#oldest known

[blondebrainpowered]

The oldest known bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), estimated to be 4852 years old, is found in Inyo National Forest, Madera Co, California. ca. 2020

Photographer: Randall Alley

[dalemidkiff]

[maespri]

i love ryuji and ann fuckk like. he’s owed her money since middle school. she’s never forgiven that debt. they’re good friends. they don’t like each other. they yap all the time. they rarely talk. ryuji thinks ann is too paranoid. he stands up to yusuke stalking her. ann thinks ryuji’s annoying. she freaks out thinking he’s dead after shido’s palace. ryuji is way too loud. ann loves yelling over him. they work so well together. they never get along. they bond over hating kamoshida. they could never understand each other. ryuji’s friends ditched him. ann was completely isolated in april. they both lost things that were very precious to them. when you really think about it, they were only able to regain what they lost because they worked together. they were literally the earliest members of the phantom thieves. lowkey they’re my world

[ispyspookymansion]

know as in actually know, not just have met or know of, i’m more curious about on a regular basis who the oldest lgbt person is that you interact with. can also be someone you regularly interacted with/knew at some point and no longer do for whatever reason

[moeblob]

Terrified by this customer I helped today holy moly why would you say that while reading my name tag and saying my name please don't REPORT me for any behavior, good or bad. Just don't.

[ganondoodle]

actively fighting a full blown panic attack born out of sadness and anger after having to drive by yet another victim on the side of the road

it makes me livid how accepted it is to just let cats suffer and die disgustingly horrid deaths and live awful short lives just so what, for what?? so you dont have to play with them for an hour a day??? when i was little it was just kinda normal that they disappeared at some point, i didnt understand what it actually meant until our outdoor cat i loved dearly was found in the bushes near our house in a condition so horrible my dad has never told me and i have never dared to ask, she only made it to 6 and had horrible scars and infections before that i allowed my family to convince me to let my first own cat outside, we only had her for a year, she died at only 2 years old, i am still suffering from the guilt, it has never let me go, she went missing for a week and i walked the entire vilage up and down every day, yelling her name, wandering into the forest alone, talking to every stranger i met until one morning my mom told me that our neighbour who works for the city asked if we had a white cat with a very specific collar she had- he found her on a busy road crossing in the next bigger city, i never even got to bury her, its haunting me, the thought of her wandering lost and scared in the city for a week until meeting an awful end gives me headaches, the fact that i was the last one to see her alive, that i put her outside bc we were late for school and had to leave quickly, that she had come home with oil in her fur from crawling through maschines and cars before, that i was worried but still didnt act, that it is my fault, any time i am up to late its coming back, it will never let me go, if i had stood my ground and not allow her outside unless on a leash or similar shed still be alive today, any time i read a description at our local shelter it comes back, they still advocate for outside cats, all of them, even if they have only been an indoor one before, its madness my older sister had a cat, i dont even know how old he got but it wasnt long either, he got hit by a car in front of their house, she has two now again and the only reason she hasnt let them outside is because they havent shown much interest in it, i tried to warn her before and she didnt listen and shes still resistent, even after losing one too

i have seen so many on the side of the road, anywhere i drive i see them, i cannot forget a single one, we are surrounded by farm land and all its giant maschinery, its still common to poison rodents, why do people value them so little, you wouldnt let your dog just live outside in the woods and streets for half the day or more, you wouldnt just throw your guniea pigs on the road and tell them have fun, you wouldnt just let your bird roam outside, there probably assholes that do that too but you cannot tell me its as common as outside cats

i dont understand it, i dont, i wont, i never will, i will never forgive myself this poor little animal that was my responsibility having to pay the price of my ignorance, or my own weakness letting my family convince me despite the awful way we lost one before, it makes me want to explode it hurts my brain in grief and anger i can barely contain

cats deserve to live a safe and long life, i get only having them inside may feel like you are locking them up, but do you think that not doing so is worth having them die a painful death? being poisonend? on purpose even by disgusting people that hate them? abused and chased by other animals and dogs? hurt and lost? cutting their lifespan in half? if they even make it that far? the amount of wildlife that they kill unnecessarily so when all of that is already in a steep decline everywhere? and if they eat what they hunt get infected with diseases or again, poison? die somewhere in agony? if cared for they dont care about going outside, plenty can be leash trained or given a secure way to roam like those cat proof aviary like things, if you dont want to put effort into caring for a cat DONT GET ONE, ALL pets require adequate care, and if you think cats are the easiest bc you only have to feed them every now and then IF they come home? you suck, you are an asshole, i hate you and you do not care about them, if you just want to occasionalyl feed and pet an animal go to the petting zoo

