#beach fossils tour

[chris-burden]

Tommy and Jack // San Jacinto, CA (2019)

[blujayonthewing]

just back from a short anniversary excursion and I wanna a) sleep for a week b) do absolutely nothing but play zoldo c) go through vacation odds n ends and pics we took and think about putting together the scrapbook page(s) for this trip in the ADVENTURE SCRAPBOOK Justin got for our anniversary d) think about dnd and maybe do some art e) did I mention sleeping

[miaeons]

[mxdwn]

Beach Fossils Opening For Post Malone Upcoming Summer Tour

[emilybeemartin]

Just to tie in my two themes this month----

Additional notes, because poll options apparently limit their characters:

Frodo finds great peace in watching the tides rise and fall throughout each day. He attends all the ranger programs on birds and seashells and fills pages with sketches and poetry.

Sam meticulously selects postcards in the gift shop for each of his friends and spends a whole morning writing and addressing them. He also buys Junior Ranger hats for his kids and a variety of Appalachian jams for Rosie.

Park rangers launch a Missing Person search for Aragorn when they realize his car's been parked at Avalanche Creek for three days. The search runs for almost a week before he comes strolling out the opposite side of the park, supporting one of the SAR techs who twisted an ankle during the search.

Legolas is first drawn to Olympic for the towering, mossy temperate rainforests, but the ground goes out from under him when he steps onto Second Beach for the first time. He spends an entire day watching the light and tides shift on the sea stacks, and he leaves feeling both full and hollow, like a bell that's just been rung.

Mammoth is only Gimli's first stop on a cavern tour, followed by Jewel and Wind Caves and Carlsbad Caverns. Wind Cave is his favorite for the unusual formations. He makes an obnoxious tween boy cry in Carlsbad for breaking off a speleothem.

Boromir is on a tour of military parks. He asks so many questions to the intern working the info station at Fort Sumter the kid has to go find the park historian. His favorite site is Vicksburg because that place was buckwild, though he silently judges one of the reenactors for his clumsy handling of a black powder rifle.

Merry also makes stops in Jurassic and Dinosaur National Monuments. He watches every park video, takes selfies in front of all the fossil exhibits, and earns his Junior Ranger badge at each one. He buys a keychain for Pippin.

Pippin actually gets four citations, mostly for trying to stick his hands in mud pots. He doesn't mean anything by it---he's just so delighted and curious about the bizarre landscape. He winds up with several thermal burns and dumps a king's ransom in the donation box on his last day.

Gandalf gets dinged by rangers for not paying the $5 fee for Trunk Bay, but he acts senile until they eventually decide to drop it. He gets postcards from everyone and responds to none of them.

Faramir and Eowyn are traveling together and do many of the same hikes and rides, but they do have some different preferences off-trail. Eowyn drags Faramir to a rodeo and the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson Hole, and he goads her into Ranger Shelton Johnson's living history programs on the Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite.

Eomer is bike-packing on his sport cruiser motorcycle. He goes to Roosevelt south unit for the wild horse herds but ends up spending half a day watching a prairie dog town. He takes 400 photos of them, mostly blurry, and texts them to Eowyn.

[bluenoo42]

How I do my job and accommodate my disabilities.

So, I have the best job in the world. I'm a fossil tour guide and basically walk around the beach with people talking incessantly about my special interest and they are actually interested and pay (extremely good) money for it. I'm living the dream guys!

As awesome as my job is, there are a few challenges due to my disabilities. Luckily, I have found ways to accommodate myself so both me and the customers all have a great time. I've decided to split this list up by disability rather than by different aspects of the job so if you have one of the disabilities that I mention you can just look at the bit that is relavent to you to see if any of the things that are helpful to me are helpful to you. If you have any other suggestions of different things to try, please put it in the comments!

Autism:

To be honest, the palaeontology field is full of autistic people so I really don't stand out. When people book a fossil tour, they expect the tour guide to be a little quirky, so I do have a bit of leeway for seeming socially awkward without too much judgement.

