It is an amazing feeling heating your home with wood. You are able to survive in the harshest of weather, with nothing but mother nature on your side, and no gas bills... and, you may cook and heat water while you heat your environment.

Quite clever, really... invented by cavewomen, I believe.

I was just observing a graphic of Issue 6 voting results, on Issue 6 sponsor site Cleveland.com, and noticed how lily-white the voting for this issue clearly was.

In 98.4% white Hunting Valley, 248 people voted for Issue 6, and 18 against... 93% for Issue 6

Where Issue 6 first festered - Mayor Bruce Akers' 89% white Pepper Pike - 83% for Issue 6.

In Issue 6 Grand Mother Rawson's 30% black Shaker Heights... 74% of voters were for Issue 6...

October 7, 2009, we began our sixth year of ongoing, expansive, free, open source content management and global knowledge sharing, community building, social networking and collaboration on REALNEO. See posting Number 1, REALNEO Development Plan, from October 7, 2004, here, for links to many source documents from the planning and development of REALNEO, since 2004.

Congratulations to all REALNEO members, from day one to today! We've come a long way, since 2004, and our outcomes run far deeper than is seen on the surface of REALNEO. Six years is an eternity, in the world of social computing - we're about 8 months younger than Facebook, and a paradigm beyond - we are Real Co-op!

Where is this $180,000 sculpture, who is the artist, why is it located here, how was it selected, who  paid for it, who will maintain it, what does it say, is it successful, does it represent serious problems in unreal NEO, and how may you get it to speak for you, in the future?

With timing that could not be better for political candidates who actually care about the environment and real sustainability for NEO and the world... the greatest demonstration of the unsustainable harm of our current leadership of Mayor Jackson and all or most Cleveland City Council members (did any oppose), and of our other Powers That Be, will be showcased here, tomorrow, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports "AMP Inc. on Monday holds its annual membership meeting in Cleveland". AMP is planning a poorly conceived $3+ billion coal burning powerplant in Southern Ohio, at astounding ecological expense, that is largely the fault of Cleveland politicians committing to buy the unsustainable, dirty power to be generated there, for 50 years!

I was reviewing emails from last week and read, from the EPA, "EPA Proposes Tightening Standards for Lead-Safe Renovation Practices and Lead Paint Dust to Protect Children", which reports "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is marking National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by announcing several actions the agency proposes to take to prevent lead poisoning."

Do you remember hearing anything in Northeast Ohio about last week being National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week? 

"I think Ohio can be the next Silicon Valley", said Cleveland Foundation President and "former head of North American research and development for Panasonic" Ronn Richard, for a November 2007 Cleveland Plain Dealer article titled "German solar company plans HQ in Cleveland". The PD then reported: "For months, the Cleveland Foundation has sent teams to Europe in an effort to sell Ohio to solar and wind turbine companies as the right place to manufacture."

Today, less than two years later, the PD reports "IBC Solar to leave Cleveland for San Francisco." "The company has maintained its one-person U.S. headquarters here since February 2008." "Cleveland Foundation President Richard hadn't given up Thursday evening. He was to meet with Buntain today to talk about the company's decision -- and what it will take to keep a presence in Ohio."

The Cleveland Plain-Plan Dealer has shown remarkable bias in the coverage and promotion of Issue 6 - the NEOCON-created, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor/Off Shore Wind Economy Expert/political insider's-insider Bill Mason-sponsored plan to eliminate Cuyahoga County government, as we know it, and replace it with some lawyerese slight-of-mind proposal for new leadership of our region... aka NEOCON 6.

The Glass City Jungle blog in Toledo seems to be the only media outlet to have picked up on a TruthPAC poll with results showing, as Dave Betras, Chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, says, “It looks like Issue 3 is going down.” Wonder if and when the Plain Plan Dealer will share this insight with its intentionally misinformed readers... hopefully, they read REALNEO as well...

I'm pleased to see a candidate for East Cleveland City Council has joined REALNEO... finally, someone to talk with about politics on the East Side. Welcome, Ephraim Abdullah, Candidate For East Cleveland City Council, Ward 3 - Tell Us Your Vision.

Welcome to REALNEO, new REAL COOP member and recent Cleveland transplant Bill Botkin. Thanks for joining our real NEO community.

