"Dustborn" is an action-adventure game developed by Red Thread Games. Set in a dystopian America in 2030, the game follows a band of outcasts.
Satoshi Kawasaki is a Japanese illustrator, author, or both. Normally I try to get the facts correct, but in this case I am forced to rely on Google's translation services. While these allow us all to sample texts that would otherwise remain closed, the results are not necessarily reliable. For those who do not now how to operate the Google translation service, simply go the main Google page, and there should be something called 'language aids' or similar just to the right of the search window. Clicking on it will allow you to paste in text, or to translate an entire web page. To see how well or poorly it works, have it translate a paragraph in your native language into Japanese, and paste the result in to translate it back again. Following this link will bring you to an Amazon page showing a book of extinct animals. I think it is a safe guess that most people interested in speculative biology will also like palaeontology. If so, the cover of this book should convince you that Mr. Kawasaki knows his business, and seems to prefer the bizarre. He does not shy away from speculative biology either, and in his case that concerns life in the future on Earth. He has a very nice website showing life on Earth in various geological ages, starting at the Cambrium. Clicking on an epoch shows a world map for that age, and selecting a continent or sea opens a page with its inhabitants. From the Cambrium on each major era has its own map. There are four such pages for the future, resulting in pages for 5, 50, 100 and 200 million years in the future. But before you zoom off to look there, stop at the other ages as well, because here and there you will find animals indicated with an outline and a question mark, and these are quite interesting. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki In the present era, I found this intriguing dog with a human face living in Japan and China. The text says that the animal is not suffering at all, but that this is its normal face; at least I think that is what it says. The garbled translation suggests that the original text might be quite funny, but that is something I can only guess at. At any rate, images such as this one show that Mr. Kawasaki has a somewhat surrealistic sense of humour, which I rather like. If you do not, be warned, because similar themes will keep cropping up. If you take speculative biology as a completely serious business, do not bother visiting his site. Of course, taking anything entitled 'speculative biology' completely serious is a bit surrealistic by itself. I will not delve into all the animals, nor discuss in any detail how life evolves in the future. I rather liked the way how chameleons leave the trees and evolve into a range of large terrestrial animals, looking a bit like present-day mammals as well as like dinosaurs. What I also liked was that intelligent beings seem to evolve here and there, only to vanish without a trace. Instead I will focus on the world of 200 millions years into the future, and on one theme only: land-living cephalopods! Yes, there are land-living octopus and squid here. Dougal Dixon was probably the first to shoo cephalopods onto dry land in his book 'Life after Man'. The theme was worked out in more detail in 'The Future is Wild'. I think there are some significant problems with this concept. One is that the cephalopod body structure simply does not provide a good starting point for an animal that needs to withstand gravity. Tentacles in particular are an extremely bad starting point. In earlier entries (last one here) I explained my reasons for thinking so. In short, you can walk on tentacles, but once evolution has increased their efficiency, they are no longer tentacles, but will have become legs. The second reason to think that cephalopods will have a difficult time making it on land is that they are not the first to go there, so they will have to compete with animals with fully developed legs. In 'The Future is Wild' swamps were provided for the purpose, but the other animals were not whisked away to support the cephalopods. Perhaps an isolated island, where there are no land animals at all, might do the trick. Even then you have to hope that birds won't bother the new-fangled land-squids too much. Mr Kawasaki's terrestrial cephalopods do not seem to care one bit about such sombre estimates of their likelihood, but look quite alive. Let's have a closer look. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki This one is entitled a 'Purototerasukuido', and is described as a primitive 'Terasukuido'. Let me guess: 'sukuido' might be a Japanese transliteration of the English word 'squid', and 'terasukuido' might be 'terrestrial squid'. 'Puroto' could be 'proto-', so this might be a proto-land-squid'. The animal looks like it is lifted bodily out of 'The Future is Wild', so it seems like Mr Kawasaki is playing another joke. It is describe as a living fossil, and the statement that high fertility balances high mortality shows that Mr Kawasaki also thinks that such an animal needs all the help it can get to stay alive. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki Next: a goby squid. The text says 'Second is to leap out of the crab', which may mean that it is an ambush predator, waiting for a crab to emerge. It has six walking legs and two prehensile arms, which makes sense, I think. It somehow manages to look very attentive, indeed like a little goby fish. