#'API

[bdccglobal]

Unlocking Seamless API Management with Azure! Explore the Essentials and Boost Your Business.

[jynjackets]

I’m glad you came.

happy birthday @sydneyadmu 💫

[amisaace]

zosan au ig…

[lavottino]

Sanji you have to stop. Your flower-giving too endearing. Your girldad swag too charming. Your jacket-lending too gallant. They'll kill you.

[linterteatime]

The stupid- i mean silly 💚

[qwantzfeed]

okay fine: there can be one (1) sequel, in which he befriends a guy named "sherlock holmes" but who does NOT deduce or do detection AT ALL.  and their best friend is "winnie the pooh", a normal man who simply chooses to go by that name for normal reasons

[math-memes]

[destinationairport]

your destination airport is contractually obligated by its relation to destination tourist board to advise you that destination boasts many beautiful sights, fun activities, hidden secrets and delicious foods for you to delight in and explore please do not ask how we acquired your email address to tell you this

[razehider]

this honey bee (Apis mellifera) doing the splits was a very lethargic individual i found scuttling in the dirt. if she was on her way out, i figured i might as well help her have a meal and decided to bring her to some flowers

to do so, i used a eucalyptus leaf to carry her around, and some woodsorrel flowers for her to actually feed on. the irony of using two highly invasive species to help a single (native) bee that is itself invasive in most of the world was not lost on me

(December 17th, 2024)

[twintailedsiren]

Scythian images of the snake legged goddess

While I’ve written about the Scythian anguipede goddess, I haven’t made a post focusing on strictly ancient Scythian representations of this theme. Therefore, this post is on all the images of the tendril goddess I’ve researched so far, found in ancient Scythian territories.

Scythian goddess, 340-300 BC. Bronze pommel. Found: Alexandropol burial mound (Lugovaya Mogila)  Right bank of the Lower Dnieper, near Nikopol, Yekaterinoslav province, Russia.

Figure on left: MF Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum. Figure on right: St Petersburg Hermitage Museum.

Possible Scythian vegetation goddess. Pendants from the Kul-Oba burial mound, Crimea, 4th century BCE.

Object said to be St Petersburg museum, but I can’t find it on their website. Image from this website.

Scythain ancestral goddess, 4th century BCE. Facing for a Horse's Frontlet. Found in Tsymbalka Barrow, Dnieper Area, Zaporozhye Region, formerly the Taurida Province Russia (now Ukraine). The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Serpent legged goddess plaque, from the burial mound in Kul-Oba, near Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine. First half of the 4th century BCE. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Scythian goddess, silver plate from Kuban region, Maykop, Mariinskaya village. 2nd half of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd century BCE.  Full view of plate here. State Historical Museum, Moscow. 

Scythian goddess, silver or gold dish from the Chertomlyk burial mound, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. Info from Laws 1961. Image from this website. Full post here.

Tendril limbed goddess, earrings from the Butory tumulus. Found in the Grigoriopol district in 1972.

“Sometimes the standard type of the tendril-limbed goddess evolved into a new pattern, of a still less human monster, for instance on earrings from the Butory tumulus" Info from Ustinov 2005. Photo from this news article (in Russian.)

Scythian goddess, plaque. “On a plaque found during excavations of a burial mound near the village of Elizavetinskaya (second half of the 5th century – 4th century BC; (Fig. 1, 2) a woman without arms is depicted with a kalaf on her head and two pairs of snake legs curved in a ring." Info and image from Petrov and Makarevich 1963. 

Scythian goddess, gold plaque, found in the village of Labinskaya. Info and image from Petrov and Makarevich 1963.

Ivory pendant from the Bol'shaya Bliznitsa tumulus. Info and image from Petrov and Makarevich 1963, and Ustinov 2005.

Gold diadem from the Kul'-Oba burial mound, Kerch, Crimea. Info and image from Ustinov 2005.

