Brewed Fresh Daily

"When they write the account of the 2004 campaign, it will include at least one word that has never appeared in any presidential history: blog. Whether or not it elects the next president, the blog may be the first innovation from the Internet to make a real difference in election politics. But to see just why requires a bit of careful attention. Politics has always been about engaging people to act. It is still that today. But for the past 50 years, the most efficient tool for engaging people to action (however lethargic) has been broadcast media. The key to victory has been mainlining a message through as many outlets of media as possible. Broadcasting is the drug; the bigger pusher usually wins. Yet over time, we grow immune. Surrounded by images pushing every passion imaginable, the only sane response is to develop increasingly thick walls to block them out. One result: Broadcast has become increasingly weak. Still, candidates compete using the tools of broadcasters, since victory is always just relative. But the weakened power of broadcast politics creates a strong incentive to develop an alternative. Enter the blog, a space where people gab. As implemented by most campaigns, it is a place where candidates gab down to the people. But when done right, as the Howard Dean campaign apparently is doing, the blog is a tool for building community. The trick is to turn the audience into the speaker. A well-structured blog inspires both reading and writing. And by getting the audience to type, candidates get the audience committed. Engagement replaces reception, which in turn leads to real space action. The life of the Dean campaign on the Internet is not really life on the Internet. It's the activity in real space that the Internet inspires. None of this works unless the blog community is authentic. And that requires that members feel they own their gabbing space. A managed community works about as well as a managed economy. So the challenge is to find a way to build community without the community feeling built."

"Nortel Networks is planning trials of a novel public WLAN architecture designed to drive down costs of transporting data between Wi-Fi hotspots and wired broadband networks. The trials are being jointly conducted by U.K. operator British Telecom and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

"Yukio Sakamoto, the president and chief executive in Tokyo, believes that using titles like 'department chief' impedes decision-making and innovation. 'To call someone `president' is to deify him,' said Mr. Sakamoto, who was influenced by the 28 years he worked at Texas Instruments. 'It's part of Japan's hierarchical society. Now that has no meaning. If you have ability, you can rise to the top and show your ability.' Many Japanese companies, traditionally divided rigidly by age and seniority, have dropped the use of titles to create a more open � and, they hope, competitive � culture. The long economic slump has forced companies to abandon seniority in favor of performance, upsetting the traditional order. This has led to confusion in the use of titles as well as honorific language, experts say. The shift also mirrors profound changes in Japanese society, experts say. Equality-minded parents no longer emphasize honorific language to their children, and most schools no longer expect children to use honorific language to their teachers. As a result, young Japanese have a poor command of honorific language and do not feel compelled to use it. 'There's confusion and embarrassment,' said Rika Oshima, the 43-year-old president of Speaking Essay, a school that instructs new employees on the use of honorific language. 'Junior staffers aren't strict about using respectful forms to their bosses, whereas bosses want their staffers to use respectful forms to them, but bosses cannot say that.' "

"I had a long talk a couple of years ago with a young woman who worked as a housekeeper at the Ritz-Carlton, cleaning up after guests who paid up to $300 a night. She described a very demanding job where pay started at about $7 an hour and rose to $9 only at the top of a competitive 'incentive' scale. The workers were virtually all Black, Hispanic or recent immigrants; many did not speak English. She had family members and friends at the Marriott who were working in the same circumstances. These two hotels were flagship projects of the '80s, built with heavy tax abatements to 'revitalize the hospitality industry' and 'create good jobs for residents'. What they created was dead-end jobs at $14-15,000 a year -- less than the City's definition of a Living Wage that's acceptable for subsidized projects --with no prospect of improvement. (Of the 2,500 hotel rooms built downtown since 1980, a grand total of 140 are cleaned by workers with union representation.) When we talk about preserving and creating 'hospitality sector' jobs for uneducated Cleveland residents, these hotels -- and the restaurants around them -- are what we're talking about. That's downtown poverty development. We've had lots of it in the past twenty years, during which the City has become -- predictably -- poorer. If we're going to spend a lot of public money to benefit uneducated Cleveland workers, as Dean Rosentraub argues, there is another possible strategy: We could spend it to help them get educated and qualified for all those better jobs in technology, finance and health care. "

"Oh yeah, and have we mentioned that Nimbis now offers free WIFI access. We are still running some tests, but over all the connections pretty stable. Stable enought that you can even wander over to our friendly neighbors at The Near West Tea and Coffee House, grab a cup of what-ever-suits-you and check our our site and this blog."

