MetaFilter posts tagged with minnesota

Ice-Tsunami

finnegans — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:51:27 -0800

To complement the rapid political climate change of the past few days, here in Minnesota we have freak ice destruction followed by a gorgeous day of 90 degree temperatures. I've seen the ice out on Mille Lacs Lake many times, but this YouTube video is pretty incredible, and features commentary in authentic Minnesotan.

Love is the Law

Area Man — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:30:21 -0800

Today, at noon (central daylight time) the Minnesota Senate will begin debate on a bill to legalize same sex marriages. The bill already passed the Minnesota House. As Reuters reports, the Senate will likely pass the bill, and Governor Mark Dayton has promised to sign it into law. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that gay marriage has made a dramatic turn in Minnesota in just two years. As Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck notes, just two years ago a Republican controlled state legislature thought it would benefit them to place a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the ballot. One live stream of the debate in the Minnesota Senate will be here. Minnesota Public Radio will also have a liveblog. MinnPost suggests the Suburbs' Love is the Law (YouTube link) may become the unofficial celebratory anthem for the legalization of gay marriage in Minnesota. Chan Poling from the Suburbs discussed his support for gay marriage with the Current and revealed that the song may be performed at the big celebration on Tuesday after the governor signs the bill.

'Cause the Union Makes Us Strong

cthuljew — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:48:56 -0800

On May 16, 1934, the Teamsters local 574 of Minneapolis, Minnesota called for a strike to stop all truck deliveries in the city not run by union workers. This 1981 documentary tells the story in the workers' own words. Part 1, part 2.

Canoeing down the Mississippi

jiawen — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:02:33 -0800

Between July 28 and November 10, 2003, Ron Haines canoed down the entire length of the Mississippi. Eight years later, he wrote it up as a series of blog posts with lots of interesting photos and observations: Lake Itasca to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Minneapolis-St. Paul to St. Louis. St. Louis to New Orleans. He also wrote up his logistics and some of the press coverage he got along the way. The website of the Sabula, IA Castle on the River B&B has changed.

Not imminent, but likely

edgeways — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:47:51 -0800

When the DFL retook the Senate and House in MN last November, amidst the defeat of a referendum to enshrine marriage as one man/one woman in the Minnesota Constitution, there was a lot of speculation what would happen next. Last night bills passed out of committees on both the MN House and Senate (party line votes of 10-7 and 5-3) that would ensure marriage equality for same sex couples. It is now expected to reach the floor after budget bills and votes are presented and voted on. Final passage, while probable, is not guaranteed as some rural DFLers (in the Senate especially) are likely to oppose the bill. There is conversely, at least on Republican Senator, Branden Petersen, co-sponsoring the marriage equality measures). The DFL Gov (Mark Dayton) has indicated he would sign the measure if it reached his desk. Marriage equality could well come to Minnesota by August of 2013

Could be worse. Whatever.

cthuljew — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:39:27 -0800

How To Speak Minnesotan [slyt]

