inksharktrash

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A caiman in the Amazon wearing a crown of butterflies that feed off the young crocs salty tears. (2016) Photog. Mark Cowan [source]

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Water and ice make magic on Glade Run earlier today,

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Color Variation sketches by Pavel Oleinik

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okay but what's yalls obsession with only reading books by good human beings

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O holy night?? Tbh I didn’t know anybody under the age of fifty liked that song lol

Oh no anon, O Holy Night is the BEST. Listen.

First, it’s gorgeous and so moving. You can sing it in church on Christmas or while caroling, but still be blown away by an exceptional performance of it. The Romantic rises and falls, and the way it builds…it’s perfect. It’s been described by several ppl as the “lord of the rings” of xmas carols.

Second, it’s an explicitly very religious Christmas song written by a Jewish atheist composer who was trying to capture what he thought Christmas was like for christians. He created this incredible hymn of hope and the dawn of a new world during the darkest days of the year, and the coming of a person who would protect the meek and overthrow the powerful oppressors.

And then it was translated into English by a Unitarian Transcendentalist who used it as a rallying cry against slavery and racial discrimination. His translation somehow skewed even MORE hopeful and awed. I feel like it truly conveys what it feels like to celebrate a spark of hope in the middle of winter.

Third, it has an incredible history. Once the French churches found out it was written by an atheistic jewish man (in French), it was banned. However, it continued to be people’s favorite hymn, and the ban was universally ignored to the point it became known as the “religious Marseillaise.” There are stories of French peasants filing out of Christmas mass to stand outside of the church and sing the song in defiance of Churches’ prohibition of it.

Additionally, the lines in French are implicitly, and the lines in English are deliberately and explicitly, in favor of abolitionism, which is why it spread through North America so quickly: “chains shall He break, for the slave is His brother / and in His name all oppression shall cease.”

It was also the first song to ever play over airwaves (via violin) one Christmas Eve, as part of a chemist’s experiment. And it was allegedly sung by French, English, and German soldiers all together on Christmas during the Franco-Prussian War and in the trenches during WWI.

Ymmv anon, but MAN this song with its sweeping and building Romantic tone, explicitly defiant lyrics, and incredible history make it - for me - a very transcendental piece that really does seem to promise a “new and glorious morning” in the new year.

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The Blue Vote of Lesser Evil 2020

"If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons." - Joe Biden, 5/9/24

Rafah, southern Gaza, after ethnic cleansing.

-Dr. Seuss

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‘While bats can only sense the outer shapes and textures of their targets, dolphins can peer inside theirs. If a dolphin echolocates on you, it will perceive your lungs and your skeleton. It can likely sense shrapnel in war veterans and fetuses in pregnant women. It can pick out the air-filled swim bladders that allow fish, their main prey, to control their buoyancy.

It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”

This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.

Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’

-Ed Yong, An Immense World

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YES i will still update this account! NO i will not see it if you send me a message, i’m sorry. 

For more information read my educational, illustrated blog post on the subject. ❥ And of course, if you have Mastodon, let’s be all up in each other’s toots: @inkshark@mastodon.art

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Observe: 

Strawberry Crab (Neoliomera pubescens)

Strawberry Hind (Epinephelus guttatus)

Strawberry Anemones (Actinia fragacea)

Strawberry Squid (Histioteuthis heteropsis)

Strawberry Nudibranch (Gymnodoris aurita)

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After the fall by Exellero

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Owl needs a hug. (via babapaku8889)

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Your voice beneath the salted sea; a song which won’t return to me.

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HAPPY NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION DAY.

We’ve made registering to vote super easy! We bet you can finish in two minutes or less. 

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I had a GBBO dream last night where I was one of the hosts and the room was filled with baking contestants. I knew that two of them had a plan to kill all the other contestants. They didn’t know that I knew, and they didn’t know of each other’s plan. I carefully made up excuses for everybody to leave the room until it was only the two of them, knives drawn but concealed, slowly circling each other while pretending to be interested in a baked good. The dream ended with me watching them through a window on the door, waiting in dark delight for them to fucking kill each other.

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My favorite thing about Liselotte Eriksson’s book is my favorite thing about lots of her art: it’s so detailed that every time i look, i see new things. 

If you know anyone who likes to search pictures for hidden bugs and untied ribbons and shadowed faces, this is on your shopping list. I just put it there!

Liselotte deals directly with her fans, including selling books, so you can ask about or start an order here.