another RandomWalk

[miriam_e]

Thanks to jaguarnoelle for noticing and reminding me. I forgot to announce this one a few days back. I've been kinda busy for a while so it slipped my mind. I'm hoping to finish another cartoon today.

The waterbear (also known as the tardigrade) is possibly the cutest of all microscopic creatures. Some grow up to one and a half millimeters long -- big enough to see with the naked eye. They were named "waterbears" because their movements resemble those of bears -- yes, really. It is quite uncanny. They are astonishingly able to survive the most extreme environments, such as boiling in alcohol, drying out, very high levels of radiation, and even the vacuum of space. Now their ability to survive may help us.

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Freaky looking animal.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

...but oh-so-cute. You ought to see it walk. :)
There are a number of you-tube videos of it.
Or find some moss, wet it with some water and wash off onto a glass plate, then watch through a low-power microscope or a high power magnifying glass, or a jeweller's loupe.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I'd rather not.
BTW, this has borked my friends list a little. I think it might be about 50 pixels too wide. Or it just might be me.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'll put future cartoons behind an LJ-cut if you want...yeah?

I wish I could think of a way to put the picture inside its own scrolly sub-window so it doesn't widen the entire page. There must be some way...

[greylock.livejournal.com]

A cut might be best. It's only a minor annoyance though.
And I do like the cartoons.

There is a way of getting a scroll bar but I have only ever done it by accident.

[beyondfake-0.livejournal.com]

<3 I love your entries.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

heheheh :) Thank you. [blush]

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

It's so cute! I want to see one move. I have another new goal in life.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

If you have trouble accessing a microscope or powerful magnifying glass try this:
http://miriam-english.org/files/sweets.wmv
:)
You can see why it is called a waterbear.

(I'd like to give credit for this video, but for the life of me I can't remember where I found it.)

[cranky--crocus.livejournal.com]

Loved that! I can certainly see why it's a waterbear. :) I don't know where you come across videos like that, but it's brilliant!

yay randomwalks

[xxclovergrrlxx.livejournal.com]

i'm not going to lie, i got excited when i saw you made another one! :)

Re: yay randomwalks

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:) heheheh Thanks.

I feel a little embarrassed to admit that I haven't been on the net much of late and completely lost track of everybody's LJs. I didn't even know you'd stopped working on Boobs Ahoy (did I read that right?) and that Lynn had taken over solo on it.

I wait with bated breath for your new comic and will try to check the net more often in future.

Re: yay randomwalks

[xxclovergrrlxx.livejournal.com]

yeah, lynn took it over. it was fun, but it just became too much work. it was never exactly my forte anyways. boobs ahoy was sort of the product of our friendship and existed because when we hung out all the time, new ideas would just happen naturally. i moved to another city and after that, it just sort of lost steam for me.

my new comic is going to be more serious. not so much a gag-reel like boobs ahoy was as a continuing plot with funny incidents. i actually have a decent plot, if i don't say so myself. i mostly started boobs ahoy because i wanted to get better as a comic artist. painting/oil pastel are really what i'm into, but i've always had this dream of making comics, heh. the new comic is about soulmates and lesbians and voodoo and curses and yeah... it's pretty cool. :)

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

the question really is: why does trehalose have that property?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hi Annie! Yes. Very interesting question. :)

I think it binds to the proteins in a similar way to how water does, preventing them from being damaged. I really should read more on it.

I just had a nice experience in Brisbane this afternoon. I was waiting at the bus stop to go to the hospital and a couple of girls were on the seat beside me cooing and chuckling to each other and cuddling, then they made a big, passionate kiss -- obviously very much in love. Lucky kids. It left me feeling very warm and happy for the world.