(this is about pet cats of people who can absolutely afford to keep them healthily inside, i know feral cats and those in poor neighbourhoods are a thing, even if not here where i live, and thats a whole other but still similar problem and not the point of this post)

[foxx-queen]

thinking about the fragment of mythal's spirit finding flemeth. 'she was betrayed as I was betrayed'. morrigan confirming the version of flemeth's history that saw her living in poverty, sold by her husband to a lord who desired her. the parallels to the warden city elf origin. morrigan telling us it's easy to imagine how flemeth and mythal related to one another. 'betrayed by those sworn to love her'. mythals murder at the hands of her fellow gods, the figures that were her husband and children in dalish legends. 'mens hearts hold shadows darker than any tainted creature'. mythal being a fragment of who she was, split from herself, lost, and she 'clawed and crawled her way through the ages' to a woman betrayed and wounded and left for dead locked in the dark.

thinking about what that moment might've been like for both of them. flemeth lifting her head to a spirit reaching out to her. the fragment of mythal finding a place to rest in a soul that resonated with her. 'your grief must come later... in the dark shadows before you take vengeance, as my mother once said'. did flemeth mean mythal, when she spoke of her mother? was that something mythal said to flemeth in the moments before they became one? 'duty must come now'. duty to the world? flemeth carried mythal through the ages, nudging history when required, aiding and preparing the world for a reckoning she knew would come. 'considering what the world has done to me, I have already done more than it deserves'. the moments in history that could be read as mythal attempting to mend a world she helped to break, and wanting to protect the world that formed from what was broken from being destroyed all over again. she couldn't have done that without flemeth, who had no hand in breaking the world to begin with.

'i am but an old woman, whom the world has largely forgotten'. thedas as we know it wouldn't be there without flemeth. she was murdered, and solas painted her as an elf because he saw her as no more than a vessel for his oldest friend, and refused to acknowledge that he was murdering her too, because she was just a fragment. they'd lived for centuries as one person. kieran mentions that he feels lonely without the old god soul. it must've been lonely, watching and guiding the world as she did. maybe she doesn't hide that shes an old woman because of how the years might've weighed on her. 'regret is something I know well'. mythals regrets are never spoken of, because we never get the chance to hear them. would one of them have been burdening a mortal in such a way? or is that not something she could regret, because of how she came to her in the first place?

'regret that she would never see me again'. maybe it is a little jarring for players to hear morrigan speak of flemeth without all the vitriol we've come to expect. to hear something like sadness when we know what their relationship is like. but we saw flemeth's face when morrigan told her that she would not be like her, in her instant defence of kieran. it's been ten years since morrigan absorbed flemeth and mythals combined memories. she knows everything she's done and everything she's suffered, and how she might've felt about it all. all those regrets. sometimes we don't have to forgive the people who've hurt us to understand them. sometimes we love them despite it all.

[antxnous]

Arcade looks like he would keep arguing w someone who is obviously trolling to the point of frustrating himself

[blueiscoool]

Mystery of the 1627 Knight’s Tomb in Jamestown Virginia Solved

Archaeologists have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the oldest known tombstone in the United States carrying an English knight, illuminating in the process the complexities of ancient trade routes.

According to a new study, the tombstone likely came from Belgium and was erected in 1627 in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in what became the United States. The authors of the study, published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, analyzed the carvings and inlays of the structure to determine its country of origin. Some mystery persists; they have yet to determine where exactly in Europe the black limestone slab of the tombstone originated.

Fragments of the tombstone contained fossil microbes, many of where not native to North America. These microbe fossils, however, were found in present-day Belgium and Ireland.

“Therefore, the knight’s tombstone had to be imported from Europe. Historical evidence suggests Belgium, from where it was transshipped in London and on to Jamestown,” the scientists stated, as first quoted in the Independent.

