Explore urban dynamics with LuminoCity3D

If you didn't have internet connection during 2014, you might have missed some of the  buzz around LuminoCity 3D (more info here). This is probably the best interactive tool for visualizing and exploring the 2011 Census data of the UK*. 

It brings data from a wide range of topics. For example, it makes  it possible to visualize urban growth, analyze household energy use or compare living and working densities in cities across England and Wales, etc.

LuminoCity 3D is a project by Duncan A.Smith (CASA/UCL), who also runs the great blog 'City Geographics'. obs. It is such a great project that I fill a bit embarrassed that I'm only posting about it now.

Workplace Employment Density, 2011

[click on the image to enlarge it]

[image credit: Duncan Smith]

Journey-to-work flows

[image credit: Duncan Smith]

* DataShine is a similarly great project, by Oliver O’Brien (CASA/UCL). 

Journeys to Work in the UK

James Cheshire and Oliver O’Brien alert us that the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the Travel to Work Flows based on the 2011 census. James and Oliver have also developed a nice interactive map you can "play" with: Commute.DataShine. Rob Fry also calls attention to another great interactive visualization here, by ONS.

[image credit: James Cheshire and Oliver O’Brien]

off-topic: The truth behind British politeness

Being a Brazilian living in the UK, I am often surprised at how polite the British people can sound. The point is that I'm still struggling to read their real message between the lines.

The Telegraph have published something that might help: a translation table explaining the truth behind British politeness (ht Flavia Marreiro). Here are some of my favorites:

What the British say	What Foreigners understand	What the British mean
With the greatest respect	He is listening to me	You are an idiot
That's not bad	That's poor	That's good
Quite good	Quite good	A bit disappointing
I would suggest	Think about the idea, but do what you like	Do it or be prepared to justify yourself
Very interesting	They are impressed	That is clearly nonsense
I almost agree	He's not far from agreement	I don't agree at all
I only have a few minor comments	He has found a few typos	Please rewrite completely

And to be honest, we also have the Brazilian way of expressing ourselves: what Brazilians mean when they say


ps. image credit: LLKC at weheartit.com

Assorted Links

1. 180 Current trends in inequality in Britain and Worldwide
   
   
2. Forget the Placebo Effect: It’s the ‘Care Effect’ That Matters (via Patricia Morita)
   
   
3. New Head of UN Population Division
   
   
4. Dangers of artificial intelligence: Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity
   
   
5. Lectureships in Human Geography – University of Bristol
   
   
6. Top 5 city destroyers of all time - of course Godzilla couldn't be out of this list!
   
   
7. Don’t come to Britain posters (via MR)
   
   
8. Jerven on Measuring African Poverty and Progress
   
   
9. The effect of Air Pollution Control on Life Expectancy in the United States
   
   
10. Rainfall Deficit as a predictor of U.S.-Bound Migration from Rural Mexico
    
    
11. Does Human Capital Tend to Cluster in Center Cities or the Suburbs?

[Image Credit: Michelle Hopgood]

Assorted Links on Migration

1. Brazil as Immigration Destination (via Brandon Fuller)
   
   
2. The Global Brain Trade
   
   
3. Two CASA Working Papers on modelling human migration (here and here)
   
   
4. Migration and the resilience and vulnerability of place
   
   
5. New journal Migration and Development
   
   
6. Which developing countries received the most remittances in 2012?
   
   
7. Immigration and the Housing Problem in Britain (lecture)
   
   
8. Winners and losers in the battle for immigrant talent (via Population Econ)
   
   
9. How well-educated are your immigrants?

Immigration policy in the UK

The British government is hardening immigration laws, specially for students and skilled immigrants. Why is it a bad idea?

• The government’s policy on students and skilled migrants threatens to do long-term damage to my PhD plans! the economy
  
  
• Shutting out foreign brains is a good way to piss me off foster mediocrity

London in figures and Fertility Crisis

The Economist's daily chart addressing London's demographic trends.*


* By the way, they have also published this article talking about the relation between recession and fertility in  Europe. Yes, economic uncertainty can be quite bad for fertility.

2011 Census results in England and Wales

Nice article by The Guardian covering the new Census results in England and Wales.

And here is an animation with 100-years-changes in population pyramids, 1911-2011.

3 weeks in London

I have been now for almost three weeks in London. Here is what I have learned so far.

