Secrets of the City

Dr. Steven Chu is visiting Minnesota today, visiting a facility that trains workers how to install and repair those giant wind turbines that generates about seven percent of the electrical power used in Minnesota. In Rochester, Secretary Chu will also view a mobile, self-contained ethanol plant (we called them “stills” in Indiana) and solar powered cars.

Minnesota has long been proud of it’s green creed. What steps should we take next, or have we already gone too far in the wrong direction? Discus.

via CNN: As people become disillusioned from financial woes and a downtrodden economy and look to put new purpose in their lives, everyday folks are taking on new personas to perform community service, help the homeless and even fight crime.

An accompanying photo shows a “superhero” named Geist, looking a bit like The Spirit, patroling Rochester, MN.

From PC World: According to Big Blue, Sequoia will have the power of 2 million laptops. Its closest rival, the world’s first petaflop machine, Roadrunner, can only perform at speeds equivalent to 100,000 laptops combined.

I, for one, can’t wait to see how the erotic online industry makes use of such a powerful computer.

Pawlenty is recommending almost $20 million in new funding for UMN Rochester. Is it a good idea to continue expansion of out-state higher educational programs or should we concentrate our efforts on the Twin Cities campus?

Fortune has released its annual 100 Best Companies To Work For. You know what’s coming next: #89 Mayo Clinic, #98 General Mills. Yep, that’s it. (They dropped from #81 and #58 respectively.)

The New York Times has a freaky story about the midwest’s obsession with cage fighting. The perfectly legal competitive brawls sound barbaric to say the least — ouch, check out the slideshow. The story claims that cage fighting is also making a comeback in Rochester, Fargo, and Des Moines, but one must wonder if this story simply allows civilized coastal urbanites to point their finger at the noble savages, thereby making them again feel good for not living in fly-over country.

This is even better than learning Spike Lee is looking for hot Albanians: Fear Factor is coming to Minnesota. “Casting directors are now searching for the single most energetic and fearless household in greater Rochester.” Say what? How the home of the Mayo Clinic will stand up in a new season that will pit “two-person teams against each other with a variety of extreme challenges in exotic locations” is anyone’s guess.