Dancing Data

This has got to be the most creative presentation of stats on world poverty and health I've seen. Watch for the changes from 1960 to the present. Great way to capture the imagination, and communicate a message.



Had he simply produced sheets of paper with figures on, he wouldn't have got a standing ovation. The way you present the message is vital to how you get it across. The conclusion of the talk is all about this: how do you link data to design, so that the message can be heard. We need to see things as well as hear them.

Original vid and a sizeable online discussion here.

World Fat Map

This is a redrawn global map based on food consumption. It's not quite as bad as the one below, based on military spending, though the top bloaters are pretty much the same suspects.

Shallowfrozenwater explains more.

"In 2006, the World Food Program produced, but never publicly released, a map charting food consumption. Dubbed the “Fat Map,” it shows where the world’s calories go. Nations grow or shrink based on how much the average person eats. Depending on your perspective, it maps starvation or overeating.

The mis-distribution of food goes deeper than even the “Fat Map” implies. In India, for example, more than 300 million overweight people coexist with another 300 million who starve. Chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease that often stem from overeating are growing at a far faster rate in developing countries than in the more prosperous West.

I take it everyone is ok with this?

Azerbaijan: Free and Fair Elections?

Guest post today from Jazz, who was an observer at the Azeri elections this summer.

In between preparing my cat for his performance at the Wiltshire cat show and rearranging my CD collection autobiographically (High Fidelity, anyone?) I went to Georgia and Azerbaijan for a couple of weeks. You've never lived if you haven't been to Georgia. If, however, you've been to Azerbaijan and escaped, I will be holding therapy sessions next week during the lunch hour.

When I arrived in Tbilisi from Baku, the Azeri consular took my passport. "We'll hang on to this", he said. "How much does it cost to get it back?" I asked."It depends...maybe twenty, maybe a hundred dollars."

They kept my passport for 4 days. It cost me $135.

Feeling cheated that I'd not at least obtained some free chocolates out of the deal, I headed back to Baku to observe the national elections there. National elections are kind of like great Shakespeare plays: they're either reflections of real life or simply nothing but theatre. If this is the case, Azerbaijan makes a wonderful stage.

I started my day at half 3 in the morning and ended past midnight. Who knew observing polling stations could be so exhausting! I turned to my Azeri interpreter and asked what he thought."Well...the turnout will likely be above 95% in favour of the ruling party, but without you here maybe it would have been closer to 100%." Free and fair elections! I asked him if a cat could ever be considered fit for presidency (mine is rather clever) but he just shrugged.

Azerbaijan had some wonderful people, and I was privileged to go, passport being revoked or not. But the thing that set me straight wasn't the corruption or the hundreds of miles of nothing but oil fields. It was the willingness of so many people to give up. After so many years of illiberalism, after so many years of territorial warfare (with Armenia), even after giving up so much of their economy to the West, there were Azeris I spoke with everywhere resigned to their fate.

For some of you, this will give you cause to be thankful of where you live. Others may feel empathetic toward the Azeris. However you feel, let it be a lesson to us. "Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force, never yield to the apparent overwhelming might of the enemy"- Winston Churchill

Jazz is a community worker in Yeovil. This article was dropped from Yeovil College newsletter for being too long, but I liked it and thought it deserved an audience.

The Worldometer

can be found here. Literally up to the minute info about the world - how many people were born today, how many died today, how much CO2 we churned out, very eye-opening.

Initially found it through a v nice site with lots of prayer ideas: http://www.youthideas.co.uk/yw/blog/labels/Prayer.html don't let the 'youth' put you off, there are plenty of creative prayer exercises that could be done with all ages.

Whilst I'm on the subject http://www.crusaders.org.uk/praycreate.html has more creative prayer ideas, and links to good resource sites on the web.

http://www.prayerrequests.co.uk/CreativeArchive1.html is even better, some of the classic creative prayer methods (e.g. using the fingers as a cue for prayer), and more aimed at an all-age audience. They add a new creative prayer idea every week, which is quite handy.