#and then once he did... he got a prehistoric bird fossil

[acidheaddd]

So uh. Father Winter has a crush on Alistair now??? Even after he completely snubbed him as a child??? Fuckin weirdo.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Creationism and Early Paleontology

It should come to no surprise to anyone that the field of paleontology has more often than not rubbed shoulders with Creationism, or the belief that the development of species like mankind had divine intervention as opposed to natural selection and evolution. I'm not gonna really go too into detail on Creationism since this isn't really about debunking it (especially since I am a devout Roman Catholic).

It's more about a time in the history of paleontology when Creationism was a widely accepted belief and how it impacted the very beginning of the field.

For hundreds of years, Creationism was THE dominant belief that everything in existence was created to be perfect by God and the world and species themselves were unchanging. Why change what is already perfect after all. George Cuvier would be the first to challenge that assumption, contending that some species could in fact go extinct for one reason or another. To support this claim, he cited fossils of elephants that once lived in Europe as a different species that would've been easy to find if they were still alive. This species would later become known as the Wooly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) by today's paleontologists.

At the time, the ideas of extinction and deep time was practically unheard of, so it was inevitable that details wouldn't exactly age too well with so little evidence to go on. For example, the biblical flood from the story of Noah was often used as an explanation for why fossils from seemingly different parts of the world would end up in places they shouldn't be. In 1821 for instance, Reverend William Buckland examined hyena fossils that were discovered in Kirkdale Cave, England.

Rather than assume that they belonged to an extinct species of hyena, Buckland believed that the bones were washed to Europe by the Flood, citing their shallow deposition within the cave as proof.

Buckland would later go on to describe Megalosaurus, the first dinosaur ever to be described.

It wasn't until around 1859 with the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species that the rift between paleontology and Creationism began to form. Darwin argued that, rather than species being made perfect, they evolved to best survive in their environment over a gradual period of time. He often cited fossils of South American prehistoric mammals about how various species changed over time. Naturally he got in hot water with the Church for his radical ideas.

It's here where dinosaurs would find themselves in the middle of this controversy. Archeopteryx was discovered in 1861, just two years after Darwin published his book, and was often used as a missing link between birds and reptiles. While Darwin himself never studied Archeopteryx, he did remark its existence proved that we had a lot to learn about the denizens of the prehistoric past.

Perhaps the most outstanding example was the widespread belief in the early 20th century that dinosaurs may still exist in some parts of the world. The idea was that since the Earth was believed to have been only a few thousand years old, then chances were there might be living relics somewhere in the unexplored wilderness. In particular the Congo and South America. One of the most notable instances was an account by Percy Fawcett, the famous explorer that went missing for the lost city of Z, remarked on an early expedition in 1906 that he had seen:

“an animal he believed might be Diplodocus, the eighty-foot reptile of twenty-five tons. This animal he though might still be in existence as it was an eater of aquatic plants, which grow profusely in this region. The Diplodocus story is confirmed by many of the tribes east of the Ucayali”.

Obviously, there's a decent chance he may have fabricated these stories as many explorers did, but there was a real effort to find living dinosaurs at the dawn of the 20th century. A concept that was used for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's best selling novel, The Lost World, who directly based the accounts of dinosaurs off of Fawcett's stories.

Nowadays, living dinosaurs is only widely believed by those that adhere to the Creationist theory, along with the belief that the earth was young. But it's important to remember that there was a time that these ideas weren't considered pseudoscience, but practical fact and seriously considered by scientists. It was a fascinating period where knowledge of paleontology was still very young, and how some things that would seem like fiction or farcical were taken seriously. And a reminder of how much time has passed since then and how much information has rewritten how we view the ancient world.

[theguythatdraws]

Sword and Shield: New Friends, New History!

Omake

After bidding their new friend Ashwini farewell, Zak and Hop set course back to Hammerlocke. As they walked up Hammerlocke Hills, they came across an interesting sight.

A lone Stonjourner, just standing in the middle of the road, staring at the sun with a dopey look on his face.

"Huh." Said Zak, pulling out his Pokédex.

Stonjourner, the Big Rock Pokémon. It stands in grasslands, watching the sun's descent from zenith to horizon. This Pokémon has a talent for delivering dynamic kicks. Once a year, on a specific date and at a specific time, they gather out of nowhere and form up in a circle.

"Cool." Said Zak, pulling out an Ultra Ball. "Go, Farfetch'd!"

And out came-

"HATENNA!"

"Aw, man!" Said Zak. "Alright, let's stiffle your bloodlust. Use Disarming Voice!"

"HATE-NNAAAAA!" Hatenna let out a piercing cry that hit Stonjourner. The rock Pokémon acted like it didn't notice.

"Try Psybeam!" Said Zak.

Hatenna let out a blast of psychic energy that hit Stonjourner, who again brushed off the attack.

"Let's try Dazzling Gleam!" Said Zak.

Hatenna let out a flash of blinding light, and Stonjourner covered his eyes, blinded.

"Go, Heavy Ball!" Said Zak.

The ball hit Stonjourner and caught him effortlessly!

"Alright! I CAUGHT A STONJOURNER!" Said Zak, raising the Ball. Hatenna just scoffed.

"Good job, Zak!" Said Hop.

"Alright, let's press on!" Said Zak, before eating dirt.

"Are you ok, Zak?" Said Hop, helping him up.

"Yeah. But what did I trip on?" Said Zak, eyeing it.

It looked like a rock, but upon closer inspection, there were fossils in it! They looked like the bones of an ancient Bird Pokémon.

"Hey, a fossil! Maybe I can get a prehistoric Pokémon with this!" Said Zak, putting it in his bag.

"Look, there's another over here!" Said Hop, digging up another. "They probably even go together!"

Zak took it, and inspected the rock. It looked more fish than bird, but a fossil's a fossil.

"Alright, let's actually get to Hammerlocke now." Said Zak.

Finally, they got to the Hammerlocke gate, which was shaped like a dragon head. They showed their Badges and went into the city. Hop went one way, and Zak went to look at the final Gym.

Hammerlocke was similar in appearance to an ancient medieval city, with large stone buildings and dragon statues. The centerpiece was Hammerlocke Stadium, with a large castle shaped like a dragon.

"Mr. Chairman!" Said Bede. Zak saw the boy with Oleana and Rose, again in casual clothes. "I've been collecting both Wishing Stars and Gym Badges as fast as I can!"

"Good work, Bede." Said Oleana. "I'm glad you haven't forgotten that it was the chairman who endorsed you."

"If I gather enough Wishing Stars, that'll help solve the problem that's been bothering you, right, Mr. Chairman?" Said Bede, like a child to his father.

"Oh, it's not just about me. It's for the future of the whole Galar region." Said Rose, who was a little distant. "And we'll need more than just Wishing Stars. We need a powerful Pokémon Trainer, too— someone like the Champion."

"With all due respect, sir, I was able to show Hop, one of the Champion-endorsed Trainers, just how outclassed he was." Said Bede, smirking. "I'm sure I'll be able to defeat the Champion. No, I WILL defeat the Champion!"

"That's the spirit! It takes healthy competition to really keep the Gym Challenge energized!" Said Rose, smiling.

"Challenger Bede, there is something I wish to discuss with you." Said Oleana. "Do you have a moment?" She and Bede walked into the Gym, and Rose walked up to Zak.

"I hope you were listening, Zak." Said Rose.

"I was." Said Zak, wishing he hadn't.

"As you know, Wishing Stars are those mysterious stones that are even attached to your Dynamax Bands. There's more to Wishing Stars than just making your Pokémon into giants, though!" Said Rose "They hold far more energy than that! If you're curious, you should head to the stadium. In fact, we should head inside right away! I'll even give you a little lesson on how the Galar region gets its energy!"

Rose and Zak walked inside the Gym. There were a few people, mostly staff.

"Hammerlocke's stadium doubles as an Energy Plant." Said Rose. "Now, have a look at my tablet. I've got all the information you need on it."

Zak looked at the tablet, and a slideshow played, displaying the energy process.

"See? An easy-to-understand description of the Energy Plant!" Said Rose. "First, energy is absorbed from Hammerlocke Stadium's tower. Then, it's changed into electricity in the underground power plant and delivered to people throughout the region!"

"That's actually pretty interesting." Said Zak.

"Our lives and society require various types of energy sources, such as electricity, natural gas, and water." Said Rose. "My associate groups aim to improve everyone's lives by harnessing the power stored in Wishing Stars!"

"Science is pretty incredible." Said Zak.

Oleana whispered something in Rose's ear.

"Oh! It's time for me to get to work. I should get a move on before Oleana decides to give me another earful." Rose said. "Zak, I suggest you head over to the vault next. Just head toward Route 6 from the stadium, and you should find the vault without any issues!"

"Alright, thanks." Said Zak, and he left to find the vault.

As he made his way, he bumped into Leon and Charizard.

"Hey, Zak!" Said Leon.

"Hey, Leon." Said Zak.

"Your doing pretty well collecting Badges, aren't you?" Said Leon, patting Zak's head.

"Yeah." Said Zak.

"But Hop... Did something happen with him?" Asked Leon, now concerned. "He was acting really odd when I ran into him. He took one look at me and immediately was like, 'I'm so sorry, Lee!' It might be the first time I've heard him apologize for anything, and I've no idea what it was for!"

"Yeah. We were in the Wild Area and he lost a battle against that Challenger Bede." Said Zak. "I guess he feels like he let you down."

"Oh, I see." Said Leon. "When you lose, you feel down in the dumps. But then there's nowhere left to go but back up! You've got to think on why it was you lost, though. You know, that little brother of mine...I think he might yet become a surprisingly great Trainer!"

"You know, I believe that, too!" Said Zak.

Leon checked his watch. "Blast, and look at the time! Nearly forgot my meeting with the chairman. That Oleana really lets me hear it when I'm late! Now if only I could remember which way to go..."