I realized that I had snapped. I had crossed a line. I had soaked up so much honking and road rage that I had become the honking. I had become the rage. Though my righteous, egg-flinging fury felt sweet and just, my angry response escalated the cycle of frustration and honk-violence. It only made things worse. But I couldn't take it anymore. I had to do something. So, a few weeks later, after another particularly rotten day of horn blasting, I sat down and came up with my first batch of honku -- haiku poems about honking.

Why does the so called "Creative Class" or as I like to think of myself, an Arts Friendly person, need to save Cleveland? Why do I need to, and why would I? In the beginning of the article it even mentions how most of the people the Freetimes interviewed are use to doing stuff on their own or with the help of their friends, and not relying government funding. Why should the newly spotlighted army of Cleveland artists come out and ally themselves with a city that hasn't really been there for them in the past? Why should I help a city that hasn't helped me?

Hey George, 802.11 just crossed the Cuyahoga! Both Borders Westlake and Arabica Rocky River are now WiFi... free for a while. I am @ Arabica with my PowerBook. Here are two articles worth blogging... -- http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~anno/papers/terman.html -- http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~anno/papers/limits_autarky.html Both by AnnaLee Saxenian... a regional economics guru @ Berkely... and a big fan of networked entrepreneurship. Her book, "Regional Advantage" explains how SV succeeded and Boston Route 128 did not in the race to be the leader of high tech. Her theory? Boston [like Cleveland] remained hierarchical/top down/detailed plans while SV looked for networks/cross-border polination/emergence/risk. The best networked region wins -- computer networks are in place for human networks to happen and prosper. Valdis

"George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics: "With Republicans controlling the Senate, the House, and the White House and enjoying a large margin of victory for California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, it's clear that the Democratic Party is in crisis. George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive science, thinks he knows why. Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them, says Lakoff."

What do traffic jams, obesity and spam have in common? They are all problems caused by abundance in a world more attuned to scarcity. By achieving the goal of abundance, technology renders the natural checks and balances of scarcity obsolete.

Last week, the Associated Press announced that Michigan�s governor was launching a �Cool Cities� initiative to attract young professionals. A while back, our governor wrote a check for $100 million attempting to save a dying steel mill. We�ve been confused in this town into thinking that bigger is better, that projects like Gateway and Browns Stadium will stimulate our local economy (they haven�t), or that big companies like BP Oil and TRW would lead us into a renaissance (they left town). Instead, we�re finally starting to realize that small and medium-sized businesses, and the entrepreneurs that start them, will be Cleveland�s future, if we can only learn how to attract them. We already have the cultural assets and lifestyle that entrepreneurs want. We just have to learn how to put them at the top of our efforts to sell Cleveland, not at the bottom. Everyone repeat: Information Age, not Industrial Age. Participatory recreation, not big-league sports. Arts festivals, not rib cook-offs. Culture, not cheap cost of living. Galleries and museums, not assembly lines.

What are entrepreneurs and other creatives in Cleveland looking for in the built community?

Neil Takemoto founded CoolTown Studios to give entrepreneurs and other creatives a voice in designing the built communities in which they live and to connect that voice with real estate developers and investors who are eager to listen. What do you want to see in your community that could make it a more entrepreneurially vibrant place? How could the distinctiveness of your community be expanded upon in a manner that attracts other entrepreneurs as well as talented employees?