They continued: “We hypothesize it was quarried and cut to size in Belgium, shipped down the Meuse River, across the English Channel to London where it was carved and the brass inlays installed, and finally shipped on to Jamestown.”

A carved depression in the container suggests the presence of brass inlays of a shield, an open scroll, and the likeness of an armored man. According to surviving historical records, two knights died in the colony in the 17th century: Sir Thomas West (died 1618) and Sir George Yeardley, the latter of whom is a promising candidate for the anonymous knight. Sir Yeardley’s step-grandson purchased a tombstone for himself in the 1680s bearing an identical inscription as the 1627 black limestone one.

The senior Yeardley was born in Southwark, England, in 1588 and landed in Jamestown in 1610 following a shipwreck near Bermuda. He was knighted by King James I after returning to England in 1617. But the sea beckoned and he returned to Jamestown in 1621, where he died in 1627.

“Successful Virginia colonists who had lived in London would have been familiar with the latest English fashions and tried to replicate these in the colonies,” the study concluded.

Bt Tessa Solomon.

[nohoney]

thinking of fuyumi’s bestie being in a relationship with hot older brother! Touya

“Hey! Sorry I’m a little late! Kinda got held up a little, sorry.” You sit down across from Fuyumi, just a few minutes late from the lunch reservation she had made for the two of to have some alone time. “Just ah, traffic and all that. You know?”

Your best friend giggles, fixing her glasses and pouring you a cup of water. You call it traffic but Fuyumi has noticed the pattern early on that it’s just code for ‘Touya made me run late’ and she’s polite enough to not say a word. You had always been punctual before when it came to any plans the two of you made together. Since dating her older brother, there were a few times that you’d send the ‘running late!’ text and always send your apologies.

Fuyumi didn’t mind though, it wasn’t a terrible habit that happened too often.

You and her do a small catch up over tea sandwiches and little cakes served on delicate tiers. How are the kids in the classroom? How are your office clients? This happened when I went grocery shopping. I saw this really interesting video about compassion fatigue the other day.

The two of you are bouncing off one another and decide that it’s time to pay and leave the tea room. It’s supposed to be your treat today but you look into your purse and find your wallet missing.

“Ah fuck! I think I left my wallet in my other bag!” your face heats over the embarrassment of not having any means to pay for lunch, searching twice again despite knowing that your credit cards won’t magically appear looking into your small purse. “Dammit! This is Touya’s fault!”

“My fault?”

Both you and her look to see Touya walking up to the little table you’re seated at, standing out in the flowery pink tea room. He holds up a little wallet, one that Fuyumi recognizes as the one you’ve had for the last few years, holding it limply towards you and you take it from his hand. “Don’t pin the blame on me, you’re the one who forgot it.” he’s nonchalant as he sits in the empty chair beside you.

“Yeah, because you-“ you start to speak but then your eyes glance to Fuyumi before you pipe down. She knows damn well that the reason why you were late was because of her brother but she doesn’t need to know the details of how he made you late.

“Say thank you.” Touya tells you as he reaches for a leftover sandwich on the cake tier, “I paid for your guys’ bill.”

“Okay, thank you. You can go now.” You try to wave him off, “I’ll text you later.”

Touya scoffs and peers into your tea cup, wondering if drinking it would be worth it to quench his thirst. He’s not exactly a fan of tea itself. “Are you really blowing me off?” he directs his gaze to his younger sister, “Stop hogging my girlfriend.”

Fuyumi laughs, “I’m not hogging her. I’m just spending time with my best friend.”

“Yeah, and you girls have had plenty of years together. Now I want my time.”

You step in with an audible groan to cut off the dialogue, “Alright, I will not be in a Todoroki sibling competition for my attention. Touya, thanks for bringing my wallet. I’ll… reward you for it later.”

It’s all he needs to hear, springing up from his chair and saying that he’ll expect you to keep your promise. All you give him is a sigh and a little nod, rolling your eyes when he kisses your forehead and bids the two of you goodbye.

“Sorry about… your brother, I guess.” You’re a little sheepish but there’s no mistaking the happy smile that comes on your face.

And Fuyumi smiles back at you, having noticed that Touya had been a little happier since having met you.

[paranoidgemsbok]

EVERYONE HAS UNO IT CAME FREE WITH YOUR FUCKING XBOX

[anghraine]

venndaai replied to this post:

You have such perfect taste. TSFS is the best Trek movie imo, and one of my favorite movies about grief period.