Winged goddess on a plaque from Chersonesos, Crimean peninsula. Photo from Artamonov 1961.

Image a of snake-legged creatures on the sides of Bosporan sarcophagi; plaque from a burial mound in Kul-Oba, Kerch, Crimea. Photo from Artamonov 1961.

Scythian anguiped goddess, terracotta plate. with an image of a female deity. Made in Crimea, Chersonesos Taurica necropolis. 1st century CE. State Historical Museum, Moscow. Full post here.

Winged, two tailed goddess, sarcophagus decoration, 1st-2nd CE. Northern Black Sea region, Panticapaeum site. Found in Kerch, Crimea. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Snake legged goddess, plaster cast, 1st-2nd CE. Northern Black Sea Region, Nymphaeum necropolis. Found in Kerch, Crimea. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Compare this image with a similar figure in a Berlin museum.

Acroterion with a double-sided image of the goddess. 1st century BCE / 1st-2nd century CE. Limestone. Pantikapaion necropolis, the north side of Mount Mithridates, Kerch. Exhibit: Treasures of Crimea. The Return. Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine.

This list is by no means exhaustive. I apologise for the images I couldn’t find actual photographs of. While I can read menus in Ukrainian, I really struggle with Russian, and most of the sources for these are in Russian. Also, I only have so much patience to track things down.

I’ll definitely be returning to this subject again.

Sources

Ustinova, Yulia. "Snake-Limbed and Tendril-Limbed Goddesses in the Art and Mythology of the Mediterranean and Black Sea." Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interaction in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Sixth Century B.C. - Fist Century A.D.). Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2005.

V. P. Petrov and M. L. Makarevich, 'Skifskaya Geneologycheskaya Legenda,' Sovjetskaya Arkheologia. (1963), 20-31. G. Pinza (Ed.), Materiali per la etnologia … (Скифская Генеалогическая Легенда,' Советская Археология)

Article available here, in Russian: https://arheologija.ru/petrov-makarevich-skifskaya-genealogicheskaya-legenda

Image also seen here: Ancient Iranian image of the Chronotope as represented by a secondary source: https://journals.indexcopernicus.com/api/file/viewByFileId/2158389

Zinchenko S.A. No.18 (2023)Zinchenko S.A. Tops with the image of a female deity from the Alexandropol burial mound: on the possibility of identification / personification of the character

Софья Зинченко uploaded a paper Навершия с изображением женского божества из Александропольского кургана: о возможности идентификации / персонификации персонажа by Софья Зинченко 2023

Link to her article online: http://www.historystudies.msu.ru/ojs2/index.php/ISIS/article/view/334/764

M.I. Artamonov Anthropomorphic deities in the religion of the Scythians. // ASGE. [Issue] 2. Scythian-Sarmatian time. L.: Publishing house of the State Hermitage. 1961. P. 57-87.

Laws, Guitty Azatpay. "A Herodotean Echo in Pompeian Art?" American Journal of Archaeology 65, 1 (1961): 31-35.

[kaitcake1289]

ive known exactly four vampires in my life and you've all been THE WORST!!!!!!

[apenapaperandadoofus]

Sigh sometimes the MQ and FX hate, while yeah I’m not gonna tell you how to feel about a certain character is just so…biased?

Like listen. The whole gist of MXTX characters is that they are ALL flawed and do things realistic humans would do. It just pisses me off that the characters do things that make sense with their flaws and struggles but people always justify XLs pain and mistakes while absolutely hating on the rest.

And also: it’s been stated that FX looked for XL. Like literally in the first book of the novel I believe. And MQ OBVIOUSLY THINKS XL IS MAD AT HIM AND HATES HIM WHY WOULD HE GO LOOK FOR HIM WHEN HE THINKS THAT?!

