mindfulwrath

[mindfulwrath]

One of the best stories I ever read as a child was a fantasy novel by some local dude selling books out of a suitcase on the sidewalk downtown, and I don't remember what it was called or who the author was, and it's so obscure that no matter how many elements I remember, I've never been able to find it through web searches. I only vaguely remember the story - it was a love story, something about a tower on an island and two characters on a quest to discover their forgotten past. They fall in love and at the end the only way to stay together is to allow themselves to forget again, and you realize that they're right where they started, in the exact same tower, and they're doomed to go on this same quest over and over again, never completed, but that also means they'll fall in love over and over again forever. And I remember how that ending blew up my little child brain into a million pieces.

I don't know what happened to the book, and I'll probably never read it again, but if you're somewhere out there and you were once selling fantasy novels from a suitcase on the sidewalk in the suburbs of Chicago, and if you ever felt like your writing never meant anything or went anywhere except a hundred copies you had printed yourself and sold for almost nothing, please know that your story buried itself in my young brain and has probably shaped my worldview in ways even I don't understand.

[mindfulwrath]

The three sleepy geeblets

[mindfulwrath]

Sky and Sea I - Fiona Barrett-Clark , 2025.

Australian , b. 1978 -

Oil on plywood , 122.5 x 92.5 cm.

[mindfulwrath]

Make sure you say "I wonder what they're doing right now..." about your comic relief friends every now and then so the episode can cut to their B plot

[mindfulwrath]

Higgledy-piggledy unparliamentary green parrots quarrel outside in the trees

Squawking out epithets uncomplimentary Squads of unmannerly Oversized peas.

[mindfulwrath]

for a while now i’ve been learning that some people kind of choose to hate themselves like you can give them tools and resources and advice and they’ll even follow some of it and go “i still hate myself” and i feel strongly at that point they’re kind of choosing to stay in that mindset because it’s comfortable and familiar or something but some people are truly [gotye voice] addicted to a certain kind of sadness and hooked on feeling low

[mindfulwrath]

"The word pandemonium was coined by John Milton as the name for the Parliament of Hell" is an all-timer etymology. Oh yeah did you hear that Mrs Higgins's dogs got loose at the village fête? It was like a vast golden edifice in which fallen angels debate their strategies for vengeance against god, yeah.

[mindfulwrath]

Okay the rock is done... but I get so much reflection when I try to photograph it so just posting this closeup until I can scan it or something.

[mindfulwrath]

How many studies have been done on heron intelligence? There's records of multiple species fishing with bait, they seem pretty smart but never get included in pop sci conversations on avian intelligence

I’m not sure if I can think of an experimental study on heron intelligence specifically but I know there are plenty of observational studies describing the bait luring you mentioned as well as other behaviors we humans like to associate with intelligence, like play activity, tool use, and problem solving. I personally feel that a black heron’s canopy feeding behavior is one of the most remarkable displays of practical intelligence in the animal kingdom! The best place to explore this literature imo is HeronConservation.org which is an amazing resource for any Ardeidae enthusiasts. They have tons of fully accessible articles from their journal (Journal of Heron Biology and Conservation) and the website is just very visually nice to look at and easy to navigate while also being extremely informative! Here’s an article from their website about a heron using a stick as a fishing lure, super good stuff on this site.

As for me, while I completely agree that herons are underrated for their smarts, the more I think about our concept of intelligence in animals the more I struggle to confidently declare one species of wild animal smarter than another. As world-renowned crane expert George Archibald said on crane intelligence “Sure, if you put them in front of a computer they don’t do much, but if I dropped you on the tundra in spring you wouldn’t do much either. It’s all relative”. If a toad has evolved a brain that perfectly serves its purposes in regard to being a toad, is it really fair to say that toad is less intelligent than something like a dog? Either way, the toad doesn’t care because it’s perfect at being a toad.

That said, it is curious that herons aren’t often included in popsci discussions of bird intelligence (which are in my experience nearly dominated by the ever-popular corvids). I would say herons are probably one of the families of birds that most people around the globe have some opportunity to witness their hunting behavior, which is where their intelligence shines the most. It would be hard for anyone to watch a heron fishing or stalking and come away completely unimpressed. Back in the day, people used to think that Great Blue Herons excreted a fish-attracting oil from their legs as they thought this was the only reasonable explanation for a heron’s spectacular success when fishing. But nope, they really are just that good! I suppose the type of practical intelligence and hunting adaptations that we see in herons are maybe not as flashy as stuff like crows voting to make group decisions, but I agree that the herons deserve a little more attention!

One last little story on the complex inner lives of herons just because I think you’ll like it- a British biologist named Julian Huxley was studying herons in Louisiana in the 1920’s and specifically observing the courtship displays of tricolored herons. He recounted seeing two courting birds suddenly in perfect synchronicity lift their wings and call out, then intertwine their necks in a graceful movement as they preened one another’s feathers. Huxley’s comment on seeing this display is a quote I think about all the time:

“Of this I can only say that it seemed to bring such a pitch of emotion that I could have wished to be a Heron that I might experience it."

[mindfulwrath]

Selected Works from Louise Abbéma

Louise Abbéma was a French painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer, writer and illustrator of several books. She is most known for her success as a painter. She studied under notable artists during her early years and found recognition after painting a portrait of her lifelong friend and lover, Sarah Bernhardt, featured above. You can find these works and more in our gallery!

[mindfulwrath]

guys its july 20th, the day humans first ever made it to the moon. its moon day. everyone wake up its moon day. the first time humankind set foot on a celestial being that wasn't earth was 55 years ago today. probably culturally significant i think. happy moon day everyone

[mindfulwrath]

From capitalstitchco on Threads

[mindfulwrath]

totally lost interest in the latest taz season, not really because there's anything wrong with it but because i set my expectations way out of whack.

like. okay. here's what i thought the season was going to be, based on information in eps 1 and 2, and i can sum it up in two words: D&D roguelike.

because the setup is great for it, y'know? we've got 64 wizards, most of whom are going to die, and we know they're going to die. each of them has one spell. but there's a way to get more spells, and along with them, THE MEMORIES OF OTHER WIZARDS WHO HAVE DIED IN THE TOURNAMENT.

so clint's character dies at the end of episode 2, right? and it's a perfect opportunity to show off what the format is going to be, because then, in episode 3, you can leave plenty of breathing room for another wizard to scoop up his little spell/memory gem, also played by clint. we take a couple minutes for the new pc's backstory. we know not to get too attached to the characters. anytime we see another wizard on the field, we wonder if they're a backup pc who we'll see again later, and which player they belong to.

it's clever, both as a game style and as a way of introducing the central conceit to the audience: making sure your super-deadly battle royale gets to ACTUALLY be super deadly, while still ensuring that the player characters make it to the end. because there's an in-canon mechanism for them to learn from their past mistakes, and they don't even lose the one spell they started off with, so dying is minimally disruptive to the overall game mechanics. it's a D&D roguelike. it's unexpected! it's fun! it's a throwback to old-school meatgrinder D&D!

and it is not what griffin is doing.

[mindfulwrath]

For sale: one iPhone. Some cosmetic damage. Sold as seen.

My old Nokia brick wouldn’t do me like this…

Anyway, this feels like a good time to plug my Patreon!

[mindfulwrath]

They’re so in sync

[mindfulwrath]

A father teaching his son to ride a bike in Central Park, New York City. ca 1973