As long as we have been interested in past cultures, we have been fascinated by those cultures’ mythologies – the stories that attempt to explain where we came from, and why we are the way we are. Babs did her best to explain the way we were, but she left a few holes unfilled.

Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, announces the launch of MythiLeaks 2.0, and this time it has more than just the gods. Get all the dirt on some of mythology’s quirkiest figures, from nymphs born of trees to bull-headed men (and not just the ones who are too stubborn to ask for directions).

Learn more about:

• How does the ferryman of the dead really feel about Hades and Persephone? Shmoop’s got his personal diary ripe for viewing. It’s a little embarrassing in parts, but hey, he shouldn’t have left it out if he didn’t want someone to read it.

• Helen of Troy’s blog is as useful as it is entertaining. Her entry on “Quick Tips to Launch Ships” will be particularly helpful next time you want to start a war with that pretty face of yours.

• Want to know who’s in the Monster-Human Alliance with the Minotaur?  Read all about this clique – and others – and decide for yourself which one you’d like to join. Hurry – Ancient Greek Week is right around the corner.

• Orpheus and Eurydice each have their own profiles – and, aww, they both like Elizabeth Barrett Browning and The Princess Bride. And if that’s not enough for you, read the dramatic love story behind their myth, which will take you all the way to the Underworld – and back. Bring plenty of clean underwear.

Check out Shmoop’s extensive mythology guide. If you devour it all and are still hungry for more, don’t worry – the crack Shmoop team of investigators is always digging for more hot gossip in the world of mythological figures, so you can expect 3.0 to follow soon. Keep an eye out for it – especially you, Cyclopes.

Next time, Shmoop will be serving the dish… Norse style. By the hammer of Thor!

For many of us, the end of May is the happiest time of the year. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and you’re planning never to use the letters ‘A’ and ‘P’ together again unless you’re writing a college paper about apes or possibly maps. We get that.*

Unfortunately for you and sad Keanu Reeves, however, summer vacation doesn’t start until school ends. On the plus side, now is the perfect time to start thinking about money (just ask Biggie, Pink Floyd, and ABBA).

Need some tips? Check out our guide to financial aid. Even better, read on to see how you can get free money for school. Who doesn’t like free money?

Shmoop Shout Out: $3,000 Zinch Scholarship

Speaking of moolah, take five minutes (seriously, it’s a quick application form) and apply for a $3,000  Zinch Scholarship .

If you snag the prize money, it would probably be pretty easy to negotiate a higher weekly allowance for the summer before you ship off to school. Apply for the three grand Zinch Scholarship .

Shmoop Shout Out 2.0: Robin Gibb and CPR

Singer Robin Gibb, member of the Bee Gees, passed away this week. In his honor, we’re presenting a list of what we like best about this epically awesome band:

1. Feathered hair
2. Falsetto
3. Falsetto in perfect harmony
4. Gold medallions
5. The Barry Gibb Talk Show**

And last but not least, our favorite thing about The Bee Gees: THEY SAVE LIVES. More specifically, the song “Stayin’ Alive” can be used to help perform CPR.***

Shmoop Birthday: Sally Ride Born, May 26, 1951

You know what’s awesome? Ladies in space. Actually, anything in space is pretty awesome. (Like an astronaut’s view of the solar eclipse. Cool, right?) But ladies in space are great, too.

That’s why we’d like to take the time to wish Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, a very happy birthday! It was definitely a big moment in women’s history. If you’d like to learn about other big moments, check out our Shmoop page.

Shmoop Shout Out 3.0: Geek Pride Day May 25, 2012

There are a lot of adjectives that describe the folks here at Shmoop: proficient in power-eating (we’ll double down on the guacamole, please), overly caffeinated, and really, really, really ridiculously good-looking. However, Geek Pride Day reminds us that geekery is one of the main forces keeping the SS Shmoop afloat.

