Tim Harford: ...that facts matter... Hans was passionate about .... facts ...particularly the good news stories that go unreported anderson (ted): ....he could realise what people had to know ...he made himself so available to people ...if you wanted the perfect wise uncle that would be hans rosling tim harford: passion for busting myths about the world hr: unicef stupidly labels south korea singapore kuwait developing ... i think a lot of people have... harford: many people have a sense of hopelessness about africa hr: it's not that i see it differently it is that it is different harford: i think we were both slack jawed in the presence of greatness this person is really important everything he said changed my view about the world you made several programmes with him he said is germany not developing [MB: er, I have thought the same thing about "developing/developed countries"] his ignorance test has the proportion of world population extreme poverty doubled same or halved over last 20 years... it has halved ra: "thats excellent" hr: fertility rates missed by media missed by mighty bbc i talked with the top experts at davos ...38 percent got it right with the poverty ra: "He was fighting what he called the ‘post-fact era‘ of global health." BBC World Service - More or Less, Hans Rosling - the Extraordinary Life of a Statistical Guru http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sbvlt "His Gapminder co-founders said that they would continue to fight for "his dream of a fact-based worldview"." Hans Rosling: Data visionary and educator dies aged 68 - BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38900572 ........... "Mr Rosling presented Don't Panic: The Truth About Population on BBC2 in 2013, which included a demonstration of how British university graduates would be outperformed by chimpanzees in a test of knowledge about developing countries. He enjoyed debunking myths about the changing world, including fears of massive overpopulation due to decreasing child mortality. "I've watched people have this 'aha' moment when Hans speaks," Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation told the journal Nature last year. "He breaks these myths in such a gentle way. I adore him." Gapminder was set up to provide a view of the world different to that which most people would imagine from reading news headlines, its website says. Facts, Mr Rosling believed, could correct "global ignorance" about the reality of the world, which "has never been less bad"." Hans Rosling: Data visionary and educator dies aged 68 - BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38900572 ............ "the number of people in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank, has fallen from two billion in 1980 to just over one billion today. Though many people in the world still live on a very low income, six out of seven billion are now out of extreme poverty and this is a critical change. " Viewpoint: Five ways the world is doing better than you think - BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24835822