Trail Party, 4 to 7 pm on July 8 on the South Side

Friends of the Riverfront is holding a Heritage Trail Party and Dedication from 4 pm to 7 pm on July 8 at the Trail Head Facility (Intersection of McKean and Bingham).

All are invited. I'll try my best to attend too.

I'll try to get a new CD out with a video of a new song for the event, Kicking the Stone by Johnsmith.

South Side's 10-1 Trail Segment of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail (aka "the missing link") is finally completed. No need to R.S.V.P.

Walk, bike or blade along the Heritage Trail to the new trail head facility in Pittsburgh’s South Side at the Terminus of Fourth Street at the Intersection of McKean and Bingham off Carson Street.

We will enjoy food, entertainment and an inaugural bike ride. The dedication is being cosponsored by Dasani in conjunction with the Rails-to-Trail Conservancy, Friends of the Riverfront and Bike Pittsburgh. The event will serve as an unveiling of a new Community Bike Program, a first in the City of Pittsburgh.

http://www.railtrails.org/membership/corporate/dasani.asp

Fatal Error: Can't run new game, Lego Star Wars, the video game

Fatal error:
sorry, but your machine is unable to run this game. It requires a praphics card which supports Pixel Shaders v 1.1. this game will now exit.

The computer was purchased six months ago, in December 2004. It is a Compaq Presario, 3200+. The display adapter is VIA/S3G UniChrome 1GP driver version 6.14.10.194.

The game's developer is Eidos.com.

Skinny on the game at Download.com isn't good. I read how many others are also in the same pickle. But, if it works, the game seems nice.

Support at Compaq's chat, just now, was hopeless and without a clue. If the system works with other games then there isn't a problem with the computer. I'm not looking to fix blame, yet. I'm looking to fix the problem.

I saw a few more mentions in the read me file. But, I can't get to that unless I install the game on another computer. The other PC, same age, different maker, gave the same error. That PC is an Emachine. That PC has a different make of video card. The game is on this computer -- but -- I can't get to the read me file.

Bottom line: DO NOT PURCHASE THE GAME: Lego Star Wars. Don't do it. Be sure you can get over the hurdle with Pixel Shaders v1.1.
One report says TARGET won't take it back as a return.

PA Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival - Berks County event in Sept

The first annual Pennsylvania Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival is the consummation of years of interest, research, experimentation and interaction in the world of renewable energy and other Earth-friendly related disciplines.

The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association, along with many diverse groups, clubs, and individuals have come together to host his two day festival on September 23rd and 24th of 2005 at the Kempton Community Fairgrounds, Kempton (Berks County) PA, 19529.

Speakers, national exhibitors, workshops, hands-on demonstrations, vendors, live music and entertainment, children’s activities, food and more. This wide-ranging educational program offers you the chance to debate the key issues, whilst a groundbreaking exhibition creates the perfect environment to evaluate the solutions – all under one roof! The Festival will promote solar, wind, hydrogen, biofuels, green building, organic farming, green political awareness and much, much more.

If you've ever dreamed of powering your home or business off solar or wind energy, and growing and preparing wholesome organic food, don't miss this unique opportunity to learn how to make your dream a reality.

The Pennsylvania Chapter is a proud sponsor of this event and will have several tables. Scot Case of the Center for the New American Dream and a Sierra Club activist is slated as one of the keynote speakers. Judy Johnsrud, Energy Chair, will be conducting a workshop.

To volunteer contact Bob Flatley, Chair of the Kittatinny Group, e4bob@yahoo.com or 610-756-6625

Slogan stumbles for 2008. Hey, BOOC, Think again. One size doesn' fit all.

Every Olympics has an organizational stumble and snafu, or two. It is good to see China's approach is to get its stumble out of the way early. They must have said, "Let's get this money off our backs and do a major screw up now, in 2005. Then we'll be done with all the screw-ups and expect smooth sailing the rest of the way.

BEIJING (AP) -- The slogan for the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be "One World, One Dream."

This slogan "embodies the common aspiration of the 1.3 billion Chinese people in establishing a world of peace and better future," said Liu Qi, president of Beijing's Olympic organizing committee.

The slogan was chosen from 210,000 proposals in Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages, Liu said.

Chinese Cabinet member Li Changchun announced the slogan Sunday at a gala in the city's Workers Stadium featuring breakdancers, basketball players performing with a military band, and television celebrities. The ceremony was televised live.

Also Sunday, China started construction of its 160-acre Olympic Village, where 16,000 athletes and officials will live during the games. It is to be completed by the end of 2007, organizers said.

The slogan, "One World" is a darn great slogan. I love that part as the song, "One World" is on my CDs that I've been giving out since late 2004. Mindy Simmons, friend, singer and songwritter, provides the song, "One World" as part of my campaign CD.

