fascinating resource: Google Gapminder

Google Gapminder is a very cool way of making data about the world we live in more accessible and easily visualized.  It is so freakin' cool & easy.

Here's an example of the kinds of things you can do with it. (click on the X or Y axis to change what each represents, you can also change each axis from linear to logarithmic scale)  MY GRAPH: www.bit.ly/cbe3Bf-- hit "Full screen" in the upper-right of the graph area, then Play in the lower-left.  That graph's the income per person plotted against the life expectancy at birth, which as you'd expect, ends up showing a direct correlation such that as income rises, so does life expectancy-- access to better health care.  It has -=all kinds=- of nifty features: click on one or several bubbles (or choose the country names from the list on the right) to select them.  Once you've selected at least one (note the "Deselect all" in the lower-right), A) there's an opacity slider for the non-selected countries in the lower right to make your selected ones easier to follow, and B) a "Trails" checkbox that shows each bubble's path as you play the animation you made.  Also in the lower-right in the Size: box is the way to set which indicator controls the size of the bubbles-- you can even click and drag both sides of the gray bubble to set scale.

That's just my one quick graph I made-- make sure you watch "How to use" above my graph (a two-and-a-half minute video), and make your own goodies.  Click on either axis to just see how many possible indicators you can choose from.  Once you've got a cool graph, click Share at the top and send it to me please.

And if you think they're just making up the numbers, you can click on the Data tab at the top to SEE the raw data and where they got it from.  This is a very neat way to understand the world.