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mollymattison629 · 2 months ago

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LIVE IN ART??????

*This is a collaborative post with other classmates. They are credited at the bottom of this post*

The Obelisk Gate - Post 1

11/16/2018

!!!! Possible Spoilers Ahead !!!!

What started off as a quiet and ordinary day turned into one of the most notorious natural disasters ever recorded in history. But, how exactly? On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on the Richter Scale took place at a depth of 18.6 miles, in the northwestern side of Japan. Although the epicenter was located some 80 miles east of the city of Sendai, the effects of the great earthquake were felt around the world, from Norway’s fjords to Antarctica’s ice sheets. The Japan Earthquake also called the Great Sendai Earthquake or the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami of 2011 had a combined total of 22,000 deaths and missing person reports. Deaths were caused by the initial earthquake and tsunami and by post-disaster health conditions as a result of other life-threatening factors. Devastatingly enough, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors with two under construction and 17 power plants which produced about 30% of Japan’s electricity. From the nationwide electrical damage, there was material damage from the earthquake and tsunami that estimated to cost 25 trillion yen (roughly 300 billion). As of February 2017, residents are still recovering from the disaster. Because of the cooling failure at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which resulted in a level-7 nuclear meltdown and release of radioactive material, the damages are yet to be fully restored. This earthquake and its secondary effects were so powerful that it even caused changes in the earth’s axis. The legacy of this earthquake will linger for the years to come for its residents and the rest of the world.

Now, art. There’s a trend in human history of using art to pass on impactful information. Art becomes a medium through which we can share knowledge, express reverence and even remind others of something that once was. Following the trend of civilizations past who used artforms like sculptures, carvings, pottery etc., the Great Tohoku Earthquake has resulted not only in long-lasting consequences, but also in art mediums which have captured the meaning of its experience to victims and witnesses. Jave Yoshimoto created a forty-two-inch by thirty-foot, hand-painted scroll which shows the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, as well as community response to destruction in its wake. It is titled “Baptism of concrete estuary.” A portion of the scroll appears below.

One example of this history captured in art is its visual depictions.

Yoi Kawakubo took a different approach to the depiction of Japan’s tragedy, and more specifically of its nuclear consequences. Instead of traditional artforms, Kawakubo buried photographic film in an area of Fukushima, where it absorbed and displays radiation exposure. This piece is titled “When the mist takes off the suns.”

As a way of capturing the more immediate consequences of this seismic event, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper captured the photograph below, which shows toppled tombstones. These disturbed grave markers were a direct result of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and had still not been righted when the photo was taken five years later.

Jemisin tackles this concept of using art as a means of reminding people of significant events in history through different mediums in the Broken Earth Trilogy. This can be seen in the preservation of stonelore, or even the ancient creation of the plutonic engines—which were initially made as art— but looking at more obvious depictions it’s easy to forget that stone eaters look like sculptures. Stone eaters, besides appearing as statues and artistic mediums, are also embodiments of an archaic history. Some of their memories, though not perfect, span centuries and even millennia. Alabaster introduces us to this in The Obelisk Gate when he says, “they’ve been fighting this war much, much, longer than you or I. Some of them from the very beginning…They can’t die, so…yeah” (167). This gives the stone eaters a massive historic significance for the world Jemisin has created. Representationally, they are the most accurate—though still biased by human folly—perception of the true history of the Stillness than what’s been recorded and rewritten and destroyed.

Assessing the decision to grant this supreme knowledge to individuals who look like art leads us to critique another decision which lies in the selection of who is given access to this history. In terms of Hoa and Essun’s relationship we are told that he attaches himself to her from the earliest book in the trilogy. This is stated in The Obelisk Gate during an Interlude when Lerna questions Hoa’s devotion to Essun and Hoa says, “I love her, of course” (Jemisin 382). We know that not everyone in the Stillness is aware of stone eaters and so access to their knowledge is limited. So then, the fact that at least one motivator for sharing this knowledge is love speaks volumes on what art means for us as a civilization.

From destruction, we reconstruct; from harm, we sustain; through art, we love (?).

-- A piece by Sabrina Bramwell, Delaney O’Shea, Joy Kim, Laura Montes, Brigid Goodman, and Molly Mattison.

#n k jemisin #the fifth season #the obelisk gate #Great Sendai Earthquake

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yumefuusen · 3 years ago

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I can't sleep well last night because of the fucking earthquake.

I got a disaster announcement app installed on my phone. Everytime there's any possibility of disaster (landslide, earthquake, tsunami, heavy rain, heavy snow, etc) it'll ring so loud so we're aware of it.

Everyone, please stay safe!

With the magnitude of 7.3 and the warning of tsunami?

Man, that was scary. Hopefully the 11 year earthquake incident didn't happen twice.

Also I got this from my boyfriend.

That was horrible. I'm scared.

The earthquake hits so hard on some places, even mirror and glass panels were shattered. Another earthquake impact was power outage cracking on the road surface and building took several damage, too. My friend texted me her place was completely blackout for 2 hours after the tremor.

FYI, Japan likes to be a little different when it comes to measuring earthquakes.

You'll probably see an image like this one:

If you’re not used to it, you may see this image and be a little confused…

Essentially, the image tells you four important things:

The Epicentre (震源 shin-gen): This is marked with the big X. The text on top of the screen tells you the epicentre of the quake is in the western part of Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県西部).

The Depth of the earthquake (深さ fukasa): The image tells you the earthquake occurred 10 km (10キロ) below the surface of the earth. Generally speaking, shallower quakes tend to be more damaging.

The Magnitude reading（マグニチュード magunichūdo): The Magnitude reading of this quake is 4.9.

The Seismic Intensity (震度 shin-do): The image shows several numbers in different colours (5+, 3, 2, 1) spread across the map, the highest being 5+. These are the seismic intensity, or shin-do, measurements which vary according to your location.

So what’s the difference between Magnitude and Seismic Intensity (shin-do)?

Magnitude (a.k.a. the Richter Magnitude scale) measures the amount of energy released at the earthquake’s epicenter. The scale can go up to as high as 9.5 (this was the largest ever recorded in Chile in 1960). Magnitude is used internationally.

Seismic Intensity (a.k.a. shin-do) measures the degree of shaking at a certain point on the earth’s surface as a number. The bigger the number, the bigger the tremor. This scale is used only in Japan and Taiwan.

This means that an earthquake will have only 1 Magnitude reading, but will have several shindo measurements.

The Japanese shindo scale has 10 levels going from 0 to 7 (5 and 6 are divided into ‘weak’ and ‘strong’, or ‘lower’ and ‘upper’).

For more information about the seismic intensity scale, see this page by the Japan Meteorological Agency.

#japan #earthquake #information

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yuzusorbet · 4 years ago

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Kikuchi-san’s book, partial translations

Akira Kikuchi is the trainer who accompanied Yuzu to many competitions in the past. Since elementary school days, Yuzu has gone to his clinic in Sendai for therapy sessions after skate practice. Last year (2019), Kikuchi-san published a book titled 'Strongly, beautifully, 30 Methods to train' (my translation from the Japanese title). I read a Chinese translation of some parts. Very interesting to see things from his perspective, and quite touching too, so I decided to translate them to share. Not ideal to translate from another translation but I don't have the book, and usually Chinese fans' translations are pretty reliable.

*paraphrased means I summarised a few lines there. *more info means I added notes for myself, and it's not from the book.

Chapter 1, part 5. The muscles that were forged after the earthquake.

He became the World Junior champion, and also started school at Tohoku High School, and at the age of 15, Yuzuru made his debut in senior level competition. His 1st competition was Season 2010-11 NHK Trophy in Oct where he landed his 1st quad jump in competition and was in 4th place. 2010 Nov was Cup of Russia in Moscow, where he placed 7th. (more info: Japan nationals in Dec, he placed 4th. Then 4CC in Feb 2011, he placed 2nd.)

At the end of his first senior season, the Great East Japan Earthquake happened. (March 2011)

When the earthquake occurred, I was working, seeing 4 patients. My home and clinic felt the shaking but were not damaged due to being on higher ground. But very quickly, the electricity, water and gas were cut off.

[paraphrased: Everyone was worried but preferred to stay on.] I continued treating the 4 patients. When they left, I closed the clinic temporarily.

Soon, people whose homes were washed away in the tsunami or destroyed by the quake took refuge in nearby sports halls. When I heard about this, I brought a simple bed into the sports halls and did massages for the people there. That was how I spent each day.

The reason I did this was because I thought of my father that night after the earthquake. He was a policeman and was very strict with himself. He was upright and always thinking of the safety of others. He lived his life for others and he is the man that I most respect. If father was here, he would definitely go to the evacuation centres to do his best to help......

Giving a massage to people at the centre, I was just doing the only thing I could do.

Yuzuru also went through some hard days.

On the day of the earthquake, he went to his usual training rink 'Ice Rink Sendai' after school. It was at the rink that he experienced the "shindo 6" earthquake. (More info: shindo 7 is the highest. See this: robintlewis/what-is-the-japanese-seismic-intensity-shindo-scale. On the Richter scale, this is a magnitude 9 earthquake.)

That child felt the strong shaking and I heard that he rushed out of the building wearing his skate boots. Next to life itself, the most precious thing is his skates. Figure skaters always put skate guards on the blades when they leave the ice, they would never let the blades be exposed. Rushing out without his skate guards, he must have been very scared.

Staying 4 days in the gym of a school which served as an evacuation centre, he seriously thought about whether he should give up figure skating.

It was also figure skating that made him pull himself together.

His home rink was damaged in the quake and he lost his usual training place. His coach during elementary school days, Tsuzuki Shoichiro, inquired about him. Tsuzuki-sensei is the one who gave Yuzuru his foundation in figure skating. Before the quake, he was coaching at a rink in Yokohama.

Subsequently, Yuzuru went to Tsuzuki-sensei's rink to train.

About half a year after the quake, around October, Yuzuru who had returned to Sendai came to my clinic. He told me about what he had been doing.

During that period, he was participating in commercial ice shows and earthquake charity ice shows all over Japan; I knew about this. "For the people affected by the disaster, I want to give them some encouragement," I had read his interviews in the newspapers. In the 5 months after the earthquake, he skated in 60 ice shows throughout the country. "I hope that my activities can become strength for the victims"-- to have this thought, he must have pulled himself together.

"When I participated in ice shows, I could do some training if I arrived early at the venue, and the intervals between shows also became my own training time," said Yuzuru, looking straight into my eyes. (more info: usually there are a few shows at one venue, eg. 3 shows spread over the weekend)

After such an unprecedented earthquake disaster, what had Yuzuru learned, mentally how had he changed, all these I was not sure. But the moment I touched his leg muscles, I immediately felt his efforts and I almost cried.

Since elementary school, I had been seeing him almost everyday. Even a small change in his body I would know.

The muscles forged after the earthquake told of days filled with harsh figure skate training, day after day.

Skating in ice shows "for the disaster areas", and practising fervently in between shows. During the performances, he must have also put in all his efforts so as to "convey something to the people".

Moreover, the muscles developed after the quake were not only those used for jumping, they were also those for bearing the impact of landing.

Landing on the ice after a jump, the impact on the body can be a few hundred times the skater's weight. To withstand such an impact, the muscles around the knees, the gastrocnemius muscles in the calf and the tibialis anterior muscles must be sufficiently trained. If these parts are not strengthened, injury will happen easily.

In a short period of half a year, those muscles grew to such an extent. How much jump practice did he do after the earthquake. Falling down countless times and getting up again. How on earth did he train to develop muscles like that.

Yuzuru's leg muscles are different from other athletes that come to my clinic. His muscles were not developed by specialised muscle training but were formed naturally though figure skating practice. In other words, they are muscles that grew only for figure skating.

Until now, that child still mentions that he "does not know how to ride a bicycle". In my opinion, I think it is because he does not want to develop muscles except those needed for figure skating.

The muscles used for cycling are the same as those for speed skating. Speed skaters have cycling in summer training; bulging leg muscles are necessary for them.For figure skaters, if muscles become big and bulging, the weight can be a hindrance to jumping. But still, strong muscles are needed to do quad jumps and to bear the impact of landing. [paraphrased]

Yuzuru overcame the earthquake disaster and developed muscles for jumping quads and for bearing the landing impact in a good balance.

Those well-trained leg muscles are the external manifestation of his experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake and his determination to fight as a top skater.

- translated by me from this Chinese translation: weibo

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Chapter 1, part 6. Overcoming pain in the hip joint

The first time I went along with Yuzuru in the team for a competition was in his 2nd year of senior level, the November 2011 Rostelecom Cup (Russia) in the Grand Prix series. Traveling with a team to an international competition as a trainer, it was the first time for me. Not only that, it was also my first time watching a figure skating competition up close. What a disgraceful old man. Almost everyday I listened to Yuzuru talk about all things related to figure skating but I had never watched his competitions live at the venue.

