Film Production

Kickstarter: Valarie Mayen Cleveland's Own Fashionista

Submitted by ClevelandCreatives on Tue, 05/24/2011 - 20:39.

Valerie MayenI happened on this online service called Kickstarter when my friend, Valerie Mayen, used it to fund her local fashion incubator start up "Buzz and Growl". Here's what Kickstarter has to say about their service:

realNEO Props to Max Eternity - What Is Art? MaxEternity.com: The Good Life Made Simple

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 05/24/2011 - 01:06.

I'm always happy to hear from eternal real NEO activist Max Eternity and see his fascinating work - whether his art or his commentary on the art or others, Max Eternity is unique... and is always exploring "What is Art"?

What Is Art is a new podcast series that I'm making available on Youtube.  In this first installment, I critique a rather peculiar doll I stumbled across on the sidewalk, while on a trip back from a nearby grocery store.

The Other Night I Remembered A Dream - And I Never Remember Dreams. This Was Serious... I was stabbed in the back!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 06:00.

Clara Roulet at 1 minute old

The Other Night I Remembered A Dream - And I Never Remember Dreams. This Was Serious.

Evelyn and I were sitting in the foyer of our home talking, at night, when gunmen in black masks suddenly rushed through our front door. We dove to the ground and lay there wondering what would happen. Suddenly there was a nine millimeter pushing forcefully against my forehead.

Then, I felt a numbing pain in my back and I could feel something was sucking the life out of my spine - and thank God I awoke.

Now I have been stabbed in the back so many times by so many people in Cleveland it is made of steel. I'm in the middle of showdowns with liars and cheaters all over town and the country - no big deal. No - this was near and dear. Big surprise to find out the chairman of realNEO Jeff Buster has been in hyper-back-stab mode and trying to destroy My realNEO. Your realNEO!

I'm Proud of My Wife and My realNEO for Educating Over 200,000 People About Healthier, Happier Childbirth... to-date

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 05/23/2011 - 03:34.

I'm Proud of My Wife and My realNEO for Educating Over 200,000 People About Healthier, Happier Childbirth, to-date... and the traffic is increasing with time. While most of the traffic has been direct to YouTube, I never would have bothered to save a clip or post it if I wasn't active with realNEO. realNEO equipped and incented me to share this moment, like I have shared so much in life here.

And Clara's birth will be here, on realNEO, forever.... and has been viewed 1,000s of times here, alone, in a year.

Most interesting, if you view the charts below, from YouTube Insight, this video is especially popular in the Middle-East and Asia (outside the USA) - its relative popularity by top country is in the following order:

IntraCom/UCANX Update: GROHIO Sprouting - States of Emergencies - On the road again - BTWs

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 05/21/2011 - 04:22.

IntraCom/UCANX Update: GROHIO Sprouting - States of Emergencies - On the road again - BTWs

  1. Ohio-based Board members have spent lots of time this week meeting and discussing options for development of the cannabis industries in Ohio - dozens of emails a day - and we have made various outreaches in our own ways. We'll compile a report for the board.

    In brief, while we agree Ohio is a perfect place to base the hemp industries, and it looks the same for MMJ, assuming Lewis' campaign is successful, the politics of Northeast Ohio have been and still are so corrupt, corrupting so much here, we are not confident leaders here will make good decisions. We have certainly not thrown in the towel - we have been focused on Cuyahoga County, VC-types, and the broader community... which is very receptive. Next week, we will expand our focus away from Northeast Ohio, to a broader state-wide exploration.

    Feel free to start reaching out in your states as well, as I can't guarantee Ohio leadership will make the right decisions, and we need to be prepared for serious action ahead.

Journalism That Matters: realNEO Optimizes IT For All - Create Or Die!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 05/20/2011 - 04:21.

realNEO Matters - April 2011 web statistics versus primary economic development portals in Northeast Ohio
realNEO Matters - April 2011 web statistics of primary economic development portals in Northeast Ohio

Since the 1990s, my personal professional mission has been "To Optimize Information Technology for All".

