I always thought I had “a good ear” for music. I guess I was wrong. The Toned Ear site’s ear training practices can test your musical hearing and also help you improve that skill.
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09 Sep 14:17
Toned Ear Trains Your Ear for Better Musical Ability
by Melanie Pinola
Thermo10 likes this
01 Sep 15:21
Dinosaur Lawn Sculptures Puts Texas Neighborhood In An Uproar
by Andrew Liptak
A pair of dinosaur sculptures in the lawn of a Texas home has upset their local homeowner’s association. Seriously, who has a problem with dinosaurs?
31 Aug 13:20
Clean Paint Brushes by Soaking Them In Warm Water with a Dryer Sheet
by Patrick Allan
If you don’t have any paint thinner around, you can clean latex-based paint out your paintbrushes with just some warm water and a dryer sheet.
21 Aug 15:19
Companion Helps You Stay Safe When You're Walking Somewhere Alone
by Kristin Wong
Walking alone at night can be dangerous, but with an app like Companion, you can use your smartphone to stay a little safer.
21 Aug 12:57
Here's What 45 Minutes of Meteor Shower Looks Like in a Single Photo
by Katharine Trendacosta
Taken at Big Sur, this photo by Marc Donahue shows the seventy meteors that crossed his one patch of space in 45 minutes during last week’s Perseid shower.
20 Aug 14:14
10,000 BIC Pens Were Repurposed Into This Sculpture
by Chris Mills
The BIC ballpoint is a triumph of efficient design; it’s also a pretty good mascot for disposable consumption, with 100 billion having been manufactured since the 1950s. But empty pens are good for more than just landfill: chain 10,000 together, and you can have yourself a neat canopy.
18 Aug 18:45
The Complete Guide to Clearing Space on Your Smartphone
by David Nield on Field Guide, shared by Kate Knibbs to Gizmodo
It’s one of the most unwelcome alerts you can expect on your mobile device: storage space is running low. That means no more room for your photos, your offline playlists, and myriad problems updating your apps and OS. If you find yourself in such a predicament, don’t panic—here’s how to navigate your way out.
17 Aug 17:48
The New Harry Potter Spinoff Movie, Written by J.K. Rowling, Is Now Filming
by Germain Lussier
Harry Potter may have hung up his horcruxes with Deathly Hallows, but Hollywood isn’t done with the wizarding world. Monday marked the start of filming on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a prequel written by Potter creator J.K. Rowling herself.
17 Aug 14:35
You Can Watch Forever But the End of This Infinite Model Train Will Never Arrive
by Andrew Liszewski on Toyland, shared by Chris Mills to Gizmodo
You almost have to feel bad for Isaac Newton. Despite all of his groundbreaking discoveries in mathematics and physics, his accomplishments have just been eclipsed by a man named James Risner who has somehow bent the laws of the universe to build an infinitely-looped spiral model railroad.
17 Aug 14:29
MidwayMeetup Finds a Central Location to Meet Up With Someone
by Kristin Wong
Let’s say you’re meeting a few friends or colleagues for lunch during the week, and you all work in different parts of town. Common etiquette is to find a central meeting location for everyone, and MidwayMeetup makes it easy to do this.
17 Aug 14:29
What Happens When You Ask A Cartoonist for Free Work?
by Maki Naro
I don't get many chances to talk about being an artist on a science blog, but as somebody who only recently was able to make comics a full-time profession, I am a huge proponent of fair wages and practices for creative professionals.
Particularly when it comes to being paid. In my early years, I did a lot of unpaid work. After graduating college, it was 100% normal to pencil and entire comic book on the promises of "money after publishing." It was a rotten system, and I quit drawing comics for years until I started my old science comic. So when I was asked by a science organization to submit a comic for their annual calendar, the timing couldn't have been better. I was already ramped up about creative contests.
It all started with a tweet1.
It came from an employee at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science advocacy organization. No doubt they reached out to me because they figured I could help spread the word about their contest. I mean, they wouldn't ask a professional cartoonist to work for free, right?
