Lanius @General_JWJ Twitter profile

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Lanius

2 years

New year, new thread of threads! More writings on topics as various as agriculture, tropical ecology, niche zoological topics and more:

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

"If you could just grow food yourself, our shaman would tell us, right? We sacrifice dozens of deer per year for him, it's his job. Well here's where it gets interesting. Our traders reached out to the chieftain of a settlement in Anatolia and here's what we found."

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

I don’t tend to cover current events, but I’ve seen some questionable information circulating on the recent train derailment & chemical spill in Ohio and I’m in a position to give some more measured info about the gravity of the situation in some regards

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Today I want to talk to you about silk. However I can’t quite remember details. Which huge land empire exclusively controlled its production and trade, making a fortune in the process and exporting it to the other side of Eurasia? Oh right, the Romans! Wait, what??

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

There's a meme about people in particular situations having the "potential to do the funniest thing of all time" but that one lone German wolf who found itself in the same field as the horse of the EU commission's president, starting an epic blood feud, already did that

European Commission

@EU_Commission

1 year

The concentration of wolf packs has become a danger for livestock and potentially for humans. We urge local and national authorities to take action where necessary. Local communities, scientists and others are also invited to submit data on wolves and their impacts ↓

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Look at this cute sea snail. Such a harmless looking animal, but so influential! It is a kingmaker, liquid gold dripping from its body and shell. Continue on to learn about the murex sea snail, the most valuable animal in the Mediterranean!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Diagnosed with the black death, impoverished court alchemist Valens teams up with his disgraced apprentice Justinian to brew Greek fire to sell to the Seljuks, using the persona Heis-an-buruk, to provide a good life for his family. Guest starring Giancarlo Esposito as Alp Arslan

𝐵𝒶𝓇𝒹𝒶𝒾𝓈𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓈𝓉 𓆙

@insectbeau

2 years

Me: hmmm I will use this ai to make thumbnails for my stories Me: Walter white Byzantine icon

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

7 months

There are relict mammoth populations on Fairway Rock in the middle of the Bering Strait, that's why google earth is censoring satellite pictures

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

It’s with great pleasure that I present to you one of my favourite topics, in my opinion the single most extraordinary phenomenon in the natural world, and a bit about how Humans have harnessed it to their own ends throughout history: plant galls

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

October in Europe is the part of the year where the last great harvests happen before going into the winter. One of the unsung heroes of the late season, a plant unfairly maligned since its very domestication millennia ago, is the turnip. Time to set the record straight

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Nothing new under the sun! (Jester mask from Nepal, 1950s)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

10 months

"Slime moulds" don't sound very cool when you say it like that, but take a closer look and...

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

The millet poasting will continue, until the very stars are extinguished. Today I will tell you about teff, or t’ef, a plant described as “the smallest-grained cereal in the world”. It’s not widespread, but plays a crucial role in the areas that cultivate it

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

You need to be finding treasures. Holy relics, magic swords, crowns of lost kings. These people are freaks. They're dialectical materialists, they only believe in facts. You may need to debunk four or five at once. You need to be finding treasures.

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

This is rape culture

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

They’re small, discreetly coloured & feed off surplus human food. They make their way into little crannies of houses, breeding out of sight. They followed us all over the world, colonizing every location where humans are present. But how did the house sparrow take over the world?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Today is the Autumn equinox, the beginning of the “bad season” where growing things go to sleep in the Palearctic. All growing things except one kind, that is, mushrooms! Ever wondered what was up with those so-called “magic mushrooms”? Let’s see

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

In conclusion while I strongly confirm that this is an environmental calamity that may cause illness to people nearby, claims that it will be an “American Chernobyl” or that the entire area will be irreparably devastated seem overblown in the face of the current evidence

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Following last week’s thread with an overview of how Sami culture and ways of living evolved from the 16th to the 19th century, I will now close up this series of threads with a look at their history in the modern era, the 20th & 21st centuries

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

I am getting too deep into mycology, please pray for me

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

7 months

First ever photograph of a yellow-crested helmet-shrike from an expedition in the DRC. Who said you couldn't be an explorer anymore??

