This will hurt me...

There is one pastime that is making extreme headway into our present lives - for both Henry and Ezra - that is, of course, puzzles . Here Henry reconstructs Africa for us, mired deep in the Congo Basism trying to sort out the difference between São Tomé and Príncipe and Gabon . Dare I say it, but our Henry already has a firmer grasp on geography than 98% of adult Australians!

As the site itself says, the World Freedom Atlas is a "geovisualisation tool for world statistics" that covers the years 1990 to 2006. It draws from most of the major academic literature that measures and ranks various 'freedoms' (political, social, legal and so on), and really does give an idea of where a state sits in the context of various freedoms visually. If - like me - you dig stats, maps and the innovative use of technology to bring stats and maps alive, take a look. The World Freedon Atlas can be found here .