#scientific mystery

[covenawhite66]

Analyses of Neanderthal remains from Gabasa, Spain, suggests that Neanderthals were more carnivorous than obligate carnivores such as the cat. That is in keeping with previous research.

Obligate carnivores must get effectively all their calories from meat. Cats are obligate carnivores: they cannot digest carbohydrates at all. Dogs are facultative carnivores, meaning they can handle some plant matter but cannot thrive without meat

Humans are omnivores, however, if we get more than 35 to 40 percent of our calories from lean meat (not including fat), we get sick from protein poisoning.

Briefly, the ratio between zinc 66 and 64 in our teeth indicates what we ate, because animal muscle is high in zinc-64 while plants are high in zinc-66.

Neanderthals had low Zinc 66 ratio

[percivalias]

Oh, extinct birds, how I love you and miss you.

In order:

White swamphen (Porphyrio albus), native to Lord Howe Island

Huia (Heteralocha acutirostris), native to Aotearoa New Zealand

Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), native to Mauritius

Laughing owl (Ninox albifacies), native to Aotearoa New Zealand

Mysterious starling (Aplonis mavornata), native to Mauke

North Island giant moa (Dinornis novaezealandiae), native to Aotearoa New Zealand

O'ahu 'ō'ō (Moho apicalis), native to O'ahu

[Image IDs in alt text.]

[askblueandviolet]

Have you ever tried dating Syntax?

MASTER POST

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[sincerely-sofie]

[amphivena]

#1 in a series based off old movie trailers

buy here on redbubble

[truebluesargent]

i want the doctor to snap mid series and be like "that is IT. NO MORE." and go back to isaac newton and sort the whole mavity thing out and then also snog isaac newton

[yvesdot]

the mysterious, scientifically fantastic oddity / 2K

...Hafsa Odde finds herself under the bright, cloud-covered false sky of an oversized shopping mall, looking for a vampire named Mel and his (human?) girlfriend.

Fans of Detective Hafsa Odde from strawberry syrup., published in Something's Not Right, may well benefit from a $5 subscription to my Patreon, which now nets you (in addition to all other posts) this bonus short story about her having a terrible time investigating a wholly separate vampiric issue! Three cheers for suffering.

Support the author: all writing | book | ko-fi | Patreon

[whatudottu]

You know, sitting here thinking about TFP humanformers I have rather found it difficult to come up with an idea for a human Predaking, seeing as how his entire schtick as a predacon lead him to being depersonified and marked as a beast before folks realised he could transform.

I mean, these are just humanformer ideas based on Predaking KEEPING his canonical treatment rather than making Predaking and changing the dynamics that way. It does involve some uh... dehumanisation under the cut to keep with the theme, so keep in mind if you DO read, but those parts are mainly in the 'struggling to come up with a concept that isn't racist' section.

The first ideas that I had for him would probably to make him into a super soldier, and sure it works but- if you attempt to 'discipline' a super soldier the way Starscream tried to do so with a predacon's beast mode, I think you'll be walking away with broken shins (aka not walking at all). Another idea was to bring a fucked up 'shockwave inspired' element that would lead to the amp 'beast' comparisons to be made, but the more 'beastman' version of this idea is VERY DELICATE to work with (read: comparing a human to an animal is VERY HISTORICALLY and still PRESENTLY a not great thing to do) but also doesn't quite FEEL that predacon to me; predacons are emphasised to be ANCIENT not that they are extant animals, so if Shockwave has done anything to beastify a human I think insecticons may be that unit of humans.

No, I think that for a human to be considered a beast without being racist about it would be to turn predacons from 'animals' to 'monsters', to Frankenstein's monsters. Though I thought of I think a vague Frankenstein comparison before, I will bring up that many others have also seen some modern Prometheus allegories between Shockwave and Predaking. I was mainly inspired by my [insert number here] rewatch of OSP's Frankenstein episode and especially the particular eye colour Adam was depicted with, but the basic idea of being a dead person brought back to life with the best pieces carefully selected by someone wholly dedicated to the craft of science (irrespective of Frankenstein's dropout status) plus how the monster is almost universally feared? Come on, this is the 'in' I needed if I wanted to keep the general fear of the unknown with Predaking and the Decepticon High Command.

And what better show to introduce a character that is this compilation of ancient human DNA and real corpse than a show that has previously introduced ZOMBIES and will later introduce VAMPIRES!?

If Shockwave shows up, after 3 seasons worth of knowing what a zombie is and that it's a real possible thing to happen - in addition to the fact your own fucking leader stuck a shard of 'zombie making' juice into his chest/bloodstream/whatever the humanformers version of Megan would do - with a creature visibly made up of the dead with eyes of something very non-human, would you welcome them with open arms? Adam Frankenstein certainly wasn't, not even from his own dad which Predaking can at least attest to actually having SOME sort of decent relationship with Shockwave.