By the way, Mindy is going to be back with her music and guitar very soon. She'll be doing a concert on Monday, July 11 in Kenyon College as part of Summer Institute. Plus, Mindy is doing a service and concert at First Unitarian on Sunday morning, July 17. First Unitarian is in Shadyside. If you can go -- please do. She's great.

The song, One World, from a female, American singer associated withe a free-market community guy in Pittsburgh comes from a point of view that is grossly unlike that from China's top officials in Beijing.

One World, One Heart -- that would work for me.

How about One World, Countless Dreams -- that would work for me too.

I just hate to see the "one dream" part as it feels too much like we'll be stuffing too many square pegs into round holes.

As for other Olympic stumbles -- how about the motocycle crash in Athens? But there are countless official, coach, athlete blunders. Do you remember the unleashing of the masot well in advance of the Atlanta Olympics? That was a royal joke. It was like this droopey white star that was like a puffed potato chip. That character was gone before anyone could say, "Give-me-Coke and a smile while calling Disney ASAP."

How about, "One World, One Spirit of Determination!"

The Three Rivers Post & Standard -- and new blog with fellow Libertarians and beyond

The creator of this site, J.E., just became a father for the third time! Way to go J and Libby. His family now has THREE BOYS.

The Three Rivers Post & Standard Welcome to The Three Rivers Post & Standard, a new journal covering the Pittsburgh region’s general mess…

I think the blog will be a welcome addition to the overall landscape. Some good minds are involved. The technology is kwel too. I just posted a bit about our family's open house on the 4th of July there. I like the features and wish some of them were at Blogspot as well.

Training for the Triathlon

My self-paced swim workout was greater in distance than the distance for the actual race. The race is 1.5K in the Allegheny River. Looking at the course, the first 1/3rd goes upstream and the back 2/3rds flows with the current.

Swim 400 with flip turns (no stopping)
Swim 400 with open turn, head up at mid length for peeking (no stopping)
Pull 1 x 200
Pull 4 x 50 (10-sec rest between, swimming faster)
Paddles 1 x 200
Paddles 4 x 50 (10-sec rest between, faster)
Swim Breast 1 x 200
Swim Breast 4 x 50
Kick 1 x 200 (Breast)
100 swim down

Jack Writes Letters: 'world' of a mayor award and ICA's wind in its sails

Jack Wagner, quck to write a letter about Tom Murphy, might want to consider sending in a piece of his mind to this outlet, CityMayors.com, too:

Tinley may have a 'world' of a mayor: "The City Mayors profiles of Richard Daley and Tom Murphy, of Pittsburgh, are credited to 'Josh Fecht, U.S. Editor,' but in fact are ripped word-for-word from biographies published on the cities' Web sites.

If Jack's words can re-ignite the ICA (oversight board), perhaps they can skuttle any hope for glory on Tom's exit.

Here is the Trib's Whispers mention in the Sunday paper:

Wild Thing, you make them Dems sting - PittsburghLIVE.com A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MAYOR MURPHY MISERABLE? Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner just couldn't resist.

With only six months to go before he leaves office, time is running out to take shots at Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy. Wagner, a longtime political foe of the mayor, evidently realized the clock is ticking.

Wagner recently sent a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell and key state legislative leaders requesting they maintain the city financial oversight board established last year by the General Assembly.

There has been talk in Harrisburg of dissolving the board, which has been a frequent thorn in Murphy's side. Most legislators don't mind the panel being a mayoral irritant, but they are concerned about it also sparring with the Act 47 financial recovery team appointed by Rendell.

Wagner, a former City Council president who lost to Murphy in the 1993 Democrat mayoral primary, had a hand in establishing the board when he was a state senator.

As a state row officer, he really doesn't have standing to inject himself into the debate over whether the oversight board should survive. Knowing how miserable the panel could make Murphy's final days in office probably helped convince Wagner to lobby to keep it alive.

Jerry Bowyer is out at WPTT, 1360 AM -- talk show switches

On the 4th of July, WPTT has a new line-up. Frankly, I don't like it. I'll miss Bowyer.

7-9 am = Laura Ingraham Show (syndicated)
9 to noon = Lynn Cullen (Pgh's own)
Noon to 3 = The Thom Hartmann Show (syndicated)
3 to 6 = Uncle Dougie, Doug Hoerth

Boywer is leaving for a new talk show on WORD-FM (101.5) starting in September.

Clark Howard (syndicated) is from 6 to 10 pm.

Just getting my head above water.... What do you make of these numbers?

On May 18, just after the May 17 election day, we went over the Pacific Ocean for a month. I'm just now getting my act in gear in terms of catch-up.

