Friday funday: barnyard fun
Posted by Ingrid Koehler on April 18, 2008
Paint a pretty piggy
The City of Bath is welcoming a herd of pigs to decorate its street and celebrate regional heritage:A herd of more than 60 pig sculptures arrived in a city today as part of a public art project. The King Bladud’s Pigs in Bath art initiative will eventually see 100 of the animals scattered across the historic city. The plain white life-sized sculptures will be painted and decorated on behalf of different communities and businesses across the region.
Local residents hope the project will boost awareness of a 3,000-year-old legend, which tells how King Bladud founded Bath after discovering the healing powers of its hot spring waters while walking with his swine.
Gaol bird?
In less welcome livestock news, a council has issued an ASBO to a man whose cockerel crowed uncontrollably. The avian owner was dismissive:
Mr Stoodley said: “It’s absolute rubbish in my eyes - they should have better things to do with taxpayers money than trying to get rid of a few chickens.”
But I’m not so sure:
The court heard that residents in Wyndham street next to the premises could no longer tolerate the screeching and smell of the fowl. The original order was brought after an independent environmental health officer measured 800 crowings between 5am and 7am during a test visit in August 2006.
Neighbours living near to [Stoodley's business] told officers the crowing started as early as 2.30am in summer and could be heard through closed windows.
Mr Stoodley has been ordered to get rid of the birds and pay a fine and costs. Looks like those chickens have finally come home to roost.
The cleanest mounts in Texas
The City of Houston is in the market for citronella shampoo for horses. How do I know? Because they’ve opened up their procurement catalogue to reveal a whole range of purchases. It might seem frivolous, but it’s a serious issue with potentials for serious savings:
The digital disclosure follows a trend of governments using technology to open their books to Web visitors. Transparency advocates say that can save agencies money by automating requests for information from the public
Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunshine Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for transparency, praised the city’s new site.
“We do see popping up around the country examples where municipalities or individual elected officials are using the Internet in various ways to create better disclosure,” she said. “Transparency on the Internet means that citizens can be engaged in a dialogue with officials in a way that improves democracy.”
…snip…
[Houston Mayor Bill] White, who has bragged about being “cheap,” said he hoped the new site will not only increase transparency in city contracting, but also bring efficiencies by making it easier for departments to interact with their vendors. He also is taking challenges from other suppliers who think they can beat the competitors’ prices.
“We want to be open and transparent,” he said. “We hope that citizens will use their eyes and knowledge to help us spot places where we could save money.”
And who knows if such transparency might have avoided recent problems like these.
Photo credit: Painting a Stained-Glass Pig Originally uploaded by deanbkrafft used under a Creative Commons license.
