The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet include drawings, charts, and lists accompanying the written elements. These drawings are purported to be done by T.S. himself, who also provides each with an explanatory caption that deepens the book's narrative. This is designed to mimic T.S.'s own habit of quantifying the world around him using cartography. Larsen has stated that this technique was not originally intended to be included in the book's format, finishing a complete first draft of the work before he "discovered the margins as a playground of T.S.’s mind." Larsen's parents were both visual artists (his mother a painter and photographer, his father a printmaker),
Wissam S. al-Hashimi Wissam S. al-Hashimi Dr Wissam S. al-Hashimi was an Iraqi geologist born in Baghdad. In 2001 he was elected president of the Geological Society of Iraq and was president of the Union of Arab Geologists. From 1996 to 2002 he was vice president of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). He was killed in late August or early September 2005. Wissam al-Hashimi received his B.Sc. degree in geology-physics from Baghdad University in 1965 and carried out his military service obligations. In 1967 he was employed as a demonstrator (tutor) in the University of Mosul. He did his Ph.D. at