Zak just sighed.

"Anyway, I'd say that you should go and say hello to Raihan while you're here, Zak." Said Leon. "He's the greatest rival I've got and the final hurdle you'll have to face in the Gym Challenge. He should still be around the vault, if you hurry. It's down that way—on the way to Route 6."

Hatenna popped out of her ball, and bit Charizard, who brushed it off. Zak pulled her off as Leon and Charizard went ahead. Zak followed until he got to the vault, where Raihan was leaning against the wall with his Duraludon, checking his phone. He looked up and saw the boy and his Hatenna, who growled at him and Duraludon.

"Oh! If it isn't the Trainer endorsed by the Champion! Let's see, your name was...Hop, right?" Said Raihan.

Zak just groaned. "That's Leon's brother! I'm Zak!"

"Ah, right! Zeke!" Said Raihan.

"Thats nothing at all like I just said..." Muttered Zak, and Hatenna growled louder at Duraludon.

"And if Leon himself recognized your potential... then I guess you'll grow into quite the Trainer, Zachary." Said Raihan. "All the same, though, anyone wanting to challenge the mighty Raihan has to prove they're up to it by earning seven Gym Badges first."

"I know that. I just wanted to check out the vault, if that's ok." Said Zak.

"Ah, so you're here to see our treasures, are you, Zander?" Said Raihan. "Gaining a better understanding of Pokémon by studying history certainly isn't a bad idea."

"Well, I was just curious about the legends." Said Zak.

"I like your spirit, kid! Follow me, why don't you, Zangoose." Said Raihan.

"You just called me a Pokémon..." Said Zak.

Zak and Hatenna followed Raihan and Duraludon into Hammerlocke Vault. The lobby was decorated with trophies and awards of all kinds, from Pokémon Battling tournaments to bowling!

"I'll even spare you one of my League Cards, Zoroark!" Said Raihan, handing Zak a card.

Raihan is commonly regarded as the most skilled Gym Leader in the Galar region. He has striven for victory in every environment, and as a result, he has adopted a battle style where he utilizes weather effects to their fullest. It is rumored that he could easily become another region's Champion should he choose to move, but it seems that to Raihan, defeating Leon is much more important. His uploaded selfies are quite popular. Occasionally he'll post a photo that only shows a sandstorm.

"Now, on you go, Zekrom! If it's the vault you want, it's up those stairs there." Said Raihan, pointing.

"Thanks, Raihan! Screw you!" Said Zak, as he and Hatenna climbed the stairs. Finally he got to the room and saw Sonia was there.

(there's only one kid in the tapestries. Take your pick.)

"Oh, you're here." She said. "Brilliant, aren't they? It's great that there are still treasured tapestries that can tell us of Galar's history."

"The youth watching a Wishing Star." Sonia pointed at the first tapestry, where the young boy was pointing to the sky.

"A disaster occurs... The bewildered youth." The second tapestry showed the boy surrounded by darkness and soldiers.

"The youth looking on at the sword and shield that stop the disaster." The third tapestry showed the boy staring at the blue sword and red shield as they drove back the darkness.

"The youth being crowned." The last tapestry showed the boy, now in royal clothes and a crown, and the land was peaceful.

"These tapestries tell the story of the creation of a kingdom in Galar." Said Sonia. "Say, young Gym Challenger, what sticks out to you the most about them?"

"The hero and the Darkest Day." Said Zak.

"Right? That's got to be it. The story of the black storm that blotted out the skies was passed on through the years as a tale of disaster… That's what the Darkest Day is!" Said Sonia.

"What even caused the Darkest Day?" Said Zak, to himself.

Hatenna jumped from his arms and stared hitting the wall.

"Hatenna, stop!" Said Zak.

"Your Hatenna is pretty mean." Said Sonia.

"She's angry all the time." Said Zak.

Hatenna knocked out a loose brick, and some air flowed through.

"What?" Zak pushed some more bricks away to reveal an old doorway. He stepped through and saw a giant fire pit filled with oil.

"What is this, Zak?" Asked Sonia.

"Hold on." Zak threw a Poké Ball and out popped Vulpix.

"Vul! Vul!" Vulpix said, jumping.

"Vulpix, use Ember in the fire pit." Said Zak.

Vulpix blew a puff of fire into the torch, which illuminated the dark room.

On the wall was a horrifying dragon!

"VUL!" Vulpix hid behind Zak.

"Hat!" Hatenna growled.

Thankfully, it was only a tapestry. It depicted the young hero, holding a sword and shield, ready to fight the skeletal dragon in the tapestry.

"Whoa." Said Zak and Sonia.

"I'm going to have to study this. I never heard about a dragon in the legend." Said Sonia.

"Destiny..." Whispered Darkrai into Zak's ear.

"I'm just going to leave." Said Zak. "This is too much for me, it's scaring Vulpix, and Hatenna keeps trying to fight it."

Zak picked up both of his Pokémon and carried them back to the vault entrance, where Raihan was waiting.

"Hey, Zim!" Said Raihan.

"Thats a cartoon character..." Said Zak.

"Listen up, Zygarde, your goal is to defeat that superstar Leon. So go conquer Route 6 and train yourself up along the way to Stow-on-Side! There, you'll either fight Bea or Allister."

"Right." Said Zak, walking outside and away from Raihan. As he walked, he heard a metallic clanging.

"What is that sound?" Said Zak, and Hatenna growled.

"Vul!" Vulpix went ahead and sat in front of a box.

"What's in there, Vulpix?" Asked Zak, peering in and getting a face full of Jangmo-o.

"Aw, a Jangmo-o!" Said Zak, smiling.

"Jang! Jangmo!" Jangmo-o wagged his tail as Zak pet his head scale and pulled out his Pokédex.

Jangmo-o, the Scaly Pokémon. They learn to fight by smashing their head scales together. The dueling strengthens both their skills and their spirits. Jangmo-o strikes its scales to communicate with others of its kind. Its scales are actually fur that's become as hard as metal. It will never show an enemy its back in battle. Ancient warriors liked Jangmo-o for its valiant disposition and made it one of their own.

Zak looked at the box the dragon Pokémon was in.

"'Free to a good Trainer.' Hey, I'm a good Trainer." Said Zak, picking up Jangmo-o. "What do you say, little fella?"

"Jang! Jang!" Said Jangmo-o, wagging his tail.

"Alright!" Said Zak, tapping Jangmo-o with a Level Ball and catching him. "Welcome to the family, buddy!"

Zak clipped him to his belt and pulled out his folding bicycle. He also pulled out the clothes that the guy gave him with it. They looked and felt uncomfortable, and the colors were clashing.

"Ugh." He said, pulling them off and dumping them in a nearby garbage can. "Alright, let's go." Zak said as he started peddling towards Route 6. When he got out of the city, he crossed a drawbridge and saw a few Team Yell goons looking at a sleeping Silicobra.

"Look at the Silicobra." Said the guy Grunt. "Look at how cute his eyes are. Its our duty as Team Yell to make sure Silicobra gets a nice peaceful sleep."

"Whatever." Said Zak.

"Oh, hey Zak." Said Hop, walking up. "You're going to Stow-on-Side, right?"

"Yeah, if these guys will get out of the way." Said Zak.

"Don't suppose you'll let us through?" Said Hop.

"Nah, you kids are way too loud! No way we're letting you through!" Shouted the guy Grunt. "An' we're very fond of kids wearing the Challenge Band!"

"With all your stomping around, Silicobra is sure to wake up!" Shouted the girl Grunt.

"Look who's talking..." Said Zak.

"What do you say, Zak? If we don't beat them, we won't make it to Stow-on-Side." Said Hop.

"I'll take on the dude." Said Zak.

"YOU'RE IN FOR A WORLD OF PAIN!" Shouted the guy Grunt.

"Whatever. GO LINOONE!" Shouted Zak.

Linoone came out, headbanging and lolling his tongue.

"Go, Stunky!" Said the Grunt.

"Linoone, Headbutt!"

"Stunky, Feint!"

Linoone ran towards Stunky, dodged Feint, and headbutted him hard! So hard that Stunky fainted!

"Wow! Good job, Linoone!" Said Zak.

Linoone kept headbanging and he started glowing! He got taller, his tongue got longer and his arms got beefier! When the light died, he was no longer a Linoone!

"OBSTAGOON!" He shouted, crossing his new arms!

"Alright!" Shouted Zak, pulling out his Pokédex.

Obstagoon, the Blocking Pokémon, and the evolved form of Galarian Linoone. While crossing its arms, it lets out a shout that would make any opponent flinch. Its voice is staggering in volume. Obstagoon has a tendency to take on a threatening posture and shout—this move is known as Obstruct.

"Go, Linoone!" Shouted the Grunt.

"Alright, Obstagoon! Let's do this!" Said Zak. "Night Slash!"

Obstagoon had no problem fighting his previous form, and Night Slashed him until he fainted!

"Grr... Alright, you win!" Said the Grunt.

"Yeah, I won too!" Said Hop, pleased with himself.

"Come on, let's just go." Said the girl Grunt, as she and her friend left.

"Zak... You and Obstagoon were brilliant together!" Said Hop. Obstagoon just rolled his eyes.

"Thanks Hop. You were doing good too!" Said Zak.

"See, Bede really wiped the floor with me the last time we battled... And don't get me wrong—I can take a loss! Battling means you've got to lose sometimes." Said Hop, his smile falling. "But he said that I was dragging Lee's good name through the mud, being so rubbish like I was... And I just can't get those words out of my head! If I'm weak, then people'll think Lee's weak, too... But I don't want that! I can't let Lee get dragged down! He's the unbeatable Champion!"

"Hop, you're a great Pokémon Trainer. Bede was just trying to bring you down." Said Zak.

"I'm gonna have to take some time figuring this out. See you around, Zak..." Hop just walked ahead.

