almost home
Three Goblin Art
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JBB: An Artblog!
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
taylor price
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
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Claire Keane
Origami Around
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
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One Nice Bug Per Day
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Cosmic Funnies
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Not today Justin
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
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@timesailor
The problematic portrayal of minority characters in the FMA manga and Brotherhood: an explanation.
I’ve been in this fandom for a very long time, and fans of the manga, and more recently Brotherhood, are often perplexed by the assertion that these versions have any problems in their portrayal of non-white minority characters. So, for the sake of clarification, I’ve written an explanation as to what I feel these problems are, and why I find them so upsetting.
Keep reading
Support women of color!
https://www.youcaring.com/samantha-784581
Intricate animal and flower tattoos found on Egyptian mummy
A mummy from ancient Egypt was heavily tattooed with sacred symbols, which may have served to advertise and enhance the religious powers of the woman who received them more than 3,000 years ago.
The newly reported tattoos are the first on a mummy from dynastic Egypt to show actual objects, among them lotus blossoms on the mummy’s hips, cows on her arm and baboons on her neck. Just a few other ancient Egyptian mummies sport tattoos, and those are merely patterns of dots or dashes.
Especially prominent among the new tattoos are so-called wadjet eyes: possible symbols of protection against evil that adorn the mummy’s neck, shoulders and back.
“Any angle that you look at this woman, you see a pair of divine eyes looking back at you,” says bioarchaeologist Anne Austin of Stanford University in California, who presented the findings last month at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Read more.
This is amazing.
Relief block with coat of arms of Cholula
Puebla, Mexico. Cholulan. Early 16th century.
The Aztecs, like other Mesoamerican peoples before them, devised a form of writing to record important events and other aspects of their culture: they chronicled their history, genealogies, and the lineage of rulers; they recorded land distribution, population counts, tribute payments, and laws by which they lived; and priests kept sacred books dealing with gods and the religious ceremonies honoring them. Aztec writing was based on a system of signs and symbols, some pictographic, others ideographic, and some incorporating phonetic elements. The glyphs represent the names of people, events, and places and served as mnemonic devices helping the reader to fill in information from memory. Place-names were the most common type of Aztec glyph. The front of this block, divided into quadrants, features four glyphs: in the lower section are the Aztec name-glyphs for the towns of Cholula and Tula. Cholula, or Cholollan, in Aztec times was called tlachiualtepetl, meaning “hand-made hill,” a reference to the ancient man-made pyramid at the site. The identifying glyph is a mound with a trumpet inscribed on it. The glyph for Tula, or Tollan, meaning “place of the reeds,” is a “lake” with stylized reeds growing from it. It is possible that the two upper glyphs represent early colonial versions of the place names: Cholula as the hill with a cross atop standing for the church the Spaniards built on the pyramid, and Tula as a bell tower incised with a small cross on the bell.
The Met
Hahahaha
An Egyptian rock crystal scarab. Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C. [736X1635]
Source: http://imgur.com/fWxiZzI
Gold statue of Netjer Ankh (living god) made of guilded wood found in one of the black shrines of the Tutankhamun burial, Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian. New Kingdom 18th Dynasty c 1357 1349 BC. [1024X860]
Source: http://imgur.com/JIsOu3b
Sophie Turner for Just Jared Spotlight (May 2016)
Damnnnnnn Sansaaaa
This is awesome
Lay your arm on a flat surface and push your thumb and pinky together. If you don’t see a raised band across your wrist, you are a product of evolution. If you do, you’ve got a useless extra muscle in your arm that is slowly being erased from our genetic code. Source
I just did some research on this and apparently this muscle actually helps you hold a spear (something we as a majority haven’t needed to do much of in recent times, thus it is a mutation that is neither harmful nor helpful to lack this muscle) But I’ll see you all in the post-apocalyptic world with my genetic advantage to hold and throw spears~
Looks like you’re going to have to do all the spear throwing for me.
tag yourself im a spearholder
*walks up to couple* so which of you is evolved and which is the spearholder
spearholder, both me and my SO.
XD
Is anybody… is… is anybody gonna… No? Okay. I’ll do it then.
Okay, see, this is like 94% bullshit. I mean, it’s about 6% science, yes, but it’s also 94% bullshit.
First things first, “you are a product of evolution”. What. Every organic thing on the face of the planet is a product of evolution. Evolution kicked off somewhere around 3.8 billion years ago with the first appearance of life and it hasn’t really stopped since. Everything that came before you was “a product of evolution”. That phrase doesn’t mean anything special.
