Learn TikTok

Posted by Jane

IT’S BEEN MORE than three years since the lip-syncing app Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, first became popular among tweens and teens. The social network has since spread far beyond Generation Z: TikTok has been downloaded over 1 billion times, including 96 million in the United States, according to estimates from the research firm Sensor Tower. It’s also owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, now considered one of the most valuable startups in the world. The app itself revolves around sharing 15-second videoclips, which are set to music often licensed from artists and record labels.

Read: A Beginner’s Guide to TikTok on Wired

Get a pen pal

Posted by Jane

It’s not every day that the entirety of the world is experiencing the exact same devastation at the exact same time. Having an international pen pal is a great way to be able to share your feelings with someone who can completely understand what you’re going through. This is a time where someone in Milan and someone in New York City can bond over their shared experience.

Find out how to get an international pen pal in this article, Now’s the Time to Get a Pen Pal

Understand black holes

Posted by Jane

You probably know the basics when it comes to black holes: A lot of mass squished into not a lot of volume makes for an entity so prodigiously dense, not even light can escape its gravity …

A research astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Grojian specializes in the structure of the universe .. and he’s good at explaining the stuff. Check out the video and  watch Gorjian discuss black holes at five scales of difficulty, from grade school to grad school right on up to fellow-black-hole-expert levels.

You will find the video at An Astronomer Explains Black Holes at 5 Levels of Difficulty, an article on Wired Magazine

 

5 Musical Skills You Can Learn Online for Free, With or Without Instruments

Posted by Jane

Since you have some extra free time at home, how about learning a musical skill? You can get free music lessons online, with or without instruments, to pick up a new art form

In this article, you’ll learn to sing and beatbox, play the guitar like a pro, or even produce an entire song.

Read the full article, 5 Musical Skills You Can Learn Online for Free, With or Without Instruments, in MakeUseOf

Tell Your Story on LinkedIn

Posted by Jane

Your LinkedIn page is often the centerpiece of your online career persona, yet most of us barely consider what we’re offering there. We serve up a motley buffet of achievements, experiences, identities, missions, and passions for readers to shovel through. Or we go the other way and set a sparse table with only the four basic food groups: name, current job, past experience, and education. The first approach overwhelms the reader — employer, investor, client, or ally — and the second leaves them starved for information and less likely to connect. The opportunity is lost and we all go hungry

Read the full article, How to Tell Your Story on LinkedIn, on Harvard Business

Learn to draw cartoons

Posted by Jane

Learn to Draw Cartoons is a series of 3 articles based on the Famous Artist Cartoon Course book, now in public domain.

Lesson 1 is the Comic Head:

When you meet a friend the first thing you look at is his face. You say, “You look fine” or “You look sick” or “You look sad” or “You look happy.” You recognize Joe or Bill or Mary by the eyes or nose or ears or hair. The good Lord is an expert at put­ting people together so you can identify them easily. Each of us has different features – even twins are not really identical – and, in addition, each of us has a definite and individual personality. As an observer and recorder of the human race, you must have an awareness not only of the surface differences between people but also of what makes them tick. Jn general, you must become a psychologist. A good understanding of the emotional differ­ences between people will help you to create cartoon characters that will react properly to any set of circumstances and leave no doubt in the reader’s mind as to the type of people they are.