I saw Yuzuru only at my clinic, diagnosing leg problems, applying tape to stabilise ankles, this kind of interactions, the relationship of a therapist and a patient, I felt this was enough.

I had the role of a 'sports trainer' before, but not for professional athletes. Supporting local high school and junior high students, I was already very content. I had served as 'team trainer' for the swimming, baseball, and track and field teams of Tohoku High and Junior High Schools where sports is very popular, and went with the athletes for competitions.

Once these children graduated, the relationship between trainer and athlete would end. Those who wanted to continue their sports career, some would leave Sendai, some would get a professional trainer to guide them.

"Rostelecom Cup is going to start, Sensei, can you go together with me as my trainer?" Yuzuru asked me. I answered in a relaxed manner, "Oh, alright."

As an athlete, Yuzuru was steadily rising.

"Whether it's an international competition or the Olympics, let me be your trainer and take me along!" This was what I said to him jokingly when he was in elementary school grade 4; I don't know if he still remembers it. But this kind of joke has really come true now, so I was actually feeling rather emotional.

This was also like a commendation from Yuzuru for the treatment he had received so far. "Well, it's just doing the physiotherapy in Russia instead of the usual place in my clinic," this was how I thought at that time.

However, at that Rostelecom Cup, at the official practice, Yuzuru injured his hip joint (the joint between hip bone and thigh bone).

The injury was treated by a trainer sent specially by Japan Skate Federation. I was just Yuzuru's private trainer.

I understood the situation fully when we were back in his hotel room. The treatment for the injury had ended but the pain was still there. I was very sure that it was not suitable for him to do more skating. Even walking would be painful.

"In this situation, it's better to withdraw (from competition), isn't it?" When he heard this, he said with absolute certainty, "Whatever happens, I will compete in Rostelecom Cup." Actually for this competition, Yuzuru must win first place in order to qualify for the Grand Prix Final which is for only the top 6 skaters of the GP series. He wanted to compete, no matter what.

From that moment, I felt for the first time that I have "joined forces with an extraordinary world". Yuzuru was so focused on the competition, "want to compete", "want to win", these desires were way above any pain. As a therapist, of course my advice was to withdraw. But as a trainer, I had to respond to such intense wishes of the athlete.

All I could do was to take care of his hip joint. I also taped his ankle, and then sent him off to compete. I knew the pain of the injury was still there.

But, Yuzuru, he did it....... short programme and free skating both were ranked 2nd, but his total score of 241.66 was higher than other strong rivals like Javier Fernandez and Jeremy Abbott, and he achieved his first victory in the GP series.

At that moment, witnessing it with my own eyes, I was crying. Even though he received treatment, his hip joint injury was quite serious. Any jump would be very painful, especially when landing, he would feel severe pain. In spite of this, for the free skate, he made a mistake only for the quad jump, the other 7 jumps were all successful.

For the first time, I realised it was such a cruel world that Yuzuru was fighting in.

In the spectator stands were many Japanese ladies and they were looking at me with a surprised expression "why is this old grandpa crying so much??" But it did not matter anymore, I did not care how others were looking at me, I was crying my heart out. I was so happy..... really so happy.

That Rostelecom Cup was my first experience as a trainer stepping into the figure skating world.

After this, I did not accompany Yuzuru to any more competitions. I stayed in my clinic treating patients, and sometimes I would treat Yuzuru who came back from travels.

After Rostelecom Cup, Yuzuru rose rapidly at an astonishing speed.

For the GP Final, he was 4th, then at 2011-12 World Championships, it was his first time at Worlds and he achieved 3rd place. At the age of 17 years and 3 months, he broke the record for the youngest World Championship medalist in Japanese figure skating men's history and ascended to the podium.

Then, from April 2012, Yuzuru moved his training base from Sendai to Toronto, Canada.

Before he had overseas competitions, I saw him almost everyday at my clinic. We had been together for the past 10 years. So I would miss him quite a lot.

But it's for becoming stronger that he went to Canada. For greater improvement in figure skating, he made the decision to move to Toronto. He has already "graduated" from my place here.

"Sensei, I'm going off!"

And just like each overseas trip, Yuzuru set off from Sendai, and started on another journey.

- translated by me from this Chinese translation: weibo

This is the book on Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/

(I will share parts from Chapter 2 soon.)

#translation of Kikuchi-san's book #Akira Kikuchi #Yuzuru Hanyu

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script-a-world · 5 years ago

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My story takes place in a world that frequently experiences earthquakes due to regularly shifting plates. I was wondering if you had any reccomendations for the types of architecture that would naturally develop in response to this? I've been reading about flexible foundations but I wasn't sure if there were any cultures who had developed specific methods of construction.

Feral: I have a bunch of academic links for you to look at, so I’m just gonna pull a Tex and dump them all at the bottom. But first to briefly summarize:

First of all, given your question seems to be about developing architecture, all the methods I’m going to talk about show up pre-industrial revolution for any given earthquake prone area. I’m not sure what you mean by “frequent” earthquakes. The methods I’ll be describing are based on real world earthquake prone areas, specifically focusing on traditional construction methods in the Himalayas, so take note that environmental factors gradually wear anything down. Even if the construction technique is “earthquake resistant,” that doesn’t make it “earthquake proof.” If your earthquakes are coming much more frequently, then the buildings will break down faster. In which case, you might be better off having your peoples building structures that are not meant to stand up to earthquakes, are lightweight and won’t be a hazard when they fall, and are very easy to rebuild once they’re knocked down - and there are cultures throughout history living in earthquake prone areas who have done just this. The biggest risk associated with earthquakes (just earthquakes though, so not including earthquake-related natural phenomena like tsunamis) is heavy structures collapsing on people; that’s what accounts for most deaths. You should also consider what magnitude of earthquakes your people are experiencing. The methods and materials I’ll be talking about should be ok for earthquakes that are low to medium on the Richter scale, and while there are documented cases of buildings of these types surviving particularly strong earthquakes (that have leveled more modern methods for earthquake resistance), we’re talking about earthquake resistant, not earthquake proof architecture.

Ok, let’s talk shape first. Uniformity and symmetricality are a must. 4-cornered structures - rectangular or square - will work best. The more corner-joints you have, the weaker the building, but at the same time, too few joints (as in a triangle) is not as stable, so 4 is your magic number. A lower center of gravity will also help with stability, so build out, not up. I’m not familiar with any vernacular or traditional domed architectural styles that specifically developed for earthquake resistance. This is likely a combination of true domes being real difficult to develop, the structure needing to be as regular as possible, and the materials typically used to build earthquake resistant vernacular buildings not being conducive to regular, uniform dome building. However, you may have heard that domes are super strong, and I mentioned that you want as few corners as possible. So, yeah, if your people can build (the right kind of) domes well… do that.

Now let’s talk about supporting the structure (assuming you’re going with a square or rectangular building). There are a few ways to stabilize the joints, like corner braces or quoins. To overall stabilize the building you have a few techniques. The walls can be made thicker on a taper; in other words, in a trapezoidal shape with the thicker side on the ground. You can use buttresses (they don’t have to be super fancy flying ones, though adding an arch is another great form of wall support). You also would definitely want to make sure you’re using ties because it’s tensile strength (aka “pulling strength”) we’re worried about when it comes to earthquakes, not compressive (aka “pushing strength”). (We’re obviously also worried about compressive strength in buildings because that’s, like, gravity, but tensile strength is the special kind of concern that seismic activity creates.)

And finally, materials and how to put ‘em together… The material and construction technique that is currently being the most studied is the Bhatan and/or Taq style structures in the Himalayas, particularly in northern India and Pakistan and in Nepal, because of the 2005 & 2019 earthquakes in Kashmir and the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. They use a combination of timber and masonry (often dry-stacked, aka mortarless). Instead of using the timber in columns, they actually create horizontal frames that they place at regular intervals between the masonry. Timber on the horizontal like that has really great tensile strength (though not great compressive strength), and the stones have great compressive strength but not great tensile strength. This masonry tension-concern is mitigated by the way the stones are stacked: they are allowed to shift within their timber frame, which disperses the side to side energy via friction.

One last thing to consider is where they are building. The last thing anyone wants is for their house to survive the earthquake but then get wiped out by a landslide or tsunami. Site selection will be a major concern for your people.

Check out these resources for more in depth information: (btw vernacular architecture “represents the majority of buildings and settlements created in pre-industrial societies and includes a very wide range of buildings, building traditions, and methods of construction.”)

How Can Vernacular Construction Techniques Sustain Earthquakes: The Case of the Bhatar Buildings

Notes on the Seismic Adequacy of Vernacular Buildings

Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture | Analysis

The Earthquake Resistant Vernacular Architecture in the Himalayas

Seismic Behavior of Vernacular Architecture

An Overview of Seismic Strengthening Techniques Traditionally Applied in Vernacular Architecture

Vernacular Architecture in Post-Earthquake Nepal

Seismic-Resistant Building Practices Resulting from Local Seismic Culture

Check out this dome: Stunning Geodesic Domes from Romania Can Handle Earthquakes up to 8.5 on the Richter Scale

And if you are looking for more modern, industrial and/or smart, design: Designing for Earthquakes: 7 Buildings that Guard Against Seismic Activity

Synth: Traditional Chinese and Japanese wood architecture have structural elements called Dougong and Tokyō, respectively, forms of passive vibration control. They’re made of interlaced brackets (Dougong), or brackets and blocks (Tokyō), that join the building’s roof to the support columns. Both are held together purely through the way the pieces fit, without any sort of adhesives or nails/screws. This lack of fasteners gives the support structure a great deal of flexibility, allowing it to bend and twist during an earthquake, instead of shattering and bringing the building down.

The Inca did something similar with their dry-stone construction, stonework without the use of mortar to hold the blocks together. Just like with Dougong and Tokyō, no fasteners or adhesives meant the blocks could move a bit during an earthquake, dissipating the energy via a process called coulomb damping, which is just a fancier way of saying that the friction between the rocks got rid of the shaky motion of the earthquake by turning it into heat.

Mass dampers in buildings are relatively new -- humanity didn’t start putting them in buildings until about the 1950s -- but in their simplest form they’re basically a big weight mounted inside a building via some springs or cables, counteracting and dampening (hence the name), the resonance caused by seismic waves. Even if your world’s inhabitants have yet to reach their version of the Industrial Revolution, I would consider it possible for them to develop a technique like this.

By now you may have noticed that a pretty common thread running through all these different construction methods is that they create structures that are inherently, well, kinda jiggly. At first you’d think that surely a really solid, rigid building would pull through the best, but it is in fact the complete opposite. Now obviously a building with the consistency of overcooked pasta won’t survive a quake either -- it needs to be able to support its own weight, for starters, and something too bendy would just collapse under the slightest off-centre force -- but a building that can flex, or is mounted on a base that can move -- will fare much better.

Wikipedia’s earthquake engineering page is a good jumping-off point for some more research.

#pylons #geography #earthquakes #foundations #Anonymous

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wisdomrays · 4 years ago

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TAFAKKUR: Part 228

IS THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH CHANGING?

THE EARTH'S SHAPE IS BECOMING ROUNDER AS A RESULT OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PROJECTS LIKE THE THREE GORGES RESERVOIR. THE WEIGHT DECREASE DUE TO THE MELTING ICECAPS HAS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN THESE CHANGES.

From time immemorial, humanity has wondered about the shape of the Earth. Over the centuries countless studies exploring the Earth and its shape have been conducted, and they still continue today. With advancements in technology, the methods and measuring devices have constantly changed. In earlier periods the Earth was believed to be flat; nevertheless from around the fifth century bc there were varying opinions suggesting that the Earth was actually round and calculations were conducted to measure its radius. Particularly from the seventh century ce onwards, the number of studies regarding what the Earth really looked like have increased tremendously.

In later years, with the advent of Islam and its open encouragement of Muslims to explore the universe and make advances in science, Muslim scholars made huge progress in astronomical research. Historians who have studied these advancements in astronomical science agree that the era between the eighth and fourteenth centuries can aptly be designated as a period of Islamic astronomy. In the years following the sixteenth century, significant research was undertaken in relation to the shape of the Earth and measurements of its radius in both the Islamic world and the West.

In the eighteenth century astronomic research and the advancement of technology proved not only that the Earth was round, but that it had a distinctive shape. According to calculations, the Earth was bulging around the equator and flattened at the poles. The maps produced by satellite systems show that the Earth is not completely round or smooth, but rather it has protrusions, creating an uneven surface that resembles a face with spots.

