Worth consideration as the basis for a Free course. I have long maintained that we should teach statistics through sports such as soccer/football, cricket, and baseball, where well over a century of record-keeping exists. Those not interested in sports could use chess or go, with much longer histories.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bill Daul <bd...@nextnow.net> Date: Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 04:39 Subject: [NextNow] Fwd: Hans Rosling's The Joy of Stats: 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes (BBCFour) To: Bill Daul <bd...@nextnow.net>, Me The Owner <bd...@pacbell.net>, Brinda DALAL <brinda_da...@yahoo.com>, Bonnie - Tony DEVARCO <tdeva...@sgi.com>, Bonnie DEVARCO <deva...@cruzio.com>, Katy Borner <k...@indiana.edu> This whole BBC series looks amazing and WORTH watching. See the link at the bottom of this note for info on the series, The Joy of Stats. Watch the 4 minute clip at the link below "watch at". The substance is very impressive and so is the visualization. --bill Begin forwarded message: From: stuart silverstone <s...@graphics.org> Date: December 4, 2010 7:17:01 PM PST To: <visuald...@graphics.org> Subject: Hans Rosling's The Joy of Stats: 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes (BBCFour) Hans Rosling's famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport's commentator's style to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done before - using augmented reality animation. In this spectacular section of 'The Joy of Stats' he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, Hans shows how the world we live in is radically different from the world most of us imagine. watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo&feature=player_embedded Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power thay have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend. Rosling is a man who revels in the glorious nerdiness of statistics, and here he entertainingly explores their history, how they work mathematically and how they can be used in today's computer age to see the world as it really is, not just as we imagine it to be. Rosling's lectures use huge quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes. The film also explores cutting-edge examples of statistics in action today. In San Francisco, a new app mashes up police department data with the city's street map to show what crime is being reported street by street, house by house, in near real-time. Every citizen can use it and the hidden patterns of their city are starkly revealed. Meanwhile, at Google HQ the machine translation project tries to translate between 57 languages, using lots of statistics and no linguists. Despite its light and witty touch, the film nonetheless has a serious message - without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is. What's more, Hans concludes, we can now collect and analyse such huge quantities of data and at such speeds that scientific method itself seems to be changing. More about this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wgq0l -- Bill Daul Chief Collaboration Officer NextNow Collaboratory: a synergistic web of relationships focused on transforming the present http://www.human-landscaping.com/nextnow http://www.nextnow.net -- NN Network Blog http://www.nextnow.org -- NN Collaboratory Blog ================================== "Play with boundaries, not within." -- Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination. http://www.earthtreasury.org/ _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep