Wanna see how smart you REALLY are?

Take Bang Goes the Theory's Brain Test Britain. I did mention that I like taking tests. I'm not sure why, but I do. I should have been tested enough in school to be petrified of anything like a test. But isn't life a test anyway?

Bang Goes the Theory is according to presenter Dallas Campbell, a show for "anyone who is remotely curious about life, the Universe and pretty much everything." It's a science show where they do more than just experiment. The only special episode I caught was where they powered a house inhabited by a "nuclear family" for a day by 80 bicyclists. Which may sound odd to you, but was absolutely fascinating in how much energy it takes to run our appliances. It also pointed out ways to cut back on energy use. Which although switching lightbulbs may seem like a small thing, as someone told me at the Centre for Alternative Technology combining just a lightbulbs worth of energy can add up. That is made more apparent when you watch a team of bicyclists power a house!

Unfortunately, Season one is over. So, you would have to wait until season 2 in 2010 to catch the show

Anyway, these are all sorts of weird little tricky tests to see if training your mind will improve it. They are sort of Kim's Game in spirit where you guess where things are. Also, they had one test where I had to put things from high to low, which sounds simple until you have to deal with negative numbers along with written (six) and numeric (6) numbers. One test gave me grief when I had to count items going into a box ancd compare them to items coming out. My internet connection screwed up that test. Also, there was one test/game where I had to do simple math calculations whilst balloon floated up, but I couldn't figure out which balloon I was supposed to be calculating.

If training your mind isn't enough, there are weird little science challenges that take me back to the quickie radio electronics class I was subjected to in the army (What was ohms law? (V=IxR)).

Fun! fun! fun! Now, I can't wait for the annual Financial Times Christmas Quiz!