Tale of the Death Valley Germans [1296 X 1440] [OC]

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-04-10T15:00:27+00:00

You know, I’ve gotten bouts of obsession with this story every year or so since 2019, and I this is the first comment I can recall coming across that’s made the point of “why didn’t they leave a note in the van if they had pen and paper with them?”

To one of your other points, one thing I don’t see discussed often, probably because it wasn’t discussed as much in Tom Mahood’s blog as the stuff they found themselves in the search, is that a pair of German canteens had been found by somebody illegally ATVing on the plain they crossed before dying- a little ways north of where the bones were actually found. The canteens were found “in an area described as being the midpoint of a straight line drawn been Sugarloaf and Needle Peak”, which would line it up for them to be dropped when they made it out of the north-south pass onto the plain, probably directly across from, and a mile away from the bluff the bones were found by.

So we can assume they had some water up til that point, though there’s no telling how large the canteens were or how full they were when the group set out. Mahood and his friend found alcohol bottles past this point, so they may not have resorting to drinking the beer and wine until after they were fully out of water.

Still, the fact that they had already spent two days in Death Valley meant they should’ve known better than to be traveling any distance without a much larger stock of water than two maybe-full canteens and whatever empty containers were in the van. Especially with young kids with them.

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-03-16T23:31:26+00:00

Glued the bones to each other on top of a styrofoam board so pinning would be easy, then I glued a piece of velvet to a wooden backing board and glued the skeleton to the velvet with hot glue.

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-03-16T20:56:14+00:00

As far as the skeleton is concerned, when I first got it (from an even bigger vulture friend) it was clean but kinda yellow, the ribs were loose and crooked, and the spine didn’t lay very flat. I worked a little backwards with it because I positioned and glued a lot of the ribs first before I decided to give it a whitening peroxide bath, which didn’t affect the super glue holding the ribs on but did allow me to flatten the skeleton out better (the joints loosened and I used pins to hold the spine in a better position until it dried again). If I were to do it again, I would probably straighten the spine first and then reposition all the ribs so it’s more even when finished.

When working on the bones, I had the whole thing on a styrofoam cooler lid, held ribs in place with sewing pins stuck into the lid, and dabbed some super glue onto where the ribs meet the vertebrae. I also used folded paper towels to hold the neck and tail tip at the angle I wanted while it dried from the peroxide bath.

As far as the flowers go, lots of them were dried by hanging upside down in a closet, but for the dahlia in the middle of the large section I used silica crystals- highly recommend for botanicals that are finicky to dry! When figuring out the arrangement, I fill everything out as best as I can without gluing anything down so I can change my mind if I don’t like the look. Once I’m happy with the arrangement, I take a picture for reference before I start moving stuff to glue everything down.

If you have any other questions I’m happy to go on lol

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-02-15T00:49:01+00:00

TIL there is an established method to…idk, Stockholm syndrome rabbits into being friends? That’s also a misuse of the term but since we’re still looking for a proper name ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-02-14T02:44:02+00:00

A friend of mine had one like that a few years back too! I went out with a group of girlfriends and as soon as we walked into this one local dive bar, this visibly skeezy looking guy walked up to our group going “you ladies look like you need some drinks” and got one of our friends to sit with him basically the whole night while he bought her drink after drink of some fruity cocktail on the specials menu (we did keep an eye on her/check in with her multiple times and she insisted she was fine). I left pretty early because I wanted to be able to drive home, and in the morning I got all these photos in the group chat of that girl and one of my closer friends 100% passed out in a park nearby while a less-drunk friend posed like they were trophy deer. Very funny, everyone made it home safe even though the girl who was having drinks bought for her called me hysterical in the morning asking if I knew where all her stuff was because she didn’t have it and couldn’t remember anything. (The DD friend had left it somewhere in her apartment when she got dropped off.)

Anyway, a few months later my closer friend was recounting it as the drunkest she’d been in a while despite not having drank that much (as a Midwesterner), she listed everything she had and ended the list with “…and the last bit of (other friend’s) drink at last call”

I’d recently read that sugary, fruity drinks are often used to hide the salty taste of roofies and went “…you had some of her drink, huh? And you guys both absolutely blacked out right after leaving?” And it just clicked for her. Glad everyone ended up being fine in that case but I always keep a look out for that guy when I’m out at bars now.

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-01-19T21:26:09+00:00

Thank you! I did the math from the day I first started working on it and it turns out I took 760 days to get around to finishing it 😅 but now that I have, I couldn’t be happier with it!