• Everybody is always in a hurry, especially in the metro stations (poor elderly people).
• The underground system (aka "Tube") is really impressive although it could be better...

• Every time you ride an escalator here in London, people who are just standing/riding stay to the right side to ensure a clear lane for others. Its' the same in Tokyo and other civilized overcrowded cities. 

• There's no such thing as a “queue” though.

• It's all pretty much well organized and signalized (I have taken the wrong train only once.. ok, twice).
• Here is an excellent travel time map of the Tube 

• The street markets are great, and the main streets are overcrowded.
• I already have my tickets to this presentation!
• One could spend hours and hours listing good and bad things about this amazing metropolis. I prefer to go to sleep. Tomorrow I'll make a visit to Cambridge.

By the way, here is the New Simplified Map of London.

Assorted Links

1. History of urbanism in the 20th century in 10 videos
2. When was the real baby boom (via Alan Smith)
3. happy birthday, Karl Marx
4. The Twitter Languages of London
5. Game Theory - Split Or Stealy via MR
6. Very rich report by iihs on Urban India 2011 (via Urbanomics)
7. São Paulo in 1943 (via Leo and Drunkeynesian)

Out for vacation!

Dear readers, I will be out of office for about five weeks with restricted access to emails. So I scheduled a few posts to run in the meantime. ok?

Soundtrack:

Guess where I am going?

Assorted Links

1. Extra babies on Valentine’s Day, fewer on Halloween?
2. Lewis Mumford and the City (via World Streets)
3. The Story behind ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’
4. Spatial Econometrics World Conference 2012 (via Leo)
5. The Religious Affiliation of International Migrants (via weekspopulation)
6. How the Web is Being Used Through the Generations
7. An animated map of Auckland's public transport network (by Chris McDowall David Levinson)

An animated map of Auckland's public transport network from Chris McDowall on Vimeo.

Assorted Links

1. Get Ready for the 1940 Census!
   
2. Top five most common regrets of the dying
   
3. Uncovering the World's First Cities
   
4. The Age of Uncertainty (HT Bruno Cruz)
   
5. 10 key datasets to understand the British economy
   
6. Brazil's pension system:
   
   
   Bernardo L. Queiroz says: "It’s a puzzle. The unions are against changes. But without them, the workers they represent are paying for other people to get much more generous pensions than they will ever get themselves.” - what political scientists would have to say about this ?

     7.  Helsinki Public Transport Visualized (via Edward Lee)

“We thought we had it nailed”

Alasdair Rae has posted a short analysis of  'Small Area Population Change in London, 2001 to 2010'. He mapped the results using ONS mid-year population estimates for small areas.

But we all know how these kind of demographic forecasts for small areas can become tricky sometimes.

When it came to plan Plan education or health care in London “We thought we had it nailed” says Baljit Bains (head of the Greater London Authority’s demography unit).

[Image Credit: under the raedar]

soundtrack: Metropolitan Jazz Affair

Assorted Links

1. The economics of skyscrapers
   
   
2. Mapping Scientific Collaboration, inspired by the Facebook worldwide friendships mapped which in turn was supplemented by 'Filling in the black holes of the Facebook friendship map')
   
   
3. Picasso’s Light Paint (1949)
   
   
4. The Power of Comparison: Just How Big Is It? Try the BBC tool.
   
   
5. Compare crime rates in different England cities
   
   
6. More than 27 million online house hunters each month use the real estate search site Trulia. And they show you where people have been searching for homes in the USA since 2007.

Soundtrack: Retrato para iaia

Interactive content from ONS (UK)

We have already posted here some interactive content from The Office for National Statistics - ONS (UK Statistics Authority) - the interactive population pyramids of the United Kingdom.

Now you can look out for more interactive content from ONS here. You'll find animated maps of life expectancy, fertility, mortality, etc. (via @worldmapper RT @theboysmithy)

I'm more interested in this kind of data: Commuter journeys inside Greater London, 2001

[image credit: ONS]

Assorted links

• Interactive population pyramids of the United Kingdom (1971 - 2083)
• Demography and Growth: how demographics help predict financial crises (interesting post by Andrew Gelman)
  
  
• Some beautiful metro stations here, here and, of course, here
  
  
• GIS data of Thailand and of Ecuador (by Dr. Marc Souris)
  
  
• NBA demographics