Development Dots in Motion

As we recall from "Sesame Street," it can be very amusing to watch dots move around. Check out Gapminder, which describes itself as "a non-profit venture for development and provision of free software that visualise human development." The "Gapminder World" is a nifty tool that allows you to plot various development indicators (life expectancy, fertility, per capita income) for the countries of the world. Each country's data is represented as a dot proportional to its size, and - this is the cool part - you can set the graph in motion to see how things have progressed (or not progressed) over time. For a dramatic illustration of the AIDS epidemic, choose life expectancy as one of the variables, and follow Botswana's dot.