Corvallis ranks as fifth smartest city in U.S.

University community boosts Corvallis into Forbes Online Magazine's top 25 smart cities

Melissa Petersen

Corvallis was recently ranked fifth on a list of America's smartest cities, compiled by Forbes online magazine. The list was based on the percentage of people per city aged 25 and older with at least a bachelor's degree.

According to the study, more than 93 percent of Corvallis residents have graduated from high school and nearly 48 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher. Almost six percent of the residents have a doctorate, while about two percent have a professional degree required for doctors, attorneys and architects.

The majority of the top cities chosen boast a university within their vicinity, which has a direct correlation with the concentration of people with higher education degrees. Also, having a university in a small town drives residents toward pursuing higher education because of easy access.

Hewlett-Packard, Good Samaritan Hospital and OSU are all major employers of the Corvallis community. A big factor for Corvallis earning this ranking is the large impact OSU has on the community. Many staff and faculty members live in Corvallis along with their families.

"When the faculty and staff of the university have children, they are likely to push their children to succeed, and so after a few generations you're left with a group of people that are very well-educated" said Alex Graham, a senior majoring in chemical engineering and pre-pharmacy.

Until recently, OSU and Corvallis have not received any national recognition, mainly because Corvallis is considered to be a small town and out of the way from major areas like Portland, Salem, Eugene and Medford.

The cities on the Forbes list have populations ranging from 80,000 to 4 million people.

According to Forbes.com, the presence of a university was the main factor contributing to a number of smaller cities, such as Corvallis, appearing on the list.

The top spot went to Boulder, Colo., with most of its population coming from the University of Colorado.

Metro areas rounded off the list, including San Francisco and Seattle - some of the country's biggest high-tech centers, drawing in well-educated people who tend to be recent college graduates.
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Published in TheDailyBarometer

From Castro to Castro

After his elder brother, Fidel, announced his retirement, Raul Castro is the new president of Cuba. The younger Castro has headed Cuba's caretaker government in the 19 months since then, and Fidel Castro has not appeared in public. Fidel ruled Cuba for half century fighting with frustrated efforts of 10 US presidents to oust him from the power.

This change will not make any significant difference in the political system in Cuba. The U.S. has said the change from one Castro to another would not be significant, calling it a "transfer of authority and power from dictator to dictator light." There is no election in Cuba and people have no right to choose their leaders.

There are very few countries that support Cuban government. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez reaffirmed his economic and political support of Cuba when he took a telephone call from Raul Castro after he become president. Chavez scoffed at the idea of a transition in Cuba, saying "the transition occurred 49 years ago," from U.S.-dominated capitalism to socialism.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons-1

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons(PAHs) are organic chemicals having fused aromatic rings. A simple example of aromatic compound is Benzene. PAH can have 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 benzene rings. There are more than 100 compounds listed under PAHs. Some examples of PAHs are:

3-rings: Anthracene, Phenanthrene
4-rings: Chrysene
5-rings:Benzo[a]pyrene
7-rings:Coronene

The primary source of PAHs is incomplete combustion of carbon containing fuels such as wood, coal, diesel, tobacco etc. Some of the PAHs are markers for the source of pollution. For example Retene is primarily found in the smoke from the forest fire.

Anthracene



These PAHs are pollutants and they are carcinogenic to humans.

There are different methods to analyze these pollutants in laboratory. Our laboratory use gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for this purpose. They are found in soil, water, snow, vegetation, air. That means they are everywhere. These pollutants move from where they were produced. Researches have shown that the presence of PAHs in the atmosphere of remote places of the earth-Arctic region. This shows PAHs undergo long range transport. So no matter who is responsible for the production of such deadly pollutants, their bad effect is divided everyone in the earth.

I will write more specific information about these pollutants in upcoming blogs. Please visit science to society.

Obama verses Hillari

Today Barack Obama has won three more states in the battle to become a nominee in the presidential election from Democratic party. Obama and Hillari are two competitors for the nomination from Democratic party. Analysts say Obama is neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the nationwide battle.


Hillary Clinton is running strongly among women, Hispanics, and less well-off voters, while Barack Obama has the edge among African Americans, younger voters, and more affluent and college-educated Democrats.




Mr. Obama: Hope for new generation



I had talked with one retired white american about his candidate couple of weeks ago. He said he even didn't think about republicans. Between Clinton and Obama, he gave preference to Mr. Obama. According to him he is a hope for the future of America. And one important point he had mentioned is Hillari is in politics for three decades and she is surrounded by different lobby groups. So she would work for those groups and not for the benefit of American people. But Mr Obama is new to this field.



Ms Clinton: From First lady to first woman president


At the same moment I thought he could also be surrounded by those groups when he would become president. In my opinion its the system not the person. I don't know how many Americans think like this. One of my college friend in department of chemistry and his wife also are the supporters of Mr Obama.


Here is the different case. Nepalese in the US are supporters of Ms Hillari. They are campaigning for her by making a slogan " Nepali for Hillar-Hillari for Nepali".

Whoever be nominated by democratic party will become the president of USA if anything won't happen surprising. Hillari will be first women president and Obama will be first black president of USA. So both are racing for making history.



Nepali support for Ms Clinton