"The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature." - James A. Garfield, 1831 - 1881

Kristin Bly-Rogers of newsense enterprises announces a new artwork. Love Lots opens at Linda Schwartz Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 7, 2003. Typical of Kristin's work, this new project blurs the distinction between art and life. Inspired by his family's current undertaking to adopt a child from Haiti. Love Lots operates both as experiential art and as a practical fundraising enterprise to help the family offset the costs of their adoption... Kristin is seeking your immediate assistance to fully realize the collaborative spirit of this work. The Love Lots auction will consist of donated items collected from anyone who is interested in contributing to the goodwill of the project. Perhaps you have leftovers from spring-cleaning, unused goods in storage, or just more of one thing than you really need. There is no limitation to what can be donated. As the auction is rapidly approaching, Kristin will be making every effort to create an inventory before November 2 - so, please consider a charitable contribution today! Arrangements for pick-up or delivery of donations can be made by contacting Kristin directly at lovelotsauction@hotmail.com.

"The Tremont WiFi Neighborhood Network was founded in February 2003. Our goal is to bring wireless internet connectivity to Cleveland's Historic Tremont Neighborhood. We meet every two weeks. Meetings are open to the public."

"we're told that we drink 1.4 billion servings of coffee a day. and that's a good thing, considering how healthy coffee has been proven to be lately. the deliciousness aspect -- at least in restaurants, coffeehouses, and cafes -- we're still working on it! most coffee outside the home is still poorly made and so tastes terrible."

Belgian waffles and wi-fi... all for $5! This Sunday from 9 to 2 at Tremont Scoops -- it's a benefit pancake breakfast for Tremont Wi-Fi. Your money will help buy access points and wireless cards for more community hotspots like the one at at Scoops. See you there.

"The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think." - Edwin Schlossberg

"Misbehaving.net is a weblog about woman and technology"

I just learned that ASAE is offering a course titled "The Leadership Genius of George W. Bush." Whose idea was that? I'm appalled that our national professional association would offer such a course at all, to say nothing of offering it during campaign season.

The other thing that gave me pause was the need for anonymity. I'm all for surfing the web and assuming new identities or none at all as the whim strikes us. In professional circles, however, I think we owe it to each other to present ourselves in the clear light of day. The reason I can't do that here is because I want to speak honestly about life in the corner office. In order to do so, I can't compromise the association I serve. So that's our trade off, honesty for anonymity.

According to Computerworld (also their special coverage) ' free hotspots pay dividend'. Notice this quote of a bakery/restaurant chain owner who will offer free Wi-Fi in its bakeries : "What is the ROI on a bathroom?" "the day of pay restrooms in restaurants has long since passed"

"Attracting the proverbial creative class to northeast Ohio is less a public policy choice as it is creating an environment that attracts the world�s great minds, scientists, musicians, artists, teachers and others who can be inspired to do great things and make a contribution to our community. "

Actor Jim Caviezel, who plays the son of God in Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of Christ" has been struck by lightning during shooting.

Free hot spots pay dividends - Computerworld "That means Wi-Fi service brings in more than $100,000 per year per outlet in return for an investment of about $8,000 per restaurant for wireless infrastructure, Wooley says. The largest continuing cost is backhaul to the Internet over 1.54Mbit/sec. T1 circuits, Wooley says. Since the cost of a T1 circuit varies from $300 to $700, depending on what part of the country you're in, he says Schlotzsky's would average those costs to induce existing franchisees to offer the service. (New franchisees will be required to offer free Wi-Fi, Wooley notes.)"

It was disgusting when Clear Channel-owned WMJI-FM morning jocks starting advocating running bicyclists off the road this past summer. Local voices such as the Free Times spoke out, so Clear Channel, worried about renewing some of their 1200 radio station licenses nationwide, played nice and negotiated with Lois Cowen, co-owner of Cleveland's Century Cycles, apologized on-air and donated $10,000 for bike advocacy. But the brilliant minds that run radio couldn't let a bad attitude go, so the bike-bashing started spreading around the country to other Clear Channel stations in Raleigh and Houston. Essential Information, founded by Ralph Nader, has asked the FCC not to renew Clear Channel's licenses (see news release here). WMJI's license is up for renewal next October. We suggest you send your comments to FCC chair Michael Powell 202-418-1000 and mpowell@fcc.gov. Copy Cool Cleveland and we'll follow up. See Cleveland.com here.

