fletchpj @fletchpj@qoto.org

Taking break from neurons, here’s an octopus! #sciart

The amazing Rijsmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands. It houses many famous Dutch painting, including The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer.

The Cuypers Library is also situated within the museum, it is the largest public art history research library in The Netherlands.

#architecture #urbandesign #placemaking #urbanism #amsterdam #dutcharchitecture #rijsmuseum #photography #photomonday

Bilateral gynandromorphism is a pretty rare occurrence where an animal is a half-male, half-female, split right down the middle. Like this common blue butterfly - male on left, female on right. Weird! But seriously wonderful…

Very excited this is going to be in my big children’s nature book for autumn 2023 which I start writing next week.

#nature #wildlife #butterfly #entomology #AmWriting #ChildrensBooks
Photo: Burkhard Hinnersmann / Wikimedia Commons

Pine martens - aren’t they just beautiful?
A departure from my mountain photography today. I have spent the last six summers photographing pine martens from my tiny hide in the woods near #Inverness in the #ScottishHighlands.
This animal on the right is only 5 months old, leaning up against her mum and having a look around. A magical moment, and one I am privileged to have seen.
#PineMarten #WildlifePhotography #Scotland #Inverness #ScottishWildlife

In Japanese Buddhist cosmology Gakido is a parallel realm, said to be one of the four unhappy rebirths. In this barren & inhospitable wasteland, a #yokai spirit known as gaki lives in terrible torment & suffering. As punishment for sins in a past life they wander this awful place, eternally hungry & thirsty. Even if they eat they'll never feel satisfied. During obon some Buddhist traditions perform ceremonies to ease the suffering of gaki.
#folklore @folklore #japodon #JapaneseFolklore

Good morning! I’m looking forward to some colder weather (except for the energy bills 😬). Here are some snow-blown beech trees at dawn, Alderman’s Barrow Allotment, Exmoor National Park. #exmoor #exmoornationalpark #snowblown #dawn #sunrise #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #snow #snowy

Oldest-surviving anatomical theatre, located in Padua. Built in 1594.

At the centre is a table on which human and animal dissections took place. Around this table are several tiers with railings, where students or other observers could stand. Over the entrance to the theatre is the Latin inscription: “hic est locus ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitam,” (roughly translated: "this is the place where death delights to help the living.”)

Photo: Rolando Paolo Guerzoni.

#histmed #histsci #MedMastodon

This is one of my favorite pictures. It feels like it was taken yesterday… but it was taken in a Paris public garden nearly a hundred years ago. Everything feels modern: the composition, the casualness, the daring clothes, haircuts, and accessories.

The colors are original: this is an #autochrome, using the first process for color #photography invented by the Lumière brothers in 1903.

The women are unknown, but I can't help wondering how they fared a few years later in nazi-occupied Paris.

High spring tide sunset through the skeletal trees and hedges of Porlock Marsh,Exmoor National Park. #Exmoor #exmoornationalpark #porlockmarsh #bossingtonbeach #porlock #photography #landscapephotography #sunset #reflections #saltmarsh

Another ancient #Holloway. The banks were lovely and mossy, and dripping with water. The sound was so soothing. It would have made a lovely field recording but there was too much noise carrying from a nearby building site. A particularly special route for me as I was responsible for adding it to the definitive map of public rights of way 😊 #Devon #Byways #Mosstodon #SlowWays #lichen

Hey, UK fans of things #spooky and #folkhorror -ish. The BBC's 1990 adaptation of Kingsley Amis's "The Green Man", starring Albert Finney, is on iPlayer at the moment (but only until Monday 28th, so it's a weekend watch, & boost to let people know it's there): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0318pns/the-green-man
—
#ghosts #folklore #horror

Who fancies counting down to Christmas with a daily M. R. James ghost story? 👻
There are 31 days until Santa arrives, which means if you read one* a day you'll finish the Collected Ghost Stories in time to get merry.
It's like a haunted advent calendar.
#Christmas #folklorethursday

Spent a night photographing the full moon rising through Durdle Doors' arch & was also treated to a spectacular 22 Degree Halo or Lunar Halo...

#lunarhalo #22degreehalo #moon #fullmoon #moonrise #durdledoor #rockarch #Coast #astrophotography #nikon #nightsky #astro

Hello! Here is our #introduction post!

Oxford University #Museum of #NaturalHistory was established in 1860 to draw together scientific studies from across the University of #Oxford.

Some of our highlight objects include: the first ever described #dinosaur - Megalosaurus bucklandii, the only soft-tissue specimen of a #Dodo bird, and a 4.5 billion year old #meteorite you can get your hands on!

#science #geology #paleontology