ICYMI: Animals Become 'Dishonest' When They Live In Cities

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• A PhD candidate at Arizona State University has dedicated much of his past few years the researching mating rituals of urban birds. He's foundbirds that are born and raised in urban environments are "dishonest," insofar as their more opulent mating plumage (like peacocks) masks a lower rate of reproductive success. The birds who live in cities have easy access to discarded people food, and consequently can grow much more opulent plumages without actually having to 'survive' in the wild. And when the urban birds fly to meet their rural peers, they have no trouble finding a mate to reproduce with because of their remarkable plumage. However, the urban birds are ultimately bad parents. Aside from lacking the sort of foraging skills rural birds use daily, urban birds are also often malnourished due to their diet of discarded human carbohydrates.
• Meanwhile, 20 percent of the city of Los Angeles' budget is spent on pensions alone. For what it's worth, approximately 25 percent of the American federal government's budget is spent on Social Security.
• Back in 1982, Matt Groening penned this wonderful little nine-panel comic about all the ways people can die in Los Angeles. You won't regret the twenty seconds you'll spend looking at it.
• Germany purchased the Pacific Palisades house where writer Thomas Mann spent his exile years in Los Angeles.
• 23 people have signed up to run against Mayor Garcetti in the 2017 Mayoral election race. That's seven less than the 30 running for a city council seat in the Northeast valley, however.
• The New York Times published a good piece about a 550 foot tall palisade of government surveillance located on a small island called Manhattan.

Here's a cyclist doing pretty much all the things people hate about cyclists: