When you're done reading this post, why don't you go and check out www.gapminder.org. There's a funky web application there, "Gapminder World 2006", which allows you plot the development of various statistical indicators for a bunch of countries over a given time period.
If that doesn't sound all too interesting, well, there's not all that much I can do to persuade you with words. It's simply an attractive, easy to use graphical display of trends, and if you have even a slight interest in seeing how, say, the phone usage and fertility rate of India, Finland, the Philippines, Haiti, Yemen, and the Congo have changed over the past 30 years, then check it out.
In other statistics-related news, my National Accounting Professor brought in some German currency from the 1920's to demonstrate a point about the volatility of certain standards of measurement. I can now proudly say I've held over 33 billion (that's 33 million million) Mark in my hand. Of course, it wasn't worth all that much back then, but holding the originals in your hand is still a pretty cool experience.
We started off with a 100 Mark note from December, 1918
Then came a 1 Million Mark note from August, 1923
A (slightly blurry) 100 Million Mark note from October, 1923
And, from just before a new currency was issued, a cheque for 33 347 000 Million Mark, from December, 1923
Finally, I thought I'd share with you the statistic that 4% of the alchohol consumers in Germany make up 50% of the consumption. That was almost more impressive than the 33 Billion Mark.
If that doesn't sound all too interesting, well, there's not all that much I can do to persuade you with words. It's simply an attractive, easy to use graphical display of trends, and if you have even a slight interest in seeing how, say, the phone usage and fertility rate of India, Finland, the Philippines, Haiti, Yemen, and the Congo have changed over the past 30 years, then check it out.
In other statistics-related news, my National Accounting Professor brought in some German currency from the 1920's to demonstrate a point about the volatility of certain standards of measurement. I can now proudly say I've held over 33 billion (that's 33 million million) Mark in my hand. Of course, it wasn't worth all that much back then, but holding the originals in your hand is still a pretty cool experience.
We started off with a 100 Mark note from December, 1918
Then came a 1 Million Mark note from August, 1923
A (slightly blurry) 100 Million Mark note from October, 1923
And, from just before a new currency was issued, a cheque for 33 347 000 Million Mark, from December, 1923
Finally, I thought I'd share with you the statistic that 4% of the alchohol consumers in Germany make up 50% of the consumption. That was almost more impressive than the 33 Billion Mark.
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