#The Antarctic Octopus

[purplehanfu]

Self Indulgent Birthday Post: 2023

notes: Spoilers!, probably. Yay, it's my birthday again! Enjoy some of my finest unfinished work!

Oh? You have both my interest and attention!

Booooo.... (this disappointment brought to you by The Young Brewmaster’s Adventure, which happens to be the prequel to Blood of Youth)

Recap Recycle Bin

So many dramas and never enough time to write a full review. Read on! 

Dominator of Martial Gods

tl:dr for this drama

Each episode is 35 minutes long, feels like 3,500 minutes, and delivers maybe 10 minutes worth of story. Impressive! 

We waste a great deal of time in the first few episodes watching Qin Chen and the bootlicking alchemist refine a needle that will allow our hero to activate his bloodline. Intriguing, because you often hear dramas refer to treasures being refined into weapons, but you never see the process. There's a reason for this- it does not make for compelling viewing. But that does not stop us from standing around arguing about the specs and adding things to the oven. This process was more fun when Chu Wanning just takes you up to the lake. On a technical note, I am enamored of the way the ever present green screened background makes no attempt to be in scale with the human actors.

My Deepest Dream

Ooh, a plot with a time loop, evil birds, superpowers, getting sucked into the Marianas Trench when you just wanted to go on a scuba diving excursion and JIN HAN!!! But, as always, there's a glitch in the matrix.

Our heroine realizes she has lost a year of her life and no one has noticed. No one except the astrophysics PhD candidate turned car mechanic Wu Yu (JIN HAN!!!). Wu Yu divulges that he can read a phone screen at 10 kilometers. But mostly he uses his special eyes to keep an elaborate dossier on the comings and goings of the FL, who lives across the street from the garage he works at. Is that creepy or romantic?

don’t be silly, if it were a Marvel movie we’d be having an interminable CGI sky battle 

Till the End of the Moon

Meet Tantai Jin. As you may have noticed from his costume design, he's totally evil.

He's a goal-oriented CEO who's turned the Devil Sect into a high reliability organization that generates impactful customer experiences (annihilation). I bet he's evil enough to use six sigma. But where Tantai Jin truly shines is personal branding. You may not be buying what he's selling, but product recognition is through the roof.

Tantai Jin seen here working out of his travel office: a flaming, flying boudoir with melting skull detail. This is why CEOs should never make more than 10x what the average worker does.

Circle of Love

I can see why the Republican period was relatively short. Everybody setting fire to each other's estates, staying out late ballroom dancing, getting uniforms tailored, making sure there are enough manacles to chain the female lead to a bed... it doesn't really leave a lot of time for governance.

We start out, as we generally do, with a clean sweep of the FL's family, in this case via a big ol' raging house fire. Where is everyone? Or even anyone? Even Maid's Revenge scraped up some extras to be dead family members.

My Kung Fu Girlfriend

Slow your roll, it ain't GL.

You know what they say- it's not whether you win or lose the MMORPG, it's how you min max all your stats and then act like an ass in chat about it.

Meet Huang Xiao Yu. She clearly did not pay to win because she is the low XP real life martial sister of a kung fu champion. In this drama, she'll level up in love and life with the help of an OP MMO NPC who escapes her game and shows up uninvited in the real world.

The Antarctic Octopus

Not to be confused with the 2020 film Big Octopus. I guess that's the great thing about having an audience of over a billion people- even the most niche interest has plenty of content.

This is how you dress when you visit your Uncle Pete in Antarctica.

In this movie: monsters, explosions, a supercharged ice jalopy and a dedicated ignorance of the laws of physics usually only seen in a Fast and Furious film. But credit where it's due: The Antarctic Octopus delivers. Only 12 seconds in and we get our first tentacle!

available free on youtube although how bravely they were fighting is up for debate

Bonus Content: Superlatives

In the Day We Flipped

My post of the year!

Getting over 500 likes on a review? Unexpected.

Forgetting to add a link back to my other recaps? Priceless.

Bloody Romance

still my favorite drama

when your grandma’s a zombie and she was left in a cave to guard a tiny box with one (1) restorative pill in it and she’s suspended by her hair but her hair is also like tentacles that can kill people and she thinks you’re your mom but she still loves you. 💚💚💚 But then she starts screaming and tries to strangle you with her hair.

Heroes

2nd favorite drama

you know something’s good when you have a file called ‘sappy su mengzhen yang wuxie edits.txt’

go get your man, Wuxie!

pinboard full of recaps!

[thenefilim]

[dogtoling]

Do you have designs for Giant Squids and Colossal Squids?

Also do you think that we would be able to see inklings/octolings guts if they are Glass Octopuses/Glass Squid/Cockatoo Squids? Would they be transparent?

I do have designs! although I'd like to see canon takes on them at some point.

Giant squid (middle) and colossal squid (right) compared in size next to an average-sized Squidling. They're a lot larger than the average inkfish, and as a result tend to be outsiders to a lot of generic inkfish culture (such as turf wars) as they're not able to Super Jump or move fast in more than little spurts, usually. They also have shorter and sturdier legs than most other inkfish. They're not famous for their athletics, but they have the strength to make up for that flaw.