Bill's REALNEO member bio reads: "I am a transplant from Columbus as of 2 years ago. My career has spanned 20 years in the copier/mfp industry and I recently made the change to the Office Supply/Furniture Industry where I discovered Sustainability. I am looking to become more involved in the Cleveland area." Bill came to the right place!

Because Bill filled out his REALNEO user profile with useful information about himself and his employer, I found reasons to learn more about Bill and spent some time visiting his employer's website - Today's Business Products - where Bill "discovered Sustainability"... and Today's Business Products seems to have a good interest in sustainability - they list many "green products".

Marie Cocco @ Truthdig - The challenge of our time is to re-create America as a middle-class nation.

I have noticed, in the reader comments at Cleveland.com to their coverage about the great "Crisis at FirstEnergy" Lightbulb rip-off scheme, that many people in Northeast Ohio don't quite grasp this is an example of extreme monopoly corporate corruption of government - big, bad corporation using corrupt lawyers, lobbyists and politicians to steal $ millions from hard working citizens. That is not the work of Tree Huggers. Yet, the tone of Plain Dealer readers is to shoot the environmentalists, and Obama.

I realize there are many people of NEO who will blame even the worse corporate corruption, like this, on the most innocent people, like environmentalists, and have wondered why.

The pro-gambling-interested Cleveland Plain Dealer announced today that "Cleveland's City Council passed a resolution this week endorsing state Issue 3", which changes the Ohio constitution to give a monopoly on casino gambling to Cleveland Cavaliers owner and overnight "Don" Dan Gilbert. Councilmembers Brian Cummins and Zack Reed did not sign the resolution supporting Issue 3. The support of the other council members follows the endorsement of Issue 3 by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. As these endorsements show support by these specific people for gambling in our community, and all the ills that go with that, it is time to set in place the names of these people as those accountable for addressing all the harm that is caused by expanding gambling here from now until they are dead... these are our advocates for gambling addiction in Cleveland.

For the next three weeks, one of the most important things the people of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and Ohio in general may do is fight Issue 3, which changes the Ohio constitution to give a monopoly on casino gambling to Dan Gilbert, owner of Quicken Loans, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and other financial and gambling interests.

If we are going to have zoos and aquariums at all, we should use them for more than entertaining the masses... like for real education, including for enhancing real early childhood development, including having a preschool at the zoo! Sound too innovative for NEO? Yes... this is in Real NWO... Toledo, Ohio...

An anthem for Real NEO today, from the day - vintage Gang of Four performing Anthrax in 1980 - my first year in college - one of the great bands and songs of then and all time. I think the love many of us may feel for this corrosive, punk town is like a case of Anthrax, and that's something I don't want to catch. Read the lyrics below from our context in NEO... concluding "I don't think we're saying there's anything wrong with love, we just don't think that what goes on between two people should be shrouded with mystery." That's REALNEO! Listen, read, and surprise yourself with great music.

Gang of Four: Anthrax

In an article in today's Cleveland Plan (Plain) Dealer titled "Issue 3 will hurt businesses near casinos, group of restaurants, bars says", it is written "The Ohio Licensed Beverage Association commissioned the study by four professors from Hiram College to blow holes in Issue 3, the constitutional amendment on the Nov.

At around 5 PM, on September 23, 2009, WKYC Channel 3 news reported "shocking and disturbing photos, allegedly of incumbent Mayor Eric Brewer, are being circulated in the community, The Investigator Tom Meyer has learned." Photographs that appear to be East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer in woman's clothes, some that are pornographic, have apparently been circulating in East Cleveland for over a year - reportedly many years - and been broadly published by the mainstream media since the 23rd.

On the 24th, I was called by one of the mayor's confidants and told to watch out for retaliation. It seems that Mayor Brewer told the confidant he thinks I distributed the pictures of the mayor. I am not the only person being targeted by such paranoid delusions.

Since June, 2003, bio-defense industry world-leader Ronald B. (Ronn) Richard has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Foundation, the nation's oldest community foundation. Since January, 2005, Richard has also served as a Director of Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company whose marketed product is BioThrax(R) (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed), the only FDA-licensed vaccine available for pre-exposure protection against anthrax infection - www.emergentbiosolutions.com.

Dear Cleveland Cavaliers,

As you well know, 100,000,000s of people look up to you as community leaders and role models - these are responsibilities you accept as sports and public figures who are intentionally "in the news", for profit.