"Geoid" is the term scientists prefer to use when referring to the physical depiction of the Earth's surface. The shape of the Earth is not a perfect ellipsoid, thus, scientists use this representative surface that is thought to be most approximate to sea level, in order to identify departures from the ellipsoid shape. Due to the events of nature and human-related factors the geoid constantly changes, and this is why a precise mathematical account of the geoid has not yet been possible.

The Earth is known to be a geologically active planet. Just as everything else in the universe, from atoms to galaxies, has not been left to their own fate, the Earth is also constantly being transformed, thus making our magnificent ecosystem possible. The continuous geological process of changes in the Earth's crust is related to a variety of factors: the varying density of the rock layers which form the Earth's crust, the activity of the tectonic plates, as well as the movement of the continents, shifts in the center of gravity, tidal activity, hydro-spherical and atmospheric phenomena, and human intervention in some regions.

Researching the variations in the gravity of the Earth with satellite systems is a relatively new method of recording the changes in geoid elevations. The distance between the center of the Earth and its surface is constant (the tallest mountains will rise or decrease 1-2cm per year at most); if we take into consideration that the Earth's physical body does not vary much and disregard the other forces, then we can say that the main reason for these infinitesimal changes in gravity on the surface of the Earth is due to differences in mass. While there is a decrease in weight in specific regions from melting glaciers, in other areas there is an increase in weight due to melting water flowing into reservoirs; both these phenomena play a significant role in the variations of the Earth's gravity.

Even a minor variation in mass can be detected by measuring gravity. The change of mass location on the Earth's surface results in gravity variations in the same region; in brief, today the commonly used gravity measurements are the most important source for detecting and identifying variations in geoid elevations, as well as determining the actual reasons for these changes. Gravity measurements are conducted via satellite systems; these indicate changes in mass location by detecting an increase or decrease in weight. The most modern technological satellite systems that can detect gravity change and allow us to follow the variations in masses on the Earth's surface are the satellite used by the European Space Agency, called GOCE, and NASA's satellite, called GRACE. GOCE has been designed to perform accurate studies of the Earth's gravity field as it progresses into orbit. As the satellite passes over the regions where gravity is intense or weak, it measures the variations in gravity with signals that have been conveyed by a device called a gradiometer. GRACE is a pair of identical satellites that are flying in the same orbit, 136 miles apart; they orbit the Earth at a distance of 300 miles. These satellites can measure distances with microwave signals, and can detect changes of less than 1% the thickness of human hair; thus the twin satellites are able to accurately measure the distance to the surface of the Earth. The measurements provided by this satellite system make it possible for changes in gravity to be calculated. The GRACE satellite data is 1,000 times more accurate than other gravity field detection systems.

The enormous waves that occurred on the sea surface as a result of the Sumatra Island earthquake, which measured 9 on the Richter scale, caused a level ridge, measuring about six meters in height, to form on the shore. According to data produced by GOCE, such changes in the mass of the Earth's surface caused a variation of 18 mm to occur on the geoid; this is recognized as a relatively high degree of change.

Changes in the polar glaciers also cause variations in the geoid; data provided from satellite GRACE shows that the layers of ice in Greenland and the Antarctica are melting at a higher rate than previously expected. The melting icebergs are causing a rise in sea levels of up to 0.41 mm every year and the weight of water produced from the melting icecaps is causing changes to the shape of the Earth's surface.

One of the interesting facts attained by GRACE is the changes in the Earth's gravity field that have been caused by Three Gorges in China, the largest reservoir ever built. The lake region of the reservoir that is being built measures around 372 miles long, 70 miles wide and approximately 574 feet deep; when the casing of the reservoir is completed it will house an amazing 39.3 billion m3 (9.4 cu mi) of water. The area that this reservoir will cover once the project is completed is so great that it will make an estimated 1.5 million people homeless. It has been observed that the enormous accumulation of water in the completed sections of the reservoir has increased the gravity level in that region, which in turn has caused changes in the geoid structure.

Scientists have confirmed that the Earth's shape is becoming rounder as a result of the construction of projects like the Three Gorges reservoir. It is also estimated that the weight decrease due to the melting icecaps has played a major role in these changes. In some regions of Scandinavia and Canada the ground is rising 1 cm every year due to the melting glaciers. The water produced from the melting glaciers is forcing the currents in the Atlantic Ocean towards the equator, while the decrease of mass at the poles and the increase of weight in the equator region have caused significant changes in the shape of the Earth.

Many scientists claim that changes in the Earth's surface have been caused by changes in the climate. Unfortunately, according to a report published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), humans are responsible for 90% of global warming. As a result of these vast variations, the geoid shape of the Earth is becoming rounder and its radius is increasing annually by 0.4–0.8 mm. The reasons for these changes are being closely monitored by scientists. According to scientists, the variation of the geoid that has been caused by changes in mass location is having an effect on the Earth's dynamics, with the transfer of mass demonstrated by the changes in gravity causing a reduction in the speed of the Earth's rotation around its axis; this is expected to result in variations in the daily time-zone.

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maritimemanual · 5 years ago

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15 Deepest Parts Of The Ocean

The earth is known as the ‘blue planet’ because of its blue appearance from space. This blue color obviously comes from the oceans on earth which comprise nearly 70% of the total surface of the planet. Oceans are an important field of research as they comprise of currents, volcanoes, mountains, tectonic plates, shallow waters, deep trenches and what not. This article discusses the deepest parts of the ocean also known as ocean trenches on the surface of the earth, the tectonic plates that were responsible for their creation and how they affect the regions nearby due to the many seismic activities that take place in them.

List of deepest parts of the ocean

The following are the ten deepest parts in the oceans of the earth.

1. Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench, situated in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, is considered to be the deepest point on the Earth. It would actually be more precise to say that the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the deepest point on the surface of the Earth.

Mariana Trench Location

It is located at a distance of about 200 km east of the Mariana Islands.

On average, the Mariana Trench is 69 km in width and 2,550 km in length. Its maximum depth has been measured at 11,034 m in the Challenger Deep, though some studies have reported it to be 10,910 m deep.

Cross-section of Mariana Trench

It is interesting to note that Mt. Everest, the tallest peak on Earth, if made to stand in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench would still be covered with more than a mile of water.

The pressure at the bottom of the trench is about 1,086 bars. This value is more than a thousand times larger than the standard atmospheric pressure at the sea level.

The convergence of the oceanic plates of the lithosphere has caused the deep holes in the Mariana Trench. A trough was formed from the flexure at the line of contact of the colliding planes. This was caused by one of the plains descend into the mantle. The high pressure at the seabed caused the density of the water at the bottom of the Mariana Trench to rise by 4.96%.

At the bottom of the trench, the temperature is quite constant, only ranging from about 1 degree Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius.

Several studies across the world report that microbial life forms exist within the trench.

2. Tonga Trench

Tonga Trench

The Tonga Trench is known to be the second deepest natural trench on the earth. It is also the deepest natural trench in the Southern Hemisphere. It is located in the south-western part of the Pacific Ocean at the Kermadec Tonga Subduction Zone’s northern end.

The Kermadec Ridge is the region between the Lau back-arc basin and the Tonga Trench. Its movement is independent of the Australian and Pacific plates. The region is divided into several smaller plates like Kermadec, Tonga or Niuafo’ou. The plate called Tonga faces the Tonga Trench.

It is 10,882 m below sea level and its sediments are said to be the shelter for a community of roundworms.

It stretches at a distance of 2,500 km from New Zealand’s North Island, north-east to the island of Tonga. The deepest point in the trench is known as the Horizon Deep which as mentioned before is the deepest point on earth after the Challenge Deep. Horizon Deep is named after the research vessel called ‘Horizon’. The crew members of the ship discovered the deep in December 1952.

This trench experiences the fastest tectonic plate velocity on the earth. This velocity is being subducted towards the west direction in the trench. According to researchers, the large volcanoes formed in the Japan Trench, as well as the Mariana Trench, have been caused by these plate movements.

3. Philippine Trench

Philippine Trench

The Philippine Trench is a submarine trench that is a narrow but long trench, lying in the east of the Philippine coast, in the western Pacific Ocean. It is also known as the Mindanao Trench, Mindanao deep of Philippine Deep. Until 1970, it was thought to be the deepest point of the earth.

The length of the trench is approximately 1,329 km and its width about 30 km. It stretches from the center of the Luzon island of the Philippines to its southeast towards the north of the Maluku, Halmahera in Indonesia.

The deepest point of the trench is called the Galathea Deep which is located at a depth of 10,540 meters under the sea. This makes it the third deepest point on the entire earth.

The trench was formed as a result of a collision between the Eurasian Plate and the smaller Philippine plate about 8.9 million years ago.

Many seismic activities have been recorded in this region, most of which have had a magnitude of more than 7.2 on the Richter Scale. The most recent of these earthquakes took place in 2012. It had a magnitude of 7.6. One of the largest recorded magnitudes of earthquakes in the region was 8.2 which was of an earthquake that took place in 1924 and is considered among the largest in history.

Other notable trenches located in the Philippine Sea are the Sulu Trench, the Manila Trench, the East Luzon trench, the Negros Trench and the Cotabato trench.

4. Kuril-Kamchatka Trench

Kuril-Kamchatka Trench

The Kuril-Kamchatka Trench is a trench lying in the north-western part of the Pacific Ocean. It is also called the Kuril Trench.

It is located in the southwest of the clast of Kamchatka paralleling the Kuril Island chain till the Japan Trench lying in the east of Hokkaido. It extends from a part of the ocean in Russia called the Commander Islands to its southwest, near the Japan trench.

The tectonic plate called the Pacific plate is still subducting beneath the Okhotsk Plate at the very region of the Kurile-Kamchatka Plate.

It has a depth of 10,500 m below the sea level and is regarded as the fourth deepest point on the entire planet earth. It was formed as a result of subduction millions of years ago. It is believed that the same subduction was responsible for forming the Kuril and the Kamchatka arcs. The region experiences very high volcanism. It has caused many disastrous earthquakes in history which have had magnitudes as high as 9.0 on the Richter Scale, most of them taking place in the region of Kamchatka itself.

The most recent one of these earthquakes took place on 18 July 2017 in Kamchatka. It had a magnitude of 7.8.

5. Kermadec Trench

Kermadec Trench

The Kermadec Trench is an oceanic trench lying in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. It stretches from around 1,000 km between the Louisville Seamount Chain in the North and the Hikurangi Plateau in the South. The Louisville Seamount Chain and the Hikurangi Plateau both lie at the southeast of the North Island in New Zealand. It is regarded as the fifth deepest point on the planet.

The trench has a maximum depth of 10,047 m, and a length of nearly 2000 km.

It was formed due to the subduction of the Pacific plate under the Indo-Australian Plate. It is was formed as a result of the same subduction that is continued by the Tonga Plate towards the north.

The trench happens to be home to various different types of species including an amphipod that is one of the largest in the world. They are approximately 34 cm long and are found at the bottom of the trench. In addition to this, different other aquatic species like the Hadal Snailfish, the Notoliparis kermadecensis and a species of pearlfish have been seen here.

A few years ago, an unmanned submarine was sent to conduct explorations in the Kermadec trench. Unfortunately, it could not withstand the extreme pressure at 9,990 meters depth and imploded. Various news channels covered it.

6. Izu-Ogasawara Trench

Izu-Ogasawara Trench

The Izu-Ogasawara Trench is an oceanic trench which is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean. It is also known as the Izu-Bonin Trench. It stretches from Japan to the northern section of the Mariana Trench. It is also an extension of the Japan Trench which comes next in our list.

It consists of two trenches namely the Izu Trench at the north and the Bonin Trench at the south. The Bonin Trench lies at the west of the Ogasawara Plateau. The trench has hence named the way it is. It is one of the deepest trenches on the entire planet.

This trench too, like most of the deepest trenches in the world, experiences high tectonic plate activity. In this region, the Pacific plate is subducting beneath the Philippine Sea Plate resulting in the creation of the islands of Izu and Bonin lying on the Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc system which is more than 2,800 m in length.

At its deepest point, the trench lies 9,780 m under the sea making it the sixth deepest place on earth.

7. Japan Trench

Japan Trench

The Japan Trench is an oceanic trench lying in the Northern Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is located at the northeast of Japan. The Japan Trench stretches from the Kuril Islands to the Bonin Islands and is also an extended portion of the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and the Izu-Ogasawara Trench to the north and south respectively.

At its deepest point, the trench lies at 9000 m under the sea, making it one of the deepest trenches on the entire planet.

This trench was created as a result of the subduction of the oceanic Plateau plate beneath the continental Okhotsk plane. The deep trench was created due to the bending of the plate which was going down. The ongoing subduction of the plates is one of the primary reasons for the occurrences of tsunamis on the island of Japan. It experiences great seismic activities, causing frequent earthquakes of large magnitudes.

