Rants from Russ and others

Clean sweep, walking along.

See the comments....

Meet the Steel City Derby Demons! -- PLUS -- Steelers to hardwood

After-Practice Party with the Demons! Starts at 10:30 pm on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at The Smiling Moose in South Side - Upstairs. Gotta be 21 or older.

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Steelers vs. Court Time All-Stars (featuring current professional and former collegiate players.) Slated for 8 pm on Friday, May 19, 2006 at Court Time. Tickets are selling fast (limited # available), call 412.754.2005 for tickets $5.

Scott Butler is Court Time Sports Center's Executive Director, 95 Enterprise Drive, Elizabeth, PA 15037.

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Blog Fest is slated for 6:30 for a Friday in May. I don't see any mention of black tie nor prom.

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Buggy Goes Live! Spring Carnival Celebration at CMU rolls around for April 20-22.

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Saturday, April 22: Earth Day Festival and Rally in Highland Park with the Sierra Club. Festival and Rally: 11:00-12:30 and Educational Neighborhood Walk: 12:30-3:00. This all takes place at the Rhododendron Shelter, Highland Park (on Lake Drive).

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The second Annual "Trash Bash" meets @ 18th and Carson @ 9 AM with coffee and donuts. They are supplying safety vests, brooms, gloves, bags and "graffiti whipes." They will have bottles of water and provide pizza and soda for lunch afterwards.

A river sweep is also slated for Saturday. Heard of this from some Mt. Washington folks. It starts around Station Square and moves up the South "shore" of the Mon to the boat launch in the park.

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Rob Owens, of the P-G reported on Thursday, CASTING THIRD 'GEEK'. The third edition of The WB reality show "Beauty and the Geek," which will air in the future on the new CW network, will be in Pittsburgh casting brainless beauties and brainy guys with zero social skills.

If you qualify and want to be on TV, casting will be held Saturday at Boomerang's Bar & Grille in Oakland, 3901 Forbes Ave., from noon to 5 p.m. Applications are available online at thewb.warnerbros.com/web/o_generic_format.jsp?id=BG-Season-three-Casting-Call.

Blogs offer new avenue for businesses - PittsburghLIVE.com

Wanted: More bloggers to join this venture and be a Running Mate. If you'd like to be on a blog that gets lots of readers -- I'd love to have the helpers.

Blogs offer new avenue for businesses - PittsburghLIVE.com 'It is of growing importance for businesses to read blogs, and consider writing their own blogs,' said Mike Woycheck, information systems technologist for the Pittsburgh Technology Council. 'It's something businesses have to pay attention to, because it's not going to go away.'

Woycheck is a founder of Pittsburgh Bloggers, which began in late 2004 and now lists more than 400 local Web logs. Most are personal, but some, including The Bloomery and Mt. Lebanon's Aldo Coffee Co. blogs, are business-based.

Keep your own blog too -- but on matters of civic concern, local issues, trends and news reactions, pipe them over here.

All aboard.... our photo in a reflection before we board the Maglev in Shanghi.

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In other local blogging news,
Local TV: Sheila Hyland to fill in on KDKA morning news WTAE is getting a WEB REPORTER. Channel 4 has hired a reporter who will file TV-style reports primarily for WTAE's Web site, www.thepittsburghchannel.com.

I still have a burning question about this page, a blast from the past, from the site in question.

Sifry's Alerts The blogosphere is over 60 times bigger than it was only 3 years ago.

No fans to light the Pirates' flame

There will be an All-Star boycott -- No Sweatshops, Bucco!

Why live in misery when the day was great -- and baseball was being played at dozens of high school sandlots all around western PA? Makes no sense when we have great baseball at the best price around -- at a high school game. We went today and on Wednesday. Great time. Dropped in for a few innings. Spent an hour or so. Wonderful.

No fans to light the Pirates' flame 'I think fans have been gracious,' he said. 'And maybe not vocal enough, maybe not vociferous enough with their displeasure. That's my opinion.'

It is a difficult viewpoint to refute, one that requires no more than a casual glance around PNC Park to reinforce.

There are no brown bags over anyone's heads, no banners advocating change, no boycotts being staged. Rarely are there boos when the home side fares poorly.

Langley baseball smashes The Dice -- and earlier in week on Brashier -- with 10-run rule mercy

Mustangs were not doing much horse play on the diamond this week. They are for real and kicking butt!

