Mildly interesting

[jon-nyc]

Main mast rigging, HMS Victory.

[Aqua Letifer]

So, this is actually a poem. Some crazy bastard on the internets made a conlang based on, of all things, koi fish and water ripples. This image says: "If I were left behind, would you come for me?"

How it works:

Some morphemes in the sentence are phonologically written out and some are indicated by the position of things like the ripples or the fish. For example, this language is active-stative, meaning the subject of transitive sentences and the subject of intransitive sentences can be marked the same or different depending on whether the subject is being acted upon or is acting. The active spot marker is in the center of the koi's back, while the stative spot marker is touching the koi's shoot (not shown in this sentence, instead there's the oblique spot slightly further out than the stative spot).

The verb spot is at the base of the tail, and there's three positions. The one shown here is your base verb. Slightly to the left is perfective, while slightly to the right is continuous.

The koi is centered in an eight partitioned circle that indicates tense depending on the direction the snoot is pointing (in this case, we've got near future and near past). The direction of the tail indicates declarative, interrogative, or imperative moods.

Last but not least, small fish = subordinate clause. Because of these encoded positions, you can actually leave out parts of the words because they don't need to be double encoded.

[jon-nyc]

[George K]

@jon-nyc Samson was not quite as big as the photo depicts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampson_(horse)

Sampson (later renamed Mammoth)[1] was a Shire horse gelding born in 1846 and bred by Thomas Cleaver at Toddington Mills, Bedfordshire, England. According to Guinness World Records (1986) he was the tallest horse ever recorded, by 1850 measuring 219.7 centimetres (7 ft 2.5 in) or 21.25 hands in height.[1] His peak weight was estimated at 3,360 lb (1,524 kg)

"Hands" on a horse are measured from the ground to the withers, the base of the neck.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biggest-horse-in-history/

Here's a more accurate photo, allegedly of Samson.

[jon-nyc]

[Copper]

Does that count Larry & Dewey?

[jon-nyc]

More than mildly interesting. Is it fake?

[Mik]

@George-K said in Mildly interesting:

@jon-nyc Samson was not quite as big as the photo depicts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampson_(horse)

Sampson (later renamed Mammoth)[1] was a Shire horse gelding born in 1846 and bred by Thomas Cleaver at Toddington Mills, Bedfordshire, England. According to Guinness World Records (1986) he was the tallest horse ever recorded, by 1850 measuring 219.7 centimetres (7 ft 2.5 in) or 21.25 hands in height.[1] His peak weight was estimated at 3,360 lb (1,524 kg)

"Hands" on a horse are measured from the ground to the withers, the base of the neck.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biggest-horse-in-history/

Here's a more accurate photo, allegedly of Samson.

Still a BIG fucking horse.

[taiwan_girl]

[LuFins Dad]

[Mik]

https://seenfeed.site/the-cosquer-cave-a-submerged-portal-to-ancient-art/

[taiwan_girl]

@Mik Wow! That is crazy. Imagine the first guy to decide to swim in an underground tunnel, not knowing when/if it would open up

[George K]

[kluurs]

[Mik]

@taiwan_girl said in Mildly interesting:

@Mik Wow! That is crazy. Imagine the first guy to decide to swim in an underground tunnel, not knowing when/if it would open up

I'd imagine it was at a time when the seas were lower and the entrance was open.

[taiwan_girl]

@Mik said in Mildly interesting:

@taiwan_girl said in Mildly interesting:

@Mik Wow! That is crazy. Imagine the first guy to decide to swim in an underground tunnel, not knowing when/if it would open up

I'd imagine it was at a time when the seas were lower and the entrance was open.

Good point!!!

[Mik]

[Rainman]

0 to 60 in ?

[Mik]

6 seconds after it falls off the edge of the Earth.

[George K]