#I’m in nature more

[naturegoddessdiary]

[planariaareneat]

How The Nocturnal Bottleneck and Nipples Make Us Human

Almost every post here considers what humans do have, really. It’s a little tiring; realistically every world has its harsh environments and vicious species and a sophont to match. We probably wouldn’t be unique for our adaptability or our persistence or even adrenaline

But our evolution is fucked up as hell, to put it lightly.

Mammals went through what’s been dubbed the nocturnal bottleneck essentially since the start of the mesozoic right up until the Cretaceous ended the archosaur’s exclusive hold over the daylight. We lost a lot of things from every mammal spending most of its time in either a cramped, suffocating burrow or scrounging around in the faint hours of nighttime. Our blood cells lost their nuclei to hold more oxygen while we spent time deep underground, we lost protections against ultraviolet rays in our skin and eyes, we can’t even repair our own DNA using the light of the sun. Most aliens probably wouldn’t have such traits unless their evolution followed a very similar path to ours. They’d be able to see ultraviolet and wouldn’t have to worry about sunburn and all the wonderful privileges essentially all fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles enjoy as we speak. 

There’s also what we gained from spending so much time in the dark.

Brown fat is only found in mammals, it’s a special type of fat which bear cells with several oil droplets and are utterly jammed with mitochondria. This lets it make heat, a lot of it, fast. We don’t even need to shiver to induce this heat generation from brown adipose tissue - factor in our downright hyperactive mitochondria, and we can warm up quickly. Sure, it doesn’t have too much use in adult humans, but it keeps our infants warm and still provides a little boost the whole run we have in this universe.

Unless aliens also went through a time where their small ancestors had to face cold nights, they’d have to produce heat the old fashioned way when chilled. Aliens might have to shiver the whole time they’re in a cold room while the human watches in confusion, quite literally unshaken, and wonders if the room is a lot colder than the thermostat set to 60 says. The aliens stare at their companion in confusion, it’s just a normal temperature to shiver at after all, how is the human sitting so still?

Our small ancestors spending all their time out foraging at night is also why we have such a good sense of touch, smell, and hearing. They were more important senses than vision (we’re lucky to have even redeveloped basic color vision, frankly) at the time and place and simply ended up continuing to serve us well. Birds and reptiles rarely have acute senses of smell and the latter especially are lucky to have acute hearing, and birds rarely have impeccable hearing themselves either. Our skin is free of scales and honed to sensitivity, and our external ears and complicated ear bones provide an immense range of hearing (from 20 all the way to 17,000 hertz!).

Aliens might not be able to pin down the chirp of a cricket or the light click of a lock being picked. The human might be the only one on board a ship that can pick out the finer sounds of the engine’s constant thrum and know the critical difference between when everything is fine and when something is wrong. The human could probably pick out the sounds of an approaching enemy’s careless footsteps - they’re only as light enough for *them* to stop hearing them, after all - and be the one to see the horrified expression (well, more on that later) on their face when we get the drop on them in spite of their perceived stealth. 

But perhaps the most versatile, convoluted, amazing, and utterly unique trait we have is right on your face this instant. Lips.

Lips in most animals are a simple seal to hold in the mouth’s moisture and protect the teeth, even if they’re supple they’re NEVER muscular except in mammals, and we have only one thing to thank for it; milk and nipples. Lips evolved exclusively to allow babies to suckle, it required a vacuum to be created in the mouth, and with no other animal having anything like a nipple it never happened in other animals. Many animals make milk, to be frank, but no other animal has nipples.

Your cheeks and lips are a marvel among tetrapods, no other animal can suck like mammals can. Aliens wouldn’t have straws or even be able to sip from the edge of a glass, they’d have to have a proboscis or simply tilt the whole thing back. Aliens likely won’t have woodwind instruments or balloons you can blow into. We take so much about our lips for granted. Hell, our muscular faces are vital for expressions, we’re probably absolute facial contortionists among a cast of creatures with mandibles and beaks and expressionless scaly maws. Aliens might find us ridiculously easy to read, if anything, compared to their own kind (all the better to deceive them) - or perhaps they’d find us hard to decipher anyways, with our lack of color-changing skin or erectable crests of bright feathers. Baring teeth might not be seen as a sign of aggression in most of the universe, smiling would be all too distinctly human. 

Perhaps with how infectious we are sometimes, that’s what we’d contribute to the universe; others might have to make do with opening their mouths just enough to show their teeth or splaying their innumerable mouthparts with just the right curve, but perhaps we’d teach the galaxy to smile, one ally at a time. 

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

[actualori]

happy (very late) birthday empires smp!!

(this ended up taking thirty hours and forty minutes)

close ups and alternate versions below!

[imvec]

Sequel to Sunshade

[trauersinfonie]

kinda incredible to say that you think god isn’t that big a deal cuz u know a guy

[myfairkatiecat]

I feel like Lucy Gray’s fashion sense had an influence on the Capitol. It’s mentioned in the book that she’s wearing makeup, which is notable to Coriolanus and he wonders where she got it from since it was barely becoming accessible again in the Capitol. In the movie one of his classmates mocks what she is wearing, asking if she thinks she’s a clown. It isn’t common to dress like her, but she owns her own style and the Capitol LOVES her. Coriolanus, as he tries to get sponsors for her, makes the case that since she is Covey perhaps she isn’t really district at all, in fact she’s really more Capitol than anything… and perhaps it rubbed off. Perhaps her sense of extra-ness, her fun makeup even at the reaping, her colorful dress at a dark occasion….perhaps that’s one part of her legacy that never truly goes away, even when the name of Lucy Gray Baird is erased from the memories of the people of Panem.

