#weird looking microbe. ...

[hazelnutnebula]

just a lil sillay thang 👍✨ @breakbeatbun

[dazzelmethat]

Some messy Mushishi fanart. Ginko could be a microbiologist.

I'm still sad that 'journey to the microcosmos' the youtube channel is ending. If you are a mushishi fan of the surreal mushi I recommend watching their hd videos on microbes.

[phantoms-autistic-hands]

thougjt for .2 seconds on whether i should post this and was like Why Not. have a phantom that i painted instead of studying for an exam tomorrow <3

the reference (i don't remember the source if anyone knows do link it so i can put it here):

[melyzard]

The World is Amazing, Actually (Part 11 or 12, I lost count)

It's been awhile since I made a post about how fucking rad the world actually is, and amidst all the pandemics and climate change and economic troubles, I felt the need.

So:

Today’s Wild Place (The Earth is An Alien Planet):

The Danakil Depression, Ethiopia:

The Danakil Depression is probably the closest you'll ever be able to come to standing on the surface of Venus (without the crushing atmosphere, of course). Choking sulphuric acid and chlorine gases fill the air, while acid ponds and geysers pepper the landscape. 

- Daisy Dobrijevic, published July 4, 2022

(BTW scientists recently discovered microbes capable of surviving in this toxic, extremely hot environment, which means...well, even if we kick the bucket, life will continue. There's something comforting in knowing that no matter how bad we screw up...life will go on.)

Today’s Incredible Feat of Engineering (look! at what! we made!):

Ouarzazate Solar Power Station in Morocco, which has gone solar in a big way.

(Which means they are making a huge contribution to helping fight toxic pollution, noise pollution, water use, land destruction, and carbon emissions. No really, there are charts. Reducing carbon emissions charts. Reducing irresponsible land use charts. Charts! Graphs! Data samples!)

Today’s Cool Life Form (the rare, the weird, the beautiful):

The Hispaniolan Solenodon.

A very rare, nocturnal, shrew-like creature that is one of the few mammals able to produce venom. Look at him! Look at his snout! He's just a little guy! He will bite you and run away on his back legs! He's rare, and endangered, but not gone! Not gone yet, bitches!

(Bonus: 10 Fun Facts About the Solenodon)

Today’s Bizarre Mystery (no, seriously, wtf?):

The Great Unconformity.

Hey, remember the Grand Canyon? Remember how we can see the passage of time through each layer, going back hundreds of thousands of years?

Did you know that apparently, on this massive record of earth's geological history, there's a chunk of time missing? Science has some hypotheses about how and why this happens (and yes, it's been found in more than one place), but they are really only hypotheses, and no one's really sure what happened to, oh, 1.6 billion years, give or take.

Today’s Act of Humanity (yes, we are worth the effort):

After fleeing a war, Ukrainians rush to help Mississippi tornado victims.

"They made the 16-hour drive south to donate bottled water and volunteer with aid workers, buoyed by the idea that they could help a community facing a similar struggle to theirs.

“We had to leave our home,” Pavliuk told The Washington Post in Ukrainian, in an interview interpreted by Hrebenyk. “And they don’t have a place to go back, either.”"

NEW CATEGORY:

Today's Good News About The Future (No, It's Not Too Late and Anyone Who Says Otherwise is Selling Something):

The Saiga Antelope, a species critical to the continued survival of huge swathes of grassland, that in 2003 was down to 6% of it's population and already extinct in it's natural habitat of China and Ukraine, has rebounded back to almost 2 million strong thanks to conservation efforts.

Previous | Next

[the-most-humble-blog]

<!-- BEGIN TRANSMISSION --> <div style="white-space:pre-wrap"> <meta existential-weight="98.7 sextillion to 1"> <script>ARCHIVE_TAG="BLACKSITE_STATISTICAL_EXISTENCE_DROP_001" EFFECT: troll neutralization, cosmic perspective reset, awe-induced clarity </script>

🧬 HEY, YOU.

---

The one rereading the comment from a troll who’s never written anything worth archiving, quoting, or even remembering past Tuesday.

The one wasting heartbeats wondering if their 12-word drive-by somehow means you’re not worthy.

Let’s reset your entire nervous system with reality.

First things first: Do you have any idea how statistically impossible you are?

Here are the receipts:

> 1 in 400 trillion — > That’s the minimum estimate of the odds of you being born, according to Dr. Ali Binazir, Harvard-trained physician and researcher.

> 13.8 billion years of cosmic chaos. > 4.54 billion years of planetary weirdness. > 3.7 billion years of evolution across mass extinctions, gamma-ray bursts, volcanic winters, and frogs the size of sedans.

You are the result of every survivor in that chaos.

Not a mistake. Not an accident. A mathematical miracle in a meat suit.

Now imagine this:

The Earth is formed. Crust cooling. Oceans churning. Meteor showers lighting up the atmosphere like a rave hosted by Satan.

And in that apocalypse?

A single cell forms. One cell. Floating in what is essentially alien soup, on a planet that looked like it got rejected from a Doom concept art file.

That’s your great-great-great x a billion grandmother.

She didn’t get eaten. She didn’t dry up. She didn’t dissolve.

She multiplied.

And her descendants? Ran, crawled, slithered, fucked, mutated, and evolved through horrors you will never even know existed.

Why?

Because over 99.9% of all life leaves no fossil record. Gone. No trace. Nothing left but implications.

So yes, there probably was a soft-bodied murder-octopus on land. Yes, there probably was a jellyfish the size of a f*cking truck that disintegrated your ancestors on contact.

And yes — if you ever invent a time machine and go back to the Devonian Period?

You’re gonna die. Instantly. Horrifically. And probably from something with no bones, no name, and no screen adaptation.

Don’t even get me started on the viruses that once existed.

Imagine catching something that boils your blood in your own skin like a microwave full of meatballs.

Or a fungus that melts your nervous system before you even twitch.

Or an airborne microbe that doesn’t kill you — it evolves inside you and eats your memories while your body continues paying taxes.

That could’ve happened. And maybe it did.

We just don’t have the records. Because you’re here.

And that means every single one of your ancestors survived all of it.

You think trolls are scary? Try living through the Permian Extinction.