But Bear, you say, it means people without the thing are just more highly evolved than those who have it!
Bullshit, I say. There is no such thing as “more highly evolved.” Evolution is not some kind of mad rat-race to see which lineage makes it to the top of Darwin Mountain first. Evolution is about creating an organism that can survive and reproduce as effectively as possible to fill a particular niche or role in its given ecosystem.
How good are you at burrowing in the dirt and eating leaf litter? You probably suck at it. But roly-polies (aka, sowbugs, pillbugs, or terrestrial isopods) are great at this! Is a roly-poly less evolved than you because it doesn’t drive a car and use the internet… or are you less evolved than a roly-poly because you can’t break down leaf litter into small, usable particles? The answer is neither–you’re both beautifully evolved organisms filling different niches in the ecosystem and doing it very well.
Now, so far as this “muscle” (it’s actually a tendon) being “slowly erased from our genetic code”… no.
Let me start out by saying something that really should have been said in the first place, because it’s a cool bit of knowledge to have and it’s fun to say: The tendon shown in the picture is called the palmaris longus. Palmaris longus! Say it out loud!
The palmaris longus is what is known as a vestigial tendon. When something is vestigial, that means that it’s no longer needed by the organism, but isn’t doing enough harm by being there that it impacts the organism’s ability to fill its niche and reproduce. A vestigial organ or body part neither helps nor hinders the organism; it’s just kinda there, a relic of eons past.
(For example, the tail of a bear. A tail is utterly useless to a bear–it is too short to provide any kind of stability while in motion, isn’t prehensile, and doesn’t play a role in body language–but they still have ‘em.)
Now, it’s true that vestigial traits have a tendency to disappear over time, but not because they’re being erased from the genetic code.
Evolution–hell, natural selection–depends on there being inherent variation among the population. If one individual has a variation that gives it an advantage, and said variation is genetically determined, there’s a slight chance their offspring will inherit that useful variation. Slight. Conversely, if one individual’s variation is a disadvantage, it may hinder its chances of reproducing, and thus prevent it from passing that unhelpful trait to the next generation.
But a vestigial trait, which confers no advantage or disadvantage, is sort of stuck in limbo and is only passed along by pure chance.
I’ve heard people say, for example, that wisdom teeth are “evolving out” of the human species, and it makes me want to throw mine–which were surgically removed when I was 18–at their faces. That’s not how evolution works. In order for a trait to “evolve out” of a species, it has to be selected against. It has to be obvious so that other members of the species can notice it and find it unsexy enough that they won’t mate with the individual displaying it.
Do you only date people who never developed wisdom teeth, in the hopes that any offspring you have with them will also never develop wisdom teeth? I’m thinking not. There’s no active selection against the wisdom tooth trait. If anything, there’s selection for the more refined, narrow jaw structure that separates our skulls from those of like every other ape on the planet (which coincidentally is why most people don’t have space in their jaws for a third set of molars to properly develop and erupt, and need their–frequently deformed–wisdom teeth extracted), and that may in turn be linked to whether or not wisdom teeth form.
Wisdom teeth, like the palmaris longus, are a vestigial trait that is being passed along purely by chance.
Oh but Bear! you say. The spear-holder argument! Our ancient cavemen ancestors who had this palmaris longus tendon could better grip and throw their spears. Wouldn’t being a better hunter make them a more desirable mate for cavewomen?
No. No it wouldn’t. And let me tell you why.
The palmaris longus is a vestigial tendon, has been for eons, and hasn’t conferred an evolutionary advantage on those who have it since we lived in trees.
Yeah. A well-developed (aka, not vestigial) palmaris longus tendon is really only found in arboreal animals, like monkeys. Found there, it does give an advantage by augmenting grip strength, and thus making those tree-dwelling monkeys a little less likely to fall out of the tree. But among humans, who are terrestrial apes? The palmaris longus is not needed and is nothing but a relic. It’s been a relic since, like, Australopithecus.
Studies show that there is no difference in grip strength between those who have the palmaris longus and those who do not. Which should surprise no one because, again, the tendon is vestigial.
Now, to make up for me crushing your hopes of being a better spear-holder, let me share with you some great facts about the palmaris longus tendon!
It’s found in roughly a quarter of the population.
