"Imaginary guitar notes and imaginary vocals exist only in the imagination of the imaginer...and... ultimately, who gives a fuck anyway?" - The Central Scrutinizer.

+1

I'd much rather have a positive effect from a placebo than from a drug that usually has nasty side-effects.

Everyone who signs up for Facebook agrees to their Terms which are clearly spelled out and say they could pull stuff like this. If you don't like the terms, don't sign up. This isn't a situation like a local utility where you don't have a choice to switch to something else.

Actually, every public elementary school I can think of here in Pittsburgh has a fenced in place where the children play. All the children. Big fences too. Keeps the balls the kids are playing with from going into the street...oh and yeah, keeping those non-autistic kids from running away.

Currently, iTunes is still selling the individual tracks.

The Pittsburgh Penguins started showing away playoff games on a jumbo-tron outside Mellon Arena for fans to sit in the parklet and watch. They did it for a couple of years and neither the NHL, FSN (local sports channel) or Versus objected. It was a fun time for all. But as soon as the Pens made the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC, NBC shut it down. They gave some excuse about it diminishing their individual household Nielson ratings. And they call a shitty game too!

In no way did I see this movie's bland story as "anti-technology". Technology was a big hero in the film, allowing (minor spoiler alert) Jake to become Na'vi and "save the day". I saw anti-greed messages, anti-irresponsible-corporate messages, anti-lack-of-respect-for-nature/indigenous-peoples messages, anti-making-an-original-story-line-with-unique-plot-twists messages, etc, but not anti-technology. (P.S. Beyond awesome visually to watch, even if the story was just meh.)

Tweeting is the ONLY way to break up a riot of teenage girls!

I'd be all for it, but basically it would just be a 1% reduction in their pay and save a municipality virtually nothing.

The problem is, in Pittsburgh the two major enterprises/employers are colleges and hospital systems. Both non-profit and both tax exempt. They own a tremendous amount of land (tax-free) employ the most people (tax free) and use up a tremendous amount of city services (such as police, ambulance, fire, water, sewage, etc, all tax free). The city has been trying for years to get the universities and hospitals to pay something, ANYTHING to help the city with its budget situation. In other cities where non-profits make up a large percentage of the area, the non-profits usually contribute something in terms of "voluntary payments", such as in Boston. What the mayor is doing, is trying to pressure the universities to come to the negotiating table to help support the city in its time of financial need, using other major cities with major university systems as a model. So far, the universities and hospital systems have refused. (Keep in mind, our major hospital system is UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center). Luke cares little for this tax and doesn't want it to pass. He want to use it to cause a big firestorm (which obviously it has) and force concessions. We'll see if it works. PA State Reps are already proposing laws to prevent the City of Pittsburgh from being able to tax students directly.

I know a lot of people are all big on plug-in electric cars, but what do those of us not fortunate enough to have integral garages with outlets in them? I don't know what the percentages are, but I'm assuming there's a lot of average Joe's like me who, even if we own our own homes, have to park on the street wherever we can find parking. Are they going to put outlets in the sidewalks for me?