WOW! WOW! WOW! Parting Shot -- Then Going Biking -- March 16, 2018

Forbes: where small town America is thriving.

We have identified the stellar small places -- metropolitan areas with populations between 12,800 and 300,000 – based on wages, and wage growth and job creation from 2007 to 2017. Even as most smaller towns have seen rather tepid job growth, these cities at the top of our list are outperforming not only their same-size counterparts, but some major urban competitors as well.

Surprisingly, our list of the best small areas for jobs does not include many of the scenic small communities that tend to attract affluent emigrés from large cities. Instead most of our leading areas from the last 10 years tend to be those driven by the energy industry, led by No. 1 Williston, North Dakota. With 36,000 people, Williston has been at the center of the shale oil boom in the state, growing its job count 121% since 2007. Wages have soared 47% to over $68,000, well above the national median income of $52,000.
Two other hot spots in North Dakota’s Bakken shale boom: No. 3 Dickinson and No. 6 Minot.

Texas oil towns also figure prominently: No. 2 Midland and No. 4 Andrews.

 Note: the period includes the "bust" years of 2014 - 2016.

Much, much more to read at the linked Forbes article.

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Notes to the Granddaughters

One book today.

Jonas Salk: A Life, Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs, c. 2015.

Extremely well-written; easy to read. The author is a Professor of Medicine (Emerita) at Stanford University. Her first biography was Henry Kaplan and the Story of Hodgkin's Disease, listed as one of the "Best Five Books" on doctors' lives by the Wall Street Journal. The author is a cancer specialist and now lives in Palo Alto, CA, where she treats veterans with cancer.

Chapter 2:

• b. 1914, NYC
• before his 16th birthday, began college at City College along with three-quarters of his classmantes,
• 1934, age 21: matriculated at University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, soon to be renamed the New York University College of Medicine;
• alumni included: Walter Reed (yellow fever); William Gorgas (Panama Canal); Hermann Biggs (public health to control TB, diphtheria, and venereal disease)
• graduated, MD: June 8, 1939; 25 years old

Chapter 4:

• the story of Thomas Francis, Jr; beginning of protective vaccines
• Salk moves to Ann Arbor, MI, to be with Thomas Francis, at beginning of WWII

Chapter 5:

• first work: influenza

Chapter 6:

• Salks leave Ann Arbor in October, 1947
• to be with Max Lauffer at the University of Pittsburgh
• wanted to move ahead with his influenza research

Chapter 7: polio

• Harry Weaver, research director of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) spotted Salk when the former visited Pittsburgh
• the story of polio
• Salk was awarded $148,075 for the first year, the largest grant ever received by any Pittsburgh facility
• Salk had published no papers on poliomyelitis, performed no preliminary research on the virus; had not even attended a polio conference

Chapter 8: January, 1948 -- Weaver's battle plans begin

• March of Dimes
• worked at Pittsburgh

Chapter 9:

• 1951 -- wow, wow, wow --
• the number of polio cases in the US was rising -- 28,000 new cases by year's end
• 1952 NFIP grant for Salk's team: $196,920

Chapter 10:

• epidemiologists forecast a record year of polio for 1952
• Salk's trials begin
• wow, wow, wow -- the HeLa cell lines (p. 111)

Chapter 11:
field trials to begin
Salk was not aware of Weaver's plans; working with RIvers
1953: 35,968 polio cases in the US -- the third-highest incidence in US history
vaccine referred to as the Salk vaccine -- highly embarrassing to Salk