Ornithomedia

@Ornithomedia

7 months

Le Bagadais d’Albert (Prionops alberti) a été photographié pour la première fois lors d'une expédition récente menée dans la République Démocratique du Congo ➡️ Cliquez ici pour en savoir plus : #oiseaux #birds #ornithology #RDC @UTEP @Presidence_RDC

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

7 months

"Mr Lanius, could you explain to our audience why this year's harvest was so poor?" "Certainly. First, we must begin with Assyria in the early holocene..."

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Don your skis and goggles, because we return to Finmark to discover more about the fascinating culture of the Sami, a unique people living off the land at the northern edge of Europe! Let us explore their religious beliefs and their culture!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

8 months

The divine mint: how I remind everyone I am a botany account by writing a thread about Salvia divinorum

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Second prehistoric thread : I had the absolute pleasure of visiting for the first time prehistoric painted caves in the region of the Lot & Dordogne in France. Allow me to explain to you the finer points of cave painting

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Since there’s precious few seasonal plants to write about currently (I will get to them though) I’ve been thinking about how the economy is going extremely well right now and everyone’s having a good time, so why not write about the first financial bubble, Tulip Mania?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

But once cut off, cleaned, and dried out, byssus takes on incredible properties: it is of a brilliant golden huge, is softer than the softest silk, and one of the most compact textiles in existence. It can be spun into cloth in the same way as silk too

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Today’s a very special thread in my Reunion series as I get to talk about my favourite ecosystem on the island, uniquely preserved by the incredible harshness and mutability of its native environment: the volcanic moors

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

In November, the cold weather finally starts setting in, the trees become devoid of leaves and food becomes scarce. At this time most northern European migratory birds have completed their long trip southwards to the sun. This means it’s a good time for a recap on bird migration

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Today’s thread will explore one of the most impressive neolithic sites in Belgium, if not in Europe, the Spiennes flint mines which provided generations of locals with the tools they needed to tame the wild nature around them and make a living

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Earlier we went through domesticated wheat’s family tree, starting as a wild grass growing (probably) in South-East Anatolia until it became the global food staple we know today. Now the question is, what exactly happens to a plant when it’s domesticated?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

@ActualAurochs Creating blue skinned action heroines is actually an act of ancestral subconscious memory, we long to retvrn

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Central Asia is the heartland of the Tulipa genus, where they can grow abundantly in the steppes. Thus, when the Turkic Seljuks of Central Asia moved into Anatolia, they brought with them tens of species of tulips which are now naturalized next to Turkey’s 7 indigenous species

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

"Yum yum yummy millet. Hey do you know what they call an avant-garde painter who only draws wheat? A cerealist haha." "You are eating my unborn children. In front of me. My legacy is dying before my eyes." "No pain no grain! I hope I'm not sounding too CORNY haha." "..."

Vulpine Outlaw

@Rad_Sherwoodism

1 year

@General_JWJ Are you going to start doing dialogues between birds and a millet?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

A while back I posted a series of threads on flax, one of the 8 founder crops that helped propel humanity from hunter-gatherer bands to sedentary societies. After my recent threads on sparrows, now seems a good time to talk about one of their favourite foods: wheat!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

There are only a few plants brave enough in Europe to still be flowering in October, holding the line in the face of unavoidable calamity like the Roman guard at Pompeii. One of these is yarrow, Achillea millefolium, a plant as useful in ecology as in pharmacology

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

An old growth forest takes 1000 years to grow from scratch in Europe, there are nearly none left in the entire world, only secondary growth forests which are a mere shadow of the real thing. Old growth forests are hugely heterogeneous and a far richer habitat than managed forests

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Allow me to set the scene: it's July in the middle of the night and a blazing midnight sun lights up the landscape in a slightly reddish light. In the distance a herd of reindeer can be seen grazing the mosses on a mountain side. This is the world of the Sami people of the Arctic

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

10 months

Great news! Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixi) has been recorded as breeding in the wild for the first time since its reintroduction in 2022! This species was previously declared extinct in the wild in 2019, and hadn't been seen since 2016.