Thank you!! I was nervous about barging into a new (to me) fandom and being like "WELL ACTUALLY" about everything (I resist this impulse daily >_>) and some of my other ST friends are more ambivalent about TSFS than I am, so it's reassuring that such a long time friend as you respects my taste :D

It is easily, easily my favorite of all the Star Trek movies, for all the reasons in the post, and simply that it doesn't hold back or modulate the sheer intensity and depth of emotion. The scene between Sarek and Kirk alone would make it one of my favorite movies—the initial distance between them, the mistaken assumptions they both make (Sarek that Kirk is dishonoring Spock's death rites, Kirk that Sarek doesn't know the nature of his relationship with Spock), the way they both seem kind of broken by losing Spock, Sarek knowing enough to believe Spock wouldn't have passed the katra to anyone but Kirk, but not enough to put the pieces together as Kirk does, the cuts between the increasing compassion from Sarek to Kirk's staring eyes as he shifts from confirming the accuracy of the memories to "Spock..." to the understated anguish of "We were separated ... he couldn't touch me..." Even the replay of Spock's death, with Kirk stolidly rewinding past himself screaming and on the point of irradiating the whole room to get to Spock with Sarek (who obviously knew very little of the actual details of Spock's death) watching is so much.

And then there are all the little details elsewhere, like Kirk pausing at the empty science station and thinking about the "open wound" of Spock's loss tearing part of himself away, Sarek's correction of "tell them" to "tell Kirk," McCoy's grief being different than Kirk's bereavement but still deep and sincere, etc. It's incredibly visceral, all the more because Kirk and the skeleton Enterprise crew don't even know that Spock's body has respawned for a significant portion of the movie and everything they're doing is to give Spock culturally appropriate funeral rites that will put his katra at peace.

Obviously you know all of this!! But, anyway, I appreciate it!

(Oh lol, my best friend J and our housemates joined him in his annual tradition of celebrating Hanukkah by watching Raiders of the Lost Ark and watching the Nazis melt, and the other day he was like "since you're keeping Lent this year, maybe we could have a movie night for you too if you're celebrating Easter ... WAIT I KNOW THE ONE." So we're going to rewatch it with our housemate :D)

[fishmech]

alternate pope score game

start with 0 points

+1 point for every pope who died since you were born 😁 -1 point for every pope who was born since you were 🤢

[wildoute]

[s-wordsmith]

Something I really need Stranger Things fic writers to know is that no one in rural America was locking any doors in the eighties apart from the government and businesses. I remember when there was a big stink about "we gotta start locking our doors now how am I supposed to remember that every time I leave the house." People didn't lock the doors when they were home until at LEAST the mid-aughts, a lot of people STILL don't. "Oh we can't get into so-and-so's house/car because we don't have the keys!" You do not need the keys, just open the door. "I'm alarmed because I went over to so-and-so's house and their front door was unlocked so I instantly knew something was wrong." It would be much weirder if it was locked. If I showed up at my friend's house and the door was locked I would immediately assume something was wrong. If I lived in a town regularly invaded by monsters and patrolled by mobs of government agents/Russian spies/jocks with guns, I would assume my friend was currently being hunted.

[lostinquisitor]

what's ameridan's relationship with drakon like? is it as close as history would have it? does he agree with drakon's expansion of orlais and the spread of the chant? does he think it could/should be done differently?

open inbox !!

the knife is sweet when it splits his palm, his brother’s open hand to clasp sweeter yet. embers spit witness as they drip into the fire, the way of kordillus’ grandfathers, but ameridan knows no anxiety. the only force that binds him here is love.

this oath i do give freely up to thee; the one who dares to spill thy blood spills mine. from all thy foemen shall i shelter thee; away from all dark places shall i redeem. now let my hours of life hold fast to thine. o maker mine pray hear me — be it ever thus!

history doesn’t have the half of it.

they’re in the dictionary next to ‘homoeroticism’.

drakon is to ameridan as jonathan is to david. as achilles is to patroclus. temujin to jamukha. eliwood to hector. odin and loki. guan yu, liu bei, and zhang fei.