"Since many of the best and brightest of Cleveland see no value in participating in the present civic morass, a real invitation for new leadership should be issued and would be well received... Building off of the emergence of a more active arts community, a new umbrella organization - let's call it Creative Cleveland Corp. - should be created to coordinate quality of life programs and initiatives in the region. Hotel tax revenue and other public money that is presently divvied up in a disorganized manner would be fed to Creative Cleveland. It would oversee the marketing of Cleveland to visitors, host sporting and arts events, and coordinate support of cultural programs to enhance Cleveland's image. This umbrella organization could provide vital assistance to the many grassroots organizations that already exist in Cleveland. With representatives from local government, the arts community, business and others, Creative Cleveland would be a public body that would report to and be responsive to the community at large. Creative Cleveland would bring much-needed cohesion to the splintered and muffled messages now promoting Cleveland."

We can only live the changes we wish to see: we cannot think our way to humanity. Every one of us, every group, must become the model of that which we desire to create. We must break the obsolete social and economic systems that divide the world between the over-privileged and the under-privileged. Each of us, whether government leader or protester, business executive or worker, professor or student, share a common guilt. We have failed...through our lack of responsible awareness...and thus added to suffering around the world. All of us are cripples--some physically, some mentally, some emotionally. We must, therefore, strive cooperatively to create a new world. There is no time left for destruction, for hatred, for anger. We must build, in hope and joy and celebration. In community, no one can remain indifferent, weary, sluggish, sleepy, apathetic, or unmoved.

"Joi Ito is using his Weblog to put his virtual organization into action."

Cleveland sometimes seems intent on hiding its cultural riches. It?s as if we?re afraid we?d be inundated with mullet-heads once the rest of the country found out about Cleveland?s world-class culture, family- friendly neighborhoods and subterranean cost of living.

"The consumer membership is a coffee-literate group of people who are intensely passionate on the subject of coffee quality. Not only one the quality in the cup, but also about the quality-of-life issues for struggling coffee-farming families.

Online career site Monster is launching a Web-based networking section where members can communicate with other job seekers. The networking service, announced Monday, is scheduled to launch during the first quarter. The site's networking section will consist of a community area where Monster members can exchange job postings and career information. The service will also feature a proprietary search technology that matches people with common professional interests. Monster said the system will use data from member profiles to connect people based on details such as occupation, employment history and geographic location.

"No, it's not just Cleveland, Thomas. Having survived Red Sox fever last week here in the land of the MFA, I can attest to the fact that Boston also overlooks its cultural riches when the sports teams are on the field. Hell, John Singer Sargent could have risen from the dead to sketch riverscapes from the BU bridge for pocket change, and all the local news anchors would have to say is 'Sargent? Isn't he the relief pitcher?' "

"Local union leaders quietly are beginning to exert their considerable political clout to get a new convention center built in Cleveland and to open a discussion more broadly on job creation in the region."

"Inspired by world-famous musician and composer Gilberto Gil and developed with the help of the veteran found-art group Negativland, Creative Commons will launch our new Sampling Licenses on December 16, 2003. The new licenses, which will encourage the creative transformation of existing works, will kick-off in Brazil -- home of Gil, who now serves as the nation's Minister of Culture, and the FGV Law School, which coordinates Creative Commons' activities in Brazil. Gil and FGV Law School will collaborate on a release of the first Sampling-licensed creative works, which will then serve as the model for the adoption of the Sampling licenses around the world."

Looking for synergy by coupling economic development, tourism and the arts is a very logical idea, and one that requires careful planning to be successful. This move in Cleveland is consistent with what many other cities are doing to tap their "creative advantage." While it's a great idea, it must be done right by local planners. Proper funding for the arts festival is needed to make it happen.

