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Enjoy these glass-plate negatives of a couple in drag, ca. 1900

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The Jungle Book (1967)

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Dan V Pride

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why bother caring about the environment when 1. It’s so obviously a lost cause and 2. There’s definitely going to be a nuclear war?

And what are you doing about it Anon? Learn about ecological restoration or get out of my way.

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they should invent a bus that never gets stuck in traffic because it's on its own path separated from the roads. and then chain multiple of them together and put it on rails. has anyone had this idea before.

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I wonder who would win in a race between a roman general on chariot vs a cowboy on horseback? Also happy pride!

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Huge Roman 'Jigsaw' Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Wall Paintings

Archaeologists have pieced together thousands of fragments of 2,000-year-old wall plaster to reveal remarkable frescoes that decorated a luxurious Roman villa.

The shattered plaster was discovered in 2021 at a site in central London that's being redeveloped, but it's taken until now to reconstruct this colossal jigsaw puzzle.

The frescoes are from at least 20 walls of the building, with beautifully painted details of musical instruments, birds, flowers and fruit.

The art is revealing more about the affluence of the area where they were found - described by the team as the "Beverly Hills of Roman London".

There are also clues about who the artists were: one fragment is scored with the Latin word Fecit, which means "has made this" - but the piece where the name should be is missing.

The Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) team still hope the vital piece will be found as they sift through the fragments.

"It's one of the biggest - if not the biggest - assemblages of Roman wall plaster and paintings we've ever found in Roman London," said Han Li from Mola.

The largest of the frescoes, measuring about 5m by 3m, has a lower section of pale pink, dotted with specks of paint to imitate marble. Above are rich yellow panels with soft green borders.

The wall paintings are adorned with candelabras, stringed instruments called lyres, white cranes and a delicate daisy.

There's also what appears to be a bunch of grapes, but archaeobotanists believe that this is a plant that grows locally - mistletoe.

"That is actually quite interesting for me, because you're seeing that the Roman painters are taking a classical idea and they're very much putting their own North West European, or local, twist on it. I think that's magnificent," says Han Li.

He spent many months with the jumble of plaster, meticulously examining each piece to put together what he describes as "the world's most difficult jigsaw puzzle".

The fragility of the ancient fragments made this even more of a challenge.

"You have to be very careful because you can only assemble the pieces a small number of times before the plaster starts to be damaged and it flakes off," he said.

"So you have to be quite sure before you join the pieces that this is the piece that may fit."

The Romans founded London in AD43, and the villa was built soon after, dating to the first or second century when the new city was growing rapidly.

The archaeologists think this grand building may have been home to a wealthy family or a hotel for rich travellers passing through Londinium.

They've been comparing the frescoes to others found across Britain and Europe, and they believe they were created by a group of highly skilled painters who travelled the Roman empire.

"They've come to Roman London where there was a building boom, with many houses and many buildings going up that required painting. And they went around essentially taking on huge commissions of work," said Han Li.

"It's amazing to imagine that their work is now again visible to us 2,000 years later."

The artists' exact identity however will remain elusive until the missing fragment bearing their names is found.

The plaster was found in Southwark, just south of the Thames. A stunning mosaic and Roman cemetery were also unearthed at the site, which was being excavated in preparation for a new development.

This location, outside of the central hub of Roman London, is also revealing more about how the city was spreading out.

"There was this thriving, bustling settlement quite early on in the Roman period, and it's almost the kind of wealthy suburb - the Beverly Hills of Roman London," said Andrew Henderson-Schwartz from Mola.

"And what this shows is that the Romans are committing to London. They're investing in London, and they're seeing it as a place to settle in, a place to stay. It's not just a kind of provincial outpost."

There's still much to discover from the fresco fragments, helping archaeologists reconstruct the story of the UK's rich Roman history.

By Rebecca Morelle and Alison Francis.

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Forgor to post this… wanted to draw Dan vs again, it’s been so long

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She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there — like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (2007) dir. Gábor Csupó

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*meaning: how many do you as an individual own, not your household or family collectively. But I understand it can be hard to make distinctions; but if you CAN make a distinction, please do.

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water girl, is that you?

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Hakoda the Grief Pirate it's time for Hakoda the Grief Pirateeee

Kya is killed, as in canon. Unlike canon, Bato is killed too. This means that rather than join the war, Hakoda goes mad with grief and gathers a few ships' worth of men - desperate, brutal men who want to repay the cruelty of the Fire Nation in kind. Not soldiers, not sailors, killers.

