cool links

Lately, the news has been dominated by two different topics: the Olympics and the Curiosity Mars Rover.  (Well those are the two topics dominating in my news feed.  I tend to only read about good news.)  Anyway, I found two interesting links to share with you regarding those two topics.

1) This website, from those clever Brits at the BBC, shows close-up images of every Olympic medal from every modern Olympic games.  It's very cool to see how there are some very common themes (the goddess Nike) and some very unique interpretations.  And some medals are twice the size as others!  Very cool.

2) This video, from NASA, shows a quick overview of how the Curiosity Mars Rover made it to the red planet, landed, and is beginning to explore.  I saw this in the news, but didn't follow it very closely until my friend Allie told me how exciting it was.  In her excitement, she exclaimed that it involved "rockets, parachutes, jet packs, and cranes"!  Then I knew I had to check it out.  She was right; it is pretty incredible what this thing can do.  Check it out!