• Free to good home.
• Excellent guard dog.
• Owner cannot afford to feed him anymore, as there are no more thieves, murderers or molesters left in the neighborhood for him to eat.
• Most of them knew him as 'Holy Shit.'

Here's something I found absolutely fascinating. It's a method of mapping the world based on statistics using cartograms. According to Worldmapper, the cartograms are akin to pie charts, except the slices of the pie are shaped into countries.

"I think that looking at a map rather than just the raw data allows you to see the whole picture and makes for easier comparison between the different datasets," Worldmapper's John Pritchard said in an email."

What I found most interesting were the death maps. Here are some of them:

Death by suicide.

Death by volcano.

Death by War.

Death by AIDS.

Death by accidental poisoning.

Death by avalanches and landslides.

Death by disaster.

Death by diarrhoea.

Death by depression.

Death by drought.

Death by drug use.

Death by earthquakes.

Death by extreme temperatures.

Death by fires.

Death by flood.

Death by murder.

Death by glaucoma!
Say what?
Glaucoma? Is that possible? Really?

And on a more positive note - here is the "Lived to be 100 Map."

all images © Copyright 2006 SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan)

Here's a selection of Instantaneous Invigorators & Cures of the 1900's. Those were the good old days when heroin and cocaine was sold over the counter for whatever ails you. Don't believe me? Check this out!!


It's a Bottle of Bayer's heroin!! Wow! Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive (???) substitute for morphine. It was also used to treat children with a strong cough.


Coca Wine, anyone? Metcalf's Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market. Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.


Mariani wine was the most famous Coca wine around 1875. Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time. He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.


Maltine with your Coca? Produced by Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York. It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal, but children should take half a glass.


A paper weight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne (Mannheim, Germany). They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.


Opium for Asthma. It was considered safe since it contained no more than 40% alcohol!


Cocaine Tablets! All stage actors, singers teachers and preachers had to have them in the 1900's for a maximum performance. Great to “smooth” the voice.


Cocaine Toothache Drops. Very popular for children in 1885. Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children happy...


Opium for Newborns! This would make them sleep well, and was great for soothing a teething baby. Opium with 46% alcohol - Really? No wonder they were called The Good Old Days!

These are absolutely amazing!
I wonder how they taste...