The week in review
You didn’t have to have the forecasting skills of Punxsutawney Phil to predict that PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — would find fault with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s annual use of a wild varmint for a publicity stunt.
And, as staff writer Lacretia Wimbley reported last week, that shadow has fallen upon us.
“It’s long overdue for Phil to be retired,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said Tuesday. “As a prey species, groundhogs actively avoid humans. Being in close proximity to the public causes these animals great stress.”
Anyone who has attended the festivities at Gobbler’s Knob can tell you that the experience is stressful — especially getting up before dawn and dealing with the traffic and the crowd and the cold. So why subject an innocent woodchuck to it?
PETA is suggesting the Groundhog Club release its animals to a “reputable sanctuary” and begin using an animatronic one that would predict weather using artificial intelligence.
The Groundhog Club declined comment, saying only that its members were eager to celebrate another Groundhog Day.
To read about the results of this morning’s event — and whether we’re about to experience six more weeks of winter — go to post-gazette.com.
SEARCH: GROUNDHOG
Like two satellites passing in the night
Speaking of animal predictions, Pittsburgh last week experienced a bit of Chicken Little crying that the sky was falling as two defunct satellites appeared to be on a collision course Wednesday evening about 560 miles above us.
While a crash wouldn’t have been a threat to anyone on Earth, the debris from such an occurrence could have been a real danger to other orbiting — and still functioning — satellites.
Oddsmakers at LeoLab Inc., a California-based satellite tracking company, started with the chances of a cosmic crackup at about 1,000-to-1, but as the two pieces of space junk got closer and closer, the odds slipped to 100-to-1 and then 20-to-1.
As staff writer David Templeton reported, the satellites eventually missed each other by a mere 47 meters — which, in space terms, isn’t much space.
SEARCH: SATELLITES
A bird’s-eye view of birds’ eye problems
But sometimes the skies aren’t so safe — especially to birds that are flying along minding their own business and swoop smack into a glass window or door.
Staff writer John Hayes reported that as many as 1 billion birds die each year from such collisions.
Well, research is underway to document places in Pittsburgh where birds are most likely to crash into glass. For more than five years, volunteers patrolling 10 Downtown routes have plotted about 1,200 birdstrike locations as part of a Carnegie Museum of Natural History initiative linked to the American Bird Conservancy.
Luke DeGroote, an avian research coordinator at the Carnegie’s Powdermill Avian Research Center in Westmoreland County, said he’s working with Pittsburgh companies that have bird collision problems to make their spaces more bird-friendly.
Researchers are looking at products like adhesive glass overlays with lines or dot patterns. Some involve treatments baked into the glass that create reflectants visible to birds but nearly imperceptible to humans.
The result would be safer birds and fewer damaged skyscraper windows. You might say it’d be like killing two birds with one stone, but that would be very inappropriate. So we won’t say that.
SEARCH: BIRDS
Another idea to make other cities jealous
Those people in the technology fields keep coming up with new ideas, and staff writer Lauren Rosenblatt last week told us about a stroke of genius that would link Pittsburgh, Boston and Montreal in an “AI Triangle,” pooling research and resources in artificial intelligence.
The result would help high-tech entrepreneurs, investors, educators and students connect with more customers and capital.
Boston and Montreal are each about 600 miles from Pittsburgh, but the proponents of the plan say there’s a lot of “synergy” among the three cities.
After more than a year of discussions, the partnership is moving into the implementation stage, said Kenny
Chen, executive director of the Partnership to Advance Responsible Technology, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit think tank helping lead the city’s efforts in this collaboration. The group hopes to kick off pilot programs this fall.
SEARCH: AI TRIANGLE
So the bottle in your bag will one day be a bag
You ever notice how a lot of these stories about making the world a better place begin with the question: “Why not?”
Well, here’s another good idea, fresh from Homewood, where Thread International is creating fabrics from plastic bottles retrieved from streets and landfills in Haiti, Honduras, Taiwan and impoverished communities in other places.
OK, the idea isn’t that new. Thread International has been doing this since it launched in 2011.
The news, as reported last week by staff writer Sara Bauknecht, is that Thread is splitting in two.
The portion of the business that works with supply chains overseas and sells the fabrics they make to other brands will now go by the name First Mile (firstmilemade.com). Meanwhile, the team headquartered in Homewood will continue to conceive and sell Thread’s own sustainable products in a business branded as Day Owl. It takes flight in the coming weeks at dayowl.com.
