I Have Been Reading About The History Of Landscape Architecture And Apparently There Was This Theory

I have been reading about the history of landscape architecture and apparently there was this theory that humans have an inherent, innate preference for "savanna-like" open grassy environments with scattered trees due to our evolutionary past, with the reasoning that open grassy understories allow us to see predators coming. And for some reason everyone just accepted it as the truth for decades.

And then this lady Margaret Grose in a book called Constructed Ecologies is like "wait, why did we accept this as the truth for decades? How do we know this is innate and not a cultural preference ingrained by European style landscaping? Did the human species actually evolve in mostly savanna-type landscapes, or did we just randomly decide that because we associate Africa with savannas? Throughout millions of years of recent evolutionary history we've been in a shit ton of different environments because there were a bunch of ice ages. Also African savanna grasses get like 4 meters tall and predators can hide just fine in that."

and it's like wow when you put it that way it's kinda stupid that people decided this idea was true for no reason

obsessed with this sign i saw taped up outside the bat room at the zoo yesterday. the enthusiasm, the hand-written note, the bat drawing.

Hi hello, you all need to see Ray Troll’s kitsch masterpieces:

It’s just too good. this is the pinnacle of cool dad art. I’m getting a t-shirt. Oh yes, i’m getting one. You bet your ass. you bet your bass! Ha! It’s spreading!

fun USA 🇺🇸 fact: the flag’s design was based on the colors of this beautiful jumping spider! Habronattus americanus pair, coastal WA.

July 4th is a holiday dedicated to appreciating this tiny arachnid, with people setting off fireworks in emulation of its iridescence and graceful movement.

looks at you

take some time to notice your vision. see how easily you detect motion. focus on something in your peripheral (without moving your eyes to it). see how it works. look at your hands. pick something up with your fingers. appreciate how ridiculously specialized they are in fine motor skills (even if your personal motor skills are lackluster). think about how you have a body built to be an apex predator through use of tools. think about how the brain of your kind has created a digital hivemind uniting the whole world. now look back at the screen.  look at the tab where you are in an argument about cartoons on tumblr. close the tab. open a new tab. google “tribute to anomalocaris”. watch the video that comes up. leave a like. subscribe even though the channel has been inactive for 8 years. you will need it in the coming times