> 252 million years ago: > 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrates wiped out. > Earth’s atmosphere turned to a chemical oven.

And your DNA still made it.

Still not impressed?

Let’s talk about Earth itself.

We exist in a “Goldilocks Zone.” Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right.

But even that doesn’t last.

Every stability on Earth is temporary. We are between ice ages. Between magnetic pole flips. Between solar flares that could fry the grid like a cockroach under a magnifying glass.

And you? You’re reading this on a glowing rectangle in the last microsecond of relative peace in a cosmic timeline that doesn’t care if you exist.

And yet — here you are.

Now imagine thinking a troll on the internet has the power to define you.

A troll who statistically hasn’t written a single sentence anyone willingly re-read.

Who wouldn’t survive a single round of jellyfish extinction or bat plague or saber-toothed orgy.

A troll who is only here because billions of others fought, starved, mutated, suffered, and bled for the right to exist at all.

You are the only version of you in this one surviving universe where you happened.

You are an evolutionary chainsaw, sharpened over 3 billion years of death, grit, chaos, birth, and luck.

You’re not a person. You’re a biological victory lap.

So don’t let someone who wouldn’t survive a bullfrog the size of a Honda make you doubt your power.

You have human hands that evolved from fins. You have eyes that descended from light-sensitive cells floating in primordial vomit. You have language that didn’t exist on Earth for 4.5 billion years — and now you’re using it to doubt yourself because a digital fart with Wi-Fi said “lol u suck”?

Listen.

If it doesn’t serve you? Mute it. Block it. Evolve past it.

Because the fact you’re alive means you’ve already outlived ten million things designed to erase you.

And you can outlive a troll too.

In the voice of Yoda: > “If it makes sense to you… > the universe doesn’t give a fuck.”

So don’t waste your miracle on someone who doesn’t even understand they are one.

🔥 Reblog if you needed the reminder: You are the final boss of improbability.

</div> <!-- END TRANSMISSION [AUTO-WIPE IN: 00:07:07] -->

[eliluvschan]

Shadow Selfies

pairing: bang chan x reader

word count: 971

warnings: few curse words & cutie Channie

genre: fluff

a/n: am i writing instead of finishing an essay for my deadline on thursday? no im not👀

i was walking my to my best friend Chan’s house. he’s got i don’t know what hair colour cause the man dyes his hair every two weeks now? i kinda lost count.

we’ve known each other for the past five years, but the thing is i’ve always liked him more than a friend.

i like him. a lot.

i rang the bell and Jessica, Chan’s mother, appeared in the doorway.

“hey dear, Chan’s in his room upstairs.”

“thanks, Mama Bahng.” i always call Jessica Mama Bahng, it’s a habit i picked up from hanging out a lot at Chan’s house.

she smiled as we both walk trough the hallway. “are you hungry?” she asked me.

“a little.”

“come on. i just bought these.” she said, putting a batch of brownies in front of me.

“alright then, but just one.” i smile.

“sure.” she turned away.

i took a piece and ate it.

“oh, this is amazing.”

“i know right? it’s a new bakery called Felix’s Goodies, maybe you and Chan can pick some up for the others?” she suggested.

“sure thing!”

“eomma, is Y/n here already?” i heard Chan calling from upstairs.

“maybe later.” i smiled and got up from where i was sitting, and made my way down the hall and upstairs. i knocked on the second door on the left.

“if it’s Hannah, go away. if it’s Y/n, come in please!” he called from inside.

“ugh, rude!” Hannah called as she got out of her room to go downstairs.

i laughed at her comment as i opened the door to the usual shirt strewn floor and messy bed.

“hey, where are you?” i called.

“oh, hey there cutie.” he said emerging from the side and pulling on a black hoodie. he stopped in front of me. “what’s up?”

“nothing much. you ready?”

“ready for what?”

“science!”

“oh yeah. come on.”

so we sat down on the bed and flicked through our books and opened chapter seven of biology. disease’s & microbes.

“i don’t understand this shit.” he said after five minutes of poring over the same page. he scanned the green page and then looked at me.

“what is that hard about learning the freaking definition of a compost?” i asked after explaining the compost again.

“it bounces off of my head. how did you do it?”

“don’t ask.”

he laughed. omg his laugh.

“okay. one more time?” i asked.

“okay. and then we do something else.”

i rolled my eyes. “sure.”

he smiled and sat a little straighter.

“when rotten plants, are piled onto a heap, the bacteria of microbes act on it, and produce an enzyme that turns into any sort of liquid and then they feed on it. this stupid and disgusting process is called a compost. got it?” i asked.

“the crappy heap of plant shit is called compost?” he joked.

i laughed. “yeah. now Bio degradable’s?”

“we’re doing something else.” he told me.

“you’re going to fail the test!”

“no, i’m not.” he said.

“yeah, you are. you’re not paying attention!”

“look, i’ve done as much as i can. and just one def. of bio- whatever’s left. it won’t hurt to leave one thing. and besides, you need a break too.

i thought for a moment. true, i do need a break.

“why are you trying so hard to make me study?” he asked.

“cause friends watch out for each other, and remember Mr. Lee said he’s gonna change out seats so we can’t pass notes or talk at all.” i reminded him.

“aw, you’re doing this so we can talk? sweet!” he smiled.

“shut up.” i said, returning to the book.

“hey, look at the shadows!” he said.

i looked and saw our shadows on the wall, very clear and sharp.

click!

Chan took out his phone and took a picture. soon, we were posing madly and taking pictures in the mirror. then Chan held up his index finger. i put mine across it and made an x. i took the picture.

he held his palm in the air. i calmed mine against it, forming a weird, but beautiful shadow of two hands joined in mid-air.

both of us took the picture. then he curved his hand into a half-heart shape. i curved mine, completing the heart. we took the picture.

i looked up at him, he looked down, not smiling. his eyes full of passion. he stared at my lips, then he leaned in and the next thing i knew his lips were moving against mine and his arms were no longer suspended in the air but gripping my waist.

a soft sigh and a click!

a camera snapping a picture, and we jumped and broke apart. Chan looked around. his mother was standing in the doorway. she quickly turned around and walked away.

“i, uh, i should get going.” i blushed and turned away.

“no, don’t go.” he whispered, holding me back.

