#but then it’s later ‘hal’s fault’ that she died of a complication

[danothan]

lemme know if this is supported/debunked anywhere, but i always thought it interesting how significant it was meant to be that jim got hal a framed photo of him and their dad. yes ofc martin’s death makes it significant, but did hal not have any other photos of him? the line “something i wish i could’ve given you a long time ago” gives a weight to the gift like i’m missing smth, like smth could’ve changed if he had. and the fact that jim was so excited to give it to hal all those years ago that he stayed up until midnight makes it feel even more significant, secretive even

what i’m saying is that i headcanon their mom took down all the photos of their dad bc she hated having the reminder. that’s why it’s especially painful for her seeing hal follows in martin’s footsteps, he’s the spitting image of his father. without him there, even in spirit thru framed photos, it puts a lot of pressure onto hal. i can see this being a part of her coddling and overprotectiveness, how she wants to hold onto what she has left. and i can also see how her later disowning him can reflect putting the photos away, how it seems almost contradictory that she wants to protect him so she tells him to never come back. it’s that duality of grief; she loves him so much that she can’t bear to look

god hal rly grew up in a fucked up household didn’t he, no wonder he ran away

#hal jordan #green lantern #dc #dc comics #jim jordan #jack jordan #jessica jordan #martin jordan #secret origin #panels #danbles #meta #i also wonder if jessica wanted to discourage hal from idolizing his dad #so if she kept martin away from him he would somehow forget abt it and lose interest in flying #god how fucked up is that. to keep a grieving son’s late father away from him #i hope this isn’t disproportionately angsty #i just feel like it’s rly fucked up that she wouldn’t let him see her when she was literally on her deathbed #hmm actually im looking back on these pages and im wondering if she DID say that #bc it’s jack and jim that say hal can’t see her bc of his ‘broken promise’ #but then it’s later ‘hal’s fault’ that she died of a complication #implying that she got so emotional abt the fact that he was a pilot that it worsened her condition #did jack and/or jim tell her?? did she ask to see hal and they refused?? #like she’s DYING could you guys not have lied and pretended that hal kept his promise #she died thinking she already lost her son how do you think that makes hal feel #god this is ill. i rly feel for him #aghh i love hal’s backstory i love seeing it bleed into his active characterization!!!

[a-gay-shipper247]

RANDOM SUPERBAT

 In this au, the young justice existed, but they or the justice league didn't know who Batman is.

•Contrary to what Superman might think, his disguise to keep his secret identity safe is an absolute and utter failure. So all of the league members know exactly who superman is in the span of a month.

• He doesn't mind much, sometimes, Wally even stops by the daily planet to chat. If a league member is in need of help (like... a safe house in metropolis) they can depend on Superman's apartment.

•Some heroes run into each other from time to time,  going to and from the apartment.

•And of course they become very fast friends, so most people even knows each others identities. 

• Except for Batman, but then again, he's Batman. 

•They never see him anywhere near metropolis, not that he doesn't ever help out Superman, he does, he helps most considering Gotham and Metropolis are close. But they never see Batman coming to or from Clark's house or office. 

• The heroes do meet Clark's boyfriend though, and they never stop being confused as to why the heck would Superman, who looks for the inner good of people, is dating Gotham's residential airhead Playboy Bruce Wayne. 

• They know it's been going on for a while, and that they're not dating in public. But for gods sake, can the man stop being such an idiot every single time they meet?!?

• "Diana, I'd like to add a new hero to the league" Batman says one meeting in his growly voice. 

•Would it kill him to take that stick out of his butt every once in a while. Wally finds himself thinking quite often. 

•" I wouldn't mind a new recruit. Are they trustworthy though?" The green arrow, or as Wally figured out three weeks ago, Oliver asked. 

•"Absolutely. Flash worked with him before. " Batman assured, honestly they weren't sure what they were worried about so much, if Batman can trust someone, any other of the leaguers can. 

