Roundup

The Strib did a particularly nice job on the Sunday paper today. A few gems:

Amid soaring grain prices, a dying cry: A business section feature on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, accompanied by an opinion section feature on the nostalgia-inducing Grain Exchange Building. I think futures markets are pretty fascinating, and the Grain Exchange particularly so. I agree that the Grain Exchange building is really cool, although the opinion piece did nothing for me beyond the pictures.

High-tech sweat: A North St. Paul community center opens the first XRKade, or exercise gaming facility, in the state as a way to attract teens and promote exercise. Besides being a great idea, what's most interesting is that the author describes the idea for XRKade as coming from a city official (unclear whether it's the city manager quoted or somebody else). New, good ideas are rare in government--so that's exciting to see.

While U of M sleeps, our military leaders are born: This is notable only because it marks the first time Katherine Kersten (hired to represent the "conservative" viewpoint) has managed to produce an informative piece that extols a nominally conservative virtue without bashing anyone (well, indirect bashing of the remaining U students and the idea that only conservatives support the military aside). I have no trouble with the Strib hiring someone to represent the conservative viewpoint (although I would prefer they devote energy to less biased coverage throughout the paper instead), but I do object to it being done poorly. On a sidenote, I would like to take a military decision-making class; that sounds interesting.