“goodbye, Chris.” i moved away. but i felt a tug at my fingers. i looked back. our fingers were still locked. Chan smiled at them, but i hastened to pull them away.

i made my way home, still thinking about the kiss.

i got a text from Chan as soon as i was inside.

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: i made mom delete the picture.

me: ok, thanks.

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: but i still have it ;)

me: what? why?

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: our first kiss.

me: can u send it to me too?

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: [1 attachment]

me: well…

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: it’s uhh, nice.

me: yeah.

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: will you be my girlfriend Y/n? i mean i’ve liked you forever and i know you kissed me back and we are friends- i’ll take you out this weekend if that suits you?

me: uhh…

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: what?

me: nothing

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: then?

me: yes! :D

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: i had fun.

me: excuse me?

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: excused, girlfriend ;) i was talking about the shadow selfies and science of course.

me: oh yeah. me too >_<

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: so tomorrow night?

me: sure. goodnight boyfriend 🤍

Channie😩❤️‍🩹: goodnight girlfriend :)

~

[dreamyhopes]

Concept: Sam and/or Dean sneezing and Cas immediately tells them they have Influenza A or viral rhinitis or w/e and they're like "I don't feel sick. How do you know that?" And Cas very casually like it's a completely normal thing tells them he could see the microbes in their mucous on the tissue they used. They don't ask him to heal them until they spike a fever because they're dubious and weirded out by him looking at their used tissues. And Cas being the petty bitch (/affectionate) that he is refuses to until they admit he was right and that it's not at all weird that he was studying their snot.

[bethanythebogwitch]

The modern world is nice, but sometimes you just get the urge to go primitive. Because I'm a complete wimp who would die within a day of giving up the internet, I'm going to deal with that urge by talking about primitive animals. It's Wet Beast Wednesday and I'm talking about lancelets.

(image: a lancelet. Not much to look at, are they?)

Lancelets, or amphioxi, are highly basal (close to the ancestral form) chordates that are vaguely similar to fish, but are vastly more primitive. They have all the characteristics of chordates, the key one being a notochord, a flexible rodlike structure that goes down the body. The majority of chordates that are still alive are vertebrates, who have incorporated the notochord into the spinal column. The other groups of surviving chordates are the tunicates (who I'll get to eventually) and the lancelets. Because lancelets are so primitive, they are used at model organisms representing an early stage of vertebrate evolution. It was originally thought that lancelets are remnants of an early lineage that eventually evolved into vertebrates. Genetic studies later showed that tunicates are actually more closely related to modern vertebrates than lancelets. They are still used as a model organism as they are a fantastic representation of early chordates. The similarity of lancelets to the 530 million year old Pikaia gracilens, one of the earliest known chordates, is one of the reasons they are such a useful model organism.

(image: a diagram of lancelet anatomy by Wikipedia user Systematicist)

Lancelets can be found all over the world, living in temperate to tropical shallow seas. The only known exception is Asymmetron inferum, which has been found around whale falls at 225 m (738 ft) deep. They are small animals, reaching around 8 cm at their largest. An amphioxus looks pretty worm-like, with a simple mouth at one end and a pointed tail at the other. The name amphioxus means "both (ends) pointed" which is a pretty appropriate description. The mouth is lined with tentacle-like threads called oral cilli, which are used for feeding. Lancelets are filter-feeders that use the cirri to filter plankton, microbes, and organic detritus. Water and food pass into the pharynx (back of the mouth), which is line with gill slits. This is where it gets weird. The gill slits aren't used for respiration, but for feeding. Mucus gets pushed through the gill slits by cilia, trapping the food and moving it deeper into the digestive tract. Not only to lancelets not use their gill slits to respirate, they actually don't have a respiratory system at all. Instead, they just absorb dissolved oxygen through their thin and simple layer of skin. Their circulatory system doesn't move oxygen around either as there is no heart or hemoglobin present. For what it's worth, they don't have a proper live either. When you look at a lancelet's anatomy, you can see similarities to fish anatomy, just much more primitive and with some parts missing.

(image: the head of a lancelet, with mouth and cilli visible)

Lancelets have 4 different systems used for vision. Two, the Joseph cells and Hesse organs, are simple photoreceptors that are on the notochord and detect light along the back of the animal. Imagine having a bunch of very simple yes on your spinal cord that can see through your skin. There is also a simple photoreceptor called the lamellar body (which confusingly is also the name of a type of lipid) and a single simple eye on the head. Speaking of light, lancelets are florescent, producing green light when exposed to blue to ultraviolet light. In all species, the proteins responsible for this are found around the cilii and eye, but some species also have them in the gonads and tail. The purpose for this florescence isn't exactly known, but a common hypothesis is that it helps attract plankton toward their mouths.

(image: an extreme close-up of a lancelet's cilli fluorescing)

Lancelets have seasonal reproduction cycles that occur in summer. Females release their eggs first, followed my males releasing sperm to fertilize them. Depending on species, spawning can either occur at specific times, or gradually throughout breeding season. Development occurs in several stages. In the frist stage, they live in the substrate, but they will quickly move into the water column to become swimmers. These swimming larvae practice diel vertical migration, traveling to the surface at night and returning to the seafloor in the day. While larvae can swim, they are still subject to the current and can be carried long distances. Adults retain their ability to swim, which is done by wriggling like an eel and in some cases, spinning around in a spiral fashion while moving forward. Unlike the larvae, adults spend most of their time buried in the substrate with only their heads exposed. They typically only emerge when mating or if disturbed.

(image: a diagram of the lancelet life cycle. source)

Because of their use as model organisms, humans have developed methods to keep and breed lancelets in captivity. The majority of research has been done on Branchiostoma lanceolatum, but several other species have been studied. Multiple species are endangered due to pollution and global warming. Several species are edible and can either be eaten whole or used as a food additive. In spring, when their gonads begin to develop for breeding season, they develop a bad flavor.

Mom: "we have garden eels at home". Garden eels at home:

(image: three lancelets sticking their heads out of the sediment)

[assassiowl]

"Do marshmallows grow naturally?" -

Hearthian Food Exploration part 2

The food hyper fixation continues. This post is part 2: a continuation of Hearthian's dynamic with food. In this case specifically food preservation and the canning process.

