Has There Ever Been An Anti-anti Pope (not The Pope, Not An Anti Pope But A Secret Third Thing)

Cleto Capri - Alla finestra (1895)

do you know much about creating and maintaining an artificial biotope? More specifically, how does bacteria help in maintaining these ecosystems in the long term?

Hello, thank you for the marvellous question! Biotope is a very broad term but generally refers to an area where environmental conditions are the same/quite consistent, or a small ecosystem. Fish tanks are a good example of this.

I have not tried to create one and unfortunately cannot provide much information from my research, but it’s worth thinking about what bacteria normally do in ecosystems. Breaking down organic matter, nitrogen fixing, chilling out and getting me sick…they may also have symbiotic relationships with other organisms, like how humans have microbes that support our immune and digestive systems (I’m NOT explaining the complexities of the microbiome here, this is a huge simplification).

How you do it will also affect what you need to do — is it a butterfly garden interacting with the great outdoors? Is it an aquarium? Is it one of those sealed terrariums? (very cool, I want one). All these will have different things to consider.

Sorry I can’t be of more help! I hope you’re able to find some answers soon — and please let me know if you do! I’m also very interested in bacteria ecology.

Do you have a care guide, feeding guide, or just more info about Japanese rat snakes? Is the blue a morph or them where they’re young? They’re soooo pretty

That was the standard morph! They're actually duller when young, and blue out more as they get older.

They're not common in captivity, so I can't point you towards in-depth care guides, but they're pretty dang easy as long as you give them lots of space and things to climb.

You'll want a hotspot set to 85 and an ambient temperature in the low-mid 70s. A heat mat is a great heating choice for them to maintain those lower temperatures. 50% humidity works well - make sure they always have water and a humidity hide, which they'll use from time to time.

They do great with the standard all-rodent diet. The biggest note there is that they're really great and enthusiastic eaters, so you have to be careful not to overfeed! They'd probably eat every other day if you let them. Don't let the begging for food get to you.

My snake room with a cottagecore forestcore theme 🐍🍄🍄‍🟫🌲🏡🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️🐿️

How would you describe the art style of the fashion design illustrations? I love the antiquarian looking style

hello my dear! 💖

what an interesting question! 💕💕 either fortunately or unfortunately, you asked either the best or worst person to talk about this lmao 😅😅 as an art history phd student, pretty much all I do is analyze images, so I definitely have some Thoughts™️

first, I'll say that style varies hugely based on time period and publication. even within decades, I've seen a wide variety of styles used, so if you had particular images in mind that you wanted me to talk about, feel free to let me know and I'd be thrilled to discuss those more specifically! ☺️☺️

because there is such a diverse range of stylistic approaches to illustrating fashion plates/images, I'm hesitant to make any sweeping generalizations here, but I will pick out a few themes that I've seen come up a lot:

2d medium vs. 3d object – one of the key features of fashion plates is that, ultimately, they are trying to sell you a garment/style. of course, clothing is three-dimensional, and especially when looking at things like bustled garments, they take up a lot of space in real life that is difficult to represent in a 2d medium. because of this "conflict" between the necessity of depicting the garment and the realities of the medium of drawing/print, we tend to see some odd positioning of the figures. they might be awkwardly bent or twisting in order to show off both a bodice and a bustle at the same time (the figure on the left here is a good example). we also see some "flattening" of the picture plane, wherein the placement of a normally voluminous feature (like a bustle) doesn't really make sense in a naturalistic space, but rather is almost parallel to the chest/bodice of the figure, when in real life it would project backwards rather than weirdly sideways (you can see this in almost any 1880s fashion plate featuring dresses, but this one is a nice example). [also please note that this is not a condemnation of these choices, but rather an analysis of why they're necessary in this medium]

ye olde photoshoppe – connecting to my first point, fashion plates are trying to sell you something, and therefore their artists have incentive to make that product look as attractive/appealing as possible. I do get comments from time to time about how "people don't look like that" or "that's not how bodies work," which, while true, also elide the fact that these artists are not necessarily trying to be naturalistic in their depiction of the human body – they're trying to show you the most marketable version of the human body as determined by the cultural values of their day. just as today we might see impossibly thin models on magazine covers or clearly fake thigh gaps in online retail, so too are the creators of these fashion plates embellishing and exaggerating the human form to make it as appealing as possible to consumers – they're selling a fantasy, not a reality

non-specificity – another thing that is fairly common across historical fashion plates is the non-specificity of facial features on the figures portrayed. if you feel so inclined, take a scroll through the blog and compare the faces of the figures in the illustrations (obviously this does not work in the same way for photographs). you'll likely find that you keep seeing the same face over and over again. what's more, that face has almost no distinctive features, and is almost doll-like in its perfection. given what we've already discussed, this isn't a surprise, since fashion plates are meant to sell garments, and therefore a portrait-like rendering of a specific model isn't really the goal. the figures in fashion plates essentially are dolls – they are meant to be "dressed" in whichever style is being sold, and visually appealing yet non-specific enough to potentially interest a large population of possible consumers

whew! okay I will wrap up my ramblings now, but I hope this was at least a little bit helpful or perhaps mildly interesting! ☺️☺️ as you can see, I love doing this kind of visual analysis, so (as I mentioned above) if you have specific images you wanted me to talk about stylistically, feel free to let me know!! ☺️💕 and thank you again for this great question! 💖💖

if you've made it to the end, thanks for reading my ramblings, and let me know what y'all think about the stylistic features of fashion plates if you have thoughts! 🥰🥰

in the uk, you need to have lived and worked in the country for 5 years under a work visa to apply for "indefinite leave to remain" (i.e. permanent residency). keir starmer's labour government plans to increase that requirement to 10 years.

indefinite leave to remain is a prerequisite for british citizenship. only citizens are allowed to vote in any election.

if you're in the uk on a work visa and you're fired or laid off, you have 60 days to find a new job with a company that can sponsor your visa. if you can't find a new job, you need to leave the country before your 60 days are up.

if you have to leave the country and come back later on a new work visa, none of the time on your previous work visa counts toward any application for indefinite leave to remain. the clock resets to zero.

so what you have here is a segment of the population who risk deportation if they lose their jobs for any reason--meaning it can be very dangerous to raise issues about their working conditions--and who may end up working and paying taxes in the uk for decades without basic citizens' rights, i.e. the ability to vote and have their interests represented by those who govern them.

and the real kicker is that the government keeps telling us they're going to fix the problem of modern slavery.

do you guys know about the internet roadtrip? right now somewhere between 500 and 900 people are collectively 'driving' a car on google street view trying to make it to canada. it's fun i recommend it

"Rationalism" is up there with "Objectivism" in terms of "definitionally funny things to call your own belief system".

@madgrad

Another stone/creature.

I made a small series of these, I'm pretty sure I've posted these before - but I'm looking at them again because I like it when the edge becomes so important in a piece, and want to capture that in some new work.