# 200 Countries in 200 Years - A Fascinating Presentation **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771 "2011-01-07T19:06:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/1 "2011-01-07T19:06:52Z")
This presentation shows how the countries of the world have evolved over the past 200 years. Pretty cool. [link](http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/watch-200-years-of-history-in-5-minutes) mmm ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/2 "2011-01-07T19:24:25Z")
\*\*200 Countries in 200 Years - A Fascinating Presentation \*\* I was going to do 200 countries in 200 years, but the travel agent laughed at me. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/3 "2011-01-07T19:36:32Z")
That is a really great link **mmm.** The world just keeps getting better and more interesting as we learn more about it. I wish I could play with those graphs myself and see what some of the outliers represent; I could see some interesting things going on as he spoke, but couldn’t tell what they represented. It was really interesting to see how things like war and natural disaster could have a dramatic effect on health, while things like the Great Depression moves everything right (poorer) but didn’t affect lifespan as much. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/4 "2011-01-07T20:23:48Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*\*200 Countries in 200 Years - A Fascinating Presentation \*\* > > I was going to do 200 countries in 200 years, but the travel agent laughed at me. If it’s 2027, it must be Morocco ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/5 "2011-01-07T21:44:09Z")
All of Hans Roslings [TED talks](http://www.ted.com/speakers/hans_rosling.html) are fascinating. If you want to have your own fun, it’s possible to make this kind of presentation on Google docs, and there is tons of [World Bank data](http://data.worldbank.org/) to work with. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/6 "2011-01-07T21:50:55Z")
To make these charts on Google Docs, put your data in a spreadsheet and then choose “insert” and “gadget.” It may take some tweaking to get it to do what you want, but it’s not too difficult. If you find the World Bank data interface too obnoxious, just goggle "_your subject_ data set…there are tons of data sets out there to work with, and a lot of them can be found in Excel format. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/7 "2011-01-13T06:37:14Z")
That is an awesome display of data visualization. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/200-countries-in-200-years-a-fascinating-presentation/566771/8 "2011-01-13T07:19:47Z")
I was going to link to Roslings RED-talks, which are more elaborate versions of this with more details. But **even sven** beat me to it, and showed me Roslings had even more talks then the one I knew about. I’m going to be watching them shortly; they are both interesting AND uplifting. I grew up with the idea that Third World countries were perpetually poor and miserable, (and that was [del]my[/del] our fault) and this nuances that powerfully. Did anyone else see the sudden dips of China in the graph? Must have been Chairmans Mao’s induced famines and the Cultural revolution. Dramatic.