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

6 months

I have been tremendously enjoying the much-talked about new film where travellers from a rainy, dreary land move to the deep desert with their superior technology to rile up the locals, resulting in a clash of egoes and faiths

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

@vikare06 @Babygravy9 The extra fingers inherent to AI pictures even make sense because of the radiation!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

The time has come for me to make a choice. Keep posting low-engagement threads on tropical holiday spots or tackle a topic requiring actual work. Fortunately for you I’ve been threatened with corvée labour, so welcome to this new ongoing series on the crop plants millet

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

By relying on cookie-cutter designs from more well-known history or other media, TV shows and films rob us of portrayals of truly lived-in and alien worlds (the past is another country, etc) and instead agglomerate everything together into just a few broad categories

Varangian Chronicler

@Varangian_Tagma

2 years

@NetflixValhalla has revealed the Varangian Guard was really just cosplaying as classical Greeks, who knew!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

3 years

After 2 evenings of intensive reading of the literature, I return from the content mines with a 🧵on one of mankind’s oldest companions: flax. There’s so much ground to cover, this thread will restrict itself to its earliest history and European cultivation to the neolithic

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Hello everyone, after a fascinating botanical visit yesterday, I was inspired to write a thread about spoil tips. These man-made structures hold huge geographic and cultural significance in the coal producing areas of the world

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

7 months

The 18th century Memoir of French wars, trade and diplomacy in the colonial era of India is 91% translated (395/434 pages). It started as a fun hobby that I only expected to translate about 90 pages of, but ended up taking a signifcant amount of these last two years!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Short thread on an Icelandic saga I’ve just read, and interpretations of its role in the culture at the time: the tale of Hrafnkel, Frey’s Godi. It’s assumed to take place in the mid-10th century, and was written somewhere between 1280-1350

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

It’s been a little while, but I’ve decided to return to the topic of the Sami. In the previous thread, we examined their way of living and culture up to the late Middle-Ages. Now however, in part 4, we’ll move on to the 16th up until the early 20th century

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

I finally got through the excellent Parasite Rex, a book all about how parasites live and evolve, affecting ecosystems (and us!) at the same time. Strap in for a few highlights, and remember: it’s a parasite’s world, you’re just living in it…

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Indeed, the Mediterranean is full of unexpected treasures, which the Romans didn't hesitate to make use of: enter the fan mussel, Pinna nobilis. This bivalve is the largest in the Med and one of the largest in the world, with a shell up to 120 cm (4 ft) long

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Let’s hope that this is not the end for this magnificent mussel whose hairs are said to have clothed sultans, emperors, governors and other aristocrats as well as humble Mediterranean fishermen and nuns

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Masks of the world part 3: South America. The tradition of masking in this area of the world goes back to at least the 18th century BC. This can be divided into two portions, the pre and post-Columbian (before and after 1492 AD)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

I had the chance of using an atlatl for an hour or two a few weeks ago. After just half an hour of practice I was hitting (with a nearly blunt wooden projectile) pony-sized targets in the vitals from 15m and planting them 15cm into the archery foam. A superlative hunting weapon

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Like Sisyphus with his rock, I return to write a new thread about one of the myriad varieties of millet cereals found in the world. I’m running out of economically major ones, so these are going to start to get weird. Without further ado, Job’s tears

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

As a continuation of my millet cultivation series, here’s pearl millet: we’ll move away from the temperate or alpine settlements of China and go into an unlikely place for a major crop to develop: the bone dry region of the African Sahel

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

10 months

Absolutely insane things are happening in insect phylogeny right now. BTW scorpionfly males (the only ones with the "tail") have to seduce females by bringing them prey or making a little bundle of saliva for them to eat. Very thoughtful.

amelia𓆨

@kcalbug

10 months

it came out recently that fleas are actually parasitic scorpionflies! they evolved when some species of scorpionflies started feeding off of blood. theyre working on moving fleas to the same order as scorpionflies (Mecoptera) instead of their own order (Siphonaptera)!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

First crop plant thread of the year, about a versatile vegetable that’s the most economically important in its taxonomic order. Beet, besides being good to eat on its own, is the reason people living outside tropical sugar cane latitudes get to overuse sugar!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Hello everyone, as promised and following the results of the previous poll, I return with the first post of a new ongoing series where we’ll look at the oldest plant lineages, how they changed over time, and what they’re up to today. Issue 1: horsetails, or equisetidae