Silicobra slithered up to Zak and Obstagoon picked him up.

"Ssssillll..." He said.

"Obsta!" Said Obstagoon.

"No problem, Silicobra." Said Zak. "Say, would you like to come with us?"

Silicobra nodded and Zak pulled out a Poké Ball, tapped him and caught him.

"Sweet!" Said Zak. Obstagoon flashed devil horns and headbanged in response.

"So, you wanna stay out of your Poké Ball for a while, Obstagoon?" Asked Zak.

"Ob!" Obstagoon nodded.

"Alright, let's go!" Said Zak, as he and Obstagoon were about to leave.

"You're one of the Gym Challengers endorsed by Leon, aren't you?" Said a voice behind them, and the Trainer and Pokémon turned to see Opal, the Fairy-Type Gym Leader, behind them. "You're...Hop, right?"

Obstagoon stuck his tongue out and pulled down his eyelid at the elderly woman, who didn't seem to pay attention to the Pokémon. Zak however was on the ground, disappointed, yet trying to stay polite.

"My name is Zak, ma'am! Zak Bridges, at your service..." He said, through gritted teeth.

"Oh, sorry. You're not that memorable, so I suppose I forgot." Said the elderly woman. "My name's Opal. If you want to know more, have a look at my League Card."

She handed Zak the card.

Opal is the oldest Gym Leader in the Galar region. She took over for her mother 70 years ago and has kept the position since. However, she feels that her own values have reached their limits, and thus she is currently looking for a worthy successor. She claims that she gives deliberately tricky quizzes because people reveal their true colors when in a pinch, but many speculate that in reality, she does it out of pure spite.

"I'll keep an eye on you, child. I want to see what you can do when you go all out." Said Opal, walking past the two.

"She was a little... weird." Said Zak. Obstagoon nodded in agreement. "Alright, let's actually head to Stow-on-Side now." Said Zak.

The pair walked ahead on the Route, and Zak trained up his team with the help of the Trainers and wild Pokémon, while Obstagoon mostly just slacked off.

"Hey!" Said a voice, and Hatenna growled at the voice. A woman walked up to Zak. She had dirt on her face, a lab coat and two different shoes.

"Hello." Said Zak, ignoring Hatenna biting him.

"My name's Cara Liss, and this may seem like a weird question, but do you have any fossils?" Said Cara.

"Actually, yeah. Why?" Said Zak.

"Cause. I can make them into a Pokémon for you." Said Cara.

"No way. Lets do it!" Said Zak.

He followed her to her camp, and saw a small machine, which she stood by.

"Alright, just hand over your fossils." Said Cara, putting them into the machine. It hummed and vibrated, before spitting out a Poké Ball.

"TA-DA!" Said Cara, handing him the Poké Ball.

"Awesome! Can't wait to see it!" Said Zak, calling out his new Pokémon!

And...

"ARCTOZOLT!"

"...what the hell is that?" Said Zak in a hushed tone.

"It's your new Pokémon! An Arctozolt!" Said Cara.

"That's not a Pokémon. That's a mistake of science." Said Zak. "This is what happens when man plays Arceus."

"Look, kid, I already went through all that trouble to make it for you, you're taking it!" Shouted Cara.

"Sigh...fine. Come on, Arctozolt." Said Zak, accepting his new Pokémon.

He walked ahead and saw that Arctozolt was very slow; his feet were more like flippers, so he couldn't really walk fast. This prompted Zak to pull out his ancient Pokédex.

Arctozolt, the Fossil Pokémon. The shaking of its freezing upper half is what generates its electricity. It has a hard time walking around. This Pokémon lived on prehistoric seashores and was able to preserve food with the ice on its body. It went extinct because it moved so slowly.

"Aw. Return, Arctozolt." Said Zak, calling him back into his Poké Ball. "You may be slow. You may be ugly. But you're still my Pokémon. And I'm going to train you the best I can."

The ball jumped in his hand, happily.

"Alright, don't get all mushy." Zak let the Pokémon out again and hugged him. "Let's walk to Stow-on-Side together."

Arctozolt nodded, and they walked to look at the Diglett statues at the entrance to Stow-on-Side.

"Pretty cool." Said Zak.

"Arcto!" Arctozolt agreed.

They heard footsteps behind them, and Zak turned just in time to see Bea running past.

"Oh! That was Bea!" Said Zak, running after her into town.

Stow-on-Side was a desert town, known for crafted goods and treasures from the Earth, but also for having 2 Gym Leaders. Allister was the Ghost-Type Leader, and Bea, the Fighting-Type Leader.

Bea made it back to town, just in front of the Gym. She heard coughing and hacking, and turned to see Zak clutching his stomach behind her. "...hey...Bea..." He managed to say. "Damn. I thought I was a fast runner."

"That was just a jog, Zak." Said Bea. "Welcome to Stow-on-Side, either way."

"Say, where's the trash can?" Said Zak.

"There's one right there." Said Bea, pointing to it.

Zak walked over, threw off the top and proceeded to lose his lunch. When he was done, he wiped his mouth and stood back next to Bea.

"Yeah, I'm better now." Said Zak.

"Ok... Well, did you see Allister? We both have to be here before your battle." Said Bea.

"I'm already here..."

Zak jumped about a foot.

"GEEZ! Don't sneak up on me like that, dude!" Said Zak.

"...sorry..." Said Allister. "Anyway, we can proceed with your battle. But first..."

"You must choose your opponent!" Said Bea. "Challengers are offered a choice in both Circhester and Stow-on-Side. That choice is, which Leader are you willing to fight?"

"That's right." Said Allister. "You'll battle either me, or Bea at this Gym. Choose wisely..."

"I've already decided. Even before I came here." Said Zak.

"Alright." Said Bea, intrigued. "Who?"

Zak raised a Poké Ball.

"My opponent...will be both of you!"

To be continued...

[180abroad]

Days 101-104: York

The next few days were dedicated to slowing down and enjoying ourselves. The first half of the trip had been one sprint after another, with days off few and far between. It was fantastic, but now it was time to change gear.

Having decided to make York our vacation-from-our-vacation, we allowed ourselves to indulge the luxury of not pressuring ourselves to squeeze the most out of every day. We slept in, had warm breakfasts, caught up on Netflix--Jessica finally got me hooked on The Expanse--and watched all the World Cup football we wanted.

And we made some time to keep exploring York, too.

On one day, we visited two very different museums about the history of York.

First was the Yorkshire Museum, the city’s main archeology museum. Built amidst the gardened ruins of the local abbey, it is a beautiful place for an atmospheric stroll regardless of whether or not you actually pay to go inside the museum itself.

Outside the museum, there was a man hawking photo ops with his collection of birds of prey.

The museum itself focuses on an impressive catalogue of artifacts uncovered in and around York that date from prehistoric times into the late Medieval period. I was particularly impressed by the Roman section, but that may have just been because we saw it first. Visiting serious museums like this is a skill, and Jessica and I had gotten a bit rusty in the past few weeks. After just a few displays of prehistoric beads and combs, I knew it was going to take a sustained act of will to keep my eyes from glazing over.

The Roman section gave us both an enlightening view into the lives of the soldiers, townsfolk, and traders who lived there. I had always pictured Roman York as being on fringe of the Empire, but it would be more apt to call it the cutting edge. Artifacts and human remains indicate that the city was astoundingly cosmopolitan. As a frontier city with a major inland port, it was populated by a diverse mix of native Britons, ethnic Romans, and traders from as far across the Empire as Syria and North Africa.

Moving into the Medieval period, the museum covers York’s shifting roles as the capital city of an invading Viking empire, the second city of Britain under the Plantagenet and York dynasties, and it’s gradual decline after the Wars of the Roses.

The museum has an impressive collection of Viking jewelry. The Vikings were big fans of wearable wealth, and the most popular way for a Viking lord to reward a valuable lieutenant was with a heavy golden ring or a fancy jeweled amulet. The love of bling transcends the bounds of time and culture.

Next, we saw a smaller collection of artifacts from the Plantagenet era, when York was the second-city of England and home of its royal family. The prize of this collection is a gilt-silver pin in the shape of a well-endowed boar. The boar was a symbol of the newly-crowned Yorkist king Richard III, and this pin would have been worn by one of his supporters during the Wars of the Roses--much like someone might wear a campaign button or flag pin on their lapel today.

But all the pins in the world couldn’t have saved Richard at the Battle of Bosworth, where he lost his life, the war, and the kingdom to the decidedly un-Yorkist house of Tudor. York lost its prestige as the nation’s second capital and began a slow decline in importance as newer cities like Hull and Leeds began to grow and compete with it in the emerging industrial world.

And as we’d already learned, the second Tudor king, Henry VIII, is the reason that the abbey surrounding the museum is in ruins--along with almost all the other great abbeys of England. In one large room, the abbey’s chapter house has been partially reconstructed using a mix of original stone pieces and plaster facsimiles.

The museum also had a temporary exhibit on the Jurassic period, including fossils of two enormous plesiosaurs and the single vertebra of Alan, England’s oldest long-necked dinosaur. They call it Alan because a single vertebra isn’t enough to identify exactly what species it was.

Of course, no pictures were allowed anywhere in the museum. But i did sneak a pic of a tiny toy ammonite chilling out on the floor of the dino exhibit.

Our next visit was for a much different look at York in the Jorvik Viking Centre. The Centre has a mixed reputation in the travel guides for being a Disneyland-style attraction rather than a serious history museum. But, much like the Chocolate story a couple days earlier, we actually enjoyed it a lot.

The Centre is the result of an archaeological excavation of a residential street in Viking-era York, when the city was called Jorvik.

The Centre is divided into three sections. The first is an introductory room where a repeating video on the wall talks about the excavation project. Touch-screen terminals give an interactive demonstration of how to repair and preserve various types of artifacts for display.