“We really believe that every single product that’s made should be made out of sustainable materials,” said Ambridge native Ian Rosenberger, the 38-year-old CEO and founder of Thread. “If not, customers should be saying, ‘Why not?’”
SEARCH: THREAD
Making fares fair for low-income riders
Port Authority kicked off a listening tour Wednesday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Downtown. Most of what they heard from the people attending involved making fares more equitable for the low-income riders who need public transit most.
Some of the suggestions bandied about included making cash fares ($2.75) the same as prepaid ConnectCard fares ($2.50); eliminating transfer fees ($1 for ConnectCard, a second full fare for cash); allowing cash customers to receive the benefits of monthly or weekly passes after accumulating the same number of rides; and reduced fares for riding during off-peak hours.
“We need to hear from you,” said Port Authority CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman. “If what we’re doing doesn’t work for you, tell us what will.”
The next session is 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Kingsley Association, 6435 Frankstown Ave., Larimer.
SEARCH: PORT AUTHORITY
For use until the flying cars finally get here
So why not incorporate gondolas and more inclines into the city’s transit future?
That’s on Mayor Bill Peduto’s mind as he suggested last week rebranding the Pittsburgh Parking Authority as the “Pittsburgh Mobility Authority,” tasked with coming up with different ways of moving people in the 21st-century Steel City.
“It’s not about parking cars. But it’s about marinas along the North Shore,” staff writer Mark Belko quoted the mayor as saying during a Monday forum focused on development. “It’s about a gondola system that allows us to get from different areas because of our topography in the most effective, efficient and practical way. It’s about the use of driverless vehicles that run on electricity that are part of our inner mobility system. And yes, it’s about bikes because for a lot of people that’s their mode of transportation.”
SEARCH: GONDOLAS
Thus we remain steel country
Staff writer Patricia Sabatini was at U.S. Steel’s training facility in Duquesne on Tuesday evening covering a community meeting in which the Pittsburgh steelmaker told local officials and residents about its plans to pump $1 billion into upgrading its iconic Mon Valley Works steelmaking operations.
The investment includes installing a combined casting and rolling mill at the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, the first of its kind in the U.S., and a cogeneration power plant — also a first of its kind — at the company’s coke works in Clairton.
Cutting-edge technology will allow U.S. Steel to better compete in high-end markets, specifically the auto industry, the company said.
Construction on the new caster and rolling mill is set to begin in September, with start-up expected in the fourth quarter of 2022. Full startup of the cogeneration plant is planned for mid2023.
SEARCH: U.S. STEEL
A promise made, a promise kept
The students benefiting from The Pittsburgh Promise aren’t the only ones getting smarter. The people behind the scholarship endeavor are learning some lessons as well.
Staff writer Andrew Goldstein wrote that they unveiled a plan Wednesday to put professionals into three city high schools — Perry, Milliones and Carrick — to boost the numbers of at-risk students who are falling short of eligibility.
The effort, spelled out at a Hill District news conference, will involve “Promise coaches,” who will help students in five areas: identifying their skills and interests; finding out what resources are available, financial or otherwise; understanding their options; navigating the marketplace; and developing their work habits.
SEARCH: PROMISE
Concern also is contagious
Finally, we wouldn’t be doing our job here at the Post-Gazette if we weren’t reporting on developments involving the deadly coronavirus that has traumatized Wuhan, China — a sister city with Pittsburgh — and whether it’s a threat to our region.
Staff writer Sean D. Hamill reported last week that officials he’s spoken with say there is very little concern for an outbreak here.
Still, Pittsburgh-area officials are on the watch, and our coverage will continue.
“This is an evolving situation, and the airport is prepared to respond if circumstances change,” said Bob Kerlik, spokesman for the Pittsburgh International Airport, which does not have any direct flights from Wuhan and has not had to screen passengers as a result.
The Pittsburgh area has thousands of Chinese immigrants, including nearly 5,000 students from China at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University alone. Though neither campus has reported any suspected cases of the coronavirus, both schools are being watchful and urging everyone to take precautions.
Since 1982, Pittsburgh has been one of Wuhan’s 20 sister cities, and Wuhan University has been the partner institution for the University of Pittsburgh’s Confucius Institute, according to the university’s website. So, of course, they are in our thoughts.
SEARCH: WUHAN