What do you make of these election result numbers?

http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/elect/200505pri/rpt301.asp

At first blush, I see that at every polling place, I got someone to vote for me. I didn't get ZERO anywhere.

The totals again:

Mark Rauterkus = 2,542

Michael Diven = 13,353

Wayne Fontana = 19,834

I got more than 7 percent of the total vote in the three way race.

The City Paper ran a blurb after the election and they had the numbers wrong. I was outspent about 250 to 1 by each candidate. But I was NOT outvoted by such an amount. I was outvoted 5 to 1 by Diven. I was outvoted 7.8 to 1 by Fontana.

Insights welcomed. Mine detailed insights yet to be posted.

New principals are appointed to city of Pittsburgh schools

There are plenty of changes. New principals are appointed to city of Pittsburgh schools

Delano goes 'ga-ga' over Swann -- but ABC and FOX are worthy matches

Jon Delano wrote, in part:

Swann's problem is this. Once he announces formally, ABC Sports will drop his lucrative contract as a football commentator during the 2005 season. How lucrative? I am told it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few months work, but who knows. Bottom line, forget the money -- it's also great publicity for a would-be candidate running statewide. Of course, the more visible Swann becomes as a candidate during this pre-election season the greater the pressure on ABC to admit the obvious. So Swann has a narrow political (and legal) path to trod. He wants everyone to think of him as a candidate, to promise him support, and give him lots of money -- but he doesn't want to give ABC (or opponents contacting ABC) any excuse to drop him from national broadcasting this autumn.

If Swann makes all the right moves on his timetable, don't expect a formal announcement of candidacy until next January.

What about Ed Rendell's contract to give insights on Sundays about the NFL for FOX? Rendell is on the air -- and he must campiagn too. What is good for the goose is good for the gander too, or in this case the swan. (honk, honk, honk)

I don't think ABC needs to drop Lynn Swann from the football broadcasting gig in the fall of 2005, even if Swann tosses his hat, formally, into the race for the GOP nomination for PA Gov spot. Nor should ABC do so.

At the most, perhaps ABC would put a memo together to ask him and the counterparts on the air to stick to football. And, if things made viewers blink twice, keep Swann out of the games in Phili and Pittsburgh. That would help calm fears, perhaps.

So, if I'm the boss of ABC Sports, Lynn, you'd not be benched for being a candidate.

Equitable's new North Shore HQ opens -- and it is a major letdown

Equitable's new North Shore HQ opens When oversized scissors snipped the blue ribbon at the new Equitable Resources Inc. headquarters next to PNC Park yesterday, it marked a moment for which Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy had been waiting eight long years.

This is an average building. This is a splendid space and a poor choice for a corporate headquarters.

The building blocks the views of the river.

The building is nothing special and fails to reach the necessary potential that the site should exhibit.

I think, and others who are in agreement, say that this is a classic example of a blown opportunity. Pittsburgh should have done much, much better.

City pools open, for now anyway - Lifeguard shortage is a world wide problem

Swimming:

City pools open, for now anyway: "Though City of Pittsburgh pools are scheduled to open today, some face the possibility of closure in July due to a scarcity of lifeguards.

The city has 103 lifeguards ready to go, reflecting the bare minimum needed to operate 13 pools, said aquatics supervisor Shelley Terlecki. There are not enough lifeguards in reserve to handle the inevitable vacations, call-offs, and resignations, she said.

A lack of lifeguards is a problem. Sandcastle needs them. REAMS will need them. Beaches around the world need lifeguards too.

Lifeguards are made in years of play at the pools. Swim teams are often great sources for lifeguards. There is an aquatics mentality that is made over time. The pool rats are the ones that aspire to be lifeguards.

One can't just wake up one day and turn into a lifeguard. You have to be able to swim well. Nonswimmers are out. Average swimmers are out too.

When Pittsburgh's officials worked to pull the plug on its swim team that used to operate at the Oliver Bath House -- I raised a warning flag. We don't have enough kids that can swim well enough to become lifeguards. And, we don't have enough kids who want to be lifeguards either.

Without the kids at the pools -- you'll never be able to fill the need.

Beauty and ruggedness of the Point - liquid, cool, floating on the weekend

Three Rivers Artist Festival artist Stacy Levy is in tune with the beauty and ruggedness of the Point

Today is a great day, with the heat, to take a swim. Too bad we can't do that at Point State Park.

China dealings in the news: The bad karma of US actions are wearing on me.

There have been a number of issues with China in the news recently. On almost all instances, I'm favorable to the position of China and not that of D.C.'s.

I like free trade. I think it is wrong to force China to prop up its own export limits or export tax on textile products. This news broke more than a month ago. The US signed a free trade deal and now it wants to ignore it.

