News Cut Category Archive: Surveys and trivia

We're #24!

Posted at 2:44 PM on November 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

It's been a long time, it seems, since we've had a gratuitous survey that reminds us how great we are.

I'm talking about you, Woodbury. Everyone else, step back!

BusinessWeek says Woodbury is the 24th-best place to raise your kids in the U.S., and -- clearly -- the best in Minnesota, with Rochester and Eagan off in the distance.

Here's the bottom line:

Woodbury, a growing suburb just 10 miles southeast of St. Paul, is close to major employers, including the state government and 3M, which makes everything from post-it notes to safety equipment. It has 100 miles of multi-use trails and is surrounded by thousands of acres of park land. The city is served by three independent public school districts and is home to the Math & Science Academy charter school.

So, Woodbury's strong point is it's near another city where there's a major employer. Woodbury once had a major employer. But State Farm Insurance succumbed to the allure of Lincoln, Nebraska, and its huge campus has been vacant ever since, right across the street from the shopping center that looks like every other shopping center in America, and up the street from Woodbury Lakes, the now-in-foreclosure upscale shopping district.

It's interesting, however, that the article sees three school districts in the city as a plus, since most people consider it a headache. The districts were drawn when the city was nothing but pasture. As it was developed, one school district -- actually based in Oakdale -- got the benefit of the retail growth in Woodbury, while the primary school district got nothing. The three districts all split up neighborhoods in the city.

There's no questioning, however, that the magazine got it right on parks and trails. Both would've made better backdrop for the supporting photograph in the magazine than the one it used:

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Fresh Eye on the Radio: Tombstone texting

Posted at 5:08 PM on November 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Embed | Help

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The smashing pumpkins

Posted at 11:40 AM on October 30, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Continue reading "The smashing pumpkins"

The balloon kid redux

Posted at 1:55 PM on October 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I've been able, up to now, to avoid the balloon-boy story as the trivia it is. Today, however, a CNN video on YouTube makes it impossible to do so:

I'd be inclined to think the significance of the moment is to ask, "what kind of way is that for a six-year-old to talk?" CNN doesn't think much of that angle, however.

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Time to study

Posted at 1:15 PM on October 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

What do the students at Yale Law School know that the kids at Villanova don't? A Princeton Review of major law schools in the country -- except for you, University of St. Thomas Law School -- revealed that Villanova law students study an average of 7 1/2 hours a day while the kids at Yale put in a grueling hour and a half.

The only regional school that bothered to report the figures was North Dakota, good for a little over 3 hours of work a day.

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Michael Jackson 'healthy'?

Posted at 11:58 AM on October 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The definition of health is in the eye of the beholder. The Associated Press, somehow, has obtained a copy of Michael Jackson's autopsy report:

Michael Jackson's arms were covered with punctures, his face and neck were scarred and he had tattooed eyebrows and lips, but he wasn't the sickly skeleton of a man portrayed by tabloids, according to his autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press.

In fact, the Los Angeles County coroner's report shows Jackson was a fairly healthy 50-year-old before he died of an overdose.

Punctured arms, scarred face, tattoos on the lips?

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One for the Situation Room

Posted at 12:29 PM on September 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Wolf Blitzer reads the news for a living, so it's a slam dunk that he'd kill at Jeopardy.

He didn't.

For the record, that was a comedian who cleaned Blitzer's clock.

(h/t:Drew Geraets)

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Health care debate has been polite for some, survey says

Posted at 3:42 PM on September 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Surveys and trivia

We love surveys. We love to give them attention they don't deserve and this week, two surveys from the same organization caught our attention.

The first, which I won't belabor, was a Pew survey that said "the public's assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans' views of media bias and independence now match previous lows." Sounds interesting, but I posit that it doesn't necessarily mean stories are (or aren't) more inaccurate these days. It only means that people think so.

But perhaps it's more a reflection on people who turn increasingly to news sources that they think will report stories the way they want to hear them (Let me save you the trouble of posting the predictable comment: Yes, I know some people think this is why liberals tend to listen to Public Radio).

The other day we got an e-mail from someone who claimed we were covering up the story that global warming was created in a conspiracy between the liberal media and the United Nations in order to effect a redistribution of wealth. To prove it, he noted that he read about it on the Internet, not in the liberal media.

Well, OK, that's one for the power of the Internet.

Today's survey is even more puzzling. The headline:

Health Care Debate Seen as "Rude and Disrespectful"

So far, so good. According to Pew, 53% of those surveyed said the health care debate has been rude and disrespectful. Sixteen percent said they didn't know how to characterize it.

Thirty-one percent said the debate has been polite and respectful. That should be the takeaway. It's true, those most likely to be accused of being rude and disrespectful -- in this case, Republicans -- are also the most likely to disagree. And the survey showed that, indeed, 44 percent of them said the debate has been polite and respectful. But 24% of Democrats agreed with the assessment.

Democrats, however, are much more likely to put the blame for the lack of civility on opponents of health care legislation. Forty-five percent of Republicans say they're at fault.

Who are these people? Pew doesn't say. But we can deduce that 17% of those surveyed weren't paying any attention to what was going on. Only eighty-three percent said they'd heard "a little or a lot" about Rep. Joe Wilson's "you lie" moment, a news story that was nearly impossible to miss.

(Photo: A driver shows his polite side on Robert St. in West St. Paul on Wednesday. Click the image for a larger view).

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Timewaster: Kanye West interrupts Obama

Posted at 12:17 PM on September 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

If we only could harness the creativity of people for good...

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We're #50!

Posted at 3:26 PM on September 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The University of Minnesota has made Washington Monthly's annual ranking of top colleges/universities, coming it at #50 in the list of national universities. That's up from #51 in 2007.

It doesn't have the cachet of the famed US News ranking of institutions of higher learning, but insists its methodology is more meaningful:

We rate schools based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).

Only two other schools appear on the list: University of St. Thomas (#172) and St. Mary's University (#256)

Eight Minnesota schools are ranked in the list of liberal arts schools, topped by Carleton (#9), and followed by St. John's (#18), Macalester (#19), Gustavus Adolphus (#33), St. Olaf (#55), College of St. Benedict (#80), Concordia (#83), and the University of Minnesota Morris (#157).

No less an arbiter than The Atlantic's James Fallows confers his degree in lack of bogusness to the rankings:

The practical solution to ranking mania is not to try to eliminate them -- it's too late -- but instead to crowd the field so that no one "Best Colleges" list has disproportionate influence. Toward that end, the Washington Monthly's latest iteration of its college rankings is valuable simply for existing and adding diversity to the ranking field. It's more valuable than that, because of the way it carries through its analysis about the traits we really should value in universities, plus letting people tailor their own rankings based on the qualities that matter most to them.

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Sign of the times

Posted at 12:58 PM on August 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

MPR's Tom Weber spotted this at a church in Lake Elmo.

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Birth, marriage and death by the numbers

Posted at 12:55 PM on August 7, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The National Vital Statistics Report has released birth, marriage, divorce, and death statistics for 2008 today.

The bottom line for Minnesota:

>> Fewer births than 2007, but not by many (5,719 vs. 5,887). Chalk it up to cold winters. Nationally, most births are in July. I'll do the math for you. October.

>> We're dyin' here. Deaths increased from 37,116 in 2007 to 38,529 in 2008. That's at least three straight months of increasing deaths.

>> The number of marriages have dropped for three years running. Minnesota did not provide divorce data, however. Marriage rates in Minnesota have been dropping since the '40s.

Here's the report.

