Cleveland

January 18, 2017 - Biomimicry!

This is the third blog post we have written about a Cleveland Museum of Natural History Think & Drink with the Extinct event. Each event has been a unique experience.

Think & Drink

Raise a glass and increase your knowledge of the natural world at one of the brainiest happy hours in Cleveland!

We did not know that the very first Think & Drink with the Extinct that we would attend, with our brand-new membership, on January 18, 2017, would feature the University of Akron Biomimicry Fellowship Ph.D. candidates we had already written about in our blog twice! We were excited to learn of their new product based on biomimicry principles, and meeting some of the other students. It is great that the museum gives the opportunity for many people to learn about the unique ideas being developed at Akron University's Biomimicry Fellowships!

We have really enjoyed attending the North Coast Harbor Ice Fest in the past, but normally only came to the event in the evening to see the final ice sculptures. If you have never seen the beautiful carved ice lit up at night, you really should.

This year, the Ice Fest took place on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 16, 2017. It was combined with the annual free admission to two great Cleveland institutions for the MLK holiday -- Great Lakes Science Center and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum -- that are located on North Coast Harbor.

We were really excited when we saw the Cleveland Foundation Center's tweet announcing that the Cleveland Public Library and NASA Glenn Research Center would be sponsoring the program NASA From Hidden Figures to Modern Figures on Saturday, January 14, 2017. Having attended and having written previous blog posts about tech events at the Cleveland Public Library and about NASA Glenn Research Center, we knew we needed to clear our calendars to attend this event.

We had a such a great time at University Circle's 23rd Annual Holiday CircleFest on Sunday, December 4, 2016, that we wanted to share our photos and tweets/retweets of the day to thank all the sponsoring organizations. Unfortunately, Julie only was able to attend the early activities, since she had a choir performance, but Stuart stayed to the very end of the evening activities.

One of the great things about the day is the people who work at the sponsoring organizations, who warmly welcome and talk to visitors. Stuart wants to give a shout-out to the people he met during the day. Their actions show how to effectively engage visitors to University Circle.

I was very impressed with the Flashstarts 2016 Accelerator Class. At the November 30, 2016, Flashstarts Demo Day, the startup founders made their presentations, after which I had a chance to talk to them. I also truly enjoyed meeting other new people and reconnecting to the people I knew who attended this event at The City Club.

• Drive My Way

• Komae

• Markers

• Parihug

• Wheedle

As a way of saying thank you to PlayhouseSquare and Cleveland Play House for Holidazzle, and to Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Cleveland Public Library, and Cleveland Public Square for Cleveland Winterfest 2016, we have gathered our photos and tweets from the day. We enjoy these great events every year.

We also want to mention the role that the Cleveland Foundation is taking this year with the new Cleveland Public Square. The foundation is supporting a winter skating program and the year-round Cleveland Foundation Centennial Plaza.

Two months before the Creative Fusion Spectacular, on Saturday, September 17, 2016, my wife, Julie, and I attended an art event of The Cleveland Foundation's Creative Fusion program. There we saw three new Cleveland murals being created as we watched, near Transformer Station in Hingetown.

Then, when I heard that The Cleveland Foundation had arranged with Ohio City Incorporated to have their Creative Fusion Spectacular on Saturday, November 19, 2016, I knew I wanted to attend to take a special tour of the finished neighborhood murals, and see the temporary Creative Fusion Gallery at 2529 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland.

Today, November 19, 2016, the third Saturday of this month, seems like an appropriate day to formally announce that I will not be running the Web Development Special Interest Group (Web Development SIG -- WebSIGCleveland.org) any longer. I chose today to announce this because the Web Development SIG has met on the third Saturday of most months for the last 10 years.

The main purpose of posting this today is to thank the many presenters who have made the Web Development SIG a success. You will see some of their names listed in historical content below. Thank you to those who have made presentations during my tenure -- January 21, 2006 to March 9, 2016 -- and to those who worked with my predecessors. I truly will miss learning from you.