Postcard By Charles R. Knight

Helicoprion: What if, like, teeth,

Mesosaurus: Yeah?

Helicoprion: but WHEEL

Mesosaurus: No don't -

Helicoprion:

(Image by ДиБгд)

A Giving Hand, vdB9 // DocRx

50 Foot Long Congo Snake

In 1959 Remy Van Lierden was flying over the Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was flying a helicopter and returning to the base that he commanded in Kamina. As he passed over a clearing in the jungle he noticed a large animal laying out in the sun. What he saw was a 50 foot long snake, with green and brown scales. He couldn’t believe his eyes and neither could his passengers. He circled around and made several passes off the monstrous snake, however he flew away when it got into the striking position and thought it was too dangerous to contour to fly over the animal. During one of the passes he made a passenger on his aircraft snapped this picture to prove what they saw. The snake in question is clearly large and it’s easy to see how it could have been a threat to a low flying helicopter. It’s believed that the snake is a Titanoboa which is thought to be extinct, and has been for millions of years. But it’s possible that the species may have survived. The natives claim that the snake pictured here is a small one and that they can get up to twice and three times the size.

The Titanoboa, is a 48ft long snake dating from around 60-58million years ago. It had a rib cage 2ft wide, allowing it to eat whole crocodiles, and surrounding the ribcage were muscles so powerful that it could crush a rhino. Titanoboa was so big it couldn’t even spend long amounts of time on land, because the force of gravity acting on it would cause it to suffocate under its own weight.

Milky Way’s Central Cluster

“You’re basically seeing all of the sunrises and sunsets across the world, at once, being reflected off the surface of the moon” – NASA

Book cover assignment for class, we had three short scifi stories to choose from and I chose Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall”. 🔴🌌

I love the fact that a group of crows is called a "Murder" and a group of ravens is a "Conspiracy"

Dear @thought-cafe team, we need more Crash Course Astronomy episodes! Can you please do a Season 2? Dr. Phil Plait is awesome, and we miss him!

If you’re excited about the juno news today, sink your teeth into a Crash Course episode that’s all about Jupiter! 🔭  https://youtu.be/Xwn8fQSW7-8

Eclipsing Suns

I can’t remember which novel JR said influenced the world of S6, but I was recently reminded of Asimov’s Nightfall and wonder whether its eclipse narrative might have some bearing on the plot …

[Spoilers for Nightfall ahead – highly recommend you read the story (it’s short!)]

For anyone not familiar, Nightfall is set on a planet with six suns - enough suns that the planet never experiences darkness. Every 2000 years or so, the suns and the planet’s moon align just so, and an eclipse occurs. And every 2000 years, something cataclysmic occurs that ends civilization. The only records of the event are embedded in the mythology of an ancient cult’s scripture. 

During one of these cycles, a team of astronomers and psychologists collaborate with the cult, and together determine that they are weeks away from the next eclipse. The scientists lock their loved ones away in a bunker and prepare equipment to document the eclipse, which they do not believe they will survive. (Having never experienced nighttime, they have a pathological fear of the dark. Even more concerning, however, is the threat of the Stars mentioned in ancient scripture, for these have the power to burn cities and drive men to madness.)

And when the eclipse occurs and people see the night sky for the first time in two thousand years, they are struck with terror and knowledge of their insignificance, and all the world over, people set their cities on fire to blot out the stars’ truth and the horror of the long night.

… What little we do know about S6 reminds me of this. Like Clarke and co., these scientists attempt to learn what happened to a lost civilization (Eligius III) while hampered by a cult-like organization (Second Dawn? Wonkru? Whoever now inhabits the planet?) that has attached mythological meaning to the natural phenomenon of the eclipse. JR has said that something crucial happens when the suns eclipse, and though suns eclipsing themselves does not create total darkness, as here, we can guess that there will be psychological ramifications attached to it.