What Are You Talking About? These Are High Art

Hail to the queen, baby.

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

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

And she is freaking GORGEOUS!

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

First, and most obvious, her size:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…and it is nothing if not magnificent.

What, pray tell, does golf have to do with vampirism?

This makes me happy in ways I can't articulate, you did wonderfully. If you have the time and energy for it, I implore you, please don't stop

“Hey, wanna go to the mall today?”

a personal challenge to see how many characters/references I could fit into one picture, could definitely still do more!

All hail!

ALL HAIL!

All Hail!~

Iridescent clouds, looking like a rainbow in the clouds.

A diffraction phenomenon caused by small water droplets or small ice crystals individually scattering light. Larger ice crystals do not produce iridescence, but can cause halos, a different phenomenon.

Okay I would never smoke but they Did kinda go off with the aesthetics

Oh yeah, I forgot about him. No excuses there...

I like to think Conquest always whispers his darkest secrets to people he's about to kill because he has nobody to chat with. "I love rainy days, fluffy kitties, and double rainbows. Take that to your grave." *CRUNCH*

I don't have an issue with the believability of Cecil's dumb hubris nearly as much as I do with the fact that in the Invincible universe, not only can you survive after your head's been shattered into a literal pile of goo, but you can also still talk to request medical assistance.

Patton seems to agree ^^

"The trannies should be able to piss in whatever toilet they want and change their bodies however they want. Why is it my business if some chick has a dick or a guy has a pie? I'm not a trannie or a fag so I don't care, just give 'em the medicine they need."

"This is an LGBT safe space. Of COURSE I fully support individuals who identify as transgender and their right to self-determination! I just think that transitioning is a very serious choice and should be heavily regulated. And there could be a lot of harm in exposing cis children to such topics, so we should be really careful about when it is appropriate to mention trans issues or have too much trans visibility."

One of the above statements is Problematic and the other is slightly annoying. If we disagree on which is which then working together for a better future is going to get really fucking difficult.

Aaaaw, thank you..😊

@joel-mlller came up with an Oberyn lives au where he’s blind and wears silk wraps over his eyes and it awakened something in me, sorry

wrapless version under the cut

Reading the article, Nick's complaints about the film are:

The cartoonishly over-the-top greedy and selfish middle fingers to Big Pharma and "philanthropists" are poorly written and have no depth... because they are cartoonishly over-the-top middle fingers to Big Pharma and "philanthropists"

Ridley is unsympathetic and ungrateful for not being 100% with making billions off the corpse of an innocent mystical creature, can't she see her Dad just wants what's best for *her*?

The plot is tooootally predictable and therefore loses points for originality and impact

And his one bit of praise is that Shepard was magnificently fun to watch, and all because Will Poulter put his soul in it, but you know what, that's valid.

Holy shit, this was scathing.

Bahahaha the URL

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/death-of-a-unicorn-review-paul-rudd-and-jenna-ortegas-terrible-horror-comedy/

This is all of course hinging on the (not entirely unfounded) assumption that Jon is going to get the same resurrection as in the show.

Which will sting more for Jonerys shippers? Reviving him just in time for him to learn the horrible truth and want -100% to do with his aunt?

Or Martin going for broke and having him stay dead and nobody; not Bran and his visions of the past, not Sam finding secret records of Rhaegar annuling his marriage so he can wed Lyanna, nobody finds out Jon Snow's heritage. Ned Stark's greatest secret will forever go to the grave with him, and the cruelty and pointlessness of his death proves the final nail in the coffin of the Prophecy of Ice and Fire?

targ stans love book!jon now but will turn on him the moment he thinks dany is kinda weird 😭

Jon looking at the burned remnants of KL,

"Dany did this? What a fucking weirdo" 😂

I just think it would be a shame for all the history between the families to be brushed aside rather than culminating in an interesting way? As in, Aerys murdered Jon's grandad, his uncle, and Rhaegar ran off with Jon's mother only for her to die. In addition to any anger about being lied to about his birth, grief over his mother, the loss is of learning he is not Ned’s son, Jon should feel the full weight of Ned claiming him as his own to protect him -- despite what the Targs did to his family. Shouldn’t Jon then have some feelings about a Targ invading Westeros? Even if his dad was a Targ? It makes it interesting because on the one hand, there’s a unique connection there to allow layers in a confrontation (they’re family!), but on the other, few have greater reason to be opposed.

For Jon "Let them say that Eddard Stark had fathered four sons, not three" to have no opinion on a Targ brutally conquering Westeros after Ned tried to get rid of them, well, it would feel like a waste of all that backstory? Also, shouldn’t he have thoughts about Dany specifically after she kills Aegon, after the Dothraki do what she's gonna be incapable of preventing, after the destruction of a city with unimaginable civilian deaths? So not only pre canon puts him on guard, but then what transpires in canon will horrify him?

Even if we take it out of the Targ v Stark context, very early on we learn Ned had to chase Jorah down for being a slaver and Mormont told Jon what a disgrace Jorah was, so Jon got the "Jorah Mormont is a loser" message coming from two father figures. Doesn’t that seem like a deliberate choice by the author? To prime Jon to despise a man he’s written as obsessed with Dany? And of course, there's Tyrion, a Lannister who wanted to hold the North by marrying Jon's little sister who will be with Dany too, so there’s just all sorts of angles to approach a Jon and Dany meeting, none of which bode well.

So much fun stuff to dig into! To ignore it seems like a far less exciting take. But yeah, judging by the reaction to show Jon, I don’t think the fandom will take kindly to his inevitable reaction to Dany.