Yes Mu Qing left XL when he was struggling, yes it was shitty but also: his literal MOTHER was sick, HE also lost his country, Xianle wasn’t traumatic only for XL (obviously he went through lots of shit different from MQ and FX) but he ALSO lost his home, he watched his people die, he was bullied relentlessly and literally BELIEVED XL and FX didn’t like him but he still STUCK with them even after he was yelled at by the entire world he wasn’t enough.

MNQ as much as I find him hilarious, clearly takes every moment he can to dismiss MQ and make him feel bad about himself ever since he was 15. 15. Do you know what hearing that type of shit every day of your life can make you think? He has self esteem issues while being prideful bc he’s a human being and all humans contradict themselves people!!! He left to help his mother, and with the 33 gods scene OMG YEAH obviously it was bad but once again let’s take a look at what happened alright?

ALSO ALSO I’d like to add he probably thought FX and XL wouldn’t struggle that much, bc FX and XL have been pretty successful their whole life, he probably thought they didn’t need him to survive bc he’s been told they’ve always been leagues above him.

Anyway:

1. MQ sees the officials fighting XL.

2. MQ, gets asked to fight XL while XL asks him to side with him. He has struggled his whole life to be recognized, he does and becomes a lower court official, and now he’s caught between a rock and a hard place. (Is that the saying? English isn’t my first language oop)

He wants to help XL he so obviously does, but once again- he has been like a dehydrated person his entire life and now he gets a chance to have water- only for him to be given the choice to give it up for his friend. Was it selfish? Yes. But did it make sense? Obviously. AGAIN he’s been STRUGGLING his whole life- and like XL said at one point, why isn’t he allowed to think for himself just once? Plus even after having the offers of being a lower court official he waits and helps XL and his family for a long time until he leaves.

3. When XL says MQ is his friend (which btw- MQ had no idea about bc again, he has the entire world tell him since he was a TEEN that he has no right to be XLs friend and that he isn’t, and being a TEENAGER WHO HAS BEEN BULLIED BY HIS PEERS AND TEACHER (who btw isn’t supposed to talk shit about their students bc teachers are there to teach and be patient and such) HE BELIEVES IT BC ALSO AS MUCH AS I LOVE XL LETS BE REAL HE HASN’T DONE A LOT TO HELP HIM HAS HE????

(Tumblr deleted this part I hate everything why)

It said, yes while XL defended him that one time with MNQ when he was blamed about the whole entrance to the festival thing and later on with the bullies WHICH BTW has clearly been happening for a real long time) MQ has been reprimanded by the state preceptor since he was 15. FIFTEEN PEOPLE. Do you know what hearing that his hard work will never be enough compared to others, yo be bullied endlessly like that will do to a person?

He’s been struggling his whole life to be recognized for his work- he’s like a starving man finally being able to have some food- why wouldn’t he want to keep it that way? After he’s worked SO hard for SO long why wouldn’t he try and keep his head above water after drowning all his life?

Like LOOK what this kid goes through

Also before you comment on the “he himself wasn’t very likeable” have you ever heard of self defense mechanisms? MQ has shown to be quiet and rule abiding whenever people of higher class (which btw is practically everyone) have interacted with him, however when people have bullied him (which btw he has also shown to take quietly???) he has only sometimes defended himself. He’s always on guard- and he reacts when he thinks someone is blaming him or using his status to be prejudiced towards him. Of course he’d grow up thinking everything was a little jab- that everyone was against him, because growing up thats what he saw.

He is immediately defensive bc it’s what he had to learn to do to survive.

And MQ follows the rules because he has been taught to survive from a young age.

And even after he ascends MNQ is SO shitty to him, only showing us a bit of what MQ had to go through EVERY DAY as a TEEN. XL never took his guoshi and was like “hey man can you please not bully this guy so much? Please don’t be so prejudiced towards him.”

He doesn’t. And again, thats bc XLs flaw at that time is he doesn’t know what others struggle with since he’s been successful and pampered his whole life, obviously he wouldn’t think about that at the time which is a flaw- just like MQ has flaws as well and acts accordingly.

