pittsburgh bloggers - All Blog Headlines

3-pointers in 3-D may be coming to theater near you

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500

Think a wrinkled bracket and a college sweatshirt are all you need to get the full March Madness experience? Pretty soon, you'll also need a bag of popcorn and a pair of goofy glasses.

twitter twitter...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:55:00 -0500

10:00 @carlylane what's going on my dear? #
10:04 @circlesky66 based on the hit i agree he shouldve been suspended but given the hits w/o suspension id have been annoyed if he had 2 sit out #
10:06 @heyjordan i think the concept of appropriate died a long time ago #

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Proof Positive That Texting While Driving is Safer Than Drinking and Driving

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:37:00 -0500

Traffic fatalities for last year fell by nearly 9 percent, reaching their lowest level since 1954, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported today, according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, One of America's Great Newspapers.

The fatality rate of 1.16 deaths per 100 million miles traveled was the lowest on record, the department said.

Projections placed the number of highway deaths last year at 33,963, compared with 37,261 the year before. Fatalities have declined for 15 consecutive quarters.

Pennsylvania reported last month that the number of road fatalities last year fell by 14 percent and was the lowest total since record-keeping began in 1928.

GR8! C U L8R!

The Fairy Child

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:57:00 -0500

Things are going better for the little one at school. She's getting some of the sparkle back in her eyes and the spring back in her step.

Lady Gaga ft Beyonce Telephone Video

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:41:00 -0500

Three of my essays now available digitally

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:39:00 -0500

You can now buy digital versions of all three of the essays I've written for Smart Pop Books at the publisher's revamped website.

Raimi vs. Bendis: Reimagining Spider-Man and The Captain May Wear the Tight Pants, but It's the Gals Who Make Serenity Soar can be purchased individually or as part of their respective e-book. Keeping It Real in Gotham, for the moment, is full e-book only.

Just click on the above links to go to each essay's respective page, where you can also leave a comment and recommend the essay via your fave social-networking site.

Tough Schedule, Rugged Defense Prepared Mt. Lebanon To Win A WPIAL title

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:23:00 -0500

Mt. Lebanon boys' basketball coach Joe David is pleased with his team's unbeaten record against Section 4-AAAA opponents this season, but he believes the 25-1 Blue Devils' prowess against non-section opponents is just as crucial.

The WPIAL champs will try to continue that trend as they head into a first-round PIAA playoff game 5 p.m. Saturday at Baldwin High against McKeesport.

Former Teacher Transforms Kous Kous Cafe In Mt. Lebanon Into A Delicious Destination

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:21:00 -0500

Look the wrong way for just a moment and it would be easy to miss Kous Kous Cafe on Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon. The narrow storefront, previously occupied by an outpost of the Enrico Biscotti Company, seems an unlikely location for a restaurant. But Abdel Khila, the owner and chef, wasn't going to let a few small obstacles get in his way.

Lebo Girls Take Care Of Business, Win Title

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:07:00 -0500

The WPIAL basketball title games all take place at the A.J. Palumbo Center on the campus of Duquesne University.

With the mind-set the Mt. Lebanon girls brought to the game, you might have thought they were headed to the A.J. Palumbo School of Business Administration instead.

The defending WPIAL and PIAA champions headed to the title game not distracted by the championship game atmosphere but rather focused on one goal, taking care of business.

Top Shelf

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:05:00 -0500

Wow, the Ride God's paid me back for skipping yesterday's ride to support the B-Man. The weather geeks were calling for some rain, but what WPA got was maybe the best weather day of 2010 so far. Sunny skies, mid 60s temps, and my ass aching (in a good way) to be in the saddle.

With the mid 60s temps it was time
to ditch the duct tape vent controls...

And to roll with bare legs for the first time in 2010!
Can I get hell yeah???? Ohhhh yeah!!!

The meat sticks were giving off a glow so white, a few cars high beamed me for blinding them. Sorry... my bad. Need to tan up a bit.

New Right to Know Law Costly, Mt. Lebanon Schools Say

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:58:00 -0500

A year after Pennsylvania's new Right to Know law took effect, Mt. Lebanon School District is facing unexpected costs to comply with an increasing number of requests for e-mail correspondence.

Since Jan. 1, 2009, Mt. Lebanon has had 19 requests for e-mail records and correspondence under the Right to Know law. Thirteen of the requests have been made since December 2009.

Fulfilling requests for e-mail records is a "labor-intensive, complex process" and costs an average of about $2,600 per request, including legal and forensics costs, and not including staff time, technology director Christopher Stengel said.

