#Severe | Drought

[xtruss]

Severe Drought in the Amazon Reveals Millennia-Old Carvings

— The Millennia-Old Carvings Were Peviously Hidden Under Water.

— By Fernando Crispim and Edmar Barros | Associated Press | October 28, 2023

An archaeologist measures rock paintings at the Ponta das Lajes archaeological site, in the rural area of Manaus, Brazil, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. The archaeological site was exposed following a drought in the Negro River, unveiling rock paintings that, according to archaeologists, date back between 1,000 and 2,000 years. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros) The Associated Press

MANAUS — The Negro River, the major tributary that runs through the Brazilian Amazon, has reached historic lows, revealing millennia-old carvings previously hidden under water.

The engravings deeply etched into the black rock along the riverbanks represent human faces, animals and other figures, and are thought to be 1,000 to 2,000 years old, archaeologists said.

“They allow us to understand the way of life of prehistoric populations,” Jaime de Santana Oliveira, an archaeologist with Brazil’s National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute, said.

The scientists think other rocks at the site were used to sharpen arrows and stone tools.

The Ponto das Lajes archaeological site is located in the rural area of Manaus, the largest city and capital of Amazonas state. From there, locals and tourists can observe the “Meeting of Waters,” which occurs when the dark, Coca-Cola-colored Negro River and the pale, clay-colored Solimoes River converge without merging and run parallel to each other over several miles.

The petroglyphs first were spotted in 2010, when another bad drought struck the region, but had not been observable since then before the current drought.

Low river levels in Amazonas have turned once navigable rivers into endless sand banks and mud, leaving hundreds of communities isolated. Public authorities have scrambled to get food and water to those communities in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, The Associated Press observed the delivery of basic goods. Boats had to dock miles away, forcing residents, most of them small farmers and fishermen, to walk long distances.

Manaus and other nearby cities are experiencing high temperatures and heavy smoke from fires set for deforestation and pasture clearance. The drought is also the likely cause of dozens of river dolphin deaths in Tefe Lake, near the Amazon River.

Dry spells are part of the Amazon’s cyclical weather pattern, usually from May to October. This season’s drought has been fiercer than usual due to two climate phenomena: the warming of northern tropical Atlantic Ocean waters and El Niño — the warming of surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region.

[bixels]

I think 90% of my gripes with how modern anime looks comes down to flat color design/palettes.

Non-cohesive, washed-out color palettes can destroy lineart quality. I see this all the time when comparing an anime's lineart/layout to its colored/post-processed final product and it's heartbreaking. Compare this pre-color vs. final frame from Dungeon Meshi's OP.

So much sharpness and detail and weight gets washed out and flattened by 'meh' color design. I LOVE the flow and thickness and shadows in the fabrics on the left. The white against pastel really brings it out. Check out all the detail in their hair, the highlights in Rin's, the different hues to denote hair color, the blue tint in the clothes' shadows, and how all of that just gets... lost. It works, but it's not particularly good and does a disservice to the line-artist.

I'm using Dungeon Meshi as an example not because it's bad, I'm just especially disappointed because this is Studio Trigger we're talking about. The character animation is fantastic, but the color design is usually much more exciting. We're not seeing Trigger at their full potential, so I'm focusing on them.

Here's a very quick and messy color correct. Not meant to be taken seriously, just to provide comparison to see why colors can feel "washed out." Top is edit, bottom is original.

You can really see how desaturated and "white fluorescent lighting" the original color palettes are.

[Remember: the easiest way to make your colors more lively is to choose a warm or cool tint. From there, you can play around with bringing out complementary colors for a cohesive palette (I warmed Marcille's skintone and hair but made sure to bring out her deep blue clothes). Avoid using too many blend mode layers; hand-picking colors will really help you build your innate color sense and find a color style. Try using saturated colors in unexpected places! If you're coloring a night scene, try using deep blues or greens or magentas. You see these deep colors used all the time in older anime because they couldn't rely on a lightness scale to make colors darker, they had to use darker paints with specific hues. Don't overthink it, simpler is better!]

[keelycassavetes]

more markhelly from the drafts

[waitineedaname]

I think the effects of leaving a fandom unsupervised for too long needs to be studied

[kestrel-of-herran]

"you're easy to pretend to care about" when no one has even pretended to care about her before, on a soul level and not a politeness level. and he doesn't even have to pretend. he cared about her since he took that trip to the break room in her stead. god.

[mysteriousmissme]

“i can’t wait for mitsukou in tbhk s2p2!!”

mitsukou in tbhk s2p2:

[enjxlrass]

I said I’d do some bail/breha/fox art so here you go 🫶🫶

alt version and close ups under the cut

[chiropteracupola]

said that it 'smells like thunderstorm' today and am immensely intrigued by the fact that I've lived in the midwest long enough to be able to both a) know that thunderstorms have a smell b) be able to identify it in but a moment's sniffing

[sketching-shark]

OH DANG. Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie confronting the Jade Emperor for the sake of the common people...