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The pot question

Posted at 12:21 PM on July 13, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

A new poll today shows apparent support for legalization of marijuana. Poll: 41 percent support pot legalization (CBS). (Psst: 52 percent still oppose it)

Why the emphasis on the minority? Because the poll has shifted by 10 percent. Just a few months ago, another CBS poll showed only 31 percent favored legalizing marijuana.

But polls on the question tend to vary widely. In May, a Zogby poll claimed 52 percent of Americans favored legalization.

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The amazing shrinking and expanding Minnesota

Posted at 11:44 AM on July 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Health, Surveys and trivia

Oh for the love of the sweet, sweet paradox.

Two stories in the news today could be related. But they're not.

First:
We're shrinking.

Second:
No, we're not.

As long as we're on the subject, let's talk about obesity and the half-full/half-empty coverage.

Twenty-five percent -- one in 5 3 4 of us -- in Minnesota aren't just fat We're obese. Twenty-three percent of Minnesota kids are overweight, according to a survey out today from The Trust for America's Health.

"Obviously, Minnesota is doing something right," said Serena Vinter, one of the authors, told the Star Tribune.

We are?

Here's a line from her press release:

Adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state in the past year, according to the F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009.

Maybe we're not as fat as, say, Wisconsin, but how is it possible to categorize this as a success story?

The situation remains a disaster waiting to happen -- except it's happening now. Since the data shows Minnesota is not improving, this 2003 MPR series -- The Fight Against Fat -- remains timely.

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Timewaster: Spot the hero

Posted at 12:19 PM on June 22, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

What's the first sign that America's love affair with its heroes has gone too far? When they do cameos in music videos.

Spot the hero... ripped from the headlines.

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Laughing all the way to the bank

Posted at 12:30 PM on June 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Poor North Dakota. Wait, that's not the right adjective. North Dakota is sitting on a $700 million surplus, but it can't buy a break from the late-night comics.

For the record, North Dakota doesn't have a state budget manager.

(h/t: Than Tibbetts)

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Talking 'bee'

Posted at 2:46 PM on May 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Like the end of the Olympics, I am having spelling bee withdrawl withdrawal today. I am not yet ready to let go of the two astounding -- if predictable -- facts surrounding the annual spelling extravaganza.

1) We have far too many useless words in our language. Perhaps there should be a sunset provision whenever someone makes a word. If it is not used for one year or if it's use is followed by the more common "huh?", it is banished from our language. Forever. We're not fooling.

The problem is -- as I learned on Twitter today (from @ecaron) -- we are fast approaching one million words. We're 12 days, 2 hours and change away, according to the Global Language Monitor.

Alcopops, chengguan, and chiconomics (the ability to maintain one's fashion sense in a bad economy) are dangerously close to entering the lexicon (n. Gk. lexikos, of words. Def. What you write when you've already used language too much in a blog post.)

2) We feel a little queasy about whether we put our kids through too much. National TV? Prime time? Academics have often wondered what would happen if the math quiz got the same attention as sports, but as far as I know, Grey's Anatomy has never been delayed to show a kid's sporting event.

There was a moment near the end of last night's spelling bee in which a young woman spelled the word wrong, then buried her sobbing head into her parents' embrace. On the other hand, the last remaining young man who spelled his word wrong, calmly sat down as if it was just another day in homeschooling hell.

The Daily Beast saw it coming:

If you've seen the documentary Spellbound, you know the lengths to which some kids--and, more to the point, some parents--go to prepare for the Bee. The finalists will have spent hundreds of hours--possibly thousands in the case of veteran spellers--memorizing arcane words. They will have been tested via printed word lists and interactive software. They will have been drilled ceaselessly by demanding moms, dads, teachers and coaches. For the top competitors, the pressure is profound. (As the Bee has evolved, it's grown more difficult. The winning word in 1981 was "sarcophagus." Not to brag, but my first-grade daughter can spell that.)

(Aside: Do these kids "text" on their cellphones? Do they spell out all of their words or abbreviate, thereby misspelling them?)

Most people seem to agree, however, that it's not an entirely bad concept to watch kids using their brains for a couple of days; even if they have no sense of chiconomics.

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A picture is worth a picture

Posted at 3:07 PM on May 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

You have to feel a little sorry for Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, who picked a bad time to rub his eyes on Monday as the Legislature wrapped up its work.

The picture made the front page of both the Pioneer Press....

... and the Star Tribune.

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Perks of the presidency

Posted at 1:46 PM on May 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

President Obama and Vice President Biden hopped in the motorcade and hit up a small burger joint in Virginia for lunch today, the Washington Post reported. Cute stuff, of course, but there are so many unanswered questions here.

Let's look a little closer:

A couple of $20's? And each paid for his own meal. How much are they charging for burgers in Virginia, anyway? $6.95, according to NPR.

A closer look at the transaction:

Have you ever seen a politician hold onto money as tightly as the vice president?

A question I'd ask if I did a TV segment about good questions: Where does the president get cash? Is there an ATM in the White House?

Apparently, the place is worth getting elected for:

Though it appears to be a tough place for a couple of guys to strike up a conversation with average folks...

The people in line are obviously too shy to talk to the two celebrities. What would your opening line be?

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Fun with numbers: the Seven Deadly Sins

Posted at 11:34 AM on April 29, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia, Things that are puzzling

OK, I'll start this off with the disclaimer:..

This is a precision party trick -- rigorous mapping of ridiculous data.

...but it's interesting, nonetheless. A couple of geographers from Kansas State University wrangled up a host of national statistical databases, massaged the numbers and used them to quantify lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride on a county-by-county basis across the U.S.

The story in the Las Vegas Sun tilts heavily toward Nevada, but the graphs are there for each state.

Sure, the sins tend to be value judgments — i.e., "Greed was calculated by comparing average incomes with the total number of inhabitants living beneath the poverty line" — though it's not meant to be a serious scientific study.

Although I would like to know why the folks in Pine and Kanabec Counties are so envious.

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Better Know a District

Posted at 10:56 AM on April 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Watching this replay last night of a Colbert Report episode that aired last week, it was hard to envision a Minnesota congressperson agreeing to be interviewed by Stephen Colbert or -- more important -- agreeing to finish the sentence, "I like the company of prostitutes because...."

For the record, no sitting member of the Minnesota delegation has been interviewed by Colbert for his "Better Know a District" series.

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The burden of fame

Posted at 4:43 PM on April 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

What is it about actors who become singers and then go on talk shows and act like jerks?

On the CBC's Q TV with Jian Ghomeshi yesterday, Billy Bob Thorton channeled Joaquin Phoenix.

Update 5:28 p.m. - The Current's Mary Lucia told me, "there are too many of them to count," when I asked her about actors turned band members who are difficult interviews. But on the question of interviews in which the host would like to grab the guest by the scruff of the neck, she mentioned this one.

(h/t: Luke Taylor)

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Deficit data

Posted at 12:29 PM on March 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Surveys and trivia

What is the main effect the economic meltdown and subsequent bailout efforts have had on America? It makes giant numbers that used to make our jaws drop, now make our shoulders shrug.

Example? Today some congressional economists reportedly whispered that the nation's deficit will hit $1.8 trillion this year. That shatters the previous record of $459 billion, a number which once sounded like something other than the change you pull out of your pocket and throw on the dresser at night.

How much is 1.8 trillion?

>> It would take 57,077 years for you to count that high, assuming you don't sleep. That doesn't include leap days.

>> It's 882,352,941 pounds of $100 bills. That was about the total weight of one tower of the World Trade Center.

>> You could walk around the earth 72,284,656 times, and you'd still be about 20,000 miles short of 1.8 trillion.

>> At its current rate, AIG could give bonuses to 4.4 million employees.

>> It could close the Minnesota budget deficit 331 times.