Beneath the Surface of "Don't Break the Ice"

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:58:00 -0500

Don't Break the Ice was one of my favorite games as a kid. Armed with a thin green hammer, it was up to the player to knock out blocks of ice suspended in a platform until the nervous man on a chair was killed. And he was killed--don't think anything else. If you fall through a hole in some ice, where do you think you're going to end up? Dead in sub-zero water, that's where. It was a tense game for children three and up.

Not so much anymore. What was once a Jack London-esque game about man's survival against an unforgiving nature (Mother Nature wields a hammer), has turned into a farcical game about global warming. That's right, global warming.

The man in the chair, whom I assume was either an ice fisher or a prisoner in some sort of surrealistic '70s spy show, is gone now. Presumably replaced to lighten the mood and ease the burden on the child conscience.

Never mind the fact that the game's publisher, Cootie Games, is still making its other politically-charged games: Don't Spill the Beans, which is about America's dealings with Venezuela; and Ants in the Pants, a game whose subject is not fit for polite conversation. And while these games haven't been changed (I suggest, Please, Don't Spill the Beans), the popular ice hammerin' game now prominently features an ice skating polar bear.

The polar bear adds new, disturbing context to the game. First, the bear wouldn't die if it fell into the water. He's probably looking forward to his swim as much as he is a bottle of Coke. I guess I'm okay with that; I don't constantly need to be playing games where you are murdering something... nor do I play games for ages 3+—I'm all 12+ now. So instead, the game shifts its focus away from the tension of a man stranded on ice fighting against nature, fate, and destiny, to a metaphor for man's ability to destroy a polar bear's habitat through excess and lack of stewardship. Might as well make the hammer into a giant carbon shoe or a Chevy truck and really drive the message home.

Google Bike Maps - Pittsburgh to Boston Trailhead

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:43:00 -0500

Google has announced that their Google Maps application now attempts to provide bike routes. The routing algorithm prefers to use bike paths, lanes, and sharrows, and attempts to avoid hills and highways.

This is great. I asked it for a route from Pittsburgh PA to Washington DC and it routed me via the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal.

Among bicyclists familiar with riding from Pittsburgh to DC, perhaps no other topic is as controversial as the best way to get from The Point to the trail in McKeesport-Boston.

There is the Ft Pitt bridge, Station Square, Baldwin Trail, Sandcastle, and then a road ride past Kennywood to the trailhead in WEst Mifflin.
There is the Second Avenue, 885 to 837, Kennywood, West Mifflin contingent.
Finally, there's the schism group that maintains it's not responsible to advise any transient rider to start riding anywhere north of Boston. (that's my denomination)

This discussion generates more passion than Helmet Wars and even the Recumbent Issue. I thought it would be interesting to see which path Google picked from the Point to the trail in McKeesport or Boston. It choose this:

This is intriguing - Google choose the Second Avenue route out of downtown, followed by an unexpected direct (and hilly) route from the Glenwood Bridge to Boston PA. It works, and it's lower traffic than 837, but it'd be a lot of work on a bike loaded with panniers.

My review of Google Bike Maps: It's not as good as knowledge of the local area, but if you're unfamiliar and trying to plot a route it'll be a worthwhile tool. It would be wonderful if you could export the Google route into a Garmin GPS for on-bike navigation, but I realize that they're selling 'Droid phones so the GPS export probably isn't likely.

Spring Training Updates

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:32:00 -0500

I apologize for the lack of posts the past few days. I have been working overtime every day this week. Hopefully it won't last much longer, because 11 hour days, everyday, are starting to wear me down. Nonetheless, here are a few things that have been going on in Pirate camp:

- Ramon Vazquez thinks he is going to be the odd man out when it comes time to head north this season. He told Dejan Kovacevic that, "They told me I'm not on the team right now." Vazquez is guarenteed to make $2 million this season whether he makes the club or not. It looks like Huntington will look to trade Vazquez, if he can, as that would be more beneficial than releasing him.

- Brett Lorin, Colton Cain, and Zach Fuesser will all miss the beginning half of this season. Lorin had hip surgery over the winter. Cain, who most likely wouldn't have pitched the first half of this season anyway, had minor back surgery. And Fuesser has a broken finger. At least none of them are arm injuries, so hopefully they all make a full recovery.

- Former Pirate Brian Giles retired today. Giles hit 165 homers over 5 seasons with the Bucs. He also posted a stellar 1.018 OPS over those 5 seasons. In fact, his .426 OBP ranks 2nd all-time among Pirates. His .591 SLG% ranks first among Pirates and he has hit the 6th most homers of any Pirate. Basically, statistically speaking, Giles was one of the best Pirates of all-time.