Academic sins

This is probably the most common sin committed by academicians. Let me emphasize it: "Impenetrable Fog"! (I saw it at Drunkeynesian).

Soundtrack: Samba a dois

Huge Chinese internal migration

The Economist magazine has posted a very nice video on Chinese internal migration: The largest migration in history.

"Migration over huge distances will remain a striking feature of China’s labour market for years to come. [...] But recent changes in migration patterns [...] reflect China’s evolving economy and its ageing population. Even deep in the interior, the days of an abundant and apparently endless supply of cheap, young labour are over."

I keep trying to identify some similarities to the Brazilian case (here and here). A first moment with rapid and spatially concentrated urbanization/industrialization driving long-distance migration -  predominantly rural-to-urban migration patterns (1920s to 1990s). I would say China is now going under a similar process.

A second moment with: highly urbanized country, relative geographic dispersion of economic activities (although still highly concentrated ), a consolidated urban system with short-distance migration -  predominantly urban-to-urban migration patterns (1990s onwards).  I wonder if (and when) China will start to follow the same trajectory.....

We already have famous 'Laws of Migration' and a not so famous (international) migration transition theory. There must be somewhere a similar theory about internal migration ... If anyone knows more about it, please let us know!

Polycentric project for Moscow

The City Hall of Moscow has approved extending the city's borders to the south-west by 2014. According to the plan, the city territory will more than double. It seems they are seriously considering a more polycentric orientation (via Peter Gordon).

It is a curious remedy since Moscow is not highly monocentric when compared to other cities.

Time Lapse + Tilt Shift + Rio's carnaval

If you like either Rio de Janeiro, Tilt shift footage, Carnival or Timelapse videos, this is a must watch!

[via Viral Video]

Simulations from the Early Days

Michel Batty has gathered some really interesting Early Animations of Urban Models.

One of these videos shows Jack Dangermond (co-founder of Esri) and Allan Schmidt* talking about the 'Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis'. (more videos on GIS history here.)

*Allan Schmidt was responsible for what is probably the earliest "movie" of urban expansion. A SYMAP time lapse movie depicting growth of Lansing, MI 1850-1965.

 If you are unpatient to see it, skip to 3:17 or just click here. 

AfriPop Project

AfriPop: demography aims to produce detailed and freely-available population distribution maps for the whole of Africa . It provides "detailed gridded spatial population datasets showing age composition by 5-year groupings and gender." (via devcondata). 

obs. I have just added this project to our Online Databases List, on the right of this page.

Population Density

[image credit: AfriPop]

Soundtrack: Fela

Carnival Break !

[Image Credit: Tudo ao mesmo tempo agora]

A few Links on Labor Force and Labor Market

1. A note on changing dependency ratios and migration
   
   
2. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its new employment projections through 2020. (via TAC) more here
   
   
3. Unemployment rates in the US analyzed by students’ major field of study in college (via New Geography)
   
   
4. 2008 financial crisis and the different labour market reactions across OECD countries to the latest  (via LSE)
   
   
5. The Geography of Immigrant Skills: Educational Profiles of US Metropolitan Areas
   
   
6. ILO annual report: Global Employment Trends

Urban Picture

Brasília from above (Beautiful microchip appearance. It is not really functional though ...)

[Image Credit: emBrasília]

soundtrack: Ray

The servant "problem" in Brazil

Gaping income inequalities; limited education for the masses; a long tradition of domestic service: Brazil at the turn of the 21st century bore striking similarities to 1880s Britain. But in the past decade Brazil’s professional classes have burgeoned and a lower-middle class—25m new consumers—has sprung into being. Most Brazilian children now go to secondary school and the country’s north-east, long its poorest region, has become its fastest-growing

[...]

In the past four years the workforce in São Paulo’s metropolitan area rose by 11% and average wages by 8%. But the number of domestics fell by 4%—and their wages rose by 21%.

[...]

Britain has passed through the servant problem that Brazil is now experiencing. So what can Britain tell Brazil of life on the other side? That service does not die, but is reborn in a different form.