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki This is a 'Sleipnir', named after Odin's eight-legged horse. The first animal shown above is a functional hexapod, using two arms for predatory purposes. Perhaps this is another example of centaurism, but that is debatable. The Sleipnir lives in herds and is well-protected by scales. Its length is given as 200-250 cm, so it is quite large. The legs might still be tentacles, but they might just as easily have bones in them; perhaps this is an example of a tentacle turned into a leg. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki An African predator? Yes, the 'chitopasu' is a sprinter; is there a cheetah in that name? In this case, the text clearly states that there is no skeleton in its legs. What a pity. Note that the illustration is apparently not by Mr Kawasaki but by 'UME'. Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki The Zeburasukuido must be prey, and it is (I guess its name means 'zebra squid'). Note that the mouth is underneath the animal, while he eyes are on top, just like its ancestors. I do think that the eyes should probably be smaller, as eyes do not generally scale in the same way as body size. Having such large eyes makes it look much smaller than it is supposed to be. Count its legs: there are ten this time! All this leg variability suggest that land squids are not a monophyletic group; that means that the species shown here are not descended from a single species. Instead, their resemblance suggests that various groups of cephalopods all made it onto land, bringing their different body plans with them. Not impossible, but what would drive such a tendency? Click to enlarge; copyright Satoshi Kawasaki Finally, a brachiator (that's an animal swinging from its arms). It looks agile, as it should be. Its legs are attached to the underside of the body. If these animals indeed hang from branches much of the time, instead of sitting on them, the attachments of their legs might wander to the top of the body, making life a little easier mechanically. I really like the sense of humour that permeates these creatures. It would be nice to have Mr Kawasaki tell us a bit more about his creations, and perhaps he will respond. Until then, have fun with his website and his creations.
A collection of planet-saving inspiration from the subreddit r/Solarpunk.
Map created by user Rubberduck3y6 of alternatehistory.com via Wikipedia The map above shows what an alternate United States might have looked like if the The Annexation Bill of 1866 had passed. The bill would have authorized the President of the United States to, subject to the agreement of the...
Are you looking for materials to help your students practice the conditional modal verbs could, should and would? This variety pack has everything you need for a range of students. This packet includes a 3 posters highlighting when to use could, should, or would with examples. The same information is included on a student reference sheet I made a second student reference sheet with just the words could, should, and would in Spanish, since I used this with bilingual students. There are 12 multiple choice task cards with recording sheet and answer key to practicing choosing the correct form. There is a spelling/ writing practice page using the target words as well as a writing prompt. Again, there are two copies of the same activity to choose from - wide-lined or narrow-lined. I used the wide-lines with first grade and narrow-lined with upper grades. There is a multiple-choice page which requires students to use the context clues to choose the best word - could, should, or would. Answer key included. Finally, there is an oral language dice activity which requires students to generate examples with the target vocabulary. All pages of this product are visible in the preview - check it out! You Might Also Like... Would You Rather Be a...? A Persuasive Writing Project Reading Longer, Big Words Strategies and Practice Vivid Words: Synonyms for Overused Words Remember to leave feedback to get TPT credit to use on future purchases. Go to your My Purchases page and click the Provide Feedback button. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly. Be the first to know about my new products - they're 50% off in the first 48 hours! It pays to follow me! Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. Or, you can click here! Thank you! Sarah
he artist Vsevolod Ivanov presents us the Ancient Rus’ as he imagined it. He is deeply convinced that the history of ancient Russia is distorted or fabricated.
In which Delphi Reynolds, daughter of Ryan Reynolds, decides to start acting again. ACHEIVEMENTS: #2- Walker (1000+ stories) #1- Scobell (53 stories) #1- Delphi (134 stories) #2- Reynolds (1000+ stories) #6- Walker Scobell (1000+ stories) #1- Premiere (333 stories) #26- Singer (1000+ stories) #27- acting (1000+ stories) #4- actress (1000+ stories) #2- The Adam Project (93 stories) #119- Percy Jackson (1000+ stories) #4- Momona Tamada (134 stories) #152- Marvel (1000+ stories) #1- RDJ (1000+ stories) #1- Ryan Reynolds (407 stories) 344K READS!!
he artist Vsevolod Ivanov presents us the Ancient Rus’ as he imagined it. He is deeply convinced that the history of ancient Russia is distorted or fabricated.
TweetPin5EmailShare Creating a fictional culture is something that almost all fiction and fantasy writers will have to do at some point. Whether you need a culture for a society of... Read more »
Super-heavy Nazi architectural experiment.
