How West Virginia University handles bogus degrees

How Carnegie Mellon handles bogus degrees

That is all.

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You may still vaguely remember the Propel Pittsburgh Commission, Mayor Ravenstahl’s plan to get together a bunch of smart young people to find ways to keep other young people in Pittsburgh. So far, it’s been a little less than stellar; we’ve been around for a year, and we’ve yet to even make a single formal recommendation, let alone start trying to do something. At our meeting this week, we were told in no uncertain terms that His Honor The Mayor is aware of this, and he is not pleased. Longtime readers know that I’m more of a Peduto-head, but nevertheless, Mayor Luke deserves credit for at least keeping an eye on his creation and trying to make it produce something useful. He’s even gone a bit further and given us a new staff person who has orders to whip us back into shape.

The fundamental problem, though, is one that seems to plague many public boards and commissions: people just plain don’t show up. We know there have been several resignations, although the complete list isn’t available. Beyond those, there’s another five to ten people who haven’t been seen since the first meeting. There was pretty steep competition to get onto this commission in the first place, and we see a bunch of empty chairs that are itching to be filled. The reason for this non-attendance is unclear, but as far as we can guess, it’s about schedule. We meet Downtown in the early evening, because the city officials who support us want to go home just as much as we do. Problem is, most young people don’t have total control over our work schedules, and if Propel is at the wrong time, then one more Commissioner is SOL.

Of course, such young tech-savvy personages as MetBlog readers might ask: can’t you people just do business over email, have conference calls, and otherwise use technology to quit spewing so much carbon? We could… except for this eensy thing called the Open Records Law. Turns out that as long as we’re a formal Commission, we have to comply with Open Records. That means all meetings scheduled in advance, open to the public, minutes kept, etc. Hard to shoehorn a listserv into that framework. As the years march on, more and more of the world’s governance is going to use electronic mechanisms, and this sort of thing is going to be a royal pain in the butt. Probably a good thing for some enterprising young state legislator to be considering…

In the meantime, despite all these slings and arrows, we actually have gotten some work done, particularly about immigration. More on that in a future post.

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Handmade Arcade Deadline is August 17, 2008 - Calling all crafters! Pittsburgh’s premier handmade craft market application deadline is almost here. The craft culture has been on the rise around the US for the past few years and these markets have become big events around the country. For more info on the DIY movement check out Faith Levine’s website - she is working on a documentary called Handmade Nation (and was in Pittsburgh for this Symposium in the spring). Pittsburgh blogger and metblogger Liz Perry posted about the New York Times article on Handmade 2.0 last year.

Click here for the 2008 Handmade Arcade Vendor Application.

Craft Blog even has a post about Handmade Arcade - Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh, PA - Now Accepting Vendor Applications

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Mural in progress

Originally uploaded by pittsburghmetblogpics

An artist is working on painting a mural on the side of the building at the corner of Penn and 23rd in the strip district.

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Some facts about the environment and health in past 12 months

Originally uploaded by pittsburghmetblogpics

I am at the Rachel Carson Homestead listening to Mark, one of the members of the YERT team give a presention about their trip. YERT stands for Your Environmental Road Trip. The team has spent the past 52 weeks traveling to all 50 states to talk to people about the environment.

Youn can see many of these videos and learn more about their trip at YERT.com

Here are some facts from the beginning of their presentation (they are still presenting as I am typing this)

- gas prices ranged from $2.70 to $4.10
- plastic bags were starting to be banned
- lead in toys became a big issue
- bottled water is also going out of fashion and we have learned that even some of the reusable plastic bottles are not good for your health.

Apparently they also have all of the trash from their trip and it is on display here. I will try to find that display and post a picture.