[lavenderr-starrs]

Never in my life would I ever consider caring for a shonen ship in anime between a male lead and a female lead but here we are

Momokarun..save me.. save me momokarun

[myokk]

first dada class😳✨

[wanderingmausoleum]

the opening lines of the shadow of the erdtree trailer remind me a LOT of a certain quote from another game:

and with this in mind, i really hope that the direction they go with miquella is less like the manipulative griffith-esque archetype some people are theorizing, and more like N’s characterization in pokemon black and white: someone very intelligent and powerful but naïve, whose honest attempts at creating a better world might bring about more destruction in the end.

[stuckinapril]

Just a girl who wants to be her mother’s daughter in the ways that matter

[lovelesslittleloser]

Tbh this has been on my mind for MONTHS

Human codes… but they’re not actually codes??

A small group of humans is discovered by some curious aliens. Both sides can assume that the other is sentient. The aliens are trying to translate the humans’ language to their own, and the humans are trying to learn the aliens’ language. But since humans are tricky, they’ve decided that they don’t want the aliens to know their language, so they can have secret conversations.

So they go a little crazy. With written words, they randomly use lowercase and capital letters, even using numbers and symbols, and use a lot of slang, occasionally using words incorrectly on purpose. They’ll jumble the words a bit so that only human brains can guess their meaning (that thing where if you use all the letters and put the proper letters at the beginning and end it’ll be comprehensible), and even use additional or unofficial languages (commonly known words like ‘hola’, ‘si’, ‘oui’, etc, and piglatin, in which you typically take the first letter or syllable of a word, place it at the end, and add ‘ay’ to the end).

As for spoken words, they will do a bit of the above, mashing languages and slang, perhaps mispronouncing a few things, and quoting memes, vines, movies, and even singing parts of songs to throw off the aliens. Perhaps they will say something with a somber meaning in a joyful way to throw off the meaning, or even just naturally (‘I wanna die!’ ‘Mood’), or vice versa.

Additionally, there would have to be a TON of body language. Maybe even sign language, should they know any. Gestures and expressions, eyebrow wiggles and poorly-hidden grins. Ah, the beauties of communication.

[catboyglover]

my fave genre of characters: mirrorballs

[caelanglang]

Wip Jail!

In light of the cover reveal for @bsdcafezine I thought I’d share my struggle for it xD

When I first jumped into this piece I kept reassuring myself that I had a cheat brush to help me with the light effects… but as seen in the vid that brush did not give the effect I wanted so I manually did the shadowing and worked on the light from there on orz hhhhhh

The rendering took a while idk why procreate sped it up so much 😂

My lineart process was all over the place,, I kept jumping between different characters orz

and yes I replaced Tecchou with Sigma because one of the contributors said their favorite was Sigma so I added them in instead,,, sorry for the lack of Hunting Dogs here TT

I struggled with choosing a font for the text too… only to resort to writing it o n my own lol

Thank you for watching!! <3

[the-travelling-witch]

Something I keep coming back to when thinking about Jamil is that, among the OB! Students, he might be the one who’s twisted from a disney “good guy” as much (or even more) than from the respective villain. And yes, I’m well aware that none of the characters are very one-note Disney villain, but with Jamil it just strikes such a chord with me.

Of course, he represents Jafar who has always resented being second best and who betrays the sultan to overtake the Nr. 1 position and all the power that comes with it. And during Book 4 (and now also Book 7), we can see Jamil equally backstabbing Kalim and planning to continue with the other housewardens and the headmage. That’s not a hot take, I understand that (whaaaat Jamil is twisted from Jafar?? Who would’ve guessed /j)

But with Jamil, I feel like his motivation for striving for power is a little different. For someone who has grown up in the world of the Asim family and has been with Kalim his entire life, I believe Jamil equates power with his actual goal in life: freedom.

So when he says “You really are my genie of the lamp, Azul” it felt sooo ironic to me, because it’s you! You are the genie, Jamil!

Just like the Genie’s “phenomenal cosmic power, but itty-bitty living space”, Jamil objectively has a lot of intelligence, talent and drive to excel at something, yet the space he has in which he can live and cultivate those aspects of his personality is very, very limited.

Both characters are also forced into their prison by the circumstances of their birth. Jamil was born into the Viper family, Genie was born a genie, and now they have to spend a lifetime of granting the wishes of other people.

For them to gain the freedom they so desperately want, both characters rely on the mercy of the people they serve, who they are useful to. But deep down they know their wish won’t ever be granted.

Genie has been promised his freedom a lot of times, just for the person’s third wish to be for their own gain after all when push comes to shove. Jamil has heard Kalim call him his best friend, just to turn around the next second and demand something else of him, wielding his power over him once more.

Besides, even if Kalim did give Jamil his freedom (if he even can, considering his family might step in), it’s shown that Jamil cares very deeply for his family, so I don’t think he would consider it “freedom” if his family was still serving the Asim household, which has an even slimmer chance of ever changing.

So yeah, I find the inspiration Jamil’s character takes from the Genie so interesting and at the same time it makes me want to tear out my heart. Please, he deserves so much (peace and quiet most of all) and I want to give him everything ㅠㅠ

[fulgurbugs]

alright i’m done take it off my hands

[totally-not-an-awkward-okapi]

Still thinking about that little angel I dreamt about a bit ago so I’ve been binging other angel stuff and felt inspired to try to draw him as @hoaxghost ‘s style of angel.