My city's collective I.Q. is higher than yours

With every year that passes I hope to be smarter. I like to read, watch and expose myself to things and experiences that will challenge me to think in a different way. That being said, I was recently thinking about how the city you live affects your intelligence. Basically, how smart is your city?

An interesting concept I think. Some cities just have a pulse of creative and intellectual energy. Universities and other institutions of higher learning everywhere, libraries, theatres, galleries and other outlets that I feel are representative of an "intellectual" city. Judging how smart a city is really consists of developing criteria upon which to judge cities. An interesting task in itself.

Right away some of the indicators I thought of included:
- the # of universities, colleges, post-secondary schools and their enrollment as a % of total population
- the # of citizens with degrees (undergrad, grad, ph.d)
- reading level of local newspapers
- accessibility to arts and cultural institutions

Some things are easy to judge, but I think that there are probably some indicators out there that some of us might not think of. The reading level of the local newspaper was one of those that I thought was a telling indicator. For example, 24 Hours, a local daily newsaper is nothing more than a glorified tabloid, yet given it's focus on commuters has a huge readership. So high, that it took out another younger focused paper that in my opinion had a far more intelligent readership and focus.

200 years ago, the world's most intelligent cities were probably easy to identify. Paris, Rome, Beijing, Istanbul, Moscow, Vienna and the list could probably go on. Now, however with accessiblity to so much information and an exchange of ideas all across the globe it would be interesting to think about where these dens of higher thought are, how to identify them and how to make our own cities look more like them.

Personally, I think N. America probably has a couple of good ones to contribute. Hell Microsoft probably created it's own and Silicon Valley has got to be considered a contender. With consideration of the smartest city, it seems only natural to think "just where is the stupidest city around?".

Things that make you go huuuum.

Globalisation. Don't you just love it? The world continues to get smaller and more similar. What took 3 weeks aboard a trans-atlantic freight-liner takes 5 hours and when you get there you feel as if you haven't left. Comforting or scary?

Believe me, I don't listen to everything I say because there will always be more good out there then bad, and always a good reason to go somewhere different. It is scary all the same just how prevalent N. American culture is all over.

I came across this interesting map a while back showing the number of Starbucks and McDo's worldwide. The maps also include some other interesting facts about both corporations including gross sales as well as the number of different countries that provide beans for that no fat, extra-hot, no whip, tall mocha java you love so much.

The leaves fall

And just like that we run for the living rooms fantacizing about stew and a fireplace, or is that just me? The leaves are definitely starting to change and the morning and evenings are cool. It's actually a perfect temperature and the light has that distinct late September glow to it. What next?

There are tons of great autumnal activities happening right now. I've definitely been trying to get some hiking in before the mountains are covered in snow. Lots of great arts events and theatre happening. All that being said, I am just drawn to hanging indoors listening to music ... eating.

I haven't been as active writing lately, but have been reading some great articles and listening to some great music. Namely, articles from maisonneuve magazine's site and tons o' hip-hop.
Hope to have more inspiration to write lately, will work on that.

Where all the lights are bright.

Good ol' labour day weekend. The unofficial end to summer. Really, I almost expect the weather to turn for the worse tomorrow. The one good thing is that it generally forces you to try and squeeze everything you wanted to do over the summer into one weekend. At least that's the way it makes me feel.

Being a teacher of sorts, labour day weekend represents the new "year" and therefore a time to take stock, set goals, feel shitty about things you haven't done and feel hopeful about the things you want to achieve in the future. This year I got a whole list of things I want to do and I don't really feel that bad about things from the past year. Au contraire. The last 12 months have gone by in a blink of an eye and a good one at that. The kind of blink where you don't miss the one boob shot in a really bad movie that you've stayed awake till like 2 in the morning just to see.

Two days from now will make one whole year on the rain coast and one whole year since I "left" Toronto. Lots of ups and downs since there, but overall I have so many things to be proud and happy about. A lot really has happened in the past year and I've tried to learn from all of it. Really that's the most important thing to me. I mean why bother feel shitty if you aren't going to learn anything from it? My point exactly.

What does all this mean? Take a look around, smile at the good stuff, frown at the not so good stuff and make sure next year at this time you've created more to smile about.