Things to scan while waiting for Ohio…

I am led to believe that many Tracker readers will be watching election returns tonight instead of roaming through the Tracker's archives, looking for the crankiest, funniest, or most astute posts of yesteryear. (For some reason, Nate Silver did not find it within his means to predict what Tracker readers would be doing tonight, so I can't back this up with data.)

So I'm conceding the evening, even before the polls close. You win. But while you're publishing your own cranky, funny, or astute election comments on Twitter or FB, I thought you might like a little diversion. Here are a few things to scan while waiting for Ohio to come in:

—Adam Mann at Wired likes the new Google Mars, which has "more coverage, more detail, and more awesome." Fly over "an updated and ultra-detailed view of the Martian landscape," he says. 

–At Wired again, Mark Piesing reports that a former WWII airfield in Wales has been transformed in a drone testing ground. Woops; maybe this is a bad idea. It actually does have something to do with the election.

–Meet Kate Shaw, the latest young science writer to be introduced by Bora Zivkovic at Scientific American. The item is one of a series of Q&As with recently fledged science writers.  

—Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy turns his eyes Earth-ward for a video of a labrador puppy playing with a door spring–therapy, he claims, for roughly half of his readers tonight. He just doesn't know which half.

–You can't retract your vote, but the Dutch psychologist Diederik Stapel can retract his papers, and retract, and retract, and retract. (Is there an echo in here?) According to Retraction Watch, Stapel is now up to 28 retractions. Do I hear 29? Anyone?

–Why a geneticist doesn't want to know her genome sequence. Ricki Lewis explains at Reporting on Health.

–Learn how blind mole rats could hold the key to cancer: Their cells commit mass suicide when overcrowded. Zoe Cormier opens our eyes (not the mole rats') at Nature.

OK. By now, the returns should be trickling in from Cleveland, Columbus, and Ashtabula…I'll see you in the morning.

-Paul Raeburn