I don't really pick up the hint that someone isn't having fun any more, so when the weather is bad I make sure to tell people at the beginning of the tour "I know it's really (insert unpleasant weather situation here) today, so if at any time this stops being fun for you, we can always head back early, just please directly tell me 'I'm not having fun any more, can we go?' because I'm not great at picking up hints." If the family are from the UK, I sometimes make a joke about them not being my hostages, but I avoid this with foreign families because that kind of humour doesn't always land well with other cultures.

I have visual materials to help keep my talks on track and to better explain the points that I'm trying to make. I also keep my initial talk pretty similar every time so I don't have to think of the words off the top of my head every time.

I make sure I give clear factual answers to questions that give both the technical terms and a simplification to all age groups e.g."That is a fossil echinoid which is the scientific name for a sea urchin." This avoids having to guess the person's level of prior knowledge and avoids me being overly technical or coming across patronising.

I try to limit my work to around 3 hours per day to avoid getting overstimulated.

Deafness:

I always make sure to tell people about my deafness right at the start of the tour and tell them how to accommodate me. I try to make it lighthearted I'll say it like "Just so you know I'm Deaf which means I can't hear well. If I look like I'm ignoring you, I'm not, I just can't hear you. Please tap me or wave at me to get my attention and make sure to look at me when you're speaking so I can understand you." Some people just ignore the instructions, but at least then they know what they're supposed to be doing, and it normally works out okay.

I have a cochlear implant which helps me a lot, but is vulnerable to wet and windy weather. I use EarGear covers on my processor to block out the wind noise and to protect it from moisture. It works pretty well, but isn't perfect.

I probably would benefit from an interpreter, however my work schedule is pretty flexible and often there are last minute bookings, also there aren't many interpreters near where I live so it would be virtually impossible to find one, so I make do without and it seems to be working okay for me.

Balance and Mobility (HSD and balance disorder):

Luckily my hypermobility is pretty mild so I'm able to weight bear fully on both legs and climb stairs etc.

If I'm going to be walking/standing for over 1 hour, I use knee supports to help prevent knee pain. I use the ones that are thin and elasticated tubes (kind of like a sock) rather than the velcro ones because they look more sleek and I find them more comfortable, also I only need fairly light support. I recommend using the lightest support that is reasonable for you to avoid weakening your joints. If you're not sure, speak to a professional.

I use an ergonomic backpack with padded straps and try and keep my kit as light as possible. I always make sure to carry it over both shoulders to avoid an uneven load on my body. I used to just use any old backpack and cram it full of examples of every single fossil you could ever find. Don't do that. You're not on SAS who dares wins.

Trekking poles. (In my opinion) The most underrated mobility/balance aid out there. Does it make me look like I think I'm scaling Everest? Yes. Does that fact make me feel ridiculous? Yes. Am I very grateful for them when I lose my footing on a pebble bank? Also yes. Most of the time I use one pole just for balance so I can keep a hand free, but I do have two, just in case. It also allows me to point at things without bending down so much which helps with my vertigo issues. If you are considering whether you could benefit from a mobility aid for your balance, especially if you're often on uneven surfaces, I would urge you to try trekking poles. You can use two at a time for extra support, they're gentler on your wrists than a crutch or cane and they come with the option of rubber or metal tips depending on the surface you're on.

Here is my relatively comprehensive guide to how I do my awesome job. If you have any questions or you would like to suggest something that you've found helpful, please leave a comment.

[mutant-distraction]

A 320 million year old Universe of fossilized Goniatite spirals in a sea-worn storm-beach pebble. County Clare, Ireland. Original photo and post by Cormac's Coast

Cormacscoast.com Walking tours

[kiskivmiske]

Went solo rafting on a perfectly calm river and almost got unsubscribed from life.

The river is great for boat trips/paddle boarding/etc. Dense woods on one side and tall cliffs on another. Lots of wildlife: cranes, herons, muskrats, foxes, otters, lots of songbirds and birds of prey. Also whole underwater meadows with white flowers above water (Ranunculus aquatilis). There also are cave paintings on those cliffs that can be spotted from the river and a whole cliff full or crinoid fossils. I wasn't there for too long, reached the crinoid cliff and turned back. The whole trip took me 3,5 hours.

