Assorted links

1. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded for locating brain’s GPS (via Anastasios Noulas)
   
   
2. Japan's Shinkansen bullet train marks 50th anniversary
   
   
3. AC/DC + Bee Gees mashup
   
   
4. 3 PostDoc positions at the Center for Metropolitan Studies in Sao Paulo (USP/Brazil)
   
   
5. Historical Slang Terms For Having Sex since 1351
   
   
6. Confronting Urban Planning & Design with Complexity: round table with M. Weinstock, M. Batty & Gert de Roo
   
   
7. The 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Shortlist
   
   
8. Germany removes University Fees

[image credit:? ]

Monitoring Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Space

NASA's recently launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite is capable of detecting the enhanced levels of carbon dioxide over the world's largest cities and is beginning to study LA in coordination with the Megacities team.

This part of a larger project by NASA to develop robust methods for assessing carbon emissions in the world’s largest cities, including Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Paris. Click here to read more about the Megacities Carbon Project.

[image credit: Megacities Carbon Project]

São Paulo from above (and its parking reform)

If you're interested in parking policies and urban planning, check this post by Paul Barter on the parking reform that is going on in São Paulo.

Even if you're not interested in this topic, I'm sure you'll like this picture (which I saw in Paul's post).

Greater São Paulo from above

[image credit: NASA/Paolo Nespoli]

Soundtrack for the weekend:

Brazilian Elections

Big day for Brazil tomorrow with the elections. It's hard to say we don't have a solid democracy.

How to make your pie chart less terrible

The team at Darkhorse Analytics have already shared a nice tip for how to make tables less terrible. Now it is time to 'improve' your pie charts!

Urban Picture

Located in Siberia, Norilsk is the world's northernmost city with a population of more than 100,000, and it's not just one of the coldest cities of the world—it's also one of the filthiest. Nickel ore smelting has transformed the landscape into one of the ten most polluted places on Earth.

Norilsk (Russia)

[image credit? ]

More pictures of this wonderful place here.

Average Commute Time Worldwide

This chart was taken from this study here. In general, commute times are relatively long in Brazilian metropolitan areas, especially when their wealth/population size is taken into account.

Obs.1: If you know of data sources (preferably household surveys) with commute time information for other metropolitan areas across the globe, I would to receive a message from you.

Obs.2: If you spot a name in the chart you've never heard of, it's probably a Brazilian metropolitan area.  

[image credit: Pereira and Schwanen, 2013]

Related Link:

• Parking Rates Worldwide
• Wendell Cox recently wrote a post about the 10 cities with the worst traffic in the world, according to the Tom Tom Traffic Index.  

The Timing of Urbanization: a global analysis

Motamed, M.J. et al. (2014) Agriculture, transportation and the timing of urbanization: Global analysis at the grid cell level. Journal of Economic Growth, v.19,issue 3. 

(thanks Leo Monasterio for the tip) 

Abstract:

This paper addresses the timing of a location’s historical transition from rural to urban activity. We test whether urbanization occurs sooner in places with higher agricultural potential and comparatively lower transport costs, using worldwide data that divide the earth’s surface at half-degree intervals into 62,290 cells. From an independent estimate of each cell’s rural and urban population history over the last 2,000 years, we identify the date at which each cell achieves various thresholds of urbanization. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across countries through fixed effects and using a variety of spatial econometric techniques, we find a robust association between earlier urbanization and agro-climatic suitability for cultivation, having seasonal frosts, better access to the ocean or navigable rivers, and lower elevation. These geographic correlations become smaller in magnitude as urbanization proceeds, and there is some variation in the effects across continents. Aggregating cells into countries, we show that an earlier urbanization date is associated with higher per capita income today.

Related Links:

• Global forecasts of urban expansion
• 200 years of Urban Expansion
• Urban Growth Trajectories

Solving a problem as a PhD student

[Credit: Kostas Siozios ht Franzie]

I started my PhD almost one year ago. I think this is going better than I expected in many ways, although quite often I feel like this.

Assorted Links

1. The Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning at the MIT found a great way to visualize their faculty members
   
   
2. Suprise in an Abandoned Bangkok Shopping Mall
   
   
3. You will thank me for this: How much underwear to bring on a trip
   
   
4. Prisons Are Facing Aging Populations, Too
   
   
5. Call for Papers: New Directions in Geospatial Simulation
   
   
6. Diver-less Cars With Adjustable Ethics Settings? via Karel Martens
   
   
7. The world population will not stabilize this century, says a new report that Patrick Gerland et al. published yesterday in Science.

UN 2012 population projections by continent [click on the image to enlarge it]

[image credit: Patrick Gerland et al.]