The most recent of these earthquakes took place on 11 March 2011 in Japan. It has a magnitude of about 7.9 on the Richter Scale.

8. Puerto Rico Trench

Puerto Rico Trench

The Puerto Rico Trench is an oceanic trench located in the Atlantic Ocean. It is actually located at the boundary of or rather between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Puerto Rico Trench is the 8th deepest point on the surface of the earth. This trench lies at a depth of 8640 m with Milwaukee Deep as its deepest point. It is also the deepest point on the Earth which does not lie in the Pacific Ocean.

The location of the trench is at the boundary of two plates namely the Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate. The Caribbean Plate is moving towards the east while the North American Plate is moving towards the west, hence forming a subduction zone where the Caribbean Plate is obliquely subducting the North American Plate. This explains the presence of several active volcanoes in the southeastern part of the Caribbean Sea. The islands in this region experience very strong volcanic activities.

The places like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, United States Virgin Islands, etc. are constantly at risk of getting struck by earthquakes and tsunamis of high magnitudes.

It stretches for a length of 800 km. This trench accounts for many of the tsunamis and earthquakes of this region. In 1964, the French bathyscaphe Archimedes first tried to explore the sea-floor. Later in 2012, a robotic vehicle was sent to the trench to do research on the characteristics of the trench. Since then several expeditions have been carried out in an attempt to map the region.

9. South Sandwich Trench

South Sandwich Trench

The South Sandwich Trench is an oceanic trench lying in the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the parts of the trench also lie in the Southern Ocean as it stretches till far. In fact, the trench contains the deepest point in the Southern Ocean which lies 7,235 m under the sea.

The South Sandwich Trench is one of the deepest trenches in the Atlantic Ocean, second only to the Puerto Rico Trench and is also the 9th deepest point on the surface of the earth. It is located 100 m to the east of the South Sandwich Islands and is hence named after them.

The deepest point of the trench is called the Meteor Deep and it is at a depth of 8,420 m under the sea. Meteor Deep lies 120 km off the northeast of the Zavodovski Island. The trench is 965 km in length.

The subduction of the South American Plate’s southernmost portion under the small South Sandwich Plate resulted in this trench. The South Sandwich trench also happens to be linked to an active volcanic arc.

10. Peru–Chile Trench

Peru–Chile Trench

The Peru-Chile trench is an oceanic trench that lies in the Eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. It is located around 160 km off the coast of Peru and Chile. It is also known as the Atacama Trench.

The deepest point of the trench is called the Richards Deep which is 8,065 m deep making it the tenth deepest point on the surface of the earth.

The trench has a length of nearly 5,900 km and a width of 64 km.

The convergence of the boundary between the subducting Nazca and the South American plates led to the formation of the Atacama Trench.

The trench is also associated with a lot of earthquakes which are a result of the subduction of the Nazca Plate below the South American Plate. In fact, one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded on earth took place in this region and it has a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale. The most recent earthquake in this region took place Illapel in 2015 and it had a magnitude of 7.0.

We have discussed the 10 deepest trenches in the earth’s oceans. However, these are not the only existing deep trenches. There are hundreds of them. Following are some more notable ocean trenches on the surface of the Earth:

11. The Diamantina Trench

The Diamantina Trench

When Australia and Antarctica drifted apart, fracture zones in the earth’s crust were created. The Diamantina Trench is one of these fractures. It lies off the southwestern tip of the continent of Australia. With a maximum depth of nearly 8,050 m, it is the eleventh deepest trench on the surface of the earth. It is also one of the deepest points of the Indian Ocean. The peak of Mount Everest would form an island of a maximum elevation of 900 m if its base was at the same depth.

12. Cayman Trough

Cayman Trough

The Cayman Trough or the Cayman Trench is an oceanic trench lying on the floor of the western part of the Caribbean Sea. It lies between the islands of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after which it has been named. With a maximum depth of 7,686 m, it is one of the deepest points on the surface of the earth. It is the deepest point of the Caribbean Sea. It also forms a part of the tectonic boundary lying between the regions of the Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate.

13. Yap Trench

Yap Trench

The Yap Trench is an oceanic trench lying in the western Pacific Ocean near the Yap Islands. It lies between the Palau Islands and the Mariana Trench. It is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has a length of 650 km. At its deepest point, it is 8,527 m deep, making it one of the deepest points on earth. It is a part of the chain of trenches between the southwestern edge of the Bering Sea and the southern tip of the Philippine Trench.

14. Middle America Trench

Middle America Trench

The Middle America Trench is an oceanic trench and a subduction zone lying off the coast of middle America in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. It stretches from central Mexico to Costa Rica. The length of this trench is 2,750 km while its depth is 6,669 m at its deepest point. This makes it one of the deepest parts of the earth’s crust. It is the eighteenth deepest trench in the world. This region is prone to many earthquakes having experienced several large ones in the past decades.

15. Sunda Trench

Sunda Trench

The Sunda Trench or the Java Trench is an oceanic trench lying near Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. It is formed at the place where the subduction of the Australian-Capricorn Plate under a part of the Eurasian Plate takes place. The length of the trench is 3,200 km while its depth is 7,725 m. It is one of the deepest points of the Indian Ocean and the earth’s crust. This trench is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire as well as the ring of oceanic trenches lying around the north Australian Plate. This region is prone to tsunamis and a tsunami warning system has also been established here.

Also read: Top 12 Most Famous Sunken Ships

from WordPress https://www.maritimemanual.com/deepest-parts-of-the-ocean/

#Marine Guide

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afewmarvelousthoughts · 6 years ago

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Truth Pt. 14

Master List @afewmarvelousthoughtsadmin

Request:

What’s up sug! sorry you’re struggling right now but I’ve come to help you If you could bring this to light for me I’d absolutely love for YOU TO DO JT So basically Bucky X Enhanced reader who are fuckin enemies. Hate each other to every last fiber of their beings bc Bucky is rude and she calls him out on it. AnywHs, they get drunk, truth or dare (go crZy baby) and LOTS LF dirty talk if u wanna do smut but if u don’t then buck taking care of her while she’s drunk cause she admitted her feelings

Pairing: Bucky X Reader (Enhanced)

Summary: Since The Avengers gave you a home the only blight has been Bucky Barnes, a ghost from your past that you can’t seem to shake. It makes you hate him. The feeling, it seems, is mutual. But… a simple game reveals that maybe things aren’t quite so simple. (Post Winter Soldier AU)

Warnings: Angst, feels, blood, pain, and... fluff

A/N: I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING!

FUUUUCK. Thank y’all so much for your support and love of this series. It’s been a runaway train from the beginning and I’ve enjoyed even the utterly painful parts. I thought I was gonna wait and post this on Wednesday like I usually do but honestly... after the last chapter I think everyone waited long enough.

I hope you all enjoy this. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Tags are open!

@midnightdream83 @mywinterwolf @disagreetoagree @breezy1415@peachthatdrinkslemonade @wonderlandmind4 @piensa-bonito @handplucked@buckysstar @sam-jae @marauderconvos –harder @for-the-love-of-the-fandom @marvelousmeggi @jewelofwinter @fairislesheets @animegirlgeeky @lydklein1 @katecolleen @siriuslycloudy2 @zannemes

The concussive force from the superheated air knocks everyone back. Free of Stark’s grip, Bucky hits his knees, gaping at the glowing pillar of white light reaching from the ground into the sky. It would be beautiful if he knew you weren’t trapped in the middle of it.

It only lasts for a couple of seconds before it’s gone. The sky cracks with thunder as it cools, clouds swirling in response to the unnatural disturbance. The ground shakes heavily for several minutes, buildings creak, a few close to the now leveled main building collapse.

Then… silence as rain begins to fall from the angry sky.

“J… Jarvis… talk to me…”

“The energy emitted… it was equivalent to a massive nuclear detonation… somehow Miss Y/N managed to contain it… had she not the city would have been decimated… The force caused an earthquake, around a five on the Richter scale. There will be damage but nothing major.”

Bucky hardly registers what any of that means. He bolts to his feet and begins running. Only one thing matters to him at this moment. He has to find you, no matter what shape you may be in he has to bring you home, he will not leave you here… he can’t. If Stark or anyone tried to stop him he’d kill them. That simple.

He’s about to jump into the crater that was once the main building when a hand grabs his shoulder. Spinning on his heels he’s ready to lash out at who ever had the gall to stop him. Steve’s mournful gaze freezes Bucky’s rage in an instant.

“We’ll find her Buck. I swear.” Bucky stares at him for a second before managing a nod and the two men slide down.

Desperately his eyes scan for anything that will give him a clue. But it’s just endless, charred, steaming rubble.

He hears Tony overhead, “Come on Jarvis, tell me you got something.” If Jarvis responds it’s not on everyone’s coms. Sam is also above them scanning, while Hill and Clint help Natasha down into the crater. No one seems certain of what they’re looking for, only that they have to look. Have to try.

After about ten minutes that feel like five hours Sam pipes up, “I think we got something!” He’s near the center, landing softly, no one sure how solid the ground beneath them is.

Bucky rushes over as Jarvis chimes in on all their coms, “Weak life signs. She seems to be in an air pocket.”

“Help me with this guys,” Tony goes to a large slab of wall. Carefully Bucky, Steve, and Tony lift the slab and lay it gently down, not wanting to cause the debris to shift too heavily. There’s still an unnerving groaning sound from somewhere beneath their feet.

They move more debris, working at a miserably slow pace. Finally, they lift a piece of strangely warped concrete and…

He sees you, the debris around you curved and almost melted forming a sort of cocoon. You’re on your back, large patches of your tac uniform have been burned away, your exposed flesh black and red and blistered, your right arm is pinned under your back at a sickening angle, clearly badly broken. Blood trickles from your mouth, nose, and ears. But you’re alive.

Unthinking Bucky drops down hands reaching, aching to touch you. “If you touch her I’ll put a bullet in you Barnes,” Sam barks settling next to you. Bucky glares, “Moving her you could kill her and I’m not going to fucking let that happen. We clear?”

He’s right. Bucky nods. Thankful for Sam.

“Jarvis we need the Nightingale.”

Within five minutes you’re on some kind of Stark tech stretcher. Sam carefully arranges your busted arm, while straps gently and automatically hold you in place.

“Let’s get her home,” Clint says from behind Bucky, patting his back in an attempt at comfort.

Everyone is quiet on the ride back. Sam monitors your vitals, your worryingly faint heartbeat drops over and over and Bucky feels himself die just a little each time. Thankfully you’re still hanging on when they land at the tower.

Medical is prepped and ready. Instantly they surround you, Dr. Cabot barking orders in her stern tone. Bucky follows but Steve grabs him, “Let them help her.”

“Get the fuck off me Steve I can’t-”

“You can’t go in the O.R. Buck,” his grip tightens, “you can’t. But they’re gonna do everything they can. She’s tough as nails. She’s gonna pull through this.” Tony walks past them guiding Natasha and Bucky shoots him a murderous glance. “Come on.”

Bucky refuses to leave medical while you’re in surgery. Everyone but Tony waits with him. Even Bruce joins them looking stressed. It’s just as good. He’s of the mind to literally rip Stark’s spine out.

Six excruciating hours later Dr. Cabot comes out. “We got her stable.” Bucky shoots up. “Some… some of the injuries were unique… the heat…” She shakes her head, “We did our best. Now we wait and hope.”

He feels like he’s gonna be sick. “Can… c… can I…”

“Soon,” The doctor gives Bucky a tender smile. “Get cleaned up and by the time you’re done we’ll have her ready for you to see.”

Bucky nods but can’t seem to bring himself to move. Clint and Steve coax him to the elevator. All the guys come along to the locker room they use for post mission clean up. No one willing to leave him alone.

Cleaned and changed they all head back up. Natasha is sitting with Hill, their hands clasped, in the little lounge area when they get there. Both looking morose.

“You can go see her,” Natasha’s voice is far away. “Wanted you to be first.”

Bucky runs the short distance to the private rooms the medical bay has. In the door, he freezes. You’re black and blue, bruises already blossoming. Bandages cover your arms from the burns, plus a few on your face.

“She’s breathing on her own,” Dr. Cabot comes up from behind, startling him. He jumps, but doesn’t lash out. “Sorry.” All he can manage is a nod in response before stepping in.

“That’s a good sign,” her tone is trying to reassure him but it’s not working. “She’s gonna need a new shoulder but that can wait… Just… there were internal burns. We aren’t sure how they’ll heal… and the head trauma… that’s always tricky.” She sighs, “Time will tell. Being enhanced… changes things, hopefully in this case for the better. No one should have made it through that… She’s strong.”

He nods as if anything she said sunk in and walks over to the bed collapsing on the chair next to it.

“Talk to her,” he looks up and she’s smiling. “Let her know you’re here. I’ll check in later.”

As soon as the door clicks behind her hot tears begin to stream silently down his face as he stares at you. He’s terrified to touch you, so scared that he’ll somehow make this worse. And talk… his tongue feels like lead in his mouth. Even his brain is swirling with different languages, unable to lock on to his mother tongue.

This is his fault. That’s the only solid thought he has right now. He shouldn’t have let you go in that room. Shouldn’t have let you anywhere near this mission… You hating him forever for being a controlling asshole would be better than this… at least you’d be alive.

Then he realizes there is one thing. One thing he has to find a way to say. Russian, Mandarin, French, Spanish, they all try to come out before he coaches his tongue to the proper English syllables. Leaning close to your ear he whispers, voice thick with regret and grief, “I love you, Y/N. I’m so sorry…”

Five days later and your bruises have faded some, the burns healing, but you haven’t opened your eyes… Bruce assured him that you clearly have brain activity, that’s supposed to mean you’re still with them… still fighting. It’s not much comfort.

Bucky has hardly left this room, he’s spoken even less… well to anyone but you, and even then only when you’re alone. Steve and Natasha have kept the most vigil with him, he thinks they’ve worked out some sort of six on six off schedule. The others come in at least once a day, sad smiles and soft words. That is everyone but Stark who’s kept his distance.

Steve finally convinces Bucky that he needs to step away for more than five minutes. Well, convinces isn’t the word… he practically begs. Bucky agrees on the grounds that they won’t leave the tower and Jarvis is to notify him immediately of even the smallest changes to your condition.

They only go up to the roof for about a half hour. The air and sunlight actually do feel good, they clear his head just enough.

As the two men ride back down Bucky turns to his friend, “Thank you.” Steve looks shocked for a moment before relief floods his face. They’re the first words he’s said to him in days.

Without a word, Steve pulls Bucky into a bone crushing hug. In all their years of friendship, Bucky rarely let himself be weak around Steve. He needed to be strong for the scrappy little shit because no one else was gonna… but now, in this elevator after both their worlds have fallen, risen, and now Bucky feels as if it’s fallen again he leans into Steve’s strength for just a minute. “You got it, Buck.”

As they approach your room music spills from the open door. Bucky feels the blood in his veins turn cold. Stark.

“I know you have to hate this one Sparks, so feel free to tell me what a lame ass I am… berate me… anything…” Tony’s voice is rough. He’s leaned back in a chair balancing on two legs by your bed, hands cradling the back of his head. “The 90’s were a tough time for music but there were some gems.”

“Bucky, don’t-” Steve warns. Stark shoots up as Bucky barrels into the room.

He grabs Stark by his tee and slams him against the wall. Surprisingly though all the hateful things he’s thought to scream at Stark over the last few days won’t fly from his lips now. Instead, he holds him there, cold eyes boring into him.

“For what it’s worth I wanna kick my ass too…” The sincerity in Stark’s voice hits Bucky like a blow and he releases him though he doesn’t move away.

Stark’s eyes wander behind Bucky to you, “It was the one thing-” His voice cracks and he clears his throat trying to gain composure before continuing. “It was the only thing she ever asked of me. I asked her to trust us, to join us. I asked her to play hero… fuck.” He runs a hand over his face, catching the tears before they can fall. “She never asked anything of me… until you.” Bucky turns away, not wanting to hear it but unable to leave.

“She asked me to promise that if shit went sideways I would keep your dumbass safe because she knew you’d try to follow her into any deathtrap that came up. The only thing she asked.” His voice is shaking with emotion, “And you can hate me until the day I eventually eat it but I’d do it again in a heartbeat for her.”

Silence rings between the three men, only broken by the sounds of the music. “Even if you hate it play the music. There’s some stuff I know she’ll like. And even if she doesn’t… maybe she’ll get annoyed enough to wake up and have at me.”

As Tony pushes past him Bucky’s arm shoots out, holding him in place. He doesn’t look at him, scared that if he does he won’t be able to say the words. “I don’t hate you, Tony.” Finally, he turns, Tony’s face is bereft, “Keep the music coming, she likes your shitty playlists.”

A sad smile curls Tony’s lips. “They’re only shitty because you’re too old to know what’s good, Manchurian.”

Day 12 rolls up and Bucky begins to feel himself shutdown in a way he hasn’t since he’s been here. It’s a detachment he was familiar with as the Soldier, as though he’s observing the world through plate glass.

He’s going through the motions they all expect. Eating, drinking, talking when he needs to, even managing a half hearted smile here and there. All of it is muscle memory though, autopilot to get through the times when other people are watching.

Honestly, it’s easier to feel that way. Easier when they’re there and he has to play a part. When they’re gone… he feels it. It’s like there’s a crushing weight on his chest. He thinks he’d take the chair a thousand times over this grief. Rather mind numbing pain than this slow suffocation.

But still, he stays by your side. He plays Tony’s playlists, some of his music, some of yours. Sometimes he sings to you, softly, old songs he remembers from his life before. Maybe he tells you about something he remembers or old dreams he had of who he’d be. Over and over he whispers those those three little words he should have been saying long before now.

By day 17 he’s just numb. Your bruises have faded, the burns almost healed leaving pink scars in places that may linger for a few years. The doctors insist that your brain activity is promising but you haven’t even fluttered your eyes, not even a squeeze to his hand, nothing… despite the times, alone in the wee hours of the morning, that he’s begged for you to.

On day 21 he thinks this is worse than death. Just watching you lay there day after day night after night. Performing for the others. Hoping and hoping and hoping for something that may never happen.

Tonight he doesn’t sing, doesn’t play music, doesn’t tell stories. He lays his head down on the bed, silence holding you both tight. Tears stream from his eyes and he counts your breaths until oblivion takes him.

No one ever tells you what it’s like to almost die.

There’s always the wondrous stories about people who die and come back. The white light, loved ones telling you it’s not time and all that shit. People just don’t seem to talk about the almost. They don’t talk about the void of pain, the fear of dying that lingers after your body ceases to listen to you. There’s no beautiful light or love when you’re screaming but no one can hear you. Nothing poetic in pushing through the endless darkness of unconsciousness.

You’ve been here before though. Many times. The almost is like an old friend that rises to greet you when you feel the roof give way beneath your feet. It’s happy to drag you under as the debris settles around your body, still pulsing and glowing with pure burning energy.

Unlike those other times though you don’t beg for death and you don’t pull through to spite the reaper either. This time you fight because there’s something worth living for. Someone, or someones rather, who you aren’t willing to leave behind. Not yet. So you push back against that insidious pull of death, scream and beg your body to obey you to move just a little, just something so they know.

It seems like an age before you feel the pain sear through your right shoulder. For a moment you don’t remember why your shoulder should be hurting or why the hell you’re sleeping on your back. Then it all barrels into you. The pain is less of a nuisance then, you savor it because it means you won, you’re still alive.

The room is silent but you can hear a familiar steady breathing to your left, feel a familiar weight across your torso. Bucky sleeping, his left arm over you, right hand tightly gripping your left. You have to open your eyes, have to see him… You don’t know how long it takes you to force your eyes to open but it feels like hours.

Slowly they creak open, heavy and strangely sore. Even though the light is dim it feels like looking into the sun for a second. Eventually, they adjust and you drag your gaze to the left.

Your heart rises in your parched throat. His eyes look puffy from tears, lips chapped. His beard seems so much longer… how long were you… it didn’t matter.

First, you try to open your mouth, but nothing happens. Your tongue feels heavy, thick, unsure of how to function anymore. It takes a few frustrating minutes but finally you get it under control.

You squeeze his right hand as tight as you can manage. He shifts a bit but doesn’t seem to register until you squeeze once more. Instantly he shoots up, eyes wide.

“Y/N?!”

Your voice is nothing but a rasp, barely even a whisper, but you have to say it… just in case you never get to again. “I love you.”

Those spectacular eyes of his well with tears instantly, his chest heaves, like he hasn’t taken a breath in days. “I love you too, Y/N. So much baby doll. I love you.” That’s all he manages, words stumbling over themselves, before he breaks.

Bucky's lips crash into yours silencing his sob and you tangle the fingers of your left hand in his hair. His forehead rests against yours, his gaze making your heart skip a beat.

“I thought I lost you, baby.”

“You’ll never lose me, Bucky. I’m all yours.”

The next few days are a strange, disorienting blur. You feel like you forgot how to be awake.

Despite almost a month of unconsciousness you constantly feel yourself drifting off. Dr. Cabot tells you that your body is still healing. It was a massive trauma and even super soldiers have a breaking point. Still… it’s annoying. You want to be awake, to study the faces of your friends, dry their tears, hold on to every single moment.

Unconscious or awake though Bucky is there. His reassuring warmth a constant by your side. But… you can see what this has done to him. He’s ragged, barely sleeping, his eyes haunted. The relief that floods his face every time you wake up nearly undoes you.

Four days later Dr. Cabot comes in, a smile on her face. “Good news. I’m clearing you to go home.” That one little work sends warmth flooding through you. Home. Home with Bucky. You turn to him, your face hurting from the smile that just burst across it.

“Don’t get too excited though, you’re not done seeing me. I’m still going to be checking in and as soon as Tony has your shoulder replacement ready we’re scheduling your surgery.” As much as you hate the thought of being under, you’re sick of having a useless arm, you nod. “But since you live here I think being back in your own space will be good. For the both of you.” She gives Bucky a stern look.

“Thanks, Doc.” You eek out despite the emotion welling in your chest.

A couple of hours later and you’re in the elevator, thankful you talked your way out of a wheelchair. It felt good to be on your own two feet, even if you were leaning on Bucky for support.

When the doors slide open a welcome banner hung above the door greets you.

“Are they going to jump out and yell surprise when we walk in?”

Bucky looks down at you, clearly just as caught off guard as you were. “No idea.”

Cautiously he opens the door but to both of your relief no one jumps out, in fact, no one is here at all. What is here are sprays of flowers and a ton of food. A lump rises in your throat as you pick up the hand written card left on the bar:

We all thought you two would like some time alone. Enjoy the snacks, pizza will come later. We each picked a movie we think you’ll like, they’re queued on your TV. Jarvis has your ‘Welcome Home’ playlist ready to go for whenever you want to annoy Ice Man.

Glad you’re back with us, Sparks.

-The Team

I picked out the flowers, because we can’t trust these boys to get that right.

-Nat

Bucky wraps you in his arms, pulling your back flat against him, “We’re home, doll. Really home.”

The weight of those words almost make you weep from pure joy. Hydra had tried time and time again to take everything from you both, to prevent you from finding home and happiness. Hell, even your childhood home was nothing but a lie… But here… With these people, with him, together you had all found something special. More than home, you found family.

Turning in his arms you grasp the back of his neck with your good hand. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

His lips are soft against yours, this kiss unhurried. After all, why rush something so sweet. It truly hits you then that you want nothing but this for the rest of your days, no matter how many or how few there may be. Nothing but him.

Pulling back from the kiss you stare into his face. You want to remember every line, every freckle, every single detail of how he looks in this moment.

“What is it?” Concern flashes across his features for an instant.

“Truth or dare?”

“What?” He laughs.

“Come on. Truth or dare?”

“Um, dare.”

“I dare you to marry me, James Buchanan Barnes.”

The laugh that tears through his chest is pure joy. Every ounce of exhaustion slips from his features as he lifts you up and sets you on the counter top. He doesn’t say anything, just takes your face in his rough hands and kisses you until you can hardly breathe.

“Well? Do you accept my challenge?” You grin up at this man you love.

“I do.”

“That’s supposed to come later I think.” You tuck a stray strand of hair behind his ear.

“I will happily accept that dare, Y/N.” Another laugh falls from his lips before he kisses you once more. “My turn,” he says breaking the kiss. “Truth or dare?”

“I feel obligated to chose dare, it got us into this whole mess originally after all.”

He nods in acknowledgment. “I dare you to take my name.” All you can do is smile at him. You already planned on it, your original last name left a bad taste in your mouth after everything. Your silence seems to unsettle him though, “I know it’s old fashioned but-”

“I’d love to.” He looks shocked. “Y/N Barnes. Has a nice ring to it.”

“Yeah,” he covers your face in kisses, “it does.”

Epilogue to come.

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky #bucky barnes #bucky feels

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the-jade-mage · 7 years ago

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As Bright as the Sun (drabble)

Description: Santana Awakes from his slumber after years of hibernation. Takes place post-DIU.

Warnings for themes of suicide and suicidal idealization.

It was 10:00 pm and there was a low rumble in the earth, and the ground started to shake.

The few employees working at this hour, inside the Speedwagon facility clung to the walls and some dropped to floor. The earthquake was natural with no supernatural origin, and was an 7.5 on the Richter scale.