On the way back a terrible storm started. The sky was clear, and twenty minutes later it's hailing and lightnings are all around me. I reached the town at the moment and headed towards the beach. I had to get out of water ASAP and of course. There are around ten naked drunk men on the beach, screaming "come here [insert pet name]" Shit, I had to make a detour and get on land on the other side of the river. I don't know how I managed to avoid being struck by a lightning, but I managed to avoid those men (luckily, they didn't chase me on their boat).

I really want to go up the river and camp for the night, but my main concern is not even hailstorm, but drunk nutheads. I want to order a 7 day group rafting tour, but I'm also not exactly sure if people on the tour will be decent and not *gestures at the picture of ten drunken blokes in my imagination* this.

[chris-burden]

Beach Fossils // Dustin & Anton // CA (2018)

[autism-purgatory]

WIP tour tag

thanks for the tag @the-golden-comet! I’ll pick OLO, here’s a map of Neretia for reference :)

Let’s start off with the main island…

⛵️Gorga🎋

Ah, gorga, home to the kingdom’s capital, also named Neretia. If you’re looking for a more urban, populated city with lots of things to do, Neretia is the place! It’s also the biggest place of trade in all of Ouria! Plenty of cultures across the lands have called this island their home (except for the Fae Empire). You might not want to go out of the city, though. If you want to visit Perka or Styx Bay, you’ll have to get there by boat. Plenty of incomprehensible horrors lie in the jungle of towering trees and bamboo. Also the massive sprawling primeval chasm but shhhhh

Next up…

🏔️The Shield! 🗡️

The Shield is known for its beautiful mountainous sights and lack of monsters due to its rocky terrain, perfect for hiking! You might not want to go near any of the forts or too far from Iris bay, though. Legend says that before the Dragon gods of rain and thunder left, they created the shield to protect Neretia’s inhabitants from the sirens.

Speaking of…

🌴Pheroma🎶

Pheroma is the home of the sirens, don’t go to it. It’s never been fully mapped out. If you hear a choir of women singing in an unknown language, RUN.

Next…

🌊Ponta🗻

The tallest mountain in all of Ouria. Many adventurers and explorers have died trying to reach the top. Many primeval structures and even ones of unknown origin lie everywhere. Only two coastal cities lie at the bottom of the mountain. It’s also known for its chilly climate and diverse animals! All of them are docile and friendly towards humans. Blue penguins, turtles, arctic foxes, yeti crabs, etc. It’s recommended to leave them be. Blue whales are known to encircle the island as well, hence why no sea serpents go near it.

Next up…

🌋The Ashen Islands🔥

Don’t go there. Just don’t. You’ll last about an hour before suffocating from the ash and smoke from the constantly fuming volcanoes.

But don’t worry, you’ll have better luck with…

☀️Typhona ��️

Its namesake, the massive mountain, was originally an active volcano, and its theorized that Neretia used to be one landmass, but split apart when Typhona activated. Its dark, sandy beaches and many vistas are perfect for a small getaway! Minus the magma spewing demons and lizards- what who said that? Oh, and the dozens of dragon fossils in the mountain, that’s a cool sight too!

Tagging @willtheweaver @moltenwrites @illarian-rambling + open tag!

[xtruss]

Why The Italian City of Lecce Is Nicknamed 'The Florence of The South'

Rich in honey-hued basilica's and elaborately decorated baroque cathedrals, the Southern Italian city of Lecce is often regarded as the 'Florence of the South'.

— By Angela Locatelli | October 5, 2024

The construction of Basilica di Santa Croce took over 140 years to complete, boasting a grand facade. Photograph By Francesco Lastrucci

It’s not easy to carry a basilica on your shoulders, but, despite the summer heat, these men aren’t breaking a sweat. Carved into the honey-hued exterior of the Basilica di Santa Croce, the stone figures kneel in a line from one side of the wall to the other, seemingly supporting the upper facade with their bare hands. Above them, the building is so richly decorated as to seem in motion: cherubs swirl in a spiral and garlands of pomegranate and acanthus leaves rise, reaching fever pitch where they all circle the central rose window. “Construction began in 1549,” says local guide Anita Maggiulli. “But it took over 140 years to complete.”