The second section is a theme park style ride through a recreation of the Viking-era street, complete with animatronic townsfolk speaking period languages. As we rode through, speakers in our headrests narrated what we were seeing.

I also learned here just how much Jessica hates mannequins and animatronics. (Though it didn’t help that they hid one live actor among the fakes and had her turn around and start talking to us in Old Norse.)

It was interesting to see how similar the Viking town was to any other medieval village we’ve seen. The Vikings are mostly known for their warrior culture, but the average Viking was a peasant pretty much like any other. And because this was the site of a residential street, the artifacts found found here--on display in the third section--reflected everyday life of commoners: shoes, bowls, jewelry, musical instruments, and the like.

We also learned that Vikings were more hygiene-conscious than we normally think of them as--at least with regard to their hair. Archaeological evidence shows that the Vikings were prodigious makers and users of combs.

Another display dealt with the Viking peasants’ diets and digestive health. Particularly, through the examination of coprolite. In other words, fossilized Viking poop. Apparently, they had very well-balanced diets, but worms and other digestive parasites were nearly ubiquitous.

As we left the Centre, we overheard a conversation between another visitor and one of the curators. The visitor was disappointed by the lack of swords and helmets among the displays. The curator replied simply by asking whether she kept any military-grade weapons or body armor at her own home.

On another day, we took advantage of a free walking tour of the walled city. Just like the one we took in Bath, it was a extremely fun and educational experience--more than worth the money.

Our tour started just outside the city walls, near the abbey. The abbey--which was once the richest institution in all of northern England--has its own set of walls. I’m pretty sure that we had been mistaking parts of the abbey walls for the city walls as we walked past them every day before now. But at least we weren’t the only ones to make that mistake.

Our guide showed us one corner of the abbey walls that had to be patched up after the English Civil War, when Cromwell’s army blew it up thinking that they were breaching the city walls. It was only after they had gotten in that they realized they had only managed to invade an already-ruined medieval abbey.

We saw a corner of the medieval city wall that was built on top of the original Roman walls. The larger, more rough-hewn medieval stones are easily distinguishable from the smaller stones and bricks of the Roman foundation. Our guide explained that the stripe of red bricks was a common feature of Roman walls across the empire. One theory is that the alternating layers of stone and brick made the walls more resistant to earthquakes.

We walked along a stretch of the medieval wall, getting some great views and learning a bit about the history of the Minster. ”Minster” is an Anglo-Saxon word for high-ranking churches associated with evangelical teaching. Nowadays it’s just a traditional honorific, also held by Westminster in London. 

The current building dates back to the 14th century and is built on the foundations of early churches, which in turn were built on the foundations of the old Roman military headquarters.

All this Jenga work has caused some problems. The cathedral was supposed to have a spire on top of its massive central tower, but the foundations couldn’t support one. And in the 1960s it was discovered that the foundations were starting to cave in, necessitating an emergency retrofitting that lasted into the 1970s. A silver lining to the crisis: archeologists were able to uncover a wealth of information on the Roman foundations beneath the Minster, including the ancient column we saw earlier next to the statue of Constantine.

We also learned that the ring of green space surrounding the old walls was filled with yellow flowers as a goodwill gesture by McDonald’s, who in exchange were allowed to open a restaurant inside the city.

Descending the walls, we saw one of the main gates (or “bars”) that led into the old city. Note the small door and platform halfway up. This was where town criers would come out to deliver official proclamations to the townsfolk. The news was rarely to the townsfolk’s benefit, so the door allowed the crier a quick retreat to safety when the rocks began to fly.

As we passed closer by the Minster, we got to see a group of traditional craftsmen carving new blocks for the facade to replace ones that have been worn down by time.

The walk ended with a trip through the Shambles. Our guide pointed out the home of Margaret Clitherow, a 16th-century Catholic woman who was executed for harboring Catholic priests and holding mass in her home at a time when Catholicism was strictly outlawed. As punishment for refusing to plea either guilty or innocent, Margaret was crushed to death under a door, with a fist-sized rock placed beneath her back to break her spine and make the ordeal all the more excruciating. She was also pregnant. The horrific details shocked the rest of England, and Queen Elizabeth personally condemned the execution.

Also in the Shambles, we took a side-trip down one of the city’s “snickelways”--a local term for the various narrow winding alleyways that cut through the town. We ended up at a small neighborhood church, inside which we found some interesting seating arrangements.

In the early days of the Anglican church, attendance was compulsory for all English citizens. But even then, most people didn’t actually want to go to church. So those who could afford to do so bought “box pews” in their church. Inside their walled box pews, people could fulfill their church attendance quota while taking a nap or doing other work in private.

After the walking tour ended, we visited inside the Minster itself. We got there just in time to join another free tour put on by Minster volunteers. Our guide was a very kindly, soft-spoken older lady--whom Jessica noticed was carrying a Playboy bunny handbag.

The tour was fun, even if we sometimes had trouble hearing our guide over the restoration workers. The Minster has by far the largest collection of medieval stained glass in England (largely due to the destruction of WWII bombings farther south), and all that glass takes a lot of work and money to maintain. Just one window along the nave took one year and 100,000 pounds to restore.

But the difference is staggering. Check out the difference between these two windows. They are right next to each other on the same side of the Minster, but the one on the right has been recently restored while the one on the left hasn’t.

The restoration process apparently involves sandwiching the restored medieval glass between layers of protective modern glass. This should protect the windows from further degradation and make them much easier to clean in the future.

After the tour, we checked out the chapter house, where an early version of Parliament met while Edward I oversaw his war against the Scots from York. We finished our visit by seeing the undercroft. We saw some of the Roman foundations as well as a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon bible.

We learned about a 20th-century fire that destroyed the Minster’s roof. Firemen had to pump so much water into the building that everyone was certain the interior would be flooded and all the interior irreparably damaged. But the interior wasn’t flooded at all. It turned out that ancient Roman drainage systems that no one even knew about were still intact and funneled all the water safely back out to the river.

York offered us a much-needed and well-earned lull in our frenetic schedule, but it also left us feeling a little adrift. We had planned everything up through Stratford-upon-Avon so carefully, yet now we had few if any plans beyond where we’d be staying.

Now, having booked tours and planned trips for the next few weeks, our excitement and anticipation were peaked again. There’s some really good stuff on the horizon--not the least of which was meeting my Dad in Edinburgh--and we could hardly wait for it to arrive.

And if I finally get good wifi and a bed soft enough to let me sleep through the night, I just might cry from happiness.

Next Post: Snowdonia

Last Post: Welcome to York

[ganymedesclock]

Hey so remember that time that I was like “so I’m gonna come up with pokemon for some major Voltron characters, but I’m gonna limit it to two each because what kinda maniac would do full teams for 12+ characters”?

Me. I am that kinda maniac. 

Team Voltron in this post- Sincline plus Haggar and Zarkon later.

Lance Milotic [s] * Primarina * Gyarados * Swampert * Octillery * Lapras

Lance ended up with the single most evenly-typed team out of everybody I put here. The shiny Milotic is his signature pokemon but overall I can see Lance spending a lot of time with his team, both talking to them and grooming them. (if there’s anybody on the team I can see doing really well in contests, it’d be Lance)

Milotic and Gyarados are natural choices given the implication, as I’ve discussed before, that Lance is only a few steps behind Keith while not being a prodigy, and thus, a hard worker- so him getting pokemon that are regarded as pathetic, looked-down-upon initial evolutions, and refusing to give up on them no matter what, and reaping the rewards with a show-stopping team. 

Primarina arguably fits in for the same reasons (I remember when Sun/Moon started coming out, everybody dunked on Popplio) but with its final evolution being a ~beautiful mermaid~ there’s also no way Lance wouldn’t roll for that.

Octillery is a nod to Lance’s own brilliant marskmanship as well as being stated to be a calm pokemon that enjoys being fussed over, and Lapras are stated to sing to find each other, good for the empathetic connector that Lance is as a person. The swampert is both an effective canceler of electrical attacks (as Lance is pretty dang adaptable all things considered) and a nod to his connection with Hunk, the Earth paladin.

Keith Charizard (Y mega evolution) * Absol * Talonflame * Aegislash * Minior * Arcanine

I feel like Keith’s team, outside of the obvious fire motif, would be more ranger-like than focused on battling; the feeling from his house in s1e1 and the way he so clearly enjoys both the hoverbike and the outdoors strikes me as someone who would take very well to having a team that can let him tear across an open expanse or soar through the air. Either way, gotta have room to roam- his team has some rather large members.

I imagine Keith’s not a very earnest trainer. Most of his team came to him rather than him seeking them out, and they have funny personal stories behind almost all of them. The only exception is Charizard, who he got as a starter Charmander and who stuck with him the entire time he was shuffling around the foster system.

Aegislash are stated to be servants of those it believes possess a ‘kingly spirit’ and that one in particular doesn’t always listen to Keith, though it does sure seem interested in his welfare- it just sometimes disagrees with him on what that looks like. He’s never known it as a Honedge or Doublade- and it’s been around as long as he can remember. Perhaps someone asked it to look after him? It certainly nannies him an awful lot.

The arcanine he found as a growlithe hiding under a car, but it didn’t evolve until Garrison. Conversely the talonflame evolved really quickly; it was another adopted one (he found it after it hit a window and was able to nurse it back to health) I can see him using the talonflame more for exploration than for fighting.

Absol was a present from Shiro who thought they were similar-minded and could get along. (C’mon it’s a moody, well-intentioned prophet pokemon with flippy hair. I couldn’t not give one to Keith) It’s a little troubled but so’s he, so, they work.

Keith has no idea what’s up with the Minior. It latched onto him during his year in the desert and refused to leave him. He kinda thinks of it as a kindred spirit since they’re said to come from space and he feels pretty lost himself. (Kiddo you have no idea.)