Mesonychoteuthis has a range around the antarctic, though I don't know how confident I am in the south pole being habitable for a giant cold-blooded land cephalopod so it seems more likely that they would've originated in what used to be South America in the human age. As for Architeuthis, it seems to have a MUCH wider range, so it's likely to have originated... pretty much almost on any continent.

Both the giant and colossal squid incorporate smaller inkfish as a large part of their diets, and as very large and muscular squids with horrendous teeth or hooks, not a lot of species can stand up against them. They're mostly threatened by smaller inkfish attacking as a group, large and aggressive crustaceans, and other large predators such as sharks which can exceed them in size but still won't usually mess with their tentacles. As inkfish themselves as well as (usually) ambush predators, a preferred tactic for these species is to sneak within the perimeters of an inkfish school's territory and hide in their ink until prey comes within strike range. However, they're much more solitary than a lot of inkfish that hunt and travel in packs, and are less likely to try their luck against three or four squids. Especially colossal squid would've shared their original range with Humboldts, and while a singular Humboldt squid would be a piece of cake to tackle, you're a lot more likely to run into 5....

As for the glass squid and glass octopus question (technically, the Colossal squid is included in this group), I never really made up my mind on that front... I feel like it's MUCH more likely that they WOULDN'T have transparent skin. Because while in the deep sea that's really useful, in the deep sea you also don't have to worry about The Sun, which you DO have to worry about on the surface unless you wanted to immediately have your innards cooked on Day 2. You could get around this issue by making them strictly nocturnal, so it's not a completely unwinnable situation. I think in an ideal world they would have pigmented skin, but sparsely enough that it would be translucent rather than transparent, and I don't want to mess with that because then I'd have to actually design the internal organs of inkfish and some things need to be left undone for my sanity lol

Also, this is with the caveat that they're inkfish AT ALL. Because while thinking about what to answer this with I actually remembered that we DO have a cockatoo squid in Splatoon now, and not only are they not transparent, but they're also... not an Inkling

so yeah. I dont know or remember whether Taonius borealis has an ink sac (the internet is not an easy place to find extremely specific squid information). But the transparency tends to be the least of our problems when it comes to species appearance.

[hymemena]

Cephalopod, Crustacean, and Shellfish Headcanon Questions

Feel free to change pronouns as necessary, and remember to specify muse for multimuse blogs.

CW: Food

—

Peacock Mantis Shrimp: How is your muse's eyesight? Good? Bad? Fair?

Common Limpet: Does your muse have an unpopular opinion on something?

Antarctic Krill: How available is your muse for helping others?

Colossal Squid: What is your muse clinging to?

Broadclub Cuttlefish: Does your muse hide parts of themself from others?

Colorful Hermit Crab: How sought after is your muse? Can people not get enough of them?

American Oyster: Is your muse easily manipulated?

White Shrimp: What does a typical night in look like for your muse?

Acorn Barnacle: Does your muse give up easily or are they ride or die?

Tiger Prawn: What does your muse do to show off?

Kisslip Cuttlefish: Is your muse stylish?

Dumbo Octopus: What is a subject your muse pretends to know a great deal about but doesn't actually know much about?

Hawaiian Bobtail Squid: What is a subject your muse just cannot understand?

Queen Conch: Is your muse prone to stealing?

Flamingo Tongue: What does your muse think about animal prints?

Striped Pyjama Squid: What does your muse wear to bed most often?

American Horseshoe Crab: How resilient is your muse?

Shortfin Squid: Is your muse considered tall or short for their age?

Blue-Ringed Octopus: What is your muse's main toxic trait?

Flamboyant Cuttlefish: Does your muse like to dress up?

Atlantic Blue Crab: Is your muse grumpy in the mornings or are they a morning person? Do they run on coffee?

King Crab: What is your muse known for?

Geoduck: Is your muse a foodie?

Chambered Nautilus: What is something your muse collects?

Giant Pacific Octopus: What is one thing your muse will run from every time?

Vampire Squid: What are your muse's defense mechanisms?

Decorator Crab: If your muse is hurting, how do they handle it? This can be physical, emotional, or mental pain.

Humboldt Squid: What makes your muse a smooth operator?

Caribbean Spiny Lobster: What is a valuable piece of knowledge to get close to your muse?

Caribbean Reef Octopus: What is your muse's least favorite color?

Giant Triton: Is your muse a good listener?

[nilliby]

My fresh as splat"sona" who's a giant antarctic octopus named Niel, have his 2-month old icon for now

○ He's not an octoling but just an octopus, has suckers under the white part of the tentacles and swim form is more anatomically accurate to that of a real antarctic octopus (if you don't know what I mean, think of Orion)

○ His ink colour and eyemasks is actually white but he dyes it different colours every now and then, few people have seen him with white tentacles (this is also why his bucket hat is white btw!)

○ He loves to play his handmade "all-purpose" type guitar, joins in a lot of jam sessions due to how easy it is to adapt in terms of the tune.

○ Can get very VERY loud if he has to, he was the biggest cheerer at a concert he attended, some say it can break Killer Wails

○ Goes by the name "Tentarctic" in turf wars, surprisingly pretty good at using his Big Swig roller.

Might add more later on!

[octonauts16]

If The Octonauts Were Mean Girls. Chapter 1

Hi, My name is Peso. I just moved here from the Antarctic. I have never been to a new school before. So, it was time to say, goodbye to Antarctica and say, hello to High school.

