Stories tagged minneapolis

The last stand?: Elephants and their riders strike a pose at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, recently. Some cities, like Minneapolis, are considering banning wild animals from circus performances (Flickr photo by Edith Frost)
The debate at Minneapolis City Hall keeps churning on: should wild animals be banned from performances in circuses in the city?

If the proposed ordinance would pass, it would make it illegal for circuses to showcase lions, tiger, elephants or other exotic animals. Sponsors of the proposed ordinance say that animals in the shows are often mistreated.

So far in the U.S., only one city, Albuquerque, N.M., has an animal ban for circuses. And in action at the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday, Sept. 20, council members weren’t ready to go to an all-out ban, but passed measures for tighter regulations and fines for animal mistreatment.

So what do you think? Should wild animals be freed from circus performance? Or do they have a great life of easy food, great travel and fun companionship. Personally, I think I’d prefer to be a circus animal than an animal in a zoo. Would you be more or less inclined to go to a circus if it didn’t have wild animals? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.

Tags : minneapolis, circus animal ban, animal cruelty, circus animal, Why would you do this

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7 dead, 60 injured (as of 1am, Aug 2)

I-35W bridgeAt 6:05 pm, during peak traffic, the 35-W bridge over the Mississippi river collapsed. All eight lanes, all the way across, just dropped straight down into the river along with more than 50 cars, trucks, and even a school bus. How could this happen? Here is what I have found so far.

The I -35W bridge.

What does it look like? How is it made? It was a steel arch deck truss bridge. Its longest span stretched 458 feet between supports. It was built in 1967. (Link to photos and more data about the I-35W bridge.)

What might have gone wrong?

"The state, whoever did the inspection, which was likely to be MnDOT, noticed and observed cracking in the structural steel members, the main girders that hold the bridge up in the air. What it means is that the bridge is no longer going to stay stable," Galarn said.

Link to early video with a safty engineer about what might have went wrong.

How safe are other bridges?

Transportation Commissioner Len Levine who served under Governor Rudy Perpich (said) "between 40 and 50 percent of the 20,000 bridges in Minnesota are deficient in some way."

What is going to happen to traffic?

There will be added bus services from North metro area.
Map of detour routes.(pdf)

Where are photos of this disaster?

KSTP has lots of photos and updates.
Detroit Free Press had 25 photos.
34 photos on Flickr by blogger s4xton Read his story here.

Please use our comments to add updates, photo links, or thoughts.

I could not sleep so I started this after midnight. This story will keep growing so stay tuned and share what you know.

Tags : bridge, disaster, minneapolis, engineering, I-35W, collapse, bridge collapse

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We're #5! Minneapolis-St.Paul is ranked as the fifth cleanest city in the world: Photo by kevinthoule at flickr.com

Forbes magazine has an article on the world’s 25 cleanest cities. Minneapolis comes it at #5.

The list comes from studies conducted by the Mercer Human Resources Consulting which rate quality of living in various cities. They looked at things like producing sufficient energy cleanly, handling waste responsibly, encouraging recycling, and efficient transportation.
According to the article:

It is interesting to note that size does not appear to be a factor either in terms of size of population or physical size of the city. The most common trait in common to each is a focus on high tech, education and headquartering of national and international companies along with an extensive public transit system.

The ecotality blog notices something interesting – all of the top 25 are in industrialized democracies. Normally, we think of industry as being very dirty. But writer Bill Hobbs suggests that

“…industrialization created wealth which, in turn, buys the things (mass transit, especially) and pays for the policies that create a cleaner environment.”

I would add that, in democracies, citizens can pressure government and business to pass laws protecting the environment. The actions necessary to make a clean city require money and political will. Clearly, capitalism is good for the environment!

Tags : environment, minnesota, minneapolis, cities, cleanest

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