How West Virginia University handles bogus degrees

How Carnegie Mellon handles bogus degrees

That is all.

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…

The Post-Gazette has, on Sundays, been running a feature called “The Cutting Edge”, where they post snippets from Pittsburgh-related blogs. (Yes, I still get 90% of my news on dead trees. Portable, useful for stuffing shipping boxes, and doesn’t require me to pay some silly “hotspot” to read it.) It has sunk to new lows. You may recall that Chinese newspaper that accidentally recycled a story from The Onion?. Scroll down this week’s Cutting Edge and find “One of America’s great newspapers” doing the same thing. I’d like to hope they’re just adding it in as a bit of comic belief, but the lack of framing text makes me think someone there is just plain asleep at the switch.

Not to worry, though. They’re a “manufacturer” according to state law, and thus aren’t required to pay property taxes. With all that money they’re saving, I’m sure they can put it towards finding, you know, real news to report on once in a while.

Just got back from Chicago and the annual meeting of the American Medical Association; we did our usual round of complaining, but we also sent 400 medical students out into the streets (well, the stadiums) to advocate for the uninsured, and we passed some damn good policy in a number of areas. While there, I encountered an amazing urban innovation: the PayStation (warning, 3MB PDF). It’s a blue-box vending machine, scattered around the city, at which you can pay your parking tickets, city fees, and taxes.

I’m not sure whether this is a stroke of genius or idiocy. I suppose it has the potential to allow elimination of some patronage jobs in City Hall (good luck, given that Chicago’s Democratic politics put us to shame), and it’s nice to be able to pay by credit card without a “convenience fee”, but do people really fail to pay parking tickets simply because there wasn’t a little ATM thingy in their neighborhood? I, at least, generally fail to pay parking tickets because I’m in traffic court explaining to the judge why said ticket is unfair. (3 for 3 thus far, and kudos to the poor judge who sits there all day and listens to sob stories like mine.)

You tell me: would you want to see these things come to Pittsburgh? Me, I’d rather have more Council to Go.

It’s over.

I’m calm enough now to actually write about it; I was a hyperactive wreck last night for about an hour after the game finished.

So after the dust has settled, a new day begins in Pittsburgh with the Pens failing to capture Lord Stanley’s Cup.

And you know what? That’s ok.

C’mon, raise your hands - who among you thought the Penguins were finished after Game 2? I’ll admit I was seriously concerned: no goals in nearly 135 minutes? A powerhouse, cloying defense that attracted the puck like a magnet pulls on iron?

Yeah, I think even the most diehard of us were freaked out. (more…)

So a billboard for this company, represented here by their spokesgargoyle, asks me as I drive to work every day. I can confidently answer: No, I have never done that. Their website promises:

Yes, there are monsters of all kinds (from Monster’s Inc. kind of Monsters to the traditional freaky ones!), but it’s not so scary that small children and meek adults would not want to come..and NO, they do not jump out at you.

There is a section of their website for frequently asked questions. Bizarrely not answered: Why in the world would anyone want to play miniature golf in the dark surrounded by monsters? My guess is traditional miniature golf, in which you can see the ball, the hole, and the ground in between, is no longer challenging enough for true minigolf fans.

It’s that magical time of year when a magazine for businesspeople decides to tell us how good or bad our love lives are. As always happens when some national medium rates Pittsburgh as less-than-perfect, there has been a great hue and cry about our low ranking. I can state from personal experience as an average-looking guy that the singles scene in Pittsburgh is actually quite good — IF you stop, think about what you’re trying to do, and take some simple steps to increase your chances of success. I first started looking in a September, and by that March, I found the woman I’m almost certainly going to marry. As a public service, I hereby present some basic tips (OK, a mild diatribe) to help you find Mr. and/or Ms. Right, culled from my own experiences and the combined wisdom of several eligible young Pittsburghers.
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Looks like a lot of people should have watched Mr. Rogers.

From the action he is getting in LA, Keepon should have been the Steelers mascot.

You already know it as the City of Bridges, the Steel City, the City of Champions, the City of Too Many Goddamn Pigeons, the City of Annoying Traffic Patterns, the City of Iron City and the City With a Mayor of Questionable Competency.

With the North Shore Connector making my commute an even bigger, nastier, throbbier headache than it always was, and the construction near my bus stop (pictured below), I hereby nominate Pittsburgh as the City of Endless Construction.