Rainforest insects macro photographs

An Assassin Fly (aka Robber Fly) feeding on a Cranefly; photo by Mark Berkery.

Mark Berkery is an Englishman now living in Australia who is steadily producing a very fine collection of macro photography.  His focus is on the insects of the Australian rainforest and his images combine incredible sharpness with fabulous, saturated colours.  Here is a small sample from his site to whet the appetite.

A beetle with an almost human face; photo from Mark Berkery

The head and tail of a centipede; photo from Mark Berkery

Wasp emerges from a branch; photo from Mark Berkery

Macro photographs like these (especially when you view the full-size versions) make it much easier to see the old fantasy game staple of giant insects as legitimate threats.  Imagine going eye-ball to eye-ball with that Assassin Fly, or facing a wasp the size of a cat.  The “giant centipede” has always struck me a vaguely comical, but when you look at them properly they look otherworldly and alien.

The goliath tigerfish

Angler Jeremy Wade, photo from the Daily Mail.

[I suspect that this photo is actually a little deceptive, that it’s using a fish-eye (no pun intended) lens that exaggerates the size of the mouth.  But, then, we are talking about games where we suppose magic and dragons to be real …]

The goliath tigerfish is found in remote sections of the Congo.  Tigerfish are known for their aggressive feeding, behaving much like we think of piranha.  The goliath variety marry that ferocious nature with prodigious size.  Jeremy Wade, host of River Monsters, spent eight days to catch this example, reportedly 1.5m long and weighing almost 50kg.

Photo from the Daily Mail.

Fish are a little underutilised in games, probably because we breath air rather than water.  Big fish in the river? get out of the river; big bear in the forest? better get ready to fight.  Many of the species depicted on River Monsters should encourage us to right that balance.

Michael Heizer’s “City”

City, rising out of the lonely Nevada landscape.  Note the cement truck, for scale.  Photo by the New York Times, via Double Negative

Since the early 1970s, the artist Michael Heizer has been building a sculpture on such a massive scale that it defies the common notions of what actually constitutes sculpture.  City is a series of structures that, once completed, are anticipated to be a quarter of a mile wide and a mile & a quarter long.  As we can see in the image, their shapes recall the architectures of pre-Columbian America, but with their monochrome colours and simple shapes they also reflect contemporary hard minimalism.

From the top of one of the structures, looking back across an open square.  Photo by the NYT.

Once completed (in 2005, they were forecasting that it would be done by 2010, but the financial crisis may have intervened), it will be open to the public who will then be able to wander this contemporary mythological city, with its suggestions of temple squares, royal palaces, and defensive walls.

By any standards, this is an incredibly large structure to be built as a work of art.  What other locations or structures could be built for aesthetic rather than practical purposes?  Could Cthulhu have built R’lyeh as an artwork; perhaps “the geometry of the place was all wrong” because Cthulhu was a Cubist?  What if James Bond confronted Hugo Drax and learns that far from striking a blow in the name of his dead Fuhrer, the Moonraker is part of some elaborate piece of modern theatre, where detonating a nuclear device is just a new wrinkle on breaking the fourth wall?

Altneuschul, Prague – origin of the Golem

via Atlas Obscura

The Altneuschul – literally the “Old New Synagogue” – has a host of stories around it.  Built in Praguue in 1270 AD, it is the oldest surviving Synagogue in Europe.  But as old as it is, it has some claims on being older still, as there is a tradition that believes it contains stones taken from the Temple of Jerusalem.  That would put it in a tradition that stretches back to King Solomon.

But it is most famous for the story of the Golem.  In 1580, so the story goes, in order to protect the Jewish people in the ghettos of Prague from attacks, rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel built a clay statue that he brought to life.  The golem then defended the people from their enemies, before turning so violent that it had to be stopped.  According to this story, the golem remains in the attic of the synagogue.  Sadly, the story doesn’t have as old a history as the building itself, and likely originated in the 19th century.

The building has that powerful pull on the imagination of the very old.  Not only is it more than 700 years old, but it may indeed embody components that are far older still.  There is also something interesting about the story of the golem in that it is created to protect the community (even if it eventually goes off the rails).  I can’t think of a game that I’ve seen where the outcome was “let’s build some sort of magical protector” rather than just wading in and doing all the killing yourself.  Indeed, if something like a golem showed up, it’s an adversary to deal with rather than something to create for a role.  Is that the fault of the game, or the gamers?  I think a bit of both.

Mind-controlling parasites

Whether just intestinal worms or gut-tearing aliens, parasites are already a creepy thought.  The idea that something will use your body as a host to live and breed in is something that most people don’t like to think about.  And the fact that so many of these organisms are specifically targeting their host species and so are searching them out gives them an air of malice.  It turns out that matters could be far worse – there are many examples of parasites that will seize control of their host, attacking its brain and causing it to do things that it wouldn’t ordinarily do, in the interests of its parasitic master.
For example, there are many species of wasp that lay parasitic eggs, but one variety of Hymenoepimecis wasp works a little differently.  The wasp egg is attached to the back of an orb spider which carries on being a spider – for now.  At some point, the larva decides that it wants a cocoon, and it starts injecting chemicals into its host.  Now the spider builds a very different web and sits still in the middle.  The larva emerges, devours the spider and uses the web to finish building its cocoon.
There are many other examples of mind-controlling insects (another favourite is the flatworm Leucochloridium paradoxum), but I was surprised to learn about fungi that also take over their hosts brains.

David Attenborough’s voice is so calming as he talks about a fungus that controls a species of ant.

The Cordyceps genus of fungus are all parasites, but there are some species that go beyond just infecting their hosts and will modify their behaviour.  One attacks the bullet ant, infecting its brain and causing it to seek out a spot that suits the fungus.  The ant grabs hold of a twig to stabilise itself, and the fungus grows out of the ants head to spread spores over more ants in the nest.
It turns out that this adaptation is very old.  There is evidence from as far back as 48 million years ago of ants exhibiting this characteristic behaviour.
For some more mind-controlling parasites, take a look at these lists of examples.
Hmm, an “Invasion of the body snatchers” scenario immediately suggests itself.  Or perhaps a colony of insects commanded by a fungus that took control of their queen?