...

"Welcome to Northshore High!" Principal Inkling smiled

Peso wandered the hallways of his new school, a place unlike any he'd known before. Having been homeschooled all his life, the bustling corridors were new to him. He entered his first classroom, where numbers danced and equations solved themselves in his mind – math, his strongest subject. Beside him, Principal Inkling was ready to introduce him to the class, a friendly face in a sea of new beginnings.

"Attention class, we're joined by a newcomer from the Antarctic," announced the octopus teacher with a grin that stretched from tentacle to tentacle.

"Welcome!" greeted the math instructor, addressing the polar bear.

Baffled, the polar bear sporting a snazzy red vest glanced up.

"Actually, I hail from Canada," he clarified.

The room swelled with an awkward silence as Peso, the penguin, perched on his desk. Peso was having second thoughts about this new academic venture; it appeared he was the first penguin these folks had ever laid eyes on.

As lunchtime arrived, Peso faced the challenge of finding a group to sit in the cafeteria, a space dominated by cliques. He had anticipated an easy task, but rejection met him at every turn, with glaring looks accompanying each denial. Left with no alternative, Peso resigned himself to eating alone in the bathroom, feeling isolated and wishing for acceptance from his peers.

A knock on the bathroom stall interrupted his solitude. Peering down, he noticed two distinct pairs of shoes. A voice with a Cockney accent inquired from outside, "You alright in there? You've been in quite a while. Is it explosive diarrhea, or did you ingest something that's causing it?"

Upon opening the stall door, Peso was met by an unlikely duo: a marsh bunny clad in grunge attire and an orange tabby dressed in the style of an e-boy.

"Who are you?" inquired Peso.

"I'm Tweak, and this is Kwazii; he's a bit too adventurous for his own good," she declared.

"I'm Peso Penguin. I'm New," he grinned, "And I—"

"Lost at sea and don't know where to start?" Tweak interjected, "No worries, we're not the usual school of fish, but we'll stick by you."

Together, they shuffled back to the cafeteria, still puzzled about where to begin, yet Peso was eager to dive into the social life of high school.

"You'll navigate this school like it's your own ocean trench in no time," assured Tweak. "Here you've got everyone from Freshmen to ROTC kids, Preppies, J.V. Jocks, Varsity Jocks, Emotional Eaters, Starving Seahorses, Mathletes, Burnouts, Sexual Active Band Geeks, and the greatest creatures you'll ever meet."

Kwazii and Tweak did their handshakes in agreement, pausing only when they spotted two or the trio of students—an otter and a polar bear. Tweak's expression soured, while Peso's face showed a storm of concern.

"Who are they?" Peso said,

"The Plastics," Tweak grumbles,

"The Plastics... who are The Plastics?" Peso inquired.

"They're teen royalty. If Northshore was us, we'd always be undercover," Kwazii explained.

Tweak gestured towards the polar bear donning a cottagecore outfit, who unsuccessfully attempted to sip his soda through his nose using a straw.

"That one there, that's Barnacles Polar Bear. He's one of the dumbest guys you'll ever meet," Tweak elaborated. "Kwazii sat next to him in English last year."

"He asked me how to spell 'orange'!" exclaimed the cat.

Next, Tweak indicated the sea otter with disheveled brown hair, clad in a Dark Academia outfit.

"That tall one, that's Shellington Sea Otter," Tweak described. "He's involved in everyone's business and knows everything about everyone."

"That's why his hair is so big and fluffy; it's full of secrets," Kwazii whispered conspiratorially.

Peso glanced at The Plastics' table, then back at Tweak and Kwazii, and decided to keep his distance, choosing instead to sit with some of the most remarkable creatures he'd ever met.

"May I sit with you guys?" Peso asked.

Kwazii and Tweak exchanged glances before turning to Peso.

"You can sit with us," Kwazii offered.

"Sure," Tweak agreed.

Suddenly, a girl spotted someone intimidating and panicked.

"TAKE COVER!" a girl shouted.

Everyone halted their activities, struck by fear as the person walked through the door.

"What's going on?" Peso queried.

"It's The Queen Bee herself! Don't look at her! Just don't!" Kwazii warned.

"Who?" Peso asked,

"Dashi Dog!" Tweak exclaimed. "DON'T LOOK AT HER!"

Despite the warnings, Peso couldn't resist gazing at the individual who instilled fear in the student body. It was a dachshund with striking red hair, dressed in a baddie outfit. Evil incarnate took the form of Dashi Dog... She might appear to be your typical self-centered, treacherous, doggy bone, but in reality, she was far more than that. She doesn't care who you are, she doesn't care how you feel. 

She was seated with her worker bees when Peso decided to head towards Tweak and Kwazii's table. However, before he could get there, Dashi's voice stopped him.

"Wait, who are you?" Dashi inquired, looking at Peso.

Peso was taken aback. He glanced around, wondering if she was addressing someone else, then pointed at himself, questioning if she meant him. Dashi nodded affirmatively.

"Yeah, come over here," Dashi beckoned with a friendly tone.

As Tweak and Kwazii attempted to persuade Peso to return to them, his curiosity got the better of him, and he sat down with the Plastics.

