Philadelphia Stuns Osaka, Milan

Mastercard recently ranked the top 20 cities in the world for commerce and Philadelphia was ranked 18th:

1. London

2. New York
[...]
17. LA
18. Philadelphia
19. Osaka
20. Milan

Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index (.pdf) only mentions Philly four times, but it notes the city wasn’t on the list last year. Philadelphia got a score of 55.55. Yes! A new personal best.

Now let’s go rag on Milan and Osaka. Or should I say O-suck-a.

Philly Ranked Among Other Cities In Lists!

Work time-waster alert: City-Data.com has lists of the top 101 cities ranked in just about everything.

• 51.3 percent of the population smoked 100+ cigarettes in their lives (really?)
• The suburbs do well in people who drank in past 30 days
• The 19106 zip code has the fourth-most museums in the United States among zip codes (whee!)
• The 19103 zip code has 403 law offices
• Wildwood has 161 motels and hotels, apparently the most in the nation (again, really?)
• Philly is in the 25th-worst shape
• And, finally, look at Polk, Pennsylvania, where 55 percent of the residents are in a home for the mentally retarded (apparently)

Top 101 U.S. Cities, Counties, and Zip Codes Lists [City-Data.com]

Rowhouse Bombing Labeled As Mass Suicide

You may not remember the MOVE Bombing back in 1985 — I don’t — but you’ve certainly heard of it countless times since then. On Osage Avenue in West Philly on May 13, the city decided to drop a bomb on the MOVE fortification on top of several connected rowhouses.

Eleven people died, 62 houses were destroyed and everybody moved on, except for the MOVE people, of course. Anyway, the current Guinness Book of World Records has the MOVE bombing listed on a fun ol’ list: Mass suicides!

The MOVE “mass suicide ranking” is sandwiched between Heaven’s Gate (the 39 dudes in the Nikes in 1997) and the Symbionese Liberation Army (six in 1974). Perhaps they felt 33 was too long of a gap between suicides and they had to find something in between the two.

Ramona Africa, who survived the 1985 bombing, is pissed, but said the Cult Information Centre, who compiled the info, was “arrogant and uncooperative” when she called. She did, however, set a new Guinness World Record for “most motherfuckers in a minute” during her call with the CIC. Congratulations, Ramona!

Penn Kids Carrying On In Fine Tradition Of, Uh, Me

While the music industry appears to be loosening restrictions on DRM — MP3s have been widely traded online longer than most things — the movie industry is tightening its grip.

The Motion Picture Association of America recently released its Top 25 schools for movie sharing, and two local schools are on the list: Penn at #2 and Drexel at #22. It’s one giant West Philly vortex of filesharing.

I remember back in the early days of downloading movies during my freshman year at Penn. Ahh, memories. The list, by the way, is woefully undercounted — Penn is second with only 934 students sharing movies, while Drexel has 455. If you think that only 455 Drexel students or 934 Penn students are sharing movies, then insert your own cliche here.

The list was formed after Rep. Howard Berman, chair of the House committee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property, asked for it. (Apparently if you get lots of campaign contributions from Hollywood, you can also get them to do things for you.)

So, apparently, college kids trade movies! In other news, the sky is freaking blue.

MPAA names its Top 25 movie piracy schools [Ars Technica]
EMI to allow Apple to sell songs online [AP/Yahoo!]

Philadelphia Is Dumb, And Other News You Already Knew

Bizjournal.com recently ranked the 53 largest American cities, in the order of how smart we are. Like most all rankings, the methods really rank who does best under a certain specific set of criteria (in this case, college degrees).

Nevertheless, take a quick guess where Philadelphia ended up:

Whoo! Take that, Detroit!

America’s Smartest Cities [Bizjournals.com]

Philly Worst For Big City Drivers?

Congratulations, Philadelphia! In a recent list of the top cities for driving in America, Philadelphia was nowhere on that list. That, of course, makes sense; it’s a big city, and big cities tend to have more accidents.

But it’s not only that. The company that did the study, Allstate, also ranked the top cities over one million people, and Philadelphia managed to finish last in that, or 186th overall.