Disclaimer: This is for fun, though I will do my best to weave in content based on actual science. It's a game about weird aliens, don't worry about it too much. Establishing science tier: So how much founded knowledge do the Hearthians actually have. I think the best way to establish this baseline is by looking at the design for the ship (Saiful Haque). Although at first glance, unreliable, a death trap stuck together with nothing but tape and determination. /End post. Actually, the idea of space travel in this this suggests their grasp on science is extremely high. So it raises the question. Why is it made out of wood? Why does that matter? The existence of canned marshmallows, and this ship that's stuck together, it suggests a strange dynamic with understanding: that they get the principles, and then at the very end slap it together to get over the finish line. I worry that unreliable attitude slips into their food. Food safety Vacuum sealed food is a technique of food preservation. At it's core it's preventing microorganisms from infesting your food and making it rot. One technique is drawing out all of the moisture. This time we will look at the canning and jarring process, which has the same end goal, but gets there slightly differently. With jarring and canning food, the idea is to boil off the microbes, allowing the oxygen to seep out while doing so, which creates a vacuum and prevents more from getting in after. This process allows food to be preserved for really long times. There's evidence of canned goods lasting a decade, still edible. Canned goods often feature in post apocalyptic settings. Simply put, the science is good, and provided the container itself remains in tact, the food is edible for a long time. Perfect for hiking and camping out under the stars. How do you do it? At it's core for this method of preservation, it's heat that acts as the main driving force. High temperatures, from boiling or steaming, raise the temperature of the food and container to kill off micro-organisms inside, ait and oxygen is released from the container, forming a vacuum seal preventing further contamination. That's a simplified look at the mechanics - how this occurs, how containers were designed to do this, and entire systems being created to be able to do this en masse are in place. This is where we get all these canning factories popping up in the 19th century. Home food preservation usually focuses on glassware. The process itself sounds harder than it actually is. Simply put, you squish out air bubbles from the food, clean up the jar and then boil it for ages.

What can you preserve? Most commonly with this method you see Jams (Chopped fruit + sugar) Jellies (Fruit juice + sugar) Marmalades (Citrus fruit + sugar) Chutney (Chopped fruit + sugar + vinegar) Preserves (Bigger pieces of fruit + sugar) Incidentally, the process is very similar to pickling, except you'd add vinegar to the boiled content (which acts as another layer for preservation, the acidity kills off microorganisms). So by that extension, essentially, if you can eat it, you can preserve it (probably true, idk, how do I fact check that). Ok so the issue is how well it tastes. You end up with a lot of concentration of salt, or you need to include spices and other flavourings to make the food taste good once you open up the container. How do Hearthians use this? Given what we've seen in game, it really isn't that much of a stretch to suggest that they can can and tin anything. The limit is what types of flavours are available to them. Canned foods are par cooked by the steaming process, then finished cooking when opened. This let's you can things like sauces, stews, soups etc. I imagine anything they can cook regularly, can also be stored for easy consumption later. Gives me an idea to explore next time - the herbs and flavours. (Based on an r/science question) Actually, the space science was wrong with the angle fish carcass theory. Temperature and food degradation works differently in space, and actually food is constantly bombarded by radiation particles. It essentially renders the food inedible within a few years. So these canned marshmallows aren't the best source of nutrition. We're looking at vacuum sealed foods cooked back on Timber Hearth, sent up to be rehydrated once out in space. Astronauts these days use a whole special machine to do so. They essentially press their food packets against it and there you go. Which incidentally, reminds me of airline food which undergoes extra flavouring during their cooking process, since you taste food differently at the different altitude. Which also reminds me of military rations, designed to be really compact and highly dense in calorific value. The world of food and cuisine is fascinating. So anyway marshmallows don't grow on trees, you whip sugar and gelatine really hard to airate it. Basically, idk how that fits into a can, but we ball. If you tried to steam a marshmallow in a sealed environment I'm pretty sure it would expand and explode. Or would you get a melted sugary deflated mess. Just look into microwaved marshmallows. Actually I've talked myself out of it, the existence of marshmallows in a can is a ruse, this game is unplayable. Inner Milds is a no fun allowed game where you sit grumpily in front of an unlit pile of logs eating a tin of really salty pickled fish. (I didn't even mention refrigeration methods bleh) Added notes: I feel the expansion of what Hearthians eat is so contingent on a healthy dynamic with agriculture. I was floating the idea of a pair of ranching OCs, but the more I sit with the idea the more I like the idea of this eccentric duo who are really interested in genetics within their food. One grows shaped vegetables that are appealing to eat, while the other loves animals and is always looking for ways to free ranch.

[makoredeyes]

What do you think the Siddharta Golem was back in the Golden Age? Must have been different enough to Rasputin to be considered his son but we really don't know anything about him.

It’s wild! Because even Rasputin becomes fairly verbose about Felwinter, but not what or who he was before he was risen. (Props to dad for not deadnaming his kid I guess??!?* except I still have this funny impression that Felwinter never liked his risen name much SOOOO )

But Siddhartha. His namesake is telling of course- gone out to wander the world and see it for all its goods and bads first hand, to grossly over simplify things.

Rasputin himself tags the activation record with the quote, "Experience is the teacher of all things." Which sure compounds the intent there.

But looking at that same log, yano Rasputin’s code is always cryptic and full of prose but this one has to be absolute THICKEST of them all:

>>AMYGDALA VOTIVE GRASP>>

V149GAQ145CB120

AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//GOLEM//INTERROGATIVE

IMMEDIATE ACTION ORDER

This is a SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE (NO HUMAN REVIEW) (NO AI-COM REVIEW) (secure/AUTARCH).

Initiate SIDDHARTHA GOLEM upload at DSC-342 to assess integrity of moral structures.

Stand by for CRITERIA:

Under PASSAGE (obsolesce/SIDEREAL):

If NANOBE SONDER is IVORY

If HAMMURABI is ACTIVE and passes human review under context TURING

If DURYODHANA is in FAILURE and passes AI-COM review under context IDES

Set spectrum certification to SMARAGDINE

Else, stand by for CONTINGENT ACTION ORDER:

Set spectrum certification to AMARANTHINE

Initiate human review unless tactical morality is built at MIDNIGHT

"Experience is the teacher of all things."

