DMA160|Winter2021

First time making bread + Hunger

This week, we watched videos showing the traditional way of making bread. I have never baked one myself but my mom used to bake Hong Kong-style sausage buns, which is similar to hot dogs, for me and my younger sister for breakfast when I was in high school. I guess it’s more a Hong Kong local thing. Therefore, I was very curious about how my bread would turn out during the class.

Deforestation and Pencils

After last week's lecture, I learned a lot of surprising facts about pencils; a seemingly insignificant object from my daily life that turns out to have a rich history. When we were told that we would never view pencils the same way ever again I was skeptical at first but quickly came to understand. The sheer number of resources that are collected annually to make this little writing utensil is beyond my imagination. In class I learned that 8 million trees are cut down per year.

My Childhood

I enjoy watching "How It's Made" videos so I thought the video about pencil production was very interesting. I did feel bad a couple of times throughout the lecture since I was really wasteful as a kid. I remember snapping pencils in half so it would become really small and then sharpening it until it was sharp enough to stab someone. I really liked the sharpened grooves on IKEA's pencils so I remember I would grab them all and stuff them in my mom's bag.

Hexagons and Basalt in Nature

I was genuinely shocked to discover in class that nature favors hexagonal patterns. Now, after having looked through examples and discussing, it makes a lot of sense and I’m surprised I never gave it much thought before. From honeycombs to turtle shells, hexagons naturally appear quite often. The article “Patterns in Nature: The Efficiency of Hexagons” explains how hexagon arrays save space (Nature Backin).

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