In a way, it modifies the predacon fossil scavenger hunt to be 'global graverobbers' which in a humanformers setting might actually be 'go to this great battle and recover the bones of not only our but our enemies bones to provide a human base' which could EMPHASISE the monstrosity of Predaking's nature as a melting pot of old friends and foe mashed together into one fucked up super soldier. In a canon parallel this mixture of gene sequences and cadavers would still influence Knock Out and Starscream to think turning the corpse of C.Y.L.A.S. into their own super soldier would still be a good idea, having something else besides the dark 'energon' (if it is not still energon) fuck up the experiment and make a tech-modified human into some kinda fucked up vampire. Heck, with this old post of mine comparing the looks of the new predacons to the two big blue (dead) bots, this humanformers concept for Predaking can persist and continue to be used by Shockwave to create Skylynx and Darksteel, not made of battles long passed but of the freshest bodies the scientist would have access to.

But I guess canonically there has only ever been 2 zombie hordes throughout the entirety of TFP, if you consider the horde in Thirst to be very hungry vampire thralls instead (considering they were killed rather than revived, I'd place them under 'vampire'), so perhaps not a lot of bots can go 'this is terrifying' and not a lot of evidence that Shockwave can gather about why they are at this level of hesitancy; it's not a simple fear of the unknown, it's the type of fear from experience. But I have a trick up my sleeve!

BOOM, Altered Loyalties baby; human edition, of course.

This might deserve it's own post but essentially, a humanformers 'Shockwave's Monster' Predaking would have a lot more precedence for being a Unicron made monstrosity if the threat of Unicron damned creatures exist as a background constant. A threat to base verse to their position on Earth, a threat in humanformers because the dead outnumber them. All the while, Shockwave stands beside a being created from those very same dead that may or may not have risen from the corruption of WHATEVER it is within the Earth's core, only to announce this is a very new SUPER SOLDIER!? Zombies are one thing with their durability and their hordes, but this creature - this DEMON - stands there with advance agility, enhanced endurance, and superior strength!?

To later find that it - that HE - is not merely a walking corpse, but an intellectual, sends shivers even down Megatron's spine. Megatron, the head of one of the last remaining shreds of humanity, staring at the undead being not only made to be harder, better, faster, stronger than him, but capable of intelligence in much the same way as the poetic ex-gladiator.

He WILL NOT go extinct.

[xephsuggestions]

hes got a degree in ligma

Oh, no, you are NOT fooling me with this again.

( Rolling up a newspaper )

[planerider-ryn]

Sorry for randomly Hyperversumposting but you know what is one thing it did well that I wish was done more often?

Showing a character who, after an adventure with supernatural/mysterious events in their teen years, goes on to study physics/another scientific subject in an attempt to understand what they went through

[sincerely-sofie]

Incoming Future Trio Ramble

In terms of opinions on time travel, I think the future trio would have some interesting and contrasting perspectives. It’s real neat to consider:

Dusknoir is someone who cannot control time and has to get a temporal Uber from Dialga / Celebi in order to get anywhere (depending on where you’re at in the plot), but I’m going to bet he thinks that someone could harness the flow of time for use by Pokémon beyond those of legendary and mythical status if they just researched it enough. He’s shown to be knowledgeable about a decently wide variety of subjects, he’s got a knack for coming up with plans in little to no time at all— he’s the type of person who, whenever he’s going through a passage, would be trying to figure out how the science of it all goes together. To Dusknoir, time travel is something to be deciphered and understood.

This contrasts with Celebi, who is someone who is inherently capable of traveling time, and with relative ease at that. She breathes temporal energy by virtue of being a celebi— it’s not something she can really grasp being incapable of tangibly sensing or controlling the passage of. If Dusknoir were to go to her for a discussion of the mechanics of time travel, I’m pretty sure Celebi couldn’t give him a concrete answer— she’d end up trying to use metaphors and abstract comparisons, because how are you supposed to describe to someone exactly how they can manipulate their lungs in order to breathe? It’s just something you do. To Celebi, time travel is something to be lived— it’s an experience.

Meanwhile, Grovyle is in a similar boat to Dusknoir as someone who can’t bend the fabric of space-time at will. However, where Dusknoir wants to figure out time travel and sees it as something to study, Grovyle would probably see it as a force of nature that you don’t tamper with. He knows firsthand how fast everything can go wrong with time travel. His view of time travel is more along the lines of how a sailor would view the open ocean— you don’t goof off when you’re at sea because it can and will kill you without hesitation. Grovyle is 100% not letting his guard down while going through a passage, because the last time he did, his best friend was ripped away from him, and even when they managed to stumble across each other again, his friend came back wrong, and didn’t remember him. To Grovyle, time travel isn’t something to decipher or understand, or to live or experience— it's something to survive and pray that it won’t decide to take anyone else from you.

Anyways I’m going back to making memes enjoy this bit of angst fodder

[michajawkan]

while the original backrooms post does mention a sound made by something, saying that if you heard it, that it has definitely already heard you, implying some type of creature skulking around, it’s vague and unclear enough that I think it doesn’t detract from the core appeal, which is that you don’t really know

like, obviously the implication is that it’s some sort of big scary beast that wants to eat your face or something, but it doesn’t have to be, it just as well be like, a bunch of spiders or a weird plant or a funky mushroom or even just describing a way the backrooms itself is making a noise acknowledging that its noticed you--

[headcanonsandmore]

This murder-mystery fic is becoming less “murder mystery” and more “Tegan and Nyssa fancy the metaphorical and literal pants off each other whilst attempting to solve a murder mystery”.