STOP STOP STOP V149GAQ145CB121

——

I had started to unpack this at one point and got a little lost because Big Red is going WAY the fuck out there with some of his prose in this one. We see the term Sidereal a few times in Destiny lore it’s a fun one they like to use but is a weird term to drop here for example, and as best I can conclude might infer something like “long shot” but like. That’s not really what it means either. So there’s some stuff here that doesn’t really translate and then the fucker uses SMARAGDINE which is a shade of green. GREEN. He means green. Like go.

So like. Even without unpacking everything Tldr the old man is feeling extra poetic he’s having some feels about this and he’s also doing this totally on his own without review from humans or other AI-COMs, specifically in secret. So safe to assume we can confirm yeah Siddhartha was pretty important to Rasputin from the very start.

**I will add that the juxtaposition of NANOBE, which is a form of microbe, a tiny life if you will, and SONDER together really does give me the impression of like. A child. A sort of parental wonder at a tiny individual. But that is a WHOLE LOT of inference.

[garbage-empress]

My baby giant clam Clamabelle has fully extended her mantle today, after recovering from shipping. She's also adjusting her position to attain the most comfy spot.

Yesterday I had to keep fiddling with her placement because she kept yeeting herself off the platform. Once Tridacna clams find a spot they like they'll permanently attach but the young ones are rowdy. They clumsily move around until they get the combo of light, stability and flow they're looking for.

Moving around like this can sometimes result in disasters where they fall too far and hurt themselves or they end up upside down in the sand bed where they're starved for light and their fleshy bits are vulnerable to opportunists, so I hope she stays relatively in this spot.

Tridacnid clams are the largest clams on Earth and have independently evolved a symbiosis with dinoflagellates and obtain a lot of their calories from photosynthesis just like coral does. The rest of their food is obtained from filtering sea water for microbes, like you'd expect from a clam. They're gorgeous, weird animals.

Clamabelle is a Tridacna maxima, which has the hilarious common name of "small giant clam" because they "only" grow to a length of 8-12 inches (20-31 cm) as compared to the bigger species of the Tridacna genus, such as Tridacna gigas, the largest clam in the world:

The smallest Tridacnid clam is Tridacna crocea, which "only" grows to a length of about 6 inches (15 cm). Tridacna crocea is also known as "the boring clam" but "boring" as in "cutting into rock" not "boring" as in "dull" because look at this little beast:

Really happy to have such an interesting specimen in my tank and I hope I can take good care of her.

[ntls-24722]

@shiro-luxunder

It's not THAT bad but I also realize it's not as detailed as I thought

I just start eating recyclable shit like i'm going to die tomorrow

in the robot-me universe i had to take a position t a recycling plant in order to sustain my batshit diet, batshit diet being: just straight up plastic. And metal cans! (bonus: i feel like finalized djmm sona would have a tramp stamp commemorating it 💀)

How much plastic do you eat, unknowingly or otherwise? Chances are, a lot more than you should be, but not enough to create an entire house-sized carapace with it. Step 1 of robot puberty is to start EATING for i am a Growing Boy. Tangentially related, I have to go in the mines and start chowing down on precious metals for the exact same reason

At some point my skeleton dissolves

Significantly less scary than it sounds if you would believe me. It happens once my body looks like it completely abandoned my skeletal structure and I didn't notice it was happening until it occurred to me that I didn't have a skeleton anymore.

At some point i just vomit my own organs

Exactly as scary as it sounds. It didn't hurt but it stung my throat. But not all of them! Magical dust can go far but not all the way. Deep down I'm still your lovable flesh boy. Now I'm just full of wires and circuitry and gay shit like that - I still have my stomach, for example. Speaking of which

Eating Weird Shit 3: bacteria jamboree

thank god these were all means to an end because if I were to be organic after all this I think I would have released multiple plagues upon the world. Interestingly, during robot puberty, I became a ruminant, I have not one but multiple of my stomachs, for the flesh is not as weak as you might think, and can be a powerful tool for the machine. Basically I filled my stomachs full of a bunch of bacterias in order to facilitate all the fun things that robots do, like drinking oil and petrol, and also still eat food.

How did I do that? Ya boy was swimming around at the bottom of the mariana trench eating yummy microbes

I had a momentary crisis where I thought all that was left of my organic body was in my hands. And that I should feel shame for it and cover those things up

They aren't. My organic bits are all around my new robotic body. I just really didn't like having naked hands and my brain made shit up and gave me catholic guilt over it

I stopped being able to rotate my eyes and developed a fully rotatable neck like a cyborg owl

self explanatory. I started doing it at preachers on my campus calling everyone an abomination

The weird transitionary period of losing my legs and walking on my arms

Just really weird and awkward for everyone involved

The nightmare of my outer jaws flattening and turning into teethplates. The subsequent learning of semi-swallowing food like a snake.

i have regular jaws somewhere down my throat like a moray eel and I can eat regularly but I have to get food down there first. This was a courtesy on the magic dust on my part because we sat down and I was explained that I had to start swallowing food whole like a snake but I was able to negotiate that I can somewhat keep the same experience with food

actually, just all of my secret mouthparts

it's secret. can't tell you. you have to just find out

Figuring out my LED eyes

Did you know that your thoughts look a lot like AI-generated imagery? Now I do. It took me a long time to hone proper images down on those things

completely unrelated bonus but I got multiple massive grants to be allowed to studied and experimented on multiple occassions which I truly think is the only reason why i'm still here. I still feel like it wasn't enough.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #338: Infectious Compulsions

September, 1991

The Collection Obsession Part 4 At last! The TRUE enemy revealed!

At last! We can stop pretending Thane Ector is an interesting big bad!

I mean, that seems to be the tone here.

Also, this is misnumbered. Last time was Part 4. Next time will be Part 6. Stands to reason that this was supposed to be Part 5.

Last times in the Avengers the Collection Obsession: the Collector's ship crashed into the Moon and out came strolling the Brethren, ancient conquerors that the Collector had bottled up in a terrarium.

The Brethren head over to Earth and start raiding and conquering the place and the Avengers are at a loss to stop them. One team of Avengers goes to the Moon to get the Collector's help in finding the Brethren's original terrarium, in hopes that it will give them a clue to defeating them. The rest of the Avengers get beaten up repeatedly by the Brethren.