>> 51,385,994 people could take a backpacking trip around the world. (h/t: Daniel Konold via Twitter)

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Scenes from the parking lot

Posted at 10:25 AM on March 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I've always had a "thing" about what cars say about us. There are so many stories in this picture I took this morning. The nature of stereotypes. The declaration of old political bumper stickers. The half-removed Wellstone and Bell stickers. Who tried to take them off? The owner? A Republican?

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St. Patrick's Day was some kind of fun

Posted at 7:45 AM on March 18, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

MPR's Julia Schrenkler captures a bit of the raw awesomeness of St. Patrick's Day in St. Paul. Someone apparently lost track of the road and hit the MPR building. "They didn't leave a note, only car parts," she said.

Let's see LRT do that!

Update 3:21 p.m. The window industry stimulus plan is underway.

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What you talking about?

Posted at 12:24 PM on March 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Quick! What is the name of this building?

Here's a hint:

... and here's the story.

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One small step for mathematics

Posted at 11:36 AM on March 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

It's March 3, 2009, which shares an important distinction with February 2, 2004, September 9, 1981, August 8, 1964, and April 4, 2016.

It's Square Root Day.

It, like an increase in your IRA and 401k, happens only nine times a century. It's when the day and the month are the same number, and when multiplied together make up the last two digits of the year.

Enjoy.

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Satiating the armadillo paparazzi

Posted at 11:17 AM on March 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The Minnesota Zoo today announced the birth of an armadillo, the third one born in a U.S. zoo this year. It noted that for the health of the baby, no media photographers would be allowed to take a picture, which only makes us want one in the first place.

The zoo provided this photo along with the factoid that a baby armadillo is about the size of a golf ball.

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If not a cherry...

Posted at 5:43 PM on February 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Arts, Surveys and trivia

The removal of the cherry from the spoon at the Walker's sculpture garden is the most covered story involving a fruit in the history of Minnesota, it would appear.

This picture is from MPR senior producer Jim Bickal. Though the spoon looks lost, it got me to thinking in my patented there-are-no-problems-only-opportunities way.

What might be a fitting food to put there instead? Cheerios to honor our unofficial state oat cereal? Porridge to accurately portray the budget situation?

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Timewasters: Radio hosts

Posted at 12:07 PM on February 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Bloggers are almost like normal people. They occasionally get tired of all the bad news and are looking for diversions, too. This is pledge drive week at MPR, which causes us to talk about ourselves, so let's slip this little number in for a timewaster diversion.

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Lincoln's casket

Posted at 10:58 AM on February 11, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Since I'm in the neighborhood today anyway, I might just swing over to the Hartquist Funeral Home's Engebretson Chapel in Luverne. They're displaying an "authentic replica" of President Lincoln's casket, according to today's Worthington Daily Globe.

The replica coffin is identical to the original coffin that holds Lincoln's remains, with two exceptions. The replica is not lead-lined, and it does not feature the formal silver nameplate on the top, which was inscribed with Lincoln's birth and death dates.

"It probably was an impressive casket at the time," says the funeral home director, well-skilled in the art of dampening expectations.

Batesville Casket Company asked for and received permission to create the replica in 1984. There are four of them touring the country and their "appearances" are booked through 2010. Apparently, they're quite popular for funeral home grand openings, which is whole 'nother story, I'm sure.

(Photo: Via Flickr/daveblog (Creative Commons license))

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What's not to like about Minneapolis?

Posted at 9:01 AM on January 30, 2009 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Over the years, Minneapolitans have gotten accustomed to being at the top of various -- and usually, trivial -- surveys with questionable methodologies. Gird yourself! We're at the bottom of a survey of popular places to live.

First the bad methodology part: The Pew Center called people up and asked them whether they'd like to live in particular cities. If you've never been to Minneapolis and someone called you at the edge of winter and asked you if Minneapolis turns your crank, would it?

Now the results: Nearly half of the people surveyed said they'd rather live somewhere else. Denver, San Diego, and Seattle were top ranked.

Only Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Cincinnati were rated worse than Minneapolis. Only 16 percent of those surveyed said they'd like to live here. Most of those who want to live here are young people, make between $30,000 and $50,000, have some college or are college grads, are evenly split by political party, and are more liberal.

Here's the full report.

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The great escape

Posted at 9:05 AM on January 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I have no real comment to make here. But I can watch this all day.

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Rock the Cradle

Posted at 12:08 PM on January 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

MPR's John Nicholson suggests that The Current's Mary Lucia is interviewing a replacement for the afternoon "news" guy at today's Rock the Cradle event that's underway.

Don't even think about it, kid.

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What if we sold the White House?

Posted at 11:17 AM on January 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

A firm which knows how to get attention for its press releases has calculated the market value of the White House:

Real estate Web site Zillow.com today announced it has calculated a Zestimate(R) value for the White House were it actually a home that could be bought and sold. That estimated value - $308,058,000 - would make this by far the most expensive residence in the United States, however still more than $23 million less than its value one year ago. Zillow(R) calculated this value using its proprietary Zestimate algorithm that determines a home's estimated worth today based on public data and recent sales.

It's also calculated that the monthly payment would be $1.48 million, not including the taxes and insurance escrow.

The firm has also calculated that the market value of the White House has declined by 7.2% this year which is a much smaller hit than many Americans have taken.

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Tick tock

Posted at 2:49 PM on December 29, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

A few weeks ago, Google announced it was putting thousands of Time-Life photos on its image search, and when I checked it out, this was one of the first ones I found. It was from the 1964 World's Fair and this population clock was a big deal to me (10 years old at the time) because it was in the Equitable Life pavilion and my dad worked for Equitable.

I was thinking of this today because the Census Bureau put out a press release this afternoon that said as of New Year's Day, the U.S. population will be 305,529,237.

It said In January 2009, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds.

And, according to the census bureau, net international migration is expected to add one person every 36 seconds to the U.S. population in January 2009, resulting in an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 14 seconds.

That's a factoid that, coupled with the photo, makes me whip out the official News Cut calculator.

Let's see:

Since 1964, the population has grown by 113,430,699. There are 31,556,926 seconds in a year. There have been 11 leap days since 1964, each containing 86,400 seconds or 950,400. So, since that picture was taken in 1964 (I'll guess and say Jule 1) to New Year's Day, 1,405,233,607 seconds have come and gone.

So the population has increased at the rate of 1 every 12 seconds, somewhat less more than the predicted 1 every 14 seconds for 1999.

One reason for that may be those people sitting at the top of the stops in the picture above. It's a couple and their 14 kids. There's something you don't hear a lot of anymore -- couples and their 14 kids.

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Next time, try some soft music, a bottle of wine and 'Psycho'

Posted at 3:11 PM on December 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

How can any guy compete with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle or You've Got Mail? They can't, and a study out of Scotland confirms it -- romantic comedies are bad for relationships because they create unrealistic expectations.

Researchers at Heriot Watt University's Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory in Edinburgh studied 40 romantic comedies released between 1995 and 2005, and found that problems reported by couples in relationship counseling reflect misconceptions about love and romance depicted in the movies.

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Baby, it's cold inside

Posted at 8:52 AM on December 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I have been away from News Cut for the last five days and the way this "cold" has treated me so far, it may be a few days yet before I return. From what I understand, everyone in Minnesota is suffering from the same seasonal disorder, though the strongest in the majority are going to work, leaving the weakest in the herd behind to stretch out on the sofa, watching the stock market ticker on a minute-by-minute basis (we're too weak to turn the channel) and wondering which will kill us first: the economy or this misnamed affliction.

A "cold" sounds so puny, and it usually is until you hit your 50s and then you find it takes longer to recover from such things. We don't expect others to understand, and so we embellish our woes a bit. "I have the flu," one might say, and that worked great until Google ruined things by developing an application a few months ago that tracks the flu.