I ♥ DULUTH, The Story of the Maria Bamford Show

Toekneesan — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:41:49 -0800

About a year after her participation in the groundbreaking Comedy Central documentary series the Comedians of Comedy, Maria Bamford was on stage at the Friars Club in LA when a heckler began shouting at her. What happened after that isn’t entirely clear, other than Bamford had a breakdown, walked off stage, and disappeared. She was found three months later selling clock radios on the sidewalks of Detroit. A fellow homeless person, who was also a Comedy Central fan, recognized Bamford and eventually her parents were contacted. They brought her back home to Deluth, Minnesota and began to get her help. Maria decided to document her recovery in a series of short videos called The Maria Bamford Show, which were first posted to the TBS networks' now abandoned Super Deluxe Web site. • The Maria Bamford Show: 01 Dropout • The Maria Bamford Show: 02 Maria Gets A Job • The Maria Bamford Show: 03 Kicked Out • The Maria Bamford Show: 04 Search for Meaning • The Maria Bamford Show: 05 Ready for Love • The Maria Bamford Show: 06 Mother's Day • The Maria Bamford Show: 07 Showtime • The Maria Bamford Show: 08 Crevasse • The Maria Bamford Show: 09 Bread • The Maria Bamford Show: 10 Dark • The Maria Bamford Show: 11 Will • The Maria Bamford Show: 12 Faith • The Maria Bamford Show: 13 Oh - CD • The Maria Bamford Show: 14 Death and Happiness • The Maria Bamford Show: 15 Boredom • The Maria Bamford Show: 16 Acting Out • The Maria Bamford Show: 17 Horror • The Maria Bamford Show: 18 Moving • The Maria Bamford Show: 19 Replacement • The Maria Bamford Show: 20 Exit Her latest effort solo effort is Maria Bamford: The Special Special Special which she recorded in her living room, for an audience of two—her parents. The Onion’s AV Club called it, “[O]ne of the most fearless and bracingly dark explorations of mental illness in recent memory. But since the special is the product of Bamford’s beautifully tormented mind, it has the benefit of being consistently hilarious.” Slate: Stand-up Comedy and Mental Illness: A Conversation with Maria Bamford. She is currently doing the voice of the Hot Dog Princess on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, and has apparently signed on to the Netflix re-boot of Arrested Development. Bonus Material: Maria on Jesse Thorn's The Sound of Young America, 2007. Maria joins Marc Maron during the live filming of What the Fuck at UCB Theatre in Los Angeles, 2009. Maria on Marc Maron's What the Fuck in 2011 (segment c). Maria Explains Global Conflict. Maria recounts her visit to a Morning Zoo radio show. Maria on and in Minnesota. The Maria Bamford Activity Guide. 2004 interview with Scene Missing magazine. previously 1 & 2

How to talk Minnesota Nice

larrybob — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 13:24:01 -0800

I grew up in Minnesota, home of a particular passive-aggressive communication style which is summed up nicely by this chart and subsequent comments. Of particular import is the difference between "that's different" and "that's sure different" (though there isn't mention of "that's real different," which I think means just about the same thing) and examples of Minnesota Enthusiastic Neutral. Also worth noting is the classic book by sometime A Prairie Home Companion regular Howard Mohr, How to Talk Minnesotan. An example:

"That's sure different": like "that's different" but really anybody ought to be able to SEE that I hate your choices what is WRONG with you do you not have a combination of manners and sarcasm on your planet. "That's different": your hair smells of coconut, and I personally hate coconut. "That's sure different": your hair smells of rotten coconut. "That's different" could be an honest difference of opinion; "that's sure different" indicates that no sane person could do what you have just done. But we don't want to be rude about it!

"You can't always take. You also have to give back."

Lexica — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:26:09 -0800

At age 70, and after 46 years of building Leuken's Village Foods into a three-store chain (two in Bemidji, Minnesota, one in Wahpeton, North Dakota), Joe Leuken is ready to retire. He could have sold the stores to the highest bidder. Instead, he's giving them to his employees.

On Jan. 1, Lueken's Village Foods, with two supermarkets in Bemidji and another in Wahpeton, N.D., will begin transferring ownership to its approximately 400 employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP). Lueken said he had multiple offers to sell to large independent chains and might have gotten more money that way. But he and his family believe that selling to workers will be better for them, the business and this north-central Minnesota city of 13,000 people. "My employees are largely responsible for any success I've had, and they deserve to get some of the benefits of that," Lueken said earlier this week. "You can't always take. You also have to give back."

Coursera Not Allowed to Provide Courses to Minnesota Residents?

Area Man — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:30:46 -0800

The State of Minnesota has informed Coursera that it cannot offer courses to Minnesota residents because it has not obtained permission to do so from the state. The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus blog reports on the story here. The State was acting pursuant to the "Minnesota Private and Out-of-State Public Postsecondary Education Act," which requires schools to register with the state if they offer courses in Minnesota and requires approval if degrees are granted or the words "college" or "university" are used in the name of a school. The law was enacted in 1975 and appears to have been intended to be a consumer protection law. Noted First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh has opined at his blog that the statute is unconstitutional, at least as applied to a web site that offers its courses for free and does not grant degrees.

Duluth Flood

the young rope-rider — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:12:38 -0800

Flooding in Duluth, MN leads to incredible pictures and sudden fame for a local seal.

