Greater Cleveland Sports Awards

Erin Andrews and young fan

Another sellout crowd honored the area’s best athletes for their outstanding accomplishments at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

The Greater Cleveland Sports Awards were created in 2000 by the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission as its annual fundraising event.


ESPN Sportscaster Erin Andrews served as MC for the event and attendees lined up for a chance to take a photo with the popular journalist.

Photos and more from the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards

Go Red for Women

Lindsay Silverstein, Susie Kilgore and Jen Vogrin

By now you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. It kills nearly half a million women each year at the rate of about one per minute. They are our sisters, mothers, daughters, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

The annual Cleveland Go Red For Women Health Expo & Luncheon educates and raises research funds. The following two short videos are for you Medical Geeks.

First, Dr. Attizzani from University Hospitals in Cleveland explains OCT - Cardiovascular Optical Coherence Tomography which is a catheter-based invasive imaging system. OCT uses light rather than ultrasound and produces high-resolution images of coronary arteries and deployed stents.



Then Jeff Foster from University Hospitals Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Center in Cleveland shows devices to improve the quality of life for heart patients.

Linsanity - Jeremy Lin

New York Knicks' Jeremy Lin, an unknown point guard, shot to stardom overnight. Jeremy Shu-How Lin had no athletic scholarship offers out of high school and was undrafted out of college.

Lin is one of the few Asian Americans in NBA history, and the first American player in the league to be of Chinese or Taiwanese descent. He is a 2010 Harvard University graduate.

What a refreshing story after so many NBA divas.

Joe Tait and Terry Pluto

After listening to Joe Tait as Voice of the Cavs for so many years it was hard for all of us to hear that he was sick. Then we felt relief that he was recuperating and finally a little melancholy that he was retiring.

So it was with eager anticipation that hundreds of people flocked to the Corporate Club luncheon put on by Executive Caterers at Landerhaven on January 19th to hear Joe Tait and Plain Dealer sports reporter Terry Pluto talk sports.

Together Tait and Pluto have written Joe Tait: It's Been a Real Ball (Stories from a Hall-of-fame Sports Broadcasting Career) a book that has both chronicled Joe's life and Cleveland sports.

See more from the Joe Tait and Terry Pluto event including photos.

Chinese New Year in Cleveland

I just realized that I never posted about the Chinese New Years celebrations in Cleveland.

This year I attended events at two locations - Asia Plaza at 30th and Payne and the new Asian Town Center on East 38th by Superior.

Both had performers, music, food, dragons and community organizations.

See videos, photos and more from Cleveland Chinese New Year

Stalker app or cool connection tool for singles?

What do you think of this idea?

ClevelandWomen.Com received a press release and an invitation to try a new smartphone app called SinglesAroundMe for Valentine's Day.

They say that "SinglesAroundMe (SAM) is a location aware mobile dating app for the iPhone, Blackberry and other smart phones. The patent pending SinglesAroundMe (SAM) app is the new cool way to find singles and it is a must have app for singles on the go like you. Covering the globe, and in your local city, SinglesAroundMe is there. Travel someplace; see who is single around you right now.

The "SAM" search plots your location with singles around you on a geographical Google map, in real time, and lets you control the distance and set results to match your desired profile. From here you can view a user's profile, photos, and send various winks and messages. View their GPS location, add them to your hot list, block list, and control your privacy.

The "Destination Search" option allows you to view matching singles at a location of your choice, in real time. Check who is in a bar before you decide to go, scope out a resort, club, university, city, etc. Meeting new singles has never been easier or more enjoyable than with SinglesAroundMe. With complete privacy, you can turn your GPS location on or off."

What do you think? Is this an invitation to stalkers and other unsavory characters or a fun new way to see who is near you?

Let me know what you think.

Peruvian Peace Corps Adventure

Katie Campbell-Morrison is working for the Peace Corps in Cusicancha, a village in Huancavelica, Peru.

Though she only gets Internet access about once each month, she is sending ClevelandWomen.Com stories and photos from her experiences.

Really interesting stuff!

Check out Katie Campbell and her Peruvian Peace Corps adventures.

Global Cleveland Welcome Center

Bienvenue. Welkom. Willkommen. Dobrodošli. Vitajte. Huanyíng. Benvenuto. Bienvenido. Merhaba.

No matter what language you say it in, Cleveland now has a physical space that says "Welcome."

