baltimorespokes

Study Shows Physical Activity Can Reduce the Effects of a Genetic Predisposition for Obesity
By Denise Mann – Web MD
Nov. 2, 2011 — Obesity may be in your genes, but that is no excuse not to exercise.
In fact, physical activity can reduce the effects of the ‘fat mass and obesity-associated’ (FTO) or obesity gene in adults.
Previous research has shown that about 74% of all people in the U.S. with European ancestry have a genetic variation associated with the FTO gene that can lead to weight gain that raises the risk for becoming obese.
According to the study, the obesity-causing effects of the obesity gene are weakened by 30% when adults are physically active.
The study is published in PLoS Medicine.
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Continue reading “Exercise Can Overpower the ‘Obesity Gene’”

by NANCY SHUTE – NPR
What would you say to a cheap, easy way to stay slim, one that would help avoid serious illness and early death? How about if it made your neighbors healthier, too? It could be as simple as biking to the store.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin were wondering if getting people out of their cars just a wee bit would create measurable improvements in health. health. So they gathered up data sets on obesity, health effects of pollution, and air pollution caused by automobiles in 11 Midwestern cities, and did a mashup.
They found that if the Midwesterners ran half of their short-distance errands by bike rather than by car, 1,100 deaths would be avoided each year, and $7 billion would be saved in reduced health-care costs. The trips were 2.5 miles one way; less than a 25-minute bike ride, the researchers figure.
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Continue reading “Secret To A Long, Healthy Life: Bike To The Store”

by tony_farrelly
Commuting by car or public transport is bad for your health, that’s the not very shocking conclusion of a Swedish public health survey in to the commuting habits of 21,000 people which has been published in the journal BMC Public Health
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https://road.cc/content/news/47210-cycle-commuters-healthier-those-drive-or-take-bus-say-health-researchers

[B’Spokes: Let me pull this out for emphases: "stakeholders should or must be consulted due to ethical, legal or social obligations."]
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By Michael Hooper
Over the past two years, a growing number of voices have criticized the role of public participation in urban planning. These voices include Andrés Duany, the architect and New Urbanist, who has decried America’s “absolute orgy of public process.1 They also include Tom Campanella, who argues in essays in Planning magazine and the journal Places that, “it’s a fool’s errand to rely upon citizens to guide the planning process.”2, 3 A position justified, Campanella claims, because, “most folks lack the knowledge to make intelligent decisions about the future of our cities.” Criticism of participation is not new, but the increasingly strident tone of anti-participation sentiment should worry citizens and policy makers alike. In fact, there are good reasons to encourage participation in public processes, perhaps now more than ever.
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In their comments on participation as process, critics seldom mention the well-established instrumental benefits of participation. These are the benefits of participation that go beyond the idea that stakeholders should or must be consulted due to ethical, legal or social obligations. While there are powerful arguments for participation on these terms, there is also strong evidence that participation actually improves project outcomes and the likelihood of project success. These outcome-oriented aspects of participation are seldom mentioned by critics and so are worth reiterating. Before doing so, it should be noted that participation is also important as an outcome in its own right. Participation not only has the potential to improve project outcomes, but is itself an outcome. Participation has been shown to have positive spillovers through fostering democratic norms and development of social capital, both of which are important societal objectives.
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Based on data collected from 1965 onwards, they examined 105 wastewater projects and found that participation and project outcomes were positively correlated. A 2000 study by Beierle, of 239 environmental projects, showed that stakeholder participation improved decisions and outcomes.
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This is not to say that participation is a panacea or that the participatory processes currently in use are ideal. But, it is a mistake to broadly criticize participation as an impediment to progress, without recognizing that it also is one of the most important elements in ensuring the success of both the projects that architects and planners want so badly to build and of our cities over the long-term.
Continue reading “Public Participation: More than an “Orgy of Public Process””