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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, November 1, 1896

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sometimes you wake up and there is a creature

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I cant stop thinking about this.

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If you are watching a TV show, it can be live action or animated.

But not when you're reading a book. Much to think about.

#reminds me of that NPC apple post

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inflation is crazy. back in my days you could buy a goat for two coins. until the cat eats it, that is

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this tweet hasn't left my mind once in the two years since it's been posted

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Violet-backed Starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster), male, family Sturnidae, order Passeriformes, found in southwestern Africa

photograph by Nigel Voaden

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Here’s one good thing to come out of 2020:

Paleontologists completed a life-sized replica of Sue, the most complete T. Rex ever found.

And she is freaking GORGEOUS!

As I read more about this beauty, I found out some new details regarding things I thought I previously knew about the beast that was Tyrannosaurus Rex, and I’m going to share them with you.

First, and most obvious, her size:

This is nothing new, we all figured T. Rex was big, but I for one never stopped to consider exactly how big it was. Nobody ever really knows what to imagine when they read about something the size of a whale that walked around and ate everything it could kill. 

Speaking of eating things, I just want to remind you all that T. Rex had–by miles–the strongest bite of any terrestrial animal living or dead, somewhere around six and a half tons of force. That’s over six times greater than the current estimate of what Allosaurus was capable of, and three times what was delivered by the highest measured reading of the living title holder–the estuarine crocodile. It didn’t have to waste time swinging its head open-mouthed like Saurophaganax for a little extra oomph, or grow fancy serrated teeth like Carcharodontosaurus to cut pieces out of its prey. It opted for the simplest approach: get its mouth around something and crush it to death; imagine the full weight of an elephant on whatever was between this thing’s jaws.

“How did it find something to eat?” I hear you asking. “It can’t see something if it doesn’t move, right?”

Listen, I love Jurassic Park too, but that’s a big crock of shit.

Notice how both her eyes face forward. That gives her binocular vision (the ability to focus both eyes on one target, like you and I). More importantly it means she has impeccable depth perception due to overlapping fields of vision from each, large, eyeball. Researchers agree that T. Rex not only had incredible vision, but that it was probably better than most modern animals–including eagles, hawks, and owls–and that she could likely spot something three and a half miles away. If something that big can see that well, it doesn’t matter if you move or not, she’d be able to tell if it was an animal trying to hide or a piece of vegetation. So pray she isn’t hungry if she lays eyes on you. And even if by some miracle she didn’t see you, she’d still smell you. 

If she decided you looked tasty, you probably wouldn’t hear her coming as much as you’d feel her. Modern science indicates that T. Rex didn’t roar like in Jurassic Park, but rather bellowed or maybe even hissed like crocodilians. If she were on to you, you’d most likely feel this sense of unease creep up your spine as a low-pitched rumble in the air permeated through you. You wouldn’t know what it was or where it was coming from until you hear her footfalls. By then it’s too late–you could try to run but she’d probably catch you. There’s plenty on YouTube that reconstructs what T. Rex may have sounded like, and it’s legitimately haunting.  

To wrap all of this up, the one bit of good that came out of the cursed year that is 2020 is that this wonderful child of science and art came into the world, and reaffirmed my respect and admiration for the eight ton slab of muscle and teeth that is this magnificent creature.

…and it is nothing if not magnificent.

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#oh no #not again

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My favorite three-dimensional shape, the Great Rhombicosidodecahedron*, also known as the Truncated Icosidodecahedron**. It's an Archimedean Solid, so all of the faces are regular polygons, and they come together in the same way at each vertex, but there's more than one type of face (so it's not a Platonic solid) and it is not a prism or antiprism.

It has 62 faces, 180 edges, and 120 vertices. 30 of its faces are squares, 20 are hexagons, and 12 are decagons.

Image sources: eusebeia, Wikipedia, Anthony James, James S. Aber, Opera Gallery.

#glass soccer ball

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MOST BASS ARE JUST FISH BUT LEROY BROWN WAS SOMETHING SPECIAL

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#I’m going to Infraworld

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#good take #but I feel like at a point someone can break the laws of humanity #such creatures should not be considered human anymore

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Small price to pay for golden goonch

#the gigagoonch