[terrypratchettappreciation]

[momentsinreading]

“Why does the third of the three brothers, who shares his food with the old woman in the wood, go on to become king of the country? Why does James Bond manage to disarm the nuclear bomb a few seconds before it goes off rather than, as it were, a few seconds afterwards? Because a universe where that did not happen would be a dark and hostile place. Let there be goblin hordes, let there be terrible environmental threats, let there be giant mutated slugs if you really must, but let there also be hope. It may be a grim, thin hope, an Arthurian sword at sunset, but let us know that we do not live in vain.” — Terry Pratchett, “Let There Be Dragons”

[noxfoxarts]

[noxfoxarts]

oh a pic I didn’t have yet, and he’s so gorgeous

[cosmictuesdays]

[pearwaldorf]

Just because your friends/social media streams don’t say anything about the latest horrible bombing/attack in Istanbul, Baghdad, or Dhaka doesn’t mean that the rest of the world hasn’t noticed. Maybe Tumblr is the place where they go for shitty puns and cat pictures, to get away from the misery of it all. Maybe your friends just don’t give a shit about what else is going on. Maybe you should stop treating your dash/social media streams as the entire world. 

[tastefullyoffensive]

[lokis-little-kitten]

This should be the new M&M commercial!

[yeoldenews]

So Jack apparently had a friend? named Zod (which is hilarious enough on it’s own) and I have absolutely no idea who this person? is or what is going on with him.

So far he’s been mentioned in three separate letters from 1899, usually referred as “old Zod”, and almost every time in a context which only adds to my confusion…

“What does anyone hear from old “Zod”? I will write him & drool before long”

“Ask Biff (his younger brother) how he would like to be way off there where Zod is & not a muskrat or skunk within miles of him”

“Did Allie & Eb (his parents) get old Zod a gravestone. He ought to have one soon enough. I would stick a cane in at the foot of the grave wouldn’t you?”

I have no idea what’s going on.

Edited to add: I did consider the fact that Zod might be a dog or other animal, especially since this would not be the first time the letters have talked about animals in this manner (such as Tiger’s classic “We killed Léon and are going to eat him.”) but other, more mundane, comments I didn’t include in the original post seem to make this unlikely. Namely…

“ How is old Zod getting along, do you know? I wrote to him not long ago but haven’t heard from him yet.”

and

“Say you better come out for Thanksgiving & we will have turkey & cranberry sauce at Young’s up in Boston Ick [Will] & old Zod & the whole gang of us”

I will however not entirely rule out the possibility that Zod could also have been Jack’s dog who could write and liked liked cranberry sauce. Honestly not much would surprise me about Jack at this point.

Edit 2: After going back an rereading everything I am now considering the possibility that Zod may indeed be a dog, and Jack is just being Jack by complaining that the dog won’t write him back.

[koryos]

phys.org

Tiny raptor tracks lead to big discovery

Tracks made by dinosaurs the size of sparrows have been discovered in South Korea by an international team of palaeontologists.

[eartharchives]

“These new tracks are just one centimetre in length, which means the dinosaur that made them was an animal you could have easily held in your hand.They are the world’s smallest dinosaur tracks.”

[notjustaclone]

[korrathevampireslayer3791]

Welcome to Barrayar, son.

[noxfoxarts]

uh, haven’t drawn for too long; I’m rusty. Anyway, random smut of Glain and a mysterious man, and well, anatomy research sketches. My favorite part is the minimalist doodles, and I can’t help laughing when I look at “Mister Handgrenadecunt”’s unfortunate nethers.

[botanyshitposts]

lads, today is the day. there has been one single collection of isoetes melanopoda in iowa in recent times, and it was 40 years ago on a specific point on the iowa side of the mississippi. i borrowed a handheld GPS from a relative and talked to my botany professor and my uni’s resident paleobotanist for advice…..both said that they might still be there and a second collection might be possible (and the paleobotanist seemed a little jealous that i was going). i have a phone book and a couple bricks ready for pressing them after collection, because apparently that’s what’s best for their size. it’ll take a little hiking to get there, and it’s a couple hours’ drive from my hometown. apparently although these plants are rare in distribution, where there’s one, there’s hundreds, and the colony might still be around. because i have the endorsement of my uni’s herbarium i feel honored….like i’m set on a mission….a Lad Mission…..