Still Defying Gravity

The show is — a bit weirdly — playing Sansa and Jon’s scenes as if they’re a romantic couple waiting to happen. (People keep doubting me on this, but seriously, compare their scenes to the way the season two scenes between Talisa and Robb were shot.)

It’s funny that antis like to call Jonsa shippers delusional and say we’re seeing stuff that’s not there because we’ve got shipping goggles on–because they completely ignore all the nonshippers who see it. Case in point the above TV critic who sees it and thinks it’s weird. Seriously plenty of people saw it without shipping it.

Signed,

Hi there!

Yes agree, secret parentage in literature has two purposes : To change a conflict to an inner family conflict and add guilt for the character (Son slays father, like in Oedipus without knowing), to make character commit accidental incest (Oedipus again and countless other tales), to create an opportunity for a couple to get together, because the secret parentage allows it (because of status or not being related or whatever) - just look at the tales where the baby’s cover is proof for the royal blood of the foundling baby.

The brilliance of RLJ is that is allows for all three. Jon will commit accidental incest with Daenerys (maybe trying to avoid the allure of his ‘half-sister’), Jon will kill his aunt, raising the conflict between the Starks as just rulers and the Targs as tyranical rulers to personal level, and Jon will be able to love his sister-turned-cousin, because his parentage destroys the hindrances.

It is a beautiful set-up!

For some reason, humans really don’t like things that look like humans but aren’t quite human. Hence why a lot of people are uncomfortable with movies with animation like Monster House and The Polar Express. It looks too realistic to us and sets us off.

Scientists call this the “Uncanny Valley” effect and its thought to be an evolutionary tactic for survival.

Back when Homo sapiens weren’t the end-all of hominids, we also had some other two legged “humanish” cousins like the Neanderthals, Denisovians, and more!

There were nine different species of “humans”

By 10,000 years ago, they were all gone. The disappearance of these other species resembles a mass extinction. But there’s no obvious environmental catastrophe – volcanic eruptions, climate change, asteroid impact – driving it.

Instead, the extinctions’ timing suggests they were caused by the spread of a new species, evolving 260,000-350,000 years ago in Southern Africa: Homo sapiens.

Neanderthal skeletons show patterns of trauma consistent with warfare.

Like language or tool use, a capacity for and tendency to engage in genocide is arguably an intrinsic, instinctive part of human nature.

Optimists have painted early hunter-gatherers as peaceful, noble savages, and have argued that our culture, not our nature, creates violence. But field studies, historical accounts, and archaeology all show that war in primitive cultures was intense, pervasive and lethal.

Basically: the reason we as Homo Sapians find other human-ish figures unsettling and have an instinctual fear/aggression response called “The Uncanny Valley” is because we literally TOOK OVER THE WORLD by hunting down and killing every other hominid on the planet.

Dunno if the “9 species of hominid genocide” was a result of uncanny valley or the cause of it, but it’s a pretty sure bet to guess they’re linked.

According to the smithsonianmag.com, the world’s oldest bristlecone pine was a nearly 5,000 year old tree later named Prometheus. In 1964, a man named Donald Rusk Currey decided to use an increment borer to determine its age (a process that cuts a small hole into the center of the tree trunk, and is not intended to kill the tree). Unfortunately, the borer got stuck. He and a park ranger cut the tree down to remove the equipment, and when they counted the tree rings, they realized their mistake. Oops. This incident lead to better protection of the remaining bristlecone pines.

There’s some wiggle room about what can be called “the world’s oldest living tree.” The world’s oldest living single tree is the tree that the OP is referring to. Its name is Methuselah,and it is also around 5,000 years old. Since its location is unknown, nobody knows what it looks like. But it might be this tree here:

But technically, it isn’t the oldest living tree. Let me explain.

It turns out that root systems of trees can send up genetically identical saplings (aka clones) via their root systems. Like so:

Which means the original trunk can die, but since the root system is attached to other trees which give it nutrients, it lives on. The root system can theoretically do this indefinitely. So the tree trunks could be fairly young, but the roots could be large and very, very, very old. So the oldest “tree” isn’t a small grove, it’s a logic-defying forest.

I’d like you to meet Pando.

This male quaking aspen covers 106 acres and is ancient. I’m talking an estimate of 80,000 years. The trees you can see are just “shoots” he sent up, and their average age is 130 years old. He is his own forest. If trees could talk, I’d love to hear what he had to say.

He might be dying, due to insects and drought (hmm, wonder what could have happened to cause that). A section of Pando is being studied in an attempt to find a solution. But in the meantime, we can enjoy him for his beauty.

Lie!

Whether it’s to some creeper asking too many questions or just some random website you’re signing up for... you can lie, kids. While obviously it’s great to not respond to weirdos seeking your personal information, there are times that for various reasons it’s difficult to avoid giving out any info entirely. So just bullshit. Name, age, gender, location, whatever you want. Just lie about it.

You are not beholden to an honor code with strangers or random websites on the internet. Just fake whatever. It’s not only completely fine, it is many times more advantageous for you in the long run (not only in dodging creeps, but it helps keep your IRL info and online info separate). You can pick and choose w/e online friends you want to be honest with, but signing up for social media or being asked invasive questions by a stranger? Just fuckin make shit up.

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