1) While on the run from US agents, drug baron Pablo Escobar once kept warm by literally burning through $2 million in one night. Ahh the warm embrace of burning drug money.  (Link)

2) The last surviving copy of one of the first maps depicting America is slowly disintegrating. Turns out “America” was just an inside joke of the authors – it just stuck. (Link)

3) A new 100-feet-tall statue of a young Chairman Mao has startled more than a few conservative Chinese by showing the communist hero with long flowing hair. Was Mao the reincarnation of Beethoven? (Link)

4) After the Second World War, decades of oppressive communist rule and a recent civil war, Albania has been left with a countryside of “concrete mushrooms”. These 750,000 military bunkers are now being examined to…build condos? (Link)

ON THIS DAY IN 1922: Howard Carter discovers the unopened tomb of Tutankhamun, an unimportant pharaoh that has taught us more about ancient Egypt than the last 200 years of archaeology. This site shows you original documents and recordings of Carter and his team describing the find. (Link)

AND AS FOR THE LIGHTER SIDE: Cracked.com’s “6 Historic Villains You Didn’t Know Had Incredible Careers” – You shoot one little president and no one remembers how good an actor you were. (Link)

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