I've helped the world's greatest organizations optimize IT for all their stakeholders, as a consultant working around the globe, and I am enabling Ohio and the world to optimize IT for all citizens, as an information technology innovator in my home of Northeast Ohio. One important expression of my mission to optimize IT for all is realNEO.US - Regional Economic Action Links for North East Ohio - which I founded in 2004, moved into the dysfunctional but living Real Coop co-operative owned structure a few years later, and have since used to transform the information, technology, insight and action of the people of the world interested in Northeast Ohio, and the world.
I recently received an email from Bill Densmore, co-director of Journalism That Matters, inviting me to "Create or Die 2", offering a nice global opportunity to share the realNEO story more broadly. Journalism That Matters is "an evolving collaboration of individuals supporting the pioneers who are shaping the emerging news and information ecosystem" - Create or Die 2 is about "Disrupting the Status Quo with Journalism Innovation and Entrepreneurship" - and I can't imagine initiatives that fit better with realNEO and my mission.
W. 14th going toward Abbey, my rowhouse on other side of fence at right, exit ramp from I-90 West on left.
Post No. 1 of a series
I had a vision for vegetative screening for the short stretch along W. 14th, from Fairfield down to Abbey, Only eight residences are there, and there are none on the other side of the bridge. I wrote the North of Literary block club, which is supposed to represent residents of this area, I thought. No answer. I wrote Chris Garland of the TWDC. Same stoney silence. I then wrote Mr. Mark Carpenter of ODOT and got a reply!
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 05/11/2011 - 16:21.
Ron Paul's signature on hemp paper version of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act.
realNEO readers are among the first to see "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011, To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude hemp from the definition of marijuana, and for other purposes", signed by its sponsor, US House Representative of the 14th District of Texas Ron Paul, around 1 PM today, May 11, 2011, and introduced to the US House of Representatives to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 112th US Congress.
As Paul previously concluded, in a a statement for Hemp History Week: "The federal government should change the law to allow American farmers to grow this profitable crop as American farmers have through most of our nation's history. I plan to reintroduce the Industrial Hemp Farming Act next week."
Paul clearly is a man of his word. Above is "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011"... on hemp paper, and below is Ron Paul signing the bill.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 16:21.
US veterans and their friends and families turned out by the 100s for the 2011 Cleveland Medical Marijuana Rally
I can't ever remember enjoying converging with 1,000 or so amazingly diverse Clevelanders so much as I did Saturday afternoon, May 7, as Northeast Ohio held the 2011 Cleveland Medical Marijuana March and Jobs, Peace and Freedom Rally. The crowd created the buzz of a perfect championship game day - Cleveland was in the World Series again.
At the 2011 Cleveland Medical Marijuana Rally, medical patients experienced an historic moment of personal freedom and liberty, in peace, and went home healthier - we all saw Cleveland may actually win the world championship, for the first time in our lives - as Ohio... an agricultural, healthcare, industrial and education powerhouse... realizes we must take our rightful place in the Cannabis Economy!
THE GREATEST PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD THE WORLD HAS EVER WITNESSED.
People of Japan. People of The World. Take notice of what Helen Caldicott is saying about the dire consequences for 'all of us' over the next few decades from the near-destruction of the FUKUSHIMA DAICHI PLUTONIUM-ENRICHED NUCLEAR POWER PLANT.
Excerpt recorded at the press conference "The Dangers Of Nuclear War" in Montreal, Canada, in March 18th, 2011
My dear RealNEO family, I haven't posted in a long time or even "lurked" due to new health issues as well as my normal fatigue, balance and speech troubles due to my brain lesion, fibromyalgia, frequent migraines and the backlog of things to do that built up as a result.
Now I need some help, roses don't wait. If you can help me with anything, send me an email via this site And whether you can help or not, remember, everyone is always invited to come see the roses bloom.
Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Wed, 04/13/2011 - 00:08.
The Fukushima Dailchi nuclear crisis in Japan has been re-rated to be a level 7 nuclear disaster*, the same level as the Chernobyl Ukraine nuclear disaster of 1986. While the dispersement of radiation from the nuclear power plants in Fukushima is said to be much less than Chernobyl, the Tokyo Electric Power Company and Japanese civil authorities have yet to “stabilize” their troubled reactors. The future level of radiation contamination in Japan and nearby nations is unknown at this time as is how long this crisis will continue.
Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 23:20.
I've long been troubled by the fact that corporations are endowed the rights of "natural persons." It is unjust to human beings who are not corporate officers that a corporation can absorb responsibility for the actions of individuals who are corporate offices. Correct me if I'm incorrect on this. My understanding is that the personal liability of individuals in corporate leadership is covered by the corporation in many cases.
Cleveland Sees Plunge in Population, reports the Wall Street Journal today, announcing: "A larger-than-expected exodus from Cleveland during the past decade shrunk the city's population by 17% to about 397,000, according to U.S. Census data released Wednesday." That's right, Cleveland's population has crashed below the 400K floor for the first time since around the start of the 20th Century, which triggers all sorts of unsustainable, shrinking, un-re-imaginable financial and political realities for leadership and citizens here.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that this proof of Cleveland political and leadership failure will have a significant price of leaders' heads. From the Wall Street Journal:
Political observers said the decline could tilt the balance of political power in one of America's most hotly contested swing states.
"Ohio is expected to lose two congressional districts, and this big decline in Cleveland suggests that both could come out of northeastern Ohio," a Democratic stronghold, said John Green, a University of Akron political-science professor.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 15:00.
At the beginning of the 21st Century - a time when the pace of global evolution was certain to be astounding in every way, in accelerating change each day - especially as driven by transformational new Information Technologies (IT) and services - a serious, young college computer science student wrote some historic collaboration software, in his dorm-room, to help his fellow students communicate more effectively in their evolving, un-tethering, socially-networked world, and that software has been helping citizens freely interconnect with greater impact each day since, to save the world.
The early days of this software are beloved, in real geek-lore:
In 2000, permanent Internet connections were at a premium for University students, so two students set up a wireless bridge between their student dorms to share one of the students' ADSL modem connection among eight students. While this was an extremely luxurious situation at that time, something was missing: There was no means to discuss or share simple things.
This inspired the other student to work on a small news site with a built-in web board, allowing the group of friends to leave each other notes about the status of the network, to announce where they were having dinner, or to share some noteworthy news items.
The software did not have a name until the day after that student moved out after graduation. The group decided to put the internal website on-line so they could stay in touch, keep sharing interesting findings, and narrate snippets of their personal lives. While looking for a suitable domain name...
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 04:44.
Sunset over Lake Erie from Whiskey Island, on a nearly perfect Summer's day. Dedicated to Citizen Ed Hauser.
Dear Mr. Wolstein,
Please hold off on using the Forum Architects' plans for your redevelopment in the Flats, as much has improved in the prospects for this city and region since they were conceived - there is new energy, life and opportunity coming into Cleveland that will improve the prospects for this most important historic site that I've been vocal in my disappointment to see go.
As you are moving forward in new directions, Cleveland and regional leaders including myself must move forward in many new directions previously inconceivable. As such, planning needs frequent re-visioning - and may in fact be open sourced, real-time and community enabled with world class information technology, which we'll be developing more of in Northeast Ohio in the future.
Most significant, we are in the process of removing from our community the dangerous pollution emitted from the coal burning at FirstEnergy Lake Shore (already decommissioning), MCCO, in University Circle, and Cleveland Thermal, next door to your site (your greatest liability, easily made an asset), and the outrageous environmental injustice from Mittal and some other industrial operations - and the direct and fugitive emissions from the mobile pollution sources servicing them - ships, trains and trucks - that are just not safe for dense urban neighborhoods, which we must save and restore. There are economically viable solutions to all these challenges - it does not need to be this way!
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 15:14.
As I informed the Very Reverend Lind, of Trinity Cathedral, I am posting this outreach for the help of her good people to move Cleveland Thermal and so Cleveland beyond coal. Please reach out to these friends of the community with your words of support for a cleaner, safer, healthier, more prosperous Cleveland and NEO for all, beyond coal.
Dear Reverend Lind and supporters of Trinity Cathedral:
Norm Roulet <norm [at] realneo [dot] us> Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 4:01 PM
To: tlind [at] dohio [dot] org
Cc: Nachy Kanfer <nachy [dot] kanfer [at] sierraclub [dot] org>
Dear Very Reverend Lind and supporters of Trinity Cathedral:
I appreciate your presence and good work in this community, and know you are prominent preachers for goodness, on a good Earth.
