I've Identified Some Astounding Information Technology Talent in real NEO that has been harmed by our regional leadership, and I'm trying to find a nice way to deal with that. Each of these people have risen to positions of demonstrated excellence in their fields - have innovated our regional information technology landscape and had global impact - and each of them have been directly violated by leadership in our community - IT leadership and community development leadership. They have each done the right things - each taken the right steps - and each been blocked along the way. And each are "minority". How do I now give them the proper status they deserve in the community, where they have not been welcome or valued?

Meaning everyone in real NEO is "an artist" and wins the prize together. But how do we not nominate ourselves...

Who seconds?

Nominations

— CALL FOR NOMINATIONS —
Nominations Deadline February 28, 2010

 

Strong hands, strong backs and strong minds needed to fix crumbling water infrastructure in Great Lakes region.  Immigrants encouraged to apply.

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...?

Standards for the Management of Coal Combustion Residues Generated by Commercial Electric Power Producers – Proposed Rule – Expected in the near future

It’s the world’s largest single investment in renewable energy sources, launched by Airvoice Group with a $50 billion investment over a 10 year period

Indian-based Airvoice Group announced an ambitious project, which is said to be «the largest single investment in the world in renewable energy sources».

"At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for "miracles" to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050."

This runs for about 28 minutes, so have your popcorn ready.

http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html

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.

Herman co-wrote the provocative new book, Immigrant Inc.--Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Driving the New Economy, with Plain Dealer reporter Robert L. Smith.  Published by John Wiley & Sons, the book urges struggling communities like Cleveland and Akron to recall the immigrant energy that made their cities great.

Location

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.

I've been thinking lead poisoning victims should send letters containing lead dust samples to the homes of people who clearly don't consider lead poisoning a serious matter. What do you think? Anything wrong with sending a perfectly legal substance that is spewed upon the public by Mittal and Cleveland Thermal to the families of the CEOs of the companies and enterprises that buy dirty power and steel from them?

How about sending lead to the politicians who vote for dirty coal burning, like the Cleveland City Council members who voted for AMP?

These asian carp have me very concerned.  Bubble nets, poisons, sounding devices and physical barriers only slow these little bastards down.  We, as defenders of all the Great Lake resources, must brainstorm a better way to rid these little devils from their pending invasion. 

I'll start the brainstorm.

Megatrends 2020

I met an old friend for drinks at Nighttown, the other night. Nighttown is definitely one of my old real NEO friends' favorite East Side places to gather, and has been for decades, for many good reasons... starting with a great owner (in the video above) and staff, excellent, consistent food, and the world's best jazz. Open every day, from 11 AM-2AM, the ambiance is as good as it gets, as well... for a club inspired by the Red Light District of Dublin.

Interesting, Nighttown is also the home of The Press Club of Cleveland, The Press Club's Hall of Fame and Visual Archives... lots of related information is linked here... the video above introduces the Press Club Hall of Fame, hosted at Nighttown, which includes our own new media idol Roldo... since 2004.

Here are some photos taken today in the vicinity of Hooper's Farm in Tremont. 
Note the new construction and lack of any attempt to control stormwater, silt and mud run off from the site.