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Tribute to Hans Rosling
Jun. 14th, 2009 01:34 pmNo he's not dead.
Hans Rosling started the website gapminder.org which is actually surprisingly fun. (Basically it lets you play with statistics without having to actually do statistics (bloody fake math) I made this one, (when you get there hit play) it doesn't say much in terms of patterns, it just points out something interesting in 2006)
Interesting you say? you want to find out more? Probably not, but you should anyway. Hans Rosling gave two TED Talks, using this software to point out trends and debunk myths in the developing world. (two TEDtalks, seriously!)
One in 2006: two points about this one, most importantly when he splits up the sub-Saharan Africa to show where each individual country fits on the graph. I'm especially grateful for this because I get kind of annoyed when people get into their heads Africa = bad. It's a diverse continent people, the colourful bouncy graphs prove it. Also, take a look at the specific countries he uses in the quiz at the begining. I don't know if he did it on purpose, but when he asks the students to choose between two countries, one of the countries is one which has much more of a "third world" reputation. Scewing the results of the quiz a bit, or pointing out prejudices? hmmm...
Second is from 2007 when he revisits some of his points from before and then speaks for a bit on development. I like how he stresses research and speaking with people in developing countries. He mentions briefly that the best ideas come from speaking to people and asking them what they need to bring themselves out of poverty, which is great considering that, as an idea, it's a bit of a side-track from the rest of the talk, but it's also an idea that cannot be stressed enough and should be continually pointed out.
*Note* I apologize for the ramble-yness of this post, I've been reading blogs all day... :P
Hans Rosling started the website gapminder.org which is actually surprisingly fun. (Basically it lets you play with statistics without having to actually do statistics (bloody fake math) I made this one, (when you get there hit play) it doesn't say much in terms of patterns, it just points out something interesting in 2006)
Interesting you say? you want to find out more? Probably not, but you should anyway. Hans Rosling gave two TED Talks, using this software to point out trends and debunk myths in the developing world. (two TEDtalks, seriously!)
One in 2006: two points about this one, most importantly when he splits up the sub-Saharan Africa to show where each individual country fits on the graph. I'm especially grateful for this because I get kind of annoyed when people get into their heads Africa = bad. It's a diverse continent people, the colourful bouncy graphs prove it. Also, take a look at the specific countries he uses in the quiz at the begining. I don't know if he did it on purpose, but when he asks the students to choose between two countries, one of the countries is one which has much more of a "third world" reputation. Scewing the results of the quiz a bit, or pointing out prejudices? hmmm...
Second is from 2007 when he revisits some of his points from before and then speaks for a bit on development. I like how he stresses research and speaking with people in developing countries. He mentions briefly that the best ideas come from speaking to people and asking them what they need to bring themselves out of poverty, which is great considering that, as an idea, it's a bit of a side-track from the rest of the talk, but it's also an idea that cannot be stressed enough and should be continually pointed out.
*Note* I apologize for the ramble-yness of this post, I've been reading blogs all day... :P
