Understanding Statistics Through Games

The previous post deals with visualizing world statistics through animated, interactive graphs. This post is about making world statistics more meaningful through educational simulations. Incidentally, the creators of Real Lives are called Educational Simulations. This game helps kids understand how people in other countries live by immersing them in a life sim that is based on available statistics and letting them make difficult life decisions. A free evaluation version is available.

The rest of this post includes a screenshot of the game and a sample "real life," up to age 18, with a few minor life events cut out.

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0 years old
I was born a boy in a village in China's Hubei Province, not far from the city of Yichang. My parents have named me Chiang-hui. My surname is Chu. My mother, Tan-hung, is 22 and my father, Pei, is 25. I have a brother, Hsi-chuen, who is 1.

1 year old
Growth stunted from inadequate protein. My brother Hsi-chuen has suffered an epileptic seizure.

6 years old
Began school.

9 years old
A famine or food shortage has hit China. 517 people have died and 20,000,000 others have been affected. My family and I were not directly affected.

18 years old
I have hookworm. An earthquake has hit my area. Earthquake victim. Graduated from secondary school. Met a new girl I like very much, named Liao Pao-Pao. Rejected by Liao Pao-Pao. Need to look for a job. Began work as a policeman. Moved away from home. Inducted into the military. Failed the college entrance examinations. Not accepted in vocational school.

Related blog entries: The Next 4 Billion?, Visualizing Statistics Through Gapminder

Visualizing Statistics Through Gapminder

Some people are trained or born with the ability to visualize statistical relationships inside their heads. For those who are not so lucky, this tool looks to be a big help. Gapminder is a Swedish foundation that began with an idea to enhance our understanding of world health. In the process, it developed visualization software like the Trendalyzer, which was recently acquired by Google. Go ahead, try it out, or watch this video below to see the Trendalyzer and other Gapminder software like Dollar Street in action.



Update: TED talk by Gapminder co-founder Hans Rosling



Related blog entries: Understanding Statistics Through Games, Visualizing Information With Microsoft DigiDesk, The Next 4 Billion?

Where's My Change?

The Dalai Lama is visiting UN Headquarters in New York City. At lunchtime, he goes up to a hot dog vendor, points to a veggie dog, and says:

"Make me one with everything."

The Dalai Lama then gives the vendor a twenty dollar bill. After a minute, the vendor has still not given him his change, so he asks, "Where's my change?" To which the vendor replies:

"Change must come from within."

:)

Change Your Mind, Change Your Brain

This is an hour-long video about authentic happiness and true riches. The speaker is Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk who has lived and studied in the Himalayas for the past 35 years.

He assures us that we can still raise our happiness baseline significantly by meditating just 30 minutes a day -- you know, for those of us who cannot simply drop everything to become hermits. :)


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1424079446171087119&q=user%3A%22Google+engEDU%22&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

Tina's "two hands" are finally typing

[最近 捷運車廂告訴我的"真理" 你說有沒有理?]

只有五分鐘，就這五分鐘，
為了不讓週遭的人以為我對他人圖謀不軌，看捷運車廂內的廣告成了我的新樂子。

不知怎麼，最近跟捷運的「兩隻黑貓」特別有緣。前天晚上看到WH，腦海裏浮現「兩隻長的手」。有了下面的自問自答。

真理:{兩隻長的手，古人說好命}?

evidence一：有蚊子的時候，手長的WH可以先打到蚊子。
evidence二：晚上大腿痠的時候，躺著靠自己也按得到膝蓋上方的部分。(這是T本人手短最羨慕他的事)
evidence三：T的背部按摩，W躺著也可以按得到。(這是T好命還是W好命?)
evidence四：(正在收集中....)

雖然例證仍不足，但古人說手長好命，所言十之八九。

The Next 4 Billion?

"Four billion low-income people, a majority of the world’s population, constitute the base of the economic pyramid. New empirical measures of their behavior as consumers and their aggregate purchasing power suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy." (Hammond et al, The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid, 2007)

"One of the most significant obstacles blocking native economic 'progress' was the ability of the natives to find satisfactions at relatively low and stable consumption levels... Outsiders quickly realised that if tribal peoples could somehow be made to reject the material satisfactions provided by their own cultures and if they could be successfully urged to desire more and more industrial goods, they would become far more willing participants in the cash economy." (Bodley, Victims of Progress, 1982)

Food for thought.

怕螢幕被別人偷看嗎？

今天有個朋友傳來了一張我去年看過的照片，很明顯地已經被轉寄了很多次。信中提到這是由倫敦Royal College of Art的學生設計的防偷看電腦衣：

其實，設計這款衣服的Joe Malia曾經解釋說，這跟隱私無關，而是在探討如何讓過度沉迷於電腦的人能夠更加意識到自己的情況，而這件衣服只是三個物件中的一個。不過許多人已經將他的構想與隱私畫上等號，誤解了他當初的用意。

我們是否也常常這樣，還沒了解事情的來龍去脈就斷下結論呢？

New Blog!

We haven't updated our other blogs in quite a while, but that doesn't deter us from starting a new one. :) We hope to write more often this time and include more photos and videos about our new life back in Taiwan.

Maple Watching in Spring

Tina and I went to Yangmingshan today with my folks. The maple leaves were a gorgeous red.


Tina took this photo of a maple tree by a creek.


We looked up and saw a bright red canopy.


Here's a close-up.


Some leaves are beginning to turn green.


Last of the cherry blossoms this spring.

Everybody Loves Sun Yat-Sen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id9YOKeP0BM

'Twas a sunny day in Taipei

Not a single cloud in the sky

I paid homage to the "great"

And found tourists piled up high! :)