It seems to have been worth it, as the church has become the symbol of the city. I’m on a half-day tour of Lecce, the biggest urban centre of Salento, the tip of the heel to the Italian peninsula’s boot. It’s an area that distils what the wider region of Puglia is known for: white-washed hamlets, long stretches of sandy beach and the crystal-clear waters of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. But this city in the hinterland has a different claim to fame — its grand, expertly carved architecture, which has earned it the moniker ‘Florence of the South’.

Baroque paintings frame the interior of Lecce Cathedral, located within the Piazza del Duomo (Left). In Lecce's city centre, many shops can be found selling local specialties (Right). Photographs By Francesco Lastrucci

According to Anita, while the nickname is often associated with German historian Ferdinand Gregorovius, it was first thought up by George Berkeley, an Irish bishop who travelled through Puglia in the 18th century. At a time when the Italian south was seen as unsafe and lawless, he reached the peripheries and found a city with protective walls, some 140 churches and, above all, magnificent facades. “He was left… disconcerted,” Anita says, mimicking a mix of surprise and confusion. “He described it as a place that had nothing to envy Rome or Venice, and even resembled a small Florence.”

If the Tuscan capital had been the cradle of the Renaissance, Lecce came to exemplify the Baroque era. The opulent art form originated in Rome in the 17th century, when the Vatican fought the threat of Protestantism the way it knew best — through an ostentatious display of power. As the style spread southward, it took on a local twist. “We couldn’t play with dimensions like the Romans, nor employ prestigious materials like the Neapolitans,” says Anita. “But we’d been blessed with a ‘poor’ material that allowed us to create marvels: Lecce stone.”

The former Hospital of the Holy Spirit is made out of Lecce stone. Photograph By Francesco Lastrucci

When it comes to this type of limestone, there are three key takeaways: it’s extracted in quarries around Lecce; it once formed the bed of an ancient sea, and to this day, you can find shells and fossils caked in its slabs; and it’s so malleable, it can be carved with a penknife. “It’s as soft as mollica,” says Anita, comparing it to the interior of a bread roll, as we move away from Santa Croce. “It became the defining characteristic of the Lecce Baroque.”

The city centre is almost entirely tinted in the stone’s characteristic warm, off-white shade. And while the Baroque approach was initially reserved for churches and mansions, large swathes of the city came to be rebuilt in its style. Locals wander around, unaffected by the open-air museum on display above their heads: the window lintels carved with scallop shells; the doorways flanked by Corinthian-style pillars; the balconies with stately balustrades.

Over the past 30 years, local artisans have started experimenting with a more modern approach to stonemasonry, too. One of the first was sculptor Renzo Buttazzo, now in his 60s, who greets me the next morning outside his home-turned-studio on the outskirts of San Cesario, a 10-minute drive from Lecce.

“Hot, eh?” he says in his garden by way of greeting, tugging at his grey linen shirt to fan himself. “I hold stonemasonry workshops here, to show visitors there’s more to Salento than sun and sea,” he tells me. “If you want to truly get to know the area, you must meet the people who built it up.”

Within his San Cesario workshop, sculptor Renzo Buttazzo experiments with modern stonemasonry techniques. Photograph By Angela Locatelli

Here, he builds, both figuratively and literally. At the far end of the garden, there’s a small exhibition space for his Lecce stone works. The ceiling is see-through; the daylight washes down on his sculptures, displayed on wooden pedestals all around the walls. There are sinuous figures with neither face nor features, and molecular-like forms that seem to contract and expand, with no angles or hard lines, no beginnings or ends. They’re a study in oxymorons: something solid that seems soft, something heavy that looks feather-light.

When describing his approach to working with Lecce stone, Renzo uses the word sconvolgere, an Italian verb for the act of shaking something out of its status quo. In the early 1990s, when artisans still used the material to sculpt angel-like putti and seraphim, Renzo was turning it into everyday objects, like clocks and lamps, before progressing to abstract sculpture. In 2001, he was honoured with the Order of Merit of the Republic, the Italian equivalent of being knighted.

“I take the old — the Baroque — to create the contemporary,” Renzo tells me as he flip-flops back outside in battered sandals, his soles chalk-white from the stone residue dusting the floor. “We local stonemasons come from a long legacy of excellence, and we have a duty to carry it forward. Our predecessors built something as magnificent as Santa Croce with their hands. Four centuries on, I work the same way.”

