Conservatives love to claim that abortion is at the root of every problem in the country. High divorce rates? Abortion! Decline of moral standards? Abortion! The success of Glee? Definitely abortion. But a detailed analysis of abortion rates across the U.S. blows that theory out of the (holy) water. Read… 6/11/12 4:50pm 6/11/12 4:50pm

American Antiquarian's latest exhibit "Beauty, Virtue, & Vice: Images of Women in Nineteenth-Century American Prints" features this map called "The Open Country of a Woman's Heart" by D. W. Kellogg. Though the art is supposedly "By A Lady," I'd suspect it was actually created by a lovelorn and cynical man. Read… 11/17/11 6:45pm 11/17/11 6:45pm

Slacktory brings us this map of each state's top Netflix rentals. It's funny how many states coincide with movies about them — Braving Alaska, Montana Sky, The Oh In Ohio, The Alamo — so why is Maine's #1 choice is My Own Private Idaho? Oh, and Mississippi — Beverly Hills Chihuahua? You should ashamed of yourself. Read… 7/12/11 9:15pm 7/12/11 9:15pm

Here's a neat visualization of the many, many judgements we pass off onto each other, courtesy of Christoph Neimann for the New York Times Magazine. I'll admit to being guilty of a few of the Manhattan-centric neighborhood stereotypes. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, I guess. Read… 7/08/11 3:12pm 7/08/11 3:12pm

The above is a map Peter Trachtenberg created of his cats' movements around his home, using a Google Earth projection and a template of kitty paw-prints. The result kind of looks like a treasure map, if the treasure were a piece of lint, or the shadow of a cockroach, or an imaginary jaguar, or whatever else cats are… Read… 7/06/11 3:55pm 7/06/11 3:55pm

Washington, D.C. has by far the highest per-capita rate of in vitro fertilization, followed by other parts of the Northeast. This and other fascinating facts come from an infographic compiled by Fertility Nation, drawing on CDC and census data. (Click to enlarge). Read… 6/13/11 6:25pm 6/13/11 6:25pm

Just what we needed! A guide to finding the biggest dicks. Size queens, book your tickets to Congo and Ecuador. Check out a larger (heh) version here. Discuss… 3/21/11 7:20pm 3/21/11 7:20pm

Which cities and states are the most profane? Daniel Huffman decided to find out for himself, and to share the results in convenient heat-map form. And it looks like the Southeast needs to wash its mouth out with soap. Read… 1/31/11 4:20pm 1/31/11 4:20pm

Some of these aren't actually embarrassing (the worst thing about Ohio is its high number of library visits?), but it'll be nice to have this on hand the next time one state gets uppity about its education rankings. Explanations here. Discuss… 1/24/11 5:57pm 1/24/11 5:57pm

The man formerly known as Kelso is on the February cover of Men's Fitness (wearing a shirt) and in an exclusive interview, he hints that he is preparing for the imminent and horrifying apocalypse that should hit any day now. Read… 12/29/10 11:10am 12/29/10 11:10am

The Trust For America's Health released a report detailing obesity rates in each state (at left). It's interesting how closely it resembles a poverty map. The beer map? That's another story. [Sociological Images, US News & World Report, Buzzfeed] Discuss… 7/02/09 2:20pm 7/02/09 2:20pm

That's India over in the West and France and Spain in the East, which means that the Philippines and Indonesia are right off the coast of Portugal. This has been bugging us. Click to enlarge. Discuss… 12/15/08 10:40am 12/15/08 10:40am

Strange Maps has discovered the blond map of Europe created by Eupedia.com: it illustrates which countries have the greatest percentage of fair-haired citizens. Not surprisingly, the "core area" of blonds is born around the Baltic Sea, and people get progressively less blond the further away from that core. If you're… Discuss… 12/06/07 3:45pm 12/06/07 3:45pm