•"I worked with him? You mean like in young justice? ".

•" yes." Was the oh so clarifying answer

•"Well, a lot of us are here now, when do we get to meet the new member?" Oliver says after a few beats of awkward silence. 

•"He should be here in a while." 

• About two minutes later the arrival of the newcomer is announced, Wally's face lights up in a smile. Of course he knows the newcomer, He's been crushing on the guy for so long. 

•"Man, this place looks better than I thought it would." Nightwing announces his presence. 

• The leaguers easily accept Nightwing. He has always been a charmer. 

•After a few days though, they seemed to notice something odd. Even though Batman is the one who introduced Nightwing to the leagues, he tends to brush off the new hero. 

•*After doing a complicated acrobatic move* "Hey, B how was that one?" "Pay attention to your surroundings."  "Did I do that right?"    "Left leg was sloppy" 

•No matter what Nightwing seemed to do, Batman never gave him due credit. Not that they themselves got treated much better, but they thought maybe with someone there he himself appointed, the cranky bat would ease up a little bit. 

• It was Diana who blew up first, though to say the truth, Wally was this close to yelling at the bat too. 

• "WHY ARE YOU SO STANDOFFISH TOWARDS HIM?!? WOULD IT KILL YOU TO SAY SOMETHING GOOD?!?!" Diana snapped, mostly because Nightwing is a charmer and easy to become friends with, even though he’s a lot younger than her.

•Batman stared at her for a while before answering, "I'm keeping him on his toes. As he should be all the time."

•"Wonder woman, don't worry about it, he actually has a soft gooey center under all that crabby exterior, besides, I know that I'm the favorite son." Nightwing tried to placate the fuming Amazon. 

• his words worked like a wet blanket put over her anger. 

•"Favorite..... Son?" Hal asked confused. 

•"YEAH! I mean, I wasn't the perfect child growing up.... And that thing with the batmobile was my fault, but I caused the least amount of trouble between all of us." Nightwing informed brightly. 

• The league gaped at Nightwing and the Bat, SON?!?!?

•"Well, by that theory, shouldn't Red Robin be the least troublemaking? " Superman input, helping absolutely no one to process what was being said.

•"Hey! He caused troubles too! He..... Well...... Uh...... Yeah ok, Red is the best kid." "I honestly thought, you would say Robin is the best kid." "Hey, I know the kid, and that's why I can surely say that he caused plenty of trouble"

• The rest of the league was silently gaping through Superman and Nightwing's conversation. 

•"Hey B who is your favorite? " Nightwing asked. The rest of them were completely expecting Batman to stare at Nightwing until things got awkward so they were surprised when he actually speaked. 

•"Black Bat. She's better than all of you. " Batman says in a deadpan tone. 

•"Wait wait wait, you have children? " flash asked unable to quench his curiosity.  "Yes, quite a few of them actually." Superman answers for him. 

•Superman receives various vacant stares for his efforts.  "Wait..... Superman, you knew that he has children?" "Uh... Yes?" Superman said as though it should be obvious. 

•"Does that mean you know his identity too?" Diana asked. Nightwing snorted.  "It's kinda hard not to know his identity, when superman is busy sucking his face all the time." Nightwing says. 

•"WHAT?!?! I thought you were dating Wayne?!?" Wally says looking horrified.

• And now it's Nightwing'a turn to look confused. "Uh, yeah, KF, .......where were you going with that?" 

•"If he's dating Bruce Wayne then......." Flash pointers at Superman, " why is he kissing Batman? " Diana prompted. 

•"Waaait....... You guys didn't........ Oh my god B they did know?!?!?" Nightwing turned towards Batman looking mortified. 

•They all looked at Batman to see him pinching between his eyes over his cowl. Even with it on, they got the message clearly. It was 'done with all of your shit'

• "did something happen to Bruce Wayne?" Oliver asked tentatively. 

