If space traveling the universe had a scenic route, this would be it. It’s a 3D fly-through of the nebula Gum 29 with the stunning star cluster Westerlund 2 in the middle and it’s absolutely gorgeous. The image was taken by the Hubble and shown off for its 25th anniversary. It’s the stuff of dreams.

Source: The most amazing Hubble Space Telescope fly-through yet defies belief[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

How long does it take to get from one part of the city to another?

One question that always comes up as a real estate broker is "how long does it take to get from my home to work?". With the amount of experience we have in the business it's usually not hard to give an exact response based on time of day and points being travelled. But, what if you are not yet working with a realtor or just kicking the tires and curious about commute times and distances. Our travel time map for Miami page does just that! Beside Miami, you can use this tool in just about any place that has traffic.

We embedded below two map types for you to try.

The first one is from a group called Mapnificent which shows how far you can with public transportation for a given time. Beside Miami you can also check various other locales around the world as well.

Here is an embedded travel time map for Miami. It's a very straightforward mapping application. You will see where we placed a pin on the map. Simply move it to any area of interest and the mapping tool will recalculate the amount of distance you can travel based on the amount of time you place on the bottom right of the map.

Mapnificent Map

The Second Travel time map for Miami is from a web page called isoscope which is a slightly different iteration of travel time in that it calculates car travel time but also factors in the time of day in hour increments. To use the map simply type in the city you are interested in. Then, click on the map in the place you want to view and a map overlay will depict the various distances you can travel by car depending on the day and hour. There is also a pedestrian overlay that you can place as well which works great if you zoom in. In a city like Miami where pedestrian traffic in urban cores is still nascent, the pedestrian overlay is not terribly useful. But, try Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Chicago and it's a much more interesting metric.

Isoscope

Unfortunately, this interactive map is no longer available. Alas, all that is the web is not permanent. Dec 19 2018

If there is a tool you like to see how long it takes to get from one place to another that you find accurate and is aesthetically interesting we would love to hear about it.

I admit it... I am a map and data junkie... We live in a super connected world that constantly tracks and analyzes all myriad of things in our lives. Some of this data becomes quite interesting when overlayed on a map.

The above map image by Data Underload over at Flowing Data, is a great example of how people's preferences for certain areas becomes clear when you overlay the habits of many runners over time. As is always the case, where to run in Miami is also great for showing places to get out and bike, walk, LIVE, etc. Downtown Miami, Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove and Coral Gables feature prominently and are all great places to live, work, play and raise a family.

Do beware as Flowing Data points out that you do have ghost data such persons who apparently seem to be able to walk on water. Most likely GPS coordinate snafu of someone paddle boarding, kayaking or some such thing over the water.

There are also maps of a few more cities to check out at their website.

Info Graphics that Poke Fun at every things in our lives

From the creators of WUMO come these fantastic info graphics that chronicle some of the more frustrating but simply irrefutable truth facts about daily living.

I love the graphic of what it's like to live in suburbia. I have clients who live in great luxury apartments around Brickell and Coconut Grove and the topic of why they want to move comes up. If I don't hear a good reason I usually just relate the grass is always greener story or the saying "better the devil you know then the devil you don't"... Again, I am among friends so I have some leeway with my thoughts.

With this suburbia info graphic I can with one image, explain to both my residential and condo clients what they might encounter. In the case of the condo clients I would have to pretend that rather than a subdivision they would be looking at a stacking plan of a building and imagine the neighbors above below and to their sides.

Some other great truth facts to check out is how content and advertising have evolved of the years. So true... And, of course, there's the truth fact that pokes fun at salaries relative to the amount of fun had at each successive rung up the corporate ladder.

Below is a slideshow 13 of what are many great slides and cartoons from WUMO.

ENJOY!

How to buy luxury real estate using the geography of beer.