It has a ridiculous amount of variety in how it presents. In some people, it’s just a tendon running from A to B along the forearm with no associated muscle. In others, the muscle (which is also poorly-developed and vestigial) is found in the middle of the tendon. In others, the muscle is at one end of the tendon. Also, in some people, it’s only present in one arm and not the other–so if you see it in one wrist, check if it’s on the other side as well. I have it on both arms.
Because it’s vestigial and is not “needed”, it is the number one choice for use in reconstructive work. Surgeons will use it to repair or replace tendons just about anywhere in the body, because they can remove it without any ill effect!
This has been your daily dose of science. Bear, out.
B badass bear
A Qajar Axe with Dragon Finals, Persia c. 19th century [493x1810]
Source: http://i.imgur.com/W9Kpkra.jpg
What a beautiful weapon
Mystery of Mummified Lung Solved
The mystery of how a lung from ancient French royalty became mummified has been solved after decades of uncertainty, according to an international team of researchers.
In 1959, a preserved lung was uncovered by archaeologist Michel Fleury inside a stone sarcophagus in the Basilica of St Denis, Paris, the site where the kings of France have been buried for centuries. The lung was found with a skeleton, a strand of hair, jewelry and several fragments of textiles and leather.
On a gold ring, the inscription “Arnegundis” around a central monogram “Regine” revealed the remains belonged to the Merovingian Queen Arnegunde (about 515–about 580), one of the six wives of King Clotaire I (511-561) and the mother of King Chilpéric I (about 534-584).
Since the discovery, the fine preservation of the lung raised questions over whether her lung had naturally mummified or had been embalmed. Read more.
Pulque is a viscous, milk-colored, alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting the sap obtained by the maguey plant. Until the 19th and 20thcentury, it was probably the most widespread alcoholic beverage in Mexico.
In ancient Mesoamerica pulque was a beverage restricted to certain group of people and to certain occasions. The consumption of pulque was linked to feasting and ritual ceremonies, and many Mesoamerican cultures produced a rich iconography illustrating the production and consumption of this beverage. The Aztec called this beverage ixtac octli which means white liquor. The name pulque is probably a corruption of the term octli poliuhqui, or over-fermented or spoiled liquor.
Pulque Production
The juicy sap, or aguamiel, is extracted from the plant. An agave plant is productive for up to a year and usually the sap is collected twice a day. Neither fermented pulque nor the straight aguamiel can be stored for long time; the liquor needs to be consumed quickly and even the processing place needs to be close to the field.
The fermentation starts in the plant itself, since the microorganisms occurring naturally in the maguey plant start the process of transforming the sugar into alcohol. The fermented sap was traditionally collected using dried bottle gourds, and it was then poured into large ceramic jars where the seeds of the plant were added to accelerate the fermentation process.
Among the Aztecs/Mexica, pulque was a highly desired item, obtained through tribute. Manycodices refer to the importance of this drink for nobility and priests, and its role in Aztec economy.
Pulque Consumption
In ancient Mesoamerica, pulque was consumed during feasting or ritual ceremonies and was also offered to the gods. Its consumption was strictly regulated. Ritual drunkenness was allowed only by priests and warriors, and commoners were permitted to drink it only during certain occasions. Elderly and occasionally pregnant woman were allowed to drink it. In the Quetzalcoatl myth, the god is tricked into drinking pulque and his drunkenness caused him to be banished and exiled from his land.
According to indigenous and colonial sources, different types of pulque existed, often flavored with other ingredients such as chili peppers.
Pulque Imagery
Pulque is depicted in Mesoamerican iconography as white foam emerging from small, rounded pots and vessels. A small stick, similar to a straw, is often depicted within the drinking pot, probably representing a stirring instrument used to produce the foam.
Images of pulque-making are recorded in many codices, murals and even rock carvings, such as the ball court at El Tajin. One of the most famous representations of the pulque drinking ceremony is at the pyramid of Cholula, in Central Mexico.
The Mural of the Drinkers
In 1969, a 180 feet long mural was discovered by accident in the pyramid of Cholula. The collapse of a wall exposed part of the mural buried at a depth of almost 25 feet. The mural, dubbed the Mural of the Drinkers, portrays a feasting scene with figures wearing elaborate turbans and masks drinking pulque and performing other ritual activities. It has been suggested that the scene portrays pulque deities.
