Great new YouTube Channels!

The Brain Scoop is a fascinating new channel starring Emily Graslie, a volunteer Curatorial Assistant for the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum at The University of Montana.  She helps prepare and preserve specimens for the museum, which can get messy and gross at times.  I haven't been able to bring myself to watch all the episodes (thanks, weak stomach!) but the ones without a lot of animal guts are really good, especially the Valentine's Day special.

If you like the Story of Ice and Fire, and well-made YouTube videos, you'll love School of Thrones.  Set in Westeros Valley High, the cliques of the school are all vying for the titles of Prom King and Prom Queen on Prom night... but will Daenerys use her fire to save the school in time?


Like Mental Floss?  Like John Green's Crash Course? Mental Floss Video is a wonderful mash-up of Green's style and Mental Floss' crazy knowledges.  I especially enjoyed their recent video featuring the beloved Mr. Rogers.

The Good Stuff is spearheaded by Craig Benzine (of Wheezy Waiter fame) "as he scours the depths of the universe and the recesses of the inner mind on a never-ending quest for The Good Stuff."  The recent releases featured an alternate beginning to Superman as well as an interview with Bill Nye (the Science Guy!).  (The first release was on the Wheezy Waiter channel, but all future releases will be on the Good Stuff channel)

The BEST Science Online by MinutePhysics

Watch this for a cool overview of science blogs and youtube sites.  Some of them like Vihart and Nasa picture of the day, I've already covered, but some are new!  Here's the whole list (copied from the video)

Big Red Button - http://inception.davepedu.com
xkcd - http://xkcd.com/1131/
xkcd what if? - http://what-if.xkcd.com/3/
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?...
Empirical Zeal - http://www.empiricalzeal.com/
Sean Carroll - http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/b...
Terry Tao - http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2012/12...
It's Okay To Be Smart - http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/...
I ¶#@*ing Love Science - https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLove...
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day - http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Radiolab - http://www.radiolab.org/2012/dec/17/s...
HyperPhysics - http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/...
The Scale of the Universe - http://htwins.net/scale2/
The Character of Physical Law - http://research.microsoft.com/apps/to...
Fake Science - http://fakescience.tumblr.com/post/12...
Veritasium - http://www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium
Sixty Symbols - http://www.sixtysymbols.com/
Periodic Videos - http://www.periodicvideos.com/
Crash Course - http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse
The Brain Scoop - http://www.youtube.com/thebrainscoop
Smarter Every Day - http://www.youtube.com/destinws2
Vi Hart - http://www.youtube.com/vihart
George Hart - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTl0...
Numberphile - http://www.numberphile.com/
Vsauce - http://www.youtube.com/user/Vsauce
TED-Ed - http://www.youtube.com/teded
MinuteEarth - http://www.youtube.com/user/minuteearth

Thanks MinutePhysics!

A very Science Thanksgiving.

Gizmodo shows us how NASA would cook a turkey and explains how MacGyver would do it better.

YouTuber Vihart shows us how to make Mathed Potatoes, Green Bean Matherole and Borromean Onion Rings.  She has more coming out later this week!

The Huffington Post shares some Geeky Facts about Thanksgiving.

Technabob at Pichaus shows us how to make an LED Turkey Centerpiece.

WiseGeek explains how cranberries turn into sauce with the right ratio of ingredients.

BoingBoing has an excellent list of Thanksgiving Science stories and articles.

ScienceMag explains what Scientists are thankful for on Thanksgiving including, "We are thankful for coffee. So, so thankful."

Election News: Puerto Rico

Unless you live under a rock, you know who won the US Presidential election.  But did you see the news about Puerto Rico?

If you follow Ricky Martin on twitter, you know that one of my favorite bloggers, Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers, posted a video about our potential 51st state!

That's right!  On the back pages of CNN, the Huffington Post and the Washington Post, there are articles about Puerto Ricans favoring statehood.

How does this all work?  One of my good friends, StarlightGeek, has an amazing blog post that will explain it all!

2012 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics

Within minutes of the announcements of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize, my favorite vloggers went to work explaining what the prize was for.

Chemistry: Periodic Videos.

The top comment:
"My god. Here we are, perhaps three hours after the announcement, we have not only a VERY high quality video explaining just what the prize was for (including research by the professor to see just what they're on about), explaining hugely complex yet important concepts in terms that even I can understand. And all I can offer in thanks is a punch of a 'like' button. Somehow that feels so ... so insignificant, considering the effort expended and the material presented. Thank you. Again."

Physics: Minute Physics and Sixty Symbols with extra Sixty Symbols footage.

One of the comments describes the Sixty Symbols journey to find SOMEONE to explain the research:
"I really enjoyed the way the video started with Prof. Copeland calling Prof. Moriarty, then bumping into Prof. Merrifield outside, then meeting with Professor Moriarty, and then finally reaching Prof. Kruger. It felt well connected and made me more interested in the rest of the video, which was great. I hope to see more of Prof. Kruger in the future. Good job Brady!"

And today, Hank updates us on other Nobel Prizes!

The differently-abled on YouTube.

This week I bring you several channels of YouTubers who have awesome channels and just happen to be disabled.

The first is Tommy Edison, who is blind.  He has two channels, the Blind Film Critic and the Tommy Edison Experience.  In the former he reviews movies after opening night, and rates them, before asking his sighted friends what they saw.  He's reviewed movies like Momento, the Dark Knight Rises and Inception.  In the latter he shows how hard it is to use money, go to the ATM and shoot a basketball.

Next up we have a spunky woman named Tisha who runs Tisha Unarmed.  Tisha was born with no arms and uneven legs, but has learned to do everything from taking a shower, getting dressed, driving and grocery shopping.  But she also eats sushi with chopsticks!  Amazing.

Last but not least is Josh Sundquist who only has one leg after a childhood battle with cancer.  He now is a motivational speaker and an excellent storyteller.  He has relayed his experiences with airport security, as well as how to smuggle soda into a movie theater.  Josh also uses crutches so he has to think about things like how to hold hands with your date as well as how to walk on ice with crutches.  The reason I found him originally was his math videos like The Game of Thrones for Math Nerds or The Hunger Games for Math Nerds. His newest?  Gangnam Style for Math Nerds.

And not to neglect our non-human disabled friends, we have Lil Bub Bub.  She is a polydactyl, toothless cat whose "dude" makes videos of her.  Lil Bub has a website, store and has even gone viral!  You can see her dude take her to the park, feed her yogurt and makes her very very happy.

History and Food

I ran into a blog about the war of 1812 when browsing events to do this weekend.  It's a running documentary about the events surrounding the war.  The writers include several historical sites, newspapers, parks and historical societies.  If you're interested in more historical blogs, check out this extensive list.  Included are Cardinal Wolsey's Today in History and Elizabeth Mahon's Scandalous Women about 'history's most fascinating and flagrant women'.

On another topic, there's an awesome website about food substitutions.  I ran out of rice wine vinegar when making sushi this other night and this site came to the rescue.  Also, my favorite food personality, Alton Brown, has a blog!  Well, it's less of a blog and more of a food news aggregator.  Anthony Bourdain also has a food blog, which may be fascinating as he wraps up his last season of No Reservations.  Bon Appetit!