Google has determined that keywords that people enter in its search engine are indicative of a flu outbreak. For peace of mind alone, I've been entering "I have the freakin' flu" in the search box for the last two hours, but Google has determined that I don't.

By the way, if you actually type in "I have the freakin' flu" in Google, the number one item that is returned in the search is "get your freakin' flu shot."

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Just like us

Posted at 5:31 PM on December 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Surveys and trivia

The Pew Center is out with a survey this evening that says most people like the idea of living in a diverse neighborhood or area, even though most don't live in areas that are politically diverse.

Says the survey:

This preference for diverse communities is greater among Democrats, liberals, college graduates, blacks, and secular Americans than it is among the population as a whole. But virtually all major groups, at least to some degree, choose diversity over homogeneity when asked where they would like to live.

But almost half the votes cast in the presidential election last month were cast in counties that went for either Barack Obama or John McCain by huge margins.

Back in 1976, only 27% of all voters lived in such "landslide counties," according to figures compiled by Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing, authors of "The Big Sort," a book which argues that Americans are clustering into politically like-minded enc

What's unclear, they say, is whether that's happening by accident or whether people are intentionally living in or moving to areas where other people -- at least politically -- are just like them.

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Why kids cheat

Posted at 6:06 PM on November 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

This one writes itself.

Says the Associated Press:

In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test, according to a new, large-scale survey suggesting that Americans are too apathetic about ethical standards.

Educators reacting to the findings questioned any suggestion that today's young people are less honest than previous generations, but several agreed that intensified pressures are prompting many students to cut corners.

Sixty-four percent cheat? There are some standardized tests where the barely 64-percent passed!

ONe of the questions asked kids to respond to the assertion that "in sports, if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough." Thirteen percent of boys agreed. But the real question is how what percentage of that percentage is on the team?

Perhaps more disturbing than the numbers is the ease with which some education officials dismissed them. Perhaps it's not really about the "pressures society puts on them."

The survey was done by the Josephine Center at the Institute for Youth Ethics. They were smart enough to ask the kids if they were being honest in answering the questions. Almost 30 percent said "no."

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Is blue the new red?

Posted at 10:30 AM on November 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, was on Face the Nation this morning and something didn't seem quite right. After nearly 30 years of a steady diet of red power ties on Sunday morning talk shows, there he was in a power blue tie.

Then I realized, it's not an accident. Check the lineup from Friday's Obama news conference:

And I can't quite tell from this picture of Friday's news conference by Mark Ritchie, Minnesota's Secretary of State, on Mary Lahammer's excellent blog, but from a distance, isn't that a bluish tie?

Ritchie popped up on KSTP today on Tom Hauser's show (which I believe is taped) and we have not one, but two power blues.

On Meet the Press, meanwhile, House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn was sending a bipartisan message.

Perhaps last week's election was the first part of the men's department stimulus package.

Update Mon. 11/10 4:35 p.m. - President-elect Obama met President Bush at the White House today, and injected new life into the blue-tie theory.

(Washington photos via Getty Images)

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Smudge - Part II

Posted at 7:08 AM on November 4, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Last evening, I posted a picture of Mary Lucia's dog with the request for captions that will make us laugh. This is clearly the winner in the "Photoshop" division.

This is the outstanding work of News Cut reader Dan Gilchrist of Minneapolis. It's true, I didn't actually have a Photoshop category. Now I do.

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How much do you love your cellphone?

Posted at 12:41 PM on October 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The BBC carries a story this afternoon about a 26 year old passenger on a train in France, who dropped his cellphone into the toilet. He tried to fish it out, only to become trapped.

"He came out on a stretcher, with his hand still jammed in the toilet bowl, which they had to saw clean off," said Benoit Gigou, a witness to the man's plight.

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Absence of trust

Posted at 4:57 PM on October 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

There are many ills in America's political system but one of the most disturbing ones is that important stories get lost in the nonsense of campaign trivia.

Here's one:

Half -- half! -- of the doctors in this country prescribe phony pills. Even worse, most of them don't feel bad about it.

Says the New York Times:

Several medical ethicists say they're troubled by the results, including study coauthor Franklin Miller: "This is the doctor-patient relationship, and our expectations about being truthful about what's going on and about getting informed consent should give us pause about deception

Some of the doctors embrace the "benevolent deception" theory-- that it's OK to deceive you if it's good for you in the long run.

And do patients really have that close of a relationship with doctors anymore, where the absence of trust is a big deal?

By the way, don't tell the New York Times, but I actually first brought this up in January.

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Crime wave

Posted at 3:49 PM on October 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

In days gone by, I joked with Mary Lucia of the Current that all the world's strange things happen in Oklahoma. These days, it's Ohio.

Dateline: Blue Ash, Ohio. (Begin sound of Dragnet theme here). The cops surrounded -- I might be embellishing this a bit -- the home of Edna Jester.

"Give the football back," a cop on a loudspeaker says as the simultaneous sound of rifles being cocked (are rifles cocked? I don't know, I don't own a gun.) pierces the calm Ohio air.

"You'll never take me alive, coppers" the old biddy shouts as she knocks the stained glass portrait of Boomer Esiason out to get a more tactical look at the situation.

In suburban Cincinnati, where they've had 8 property crimes all year, Edna -- did I mention she's 89 years old -- is Public Enemy #1.

Some kids kept kicking a football into her yard, she kept it, and the police arrested her.

"It's the only way to get through to these kids," she said.

Film at 11.

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Survey: American couples argue more

Posted at 1:01 PM on October 7, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The Oxford Internet Institute is out today with a survey that shows a wide disparity in couples depending on where they live.

"Britons are the least likely to complain if modern life leaves their partners too tired for sex. Australians are less worried by their spouse being less affectionate and Americans argue more," says the BBC.

The survey was put together for the online dating site, eHarmony, and appears to be part of a massive year-long project to explore the Internet and dating. Serious stuff.

Couples in the U.S. experience a dip in "marital satisfaction" around the birth of their first child, something that may be surprising to anyone who hasn't had a kid yet.

But wait, there's more in the survey!

In the US, couples put more focus on the interpersonal facets of their relationships, reporting that they laugh together, exchange ideas, kiss, and confide in each other more often. However, they also have more arguments and are more likely to report that their partners annoy them.

There's something you can discuss with your spouse this evening. Let me know how that goes. And spare no details.

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Not everyone is wringing hands today

Posted at 1:12 PM on September 26, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Let's step back from the ledge for a few minutes, just long enough to remember that it's still OK to have a little fun.

For sheer, gee-I-wish-I-could-do-that-if-I-weren't-so-chicken daydreaming, nothing fits the bill better than Yves Rossy, who jumped out of an airplane over France this morning, and landed about 13 minutes later in England.

He wore a jetpack-powered wing on his back:

Rossy's wing was made from carbon composite. It weighs about 121 pounds when loaded with fuel and carried four kerosene-burning jet turbines. The contraption has no steering devices. Rossy, a commercial airline pilot by training, wiggled his body back and forth to control the wing's movements.

He wore a heat-resistant suit similar to that worn by firefighters and racing drivers to protect him from the heat of the turbines. The cooling effect of the wind and high altitude also prevented him from getting too warm.

Why? What the heck! Why not? It beats sitting around watching the 401K free-fall.

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Minnesota: Get to know it

Posted at 12:11 AM on September 23, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The Census Bureau released its American Community Survey this morning. Here's some insight into Minnesota:

Speaking English:17.9% in the 5th Congressional District (Minneapolis) speak a language other than English -- the highest percentage in the state. Only 3.4% of people in the 8th District -- northern Minnesota -- speak a language other than English.