On October 15, 2003 it was announced that the National organization of the Association of Internet Professionals has declared bankruptcy and will officially close its doors on October 31, 2003. As many of you know, we have spent the last two years working to pay off old debts that were created by the former National board and administration. However, due to the tough economic times and legal issues, the National organization and its board have decided to dissolve the Association of Internet Professionals corporation. The Cleveland chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals has been, and continues to be, one of the most successful in the country. We pride ourselves on delivering unique, high quality educational and social opportunities to the Internet professionals in Northeast Ohio. I am pleased to announce that the local board has agreed unanimously to continue on without the National organization. While there are many decisions and changes that will be made in the near future, one thing will remain constant; our commitment to you, our members, supporters, sponsors, and the Internet industry.

1.) The weblog comes out of the gift economy, whereas most (not all) of today�s journalism comes out of the market economy. 2.) Journalism had become the domain of professionals, and amateurs were sometimes welcomed into it� as with the op ed page. Whereas the weblog is the domain of amateurs and professionals are the ones being welcomed to it, as with this page. 3.) In journalism since the mid-ninetheenth century, barriers to entry have been high. With the weblog, barriers to entry are low: a computer, a Net connection, and a software program like Blogger or Movable Type gets you there. Most of the capital costs required for the weblog to �work� have been sunk into the Internet itself, the largest machine in the world (with the possible exception of the international phone system.)

"Adelaide has become the first city centre in Australia to be permanently online, through a wireless local area network of 50 wireless access hot spots.These hot spots provide internet access for an area of about 100 metres in radius around an antenna connected to a high-speed internet connection."

If you're a Red Sox fan you settle for things. Disappointment is part of Red Sox culture, part of the storyline that has fascinated scholars and literary giants for decades. Every day all of us, journalists, novelists, truck drivers, and factor workers are part of this amazing and one-of-a-kind story -- the Red Sox story.

"The Cleveland chapter of BDPA IT Thought Leaders unveiled the city's newest neighborhood technology center at the Harvard Community Services Center last evening. The grand opening took place at the Lee Harvard Community Association's monthly meeting, complete with tours of the new center for the fifty neighbors in attendance. Featuring ten new workstations with flatscreen monitors and a wireless network, it was installed with a grant from the City Council / Adelphia Neighborhood Technology Fund. This is the second BDPA technology center in the neighborhood; the first was opened two years ago at nearby John F. Kennedy High School. Chapter President Beverly Peterson got an enthusiastic round of applause from last night's meeting with her remark that Lee-Harvard is on its way to becoming 'a technology hub.'"

The price of flushing a toilet in Atlanta is about to go way, way up. Consultants are warning that the city may have to nearly triple its water and sewer rates in the next five years to pay for a massive overhaul of the sewer and stormwater systems. You read that right: Nearly triple the rates, from an average of about $60 a month to $172 a month by 2008. Gets worse: The big increases will be in the first two years, when rates are expected to increase by 45 percent a year, followed by 11 percent increases the following three years. Nobody is putting a happy face on this news. "These increases are really draconian," Mayor Shirley Franklin said. "They will put the city at risk of being unaffordable. This is an emergency situation." The only alternative, the mayor added, was state and federal assistance � fast. Franklin asked Atlanta business and political leaders to help her lobby for a bailout. Happy you don't live in Atlanta? Not so fast: Higher sewer rates may be coming to a city near you. In Cleveland, the regional sewer district says it may have to triple its rates too � but over a much longer period of time, 30 years � to pay for more capacity. Higher rates are also coming to Detroit and its suburbs, which are under state orders to upgrade their stormwater systems. Detroit's water system has already raised its rates by 45 percent in the past four years. More increases are on the way, officials add.

"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently." - Friedrich Nietzsche

The Ohio Third Frontier Project is the state�s largest economic development initiative ever launched. Through this effort, Ohio will create thousands of new high paying jobs, expand its research capabilities, promote start-up companies and bring state-of-the-art products to market.

