On DeviantArt and YouTube as Concavenator: sometimes I draw and write about speculative biology, life on other worlds and in the far future, and the history of life on Earth.
philosopherking1887 : o-craven-canto : Alternate timeline in which all Greek and Latin roots are swapped: catastrophe -> contraverse cephalopod -> capitoped chlorophyll -> viridofolia democracy -> populimpery homicide -> anthropoctony homo sexual -> equi gamic kilometer -> millimensure interregnum -> mesarchy magnanimous -> megapsychic manuscript -> chirography motor cycle -> ergato rote…
Four “world systems” across history, from Bradshaw 2000, World regional geography : the new global order , p. 16-21
papermonkeyism : o-craven-canto : papermonkeyism : o-craven-canto : morgrimmoon : papermonkeyism : papermonkeyism : papermonkeyism : Ooh, ooh! I’m having some worldbuildy thoughts about the Singing People at work right now. Really hoping I still remember once I get long enough break/get off work so I can type them down. Mostly gender/gender roles/family stuff. Okay basically was thinking…
mockiatoh : irate-iguana : I love it when a classicist has clearly gotten so lost in the BCE sauce that their perception of time has become deeply warped. Case in point: the article I’m currently reading just described the Byzantine era as “a period relatively modern.” Stop that’s too funny objectively, they’re right
As I understand it, apes have especially mobile shoulders and arms (very few vertebrates can raise their hands far above their heads) because of brachiation . We're too heavy to scamper on branches like most Old World monkeys do, so we hang below them, possibly walking with our feet on lower branches, which is probably how we developed bipedal locomotion before we left the trees and had to use it…
Fair enough. It was definitely at least fridge-temperature most of the time, but I'll make sure to have ice in it in the future.
I think guillotines are already pretty eco-friendly already. The reason they're bad is unrelated to pollution
Hmm. The thing is that large flying animals are strongly selected for being as light as they can possibly be -- birds gave up teeth and external genitalia, turned their bones to sponge, and developed special ultra-dense cortex so they could miniaturize their brain -- so I don't expect there to be much margin for cargo or riders. Any weight they can carry, they will occupy by themselves. Your best…
Apparently so!
o-craven-canto : eightyonekilograms : o-craven-canto : o-craven-canto : Finally reading The Book of the New Sun and I definitely see why I kept being recommended it. I think this might be my favorite prose style ever I have heard those who dig for their livelihood say there is no land anywhere in which they can trench without turning up the shards of the past. No matter where the spade turns the…
theleafpile : I didnt know they looked like this fresh out of a molt!
the-delta-of-worlds : Favorite design so far? Charnel haunters (hyena-like carnivorans with pseudopenis) Kermeshir (parasite worms feeding on hominid milk) Lithopods (semen-stealing giant arthropods) Living gardens (BDSM sapient jellyfish) Mrask (monkey pseudo-hominids with three sexes, sort of) Sarcodines (amoeboid shapeshifters) Selkies (blubbery Arctic “mermaids”) Tsirai (insular…
o-craven-canto : One of the most charming things in astronomy, IMO, is the theme naming of planetary features. The craters of Mercury , which is named after the Roman god of messages and information (among other stuff), bear the names of artists: composers (Haydn, Verdi, Vivaldi), writers (Homer, Vyasa, Murasaki), and painters (Giotto, Harunobu, Goya). Large features of Venus are named after women…
meowing-enby : the problem when someone is self-deprecating and saying that i’m prettier/cuter etc than them is that i usually am prettier than them You are prettier than me* but I own more dead bugs and shells* so it evens out * probably ** also probably
the-grey-tribe : prudencepaccard : argumate : argumate : I’m always tickled by the way movies about talking animals will invariably have some regular animals in there too, just chilling and eating grass or whatever while their uplifted brethren are running late for work and filling in tax returns and stuff, maybe we can actually make that happen with genetic engineering or nanotech one day.…
o-craven-canto : One strange thing you see often in writing about demographic conflicts is the authors describing actions of their own side as inevitably, almost mechanically determined by their circumstances, whereas the actions of the other side are a free and cool-minded choice. “We wouldn’t be forced to do Horrible Thing X if they hadn’t decided to do Horrible Thing Y”.…
I hope this email finds you. (would be inconvenient if it didn’t.)
analytically : tl;dr people don’t use “gender” consistently as a concept, and I’m not sure how to deal with this Gender (as in being a man, a woman or nonbinary) is clearly an important concept that affects lots of people’s lives, mine included. But can we define it in a coherent way that matches real-world experiences? Here are some of the definitions I’ve…
ceausescue : i promise to shoot the man i accosted in the alleyway unless he gives me his wallet. he says “this is just like rokos basilisk”. i say “what?”, and the man says “ah so you don’t already know. i know information which is dangerous to you, and may cause unquantified but large amounts of disutility to you if you know it. give me the gun or i will tell…
feeling cute, might delete later