Home-grown Minnesotans:Eighty percent of the people in the 6th District were born in Minnesota. Only 64% in the 5th District were born in Minnesota. 84.4% of the people in Stearns County are Minnesotans by birth. Twenty percent of Brooklyn Park was born in another country.

Need a lift? 77.8% of the people in the state drive to work alone. Scott and Anoka County residents drive to work alone most often. (84%). Almost 9% of the metropolitan region carpools to work. Washington County has the highest percentage (10.1%) of carpoolers.

Sherburne County residents have the longest mean commute -- 32 minutes. The median commuting time in Minneapolis and St. Paul is about 22 minutes.

I get around: Just over 17% of the people in Ramsey County and St. Louis County lived in another house one year ago.

Five brides for seven brothers: There are more unmarried men per 100 unmarried women in Minnesota in Northern Minnesota (123) than in any other part of the state. But Carver County has the highest single-man ratio (134).

Sixty something: The youngest median age in Minnesota is the 2nd Congressional District. The oldest is the 8th District. The 7th District has more people over 65 (17%) than any other part of the state. Of the major counties, St. Louis County has the highest percentage of residents over 65 (15.9%). 18% of Bloomington is over 65.

High school: Stearns County has the lowest percentage of people 25 or over who completed high school or received a GED. (89.9%)

The poor: 9.5% of the people live below the poverty level. The highest is St. Louis County (14.9%). Twenty-three percent of St. Cloud lives below the poverty level.

It's Carver! The median household income is $55,802. It's $78,975 in Carver County. The median family income is $69,172. It's $96,885 in Carver County. The median cost for housing per month is $1,500.

The highest median housing value of an owner-occupied home is in Washington County ($282,500).

34.6% of mortgage owners spend more than 30% of their income a month on housing. The highest percentage, however, is in Sherburne County (41.6%).

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The root of our political beliefs

Posted at 1:52 PM on September 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Surveys and trivia, Surveys and trivia

Why is it so hard to change the mind of a voter? A Nebraska study out today theorizes that there's a physiological reason:

46 volunteers were first asked about their political views on issues ranging from foreign aid and the Iraq war to capital punishment and patriotism.

Those with strong opinions were invited to take part in the second part of the experiment, which involved recording their physiological responses to a series of images and sounds.

The images included pictures of a frightened man with a large spider on his face and an open wound with maggots in it. The subjects were also startled with loud noises on occasion.

The more easily startled, the study says, tended to have more right-wing political views.

The University of Nebraska's Dr. John Hibbing says there's no political value to his research other than to explain to both sides of the proverbial fence that the other is simply experiencing the world differently.

Rice University political scientist John Alford told Newsweek magazine that there are three influences on political opinion: biological predisposition, socialization, and adult experience.

"If you ask someone why they support the Iraq War, they would probably give you some answers out of those latter two categories. They would make an intellectual argument: we were faced with a threat and this was the right choice. If you pushed, they might also mention socialization: well, I'm an Army brat, my dad was a Colonel, my brother's in the Marines. One thing that they'd never say, in my experience is I'm simply biologically predisposed to be sensitive to threats. What's really important here is that we're not dismissing intellectual choice or experience. We're just asking for a place at the table for biology."

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The root of our political beliefs

Posted at 1:52 PM on September 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Surveys and trivia, Surveys and trivia

Why is it so hard to change the mind of a voter? A Nebraska study out today theorizes that there's a physiological reason:

46 volunteers were first asked about their political views on issues ranging from foreign aid and the Iraq war to capital punishment and patriotism.

Those with strong opinions were invited to take part in the second part of the experiment, which involved recording their physiological responses to a series of images and sounds.

The images included pictures of a frightened man with a large spider on his face and an open wound with maggots in it. The subjects were also startled with loud noises on occasion.

The more easily startled, the study says, tended to have more right-wing political views.

The University of Nebraska's Dr. John Hibbing says there's no political value to his research other than to explain to both sides of the proverbial fence that the other is simply experiencing the world differently.

Rice University political scientist John Alford told Newsweek magazine that there are three influences on political opinion: biological predisposition, socialization, and adult experience.

"If you ask someone why they support the Iraq War, they would probably give you some answers out of those latter two categories. They would make an intellectual argument: we were faced with a threat and this was the right choice. If you pushed, they might also mention socialization: well, I'm an Army brat, my dad was a Colonel, my brother's in the Marines. One thing that they'd never say, in my experience is I'm simply biologically predisposed to be sensitive to threats. What's really important here is that we're not dismissing intellectual choice or experience. We're just asking for a place at the table for biology."

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Study: Video games do not turn people into misfits

Posted at 3:49 PM on September 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Video games do not turn people into socially isolated creatures. So says a new study from Pew.

Here's the full report. It comes just a few weeks after an MIT professor debunked 8 myths about video games.

In other news, video games have been blamed for a fiery motorcycle crash, a sex attack, and a satanic sword killing.

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I (heart) my PDA

Posted at 1:36 PM on September 16, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

A new survey says 35 percent Of BlackBerry And PDA users would choose their device over their spouse, according to CBS.

Here's what else the survey from Sheraton Hotels found:

84% check their PDAs just before they go to bed and just after they wake up.
84 % feel that technology gives them more quality time and flexibility with family and friends.
77% say their PDA helps them enjoy life more.

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Taking back the streets

Posted at 2:09 PM on September 6, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

... one credential at a time.

(h/t: St. Paul writer Erik Hare)

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An ill wind blows no good

Posted at 7:47 AM on August 22, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I admit to occasionally wishing ill will on weather people who stand outside in the middle of a hurricane (or tropical storm), dressed in their sponsor-logo raingear, desperately trying to stand still, and ready to take one for the team, all in the interest of telling us to take the hurricane seriously and stay indoors.

But I wouldn't wish this on anybody, no matter how ill advised the activity that led to it. Kevin Kearney was badly injured while kite surfing during Tropical Storm Fay in Ft. Lauderdale.

The obvious question: What was he thinking? A less obvious one: Why didn't he let go?

His mother told a TV talk show this morning that the man saw the video for the first time last night. "He thought they filmed the wrong guy," she said. Alicia Paradise-Garza says he doesn't remember the incident. "He knew there was some kind of danger, but he didn't calculate the tornado or windspout that picked him up."

Last night, his friends set up a Web site on the man's behalf, to help raise money for his medical bills.

A similar accident in Spain last year won a Darwin Award nomination.

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Campus sustainability

Posted at 2:49 PM on August 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The "press release" folder in my INBOX reveals the "campus sustainability report card" today from the National Wildlife Federation.

This comprehensive study by National Wildlife Federation and Princeton Survey Research Associates International reviews trends and new developments in environmental performance and sustainability at 1,068 institutions. It recognizes colleges and universities for exemplary efforts and awards academic letter grades (A through D) for collective, national performance on environmental literacy, energy, water, transportation, landscaping, waste reduction and more. The report analyzes collective trends in the areas of management, operations, and academics.

But enough about them, what about us? We're Minnesotans, afterall, and we love surveys that show our superiority.

University of Minnesota Morris
Augsburg
Bemidji State
Carleton
College of St. Benedict
Dakota County Technical
Gustavus Adolphus
Northland Community and Technical
St. Cloud State
St. Olaf
Winona State

.. were all listed in the "exemplary" category.

Individual states didn't get rated but the Midwest got a "B" for setting goals (the Midwest was lowest rated), B- for staffing environmental programs (middle of the pack), C- in orienting students, C in integrating environmental topics into academics, B- in professional development (highest of all regions), A in water efficiency upgrades (everyone got an "A"), B+ in energy efficiency, D in use of solar, wind, and biomass, A in recycling, C in transportation management, and B in landscaping.