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

This classification is often summarized as “PBT” (persistent, bioaccumulated, toxic) or vPvB for extreme cases. Thankfully, all tests have shown that while VC is considered carcinogenic, thus automatically “T”, it is neither P, nor B

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

An improvised thread on phylogeny, how it’s done, and the concrete consequences of changing the classification of a species in the real world:

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

@byzantinemporia @Varangian_Tagma @Hippokleides Just found Byzantine themed gondorians. Allow?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Note its natural colour is brown, and only becomes gold after treatment with lemon juice. It is also hydrophobic, making the cloth somewhat waterproof and making it difficult to dye. Apparently a pair of byssus gloves could be folded to fit in half a walnut shell

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

It was once widespread across the Med where it is endemic, their hard shells forming non-coral biogenic reefs upon which other organisms could attach. As a large filter feeder it is also a great contributor to water cleanness

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

10 months

Mini thread: the typical fossils found in the shales of slag heaps originating from 19th and 20th century coal mines

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Disclaimer: This is of course an analysis based on extremely fragmentary information and not that much research put into it (as it’s not the main focus of what I like to do on twitter but some easy-to-find information may limit some of the excesses I’ve seen)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

10 months

You need to be arcanemaxxing. I own no less than 5 books whose contents pertain solely to an area within a 100km radius of where I live. Some of these only a 10km radius. I know so many things no one could possibly care about

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

As promised the other day, we will now return to a classic format of my threads in order to go over the medicinal properties and uses of one of the most widely used pharmacological plants in the pharmacopeia of the old world, St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Hello everyone, we continue our voyage through #AinuApril with our third entry, a second thread on Ainu food production. First, we looked at foraging for edible and medicinal plants, now we’ll see how they hunted their food!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Reunion part ?? While rum may be the most famous export of the island of Reunion, the spice called vanilla is surely a close contender as well! While today it’s synonymous with “default” or “boring”, its cultivation is anything but!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Today we will once again travel through a new continent to study their varied and ancient masked traditions! After visiting South and Mesoamerica last time, we move on to the corn, eagles and shamans of North America!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Take a moment, if you will, to imagine a man. He is dressed in richly appointed European style clothes of the 18th century and a horsehair wig. His office furniture is a mix of Indian and Western influences. What nationality is this man? British? What if he was… French?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

5 months

I just finished reading the quite excellent "Gods of Bronze" series by the equally excellent @DanDavisWrites , X (formerly Twitter) power-user and youtube celebrity. I will now talk about them

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

@Paracelsus1092 The Stone Age Herbalist African Cannibalism Index Monitoring Battlestation (archival image circa 2022)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

After reading up on them, I could not resist the opportunity to contribute to #AinuApril and it’ll be a fun challenge to go out of my comfort zone. Let’s talk about Ainu culture and their relation with their environment! Part 1: generalities

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

I've heard the most productive cow breeds (ex: belgian blue) likened to "F1 cars", amazing performance but only on flat impeccable tarmac. Without industrialised farming, we're likely to go back to more rustic breeds which thankfully some are preserved locally by enthusiasts

Nemets

@Peter_Nimitz

2 years

lot would depend on surviving transportation networks (Mississippi would be big deal) & post-apocalyptic agriculture. Curious how GMO crops & animals bred for meat-productivity would do in bleak conditions - cattle became much smaller after Fall of Rome:

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

@CL0WNPlECE @mell0wbr1ckroad "With this float we want to make the Axis look as bad as possible" "As badass as possible, got it."

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Persistence relates to how fast a substance biodegrades. The gas VC reacts in the air with hydroxyl radicals (-OH) resulting from ozone radiation and other things. It is degraded into other components with a half-life of 2.3 days (after 2.3 days, half has been degraded)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

8 months

In the coldest depths of winter, only one genus of plants in Western Europe has the courage, the audacity, to bloom in the middle of the frost-bitten forests. These “first flowers of the year” belong to the genus Helleborus!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Contrary to some claims, VC is not readily soluble in water, to the point that water degradation tests haven’t been carried out as even if it reacts, it bubbles back out in a few hours. There are only very specific scenarios where one would be into contact with VC through water