Sersi the Eternal is captured by the Brethren and the Brethren leader Thane Ector has weird romantic chemistry with her. He reveals the Brethren's secret, that they were created by the Celestials to purge planets of life and the Celestials made them out of something shameful. Presumably related, the Brethren's victims are completely germ free and Thane Ector has to take a break to chug down some sewage during this arc.

Not a lot has really happened but what has happened is weird enough to note.

For example, on their journey to discover the Brethren's habitat, the Avengers recruited an alien named Nakka whose terrarium had been attacked by the Brethren. But he dropped dead as soon as the Avengers reached the Brethren's home terrarium.

Is this relevant? Yes.

Black Panther and Beast find that the air and soil of this terrarium has ridiculously high concentrations of bacteria and microbes. With Nakka weakened after the Brethren's attack, as were all his people, exposure to the microbe-rich environment killed him off.

Anyway, then goo and twig-like limbs bursts from the ground and try to get real acquainted with Quasar.

He blasts free but his attacker is revealed as a shriveled old man who proclaims "I am Olar, oldest of the Brethren, left here to die -- and I HUNGER!"

Hi, Olar.

Back on Earth, in the Brethren's citadel atop the World Trade Center, Lady Sybyl Dorn sharpens her sword and wishes that the Brethren had never escaped the Collector's ship, had never come to Earth. That everything had stayed the way it had been, with Thane Ector liking her and not some random Earth woman.

The Fool comes in to ask her why she's so glum, chum, and she tells him off for assuming she gives a shit what he has to say. But she also reveals that she's going to call for the Brethren to assemble so they can have a vote of no confidence in Thane Ector.

Meanwhile elsewhere, on top of the Avengers HQ, the Avengers receive the returning Moon team, with their new pal Olar.

Quasar: "Cap, meet Olar, one of the Brethren's more ancient citizens. He was left behind because he was considered too frail to make the escape with the others... as a matter of fact, only our stasis field is keeping the poor guy alive."

And Beast explains what they've found.

The Brethren are, in fact, a purely bacterial life-form! Somehow!

They look and act like a functioning multicellular lifeform but their genetic make-up is "no different than that of a very complex germ!"

I'm no scientist but that seems unlikely.

Hercules: "Then it shall be simple to destroy these noisome creatures now that we know what they truly are!" Vision: "All sentient beings deserve respect, Hercules. Whether their bodies are composed of bacteria... or plastic." Captain America: "Amen to that, Vision." Hercules: "Hmmmm... methinks I have learned a lesson here... if only I didst know what it was."

This has been a very special episode of Avengers.

But what has all this been for if knowing that the Brethren are a very complex bacterial colony doesn't help beat them? They've been kicking your asses in every encounter. Are you going to bust out the Penicillin Cannon or what?

Meanwhile, back at Brethren HQ, the Fool laments that bad things are bad. Thane Ector has lost the trust of his people and is likely to be overthrown.

But then a stroke of good fortune.

Wrapped in some bad fortune.

The Fool has been spying on the Avengers with a camera drone orb. And said camera orb captured the Moon team returning with the Collector and Olar in tow.

The Avengers having Olar in custody freaks the Fool the fuck out. Surely, the Avengers will experiment on him and learn the Brethren's secret shame and reveal it to the universe!

But but but! The fact that the Avengers are working with the Collector, hated jailer of the Brethren, is just what the Fool needs to turn the tides back in Thane Ector's favor!

The little guy scurries off to interrupt Sybyl Dorn just when she's declaring Thane Ector a high traitor to the Brethren for treating an outsider and prisoner as an equal.

The Fool bursts in claims that Thane Ector's plan all along was to gather information on the Avengers because they were allied with the Collector.

Thane Ector takes the news hard, gives Sersi a shove, and declares death to the Avengers and also the Collector.

Sybyl Dorn is classy enough to gloat on her way out.

Sybyl Dorn: "And so he has left you! And is that not a bitter taste? I know, I've tasted it since first he laid eyes on you. But know this well, Terran -- he is Brethren once more!"

Sybyl tells the Fool to watch Sersi while she, Sybyl, goes to join the others.

The Fool confides in Sersi that he doesn't actually care about the Collector but he knew that it would piss off Ector. And he also tells Sersi about Olar and how the secret of the Brethren must not get out.

Sersi: "But I know your secret, little one." The Fool: "Oooooh... how very unfortunate for you."

Meanwhile meanwhile, back at Avengers Mansion, Hank Pym and other Hank, Beast, are analyzing Olar and stressing that treating him like a lab rab makes them no different than the Collector.

I don't think its comparable, really. But whatever.

Anyway, both of them are knocked out by a flash of light and an EEEEEEEE. Then someone off-screen comments that the Avengers are getting too close to the truth and kills Olar so they can't learn anything from him.

Very rude, the true enemy.

I wonder who it could beeeee? If it was the Fool, I don't think they'd keep him mysteriously off-panel. Because we already know that he's more powerful than his lowly status implies and that he really wants to protect the Brethren's secret.

So it's either someone completely new to the plot or the obvious culprit.

Anyway.

The Brethren start flying out of their citadel in the millions (the story very much hasn't suggested they had that kind of numbers before...), leading Jarvis to sound a priority alarm one alpha to gather the Avengers.

In the assembling, Rage and Hercules discover that Beast, Black Panther, and Dr Pym were attacked. But they don't have time to dig into that because Thane Ector lands outside the mansion and shakes the ground in his rage.

Thane Ector: "Come out of your fortress, Avengers! And bring the cursed Collector with you! Come out and face the righteous wrath of a people enslaved! Or do you hide in terror, trembling before our assembled might? DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Captain America: "We hear you, Ector -- and, by the way, the Avengers fear no one."

The Collector has wandered out onto the front lawn with everyone else despite the Avengers telling him to stay inside.

And Thane Ector sees doddering old man Collector, confirming for him that the Avengers must die for working with him.

Hercules: "I say thee most assuredly nay, creature of germ and things most foul!"

Herk gets some good punches in and also some good disses, saying Thane Ector is no warrior what with being made of bacteria.

