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One of the coolest things to remember is that because prey animals have eyes on the side of their head, they are looking at you when they're in profile, not facing you! Hot tip for artists and animal lovers!

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Some Kid Icarus bust I did for fun at the end of last year

I wanna do other characters too!

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Susiezilla is so cute 😭 I wanted to draw the other two as kaiju too

(chapter 3 spoilers under the cut)

And the Knight as Ghidorah ... And also movie accurate Ralsei (cuz i was inspired by gtthm but i really really wanted to draw moth ralsei being cute)

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My mom left an eviction notice for the carpenter bees burrowing into our porch

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Ianna - Day 187

Race: Lady Alignment: Light-Chaos June 17th, 2025 (Uploaded June 18th, 2025) Happy Pri-demon-th!

Something that's curiously connected quite a bit in many mythologies is war and love. The fact that hate and love are two sides of the same coin is something that has always been seen throughout history, but the associations of battle and love have been a curious connection dating all the way back to some of the most foundational societies we know of, such as the people of Sumer. Whether it be for contrast, such as with Aphrodite being the complete opposite of Athena, or in the case of Inanna, today's Demon of the Day... sometimes, it's both. A warrior goddess who also serves as the mother of the land. Not a mother goddess, though. I'll get into that later.

Inanna could be seen as one of the main deities in the entirety of the Sumerian canon, rising from already having a popular start initially with a rather large cult to becoming the essential head of the entire Mesopotamian pantheon. However, this doesn't begin to explain the fact that she's also one of the most complicated and downright contradictory figures in Mesopotamian canon, if not mythology as a whole. Portrayed in many lights, several of which are completely contrary to several others, she's multi-faceted on the best of days. However, if there's one thing that ties all of these interpretations of Inanna together... it's her very open sexuality.

With that loose thread hanging open, I'll move on to who she actually is. Her origins are commonly contested, with many myths ascribing her different roles; the granddaughter of Enlil is the most common interpretation, with her also sometimes being seen as the daughter of Enki, god of wisdom, or the daughter of Nanna, goddess of the moon (and also wisdom.) Inanna herself serves several roles, each of which were incredibly important, split between several facets: the goddess of war, the goddess of birth, and the goddess of sensuality/sexuality, to name a few. However, Inanna herself didn't seem to bear many, if any, children at all; her role was mostly as an overseer of childbirth and sexuality. And I mean sexuality.

Inanna's identity was highly tied to her sex appeal, and she was less a goddess of fertility and general and more a goddess of... uh, getting it on. Several of her sources are effectively written like Mesopotamian smut, showing her love for being in charge in the bedroom, especially with her husband, Dumuzi, with many passages being warmly written sex scenes. She was meant to be an epitome of sex appeal, and her love for dominance also ties into her other sphere as the goddess of war. Past this, Inanna was also frequently identified with Ishtar, who was more commonly seen as a goddess of war as well.

To add on to all of this, one of Inanna's traits was her ability to effectively change someone's gender. Attested to in some of her own tales, such as a passage in a poem titled Passionate Inanna, she's written as such: ‘To destroy, to create, to tear out, to establish are yours, Inanna. / To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inanna.’ Not only this, there are records showing that several members of her cult stood outside of the gender binary, such as the statue of 'Ur-Nanshe,' who was a member of this cult who had breasts and an effeminate look, but had a very masculine name.

All of this is to say that the contempt for her design in SMT IV:A is very understandable; it represents next to nothing about Inanna herself, and instead plays up her 'mother goddess' role that she didn't even have outside of being a primary member of the pantheon and being promiscuous. I honestly find her original concept art to be a far better representation of her as a whole, though even it is flawed.

Still, this goddess and her cult does show that non-binary and transgender people have always existed, even in our very first ever civilizations. We're not just a new thing. We've always existed.

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captcha

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On conservation and survival

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this looks like fun can I join in

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it was worth a try

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@pierogish submitted: I just wanted to share what I recently witnessed! This aphid first caught my attention because I didn't know what it was, and it was crawling on my shirt and walking very slowly. And as I kept watching... it left me with two bug babies!! They were so tiny, my camera barely saw them. They soon started moving and crawled away!! What a miracle, it made my day...

Surprise!!! You got to witness the miracle of aphid baby birth. Giving birth to live young isn't common in bugs but aphids are fancy :)

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Video by me and Ainsley Seago trying to explain the important work insect taxonomists do

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Local pet store had an African giant millipede. Captive bred even! I've always been fascinated by these guys and it's been a while since I've kept millipedes so I'm giving this one a try. Hardest part was honestly finding an enclosure both deep and wide enough for such a big pede to comfortably stretch and burrow in.

I call this one Colin Robinson.

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stress relied turned stress inducing ahahahah yaaaaaayyyyy

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* The power of FRIENDSHIP shines within you.

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Protecting trees might not seem like a public health strategy, but new research suggests it could be – especially in the tropics. A Stanford University-led study published May 28 in Landscape Ecology shows that in Costa Rica, even modest patches of tree cover can reduce the presence of invasive mosquito species known to transmit diseases like dengue fever. The illness often brings flu-like symptoms and can escalate to severe bleeding, organ failure, and even death without proper medical care. The findings can inform land use decisions and tree preservation strategies in rural areas, according to the researchers.

Continue Reading.

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the ruler of everything