Ceremonial Sword of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol
Owner: Archduke Ferdinand II, son of Ferdinand I of Habsburg Austria, ruler of Tyrol
Dated: circa 1560
Culture: Italian
Medium: steel, wood, coral branches, gilded silver plate etched, and gilded green velvet
Measurements: H. 78cm, B. 19cm, T. 7cm
The hilt of the sword is composed of three branches of the precious coral or red coral (Corallium rubrum) encased in a sleeve made of silver. The slightly curved blade with a presumably upper Italian forge brand has three fullers and wears a gold plating. The coral sword is a pure art piece without specific practical function, it certainly was never actually used as a weapon.
Today the Department of Awesome Camouflage is wondering if there’s any creature more impressive than the Lichen Katydid(Markia hystrix), an insect that looks like it’s actually made out of delicate lichen. It looks more like something out of a fairytale than a real-life insect, but that’s simply because the natural world is so freaking awesome!
Lichen Katydids are native to Central and South America. Wildlife photographer David Weller captured this mesmerizing footage of a Lichen Katydid somewhere in the Cartago Province of Costa Rica carefully making its way across some vegetation that looks like it might’ve grown from its own body :
Some species of crabs have a pair of paddle-shaped rearmost legs that allow them to swim through the water instead of being limited to walking along the ocean floor.
At 27 years old, Shinri Tezuka may be one of the youngest people still practicing the dwindling art of amezaiku, or candy crafting, in Japan. The self-taught Japanese artist carves, sculpts and paints delicate lollipops into intricate edible sculptures. Amezaiku dates back hundreds of years, but today there are only two artists left in Tokyo. Tezuka hopes his elaborate goldfish, frog and octopus designs will inspire the next generation of candy crafters to keep the tradition alive.
SERIOUSLY THOUGH SHE WAS MY FAVORITE BATMAN VILLAIN
Her physical condition didn’t allow her to age
No one took her seriously as an actress
And even when she was trying to get into a happy romantic relationship (albeit with another villain) he still couldn’t take her seriously as a consenting, sexually active and romantically interested adult
That’s a lot of blows to someone’s psyche
and Babydoll is both a sympathetic villain and a formidable one
I remember this episode fucked me up a a kid.
And man, do I wish we could see this Batman again: the Batman that consoles his villains, because the majority (if not all) of them are mentally ill people. And Batman knows this and wants them healthy again, not punished and GOD definitely not dead.
Baby Doll is so underrated as a Batman villain
but her episode was perfect
Batman: The Animated Series
The story of one fucked up, traumatized little boy, doing his best to help other fucked up traumatized people.
The Batman that cares about the inmates is my favorite. He doesn’t put up with their shit, but he does try to reach out here and there and he’s as human as he can be to them.
When Harley was re-institutionalized, he got her that dress she wanted.
In the comics based on B:tAS, there was a time during Christmas that there was snow and it was Mr. Freeze’s fault, and he was making it snow because Christmas was his anniversary with Nora and she LOVED it when it snowed on Christmas, so Batman let him finish mourning before calmly taking him back to Arkham.
He never, ever gives up on Harvey possibly recovering.
Sure, Batman is going to throw punches and do what it takes to take these guys down when they’re hurting or threatening people. And he’s not going be a complete bleeding heart; he has to protect the innocent. He’s going to take them down and take them back to Arkham, but it doesn’t mean he’s incapable of being a bit human to the ones who deserve it.
Batman needs become human again
Because it needs to be here:
Remember that time a young girl with near god-like psychic powers threatened to destroy reality and the only one that could stop her was Batman because he had a previous encounter with her and was tasked with killing her to restore reality.
But instead, Batman sat with her on a swing and kept her company as the girl’s psychic powers slowly killed her.
