justin adler, blog, buenos aires, bahia blanca, university of arizona, brooklyn, basketball, travel, paul mcpherson

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Dead Turtles & Airports



How many dead pet turtles does it take for the Catalan government to put up a sign instructing people to stop abandoning turtles in the park?

At least twenty. 

That’s what I’m guessing based off some elementary reducing and deducing of the sign’s fact that says: “95% of the turtles abandoned in the park end up dead.”

After that sobering fact the sign concludes: “Don’t abandon turtles, think before you buy them.”

...Unless you're a lucky 5 percenter who buys an invincible turtle. 

+++


In July the New York Times wrote about Castellon’s ghost airport. The entire article is fascinating, but in short it profiles the completion of a $375,000 statue honoring the project’s founder Carlos Fabra. He’s the same man who was the “driving force” behind he airport project which cost $183 million and has still not had a single flight. Also the same man who, "was placed under judicial investigation this year in connection with several cases of corruption and tax evasion."

The entire project was a microcosm of the incredibly wasteful spending that landed Spain in its recession. Oh and the guy who built the statue, Juan Ripollés, "is saying that he was forced to spend $155,000 of his own money and 'empty the pockets of my children' to complete a work that, he said, ended up costing about $600,000."

In a hilarious follow-up yesterday, Barcelona’s La Vanguardia reports that in two months time, the statue is covered in rust. 

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