"Why don't I know you?" she asked with a smile.

"I'm new. I just moved here from the Antarctic," Peso explained.

"What?" Dashi probed further.

"I was homeschooled," Peso added.

"Wait, you've never been to a real school before?" Dashi asked, her smile widening.

Peso nodded slowly, and Dashi's smile grew even broader.

"Shut up... SHUT UP!" she exclaimed, still smiling.

"I didn't say anything," Peso responded, with a slight smile.

"Homeschooled, that's really interesting," Dashi remarked, crossing her arms.

"Thanks," Peso said.

"And you're really handsome," she complimented.

"Thank you," Peso replied, blushing slightly.

"So you agree," she pressed on.

"What?" Peso was confused.

"You think you're really handsome," Dashi smiled, then glanced at his necklace. "Oh my gosh, I love your necklace. Where did you get it?"

"Oh, this?" Peso touched his necklace. "Thanks, my Abuela made it for me."

"It's adorable," Dashi complimented.

"So, 'Fetch'," Shellington interjected.

"What is 'Fetch'?" Dashi turned to the sea otter.

"It's like slang from England," Shellington explained.

Barnacles looked on, confused, as he observed the penguin.

"So if you're from the Antarctic, why are you a bird?" he asked.

"Oh my gosh, Barny, you can't just ask people why they're a bird," Shellington chided.

"Can you give us some privacy for like one second?" Dashi asked,

"Sure thing," Peso responded with a nod.

As the Plastics deliberated, Peso exchanged glances with Tweak and Kwazii, who were puzzled by his new lunch companions. After a brief moment, all eyes were on Peso.

"Just so you're aware, this isn't a regular occurrence, so it's pretty much a big deal," Dashi stated emphatically.

"We'd be thrilled to have you join us for lunch every day for the rest of the week," Shellington announced, his smile wide enough to display the gap in his teeth.

Peso opened his mouth to reply, but—

"Great, see you tomorrow then!" Dashi interjected with a grin.

"On Wednesdays we wear pink," Barnacles added, tossing a casual reminder to the bird.

Chapter 1/Chapter 2

[daisychainsandbowties]

paprika is so cute!! im not sure if you've mentioned it anywhere, but what species of octopus is he and how did lilith come up with his name? loving palmer station au :)

oh, paprika is just a common octopus (so species vulgaris), which makes him one of the cleverest kind. to hear lilith tell it you’d think he was in line to win the next fields medal.

he likes chilling in lilith’s hand (tasting it) and being a kleptomaniac (yes, ava calls him a kelptomaniac). he’s not one of the animals lilith is studying specifically because he’s not an antarctic native, but he basically imprinted on her after she rescued him (stole him, technically. got arrested over it, but suzanne called a guy & suddenly lilith had an octopus son). he had parasites in his gills but she nursed him obsessively back to health. the summer she meets cam, he arrives with her on the island.

he’s called paprika because lilith names all her cephalopods after common spices, and her favourite is paprika (cam caught her in the caf smelling the jar like a 10 y/o sniffing glue). plus his normal colouring is a little reddish, and he likes to cling to a big red rock in his tank and copy its texture.

[insanityclause]

Lakeshore Records will release a soundtrack album for the Apple TV+ documentary series Big Beasts. The album features selections of the show’s original music composed by Ruth Barrett (Bodyguard, Victoria, Sanditon, The Terminal List, Collateral, Harry Brown). The soundtrack will be released digitally this Friday, April 21. Check back on this page for the streaming/download link. Big Beasts is executive produced by Tom Hugh-Jones, Martha Holmes & Grant Mansfield and takes audiences on a journey around the globe, from freezing poles to tropical rainforests, to meet nature’s most captivating giants. The 10-parter narrated by Tom Hiddleston was filmed across seventeen countries and captures rare footage using specialized equipment and next-generation filming technique. The series will premiere on April 21 exclusively on Apple TV+.

Here’s the track list of the album:

. Ostrich in the Savannah (3:53) 2. Pacific Whales (2:41) 3. Mother Octopus – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (3:00) 4. Okavango Flood (2:02) 5. Elephant Calf Survival (2:16) 6. Gorilla Makumba (1:35) 7. Magnificent Mandrills – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (1:29) 8. Enter the Congo Bai (1:49) 9. Giant Otters of the Pantanal – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (3:21) 10. Brazilian Anteater (2:39) 11. Orangutans of Borneo (3:04) 12. Proboscis Monkey – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (1:22) 13. Indian Tiger Kingdom – Ruth Barrett & Dom James (3:30) 14. King Cobras Duel – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (3:15) 15. Bearfight in the Rockies (2:25) 16. The Polar Bear’s Voyage (3:28) 17. Antarctic Elephant Seals (2:27) 18. Orca Attack – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (1:10) 19. The Albatross Learns to Fly – Ruth Barrett & Dom James (2:45) 20. Leopard Seal vs. Gentoo Penguin – Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea (1:57) 21. The Humpback Whale’s Miracle (2:28)

[scientificinquirer-blog]

Octopus DNA reveals West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse during Last Interglacial.