Find the full report here.

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The world by scooter

Posted at 12:32 PM on August 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Energy, Surveys and trivia

It's not that I don't love my job; I do. But I always marvel at the folks who undertake great expeditions without a care, apparently, for having to make a living at it. The various journeys to Antarctica and the North Pole from Minnesota explorers are a couple of examples.

Now there's a third. Two guys are going to spend time riding a scooter from Minnesota to New York City-- and back again. Why? To demonstrate the power of the scooter in the era of high-priced gasoline.

Says the 'expedition's' Web site:

2007, Dustin Saunders moved to Minnesota to seek new opportunities. Once he settled in, the love for his scooter he left in Utah was too much to bear. Dustin then traveled with his friends to Utah to pick it up, and drive the scooter back to Minnesota.

Scooter Quest was originally meant for family and friends to check to see how progress was going as the crew made it back from Utah, to Minnesota. Now, in 2008, Sean, Dustin, and Michael will take their scooters and venture across parts of the United States on an epic adventure of traveling, exploration and fun. The adventure begins on August 23rd, 2008 from Minneapolis, MN ending in New York, NY with checkpoints in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia along the way.

Check out their Web site and their plans to stay connected during their journey. They leave in a couple of days.

(h/t: Laura Yuen)

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The best place to work

Posted at 5:59 AM on August 15, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal is out with its list of the best places to work.

According to a news release, here's the criteria:

To be eligible for consideration as a Business Journal Best Place to Work, companies had to have an office in the Twin Cities 11-county metro area with 10 or more employees, or be Minnesota-based companies with at least 1,000 employees in the state. They also had to have a certain number of employees, depending on company size, complete the online survey.

The online survey part of it is a little questionable. One can imagine the benevolent boss begging the employees to click the survey.

Here's the list:

Administaff Inc.
Arts Midwest
Azul 7
C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.
Capella Education Co.
Carmichael Lynch
Certes Financial Professionals Corp.
Clockwork Active Media Systems
CMGRP Inc.
Colliers Turley Martin Tucker
Comcast
Ecolab Inc.
Ecumen
First Financial USA Ltd.
Fortune Financial
Fredrikson & Byron
Goff & Howard Inc.
Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett
Great River Energy
Harbinger Partners Inc.
HealthEast Care System
Horizontal Integration
Intertech Inc.
Into the Mystic Inc.
JRA Financial Advisors
Lakeview Health
Lancet Software Development Inc.
LarsonAllen
Lindquist & Vennum
Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc.
Olson
Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly
Parsinen Kaplan Rosberg + Gotlieb
RBA Inc.
Reside
Riverbridge Partners
Salo
Securian Financial Group Inc.
Solution Design Group Inc.
SPS Commerce
Tobin Real Estate Co.
Vibrant Technologies Inc.
Wells Fargo
Wenck Associates Inc.
Winthrop & Weinstine

If you work at one of those places, what's so great about it. If you work at another place not listed, why do you think it shold -- or shouldn't -- be on the list.

(PS: I'll be on the road to St. Cloud this morning. Posting will be sporadic until the afternoon)

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We love surveys

Posted at 4:55 PM on August 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I admit it: I love surveys that are about... us.

Minnesota leads the nation in ACT scores? Great. We eat it up. Good job, kids. Take that, Wisconsin! How do you like us now, Iowa?

Less fascinating are the ones -- the obviously inaccurate ones -- that paint us in a less flattering light.

Forbes, for example, says fans of the Minnesota Twins are among the fairest of the fair-weather fans in Major League Baseball. We console ourselves with this injustice by reminding people that the same outfit named Kevin McHale the best general manager in all of sports.

Late today, came another blow to our Gopher-sized ego. Minnesota ranks 44th -- 44th! -- in the nation in fast Internet connections. The Minnesota average is 1.57 megabits per second. The U.S. average is 2.35. Japan is 63.60 megabits per second. A year ago, Minnesota ranked 26th. Wisconsin has passed us. Iowa has not.

The report comes from the Communications Workers of America, the union that stands to benefit, of course, should panic ensue over the situation.

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The kid sings the blues

Posted at 12:50 PM on August 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

In Wisconsin, an underaged person can be served -- and drink -- alcohol, as long as it's OK with the parents who are with the kid. But don't try playing a guitar. Insert your own Wisconsin joke here.

But it's not a laughing matter for Tallan "The T-Man" Latz. He's 8 years old and apparently a heck of a blues player.

But the state of Wisconsin is threatening action if he keeps trying to play in the state's bars and taverns, the Associated Press reports.

An anonymous e-mail sent to state officials complained that Tallan was too young to perform in taverns and nightclubs because of state child labor laws. His booking agent even got an anonymous letter threatening her with death if she keeps booking him.

When Tallan's father read him the state's letter saying he couldn't play clubs anymore (he can still play festivals), the boy's response -- like his music -- seemed beyond his years.

"He goes, 'It's not how many times you get knocked down but it's how many times you get back up and go forward,' Carl Latz said his son told him. "And I told him that's exactly what this is all about and if nothing else this letter just taught you a life lesson."

Tallan was apparently turned in by another blues guitarist who was tired of losing gigs to a kid. Drink up, kid. The show's over.

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Plymouth rocks

Posted at 10:02 AM on July 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Money Magazine, the magazine that's made surveys a cottage industry, has another Minnesota feel-good survey for us.

Plymouth, you're number one.

Lots of rich people, plenty of good jobs, and -- no doubt -- more than a few Money Magazine subscribers makes it the "best small city in America."

Eagan is at #17

More people come to work in Eagan than leave each day. Big companies like Thompson-Routers and Blue Cross Blue Shield are its largest employers.

Check with us on that a year from now, Money.

Apple Valley is #24

To combat urban sprawl, the city has a core downtown area where all commercial businesses lie, with the surrounding neighborhoods free from them.

No offense, Apple Valley -- and Money -- but unless I'm missing something, you look like just about any suburb in America.

Lakeville, which actually has a there there, is #26.

Lakeville is a southern suburb of the Twin Cities that has more than 100 years of history. The town treasures an historic downtown that gives it a unique feel compared to other burbs.

Eden Prairie is #40. Maple Grove is #41. Burnsville is #43. Rochester is #70 (not really sure why Rochester is on this list since it's apparent you have to be a cookie-cutter suburb to even be considered in Minnesota. How else do you explain the absence of so many -- you know -- small cities where people actually answer with the name of the city they actually live in when people ask them where they're from?). Blaine is #93.

Texas had the most number of cities on the list (13). Minnesota tied with New Jersey (9) for second.

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One is alone

Posted at 7:56 AM on July 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Last week MPR's Cathy Wurzer interviewed Eric Thomas of Duluth, who aims to sail solo from San Francisco to Hawaii in the Singlehanded TransPacific Yacht Race. Yacht sounds like a big boat to us landlubbers.

Here's his yacht, courtesy of MPR listener Andrea Diamond, who took this picture a year ago at the conclusion of the Trans Superior race.

Andrea wrote on Saturday:

Hi, I sail w/ Eric on Polar Bear when he's not doing the solo thing. I just got a text message from his wife Sarah that he's off and was first across the starting line (that's a great way to start!). I am looking for some photos I took of Eric finishing the Trans-Superior last summer and will send those along.

Here's a page where you can follow along.

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How and when?

Posted at 5:25 PM on July 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

How do you want to "go?" Quickly or slowly?

Yes, it's creepy to talk about it but fascinating nonetheless as Jen Gross proves on the New York Times' blog The New Old Age. She writes this week about a recent presentation that asked people when they wanted to die. Most, as you might expect, chose when they are "old."