MK Occupy Minnesota

punishinglemur — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:41:15 -0800

"The report indicates that police patrol downtown Minneapolis looking for impaired people, then drive them to a testing facility in Richfield for examination of their capabilities while intoxicated. But in some cases where no previously impaired people could be found, police seduced prospective participants with drugs. The study has been ongoing since early last month." A 35-minute video, titled "MK Occupy Minnesota: Drugs & the DRE Program at Peavey Plaza," documents allegations that Minnesota law enforcement officers provided drugs to people hanging out in a downtown Minneapolis park in exchange for their participation in a drug impairment study. The Minneapolis Star Tribune documents reactions from Minneapolis police, the State Patrol, and Minneapolis city council member Cam Gordon. In a forum post, Gordon provided further details on the allegations against police: "One of the people who testified there appeared to be under or close to the age of 18 and reported about how he was recruited, transported, given illegal drugs and asked to used them in a secluded location by government employed public safety employees. Last night, I was called by a concerned mother who was very upset because her son had been given free drugs by a police officer when he went out to participate in what he thought would be social action in a public plaza to help improve his community and country. She was shocked to learn from her son later that police gave her son illegal drugs and asked him to use them, indicating that it was okay and that it was part of a police program."

The world doesn't need another $150 Algebra One book

filthy light thief — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:34:35 -0800

The University of Minnesota recently announced that its College of Education and Human Development has created a searchable online catalog of "open textbooks" that are reviewed by U of M faculty. The books must be Openly Licensed, complete (not a draft version of the text, or a collection of lecture notes), suitable for use outside of the author's institution, and available in print for a reasonable price, generally less than $40 USD. This site differs from other collections of open textbooks in that it is developed and supported by a well known and respected university. University of Minnesota faculty will be paid $500 to write a review of an open-source textbook, the same amount they earn to adopt such a book in class. Related, previously: * Boundless Learning, an attempt at simulating required textbooks through various open texts, is being sued by 3 major publishers. * The Open College Textbook Act of 2009, which went nowhere.

watch those hems, boys!

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:14:24 -0800

Moments before the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in the small town of Padua, Minnesota was about to begin, a truck fire broke out at the end of the block. Fortunately, the all-volunteer firefighting crew from nearby Sedan, Minnesota was on hand to celebrate their 125th anniversary, and to raise money to pay for their new fire hall and truck. One of their members was set to drive the new fire truck in the parade, and the others were on a float, dressed in drag to entertain the crowd. Firemen in Drag Put Out Truck Fire.

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

strangely stunted trees — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:27:21 -0800

The true name of the man most famously known as Lord George Gordon Gordon will likely never be known. His name, though false, will nevertheless live in history for pulling one of the great advance-fee cons of all time, swindling in 1872 over a million dollars out of Jay Gould, most unscrupulous of all the robber barons and no stranger himself to a long con. Gould's quest for revenge would nearly lead to a military invasion of Manitoba by the Minnesota state militia. In 1872, Gould was deep in the Erie War with Cornelius Vanderbilt, a furious battle for control of the board of the Erie Railroad. When Horace Greeley, reformer and editor of the New York Tribune, made the acquaintance of a visiting Scottish earl and discovered that he held $30M of Erie stock personally and the proxy to $20M more given by reform-minded British stockholders, he was delighted to make an introduction to Gould. A deal was soon struck, but Lord Gordon Gordon's expenses had after all already been considerable, and with a man as sharp as Jay Gould, he needed some better proof of his good intentions than merely his word.

"600 shares of Erie, some 1,900 of corporations affiliated with Erie, and 4,722 of the Oil Creek and Allegheny Valley Railroad, twenty-one thousand dollar bonds of the Nyack and Northern Railroad, and $160,000 in currency. The careful recipient of these securities and cash presently found an error of forty thousand dollars in the footing of Gould's memorandum and sent word of the shortage. Gould did not think there was such an error, but under the circumstances he would not dispute the point and came back with an additional forty thousand dollars in cash. To a modest request for a memorandum receipt, his lordship replied with exceeding dignity that his word of honor ought to be receipt enough, and handed the bundle back to Gould. Gould took it, went as far as the door, returned, laid it down, and departed in faith that his property was in safe hands. It must have been sheer sport in playing a fish which had taken his hook so greedily that led Gordon to demand that Gould separate himself from the old directorate. On March 9 Gould delivered to him his resignation as director and president of the Erie Railway Company, to take effect upon the appointment of his successor. The great covenant was complete."

