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An incredible map designed by Rafaan Anvari, William Samari and Ray Yamartino highlights what (almost) every country is famous (or infamous) for.
Planet Earth can be beautiful and humbling (see this) but it can also be funny, quirky or downright silly.
Rafaan Anvari, William Samari and Ray Yamartino decided it might be a great idea to highlight what almost every country is best known for.
The colourful world map lists out things that various countries 'excel' in. Made with tongue firmly in cheek the map lists out facts that are sometimes funny and at other times grim.
For instance, according to the map, Andorra leads the world in 'reading' because it leads the list of countries by literacy rate according to the Wikipedia page while Niger's fertility rates are off the charts.
The map also points out that Americans are great at winning Nobel prizes (as well as 'falling off beds and chairs' and 'getting killed by lawnmowers') and North Korea is a world leader in censorship.
Here are ten of the most interesting things that countries in the world are best known for.
We start with Antarctica which according to the map 'leads the world in emperor penguins'.
The tallest and heaviest of all penguin species, the Emperor Penguin is native to endemic to Antarctica. Amongst birds it breeds in the coldest environment even where temperatures may reach as low as -40 degrees Celsius.
The archipelago nation of Indonesia makes it to the map for the number of its volcanoes. Comprising about 17,508 islands Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and has 150 active volcanoes at the very least.
You may have thought it was India but it isn't. The tiny nation of Papua New Guinea is the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the world and ranks number one on the Linguistic Diversity Index (or LDI). India ranks nine.
In spite of its name, Bolivia remains the largest exporter of Brazil nuts. According to Wikipedia, of the 20,000 tons of Brazil nuts that are harvested each year, Bolivia accounts for about 50 per cent, Brazil comes second at 40 per cent and Peru third at 10.
Besides being used in food, Brazil nut oil has varied uses. It is also used to make artists' paints, in the cosmetics industry and also as a lubricant in clocks.
Chileans, according to the map, are best known for 'staying married'. With a 0.1 per cent crude divorce rate (the number of divorces per 1,000 population) Chile has the most successful marriages in the world.
Russia leads the world in raspberries and nuclear weapons.
India's oldest defence ally leads the list of countries with nuclear weapons (according to Wikipedia, it owns 12,000 of 22,600 nuclear weapons in the world) as well as production of raspberry (26 per cent of the world's production), which is very reassuring indeed.
For the number baseball movies Americans make, they come a distant second in the medal tally of the now discontinued Baseball World Cup. The country that tops the list is Cuba, with 25 golds, four silvers and two bronze. US boasts of just four golds, seven silvers and four bronze.
Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries for its oil production. With almost one-fifth of the world's oil reserves, the middle-eastern country also maintains the world's largest oil production capacity. According to the US Energy Information Administration's website, Saudi Arabia produced a little over 11,725,000 barrels in 2012.
Closer home, Bangladesh holds the unique distinction of being the country that has sent maximum number of peacekeepers to United Nations operations based.
According to the UN report for 2013 Bangladesh has 8,781 of its troops serving the United Nations. Pakistan comes second with 8,216 and India third with 7840.
We wrap up this list with India that has the distinction of being the largest producer of movies in the world. According to Wikipedia in 2009 alone, we had produced 2,961 films that included 1,288 feature films. The Indian film industry that completed 100 years is also the second largest in terms of revenue.