News Cut: May 21, 2012 Archive
We're number 26?
Posted at 9:38 AM on May 21, 2012
by Paul Tosto
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Economy
I don't usually put a lot of stock in city rankings. But a new look at the Best Cities for Tech Jobs seems to have some good research behind it. And if you're a tech booster in the Twin Cities, you will not be pleased by the numbers.
NewGeography, a site that's good at telling stories using data and demographics, put together the tech jobs rankings using data crunched by the economics research group EMSI. It counted some 95 federally recognized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupations -- yes, the STEM jobs believed to be the keys to our economic future.
No shock that Seattle tops the list. But as you scroll down looking for the Twin Cities, you find Jacksonville, Fla., Cincinnati, Columbus and other smaller cities. Minneapolis-St. Paul is ranked 26 on the list.
The worrisome thing is that Minnesota officials have made STEM education and jobs a priority for years. So if we've made STEM education a priority in Minnesota, pouring resources into building a trained workforce capable of taking these jobs, will the jobs really come?
Here's NewGeography's Top 30:
If it's any consolation to the Wisconsin's-eating-our-economic-lunch crowd, the Milwaukee metro area comes in ranked 50 in the tech jobs list.
-- Paul Tosto
(2 Comments)Disco wins
Posted at 11:32 AM on May 21, 2012
by Paul Tosto
(6 Comments)
I hated disco music as a teenager. Hated it. I played the Eagles and Steve Miller Band. When punk rose up in the late 1970s, I embraced it. Finally, some angry music!
I was convinced then that the punks would end disco for good. But the punk era came and flamed out. Now, 35 years after "Saturday Night Fever," it's disco that endures.
Robin Gibb's death this weekend confirmed it. Gibb was part of the Bee Gees, the group whose music cemented disco's place in American music and made the "Saturday Night Fever," soundtrack one of the best-selling albums of all time.
The tributes to Gibb and the Bee Gee's music continue to roll in from across the globe. None of the punks will ever get that. When Joe Strummer, founding member of The Clash and one of the icons of the punk movement, died in 2002, it barely made my local paper.
But with Gibb's death, I couldn't help but start looking for Bee Gees music online. It generated a little family discussion. Turns out my 16-year-old son knew some of the Bee Gees songs, but not The Clash.
It occurred to me that while I spent a lot of time singing Clash songs in the shower, I never sang them anywhere else.
You don't really share punk with other people. But start singing, "Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk...." and everybody wants to jump in, laugh and enjoy it all.
Not that I'll be buying an album, er, CD, uh download, any time soon. But three-plus decades later, it's OK to like it.
-- Paul Tosto
Twins playoff odds? Still bad
Posted at 2:46 PM on May 21, 2012
by Paul Tosto
(4 Comments)
Filed under: Sports
Hope springs eternal. But it shouldn't -- at least when it comes to baseball.
Baseball loves statistics and the numbers show that, despite winning four of the last five games, the Twins have almost no chance of making the playoffs. The projections from two baseball data sites bear that out.
Coolstandings.com gives the Twins slightly more than a one percent chance of making the playoffs this season.
Baseball Prospectus is, shall we say, less sanguine, putting the odds at zero.
On Friday, Sports Illustrated declared the glory days gone for the "bumbling Minnesota Twins.
Fifty years after the 1962 Mets pushed the possibilities of ineptitude to a modern-era low by going 40-120 in their debut season, the Twins are on pace for a 51-win season. Only four other teams over the past half-century have been so disastrous over a full 162-game season: the 1963 Mets and 2004 Diamondbacks, both of which went 51-111, the 1965 Mets that went 50-112, and the 2003 Tigers, who finished 43-119, the worst record in American League history.Sadly, the piece reaches for the "Minnesota Nice" cliche and notes, "no one's throwing tantrums to protest the losses."
Maybe the team needs to take its cue from ex-Twins player David Ortiz.
Frustrated by the poor start of his Boston Red Sox, Ortiz pulled together a private team meeting, calling on the so-far lousy starting pitchers to step it up.
It's already paid off, with the Sox winning eight of 10 since the heart-to-heart.
Anyone on the Twins willing to call out their teammates? Maybe more daunting: Who on the team has had a good enough year so far to point the finger at others?
-- Paul Tosto
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