It is all Greek to me.... Greek sprinters admit to doping at '04 Olympics - Monday June 26, 2006 4:18PM

If Tom Murphy is going to help with a reform of conflict of interest laws and setting up new rules for those who make contracts, perhaps we should ask these Greek sprinters who wreck motocycles after taking roids to give a few pointers on how to ride on the wild side to #7, Big Ben.

Their motocycle crash was one of the overlooked moments in sports. It put a black cloud on the early moments of the Olympics back in Greece.

SI.com - More Sports - Greek sprinters admit to doping at '04 Olympics - Monday June 26, 2006 4:18PM Nearly two years after embarrassing the host nation on the eve of the Athens Olympics, Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou admitted they broke doping rules and accepted their bans from competition.

The runners dropped their appeals Monday before the Court at Arbitration for Sport. The International Association of Athletics Federations said they will be eligible to return Dec. 22 after completing their two-year bans, provided they pass the mandatory drug tests.

Finally a channel for Big Ten diehards

ContraCostaTimes.com | 06/26/2006 | Finally a channel for Big Ten diehards The Big Ten Conference is thinking outside the box. Beginning in August 2007, the conference will launch its own television network, which will be called -- drum roll, please -- the Big Ten Channel.

Well, OK, the name isn't much, but you have to admire the ambition.

'It will be a destination for all things Big Ten,' said commissioner James E. Delany, whose definition for 'all' is a little loose. Football and men's basketball games will be on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2, as stipulated by contractual agreement. But all the other things -- you know, soccer, tennis, swimming, diving and wrestling -- you'll find them there.

The Big Ten Channel involves a partnership with Fox Cable Networks and will be available to satellite and cable distributors and through the Internet, iPods and cell phones.

Let's ask the FOX how to fix the Chicken Coop & Murphy off the hook

Edited slightly:

Federal prosecutors won't indict former Mayor Murphy: "the EX-mayor would be working with Ms. Buchanan primarily on reforming state Act 111, which governs the binding arbitration which applies to police and firefighters contracts. He said they might talk to state officials about ideas like preventing contract negotiations during election season, or giving city councils some say over what kinds of contract provisions are agreed to between the parties before arbitration starts.

Hold the phone. Replace, Redirect, Reform. I don't want to have those folks have any hand in any reforms. No way. Ex-Mayor Tom Murphy is the last guy I want to be in a role for REFORMING conflict of interest measures.

There is a time to hear from Mayor Murphy -- and there is a time to run away quickly from all that he does. Listen just to figure out which way he is moving -- then go the other directions.

Drive to shrink city council gains steam

A couple have emailed me asking about this proposal, not sure what to think.

Drive to shrink city council gains steamFirefighters, city GOP want council cut to size

A referendum drive to cut the size of Pittsburgh City Council from nine members to five may have unprecedented momentum, council members and their foes agree.

First, I love democracy and I think we need to use it or loose it. We need to flex those community muscles and that means we should be putting three to six referendum questions onto the ballot every election for the next few years. So, I like the use of referendums a great deal.

I also love the concept of ballot access. This means that questions should be put to the public and made available for a general vote without a lot of undo hardships in terms of signatures of voters.

So, direct, honest candidates and questions should get onto the ballot with reason. As many know, this isn't the case now. Statewide candidates get onto a ballot with 2,000 signatures while nearly 100,000 are needed for those who are NOT with the old party label, D and R. That has to be changed.

We don't even allow for citizen led ballot questions in PA. The 'growing greener' vote of May, 2005, for example, was put onto the ballot by the Governor and blessed by the legislature. We, as citizens, should have the right to put up ballot questions too. In the city, there is that possibility.

So, let's vote. Let's have the discussion. Let's get the question on the ballot.

But, I don't like that these questions are HATCHED behind closed doors and are no put out into the open before they are put onto various petitions. The wording of the changes for the city charter need to be "sanctioned" in a much better way. I'm not sure we are putting forth the very best questions for general vote.

I know that the 'row-office reduction' and debate was centered around a very bad question. The question that went to the voters was much weaker than what I would have done. I bucked for individual questions for each row office, YES - or - NO, rather than the package deal that was crunched into one question.