This week, let your geek flag fly by reading about some of Shmoop’s favorite geeks:

1. Hermione in The Harry Potter Series
2. Milo in The Phantom Tollbooth
3. Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
4. Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein
5. Hephaestus in Greek Mythology
6. Piggy in Lord of the Flies
7. Physicists (i.e. the entire cast of The Big Bang Theory) in Shmoop Careers
8. Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time
9. Jo in Little Women
10. Maya in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Shmoop Week in History: Dracula Published May 26, 1897

If you’re feeling a bit under the weather and looking for a doctor in your town, don’t go see Dr. Acula. He’ll just suck blood from your neck. Okay, that joke needs a little work.

Dubious medical skills aside, though, the Count’s story remains one of the most compelling in literature. Who would have thought that people would be so obsessed with vampire stories after more than a century? (We would pay real money to see Bram Stoker sit down with Stephenie Meyer.) Dark Shadows, Twilight, we love ’em all.

Celebrate your inner vampire by learning about the original: Dracula, by Bram Stoker

Get that money!
Shmoop and the Gang

*Except for those of us at Shmoop HQ with bird phobias.

**Okay, so that wasn’t really the Bee Gees, but it was lovingly inspired by the Bee Gees, so it counts.

***Apparently, the song was recorded at approximately 100 beats per minute, which is the perfect CPR rhythm. Just ask Vinnie Jones.

Poring over large blocks of text isn’t always the easiest way to cement facts, dates and definitions in that spongy thought center of yours. Often, repetitive and rapid-fire practice is the way to go. Case in point: just think about how difficult it would be to forget someone who was firing rapidly at you.
Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, announces the launch of Flashcards. This tool is available site wide, meaning you can use it to test your English vocabulary, your algebra skills or your mastery of the Harry Potter lexicon. You can’t expect to get very far in life if you can’t tell your Hippogriff from your Blast-Ended Skrewt.

Features include:

• Text to speech. You will have the opportunity to hear the text on many flashcards spoken out loud. For now, it is just a computerized voice. Shmoop has been trying to get Morgan Freeman, but he isn’t returning their calls.
• Printable flashcards. If you work better with actual, physical flashcards you can hold in your hands, no worries – just print ‘em out and start flashing. Eventually, you are going to have to accept that computers are taking over the world, though.
• Quizzes and true/false questions. These aren’t all just one-word vocab cards. You may be asked which character uttered a particular quote, what a complicated equation simplifies to or who did what in a given Norse myth. Don’t worry – you’ll be given a hint in Norse code.
• Explanations. Shmoop’s flashcards don’t just give you the answers, they also explain why or how they arrived at such an answer. And very rarely will they say, “because we said so.”
• Links. The flashcards will sometimes also provide links to other sources that can elaborate on the matter at hand. www.yourewelcome.com.
• Tips to remember. You will find sample sentences and handy mnemonics to help you wrap your head around a word or concept. What a great way to acquire mnew mnowledge.

So if the SAT is fast approaching, or if you just want to make sure you remember this stuff in 20 years, take a gander at Shmoop’s new Flashcards and see if your brain can keep up. For an added challenge, see if it can keep up sans Red Bull.

Okay, so the survival rate may actually be slightly higher when it comes to navigating our nation’s roadways. Still, you may need to make some split-second decisions out there that could ultimately save your life (or at least your insurance rates). And the more you know about the road rules (like don’t ever borrow your RVmate’s towel), the better prepared you will be to maneuver your way around that oncoming car that swerves at the last second. In the wise words of Maroon 5, “you have to move your Jaguar.”

Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, announces the launch of the new DMV Guide. It’s so hot off the presses it even still has that “new guide” smell.

Inside you will learn:

• Which three tests you will need to pass in order to obtain your license. Hint: none of them involve confronting any giant frogs. This ain’t Pan’s Labyrinth.

• How to donate your organs and tissues. Believe it or not, some people frown on it when you are caught peddling kidneys at your neighborhood yard sale.

• What all those crazy lights and signals mean. No, you are not being abducted by aliens on board a UFO. It’s just time to turn right.

• Where it is legal or illegal for you to park. As a general rule, if you step out of your vehicle and people are shouting and gesturing at you, and scaffolding is falling down all around you, you may want to move your car.

• How to drive in bad weather. Sometimes it isn’t just pedestrians who are hailing cabs.

• Your rights as a driver. Not to mention your lefts.

