Keeping up to 4 laying hens responsibly in a decent-sized urban back yard is actually quite rewarding, and requires little work (average 5-10 minutes per day for up to 4 eggs per day). If you treat them like a factory then yes, you will get "vile creatures". Input=output. Chickens kept in poor living conditions can be expected to behave like prisoners.

I am not aware of any large cities with ordinances that allow for roosters, but even so they are a hell of a lot quieter than the dogs and ambulances and drunk people that you deal with in the city.

As to the smell: as long as you provide clean bedding materials, move their coop at least twice a year and compost the waste it should not be an issue. And you'll end up with ample quantities of the best fertilizer out there for your garden.

All this depends on having a patch of land to work, which the system in the article is a clever alternative to if you have a desire to be connected to your protein source.

Record labels are terrified of what Bandcamp represents, which is the end of them being useful intermediaries between artists and their audience. In fact labels are starting to refuse to sign artists who have released their music on Bandcamp. This coming from several artists I've recorded in the past year who are actively seeking record label support purely for the image of being grouped with a curated selection of artists. And also to be reviewed on Pitchfork, which still only takes submissions from labels.

Domo arigato, garden roboto.

So we're supposed to be worried about being heard by a microphone mounted on a utility pole in a densely populated area (I live in Milwaukee)? The white noise of the city drowns out any intelligibility of a normal conversation >10' away, and to accurately triangulate a gunshot's location the mics would need to be mounted somewhat high up (also to avoid being stolen).

There's still something to actually seeing certain products before you buy them, especially with TVs. Its not just the obvious advantage of comparing screens for viewing angle, contrast, et cetera, but the non-trumped features like a stand that doesn't allow the screen to wobble every time a train goes past.

Has there been any retaliation for your pranks/hijinks?

So are they going to give out another Nobel prize for this?