Greetings, comrades. So to cut the story short, my physical state is absolute junk and it's about time to do something about it. I am overweight and lose breath after going up s flight or two of stairs, my back hurts almost daily and lifting things heavier than a backpack is stating to feel hard. All the doctors say I require exercise to resolve most issues. However, due to long commute and a few other issues, I can't really visit gym on a regular basis (plus it's not cheap). So what can I do from home to stop being a useless blob of blubber? For reference, I have a set of dumbbells, but using them hurts tendons in my arms more than it seems to affect the muscles.

I am seeking advice from the comrades

Josephoartigasia monesi, the largest rodent known to science. Weighing more than a ton, it reached up to 1.5 meters in height. It dwelled in South America during Pliocene and Pleistocene.

Art by James Gurney.

Today I bring you something peculiar. Meet Tupilakosaurus. It is an amphibian that dominated western Laurasia in early Triassic, as the biosphere struggled to recover after the Permian extinction.

Tupilakosaurus was a small - just under a meter long - creature, with a long, powerful tail, short limbs and (apparently) external gills, like those of an axolotl. These fine animals lived in rivers without going ashore and hunted small fish or other amphibians.

Tupilakosaurus is a curiosity due to its particular circular vertebrae (pictured below), which is uncommon for their kind of amphibians. Indeed, when first discovered they were originally believed to be fish, and later to be ancestors to Ichthyosaurs.

Despite their short existence, Tupilakosaurus had quite a sizeable habitat, ranging from modern day Greenland to western Russia, such as Vladimir oblast, Nizhny Novgorod region, and all the way to Arkhangelsk and Vyatka. It would take later amphibians millions of years to carve the same range.

Not sure where else to post this, given the frivolous nature of the topic.

So a few days ago I accidentally got into a political conversation with a liberal colleague. The topic was the much beloved by liberals in post-soviet states matter of "singular protests with an empty paper".

For those not familiar with this brand of silliness, it's a type of performative "protesting" whereupon a person would go alone (or together with a cameraman) somewhere public and stand there with an empty piece of paper - sometimes large, sometimes just an A4.

The idea (supposedly) is to demonstrate the stupidity of the Anti-Protest laws, since in some countries (Russia, Kazakhstan) such a performance usually ends quickly with police arriving and detaining the "protestors".

The main issue in the conversation, however, was my colleague's assertion that such acts are perfectly harmless, don't disturb anyone and thus should not be interrupted. And that police detention is an absurd overreaction due to the undemocratic nature of our government. And that in democratic countries - such as France or South Korea (his examples) one could do that with no problems whatsoever.

And now I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Today I bring you Benthosuchus - a relative of the Wetlugasaurus from the other week. Another Temnospondyli amphibian, its name translates to "crocodile of the deep". It's skull was ~70 cm long with overall body length reaching 2.5 meters. As with many other amphibians of this order, its eyes were closer to the top of the skull, aiming them upwards. This indicates that the animal was an ambush predator, waiting patiently just underwater until it was ready to strike.

The typical species, Benthosaurus sushkini, was logged by Ivan Efremov in 1929, with overall genus classified in 1936.

Thus I bring you Vetlugasaurus. Despite the -saurus in the name, it is in fact an Amphibian of the Temnospondyli order, which lived in what is now Russia and Greenland during the early Triassic period.

Originally discovered and categorized in 1920-s, it is named after river Vetluga - on the shores of which the first fossil was found. The skull measures ~22 cm, with overall body length ranging from 75 cm to 3 meters.

In 2018, a full skull was found.

Bonus: artistic rendition of its looks

The gorgonopsid was named after the river Vyatka in the Kirov oblast, near which it's been found. Kirov, of course, has been named after Sergey Kirov.

From the cartoon "Mystery of the Third Planet", about space adventures in a not-so-far communist future. Highly recommended.

Have this beautiful dromeosaurus I found on r/Sino

Analysis of the bone structure of Multituberculata demonstrates that they gave birth to relatively large babies, with a fairly short period of milk feeding - similair to modern day rodents.

This is in contrast to Marsupials, who birth tiny babies and milk feed them for quite a long time.

"A dress for the Tupandactil"

Okay so hear me out, please.

Tyranids, as all other "hivemind aliens" have likely been created originally as part of the Red Scare. Don't think I need to explain this one. GW took it a step further with Genestealers - who use rousing rhetoric (and mind control) to make "the masses" rise up against their oppressors, but are ultimately devoured by the swarm. They (GW) don't shy away from giving GSCs imagery very blatantly inspired by Communist art.

BUT

As always with anti-communist fiction, it is projection. And the things depicted work much better for capitalism. After all, what drives Tyranids? Hunger. That's it, just endless appetite, voracious desire to have ALL, even if it means stripping entire planets bare. No deviation from the dogma is allowed, just look at the western media and try telling me it's not a "hivemind".

And if we go to Genestealers, what are they if not an allegory for colour "revolutions"? Using sweet sounding rhetoric about brotherhood, unity and freedom they force the proletariat to weaken and destroy their society in order for the cult's foreign masters to sweep in and devour it all.

Thank you for reading.

The video is in Russian, but I don't think that would be a big issue

This particular skeleton was discovered in Mongolia in late 1940's - early 1950's. At the time USSR had organized a number of paleontological expeditions into the region - with great success. One of the most famous paleontologists of the expeditions was Ivan Antonovich Efremov (photo below), although he is better known as a science fiction writer, depicting a bright, socialist future of peaceful space exploration.

This is the Paleontology Museum in Moscow. The current building (pictured here) was created in 1965, after Academician Yuri Orlov petitioned the government that the old building was becoming too cramped and unfit for the vast collection. The museum currently bears comrade's Orlov's name.

Their website: https://www.paleo.ru/museum/about/

More pictures inside.