Digital records of life-space

In Germany, Malte Spitz asked his cell phone carrier what it knew about him. After some unanswered requests and a lawsuit , he received 35,830 lines of code -- a detailed account of six months of his life. You can watch the video below and 'browse' through it here.

The little concern I'd have about our digital traces being used for totalitarian purposes gets somewhat overshadowed by the overwhelming number of studies it opens.

Modelling Cities from 1977

A Old Movie About Modelling Cities from 1977 from Michael Batty on Vimeo.

I thank Joao Meirelles for the pointer.

A Old Movie About Modelling Cities from 1977 from Michael Batty on Vimeo.

Assorted Links

1. Car use is peaking in the rich world and exploding in China
   
   
2. Confirmation Bias and the iPhone 5
   
   
3. The fractals at the heart of African designs
   
   
4. Interactive timeline of migration in and out of the UK 1964-2010 (via Alan Smith)
   
   
5. The gap between the nominal and official number of urban residents is large enough to fit the entire population of Brazil  (via Tyler Cowen)
   
   
6. Honduran charter cities in troubled muddy waters (here and here)
   
   
7. Dubai: City on the Move

DUBAI - city on the move from geoff tompkinson on Vimeo.

Counting the World: documentary by UNFPA

Counting the World is a not so new documentary produced by UNFPA. The film documents the many stages of the census process in five different countries: Chad, Bolivia, Indonesia, Belarus and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  (via John Weeks)

4-minute trailer (or 21-minute version)

Replay: What exactly is a Ph.D.?

Here is a very precise explanation (by Professor Matt Might) in a graphic way.
obs. This post is a replay from a 2010 post.

Land Regulation in Brazilian Cities

It is somewhat difficult to find academic studies about Brazilian cities published in English. So here are some interesting papers I would recommend on Land Regulations in Brazilian Cities.

1. Avila (2006) Urban Land Use Regulations in Brazilian Cities - Impacts on Urban Land Markets and Access of Low Income People to Land and Housing. This chapter starts only at page 216, buthe book as a whole is highly recommended!
   
   
2. Lall; Wang; da Mata (2006) Do Urban Land Regulations Influence Slum Formation? Evidence from Brazilian Cities (I saw this paper on Richard K. Green's blog)
   
   
3. Smith; Raemaekers (1998) Land use pattern and transport in Curitiba
   
   
4. Dowall; Monkkonen (2007) Consequences of the Plano Piloto: The Urban Development and Land Markets of Brasília (you may access the working paper version here)

If you have any other suggestions, let us know with a comment !

off-topic: Art with maps

Artist: Matthew Cusick (via)

‘mylan’s wave’

[Click on the image to enlarge it]

‘girl from the amazon’

[Click on the image to enlarge it]

Shrinking life expectancies in the USA

The average life expectancy of least-educated whites in the U.S. is shrinking. (via MR and GS)

[image credit: NYT]

"The reasons for the decline remain unclear, but researchers offered possible explanations, including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites, higher rates of smoking among less educated white women, rising obesity, and a steady increase in the number of the least educated Americans who lack health insurance."

In case you want to read the published paper.

off-topic: Recommended film

The Intouchables. Great movie!

The home-ownership debate

The Economist Magazine has published a new 'Economist debate'. Should home-ownership be discouraged? (via Richard Green)

Green and Glaeser put the trade-off between market failure costs and public intervention costs in a very straightforward way. Very good food for thought! although I believe the market failures in the Brazilian housing sector (slums, informal markets, urban infrastructure deficit etc.) are quite different from those in the USA.

Anyway, perhaps the Brazilian Government should consider Glaeser's statements and rethink its housing policy.

• Related link: is there a real estate bubble in the Brazil?