Be Cool

Miranda she/they. Nothing original only random reblogs

[asthedeathoflight]

Resisting the urge to Um Actually this dragon novel because it has the dragon eggs be like three or four feet wide but there is simply a limit to how large hard-shelled terrestrial eggs can be. No matter how large the animal is, the embryo needs oxygen, and oxygen needs surface area. The larger an object is, the lower its surface area relative to volume, and the less oxygen the embryo can receive. We think of large animals as having porportionately large young because mammalian pregnancy has the unique benefit of allowing for the size of the young to scale with the adult because their oxygen is provided directly through the placenta, and almost all the megafauna remaining on Earth are mammals. But this is not the case for species which lay eggs! For fuck's sake even the sauropods hatched out of eggs barely larger than basketballs! Your hatchling dragon would be impressively enormous if it were the size of a house cat. Stop trying to make me believe that this (ROUND!) dragon egg somehow supplied enough oxygen to develop an infant the size of a large dog or even bigger. If it were possible the dinosaurs woulda been doing it!!!!

[achillbeing]

I love you /lh. Experts going off on their particular fascinating cool topics and adding unexpected context to things we take for granted is like my favorite thing this was delightful. Talk to me more about eggs and geometry and biology all you want :D

[achillbeing]

Amazing concept

[baddywronglegs]

OK so now can we reverse it and maths out the minimum atmospheric oxygen pressure based on the described size of a dragon egg?

[rapidashrider]

What does it say that my immediate response was to start imagining how an egg might be larger and yet have an adequate surface area to provide appropriate quantities of oxygen and my instant solution was PINE CONE DESIGN EGG

[baddywronglegs]

... Suddenly the common modern depiction of dragon eggs covered in scales makes sense, they're not dragon scales, they're additional surface area for diffusion

[nyaa]

horse with a dvd player on its back 2006-03-21

[nyaa]

wild

[nerveblot]

sorry I have some kind of brain disease

I suspect this was meant as a visual pun because this server is rated for 733 watts, almost exactly one metric horsepower

[creepymutelilbugger]

if it wasn’t for some kind of brain disease, we would all have forgotten this punchline. everyone say thank you some kind of brain disease

[great-and-small]

Saddest thing ever is reading an academic paper about a threatened or declining species where you can tell the author is really trying to come up with ways the animal could hypothetically be useful to humans in a desperate attempt to get someone to care. Nobody gives a shit about the animals that “don’t affect” us and it seriously breaks my heart

[great-and-small]

“No I can’t come out tonight I’m sobbing about this entomologist’s heartfelt plea for someone to care about an endangered moth”

[bogleech]

This is how I learn there's a moth whose tiny caterpillars live exclusively off the old shells of dead tortoises.

[thepastisaroadmap]

[Image description: text from a section titled On Being Endangered: An Afterthought that says:

Realizing that a species is imperiled has broad connotations, given that it tells us something about the plight of nature itself. It reminds us of the need to implement conservation measures and to protect the region of which the species is a part. But aside form the broader picture, species have intrinsic worth and are deserving of preservation. Surely an oddity such as C. vicinella cannot simply be allowed to vanish.

We should speak up on behalf of this little moth, not only because by so doing we would bolster conservation efforts now underway in Florida, [highlighting begins] but because we would be calling attention to the existence of a species that is so infinitely worth knowing. [end highlighting]

But is quaintness all that can be said on behalf of this moth? Does this insect not have hidden value beyond its overt appeal? Does not its silk and glue add, potentially, to its worth? Could these products not be unique in ways that could ultimately prove applicable?

End image description]

[headspace-hotel]

because we would be calling attention to the existence of a species that is so infinitely worth knowing

[rackiera]

I was so inspired by this I made it into a piece of art for a final in one of my courses for storytelling in conservation

[a-book-of-creatures]

[stillons-deactivated20230901]

im kinda bored of this whole computers thing. i think tomorrow im gonna go outside and see if i find some kind of creature to look at

[wizardshark]

Deactivated.... Op did it boys

[ben-shapiro-onlyfans]

wikipedia is a gem

[laineysbucketlist]

If I’m correct, this is from the article “list of common misconceptions” which happens to be one of my favorite Wikipedia articles

[xkcd-for-that]

[ID in alt text]

[xkcd-for-that]

Happy first Tuesday in February!

[flowerytale]

Susan Sontag, from As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks 1964-1980

[justsomeguycore]

#mycorner #mymonstrousneeds

[herpsandbirds]

Green Lappet Moth (Trabala sp.), family Lasiocampidae, MCM Nature Discovery Villa, Fraser's Hill, Pahang, Malaysia

photograph by David Fischer

[talisidekick]

A while back my pharmacist saw my deadname on my profile and accidentially called it out, he corrected and deleted my deadname from the system so only my preferred name shows up now. There was a crowd of people behind me, so as he hands over the pills he apologized, in equal tone and volume as when he called my deadname and lied saying it's been a long day and he didn't mean to call out -his own- name. I quietly told him it was fine and he didn't need to do that for my sake.