Shiro Lucario * Skarmory * Mightyena * Umbreon * Scizor * Dusknoir

Veteran trainer who runs a tight ship, though not to his team’s detriment. A mix of dark and steel types, mostly, suitable for the tough-as-nails Black Paladin whose fighting style definitely has some shades of “brutally efficient”. As much as Shiro is an honorable and empathetic type, when it comes to life-or-death situations he goes for the throat big time. 

Thanks to his leadership, coordination and focus, they all made it through the missing year a bit beat up, a bit scarred, and pretty stressed- in particular his eevee didn’t exactly... plan to end up in that evolution but it had to evolve in the sunless sterile environment of the arena. 

Lucario is really nearly Shiro as a pokemon and I can see him sharing a very strong bond with it- the natural sense of justice, keen personal focus and that, for all of its strong instincts and wills, it’s a pack hunter that focuses on the idea of the group.

Skarmory is a pokemon said to refine its edge through experiencing hardship, battering its steel wings until it eventually regrows them and sharpens their cutting edge. Scizor fits in under that umbrella as well, since it’s another steel type and one that has to use its wings to thermoregulate, creating the image of an entity under pressure that has to regulate itself carefully. I sort of imagine during the missing year they spent a lot of time tanking for Shiro himself and for the rest of the team, and came out the most battered as a result. 

Mightyena is another socially-motivated pack hunter, which, given it’s a dark type and thus allegedly ‘evil’ would implicitly strike a balance between honorable and pragmatic, which is very significant to Shiro. 

Dusknoir’s a good sport, helpful and obliging, but Shiro sorta gets the creeps around it since he went into the missing year with only five pokemon (having given Keith his absol) and has absolutely no memory of when or where this one showed up and given its whole guide of the dead thing he sometimes wonders if it’s actually here for him in the not necessarily supportive sense of the term.

Hunk Donphan * Aggron * Bastiodon * Claydol * Golurk * Chansey

The donphan is his signature pokemon and primary companion- which matches his mentality basically perfectly as a relative slow mover that becomes virtually unstoppable once set on a single goal.

Hunk’s team pretty much embodies the dual nature of a compassionate protector of others with someone who will through-and-through mess you up if you tick him off or hurt his friends. You’d better believe that chansey is ready to throw down at any time of day. 

Aggron nicely embodies both with its propensity to restore and maintain its territory but also being a metal dinosaur that will protect that territory viciously.

Claydol and Golurk are more testaments to his curiosity and interest in technology. Hunk was the only one I gave a fossil pokemon, with the idea being he’s the sort of person who’d take the time to carefully nurse a revived prehistoric creature back to health. In general, I think Hunk’s team would be in good shape, like, he’s the type who just really enjoys taking care of them. He never officially signed up for the league (hence his lack of a starter) but just sorta accumulated pokemon that he made friends with.

In his defense most of these guys were a lot smaller when he started out and sometimes his donphan forgets that it’s not the size of a lapdog anymore. 

Pidge Rotom * Phantump * Porygon * Minun * Beldum * Cleffa

With only a single grass type, Pidge has the weakest connection to her element, but that much really makes sense- of the team she’s probably the most distant from understanding herself. Her team is all first evolutions as well- she’s got a lot of growing to do.

The rotom is both her signature and virtually never battles, usually hiding out in her laptop. They’re her best friend and avid confidant and she doesn’t like to have them occupy something they can’t talk to her through. (You bet your ass she has a Rotomdex. she built it herself)

Minun and Cleffa were gifts from her brother and her father respectively- Matt has a corresponding Plusle, and Cleffa because someone like Sam Holt who dedicated his life work to finding extraterrestrial life would be charmed by pokemon like the clefairy line that is rumored to have come from outer space. Pidge didn’t have much interest in the ‘conventional’ pokemon league and I imagine she only caught a few of her pokemon personally- most were from her family. Her mom got her Porygon partially in honor of her love of old-school graphics.

Beldum she caught all on her own! It was difficult- she killed an entire holiday- but she’s gonna have a metagross. As. soon as she can figure out how to encourage it to evolve. So far it’s not buying anything. Sometimes her Rotom has to chase it away from her laptop so it doesn’t try to dismantle her equipment. She has successfully trained it to fetch wrenches though.

Phantump is a new addition after her dad and brother went missing- they’re the spirits of lost children and while Pidge didn’t get lost as much as Sam and Matt did, I think that sense of being forlorn and isolated would lead her to quickly connect with a creature that felt the same way. By the time half of these babies grow up she’s gonna be pretty terrifying.

Allura Diancie * Audino * Florges * Altaria * Mawile * Espeon

Diancie’s basically a given. Of course Allura has a legendary, of course it’s the pink princess coming into her own, of course Allura’s team is mostly fairy types. Have you seen Mega Diancie? Tell me that’s not an Allura look.

Audino is a healer, Florges is a pokemon that explicitly makes gardens for royalty, and Altaria being a dragon bird basically is the embodiment of “beauty and grace and about to destroy your face.”

Mawile is also a nice testament to Allura’s toughness and strength of spirit, while Espeon is more a nice allusion to her strength of mind- also putting her as a counterpart to Shiro as the two leaders of the paladins. A very beautiful team, and a very competent one. 

Given Allura’s sentimental nature, I can see most of her pokemon being old childhood playmates, even Diancie- her apparent love of the outdoors and Altea’s climate would both imply that it wouldn’t be hard to run into powerful pokemon. So her team has a very strong emotional bond and are able to trust each other implicitly.

Originally I was going to give Allura Xerneas and Haggar Yveltal, but I thought that Diancie was a better fit for Allura, and while she’s OP, she’s not that OP, at least- not that consistently so the idea is they’re more entities that the two can call upon in times of need.

Coran Stoutland * Drampa * Probopass * Alakazam * Walrein * Carbink

Yes, I know what you’re thinking, and yes, yes I did.

That said Coran’s team is anything but a joke- he can and will cheerfully destroy you if you’re unprepared. His whole team is docile as sheep outside of combat, though- Allura has a lot of fond memories hanging out with that Drampa. 

Others (the Alakazam, Walrein, and Probopass) are a little lazier but still certainly friendly.

The carbink pretty much had to be there as soon as I looked at the relationship the carbink advisers are said to have with Diancie in the movie-verse since it’s basically the relationship between Coran and Allura just with pokemon. I sort of like the idea that in-universe working with Diancie and the carbinks is just a very standard affair for the Altean royal family- as diplomats they formed alliances with the pokemon in their environment before moving into space.

His signature pokemon is the Stoutland, through and through- a long-lived wise pokemon cited as a protector of others and a creature that will go through great toil to protect others. Also it’s such a stodgy, respectable-feeling thing, you can just imagine it patiently trotting along beside Coran on his way around the castle.

[groundramon]

Love and peace and Fossil Fighters

A gentle breeze blew through Vivosaur Island, stirring the palm trees that dotted the island every so lightly.  Waves crashed rhythmically against the shore of the island.  Birds chirped from atop the trees and in the crevices of the roofs of the various establishments on the island.  It was about as peaceful of a day as you could get.

Rosie sat with her arms crossed on top of a fence overlooking the ocean.  Mere months ago, in this very spot, she had made a deep confession.  She never thought her love life would become such a trope; falling in love with the man who rescued you, a man who is too oblivious to acknowledge your obvious advancements until you say it to his face.  She always hated it when stories pulled those tropes.  And yet somehow she found herself in that exact predicament.  How ironic it was that two of the most overplayed overdramatic tropes in all of fiction actually came true for her?  Then again, that isn’t much when you control superpowered dinosaurs and are currently living with aliens that attempted to destroy your planet.

Rosie took out her Siamo dino medal and examined it, the same dino medal that Hunter had rescued for her so long ago.  It felt like a distant memory and yet like it just happened yesterday all at once.

She remembered thinking before she confessed, that if he rejected her, it would be the worst possible thing that could happen to her.  That it would crush her heart.  And sure, it did, but heartbreak is something you can get over.  In the drama and action of their lives at the time, being friendzoned haunted her mind for a single night before everything exploded into an adventure about aliens, turning into prehistoric rodents, and world destruction.  It’s hard to remember that your crush completely turned you down when you’re wishing him luck at saving the entire planet.  It just felt like they were friends again.

But she quickly learned something that was much, much worse than that - loosing him for good.  No matter what happened, Hunter promised that they would still be friends - and when you’ve only ever been friends, that seems like a pretty decent offer.  After all, she had fallen in love with Hunter the friend, not Hunter the boyfriend.  Perhaps that would be the best.  But as she, Hunter, and Duna teleported into the mouth of the beast, Rosie had no idea what would happen next.  Everything happened so quickly - the beast was defeated, Duna warned that the beast would soon explode, and then…everything went dark.  Duna had later explained that they were all turned to stone to avoid the explosion, and eventually, all three of them were found.

But Hunter couldn’t be saved.  He was stuck permanently in stone sleep.  And no matter what they did, no matter what they tried, he wasn’t able to be free.

Rosie heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Duna standing behind her.

Rosie hadn’t particularly liked Duna when they first met.  Even in her human disguise, Rosie always felt like something was off about her.  Turning out to be a reptilian alien plotting to destroy the earth didn’t particularly help strengthen that trust.  Even as they teleported into Guhnash’s mouth, she still held some animosity towards Duna, albeit for…different reasons.  But ever since Hunter’s death, or rather permanent stone sleep, she had found comfort in the fact that Duna and she shared such a traumatic experience.  Both of them were close with Hunter, both of them saw what they saw in that monster’s head, and both of them knew no one besides themselves could understand.

Duna leaned on the rail next to her.  “Everything alright?  You don’t usually come here unless you’re thinking too hard about something.”

Rosie looked down.  Right on the nose, as per usual.  “Yeah.  But it’s not like you dont do the same thing.”

