Once again, FOAF (that’s Friend of a Friend to the uninitiated) has come to the rescue with some incredible world maps.  These maps remind me of Edward Tufte’s book on The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index .

I’m sure that these maps are available somewhere on the Internet and, if you find out where, please give me the originator so I can credit that source.  In the meantime, enjoy the graphical descriptions.

This map shows the world divided into 7 sections (each with a distinct color) with each section containing 1 billion people.

More people live inside the circle than outside of it.

This map shows (in white) where 98 percent of Australia’s population lives.

This map shows what is on the other side of the world from where you are standing.  For the most part it will probably be water.

This map shows the countries (in blue) where people drive on the left side of the road.

This map shows countries (in white) that England has never invaded.  There are only 22 of them.

The line in this map shows all of the world’s Internet connections in 1969.

This map shows the countries that heavily restricted Internet access in 2013.

This map shows (in red) countries that were all Communist at one point in time.

This map shows (in red) the countries that don’t use the metric system.

This map shows (in green) all the landlocked countries of the world.

And this is what the world would look like if all the countries with coast lines sank.

This map shows the longest straight line you can sail.  It goes from Pakistan all the way to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia for a total of 20,000 miles.

This is a map of 19th century shipping lanes that outlines the continents.

This map shows the most photographed places in the world.

And this map shows all the places where you can get eaten by a Great White shark!