Gapminder video

Hey everyone,
Great discussion today. As always there was a lot more we could have talked about, both in terms of the scientific perspectives involved and the implications of the arguments in the papers. As the semester wraps up, spend some time thinking about what this class is all about and how you might apply what we've learned to your own interests. What were the main points, implications? We ended up going over sustainability some and how to manage human economies. But lets not forget about the macroscopic viewpoint and the mechanistic approach to understanding underlying rules that govern some of the complexity of human systems. Keep in mind that claims of absolute human uniqueness are abundant in many fields of study, yet in many cases human systems seem to exhibit behaviors that are extensions of other natural systems (but not always). Some of you will focus more on the applied aspects of the work we've covered and some on the macroecology of scaling, complexity, and life history we've gone over. Hopefully these themes come together and we are all simultaneously more responsible broad thinking scientists and students-at-large.
But this is all a digression that leads to the video below. I realize that many of you may not have spent a lot of time on the links I posted the other day. I really recommend visiting the gapminder site. Its informative and plays on a lot of themes that we've covered. I'm posting one particular speech by Hans Rosling but I could have chosen any of a number on his website. This one is particularly entertaining and information filled - and has some messages toward the applied end of big picture thinking. This speech is a bit long so set aside a few minutes (and I wouldn't try to watch it on a slow connection). Also note that all of the graphical stuff he does at the beginning of the talk is part of the interactive software on the website so you can all play with it.
Have a good break,
O