Today is ‘World Whale Day’. Now, there are 90 species of whale, which means I can’t list them all here. I decided to choose one species to focus on. Hard choice since there are so many iconic species. Decided to go with one that is considered ‘Vulnerable’ due to whaling from 1800-1987 that nearly wiped them out. They are a recovering species with nearly 300,000 individuals out there. These whales are toothed whales, which means they have teeth instead of baleen. I put a nickname for it in the title to try and maintain a little suspense. Let’s look at some facts about the:
SPERM WHALE
An albino sperm whale that attacked whaling ships in 1839 was the inspiration for ‘Moby Dick’.
They are found in all deep oceans across the globe.
They are named after ‘spermaceti’, which is a waxy substance found in their heads. It helps the whales focus sound, but was mistaken for semen when first discovered.
Cachalot is supposedly an archaic French word for ‘tooth’.
Males can weigh up to 50 tons and be 52 feet long. Females can get to 15 tons and 40 feet long.
A sperm whale’s head is about 1/3 the length of its body.
They can dive more than 10,000 feet deep and hold their breath for about 90 minutes. Upon returning to the surface, they require several minutes of rest.
They feed on sharks, giant squid, and fish.
Sperm whale pods are matriarchal with 15-20 females in a group. Males tend to be independent or move among multiple groups.
They have the largest brain of any animal on the planet at 9.2 pounds.
The sonar of a sperm whale can reach a level of 230 decibels. Fireworks and gunshots are around 140 decibels. A rocket launch is 180 decibels, which makes sperm whales the loudest animals on Earth.
Sperm whales have the longest digestive system in the world at 300 meters. It has four stomachs with the first being covered by a thick lining to protect against the thrashing of still living prey.
Sperm whales produce ambergris, which is created by squid beaks and pens that cannot be digested. When these parts aren’t vomited out, they get into the intestines and become ambergris. This material is used for perfume since it comes out smelling foul, but gains a ‘musky’ scent once it has dried.
While their population is recovering, there are still threats such as boat collisions, fishing net entanglements, and pollution.
Orcas will hunt sperm whales, but only the calves and females. Pilot whales and false killer whales will hunt them too, but Orcas are the only major predator.
So, let’s enjoy a few pictures and videos of these whales.
(First song played on car CD player when going into work on Friday.)
The title says it all and this break couldn’t come fast enough. This week didn’t work out as well as I had planned. All I really accomplished was spending time with my son. The rest of the week was a slog through the swamp of horrors that has become my life. In other words, I didn’t get anywhere near Darwin & the Fate Bracelet.
Last weekend was going to obviously be a challenge with editing since I had my son and it was Super Bowl. We did a bunch of Pokémon Go, watched some shows, and relaxed since we knew the week would be crazy. There was some homework involved too, but nobody wants to hear about that. Think I managed to write one blog post for April during that weekend. Not sure, but I do see one scheduled. Small victories. Not like I wanted to get anything else done since I knew I wouldn’t be seeing much of my son until the middle of next week. That’s what happens in joint custody, especially if you end up having appointments on your time. Oh well.
There was one bonus day since we had a snowstorm on Tuesday. That meant my son and I had a snow day. A day of video games, cartoons, and hanging around in pajamas until things settled enough for an evening Pokémon Go outing. Well, that was my son’s day since I was the one doing the shoveling. I got to enjoy some of the time with him when I wasn’t outside or lying down to give my back a rest. Guess I should be happy with the bonus day since it probably gave him a good boost of energy and delayed a few things until after the break.
Work was exhausting. Students typically get antsy and harder to focus as they get closer to a break. The ones I’m with now are no exceptions. Thrown off by a snow day, we all were having trouble keeping on track. So, I ended every day feeling like I’d gone a few rounds with Rocky Balboa. This is why I didn’t do any editing at night or during my breaks since I needed recovery time. My body is definitely having trouble adapting to the new level of activity and needing to be ready to move at any moment. I’m eating healthier with chopped salads and rice bowls with tofu and edamame, but I’m still fat and really out of shape. I’m hoping that biking a lot over the break can help even though I won’t be out of the house much until I’m with my son.
My hope is that I can finish editing Darwin & the Fate Bracelet. I have 5 chapters to go, so I might get it done by the end of Monday. That gives me Tuesday and Wednesday to type everything in. I’m including other things I’m doing, but all of my friends are kind of busy or too far away. Going to have dinner with one and maybe chill with another for a bit another day. It’ll be nice if I can finish this book and dive into Darwin & the Halfling Hunt. At the very least, I want to get that book printed out and I can start in on that on various weekends.
I don’t really have a lot of exciting things planned, but the Winter Break never really is because the weather is gross. Usually, my son and I pull off a zoo trip if it isn’t too cold or snowing. Big Pokémon Go event next week and weekend as well as a local place having an old-school arcade set up. I really only get 4 days with my son before he’s back at school and I’m back at work. So, I don’t get a lot of time. Going to have a visit from my niece at some point too. For the most part, I think my son and I will just be relaxing and doing small outings after the zoo. Maybe we’ll watch some movies since we do have a decent-sized list. Sometimes, you just need a break where you don’t have much of a plan, especially since the next big one has a plan.