Genetic analyses of an Antarctic octopus show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) collapsed during the Last Interglacial ~129,000 to 116,000 years ago when temperatures were only about 1 degree Celsius (°C) warmer than preindustrial levels. The findings suggest that WAIS collapse and resultant sea-level rise could be caused by even the minimal temperature rises projected by the most…

[bayofwolves]

some general erdas headcanons

to get me warmed up for my reread! i’m sick so what else can i do.

there are tens of millions of people in all of erdas -- and that’s it. most are concentrated into cities like shar liwao and concorba. jano rion is home to the largest concentration of people in the world.

“continent” is the only accepted term for the four major land masses; “country” is not a word there. ie: you would say “the continent of eura”, not “the country of eura”. eura, nilo, zhong and amaya are also called the great lands or the four great lands. parallels to the four fallen, everybody.

following the second devourer war, stetriol was regarded as a continent. the phrase “the four great lands” is still in use, tho, maybe because of stigma or simply because stetriol is so small.

southern amaya is really desolate; almost no people live there.

zhong has the MOST people!

stetriol is home to a chilling array of giant insects and arachnids, including 20-foot-long venomous centipedes and deadly spiders growing to 10 feet tall. drina’s spirit animal, iskos, is one of these. such creatures are not found anywhere else on the planet.

racism is really not as much of a problem as it is here, there’s no colonization or slavery or anything in erdas’s history, but prejudice can arise due to the fact that people of different continents simply don’t often interact (and can be stingy when they do come into contact). people mainly keep to their own lands. euran settlers don’t exist, and immigrants are... not uncommon, but not extremely common either. as such: people of nilo are almost all black, people of zhong are almost all the equivalent of asian, people of amaya are almost all the equivalent of native/indigenous peoples in the americas, and people of eura and stetriol are almost all white. i feel like this is an overarching theme in the books, that erdas was sorta divided before the four fallen summoners, all from different backgrounds, came together and united it. like they are literally a symbol of global unity.

but anyway. i wanted to say “racism doesn’t exist!” cuz yay that’d be great right? but then i remembered that line in broken ground when abeke meets james; “[his] eyes dart[ed] over her cloak and face and skin”. there’s clearly a divide. this is further exemplified by the fact that mixed people aren’t common and are regarded with surprise and fascination when encountered.

onto the cool stuff.

erdas is a round planet like earth, but much smaller. it has two moons.

in more ancient times, moon worship was common. then the great beasts came and yada yada. people switched to worshipping them. but some cultures around the world still hold the moons sacred -- one prominent example is nilo, where moon worship originated. people in nilo believe that the moons are goddesses, and pray to them for blessings. the moons have names, but i’ll figure those out later. each continent has different names for them (ie, nilo gave them niloan names, zhong gave them zhongese names). interestingly, the sun has a name too! the sun’s name is globally accepted, because it’s not as sacred as the moons and so people cared less about what to call it.

the sky is usually a bluish-purple, but can shift to any shade of either colour. it really depends on the time of day and the activity of the sun & moons.

astrologers have identified fifteen main constellations, likening them to the great beasts. the wolf, falcon, polar bear, ram, boar, eagle and elk can be seen in the northern sky, while the leopard, panda, lion, ape, elephant, octopus, serpent and swan can be seen in the south. i think it’d be fun if people chose different star shapes for the ape and the serpent after the first devourer war, choosing to draw them as upside-down shapes instead.

fun fact! penguins don’t exist on erdas, as there is no antarctic. 

on the flip side, there are many animal species on erdas that don’t exist on earth, water dragons among them. in ancient times, dragons walked erdas -- their bones have been discovered and some entire skeletons have been reconstructed. some had wings, some did not. some had scales, some had feathers, some had skin or fur. there was a great variety. they were beautiful and fearsome -- a shattered skull was discovered, so massive that people estimated its full size would have been larger than tellun. JUST THE SKULL! (if you couldn’t figure it out, dragons are to them what dinosaurs are to us. dinos themselves have never existed on erdas.)

speaking of tellun, i’d love to talk about the size of the great beasts because it’s my favourite thing in the world. the great beasts are, in a word, huge. their heads would be comparable to the skull of balerion the dread. no more “he was as large as a carriage” shit. they. are. behemoths.

people in erdas do have terms like year and month, but their months and days are not named. when they need to be specific, erdasi people will say “the first month of summer” or “the last month of autumn” and so on. in the prologue of the burning tide, kovo uses the word “moontides” to describe what i assume is months, so that’s cool. i think people started off using moontide, then switched to month. still, some people prefer to say moontide (abeke, anda and niri are some i can think of who would do this).

speaking of kovo, he named the evertree. his description of it as “ever standing” stuck out to me. he definitely named that thing.

the wyrm hitting the evertree triggered a mass extinction, responsible for wiping out the last of the dragons. though the giants and the winged were already gone, smaller, flightless dragons were still around at the time, on land and in water. the wyrm’s impact obliterated the land dragons. the water dragons’ numbers were severely depleted, but some survived. these got progressively smaller as they mated with sea snakes and crocodiles (because that can happen!). eventually, the water dragons were gone, but their large lizard-like descendants remained. and that’s where modern water dragons like seaspray come from.

erdas is on a permanent tilt. with the south closer to the sun and the north farther away, it’s pretty much always dead of summer in nilo and stetriol. eura is stuck in a permanent spring, in arctica it’s always winter, and in amaya it varies because the landmass is so big.