Before I get into the ins and outs of if council should be dropped from 9 to 5, I want to see who is calling and giving out black petitions? Where are they Joe King and Bob Hillen? Will this be another fruitless exercise? There isn't a good track record of getting signatures. And, are we going to be spinning our wheels again?

The deadline is August 8. Why is this just getting media coverage now? Did I miss something back in April, May, and June?

I drove past a firehouse today and almost pulled over to walk to the folks there and ask these same questions. Where are the black petitions? Can I get some? Let's go!

Garbage Workers, City Don't Reach Union Agreement

ThePittsburghChannel.com - News - Garbage Workers, City Don't Reach Union Agreement Workers Threaten To Walk Out Before MLB All-Star Game

Oh no. The precious over-hyped All-Star Game might have serious talk of workers rights in the air -- to go along with the "No Sweatshop Protesters." And without wi-fi wireless, what will these red-carpet guests do?

Extras needed for a Pittsburgh Movie and Tailgate later

July 1 @ 5:00 pm - the Regatta at the Point
Join ths historic event to sing "It's a Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood" with Mr. McFeely for the film "A Tale of Two Cities".

Pittsburghers who now live in Los Angeles and New York have all gathered together to sing the song and now Pittsburghers will have an opportunity to be a part of the movie!

Go to www.thepittsburghmovie.com for more information.

If you come - look for the WIFMPIT Red Flag and wear red to show your support for our organization.

Check out the website for more information.

Pittsburgh Steeler Tailgate, August 19 @ The Best Western in Parkway Center

An all day tailgate party. Look for the WIFMPIT red flag and wear red to show your support.

Faith J Dickinson, Founding President, Women In Film and Media ~ Pittsburgh Chapter, www.WIFMPIT.com, A Member of Women In Film and Television International

Edited slightly and nuked phone.

Pittsburgh needs a revolutionary Bishop

The Tribune Review ran part of my editorial today stating that the Pittsburgh Diocese should appoint a "young" priest to the position. Here's the rest. Most people agree with me...let me know your opinion. The entire letter to the editor is below:

Bishop Donald Wuerl has left his hometown of Pittsburgh for Washington, D.C. The post looks to be a promotion because of it is a higher profile in our nation’s capital. In actually, the constituency is much smaller.

The Pittsburgh diocese is at a cross roads. As reporter Craig Smith notes in his June 22 article (Challenges await Wuerl’s successor), our churches have trouble filling pews and our Catholics are either changing religions, or most appropriately, abandoning organized faith altogether.

At least eight different candidates were recently suggested. All of those mentioned in the article are accomplished; however, none seem to be a revolutionary pick for Pittsburgh. All but one are 56 or older.

What is needed in Pittsburgh is a young voice. Pittsburgh deserves a bishop who not only provides a young face, but a leader who espouses vitality, optimism and energy. The new Bishop needs to be from Western Pennsylvania. He needs to be young. He needs to be someone who can make Catholics from around the country stand up and take notice.

When Karol Jozef Wojtyla was appointed the 264th Pope on October, 16, 1978, he was seen as a "Rock Star" of sort, an impossibly young Pope who was outdoorsy and the leader of youth.

Roman Catholic churches and schools are closing all over Pittsburgh. Appointing a new Bishop who is incapable of relating to young people and families would be a grave injustice for Catholics. And such a choice would be unremarkable.

The diocese and those in leadership in Pittsburgh need to do something remarkable. They need to "lead" by doing something "out of the box."

The diocese needs to pick a bishop who is 45 or younger; someone who can serve for 20 years in Pittsburgh and make a “real” difference.

A new Bishop in Pittsburgh would need to be no-nonsense when it comes to scandals and controversies. And he would need to be able to serve for an undetermined, indefinite period of time.

Pittsburgh needs someone with the personality and people skills to lead and hopefully "grow" the faith in Pittsburgh.

Thomas Leturgey

Carrick

Coach Dick Bower, with Erik and Grant. We're gearing up for summer camp.

PennPatriot Online - another Harrisburg joke

PennPatriot Online: "Minuteman: Tax rebate ploy isn't fooling anyone

The verdict is in.

