http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13278190

Which community boasts the highest concentration of brainpower — and therefore can claim to be America's smartest big city?

The answer is Seattle, according to a new study by Bizjournals.com.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data puts Seattle's No. 1 ranking in perspective:

Forty-seven percent of Seattle's adults hold bachelor's degrees, the strongest proportion of college-educated residents in any big city. It's nearly double the U.S. average of 24.4 percent.

Seattle is second to Washington, D.C., in the share of people with advanced diplomas. Twenty-one percent of Washington's adults have earned graduate or professional degrees, followed by Seattle at 17 percent. The national average is 8.9 percent.

San Francisco and Austin are the runners-up in the Bizjournals.com study, which ranks the relative brainpower of 53 large communities.

Rounding out the top 10 are Colorado Springs, Minneapolis, Charlotte, San Diego, Washington, Portland, Ore., and Albuquerque.

Bizjournals.com analyzed the educational levels of adults in nearly 16,000 cities, towns, villages, boroughs and unincorporated areas. Communities were ranked in three population categories, based on a formula that rewards places with heavy concentrations of college graduates. (Click here for the study's methodology.)

SMARTEST CITIES
1. Seattle
2. San Francisco
3. Austin
4. Colorado Springs
5. Minneapolis
6. Charlotte
7. San Diego
8. Washington D.C.
9. Portland (Ore.)
10. Albuquerque

The rankings reflect each community's collective brainpower, which is tied to its residents' abilities to innovate, create, compete — and make money.

A worker with a graduate degree earns 45 percent more, on average, than a colleague with a bachelor's degree, and 167 percent more than someone who never went beyond high school, according to figures released last year by the Census Bureau.

The Bizjournals.com study found that America's brainpower is concentrated in technology centers, national and state capitals, college towns and affluent suburbs.

Seattle, San Francisco and Austin rank first, second and third among large communities because they're the only ones where more than 40 percent of adults have bachelor's degrees. (Click here to see how the 53 largest metros ranked.)

Arlington, Va., is the brainpower leader among medium-sized places. Sixty percent of its adults have bachelor's degrees, two and a half times the national average. (Click here for the 10 smartest medium communities, and click here to see how all medium communities ranked.)

Topping the rankings of small communities is Ann Arbor, Mich., the home of the University of Michigan. The four runners-up are also college towns, starting with No. 2 Newton, Mass. (Click here for the 10 smartest small communities, and click here to see how all small communities ranked.)

Not all results of the Bizjournals.com analysis are positive. The study found that Miami has the lowest brainpower of any large community. Just 16 percent of Miami's adults have earned bachelor's degrees, which is 31 percentage points behind Seattle's rate.

Santa Ana and East Los Angeles — both in California — rank last in the other two categories. (Click here for more places with low brainpower scores.)


Take that America!

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Ankhesenamun
Dedo Serenity
Fisherwmn
Ruby Estella
Enchantress

Seattle FTW

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Ya but is the un-employment rate any better even though they have those degrees? My bet is prolly not, just because they have those degrees dosen't mean they got a decent job,how many have a degree and work in a diner or something of sort?I'm not knocking them for achieving great things but the way things are those pieces of paper don't mean a damn thing.And w all those ppl w that same paper work and living in the same city how many will actually get a job in which they needed that degree...only a handfull im sure so the rest of ya need to move away to get that same job as too many of you smart fukers live in the same place it seems.

Also, isn't Seattle one of the most gloomy,rainy,cloudy,shitty weather places? I guess getting a good education is the the last fun thing to do in such great weather,or become a musician!

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According to the Association of Suicidology's report on suicide statistics for 2004(the most recent report) the state of Washington rates at number 18 and the Western US rates at number 1 in suicides. I found that to be interesting. I didn't realize people living in the west are so sad. Maybe it's that gold rush that didn't quite turn out as planned. But it is interesting that so many western states are on the top 20 for suicide. I was under the impression people were happier out west.

http://www.suicidology.org/associations ... tapgv1.pdf



Also, Padawan, here's the unemployment statistics for the state of Washington. If you can make heads or tales of it let me know.

http://stats.bls.gov/eag/eag.wa.htm

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Scarlet - Lady of the Lake [COLD]
Jackie Daniels - Liquid Death [COLD]
Vilee - Tamer in training [TLC]
Lumbie - I've got wood! [ACME]

honestly I'm pretty sure the only reason Seattle has all those degrees is because we had Boeing and have Microsoft. Not to mention all the colleges in the area. and the rain isn't all that bad I miss it much actually. the rain makes everything outside beautiful im tired of dead grass and brown landscapes. I got so tired of seeing brown all the time that i made boog water the weeds in our front yard so i could see SOME green so yeah the rain is highly over rated. I would rather have rain then snow any day. at least the rain goes away after a night or two. the snow stays for months

this might explain some of the suicide rating's http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/01/10/life.stress.reut/

Tacoma is a Seattle suburb and was rated most stressful city in AMERICA in 2004 beating detriot, la, and new york

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Ankhesenamun
Dedo Serenity
Fisherwmn
Ruby Estella
Enchantress

That answers the unemployment question. No offence to Washington but how are so many "smart" people choosing to live in such a shitty place? Perhaps they are book smart but don't have common sense?

