Bus Shelters in East Liberty are turning green: much like some of the skyscrapers in downtown.  Plants were put onto the roof of a bus shelter on Penn Avenue:

At the time, Loralyn called the concept “putting little hubs of biodiversity” right where people can see what a green roof does, from reducing storm water runoff to attracting butterflies.

Last month, the green roof was installed, with educational signage encouraging you to look up

A workshop is scheduled for January 26th if you would like to learn more.

It’s Pittsburgh Restaurant Week.  Are you looking for some friends to go out with?  Check out Grub With Us.

The site is pretty simple, you sign up, and either join a group, or find a group already set up.  You make a reservation for a restaurant, pay and then show up and eat and socialize.  Pretty simple, and you’ll get to meet some new people, hopefully eat at some new restaurants, and enjoy a good night out.

Check it out here, and find some new friends and eats!

January 16-22 is Pittsburgh restaurant week.  At least 30 restaurants around Pittsburgh are running specials, check out the list here.

It’s a great week to try out new restaurants and see all the great food Pittsburgh has to offer.  And the awesome thing is that there are restaurants participating in downtown, as well as all over the rest of the city, so you have a lot of options.

If you’re looking for more to read about this week, check out the list of other participating bloggers here.  You can also check out the site to make online reservations and find out how to win free meals!

I was invited to a kick-off dinner on Tuesday, but I also have tickets to a pre-release screening of the movie Haywire, so I’m not sure which way I’m going yet, but I’m going to try to get to some new restaurants throughout the week, that’s for sure.

Find out more here, enjoy the good eats!

PAT has been building up to its new expansion into Bus Rapid Transit, and they’ve launched a new website to promote and explain the concept.

The new website talks about the benefits, although it does not have many concrete plans yet, but hopefully it will be fleshed out soon.  Although it does mention that they are looking at first taking BRT to Oakland via the Forbes/Fifth Corridor.

I’ve been skeptical about the BRT in the past, and I’m still not sold on the fact that we’ll be able to get it to effectively work.  But here’s hoping.

A health care system in central Pennsylvania is now testing its employees for nicotine use:

Geisinger Health System in central Pennsylvania announced this week that it will test all new job applicants for nicotine use beginning in February, and those who test positive will not be hired. Then, beginning in 2013, the Geisinger’s health insurance arm will charge a higher premium for current employees who acknowledge that they smoke or chew tobacco.

Also making its rounds on the internet is this awesome article, telling Portland to move over.  While they may be the hipster capital of the country, Pittsburgh is all those good qualities, in a non-ironic, genuine way:

Portland has overextended its welcome as the destination for hipsters who want to find themselves, while frolicking in beautiful scenery and reasonable rents,” says Hesse. “Pittsburgh is reasonable-rents, nice scenery, nice downtown, and the people are, in general, just far less insufferable.

Check out the whole article here.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Jim Krenn of the DVE morning show is no longer on the air.

As is normal with radio, very often, you never know a change is coming (as is the case with change in formats as well as talent changes).  The only exception I can remember is way back when, when 1250 was going through a lot of changes, I remember a special last show for Ann Devlin.

Otherwise, it’s just a quick change and moving on as if nothing happened.  To keep updated, check out Where’s Krenn?

Three other things that missed in 2011.  First up, the creche, outside of the USX Tower may be in jeopardy.  The endowment that makes it possible is close to empty (for its budget).  Also, I never knew it was officially called the “Millenium Creche.”

A few friends of mine have started up a new blog, covering all kinds of things from a Pittsburgh perspective.  So far they’ve covered sports, science, video games, politics and pop culture.  Check out Tri-River talk here.

And lastly, as part of Health Care Reform, states are able to create their own health care exchanges.  PA is working on their own (which I had no idea we were), and is set to open in two years.  Seems pretty awesome, check out some of the details here.

That’s all I’ve found so far, but there may be some more coming up.  Let me know in the comments what stories from 2011 you liked the best, and which ones you want me to revisit this year.

I thought I had a couple more, maybe it is the gravity of these stories that made me think there were more.

First up, the movie 30 Minutes or Less and how it was received by the family of the victim of the collar bomb years ago:

“It’s hard for me to grasp how other human beings can take delight and pride in making such a movie and consider it a comedy,” Heid said in an e-mailed response to The Associated Press. Heid asked to respond by e-mail because she wanted to choose her words carefully. “I don’t think it’s funny to laugh at the innocent who are victimized by criminals, who care nothing for human life.”

“Neither the filmmakers nor the stars of `30 Minutes or Less’ were aware of this crime prior to their involvement in the film,” Steve Elzer, the senior vice president who handles media relations for Sony Pictures’ Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. “The writers were vaguely familiar with what had occurred and wrote an original screenplay that does not mirror the real-life tragedy.”

And second, if you think back to Abu Ghraib, I don’t remember ever hearing this detail about the ringleader, but now he has been released from military prison:

Graner was an Army Reserve corporal from Uniontown, Pa., when he and six other members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company were charged in 2004 with abusing detainees at the prison in Iraq. The strongest evidence was photographs of grinning U.S. soldiers posing beside naked detainees stacked in a pyramid or held on a leash.

So not great stories to reflect upon, but items nonetheless.

I have a bunch of items that I missed at various points throughout the year.  So I figured instead of doing a retrospective, I’ll pull out these missed items.  I’ll probably end up doing at least one more of these posts, so take a look and see what I wanted to write about, but didn’t (for various reasons):

• Let’s talk about Fayette County for just a moment, since it is so near to my heart.   And we should read them all in the Oprah voice!
• Next up, Musings From Fayettenam has a great look at celebrating Christmas in our favorite county to the south.
• I can’t embed youtube videos at the moment, but go look at this video and be embarrassed.  So very freaking embarrassed.

Okay, we’re going to leave Fayette County for the time being, but we’ll go back later, don’t worry.

• That’s Church has two stories I’d like to share, the first being a video that is making its rounds, Pittsburgh’s answer to Apple’s Siri: Uncle Gordy.
• And a break down of the new Batman: The Dark Knight Rises trailer detailing Mayor Luke getting broke whilst falling into a crater.
• Gardening with Doug has a story about the possible revival of the American Chestnut.  I went to Saint Vincent College, and when the monks built the campus in the 1840′s, they primarily used American Chestnut from the aptly named Chestnut Ridge.  After the blight came and devastated the species, the buildings (the Archabbey Basilica especially) became essentially priceless.
• Back when the Pens played the Caps, the Capital Fans showed their “hospitality.“  Thankfully, we seem to be much more welcoming here in Pittsburgh.

More coming later, thanks for reading!

This is what was just constructed outside of the big Giant Eagle in Monroeville.  Pretty awesome, although the paint for the spaces next to the two stations are a shade of green that is very hard to read.  It could have been because it was night, or maybe because of the shade, but either way, the spaces on either side of the station are for electric vehicles only.

On a related note, the PA Turnpike is also putting in charging stations:

The state Department of Environmental Protection has announced a $1 million grant award to help develop electric vehicle charging stations along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The project is in three stages, and we’ll start seeing them during the second phase (Harrisburg to Ohio), and the whole project is set to be done by the middle of 2013.

It’s interesting to see this move towards electric car, and makes me wonder if I’ll ever be able to afford one.  Although I really do like the idea of charging while getting other errands done.  Would that be enough to make you shop at a new retailer?