His response: "No, it's my name now."

I went to the pharmacist yesterday, his nametag is my deadname. He informed me he's immigrating and in the process he's changed his first name to my deadname to have an English sounding name. That's why he's now able to get a reprint of his nametag to be my deadname. And repeated, with the intense seriousness of someone who is going to die on this hill: "It's mine now. Not yours. I'm taking." His tone indicated that decision is final.

Bro literally deadnamed me once, and has committed to flat out stealing my deadname. It's his now. Legally. Officially. I over heard his co-workers call him by the name.

[toastyglow]

[curlicuecal]

[eros-cestlavie]

since we're all talking about eclipses let me share my favourite eclipse fact: the mystery eclipse of 811

eclipses were pretty noteworthy in the middle ages, as were all movements of the heavenly bodies - particularly for calculating the date of easter (which is determined by the lunar cycle, following the calculation of passover).

a list of eclipses can be found in a few manuscripts produced between 809 and 812 in the carolingian empire, and it's broadly accurate. the entries record the date and time of the eclipse, as well as its location in the sky, as for the eclipse of 807: "In 807, there was again an eclipse of the Sun on 11 February in the 26th part of Aquarius around the sixth hour of the day." (this is correct for the year 807, and was probably a record of a past event.)

however, one entry simply reads: "In 811, there was an eclipse of the Sun on 27 April, in the first hour of the day." NASA records show when historical eclipses occured, and there was no eclipse visible in Europe in the year 811. But there was an eclipse that year - in Australia (on the 26th of May).

So the list wasn't a record of observed eclipses, but a list of predictions - using the easter table and some very good maths, the author was able to calculate when future eclipses would occur, even in places where nobody from europe had ever been. the location wasn't included, because they knew that the constellations would look different in the southern hemisphere.

this all goes to show that medieval people weren't stupid - their understanding of the world may have been vastly different from our own, but they were just as curious as anybody else at any other point in time. dismissing the middle ages as a 'dark age' when knowledge was stunted by belief fails to see how wonderful the middle ages can be - how people have always been brilliant, and curious, and have sought out new knowledge, all through history.

(this info comes mainly from a blog post by the wonderful james t. palmer, which is here, and has some more source links. ive also heard about it in papers/wider reading but i cant give a source for those)

[iosonomer-blog]

[mandsleanan]

Minding your own business and some fucking scarab just rolls a big ball of shit over you

[cryoverkiltmilk]

How do you go on with life after that?

[merinnan]

[hannahvardit]

that take-out is going to be freezing by the time it gets home.

[americanninjax-deactivated20191]

I still think about this comic all the time.

[setheverman]

you: suck my dick me, an intellectual: inhale my richard

[setheverman]

here it is! the post that started a “me, an intellectual” hell frenzy, and is officially ⭐ the worst post of 2016 ⭐

[youngbloodthekilljoy]

you: the worst post of 2016

me, an intellectual: modern art

[yes-im-youtube-kids]

Look everyone look

[hypersensationalism]

this is genuinely making me lose it

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Let them keep going, I wanna see where this leads

[pansyfemme]

im sure ive said this before but speaking as a hairy guy who wears skirts more than pants. sometimes you guys put guys in maid dresses when they’re more of a tight blue jeans type femme.. putting fictional men in cute little outfits needs to be done with care.. feminize him but let his style peak thru.. they can’t all be catboys and submissive maids…

[pansyfemme]

also sometimes some guys would wear maid dresses but they’d be party city fuckin unironed wrinkled shiny plasticy fabric shit. absolute dismal presentation. but it would fit character wise. because i care about these kinds of things

[hellsitegenetics]

String identified:

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a        t          g            a   a             t t   ’      a t  c t    c                              a t c   a   c    t. a     t      a        tat   .   t  t         t c a act       .   ca      ca   a   t t              t   g 

Closest match: Scutellaria minor genome assembly, chromosome: 12 Common name: Lesser skullcap

[gaphic]

Finally a gimmick blog I can fucking get behind

[suiheisen]

i watch baseball for the side quests

[dappergamelord]

throwback to 2021 when the exact same player started doing this extended water bottle bincoculars sight gag in the dugout

[stuckinnet]

this is the same guy who also made himself a fruit cocktail midgame. he is The manic pixie dream girl

[warriornunnery]

baseball is actually not a sport it’s just a documentary of human nature and how we battle boredom. the stuff these teams get up to while they’re waiting their turn.

and it’s hilarious when they pull pranks on each other, like attaching things to other people’s caps:

or the beloved hot foot prank:

or when they decided to put a guy’s pants over his head and make it seem like he was walking on his hands:

or when they opposing pitchers took turns playing tic tac toe every time they got on the mound:

[yokowan]

i take back everything bad i've ever said about baseball these boys can fucking Post

[randomthunk]

Sometimes you have to entertain yourself out in the field too, like the time Victor Robles made friends with a praying mantis.

[warriornunnery]

and some college baseball shenanigans