The ribbon cutting and grand opening of the Global Cleveland Welcome Center took place on Tuesday February 7, 2012.

3 pages of pics and videos from the Global Cleveland Welcome Center ribbon cutting and grand opening

Groundhog Logic

Wikileaks Cleveland Connection

Ambassador Heather Hodges spoke at the Federation of India Community Associations (FICA) India Republic Day Celebration in Cleveland Ohio.


She told how she was "kicked out" of Ecuador because of Wikileaks documents. She was the first female US ambassador ever to be declared persona non grata.

She now serves as Amabsaador in residence and President of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs.

Black History Month opening ceremony

Black History Month began with an opening ceremony titled Celebrate Music at the City Hall Rotunda on February 1, 2012.

Several soloists and choirs were featured. I had never seen a Praise Dance before - very powerful.

Videos and photos of the Black History Month kickoff

Mahjong at the Maltz

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage was transformed into a Mahjong Hall in honor of The Chinese New Year. Some have said the game is the single most factor that has brought Jews and Chinese together.

Check out the photos of the people and exhibits

New recipes from Fast, Fabulous, Fresh Foods Class

Class 7 of the Fast, Fabulous, Fresh Foods had Tuscan Bean Salad as the main recipe and

White Bean and Tuna Salad Recipe as a bonus recipe.

Republic Day of India - 3 regions

Sometimes you can forget just how big India is.

Imagine if someone asked you what the favorite food or musical style or sport or... was for the US? You would ask "What region" or "Which people?"

Now consider India with 1.1 billion people!

At the 63rd Republic Day of India celebration in Cleveland there were 3 different dance performances from 3 different regions of India.

First was Bharata Natyam or Chadhir Attam - a classical dance form from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The second dance was from the western state of Gujarat where we were entertained by a Garba Dance.

The third came from the northern state of Punjab where the ladies performed Giddha, the popular folk dance performed by women mainly at festive and social occasions.

Pictures and videos of the dances and more from Republic Day

Geek Love

One of the first columns I ever wrote for Inside Business Magazine (about 12 years ago) was titled Geek Love.

It told about nerdy and techie places that Geeks and Geekettes might find each other - like user group meetings.

We are in the smartphone/tablet age so of course Geek Love has evolved.

There is a new free app called Kiss My Valentine that will "send text kisses and text hugs to family that normally I may have not taken the time to reach out to in the past"

Learn more about the Kiss My Valentine app.

The Scottish can party!

Never let it be said that the Scottish can't party.

The 253rd anniversary celebration of the life of Robert Burns, Scotland's National Poet, was held at the Croatian Lodge in Willoughby on January 21, 2012. The event was put on by the Scottish Heritage Association of Northeast Ohio (SHANO).

Great music from various pipe bands. Plaid Sabbath pipe band played. That may be the best name I ever heard for a pipe band.

One of the highlights of the evening was the Presentation of the Haggis. Yes, haggis. Haggis is like a savory pudding made of such things as sheep's heart, liver and lungs along with oatmeal, suet and spices. It is encased in the sheep's stomach and cooked for a minimum of three hours.

They recited Robert Burns Ode to a Haggis with great gusto and toasted the Haggis with some tasty single malt Scotch whiskey. Of course, toasts were not few in number at this party.

3 pages of pics and videos from the Scottish Robert Burns celebration.

What's wrong with the world

Happy Indian Republic Day

On January 26, 1930 the Indian National Congress declared 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) which occurred 20 years later.

On January 26, 1950 the Constitution of India comes into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first President of India.

Also, On January 26, 1965 Hindi became the official language of India.

Tablet and E-book reader Ownership

The recent Pew Internet report had some not very surprising news about Tablets and E-book readers.

"The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period.

The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January.

These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached, the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted. In the tablet world, Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble's Nook Tablet were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets. In the e-book reader world, some versions of the Kindle and Nook and other readers fell well below $100."

Year of the Dragon

Happy Chinese New Year




Yin Tang explains the Year of the Dragon

Cleveland International Hall of Fame

The 2012 Class of the Cleveland International Hall of Fame (CIHF) got a writeup in Mike O'Malley's column in the Plain Dealer today.

Check it out online.

China, Art and Cleveland

For the first time in museum history, the Cleveland Museum of Art assembled distinguished business and government leaders in a symposium to discuss how Cleveland can learn and benefit from China's successful emergence as one of the world's leading economies in the 21st century; and how the expertise of the symposium's panelists can influence the development of an international business agenda for Northeast Ohio.