[queenlucythevaliant]

Do you think Behemoth and Leviathan were actually real and happened to be dinosaurs? Behemoth was a huge and formidable land dinosaur while Leviathan was a pleisiosaur. Technically, plesiosaurs weren't dinosaurs, but you get my idea?

So I've been sitting on this ask for a little bit because I honestly didn't know what tone to take in answering it. I don't know your background, and thus don't know whether to be more blunt or delicate. Ultimately, I settled on blunt, simply because I could not figure out how to answer this question delicately. That said, I hope you take this in the gracious spirit in which I have written it.

SO. That's a hard no from me, friend. Let's discuss!

So typically when you hear people say that Behemoth and Leviathan were dinosaurs (or dinosaur adjacent), it's in the context of arguments in favor of young earth creationism. It's a fairly big talking point with the Answers in Genesis crowd. Basically, they make the argument that Biblical texts referencing creatures that superficially resemble dinosaurs are evidence that humans and dinosaurs could have lived at the same time.

This works out if the earth is only 6,000 years old, but not if we take paleontology, geology, or human evolution at all seriously. The writer of Job would have had no way of knowing that dinosaurs and plesiosaurs existed because they had already been extinct for many millions of years. Even if you want to argue that maybe God is describing creatures with which Job was unfamiliar, it still doesn't track. God's address to Job treats these creatures as something for which he has a point of reference. It also just doesn't make sense why God would choose this moment to reveal the existence of dinosaurs. Talk about a tangent!

I don't know where you fall on the spectrum of Christian beliefs regarding origins and the age of the earth, but I've written at length on this blog about the case for theistic (old earth) evolution, so I won't rehash that here. Check out my all truth is God's truth tag or shoot me an ask if you want more on that. Regarding Behemoth and Leviathan, however, I think some of the same exegetical skills involved in reading (or misreading) Genesis are involved in the relevant chapters of Job.

When God addresses Job out of the whirlwind, he uses poetic language. He's talking about a real thing (his sovereignty over the universe), but it's something that transcends human comprehension on an overwhelming scale. Much like we can't ever hope to wrap our heads around deep time, we're simply not capable of grasping the extent of God's sovereignty.

When God describes storehouses of hail reserved for the day of battle, are we supposed to literally think that there is a giant building in heaven where God keeps all his hail? Or is it a picture of God's might as both creator and judge of the universe? If we know our Bibles, we see that hail is frequently used as a tool of judgement against God's enemies: Egypt, the Canaanites, apostate Israel, and ultimately the rebellious earth. So when God describes his storehouses of hail, we see the reality of his total control over the arc of history, his ultimate justice, his orderliness.

Likewise, Behemoth and Leviathan use the established language and symbolism of Scripture to convey truths for which plain language wouldn't suffice. Behemoth's description isn't that of any real animal, living or extinct. God paints a picture of a creature that no man could ever hope to tame and expresses that he, God, can.

Leviathan is the longer and more interesting image; it's a mighty creature of the deep that breathes fire and cannot be controlled. We know that in Biblical parlance, water is frequently associated with chaos (too many places to enumerate, but Psalms, the Prophets, and Revelation are good starting places). Leviathan is a picture of this chaos: mighty, rearing, deadly, uncontrollable, terrifying. Then God says to Job, "Can you draw this creature out with a fishhook? Can you make a covenant with him? Will he serve you? Can you injure him? Do you have any means at all of controlling the chaos monster? I do." It's poetry used to express a truth that we humans cannot hope to grasp otherwise: We cannot control the chaos of the world around us. We can't even try. But God can, and he does it effortlessly.

So no. Not dinosaurs. And I think that arguing that they are, especially trying to pick through the text and figure out which ones they're supposed to be and using that to argue for literalistic interpretations of Genesis, really misses the point and the power of what God is saying here.

I think Job's words back to God at the end of the book actually give us a remarkably important principle when it comes to Biblical interpretation: "I have uttered what I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." The whole Bible is too wonderful for us. God condescended in order to give us his truth, and he had the magnificent grace to give it to us in ways that we can begin to grasp.

I think a lot of really literalistic reads on Scripture (Job, Genesis, Revelation, and elsewhere) are a kind of grasping at control. There's an assumption in it that God gave the ancients an exact accounting of things that humans just aren't equipped to fully comprehend.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try! But it does mean that when we read Scripture concerning the Big Things: the Sovereignty of God, the creation of the universe, the origin of life, eternity, infinity, even spiritual mysteries like the Trinity and the nature of the Incarnation, we have to approach it as something fundamentally beyond our comprehension which God is showing us the edges of. We can see other, different edges of many of those same things through scientific observation (or philosophy, or whatever other disciplines-- not all of the Big Things are scientific in nature.)

It's like Isaac Newton said: "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."