•"uh, Batman, mind saying something before they decide you died?" Superman prompted. 

•"not really " the black clad man grunted. 

• "B I know you find this hilarious, but I think some members of the league is about to have aneurisms." Nightwing pointed out though not looking much remorseful himself. 

•"fine... " Batman turned to the rest of the league, "if any of you even think about abusing this information, just remember that I know your deepest darkest secrets." He warned before taking off his cowl.

#superbat #batman #nightwing #superman #wonder woman #flash #identity reveal #bruce wayne is batman #i know shocker #justice league

[csnews]

This baby sperm whale was tangled in ocean trash for 3 years

Craig Welch - January 2, 2019

A thick strand of rope, a wayward piece of quarter-inch cord from a fishing net, dangled off the tail of a young sperm whale. To the untrained eye, the line looked harmless—a lasso cinched near the base of the animal's fluke. But Gero knew the rope was a killer.

The photographs emailed from a colleague showed the heavy rope weighing down the animal's tail. That could prevent her from diving, which is how sperm whales hunt food. As she grew, the constriction would also slice through her flesh, strangling tissue like a garrote. The line might even amputate her fluke, though infection or starvation would probably do her in first.

At home in Ottawa, Gero pushed back from the computer. He called his wife and tried not to cry.

Digit the sperm whale was not quite four, but Gero had known her family for years. Each spring for a decade the Canadian behavioral ecologist had abandoned his own brood to spend months with these whales in the Caribbean Sea near the tiny West Indies island nation of Dominica. Though not yet 40, the assistant professor at Aarhus University in Denmark was rapidly becoming the world's foremost expert on baby sperm whales. Digit and her relatives were his star subjects.

Digit's very existence was significant. Thousands of sperm whales traverse the world's oceans. But 12 of the 16 whale families that returned each year to this stretch of the Caribbean were dying off. Each family could be down to a single whale in just 15 years.

Also, sperm whale families are matrilineal. Adult males eventually get cast out, and females bear the exclusive burden of rearing the young. For years, the family had produced a string of males. Three of them—Thumb, Tweak, and Enigma—had died already. Scar would soon disappear.

The family needed a female calf.

So Digit's arrival in 2011 left Gero's research team ecstatic. The crew watched Digit wean herself from her mother, Fingers. They cheered when she flipped her fluke up for her first deep dive. With Digit's arrival, the most-studied sperm whale family in the world seemed poised to carry on.

Then, in 2015, Gero received the images.

Sociable leviathans

In literature, sperm whales are ship-splintering beasts—monsters of "inscrutable malice," as Ahab seethed in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. In reality, that is far from true.

The world's largest toothed whales have the animal kingdom's biggest brains. The deep-diving nomads share membership in clans that can number in the thousands. Each clan chatters in its own dialect using a unique set of click patterns. These whales are social and playful. They roll and rub against each other near the surface. Some engage in hide-and-seek games, swimming circles around scientists' research boats and rolling sideways to eye the inhabitants. Sperm whales also are quite curious, especially when spying unfamiliar debris.

Gero, a National Geographic Explorer, could guess what had happened to Digit. Caribbean fishermen anchor nets to the sea floor to lure marlin, tuna, and mahi mahi. Whales rarely disturb that fixed gear, but container and cruise ships often accidentally shred it. Flapping ghost nets draw inquisitive creatures, and those loose lines are to whales what spider webs are to flies. While there are no reliable global statistics, at least 76 large whales, including humpbacks, blues, and minkes, got trapped in nets, lines, or debris in 2017—just in United States waters. And the vast majority of entanglements go unseen.

Gero suspects Digit simply snagged a loop of loose line. Three other whales in the region had recently been snared by fishing gear. One, a mother with a broken jaw, was forced to drag her dead calf for days after both got trapped in the same nest of lines. (The mother's injured mouth suggested she'd tried gnawing the calf free.)