[luminique]

Omg omg imagine Bellum as like your adoptive brother figure and he like finds out Lighter likes you and is trying to get you and he becomes shocked and tries to keep him away from you like those old romance stories

OUGHAGSJSHSK i can definitely see that !!

bellum would try to embarrass lighter in front of you by challenging him and then utterly failing. this does give lighter more opportunities to see you in the first place so he doesn’t decline the offer.

it is also a little humorous because despite not interacting much (due to bellum always stopping lighter), he remembers your name and is always looking for you before and after the fights. however, he doesn’t really remember bellum and only vaguely does so because of you. i fear that he is very much into you and bellum takes both mental and physical damage because of it.

at the very least, you’re still caring for bellum as your brother but it does make you question why he’s doing all this over YOUR love life (most typical question i have when it comes to romance plots). you can’t even count how many times he has lost to lighter and it’s pretty obvious that he isn’t on the same level but you do reassure him, not just about his own strength but also yours too.

the last fight he has with lighter ends up being a little longer than usual. he was able to land a few hits but wasn’t able to fully beat him. he ends up lying on the ground before lighter reaches out a hand for him to grab. that one gesture and after all your talk, bellum finally accepts defeat and brings you along with him to properly apologize about the whole situation.

and then everyone lived together happily ever after because this is a cheesy, romantic love story !

[lesbian-cowpoke]

Need..... yuri..............

[expectiations]

ALEX FEEDING THE SPACE WIVES NATION

[ziezii]

Thank You (a Drabble)

cw & tw // hurt/comfort, mentions of suicide, scar kissing <3

"I'll be taking this thank you very much."

"Not like you needed my permission to wear it before."

"Shut up." Megumi hides his smile as Nobara wears his shirt, it now covering the tank-top she was wearing. They were at his dorm room, Nobara making herself comfortable by deciding on spending the night there for absolutely no reason she says.

She definitely didn't miss her boyfriend who'd been away on an outside of Tokyo mission for a whole week, of course not.

As she sat down on his bed right where he was sitting, she nudged his shoulders and said, "Go on, I'll pick the movie we'll watch."

Megumi hums and stands up, going to his already opened closet to pick out his pajamas for the night. Nobara on the other hand was busy scrolling through the site, knitting her eyebrows as she decided.

She quickly gave up, not finding anything interesting. Looking up, she catches Megumi who was shirtless, already wearing his pajama pants (the pair she remembered buying it for him)

Her eyes drifted, finding their way to see them. The scars. Most people had already seen the ones on his face, the three scars marking where his eyes were.

She never told him she's seen him look at himself in the mirror and his shoulders would fall, his facial expressions following suit.

The ones she's seeing however, are the ones from where his second pair of arms were. They were big, almost big enough to cover his entire side-frame.

"Nobara?" she didn't realize she'd been staring.

His eyes were unreadable to most, but not to her, “Hm?”

"I know they're," he sighs, quickly putting on his shirt, "ugly."

She frowns, not liking his quiet tone at all. Megumi was never an insecure person, always pushing himself to be at the same level as his peers, his friends.

He never cared once about his looks, so she didn't expect him to comment about it.

"I mean, to an extent yeah they're ugly." she starts, rising up from the bed and walks her way to him. Nobara sees it again, his facial expression falling into a frown.

"That fucker looked even more ugly with them." she then follows it with, "but these ones? Never on you."

Megumi's eyes widened, a blush appearing on his cheeks when she looked down, lifted his shirt and started circling her fingers on them.

"You wanna know what I think whenever I see them?"

Gulping, he stutters, "W-What?"

"A clear sign you've fought." her eyes met his as she said, "You were ready to give up, and yet you didn't."

"Nobara.."

"I'm not forgetting about how you didn't want to continue living either," she sighs, "I'm not blaming you."

"But you found a purpose, a new one." she gives him a small smile, cupping his face with one of her hands, "You found another reason to live."

He shudders, bending down slightly as Nobara kisses each of the scars around his face, "We both know we're not really good with words and shit, but I'm saying this from the bottom of my heart, so take it earnestly, thank you. Thank you for choosing to live, Megumi."

Before she could pull her hand away, Megumi stops her, his hand now holding it in place. They both don't say anything else, Megumi just closes his eyes as he leans on her hand and Nobara lets him, they were both always a little clingy with one another.

"Never took you for a sweet-talker, Bara." she scoffed quietly, rolling her eye as Megumi chuckled. He pulls her in for a hug, nuzzling his face on her hair, smelling the faint strawberry of her shampoo.

"Thank you, Nobara." he thanks her after another moment of silence, "I'll take your word for it."

"You better." they then spend the night cuddling, Megumi taking his turn to kiss her scarred eye. Nobara talks about her day as he listens and pipes in whenever she asks for his opinion, the laptop and movie night long forgotten.

[cairafea]

got caught up with the hnk countdown twitter account today and the panel where bortz tells dia that they don't care about fighting and like raising jellyfish better is still the funniest panel of the manga

[susielesbianism]

Every time I find myself on the verge of formulating a theory I get caught in an annoying feedback loop of “chill out it’s not that deep” and “this is deltarune!! an unfinished game with only two chapters released!! we literally don’t know if it’s that deep or not!!”

one day I really need to break out of it and start posting more of my thoughts here. Lmao

[binah-beloved]

do you still accept queequag asks? becuase queequag lap pillowing sounds nice...

I always accept Queequeg asks.

it does sound nice. perhaps she finds you in a deep sleep, curled up on the mattress. blankets and supplies are sparse on a whaling ship, but it hurts her to see you in a ball of bone and flesh and skin, trying to keep warm. she's used to handling harpoons and knives, her touch careful and fleeting as she shifts your position so your head is pressed against her legs instead of the worn bedding. you merely mumble something incoherent and snuggle closer, and Queequeg allows herself to smile, even just for a moment

she's fallen asleep as well by the time you awaken, leaning against the wall with a hand cradling your head. you smile, reaching out and gripping one of the ropes around her wrists, and fall back into a comfortable sleep