Periodic Table

I hated Chemistry in High School. It didn't help that my teacher was not very good at explaining things - I didn't know what a Mole was for half the year! But perhaps things would have been different if YouTube had been around and could have seen these videos of the Periodic table shot by the University of Nottingham. They are oddly fascinating even to me. Perhaps its the awesome science hair and fun experiments. Go check it out!

State Similarity

Over at fivethirtyeight.com there is a new chart showing the results of "nearest neighbor analysis" for different states that I find really interesting. What kind of state is Minnesota? A more north-western state (Washington, Oregon) with a strong midwestern Wisconsin (who is similar to Minnesota, Iowa, and Ohio) thrown in. Illinois is good one with Minnesota (NW/Central), New York (East-coast), and Ohio (midwestern industrial/rural).

The grouping here is interestingly enough based on baseball and fantasy baseball statistical analysis that pairs current players with older ones to help predict the career arc of the current one. In this case, it is to help predict larger election trends by paring similar states, but I think it also can help paint an interesting picture on the character of the states themselves. For example, unpredictable Florida (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Arizona) is a large southern state with no southern connections. Click on the image to the left for a large version, or see the original here.

Global Warming Time-lapse

One of the major projections of Global Warming is the melting of the polar ice caps. What if it happens far quicker than anyone expected? Well how about this video from NASA. It shows in time lapse the melting that occured this summer that nearly opened the long sought northern passage. This summer saw the lowest ice mass on record, beating out 2005 by an astounding 25%. Here is the video..

Mechanical Aptitude Test

I found this via Auto Blog, a fun and super nerdy Mechanical Aptitude Test. I took it and got an 82%. Everything I knew came from High School Physics with Mr. Bergseid, and that was about my average grade for that class so I guess I am a perpetual "B-" Physics student!

So for anyone out there who does not have to study for a test or two a week, time to get those mind muscles going!

**edit by Megan: I got a 68%. Good thing vets don't have to use physics too often...