Unemployment Map

A simple but effective GIS to show current trends in unemployment can be found here at the BBC. Look closely and you can see how the details change over time. You can even zoom in to see our home region.

Can you process this data further, maybe to produce a table of employment changes by local areas over the past 5 years? This could even be transformed into a graph.

Trade and Development

A handy way to study various trade patterns is to visit the international trade statistics web site, here. The nice thing about the site is that it will produce maps for you. Just explore and see for yourself. In particular, look at a commodity such as any of the aluminium products (76...) and compare the countries who export these goods with the countries who export and provide the raw materials (2606). Alternatively look at the countries who supply (export) the raw materials for chocolate and the countries who import the beans for processing and making the bars of chocolate.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2010

This year's Fairtrade Fortnight is all about THE BIG SWAP.

So why not get involved by clicking on this link.