A Website of Much Coolness

Now this is quite cool, if I do say so myself (and I do, wholeheartedly). It's an archive of animated maps that illustrate the spread of concepts like "religion" and "democracy" via big blobs of color. I admit that that's a lousy description. But I implore you to check it out. Where else can you see 5,000 years of religious history in just a minute and a half?

One of my favorites is basically, "Who's Conquering the Middle East this Decade?" And when you see how many times the place has been sacked, looted, re-sacked and re-looted, you become a little more understanding about its dysfunction.