realNEO visitors have probably noticed the "Who's Online/Online Users" block in the left-hand column of the REALNEO.US homepage, indicating the people who are online and logged in at realNEO at a particular time. Ever wonder about all those people, always on realNEO... who they are, where they are, and why they are visiting here...?

Props to Jeff Shuler, realNEO's tech administrator. He has been implementing an anti-spam strategy that seems to be working... meaning admins don't have to block a dozen spammers and delete their lame links, each day....! Thank you Jeff S!

If you are a real realNEO user and you have any trouble with accessing or posting to the site, it is not because an admin hates you - there is software now analyzing all the content posted to the site and running tests to rate how likely it is that the content is spam, and Jeff is adjusting settings to try and block out the spam, without impacting real users. The system must learn - a type of "artificial intelligence" - and it is learning - and it seems to be working. IF YOU ARE BLOCKED FOR ANY REASON AND SHOULD NOT BE BLOCKED, GO TO THE CONTACT LINK IN THE MENU BAR ABOVE AND LET US KNOW!

I attended an excellent Software Freedom Day event in Toronto in 2006, which I introduced on REALNEO here, and covered on REALNEO here - I actually needed a copy of Ubuntu that day, so it came in very handy.

I'd like to see Northeast Ohio celebrate Software Freedom Day 2010 in a BIG WAY - Saturday, September 18 - and follow the model I saw in use in Toronto, which included active, friendly engagement on a busy street, with workshops and light training/Q&A offered inside a receptive place. Of course, the Linux Penguin was out-front to draw attention to the event... we definitely need a penguin.

Transforming the economy of Northeast Ohio - real NEO - will take incredible guts, new creations, a commitment to real openness, and 1,000s of Big Bangs.

real NEO, say hello to your little friend - ICEarth Big Bang 1. Created and Manufactured in Old Brooklyn - that's in Cleveland, Ohio, Earth.

It has been exciting to watch, over the past week, as this beautiful video clip of my beautiful wife Evelyn giving birth to our beautiful daughter Clara has been viewed by nearly 6,000 people on YouTube - a companion video clip of my wife in hypno-birth, water-birth labor has received nearly as much global attention... in a week. In a week, those two clips attracted around 10,000 unique viewers... about as many unique viewers as come to our REALNEO community, in a week. The value of sharing these videos on YouTube is obvious - that is a good distribution channel to teach people about childbirth. So is REALNEO.

There is a very disturbing article in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer, written by their urban-planning-master-in-training at Cleveland State University, that is so full of conflicts-of-interests and halftruths it will take weeks to dismantle the mess.

Expert hypnobirthing mother, during her third naturally-wonderful, perfect hypnobirth, January 31, 2010, delivering and receiving her baby - no medications or medical intervention - one hour and 10 minutes after she falls asleep between strong contractions here.

Notice the complete lack of screaming, scalpels, doctors, pain and gore... not one drop of blood in the water - observe the natural joy and beauty, and the smile on the mother's face just moments after childbirth... the baby immediately comforted in her arms.

The midwife is heard saying "Not a small child" - she was right... 8 pounds 13 ounces.

Women in labor under hypnobirth

This High Definition ambient film clip is of an expert hypnobirthing mother, during her third naturally-wonderful, perfect hypnobirth, January 31, 2010, in hard labor, fully dilated - no medications or medical intervantion, other than a midwife breaking her water, later - one hour and 10 minutes before the baby was delivered - where she falls asleep between strong contractions that are less than 2 minutes apart. She has been up the entire night before tiling a bathroom, has not slept, and was stressed until she began focusing on her hypnobirthing.

Clara Evelyn Roulet, 1 minute old

I was so busy yesterday having a beautiful baby girl (by waterbirth - by hypnobirth - amazing photos and video to come), I didn't have a chance to thank Ronn Richard and the Board of the Cleveland Foundation for a second great gift that day, showing they recognized the need to transform our regional redevelopment and transformation efforts at the core, after many years supporting and funding what we now have. I believe this opens up new world's of opportunity for our region, just when they are needed most.

Authorized bootleg recording of Deyora jamming in Parma, Cleveland-area, realNEO, Ohio.

Deyora is:

REALNEO is a cooperative, eternal, free, open source social network operating with the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) - it is designed to manage content for individuals, who are registered users, and who own the CMS, as a co-op, and own their individual content, as individuals. Members have traditionally used REALNEO to manage their personal thoughts and ideas, through blog postings and comments, along with events, polls, and links to the content of others. Some users use the CMS capabilities of the site more than others, adding files, photographs and video to their content.

Baby, it's cold outside. Time for Cleveland Plain Dealer Deputy Editorial Page Editor Kevin O'Brien's annual "It's snowing in Cleveland again this winter so Global Warming's a Hoax" editorial...

In compiling my list of "The 17 Worst 'Climate Killers' in Northeast Ohio", I've started with O'Brien, who everyone in real NEO well knows is one of the most outspoken critics of "Global Warming" in the world, reaching millions. As I was trying to determine if O'Brien was The Profiteer, The Disinformer, or The Drudge of Denial, in misinforming our community about the environment, I did not refer to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's portal Cleveland.com for source information on Mr. O'Brien's past writing on the environment, as I knew that it would not be at Cleveland.com.

I turned to REALNEO.

In my earlier post today, I have to apologize for not pointing out the significant contribution and influence REALNeo co-founder Norm Roulet had in me coming to NEO.

Yah sure - Norm and I don't see things eye to eye, but that's fine with me.

Average Unique Monthly Visitors for REALNEO Benchmarking Sample
November 2008 - November 2009

REALNEO/COOP members, we own this... we accomplished this... in just our fifth year of operations. Congratulations!

One of my most valued resources for insight on health, the environment and aging is The Myth Of Alzheimer's, and I strongly recommend anyone reading this post subscribe to their e-mail updates and read that site regularly - it updates nearly daily.

The Myth Of Alzheimer's is absolutely about you, your family, your friends, and all our futures, as we all age together on this human-changing world until we die.

Citizen Ed Hauser, Victorious In The Battle Of Whiskey Island - "Ask Not What Your Planet Can Do For You..."

It has been a year since Northeast Ohio lost our selfless civic activist "Citizen" Ed Hauser, silencing the great voice in the community saying that "The Process is Broken".

November 14, 2009 - the one-year anniversary of Ed's death - a group of family and friends came together on the beautiful Whiskey Island Ed saved, before a late Autumn setting sun, to toast a glorious man, and mourn a most cursed and horrible year in Northeast Ohio without Ed.

What does the dawn hold for this long-suffering region, in the second year without Citizen Hauser?