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.

Downtown Cleveland Is Moving

Submitted by ClevelandCreatives on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 18:19.

I hope this inspires you as it did myself regarding the evolution and growth of our city, Cleveland.

May 18, 2011 IntraCom UCANX Board Update: Vote Hemp - Finding Roots - Board Building - Energy Building

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 04:21.

Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra, Ron Paul and Vote Hemp lobbyist Ben Droz pose for the record on new hemp farming bill.
Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra, Ron Paul and Vote Hemp lobbyist Ben Droz pose for the record on new hemp farming bill.

May 18, 2011 IntraCom UCANX Board Update: Vote Hemp - Finding Roots - Board Building - Energy Building

A few updates to the board, in brief.

1. Vote Hemp

Congratulations to everyone involved with the successful efforts of the Hemp Industry Association and Vote Hemp supporting the introduction of the "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, 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 I posted on realNEO, last Wednesday:

My Advice to Kasich: mobilize Ohio Attorney General, police and the National Guard to develop Cannabis Economy in Ohio FIRST!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 03:40.

A Profound Moment for American Marijuana

Photo by David Sygall

The spring of 2011 has brought tension to the air for everyone involved with cannabis in the United States. Federal authorities have unleashed a coordinated attack on political efforts to tax marijuana and they have made war on medical marijuana programs. This has been matched by additional states changing local laws, putting more skin into the game than ever.

The bets are now in for the biggest cannabis policy showdown in our generation – right in Washington DC. The Schedule I status of marijuana in the federal Controlled Substances Act will either be re-affirmed or changed, likely over the next 24 months.

Marijuana prohibition has become the most refined and serious states’ rights issue of the 21st Century.  Millions of Americans are now participating in a multi-billion dollar medical cannabis economy.

UCANX: "Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011... amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude hemp from definition of marijuana"

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. 

Ohio - an agricultural, healthcare, industrial and education powerhouse - must take our rightful place in the Cannabis Economy

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 16:21.

Veterans for Marijuana at start of 2011 Cleveland Medical Marijuana Rally Public Square
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 Ohio Medical Cannabis Act of 2012 - A Message From The Campaign

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 12:12.

The Ohio Medical Cannabis Act of 2012

A Message From The Campaign

Apr 27, 2011

For the better part of a decade, advocates have attempted to pass bills in the Ohio General Assembly to provide Ohio's sick and dying citizens with safe access to medical marijuana (cannabis). However, when confronted by this issue, our state's elected leaders simply shy away. While the effort to pass a bill in the statehouse is still being pursued, there is another way citizens can enact change.

If a group of citizens feel strongly that an issue has not properly been addressed by the Ohio General Assembly, they can propose an initiated constitutional amendment to the people for a statewide vote. This is the route we've decided to take, placing the issue before the voters on November 6, 2012.

CLEVELAND ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME STREAMING Cleveland Confidential - Cheetah Chrome, Mike Hudson, Bob Pfeifer & David Thomas

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 16:44.
04/11/2011 - 19:00
04/11/2011 - 21:00
Etc/GMT-4
CLEVELAND ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME STREAMING
Cleveland Confidential Book Tour Featuring
Cheetah Chrome, Mike Hudson, Bob Pfeifer and David Thomas

Event begins at 7:00 pm EST today (Monday, April 11th, 2011).  Copy and paste URL into your browser to enjoy the live stream:

Location

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Internet
Cleveland, OH
United States

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign - Barack Obama

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 14:08.

Norm --

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.

We're doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you -- with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.

So even though I'm focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson on National Public Health Week - April 4-10, 2011

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 04/04/2011 - 11:21.