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I’ve been working to cut back on my driving, which has meant that when I do drive, I’ve been paying more attention to the scenery. Lately, whenever pointed in the direction of Dahntahn, I can’t help but notice a certain towering monolith gazing in my direction and reminding me of my semi-employer’s success at global domination. Thinking about the “rebranding” of the old USX Tower made me realize that in a way, it’s pretty appropriate. Next time you’re down in South Oakland or the South Side Works, take a look at what’s sitting there on the old brownfields where we once had steel mills. When I was working down there, my daily drive took me past the Pittsburgh Technology Center, the UPMC Sports Medicine complex, and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Even the former South Side Hospital is now mostly taken up by orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation. UPMC’s spent the past decade building a new biotech/medical economy on the same sites where Pittsburgh’s last economic engine stood. Is it any wonder that they’ve decided to proclaim their fame with that same industry’s skyscraper?

Of course, it does raise the question of how long we have before all the hospitals get outsourced to India the same way the mills were…

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This list of festivals arrived in my inbox today as part of an email promotion for AirTran Airlines. I just wanted to share these because I think it is interesting to see the types of festivals that other cities are holding. Maybe there are some Pittsburgh connections to these festivals or some Pittsburgh regulars that attend. The art car festival caught my eye because the Post-Gazette had an article, which I was able to find!!!, about Art Cars in Pittsburgh. I am kind of fascinated by these cars - the only art like car I see on a regular basis now is the truck for the coffee/cigar shop Leaf and Bean.8 Crazy Adventures For You! Go! There’s nothing stopping you from enjoying these 8 wacky and wonderful events.

Atlanta - September 8
Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Jasper, GA with events including a greased pig chase, greased pole climbing and a cake walk.
Baltimore - September 6
Run with the pigs at the 2008 Pigtown Festival on historic Washington Boulevard.
Buffalo - August 30-31
Head to the National Buffalo Wing Festival to see if you can beat last year’s eating contest winner at 173 wings in 12 minutes.
Houston - September 21-22
Get your spice on at the Houston Hot Sauce Festival featuring hot and spicy fiery food products and an amateur salsa dancing competition.
Indianapolis - August 29-September 1
Enjoy Italian mini-golf, salami roulette and spaghetti eating contests at the Little Italy Festival in Clinton, IN.
Philadelphia - September 6-7
Venture to Kennett Square, PA for the Mushroom Festival and enjoy the Mushroom Soup Cook-off.
Raleigh - September 20
BugFest is a fun way to learn about - and taste - every creepy-crawly critter you can come up with.
San Francisco - September 25-28
See cars roll down the street disguised as high heels, dragons, castles and everything in between at the ArtCar Fest.

Image via Wikipedia

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Since it is summer, I have been walking to more and more places and taking lots more pictures from my cell phone. For the past couple of weeks I have walked past the Bakery Square development on Penn Avenue in East Liberty many a time and I have started taking some pictures. I thought it would be an interesting thing to document here on the Pittsburgh Metroblog and I want to invite everyone to participate. I think it will be interesting to see how the pictures of this development look over time.

This project has already generated some excitement and some controversy in Pittsburgh, which is one of the reasons why I think I started watching the building in the first place.

I have created a Flickr group for photos of Bakery Square: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bakerysqaure

If you are a Flickr user please join the group and add your pictures - I will try to post them here on a regular basis. If you aren’t a flickr user, thats okay too - you can send them to me (info - at - IheartPGH.com) and I can add them.

Here is a really great picture I found on Flickr of the Nabisco Bakery that was taken in 1946. (Photo Cowtool)

Here are some of the pictures I have taken in the past few weeks, nothing too exciting in terms of changes but it will be interesting to see how this project progresses.

June 26, 2008

July 10, 2008 - The Building Facade

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Two items of note from up here on the mountain.  The former Dinner Bell Tavern is now under new ownership and is now known as the Roadside Tavern. 

The next bit of news is rumor for now, I don’t know (and doubt) if either variation is true, I’ll have to do some more digging when I get to a better internet connection.  Nemacolin Woodlands has apparently either been under some sort of financial stress, or possibly just feeling the economic squeeze most people are.  Anyway, it is rumored that two entities are looking to purchase the property: Donald Trump or Disney.  It was rumored for a while that Trump bought the above mentioned Roadside Tavern, but that rumor quickly turned into Nemacolin.  Like I said, all speculation for now, but interesting bits of news nonetheless…and land news that has nothing to do with the North Shore.