When the truth came out, Gordon fled the US for Manitoba, where he lived as a popular guest of high society. Rather than seek extradition, Gould sent a party of New York bounty hunters and Minneapolis policemen to seize Gordon and return him to the US. The first they did, but they were stopped at the border by Canadian customs officers, who, unconvinced by the bounty hunters' novel argument that a warrant issued by one common law country was valid in another, freed Gordon and arrested the Americans. A furious diplomatic controversy ensued at the highest levels, and Minneapolis mayor George Brackett later claimed that President Grant himself had authorized a military response "if the speedy release of the Minnesotans could not be effected legally ..." The crisis was defused when the Americans were found guilty but released with time served. Gordon, however, could not fight legitimate extradition proceedings later brought against him by an Edinburgh jeweler for credit fraud - though he claimed the baleful hand of Gould was behind them. On August 1, 1874 (.pdf) the man sometimes called Lord George Gordon Gordon, the Hon. Mr Herbert Hamilton, Lord Glencairn, George Gordon, George Herbert Gordon, and John Herbert Charles Gordon put a bullet in his own head rather than return to Scotland a prisoner.

Neutrality Policy and the Wall of Silence

zizzle — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:12:07 -0800

In Anoka, Minnesota, nearly ten students have committed suicide in the past year and a half. Anoka is part of the congressional district of Congresswoman Michele Bachman, and it had a policy of neutrality with regards to GLBTQ discussions in its public schools that "The Rolling Stone" reports as having now been replaced. The policy implemented by the school board was supported by members of the Parents Action League, whose mission includes the statement, "To motivate and equip citizens with current and accurate information about issues that impact the family and could undermine the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their own children." The policy was enacted without informing parents or being written in any district handbooks. School employees, and it turned out the school board itself, were confused about how to handle the policy, resulting in a wall of silence on anything related to sexual orientation, even from teachers who identified as GLBTQ in their personal lives. In the end, it took the deaths of multiple teens --- four who identified as GLBTQ --- a filed law suit from the Southern Poverty Law Center, and backlash from parents and gay rights organizations for the policy to be revisited. The suicides have been previously discussed on Metafilter. One article explores why Michele Bachmann's anti-gay allies contributed to the culture of silence and bullying in her congressional district. Another features the mother of one of the deceased students, who has since opened her home to area GLBTQ students. While all this was going on, the Minnesota state government was battling itself on an anti-bullying bill, having been one of three states yet to pass such a measure. The suicides have been previously discussed on Metafilter.

Branding 10,000 Lakes

Foci for Analysis — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:06:49 -0800

Designer Nicole Meyer intends to create an unique logo for each and one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. The index makes navigation easier. Minnesota lakes facts | List of lakes in Minnesota | LakeFinder

"From the bottom of our hearts, we ask that you please accept our apology."

dubold — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:27:44 -0800

Senator Amy Koch, who campaigned this year to put a constitutional amendment on next year's ballot to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. has admitted that she had "a relationship with a Senate staffer" who is not her husband. She has stepped down as Majority Leader of the Minnesota Senate, announced she will not seek re-election, and issued an apology. In response, the gay and lesbian community of Minnesota has issued their own apology, for "ruining the institution of marriage and causing her to stray from her husband" Minnesota Public Radio has reported that Republican staff knew of the affair months ago. "Last Friday, Michel in a news conference had told reporters that Senate leaders had learned of the behavior issue in the last few weeks. Michel acknowledges the misleading timeline and says he fudged the timing to protect the source, who at that time was unidentified." "As to why he or others didn't simply go to Koch directly after Sheehan's report and tell her to end the relationship, Michel said the senators' understanding was that even after Koch and the staffer admitted the relationship to Sheehan that they kept it going. ‘We knew they'd been confronted already,’ Michel said, and ‘that had not resulted in any changed behavior from either of the individuals involved."

