N is for News

When it comes to reading the news, I stick to a chosen few websites and have my favourite sections to scour too. By no means, do I visit all these news websites every day - I'm not a news junkie. I usually read the BBC new website for the main stories of the day, for local news, sport and the Science and Environment section. The Telegraph website is also a good choice for world news and science, but the best section is the Weird News. You can find all sorts of funny stuff there. I'm not really one for celebrity gossip, but I confess I do often look through the stories on the Femail section of the Mail Online (sshhh) - although I often don't have a clue who they are referring to - Honey Boo Boo, Frankie Essex???? I think it's probably better to be in the dark about most of them.

Today I thought I'd share a couple of the weirder stories that caught my eye. The first one is the rather unsurprising news that men take six months to do 'little jobs' around the house. Apparently, a study by Homebase (a DIY store) found that men regularly put off these little jobs for six months or more either because they don't know how to do them or they lack the time or enthusiasm to do them. The top 5 jobs on our to-do lists are: marked walls, blown light bulbs (I have a few of these - oops), squeaky floorboards, stained carpet and peeling paint. I am definitely guilty myself of putting things off round the house, so I don't think we can only blame men.

The best story by far though was that of Sydney the tortoise, who went missing 10 months ago. His owners spent 2 weeks looking for him last June, and even resorted to calling in a gun dog to sniff him out, all to no avail. But lo and behold, when they started digging up their garden with a JCB for their new extension, there was Sydney laying in a pile of the rubble - alive and well. They think he was so disappointed with the rubbish summer we had last year that he mistook it for winter. I think a lot of us did that. He is absolutely fine and back in his heated vivarium. Phew.

Does anyone else like reading these weirder stories for some light relief? Any suggestions for good websites are more than welcome.

Electrifying Lego Bench Mon(Wednes)day

There is some scary stuff happening around the lego bench at the moment in the lead up to Halloween. Looks like Dr Mad Scientist has finally created that monster.

Mis-matched - Project 52

Week 4 of this year's project had the great theme of 'mis-matched' which instantly made me think of science and art. I love both, although art is my true favourite. 

To most people, science and art just don't mix. Science seeks to explain the wonders that art revels in (or maybe I'm talking nonsense). They may be mis-matched also because often when you see something with a scientific eye, you fail to see its beauty. Sorry if this is coming across as pretentious rubbish. It's hard to get the point across without using flouncy words!

I happen to use science in some of my art, so they can work together, but it can be a challenge to use both ways of seeing the world at the same time.

I love using scientific equipment at home and bought the conical flask to use as a vase, and the measuring cylinder is from Ikea for the kitchen. I set this up in my light tent:

I had to brighten the image a bit and increase contrast, then I used Reala effect on Picnik to really make the colours pop. I also quite liked adding a polaroid effect, as below, but decided the white background needed to stay a crisp clear white.

Happy Lego Bench Monday!

Oh dear, it looks like this scientist might be about to make a serious boo-boo. Just where are the contents of that test tube going to end up - the conical flask or her mug of tea??! Health and safety would be going mad seeing this.