if you were to read about their lives you’d probably say to yourself what a flaming pair of homosexuals and then a swarm of Historians™ would rise from their graves and push up their glasses and go ackshuallyyy they were just close friends —

they were far more than close friends. they were sworn brothers. they made blood-oaths to each other. they considered these vows to be holy, and just as if not more binding than those they made to their actual wives. with our modern sensibilities we could accurately describe them as queerplatonic. even when they were separated by entire nations one always had the sense that the other wasn't far behind.

this was fairly well-known by their contemporaries. we see codex entries stating that orlesian nobles assumed that ameridan would have a place on drakon's council with them, even though he is a foreign agent. a dalish mage had a reserved position in orlais' government with apparently not that much argument. inquisitor or not, that's insane! sources from the dales are less flattering in their reception of their bond, openly accusing ameridan of having conflicting and borderline treasonous interests, but even they don't deny the loyalty ameridan and drakon show each other.

by the dragon age historians had begun to debate this, in part due to deliberate suppression during the glory age. in the years leading to the exalted march on the dales, it suited propagandists to emphasize ameridan's elvhenness, exaggerating his heathen and untrustworthy nature. once hatred and distrust of elves was well-woven into the social fabric and the exalted march was over, they simply removed any references to him beyond the fact that a man named ameridan once lived and served as inquisitor. the end. with few surviving orlesian sources and next to no surviving dalish sources, history has only questions: were they lovers? kin? enemies? acquaintances at best? no one knows anymore.

they were soulmates; ea nas'falon.

we must keep in mind three things when it comes to examining orlais' early expansion: first, drakon believes (and ameridan likely also believes) that the return of the maker is an imminent event. not only could it happen in their lifetimes, they want it to happen in their lifetimes. second, the tevinter imperium has been greatly weakened but still remains a threat, particularly centers of power in parts of thedas that andraste's rebellion did not reach. these outposts are well-established, self-sufficient, and have had firm hold on the local populaces for generations. third, as the second blight builds it becomes increasingly obvious that a large, unified, and dedicated force is going to be needed to put it down. they have to manage that without leaving themselves vulnerable to any enemies that would take advantage of their distraction. when ameridan says that if the dales don't come to orlais' aid they will lose everything they have gained he isn't speaking metaphorically in terms of diplomacy or social progress. he very literally means 'someone will come and fuck us up while our enormous buffer zone is otherwise occupied'.

it's also just the right thing to do, but he knows by now that argument won't have as much traction.

all of this is to say that through a combination of the personal faith ameridan has in drakon, the religious faith he has in general, and his determination to preserve both their peoples from the lingering and opportunistic evils of the imperium and the general chaos of a world still floundering in its power-vacuum — he does encourage drakon's expansion of both his borders and of the chant. there are moments they disagree, but drakon tends to heed his counsel. there are moments they both come to regret, but they find strength and solace in each other. what they both want more than anything is to leave behind a better world. even if it's only a little better.

perfect is the enemy of good.

of course, hindsight is 20/20. in the divine age, there's always something happening that reminds ameridan why what they do is what must be done. there is always some new evil thing on the heels of the last to contend with. all of them, their entire extended circle, are too close to the moment, to the bleak reality of the world-that-is to be able to accurately predict the world-that-will-be.

maker forgive us.

800 years later it is insultingly easy to follow the branching lines of all their mistakes, the ones they knew they were making at the time as well as the ones they did not. ameridan hates himself for not being able to see this at the time. he curses that they hadn't thought it through just a little more, that they hadn't put up a safeguard here or there for the corruption and abuses that looking back now seem to have been inevitable. his own memories seem untrustworthy when their contradictions stand before him. worse, he doubts whether drakon loved him true. and worst of all, he still has no real idea how they could have done anything differently.

mala ar shivasan su na; relina mar lin relin 'ma. juharilla na ea 'ma'harillen; 'a'lethalen ea emma. ar ne arlise'amelan — ame lathan, ma ane emma vhen'an. sahl'in hasir var asahngar; sahl'in himan uthaan tamaris.

the words bleed well-practiced from his tongue, sincere and sacred, the beloved face he cradles more sincere and sacred yet. his cherished friend, his only brother, the one who knows him to his core…

drawing his lethallin close to his breast, kordillus seals this vow in the way of ameridan’s grandfathers — with a kiss.