I spent time today cutting up an old dog house - for firewood. 

Third and Last of 3 Bauhaus-Breuer events this week: Wednesday, November 28 at 6 pm at Judson Manor —Green building and modernism; are they antithetical?  (I'm  posting this for Susan Miller who's one of the organizers)

Susan Miller had mentioned a strong statement on cell phone use at Dewey's Coffee House, on Shaker Square, in Cleveland, and I happened to be here tonight and saw this posted on their front counter... it is thought provoking, and Dewey's is an excellent place... latest Sunday night free wifi coffee house I know in this part of town (10 PM).

Having promised to Susan I would bring more angels and sunshine to REALNEO, I set out today to find flowers, in Cleveland, in the end of November, after first snowfall... so I sought harsh conditions where survival in winter was nothing compared to surviving in day to day environmental crisis... the Flats. It didn't take long to come across some strapping sunflower-looking blossoms still holding the hopes of life at the end of an especially toxic year.

I love animals and always enjoy the company of dogs... here is my current pup, shown at around 8 and 14 weeks. She's a Cane Corso so will be big and eat more than the scraps my family will produce. I know having a dog raises environmental issues, including what to feed it. I don't know of any local dog food sources, or good dog food sources of any sort... there is the transportation, and to the extent you feed dogs what people need, or what harms the environment to produce, you are putting a dog before a human, which may not be wrong. In any case, I'm interested in finding a locally-sourced, healthy, organic food for my beast... anyone know af any solutions or want to join in creating one, if needed?

CHAPTER ONE Recently, when I spoke with a conductor on the Albany-Boston Amtrak coach, he told me that he had been working on that run for the last four years and the train had NEVER arrived on time.  Consistent with his experience, we arrived an hour late.

FOUR YEARS!?  Well, right off the bat you’ve gotta find that that is intentional. 

So why? What seems to be going on?

Stories like this one make me envious of Geologists who actually make a living studying this stuff... 

Scientists reveal secrets of ancient ocean in new book

This morning when I was out with Tucker (the dog) this deer got his attention. Tucker stood still and stared at the deer, and the deer stood still, while slow-motion lifting his front left leg up and down to softly stomp his hoof on the leaves.

Every few months, I get the opportunity to review what I learned by preparing for classes at the Economic Development Institute. For a number of years, I have taught the Advanced Strategy Lab. This class is a four-hour session in which I introduce students (economic development professionals from around the country) to some of the newer thinking in economic development strategy. We spent some of the time working in small groups, as I provide workshop exercises that simulate the strategy sessions in which I frequently participate.

Trees For Every Purpose

By Therese Ciesinski

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now. - Chinese proverb

Add beauty and value to your home, provide essential food and shelter for wildlife, and help reduce carbon in the atmosphere in one simple step: planting a tree. And right now, autumn, is the time to plant because warm soil coaxes new growth from roots, while cool nights and rainy skies minimize evaporation and water stress.

The mood in the United States is changing towards people who don’t look like they are from here.

For years I have traveled around the US and around the world and, besides being inspected and asked to produce my passport at the physical border crossing between nations, I have only been stopped inside a county once - in the 70’s – by soldados in Patagonia when Argentina was governed by the military right before Peron returned to power.

I had one of those experiences a few months ago... One of my pre-teen kids plays on a soccer team in Euclid that travels to other local communities to play soccer... thus they call it a "travel" team.  It is considered by some to be elite.  I am not so sure; I think it might be that it is primarily just the kids who have parents who are willing to go all over for their kids.

Be sure to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art and see the Modern Master’s.  Really, it is way too much to take in during one visit. 

I just got back from hearing Sherman Alexie speak at the Cleveland Public Library.   My sides hurt from laughing so much and, yet, at the same time, I want to cry.  His voice is true and his message needs to be heard.

PLoS ONE is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication. PLoS ONE welcomes reports on primary research from any scientific discipline. PLoS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization. PLoS ONE's start-up phase is supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute.

Pacific Northwest is example of energy boom — and worried biologists

PORTLAND, Ore. - Wind energy may be emerging as an important alternative power source for the Northwest, but there are concerns about the danger to hawks and eagles as turbines expand to wild areas of the Columbia River Gorge.

By year's end, more than 1,500 turbines will be churning out electricity in the windy gorge. Until now, most of the projects have gone up in wheat fields — cultivated land that long ago drove away the rodents that raptors hunt. But as wind energy developers move into wilder areas along the ridge of the gorge, near canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, birds could be at risk from the 150-foot blades of giant turbines.

I wanted to enjoy and capture a last glimpse of Fall 2007 so stopped by the second most important battleground in the history of the environmental movement in NEO, after Whiskey Island, being the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, above (see full size here). Were it not for 11 exceptional women from Shaker, including REALNEOan Martha Eakin's mother, a seriously crude, corrupt, foolish Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman, former Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, would have driven freeways through this exact spot in the Shaker Lakes. The scenario is very much like we have in NEO today, with seriously crude, corrupt, foolish political bosses attempting to do seriously crude, corrupt, foolish things to our region, like demolishing the Breuer, over-bridging and retrenching I-90, and likely the "Opportunity Corridor", which is driving far more than 11 exceptional women to take on the latest generation of seriously crude, corrupt, foolish leaders... and, like the Shaker 11, we are winning.

Rockefeller / MLK Drive is as beautiful a place to enjoy nature - these days, fall colors - as any place on Earth that has been touched by man.  As I've been thinking about the Native Americans of this land, and Indians of India and America, and the current hostility in this county of past invaders against all others who want to live here too, I was drawn to the Indian Cultural Garden, today, and it was spectacular (full size image here).

I stood there alone, in one of the world's most beautiful places, as commuting suburbanites whizzzed by, and I thought of the last photos I took near here, of the demolition of historic apartment buildings on East Boulevard, that were part of this park's historic fabric and culture, quietly demolished for parking lots, for the whizzzzzing commuters (Full size images: above and below).

An amazing (and quite funny) man, who invented many amazing things, including wind turbines and the EV1 Electric car. The video runs about 21 minutes, so get your popcorn first.

The Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center has a photography club and last week Judith K. McMillan presented a (her first) power point presentation outlining her evolution from teacher to photography experimenter par excellence.   Ms. McMillan has a voracious curiosity - producing mosaic photo images of a tire dump in Maine to stark black and white photos of bird nests in the CMNHIstory archives.  

I hope to see this story receive wider notice and attention.

Students charged with hacking school computer, changing grades

It is interesting to reflect on "Cleveland" as a "shrinking city", with 100,000s in declining population, 10,000s of abandoned residential, commercial and industrial lots and buildings covering 1,000s of acres of land, and a failing tax base. Simply put, much of Cleveland is free to the taking, and taxpayers will even pay to get taken by their leaders - the land that is being freed up in this latest Savings and Loan "crisis" is worth $ billions and is being given to the friends of politicians for long term speculation and short term enrichment... what is bad for the poor is very good for the rich, who can buy low (can't beat free, with public subsidy). I'd say all this foreclosure hoopla is as fraudulent as was the housing bubble itself, being pure voodoo economic bullshit media spin to steal from the poor and give to the rich - the "Developed Nations" way and a NEO leadership specialty. I'd like to propose a completely different spin on dealing with our shrinking city crises, which is to give back to the Native Americans what we stole from them in the first place, since we destroyed it and supposedly it is now a burden to we settlers in our cowardly New World.