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US Life Expectancy: The Eight Americas
By Peter Aldhous, New Scientist
In the United States, death isn't the 'great equalizer' it's cracked up to be. Harvard researchers found that death rates vary according to race, socioeconomic status, and geographic location. The study, which looked at 3,000 counties, divided Americans into eight groups. The majority fell into a category labeled 'Middle Americans,' who are mostly white and fairly wealthy. Near the bottom of the list are black men from urban areas or the rural south, whose life expectancy is on par with citizens of developing nations. With early deaths attributed mostly to injuries and cardiovascular disease, researchers are arguing whether a public health campaign to improve life expectancy among this group would be enough, or if an economic overhaul is necessary. -- Rachel Anderson
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10051-us-life-expectancy-the-eight-americas.html

Can Los Angeles Become the United States' First Regional City?
By Justus Stewart, Worldchanging
It's hard to think that a sprawling mass like Los Angeles could ever be considered sustainable, but its decentralized urban form makes it ideal to become the next big thing in environmental planning: 'the nascent regional city.' Justus Stewart writes that Los Angeles and areas like the corridor between Boston and Washington, DC, would fare well as regional cities. Sustainability success, proponents say, will lie in planning entire regions rather than concentrating on monolithic urban hubs. The idea is for planners to stoke urban growth in multiple centers, letting wilderness thrive in between. Setting up systems -- economic, energy, transportation -- that are integrated through the region would foster a sustainability that's lost as urban areas outgrow their original expectations.  -- Rachel Anderson
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004898.html

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