Okay, truth be told, we don't literally expect everyone to buy their next luxury home from us based on beer ALONE...  Though we are always happy to share a pint in the process or after. But, we do find it fantastic how Matthew Zook and Ate Poorthuis were able to take geocoded data (hashtags and the like) on twitter to build these maps.

The geography of beer maps were built using data from 2012 and comprise about a million geocoded beer tweets during that time.

Apparently, down here in South Florida we are quite fond of Yuengling? Considering that it is the oldest operating brewery in the United States having been established in 1829, might mean we South Floridian's have a discerning taste for beer? It could also mean some great online marketing was taking place in South Florida. In either outcome, it helped shape the geography of beer map that you see here. For the record, I'm sticking with a discerning palate...

As luxury real estate data junkies, we can't wait to figure out how to integrate this type of data into the analytics we hope to be sharing in the not to distant future.

Here is a little more information about the folks who came up with the geography of beer.

What would it look like if you could view the growth of a major city over the course of almost 200 years from above? Well, now you have your answer? These three videos show the almost Rorschach inkblot like growth of major cities around the world. Granted, the symmetry might be lacking when compared to a Rorschach test but the beauty and expansion is just captivating.

How Cities Grow and seeing it play out in this manner is interesting because it makes you think about the Topography of the land and how it helps or impedes growth. Then, couple that with master planning (Paris is a great example of a controlled growth model) and you begin to see an intersection of man and his surroundings collide. Let's not even get into the discussion of natural resources.

Then throw in developers, cheap land, incentives to build or grow from municipalities to states and things get really interesting. Also, it's stunning the speed with which growth takes place as you start to get closer to the present day images of these cities. Without a doubt urban living is hitting an apex of sorts. On the flip side you could also argue that rural living simply was in the way of incredible expansive urban growth.

Whatever the reason  how cities grow, check out the videos below and hit us up in the comment section. Credit to those who took the time to create this great animation and the thinking behind it is at after the videos.

 Los Angeles:

Sao Paolo:

Paris:

Below you can learn more about How Cities Grow

Initial Credit goes to GIZMODO and the author of their article for tipping us off. From there we head over to the Stern School at NYU where the Urbanization Project that spearheaded and helped fund this project is located. We then end up at the page of Patrick Lamson-Hall (A Research Scholar at NYU) where links to the YouTube videos here are also posted. Finally, after a little more digging, we land at the Lincoln Institutes Atlas of Urban Expansion where you can download data on over 130 cities in PDF form. Sadly, no one has done this work for South Florida or Miami but it would be great if they did. Oh, don't forget the fine folks over in Quito, Ecuador who put the videos together!

We put a lot of effort and energy into spreading the word about our luxury real estate offerings. But what makes an amazingly unique residence are the finishing touches and thoughtful details that add value while imbuing a level of sophistication and chic exclusivity. These three pieces from around the globe accomplish just that in quite whimsical and very coveted ways.

The first one is a company called Fletcher Tables It is an expanding table that is completely hand made but when you watch the video above you will notice the incredible precision, detail, care and quality of finish that these one off custom tables receive. Beside the incredible craftsmanship, this luxury furniture is just simply captivating to watch in action. As much at home on land as on a mega yacht this London based company is sure to be making a handful of very affluent and lucky customers exceedingly happy.

This next product is as much art as beautifull luxury furniture for your garden or backyard. This Obelisk design from what I believe to be a German - Italian design house takes the storage of their product to a whole new aesthetic level. It's almost equally pleasant to leave these stacked as it would to just be lounging around your pool.

The last item is quite ingenious. This comes from Japan and takes luxury furniture and turns it into functional and extremely unique wall art. From YoY-Idea comes what would appear to be screen print of furniture on white canvas frames that would add beauty to any wall. Where things get very interesting is that you can take these pieces of high end wall art and turn them into chic luxury furniture that is actually quite functional. In both chair, love seat sizes, these are true conversation pieces of a very limited

Check the images and videos above and go to the links of these very unique products. Drop us a line below of luxury furniture that is truly one of kind.