AND AND it also says he’s been struggling in heaven as well.

And look at that. Much more difficult. Much more? That implies he had been having it hard enough before. Guys he was STRUGGLING OF COURSE HED TRY AND SAVE HIMSELF OH MY GOD

Anyway- he takes a step forward and clearly looks torn. We don’t know what he was going to do- but if he truly hated XL he could’ve easily beat him up. It’s until an asshole literally brings up, once again, something MQ has been bullied, self conscious about since he was a kid that MQ becomes mad- and it triggers him to side with the officials- but also give XL a small mercy. Was it wrong? Yes. Did he do it with malice? No.

MQ thought he was doing the right thing. MQ has always done what’s best for him to survive bc he was raised in a family where not only where they poor, but his father was a criminal. Obviously he had to learn young to think about himself. Obviously he was selfish at that point because he finally was able to show his worth.

ALSO HIS MOTHER PROBABLY DIED IN THE TIME-SKIP HE WAS PROBABLY GRIEVING TOO OH MY GOD

AND ALSO PEER PRESSURE? THAT WAS CLEARLY PEER PRESSURE AND MQ CAVED UNDER IT BC HES HAS ISSUES OH MY GOD.

Sorry anyway let’s keep going.

Afterwards yes. He lets XL get pushed, he sees him run away. But again, this is what MQ thought was helping. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was helping in his own way.

Can we also add, maybe he didn’t want to fight XL? Maybe he didn’t want it to keep escalating bc if it did it would mean beating XL up?

Even after the others goad him, MQ never touches XL. He could’ve hit him, he could’ve beaten him up and unloaded years of prejudice from everyone (including XL accidentally being classist- he doesn’t do it on purpose of course but there have been moments when XL accidentally just never lets poor MQ ignore the divide between them)

(Let’s add crossing the line is such a good song for the two of them omg)

And while selfish he chose himself- he has been choosing XL all his life, hasn’t he? Hes stood by him- why isn’t he allowed think of himself once? Why can’t he want to be successful, to be happy for once to have himself be acknowledged?

Am I saying what he did was good? No. But it makes sense for him and I’m not going to demonize a person who has clearly been struggling with self worth issues, being bullied and told all his hard work meant nothing who chooses to think of himself for once.

And then even after that happens MQ CHASES AFTER HIM. Yes he doesn’t help him, but chasing after him? The officials probably saw that and given the assholes they were probably shit talked him about that later.

MQ didn’t have to go after him but he did. He did.

Late? Yes. But he still did it.

And even so he later also admits he did it so he could help them out- SO BEING AN OFFICIAL ALSO WASN’T A SELFISH ACT- he wanted to use it to help his friends as well

PLUS ITS EVEN SAID BY HIM HE ALSO DID IT TO HELP XL AND FX 😭

Anyway he helps XL up and then apologizes. MQ apologizes.

People say him justifying his actions by comparing it to XLs robbery is not the same and doesn’t compare but uh-

XL robbed someone because yes, he didn’t have a choice, and he didn’t do it because he liked it. It went against his beliefs and morals bc he had to survive.

MQ didn’t help XL bc he was also struggling in heaven with the officials, and he clearly wants to help XL and doesn’t like it, but does something that goes against his beliefs and morals because he had to survive.

And afterwards- he goes and does something that heavenly officials can’t do. He gives them gifts. Which FX states that is dangerous and they can’t do.

MQ does risk himself for XL- yes it’s late. But he risks his skin for XL. He clearly didn’t think things would be so bad for them- he clearly thought they’d be better off because again ITS WHAT HES BEEN TOLD HIS ENTIRE LIFE.

And then again- he apologizes.

He has had time to think- has had time to meditate away from everyone else. He has realized he was wrong. He realized he fucked up and goes to make up for it.

He made a mistake. He had no reason to do that, to give them food and then offer to give them medicine- but he still did.