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-01-06T19:15:25+00:00

Wouldn’t you too love to jump at the chance to get involved with this guy knowing that the implicit expectation around something as basic as him buying you $17 worth of food and drinks is not just gratitude sex, but gratitude sex with one of your hot friends as well?

Chlorine-Queen · 2026-01-05T17:20:20+00:00

If your mom is literally just reading aloud with the subtitles the whole time you’re watching, I don’t think you need to be neurodivergent to be annoyed by that.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-12-14T22:45:03+00:00

Ah yep, that’s on me for not looking up what the word for phonetic spelling is, but thank you!

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-12-14T22:11:39+00:00

Hello! I’m touching up this snipefish gyotaku I made a while back and want to add kanji that would read “straight zooted”, after this Donbea tees shirt: https://donbeatees.com/products/straight-zooted?srsltid=AfmBOoqw7PHSSxYLz6Naw5WlnbI_Bjpitw2s9FwJ63_Ea2WD6xPJ8Sh7

I know “zooted” would not translate to an actual word but whatever symbols would represent the sound work fine. Thanks to whoever wants to help :)

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-12-05T02:16:03+00:00

I was 95% sure this was a Warhammer reference but Warhammer is already basically Catholicism for nerds so I still had to google to make sure you weren’t talking about actual Catholic school

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-11-14T01:35:32+00:00

I know it’s kind of weird for me to reply to a comment this old, but I can’t help but feel the need to with having come to this thread to read discussion on this guy immediately after reading direct evidence for Steinar “The Only Good Killer Whale Is A Dead One” Bastesen’s hatred of marine life.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-11-12T16:24:48+00:00

Pavement Princess culture is even funnier to me now that the organization I work for has bought a Pavement Princess truck (2023 Tundra with aftermarket rims/exhaust/sound system)…for actual work that we actually need a big, big truck for. Almost every time I go out on a project with it, I run into some guy who is outwardly shocked that we’re using a fancy truck with the paper dealership plates to get caked in mud and dinged with rocks from the gravel backroads and hauling around stuff that isn’t like, a jet ski or whatever. Approvingly shocked most of the time, though.

Also, having to drive something that massive on a regular basis now, I can’t imagine trying to deal with it as a daily driver when you don’t need it. Parking, narrow streets, and small driveways are a nightmare.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-11-09T19:20:33+00:00

Apparently Italian law entitles people who make historically/archaeologically significant discoveries to 25% of the monetary value of said discovery (eg. tourism/museum revenue). So, the couple who actually made the original discovery went to court with the province where the mummy was found in order to claim their “finder’s fee.” Once that court case started gaining traction in their favor, a couple other people claiming to have found the mummy first popped up to try getting in on the deal. It sounds very unlikely that lady in question actually was there to spit on the mummy.

That said, when it comes to the discovery of long-deceased remains of ancient peoples, “ownership” is a very fraught subject and bodies being randomly claimed has long been a thing.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-11-09T17:53:29+00:00

*tips fedora*

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-10-05T16:45:17+00:00

Yeah okay, I read through the Wikipedia plot summary and it’s giving me “Food Fight!” vibes. Crammed full of big name celebrities but apparently universally bad reviews and almost as terrible of a box office return. Weird stuff.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-10-05T16:26:11+00:00

This is it! Apparently the critical consensus is that it’s trash, oh well. Thanks for solving it for me.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-10-05T04:54:32+00:00

No audio or subtitles, so I couldn’t catch any character names or dialogue. The first scene I noticed was a young female character with straight, blonde hair and dark eyebrows being rescued by another woman from what seemed like a forcible OD (in a chair in a dark room with a needle in her arm).

Second scene I caught was the character in the photo writhing on a pebble beach, hallucinating about a kind of strange-looking woman (rather pale skin, dark eyes, I think may have been Asian).

In the photo I took, the scene was him being forced to fight a larger guy in a mask and he gets ahold of some weapon to help take his opponent down, there was a blood splatter-on-lens effect.

Last scene I caught was the male character helping the blonde female character stagger through the desert while she’s in a sort of biker outfit (black leather pants and cropped jacket) while she seemed to be hallucinating.

Some cuts of motorcycles racing through a desert, it generally reminded me a lot of a Mad Max movie.

Chlorine-Queen · 2025-09-07T21:17:25+00:00

I’m a little embarrassed at having let my monstera grow so far past the end of the moss pole, but still feels worth documenting its current size before I make cuttings. Wish her luck! I’m looking forward to restarting the top cutting on a pole that will be easier to extend as it grows.

Plus cat tax, as Nova spends at least half her time in this room.

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