EPA Celebrates National Public Health Week April 4-10, 2011

Posted on April 4th, 2011 - 10:30 AM

By  Administrator Lisa P. Jackson

When we talk about environmentalism, it typically brings to mind sweeping vistas and wide-open landscapes. Some people might think of saving the whales, protecting spotted owls or preserving old-growth forests. Those things are critically important – but they only tell part of the story. When the modern environmental movement got its start in the 1960s, it took hold in our nation’s cities and was led by people concerned about pollution in the air they were breathing, toxins in the water they were drinking and chemicals on the food they were eating.

The effort to safeguard our environment started – and continues to be – an effort to safeguard our health.

It pained me to watch this, and I am not Black - A War For Your Soul-Birmingham version

Submitted by savcash on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 21:57.
author.jpg

----Filmmaker and public speaker Reggie Bullock is one of the most sought after motivational speakers in the United States. On March 15, 2009, Reggie’s short film "A War For Your Soul" was independently released on the internet, and has catapulted as a “stirring, epic and inspirational” video for today’s generation”. Over 6 million internet viewers have watched “A War For Your Soul” in 1 year.

Obama Administration’s Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future Equals Blueprint for a Secure Future for the Hemp Economy in America

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 03/30/2011 - 17:13.

As a citizen interested in clean energy and renewable fuels, who lives in an environmental injustice hotspot, heavily polluted by fossil fuel emissions, that needs cleaner energy solutions in our region, I have been excited to see President Obama and his core department leadership - especially Department of Energy Secretary Chu and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Jackson - embrace and champion the urgency of moving America beyond our dependency on ecologically-destructive fossil fuels, toward development of a sustainable, localized, environmentally, socially and economically positive biomass and biofuels energy economy, which shall include industrial hemp grown in the United States of America once again, beginning in 2011.

From the conclusion of a speech by President Obama, at Georgetown University, today, on the Blueprint for A Secure Energy Future for America:

We’re already paying a price for our inaction.  Every time we fill up at the pump, every time we lose a job or a business to countries that are investing more than we do in clean energy, when it comes to our air, our water, and the climate change that threatens the planet that you will inherit -– we’re already paying a price.  These are costs that we are already bearing.  And if we do nothing, the price will only go up.

So at moments like these, sacrificing these investments in research and development, in supporting clean energy technologies, that would weaken our energy economy and make us more dependent on oil.  That’s not a game plan to win the future. That’s a vision to keep us mired in the past.  I will not accept that outcome for the United States of America.  We are not going to do that.  (Applause.)

Yale University Identifies Six Distinct “Americas” When It Comes To The Issue Of Global Warming - Where Do You Live?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 03/13/2011 - 20:09.

The steepness of the drop prompted a skeptical reaction at Cleveland City Hall. "We believe it is a significant undercount"

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 01:44.


Data provided by U.S. Census Bureau.

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.

Good morning, The state of the American education system today is unacceptable.... let me know what you think:

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 10:28.

The White House, Washington

Good morning,

The state of the American education system today is unacceptable. As many as one quarter of American students don’t finish high school. We've fallen to ninth place in the proportion of young people with college degrees. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.

For the sake of the next generation, and America's economic future, this has to change.

Peak Drupal 2011: Real Drops of Open Source Alternate Energy to Fuel and Feed Villagers in "The Social Network" Desert

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 15:00.

Screen Shot of White House Gov website March 2 2011

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...

Mr. Wolstein, Please hold off on using the Forum Architects' plans for your redevelopment in the Flats, as much has improved

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 04:44.

Sunset over Lake Erie from Whiskey Island, and a nearly perfect Summer's day. Dedicated to Citizen Ed Hauser.
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!

Dear Mr. Mowry, Chief Information Officer, Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Welcome Home.

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 17:17.

Broward County homepage February 28, 2011

Dear Mr. Mowry, Chief Information Officer, Cuyahoga County, Ohio:

Welcome Home.

Without a doubt, you hold the most opportune and important office in the region, today, and I wish you great success.

Dear Very Reverend Lind and supporters of Trinity Cathedral: Praying for your health, happiness and wisdom

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