Duna got quiet, directing her eyes to where Rosie was looking.  “I have a feeling we’re thinking about the same thing.”

Rosie met her gaze.  “I still miss him.  Friend or whatever, I’d much rather have a good friend than a frozen one.”

Duna nodded.  She wrapped her arm around the human.  “I think everyone does.  It’s different for us, but…  Hunter was a good guy.”

Rosie leaned into Duna’s body, closing her eyes.  “At least I have you, though.”

////

(AU Rosie and Duna are bisexuals and girlfriends and instead of making you pick between them the game let Hunter take both except Hunter died afterwards because i have an angst addiction)

Thanks for the prompt!!

[aromatickindling-blog]

Hmm, I’ll sort this out into the Stardew Valley Farmer as villager prompt with visuals and less words one day...

Green

Appearance:

    Green's an average sized young woman with minty hair tied up into a messy ponytail, part of her side swept bangs awning her sharp aquamarine eyes. If you're observant, you can see slight bags under eyes, covered with foundation powder to avoid questions from people. Her wardrobe's quite functional, filled with different boots for all occasions, thick working gloves, shade hats, winter fur caps, and cargo pants in different neutral colors, working well with her cotton button jackets. Her favorite happens to be the dark green formal jacket with a popped collar. The equipment she carries on her hip belt is well-taken care of, polished to the nines before being covered in all sorts of filth. She does have a strong liking for long scarves, goggles, and small, subtle hair pins, though.

    For some reason, her freckles tend to appear in curves and triangles; she has one that looks similar to Orion's Belt that she brings up as a conversation piece if she has to do small talk. Of course, she does take pains to cover up the scars she's gotten from her spelunking adventures in the mines and the Skull Dungeon. A Serpent pack left a particularly nasty one stretching down her left calf to her ankle. She prays to Yoba no one notices.

Summary:

    An ambivert erring on the side of introverted behavior, Green's the one of the twin grandchildren of Stardew Valley's previous farmer, come to take over Smaug farm. Thanks to years of neglect and her grandfather's 'brilliant' idea of staking land in a wilderness full of monsters, she's got her work cut out for her. Worse yet, with the Gotoran-Ferngill Republic conflict in full swing, she's especially reluctant to open up to anyone in the Valley. However, with the Adventurer's Guild and the Museum in town, she'll be able to settle in. Yet if anyone bothers getting to know her well enough, they might detect a hint of loneliness in her eyes.

At her Grandfather's grave, Green has planted an orange tree and told him:

    "If I can't see myself becoming part of the community here, Grandpa, I'll at least keep my part of the deal. I'll make sure the farm is up and running smoothly by the end of the second year. If the war continues...if Sage isn't back home here at that time, and I'm still unable to find someone I can trust here...I'll come after him. I'm sorry Grandpa, but I hope you can understand me on this. Mayor Lewis can take over the farm; it'll be a great source of revenue for Pelican Town...they'll need it more than I do. But thank you...for giving me an out from my former job. It was suffocating."

...For some reason, every Friday and Sunday Green never fails to greet the traveling cart merchant. Apparently, the two exchange letters; strangely, the writing doesn't match the merchant's personal chicken-scratch. After the bus has been repaired, you might even catch a glimpse of her with a strange bodyguard speaking about a "Mr. Qi." Who is this Mr. Qi, anyway?

Love: coffee, hazelnuts, goat cheese, poppy, fairy rose, dinosaur egg, all fossils and bone artifacts, duck feather, thunder egg, all soups, bone flute, mead

Likes: all flowers, all fruit, dried starfish, ornamental fan, ancient sword, fiddlehead fern, all dwarf scrolls, iron bar, copper bar, maple bar, lava eel, void salmon, honey, garlic, hot pepper, cloth, arrowhead, wine

 Dislikes: truffles, truffle oil (don't ask), super cucumber (once again, don't ask), beer, pale ale, morel mushroom (she's reminded of that one frog with all the holes in its back. And bot flies, the spawn of the underworld)

Hated: wicked statue, skull brazier, elvish jewelry, prehistoric hand axe, golden mask, Robin's axe

Personality:

    Green's the quiet observer of the twins, almost akin to a shade behind her brother's bombastic front. She's not the type to normally initiate conversation either, so only when she is required to, when she wants to give advice, or when she needs information will she, reluctantly, start one with a person. She's very polite about it too. But, you may have found her committing a social faux pas during the first year when she climbed on everyone's houses for a bird feather or little critter. Mayor Lewis chewed her out harshly for it. From then on out, it was only natural cliffs, rock faces, and trees she would climb onto, if not her own farm buildings.

    She is often found doing work on the farm, at the museum with Gunther, or training with Marlon at the Adventurer's Guild during the day, almost always with a cup of coffee and the occasional maple bar. Once Smaug farm is up and running, she does build a small training arena in front of the greenhouse. Don't ask why. When evening arrives, she disappears into the mountains and doesn't return home until 1:00 am in the morning. Some days may involve her leaving for Calico Desert early in the morning until 1:00 am. Shane often swears he would see blood leaking out of her when she was returning home at night. No one believes him thanks to how well Green dresses her wounds. This can only last so long with how she's burning the candle on both ends. On the weekends, no one is capable of tracking her down while she's out on her foraging hikes, much to her relief. Even better is during those evenings when everyone is at Gus's Saloon, when she can sneak into the Community Center to repair it with the Junimos before going home to refine sketches, put away gathered inventory, and generally wind down for the night with a tune from her harp, a nice hot soak, and a quick gaming session. Only on Sundays does she dare oversleep to offset the lack of it during the weekdays.

      Once more comfortable with people, she becomes more straightforward with her answers, although any questions regarding her family or her spelunking episodes are deflected or redirected to another topic. Outgoing villagers are more likely to get to this point. Snarky jokes will be made about the topic at hand, light teasing may occur if she is addressed directly, and, if it pops into her head, a few puns. Don't ask about her hikes or finds, she will become quite detailed with the scientific basis for everything she came across.

    Yoba help her if any of the single townsfolk become interested in her. Poor Green won't know what to do with herself, all her secrets might be spilled into the public square with that kind of relationship. What should she do now, how much of her activities should she cut back to spend time with them, what will they think of her once they find out what she's been trying to hide from the villagers, will their relatives approve of her, how long before they find out about her hiding her wounds from plain sight, do they like mint breath or coffee breath, are they allergic to poppies and fairy roses, will they mind her fossil collection, should she pick up cooking again, video game nights or movie nights, are they up for hiking, are they not okay with PDA, do they like cuddling, will they not mind her wrapping her arms around them as a greeting, do they like nuzzles, nape kisses, why her, and why are they even interested at all?! THESE ARE ALL IMPORTANT QUESTIONS...at least in her mind, they are. This is why she comes off as aloof, not only as a deterrent for anyone interested, but also as a result of her trying to strangle any feelings of affection that might develop for anyone else. Also, Yoba help the poor sap that does start to develop a crush on her; her lack of self-care and time during the weekdays is sure to wear on them.

    But, she is more than willing to make adjustments for them should they accept her, all of her. Green's probably going to ask them to come out to the beach at night near the solitary rock to spill her heritage as a half-Gotoran, half-Fergillan to them, mental escape routes calculating in her head but another part of her pleading this will be okay and she's just paranoid. From there, if accepted, she will tell about her brother and her parents, how Sage left for the army after a nasty spat with her regarding the Gotoran conflict, how her Gotoran Father died for helping the Ferngillan side, and how her Ferngillan Mother's MIA, probably in an underground resistance movement against the Gotoran government. She's only had her brother as a social crutch before he left, and it's the main reason why she bottled herself up. Why bother with people if all they're going to do is break your heart once you're close with them? But, she'll admit she was wrong, and then apologize for unloading all of this onto to them, and for not trusting them as much before. From there, she'll become more and more honest to them about her activities.

    The letters she was swapping with the merchant happened to be correspondences with her brother, usually curt and to the point. She makes it a priority to leave out any bitterness from his leaving her since he's in danger and needs all the help he can get. As for Mr. Qi...money is great and so is spelunking. That's all I'm going to say, other than it's a dangerous profession that has left her with a number of gashes...all of which she's refused to go to Harvey's for, much to her partner's dismay. As for the music drifting near the railroad tracks at night, it was her playing a couple tunes her father taught her on her mini-harp. She might even offer to serenade them from time to time.

    Despite her insecurities about herself, Green's quite the affectionate lover, offering sweet words in their ear, leaving small gifts for them after she visits their house, engaging in conversations more often with them, and giving out subtle public displays of affection, whether it be the joining of their hands, brushing their shoulders clean, a lingering look, or a soft caress on the back of their hand if they're slightly agitated. It's still quite confusing to her what to do and she'll hesitate early on about it, but she'll slowly ease into it...and wonder how the hell did this happen??? Then not care and nestle in close to them at night after pressing a kiss to their neck. Grandpa works wonders in keeping his grandchild in Stardew Valley. What a magnificent bastard he is.

Inventory:

·         Mini-harp

(You can hear the notes of a melody off near the mountaintops during the night, drifting down onto the railroad tracks...)

·         Obsidian knife

(A memento of her brother, before he left for Gotoro. Held closely to the hip, sometimes the chest whenever she thinks of him. It's as though the essence of the sea has imprinted onto this knife.)

·         Lava katana

(Can't go wrong with cauterizing deliberate wounds on monsters. Makes it less messy! Smells horrific...)

·         Herb satchel

(Most remedies have plant-based compounds to thank for their use. After trips to the mines or the Skull Dungeon, its strangely lighter. Smells strongly of mint.)

·         Pack

(Contains most essentials, from food to water to tools and, of course, a loaded first-aid kit. Got to be prepared for all sorts of insanity the spirits bring about when they're angry. For some reason, the pack smells of pine needles.)