This just cheeses off Thane Ector and he eyebeams Hercules and yells "THANE ECTOR IS A WARRIOR BORN!"

Ector then tears up a huge chunk of the ground - bowling over Beast, Rage, and Black Knight - and chucks it at Iron Man.

Thane Ector: "I had almost come to admire you Avengers -- but at last the scales have fallen from my eyes -- and I see you for the base creatures you are!"

He's on an awfully high horse considering what a dick he is.

Meanwhile, Crystal and Vision fight some of the Brethren mooks. Mostly off-panel. The book does not seem to want to portray the Brethren most of the time except the named ones.

This is especially wild since supposedly millions of Brethren were on their way to Avengers Mansion. That is not supported by the numbers we actually see.

Vision notes that as Thane Ector gets more worked up, so do the rest of the Brethren, suggesting some kind of group consciousness.

Black Widow is left to hang back and protect the Collector.

Man has the power primordial. I don't think Black Widow can protect him better than he can protect himself. But anyway, seeing a woman bodyguarding the Collector just enrages Thane Ector more, who accuses the Collector of hiding "among the skirts of women."

Thane Ector is not a very socially conscious guy.

Captain America jumps in between Thane Ector and Black Widow, saying that sure the Collector wronged the Brethren by keeping them imprisoned but killing him won't solve anything or redeem the years spent imprisoned.

Captain America: "We know a little more about your people. It's time for the killing to end. There's a chance for understanding now."

... But they murdered their way through space before the Collector imprisoned them. They're not doing bad things because they were wronged. They're resuming the bad things they were already doing.

Thane Ector: "Understanding, Captain America? Was that what I heard in Hercules' taunts? Admit it! Our origins disgust all thinking men. Our presence sickens you. You recoil from our very touch. How could you deny it? I felt the same things when I first learned the truth! But the Brethren must be more! I must be!"

Thane Ector punches Captain America out of the way, eyebeams Black Widow, and then corners the Collector.

And beats seven kinds of shit out of him.

Ol' Ector has some grievances.

Captain America tells the Avengers they have to stop this blatant elder abuse but if the Avengers could stop Thane Ector, they wouldn't be in the situation they're in now.

The blue guy vows to the Collector that he's going to end him but the Collector's eyes start glowing and he corrects Thane Ector. This isn't where it ends, but begins.

And then he explodes.

Sending all the nearby Avengers tumbling away through the air and confused about what's happening.

Uatu shows up to not interfere by explaining everything.

Uatu: "It was the pulling aside of the curtain. The end of deception and the revelation of truth. Beware, Avengers, for things have not been as they seemed. And, alas, even a Watcher may be led astray."

And the smoke clears, revealing, at last, the true enemy.

Uh, the Collector.

In a dumb, powered-up form with stupid spikes coming out of his head and also Kirby Krackle all around.

No surprise he's the true enemy, once the cover suggested that there was more to this arc than just punching the Brethren. The arc is called the Collection Obsession.

The Collector let the Brethren escape on purpose! And pretended to be a doddering old man! He schemed it all, so he could wipe out the human race!

For collection reasons, probably! I mean, it's gotta be collection reasons! Otherwise you're using collection guy as a generic enemy!

Next week, finishing this story off. And then figuring out what to do about Avengers West Coast because the issue I was working on was removed from Marvel Unlimited.

Follow @essential-avengers for all your Avengers needs. Unless you need comics released in the last two and a half decades. That's going to take me a while. Like and reblog and so on and so forth.

[hurricane105]

Favorite books of 2024!

Ok fair warning: most of the traditionally published stuff I read is nonfiction. Lots of science and prehistory stuff in here.

I Contain Microbes by Ed Yong: This was a reread. I had forgotten how beneficial most kinds of bacteria are - and that disinfecting every single thing in our houses isn't always the best move (spoiler: it's linked to rises in autoimmune disorders).

Eager by Ben Goldfarb: This one is all about beavers (be prepared to get some weird looks when people ask what you're reading). Beavers are a rodent, and there's a tendency to treat them as vermin. But they're an important part of the ecosystem, creating wetlands much more efficiently than humans can.

This got long so I'm putting the other recs under a cut

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death, and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes: Story time! I was raised in a religion that didn't think any humans other than homo sapiens had ever existed - they made fun of people who believed in evolution and thought it was all a bunch of baloney based off of like, two teeth and a fingerbone. Spoiler! There's dozens of Neanderthal skeletons (and that's not even counting other species of humans, like Denisovians and heidelbergensis; the rant about hiding evidence to be misleading can wait for another day). What I didn't realize before reading Kindred was that Neanderthals weren't the stumbling, grunting hairy humans I had always subconsciously assumed. This book is top tier for me, solely because it has so much new information.

Never Home Alone: from Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn: This was also a reread. You might think you're the only one living in your house - but there's zillions of other animals in there with you.

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake: Also a reread. Along with a lot of other people, I had always overlooked fungi as being rather uninteresting. However, I was wrong! There's so much packed into this book (the author's experience taking a fermentation bath, how mycelium can be used to make furniture, and how cordyceps take over ants) - it completely rearranged how I see fungi.

Brilliant Green by Stefano Mancuso: I wound up reading this one twice, back to back, to look for things for BOTW Zelda to ramble about in Link Goes Undercover. It's short but has a lot of examples of how plants live just as vibrantly as we do - they move, sleep, and signal to one another, in ways science is only just starting to understand.

An Immense World by Ed Yong: This book is about how animals perceive the world differently than we do. Not just in terms of different colors of vision and scent sensitivity, but also in things like how whales and birds migrate using the earth's geomagnetic field (which is why there are more whale strandings when there's a solar storm - their internal GPSes are messed up). Top tier for this year for sure!

Underland by Robert Macfarlane: An in-depth (lol) look at what's going on under the earth's surface. For example, what potash mining looks like, what scientists study when they pull ice cores out of the Arctic, and did you know that there's a cave in China that creates its own weather system - clouds, rain, the whole nine yards?

Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee - also a reread. Several years ago I went on a 'what exactly does comfortable home design look like' reading kick, and this was one of the books I found the most helpful. For example, circles tend to feel bouncier and brighter than other shapes - think of things like bubbles and those round windows on staircases in Victorian houses.