Then the presenter asked : When the room was not thrilled with cancer and then heart disease, they were told that they'd just chosen "dementia and frailty."

"How many of you expect to die?" she asked.

The audience fell silent, laughed nervously and only then, looking one to the other, slowly raised their hands.

"Would you prefer to be old when it happens?" she then asked.

This time the response was swift and sure, given the alternative.

Then Dr. Lynn, who describes herself as an "old person in training," offered three options to the room. Who would choose cancer as the way to go? Just a few. Chronic heart failure, or emphysema? A few more.

"So all the rest of you are up for frailty and dementia?" Dr. Lynn asked.

On the screen above the dais, she showed graphs describing the three most common ways that old people die and the trajectory and duration of each scenario. Cancer deaths, which peak at age 65, usually come after many years of good health followed by a few weeks or months of steep decline, according to Dr. Lynn's data. The 20 percent of Americans who die this way need excellent medical care during the long period of high functioning, she said, and then hospice support for both patient and family during the sprint to death.

Deaths from organ failure, generally heart or lung disease, peak among patients 10 years older, killing about one in four Americans around age 75 after a far bumpier course. These patients' lives are punctuated by bouts of severe illness alternating with periods of relative stability. At some point rescue attempts fail, and then death is sudden. What these patients and families need, Dr. Lynn said, is consistent disease management to head off crises, aggressive intervention at the first hint of trouble and advance planning for how to manage the final emergency.

The third option, death following extended frailty and dementia, is everyone's worst nightmare, an interminable and humiliating series of losses for the patient, and an exhausting and potentially bankrupting ordeal for the family. Approximately 40 percent of Americans, generally past age 85, follow this course, said Dr. Lynn, and the percentage will grow with improvements in prevention and treatment of cancer, heart disease and pulmonary disease.

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Because it's there

Posted at 8:00 AM on July 9, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

The News Cut editorial board (me and the dog) is split over whether it's a good idea to spend even one minute of your life doing relatively pointless things. Take Jim "Mouth" Purol, who is trying to set a world record (kept somewhere) by sitting in all 92,542 seats at the Pasadena Rose Bowl.

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, MSNBC reported, the 56-year-old Anaheim resident had sat on at least 30,000 seats after starting his mission Monday morning.

"I've been wanting to sit in the Rose Bowl's seats for over 20 years, but I kept getting turned down by the city of Pasadena," Purol said. "They thought it was dumb."

It's not all dumb. Purol is raising money for Outward Bound.

He's got an assistant keeping him hydrated and "facilitating the continuous interviews with the media."

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The Congress we don't like

Posted at 4:11 PM on July 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Politics, Surveys and trivia

Two factoids worthy of consideration:

Economic indicators

Posted at 4:01 PM on July 2, 2008 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Just another day in the American economy. UnitedHealth is cutting 4,000 jobs, the Treasury Secretary makes a proposal that allows financial firms to fail without messing up the economy, 900 flight attendants at American Airlines will lose their jobs, and oil prices have hit a new record

News Cut is constantly testing the underpinnings of the American economy. Today is no exception.

Retail sales specialist -- and occasional MPR reporter -- Tom Weber remarked today that the size of sales receipts is growing at a frightening rate. Today, for example, he bought a pack of Mentos and a pack of Eclipse gum (he paid $3.79 for gum, but that's a topic for another day),

Here's his receipt.

9 1/4 inches.

Yesterday I bought lunch for my sons and a friend at a local restaurant. Here's the receipt:

11 inches.

Even the U.S. Postal Service is big-receipt happy. Sending a certified letter?

That'll cost you 9 1/2" of valuable wallet space.

By far, the worst offender is Home Depot. A one-item purchase will net you a sales receipt equivalent to about a full roll of toilet paper.

In most cases, the size is attributable to offers to tempt you into filling out an online survey about the store's performance. "Your receipts are too big," does not appear anywhere as a survey option, however.

Small receipts can usually be found from the gas station's pay-at-the-pump printer. Oil companies are making massive amounts of money. Home stores, restaurants, and street retail are struggling in the economy.

This leads us to the theory we need to test: The worse the business is doing in a tough economy, the bigger the receipt.

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A smokestack is just a smokestack?

Posted at 1:20 PM on June 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Icons, Surveys and trivia

Isn't that a gorgeous picture? Teresa Boardman of the St. Paul Real Estate blog took it (used by permission). As I mentioned the other day, Teresa is a supporter of the notion of preserving the smokestack at Xcel's High Bridge plant in St. Paul, the one they're going to blow up on Saturday morning.

"It's just a smokestack," someone said in the comments section to the above post. True, enough. To appreciate the High Bridge smokestack, you have to think of it as representing something other than what it was -- the dumping ground for pollution from a coal-burning power plant.

Smokestacks, though, represent industrialization, which used to be considered a good thing.

Cleveland, when it built Jacob's Field (I refuse to call it Progressive Field), understood that by designing the light towers to portray smokestacks.

The smokestacks in Cleveland fouled the air in a city where they still joke about the time the river caught on fire, and yet they symbolized something greater.

That, I presume, is what Teresa sees in the smokestack, which is in its final hours as one of the dominating features of the St. Paul skyline.

Which brings us to.... the St. Paul skyline.

A skyline should make a statement about the city to all those who are about to enter it. Absent a symbol of the city's past (along with a demolished brewery from some years ago), what statement will the St. Paul skyline make now?

On the way in from the eastern front today, I noticed the Capitol is now partly obscured from sections of I-94, by the addition to Regions Hospital. We have a bank building with the big red "1" still dominating the skyline. St. Paul: A good place to get sick and cash a check.

There is the Cathedral of St. Paul, of course. It's a gorgeous building, to be sure. But it somehow stands apart from the downtown skyline, as if it's in this city, but not of this city.

Tomorrow, by the way, News Cut will be accepting your pictures of the demolition of the smokestack. We'll be providing video from this end. Use this form to send me your favorite shot. And if you want to provide some prose about the stack, I'll be happy to include that, too.

Update Reader Sean Garrick has sent a photo he took Wednesday evening.

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What Google says about us

Posted at 1:02 PM on June 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

A defense attorney in an obscenity case in Florida is trying to use Google search statistics to prove that the "community standards" are all about porn down there. If everyone is searching for it, the attorney is suggesting, it must be acceptable.

The chart measures the words people are entering in the Google search box in Florida. The defense attorney picked three: surfing, orgy, and apple pie.

The chart shows that the people of Florida search for "orgy" (the red line) more often than they search for a recipe for "apple pie." (the orange line) Surfing (the blue line)? Apparently it's more fun that I thought. (Disclaimer: This would also include searching "Internet surfing," which conjures up all sorts of questions on its own.)

Naturally, News Cut's first reaction (after "nice try, pal!") is to figure out what the same statistics say about us?

We're not that interested in surfing -- or orgies -- apparently, although when broken down by cities, St. Peter has some explaining to do.

Let's replace "surfing" with "fishing."

No contest. Take that, Florida perverts!

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The architecture poll

Posted at 10:53 AM on June 13, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I was going to post the "Most boring architecture" poll (mentioned here and here) to coincide with the NBA Finals, and then other work got in the way. After last night's Celtics win over the Lakers, I realize I better hurry up. The NBA finals are about over. There'll be no Purple Reign this year.

Here are some of the nominees.

And here's the poll:

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The streets of Bovey

Posted at 8:10 AM on June 11, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Among my favorite radio segments of the last 16 years I've been at Minnesota Public Radio is one a small group of talented individuals brought to listeners in the late '90s: The Streets of Bovey.

