I am really appreciative, this morning. After posting what was certainly the saddest news I can imagine, about the hardship my staff has suffered as a result of a lack of appreciation from my former business associate, Peter Holmes, I opened up this week's CoolCleveland and found that their crew had featured TWO postings from REALNEO. I am very touched and thankful to Thomas and his team for noticing REALNEO and taking an interest in the thoughts posted here - thank you. Please show appreciation back to CoolCleveland... if you are not a member, see what you've been missing... subscribe at CoolCleveland - all free - this is a real NEO must,  and send feedback to CoolCleveland letters at the links below, and supporting the upcoming CoolCleveland/Tech/Ingenuity party at Fat Fish Blue, July 13, and the Ingenuity Festival, as described below... but first, here's the nice write-up about REALNEO from CoolCleveland today, July 5, 2006:

 

 

 

10,000s of NEOans turned out on a perfectly crisp, clear Saturday in University Circle for "Parade The Circle", the annual public art participation extravagansa organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This book contains photos and comments from a heavenly day in NEO... see the links in the navigation block on the left and below and enjoy the parade!

 

 

One of the defenses of the paint and lead industries against litigation over lead poisoning is the paint companies claim there is no way to identify which paint company made which lead paint - they claim is is all one big public nuisance and deny any responsibility.

Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop Per Child non profit announce gave an update recently on his initiative to produce inexpensive laptops running Linux with some form of power generation device, such as a pedal. The association hopes to distribute 5 million to 10 million of the systems to children in India, China, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, Egypt, and Nigeria in the first quarter of 2007. For more info, visit here.

 The following story with its links ran in CASE Daily (Case's online newpaper) today. Do feel like you have entrepreneurial genes? I think I do! Please post your thoughts
"Do genes influence who will be entrepreneurs?"

ABC News (Reuters), June 5, 2006
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2041245

 

Knowing I was having a child, I moved from a Cleveland apartment that had significant peeling paint in the window wells and dust in the yard to a "Certified" apartment in Shaker Heights (costing twice as much), where property is inspected regularly and tends to be well maintained. Now that my son is one, and I understand there is not a safe level of lead exposure, and I know blood testing for lead poisoning conducted by my pediatrician is not accurate enough to measure low level lead exposure, I'm looking more closely at my immediate environment and finding many causes for alarm.

My children just got into town for their summer vist today.  I was talking to my 8 year old boy about everything that has been happening while they were in TN.

When I was talking to my boy about his hat, and the fact that it was not new he said something that would make any parent as proud as I am now...

The Learning Garden Festival -- something for everyone!
-Guided Tours
-Meet the 2006 Green Corps, Celebrating its 10th Anniversary

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 It is extremely important to control all dust in and around any home where there is a lead risk. Unfortunately, research shows that where there are lead risks dust control alone has little impact in reducing lead poisoning - the reduction in elevated blood lead levels is measurable and worthwhile but not sufficient to have an overall benefit to the child, or surface a solution for society.

 

Lots of people know that lead poisoning played a role in the fall of the Roman Empire (lead pipes) but in December 2005 it was learned that Beethoven died of lead poisoning - probably from a combination of pipes, lead seals on wine and documents, crystal, ceramics and paints - they started outlawing lead in Europe at the end of the 19th Century... it took America nearly a century longer...

 

While looking for lead testing kits and information in East Cleveland, at Silvermans, I slipped into paparazzi mode as I spotted three future leaders of our NEO new economy, chilling on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. They let me snap their pictures, which will be worth a fortune when these guys are famous. It can happen, when we keep our kids lead free.

While I'm not a pro sports expert, I was very pleased to see today, having coffee at A. J. Rocco's, a friendly table of local sports experts including at least one of the Cleveland Cavliers - probably the only one I'd recognize out of uniform (and I don't mean King James). I asked if they minded me taking a picture but they weren't dressed for the press. So, if you want to hang out with the Cavs, in their hangouts, you'll have to come downtown to A.J. Rocco's yourself. Or, you could reach out to them...

Come together with leaders of the fight for public health, at the start of National Public Health Week - "Designing Healthy Communities - Raising Healthy Kids", for a globally important program at the City Club, April 4th, featuring Dr. Bruce Lanphear, who will review new data on the adverse health effects of childhood lead exposure. Considering the criticality of lead poisoning in our community, and the huge implications in NEO of the sudden escalation of legal activity around lead poisoning nationwide, it is time to become as informed as possible on this subject. Dr. Lanphear is a world expert on many aspects of this topic, and the City Club will be the place Tuesday for the cutting edge insight on raising healthy kids in NEO.

Greater Cleveland has a higher percentage of elevated blood level children than the national average, and many neighborhoods have significant lead poison problems. This book shares insight generated in the effort to eradicate lead poisoning in NEO, including initiative of the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council... GCLAC.

I've thought for some time about the issues facing East Cleveland, and thought deeply about the potential we have to uplift an underprivileged community by applying a concerted eco-development strategy.  Here I outline some of my core thoughts as framed by our six-sphere model:

Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:00 PM Low-Level Lead Toxicity: The Ongoing Search for a Threshold Bruce P. Lanphear, MD, MPH Sloan Prof. of Children's Environmental Health & Dir., Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Ct Reservation

Lead poisoning is still one of the most serious public health concerns facing children in Cuyahoga County. Rates of childhood lead poisoning are well above 20% in many Cleveland neighborhoods and East Cleveland. Cleveland’s rate is in the top five nationally, with the current U.S. overall rate at under 2%.

Dr. Bruce Lanphear, The Sloan Professor of Children's Environmental Health and the Director of the Cincinnati Children's Environmental Health Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati, will review new data on the adverse health effects of childhood lead exposure, review the major sources of childhood lead exposure and discuss the regulations and tools necessary to shift our focus toward primary prevention.

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Press Release 3/1/2006
Croskey & Associates LLC –A Real Estate Development Company is pleased to announce their “2006 Single Parent Home Initiative.”  This initiative will assist Single Parents with purchasing a custom remodeled home in metorpolitan Cleveland
 while reducing some of the barriers that prevent homeownership.   The initiative will provide the following:

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According to Case Management Professor Sandy Piderit, on her NEOBEAN (North East Ohio Breastfeeding Education and Awareness Network) site:

Please attend this Cleveland Municipal School District CEO Search Advisory Committee Community Meeting and provide your feedback on what is important to you in the selection of the Chief Executive Officer to lead our municipal school district forward into the future. Light food and beverages will be provided and you will be encouraged to speak up and voice your opinions. For more information, visit http://schoolceosearch.net

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Over a period of roundtable "world cafe" discussions, participants at the Storm the Palace table wrote the following summary ideas on a flip chart or post-it to the idea wall - each idea is being posted to the "Community Forums: Education" on REALNEO focused on this category... read on:

Education