He reaches his workstation, a table on a covered patio surrounded by scattered tools, and turns his attention to a work in progress. He positions a wooden scalpel, then hits it with a hammer to sculpt sections from the undulating, hollow figure. A rasp is used to model its curves; sandpaper to shave its surface smooth. “Sometimes I’m here for 10 hours a day, and I come away exhausted,” he says, eyebrows furrowed, taking a step back to size up his efforts. “It’s not easy, you know — gifting people beauty.” And yet, as his face softens, pleased by the results, all I can think is how easy he makes it look.

[mrultra100]

Let’s finish this!

Here we are folks. The last Prehistoric Planet episode as of May 2023. The current end of the line for the time being, and an episode not like any before. I mean, given how there were quite a few episode ideas to use from Planet Earth, an episode on Plains would’ve made more sense. I’m not against the idea of a PHP episode based around an entire continent, but North America being here… feels odd. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good time to behold, but it’s got so many fans scratching their heads. While I stand on the whole opinion that something like “Plains” would've fit better, it sort of makes sense. Given that most of the biomes used in Planet Earth and its sequel have been used for the previous 9 episodes, there aren’t that many compatible habitats left for PHP to use. Mountains and jungles aren;t really good places for preserving fossils like the other habitats, not alot is known about caves from the end of the Cretaceous, and it should be obvious that cities aren’t an opinion here. So it makes sense that the series is starting to go with other themes for its episodes at this point.

With all of that said, the question remains? What did I think about this last episode? Does it do a good job to close out the season? Stick around and find out, as we cap off the second tour of Maastrichtian Earth with NORTH AMERICA.

Think of the seagulls that normally pester you for fries… and then scale them up to the size of a giraffe. That’s basically what this poor guy has to go through.

The opening scene starts with a herd of Alamosaurus, which were not only the largest animals on the entire continent, but also the only species of titanosaurs there as well. As the herd plods down the beach, the focus is on a 70-year old male, straggling behind a bit. As the others carry on, the old male slowly lays down on the beach, with his rather long life coming to a peaceful end…

…As you can tell, what happened next, along with the resulting reaction from the fandom was anything but peaceful. The next day, the dead Alamosaurus attracts predators from all walks from life. From a trio of troodontids struggling to pierce through the sauropod’s thick skin, to a T. Rex who spooks the former off and easily gorges into the free meal, right to a pair of Quetzalcoatlus, who then harass and force the poor T. Rex into leaving, after pecking and honking at the guy. Alot of people got a bit uppity about this scene, as they felt that something like this wouldn’t be natural. However, looking at the mannerisms of both parties helps get a better understanding of what happens here. The first Quetzalcoaltus was hesitant on grabbing a bite from the caress while the T. Rex was present. It’s only with the second Quetz that things start to shift in their favor. Using their lighter frames, the two azhdarchids go on the offense, mobbing and harassing the T. Rex, while pecking and honking right on the theropod. That’s something that I frankly love about the PHP Quetz; Alongside their accurate mannerisms and appearance, the species gets a deep, booming HONK. Think of this entire kerfuffle like someone getting harassed by seagulls for some fries… with the main difference being that these gulls are the size of giraffes, and can easily swallow you whole if they fancy you as a snack

Calamari, only with the shell

Diving back into the sea for our second segment, the focus is centered on the first-ever appearance of Globidens in media. Unlike the other mosasaurs in this series, Globidens, with its name literally meaning “Globe teeth”, had rounder and blunter teeth, which was a very good tool in hunting hard-shelled prey, including the other animal of the scene; Sphenodiscus. They were a species of ammonites that were very common during this time. I even have an entire fossil of one of these creatures!

Got this lil’ beauty from a fossil shop almost five years ago

As for while the Sphenodiscus are getting themselves in the hungry eyes of the Globidens? Well, while you have eggs to place in the shallows, you gotta get in the way of predators to lay down the groundwork for the next generation. An interesting note to bring up is how the Globidens doesn’t initially eat each Sphenodiscus he catches after biting through their shells, causing them to sink to the seafloor. The goal here is to have himself a good amount of easy food to snack on in peace, even with how they only represent a tiny amount of the entire school. It helps to show how mosasaurs can be pretty clever animals, similar to how modern-day monitor lizards are very intelligent for reptiles.

