TIL The Brains Of Rats Have A “random Mode” That Is Switched On When They Are In Unfamiliar Situations

I was talking about editing a bunch of wikipedia pages to talk about native americans and farmer family friend was like

"yeah, it's like when we went to Turkey and we visited these historical museums, and the museums acted like the history of the country began when the Ottomans took over. The Hagia Sophia was built in what, 500 AD? And there are Roman ruins everywhere but the 'history' only begins in the 1400s. In this book I'm reading about the history of agriculture in Kentucky the author doesn't even discuss Native Americans before Europeans came. It's a huge oversight."

I've consciously tried to unlearn that shit so many times why does it STILL unlock little doors in my brain when I learn examples of how deeply arbitrary the boundaries of what we see as "history" are.

He also talked about how we have this idea of cave men being our ancestors because the things left by them in caves were more permanent, whereas the structures and things people built above ground would have decayed.

...I really do think about that a lot. How we have evidence of the civilizations that built things out of stone, while civilizations that used materials that biodegraded wouldn't have left as much evidence.

Come to think of it, some of the best known ancient civilizations did live in deserts. But they had contemporaries (like Punt, which we now know was in Ethiopia iirc...)

Farmer family friend also has been to Arizona (Might have been New Mexico? Idk.) and saw these Indigenous rock carvings he told me about that I never stopped thinking about. According to him, there's a rock face that has pictographs carved into it showing the steps of how to plant and harvest corn. "Very simple," he said, "like a tutorial."

And the crazy thing is. There's this nearby rock formation that casts a shadow on the rock face. And throughout the year, as the position of the sun changes, the shadow points to the step in the corn growing tutorial you're supposed to be doing at that time of year.

...I swear this guy has me come over just so he can have someone to talk to while he's doing mind numbing manual labor.

How can someone have such a distain for spiders. I mean, look at this sweet little creature 😭🖤

What do you mean those hot ladies aren't trying to follow me because they think I'm hilarious???

Sluts

alright I reflected on the self. I'm 100% sure the beasts are the issue here

paintin’

Chinese hourglass spider - 里氏盤腹蛛 - Cyclocosmia ricketti

I forgot about this spider, but I LOVE it ! Its disc resembles an ancient coin or a seal. It has also been known to be confused with coins, but then appearing to be an arachnid.

@hispaatra, @zick-the-fairy you migth enjoy this one :D

I love this spider so much and it is a great inspiration for Dungeons and Dragons. Honestly, this spider is like it is from a fairy-tale or legend or something of the kind, it is magical (to me, at least) !

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Image sources:

1.

https://za.pinterest.com/pin/604186106296940858/

2.

https://spidershoppe.com/products/cyclocosmia-ricketti-chinese-hourglass-trapdoor-sub-adults