The epicenter was a few miles away but this natural disaster still managed to knock out the all the power, including the backup generators. Leaving the whole facility in a state of utter darkness, except the moonlight that shone threw the few windows that dotted the halls.

Once the quake finally halted, the building was mostly in tact. The main mess was furniture and other miscellaneous things that were scattered everywhere.

The lowest level of the complex had the biggest mess and was completely dark, on account it was below ground level and had no windows.

The few employees that were there carefully were picking themselves off the floor and trying to get their eyes to adjust to the pitch black. Stumbling to perhaps find their phones to use as flashlights.

That's when they heard it, the cracking, almost if egg were hatching, if it were made of stone. The sounds of rock crumbling and falling away. Their hearts started to pick up pace, and they went completely stiff from fear. They weren't lucky enough to have the building fall on them, it was too well built for that. No, it was something far worse.

Then was the sound of something groaning, like an animal, and stretching. He had awakened.

The Pillar Man Santana.

After nearly 80 more years of slumber, he awoke once again.

These few workers couldn't do anything but say silent prayers, because there was no way of stopping him, not until someone could get one of the backpack UV lamps and either kill or incapacitate him. They knew with every fiber of their being that they had no chance of survival unless he showed mercy, which they knew he wouldn't. They wouldn't blame him.

The muscular demigod stepped from the box that had contained him for the past 79 years, hardly any time for him in comparison to the rest of his life, but during the duration of those years much had changed.

He walked through the people who were standing in the halls, fear struck. Devouring, with his entire being not even flinching. Gathering his nutrients, hardly without a second thought.

He made his way to an air vent, the sounds of his wailing victims trailing behind him. He contorted his body shape to squeeze through the open vent and began to work himself through, to make his way to the upper levels.

He arrived at the ground floor and he began to billow out of the vent and started to take humanoid form again.

He began walking, not really having anything to fear. Not a single person he had encountered had even tried to oppose him since waking up.

When the demigod heard a voice coming from a nearby room. "Yes sir. We're sure he's awake. Y-Yes sir."

Santana walking into the room and turning to face a young man on a satellite phone. The young man's eyes widened and grew glassier as he looked over the Pillar Man who seemed to practically glow as the pale moonlight kissed his muscular skin.

There was indistinct chatter from the phone, and the man clutched it tighter, before horsely whimpering in reply, "He's right in front of me."

Santana grunted before turning towards a nearby window, braking it and exiting. Not bothering to listen to what the man was saying. Probably about how he had left the building, and was now free.

Santana walked up the hill said that overlooked the facility, and just stood there, taking in the changes of the world now, thinking.

What was he to do? His original "mission" was to guard the stone masks in his cave in Mexico, until Kars came back for him.

He knew that that prospect of that happening was probably long gone now. He wanted to know how it had happened though.

'No more then a hundred years must have passed.' He mused. The Hamon user Joseph who he had encountered, and no doubt was the one who had also encountered and befelled his brethren should still be youngly and alive. He hoped that he could speak with him, perhaps take revenge if he felt it necessary. He knew if his family had still been alive, they would've came back for him already, or at least taken control of humanity as they planned.

He waited there a few more hours as he watched as people pooled at the bottom of the hill, wondering if he should go somewhere else in the meantime. He very well knew that Jojo was personally attached to Robert Speedwagon, and by extension the Speedwagon foundation so that's perhaps why he stayed put.

Soon a car pulled up, and a door opened up, out filed a handful of people.

He turned his attention elsewhere until he heard an older woman's voice call out, "Jojo, wait!!"

His head snapped back, he heard someone sprinting up the hillside towards him. The feet hitting the ground and the slightly heavy breath headed his way.

the light breaths and quick footsteps he had thought were Joseph's at first, clearly belonged to someone younger and smaller.

Soon there was someone standing no more then 15 feet away, but they were not visible, he could not only smell them, but hear their uneven breaths. Now invisibility wasn't something hamon users were able to do last he remembered, but it wasn't something entirely new to him either, it was an ability his bother Wammu had.

"I can sense you there, show yourself!" Santana demanded in a low voice.

Then, as if from thin air a young Asian girl appeared. "I'm, sorry, sometimes it just happens when I get stressed, or nervous." There was a slight pause, as he was practically devouring her with his eyes, trying to read and learn everything he could about her. "My name is Shizuka, but I go by Jojo. My dad told me about you, he said your name was Santana."

There was someone else working their way up the hill, much slower and having a more difficult time, with heavy breaths, he listened but payed attention to the girl in front of him.

"Your father?" Santana stated more then asked.

"Joseph Joestar." She replied. "He told me about told me about you, and the other Pillar Men. He especially respected Whamu even after everything that happened."

Santana subconsciously took a few steps towards Shizuka "Where is you're father? Where is Joseph Joestar?" he asked slowly.

"I'm right here." A gravelly and exasperated voice breathed from behind Shizuka Santana brought his gaze to meet the eyes of the old man.

"Joseph." The Pillar Man started as he outstretched his arm. "You've aged, you must've stopped practicing Hamon." He tried to form his sentence into a question but it again came out as a statement. It didn't make any sense to have stopped performing any form of his training, Hamon extends the life of the user and even just by breathing he could've corrected any of this.

"Do you come to me completely defenseless? Why would you stop? Was it because you believed the danger had passed?" Santana asked confused, surely the human had to have known that he was kept by the speedwagon foundation.

"I didn't see a point in it anymore." He replied simply leaning on his cane, and putting a hand on his young daughter's arm. "Why should've I continued? I didn't have any reason to, not anymore."

Santana squinted, he could easily read situations and learn very quickly. He had met Joseph before he had any formal training, he knew since then he had definitely had some sort of time when he learned more. His life had already been prolonged, though his age clearly showed.

Had Joseph been foolish enough to think that he, the last survivor of an ancient spices of demigods no longer posed a viable threat? Perhaps.

"I wanted to put everything behind me." Joseph started. "I wanted my own life, my own family. As does anyone I would think. I asked you then to become a friend because I did not believe that we were all that different." He said with a sincere chuckle.

He was starting to catch on there was more to why he had stopped, as if the reason to continue had no longer been a factor, but he no longer believed that it was the danger of him or the other Pillar Men. Perhaps a close companion or even multiple had perished at the hands of his family, but he couldn't detect even the hint of anger or resentment.

"You've lost friends." Santana stated, trying hard to gage Joseph's reaction and gain some more insight.

He could see the hurt in his eyes, the way his pupils dilated and his eyes grew wet, he knew. "Yet, you do not intend to fight unless I instigate it."

He could also read from Joseph that this too was the truth.

Santana shook his head. "Why? It isn't logical."

"Had I struck you as someone logical the first time we met?" Joseph laughed.

Santana furrowed his brow.

"I've met many people throughout my life. You were the first one who did not see me and immediately think that I needed to be used or killed. Honestly you are one of the only things I have a difficult time reading." He said clenching his jaw.

Joseph laughed, this startled the Pillar Man. "I will take it as a compliment." He said stepping closer to Santana, so he now stood between him and Shizuka. "But what about you?" Joseph asked.

"What about me? I had hoped that at least my brother Whamu was alive, or that Kars had just forgotten about me. Or perhaps you would still be a worthy adversary to fight again. But, there's nothing left at all. Perhaps there's no point for me either." Santana growled. "Everyone I knew, aside from you, is gone. I failed my only mission Kars had entrusted to me and they-" Santana swiftly brought down his arm to strike Joseph. Breathing in Joseph conducted Hamon and brought his arm up to sheild himself. Still the sheer force of it knocked over the old man.

Shizuka readied her pose to fight. Santana could sense that her fighting spirit had even increased. But Joseph stretched back his arm, telling his daughter not to do anything.

"They left me alone, again." Santana said kneeling in front of Joseph "I should've taken your offer back then, instead of believing that Kars intended to return for me. He was my father but he had his own ambitions."

Santana looked at his own wounded arm glowing like embers as it began to heal.

"I know that whatever you had to do was because you had no other choice, I know because the way you had treated me then and the way you are still treating me."

The next few hours pass, and Santana had asked questions about his family and how things had transpired. Joseph answered him, letting him know how how honorable Esidisi and Whamu had fought and acted during battle. He tried to embellish Kars, but Santana knew better that Joseph tried too hard. And it hadn't surprised him that Kars had cheated his way through his fight.

"Why don't you come back inside, and we can figure out what we can do next. I wish uncle Speedwagon were alive he would've loved this." Joseph chuckled, trying to stand up.

Santana guided him, helping the elderly man to his feet. "I don't think so Jojo."

Joseph looked up at the Pillar Man in shock. "What? Why?"

Santana remained as expressionless as he could. "There isn't any point in it anymore. Is there?"

Joseph got angry, and the fire that his eyes held when he was young could practically be seen again. He griped Santana's arm as tightly as he could, which in all honesty wasn't that tight.

"Don't use my words against me." Joseph growled, trying not to sound like he was pleading.

"My family is gone, I am the only living Pillar Man left. Why else should I continue?"

"Because, that's who've you've been as long as I've known you, a survivor. whatever the circumstances."Joseph said sternly.

"Jojo, I have survived for a very long time, but now I am done. I want to be with my family, I want to be at peace. Stay with me and watch the sunrise."

Joseph was quiet for a moment looking into Santana's solemn eyes, before quietly replying. "Sure, I will do that."

Shizuka had left them awhile ago. Leaving the two of them standing side by side, facing east in silence knowing that dawn would soon arrive.

The sky on the horizon began to glow. "This would be the time we would have to go inside, underground, until the sun set. I always thought the sky looked beautiful at this time, and imagined that the sun would be as well." Santana had always stollen glimpses of the sky when he could, and when he hid inside people he had to stay where it was safe, in the dark. Kars had similar feelings about the sun. Except his father wished to transcend the sun. He chuckled to himself thinking that he guessed his father did actually fulfill his dream, even if it was short lived.

The sun began to crest over the horizon line, and he felt his skin began to burn. "It is beautiful. Thank you Jojo." he said as the burning grew more intense, he thought about how bright and beautiful it was, It almost reminded him of the harmon user beside him, when they had first met. Santana welcomed the brightness and warmth, as his body started to give way and disintegrate into a pile of burning ash.

Joseph silently wept for the god and hung his head.

#jjba #JoJo's Bizarre Adventure #joseph joestar #jjba santana #shizuka joestar #fanfiction #drabble #the-jade-mage

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sunscreenstudies · 6 years ago

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Hey! Congratulations, you did really well in your LC! I was wondering, do you have any tips for people who are going into 6th year? Also, how did you study for Geography? It's so difficult to learn off lists of information 😰

Thank you so much!! :D

And believe me when I say that you already have most of the work done in 5th year! 5th year was wayyy more stressful than 6th year because by April you honestly are just so done with this whole Leaving Cert thing you don’t even care anymore! The *best* study tips that I can give you for going into 6th year, however are:

Take rough notes in school and then rewrite them over the weekend, making them pretty and colourful and breaking all the information down into small bullet points, because lets face it, teachers give wayyy more info that what’s necessary, and by rewriting it, not only can you cut things out, it also helps you remember the topic better, and when your notes are cute and pretty looking, you’ll actually want to study from them!

Download or print out the syllabus for each subject and only write notes for those topics! I found that in a lot of subjects, especially theory heavy ones like biology, the teacher gave way too much information than what was required, and you can still can full marks by cutting out those unnecessary points!

I used a colour-scheme for highlighting which actually helped a lot! For example, I used yellow for headings and subheadings, orange for definitions, blue for people’s names, green for examples, purple for quotes and pink for dates. This way, when you’re revising or doing your homework and you’re looking for a particular definition or an example, you can immediately find the colour highlighter and the information that you’re looking for!

This website : https://www.examinations.ie/exammaterialarchive/ should be your best friend! I know you’re probably sick of hearing this, but doing exam papers and checking the marking scheme afterwards really does help! That way you can learn exactly what you need to get full marks

Subject wise:

When it comes to studying maths, especially for higher level, just reading your notes and doing the same example questions over and over again won’t cut it. I did this throughout my 5th year, and ended up doing great on class tests before almost failing my summer exam. Teachers usually use the examples they gave you in class tests, and I ended up memorising these examples instead of actually learning the methods! So once again, exam papers are your friend.

For English, even though there is an awful lot to learn, you just need to remember key words, and you’ll sail through. In the comparative, for example, you need to compare your texts in every. single. paragraph. You could write a fantastic essay, but if you don’t say “In comparison to this…” “Text 2 however differs from this…” “Similarly…” “The two texts are different in the sense that…” etc. you will get veryyy low marks. In the same way, when answering your poetry question, you need to keep referring to the style of the poet. Every past poetry question can be broken down into two simple questions: What did the poet write about? and how did they say it? If you can answer both these questions on every poem you learn, you’ll do brilliantly! Also, don’t bother learning any more than 5 poems from each poet, and don’t learn more than 5 poets to begin with. By doing this and learning 25 poems in total, you’re covering yourself completely!