Seriously, how did they not add in the fact that birds ARE dinosaurs in a scene with a non-avian dinosaur AND birds?

Going back on dry land, the episode then cuts to a large lake, cut off from nearby rivers. Due to this isolation, along with the water getting toxic due to dissolving minerals, living here can be a bit risky, unless you’re either a brine fly, or a “Styginetta”, which was an informed relative of ducks. The other major animals of the segment are a family of Pectinidon. On the hunt for some food, the chicks playfully run around for flies, with some running face-first into a whole bunch of them in a very similar manner to the Cryptile from The Future is Wild. Their father, however, has a much meatier prize in mind. The male then runs after the flock of “Styginetta” catching one of the birds in mid-air. The scene itself was good in its own right, but the only issue that I have is how it doesn’t bring up how birds are dinosaurs. Maybe they’re saving it for a later episode? I dunno.

Mess with the bull, and you get the horns

We then cut to a large forest, where groups of Triceratops gather for their mating rituals. The rules here are simple; If you’ve got very large horns, the chances of getting laid are easier. And one of the males involved got’s some pretty impressive horns, a bit longer than most of the others. However, there are two issues that he has to face.

The females notice that the horns lack any wear or tear, which means that male lack any experience.

There’s literally an older male here who has horns EVEN BIGGER THAN THAT.

As many folks have pointed out ever since the trailer for Season 2 came out, the older male and his horns are based on Yoshi’s Trike, which is a specimen of Triceratops with horn cores that are nearly 4 feet long, which makes them the longest horns out of any Triceratops fossils found. And going back to the “horn core” thing, many scientists now speculate that, just like many animals alive today, dinosaurs must’ve had sheets of keratin covering over things like horns and claws. And if we’re going with that idea, it’s safe to assume that the horns of Yoshi’s Trike, as impressive as they are now, must’ve been even bigger when the animal itself was alive. And this goes for the older male, as his massive horns are a good way to see how he’s more of an experienced fighter than his younger rival, even having part of his frill gone by what I assume to be a T. Rex attack.

As you can probably imagine by this point, the first male loses, having a piece of one of his own horns be snapped off by the fight. However, this is a blessing in disguise, as the newly-gained battle scar means he’ll have a better chance of getting a mate next time.

A loving mother, and her family of walking fluffballs

The last segment of not just the whole episode, but the season in general, starts with the northern wilderness. For a female Nanuqsaurus, it’s not the cold that’s the hardest part, but it’s the lack of good hiding places to spring an ambush on a flock of unsuspecting Ornithomimus that makes things a kick to the face. While this isn’t like plenty of other hunting scenes in this show, it works as a reminder that most hunts throughout the history of life fail more often. If you were a 23-feet long predator with jaws powerful enough to crunch through bone, a good hiding spot is gonna be needed to catch some dinner. Our female, having to try again after her first attempt fails, uses some rocky outcrops to catch the Ornithomimus by surprise, eventually singling a lone member of the flock. One slip of ice later, and it’s all over for the ostrich mimic.

While a meal like this is a godsend for the Nanuqsaurus, she’s also got a bunch of adorable chicks to feed. While this was a bit of a weird way to end the season, it was still a good scene.

When you have a shield for a face, getting attention is gonna be alot easier than you’d think

And we’re at the last Uncovered segment of the reviews. Obviously, I don’t have alot to say about this one, but it’s nice that the Uncovered segments were added in at the end of each episode this time. I’m not sure if I’ve said this previously, but adding in behind-the-scenes segments at the end is common for the BBC’s Natural History Unit when it comes to their shows, it works here.

And with that… we’re done! We’re finally finished with Prehistoric Planet season 2! While it took me months to get to each episode, I had alot of fun with these reviews. As weird as the idea of this show getting a season 2 just a year after the first may seem weird, but you gotta remember; This entire project started back in 2019, and even before that, it’s been stated that the idea of the series itself came up more than a decade ago. While it could hypothetically take a few months into the new year to see if we’ll ever get Season 3, but if that happens, that whole “Maasrichtian trilogy” idea that I’ve been spouting off may actually come to pass! Only time will tell.

