Snark, Critic and Pop!

Detroit.  Dear, sweet, Detroit.  Why can’t you be honest and true like your big brother Chicago?

When faced with tough economic times, the private sector tightens its belt.  When the public sector faces tough economic times, they make sure a large, metropolitan city keeps a horseshoer on staff.  From Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Despite having no horses, the water and sewerage department for the city of Detroit employs a horseshoer. (continue reading…)

Birds.  Not always the word is “birds.”  Alfred Hitchcock knows birds scare us, but did Alf know the inverse — what scares birds (other than straw stuffed with old overalls hung on a pole in a field)?  If he did, he could save San Francisco a lot of time, money, and trouble.

The city, in a settlement to a lawsuit, must spend “$150,000 to study whether the racing boats – and their towering sails – will scare birds on the bay.” 

The article further states:

“It’s not that we’re trying to head-shrink the birds,” said Mike Lynes of the Golden Gate Audubon Society. “But when they take off because they are frightened, they expend energy, and that can affect their health.”

Your Tax Dollars At Work, Ladies & Gentlemen:

Inquiring minds at Albany Medical College played music to a group of unsophisticated rats, who preferred Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” over Miles Davis’s “Four” and preferred silence over any music at all. When they sweetened the deal by adding cocaine to their least preferred options, however, they found that rats would reverse their preferences, even choosing jazz over classical. (continue reading…)