·         Sketchbook

(Contains all sorts of colored sketches of landscapes, plants, monsters, rocks, animals, and even pressed flowers...wait...some of the villagers are sketched in here too? Has a light floral scent.)

[yasbxxgie]

The Bad Hair, Incorrect Feathering, and Missing Skin Flaps of Dinosaur Art Inside the pitfalls of illustrating prehistoric creatures

Illustrating long-extinct creatures is difficult, but important work. With no living specimens to observe, it’s up to “paleoartists” who draw, paint, or otherwise illustrate the creatures of prehistory as we think they might’ve been. Their work is the reason that when we talk about velociraptors, stegosaurs, or even woolly mammoths, we have some idea of what they looked like.

But since all we have to go on are fossils, deciding how a dinosaur would have looked is as much art as it is science. And there’s at least one paleoartist who thinks we might be getting things wrong.

C.M. Kosemen is an Istanbul-based artist and author (along with John Conway and Darren Naish) of the 2012 book, All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals. A long-time creature designer, Kosemen had always had an interest in dinosaurs, but he embarked on his book with Conway after they began to realize that something was a bit off. “We were both dinosaur geeks, but the more we looked at these skeletons, and the more we looked at the pictures, we noticed that most mainstream dinosaur art didn’t look at dinosaurs as real creatures,” says Kosemen.

Most serious paleoart bases itself on the detailed findings of paleontologists, who can work for weeks or even years compiling the most accurate descriptions of ancient life they can, based on fossil remains. But Kosemen says that many dinosaur illustrations should take more cues from animals living today. Our world is full of unique animals that have squat fatty bodies, with all kinds of soft tissue features that are unlikely to have survived in fossils, such as pouches, wattles, or skin flaps. “There could even be forms that no one has imagined,” says Kosemen. “For example there could plant-eating dinosaurs that had pangolin or armadillo-like armor that wasn’t preserved in the fossil. There could also be dinosaurs with porcupine-type quills.”

Rarely do we see that type of variation in depictions of dinosaurs. In many ways, there is a certain amount of uniformity in the way we think of dinosaurs, which creates some common tropes in paleoart that Kosemen thinks could improve.

One of his main points of contention is the way that we consider dinosaur heads. “The reference has always been crocodiles,” says Kosemen. “The biggest thing is teeth and facial fat. Readers have to be aware that all dinosaurs they see in all media, and especially in popular culture, seem to have their heads flensed. They’ve always got these weird grins with only the teeth visible.” As he points out, most animals have lips and gums and lumps of facial fat that change the profile of the head, and cover the teeth. But in many predatory dinosaur illustrations, these are usually missing, making them look fierce, if improbable.

“Another trope is what I like to call the ‘roadkill hair’ trope,” says Kosemen. Some fossils show signs of hair, which Kosemen says can lead to artists illustrating their creatures with hair only on the parts where it was found on a fossil. However, it’s possible that some dinosaurs had much more hair that they are usually shown to have. “Imagine if you found a raccoon, and only half of the tail was covered in hair, so then you carry that over to a living reconstruction.”

A similar issue occurs with the relatively recent trend of giving dinosaurs feathers. While it is a good way to add some color and flair to an illustration, the placement and length of dinosaur feathers is often based more in fantasy than any past reality. “We have full-on wing feathers erupting from distinct places on the head. Or things like a raptor dinosaur jumping like a ninja and his feathers are coming out of his elbows or knee joint or those weird things,” says Kosemen. He thinks that sometimes dinosaurs are over-feathered, with plumage where it doesn’t belong, or under-feathered, being too conservative with the overall coverage.

There is also the practice of what he calls “feather dressing,” where an artist will transfer the color palette of a living bird’s feathers over to a dinosaur. Given the diversity and unique colorations that belong to single varieties of birds, it’s unlikely that any dinosaur shared the same hues. “The feathers of a green-headed mallard exist only once in nature,” says Kosemen. “There’s no way in the world that a specific bird’s clothing would be replicated in a dinosaur in the past.”

Then there is the issue of proportion. Kosemen says that there is a tendency to exaggerate the heads and claws of dinosaurs. Certainly many dinosaurs had large claws, and fearsome heads, but in many pictures, they seem to be almost cartoonishly huge. “Artists sometimes do this semi-unconsciously because they want to depict the head and the claws, the business end of the thing,” he says.

None of this is to say that paleoart is failing at its job. Many of the more improbable aspects of current dinosaur illustration make the beasts seem rather more sensational, and in some ways more attractive, helping to keep future generations interested in paleontology. Dinosaurs look cool.

And the problems with depicting the creatures of the past aren’t going anywhere. It’s likely that far-future paleoartists will have similar problems with creatures we take for granted today. It’s conceivable, for example, that future paleoartists will speculate that turtles once left their shells, or that frogs, with their weird legs, used to run around upright. “There’s going to be all sorts of reconstructions with reindeer antlers having strange membranes or juvenile reindeer jumping from cliffs, using their horns as paragliders,” says Kozeman.

Short of a Jurassic Park-style clone scenario, we might never know exactly what dinosaurs looked like. But until that day, we have artists like Kozeman to continue dreaming up the endless variations of the prehistoric animal world, by taking a cue from the creatures in our own backyards. “Do not imitate them, but see what other shapes they could take.”

For more paleoart goodness, check out our discussion about illustrating ancient sharks with Allen John Gregory.

Correction 9/22: Previously we did not credit Darren Naish as on author of All Yesterdays. His name has been added. [h/t]

Images:

Elephants, zebras, and rhinos would all look pretty different if they were interpreted the same way dinosaurs are

How a baboon skeleton might be interpreted by future paleoartists

Swans imagined as though they were featherless dinosaurs

If you tried to envision a hippo based only on its bones, it might look something like this

[netmaddy-blog]

Little Mic and the Big Mac Myth

New Post has been published on https://netmaddy.com/little-mic-and-the-big-mac-myth/

Little Mic and the Big Mac Myth

A few of years ago I spoke to the owner of an evolutionist website who informed me that he no longer bothered updating it because the war against Genesis and creationism had been well and truly won. At the same time, Richard Dawkins had written so many books that they occupied one whole shelf at my local Waterstones bookshop. And also at the same time, the Human Genome Project was getting underway, and the evolutionary clamor was growing ever louder as they prepared to charge into their final battle of Armageddon, eager to crush creationism once and for all. Charge!!!…

… Oops! Oh dear! Armageddon has become Disarm-addon and the retreat is now under way. Or, to put it another way, evolution has hit the proverbial buffers.

As a result, we can announce today that Macro-evolution, personified here for fun as Big Mac, the driving force of Darwinism, has passed quietly away, having been made redundant and irrelevant. Although Big Mac had been a powerful evolutionary force for more than a century, helping make evolution ‘the most seductive theory in all science’, he has become superfluous, as will be made clear below.

Where we might ask, did the running Mac come from, and where did he go, and why? In fact, did he ever really exist other than as a cunning myth in the troubled mind of Charles Darwin?

Raise Your Right Hand

Such was the pervasive influence of Big Mac and his mentor, that scientist all over the world, were required to pledge allegiance to evolution in order to get and hold a good job or obtain a research grant. Raise your right and swear on this sacred copy of The Origin of Species that you will extoll the genius of the Great Lord Darwin in all books and research papers. I do, I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

However, following Mac’s demise, a growing number of scientists are now coming out of the woodwork, admitting that they never actually encountered any real evidence of his existence. So Mac appears to have been a fictional entity, a cartoon character popular with the BBC, but in reality just some kind of mass hallucination.

So what really happened? Quite simply the world just accepted, as an article of faith, Darwin’s claim that the earth’s present flora and fauna somehow ‘evolved’ from the bizarre and now-extinct organisms whose fossils are found in the ancient palaeozoic and Mesozoic rock strata, evidence of a previous prehistoric age when the world was a very different place to what it is now. At the extreme, it was believed that every organism on earth had a lineage back to a ‘common ancestor’ in that ancient pool of slime. Computer programs were then developed to compare the structures of all organism, from the most simple to the most complex, and shuffle and sequence them (assuming evolution to be true) to form a notional ‘tree of life’, the technique of ‘cladistics’. e.g. your cat Tiddles and my dog Ollie both have four legs, and so must have evolved from a ‘common ancestor’, along with cows and horses, mice, etc.

As one top Cambridge evolutionists admitted, however, cladistics just don’t work because you can tweak the programs to prove anything you like. They can make it up as they go along. And they do.

‘The simple fact is that Darwin was a brilliant thinker with a vivid imagination, and nobody

else back in the 1850s knew enough science to argue with him. As a result, when he made this claim, a scientifically ignorant world, with a few exceptions, simply believed him and applauded and went out and bought his book. He moved in and took over. It was like the O.K. Corral, but with no gunfight. And we were the cattle.

Of course, the proverbial penny should have dropped when geologists failed to find all those zillions of imperfectly formed transitional forms that Darwin said were the essential proof of his theory. But it didn’t.

Of course, also, as Darwin actually admitted, those transitional forms should have dominated the fossil record. It should have been so obvious. But it wasn’t. However, on the contrary, every fossil ever found has been that of a perfectly formed and functioning organism. Oh yes, there were a few extinct organisms that bore some resemblance to present day ones in some way, such as having arms and legs or fins, but all attempts to construct a detailed and credible ‘tree of life’ connecting all together have failed. When you realize this, Darwin’s theory does become a bit of infantile nonsense. To Darwin, however, it became axiomatic, self-evident, no proof required, an article of atheistic faith. Thus the key problems got quietly swept under the proverbial carpet.

A Sticky Problem

Moving on, we can now add, the sticky problem of how one organism could possibly evolve into another anyway. Zealous British evolutionist Derek Hough, for example, admits that the idea of the complexity we now know about being created by the accumulation of DNA copying errors is just infantile. The chance of an explosion in a scrap yard creating a 747 aircraft is more likely. However, Hough remains an evolutionist, because he cannot accept God or magic, and so continues the search for some kind of credible evolutionary mechanism.

