Can you name all 50 states without consulting a map? I admit I consulted the map in my head as I did this quiz from Ironic Sans. You have ten minutes from page load to type in all 50 states. Yes, spelling counts. I did it in just over four minutes. It would have been much faster except I skipped Nevada and had to search my mental map for it. Link -via Metafilter

The Original Human POLE POSITION
Uploaded by NOTsoNOISY

From Not So Noisy, the folks who brought you Human Space Invaders, watch the stop motion art project Human Pole Position. This video will join a proud but recent tradition of bringing video games to the real world. Push play or go to Daily Motion. -via Dump Trumpet

Precious Images is an Oscar-winning short film by Chuck Workman, featuring 500 movie clips in seven minutes. I was surprised to realize that I have seen and enjoyed just about all of these movies! Push play or go to YouTube. -via Grow-A-Brain

After Boston police blew up a traffic counting machine on the heels of the ATHF fiasco, Massachusetts Flickr user rodbegbie labeled some other items to help the police avoid making mistakes. Link -via Cynical-C

One of the drawbacks to the widespread use of electric cars has been that they’re usually pretty ugly. The Tesla Roadster will change that perception. It runs on 100% electricity, for 250 miles per charge at about a penny per mile. Plus it goes from zero to 60mph in about 4 seconds. These cars are sold out now, but reservations are being taken for the 2008 models. Link -via Dump Trumpet

Taman Safari animal hospital in Java, Indonesia have four babies in their care who normally wouldn’t get along. A pair of baby orangutans and a pair of Sumatran tiger cubs (both endangered species) were rejected by their mothers, and are being raised in the hospital’s nursery, where they became inseparable friends. In the wild, tigers eat orangutans. Link

The European Space Agency launched the Rosetta space probe {wiki} in 2004 to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It should reach the comet by 2014. Rosetta has just passed Mars, and sent back some beautiful photographs.

In the lead image above, an orange (red), green and near-UV colour filter composite image of Mars is shown; the UV channel (the blue color) has been enhanced. The enhanced UV signal clearly shows the presence of the cloud system covering most of the Martian disk.

Link

There’s the newfangled thing that people do with computers, and it’s amazing! It’s called “Internet”. This CBC report from 1993 makes me want to try it! From the comments:

1993 "Sorry I'm late, I was on Internet."
2000 "Sorry I'm late, I was on the Internet"
2007 "sry im L8, i was on Teh Internets"

Push play or go to YouTube. -via the Presurfer

Admit it, you’ve always wanted to become one of the Knights Who Say Ni. {wiki} You’ll be partway there with this hat. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Stringfever is a group of three brothers and a cousin who play electric stringed instruments. In this video, the four play Ravel’s Bolero on one electric cello! Push play or go to YouTube. Link to the band’s website. -via Ursi’s Blog

I made this with the Portrait Illustration Maker. Any resemblance to actual persons would be surprising to me... just kidding! In case you can’t recognize my hurried attempts, this is supposed to be Neatorama authors Alex, Gail, and me. I don’t know what the others look like. Go try it yourself! Link

Stop-motion video artists PES produced the Human Skateboard video last year. Push play or go to YouTube. Now Sneaux Shoes invites you to make your own version! At Human Skateboarding, find instructions for creating your own stop-motion video, then upload your videos (or still photos) to share and show off. Or just see what other people have produced. http://www.sneauxshoes.com/humanskateboarding/index.html

New York artist Tom Duncan creates multimedia pieces based on his childhood memories. He was born in Scotland at the beginning of World War II. An unhappy family and wartime danger inspired him to turn to art as a small child. Some of his pieces deal with bomb shelters and nazis. His family moved to the United States in 1948, where his teenage hangout was Coney Island. This intricate sculpture, entitled “Dedicated to Coney Island” has lights and carnival rides that move! Link -more photographs here.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! 恭喜发财! Today is the Lunar New Year’s Day, {wiki} ushering in the Year of the Pig. The celebration is 15 days long, with different traditional activities for each day. It ends with the Lantern Festival, which is on March 3rd this year. Since it's a lunar calendar, these holidays fall on different dates each year. In honor of the occasion, Retrocrush has published The Greatest Porkers in Pop Culture History. Link

The physics behind a tesla coil are beyond me. But wouldn’t this be a grand way to deter theives from your car? This page at Tesla Down Under has lots more pictures of tesla coils and their possible applications. Link -via Arbroath