Even before Gov. Ed Rendell has had a chance to sign the compromise Senate-House tax rebate bill into law and stand before the TV cameras to pretend he's delivered on his promise to cut property taxes, just about everybody agrees the bill stinks to high hell.

Forget any political mileage Rendell and the legislators who voted for it anticipated to get. I've yet to come across a single person dumb enough to believe that House Bill 39 is anything more than a feeble attempt by career politicians to fool voters. Rendell and the Harrisburg bunch aren't fooling anyone but themselves.

The scheme has been panned by the Pennsylvania Taxpayer Alliance, an umbrella organization that represents a dozen grassroots citizen groups across the state.

Lynn Swann, the Republican candidate for governor, and Russ Diamond, the founder of PaCleanSweep and an independent candidate for governor, has also blasted the rebate plan. 'Call this bill 'relief' or 'reform' is a joke,' Diamond said."

Pitt wants building code enforced for off-campus student housing

Pitt wants building code enforced for off-campus student housing The University of Pittsburgh will ask the city and the O'Connor administration to start placing greater emphasis on building code compliance as it pertains to off-campus student housing, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said yesterday.

Here we go again. This isn't such a clear-cut request that will be greeted with open arms in many communities.

Nordy should be putting something on the table too -- beyond just a request.

Pitt is a big part of the problem in Oakland and throughout Pittsburgh. If the leaders of the University had a sense of their failures and really wanted to make conditions better -- then we should talk. There is a lot to do. And, there is a lot of healing that needs to be confronted and examined in an open way.

How about this as a starting suggestion.

Any Pitt Student that is caught doing vandalism -- such as grafitti -- to either public or private property -- will be expelled from the University for at least one year.

Furthermore, Pitt should join in a pledge with RMU, DU, Art Insitutute, and the dozen of other instututions of learning (from CCAC to CMU to cooking schools) to make this a valid, county-wide pledge.

Then we'll talk about parking issues and a community behavior focus that makes on-going education of students, staff and faculty something to be proud.

In due time, we need to tap into the academic brain trust when it comes to dealing with some of our nagging problems. The merger of EMS services -- in the city and in the county -- needs to the input of those at UPMC and Pitt's School of Rehab Sciences. The talents and insights of the academics are hardly ever leveraged in our dealings with these solutions.

Sure, there is a LEAGUE OF YOUNG VOTERS, and sure, they hosted one debate on campus in the past six months. But where was the School of Public Health? Where is GPISA? Where is the board and its trustees? What about the commnunity access elements -- even from past deals such as the UPMC SPORTS MEDICINE Center on the South Side.

Pitt's spring football game should be played to a sold-out crowd at South Vo Tech's stadium (Cupples) with a weekend long celebration of all things academic, athletic and community. Parades of athletes with tailgates among departments and neighbor fans should be part of the mix here in Pittsburgh, at Pitt and with other universities.

There is a huge gap and dis-connect among community leaders, community participation and the institutions in this town.

And CMU -- thanks for the recent fumble of the golf course in the park. Thanks for the graceless, mindless exit.

Wikinomics needs a subtitle

Put in your feedback there.

I do love lots of these suggestions.

My entry is rather bland: Cooperation, Compeitition and Community. I'm fond of using three words all with the same first letter, as in Sports Support Syndicate. Or, Replace, Redirect then Reform.

Other suggestions:
# This Book is a Stub

# Why too many cooks don't spoil the broth

# (Your Input Needed Here)*

# Unleashing Collaboration for Competitive Advantage

# The Art of Digital Collaboration (or How to Get People to Make Money For You)

# Made Up Words & Overhyped Nonsense

# How Two Guys Blathered About Nothing And Suckered Folks Into Buying Their Book

A few of these would make good t-shirts too.

(See comments for many more.)

North Shore Garage

Bending over backwards for the All-Star Game again.

North Shore garage unused 'Our time frame was to get it open and running smoothly by the All-Star game and that's the process we're in now.

This garage, like so many other projects in the city, has some bad karma.

It is huge. It is going to take an entire weekend to get out of the garage after a special event.

