It was interesting to see so many articles on Hugo Chavez, and I'm curious...

Do you think this is because Chavez was prominently in the news due to the election (and his notorious status in relation to the US means he's a topic that news sites figure will interest readers)? Or are there other factors at work also -- we're an oil/energy state so students at OU would be naturally interested in this aspect of Latin America? Or he's an internationally-known figure because of his notoriety, so he has a bit of a familiar story that you can plug into because of some background knowledge? We have a lot of exchange students with Venezuela (because of the oil ties?) and you have some personal knowledge?

and he did win that 4th term....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19867445 . Anyone particularly interested in a sci/tech angle here for further exploration would be that of "petro-diplomacy"...

Large-scale study that demonstrates that indigenous Amazonian villagers can record professional level scientific data: "After all the data verification was done, the researchers found that on average, the indigenous technicians were every bit as able to systematically record accurate data as trained scientists.  They were also probably better than scientists at detecting animals and their signs." It's amazing what possibilities exist when you change your framework of "how things are" and explore alternatives....what if professionals and the laity had been working together for the last 100 years on recording environmental data? [info on link from hsci grad student James Burnes]

Rosling is a global public health expert, and is passionate about how statistical data should inform our understanding of global regions, individual nations in comparison with each other, and he challenges the possibly erroneous conventional wisdom about differences between "first world" and "third world" nations in terms of social markers that exist. This item is also useful background for understanding the foundational aspects of any area of the globe, and it also points you to relevant data sources.

This animated data software is available at http://www.gapminder.org/ It could make a great format for your final project in lieu of a more conventional paper -- something to think about?