THE MAY GLEN

Dutch longsword fencer Tosca Beuming

That's it. That's my answer. Endor.

Forget the sale of the century. The auction house Sotheby’s is gearing up for the sale of the epoch. On July 14 it will open live bidding on assorted fossils, but the pièce de résistance is lot 20, a rare 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.

The specimen—dubbed Gus—is billed as one of the largest, most complete T. rexes ever found. Gus is expected to fetch up to $30 million and will go to the highest bidder, whether public museum or private collector. The latter have played an increasingly prominent role in buying fossils, with auction houses, according to paleontologists, contributing to the trend by building hype. But when private collectors swoop in and buy fossils at auction as luxury assets, those pieces of history are effectively lost to science.

By nearly all accounts, Gus is a big deal. In its description, Sotheby’s boasts that the specimen, which was discovered on a ranch in South Dakota, comprises “an incredible 183 fossil bone elements” making it “approximately 61% complete by bone count.” The fossil remains have been mounted in a custom steel armature along with replicas of the missing bones. The result is a reconstructed skeleton posed as if in hot pursuit, its mouth full of dagger teeth ready to tear into prey.

“It does seem to be a spectacular specimen,” says Thomas Holtz, a tyrannosaur specialist at the University of Maryland. The completeness of the skeleton and the high quality of the bone make Gus “scientifically significant,” he says.

Gus is the latest major dinosaur fossil to go up for sale at auction in the US. That trend began in earnest in 1997 when Sotheby’s auctioned Sue, the most complete T. rex on record. That specimen sold for roughly $8.4 million—the most money ever paid for a fossil at auction at the time.

“Before Sue was sold, there were no laws about who owned fossils. There was no value truly ascribed to them,” says Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman and head of the science and natural history department at Sotheby’s. In many other countries the state owns the fossils. But court cases around Sue clarified that in the US, whoever owns the land also owns whatever fossils are on it, Hatton explains. The market has been booming ever since.

But whereas Sue went to a scientific institution—the Field Museum in Chicago—in recent years ultrarich individuals have been snapping up dinosaur fossils at auctions for their private collections, prompting paleontologists to be concerned about the fate of rare specimens. Tech entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd owns a T. rex called Samson. And he’s not the only private collector to own a tyrant lizard king. A study published in 2025 found that there are more fossils of T. rex in private collections than there are in public trusts.

It’s not just T. rex that’s ending up in personal coffers. In 2024, Sotheby’s sold a Stegosaurus named Apex to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin for the record-setting sum of $44.6 million. And last year the auction house sold the only known juvenile Ceratosaurus in the world to an anonymous buyer for $30.5 million. These examples highlight another trend: As prices soar, museums simply cannot compete at auction.

Auction houses say the sales help science by rescuing fossils from the erosion that occurs when they are exposed to the elements, and by helping to get them expertly excavated, prepared, and assessed.

“If a fossil is not excavated, it’s lost to everyone,” Hatton says.

tumblr is full of dimwitted reactionaries but ive also read a lot of things that have fundamentally changed how i think about justice, mental health, etc.

despite the best efforts of the site's staff and its manbaby ceo, there continues to be a contingent of people here who are committed to understanding things better, to doing better, and to changing the world for the better.

someone on reddit explained 😭

Round 1 - 2026 (Costume Art / Fashion is Art) - Match 66 of 128

Lily-Rose Depp (Chanel), left

No explanation found.