Gero and colleagues reached out to Michael Moore, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. He had helped untangle endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Moore's assessment was bleak. The pictures showed Digit's noose was tight. Only a dozen feet of line trailed her—too little to attach buoys to keep a deep-diving sperm whale near the surface. That was essential for rescuers to work. Without more line, a team would struggle to get close.

"There was so little gear on her," Moore says. "It was not going to be a slam dunk."

There were other complications. Dominica isn't New England. There wasn't a trained disentanglement crew for hundreds of miles. Getting one would take money and time. No one knew how much time they had.

"We were confronted with the long-term, chronic, slow death of an animal we see every day—one we thought we'd know forever," Gero says.

It felt personal.

Getting to know them

Gero had studied under sperm whale guru Hal Whitehead, at Halifax's Dalhousie University. Whitehead believed these sophisticated leviathans deserved the same respect as primates. Whitehead mostly studied adults. As a student, Gero wanted to learn about the young: Which family members raised them? When did they first dive deep? How did they learn their dialect—and from whom?

So in 2005, the young scientist arrived in Dominica aboard Whitehead's 40-foot research sailboat, Balaena. There he found a gathering of whales he would dub the Group of Seven, named for a collective of famed Canadian painters.

The Group of Seven tended to spend weeks near this coast. They were spotted more often than other whales. That first year, Gero's team spent an astonishing 40 days cataloging this one family's behavior.

"We'd go into shore and get groceries and come back and we'd still see the same animals just offshore," Gero says. "That's unheard of."

It's why their names seem flip—Gero needed to tell them apart, but had never expected he'd see them again.

As with Jane Goodall's chimpanzees and Dian Fossey's mountain gorillas, intimate access revealed each animal's distinct habits and personality. Over time, Gero began to see these whales as individuals.

Fingers appeared to be in charge. She usually broadcast the "coda," four clicks that identified the family to other whales, like a surname. When her offspring, Thumb, died, Fingers helped watch over others' young. She steered clear of people and was known for spectacular dives, muscling her fluke high before plunging straight down.

"It's hard to describe how beautifully she flukes to someone who doesn’t watch hundreds of whales do it," says Gero, whose research is conducted through Aarhus University's Marine Bioacoustics Laboratory. "It feels like she is demonstrating to others the way."

Fingers' niece, Pinchy, was mother to Scar, who was so comfortable with humans he'd become a star in Dominica's swim-with-whales tourism industry. There was sickly Quasimodo, and Mysterio, so named because she appeared rarely.

Gero felt a growing kinship with the cetaceans. "The whales were becoming a part of my life," he says. "My kids knew these animals by name even though they'd never met them."

The whales prompted him to rethink his views on conservation. In many sperm whale families, calves get milk from other calves' mothers. The Group of Seven's young only got milk from their actual mothers. If behaviors and communication were unique to clans or families, didn't that suggest conservation should be about more than total population numbers? Wasn't each clan special in its own right?

In 2011 a documentary crew arrived, led by a filmmaker who'd co-produced the Fossey biopic, Gorillas in the Mist. When Fingers gave birth to a new calf that week, Gero knew what to call her.

He named the new calf Digit, after Fossey's favorite silverback. Only later would he recall what humans did to Fossey's gorilla.

Wasting away

Before arriving in Dominica for the 2015 research season, Gero had only seen Digit's injuries in emailed pictures. In person things looked even worse. Before she got tangled, the young whale had just started swimming and diving alone. Now she only appeared with adults. She was reserved instead of curious. She kept her distance from boats and people.

"It was like she was trying to say, 'This is all your fault, you humans,'" says Pernell Francis, who has worked with Gero.

Gero could see the rope gouging her flesh. More troubling still: Digit couldn't raise her fluke. The rope was creating too much drag. As he'd feared, she could not dive deep, which was hampering her hunt for squid.