And as always, thanks to everyone who’s liked and read these silly ramblings of mine. Things like my other projects, life stuff getting in the way, and other such things have gotten in the way, but after more than 5 months, I’m happy to say that this safari tour is over. As for what I have planned next? I’m hoping to get a few more art pieces done before the year ends, and I have a few ideas for more articles in the same time frame. Obviously, my ideas for what PHP season 3 could be like are still in the works, as I’m hoping to have it released before the end of this month (As of me writing this). I also got some other ideas for consideration, like what I wanna see in my own dream idea for a Pokemon game, some more possible ideas for my Johnny Test reboot idea, and maybe even a sort of mini-retrospective on the much-mangled Walking with Dinosaurs movie from 2013, just in time for its 10th anniversary this December!

…Yeah, that film came out 10 years ago… God, I feel old.

ANYHOO! Thanks for reading, stay tuned for what I’ve got planned next, and keep on celebrating the legacy of our Prehistoric Planet

(Also, Happy Thanksgiving! Just don't let a T. Rex catch you when you're cooking that turkey, lest you end up as the turkey dinner)

[freakingoutthesquares]

PULP: I Spy Summer Festival Programme, 1996

Do you have good childhood memories of summer?

Yes. At the start of the six weeks of holidays from school, you've got the feeling of endless immensity and, for the first couple of weeks, carries on feeling like that. That's brilliant, and it's what everybody wants from a holiday. I'm trying desperately to tie it in with the festival.

The festival is a microcosm for that sort of thing, you’re getting a city condensed. Glastonbury is the archetypal festival, and the first time I went, we went to Stonehenge to watch the sunrise and I was taken in by it all. I had on this all-white outfit, for some reason, and I decided to hitchhike to Glastonbury from there. I felt very incongruous with all these grotty travellers, and I was walking down the road like a ghost and it was brilliant, I really got into it. Glastonbury was a great thing, but by the end of it there all these hippies dragging about in the mud, and it seemed so ugly. This beautiful spring birth thing ended up in mud and decay and disaster.

Do you have any particular summer memories?

Yeah, North Yorkshire, really, which makes you think of the kind of Hi-De-Hi sort of thing, but actually it has a coastline which is incredibly romantic in a kind of Brontës sort of way. You can find little secret coves, and if you're lucky there will be just half a dozen people looking for shellfish. I tend to get quite geological on holidays trying to find fossils and rare stones. On the beach you can occasionally find Amethyst and Amber and Jet. The Jet comes from an undersea petrified forest of monkey puzzle trees. I once found a huge piece of Amber and I like the weird local stones that you don't get anywhere else. Of course, when they dry out, they go dull, which is disappointing.

What would your ideal summer days be?

It would have to involve a picnic and a slight amount of swimming in a natural location. That's why I wouldn't live in London and have to go swimming in Hampstead Heath or whatever. (I did go swimming in London once and it wasn't a very edifying experience.) Family and friends would be there. I know exactly where I would be, but it's a very specific place in Derbyshire and hard to describe.

Summer music.

It depends on the place. One thing I found out about America was that music you couldn't listen to in England, because it would just be a joke, makes sense when you're driving across the desert. And awful Italian music that you wouldn't dream of listening to: when it's hot and you're in Italy you wouldn't listen to anything else.

How about here?

There's a lot of nice classical music Vivaldi, Verde and Beethoven have very good Summery songs.

Do you put your speakers on the windowsill?

What, to inflict it on the neighbours? No, that's very anti-social. But I tell you what I did like the idea of getting. A Peacock. They make a right good noise. It's really melancholy.

It's horrible. Don't you like it? I love it. I think it's great. I haven't had personal experience of them and maybe they're a bit impractical in the city.

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How is all the touring going?

This particular bit of touring is perfectly comfortable (often with touring all becomes a bit of a grimy drag) but there is not much in the way of excitement. America was very exciting, believe it or not. I have the usual Anglophile disdain of America, but I started really liking it. I was travelling on the bus with the crew, which make all the difference. (Russell was travelling with the crew because of a morbid terror of flying.)

What memories do you have of touring?

