Author: marcythewerewolf

buttermybooks:

readingroxy:

the-future-now:

We just got an unprecedented look at a black hole ripping apart a star

For the first time ever, astronomers got a close-up peek at a black hole ripping apart a star, a rare event that results in some of the star’s material getting ejected out into space. To research this phenomenon, astronomers used data from a tidal disruption that happened 3.9 billion years ago. Studying tidal disruptions like this one is revealing new information about how black holes behave.

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@buttermybooks

I am actually crying real tears right now

tikkunolamorgtfo:

stupidjewishwhiteboy:

judeoceltische:

cartopathy:

But why is the dauphin called a dauphin. Like, did they misunderstand what Wales meant and tried to copy the English? 

Oh, your king’s oldest son is the Prince of Whales, well, ours is a fucking dolphin, piss off, have some tennis balls.

OK, I’m not proud of it, but I can answer this one:

Back in the thirteen hundreds, the Dauphiné was a region of France. (Southeast somewhere I think?) The region was named for its lords, who were originally titled ‘Count of Albon’ like normal people. They then took the oddball title of ‘Dauphin’, following a count who was called ‘le Dauphin’ because he had a dolphin on his heraldry.

The title went from ‘Count of Albon‘ to ‘Dolphin of Viennois’ (the Viennois being the area around Vienne, their base), and they named their little state le Dauphiné, ‘the Dolphinate’  and then in the mid-fourteenth century they went broke, and agreed to hand the whole thing over to the king of France. But only if the heirs to the throne took on and preserved the dolphin title, to which they were apparently pretty attached. The term was agreed to, and the heir to the throne of France was ‘le dauphin de Viennois’, and his wife ‘la dauphine’, until 1791.

I swear to God, I’m not kidding. Medieval French noblemen were a trip. History has not recorded the response of the first French crown prince to be informed that he was taking on this weird-ass vanity title in exchange for a big chunk of land.

I wondered this for so long!

THE DOLPHINATE

prokopetz:

justiceruthbaderginsburg:

retroactivebakeries:

the term “edgelord” implies the existence of an entire hierarchical structure of edgenobility. there ought to be like, edgedukes and edgeviscounts running around. edgesquires. edgecomtessas.  

Edgemarquis

Hah!

Historically, the distinction between a count and a marquis is that a marquis’ domain lies at the border of the kingdom, and is thus more likely to be attacked by hostile forces. This position of elevated trust is why a marquis traditionally outranks a count.

Now, the domain of a marquis is called a “march”, derived from the Old French marche (”border, boundary”), and ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European mereg, which translates as… “edge”.

A marquis, then, is a literal edge-lord; i.e., lord of an “edge”, or border domain.

We must therefore conclude that an edgemarquis is twice as edgy as other edgelords.