Asleep on the job....                  photo courtesy Tim Littler                            Xian,  China

Thursday, August 16, 2007

By Jeff Piorkowski

SOUTH EUCLID

Father of the compact fluorescent bulb looks back

 

By michael [dot] kanellos [at] cnet [dot] com, News.com
Published on ZDNet News: Aug 16, 2007 11:57:00 AM

Good Day Everyone!

I'd like to invite each of you to explore Detroit Shoreway, or more specifically, the Edgewater Hill neighborhood, as the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization unveils our new home at 7405 Herman Avenue.  Please see the attached flyer for more info.

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Let's try to elucidate the elusive and concretize the abstraction represented by my Cross System  - start by drawing a Cross.

Having discussed the modification of classic aquaculture systems to be truly integrative in production of terrific tilapia, vitrious veggies, and cultivated compost I feel like there is no time better to integrate our toxic toxin mediating and mitigating mushroom strategy.

I just got the email below, from the head of a local arts not-for-profit to remain un-named, to protect the innocent: "Norm -- i just wanted to make sure you knew about the "sales pitch" we are about to get.". I read on to see that tax junkie CPAC - Community Partnership for Arts and Culture - is on the Cuyahoga County junk again, now hustling artists and arts organizations to tax themselves and patrons for the benefit of the dealers. Read on... anyone going to this who can cover for realneo?... Note: " RSVP’s are required!" Now, a little art, in honor of this event and the rush for the MedCon and taxation without sober representation, courtesy of Lou Reed:

I dont know just where Im going

But Im gonna try for the kingdom, if I can

cause it makes me feel like Im a man

When I put a spike into my vein

And Ill tell ya, things arent quite the same

When Im rushing on my run

And I feel just like jesus son

And I guess that I just dont know

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When the Cleveland population dipped below 500,000, the population basis for many federal grant formula, the ability of the federal partner to help on our urban problems was constrained, as the City became one of only many cities across the country, rather than one of the larger, most impactful cities on its own. So strategies to increase the city population deserve special consideration, yes? Well, perhaps not.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_saDN0NfMlYY/Rru3yMc2n5I/AAAAAAAAAEU/xRx0i4KcKyY/s1600-h/PVC+Free+Company+List.jpg

 Having recently completed a survey of the latest and greatest developments in sustainability, which included a review of current legislature in Congress to effect policy thereto, I can't help but think how much in life is about the simple things.  The tried and true maxim ' Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' embraces so much of what we need in terms of behavior shifts that would maximize metrics and optimize outcomes.

I grew up and lived in Cleveland and, other than school, stayed here until I moved away for about ten years. Since coming back home, one distressing thing I've noted is that decision-makers, at all levels, closely guard information, almost as if a Captain who would rather go down with the ship, than loosen up and perhaps not go down at all.  The Medical Mart non-debate has all those strange dynamics.  Is it possible, I wonder, if a true, public-private partnership on a Medical Mart/Convention Center/Urban Design District might actually make sense after all?

Fools rush in -  if you are for a sales tax to build a con center and kennedy mart - you honestly believe that this will trickle down and improve the NEO economy - then you should READ the resolutions (sales tax, use tax) passed by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Hagan and Dimora.  Look at the second line of either resolution.  "money goes into general fund".   There is no language in the resoluions that says that either the sales or use tax is for a  con center and kennedy mart.  This tax will go on for 20 years sucking in about a million a week.  Where will Hagan and Dimora be in 2008 when their terms expire?  Promises, Promises.  Printed in the Plain Dealer.

And Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, who voted "against" the tax is in fact complicit.  If he was really against the tax but for a con center (with support from hotel bed taxes as he said) Mr. Jones would have raised in the public hearings the fact that the resolutions were for money going into the general fund, not into a con center account.  Omitting to exercise this ringing argument puts Mr. Jones in a catagory of strong doubt about being "against" the tax.

So, if you REALLY want a concenter and kenmart you would do well to sign a referendum petition right away to help putitontheballot.com this spring.  Then you can vote the present resolutions down, and insist that the Commissioners introduce and pass   new resolutions which spell out specifically in the resolutions what the sales tax will be used for. 

But then again, maybe you were born yesterday. 