vs. Heidi Klum (Mike Marino), right

"I love fashion, I love art, and I especially love when the two collide. For this year’s Met Gala, Mike Marino transformed fabric into sculpture, manipulating latex and spandex with extraordinary precision to mirror the stillness, delicacy, and illusion of carved marble. Inspired by the timeless beauty of Veiled Vestal by Raffaelle Monti, this look blurs the line between fashion and fine art. A piece of fashion art, reimagined in motion. Every fold, every contour, every detail is intentional, capturing both strength and softness in a way that feels almost impossible. A one-of-a-kind design that doesn’t just dress the body, but elevates it into art itself." ""There was one sculpture… called 'The Veiled Virgin' or 'The Veiled Vestal' by Raffaelle Monti. We both thought it was perfect," Marino said of the inspiration for the eventual look, referencing Monti's famed 1847 sculpture, which is a marble depiction of an Ancient Roman Vestal Virgin. A press release about Klum's look from media company Full Picture added that the costume was also inspired by the marble "Veiled Christ" tomb effigy, carved by by Giuseppe Sanmartino and completed in 1753. "Heidi will be a living version of a sculpture right at the steps of the most amazing museum of New York and one of the most amazing museums in the world," Marino said in the video. The makeup artist said that bringing Klum's look to life began with a 3D scan of the model's entire body. Then, based on the scan, the design team began to sculpt all aspects of the statue, including the folds of the fabric and more. A press release states that materials used for Klum's look included latex and spandex, which helped capture "the stillness and presence of marble while allowing for movement and life within the form." Marino said several of the methods they used to bring Klum's look to life involved some of the same methods that many classical artists employed when working with materials like bronze or marble, only with advanced materials and technology." (x)(x)

The scene where Rocky shows Grace the Eridian ship! This scene has been puzzling me ever since I saw it for two reasons.

One, I could not make sense of why the scene switched from showing Grace marveling at all these beautiful, amazing things to a close up of Rocky tapping at some random, boring control panel. I took the raised portion to be buttons, or perhaps sounding surfaces to make notes. I thought maybe it was to point out that human design looks boring to Eridians?

Two, I always wondered why it was this moment that caused Grace to flashback to Stratt's betrayal in the movie. Why would a really fun experience, all wonder and beauty cause that memory to surface? Usually there was some connection to the moment when memories would come up.

For instance, in the book, what triggers the Stratt betrayal flashback is and exhausted Rocky giving Dr. Grace a little pep-talk after their very first Tauomeba experiment fails.

"We work more." He says. "We no give up. We work hard. We are brave."

And Dr. Grace tries to internalize the pep talk by telling himself, that yeah, he might not have all the answers yet, but at least he's the kind of guy who would volunteer for a suicide mission to save Earth, so yes he is brave, he will work hard, and he can do this dog-gone-it! Then the flashback hits and the realization that he did not choose to be here, that he was forced paralyzes him with the realization of his own cowardice until Rocky senses his depression and comes over to comfort and stimulate Dr. Grace to action.

My point being there was a very obvious stimulus for that flashback in the book. Grace's thoughts in the moment, were directly, logically connected "I am brave, I must be brave, I agreed when Stratt asked me to come." Memory says, no Stratt asked you to come and you said no and cried about it.

In the movie I could not see what the connection was, until I saw someone refer to the "control panel" Rocky was touching as a crew manifest.

So I rushed over and counted, and sure enough there are 23 raised nubs organized in a pattern that makes perfect sense for the crew of a ship. Captain, 1st officer and 3rd officer around what is pretty clearly a representation of the Blip-A. Then the rest of the crew spread out in groups probably indicating their various specialties. Rocky is probably pointing at his own name/symbol on the chart.

And what would Rocky be saying as he shows his friend Grace the names of his fallen comrades.

"They were so brave. They worked to the very end. Just like you and your crew! They were brave. We were all brave. We worked so hard. We are brave."

Which would then logically trigger the, 'Heck yeah! I'm pretty gosh-darn brave! Just like all these super cool Eridian astronuats and my good friend Rocky who is very brave and whose opinion of my I value highly!"

BOOM, perfectly logical train of thought for that memory of Stratt betraying him to climb aboard and absolutely wreck his mental image of himself.

"People back then always married young it's natural!!!" Every single 1800s guide I've ever met casually mentions that, of course, you really shouldn't get married before you're at least 20, and waiting until 25 is usually better.

Or, like. Okay here's a long segment:

Just firmly going "it is crazy sexist to blame The Wife for overspending when thirty seconds of asking questions will immediately establish that her husband was outright lying to her about how much money they had. Talk to your wife like a normal person."

Or--okay, here. A section on being honest and not writing love letters in secret, because that's usually a good sign that there's something untoward going on....

....except that he then immediately acknowledges that sometimes, the reason you're hiding this from your parents is that your parents suck. That there are parents who frankly have not earned the right to approve or disapprove of your partner.

"Men and women being friends with each other is literally normal. Don't be a controlling freak."

"If you have to abuse a child to keep order in your classroom then you're a bad teacher."

Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky

Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*

You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.