Chicago Re-Invents Itself ...

From the "City of Big Shoulders" to the "City of Big Brother". Perhaps Chicago can learn a few more new tricks from the UK boilerplate.

Here's a great idea how about we put surveillance cameras in the Mayor's and all the aldermen's offices running 24/7 and publicly available? Maybe we could even listen to all meetings and phone calls too? That would probably help to fight crime and make the city a safer place.

"Feeling safe" is obviously more important than actually being safe. If these cameras would keep us safe from cancer, foreclosure, pollution, corruption, and/or losing your job and paying a living wage, etc. - rather than being akin to taking your picture on a rollercoaster at an amusement partk, then yeah. Until they work that one out - no thank you.

Taste the rainbow ... or at least the red and the blue.

Just ran across this fun bit, detailing the listening and entertainment behaviors according to political bent (liberal vs conservative). Scroll down for the fun or click here. for more in depth stats.

- Out of 15 musical genres, conservatives were more likely than the rest of the respondents to listen to only two of them: country and gospel. What genre are they least likely to listen to, compared to the rest of the respondents? Not punk or hip-hop, as you might expect, but world music. World music is also the music genre where we see the greatest difference between conservatives and liberals.

- Conservatives are the least likely group to listen to jazz (34% vs. 44% vs. 53%) and reggae (8% vs. 20% vs. 26%).

- Over 90% of conservatives said they never enjoy reggae, electronic music or Latin music. Over 95% said they never enjoy world music and punk music.

- Liberals, on the other hand, are more likely than other respondents to enjoy almost every music genre, including world, punk, Latin, hip-hop and rap, blues, reggae, electronica, R&B and soul, jazz, folk and traditional music. Rock was the most popular genre among liberals (67%).

- Although all political types claimed they enjoy classical music, moderates were the least enamored with it (55.5% listen to it compared to almost 62% of the rest of respondents). Moderates also showed their distaste for folk & traditional music (72.5% said they don’t listen to it, compared to 62.4% of the rest of the respondents), and they joined conservatives in their distaste for world music (90% said they don’t listen to it, compared to 71% of liberals.)

- Moderates’ favorite music is rock (58%). Conservatives’ favorite music is classical (60%) followed by country (56%) and rock (55%).