The team can hit, field and pitch. Way to go.

Drive Cleaner, Drive Greener 2006

News from the GASP event committee:

GASP's 3rd annual hybrid car display and test-drive event is set from 11 am to 5 pm on Saturday, May 20, 2006, at the Venture Outdoors Festival on Pittsburgh's North Shore, near Heinz Field.

FREE! Rain or shine. Parking will be available for $5. Parking is free for hybrid owners who display their cars!

* Test drive some of the latest hybrid electric cars to be introduced to the market.

* Talk to hybrid car owners about their experiences owning and driving vehicles using this new technology.

* Dealers will be on hand if you have questions about purchasing a new hybrid.

* Find out what financial incentives you can get when buying a hybrid vehicle.

* Information about upcoming hybrid vehicles will be available.

If you already own a hybrid car, we'd love to display it on Saturday, May 20. You can provide a valuable service by being available to answer questions about your experiences owning a hybrid and showing off your car's unique features! (Your car will only be on display and not used for test drives.)

WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS:

* to help publicize the event by posting flyers and forwarding this e-mail message to friends

* to display their hybrid cars (see description above)

* to find hybrid car owners who will display their cars
* to put GASP in touch with dealerships who may be interested in participating in the event

* to make wooden free-standing sign frames

* to help at the event: setting up, handing out information, signing up test drivers, taking pictures, cleaning up.

If you can help with any of these, please contact GASP at 412-325-7382 or bridget@gasp-pgh.org.

Don't miss the free Venture Outdoors Festival with hands-on outdoor activities. It will be fun for the whole family! http://www.ventureoutdoors.org/VOFest.asp

Tony Phyrillas: Three men walk into a bar …

Tony Phyrillas: Three men walk into a bar …: "Three men walk into a bar …
A Democrat, a Republican and a Libertarian walk into a bar. No, this isn't a joke. It happened. The three men spent hours discussing ways to fix Pennsylvania's broken government and by the end of the night, all three agreed on almost all of the issues. Imagine that.

The Democrat is Irv Livingood, who is challenging 14-year incumbent Rep. Dante Santoni Jr. in the 126th District. The Republican is Bill Reed, who is taking on 20-year incumbent Rep. Dennis Leh in the 130th District. The former Libertarian is Russ Diamond, founder of PaCleanSweep and independent candidate for governor of Pennsylvania.
"

Full of hot air

Article: "“Reaching out to help a neighbor, I think, is exactly what Jesus would've wanted us to do,” Frank said. “From my perspective, politicians should have a sacred trust with the people.”

April 21 means....

Family tradition --- today.... Take a guess.

Tennis anyone -- or, is it only boys now and girls then?

Girls and Guys in the same racket sport.... That's my choice.


Girls and guys have a rich history of swimming together. I've seen a girl swim an 800 free in an individual even and score a time that would have beaten all the boys times in the 800 free RELAY in that meet. Bridget Bowman did it in a meet in Joliet, IL.

Ouch!

Police are looking for an escaped prisoner who managed to evade a deputy. Carlos Harris, 34, was last seen running through Oakland naked after he was taken to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital with an eye injury. He reportedly jumped a sheriff's deputy and fled.

Police are investigating two attacks by teenagers near Carrick High School. One victim told KDKA-TV that he was beaten near the Rec Center, and another group of teens beat another victim nearer to the school. Police have made one arrest, but believe that numerous teens were involved.

VISTA is looking for both organizational sites and people to volunteer.

CTC VISTA Project now accepting applications

The CTC VISTA Project is accepting applications from community technology centers and other non-profits that are using information and communications technologies to address the needs of low-income and at-risk communities.

In the coming months we will be placing OVER 50 Americorps*VISTAs with organizations across the country. While the majority of these placements will take place at the end of AUGUST, a small group will be starting mid-JUNE.

Applications for JUNE placements are due in late-APRIL. Applications for AUGUSTS are due mid-JULY.

Organizations interested in participating are encouraged to review the updated guidelines and submit an 'intent to apply' as soon as possible (because recruiting a qualified VISTA does take some time).

Paul Hansen, paul.hansen -at- umb.edu, Director, CTC VISTA Project, College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts/Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125-3393, 617.287.7122 (v); 617.287.7274 (fax).

