Cartoon Guides to Learnin’

A while back I made a post about educational graphic novels.
And was lamenting that I couldn’t recall the name or author of a certain series I’d seen…

“I do actually remember seeing a couple of graphic novels – well, more graphic textbooks, I guess (is that a paradox?) – that were about the science. Two sciences, in fact. One was a comic about physics, the other about genetics. I saw them on the shelves of Birmingham Library…“

Well, after a friend of mine linked me to this, a bit of delving in the comments section brought me straight to what I’d been looking for. Turns out it’s a pretty well-known series of comics! By…

Larry Gonick (and various artists)

I am most pleased to finally know who creates this series. And between this, and these Manga horrors (I kid.. they’re a good idea! I’d buy ‘em if I had moneys) it seems educational graphic novels are more prevalent than I expected. This is excellant.

Maybe publishers are realising that no matter how interesting the subject is, textbook are normally really, really boring to read?

The DIY Conundrum

It’s the age-old problem of time and money.

Recently (okay, maybe just today) I’ve really had the urge to make things. More specifically, to make or alter my own clothing. Naturally, this stems from a) the fact that all my clothes are boring, b) the fact that I have no money and c) I want to be a pwetty, pwetty pwincess.

Of course, I don’t have the spare money even for supplies. I have ideas a-plenty, but most involve buying leather, cheap fabric, and a sowing machine. Even though I can’t use a sowing machine. I try and I try..

So I say to myself, when I have more money and time (ie, presumably AFTER uni, when I have found a job), I will start making or altering my clothes.
But when I have more time and money, I can buy the clothes I want, quickly and easily, thanks to the internet. Etsy is full of badass shinies, so it can still be original…

Hmm..
Maybe I should just go for it when I have time, using whatever’s availible/what I can steal/next week’s food money.

Or maybe I should be working on Chemistry. Argh! Must… stop…. having fun…

Like biology? Anatomy? …food?

I’m not sure if this is hilarious, wierd, or delicious.

If you can’t be bothered to watch the video (though it is pretty amusing), I’ll explain:
It’s an ‘Anatomy Cookbook’. You buy the meat, go through rather detailed dissections with it… and then cook and consume it. It sounds hideous, but it makes some sense. Might as well get the most out of your meat products..

It’s actually made for Bioengineering students who otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to perform dissections, and the anatomy is at a higher level than I can really understand at current… but it looks interesting nevertheless.

If you’re wanting to see for yourself, you can download it free here:
Anatomy Cookbook

My only complain would be that, though the meals sound delicious, the pictures of the meals don’t look very appitizing. It wouldn’t stop me  dissecting and cooking them, though!

…if I wasn’t a poor, soon-to-be university student…

Oh, and by the way..

I have got my A-level results, which were better than I expected, and I will be going to the University of Nottingham in September!*

I will be studying  Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, which sounds like a fancy way of saying ‘Biochem and drugs’, but I have been assured it has real chemistry in there, too.

If I end up with any spare time once I’m there, I’ll let you know how I find the university! I’ve heard their fresher’s week is the largest in the country, so I am terrified, though excited.

A-levels:
A – Art
B – Biology
B – Maths
C – Chemistry

_{/the picture below is lame; it’s actually a beautiful campus. But I’ll be damned if I can find decent pics of it.}

Bwahahaha!

Oh man, I think this EVERY TIME.

/click for link to the comic’s site!

Science for Kids, and Comics for Scientists

So there I was, reading the ever-informative wikipedia article on the great Stephen Hawking, when I discovered the children’s book wrote by him and his daughter in 2007. Sadly, reading a few pages and a few reviews on Amazon.com killed some of my enthusiasm… but it got me thinking about books on science, for kids. The books I found mostly didn’t interest me – must be my age – but there’s definatly a few examples out there, for those eager science-parents, I guess.

I had considered myself how cool it would be to have easy access to science books for the curious, but not neccessarily overly-academic adult. Not quite “Physics for Dummies“, but easier to get through than “A Brief History Of Time.*” Something with pictures, witty sidenotes, extensive use of metaphor, but still informative and interesting. And it seems some books like this are out there, lurking in the shadows…

One book on Amazon.com quite literally had me hooked after only a few pages. A graphic novel… about bees. No kidding. May I now introduce to you Clan Apis, by Jay Hosler.

I have never read this book, but I really, really want to. Alas that I no longer have Birmingham Central Library to go to! ** Maybe I’ll have to do something shocking, like actually buy the book. It looks THAT GOOD. (Go check it out!)

I do actually remember seeing a couple of graphic novels – well, more graphic textbooks, I guess (is that a paradox?) – that were about the science. Two sciences, in fact. One was a comic about physics, the other about genetics. I saw them on the shelves of Birmingham Library, but didn’t read them, and google hasn’t provided me with answers, maybe because I’ve forgotton the name of the books. Though the google search did bring up this gem (click).

Via this rather cute little blog on Do-It-Yourself-Biology.

And I promise that’s not a euthemism.

_{/*I am aware that Hawking has written “A Briefer History of Time“, which is allegedly “A Brief History of Time” for the masses. I will hopefully try book out, if I can find it at a library.***
/**Birmingham Central Library is truly a king amongst libraries. About six floors of books, and the graphic novel section… wow. Not stupidly large, but the biggest I’ve ever seen in a library.
/***I love libraries ’cause I’m stingy with the moneys. I own a fair number of books, but I like to read ‘em at least once before I spend over £5 on one.}

Diesel Sweeties

I have recently started reading the webcomic Diesel Sweeties. It has humour, unusual art, and robots. There is nothing else you could want from life!

I’ve seem it around for years, but never got into it until now…
But some of the humour is hilarious! Actual laugh-out-loud funny in places.

…of course, much of it is terrible, terrible sex jokes, but it ‘brings the lulz’ ne’ertheless.

Here’s a few examples of my favourites so far:
By the way, I’ve had to shrink these to fit the page – the actual comics are much larger and more readable; clicking the pics below takes you to ‘em, you lucky devils.

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_{^I swear not all of thier comics are based around sex jokes. Just… many of them? Also, I’m only half way through the archive, and I’m working my way from the newest to the oldest, so who can say what the early comics were like. I’ll let you know when I get there.}

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So, yeah! Unusual art style for a webcomic, great humour, clever writing in general, and a huge archive, it is definatly worth a read if you’re into webcomics and, you know, humour. And robots!

Go read it!   http://www.dieselsweeties.com