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Who knew there was a skate park at Boyce Park

Originally uploaded by pittsburghmetblogpics

since I am in the area of Boyce Park, which I never really visit - see IheartPgh.com for some pictures and an explanstion of why I was at the quilt show.
So I decided to find the wave pool at boyce park - I have heard about the wave pool but never actually been there. I have yet to find the wave pool but I did find this skate park. So if you se looking for a place to skate, here you go. My skating skills aren’t quite ready for the skate park but now I know where one is.

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Ppg plaza at night

Originally uploaded by pittsburghmetblogpics

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As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve historically been less than a fan of our local Congressman, Mike Doyle, mainly because he seemed like someone who didn’t quite “get it”. Admittedly, some of that was bad experiences when I and some fellow CMU students went to Washington to ask for support of specific legislations, but there were also things like his Center for Manufacturing Technology — a focus on things that are dead and gone, as opposed to the industries that are likely to be the new lifeblood of our region.

I saw a glimmer of hope after the Girl Talk incident, and after this past Monday, I think it’s time to change my tune. The good Congressman flexed a bit of muscle and brought the entire FCC to Pittsburgh, so that they could hear from a combination of academics, entrepreneurs, and even neighborhood groups about why a free and open Internet is important to maintain. (Aside from supporting things like bloggers who want to run our mouths off, I mean.) Of course, it doesn’t hurt that with the world’s largest collection of super-geeks sitting right there in Oakland, a lot of the companies who make millions off the future Internet will start right here in Pittsburgh. That’s as good a use of legislative power as I’ve seen lately, and I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of it.

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If Metblogs is a city, hub.metblogs is the playground. We kept hearing from people that one of their favorite parts of Metblogs was meeting and interacting with readers and writers from other parts of the world, as well as getting requests for more ways that readers could be involved besides just posting comments. We thought about this for a while and decided that with a network like this, a giant community area where folks from all over the world could hang out, post photos and videos, talk with each other, form groups, play games, send messages, and do about a million other things was probably a pretty fun idea. The Hub is that.

If you have any tech ideas or suggestions join this group and speak up. See you on hub.metblogs!

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A while back, some local design folks wrote (well, drew) an excellent editorial entitled “The Long Squiggly Line That’s Killing Our Transit System”. I bring this back to your attention not only because it’s a good editorial, but because somebody needs to toss a couple billion copies of it at the fine folks down at the Port Authority.

See, they’re currently working on something called the Transit Development Plan, and as part of it, their market analysis has realized that (gasp!) there is not a good match between where the buses run, where people who use buses live, and where people who use buses want to go. There’s town hall meetings, and there’s even a simplistic online survey, but if my prior experience with PAT town halls is any guide, these are mostly going to be people talking about their ACCESS service. ACCESS is critical, but it’s also not the primary economic function of mass transit. PAT needs to hear from the young professionals and other workers who use the regular bus service, and they need to be told how to use what they have in ways that make more sense. That’d be you, since you’re the type who reads Pittsburgh blogs. Get to work!

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Whole Foods Austin vs. Whole Foods Pittsburgh

Originally uploaded by pittsburghmetblogpics

This is the view from my table on the patio at the whole Foods store in Austin, TX. I am visiting Austin for a few days and I walked into whole foods to pick up a snack. I think this is the origionsl Whole Foods and it is way more than a grocery store. I had to walk past the windows of the catering/cooking school to get to the front door - I have since figured out there are like 6 entrances. I am going to guess that this store is about 8 times the size of the Pittsburgh one. So what is Pittsburgh missing ? Juice bar, wine shop, beer cooler, mini clothing boutique, a huge produce section, larger bakery, candy counter with chocolate fountain, patio with babbling brooke, composting bins and a concierge. I am not sure what a grocery store concierge does but they have one.

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