The dynamic leader of Habitat for Humanity will discuss the REstore program (http://www.gchfh.org/Restore/index.htm) at their offices as well as how providing affordable, sustainable housing helps end a cycle of poverty. http://www.gchfh.org Many opportunities to contribute in this worthwhile, ongoing project in Greater Cleveland will reveal themselves through this lively discussion. And if we are lucky, we may just get Jeffrey to veer off topic a bit and talk about his other life as a performance poet.

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Following are images of the concepts which were received by Sally Levine and David Ellison for the reuse of the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland Ohio.  I extend my appreciation to the designers for their generous dedication and creativity.  I will endeavor to number each of the entries  so that comments can be directed to  specific designs.  I will also  try to make legible the text which is important on many.  A submission from Italy was especially poignant in its text.   Designers, please feel free to log in and amplify your presentations.   This is very cool that so much volunteer creativity went into this event.   Here's my hoping that all the designers who contributed will reap a referred commission or two from their contributions....

It is official - "Cuyahoga County commissioners voted 2-1 today to raise the sales tax a quarter of a penny to help bring a Medical Mart to Cleveland." Perhaps you'd like time to think about this more, and the opportunity to vote with other citizens on how you are taxed.  Other citizens feel the same and have formed a committee to "Put It On The Ballot"- a grass-roots campaign to collect enough signatures to force the 1/4% sales tax increase to be placed on a ballot. This Friday, July 27, there will be an Excellence Roundtable at The Inner Circle where some of the people involved with this campaign will join a discussion on this issue, from all directions.

To learn more about the campaign, visit http://putitontheballot.com - you'll certainly read more about this initiative on this site and on REALNEO throughout the coming months. 7GEN (developer of REALNEO) is providing this Drupal site for this initiative, and I look forward to learning more about the campaign and all related issues.

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    There is a good opinion piece by County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones regarding the proposed county sales tax hike in today's PLAIN DEALER  

Norm and Evelyn are forging ahead in East Cleveland.  Little House on the Prairie has nothing on these guys. 

If the world hasn't caught on yet, some of the ideas I presented this weekend as exhibitor during the Ingenuity Festival held here in Downtown Cleveland have caught the distinct attention of our Pope and President, among others.. and though Mr. Bush is now under the duress-caress of a legitimate censure threat he, like so many others has to know a great thing when he sees it.  Who doesn't ?  The key now is to work collaboratively and cross-sectionally to manifest those ideations and innovations particularly and proactively preventative of Biblically-briefed, Catastrophe-causing and Armageddon-averting measures so we can assure a sustainable future for us all.  It is my belief we have five years until a pivotal time in history, and this is indeed a Messianic age - one which is facilitated by what spiritualist Eckhart Tolle and so many others refer to as the frequency holders (Findhorn Retreat)..   So perhaps polytheism returns, and we will all be gods ?   .   And as I jest, in part,  I am simultaneously serious - this isn't enigmatically expansive, or bucolic bipolar banter but rather real and rugged rapture we're talking about!

Could climate change herald mass migration?

"Sticking a straw in the Great Lakes is not a solution to Phoenix's water problems."
Robert Shibley, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Concerns raised as the U. S. Southwest grapples with historic drought, water supply depletion and the creeping sense that things can only get worse

Jul 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Murray Whyte
Staff Reporter
The state of Arizona has more than 300 golf courses, a booming economy, endless sunshine and, at last count, at least five Saks Fifth Avenue department stores — in short, nearly everything the well-heeled sybarite would need.

There’s just one thing missing: rain.

The IngenuityFest public outreach efforts of Sally Levine  and David Ellison are intended to prevent Cuyahoga County from demolishing Cleveland’s Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower.    Ms. Levine and Mr. Ellison present a “Right vs Might” poster boy case of passionate public citizens who are “right” going up against “City Hall” “might”.   Except in this case it isn’t “City Hall”,   but “County Hall”.  

We're about to start prepping and painting lots of plaster walls and protecting lots of wood trim, windows, doors and floors, inside and out. As we are bringing the property to its most natural state possible, removing most paint, varnish, and wallpaper, we are working from very raw materials, and feel that is good. How do we now keep our house as natural as possible, as we finish it up?