Languages are more tricky to study for, but what helped condense the information you need to learn for me, was treating the oral and the written paper as the same exam. For example, if I learned off a paragraph about my family for the oral, then I would learn that paragraph again for the written paper, instead of learning a new paragraph or adding sentences. This way, when you’re studying for the written exam, you won’t have to learn off new paragraphs, because you’ll still remember some of what you learned for the oral! Aural tests are the worsttt and very difficult to study for, so your best bet is to just learn off the most common place names that come up, numbers and dates, and (for German at least) types of weather. Be sure to read the syllabus for the aural exam because in some cases, if you just guess and write down what you *think* the tape might have said, they’ll give you half marks!

Biology is all about the diagrams! That’s what got me through that huge ream of information. If you learn off the diagram, then you already have a rough idea of what’s going on. Learnt the diagrams as if you’re trying to teach it to someone else, and honestly, this makes it so much easier to learn! It especially helps with similar topics such as respiration and photosynthesis, the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle, etc. and really helps you to distinguish one from one another. Then, in the exam, you can just draw a quick sketch in pencil at the top of your page, and refer to it every time you get confused or stuck when explaining something.

Geography did have a lot of information to learn off and is marked rather harshly. However if you go through past exam papers you will find certain topics that come up every single year eg. Fluvial processes. For me, I studied those guaranteed topics (or mostly-guaranteed topics) really well, and then had a rough overview of the rest of the book. Also, in every answer make sure that you give an example and for the love of god, learn your damn exam diagrams!!! They are literally the best thing ever because if you need 15 points in an answer, then a diagram can count for up to 3 of those!! And even if you’re certain that you have written enough points, put one down anyway because you never know how mean your examiner might be! With that note, for every 2 marks a question is worth, you need 1 SRP (significant relevant point), a sentence that contains a solid fact or example. Eg. For a 30 mark question, you need to give 15 SRP’s, for a 20 mark you need 10SRP’s, etc. etc. Also, learn the theory and the case studies as one answer! So instead of writing down that an earthquake happened in Japan on March 11, 2011 and it was magnitude 8, write down how earthquakes occur and what magnitude means and that for every 1 jump you make on the Richter scale the earthquake becomes 10 times as powerful. You need to pretend that the examiner is stupid and has no idea what earthquakes or volcanoes or tertiary activities are, and that way, you are maxmising your SRP’s. Answer every question as if you’re explaining the topic to a 3-year-old! Your short questions, individual long questions, elective, and option answers are all worth the same exact 80 marks. So do not disregard the short questions because they’re worth the same 16.66% as every other question you answer. Also, if your option is Geology like mine was, then your fucking sorted man! Every single year has at least one questions on biomes, whether it’s the human activity or the characteristics so just learn that and you’re sorted! No joke, there were 10 people in my Leaving Cert Geography class and not a single one of us knew anything about soil or soil processes or characteristics. We all just learnt our biome, and that was it!

6th year is scary and stressful and at times you will want to just bury yourself in your bed and cry, but you will get through this! Just calm down, breathe, take a moment, and remember that even your worst days can only ever last 24 hours. Millions and millions and millions of people have survived the LC and you will too! And this time, next year, you will be collecting your official certificate from your school and wondering just what the hell the fuss was all about!

I hope that these tips/pieces of advice helped, and if you have any other questions please please please feel free to ask me because I really could have done with an Irish studyblr back when I was in your position!

And always always always always alwaysssss remember, that you are more important than your grades! It doesn’t matter if you’re aiming for 10 points or the full 625, your health and your well being and your happiness is so so so much more important that what you get at the end of the day! Do not let your good grades be at the expense of your mental or physical health because while the Leaving Cert is such a huge deal to you right now, in 5 years time, it won’t matter anymore. So please please pleaseee take care of yourself and always put yourself first! 😘

#studyspo #studyblr #leaving cert #exam tips #leaving cert advice #study tips #anon

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odishaphotos · 3 years ago

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Giger Counter

Error: the {{Wikify}} template is deprecated and has been deemed by the community as too ambiguous; please do not use / transclude / replace it. Instead, use a more specific template, such as those listed in this template's documentation. The incident took place on March 11 this year. A strong earthquake shook the sea about 130 kilometers off the coast of Japan. The Richter scale had an intensity of 9.0. The epicenter was reported below the Pacific Ocean floor, however; no tsunami alert was issued. The mountain-like wave was 14 meters above sea level. The shores of Japan were submerged in the sea. Many buildings and roads collapsed in an instant. The situation was exacerbated when seawater infiltrated many of Japan's nuclear power plants. The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a U.S. military base. Extremely harmful radiation emitted from there, which had a devastating effect on the environment. At this time, scientists used a variety of instruments to measure the amount and type of light emitted by the environment. Among them was Giger Crow. There are many types of light in our world. Among them are uranium, thorium, and radium. These types of substances usually emit three types of radiation. That is, alpha radiation. Beta radiation and gamma radiation. The religion of all these rays is different. These cannot be seen or felt. This type of radiation is used to detect and measure gyrus crows.

It was first invented by German physicist Hans Geiger in 1908. He was working with eminent physicist Rutherford at the time to study radiation. During this time he designed the machine to measure alpha particles. It was named after Giger Crow. Then in 1928, Walter Muller made some changes to it. The device was used for a variety of radiation measurements. This machine reduces costs. It is also convenient to use. Therefore, it is widely used in medicine, physics, and geology. The machine has two electrical leads. Different types of radiation affect the ion in the air. This creates an electric shock in the front of the lightning bolt. Electrical appliances are fitted with that electric front. It shows the amount and type of radiation. In some species of crows, the effects of radiation can be clicked. Another type of crow's dial indicates the amount of radiation.

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liliannorman · 4 years ago

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Explainer: What are logarithms and exponents?

When COVID-19 hit the United States, the numbers just seemed to explode. First, there were only one or two cases. Then there were 10. Then 100. Then thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Increases like this are hard to understand. But exponents and logarithms can help make sense of those dramatic increases.

Scientists often describe trends that increase very dramatically as being exponential. It means that things don’t increase (or decrease) at a steady pace or rate. It means the rate changes at some increasing pace.

An example is the decibel scale, which measures sound pressure level. It is one way to describe the strength of a sound wave. It’s not quite the same thing as loudness, in terms of human hearing, but it’s close. For every 10 decibel increase, the sound pressure increases 10 times. So a 20 decibel sound has not twice the sound pressure of 10 decibels, but 10 times that level. And the sound pressure level of a 50 decibel noise is 10,000 times greater than a 10-decibel whisper (because you’ve multiplied 10 x 10 x 10 x 10).

An exponent is a number that tells you how many times to multiply some base number by itself. In that example above, the base is 10. So using exponents, you could say that 50 decibels is 104 times as loud as 10 decibels. Exponents are shown as a superscript — a little number to the upper right of the base number. And that little 4 means you’re to multiply 10 times itself four times. Again, it’s 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 (or 10,000).

Logarithms are the inverse of exponents. A logarithm (or log) is the mathematical expression used to answer the question: How many times must one “base” number be multiplied by itself to get some other particular number?

For instance, how many times must a base of 10 be multiplied by itself to get 1,000? The answer is 3 (1,000 = 10 × 10 × 10). So the logarithm base 10 of 1,000 is 3. It’s written using a subscript (small number) to the lower right of the base number. So the statement would be log10(1,000) = 3.

At first, the idea of a logarithm might seem unfamiliar. But you probably already think logarithmically about numbers. You just don’t realize it.

Let’s think about how many digits a number has. The number 100 is 10 times as big as the number 10, but it only has one more digit. The number 1,000,000 is 100,000 times as big as 10, but it only has five more digits. The number of digits a number has grows logarithmically. And thinking about numbers also shows why logarithms can be useful for displaying data. Can you imagine if every time you wrote the number 1,000,000 you had to write down a million tally marks? You’d be there all week! But the “place value system” we use allows us to write down numbers in a much more efficient way.

Why describe things as logs and exponents?

Log scales can be useful because some types of human perception are logarithmic. In the case of sound, we perceive a conversation in a noisy room (60 dB) to be just a bit louder than a conversation in a quiet room (50 dB). Yet the sound pressure level of voices in the noisy room might be 10 times higher.

These graphs plot the same information, but show it somewhat differently. The plot at left is linear, the one at right is logarithmic. The steep curve in the left plot looks flatter on the right plot.Canadian Journal of Political Science, Apr. 14, 2020, pp.1–6/ (CC BY 4.0)

Another reason to use a log scale is that it allows scientists to show data easily. It would be hard to fit the 10 million lines on a sheet of graph paper that would be needed to plot the differences from a quiet whisper (30 decibels) to the sound of a jackhammer (100 decibels). But they’ll easily fit on a page using a scale that’s logarithmic. It’s also an easy way to see and understand big changes such as rates of growth (for a puppy, a tree or a country’s economy). Any time you see the phrase “order of magnitude,” you’re seeing a reference to a logarithm.

Logarithms have many uses in science. pH — the measure of how acidic or basic a solution is — is logarithmic. So is the Richter scale for measuring earthquake strength.

In 2020, the term logarithmic became best known to the public for its use in describing the spread of the new pandemic coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). As long as each person who got infected spread the virus to no more than one other person, the size of the infection would stay the same or die out. But if the number was more than 1, it would increase “exponentially” — which means that a logarithmic scale could be useful to graph it.

Basic bases

The base number of a logarithm can be almost any number. But there are three bases which are especially common for science and other uses.

Binary logarithm: This is a logarithm where the base number is two. Binary logarithms are the basis for the binary numeral system, which allows people to count using only the numbers zero and one. Binary logarithms are important in computer science. They’re also used in music theory. A binary logarithm describes the number of octaves between two musical notes.

Natural logarithm: A so-called “natural” logarithm — written ln — is used in many areas of math and science. Here the base number is an irrational number referred to as e, or Euler’s number. (The mathematician Leonhard Euler did not intend to name it after himself. He was writing a math paper using letters to represent numbers and happened to use e for this number.) That e is about 2.72 (though you can never write it down completely in decimals). The number e has some very special mathematical properties that make it useful in many areas of math and science, including chemistry, economics (the study of wealth) and statistics. Researchers also have used the natural logarithm to define the curve that describes how a dog’s age relates to a human one.

Common logarithm: This is a logarithm where the base number is 10. This is the logarithm used in measurements for sound, pH, electricity and light.

Explainer: What are logarithms and exponents? published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

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xtruss · 4 years ago

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Journalist Rami Khouri: Beirut Explosion Follows Years of Lebanese Gov’t Incompetence & Corruption

The explosion in the port of Beirut, which killed at least 100 people and injured about 4,000 others, is the latest blow to Lebanon, which already faces an economic, political and public health crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic. The blast is believed to have been triggered by 2,700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate inexplicably left unattended in a warehouse for six years. Journalist Rami Khouri says it’s further proof of “the cumulative incompetence, corruption, lassitude, amateurism and uncaring attitude by successive Lebanese governments” that have failed the country. “It’s the ruling political elite that is responsible for this,” he says.

— AUGUST 05, 2020 | DemocracyNow.Org

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue to look at the aftermath of this massive explosion at the port of Beirut in Lebanon that sent a devastating shockwave through the Lebanese capital Tuesday evening, leveling buildings, overturning cars, shattering windows miles from the blast site. More than 100 people have been confirmed dead. Hundreds are still missing. Over 4,000 are injured. At the time of the blast, Lebanon already facing an economic, political and public health crisis amidst the pandemic, exacerbated by U.S. sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. At the White House, President Trump told reporters U.S. military generals believed the explosion was caused by a bomb.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It would seem like it, based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals, and they seemed to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would, but they seemed to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.

AMY GOODMAN: “They think it was”—he’s referring to military generals. Trump offering no evidence for his claim, which was not supported by intelligence agencies. The Pentagon declined to comment and deferred all press questions to the White House. After the explosion, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to offer assistance to the Lebanese people, not the current prime minister, Hassan Diab.

For more, we are joined by Rami Khouri, senior public policy fellow and journalist in residence at the American University of Beirut. He’s a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Middle East Initiative, columnist at The New Arab, joining us from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Was just heading back to Lebanon. Welcome to Democracy Now! Again, Rami Khouri.

