Last night, The History Channel premiered a new series, titled The States. Instead of a 50-part series delving into the complete history of each American state, as you might expect, it's a 10-part series, with each episode focusing on 5 different states. You learn about the unique culture and interesting facts about each state.

I bring this up because memorizing the US states and capitals is a classic feat of memory. It's unusual enough that people find it hard to name all 50 states in a short time, and even harder to name the capitals. As a matter of fact, most of the people who can do both learned it from Wakko Warner.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools online to help you learn (mostly Flash-based). You can practice placing the US states on the map, finding the states, and the state capitals, too!

Probably the best thing about the series The States is that once you learn your states and capitals, you can not just show off your knowledge, but make it interesting as well. Would you rather just hear the dry fact that Sacramento is the capital of California, or hear it balanced with neat facts like California's name means absolutely nothing, and was just a made-up name for a place in Spanish mythology?