I have to say that as a web developer, I really admire the dynamic ways in which the web team at the Detroit News presents complex information. A great example of this is their interactive teacher pension costs presentation. It makes it point and click simple to see how retirement costs are looming for Michigan's schools and how schools compare. The retirement assessment is at a record high of 17.74% of each district's payroll or about $1100 per student (average) and the rate is expected to jump to 30% by 2020.

The Detroiter has a nice post on the Baseball as Art Exhibition, which runs through July 14 at the Detroit Artists Market (site is temporarily unavailable so here's a map). Nick says that the arts in Detroit need sports fans, and that exhibits like this help newcomers enter the art arena and become as engaged with the feats of artists as they are with those of athletes.

Today's photo is part of a set of photos of a Sunday bike ride from Grand Haven to Muskegon. Craig writes: I tried to take the photos while riding to really get the feel of the tour. I did stop for the photo looking out the Grand River and at the boats.

You can get your daily dose of eco-depression at mLive, which reports that 20 common bird species have declined by 54% (or far more) since 1967 nationwide. Ray Adams, Kalamazoo Nature Center director of avian research and co-author of the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas, says "In 1972, I counted over 800 northern bobwhite while doing a survey. By the 1980s in Michigan, it had declined over 95 percent and I was counting five per year. Now that is up to 99 percent."

Apparently last night's thunderstorm blew two barns down in Bad Axe (Huron County). Absolute Michigan doesn't have too many links for Bad Axe - we'll try and find a few more today. I've always wondered where the name Bad Axe came from. At the Bad Axe Historical Society (cool 1890s photo too!) they've probably answered that question once or twice. They say:

While surveying the first state road through the Huron County wilderness in 1861, Rudolph Papst and George Willis Pack made camp here and found a much-used and badly damaged axe. At Pack’s suggestion, Papst used the name "Bad Axe Camp" in the minutes of the survey and on a sign he placed along the main trail. By the time Papst returned from the Civil War, the name was on the map.

If I could just get Paul Harvey to say "Now you know ... the rest of the story" I bet we could get a Gold Bond sponsorship.