While the average American driver gets into an accident every 10 years, drivers in Philadelphia get into accidents every 6.6 years.

And drivers who take the Boulevard (that’s it above) daily, well, they get into accidents at least once a week.

Who Ranks Best Behind the Wheel? [Allstate]
Image via Pennsylvania Highways

Quickies: Achoo!

• Philadelphia has been named the 29th worst city in America for allergies. Uhh… boo? Yay? Okay, I’ll level with you: I have no idea what this means.

• Apparently, using MLB.com Gamecast during work hours can get you fired. In related news, America’s unemployment rate is now up to 75 percent. [The Ex 'Burgher via Deadspin]

• The Phillies shocked everyone last night by actually going out and winning a game at home, a 7-6 win over the Nationals in 10 innings. The Fightins are now a robust 2-6 at home this year. [Inky]

• Ahh, yes, China’s president’s visit to the White House was interrupted by a Falun Gong protestor, who was upset that, oh, I don’t know, the Chinese government is pretty horrible to them. Me, I’m just happy there’s finally a protest over something besides the war. [AP/CNN.com]

• Oh, yeah, and at 2 p.m. Donovan McNabb is doing a chat on ESPN.com. Feel free to ask him what style of Chunky Soup is best. [ESPN.com]

Penn People Are Total Downers

Recently, the Penn Medical school moved up to third in the nation in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. The school leapfrogged Duke (who it was tied with before) and Washington U. in St. Louis to move into that spot, behind just Harvard and Johns Hopkins.

Sure, these lists are usually pretty meaningless, but you still might smile and feel proud if you’re a hard-working, Penn med student, researcher, teacher, whatever. Unless you’re this guy:

A Penn clinical professor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the recognition might attract sicker patients who overwhelm the system.

“That’s my initial instinct: ‘Oh god, another award.’ We don’t need any more people knocking on our door,” he said.

Ohh, I feel so bad for you, professor. So bad.

Medical School moves up to third in nation [Daily Pennsylvanian]
Photo by Sarah Baker

Finally, back to real Philly

The new issue of Self magazine finally includes some news that doesn’t paint Philly as “Totally hip and 100 percent the hottest city in America!” or “Wow, Philly is kinda like New York!” And, frankly, I couldn’t be happier.

This month’s issue contains the rankings for “America’s Healthiest Places for Women” — and our fair city ranks a dreadful 88th on the list. This is good, however: Philly was 100th, dead last, in last year’s issue, so perhaps we’re on the up and up after all.

There are some supplemental categories, too, including “Best Breasts.” (There’s going to be a rush of men heading to Albany, New York, which apparently has the best bosoms in America.) And Philly took first in a not-so-hot category, “Worst Environment.” We also took home the title in 2002 and 2003. (Last year, Philadelphia was named first in “Worst Air,” which is pretty much the same thing. Know what that means? Four-peat!)

Either way, phew. I was getting a little worried that our city might actually be on the rise, thereby ruining our reputation. (Or, rather, un-ruining it.) But with this list coming out, I feel a little safer that it’s just the same old Philly.

How Healthy Is Your Hometown? SELF Magazine’s 6th Annual List of America’s Healthiest Places for Women Ranks the Top Metro Areas [PR Newswire]

Still, we’re being compared to New York again

You know, there’s really nothing like a totally subjective list to rile up media attention, and today’s totally subjective list is America’s Most Literate Cities, put out by Centeral Connecticut State University, which you may remember from the lower seed numbers on your NCAA Tournament brackets a few years back.

America’s Most Literate Cities is based on six factors: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources. (Philadelphia, perhaps, hurt by newspaper circulation? Eh, it was 37th, so not really.) Philly didn’t crack the top 10 in anything, but finished 32nd, tied with New York (!) and one ahead of Tuscon. (Whoo!) Seattle was No. 1.

So Philly’s stuck as the 32nd most literate major city in America. (Oh, yeah, it also finished right behind Omaha.) But know what’s weird? Last year, Philly was 46th overall. That means we’re on the rise! Even in a bad ranking, everything’s coming up Philadelphia!

2005 America’s Most Literate Cities
2004 America’s Most Literate Cities