Washington is depressing me.

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Scarlet - Lady of the Lake [COLD]
Jackie Daniels - Liquid Death [COLD]
Vilee - Tamer in training [TLC]
Lumbie - I've got wood! [ACME]

Hard to make heads or tails on that , as they do not record the ppl who were on unemployment and now have run out and are yet to get back to work.Those stats are never seen, or well should i say say never spoken of but it exists. I just love thos states that say our unemployment rate is down, how? No new jobs were created,you just didn't record the ppl whos un-employment ran out.

I bet crime (theft.robbery) are up though. I know it is a bit here.I have seen more bank robberies in the last 2 yrs than in the past. Ppl are hurting so why not. If they get caught they get 3 hots n a cot so atleast they have a roof and food and a bed.....things get much worse i might be down at the local fifth third w a note and a mask...lol j/k.

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Washington really isn't as s****y as people perceive. Yes, it can get gloomy when it rains for 80+ days straight, but at the same time, it makes you appreciate the sunshine more when it decides to come out.

As far as unemployment goes, Washington is looking at around 4.7% unemployment, which is just the smallest smidge above the national average. And yes, there are probably many degree holders in the state that are working in diners, what how is that different from many other states? Some degrees that people earn in their 4+ years of college just don't carry a high demand for employment, i.e. Philosophy or language studies. So, people get these degrees, then have to work customer relations somewhere to make ends meet because they didn't get picked up right out of college.

People with degrees gravitate to (western) Washington because, pound for pound, the Puget Sound area has a technological base nearing the volume of the Bay Area. With Microsoft, Boeing, Nintendo (yes, a headquarters in Redmond), Valve Software, and many other technological and engineering firms, combined with a lower cost of living than California, its no surprise that there are a lot of educated people here.

Because of the density of technology development on the west coast, its easy to see why the suicide rate is higher at this end of the country. In order to be successful, you have to be at the bleeding edge of the industry, and that creates a ton of stress. Combine that with the way some people react to rainy weather and put a couple million of those people together, and you have a potential recipe for unpleasantness if you're not up for the challenge.

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Hating geeks is totally pointless because everyone depends on geeks -- you might as well hate air...

Boog Dunsward[Brown Coats] -- PvM Warrior
Grinlar Helmsire[GWAR] -- Smithy/GM Miner
Endar Seaspire -- Fisher (maybe alchy?)
Ogden Wile[TLC] -- Tamer/ GM Tracker

In absentia luci tenebrae vincu

the highest concentration of brainpower is me im the smartest and have an answer for everything just ask me im the smartest

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Johnny Mother f***** Cash

but see when it all boils down you guys have a crappy baseball team a crappy football team and a really crappy basketball team.

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LOV FOR LIFE

that generally happens when theres a large concentration of geeks....

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Ankhesenamun
Dedo Serenity
Fisherwmn
Ruby Estella
Enchantress

1) Yes
2) They'd be good if they werent so good at self destruction
3) OMFG YES!!! XD

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Hating geeks is totally pointless because everyone depends on geeks -- you might as well hate air...

Boog Dunsward[Brown Coats] -- PvM Warrior
Grinlar Helmsire[GWAR] -- Smithy/GM Miner
Endar Seaspire -- Fisher (maybe alchy?)
Ogden Wile[TLC] -- Tamer/ GM Tracker

In absentia luci tenebrae vincu

Speaking of places and ratings/numbers

The worlds most beautiful cities

1. Stockholm <-- ehem, capital city of sweden

2. Oslo <-- capital city of Norway

3. München

4. Paris

5. Frankfurt

6. Stuttgart

7. Lyon, France

8. Düsseldorf

9. Nantes

10. Köpenhamn

11. Geneve

12. Zürich

13. Glasgow

14. Barcelona

15. New York

16. Brüssel

17. Hamburg

18. Hong Kong

19. Newcastle

20. Tokyo

21. Helsingfors

22. Washington, D.C.

23. Chicago

24. Vancouver

25. Dortmund
26. San Francisco

27. London

28. Perth

29. Melbourne

30. Manchester

31. Graz

32. Berlin

33. Ottawa

34. Wellington

35. Amsterdam

36. Atlanta

37. Marseille

38. Wien

39. Rom

40. Sydney

41. Prag

42. Brisbane

43. Denver

44. Bern

45. Singapore

46. Houston

47. Bologna

48. Montreal

49. Kuala Lumpur

50. Toronto

source: Reader Digest

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Ambient - GM Crafter
Pagan Hellfire - GM Mage
Black Coffee - GM Fisher/Chef/Alch

I game on Ubuntu!

Vancouver Washington, or Vancouver in Canada?

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-Sammuel---Fisher/Blacksmith

Why are you spamming Ambient?

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