It has come to my attention that Trinity Cathedral is a customer of the Cleveland Thermal coal steam plant in the Flats, providing excessively-polluting utilities to your facilities on Euclid Avenue - that is featured on their website at http://www.clevelandthermal.com/services/case-studies
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 13:52.
Cimperman for Congress 2008 - Top Donors - featuring Charles Evans from Dominion Cleveland Thermal for $2,000 - I assume the DiSanto, Frederick D. of Ancora Advisors LLC listed here for $2,300 is the same Ancora of Grenwich, Connecticut that bought Cleveland Thermal from Dominion in 2004:
RICHMOND, Va., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) announced today that it has agreed to sell Dominion Cleveland Thermal to Ancora Management LLC of Greenwich, Connecticut. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2004. Terms of the sale were not disclosed and the sale is subject to regulatory approval.
Look at all the other corrupting industrial and developer scum on Cimpermans buy-list who have been screwing Cleveland... wonder what each one wanted in return for their $1,000s... lucky Cimperman lost by a mile. Time to rid Cleveland of the power of all these self-serving, citizen-killing parasites forever!
Top 100 Donations/Contributions in the '08 Election Cycle to
JOE CIMPERMAN FOR CONGRESS
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:12.
An ambient film of real NEO people walking, shot from outside the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper headquarters, featuring late afternoon activity in the newsroom as seen from Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, realNEO... "Schism" by TOOL is playing in the background, accompanied by the sounds of realNEO..
I've often wondered why the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been so disrespectful and harmful to me - I believe the following documents will explain - The Cleveland Plain Dealer is a Cleveland Thermal customer and so Cleveland Environmental Justice criminal - I know the Pieces Fit!
Alternate energy steam service agreement between Cleveland thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company, filed on behalf of applicant by S. Howard. (12 pgs.)
Submitted by Lee Batdorff on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 01:13.
It is a good skill Tom Bier has, pointing out an obvious solution in ever gaining disaster, (Plain Dealer, Sunday, 1/30, 2011, op/ed section). He has done it for decades in front of conferences of mayors where they called him “Dr. Doom.” It's unfortunate that the obvious solution of real reagionalism borne by Mr. Bier looks like indecipherable hieroglyphs to our minor despot leaders.
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 01/27/2011 - 04:40.
Google Analytics of weekly realNEO visits and pageviews from December 01, 2008 to January 26, 2011
As I've reported over the past year, while sharing realNEO site statistics with members - most recently, in November, marking our 7th year - realNEO traffic demonstrates very consistent month-to-month and year-to-year growth for visitors, visits and pages viewed. Where there are dips, like each Christmas holiday season, there is year-to-year growth - we've always had strong, consistent, steady performance as illustrated above, since December 2008 (the first month we had reliable Google analytics).
Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 03:15.
Google Analytics Traffic Data for realNEO.us for October 19 - November 18, 2010 (31 days)
Based on Google Analytics of realneo.us traffic, we are now at a level that exceeds 500,000 unique visitors and 1,000,000 page visits per year, and both metrics have been growing steadily for as long as we have tracked our web traffic metrics... so expect realNEO.us to exceed 1 million hits per year forever hereafter. By how much we exceed these metrics, with what growth rate for the future, is up to our members and community who create the content here that now attracts over 1,000,000 reads a year.
I am perpetually humbled that my sacrifice will never be what those, or the families of those, has been, that have served our country so proudly, even when their sacrifice was not appreciated. God Bless. You all make NEO and the rest of the United States a great place to live.
I am in the process of writing an article for Yahoo! News regarding the Ohio elections on November 2. I would like to feature the comments/opinions of 7 to 10 different voters, particularly regarding the races for U.S. House, U.S. Senate and the governor's race and any major ballot issues which are important to you.
I cannot use anonymous quotes (they won't be accepted without a full name, occupation and city)
Visionary opportunity to utilize our property across from Saint Cantius on Professor & College, for a beautiful year round greenspace. A monthly rotation of outdoor sculptors & integrated gardens, right in the heart of Tremont!
A collaborative effort of Cleveland artists, local garden clubs, businesses & community residents creating a sustainable, green & carbon neutral greenscape destination for all to benefit.