Highlights included:

• Ambassador James Keith addressed the upcoming elections in the US and the power changes in China and how they might play out in 2012 and beyond.


• Eaton CEO Sandy Cutler targeted 5 areas whereby NE Ohio can benefit from China's growth


• Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said we did not lose our jobs to the Chinese.


• Cleveland Museum of Art President and CEO David Franklin, PhD spoke about the Museum's history with Chinese art and artists


• Dennis Scholl, VP/Arts, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, expressed concerns about Intellectual Property in China


• and more

The Art of Reinvention: China, Ohio and the New Global Economy

Art with Pendulums - that's Physics

Remember from Mechanics that the period of a pendulum is proportional to the square root of the length of the line suspending the weight? Simply put, the longer the pendulum, the slower it swings.

Harvard students built a device with a series of 15 pendulums in a row, each one slightly longer than its neighbor, then set them in motion and filmed the result.

The resulting patterns in this short video are quite fascinating to watch ... sure it’s physics, but it's also art.

Tweet Choir - Microsoft CES Keynote

Tweet Choir at Microsoft CES Keynote. I'm not kidding.

Where is the Geek in Inside Business Magazine?

Looking for Dan Hanson's eIndustry column in the January issue of Inside Business Magazine? It's online.

Dan Hanson eIndustry January 2012

The column focuses on making your web site more friendly to mobile devices.

Culinary Bucket List

How many of these 100 foods from the Culinary Bucket List have you eaten? The average person has tried less than 20.

I got 48.

Immigrant Entrepreneur Success Story

Luong Thi Gia Hoa Ryan was born in Viet Nam, the oldest of twelve children. She worked for U.S. Government as Interpreter and Secretary during the Vietnam War and supervised local workers for the U.S. Government.

Over 250 friends gathered at the Sai Gon Plaza on Saturday November 5, 2011 to celebrate the 40th anniversary since Gia Hoa Ryan first came to America in November 1971 from Viet Nam. This was also the 18th anniversary of the establishment of the Friendship Foundation in December 1993. This was also the 6th year since the opening of the Sai Gon Plaza in November 2005.

She's a terrific lady, a dynamic entrepreneur and a credit to her new country and city.



Gia Hoa Ryan and Mayor Frank Jackson

Gia Hoa Ryan's 40th Anniversary Party
4 pages of photos and video

Christmas 1981 - A Flame for Freedom in Poland

It was 30 years ago, December 13, 1981, that martial law was imposed upon Poland by the communist government. Poles were aghast, horrified, frightened. And so was the man in Rome, a Polish native named John Paul II, and so was another man thousands of miles away in Washington, DC, President Ronald Reagan.

When word of the communists’ actions reached the White House, President Reagan was furious. He wanted to help the people of Poland in any way he could. At that very moment, Reagan committed to save and sustain the Polish Solidarity movement as the wedge that could splinter the entire Soviet bloc, as the first crack in the Iron Curtain.

“May I ask you a favor, Mr. President? Would you light a candle and put in the window tonight for the people of Poland?”

Read the eyewitness account of that special night

Merry Christmas

Even Santa needs to meditate and relax sometimes.

Digital Nativity

You have to like this video - the Christmas story told as if there was social media 2000 years ago.

Geek Christmas

Let's face it. As people like us make the holiday rounds, we will be on one long tech support incident. Especially if the relatives have the tech knowledge of the guy who hung these Christmas lights.



"Can you look at Cousin Mary's PC? She lost all her icons."

Can you get my wireless set up?

How do I hook up my phone/tablet/mp3 player to my computer and TV?

Why do I get these boxes popping up on my screen every 15 seconds? I swear I didn't touch anything!

So make sure you travel with a USB flash drive that has anti-virus, anti-malware, a registry cleaner and other utilities. Upgrade them to at least Internet Explorer 8 if not IE 9 and/or Google Chrome. Maybe set them up for one of the cheap cloud backup services too so they won't be calling you on New Year's Day saying their PC crashed and they don't have any backups.

And try to enjoy the holidays - even if you are left upstairs in the computer room while everyone else is downstairs drinking eggnog.

Ho Ho Ho.

Rock of Ages - for Hanukkah?

You learn something new everyday.
To me, Rock of Ages has always been an old time Christian hymn.

I learned yesterday that Jews have a Rock of Ages song too. They sang it at a ceremony celebrating the first night of Hanukkah at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.



