Number of Inhabitants per doctor

CHAos is a biting parody of a recent, Leo Burnet PR campaign, CHAnge run for the Chicago Housing Authority. The CHAos folks have done a brilliant job at reworking, really unmasking, the message.

Come celebrate the Debian release with those from Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area. Here are the details and we will be enjoying what is probably one of the nicest views of the city.

From the Wooster Collective, Buffing becomes an inside job:

As more advertisers incorporate graf and street art into their campaigns, more graffiti writers are taking to the streets to protest against it. But in many cases, there’s an interesting twist to all of this.

The artists who are defacing the ads, are also the same artists who created them.

Here’s the situation: A large segment of the most hardcore graf and street artists also have day jobs to pay the bills. Who doesn’t. But many of them now work in traditional ad agencies or design shops. Their identity on the streets is kept secret in the workplace…

So today I finally walked to the one local bike shop in Hyde Park to fix my bike so that I can enjoy one last summer biking on the Chicago lakefront. On the way there, I noticed new, government issued signs shelving out the rule for dog poop in the city: don’t dare leave in on the ground, or else you may be fined. Ok. America, given it is land of the free, land of the rule, this is unremarkable and I agree, scattered dog poop, especially in burningly hot chicago summer, is .. gross. But the fine range was somewhat more remarkable. According to the sign you can be fined between 50-500 US dollars for the first offense. Who could not but ask: what would induce the larger fine? More dog poop? An especially large dog who dumps an especially large dump? Do little poodles, being the “refined” dogs, get less of a fine than some ugly mongrel with one or two benign tumors and scabies? I imagine puppy owners get off easier than the owner of some middle age lab? Does the judge or the issuing officer decide on the fine price? Did they include the range to take into account inflation?

So I have a few friends in town in Chicago and we have been out, hitting the streets, going out, and having some good food. Recently I discovered a gem of a restaurant in the south side, Cafe Trinidad. It has great Caribbean food (of the Indo-Caribbean type), and they give you servings that will induce a serious coma if you eat it all.