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Why Iceland has the happiest people on Earth. The secret is a laid-back attitude and few hangups.
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A best-of list you never want to be a part of: The 21 Best Mugshots Evar. The guy at #1 already has fanfiction written about him.
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Invasive Zebra Mussels are keeping California boaters out of the water. No, the mussels don’t care, but authorities don’t want the little buggers hitching a ride to our waters.
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Can you name all the US states in ten minutes? Spelling counts, but the map makes it easy. I did it in 3:45, rather slow because I don’t touch type. If you want to try it without a map, go here.
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What can you do when you have to load your bobcat on a truck and you have no ramp? Watch and learn from a master.
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An account of going from average to Superman in 16 weeks with the help of steroids. This is actually a horror story.
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Make your own rock candy! The recipe is right here, courtesy of Jason’s father-in-law.
2:38, map-free, also without being a touch typist!
OK, that was the third time around. The first time I forgot Minnesota until about 7 minutes into the quiz. The second time I couldn’t figure out which two I left out, until 5 minutes in. Embarassingly, they were Alaska and Hawaii.
I love these timed quizzes, as you can see from my website. I’d like to see more of them on Mental Floss! Heck, you even have a great selection of ideas in the comments of your “x in y minutes” blog post.
posted by gmsc on 5-19-2008 at 4:29 am
2:43. I can type, but I drew a blank for a few seconds on Connecticut.
posted by Lisa on 5-19-2008 at 6:18 am
1:37, because I know the song of the states in alpha-order. Would have been more like 1:15 but my boss walked by.
posted by Kelly J on 5-19-2008 at 9:10 am
2:25… took me a second to spell Massachusetts
posted by TMo on 5-19-2008 at 9:56 am
I also totally forgot Minnesota in the mapless quiz. Then I started naming hockey teams and I was like, aha!
posted by Ariel on 5-19-2008 at 10:57 am
the link about Iceland - Wonderful. Glad theres a place like that.
posted by septer on 5-19-2008 at 2:48 pm
I knew that 50 states in alphabetical order song would come in handy one day…. yay third grade!
Too bad I can’t spell Connecticut.
posted by Laura on 5-19-2008 at 4:03 pm
Yikes! I remember the zebra mussel invasion of Lake Erie, back in the ’80s. They coated EVERYTHING, made the shorelines a hazard for feet, clogged intakes, and filtered all the algae out of the water, killing a lot of the fish.
posted by Mel on 5-19-2008 at 6:14 pm
3:47 - And I’ve never been to USA!
I suppose growing up in little ol’ New Zealand, all tucked up in the far corner of the world, predisposed me to studying the atlas with fascination.
posted by dangermouse on 5-19-2008 at 9:43 pm