The most exciting single thing that happened was when we played this God-awful little festival in the Midwest with all these Hick farmer types and bodysurfers, and it was incredibly still in the audience. Garbage were playing and the place was so dead that me and Candida went down the front to watch them and they were very good. By the end of Garbage we were quite fired up and decided, “Yes, we will get changed and jump about.”

Then our driver, who was an amateur Storm Chaser (he looked a bit like Anthony Perkins) had been watching the weather for the last two days, and he insisted that we leave quite early because he knew there were some storms ahead. We ended up turning all the lights off on the bus to watch this immense black cloud with lightning inside, which illuminated the cloud so you could see its internal organs, and we were listening to the local weather and it was saying ‘people in Springfield get inside the basement now, get out of your car and into a ditch! Being inside the car is no protection against the tornado!’ You could hear the panic in his voice. Then about 40 miles in front of us, you could see it pass by the road, and we followed it on the map.

We were getting near this cloud, which was about 30 miles away, and even though we couldn't see it, we knew we were in the flight path of this tornado. There was this one point where we've got in front of the cloud, but the driver was getting really agitated by the storm and needed to stop the bus to clean loads of bugs off the windscreen and Candida wanted to hire a taxi and drive into the centre of the tornado. I was tempted, but we’d driven past some of the damage that the tornado had caused. You know, I want to see a crocodile, but I don't want to put my head in its mouth!

I was very impressed with Candida. The driver had previously been saying, ‘Oh, I'd stop here, but I don't think the little lady would like it.’ She didn't give a damn. It was quite frightening and great.

Everything that day all seemed to be tied up with this Garbage business because we got to the next town and all over the toilet was all this Pulp and Garbage graffiti signed Ian. It transpired that it had been written by Ian Astbury (of the Cult) the night before. All this stuff like ‘Pulp and Garbage united together in pain and death meet up in the year 2000 and come to my city together’ or something and I was just thinking, ‘how did he know that there was this vibe happening?’ I've never met him, but I really want to meet him now.

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Do you feel different when it starts getting hot and sunny?

Well, yeah, it's that gland in the top of your head that starts getting over heated.

What happens?

You know what happens? There's a gland at the top of your head that activates sexual interest.

That's not true.

It is. That's true. Sunlight is the best for it. I think just getting a hot head isn't enough. I think it might be the ultraviolet that activates this gland.

Do you start screaming at girls and hanging out of cars?

Not really, but we can't help it, we’re chained to our own biology.

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[bluenoo42]

What's your favorite dinosaur?

I like thyreophora which is the clade that includes both ankylosaurs and stegosaurs and also more basal members such as scelidosaurus. within that clade it's hard to choose, but if I had to pick, I'd probably go with Polacanthus which is from the early cretaceous wealden group (Wessex formation) and is known from the type specimen found on the Isle of Wight in 1865 by William Fox (which is where it gets its species name foxii. It is known from relatively few remains, some of which have now been reassigned to Vectipelta. There is part of a Polacanthus specimen coming out of the cliff at Brook Beach at the moment and one of the guides who does the fossil tours with me found a piece of Polacanthus armour recently on the beach!

[master-john-uk]

I am back! (Sorry.)

After an unexpectedly busy( but welcome) fortnight for my London based company... This week I have had a rather different and enjoyable business trip accompanying trainees from a Norwegian research and engineering company on a visit to Dorset, Devon and Somerset.

I did two similar trips for the same company last year. But, this one was slightly different. All of the trainees were geologists... more interested in collecting fossils than learning about military hardware and training practices. We were only allowed to visit Lulworth Camp for two hours, as intensive "live fire" exercises were taking place... And we had a brief stop this morning at Norton Manor to chat with Commandos about their recently issued new equipment.

Apart from that, the group spent most of their time on beaches looking at the different types of rock, the cliffs and other things that do not really interest me. I was able to add some historical information about the sites we visited.

Personally... I looked at it as an agricultural/farming tour. It was interesting to see how other farms are coping after the wet August and September heatwave. I am not sure if I am glad, or sad to see so many facing the same problems as my own farm.

Today (12th August 2023), I saw signs for the National Ploughing Championships at Bishop's Lydeard, near Taunton which take place this weekend. My farm will not be represented... we are too busy ploughing our own fields!