There's a world to gain. But suppose I don't want it, Why take it? To remake it.- Langston Hughes

Superficially, this site looks like a set of FAQs about a novel that I wrote entitled QUICKSILVER. As time goes on, we hope that it will develop into something a little more than that. We don't know how it will come out. It's an experiment. Why put the information on such a complicated system, when a simple FAQ is easier? Because we are hoping that the annotations of the book on this site will seed a body of knowledge called the Metaweb, which will eventually be something more generally useful than a list of FAQs about one and only one novel. The idea of the Metaweb was originated by Danny Hillis. My own view of the Metaweb is pretty straightforward: I don't think that the Internet, as it currently exists, does a very good job of explaining things to people. It is great for selling stuff, distributing news and dirty pictures, and a few other things. But when you need to get a good explanation of something, whether it is a scientific principle, a bit of gardening advice, or how to change a tire, you have to sift through a vast number of pages to find the one that gives you the explanation that is right for you. Generally this is not a problem with the explanations themselves. On the contrary, it seems as though a lot of people like to explain things on the Internet, and some of them are quite good at it. The problem lies in how these explanations are organized

"Welcome to the Northeast Ohio Company Of Friends Wiki. This is an online space for us to connect and collaborate virtually -- eliminating barriers of space and time in the building of this Fast Company Magazine community of readers. "

This is an attempt to bring what www.brewedfreshdaily.com is for Cleveland, here to Chicago.

According to Perseus Development Corp.'s random survey of 3,634 blogs on eight blog hosting services, there are currently about 4.12 million blogs on the Net. Of those, however, 2.72 million have either been temporarily or permanently abandoned. Perseus found that 56% of bloggers are women, representing 2.31 million blogs. Perseus surveyed blogs on the following hosting services: Blog-City, BlogSpot, Diaryland, LiveJournal, Pitas, TypePage, Weblogger and Xanga. As for the age of bloggers, Perseus finds that over one-half of bloggers are between the ages of 13 and 19. Following this age group, 39.6% of bloggers are between the ages of 20 and 29, representing over 1.6 million blogs. Perseus projects that there will be over 5 million blogs by the end of this year, and over 10 million by the end of 2004. The National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NTLE) estimates that there were roughly 1.3 million blogs worldwide as of last month.

"Only solitary men know the full joys of frienship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything." - Willa Cather

"Emergent democracy IS NOT the same as using technology to scale direct democracy. Emergent democracy is about leadership through giving up control, activating the people to engage through deliberation and action, and allowing emergent order to grow from the grass roots. It's the difference between a couch potato clicking the vote button and a group of people starting their own Dean coalition group."

Okay, now this is interesting. The Benton Foundation, which runs the Digital Divide Network website and mailing list, is holding a 'virtual conference' in November called E-Government for All. From the conference website: E-Government for All will bring together leaders in government, the private sector, community activists, academia and civil society to discuss the relationship between e-government initiatives and the need for policy strategies to bridge the digital divide. While e-government presents us with powerful opportunities for making government more accessible and efficient, there are still millions of people lacking both Internet access and the skills to use it effectively. The conference, therefore, will explore what can be done to ensure that e-government initiatives lessen the digital divide rather than widen it. Registration is free and open to anyone. I just registered. Let's get a good Cleveland contingent signed up."

"The women at the Courthouse are angry because there is a 37-foot headless, armless, semi-nude female figure at the entrance of their building. Despite the abstract nature of the work, the figure�s breasts are clearly visible . But it�s not just that the figure is nude. Someone who�s studied art would recognize that Dine is deconstructing a popular icon. But what does the untrained eye see in this sculpture in the context of a Federal Courthouse? Among the cases filed in federal court are capital punishment cases. That there is a Western history of beheading as a means of execution makes the placement of the headless Venus distasteful. The correlation is so obvious one wonders how the selection committee could have missed it. The new Venus is headless, armless, and ultimately voiceless and powerless. What does this say about our federal court system? Is the piece intended as an ironic jab? If so, it went over the heads of the selection committee. But a handful of women at the Courthouse got it, and they have law, not art, degrees."

