patreon – Southern Fried Science

Small drops make mighty oceans: 10 years as a scientist on Patreon

May 1, 2024May 1, 2024 Andrew Thaler

Ten years ago, freshly married and freshly relocated to Vallejo, California, I found myself in the midst of reinvention. The cycle of post-doctoral fellowships and short-term contracts necessary for an academic career didn’t suit me. I wanted stability and, importantly, I wanted freedom. Crowdfunding was new. Earlier that summer, OpenROV had shook the crowdfunding world … Read More “Small drops make mighty oceans: 10 years as a scientist on Patreon” »

5 things to know about spotted eagle ray tooth plates, August’s 3D printed reward!

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 David Shiffman

Education

I recently unveiled a new tier of Patreon rewards: 3D printed shark and ray models!For $17 per month, you will get a monthly 3D printed educational model of different shark or ray parts in the mail, and you’ll be supporting my efforts to provide these models to schools for free.

August’s reward is a row from the tooth plate of a spotted eagle ray, Aetobatus narinari! The original specimen is housed at the University of Tennessee fossil collection, and the 3D scan was shared online as part of the FOSSIL project.

I asked University of Florida/Florida Museum Ph.D. student Jeanette Pirlo about the FOSSIL project:

” The FOSSIL Project is an NSF funded project, based out of the University of Florida and the Florida Museum, devoted to cultivating a networked community of practice in which fossil club members and professional paleontologists collaborate in learning the practice of science and outreach. The myFOSSIL.org website is the platform from which our members can collaborate by sharing their fossil finds, curate their personal collections, and participate in ongoing paleontological research” – Jeanette Pirlo

A full set of Spotted Eagle Ray Jaws showing multiple tooth rows fused into a plate, photo by Cathleen Bester courtesy Jeanette Pirlo at the Florida Museum. The specific individual tooth row that was scanned here, photo by Maggie Limbeck, University of Tennessee Masters Candidate. And the 3D printed version

Learn more about the spotted eagle ray and it’s teeth below!

Gregarious gars, surprising crocs, mustachioed monkeys, ocean wilderness, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 30, 2018

July 30, 2018July 29, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Logo for Monday Morning Salvage.

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

Completely shameless Patreon Plug! Today marks the 1-year anniversary of our Jaunty Ocean Critter Stickers campaign. We’re going to continue making new red-capped sticker until the end of the year, then the theme will change! Sign up now if you want to support Southern Fried Science and get a very Gregarious Gar!

A gar wearing a red cap.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Did you see marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez on Shark Week this week? Read more about her experience here: Marine Biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez Was Bitten and Dragged by a Crocodile…and Lived to Tell Her Story. And, of course, follow her on Twitter.

marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez — Marine biologist Melissa Cristina Márquez

The Gam (conversations from the ocean-podcasting world)

I swung by the Speak Up for the Blue Podcast to celebrate their 500th episode with a reflection on 10 years of online ocean outreach.

2 minutes to midnight, 3D printed turtle eggs, awkward fiddlers, Egyptian welders, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 29, 2018.

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

Good morning. The time is now 2 minutes to mid-night. Doomsday Has Never Been Closer. Good luck.

Despite the fact that we live in extremely dangerous times, the scientists in charge of the clock said there is hope. The clock has been wound backwards before, in the wake of the Cold War or during times when nuclear superpowers expressed interest in not mutually assuring destruction.

The scientists argue that civil society should turn the screws on government to reduce carbon emissions and push for even more ambitious climate action than what the Paris Agreement calls for. That sounds like a more fruitful plan than huddling in a bunker.

Source.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

Some technology is pretty good, though: Cracking down on poaching with 3D-printed fake turtle eggs

How to support your favorite Southern Fried Science writers in 2018

January 2, 2018 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

Southern Fried Science is growing! Thanks to Patreon and a few passive income streams, for the first time in almost a decade, we’re able to begin paying our volunteer writers for their outreach efforts. This year, we’ve established the Southern Fried Science Writers’ Fund to begin paying out compensation for all the incredible work that … Read More “How to support your favorite Southern Fried Science writers in 2018” »

There’s only one way to get these exclusive, limited-edition Jaunty Ocean Critter stickers!

August 18, 2017August 17, 2017 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

Note: The following is a plug for my Patreon campaign. Funds raised in this campaign go towards keeping the Southern Fried Science servers running as well as research and development for Oceanography for Everyone.

Behold the Unflappable Mola Mola!

Soon after the completion of Jacques Week 2017, I realized that I now had a collection of ocean animals wearing jaunty red cap doodles that were almost purpose made to be turned into stickers. So after a bit of research, a lot of redesigns, and a few test runs, the Jaunty Ocean Critter collection was born! Every month for the next year, I’m releasing a new, limited-edition run of Jaunty Ocean Critter stickers for your amusement, bemusement, and sea-musement. Die-cut on heavy vinyl, these stickers will hold up in the water, on your laptop, or attached to your favorite piece of oceanographic equipment.

How to support Southern Fried Science

June 5, 2015June 4, 2015 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

Southern Fried Science is entering its 8th year of continuous posting. During that time we’ve grown from a single author to eleven writers and have published over 2,000 articles. While we did briefly flirt with ad-support, we ultimately decided that, in order to best serve the ocean community, Southern Fried Science would be ad free … Read More “How to support Southern Fried Science” »

How you can help support Southern Fried Science

September 10, 2014 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

Earlier this summer, we switched funding models from an ad hoc Paypal-based donation system to Patreon, a crowdfunding style service for authors, musicians, writers, and, thanks to us, scientists. Thanks to our wonderful Patrons, Southern Fried Science is, for the first time in history, financially sustainable.

We’re still growing. As many of you witnessed during the last Shark Week, our servers are spinning at full capacity and our bandwidth is consistently maxed out. We need to upgrade to a bigger, dedicated server. That costs money.

Southern Fried Science is, and always will be, free and ad free. With the exception of the rare Amazon affiliate links that appears if we mention specific products, we don’t post ads. There are no awkward pitches for weight loss supplements; no pop-ups encouraging enticing you to check your car insurance; no dehumanizing images of Walmart shoppers. Just pure, safe, wholesome marine science and conservation.

Exploring new models to fund ocean science and outreach

May 28, 2014May 28, 2014 Andrew Thaler

Blogging

It’s an open secret that I’ve been struggling over the last few years to keep Southern Fried Science growing while making it financially sustainable. Ocean outreach matters, because the oceans matter. Many of us believe that protecting the oceans is the most important thing we’ll ever do. Our survival depends on a healthy ocean. So we write about overfishing and shark finning, climate change and ocean acidification, mining and trawling and bycatch runoff. And, since, as St. Jacques once said, “people protect what they love”, we do what we can to make people love the ocean as much as we do.

For most of its existence, Southern Fried Science and my other outreach projects have been funded by science. Research grants, outreach fellowships, even graduate student stipends went towards keeping our servers running. But science funding is in crisis, and that model is no longer valid. In a disturbing reversal, today, income from outreach related work–selling articles, consulting for NGO’s, running workshops–is being used to fund my scientific research. Neither model is viable.

It’s time to try something new.