I suppose it was the great Human Genome Project that really put the kibosh on Big Mac when it was discovered that the DNA simply does not contain the ‘blueprints’ required to control the shape and structure of any tiny part of any organism, not even a nose or an eyelash. Top Harvard evolutionist Richard Lewontin happily admits this. Of course, the fact that all organisms contain DNA simply demonstrates the handiwork of a Master Designer, not errant evolution, not descent from a common ancestor. And as top evolutionist Carl Woese admits anyway, evolution cannot explain the origin of DNA. This is the kind of stuff that was swept under than carpet – but, confident of victory against Genesis, evolutionists have been coming into print and spilling the beans. Sorry to mix so many metaphors.

Speaking of the ‘exquisitely tuned’ genetic DNA code, Woese comments: ‘Darwinian evolution simply cannot explain how such a code could arise.’ Yes, Cannot explain! You cannot be serious, man!

If that’s not plain enough, he adds: ‘Nothing in the modern synthesis explains the most fundamental steps in early life’, such as ‘how evolution could have produced the genetic code and the basic genetic machinery used by all organisms’.

Complacency

As commented earlier, evolution had been taken for granted. No proof required. They just knew Darwin was right. As a result, says Woese: ‘It is a case of scientific complacency … biologists were seduced by their own success into thinking they had found the final truth.’ And so, they: ‘neglected to study the most important problem in science — the nature of the evolutionary process … Most biologists, following Francis Crick, simply supposed … ‘ They suppose! They assume! They lie!

Can you believe such nonsense? What a scandal! As a result of this criminal scam, our children have to study biology books that fail to point out these errors and are brainwashed by people like Richard Dawkins, evolutionists who cannot explain the origin of sex, and so avoids the issue! The problem is that, like Darwin himself, they take evolution to be axiomatic and obvious. So let’s snot worry too much about the messy business of proving it.

Although DNA was thought to contain the fabled pot of gold at the end of the evolutionary rainbow, and so prove Darwin right, there was no gold there. Just a lot of inanimate atoms and molecules waiting to be told where to go and what to do. So the simple question remains, how can any cell in a growing embryo possibly ‘know’ how to work in concert with millions of other cells to form tissues and organs and assemble them all into a functioning organism with arms and legs, heart, digestive system, all permeated by nerves and blood vessels? That is a simple question that cannot be answered, and you don’t need a Ph.D. in microbiology to pose it. The Morphic Field

The more research we do, the more incredible design we discover – and the more childishly inadequate Darwinism becomes. Whereas Darwin could get away with talking, for example, about small differences in a litter of pups making some more fit to survive the struggle for life and so get favored by the magic forces of ‘natural selection’, and so

evolve, science now has to deal with a complexity-within-complexity he never dreamed of. They should have kept it simple.

To solve these embarrassing problems, evolutionist Rupert Sheldrake has now revived the old idea that the growth of an embryo is controlled by an invisible and non-physical ‘morphic field’ which he compares to the field around a magnet that pulls iron filings into patterns. But what is a ‘non-physical morphic field’, where did it come from, and what does or can science know about such matters? Sheldrake’s weak answer is that the field ‘evolved’. Let us leave alone the question of mind, emotion, intelligence, and instinct.

But did you read that report recently claiming that when a flock of birds is flying in a formation, they take turns being the leader? Astonishing! And then the little limpet with tiny teeth composed of the toughest natural material known to man which it uses to scrape algae off rocks for food, taking over the title from spider web which in turn is stronger than steel. Wow!

Yes, science is gradually realizing that God’s creation is incredibly more complex and sophisticated than they previously imagined. That animal have emotions, for example, and are not mere machines as was once taught, in the days when Renee Descartes, for example, who would nail a dog to a board by its feet, then fly away the skin to expose the blood circulation system so he could study it. What a nice chap! Apparently poor old Darwin trembled with fear when he contemplated the complexity of just the human eye. If he knew what science has discovered today, I think he would have a heart attack.

So, how could we ever have been so stupid as to believe him? Excuse me as I bang my head on this door! The only mitigating factor in Darwin’s theory is that the earth is clearly very ancient, with a mysterious prehistoric age preceding this one.

The Self-developing Genome

In his search for a new evolutionary mechanism, the aforesaid Hough speculates that all organisms must contain a ‘self-developing genome’, a creative mechanism that he says will amaze us with its complexity, as it gives organisms the ability to sense their environment and mutate and adapt in a constructive rather than a random fashion. Despite an email from me, Hough fails to realize that what he is speculating about is precisely what Genesis means when it speaks of organisms having the power to reproduce ‘after their kind’, a limited variation. The kind of limited variation that Hough and Genesis are talking about is now recognized, reluctantly, as ‘micro-evolution’, which I have personified here for fun as Little Mic.

Incidentally, Hough, like many others, seriously believes that ‘life’ (which they cannot even define in a meaningful fashion) did not arise on earth, because it is too complex, and so must have arrived from a parallel universe, on a wayward comet! Would you buy a used fossil from these people? My theory is that it came on Number 47 bus from Putney.

Little Mic has been familiar to plant and animals breeders for thousands of year and is clearly a well-established fact of life. Dogs are the perfect example of Mic’s work, coming in all shapes and sizes, yet still clearly being ‘dogs’. Roses, likewise, show variation but remain roses. As does any animal or plant you care to mention.

The reality is that God engineered into every Genesis ‘kind’ of creation week the potential for limited variation so that they could adapt to the range of habitats and seasons the earth has to offer and so populate it, and also be bred to meet mankind’s needs. Mic and

Mac was first distinguished by Russian entomologist Yuri Filipchenko, in 1927, in a book entitled Variability and Variation.

Big Mac never really existed, which is why the fossils of those imagined zillions of intermediate forms could never be found. He was just a myth, a bizarre delusion in the mind of Charles Darwin that then spread like a contagious disease to unwary individuals reading his books. Mac was a massive con, a scam that sought to delude Jews and Christians alike into believing that the book of Genesis was nothing more than a hodgepodge of primitive error and superstition.

The Prehistoric World

Some decades before Darwin came on the scene, Oxford University’s very first professor of geology, Rev William Buckland, found himself confronted by the need to reconcile the findings of the new science of geology with the Genesis account of creation. Could the earth really be just six thousand years old, as Archbishop’s scriptural calculations had suggested – and how to account for the fossils of bizarre and often gigantic ‘Satan’s creatures’, a vast range of cannibalistic monsters, unearthed by the massive rail and canal building projects of Britain’s industrial revolution?

The Gap Theory

Assisted by Thomas Chalmers, Buckland was forced to go back and take a much closer look at the Genesis account, soon realizing, as had other little-known individuals before him, that although the Bible sets the history of man at about six thousand years, it does not ‘specify the antiquity of the globe’. It became glaringly obvious, when reading with an open mind, that according to Genesis, the heavens and the earth clearly existed in verse 1, before the six days of creation week had even begun – but is was in a devastated flooded condition described as ‘without form and void, with darkness on the face of the deep’. The clear implication was one of mass destruction, as is now plainly evidenced by the state of the moon and every planet NASA explores, as well as by the chaos of the rock strata in the earth’s crust.

As a result, it was suggested that there is a ‘gap’ at the start of Genesis, between the creation of the earth ‘in the beginning’ and the formation of a new heaven and earth as mentioned by Moses (Exodus 20) and describe in the following verses of the Genesis creation account. Incidentally, I know from correspondence with a top creationist site that the fact of the earth existing before creation week began does bother them. However, for various spurious scripture reasons they stubbornly continue to reject the ‘gap theory’ and stick to the young earth interpretation.

Come in, George!

Further support for the existence of a prehistoric world is provided by the observations of George Gaylord Simpson, said to be the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century. Based on his extensive studies of the earth’s fossil record, he commented that: ‘The most puzzling event in the history of life on the earth is the change from the Mesozoic Age of Reptiles, to the… Age of Mammals (i.e. the Cenozoic). It is as if the curtain were rung down suddenly on a stage where all the leading roles were taken by reptiles, especially dinosaurs, in great numbers and bewildering variety, and rose again immediately to reveal the same setting but an entirely new cast, a cast in which the dinosaurs do not appear at all, other reptiles are supernumeraries and the leading parts are all played by mammals of sorts barely hinted at in the previous acts’ (Life Before Man, 1972). Our simple scenario, below, provides an easy answer to that puzzle.

A Simple Scenario

From the gap theory point of view, all those bizarre creatures whose fossils populate the paleozoic and Mesozoic’s rock strata were simply a separate, earlier creation. As a result, they were not the evolutionary ancestors of the earth’s present flora and fauna. Ipso facto, Darwin’s theory of evolution becomes completely redundant. Although it is claimed that the fossil record shows evidence or more than a dozen ‘mass destructions’ of life, the prime suspect for reducing the earth, worldwide, to the devastated condition described in the first verse of Genesis must be the recently discovered K-T event, which, we are told, involved massive meteorite bombardment, worldwide earthquakes, volcanic eruption and tsunamis, The parallel is uncanny. See Google for more information. The moon and planets appear to have suffered the same devastation.

Here then is the very simple scenario that shows Genesis to be scientifically accurate, whilst eliminating evolution. As a result, Little Mic is alive and well and doing a great job, but Big Mac has gone the way of all myths or should have…

Keeping Evolution Alive

Sadly, because most creationists reject the gap theory, on the basis of specious scriptural arguments, and assert that the earth is just six thousand years old, they are seen by evolutionists, as well many school districts and courts, as plainly wrong, superstitious and scientifically ignorant, and repeating error of the bishops of Galileo’s day. Thus evolutionists are encouraged in their own errors, saying in effect: ‘We know for sure that those creationists are wrong – so we must be right