Cities Are The Best...

	SOCIAL HUB: A new mathematical model shows how different infrastructure and social activity patterns grow along with a city's population; the model could aid city planners in maximizing a city's productivity, while minimizing things like crime and poverty.

"Are you one of those people who think of big cities as little more than hotbeds of pollution, crime and social inequalities? Well, think again. A new report in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA confirms what many city dwellers, who account for the bulk of people on Earth, have claimed for years: Cities have an almost magical ability, spurred by increased human interaction, to stimulate innovation and increase wealth.

The report also pooh-poohs the popular comparison of the growth of cities with biological organisms. An animal slows as it balloons in size ; in contrast, the researchers note, cities speed up as population and everything from crime to per capita income grow."

All well and good, but the "models" NEVER include ethnic-specificity, and without such are rendered useless.