The police chief in the small town -- Terry Wilkey -- died in 1998. Said an MPR story at the time:

Every week or so, Wilkey would write a list of what he'd been up to; items like, "Found an unlocked door at a business. We locked it." Sometimes, Wilkey talked tough. In one column, he suggested a few nights in the Crowbar motel might straighten out a wrongdoer. Sometimes, details about Wilkey's life would appear. He wrote about the difficulty he had renting a tux for his daughter's wedding, because he was such a big man. He complained about what he paid for the wedding, listing the prices of flowers, food, and photographs. Each column began with a suggestion that know-it-alls should not read his words because they might overtax their minds. Each column ended with the advice, "Lock that door and get that license number."

Though it's been 10 years since The Streets of Bovey appeared in some fashion, I'm reminded of it today while reading a couple of police log entries in the morning paper.

Boring architecture (cont'd)

Posted at 12:28 PM on May 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

News Cut is still taking nominees for the most unimaginative and boring architecture in the Twin Cities (the original post explaining why we're doing this has scrolled off the page but can be found here).

I've set up a little slideshow to more quickly process the submissions.

If you have a nominee in the category, please send it by Monday. Perhaps we can have the playoffs in the category to coincide with the Celtics (one hopes)- Lakers NBA finals.

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Timewasters: TwitterVision

Posted at 4:04 PM on May 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I'm not really qualified -- that is: cool enough -- to write an entire treatise (or even an abbreviated one) about Twitter, described elsewhere as a micro-blogging tool. It either is another form of communication that will revolutionize things, or it's another laughing matter. I leave these questions to the smart people, like MPR's American Public Media's Jon Gordon.

I do know this: TwitterVision, in which these random thoughts appear on a map, is one of the most intriguing -- if not particularly useful -- things I've ever encountered on the Web. Last week, I noticed, there was nothing on TV. So I "watched" TwitterVision.

As a young lad, I wondered what it must be like to be God at prayertime, and how he (she?) sorted everything out when it was coming at him (her?) at once.

Hold that thought! Somebody in Tulsa says he's getting a tatoo. Gotta Go,

http://twitter.com/bcollinsmn

Update 8:12 a 5/22 -- Here's a great example of how a company can use Twitter effectively.

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Power, lab-grown meat, and cellphones

Posted at 3:22 PM on May 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

It's been far too long since I pulled together one of these.

The day in science:

Junk food junkies

Posted at 7:08 AM on May 20, 2008 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Unrelated -- perhaps -- stories today from Planet Junkfood.

A study of monkeys, the New York Times reports today -- finds that given the choice of junk food or something more nutritious, monkeys on the lower rung of the social ladder will not only choose junk food, but dive headfirst into the stuff.

For the monkeys the situation seems simple. They get some sort of comfort that is particularly appealing to the subordinate monkeys. One possibility is that the fatty foods help block the monkeys' stress responses. Studies with rodents have shown that high-calorie foods cause a metabolic change that tamps the release of stress hormones like cortisol.

Meanwhile, at the Metrodome, the Twins are trying an all-you-can-eat promotion. For an additional $12 per ticket, you can dive headfirst into the stuff. And that's what people did.

Insert monkey joke here.

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Sexy voices and fertile women

Posted at 12:22 PM on May 1, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Veteran News Cutters recognize I have a penchant for offbeat studies.

Fortunately, every day brings another fix.

Fertile Women Have Sexier Voices, the headline on the BBC Web site screams today.

Scientists have suggested that very subtle changes caused by the rise and fall of different sex hormones can be detected by men, who then perhaps find a woman more attractive without necessarily even realising why.

The latest research, from the State University of New York at Albany and originally published in the journal Human Evolution and Behavior, involved taking recordings of women counting from one to 10 at four points during the menstrual cycle and then played them back to male and female students.

"The missing link here is finding out how this works in plain conversation - in a bar, for example," says Dr David Feinberg, from the McMaster University in Canada.

And why do we need to know that?

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Your happiness/health index

Posted at 7:25 AM on April 30, 2008 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

I'm on the road to Two Harbors today so posting will be light. Thus, it falls on your to pick up the slack. But, no pressure.

Fortunately, we've got The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. It's based on interviews of more than 100,000 people and it, shows that 47 percent of Americans
are struggling and 4 percent are suffering. Forty-nine percent of respondents are reported to be thriving based on a personal assessment of how they feel about their lives at the time of the survey, and where they think they'll be in five years.

The survey is done every day and Gallup says it will do it for the next 25 years.

Findings so far indicate that peoples' workplaces and any health problems are the two major contributors to whether people are happy.

You know what's coming, right? Sooner or later, Gallup is going to be in workplace. So tell me first. What are they going to find?

Oh, and what do you think your life is going to be like in five years.

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Are you addicted to your computer?

Posted at 10:40 AM on April 25, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

For the sake of the future of the little children on the News Cut staff (OK, there aren't any little children and there isn't any News Cut staff, but let's just pretend.), I certainly hope so.

Take this quiz.

This question, in particular, creeps me out:

How often do you prefer the excitement of the Internet to intimacy with your partner?

and so does this one:

How often do you block out disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet?

Soothing thoughts of the Internet? Oh, bandwidth, you gorgeous bandwidth! Reveal to me the underlying source code of this page. Yes. Yes. Oh, yes.

Full disclosure: I scored a 30. Which means, "You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage."

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Tightwad or spendthrift?

Posted at 4:30 PM on April 21, 2008 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Are you a spendthrift or a tightwad?

On Tuesday's Midmorning on Minnesota Public Radio, we're going to examine some research that recently came out that found:

The freedom to water?

Posted at 12:11 PM on April 18, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Now that freedom is on the march and there's a movement afoot to allow us to burn incandescent light bulbs if that's what we want, perhaps the next battleground is water.

As the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports today, there's a coming "crackdown" on people who use too much water on their lawns.

"To crack down on such water wasters, Woodbury is pioneering a new water-conservation tool -- water audits."

because...

"Officials were outraged to learn that a single user -- a home in the ritzy Powers Lake Point area -- used 471,000 gallons last summer."

A "crackdown"? "Outrage?" You'd think the "targeted" homeowners were breaking the law. But, in fact, they aren't. While these homeowners may be gluttonous, earth-destroying, sloths, there's no law to stop them. Should there be?

As usual, the greatest show on earth, is the comments section of a newspaper's Web site, with opinion ranging from:

More liberals controlling our lives-Kids are starving in Haiti due to ethonal and we wnat to monitor water usage in Woodbury. Great!!!!!

...to...

The state legislature needs to get involved in this water debacle. We need to implement a state-wide tax of at least $1 per gallon of water used.

That last one came from someone from North Dakota. Three words, Fargo: You go first.

As any newspaper carrier can tell you, an early-morning drive around Woodbury, especially in the rain, will find lots of automatic sprinklers in action (usually in townhome developments where no single person appears to be in charge anyway).

There actually is a law in Minnesota that requires rain sensors to be installed on lawn-irrigation systems. It passed by wide margins in the Republican-controlled House, the DFL-controlled Senate and was signed by the Republican governor.

The real mystery here is what is it about green lawns that drives Minnesota into such irrational exuberance? I have friends -- yeah, in Woodbury -- who weren't sucked into the lawn-care marketing and when dandelions sprouted, their neighbor came in the dark of night and applied weed-killer to their lawn. What is it we think a green lawn says about us that we're so desperate to have it say?

Ted Steinberg, author of "American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn," says it's a Post World War II thing:

As American industry became more efficient in turning out innovations people needed--such as washing machines, stoves, cars and more--there still was plenty of capacity left over to turn out even more products that were less essential--such as those that could be used to create and maintain perfect lawns.

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