The details of the contest are as follows: The UCS commissioned six comics to go in their yearly calendar, the other six would be decided by the contest in the aforementioned tweet. I had to wonder: Why not just commission 6 more comics? It's not like money was an issue. The problem with contests is that, unless you win, you've done work for no pay. Depending on the amount of entries, a company can basically "commission" thousands of pieces of work, but only pay for what they want. As a non-winner, If you're lucky and read the contract2, you might end up keeping the rights to your work. Maybe you can publish it someplace else. But more than likely, the piece was created with the contest in mind, and you just wasted your time chasing a carrot on stick. With all that in mind, I retweeted the contest proposal and posed my query.
The same UCS employee responded predictably3. This was a fun thing they were doing and that they wanted to find fresh voices for the other comics rather than just commission all twelve. They shored up their defense by adding that they had been doing this contest for years. I'll let the dismay of hearing a science organization appeal to tradition when confronted about exploitative practices sink in. I told them there was never a better time than the present to change. I think respecting creative professionals is a pretty solid moral standpoint. But, maybe that's just me.
Curious for more, I looked at their timeline to see who else they reached out to, I was met with this internet atrocity.
Pictured: It's spam all the way down. I'm starting to reconsider scrubbing the name.
The ham-fisted method in which they made people aware of their contest should be embarrassing enough, but then I noticed the tweet addressed to The Nib, a publication known for how fairly it compensates its contributors. A publication I have eagerly contributed to in the past. The lack of awareness presented is staggering. Seriously, that screenshot probably isn't even a tenth of the tweets that went out. It was downright spam. Glancing at the names, which include folks like Erika Moen and Bill Nye, it was clear that they had just done a twitter search for "science" and "comics" and stopped there.
If I have only one piece of advice for young creatives looking to "break in", "make it", or get "discovered", it's this:
I want to take this time to stress that in all likelihood, the employee was just following orders. Organizations tend to be pretty clueless on social media etiquette.
I'm being pretty hard on the UCS, which is probably a great organization. But as of the writing of this post, their contest is still on, which means they pretty much ignored me. They got their spam blast out, the deadline is right around the corner, the damage is done and they got what they wanted. Hooray for the status quo. Science already has a reputation for being woefully out of touch, and blind spamming comic professionals to ask for free work is not helping.
Thus, I'd like to spend the next part of this post outlining all the measures your organization can take in order to be better to artists:
- Is your contest spec work? Find out at No!Spec's website.
- If you're looking for fresh voices, artists on the internet usually make themselves pretty known. Just scroll through Tumblr sometime.
- Oh hey, Symbiartic's Glendon Mellow put together a handy list of science artists on twitter.
- Don't spam this list with your contest. There are circles of hell reserved for such betrayals of trust.
- Glendon also wrote this piece titled, "So You Want to Hire a Science Illustrator." He's really cool like that.
As for the contest? In the end, against better judgment, I did end up submitting a comic. Because, why not?
I submitted this one.
1While the author of the tweet would be easy to find, I've scrubbed their name because any criticism should be directed at the organization, not the author.
2I could draw a whole comic on contracts, and probably will in the near future.
3Unfortunately, they deleted their responses sometime after our conversation, so I don't have them anymore. I'll know better to screenshot early next time. My end of the conversation is still there if you need at least some contextual proof.
14 Aug 13:34
This Diagram Details How to Deal With Dozens of Difficult Stains
by Eric Ravenscraft
Messes can mount up no matter how much you manage to maneuver around them. If you find yourself fretting over frustrating stains, this graphic can guide you to genuinely cleaner clothes.
A. Kachmar likes this
12 Aug 15:05
A Woman Wore Her Fitbit During Sex and Replicated a Classic Experiment
by Diane Kelly on Throb, shared by Lauren Davis to io9
Redditor noveltysin wore her Fitbit while she had sex, and shared the resulting graph of her heart rate with the world. Check out how well her graph matches the heart rates in Figure 1 of the classic 1956 paper Physiological Responses During Coitus.
12 Aug 15:04
How One Image Comics Artist Said Goodbye to Paper
by Shaenon K. Garrity
Today most comic artists use computers to assist with their art, but going full digital is still a big leap. In an in-depth essay on SKTCHD, artist Christian Ward shows how he left paper behind starting with Issue #6 of his Image comic ODY-C, a science-fiction reimagining of classic literary epics.
