Mayor Luke Now Supports Gay Marriage

[Velvet Jones]

Originally Posted by ctoocheck

Snippet from an article about some of Richard Florida's Findings:



MPR: Gay Index Measures High Tech Success

Is this really a direct correlation or just a side effect of locale? Two of the biggest high tech areas in the country are the bay area of California, and the Boston, both of which have happen to have sizable gay populations. DC, New York, and Chicago also have sizable gay population just for the shear size of the metro areas. I'm not sure if there are any other areas to compare to that would be considered high tech. The research triangle in North Carolina? Austin?

[PreservationPioneer]

It's cool to see that the mayors of Turtle Creek and Braddock are also in support of gay marriage:

Mayors for the Freedom to Marry | Freedom to Marry

[ctoocheck]

Originally Posted by Velvet Jones

Is this really a direct correlation or just a side effect of locale? Two of the biggest high tech areas in the country are the bay area of California, and the Boston, both of which have happen to have sizable gay populations. DC, New York, and Chicago also have sizable gay population just for the shear size of the metro areas. I'm not sure if there are any other areas to compare to that would be considered high tech. The research triangle in North Carolina? Austin?

No. As he says, "It's not that gays and diversity equal high technology. But if your culture is not such that it can accept difference, and uniqueness and oddity and eccentricity, you will not get high tech industry."

[UKyank]

Tell that to China

[Geeo]

Ravenstahl's announcement may have been timed to coordinate with Pride, which started last Friday and runs through Sunday. It's not a "protest' but more of a huge community festival with lectures, exhibits, music, a huge concert Saturday night with Mellisa Etheridge and a huge parade and street festival on Sunday. It's gotten pretty mainstream from the old protest days and now includes a children's play area and mixes in with the crowds at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. It's also a good moneymaker, with downtown hotels selling weekend packages to tourists who come from other cities.

Check out the four-page spread in this morning's Post-Gazette.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Tell that to China

China doesn't appear to really design much of its own high technology so far.

One big reason manufacturing is done there decidedly low-tech: cheap human manual labor. Plus the shear size of labor force and speed at ramping them up. Another is that it's so well integrated now for getting the different necessary materials and parts that it's efficient in other ways, even with labor costs increasing. That aspect could be seen as somewhat technological, but only in a logistical way really. And then, take a big manufacturer like Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) that makes all the Apple stuff among other things...this is a Taiwanese company. It's just that they build the manufacturing plants in China.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by greg42

China doesn't appear to really design much of its own high technology so far.

while it was mainly in jest, it is a bit worrying that China is currently on pace to file more tech patents then the US for the first time this year.

[Velvet Jones]

Originally Posted by ctoocheck

No. As he says, "It's not that gays and diversity equal high technology. But if your culture is not such that it can accept difference, and uniqueness and oddity and eccentricity, you will not get high tech industry."

But that isn't much of an argument. This is a chicken/egg scenario. High tech areas tend to develop mainly due to a local higher education that is heavily tech focused(Standford, MIT, etc), followed by clusters of related business. In the US at least, these universities tend to be in areas that already very liberal and open. You don't see much high end research coming out of Bob Jones University, Liberty, or any of the other meccas of religious fundamentalism. I doubt you will find many tech start-ups in Alabama or Mississippi. I don't think that has anything to do with them being accepting/accommodating to gays.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by UKyank

while it was mainly in jest, it is a bit worrying that China is currently on pace to file more tech patents then the US for the first time this year.

Yeah, I know it was mainly jest, but in some ways it did make me wonder whether China would really get to the same level without the same kind of openness. I'm guessing what I said won't be true forever (hence the "so far") but in the context of this thread, will it become reality in China without having more of what Florida was talking about? Maybe.

[ctoocheck]

Originally Posted by Velvet Jones

But that isn't much of an argument. This is a chicken/egg scenario. High tech areas tend to develop mainly due to a local higher education that is heavily tech focused(Standford, MIT, etc), followed by clusters of related business. In the US at least, these universities tend to be in areas that already very liberal and open. You don't see much high end research coming out of Bob Jones University, Liberty, or any of the other meccas of religious fundamentalism. I doubt you will find many tech start-ups in Alabama or Mississippi. I don't think that has anything to do with them being accepting/accommodating to gays.

Perhaps. Lots of possible complexities, intricacies, and nuances! Richard Florida's the social psychologist, ask him!