One of the best perks of blogging here is all the free stuff people send me. Like, today, for instance, I opened my mail and found one of the more attractive books I’ve ever laid eyes on. It’s by David McCandless and it’s called The Visual Miscellaneum, a Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia. (Right up our alley, eh?) McCandless is a London-based writer and graphic designer who thinks the best way to absorb information is by mapping facts in colorful and cool/quirky ways. So you’ve got things here like a consensus cloud called Books Everyone Should Read (happy to see Catch-22 is the largest/darkest in the cloud), and a “Better Than Bacon” chart, which shows the faces of a series of actors who are way better connectors for the game SDoKB than Bacon himself.
In the spirit of the book, though, a picture is worth a thousand words. So here’s a few examples I really loved.
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Huh, they forgot Islam on the ideology chart. Just sayin’.
posted by El Zarcho on 11-11-2009 at 8:34 pm
They forgot Christianity, Hinduism, Buddism, Judaism too. Crazy.
posted by Chill out on 11-12-2009 at 1:46 am
Actually, Christianity IS there. Way to react.
posted by Jim on 11-12-2009 at 9:43 am
Looks like the symbols are based on size. Maybe you just can’t see the Buddha because the Buddhists haven’t killed enough people.
posted by Um on 11-12-2009 at 1:59 pm
Love it…
posted by Rachel O. on 11-12-2009 at 5:12 pm
My quintessential hangover cure, and the only one that seems to work for me, is 20mg of B12 and a couple capsules of Milk Thistle.
The B12 bumps of red blood cell production, moving more oxygen through your bloodstream and the Milk Thistle cleanses the liver.
Take one dose with lots of water before bed and another dose in the morning as necessary.
Beware of taking this pre-drinking – you will consume MUCH more alcohol and wonder why you’re not feeling the effects!
posted by tdotdaver on 11-13-2009 at 2:00 pm
wheres the wake up juice in Back To The Future trilogy
posted by brian on 8-23-2010 at 1:51 am
California= joint of that green sticky sticky (ultimate hangover remedy)
posted by mr.rm on 8-28-2010 at 2:49 am
Maybe they didn’t put the deaths attributed to Islam because it wouldn’t come close to the three up there. Even if they included the 21st century, it would still only be a few pixels big. Just sayin’.
posted by Kate on 9-14-2010 at 1:06 am
Also, this chart is showing deaths only in the 20th Century. Islam has only recently joined the Killer’s club. I can’t help but wonder how that ideology comparison would look if this included 14th – 20th Century. That means Christianity would have under it’s belt The Crusades (1.5 million), The Spanish Inquisition(135k), and the American Holocaust (estimated to be over 100 million Native American under at least 6 nations!) to name a few. That would make Christianity responsible for more mass murder, including torture (Inquisition), biological warfare (smallpox infested blood being poured into Native American wells), and infanticide (same)than any other single ideology in the history of the human race. Islam? Islam is such a peaceful ideology it’s taken them 2000 years to even join the game of the Christians.
posted by Ryan on 9-15-2010 at 3:28 pm
Oh yeah! Our tripe soup is genius!! I will recommend it to anyone if they’re hungover. Better than any other remedy.
posted by Evil1 on 9-16-2010 at 2:04 pm
Murder – 144m? Ha ha.
posted by reborn on 10-5-2010 at 3:52 pm
Ryan,
Read “In Defense of Faith” by David Brog to counter some of you misrepresentations of the Christian influence.
posted by Jazmine on 10-11-2010 at 1:33 pm
Those are some pretty accurate statistics, Jazmine. Maybe it’s you that needs to open your eyes.
posted by derp on 10-13-2010 at 5:05 am
B12 is needed to make hemoglobin, but taking it once after drinking would not be enough to prompt your body to make more RBCs. Not only that, but RBCs have NOTHING to do with feeling hungover. A bottle of gatorade would do much more good than a B12 pill.
posted by Alison on 10-19-2010 at 9:37 pm
I won’t get into the religion stuff because its pointless and everyone is way to effing sensitive about it… but for hangovers here’s what works best for me:
Drink a crapton of whatever you want.
Before bed, take two Excedrin with a full glass of water.
In the morning, wake up and feel A-OK
posted by Evil Creamsicle on 11-6-2010 at 10:47 am
Wow, if you’re going to lay all of that at the feet of the Christians, I guess you’d better put Operation Desert Storm and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on the list, since the Bushes are Christian and that must have influenced the US going to war against Islam-faith countries. Better check WW I and II as well for the underlying Christian agenda as well. Blaming Christianity when nationalism, politics and human greed, not the religion, is to blame is inflammatory and foolish. Those who blame the Crusades (politically-inspired and greed-driven) on Christianity are as wrong-minded as those who blame suicide-bombing on Islam, further.
posted by Shinobi on 11-6-2010 at 11:11 am
The content is great, what is even more interesting is the debate as to which religion did the worst. Here is something to think about, average life span for humans thanks to science has increased from 25 to 75yrs(Penicillin) and now we have scientist who are tinkering around with the genes which could give additional years.
We all live in comfort not as a result of religion but because of the blood and sweat of people who gave a damn about what is more important “Well being of others” . There is room for tolerance patience and innovation. Are we still going to crib about something most of us are born into or choose. Have faith IN YOURSELF AND HUMANITY.
posted by Potluck6009 on 11-9-2010 at 10:00 pm
My prefered hangover-cure after years of barwork and the assocciated heavy drinking has to be; 1/2pint cola, 1pint water, 1pint larger or ale.
cola for sugars
water for… well, water.
and the larger/ale to kill the hangover and start all over again.
p.s. for anyone who doesn’t know, ale is the flat beer we brits drink, larger is the fizzy stuff from europe (budwiser is a recipy from central europe and has been brewed there since around 1200ad)
posted by Duncan on 3-24-2011 at 10:59 pm