If you don’t want to be cruisin’ for a bruisin’, Shmoop’s DMV Guide can help. It can put you on the road to success and will help you avoid the off-ramps to failure.

We know the middle of May is a tough time for a lot of you, what with being stuck inside studying for your last AP exams with nothing but Pizza Rolls and Mountain Dew for sustenance and all.

However, we hope you took a few hours on Sunday to celebrate Mother’s Day with the Mom-type people in your lives. Moms are awesome! Literature agrees…well, sometimes. Looks like some authors were forced to eat too much broccoli as children.

Check out our list of Awesome Moms and Not-So-Awesome Moms:

Top 5 Awesome Moms on Shmoop:

1. Momma, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
2. Pi’s Mother, in The Life of Pi
3. Mrs. Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice
4. Marmee, in Little Women
5. Molly Weasley, in the Harry Potter series

Top 5 Less-Than-Awesome Moms on Shmoop:

1. Lorraine’s Mother, in The Pigman
2. Gertrude, in Hamlet
3. Moll Flanders, in Moll Flanders
4. The Grandmother, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find
5. The Other Mother, in Coraline

Shmoop Shout Out: $3,000 Zinch Scholarship

So you’re almost done with the AP nightmare and out for the summer. Just a couple more weeks! However, before senioritis kicks into full gear (at which point no one can save you*), you might as well take five minutes and apply for the $3,000  Zinch Scholarship.

If you snag the prize money, it would probably be pretty easy to negotiate a higher weekly allowance for the summer before you ship off. Apply for the three grand Zinch Scholarship or forward along this email to any interested party.

Shmoop Shout Out 2.0: High Flyers: Charles Lindbergh & Amelia Earhart, May 20

For centuries, people have been captivated by stories of flight. From Icarus to the Wright brothers to Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, we can’t get enough of people who attach balloons to their houses, soar into the heavens, and discover talking dogs and long-lost species. Wait, that was Carl from Up.

Still, the point stands. Aviators like Charles Lindbergh, who was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic (1927), and Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to do the same (1932), appeal to the bird brains in all of us. Happy anniversaries of your transatlantic flights, Charlie and Amelia!

Birthday: Pete Townsend Born May 19, 1945

Have you ever played an electric guitar? Okay, we’ll widen the net a little bit. Have you ever played air guitar? If the answer is a resounding yes, then you’ve probably used a few of Pete Townsend’s classic moves, whether you knew it or not. Don’t believe us? Take a gander at these:

1. The Windmill
2. The Roll Around Transition to Windmill
3. And, finally, the Smash Your Guitar and Throw It Into the Audience

We at Shmoop HQ use all of these maneuvers on a consistent basis, especially on Fridays. Learn more about The Who and one of the legendiest of legendary rock stars with a few Shmoop guides to their songs:

• “Baba O’Riley“
• “My Generation“

Shmoop Shout Out 3.0: Janitor Graduates from Columbia

It’s AP/finals time again, which means there are probably tons of students thinking that running away to join the circus is a viable alternative to four more years of classes and college-level exams. However, when you hear a story like Gac Filipaj’s, you can’t help but “awww.” (Or, alternatively, “whoa.”)

Mr. Filipaj fled war-torn Yugoslavia and took a job as a janitor at Columbia University because he heard it was the best school in New York. Then, he took classes and pulled all-nighters while working full-time. Now, after twelve years, he’s finally earned his bachelor’s degree. Congrats, grad!

To Moms!
The Kids at Shmoop**

Turns out a lot of prospective employers prefer that their employees be educated. At a minimum, “educated” usually means a high school diploma. So what are the options for someone without a high school diploma? Shine shoes, clean windshields or become an actor? Things can’t be that desperate, can they?

Enter the GED. This high school equivalency exam gives individuals who might otherwise struggle trying to find their place in the workforce an opportunity to thrive. Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, is now offering a comprehensive guide to the GED that will prepare hopefuls in advance of this all-important test. They won’t be able to recreate the unique experience of sitting through Study Hall, but take a half hour nap then carve your girlfriend’s name into the top of your desk and you should be good to go.

• Learn how to conquer “real-world” math situations like counting change, filling pools, and measuring the distance from the base of a tree to the end of its shadow. When measuring giant redwood shadows, please remember to pack a pair of comfortable shoes.
• Get the scoop on how to analyze everything from poetry to plays to your parents’ relationship. “Yes, mom, but how does it make you feel?”
• Infer like a laboratory boss, learn all the “unzip your genes” jokes fit to print, and discover the real reason Pluto is no longer a planet (we hear it got in trouble for pantsing Orion, who should have tightened his belt).
• Become well-versed in the history of everything—or at least the United States and the world—and sharpen your skills with sections on civics and government, geography, and economics. Wait – there was another Tea Party?
• Discover how to slice and dice sentences like a ninja, muscle your way through an essay, and ace all those questions about organization, usage, and mechanics. It’s okay – the grammar nazis won’t bother you any longer. Their, they’re.

It’s a man(with a high school diploma)’s world out there, and Shmoop can help students without that little rolled-up piece of paper succeed in spite of it. GED doesn’t quite stand for “Guaranteed, Easy Degree,” but with Shmoop’s guide you will feel like it does.

June 2^nd (aka the next time you can take the SAT Spanish exam) is right around the corner. But no miedo, por favor, check out our SAT Spanish and SAT Spanish with Listening exams, test practice that will keep you up at night. In a good way. Los invitamos.

We believe that test prep should be: a) boring; b) snooze-button boring; c) texting-and-on-facebook-boring; or d) fun and fast-paced. If you guessed “d,” you passed! You’re already 1-for-1 and you haven’t even sharpened your pencil yet!

Main stops on the SAT Spanish express:

1. Have fun with examples that you won’t find anywhere else. Let’s see, how to write an essay. Step 1: Build your own Frankenstein monster. Step 2: Capture King Kong. Godzilla – you wanna get in on this?

1. Because the party never stops, we also have flying around hundreds of explanations, examples and exercises on every section and type of question that you need to know for the exams. Some of them fly a little low, so watch your head.

1. Aaah, what a beautiful day! It’s sunny, your friends want to go out, you got to sleep in…buuuuuuut, you’re stuck at home prepping to take the SATs. We bet you could think of at least 238 things you’d rather be doing right now. Hey – we came up with the same number! 8 Full-Length Timed SAT II Spanish and SAT II Spanish with Listening Practice Tests, 160 Practice Problems (with on-the-spot feedback and explanations) and 70 additional Grammar Problems (also with explanations).

1. I need more coverage. We hear you loud and clear. We can help you ninja kick every section of the exams – 3 on SAT Spanish and 6 on Spanish with Listening. To keep them company, we’ve snuck in a grammar review with 15 categories to convert you into a grammar guru. Yep… some gurus do ninja kicks.

1. Flexing your mental muscles. We know, we know, life can get pretty crazy. We’ve designed our guides to be as flexible as you need them to be. Make your way through them at your own pace and at the times that work for you! And there is always a rewind button: you can retake any and all sections to mejorar your understanding and final scores. Don’t forget to also hit the record button, so you don’t forget all this stuff.

Shmoop SAT II Spanish and SAT II Spanish with Listening. Time to get the fiesta started (without letting it turn into a siesta).

For more scoop on Shmoop’s SAT II Spanish and SAT II Spanish with Listening exams, visit http://www.shmoop.com/sat-2-subject-tests/.

As seasoned (light garlic and onion) test takers who still have the occasional midnight encounter with the Ghosts of Standardized Tests Past,* we managed to fish some of our favorite strategies for surviving AP season out of the Shmoop Vault of Secrets.

1. Get some sleep. Yes we are actually insulting your intelligence here. Sorry. A ton of worthy test takers blow it by not taking sleep seriously. Get a little bit every night, the way actual people do.**
2. Eat real food. While eating your feelings in Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Mountain Dew might temporarily soothe the psychic pain of a marathon study session for AP Physics B, you’ll emerge from the first half of May a bloated, fluorescent wreck of your former self. Also, you only get so many bathroom breaks during the exam, and you don’t want to be distracted by the feeling of a full bladder.
3. Take a break. We know it’s tempting to Hulk out on last-minute prep as though you’ll be able to destroy those puny exams with nothing but your giant green fists, but even the Hulk takes a break once in a while. Go outside. Climb a tree.

Good luck with the next two weeks, Shmoopvengers. We’ll be with you every step of the way, like a friendly version of Big Brother.

Featured Shmoop: AP Exams

• AP Psychology
• AP Calculus AB & BC
• AP English Language
• AP English Literature
• AP Microeconomics
• AP Macroeconomics
• AP US History
• AP US Government
• AP Statistics
• AP European History
• AP Environmental Science
• AP Human Geography
• AP Physics B
• AP Art History
• AP World History
• AP Biology
• AP Spanish Literature
• AP Spanish Language
• AP Chemistry

Featured Shmoop: Apple Education Pricing

Looking to be ready for college with a new computer? Apple has your back. Get special student pricing before you graduate. And fast, free shipping.

Shmoop Shout Out: Teachers’ Day May 8, 2012

We love teachers. Sure, sometimes they assign “projects” and “homework” that can cut into video game and texting time, but every teacher has dedicated his or her life to educating and inspiring young people. There isn’t a career much nobler than that, and we here at Shmoop HQ appreciate all the hard work they do.***

Thanks again for being awesome! P.S. If you’re a teacher looking for more firepower in the classroom, we’ve got some awesome guides for you here. Reach out to us through support@shmoop.com this week, and we’ll give you 15% off any teacher resource you’d like.

Shmoop Shout Out 2.0: Avengers’ Box Office Smash

All of us at Shmoop have been waiting patiently for this day since the cast was announced at Comic-Con 2010. Do superheroes plus Joss Whedon equal best movie ever? You’ll have to make up your own mind, because there’s no way we’re spoiling you for this one.

However, if you’ve already been to a midnight showing or two, check out this article on the movie’s utter theatrical domination.

Birthday: Richard Feynman Born, May 11, 1918

If you’ve never heard of Richard Feynman—surely you’re joking!—it may be because he dealt with some of the more complex theories known to man. You know, like quantum electrodynamics (QED for short), the properties of superfluidity,**** and particle physics…just to name a few.

The talented Mr. Feynman was widely recognized for both his brilliance and his ability to explain things in a simple and approachable way. Ever wonder why a train stays on the tracks? Though he passed away in 1988, much of his work lives on in the world of physics. Happy birthday, Dick!

Shmoop Shout Out 3.0: Maurice Sendak

Did you think Where the Wild Things Are was just a 2009 indie movie? Well, guess again, because the story’s beautifully simple arc involving a boy who lives among the Wild Things was crafted by Maurice Sendak, a master of children’s lit. Maurice passed away this week, and the world lost the wonderfully rich imagination that gave us stories like In the Night Kitchen. We’ll miss you Mr. Sendak!

AP Exam Takers ASSSEMMMBLLLEEEE,
Shmor

*Along with the Ghost of the Improperly Distributed Burrito and the Ghosts of Sandwiches We Have Eaten and Loved.

**Artistic though they may be, hallucinatory ramblings rarely score top marks on the free response section.

***Including Mrs. Norton in 4th grade…even though that macaroni-and-construction-paper collage was totally worth an “A.”

****No, Mountain Dew isn’t a superfluid.

Shmoop, a publisher of digital curriculum and test prep, proudly announces the launch of the new Shmoop Careers section. You can use this guide to glean more information about career paths you may be considering, or to open your mind up to new avenues that perhaps you never knew existed. (Actuary? What in tarnation is that?)

For each career, Shmoop breaks down what you can expect if you decide to make it your livelihood. You’ll get a snapshot of what the gig entails, a glimpse into a typical day in the life, a run-down on salary, power, fame, glory, stress, qualifications and more. You will know so much about these careers you’ll feel as if you lived them. Especially “fire fighter.” It’s pretty intense.

Through Shmoop Careers, you will learn:

• Why being an air traffic controller is considered one of the most stressful careers you can have. Wonder if it has anything to do with those planes whizzing around and all of those lives you hold in your hands.
• Which career professional would use embalming fluid. No connection to lip balm. We hope.
• How landscapers attempt to recreate the Garden of Eden. Minus the naked people, evil serpents, visits from the Almighty and the multitude of animal species. So, really, just a regular garden.
• What your chances are of making it as an actor. When we say, “actor,” we mean someone who actually earns money from his or her craft. And when we say, “making it,” we mean going at least three months without being fired from a job at Olive Garden.
• How a plumber can make more money than most lawyers. Hint: It doesn’t involve panning for gold in a septic tank. You may find some treasures down there, but we can assure you that they will have very little pawn value.
• What exactly a meteorologist does. You want a career you can sink your teeth into? It doesn’t get any meteor than this.

More careers will be added each month, so take a gander at Shmoop Careers and check back often for updates! With our guide, we will help you live long and prosper. Mainly prosper, although the long life thing would be nice too.

Today officially marks the first day of May, which brings us things like flowers, seasonal allergies, and attempts to “make breakfast” for your mothers. Too bad about those “pancakes,” but it’s the thought that counts. Probably.

In case you forgot, May also happens to be AP month.

For those of you who have spent the last eight months prepping for the throwdown (which, of course, is all of you), we have Shmoop guides for almost every AP test you can think of. For those of you who managed to convince yourselves that the AP tests were just a terrible, terrible dream and haven’t cracked open a textbook since the end of March (sup, seniors)…well, the weather is making Shmoop HQ feel generous. You can use them too.

Featured Shmoop: Updated AP Exams

The AP exams are only a week and a half away. It’s time for you to brush up on all your favorite—and least favorite—subjects. Our guides are freshly updated for this AP season with new content and practice exams, so why wait? Here, we’ll even lay it out for you:

• AP Psychology
• AP Calculus AB & BC
• AP English Language
• AP English Literature
• AP Microeconomics
• AP Macroeconomics
• AP US History
• AP US Government
• AP Statistics
• AP European History
• AP Environmental Science
• AP Human Geography
• AP Physics B
• AP Art History
• AP World History
• AP Biology
• AP Spanish Literature
• AP Spanish Language
• AP Chemistry

Shmoop Shout Out: WTC Tall Again

Sometimes, it is especially awesome to be American. Here are a few examples:

1. Flat out OWNING (almost) everyone in the Olympics.
2. Floating down a river on the Fourth of July while simultaneously shooting off “legal” fireworks.
3. McDonald’s. Nuggets forever.

But this week, we have a more profound reason to be excited about America, and we’re going to get serious for a minute. One World Trade Center is now the tallest building on the New York skyline. It seems fitting that the anniversary of bin Laden’s death coincides with the rise of a new symbol of national unity. We salute you, America, and we haven’t forgotten the many we lost that day.

If you aren’t in New York proper, check out the new building here.

Featured Shmoop: Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s metaphorical trophy case already includes some of the most distinguished awards in the world, including the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the Nobel Prize in Literature, and now she’s adding another one to the list: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest awards a civilian can receive in the United States.* You’re going to need a bigger metaphorical shelf, Ms. Morrison.

To celebrate, check out our guides to some of Toni Morrison’s greatest hits:

• Song of Solomon
• Sula
• The Bluest Eye
• Coming Soon: Beloved

Birthday: James Brown Born May 3, 1933

We have to shout out the Godfather of Soul. James Brown was known not only for his awesome dancing abilities and stage presence, but also because he was a pioneer in the civil rights movement and an outspoken critic of racism in America.

He went so far as to release a signature tune, “Say it Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” in 1968—not necessarily the safest time to make such a claim. Pretty awesome, if you ask us.

Shmoop Shout Out 2.0: The Size of Things

If you’ve ever wondered how big a Tyrannosaurus rex is compared to a beach ball, or wanted to discover the relative size of parsecs and Oort clouds and weirdly named nebulae, we have the site for you.

Get ready for hours of endless fun! Okay, more like minutes, but we definitely recommend some high-speed scroll-zooming.

Good luck on those exams,
The Folks at Shmoop

*Also among this year’s honorees: Bob Dylan, Madeleine Albright, and John Glenn.