In the city, we build garage space because we know how to build garages. But, it needs to be in areas that are simple, not where there is existing need. For example, we'll build too much garage space on Second Ave for the Pgh Technology Center because they have flat open space. But there are already garages there.

We really want "wet labs" and the North Side really wants a "amphitheater" -- but -- the pathway for Pittsburgh is to build those garages first and do nothing or little else. Then, their thinking goes, the projects that are much harder to plan, build, manage, tax and program are "jump started" -- hardly.

If you want diversity of use, such as a garage on the bottom floors, mixed with retail and housing in the top floors -- build it. This is a monster sized garage that has nothing else but parked cars.

People have felt the pinch with higher gas prices and in other cities (Denver, Dallas, LA, DC) mass transit ridership is increasing by leaps and bounds. Here, we build more parking in fringe areas that isn't organic to what a vibrant neighborhood should contain.

My knocks on the garage has little to do with it being "opening week" and no ribbon cutting. I don't care to see a ribbon cutting. I don't care to have advertisements run about the "grand opening." Those are but pimples in the real life of the project.

But, the Post-Gazette does care about the lack of "marketing for the garage." The P-G would like to see some full page ads in its pages, paid by the Parking Authority.

Tell us how many use the new garage in PNC Firtside. How many use the garages on Second Ave? What capacity are they? How about real evaluations, in ongoing ways, of parking throughout the entire Parking Authority system.

The Parking Authority should be liquidated. I've said that years ago and stick by that effort as a platform plank. However, at least this is a project that was done by the Parking Authority -- and not some other agency. Too often the URA or the Housing Authority or PAT are building garages and we get serious 'mission creep' and boondogles galore.

Rob Mensching Openly Uninstalled : The WiX toolset presents the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office.

I'm a big fan of OPEN Souce solutions. I am also a fan of Open Office and public domain content. The Creative Commons elements are nice and have helped to move this type of publishing more into the mainstream. Here is the latest news insights from a techie blogger, FYI.

Rob Mensching Openly Uninstalled : The WiX toolset presents the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office. Essentially, the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office is a small piece of code that adds a 'Creative Commons' item to the File menu in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The 'Creative Commons' menu item brings up a dialog that allows the use to choose a Creative Commons license for their document. The cool part is that the license is fetched from the Creative Commons web site via a web service exposed by Creative Commons. This web services allows the add-in to stay current with licenses should they change.

You can read a bit about the add-in in the news here and here.

But what does this have to do with software installation?

Well, that's the interesting part of the story. You see when it came time to deliver the Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office, there were some installation hurdles. First, the add-in is managed code that integrates with both Office XP and Office 2003. To integrate with Office via managed code you need the Office Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs). To make things even more complicated there are PIAs for Office XP and PIAs for Office 2003. This means we need a boostrapper/chainer to handle the multiple MSI packages.

35 Boy Scouts Sickened At Camp; Health Officials Investigate - News - MSNBC.com

The first report was in my blog -- and it was a few weeks ago. Our 5th grade camping trip ended with a number of kids and an couple adults getting sick. My son had his head in a garbage bag on the front row of the bus on the trip home to school. A classmate lost it in the third row of the bus. Then... after we landed, there were reports of another 20 or more getting sick over the weekend, including one of the teachers. We were gone from WED to Friday and had a bumpy landing.

35 Boy Scouts Sickened At Camp; Health Officials Investigate - News - MSNBC.com 35 Boy Scouts Sickened At Camp; Health Officials Investigate

WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. - Dozens of Boy Scouts got sick at a camp conference in Westmoreland County and now health-care workers are trying to find out why. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review first reported about 35 Scouts began having gastrointestinal problems Tuesday at Camp Twin Echo in Fairfield Township.

Next call, Dept of Health.

TV Reporter: Higher Calling

Wuerl to be installed today Wuerl to be installed today

On the 11 pm news last night it was reported that the ex-Bishop of Pittsburgh now has a "higher calling."

I don't think so.

He is still reporting to GOD. Isn't that his real calling? I don't think that changed in the slightest.

Trash Talking

Let's Redd Up Pittsburgh! It's time to Redd Up Pittsburgh, 'cause company's coming!' That was something I said referring to cleaning up the city for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. But, in reality, my goal is to make Pittsburgh one of the cleanest, safest cities in...