So, basically, it is not a problem. People with more education are an important part of what makes a developed country. And it implies more expensive labour force. (via LMonasterio)

[image credit: The Economist]

Amsterdam's Frozen Canals

This is the kind of event that happens only once in a lifetime.  Beautiful urban scene.

(via Viral Video)

obs. If you are more of a night person, you might prefer this one.

The Naked City public lecture

Renowned sociologist Sharon Zukin discussed her latest book at LSE "The Naked City: the death and life of authentic urban places"

Looking for a taxi in Manhattan

Another good tip if you are looking for a taxi in Manhattan (ht Bernardo Furtado)


Taxi! from Juan Francisco Saldarriaga on Vimeo.

Urban Picture

The city as an egg by Cedric Price (via per square mile)

Assorted Links

1. How many people live near nuclear power plants ?
   
   
2. Online Courses at Lincoln Institute
   
   
3. Household Formation and Unemployment in the USA (via MR)
   
   
4. David Lynch’s Surreal Commercials. Let me emphasize "Surreal"!
   
   
5. Some notes on new immigration trends in Canada
   
   
6. How Manufacturing Industries Connect Cities across the World: Extending Research on 'Multiple Globalizations' (paper)
   
   
7. outdoor air pollution in cities - a World Health Organization Database

Soundtrack: Além do que se vê

Birth rate plummets in Brazil

A good article by The Washington Post on Brazil's Fertility Decline (via Ricardo Ojima)

excerpt: "The country’s fertility rate has fallen from 6.15 children per woman in 1960 to less than 1.9 today. That is a lower rate than in any other Latin American country except Cuba, which has state-sponsored family planning and legalized abortion. It is also lower than the rate for the United States, which at 2 per woman is just enough for the population to replace itself."

When I was a kid, people used to joke saying that some poor families would have more children because they didn't have television at home. Apparently some take this argument fairly seriously !

Image Credit: The Washington Post

Soundtrack: Tulipa Ruiz e Criolo

Visualizing Migration III

Even Westvang did this amazing short animation showing the patterns of 300.000 Norwegians moving house. He did it by cross-referencing 8 million tax records from 2006 and 2007 to track changes in postal codes.

This kind of dataset is rarely available for other countries (via information aesthetics). In Norway it is made public every year!* 

Deluge from even westvang on Vimeo.

*obs. Now you might be thinking "....mmm. I should have used Norway data in my PhD. Dammit"

!Related posts!

Why some city streets are more crowded than others

The Economist Magazine has written two interesting articles on 'Crowd Dynamics' over the last two months (here and here). Very informative about the contribution of space syntax to urban planning.

By the way, some presentations from SSS8 are now available (HT Valerio Medeiros)

[image credit: The Economist]

Too much

R mapping

It is possible to make some very cool maps in R !
  dammit !  I'm too lazy to learn it 

[Image credit: Spatial Analysis]

Soundtrack: Chet

Assorted Links

1. Dubai from above (Some say nothing lasts forever... I would say Dubai won't last for long)
   
   
2. Cenarios for the Chinese Urbanization by mckinsey  (via Manu Fernández)
   
   
3. Convenient page of data sources from the Washington Post (via Gelman)
   
   
4. The future as seen from the past (that was close!)
   
   
5. An Animated Argument For Congestion Pricing by Lewis Lehe (via  David Levinson)
   
   
6. How Long Do Marriages Last?
   

• PhD Summer School on 'Theoretical and Methodological Approaches in Migration Studies' (organised by GRITIM-UPF) via RC21
  
  
• Lectureship in Planning and Real Estate at UCL
  
  
• Institute for Transport Studies (ITS/Leeds) is offering three full-fees scholarships for Masters study - 2012/13

Chart Of The Day

Note that Brazil had experienced one of the fastest urbanization rates in the world during the second half of the 20th century. More here.

Source: The  Economist

Soundtrack: Mistério do Planeta