See more photos and videos from the Maltz Museum Hanukkah ceremony

Project Love

Each year Project Love honors individuals for their roles as influential persons on behalf of humanity at an annual Rescuer of Humanity Awards Dinner. This year's dinner was held on November 30th at Executive Caterers at Landerhaven.

The dinner emphasizes the Project Love theme that one person, willing to take a chance and reach out their hand, can truly make a difference.

Cleveland Collinwood High School student Imane Blaine recited her poem Pressure about student peer pressure.



See more from the Project Love Awards

Philanthropia

After the tragedy of 9/11, New York City absorbed such a large portion of all charitable donations that many local non-profits struggled to reach their own goals. In response, Harlan Diamond and Executive Caterers rededicated their December Corporate Club luncheon to the support of local charities, especially smaller organizations without substantial resources of their own.

That first Philanthropia saw 200 guests and raised $9,000. In 2007 it had outgrown the Grand Ballroom, spilled into the Lander Ballroom, and with over 1200 guests they raised over $128,000. Each year's community response is bigger and better.

As you can see from the giant check held by MC Leon Bibb, the 2010 Philanthropia raised $141,905 for local charities. Congratulations to Harlan Diamond and his team for another outstanding community event.

Pictures and video from Philanthropia

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

Despite being a destitute, divorced, single-mother at age 16, Dale went on to be a role model for millions of young girls, author 28 inspirational books, write over 300 songs, provoke a generation to care for special needs children, adopt five children, and live out a beautiful 50-year marriage to Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys.

A commemorative 2-DVD set was issued on November 5, 2011 in conjunction with Roy’s 100th birthday.



Did you know that Dale's first marriage was to Thomas Fox when she was 14 years old?

Or that The Roy Rogers Show debuted on December 30, 1951 and aired 100 episodes until 1957. Stars of the show were: Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger, Dale Evans and her horse Buttermilk, Pat Brady and his Jeep Nellybelle, and Bullet The Wonder Dog.

See more fun facts about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit

The 9th annual Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit was held October 3-5, 2011. The focus was State of the Heart: Cardiovascular Technologies and about 1,000 senior executives, investors, entrepreneurs and clinicians gathered at Cleveland Clinic to discover the future of medicine.


3 sessions stood out for me. The Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2011, the Vice-President Dick Cheney session and the Jeopardy game with IBM's supercomputer Watson.

More from the Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit

My Cleveland

An Indian-American (Mike Srestha) playing a Spanish song (Feliz Navidad) at a Christmas event at an Irish Catholic Church (St Colmans). That's my Cleveland.



An Asian-Indian group called Project Seva has been working with St. Colman's Church at West 65th and Lorain since 1999. "Seva" means "Selfless service" or "To serve humanity" in both Hindi and Punjabi. Serving Humanity is one of the pillars of the Sikh faith.

Volunteers of Project Seva have been serving the community for many years. Last year, Project Seva served over 125,000 pounds of food in 3 churches and the American Indian Education Center.

Witnessing the neighborhood people so thankful to receive a hot meal and some Christmas cheer was a real eye opener.

See more from Christmas at St Colman's.

MedWish

Do you know about MedWish?

As the result of an experience he had in Africa even before he became a doctor, Dr. Lee Ponsky started MedWish in his garage. Simply stated MedWish takes supplies that would normally be discarded, but are still of good quality and in good working condition, and sends them to third world countries where they are saving thousands and thousands of lives.

What a great idea and project.

I learned about it at the annual Project Love Rescuer of Humanity Awards

Some amazing people were honored.

Gifts for Geeks

Last chance to get Gifts for Geeks in time for Christmas. Free shipping too!

Hard Drive Shortage

“The availability of Hard Drives has decreased dramatically since the floods in Thailand caused many manufacturing plants to close. At this moment, Hard Drives are under worldwide constraint and there are no Hard Drives in Canadian distribution. Any device with a Hard Drive in it may be under constraint. Therefore, pricing will fluctuate without notice.”


I have seen prices go way up and some "one to a customer" limits.

How about you?

WIN Cleveland Party

We should have photos and video from the WIN Cleveland Holiday Diversity Party at City Hall up soon at ClevelandPeople.Com.

The photo above is most of the WIN Ambassadors with Mayor Jackson in the Red Room of City Hall before the event.

If not STEM, where are bright students headed?

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon over the last few years and recent events have added more data to the thesis.