But, if reality said that the goal was to make Pittsburgh one of the cleanest and safest cities, say that at on the first pitch.

Don't put lipstick on a pig.

Don't fall into the hype trap. Or, pull us OUT of the hype trap, already.

You could NAG as Tom Murphy did and get the same results as Tom Murphy. No thanks.

Or, you could lead by example, something that Bob O'Connor has been doing with plenty of gusto. Fine.

The deck chairs on the sinking ship are sure to be boarded up some time soon. But, it costs the city a lot to board up a property, to take it over, to maintain it, to do the title clearing and so on and so forth. The budget has 300 houses set for demolition -- but the list is presently at three to five -- if not more -- times that.

And, in two more years, the list is going to be even larger.

The Redding Up effort makes for a 'no win battle.' Rather, some big ideas are needed to turn the tide. Rather than walking away from properties, we need to see a rush to Pittsburgh from near and far. That's what I wonder about -- and what Bob O'Connor has not been able to deliver.

Moon high school plan nixed again - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Moon high school plan nixed again - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Relying on Web sites, blogs and e-mail, community activists are finding they can reach more people more efficiently than ever before -- posting their positions instead of repeatedly recounting them or printing them in fliers and mass mailings.

John Broderick didn't know how many people had clicked on to www.moonread.org to learn about parents' battle to revive a plan to build a new high school in Moon, but he knows the Web site has been crucial to their fight."

Lofty plans vie for cash: Leaders push ideas for urban research center

Hat-tip to Pittsblog.

Lofty plans vie for cash: Leaders push ideas for urban research center 'To build buildings using the available resources, without building the entrepreneurial and research culture, I think that's a mistake,' said TechStar director Lane Brostrom. 'We don't have the critical mass of resources yet, so the question is: Where do you start?'

Both Byrnes and Brostrom are seeking political support for their respective plans. Given tight public finances, both have potential to stir controversy with their ambitious spending plans. Authors of both plans met last month in an effort to reconcile their aims.

Assuming that a compromise can be agreed upon, the question remains whether the plan can complement other efforts under way in Milwaukee, or whether it will overreach the city's capacity to generate patents and start-ups.

'The more of these organizations we have, the better it will be. It will raise the profile of the city,' Byrnes said.

Where do you start? Start at home. Start with the local kids. Start with the schools. Start with open source software. Start with open source software in government -- as a mandate. Eat your own dogfood.

Then kick things into gear with a YOUTH TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT. Build easy steps for local companies to interact with the young job pool. Make stars among the high school students, among the community college crowd, and among the leaders of those populations.

To reach for patents as a benchmark is a wrong-headed direction.

In Milwaukee, I've noted that they are trying to hire 40 new police as well. Platform.For-Pgh.org pointer

There there is the 'profile of the city' bunk. Screw that. Worry more about the 28 shootings on Memorial Day Weekend. Police staffing there has been short by 200 for several years. That sounds so much like Pittsburgh. Go figure.

Sharp increases in testing results for a school after switching to Linux

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0621metcrctbestchart.html

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Brandon Elementary scored top in the District of Atlanta Public Schools and third in the state on the standardized tests in Georgia. William Fragakis and I (posted by Daniel) converted all the old, nonfunctioning PCs into Linux thin clients running K12LTSP, got more than 100 donated PCs from businesses, and bought more than 60 new NTAVO thin clients at $99 each. The ended up more than tripling the number of working PCs in each classroom.

Scores were up across the board, and math scores, in particular were up sharply this year. All of the teachers have told us how much having all the Linux PCs have improved things, but this is the first hard evidence. Not that I'm a complete fan of all the testing that goes on here lately, but test results are paid attention to by decision makers, many of the ones we want to convince of the benefits of open source software and thin client architectures.

Thanks to the group for all the support! Daniel

Voters -- citizens -- poll workers -- democracy lovers -- lend us your cycles

* http://votepa.us/documents/allegheny/pressallghny_6-1.pdf

* http://votepa.us/documents/allegheny/ivo-report.pdf