The origin of pulque is narrated in many myths, most of them linked to the goddess of maguey,Mayahuel. Other deities directly related to pulque were the got Mixcoatl and the Centzon Totochtin (the 400 rabbits), sons of Mayahuel associated with the pulque’s effects.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Mesoamerica , and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bye, Robert A., and Edelmina Linares, 2001, Pulque, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, vol. 1, edited by David Carrasco, Oxford University Press.pp: 38-40
Taube, Karl, 1996, Las Origines del Pulque, Arqueología Mexicana, 4 (20): 71
Mayahuel, The Aztec Goddess of Maguey
Mayahuel was the Aztec goddess of maguey, as well as one of the protectors of fertility. This deity played an important role in ancient Central Mexico, since it is associated with the origin of pulque.
Mayahuel Myth
According to the Aztec myth, the god Quezalcoatl decided to provide humans with a special drink to celebrate and feast and gave them pulque. He sent Mayahuel, goddess of maguey, to the earth and then coupled with her. To avoid the rage of her grandmother and her other ferocious relatives the goddesses Tzitzimime, Quetzalcoatl and Mayahuel transformed themselves into a tree, but they were found out and Mayahuel was killed. Quetzalcoatl collected the bones of the goddess and buried them, and in that place grew the first plant of maguey. For this reason it was thought that the sweet sap, the aguamiel, collected from the plant was the blood of the goddess.
A different version of the myth tells that Mayahuel was a mortal woman who discovered how to collect aguamiel, and her husband Pantecalt discovered how to make pulque.
Mayahuel Imagery
Mayahuel was also defined as “the woman of the 400 breasts”, probably referring to the many sprouts and leaves of maguey and the milky juice produced by the plant and transformed into pulque. The goddess has many breasts to feed her many children, the Centzon Totochtin or “the 400 rabbits”, who were the gods associated with the effects of excessive drinking. In codices, Mayahuel is depicted as a young woman, with many breasts, emerging from a maguey plant, holding cups with foaming pulque.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Aztec Gods, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Miller, Mary, and Karl Taube, 1993, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson.Taube, Karl, 1996, Las Origines del Pulque, Arqueologia Mexicana, Vol.7, N. 20, p.71.
The Domestication History of Agave Americana or Maguey
Maguey or Agave americana is a native plant from Mexico, and it is now cultivated in many parts of the world. This plant, also known as the century plant or American aloe, is neither an aloe nor a cactus, as it is sometimes erroneously believed, but instead is a member of the Agavaceae family. Maguey is one of the many species of agave plants that exist in the Americas. They grow in semi-arid environments from the sea level to an altitude of about 9,000 feet.
Archaeological evidence from Guitarrero Cave indicates that agave was used at least as early as 12,000 years ago by Archaic foraging groups, to obtain fibers for clothing, bags and to make tools. There is no direct evidence of the process of domestication of agave, and only an handful of species, of the hundreds existing in nature, have been fully domesticated.
Agave americana grows in the semi-arid highlands of Mexico and has been used for many purposes both in pre-Hispanic as well as Colonial and modern times.
Despite its importance in ancient Mesoamerican societies, very little is known about the process of domestication of this species.
Agave Products
In ancient Mesoamerica, maguey was first collected and then cultivated and used for a variety of purposes. From its leaves people obtained fibers to make ropes, textiles, as well as construction materials, and fuel. Its thorns were an important tool used as perforators in bloodletting rituals. However, the most important product obtained from maguey was a mildly alcoholic beverage called pulque, obtained by the fermentation of aguamiel, (“honey water” in Spanish), the sweet, milky juice extracted from the plant.
Maguey Fibers
To make textiles, maguey fibers must be obtained by processing the leaves. The leaves are cut from the body of the plant and the spines removed. The leaves are then cooked in an oven to make then tender. Once they are cooked, the leaves are used as food or scraped over a pounding slab to obtain long threads to make ropes or to spin to weave textiles.
Mescal
The word mescal (sometimes mezcal) comes from two Nahuatl terms melt and ixcalli which mean “oven-cooked agave”. To produce mescal, the ripe maguey plants are cut down and the leaves removed. The core, or head of the plant is then baked into earth ovens. Once the agave core is cooked, it is ground to extract the juice. The juice is then put into containers and let there to ferment. When the fermentation is complete, alcohol (ethanol) is separated from the non-volatile elements through distillation to obtain the pure mescal.
Archaeologists are still debating if this alcoholic beverage was known in pre-Hispanic times or if it was an innovation of the Colonial period. Distillation was a well-known process in Europe, derived from Arabic traditions, whereas the evidence from pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica and the accounts from the early Contact period about this process are not straightforward.