empress song’s death brought about the end of imperial zhong. the continent instated a republic and would never again see an emperor or empress. they were the first great land in erdas to have a leader chosen by the people! (meilin probably carried this entire process on her back. i’m sure they wanted to elect her as their new leader, but she declined.)

at the time of the first book, it had been five hundred years since feliandor and the first devourer war.

conor is descended from katalin, abeke from tembo and meilin from yu. this makes meilin a distant descendant of tang as well! (none of them know this, except maybe meilin. she grew up hearing a lot about jhi’s distant connection to her family but didn’t give two fucks until she summoned her. meilin was heavily inspired by tales of yin. maybe one day she even retrieves the sword of tang and wields it as her own weapon, who knows!) (i think that’d be badass)

shane is also descended from feliandor, but indirectly. his family stems from one of fel’s cousins, who took the throne after him.

shane and abeke’s relationship just got a little more complicated considering their ancestors were the first leaders of the conquerors and greencloaks, respectively. and tembo literally put a spear through fel.

the reborn great beasts are still growing and will one day return to their former size! they are growing with their human partners and are set to stop when they do (at around age 25). at some point they will regain the ability to speak. by the end of the transformation, they will be great beasts once again!

yeah maybe i’ll add more when i think of more. i had so many headcanons back in the day, but it’s been like six years since i touched the books.

[rockislandadultreads]

Read-Alike Friday: What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman

A World on the Wing by Scott Weidensaul

In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we’ve learned of these key migrations—how billions of birds circumnavigate the globe, flying tens of thousands of miles between hemispheres on an annual basis—is nothing short of extraordinary.

Bird migration entails almost unfathomable endurance, like a sparrow-sized sandpiper that will fly nonstop from Canada to Venezuela—the equivalent of running 126 consecutive marathons without food, water, or rest—avoiding dehydration by "drinking" moisture from its own muscles and organs, while orienting itself using the earth’s magnetic field through a form of quantum entanglement that made Einstein queasy. Crossing the Pacific Ocean in nine days of nonstop flight, as some birds do, leaves little time for sleep, but migrants can put half their brains to sleep for a few seconds at a time, alternating sides—and their reaction time actually improves.

These and other revelations convey both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. This breathtaking work of nature writing from Pulitzer Prize finalist Scott Weidensaul also introduces readers to those scientists, researchers, and bird lovers trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges.

The Glitter in the Green by Jon Dunn

Hummingbirds are a glittering, sparkling collective of over three hundred wildly variable species. For centuries, they have been revered by indigenous Americans, coveted by European collectors, and admired worldwide for their unsurpassed metallic plumage and immense character. Yet they exist on a knife-edge, fighting for survival in boreal woodlands, dripping cloud forests, and subpolar islands. They are, perhaps, the ultimate embodiment of evolution's power to carve a niche for a delicate creature in even the harshest of places.

Traveling the full length of the hummingbirds' range, from the cusp of the Arctic Circle to near-Antarctic islands, acclaimed nature writer Jon Dunn encounters birders, scientists, and storytellers in his quest to find these beguiling creatures, immersing us in the world of one of Earth's most charismatic bird families.

Sentient by Jackie Higgins

Perfect for fans of The Soul of an Octopus and The Genius of Birds, this book explores how we process the world around us through the lens of the incredible sensory capabilities of thirteen animals, revealing that we are not limited to merely five senses.

There is a scientific revolution stirring in the field of human perception. Research has shown that the extraordinary sensory powers of our animal friends can help us better understand the same powers that lie dormant within us.

From the harlequin mantis shrimp with its ability to see a vast range of colors, to the bloodhound and its hundreds of millions of scent receptors; from the orb-weaving spider whose eyes recognize not only space but time, to the cheetah whose ears are responsible for its perfect agility, these astonishing animals hold the key to better understanding how we make sense of the world around us.

Flight Paths by Rebecca Heisman

For the past century, scientists and naturalists have been steadily unravelling the secrets of bird migration. How and why birds navigate the skies, traveling from continent to continent—flying thousands of miles across the earth each fall and spring—has continually fascinated the human imagination, but only recently have we been able to fully understand these amazing journeys. Although we know much more than ever before, even the most enthusiastic birdwatcher may not know how we got here, the ways that the full breadth of scientific disciplines have come together to reveal these annual avian travels. 

Flight Paths is the never-before-told story of how a group of migration-obsessed scientists in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries engaged nearly every branch of science to understand bird migration—from where and when they take off to their flight paths and behaviors, their destinations and the challenges they encounter getting there. Uniting curious minds from across generations, continents, and disciplines, bird enthusiast and science writer Rebecca Heisman traces the development of each technique used for tracking migratory birds, from the first attempts to mark individual birds to the cutting-edge technology that lets ornithologists trace where a bird has been, based on unique DNA markers. Along the way, she touches on the biggest technological breakthroughs of modern science and reveals the almost-forgotten stories of the scientists who harnessed these inventions in service of furthering our understanding of nature (and their personal obsession with birds).

[dollsonmain]

It's early morning so guess what.

Blathering time.

I'll be alone most of the day today. The first showing of Son's play is tonight, and That Guy isn't coming back to the house after work, he's just going straight there. I'll go to the noon-ish showing tomorrow.