I agree with Alan Greenspan. I see no harm in the US Dollar being a benchmark for the China currency. The dollar float is matched perfectly with the China exchange rate. This foils the messing that could happen with DC wonks. They don't like it. Tuff! I'd rather have China hitching to the US Dollar than the Euro.

Today's news had to do with the USA's position that China isn't helping enough with the power ploy on North Korea in terms of weapons.

Hoops

New Irony Trend

Look at the trend (some past and some future) and notice the various twists on the "progress" of various projects. Feel free to insert some of your own observations as well.

Construct a new Convention Center -- but make a new pruchase of a damn for the water treatment and fountain that runs down the middle of the interior road, at a price greater than the entire Citiparks' aquatics budget for running outdoor swim pools.

Build a natural grass football field, then run out and get new turf.

Give HEINZ naming rights for the football field, then sell Heinz to DelMonte and then have that firm sell the asset again.

Invest in a new airport for US Air -- and then have massive layoffs.

Build a new indoor basketball arena, because the Fieldhouse isn't good enough. Then pay $5-million to get a new, new roof.

Make a roller-coaster with a new loop -- and then close it a year later. Subtract the loop and give it a new name.

Re-pave a stretch of highway with new formula that prevents potholes -- and then re-do it with new, new pavement months later.

Close a number of fire stations, but then put in to build a few new ones.

Construct a new aquarium to join with the Pittsburgh Zoo, yet see the Amazon River Dolphin (poor Chuckles) and stingrays perish.

Have a great city skyline to display, but choose to put a light-rail extension in a tunnel under a river.

Choose to close schools to save money and be certain to shut down the ones that educate the most and retain highschoolers from dropping out.

Build a new jail for the next century then see it fill past its capacity within its first decade.

Program progress could include the outcome that firing police officers revealed a drop in crime rates.

Get a hillside designation in the city's zoning code, then suffer with great losses with landslides on many of those hillsides that cost more than $10-million to repair.

What's new with you? Generally there is good news, and bad news.

Drunk Driving, Tom Flaherty, judge candidate, courtroom experience, humm...

I don't think that this be scripted any better for our present controller.

Jury duty for a guy who is a candidate for judge.

Free press.

It's a drunken driving case, no less.

Eminent Domain hits the news again with a new court ruling that spells trouble for property owners and aids redevelopment.

Ouch.

Bloomberg.com: U.S. Government Power to Take Property Backed by Top Court

(Bloomberg) -- Local governments have broad power to take over private property to make way for shopping malls, office parks and sports stadiums, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.

The court said government agencies can constitutionally take property in the name of economic development -- and even transfer it to another private party -- as long as the landowners receive compensation. The 5-4 ruling today came in a case involving land near a Pfizer Inc. plant in New London, Connecticut.

Scott B, a friend of Pittsburgh, now working in DC, was quoted on the radio news today. He works with a nonprofit that fights against eminent domain.

I hate eminent domain. The excuse of economic development does not lessen this hate. Rather, this new court judgement makes policy makers more critical in the process. Overboard, power-hungry, do-good authoritarians are given more room to roam. Hence, eminent domain is sure to be more and more of an issue for many if not every election in the future.

I am one who says let the markets operate without heavy-handed governmental impacts. Buy the property. Do the development if you feel justified. But don't buy it with force.

Once property is able to be taken, then investors will slow their investments into property. Investments will go into other, more secure assets. Hence, the downward spiral of real property is sure to accelerate.

Torn on this public broadcasting matter with the US Congress

I've been silent about the matters before the US Congress, the federal budget and the funding of Public Broadcasting / NPR. A buzz of noise on the topic has come from other sources. So, I've been relaxed in my efforts to discover and in turn inform.

The House vote may come today on funding cuts for PBS, NPR and other public media. The cuts are "defang and defund public broadcasting."

Oh my.

Sadly, I think QED is already toothless, by choice. WQED put WQEX into limbo and squandered its responsibility. QED burnt the trust I have in that instution years ago and has done little or nothing to change its tune.

The potential is there to do so much more. But, they fumble. The managers are more interested in do-whop and what is not here anymore. Certain duties are involved in public tv and they are not being upheld. So, I say that pulling the plug is not such a bad thing. I also contend that the public tv elements are in the marketplace and that squashes other indies from doing the same actions.

Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is engaged in a deliberate campaign to bully programmers to produce shows that echo the White House line. His cronies in Congress are slashing funding for the news, children's and cultural programming Americans trust.
I used to trust that programming. They've blown their trust in my view.

Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Diane Watson (D-Calif.) have introduced an amendment that would block Tomlinson from meddling in noncommercial programming. And Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and James Leach (R-Iowa) have offered an amendment that would restore $100 million in funding stripped out by the Appropriations Committee.

More at Freepress.net/publicbroadcasting.