Saturday, December 31, 2011

Friday, December 30, 2011

Borderless Economics

Another book added to my cart on Amazon: Borderless Economics (written by Robert Guest, The Economist’s Business Editor).

Among other things, the book tackles brain drain and global poverty, how migration fosters innovation and cultural syncretism and how it is infecting China with ideas that will eventually turn it democratic.

You may find the author talking about the book here (a 15 minute Interview).


By the way, there is another book on migration that might interest you (available for free download.): The State of Environmental Migration (SEM) 2010. It's a co-publishing by IDDRI and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), edited by François Gemenne, Pauline Brücker and Joshua Glasser. I thank Ojima for the tip!

soundtrack: Crave You ft. Giselle

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Secret Life of Chaos (BBC)

BBC came up with this documentary on Chaos theory. Very interesting if you are into fractals, complexity theory or if you want to understand the simple mathematics behind Nature and Society.

(more short previews herehere)

2012 Call for papers (so far)


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Economist house-price indicators and the Chinese housing bubble

The Economist Magazine updated its house-price indicators.They say that the bursting of the global housing bubble is only halfway through

Krugman and Wendell Cox have a few words suggesting why we shouldn't be so optimistic about the Chinese real estate market.


soundtrack: Caetano

Dencity

We have already seen some interesting population density maps around here. Fathom Information Design came up with this project Dencity that uses circles of various size and hue*. (via Nathan Yau)



*We have already posted another project by the Fathom Information Design called All Streets. This might interest space syntax specialists.

soundtrack: Moby

Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas gift

My Christmas gift for the UD readers!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Old Traffic Congestion Problem

Does this picture look familiarLondon, 1965.


(Source: Heinz Zinram at London Transport Museum via infosthetics)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Exceptional Space - book recommendation

I would like to reccomend a book for those Space Syntax enthusiasts: Exceptional Space by Prof. Frederico Holanda (this is the English edition of his doctoral thesis, supervised by Professor Bill Hillier). I have read the portuguese version and it is a terrifc book for urban planners, geographers or sociologists with focus on the spatial dimension of human relations.

Record inequality between rich and poor

new OECD report "Divided We Stand". The full report with truckloads of data, tables and graphs here.

Fertility Transition in Brazil

Mapping the Timing, Pace, and Scale of the Fertility Transition in Brazil - a recent paper by Potter, Cavenaghi and others published at PDR.

It's a very interesting paper even if you are not into fertility studies. And you can have some fun with their data and maps !

Figure7 - Bayesian estimates of the duration of fertility transition (t90–t10)
Source: Potter et al , 2010.

soundtrack: you wish

Monday, December 12, 2011

Cities and Climate Change (Article Collection)


Routledge has just published on its website the 'Cities and Climate Change Article Collection'.

They have put together more than 60 articles, both FREE and recommended further reading, across a range of subjects, including

transport and the environment
adaptable cities
sustainable urban housing, green building design
pollution and the city
regional environmental planning

soundtrack: Find my baby

Friday, December 9, 2011

Message of the Day

(via tudo ao mesmo tempo agora  ! I really like this blog!)


I can't take this song out of my head:

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Prata da Casa: Climate change in Brazil


new book! Jorge Hargrave and other colleagues at Ipea launched the book Climate Change in Brazil: economic, social and regulatory aspects at the 'Durban Climate Change Conference 2011'.










Urban Picture: Weird Traffic System

Just a fast post today: 
Brasília's Weird Traffic System
(via 9gag)

soundtrack: Ray

Monday, December 5, 2011

Housing Finance Policy and Segregation



This would be a very nice hypothesis to be tested for the Brazilian case. Brazil had a huge housing finance policy from the 60's to the 80's with the National Housing Bank (BNH). Since 2009 the Federal Government has been carrying out a very big social housing program called Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life). I think this is a good idea to consider if you are a PhD candidate in Brazil.

Friday, December 2, 2011

off-topic: Venice backstage

Here is a bit of Venice's history and how it works. Strongly recommended if you're planning a trip to Venice (via the great Open Culture).


Venice Backstage. How does Venice work? from Insula spa on Vimeo.

Enjoy your weekend!

soundtrack: Laranja

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Brazilian Census 2010: a few more results

IBGE released a few more results of the 2010 Brazilian Census.


soundtrack: Embraceable You