Maybe I can also get to the hospital to get my blood draw tomorrow morning, since they're open 7am to noon. Doubt it. I do want to get that done sooner rather than later because it takes time to get to the lab and be processed and I'd rather have the test complete before my follow-up with the urologist.

Lempo and Daymare spoilers:

Watching Lempo I was having a little trouble following exactly what had happened and it wasn't explained. I had a pretty good idea but didn't want to assume.

Both games are exploration and puzzle solving. Daymare also had combat. Pew pew.

After watching Daymare, I'm pretty sure they're basically the same story from different people's perspective. In Lempo it's an office worker who's office happened to be near a secret laboratory, and in Daymare it's a military operative that was tasked with infiltrating Area 51.

In both games a meteor fell to earth that had weird metal in it that the government took for experiments.

In Lempo it apparently happened relatively close to when the game takes place, and in Daymare it was probably hundreds of thousands of years in the past. Either way, it was found and experimented on.

Lempo is a pulsing metal cube that didn't seem to do much other than obliterate anyone standing near the cube during a pulse and once the PC turned off some electrical currents that were affecting the cube and making it pulse, they were able to open segments of it and take stuff out. Daymare is a mysterious metal with unique electromagnetic properties that allow for teleportation between meteor chunks. One chunk was at Area 51 and another was under the antarctic ice.

In Lempo it's not explained whether Lempo, the creature that was slowly devouring every living thing, came from the meteor or was awakened by it, but Lempo started mind controlling people which threw them into a sort of religious fervor, and in Daymare they accidentally teleported a giant octopus from another planet into a holding tank in the facility that... started mind controlling people which threw them into a sort of religious fervor trying to convince whomever it could to let it out of the tank.

Either way, it's funny to me how similar the stories are. I bet there are lots of other very similar stories/games out there with the same premise, too. I know the whole "the gods were really aliens" thing was pretty popular in the early 2000's

[riverscrypticchronicles]

Cryptid Whales: Mysterious Giants of the Deep

Cryptid Whales: Mysterious Giants of the Deep...Written by River T

The vastness of the world's oceans has always sparked the imagination of sailors, scientists, and enthusiasts alike. Among the many mysteries of the deep, cryptid whales hold a special place in the lore of the sea. Unlike their well-documented counterparts, cryptid whales are enigmatic creatures, often reported in fleeting glimpses or through second-hand accounts. These elusive giants challenge our understanding of marine biology and continue to inspire wonder and intrigue.

One of the most famous cryptid whales is the Ningen, a creature reportedly spotted by Japanese fishermen in the icy waters of the Antarctic. Described as a colossal, humanoid figure with a body resembling a whale, the Ningen is said to be white in color and can grow up to 30 meters in length. Eyewitness accounts describe it having arms, legs, and even fingers, further adding to its eerie appearance. Despite numerous sightings and some alleged photographs, no concrete evidence of the Ningen's existence has been found, leaving it firmly in the realm of cryptozoology.

In the warm waters of the Caribbean, tales of a serpentine cryptid whale have been passed down through generations. Known as the Lusca, this creature is said to inhabit the blue holes and underwater caverns of the Bahamas. Descriptions of the Lusca vary, with some accounts depicting it as a giant octopus or squid, while others describe it as a monstrous whale with tentacles. This variation in description adds to the mystery, suggesting the possibility of a large, unidentified marine animal or a misidentification of known species.

Off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, sightings of the Cadborosaurus, or "Caddy" as it is affectionately known, have intrigued both locals and scientists for decades. Caddy is often described as a long, serpentine creature with a horse-like head, large eyes, and a series of humps along its back. While some skeptics suggest that sightings could be misidentifications of common marine animals like oarfish or basking sharks, the sheer number of eyewitness reports keeps the legend of the Cadborosaurus alive.

Cryptid whales, whether they be the Ningen, Lusca, or Cadborosaurus, continue to capture the human imagination. These creatures embody the unknown and remind us of the mysteries that still lurk in the depths of our oceans. While modern science has made incredible strides in marine biology, the ocean remains largely unexplored, leaving room for the possibility that cryptid whales, or creatures like them, might one day be discovered.

For now, cryptid whales remain a fascinating blend of myth and mystery, inviting us to dream about the wonders that may still be hidden beneath the waves. Whether real or imagined, these enigmatic giants of the deep serve as a testament to the enduring allure of the unknown.

[bopinion]

2023 / 51

Aperçu of the Week:

"Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone."

(Charles Monroe Schulz, American cartoonist and the creator of the Peanuts)

Bad News of the Week:

The marine Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany, wanted to investigate the relationship between the octopuses in the Antarctic in order to reconstruct the colonization of the Southern Ocean. What they discovered by chance is a shocking indication of an impending climate catastrophe that scientists have already feared: the ice sheet of the western Antarctic is on the verge of collapse.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has always described the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet as one of the great unknowns in global climate events. One thing is certain: if it were to melt, sea levels worldwide would rise by up to five meters. That would be the end of island archipelagos such as the Maldives and the Bahamas. The same applies to metropolitan areas such as New York City, Shanghai, Calcutta and Rio de Janeiro. 60% of the world's population live in coastal regions. They would all lose their homes.