This registered 3.5 on the Richter scale, like an earthquake. Cyprus felt it, miles and miles away. Can you talk about what you think happened? How is it possible that, what is it, 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate—I mean, two tons took down the Oklahoma City building that killed close to 170 people. This was 2,700 tons, being kept at the port? What do you know, Rami Khouri?

RAMI KHOURI: Well, the information that has come out from the people who investigated it so far is that the storage shed was also storing some fireworks and other materials nearby, and it was those materials that caught fire or ignited or something happened because of the heat and humidity, and created a little fire. The fire department was there to put it out, and then that fire ignited the ammonium nitrate.

But the real story is not just the 3.5 magnitude Richter scale measurement. It’s the 9.0 magnitude political scale measurement that this is going to unleash. Because looking backwards and looking forwards, this explosion is a consequence of the cumulative incompetence, corruption, lassitude, amateurism and uncaring attitude by successive Lebanese governments, going back ten, 15 years that has brought the Lebanese people to a point of pauperization and desperation. They don’t have enough water. They don’t have electricity. They don’t have jobs. They don’t have reasonably priced food. Education is declining. Every dimension of life in Lebanon has declined, steadily, uninterruptedly, for the last 15 or 20 years.

It is the ruling political elite that is responsible for this, and looking back and looking forward, because this amount of ammonium nitrate was allowed to be stored there, when people knew about it. Other governments knew about it and did nothing about it. And people were talking to judges to pass a ruling to get the stuff out of there, because it was dangerous. And nobody did anything. So therefore the political shocks, the aftershocks are really going to be, I think, the significant dimension of this, beyond the humanitarian suffering that we are now seeing dealt with.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the politics in Lebanon, also the U.S. relationship. As you have President Trump immediately calling this—he was holding a coronavirus press briefing and asked about Lebanon—said a bomb, an attack, he knew. Military generals were not backing him up on this, though he said they were the ones who said it. And then you have Pompeo, the secretary of state, calling not the current prime minister, but the previous prime minister.

RAMI KHOURI: Well, this is the ideological amateurism and ignorance of the American government being exhibited at the level of the highest political class in the White House and the State Department. These people don’t care about Lebanon or the Arab world. They don’t know anything about it. They are basically following a rule book that is dictated by internal American politics linked heavily to fundamentalist Christian extremist skinheads who are very, very linked closely to Israeli settler colonialists. And this is something that has been consistent for the last three and a half years, and it will continue to be there. They are campaigning against Iran and Hezbollah, and anything that happens in Lebanon that is bad, they’re going to link it to Hezbollah and Iran.

And so this is predictable. It’s amateurish. It falls into the realm of criminality and cruelty at the same time. And amateurism. So I would completely discard anything that Trump or Pompeo says about this. And the fact that they called Hariri, not the prime minister or the president, is fascinating because they don’t care about humanitarian suffering. 300,000 people have lost their homes. They don’t care about that. All they want to do is talk to somebody in there who can link them, say, to the Saudis or the Emiratis or somebody who can help them push against Hezbollah and Iran.

And the terrible irony is that this policy has only strengthened Hezbollah and Iran over the years, and the Lebanese people are not focused on that. They are focused on recreating a legitimate, credible, effective and humanistic government system that treats its own citizens as human beings and not as animals. And this is not just Lebanon, by the way. Iraq, Palestine, Algeria, Sudan, other Arab countries, Egypt—the ordinary people feel that their government treats them like animals, without rights, without feelings, without voice.

And the Lebanese and others are out in the streets, demonstrating now for several years. Actually since 2010, there has been nonstop public demonstrations all across the Arab world. There’s more happening in Jordan now, for different reasons. So this is part of a regional reality, which is the pauperization and dehumanization of the Arab citizenry by an increasingly militarized state. And if you just look at—any time you see pictures of officials, they’re surrounded by soldiers and troops. So the Lebanese people are trying to peacefully demonstrate to re-legitimize their own government system to address the issues they have. And Trump and Pompeo are adding to the misery and the complexities and the complications of these systems. So I would not pay any attention to Trump or Pompeo.

AMY GOODMAN: What was also raised yesterday is at the end of the week on Friday, the Special Tribunal in Lebanon is due to deliver its verdict on the 2005 assassination of the former prime minister, Rafic Hariri, the father of the former prime minister, more recent prime minister, Saad Hariri, and 21 others. The four defendants, it is alleged having ties to Hezbollah. Do you see any links here which is perhaps what Trump was somehow referring to in this comment that didn’t have much backing from U.S. intelligence?

RAMI KHOURI: I don’t see any link whatsoever, except in the mind of people like Trump, who are desperate to find any reason to push their right-wing Christian fundamentalist pro-Zionist settler colonial agenda and pin anything bad on Hezbollah or Iran or their supporters in the region. There’s absolutely no evidence. And even his own generals came out and said, “Look, we don’t see any evidence.” So like I said, don’t pay any attention to anything Donald Trump or Pompeo say about the Middle East. It is amateurish, it is based on ignorance, it is ideologically driven. It is emotional nonsense.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about U.S. sanctions, newly imposed, targeting the Syrian government also undermining Hezbollah in Lebanon?

RAMI KHOURI: Well, this is part of a legacy that goes back several decades, that the U.S. keeps either attacking or threatening to attack or sanctioning Arab governments or Arab organizations like Hezbollah or Hamas or others that they don’t like. The terrible irony is that this has been a failed policy. If you go back the last 20 years, if you track the American policy of taking measures to pressure Iran, whether in Lebanon or Yemen or any other country where they are trying to pressure Iran directly or indirectly, and you track against that the extensive and expanding links of the Iranian government with governments and individuals around the Middle East, you will find that the American pressure has only led to more complications in the region that have opened opportunities, vacuums, for the Iranians to step in, or increasingly the Chinese and the Russians to step in or the Turks to step in. So this idea that more sanctions are going to bring about any results is sophomoric, childish.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what kind of investigation you think will be done? The Lebanese government said they will conduct an investigation. People are calling for an independent, international investigation, not trusting the government. And what you think—how this could be conducted.

RAMI KHOURI: Absolutely. This is really central now. The Lebanese people, broadly speaking, don’t trust their government anymore, because they’ve seen the consequences of their government’s actions over the last 10, 15, 20 years. And respectable people, academics, civil society activists, whatever, have spoken out in the last 24 hours, saying, “We need an international investigation. We cannot leave this in the hands of the Lebanese government.” Some members of Parliament have already said they are going to resign. People are asking for not only an international investigation, but immediately to detain the port officials and other officials who knew about this, detain them preemptively and then give them a fair trial when the investigation is done.

But this is really the critical point now. The transition from the humanitarian catastrophe of the explosion, which we have to deal with for the next two, three, four weeks, until things stabilize—the transition from that to a political reconfiguration of the Lebanese political system. That’s the real aftermath of this explosion. And you see it in people saying, for instance, Lebanese saying, “Don’t give aid money to the government. They will steal it. They have stolen everything else. They’re going to steal the aid money. Give aid money to the Lebanese Red Cross, to NGOs, to hospitals. But don’t give it to the Lebanese government.”

This is an important point because the ability of the Lebanese government, like all the Arab governments in the last 20 years or so, to continue a policy of autocratic authoritarian militarized policymaking that has led to the pauperization of a majority of Arabs. Around 70% of Arabs are poor or vulnerable now. And that is quickly increasing with COVID-19 and other things like this bombing.

The ability of Arab governments to maintain these cruel policies is very much linked to the support they get from international parties including the Americans, the French, the British, the Russians. Everybody. There’s nobody that comes out of this modern legacy of Arab state failures—nobody comes out looking good. The French president is supposed to go to Lebanon today. People are very much anxious to hear what he says. And if he just comes and meets with the Lebanese government and makes happy statements about “we will always support you,” people are going to jeer at him and tell him to go home.

AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, Rami Khouri, just last week, Save the Children reported half a million children are hungry in Beirut. And you have Beirut importing 80% of its food. And now the port has now been completely leveled. So in this last 30 seconds, what you see needs to happen immediately for this humanitarian catastrophe?

RAMI KHOURI: There needs to be massive coordinated international, Arab and internal Lebanese support to non-governmental organizations. And the Lebanese government should be told to just watch how you do this properly, and let the people of Lebanon and their many, many civil society groups and humanitarian groups get the job done.

The humanitarian need is urgent. There’s 300,000 people who have apparently lost their homes. Their homes were bombed out. So water, food, energy. People get electricity two or three hours a day. This is going to be terrible for the next month until new materials come to replace what was destroyed at the port—wheat, foodstuffs, medicines, oil, things like that. So that’s really what needs to be done. Let the Lebanese people carry out the job of addressing their needs, and this is an opportunity to show how it can be done by sidelining the Lebanese government as well. And this is what many Lebanese are calling for.

AMY GOODMAN: Rami Khouri, we want to thank you for being with us. Senior public policy fellow, journalist in residence, at American University of Beirut. Also senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and a columnist at The New Arab. When we come back, this moment of the big tech CEOs, the big four, testifying before Congress. Stay with us.

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canon-adjacent · 5 years ago

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Gotham students transferring to colleges out of state are found to almost universally know how to find a vein in a arm and how to inject a syringe.

Everyone else assumes that it’s because every Gothamite is a druggie, but the real reason is that Gotham schools have “Chem-War” drills where different toxins and chemicals are released into the school.

Students are given hands on training in how to diagnose which toxin it is Joker = uncontrollable laughter, Scarecrow = fear hallucinations/seizures, Ivy = dialated eyes/comatose, and to administer basic anti-toxins via injection which are usually provided by Wayne Enterprises. They don’t work, because Gotham villains change up their formulas each month, and it takes almost twice that to find an antidote, (the kids are very aware of this and regard it like those Cold War “duck and cover” nuclear preparedness drills), but they might take the edge off long enough for real paramedics or Batman to get there.

Gothamites actually get offended when people assume everyone from Gotham is on drugs. Gotham has an exceedingly low drug usage rate because “Excuse you? The last time my cousin tried smoking pot, his dealer’s source had spiked it with fear toxin. He had a fucking seizure in the middle of a drug den! Nobody’s stupid enough to trust drug dealers in Gotham!”

Oh, and these “Chem-War” drills are generally regarded outside of Gotham the same way school shooter drills in America are regarded by the rest of the world. Namely, revulsion and extreme concern.

Also, I like the idea that everyone else freaks out about Gotham problems way more than gothamites.

I’m from California, and the number of times people freak out about earthquakes is hilarious. We don’t even register anything below a 4.0 on the Richter scale, but every time there’s even a little tremor, outsiders flip out. That being said, 6.0 and above is when things are legit dangerous, with 8.0-9.0 being apocalyptic, but the problem is that nobody outside of the Ring of Fire actually knows this. So they have no frame of reference for how big an event is.

I think Gothamites would be the same. Basically, nobody outside of Gotham has a visceral understanding of what’s an “emergency” or not in the city.

All the metropolis students flip out one day because Metropolis’s mayor is trying to drum up support by calling Gotham a shithole and going on about Ivy’s latest rampage. Meanwhile the actual Gotham transfers are rolling their eyes because Ivy was spotted with Harley during the “rampage” and that means it’s not a rampage, it was a meet cute, that some dumbasses accidently got in the way of.

Three weeks later, all the Metropolis students have finally calmed down, and their Gothamite friends managed to convey that its not a big deal. Explaining that the general levels of emergency are Ivy + Harley = not really dangerous, Ivy alone = mildly dangerous, and Scarecrow = pretty dangerous.

So the metropolis students come up to their gothamite friends after watching the news and are casually like “Yo, heard the Joker gassed part of the business district, classic Gotham, amirite?”.

And the metropolis students are unprepared for their stoic, badass Gotham friends freaking the fuck out. They’re calling up every family member and friend in a twenty mile radius of the city, they’re bawling on the phone with their parents in public because their siblings were at a night out in the club at the time, and the club was 10 miles from the incident, but they also haven’t called back in two hours, which probably means their dead. Some of the students are having flashbacks and are breathing through bags.

And when asked why, all the Gothamites, to a tee, day “It’s the Joker. You don’t fuck around with the Joker.”

I just like the idea that people outside of Gotham just don’t get what qualifies as big deal in the city, and what’s not.

I feel like one of theses days the joker is gonna spray Gotham with laugh gas and NOTHING will happen. The citizen of Gotham will have built an immunity from all the chemical shit that gets thrown at them.

I don’t think that’ll happen. Immunity to chemicals/poisons tends to be built up in matters of small exposures (I think, not my field) and the villains would have to be using the same basic chemicals every time, not likely. You’d also have to survive the prior exposures which seems not very Gotham~y. — Besides, it’s a fictional city and that wouldn’t make for a good story precedent to set, the citizens as immune to such a common plot point.

#batman #bruce wayne #gotham #dc comics #fear toxin #joker venom #poison ivy

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