And I am so sorry, but it seems hypocritical of everyone else to justify XLs actions because of his struggles, pain and grief- when while yeah, MQ didn’t go though the same he still suffered, he still went through his struggles and pain.

I love XL but how come HE can act according to his feelings and pain and afterwards be forgiven but MQ can’t?

XL made mistakes because the world drove him to it- because of what he went through and suffered.

MQ also made mistakes because the world drove him to it and he had suffered too.

Again, they’re not in the same scale- but the justification of the actions is the same.

They were both driven to something and the actions they took were based on what happened to them. Then they realize their mistake and make up for it.

Phew anyway sorry for the rant it’s just. It hurts me to see characters not being treated the same- to be hated because of their flaws when the MCs get to have everything justified and ignored.

MXTX again, shows characters can make mistakes and have flaws. Hua Cheng is forgiven for his. Xie Lian is forgiven for his.

Why can’t Mu Qing’s be as well? He certainly made up for it by almost dying and having a cursed shackle didn’t he?

He’s been thinking his whole life XL didn’t like him. He fully believes it. And he does actions that are selfish- yes but he didn’t do with the intention of hurting XL on purpose.

And then when he thinks XL is being kidnapped and stalked (which lets be clear he wasn’t but for MQ and FXs POV it is lmao) by someone who has also KILLED OFFICIALS, plus is known to be manipulative and kind of crazy, get close to XL he does his best to help him??!

Like we do think it’s wrong because we have the context of everything XL and HC went through together- but MQ and FX dont.

Guys, if your friend was hanging out with a criminal who has killed your co workers, appears as if they’ve been stalking them and then have a whole place set on idolizing them (which yes I know the cave of 10k gods is a religious practice and I have defended HC from people who say it’s creepy, I’m just giving the POV from MQ bc why would a ghost king worship a god? In universe it would be confusing and for them be creepy) wouldn’t you be worried too? Hello!!! From their POV this is a horror movie 😭😭😭

Anyway I’ll cut this rant here. I’ve been wanting to do a whole thing analyzing both MQ and FX and this doesn’t even come close to everything I want to say but I’ve tapped to much.

It’s fine to not like them. However don’t shit on other people and demonize them completely without understanding their story and why they were written that way.

If y’all wanna talk about this more my asks are open 😌💕

[samirafee]

#CREPIS BIENNIS - ROUGH HAWKSBEARD - WIESEN-PIPPAU🌼& APIS MELLIFERA - HONEYBEE - HONIGBIENE🐝🍯

@samirafee

[linterteatime]

Birthday drawing that has nothing to do with birthdays whatsoever my beloved

[millenniallust4death]

All this talk about Tumblr disappearing and how we should export our blogs.

Writing R code to download all the notes from ONE Tumblr post has been an irritating adventure.

The main problems:

The API only gives you ~50 notes per call - no pagination, no offset, no “get everything” option. Tumblr: Fuck you, API user.

You’re limited to 300 API calls per minute.

Even if you respect that limit, Tumblr will still get cranky and start throwing 429 “Too Many Requests” errors.

When you reach the end of a post’s notes, the API just… repeats the last note forever instead of stopping.

There’s no reliable way to know when you’ve hit the end unless you build that check yourself.

Tags and added text from reblogs are a completely separate part of the API - not included with the likes, reblogs, and replies you get from the /notes endpoint. Why? Tumblr: Fuck you, API user.

Did I mention that the API is a rickety piece of shit? It forced me to get a bit creative. I built a loop that steps backward in time using timestamps to get around the lack of pagination. Since the API only gives you the most recent ~50 notes, I had to manually request older and older notes, one batch at a time - with built-in retries, cooldowns, and rate-aware pacing to avoid getting blocked.

My script works now. It politely crawls back through thousands of notes, exits cleanly when it hits the end, and saves everything to a CSV file.

Was it worth it? Eh.