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Continuing our detour into Africa’s ancient millet crops, we can now look at the second large family of Sahelian millets: sorghums. Sorghum is in fact a genus of 25 species (only a handful of which are cultivated either for human consumption, or for livestock fodder)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

8 months

Reviving this old thread to announce my amateur translation of the memoirs of French colonial governor in India Joseph Dupleix are nearing completion, with the last few chapters being a few weeks away from being sent to editing. More info later

Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Take a moment, if you will, to imagine a man. He is dressed in richly appointed European style clothes of the 18th century and a horsehair wig. His office furniture is a mix of Indian and Western influences. What nationality is this man? British? What if he was… French?

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Millets of the world, part: the last. As a final homage to the breathtaking diversity of millets, this thread will be a grab bag of short segments dedicated to the most notable (subjectively) species remaining on the list. Expect the unexpected for this one

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Basil the great, a 4th century Cappadocian cleric, talked of a golden fleece produced by the “Pinna”, and some believe the legend of Jason’s golden fleece actually alludes to this rare luxury material, which has properties unlike any other ancient textile

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

First, the much-discussed vinyl chloride (VC). Also called chloroethene (C2H3Cl) this molecule is mainly used as a source material to make the polymer PVC (polyvinylchloride) the world’s third most produced plastic. VC production tonnage is in tens of millions of tons/year

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

11 months

Work is finally beginning on my next post, on the history of tobacco! Out early next week, stay tuned!

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

The second criteria, bioaccumulation, refers to the ability of the substance to become stocked in the body of organisms, either the leafs of plants or the fat and soft tissues of animals and accumulate over time. This criteria is mostly inapplicable to gasses also

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

- does not seem likely to prolong itself in the very long term. Of course if pollutant concentrations were high and animal die-offs occurred, it may take longer for recolonization to take place, but that’s always a bit random

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

One cannot reasonably claim to have written about the agriculture and flora of the island of Reunion without addressing one of its most popular exports: rum! Get cozy and break out the ice cubes, lime wedges and cane sugar, we’re gonna make the mother of all cocktails

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

It would have been incredibly rare and expensive: a single 1m long mussel produced 2-3 grams of filaments, 80% of which were lost during processing (washing, combing, spinning)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

overall while the short-term effects are grave, the VC by itself will rapidly degrade in the environment and on a timescale of at worst months or years environmental contamination levels for this particular pollutant will likely become negligible

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

It’s notable that VC does decompose in the air into mainly formyl chloride (corrosive) which is unstable and decomposes into other more or less stable compounds, some of them also being very corrosive. It may also form formaldehyde, hydrochloric acid…

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

A robe of sea-silk made in the 10th century was said to cost more than 1000 gold pieces, the equivalent to 400,000$ today. North African sultans and their secretaries also wore clothes of this material

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

VC is a gas under normal conditions, its flash point being at -78°C. It is colourless, heavier than air and has a detectable sweet smell. In Europe, most of its risk classification revolves around its extremely high flammability

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

1 year

Vorkuta is one of the most evil sounding place names I've heard of and googling for images online doesn't much improve that perception unfortunately (to be fair in the summer it seems to go from "depressing" to "nondescript", which is a big improvement)

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

In the last two threads in the millet series we saw how foxtail & broomcorn (or proso) millet were domesticated, probably in North-Eastern China and remained staple crops in the area from the neolithic until modern times. Now let’s look at proso’s uses outside China

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

But what does this have to do with silk? Glad you asked! These filaments, up to 20cm in length, may originally have been incidentally harvested in the Med, as fan mussel is edible and its huge shell is a major source of mother of pearl, self-evidently valuable commodities

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

However some of the substances VC decomposes into in the air can have a very negative impact on water quality and are water-soluble, it would mainly lead to strong water acidification in a radius around the spill site

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

Overall it seems likely to me that while the effects are grave short term with regards to the vicinity of the site and surrounding wildlife and waterways, the damage to the environment (as in, it being toxic to animals and plants) –

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Lanius

@General_JWJ

2 years

I’m reaching a point where a thread of threads may be in order! Especially since so many of them are sequels or somehow connected so it's sometimes hard to navigate. Welcome to plantworld!

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