A study in the October edition of Public Health by the RAND Corporation suggests a direct link between suburbs and health. On the surface an obvious connection, as a result of transportation costs – less time to walk and further to walk – people who live in suburbs have more chronic health problems, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, headaches, etc (but not mental health problems). However, the press release argues that people who live in cities like Atlanta, with more sprawl, have a health profile similar to those who are four years older and live in cities with less sprawl, like Seattle. After controlling for the obvious things, they argue that poor health is a function of the built environment. They argue that to improve health cities should be more walkable, dense and mixed use (flash back to Jane Jacobs). While I agree that this is an ideal living environment – for me – the study seems to ignore the importance of self-selection. People move to the suburbs for a variety of reasons, common factors include children and the location of work. Could it be that a certain type of people live in suburbs and that these folks are susceptible to chronic health issues for other related reasons? This is all very retro in relation to concerns sociologist had with the built environment and mental health back in the early 20th century, thank goodness for the work of William Michelson and others that addressed concerns of environmental determinism long ago. Press Release
Right out of the science fiction pages, a club in Barcelona has adopted the surgical implantation of RFID tags as a method of tracking VIP club members. VIP members have a capsule (1.3mm by 1mm) surgically embedded under their skin. The tag is scanned at the door for admission, and used as a debit card when paying for drinks. BBC – Barcelona clubbers get chipped