Only other thing I’m going to do is watch a bunch of short anime while I write. I saw a new season of ‘Goblin Slayer’ and a movie, so I’ll start with that. Not sure where I’ll go after that. Finding it harder and harder to find anime that I really want to watch. Most are either another isekai (Earthling goes to a fantasy world) or something that my son wants me to save for when he’s here. Anyway, let’s take a look at the goals:
Welcome to our herb shop where everything is grown on the property. We have a wide assortment of herbs that you may recognize, but have been given a little boost. Are you looking for cooking, medical, or entertainment? Medical because that’s basically the blog theme this week. Not sure what you mean by that, but let me bring you a partial list of our medicinal herbs. Why is it partial? My good person, humans have been using herbs for healing since before the dawn of civilization. We would be here for weeks to go over the entire list. Please let me know if nothing appeals to you and we can discuss the maladies that you are concerned about. The way to use each one will be included with your final purchase. Ring the bell when you are prepared for your order.
Kava– Anesthesia and sedative with possible liver repair. May induce photosynthesis for an hour, which will also cause a ‘system flush’.
Blue Snakeweed– Can help control diabetes and ease symptoms of malaria, dysentery, and liver disorders. Fingers will become serpentine and have minds of their owns until herb is fully processed.
Cotton Lavender– Expels intestinal parasites. Body sprouts a thick layer of soft hair, which can be shaved off and used like wool.
Veronica– Helps with sinus and ear infections. Grants enhanced senses of hearing and smell for 24 hours.
Amargo– Can cure rosacea. Skin will be very shiny and slick for a period of time, which depends on severity of case.
Cornflower– Helps treat conjunctivitis. Grants a variety of vision alternatives such as x-ray, heat, long distance, and foresight. Random effect though.
Euphorbia hirta– Treats bronchitic asthma, laryngeal spasms, and dengue fever. Chest can balloon up with air like that of a frog. Release is that of normal breath, but can last longer due to amount of inhalation.
St. John’s Wort– Used for depression. Attract compliments from people around you.
Chamomile– Used for anxiety and sleeplessness. Grants the ability to float gently to the ground if both feet leave ground or you start to fall.
Elderberry– Can help with the symptoms of flu, common cold, fevers, constipation, pain, and sinus infections. User can operate televisions, phones, and computers with their mind as long as they are lying down in bed.
Thyme– Helps treat bronchitis and general cough. Turns any jokes made about ‘thyme/time’ turn into knock-knock jokes.
Dandelion– Helps treat liver disease, kidney disease, and spleen issues. Sprouts dandelion buds from head for an hour.
Snowdrop– Can aide in treatment for Alzheimer’s, but is not a cure. Grants a person the ability to create illusions of their memories, which can be recorded.
(So, I actually put what each of these herbs is supposed to be used for, but they would obviously need some prep work. There are so many more to choose from and I couldn’t really bring myself to go beyond ‘Snowdrop’. Think I outdid myself with that one. Anyway, I want to make sure that people don’t take this post as me saying ‘herbs are better than modern medicine’. I’m not saying that or the opposite. If you or a loved one is suffering, you should do what you can to help. The most important thing is to do your own research and be careful of scams. Hope you enjoyed the post.)
(The challenge with trying to make everyone happy is that it’s impossible. You’re inevitably going to make someone upset and sacrifice your own state of mind. I tried this many times in life and it always bit me in the face.)
First, it’s difficult to even figure out what the Hippocratic oath really is. We tend to think immediately of doctors swearing to do no harm to their patients. Yet, something like this doesn’t appear until the second to last paragraph of the original oath. Prior to that was treating your teacher like family (including giving them money) and a list of things you cannot do like removing kidney stones or administering poison. The paragraph we think of mostly is translated to:
“Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free. And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what should not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets.”
Let’s work off that for the rest of this post.
One could argue that this should be common sense for a healer. Their career is to take care of the sick and injured, so why would the want to harm others? Why would they even need an oath? I could ask why our modern medical system needs it, but that’s a different and messy conversation. It still can have you scratching your head about why this kind of thing is necessary.
In terms of fantasy healers, they tend to be priests who get healing magic from deities or have been taught medicine in their church. You also have healers that use items from nature like herbalists and what we may think of when we hear Pagan healers. They can even get their information and supplies from spirits. Going back to the first example, you do have an ‘oath’ made to their god to follow the edicts in order to keep getting the power to heal. So, it isn’t a Hippocratic oath, but a pledge of loyalty to whoever their magical benefactor is. Guess breaking that would be the fantasy equivalent of malpractice, but that’s a stretch.
Maybe this is overall nitpicking. You only see the Hippocratic Oath come up in medical dramas or when an author is trying to put a healing character in a bind. We overlook it when writing so much because our fictional doctors are designed to operate regardless of its existence. If they’re good and honest then it will never come up. If they’re bad then they won’t care in the least. The Hippocratic Oath turns up when a good doctor is on the verge of falling or a bad one is going to get their comeuppance. It’s nothing more than a tool that we barely analyze and don’t have to because your average reader only knows ‘do no harm’.
In general, I think the Hippocratic oath demonstrates an interesting mental habit. We take a lot of things for granted in our world. Things we don’t question because they operate behind the scenes or don’t overtly affect us. Society simply functions this way and we carry this into our fictional worlds. If it isn’t something we’re directly trying to alter, we leave it alone. Economies exist unless we want to go with bartering. Everyone speaks whatever language we do because that’s what we write in. Farming is a thing without any core differences than what we do in the real world. Doctors are focused on healing and helping others unless they or another entity is evilly influencing the system. These things are just there unless we don’t want them to be.
So, what do you think of the Hippocratic oath and similar real world ideas turning up in fiction? Especially non-Earth fiction.
Legends of Windemere 