However, recent investigations in the site of Nativitas, Tlaxcala, Central Mexico, are providing an interesting set of evidence about the possibility of mezcal production in pre-Hispanic times.
Archaeological Evidence for the Use of Maguey
Because of their organic nature, products derived from maguey are rarely identifiable in the archaeological record. Evidence of maguey use comes instead from the technological implements used to process and store the plant and its derivatives. Stone scrapers with plant residue evidence from processing agave leaves are abundant in Classic and Postclassic times, along with cutting and storing implements. Such implements are rarely found in Formative and earlier contexts.
Ovens - probably used to cook maguey heads - have been found in archaeological sites, such as Nativitas in the state of Tlaxcala, Central Mexico, at Paquimé, Chihuahua, and La Quemada, Zacatecas. At Paquimé, remains of agave were found in place within one of these subterranean ovens. In the site of Nativitas,archaeologists identified several large jars, possibly used to store the maguey sap during the fermentation process, or used as distillation devices.
In Western Mexico, ceramic vessels with depiction of agave plants have been found in several burials, dated to the Classic period. These elements underscore the important role that this plant played in the economy as well as social life of the community.
The Aztecs/Mexica had a specific patron deity for this plant, the goddess Mayahuel.
Finally, many Spanish chroniclers, such as Bernardino de Sahagun, Bernal Diaz del Castillo and fray Toribio de Motolinia stress the importance that this plant and its products had within the Aztec empire.
Sources
This entry on Agave is a part of the About.com guide to Ancient Mesoamerica, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Parsons, Jeffrey R. and Parsons Mary H., 1990, Maguey Utilization in Highland Central Mexico: an archaeological ethnography. Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan ; no. 82. Ann Arbor.
Rakita, Gordon F.M.,2006, Emergent Complexity, Ritual Practices, and Mortuary Behavior at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico, in Religion in the Prehispanic Southwest, edited by Christine S. VanPool, Todd L. VanPool, and David A. Phillips, Jr., AltaMira Press, Lanham
Serra, M. Carmen and Carlos A. Lazcano, 2010, The Drink Mescal: Its Origin and Ritual Uses, in Pre-Columbian Foodways. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by John Staller and Michael Carrasco. Springer
This is great.
an entertaining thing to do would be to replace every instance of “for ritual purposes” in any archeology article with “for funsies”
#experts think stone henge was probably built for funsies
THIS
me to to the demons that are corrupting my soul
Me to the demons using Cruz as an ill fitting flesh puppet
The fact that 200 years later we still have Benedict Arnold's name missing from many national monuments celebrating the revolution is a disgrace. The U.S.A betrayed Arnold by COURT MARTIALING their most brilliant officer (who was crippled in action not once but TWICE in the same leg serving the nation, he walked with a cane for the rest of his life) on trumped up charges before Arnold betrayed the U.S.A. He actually did the most American thing possible: he refused to bend over for a government that was wronging him.
And may have inadvertently created a warp drive in the process.
NASA scientists have reported that they’ve successfully tested an engine called the electromagnetic propulsion drive, or the EM Drive, in a vacuum that replicates space. The EM Drive experimental system could take humans to Mars in just 70 days without the need for rocket fuel, and it’s no exaggeration to say that this could change everything.
But before we get too excited (who are we kidding, we’re already freaking out), it’s important to note that these results haven’t been replicated or verified by peer review, so there’s a chance there’s been some kind of error. But so far, despite a thorough attempt to poke holes in the results, the engine seems to hold up.
Continue Reading.
Well, I for one am getting my hopes up.
Warp factor SCHWING.
“Be waiting out front of the HAB, Watney, we’re not fucking waiting for you to get dressed. Places to be.”
Guys. Guys. I’ve been following this story for a while now and you don’t get it. Some guy made this and was like “well hi I made a thing and it shouldn’t go but it goes.”
And the science community was like okay that… there’s no way that works.
Then they tested it theoretically and it worked.
Then NASA was like okay but technically this breaks one of Newton’s laws so even if it theoretically goes it won’t like, actually go. So they built it and tested it more and it works.
So what we have now is the scientific community slowly cautiously freaking out because this GODDAMN EM DRIVE breaks the RULES OF PHYSICS but every time we test it, it FUCKING WORKS.
How cool is this????
Every time we’ve found something “broken” that functions, it means something is wrong with our understanding of reality. The next step is to figure out what, figure out what’s true, and open up a plethora of new scientific discoveries.
If this is real, holy shit.