12 Aug 15:00
Carving candles to expose hidden designs is absolutely beautiful
by Casey Chan on Sploid, shared by Chris Mills to Gizmodo
Carving decorative candles is such an exquisite art because not only does the end result look great but the whole process requires a lot of planning to get the right mix of colors and demands a lot from the artist, because there’s a time limit as the candle hardens throughout the carving process. Here’s a few videos showing how it’s done.
12 Aug 14:54
Keep the Bride and Groom Calm with DIY Wedding Day Emergency Kits
by Heather Yamada-Hosley
The stress of wedding day can make even the smallest mishaps feel like dire emergencies. If you’re part of the bridal party, prepare kits for the bride and groom so you’re ready to handle whatever comes up.
11 Aug 13:20
How Star Wars' Heart-Cloggingly Cute Emojis Took Over The Internet
by Germain Lussier on io9, shared by Darren Orf to Gizmodo
These days, emojis are as essential to online interactions as an alphabet. So once Star Wars finally entered that world with its own app, it became essential to get in on the craze. Enter Truck Torrence, an artist hired to make the cutest versions you’ve ever seen of a galaxy far far away.
10 Aug 15:18
RepairPal Estimates What Car Repairs Should Cost in Your Area
by Eric Ravenscraft
Figuring out the right price for a car repair can be tough. Between different makes and models, and the variation between local mechanic shops, getting even a price range can be too complex. RepairPal gives you a starting point with an estimate on repairs.
07 Aug 13:23
How To Fight A Traffic Ticket Without An Attorney
by SteveLehto on Car Buying, shared by Whitson Gordon to Lifehacker
Many people who get traffic tickets will simply pay them. They get points on their licenses and move on with their lives. If you don’t want to do that, you could hire an attorney to fight the ticket for you, but you may also be able to successfully fight the ticket without hiring counsel. There are no guarantees here, but this is how it could work.
06 Aug 14:08
Make Pre-Bottled Cocktails That People Will Actually Want to Drink
by Claire Lower on Skillet, shared by Andy Orin to Lifehacker
Let’s say you’re going to a house party (or picnic, or tailgate), and you want to bring a little alcoholic something. Beer and wine are a safe, easy bet, but a bottle of your favorite handcrafted cocktail says “I tried” without trying too hard. Pre-bottled cocktails are rarely that great, so why not make your own? Making delicious, fresh-tasting pre-bottled libations is actually quite easy, you just have to know and follow a few simple rules.
05 Aug 20:55
Freeze Individual Bacon Strips Into Coils for Easier Access
by Patrick Allan
Sometimes you just want a couple strips of bacon, but you don’t want to defrost the whole package to get to them. Bacon coils is the answer.
05 Aug 15:35
Two Deadpool Trailers? Both Are Awesome
by Katharine Trendacosta on io9, shared by Charlie Jane Anders to Gizmodo
Well, these are exactly what we’ve been looking for: Deadpool, full of funny and killing. Redband trailer’s below, it’s ... really NSFW.
05 Aug 15:35
The Future of Rail Travel—and Why It Doesn’t Look Like Hyperloop
by Roberto Palacin,
As the world’s population becomes increasingly urbanised, it is estimated that the number of journeys measured in passenger-kilometres will triple by 2050. Roads simply can’t absorb this increase.
31 Jul 15:26
Squishy Glassware Is Actually Made of Magical Crystal Clear Silicone
by Andrew Liszewski
If you’re clumsy, or have kids, your kitchen cupboards are probably filled with ugly but necessary plastic drinkware. It doesn’t have to be that way, though, because it turns out someone has created crystal clear drinking glasses made from squishy, shatterproof silicone.
31 Jul 15:20
This Tool Tells You The Cheapest Time to Fly to Different Cities
by Kristin Wong
When it comes to saving money on flights, timing maters. Tickets can be considerably cheaper if you fly to a destination during its non-peak season. This interactive tool tells you the cheapest time to fly to different cities around the world.
31 Jul 15:14
Ruby App Gets Period Tracking Right
by Diane Kelly on Throb, shared by Ria Misra to io9