We all know that the US is lagging in producing students in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – disciplines. This will lead to a huge competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace.

At a recent City Club speech, Adobe co-founder Chuck Geschke told how Adobe was having a very difficult time finding properly educated people from the US to fill their science and techie positions. They have to go overseas to find enough candidates.

At local NEOSA events and from direct conversations with people in the tech business it is apparent that companies are desperately seeking talented programmers, engineers and other STEM-type people.

When are schools and parents and students going to do something about this? When companies are fighting over a single Dot Net developer for example, don’t you think the educational system (public or private) would work to produce graduates with these skills. High-paying, white-collar jobs are just waiting for applicants.

Read the other interesting trend and listen to the One Minute Podcast

Lebanon Day in Cleveland

The first Lebanese Independence Day took place on November 22, 1943 in remembrance of the liberation from the French Mandate which was exercised over Lebanese soil for over 23 years.

In 2011, the first Lebanon Day in the city of Cleveland was celebrated. The Lebanese flag flew from the top of Cleveland City Hall and a special ceremony was held in City Hall Rotunda.

Great food, people and entertainment. See pics and video of Lebanon Day in Cleveland

Music and dancing from Lebanon Day

Find a Christmas Tree? There's an app for that

Looking for a fresh tree? Are you frustrated with not finding what you want as you try "hit-or-miss" visits to the local holiday retailer who happens to have trees for sale? Do the trees you see seem brown with envy and dry as toast?

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew where to find a real, honest-to-goodness "mom & pop" tree lot with a lush, green, and fresh smelling selection to choose from. Now, with My Tree Lot Finder you can minimize your time and effort in searching in the cold for that special tree.

My Tree Lot Finder for Android OS smartphones and tablets is free of charge and can be downloaded from: www.mytreelotfinder.com or the Android Market Place.

Show this to the Apple Fanboys

Samsung has a great commercial that pokes fun at the oh-so-cool and hip Apple fanboys (and girls)

Dan Coughlin's Pass the Nuts

He's Baaaaaack!

And for all of us who felt sad when we finished Dan Coughlin's first book Crazy, With the Papers to Prove It: Stories About the Most Unusual, Eccentric and Outlandish People I've Known in 45 Years As a Sports Journalist
because we wanted more, relief is here.


Pass the Nuts: More Stories About the Most Unusual People and Remarkable Events from My Four Decades As a Sports Journalist is the same format as the first book - lots of short (typically 2-6 pages) stories of interesting people set in a Cleveland that many will remember.


Coughlin not only lived these wild stories but has the ability to tell them so well that you can almost smell the stale beer and cigar smoke as you read them.

You will read stories of the big names in Pass the Nuts. People like George Steinbrenner, Ted Turner, LeBron James and NFL Hall of Famer Gene Hickerson and his close personal friend Elvis Presley.

But you'll also get tales of lesser-knowns that will have you smiling, shaking your head and asking "Did they really do that?" Times sure have changed.

I particularly liked the stories from legendary Cleveland watering holes and restaurants like the Theatrical, Blue Fox, Carney's Bar and Pat Joyce's Tavern. These also lend credibility to the book.

For example, I have friends who were at the Theatrical that St. Patrick's Day when former Indians owner Dick Jacobs covered everyone's tab for 3 hours. Likewise, my uncle spent a lot of time at the Blue Fox and his stories are consistent with Coughlin's.

It's another fun book from a fun guy.





Pass the Nuts review

Cleveland Indians Mascots play at Snow Days

Fox 8 Sports Reporter Allie LaForce took on the condiments in pool.

Cleveland Indians Mascots Ketchup, Mustard and Onion try the games in a warm-up area at Progressive Field as part of the Indians Snow Days. Mustard lost to Ketchup in pool and then to Onion in Air Hockey before giving up.

Pictures and Video from Snow Days

Ice Skating at Cleveland Indians Ballpark

The Frozen Diamond was built at the Cleveland Indians Progressive Field to allow for a hockey game between Ohio State and Michigan St Ed’s vs. St Ignatius and other teams. The general public can also skate there as part of the Indians Snow Days.

Pics and video from Snow Days preview

Indians Snow Days Battle

The Great Lakes Geek races down the Batterhorn at Progressive Field during the Cleveland Indians Snowdays. Take that Missy!

Adobe Chairman Chuck Geschke

Chuck Geschke, Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of Adobe Systems, spoke at the Cleveland City Club in October.