And he takes Katara.

The first place he goes is the Northern Water Tribe. He gets an audience. He goes to Chief Arnook and the elders and says: either I leave here today with a master for my daughter, or none of us leave this room alive.

Katara gets a master.

As in canon, Katara is a prodigy. With a year to focus on her waterbending and drilled by a man wearing her father's face who tells her "we're all going to die doing this" and "but we'll bleed them a thousand times over for every one of us" and most importantly he says "we're going to avenge your mother" - growing up under that man, Katara becomes terrifying.

Sokka is left alone. The last bit of love in his father's heart was spent on him, though he doesn't know it. It was spent on leaving him. It was spent on sparing him from seeing what his father would become.

Sokka goes out often, looking for traders and sailors and ships. He finds no news and too little fish. Until one day, an iceberg cracks open.

The boy is young and Sokka hasn't been a big brother for a while now, but it turns out that it's like riding a penguin - you never really forget. So when Aang gets kidnapped by some ponytailed jerk, of course he goes after him.

That he only manages to ruin Aang's escape and get them both captured is beside the point, okay? The Fire Jerk cheated.

(Appa follows them, if you're wondering. Aang doesn't seem to be in any real danger. Zuko isn't an especially merciless captor, no matter how he tries.)

Sokka finally gets some news. The Frost Wolf is believed to be a Northern raider (to protect his tribe from reprisals) and he is feared. He leaves only one survivor in each of his raids. He tasks them to deliver a simple message: the seas are no longer safe for the Fire Nation. He replenishes his crew with convicts and pirates. They say he has a crazy mechanist working for him. They say that an icy fog follows where he goes, blocking out the sun and chilling Firebenders to the core. They say he can't be killed.

-

"So, these guys of yours -" Sokka began and paused to let the answering "they're not my guys!" wash over him, "do they say anything about a girl?"

The Prince's ears reddened. "I don't listen to that kind of filth."

Which means you have listened, Sokka might have said if he felt like teasing. He didn't.

"Not like that! A girl, a little younger than me. Have you heard anything about that?"

Sokka held his breath. This was it. Of course, it didn't mean anything if Zuko hadn't heard...

"No." The Prince's voice was unusually quiet. Zuko's good eye glinted in the orange light of the torches.

Sokka couldn't help that his exhale caught in his throat on the way out, it wasn't - it was just a shock, he reasoned, it didn't mean anything that Zuko hadn't heard...

Zuko stood up and made to walk out. He stopped at the door.

"I'm sorry," the Prince said. "I have a sister, too."

The door closed and Sokka was left alone and with questions. Questions like:

How did he know?

-

The trip to the Fire Nation is long. Any experienced commander could have told Zuko to limit his interactions with the prisoners. To rotate out their guards and never have their meals brought by the same person if he could avoid it. Any experienced military commander would have seen the risk of two child prisoners, one of who is particularly genial and charming while the other is funny and sarcastic.

Iroh, one of the most experienced military commanders alive, encourages Zuko to learn all he can about his enemy. It's an advantage, you see.

(And if the watch lists are edited to put crewmembers with children into frequent and close contact with the prisoners - well, that's Iroh's prerogative. He is a General. And if there are a few minor navigational errors that lenghten their journey, well, that he knows nothing about. He's a General, not an Admiral.)

Meanwhile, Princess Azula is tasked with putting an end to the Frost Wolf's provocations. It would be terribly inconvenient if she were to have frequent encounters with another bending prodigy, about her age and wearing blue robes and a mask. They should make out about it.

Eventually, they'll all have to reckon with their monstrous fathers and murderous siblings.

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Gonna try posting my art here again cus I feel like I’ll be able to find more natm fans here lol

Happy Jedtavius month

(vv full page spread)

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Today's "mildly annoying appeal to nature" is that I keep on getting recommended ads for footwear or "content" about trying to get as close as possible to a "barefoot feeling" because it's "natural" and I wish there was a way to tell these stupid algorithms that my feet and ankles are so fucked up that barefoot walking is painful on bad days and that replicating that feeling all the time would be fucking torturous

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If you're heading to a protest tomorrow, it's important to know your rights. Consult this information from the ACLU. Be peaceful. Be safe. Be careful. Be strong.