The Co-op Wars

punishinglemur — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:48:52 -0800

"Think of 'co-ops' and you might conjure up images of bulk food stores and tie-dye wearing hippies. But in the 1970s, co-op wars raged in the Twin Cities, dividing communities and fracturing the young movement. In this documentary, producer Maria Almli interviews those who were there. Learn how the co-op wars began--when a secretive group in support of Marxist principles began retooling operations for the newly emerging hippie grocery stores--and how members found themselves in the midst of a car bombing and violent takeovers." A look at the heated, sometimes violent conflict over the direction of the co-op foods movement from Minneapolis/St. Paul's KFAI Radio. Further reading: The Minnesota Historical Society details the history of co-ops and the co-op wars through the story of Minneapolis' North Country Co-Op. Craig Cox's book "Storefront Revolution" provides a history of the co-op wars. Mary Rizzo's paper "Revolution in a Can" from the compilation "Eating in Eden: Food & American Utopias."

Minnesota to stop selling MillerCoors beer

Kokopuff — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:49:08 -0800

Because of a regulatory beer labeling registration snafu, Minnesota beer supplies will soon be down 38%. Another stunning example of inefficient state bureaucracy getting in the way of one's alcohol consumption.

Explore Minnesota... some other time

Flannery Culp — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:31:21 -0800

Last fall, Minnesotans elected a Democratic governor who pledged to tax the rich and a majority Republican legislature who swore by no new taxes, period. Their first major task? Craft a budget for the next biennium that addressed a projected $5 billion shortfall. Months passed, no agreement was reached, and this morning at midnight, the Minnesota government shut down. Citizens on both sides are not pleased. Not everything is closed; Judge Kathleen Gearin was appointed to decide which state services are critical, mainly public health and safety. Special master Kathleen Blatz will hear additional funding requests today. Meanwhile, I hope you weren't planning a holiday weekend trip to our fine state, as everything from the highway rest stops to the state parks will be closed. Here's what's left. Think you could solve the budget gap? Give it a try. Full Star Tribune story Shutdown FAQ BeReadyMN (state contingency planning site) Shutdown Shame (DFL site)

"Let's stop harvesting brains."

availablelight — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:17:17 -0800

The Spam Factory's Dirty Secret. Undocumented workers, an autoimmune mystery traced to aerosolized pork brains from increased line production speed, and what sounds like one of the worst jobs in America.

Hates gays, taxes, and light bulbs.

The Whelk — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:54:12 -0800

"Bachmann's entire political career has followed this exact same pattern of God-speaks-directly-to-me fundamentalism mixed with pathological, relentless, conscienceless lying. She's not a liar in the traditional way of politicians, who tend to lie dully, usefully and (they hope) believably, often with the aim of courting competing demographics at the same time. That's not what Bachmann's thing is."- Michele Bachmann's Holy War - Matt Tabbi - Rolling Stone

Land of 10,000 Hates?

jiawen — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:47:08 -0800

Earlier this week, the Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives asked Bradlee Dean to give the morning prayer. Dean is the head of a hard-rock ministry that does controversial presentations in schools about the ills of teen pregnancy, abortion and other things. Dean also has a radio show, where he's effectively called for the murder of GLBT people. (He has since tried to back-pedal on these statements, but still maintains that homosexuality should be illegal, and that gays want to molest children, and that anti-bullying efforts are a way to "go after the kids".) Dean's prayer implied that President Obama isn't Christian, and was thoroughly sectarian. After the prayer, and once it came to light who Dean is, House Republians quickly repudiated his statements; the Representative who invited Dean said he'd made "an honest mistake", but it's clear that Dean is not an outlier in state Republican circles. Michele Bachmann (US Representative for Minnesota's ~~Sith~~ Sixth District) has prayed in favor of his organization, and done fundraisers for them; and Tom Emmer (Republican candidate for Governor, last time around) has donated money to Dean's organization and called them "nice people" -- after Dean's murderous statements. All this, just as the Minnesota legislature is pushing for a Constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, and while the state is dealing with a large number of GLBT youth suicides. This is a hard time to be GLBT in Minnesota. It's possible, though, that Dean's prayer may short-circuit Republican efforts to ban gay marriage.

US High School student challenges Rep. Michele Bachmann

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 14 May 2011 09:08:42 -0800

"I, Amy Myers, do hereby challenge Representative Michele Bachmann to a Public Forum Debate and/or Fact Test on The Constitution of the United States, United States History and United States Civics."