Why? The study of drill cores and the analysis of sediments prove that a good 120,000 years ago the climatic conditions were practically the same as they are today. Based on the genetic material of Antarctic octopus populations, it can be deduced that the species from the Wedell Sea and the Ross Sea genetically exchanged 120,000 years ago. For the palm-sized octopuses, which are sedentary and do not migrate, the approximately 7,000 kilometers around the Antarctic Peninsula towards South America are insurmountable.

Unless, of course, an ice sheet that did not exist at the time had opened up the direct connection through which the Antarctic Circumpolar Current would wash. The scientists have therefore come to the conclusion that this ice sheet could not have existed during the so-called "Eemian Warm Period" of the interglacial period. A time that corresponds to our climatic conditions, which have been heated up unnaturally quickly by mankind.

Warm water currents are already melting the ice from below. As a result, the submerged grounding line is retreating by one to two kilometers per year - a historically unprecedented rate. The Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers still protect the West Antarctic ice sheet behind them. However, if this barrier falls, the huge masses of ice in West Antarctica will slide into the ocean. And cause global sea levels to rise by up to five meters. The majority of humanity will be doomed. And forced to move. Welcome to Bavaria at over 500 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, we and comparable regions don't have enough space and food for everyone. You can imagine what will happen.

Good News of the Week:

The wisdom of age. It has always been a respected level of experience, composure and aplomb that is only achieved over the course of many years. Or not, if you consider Joe Biden's decision to run again for the US presidential election. But that's not the point here, because this week I'm delighted by the wisdom of two old men from South America: Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina, better known as Pope Francis.

Lula da Silva, who has been in office for a year now, has fulfilled one of his key election promises, which is important for the whole world, surprisingly quickly: to significantly slow down the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and stop it in the long term. Initial figures for 2023 show that the under Jair Bolsonaro - who also proved to be a dangerous idiot in this respect - increased rates of around 12,000 square kilometers of annual deforestation have been less than halved. Thanks to stricter penalties for illegal deforestation and the designation of new protected areas.

I am confident that the destruction will be further reduced. After all, during his first and second terms in office from 2003 to 2011, the area lost each year fell from over 26,000 to around 7,000 square kilometers. Lula da Silva's commitment is therefore fundamentally out of conviction and not due to any trend or current political strategy. Thank you. And go on please.

Pope Francis was associated with many hopes. Above all for a renewal of the Catholic Church, which for good reason is seen as a conservative men's club that has fallen out of time. Unfortunately, he has delivered little, which is probably due to the encrusted structures that one individual is unable to overcome.

For example, celibacy still applies, although countless cases of abuse clearly prove that this is not achievable by a large proportion of the staff. Similarly, women are still barred from holding any church office, even though it is now the 21st century and equal rights are enshrined in the constitution even in dictatorships.

Another demand, on the other hand, is now being met with the declaration "Fiducia supplicans" ("Imploring trust"): the recognition that there are also respectable civil partnerships outside of the marriage of a heterosexual couple. This is because the declaration of principles now allows Catholic clergy to bless unmarried and even homosexual couples. Thank you. And go on please.

Personal happy moment of the week:

Around Christmas, you can find a lot of advice in the media on how to survive difficult family constellations. The core message is to take a step back and bite your own tongue for the sake of peace. My wife and I have also managed to do this this year. After all, my children and parents like to have "the whole family" around the table, especially on big holidays. In our case, that includes my children's mother and her partner. And it worked, I only got the apparently unavoidable affront on the morning of Christmas Day. But at least we got through Christmas Eve without conflict.

I couldn't care less...

...that the Supreme Court has postponed the decision on whether Donald Jessica Trump can be held criminally liable for his actions in office or enjoys immunity, without giving reasons. Special prosecutor Jack Smith had initiated the proceedings in order to be able to prosecute Trump for his various attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.

But whichever court sentences the former and possibly re-elected US president for whatever, his voter base is apparently completely indifferent. On the contrary. It plays into the cards of his role as a victim of the party-politically motivated witch hunt and helps him to stage himself as an outsider to the Washington establishment.

As I write this...

...the newly crowned Argentine President Javier Milei presents the first parts of his "shock therapy" for the country. He names socialism as the root of all evil, which has led the country into economic hell. But he is the messiah who will trigger radical change and make Argentina a world power again. Yes, he said that on national television.

His first measures include repealing rent laws, abolishing industrial subsidies, facilitating privatization, restricting the freedom to demonstrate, converting all state-owned companies into private companies, relaxing fire safety laws, liberalizing markets and much more. It is slowly becoming clear why Milei calls himself an "anarcho-capitalist".

Post Scriptum

There is a place in Brandenburg called "Himmelspfort" ("Gateway to heaven"). There is a post office there, which has become the official Christmas post office over the years, to which many children send their wish lists. There were 300,000 this year. Not just from Germany, but from 59 countries. Top five: China, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece and Lithuania.

This year, younger girls wanted dolls and play figures, while boys asked for toy cars and building blocks. The older ones (of course) wanted tablets, smartphones and gaming gear. However, other wishes dominated, such as health for grandma and grandpa. And far and away in first place: "Peace in the world". Once again, it would be nice if adults would listen to children.

[stephanmacro]

Octopus DNA may reveal when West Antarctic ice sheet most recently collapsed | CNN