What If? and What If? 2 by Randall Munroe: these are together because they're very similar content - if you liked one you'll probably like the other. These are just fun applications of physics.

Breath by James Nestor: Okay I'll admit it, I was extremely skeptical about this one. The author claims that everything from waking up at night for the bathroom to fuzzy thinking can be solved by breathing through your nose. So I tried it, sure it wouldn't work but figuring I had nothing to lose. And shockingly, it does help everything he said it would AND MORE. I've never had much stamina for things like running - I'd get out of breath before my muscles gave up. But breathing through my nose solves that and all the other problems he discusses. So it's definitely worth a shot, even if you're also sure it won't work for you.

[space-blue]

vampire Q? i think i recognized all your wips but that one

It's an Avatar story in which Q contracts a fucked disease after getting a cut from an arrow. The microbes react differently to the recom DNA and fuck with his mind. The issue is that I started with chapter 2, which is finished, and the first half of chapter 1... Then bailed out on the part where the fever should ratchet up and up, till Miles loses himself and starts feasting on some RDA staff :3

--

It all starts with the graze of an arrow, courtesy of Sully's woman.

The neurotoxin immediately gets to work, burning as it spreads. Miles reaches for the antidote on automatic, punches it into the side of his throat and tosses the empty canister aside. He discards any concern just as easily. They're pinned down, the hostages scattered, and this is the one fucking alien on this moon whose brains he most wants splattered on the greenery. He's not letting his chance slip.

His arm screams in protest as he signs for Lyle to go around dear Mrs. Sully, or when he grabs Walker and yanks her back behind cover. It shakes under the recoil as he fires into the canopy, half blind in the rain. It nearly gives out when he hoists the kid over his shoulder and clips into the lines. 

They fly off and Miles presses himself into his seat, head spinning and an uncomfortable stinging sensation spreading down his chest. 

It doesn't matter. He doesn't care. His son is safe in his arms. Bleeding and zoning out, yes, but safe. Kid could have had it worse. He could have eaten a bullet or an arrow.

'He'll be fine, he's probably concussed by the blast and fall,' Lopez declares after a cursory inspection. 'But sir, you shouldn't hold him that way. You could pop the seal of his exopack.'

Miles grunts and adjusts the kid's position, arm twitching in protest. Lopez catches it. Or maybe it's the blood, still sluggishly oozing from the slice in his deltoid. Lopez presses his fingers along the cut, pulling out his small torch to get a better look.

'You took the anti—'

'What d'you think?'

'I think it was a bit of a shitshow, sir. Wouldn't blame you for missing it.'

Miles can't exactly counter that. You don't lose half your team to three natives with bow and arrows and not call it a shitshow. 

'I got it immediately,' he says, 'and I'll be heading to the medbay anyway.'

To deliver his unconscious son, if nothing else. 

Walker leans into him and whispers an apologetic, 'That was intended for me.'

'And it got neither of us,' Miles mutters. 

An easy half lie, but the arrow head and the yellow, striated fletching got under his skin, just in different ways.

--

That's what I have for chapter 1. Chapter 2 was in Lyle POV and much better imo buuuut, the entire story was hefty and long, with no way to shorten it significantly. I should yeet chapter 2 as standalone on ao3 and be done with it tbh.

Even made some doodles for this AU

One of these things about parasitism, building an organic convent, a sort of weird eldrritch horror competition to Eywa, leading the RDA and local tribes into uneasy cooperation.

It's a story that was discussed too much. It was fun to chat about, but my energy got spent on making the world, meaning I never got to sit to the writing fully.

I also had a really unpleasant interraction with some other fans around this particular story concept, so it really soured things, as often in Avatar sadly.

[weirdpsychoticlife]

Growth chamber stills

I don't remember this room of Moya's being given a canon name, and I'm not sure which Earth-familar organ it most resembles. Uterus? Maybe, but an anatomist might limit that term to the structures closer to Talyn's body. Maybe neither is right, and the whole shebang has more in common with a marsupium. Maybe we'd have to come up with a new word, if we found out that pregnant vacuum-dwelling space whales really existed. IDK, this show is weird, and I appreciate that.

So I'm going with "growth chamber," since her baby, later named Talyn, appears to grow inside it until he can survive outside. I say "appears" because, since the next time we see Talyn is in the "birthing channel," we can't say, for sure, that he doesn't move elsewhere for a later phase of the pregnancy. After all, human zygotes move from the fallopian tube into the uterus; if an alien embryo had to implant more than once during its development, that wouldn't be the weirdest thing to happen on Farscape.

I altered the lighting and colors of these caps to make the shapes more visible, so, if you want the exact correct colors, you'll have to re-watch this scene from "They've Got a Secret."

Above, John is approaching on a catwalk and shining his flashlight on Talyn. The layout of the chamber looks so much like Pilot's den that I wonder if Pilot lives in a different baby den with some bells and whistles added.

Compare it to this shot of Pilot's den, from "Exodus from Genesis":

A closer look at Talyn:

Pilot's controls:

Same front panel, same crystal stuck in it.

However, one thing that I don't think we see anywhere else but the growth chamber is the suckered tentacles supporting Talyn. In the scene (from "The Way We Weren't") where Pilot cuts himself loose from Moya, his nutrient tubes appear smooth or lightly segmented.

Of course, given how he and Moya were grafted together, those tubes might be his own, like these that Velorek pulls out during surgery:

I'm not sure if the tentacles provide Talyn with nutrients, or if all that comes in through the smaller, cobwebby pieces. For that matter, it might be that the DRDs take care of Talyn's nutritional needs, without an umbilical cord. Although, in "Thanks for Sharing," Moya provides a transfusion to Talyn (now living outside her body) via something that translator microbes render as "umbilicals," this might not be an exact match for the human umbilical cord. In "Liars, Guns and Money, Part III," Talyn gives Moya a similar transfusion, so "umbilicals" likely aren't exclusive to female Leviathan anatomy.

It's hard to tell if the transfusion "umbilicals" are anatomically similar to the tubes in the growth chamber. If you want to attempt informed speculation, here's Moya administering a transfusion to Talyn in "Thanks for Sharing":

And here our beloved ships are separating, so you can see Moya's umbilicals at a different angle: