http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world/

The title might be a bit misleading, but some of the maps are pretty interesting...

Countries That Do Not Use the Metric System


(USA... )

The Most Common Surnames in Europe by Country


Global Internet Usage Based on Time of Day


Visualizing Global Population Density

(:shock: )

The Longest Straight Line You Can Sail on Earth
(Pakistan to Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia – 20000 miles)

(There's a video at the link showing this as an animation)

The World’s Busiest Air Routes in 2012

Amazing thread. Love it.

The paid maternity leave is pretty messed up.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Lost it at:

Earth ear it's
Very Lucky Soldiers
Moral-Land
Pull-Off Via
Meaning Big Profit

Was gonna include that one in the OP, but it would've seemed like USA-bashing when combined with the metric-system map.

That's pretty sweet, thanks for the link

That's awesome =d>

There are some really cool maps there. There's a map somewhere showing the most popular first names of countries across europe for each gender and I can't find it.

Cool maps are cool.

Interesting, my last name is Smith and I have a lot of family from Norfolk.

Popovic :D

Zeynep. I shouldn't laugh but...

The Map of Tassie is the key map I focus on! :)

England is Yīngguó Yīng means flower petal or Hero so it should either be Flowerpetalland or Heroland

Australia is ohh continent

Edited by fourfiveone: 3/10/2013 11:35:08 PM

Thanks Petsk

Can't say I'm surprised about the most common first name in Italy being Francesco :lol: At my school last year we had 5 Italian exchange students, all called Francesco :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

This is so cool!

Cost of living index. I loved living in Ukraine.

That has fxxxed with my head for years. I have no idea why everyone isn't on the metric system, and no idea why any country drives on the left

Why wouldn't there be countries driving on the left.What made left or right the correct side??
Britain made it law in 1756
France made being on the right a law 36 years later
The USA were originally on the left and only went to the right in the 1800's after they took over Spanish and French areas

Having driven extensively on both, I still prefer the left!!

Edited by girtXc: 7/10/2013 10:29:22 AM

Driving on the left means that most people have their dominant side in control of the most important parts of the car (the steering wheel, the accelerator and the brake). It also means most people's dominant eye is at a better angle to view the road.

You done good, petskz, nice link.

Mostly because of access to cheap cars, including used cars, from Japan.

The only country to have changed sides in recent years, Samoa, did so for this reason.

All tropical cyclones between 1985 and 2005

Hi-res http://i.imgur.com/sEoVStQ.jpg

wow

Being that most people are right handed, it means that majority of the time you've got your dominant hand on the steering wheel instead of using it to change gears.

The convention comes from medieval days when it was dictated that people should remain in the best position possible to defend oneself, so with most people being right handed that meant keeping left in order to have one's sword between one's self and any oncoming traffic. A Papal Edict in the 14th century formalised the convention informing pilgrims to 'keep left'.

[youtube]duAl2v3mhyY[/youtube]

[youtube]MiGdFnlzBdo[/youtube]

=d>

Napolean just wanted to be different and of course the yanks were always going to go opposite to the UK

Napoleon used the opposite reasoning, that the serfs didn't need to defend themselves so they should travel on the right in order to clear the way for the nobles.