He has the unique perspective of being in Silicon Valley from the beginning. He was with Xerox PARC until he and John Warnock left and created Adobe.

Geschke told stories from the early days at Stanford Industrial Park and the push that became ARPA after Sputnik. Many of the "ARPA Brats" ended up in the Stanford Industrial Park which became Silicon Valley. Geschke recalled that in 1976 while at Xerox PARC he had a personal computer with a mouse, e-mail, Word-like word processor, Ethernet connectivity (courtesy of his officemate Bob Metcalfe) and a laser printer.

When he learned that his and John Warnock's InterPress graphics language might not become a Xerox product for 7 years, they started Adobe. He told how Steve Jobs wanted to buy the entire company but they only wanted to sell their products.

Fascinating stuff from one of the pioneers of the industry.

See more from Adobe's Chuck Geschke

Thank you Veterans

In 1789, General and President George Washington spoke these words,
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."

Did you know that as of Aug 2011:

There are 22.7 million military veterans in the US
39.1% of veterans are 65 or older
1.4% of veterans are under age 25
6 states account for 36% of the Veteran population in the US - California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio
8.1% of veterans are women but that percentage is projected to double in the next 25 years
The average age of all veterans is 60
The average age of Gulf War veterans is 37
The average age of Vietnam War veterans is 60
The average age of Korean War veterans is 76
The average age of World War II veterans is 84

Thank You to all Veterans!

Visit the ClevelandSeniors.Com pages for Veterans, Police and Fire

Better Broadband equals Better Lives

Better Broadband equals Better Lives - that's what Graham Richard, the former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, said at the OneCommunity Broadband Workshop last month.

OneCommunity and NTIA, the federal agency overseeing nearly $5 billion in broadband stimulus investment, sponsored a 3-day event titled Mid-Course Workshop for Broadband Awardees: Accelerating Deployments & Driving Towards Sustainability Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

On the third day of the event, a panel of experts spoke on Technology is Changing the Way We Live, Learn, Work and Play.


The panel was moderated by Lev Gonick, Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Lev is also President Emeritus of the Board of OneCommunity.


Panelists included

Sari Feldman, Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Public Libraries

Brad Chilton, Chief Technology Officer at University Hospitals and former IT director at Eaton Corporation and TRW

Graham Richard, Former Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana and named to Government Technology magazine's "Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers" for Public Sector Innovation

Scot Rourke, President and CEO of OneCommunity and Winner of the Intelligent Community Forum's "Visionary of the Year" award

Some interesting comments from people in the middle of the broadband revolution.

Regionalism in Cuyahoga County

Moderator Tom Beres, Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, Orange Mayor Kathy Mulcahy and Woodmere Mayor Charles Smith

For those who came to the Corporate Club hoping to hear of monumental proposals to merge suburbs into the central city of Cleveland (a la Louisville, Indianapolis, Columbus, etc.) they were disappointed in the mayors' plans.

But regionalism has to start somewhere. The investigation of the pros and cons of merging some services of the 4 communities is a necessary first step in the discussion. The 4 communities currently share a school district and senior and recreational programs. Years ago they, along with Hunting Valley, made up Orange Township.

See more from the Regionalism discussion at Landerhaven

Cleveland's Best Year Ever

What do you think would be Cleveland's best year ever?

Sports people might say 1948 or 1964.

Music fans might say when the Rock Hall opened.

It was interesting to hear what Albert Ratner, Co-Chair Emeritus of Forest City Enterprise, said was our best year at a recent program called Globalizing Cleveland at the Corporate Club at Landerhaven.

The year? 1904.

See why

St Louis Cardinals - Cleveland Indians

Unfortunately, it's yet another October that Cleveland Indians fans are watching other teams in the World Series. I thought I'd share some images of Busch Stadium, home of the National League champion St Louis Cardinals, from a fun trip we took to the Gateway of the West.

Whereas Progressive Field in Cleveland has a statue of Bob Feller, the greatest right-handed pitcher in baseball history and there are rumors that a statue will be built to honor slugger Jim Thome sometime in the future, Busch Stadium has several statues like the statue of Dizzy Dean above. They also have one larger statue of Stan 'the Man' Musial.

Casimir Pulaski Day

In 1985, The Ohio Legislature officially declared October 11th to be General Pulaski Memorial Day in honor of his contributions to Poland and the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on October 8, 2009 to award citizenship posthumously to Casimir Pulaski.