Word of Digit's condition spread. Ted Cheeseman, who took clients swimming with whales, raised money to hire a professional disentanglement team. Whale advocates whispered about cutting the rope themselves. Gero knew that was too dangerous.

"There are Internet videos where people have done it, but they're bloody lucky they didn't kill themselves," Moore says. A trained rescuer would die in 2017, after being struck by a whale he'd just freed.

Eventually someone took the plunge anyway. The diver shortened Digit's rope, but could not cut the noose. The shorter line reduced the drag on Digit's tail, but now even less cord remained for pros to work with.

Ultimately, no rescue crew would be coming. Cheeseman ended up using the money he'd raised to buy and stash equipment for future rescues. He paid to assemble and train a future Dominica disentanglement crew.

Digit, meanwhile, grew ever thinner. No longer able to catch her own food, she returned to being nursed by Fingers.

"It was like watching your child go back to crawling," Gero says.

People care

One afternoon in Dominica a boat zipped by and a woman shouted: "Hey Shane, how can I help Digit?" Gero was taken aback. Even strangers were worried.

That night Gero ate on the deck of his research boat, beneath a dangling headlamp. The Group of Seven was in trouble. That family was now on the brink, down to just three whales: Fingers, Pinchy, and Digit. But the stranger's query was a reminder that Digit's story held real power.

While humans are attached to dolphins and orcas, many can't even identify a sperm whale. Fewer still understand the gantlet of threats these nomads face: pollution, climate change, ship strikes, fishing gear.

"But people can understand a mom caring for a kid who is suddenly facing a chronic injury," Gero says.

Gero vowed something useful would come of Digit's wounds.

Over the next several years, Gero expanded his research's focus on conservation. He wrote and lectured more. He spoke at museums and even mentioned Digit's quandary during a TEDx Talk. He and a team mapped whale and vessel movements and urged the government to restrict ship traffic to areas that whales avoided. Gero hoped that might help fishing-boat operators find ship-free places to set nets.

"Digit changed the whole perspective of our project," Gero says. No longer was whale behavior his sole interest. Now he asked: "What can we do to ensure we all co-exist?"

Still he couldn't help Digit. She had not resumed fluking. Her flesh began to grow around the rope, closing over it. Gero suspected he was watching Digit die.

Miracle

Then last spring he saw her again from the bow of Balaena. Days into the 2018 field season, Digit popped to the surface. Gero knew immediately that everything had changed.

The outline of Digit's spine was no longer so visible. She had gotten plump. Looking closely, Gero could see abrasions and marks where the rope had rubbed. The line itself was simply gone.

A few months earlier, a colleague in Dominica had emailed to say he'd heard Digit had lost her rope. Gero had been hopeful, but skeptical. Now as Digit moved to slip below the surface, Gero's entire team fell silent. Digit flipped her fluke and dove. A cheer erupted from the boat. After three years, Digit was free.

Later, the scientist and his team would attach a tracking device to Digit's back. When they eventually reviewed the tag's data, Gero was overwhelmed. Digit was diving more than 3,000 feet. She was slurping up squid. Digit was behaving like a healthy seven-year-old whale.

No one knows how she got free. Cheeseman suspects that sunlight, time, and pressure weakened Digit's line until it finally broke. Moore says if Digit swam near a sharp rock or crevice, she might have scraped the deteriorating rope off. Other whales might even have helped.

"If someone told me two sperm whales had a tug of war over the line and it broke, I'd believe it," Moore says.

Gero has another idea. He saw fresh scars on Digit's fluke. He suspects predators may have attacked her and unwittingly ripped off the gear.

But Gero knows he'll never be certain. He almost prefers it that way.

"It's easy to forget that that there are thousands of species right next to us with rich and complicated worlds, living their lives in parallel with our own," Gero says.

A new generation of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale was swimming free. Knowing that would be enough.

#news #long article #whale #cetacean #sperm whale #wild #entanglement #conservation