Watch the growth of Walmart stores from 1962 to 2010
Posted: April 8, 2010 Filed under: Activity centres, Miscellaneous | Tags: 1962, animation, growth, movie, Sam's Club, stores, US, Walmart Leave a commentJust released is an updated version of the now-famous ‘growth of Walmart’ animation which maps out the geography of store openings in the US since the first Walmart opened in 1962. The new version extends the timeline to 2010 and includes data on Walmart’s hardware store, Sam’s Club. Read the rest of this entry »
The hazards of restricting supply
Posted: March 28, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: dogs, Dogtown, queing, queue 2 CommentsAn object lesson for city policy-makers – this is what happens in Dogtown when supply is restricted. Of course we humans would eliminate the queue by selling the tree to the highest bidder! Read the rest of this entry »
Watch what’s happening to Google in China
Posted: March 24, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: censorship, China, culture, Google Leave a commentThis isn’t related to urbanism or Melbourne, but it is surely one of the most important unfolding issues of the decade. This site let’s you keep tabs on how the Chinese Government is responding to Google’s ‘provocation’. Pass it on. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Maps makes an art of traffic
Posted: March 21, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: animation, car chase, Google Maps, Grand Theft Auto, satellite, traffic Leave a commentGoogle Maps seems to have spawned a new genre of digital art. This one, Satellite Car Chase, joins Google Maps to Grand Theft Auto!
Question time
Posted: March 16, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Melbourne Town Hall, nuclear power, questions Leave a commentMy son and I attended the great debate at Melbourne Town Hall on March 4 where the proposition under debate was “that Australia should embrace nuclear power”. After the panellists finished speaking, the moderator invited questions from the floor. That experience made me especially interested in this posting on Tyler Cowen’s Marginal Revolution blog – why do people ask questions at public events? According to Tyler, “the ‘really want to know’ motive is not absent altogether but I really doubt if it is primary”. As a consultant myself, I think there should be a separate “marketing” category, too.
Newsflash: economist’s prediction is right!
Posted: March 10, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Freakonomics, Justin Wolfers, Oscars, preferential voting Leave a commentWriting in the NY Times Freakonomics blog last week, Australian economist Justin Wolfers correctly predicted the key winners at the Oscars (getting any prediction right must be a major accomplishment for an economist!). Here he also explains the new voting system at the Oscars, which is the same preferential system used in Australian politics. The article is An Economist’s View of the New Oscar Voting.
What the bookies are saying about the Federal election
Posted: March 6, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: ALP, betting, Coalition, election, Pollytics Leave a commentIf you’re pondering who will win the next Federal election, you might want to take note of what the bookies think. According to Pollytics yesterday, the current implied probability of the outcome (derived from the odds offered by the five main betting houses) is 74.4% ALP and 25.6% Coalition. The ALP was 77.9% a month ago. The trend is down for the ALP but they’re still looking damn good. BetFair has the ALP at $1.30 and the Coalition at $4.00.
The Melbourne Urbanist 