Members of the Polish-American community in Cleveland gathered at the Cleveland City Hall to honor Pulaski.



After the march from City Hall to the Pulaski Cannon, Councilman Anthony Brancatelli mentioned that it was Congressman Dennis Kucinich's birthday (65th) and the group sang a chorus of Sto lat (100 years)

Great Lakes Shipping

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 18, 2011) - The Great Lakes maritime industry today released the results of a year-long study of the economic impacts of the entire Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system. The study was commissioned by members of the marine shipping industry, in partnership with U.S. and Canadian government agencies. Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a global leader in transportation economic analysis and strategic planning, was retained to conduct the study.

Some interesting results

Another Halloween Goodie

Halloween Stuff for Geeks

I always like the geek stuff from Think Geek and they have some fun stuff for Halloween this year. Check out the



and more stuff at

Irish Cultural Garden

Four new monuments were dedicated at a special ceremony at the Irish Cultural Garden on Saturday October 8, 2011. The Garden was lush with greenery and flowers thanks to Charlene Crowley and her team of volunteers. The Lennon fountain was flowing and the weather couldn't have been better.

Photos and video from the celebration

Photos of all 12 Irish cultural monuments. How many of the Irish cultural figures do you know?

River Shannon in Cleveland?

The Shannon River is closely bound up with Ireland's social, cultural, military, economic and political history. It is the longest river in Ireland at 240 miles and divides the west of Ireland from the east and south.

Cleveland, of courses, is divided into East and West by the Cuyahaoga River. But did you know that Cleveland also has a River Shannon?

See where it is in the Cleveland Photo Quiz

Hewlett Packard and the Cleveland Browns

Turnover at the top is often indicative of poor records. Just ask the Cleveland Browns.

The eras with stable head coaches (Paul Brown, Blanton Collier, Sam Rutigliano etc.) and quarterbacks (Otto Graham, Frank Ryan, Brian Sipe, Bernie Kosar) were the winning teams. It's probably both cause and effect.

Is this what Hewlett Packard, with yet another CEO change, has in its future?

Listen to the latest Minute with the Great Lakes Geek and Go Browns (and HP)

No visas for Poland?

I was at the Casimir Pulaski day celebration at Cleveland City Hall yesterday. General Casimir Pulaski was a Polish soldier who came to America and helped George Washington defeat the British in the Revolutionary War.



You may have seen Pulaski Square in what used to be Mall C in downtown Cleveland. The cannon monument got moved to near the Free Stamp when Medical Mart construction began.

During the ceremony I learned a disturbing fact. Joseph A. Drobot, Jr., the 27th President of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America spoke about General Pulaski’s contributions to the American Revolution but then said that Poland is not included among the 36 nations that have US visa waivers. 28 of these nations are in Europe including England, France, Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia.

Poland is a member of NATO, supports US military operations, is a member of the EU and has met all standards required by the US.

So why does the process keep getting stuck in committees?

You can skip to near the end of this video if you just want to hear about this issue.

Hungarian president Pál Schmitt in Cleveland

Hungarian President Pál Schmitt visited Cleveland Ohio on September 17 and 18, 2011.

On Saturday September 17, he visited Cardinal Mindszenty Plaza and placed a wreath at the statue of Cardinal Mindszenty and at the statue of the Hungarian Freedom Fighter.

Photos and video of Hungarian president Pál Schmitt in Cleveland

On Sunday September 18, the president visited the Hungarian Cultural Garden, the statue of Lajos Kossuth, the Father of Hungarian Democracy,in University Circle and attended Mass at St Elizabeth of Hungary Church on Buckeye. He then attended a special reception at the Marriott downtown.

Ukrainian Heritage Park

The dedication of the new Ukrainian Heritage Park in Parma was September 24, 2011.

Before that there was a parade down State in Ukrainian Village.

In addition to many Ukrainian-American youth, social, religious, arts, community and dance organizations, the parade participants included five community high school bands: Parma Senior High School, Normandy High School, Valley Forge High School, Padua Franciscan High School, and Holy Name High School.

Pictures abd video from the Ukrainian Village Parade

Slovak Festival in Cleveland

The Cleveland Slovak-American community came together for the annual Slovak Festival sponsored by the Cleveland Slovak Radio Club.

Check out some of the music from the Culkar Combo and the band Fakt.

The word 'Fakt' is Slovak for "Really?" or "Are you kidding me?"