eric Fraser's 1981 cover and interior illustrations for Radio Times, illustrating the serialized BBC radio drama of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Brian Sibley has the fun story behind these illustrations at his blog, and I have some more LotR art stuff in the latest issue of my newsletter.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Remedy

“These things will protect you while I’m gone, remind you of my love for you.” —"Love Song of Night and Day"

Artist: Zina Saunders TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[c86]

Cricket and Other Friends, 1974

Artwork by Friso Henstra

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

We are approaching the maximum of images you can post here so I thought it was time I make a little showcase of all the formation pieces we covered so far on the streams.

For people who don't know: for several months now I draw one formation or fossil locality every Saturday. The next place we visit is chosen by a wheel of names, which we also constantly fill up again when a new formation is picked.

I try to make it as interesting as possible in my composition and choice of animals and I can tell you this series has been a great training when it comes to constructing these, how I call them, Menageries.

I have to thank a team of friends and colleagues who help behind the scenes with research, creation of size charts and conversation partners when it comes to deciding on the compositions of these pieces. Their help has been invaluable!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Can we get around the 30 image limit by reposting with a new image to the thread each week? We shall see. Mazon Creek now, Toolebuc formation this Saturday.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding Toolebuc formation

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Cleveland Shale of the Ohio formation.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Consthum quarry

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Ermaying formation

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Bahariya formation!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Whitewater formation!

Btw. this was the last formation piece of the year, I would love to know what has been your favorite so far!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Bugti hills member of the Chitarwata formation.

First formation stream of the year!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Gigantopithecus fauna of Pleistocene China!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Hell Creek formation from the latest Cretaceous of North America! Our 1 year anniversary for this series!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Rio do Rasto formation from the middle Permian of Brazil!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Corral Bluffs from the early Paleocene of the Denver formation.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Fossil Butte member of the Eocene Green River formation.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Soom Shale, member of the Cederberg Formation in South Africa. A late Ordovician world of oddities.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Miocene St. Bathans fauna from New Zealand! A spark of life after this fauna island nearly drowned in the Oligocene!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Candeleros formation from the Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Argentina. Home of Giganotosaurus and many sauropods.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Rhynie Chert locality from the Devonian of Scotland. A geothermal wetland preserving early landplants and animals.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Ischigualasto formation from the Upper Triassic of Argentina, known for some of the oldest dinosaurs.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding Emu Bay Shale, from the Cambrian of Australia. No. 50 in this series!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding Sirius Passet, another Cambrian lagerstätte from Greenland. Tons of weird critters from here, among them the more than 50 cm long Pambdelurion.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding Bear Gulch, an incredibly diverse locality from the Carboniferous of Montana! So many fish, so little time.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Niobrara Formation of the late Cretaceous. The second Western Interior Seaway piece of the series.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Maevarano formation from Late Ctretaceous Madagascar. A wonderland of small and large oddities.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Pleistocene of Flores, a kingdom of tiny humans, tiny elephants and a whole bunch of giant rats, storks and lizards.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Las Hoyas locality, an early Cretaceous wetland full of all sort of beautiful little critters... and Concevenator.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Dinosaur Park Formation of the Late Cretaceous of Canada. A classic when it comes to tyrannosaurs, ceratopsians and hadrosaurs.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Tiki formation from the Triassic of India, a paradise for phytosaurs.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Holocene of New Zealand, a bird world that we just missed, largely because of ourselves.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Cerro del Pueblo formation from the Cretaceous of Mexico, a place for strange hadrosaurs and even stranger ornithomimosaur.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Gogo Formation from the Devonian of Australia! A classic, very productive formation full of placoderms.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Hornerstown formation of the latest Cretaceous and early Plaeocene of New Jersey! A witness to the K-Pg event.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Hammerschmiede clay pit, this is what peak Miocene looks like in Europe ;)

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

YOU CAN'T STOP ME! Adding the Gargano island fauna, a Miocene/Pliocene world of insular oddballs.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Ocher sub-assemblage zone from the Middle Permian of Russia! Estemmenosuchus, Estemmenosuchus everywhere!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Patrick Burn Formation, our first Silurian formation and home to a fun mix of arthropods and jawless fish!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Kuanti Formation, a window into early jawed fish evolution in the Silurian.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Jialingjiang Formation, the early Triassic home of the hupehsuchians!

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Judith River formation from the Late Cretaceous of Montana. A paradise for ceratopsians but also home of one of the largest crocs ever.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Seaham Formation from the Carboniferous of Australia, a tundra that grew in the vicinity of glaciers and volcanoes.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Altmühltal Formation of the Solnhofen Archipelago, an arid pterosaur paradise from the late Jurassic of Germany

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

Adding the Irdin Manha Formation from the Eocene of Inner Mongolia (China), hoke of Andrewsarchus.

[70sscifiart]

Richard Bober's cover to the 1976 Dell Laurel-Leaf edition of A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. Bober was only confirmed as the artist in 2023!

[sovietpostcards]

Bench made out of a big geode. Photo by Vsevolod Tarasevich (Sverdlovsk, 1958).

[transparentfossil]

3.3" Silver Iridescent Ammonite (Cleoniceras) Fossil - Madagascar

[mostlythemarsh]

Who's There?

[judgeitbyitscover]

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

Cover art by Elizabeth Malczynski

Bantam 1977

For centuries, the world of Pern has faced a destructive force known as Thread. But the number of magnificent dragons who have protected this world and the men and women who ride them are dwindling.

As fewer dragons ride the winds and destruction falls from the sky, Menolly has only one to sing, play, and weave the music that comes to her so easily—she wishes to become a Harper. But despite her great talents, her father believes that a young girl is unworthy of such a respected position and forbids her to pursue her dreams. So Menolly runs away, taking shelter in a cave by the sea. Miraculously, she happens upon nine fire lizards that could possibly save her world...and change her life forever.

[transparentfossil]

5.1" Fossil Dragonfly - Solnhofen Limestone

[retroscifiart]

Preliminary sketch (1973) by Don Davis for Ringworld by Larry Niven

[geopsych]

Sunrise floating in the lake, September 2021