Mr. Patrick skates on out of here

Blast from the past:

http://rauterkus.blogspot.com/2006/01/mark-rauterkus-left-and-craig-patrick.html

A blogger, and perhaps a 'running mate' ??? wrote that Patrick should be fired. That was in mid-January.

USA, USA, USA --- and Hockey fame! This is a photo of the recent movie, Miracle on Ice, taken in China outside a cinema there.

Wikitravel merges with World66

No sense in spinning one's wheels.

Merger of idea depots makes sense.

Wikitravel:20 April 2006 - Wikitravel We're pretty excited to share some big news with the Wikitravel community.

Wikitravel has had immense growth in the last 12 months – both in its size and in the maturity of our guides and our community. Wiki is so strange that way: the more contributors, the better the content we make; and the better the content, the more contributors we attract. But there's still so much left to do to reach our goal: to make a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide. We're taking big steps today to get closer to that goal.

As many of you know, a similar project to Wikitravel exists on the Web: World66. Like us, they've been working hard to create a travel guide of global scope. Like us, they use wiki to make the guides reliable and up-to-date. And like us, they use a Creative Commons license to keep their content Free.

Starting today, our two projects will be working together to achieve our common goal. We think the melding of these two sites is going to make a project that's greater that the sum of its parts. It's not going to be easy: we have technical hurdles and potential culture clashes to deal with. But this is the Next Big Step for Wikitravel and World66.

Next I've got to find a place for our travel stories and photos.
Different strokes for different folks -- but all in the land of the free. Take a guess where this photo was taken. Put your answer in the comments.

Editorial: Reform in the 21st / For a change, Democrats should pick Bennington

Editorial: Reform in the 21st / For a change, Democrats should pick Bennington Editorial: Reform in the 21st / For a change, Democrats should pick Bennington

LOIS MURPHY GUILTY OF PLAGIARISM AGAIN - THIS TIME STEALING FROM SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON - 4/20/2006

The document -- goes from here to there. This "poster" is from one of my travel photos and it looks a bit like "the document company" (Xerox) art. But it also comes to stand for how China and the US knock laws on copyright.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, locally, we have a candidate for public office that is putting out good ideas that may be very similar statements from others in different times and places.

LOIS MURPHY GUILTY OF PLAGIARISM AGAIN - THIS TIME STEALING FROM SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON - 4/20/2006 ... "various college professors and a campaign ethics expert verified Murphy's ethics plan was 'sloppy,' would receive an 'F for originality,' and would find herself in 'hot water on a college campus.'

Wow, these claims, charges and foundation to the thinking is interesting.

The Platform.For-Pgh.org is a wiki that is geared to these types of postings and issues. Attribution is often given, but it is not an 'academic' mission. Rather, ours is a struggle of idea crafting and talk of solutions and problems.

Most voters are not looking for candidates who get "As" in originality.

In the last special election I was involved -- March 14, 2006 -- it was said to me from another participant, "The two candidates who had the least to say got the most votes."

If a candidate is real original -- like Bill Peduto is -- then we get laws such as the "bubble bill" that protects people going into and out of health clinics. But, the law also gets taken to court and, IMHO, will be found illegal.

Mayor Tom Murphy was a champion of being creative. Corporate welfare flew from the poor to the rich like never before with his thinking and skills of changing everyone's (almost everyone's) understanding. TIFs (tax breaks to the super rich) are something Pittsburgh developed and they are being copied in other parts of the county and country. But, that original style does not work in the long-run. It costs money from the public treasury. It gets a handful of cronies rich.

So, the blade cuts both ways as to being 'creative.' And, I'd say there is a lot of value to being only as good as Jefferson and Franklin when it comes to one's thinking in modern econmic and liberty discussions.

And, I have no problem with other candidates for public office taking other comments from others and re-using them in their talks, press releases, web sites and beyond.

Have you heard of the Creative Commons? Those levels of 'protection' are nice. But, are we going to see a license that says others can use these words only if they are running a race for a certain brand?

You can't copyright ideas! You can't slap a trademark on things that are in the public domain.

Well, you can. But, this shouldn't be the way things work.

I'm all in favor of more open-source approaches.

The messenger is less important than the message.

