Slow Day Today - Have Some "Carolina" BBQ

Maybe it's the President's Day holiday, but today seems awfully slow. Accordigly, I'll link this list of top 10 BBQ places in the "Carolinas".

Most Accurate Map of South Carolina

I kind of dislike the use of "Carolinas" to lump North Carolina and South Carolina together, like we're all one place. We're not. If we liked each other, we wouldn't have split up back in the 1700s. Anyway, we haven't been one place for a long time.

27 Maps That Explain America

Happy Tuesday. Hope all y'all enjoyed the weekend.

Here are some interesting maps. The one that totally blows me away is this one: Half of America's population lives in the blue-shaded counties. Half.

The next time someone advocates for getting rid of the electoral college, show them this map.

Another map that is particularly nice for South Carolina is this one. Apparently, people are moving here. Not good news for New York and Illinois.

Best and Worst Things About Each State

You can see the maps here.

I'm not sure that the best thing about South Carolina is "lowest gas prices", and I definitely call bullshit on Georgia's best thing being "best urban interstate conditions".

A few are funny.

1. Colorado's best thing is "lowest obesity rate", but it's worst is "highest cocaine use". I'm not sure, but doesn't cocaine use lead to weight loss?
2. Delaware's best thing is "highest standard of living", but it's worst is "most prisoners per capita". I guess you're likely to be in prison, but don't worry, prison is really nice.
3. New Jersey's best thing is "highest median family income", but it's worst is "highest property taxes". Good thing y'all have money, cause you have to give it to the government.

Some are really a stretch, like they couldn't find anything nice in a state:

1. Michigan's best thing is "Most fabulous state reptile (painted turtle)". Really? That's the best thing you can say about Michigan?
2. Maine's best is "Best state for cat owners". Huh? How do you measure that? I would have gone with cheapest place to get lobster, but that's just me.

Now that I go through it a little, I don't think this map was very well thought out.

Cool Link of the Day: How Big Space Really Is

Space is big. No, it's really big. Normally, when you see a map of the solar system, it looks like this:

But the thing is, this isn't to scale. What this map fails to show you is all the space that's out there in space. If you want to really get an idea of how much empty space there is out there in space, check out this scale map of our solar system.

It takes a bit of time to scroll through it all, but there are some little bits of information in the empty space as you journey through the solar system. I would say that the first bit is the hardest, but the real hard part is once you get past Saturn. Our brains just cannot deal with such large numbers.

h/t @comradearthur