Monday, January 26, 2015

Hand-drawn image and the pain of body writing

Scientific American: from scribble to published infographic.


These images were greatly cropped before placing them on my blog.  To see the full images and the steps before the former and latter, follow the link.
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The pain and horror of beautiful handwriting.

I just finished a three-week academic camp in the mountains of Gangwon province and the work of my students in researching wildlife in the cold was wonderful.  So was the variety of wildlife we found to research.

The day before camp started we three teachers found these tracks in the forest.

I think below I see an 'r', a 'g' and another 'r'.
Could we be reading it upside down?
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Trigger warning: The next image might make you sad.
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This poor fellow was at the end of the trail.


I believe it ate something poisonous and the tracks that look so much like writing were a drunken reel before it collapsed and either the poison or the cold killed it, even freezing the urine as it spilled out.

My students didn't see this mouse as a snowstorm came in during the first day and covered it.  I felt it would be too ghoulish to dig it out even if I could find the exact location again.

My students did see other mouse tracks and studied why they might be out in the winter cold.  Apparently, if they get too cold, they awaken to rewarm their bodies before going back to sleep.  They can also awaken when the temperature warms to above zero Celsius.  So it was either too cold or too warm to sleep.

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