Stimulating environments lengthen lives

Much as I am a booster of the urban life and form, I must admit that I'm rather shocked that an exciting environment, such as can be found in a city, has far-reaching health consequences. Scientists have recently discovered in laboratory mice, when injected with cancerous cells, have a marked difference in response based on their environments. The mice that were raised in a "a complex environment providing social interactions, opportunities to learn and increased physical activity" had tumors almost 80 percent smaller than mice who did not have an enriched environment. Moreover, the interesting environment had a more significant impact on tumor growth than simply a greater amount of exercise.

His shoes were made for walking

This is an interesting article by a man who recently finished his seven year goal of walking all 2,612 streets of San Francisco. He admits that he missed some, such as the streets of Alcatraz and platted streets covered by the Bay, and that he found that he didn't know his town as well as he thought he did. He quotes T.S. Eliot to good effect:

"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."