From Radar O’Reilly:

Another couple of webcasts from our hero, Prof. Hans Rosling of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Gapminder (acquired, inevitably, by Google.)

In the first webcast, Rosling using his Trendalyzer visualization tool to describe economic and social change in Sweden over the past three hundred years. If he doesn’t convince you to wash your hands, no one will.

Recently, both the United Nations and OECD (announcment here) have committed to opening up their statistical databases free of charge. In his second webcast, Rosling points out, all of the country-level statistical data — in the whole world, ever — is a smaller download than “Lord of the Rings.”

As before, both are well worth watching, not only for the content of what you learn, but how Rosling delivers the message; it’s a miracle of data visualization and a heartening message about the possibilities of the future.

(Previous post about Rosling here.)