The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. - Frank Herbert

"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life." - Norman Cousins, 1915 - 1990 "There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration." - Andrew Carnegie "When I was young, we couldn't afford much. But, my library card was my key to the world." - John Goodman "As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her." - Erma Bombeck "The library is our house of intellect, our transcendental university, with one exception: no one graduates from a library. No one possibly can, and no one should." - Vartan Gregorian "I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved." - Barbara Kingsolver

"When I talked with all of you before the show, one of the themes that sort of emerged in a number of the conversations was that a smart region builds on its strengths, what they are good at. Let me ask each of you, just as sort of an opener here, what are our strengths? What are we good at in this region? What do we have to build on or to capitalize on?"

I had a little situation with a security guard about a month ago when I decided to take a personal photograph of one of the landmarks in downtown Cleveland (which happens to be partially visible as the image located right here.) So today, I called City Hall and after the usual runaround, I was directed to the Office of Special Events, and spoke with the nice lady there. Now, while she was very polite, and informative, I am still amazed at what she said, which is something to the effect that: "You must first secure the permission of the Marriot Center Hotel, and if they don't have any problem with it, you can then purchase a permit to take your personal photos of the landmark in question." I'm sorry, but this is completely outrageous to me.. I am not selling any photographs, I don't make any money on this website, and I do not profit in any way, shape or form from anything that I photograph, so why do I need a permit to photograph PUBLIC PROPERTY? Apparently, the land is leased to the Marriot Hotel as caretakers, which is ridiculous in itself, why is the city leasing public property to a private company for caretaking? Who approved this? I didn't have an opportunity to vote on that. Then, why am I required to pay for the right to photograph an item that my tax dollars helped to fund? Am I crazy? Am I missing something here? Do you think this is just as ridiculous as I do? Please call Cleveland City Hall's Office of Special Events, and express your concern over this nonsense.. they can be reached directly at (216) 664-3792.

A bold venture is not a high-flown phase, not an exclamatory outburst, but arduous work. A bold venture, no matter how rash, is not a boisterous proclamation but a quiet dedication that receives nothing in advance but stakes everything.

"Bottom-up decision-making is based on a belief in adaptation: a large number of minds, perhaps thousands of minds, working in parallel, assimilating small bits of information and producing many small analyses, that lead to others being influenced in their analyses, and so on. A fractal decision-making process, where the activities at one scale directly reflect the activities at another."

I'm voting for Cruz Bustamante--on one condition: his sister has to be the headline act at his inaugural. That would be Nao Bustamante, a San Francisco-based "performance pioneer" whose creative spark could make even porn star/recall candidate Mary Carey blush. Here's how the lieutenant governor's baby sister describes her art: "Using the body as a source of image, narrative and emotion, my performances communicate on the level of subconscious language, taking the spectator on a bizarre journey, cracking stereotypes and embodying them. As in America, the Beautiful; where I'm some kind of sci-fi-barbie-Yankee Doodle-meat-puppet, offering up a wildly distorted vision of female sexuality and the beauty myth."

"Rhonda Phillips, a former economic developer and now a University of Florida professsor says that coupling the arts with eocnomic and community development does make sense. She says we need to approach this task more systematically and we should understand the various strategies that have been put into play to accomplish that coupling. Phillips says that communities across the United States are integrating the arts into their development efforts. Emerging as a viable approach, community development based on the arts is increasingly being recognized as a catalyzing force. This article presents a typology of artsbased community development approaches: arts business incubators, artist�s cooperatives, development of tourism venues, and comprehensive approaches."

"[Scientist think] have identified one of the biological bases of creativity: creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment, unlike other people's brains, which might shut out this same information through a process called 'latent inhibition.'"

"Gov. Bob Taft kicked off a statewide campaign yesterday, asking voters to approve borrowing $500 million for his Third Frontier program. The governor's theme: the program would create high-tech jobs without raising taxes. The measure, which will be Issue 1 on the November ballot, would provide grants and loans to universities and companies over the next 10 years to pay for research, development and commercialization of new technologies. 'It's no secret Ohio has lost too many jobs in recent years, particularly in the manufacturing sector,' Taft told workers at Jergens Inc., a manufacturing company in Cleveland. 'Some of those jobs may come back . . . But we must recognize that some of those jobs are gone for good."