In today's New York Times, I found this article (Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird?) about the fact that what we purchase in the grocery is killing songbirds. Yeah, it is, and it's killing more than songbirds. It's killing the whole ecosystem where these dangerous chemicals are used, and it's killing the people who eat the "Green Revolution's" products. Thank you Ford Foundation, Hailey Ashton Foundation and Gates Foundation.

As I read this sad story, I thought about Rachel Carson and her battle against the dangerous chemicals we dusted on our crops. I remembered reading Silent Spring while riding in a car along I-90 where I could glance up and see how the edge of the road had been "killed off" by a generous dose of herbicides.

Grosse Fuge excerpt from Kinok

This woman gets the architecture of music and dance. Her dancers get it, too. The stage at Mershon was raked. This is an old theatrical architecture. Now audience's sit in a raked auditorium rather than having the dancers and actors work on a slanted surface. This, by the way, is the explanation for upstage and downstage - they literally were up and down.  So in this bit in the film, when you see the dancers roll downstage, they were literaly rolling downstage toward the audience.

Rosas: choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

more work by de Keersmaeker

So often people have asked "what can I do to be Green?", or "what can I do to help the environment".  This of course is all in the context of, "... as long as I don't have to lift a finger or spend an extra dime".

Over the past few weeks, I've noticed strange Clevelandesque slogans posted on billboards around town, with the attribution "Mind of Cleveland". I remember wondering if this was another Cleveland+hype campaign... or about AIDS prevention... and planned to google it later...

I love cookbooks. 

You gotta see this - there are much much better things coming out of Texas than GW Bush and Texas crude.

Watch this video: Recycled Houses

April 1st is "Energy Wasting Day"

A Great Idea, and A Great Video...

http://www.energywastingday.com/

It seems like many people, especially in the big media, are obsessed with whether or not that hybrid/plug in hybrid/electric car/etc will "pay for itself" with fuel savings. The latest example is the (misleading) "The payoff for plug-in hybrids: 95 years?".

Those following the race for the Democratic presidential nomination closely enough to understand the main tenets of each candidate's economic agenda can surely appreciate the importance of green-collar workforce development as a vital economic development and community development opportunity.  The buzz around sustainability seems to have reached a crescendo these days, and a legion of local eco-activists has much cause to feel much vindication as a result.  The word is really getting out!  To borrow from Gestalt philosophy, raising awareness is the critical first step necessary to move any system to the point of meaningful action.  It would really behoove our communities to prepare intelligently for this inevitable time with sound research and due diligence. This is the time to look to the most charismatic, capable, and cogent leaders and follow their example.

I got my Plain Dealer the other day to see what new spectacle I’d find.

Oh, my. A full-page, front page of LeBron. “Mr. Cavalier,” the headline said, noting that “LeBron is Cleveland’s all-time leading scorer.”

Almost every time I post to Realneo I  find I am asking myself the same question  (which comes from a sense of urgency):   is this post what I should be spending my time on?  is the subject a priority?

Below is a taste of the article from the Times mentioned a moment ago.

Six of the Fallen, in Words They Sent Home

If anyone missed the New York Times piece on yesterday's  front page giving the words six fallen soldiers sent home to their families and friends, please read the attachment below.

It is one of the most moving things I've read. For link, go to "read more."

OK, OK! I have to post this once again! It is driving me crazy!

I wondered if it wasn’t a really bad Cleveland Accent, but apparently this is not a regional issue.  Let's learn the difference between "then" and "than".

Here's the entry from Wikihow on then and than. Why am I roused about this? Here you go...

24)  Lead Outreach and Training
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requests proposals for the
National Community-Based Lead Outreach and Training Grant Program.
This grant will support the partnership of national organizations

But they have no economic development training, experience, or credentials - and no public mandate.  

They haven't even advertized the Ameritrust Tower anywhere but 3 times in the Plain Dirty Dealer.

 I began by reading about architecture in the NYTimes, but went surfing.

Here's the journey:

In Ohio the sap is running.

So Richard Benjamin stokes 'er up - got to get that sap to 218 degrees F! 

Today, March 22nd, is World Water Day and while most people don't know this, I thought I'd take the time to give H2O its just due.  Sometimes it helps to bring things down to the elemental level - as NEO residents so many of us take the 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water that comprise our Great Lakes for granted.  Few people seem to be aware that lake water levels are at historic lows, or what a rapidly dwindling freshwater supply globally has been doing to extinction rates of dependent species of wildlife.  The formula is simple: freshwater use is exponentially increasing while supply is most definitely not.  We use over twenty times more water per person in the U.S. than we did a century ago, and the energy costs involved with agriculture, waste water treatment, and industrial use are growing at staggering rates as well.  I find it ironic that the most highly developed nations in the world are setting this kind of example.  The problem is exacerbated in the most underprivileged parts of the world, which, not coincidentally, face the greatest dearth in freshwater supply.  Primitive technologies and grossly inappropriate waste management and disposal practices (95% of sewage and 75% of industrial waste is returned to surface waters untreated) are the biggest problems in these nations.  Global climate change throws even more uncertainty into the mix.

The Nation magazine chose Cleveland as the city to illustrate the cost of the War in Iraq to one troubled city. The two-page spread in the March 31 issue shows what could have been bought to meet public needs with $479.2 million, Cleveland’s share of the war cost.