And finally, screw the academics and the ivory tower they rode in on. Who are they to say this or that won't work on a college campus? You know, there was a debate on a college campus and the college prof was so weak and ignorant -- and he's an expert -- that the people in the audience could not run a video camera of the discussions. Screw that.

You know what wouldn't work on a college campus -- a professor saying we're going to have some outside guests and we're not going to allow it to be put on tape.

If the plans from the candidate make sense -- talk sense. If the plans are full of holes -- point them out. If you don't have anything better to suggest -- the one who needs to return to college seems evident to me.

One final story. On the campaign trails we went to one event and were hit with a one page quiz from one well meaning community group. The questions were short -- but there were more than five. But the right answer wasn't true-nor-false. I didn't fill out the form there, as asked. I said I'd take it home. They wanted them there and then. I told the others, I'm not doing their test. It didn't get done.

Most of life, including politics and government, is an OPEN BOOK TEST.

Louis Murphy -- public plagiarism could be something to be proud of. Sadly, there seems to be lies and distances made to the claim of plagiarism at the outset -- rather than an embrace of what it means to be a well researched student of public discourse and open source ways.

Peduto proposes aid, as in 'Rich Get Richer and Poor Get Poorer'

Toss in a red carpet for good an added touch, like a cherry on top.

Peduto proposes aid Pittsburgh Councilman William Peduto has proposed an alternative approach to aiding Downtown development.

Mr. Peduto wants the city to waive property taxes on new Downtown housing for 10 years, and on new Downtown offices and hotels for five years.

His nonbinding resolution submitted to council calls on Mayor Bob O'Connor and the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority to create a group to study the idea, which he dubbed the Shared Tax Abatement for Neighborhood Development.

It also calls for tax credits for redevelopment of historic property, for construction of environmentally friendly buildings and for funding public art.

It could come up for an initial council vote April 26. Council is considering city participation in an $18 million tax subsidy for PNC Financial Services Group's proposed new Downtown office tower.

Look at all the people, living tax free for the next decade.

Click the image to see a larger version of the photo so details become clear.

Here is where you might go to get a no-bid deal. This is NOT Pittsburgh.

My notion of too many cooks is more as to getting our goose cooked too much.

Too many cooks?

Mike M at Pittsblog is on a kick about too many cooks messing up our economic development efforts in Pittsburgh. I've got a different take on that issue. See the comments over there for my one RMB (i.e., slang for two-cents).

Pittsblog: Too Many Chefs? Too Many Chefs?

And there is another blog mention about two or three below that one.

Downtown -- as in the rich getting richer -- in an exclusive kinda way.

Downtown living?

Piatt grows vision for Downtown - PittsburghLIVE.com Millcraft wants exclusive rights to develop each of the 19 Downtown properties owned by the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority.

What about a bid process. Is O'Connor just going to give away these exclusive rights?

Some payoff if that is true.

Where is the RFP (request for proposals)????

I do like the plan, as a concept. I like that thought has gone into it. I like that there are affordable units. I like that there is student housing in the mix too. But, I can't stand it that this is an exclusive deal at the request of the mayor for his cronies. No-bid contracts should be in the domain of the church, the bishop, and perhaps a temple with the monks. But for a commercial space in an urban center with government owned land -- give us a competitive bid process.

$269 million Downtown redevelopment plan unveiled Given the city's OK, Millcraft could start building apartments 'right away,' he said.

Millcraft isn't asking the city for a subsidy, nor for free property, but it does want exclusive options on 19 properties owned by the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, he said. Given that, its marketers would take their plan to the International Council of Shopping Centers convention, which starts May 21 in Las Vegas.

Millcraft isn't asking for a subsidy -- but the assumption is that this is an exclusive. This is a hand-picked contract. This is a favorite friend deal. This is a cronie thing. This is a "screw the rest of the world deal where they say 'hell to the marketplace' and 'hell to those who are not buddies.'

I say that this deal, as a process question, needs to review and evaluation.

I say that Bob O'Connor was NOT elected CZAR of the city.

I say that there should be some 'stewardship' in terms of hard questions asked from the public officials for the benefit of the public interest.

I say that a deal like this could land Bob O'Connor in jail. The Feds will be on this in a New York minute.

This might be a splendid plan. It now needs to be put out to bid. You don't want to build the apartments right away.