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The path to Pasadena and the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 6 has been fraught with potholes and pitfalls. No one knows that better than sophomore linebacker Joshua Perry and the Ohio State football team.
After being ranked fourth in the first BCS poll, the Buckeyes have been chasing the heels of Alabama, Florida State and Oregon for most of the year. Ohio State avoided slipping right before the finish line with freshman defensive back Tyvis Powell picking off a Devin Gardner two-point conversion attempt with 32 seconds left to preserve a 42-41 victory over Michigan on Nov. 30. Hours later, the Crimson Tide, the lead thoroughbred in the race, tumbled with a 34-28 loss to rival Auburn.
“The Chase is On. The Chase is Real,” says Perry, quoting one of the many placards hung around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. “(Being 12-0) really shows the body of work we’ve put in but it also shows that it is never over. We have to keep going.”
On the bus ride home from Ann Arbor, the Buckeyes watched as they went from chasing to being the ones being chased.
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Ever wanted to make your own video games? Do you have some great ideas but no idea how to follow through with them? Or do you just want to see what indie game developers are doing right here in Ohio?
This Saturday (December 7), the Ohio Union building will host the Ohio Game Developer Expo, a day-long event where aspiring and established developers can attend lectures and panels on game design and development as well as the marketing, funding and other business aspects of the industry. Speakers include Lise Worthen-Chaudhari, who works with the OSU Medical Center to gamify physical therapy, Stephan Smith, president of Columbus-based FreshGames and Chase Grozdina, a Hilliard-based Kickstarter success story with his upcoming game ForgeQuest. The Speaker Series starts at 11 AM, with tickets for the entire day $15 in advance, $20 at the door, and discounted to $8 for students.
You can also see what others are making at the Game Showcase. This part of the show is free and open to the public, so if you’re more interested in playing games than making them and want to see what our community is up to, there’s no cost to drop in.
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It probably should have occurred to me beforehand that late November would be a busy time for Archie Griffin. Being the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner, an Ohio State legend, nay, institution and all around good guy, certainly media inquiries would take up a lot of his time as we near the end of the college football season.
But I hadn't thought that far ahead when I sought an interview with Griffin. I was mildly surprised to find that the president and CEO of the Ohio State Alumni Association had a person designated to handle interview requests for him.
I contacted that person, Jay Hansen, last week in an attempt to set up an interview. “He's pretty busy right now,” Hansen informed me. It suddenly dawned on me that we were approaching Heisman voting time. Certainly Griffin would be up to his eyebrows in interviews. I would need to play the ace up my sleeve.
“Well, if it makes any difference,” I said. “Archie knows me, we went to high school together.”
Hensen wedged me into Griffin's busy schedule the next day.
Google may have been, unil now, the Obama of hip internet monopolies. No matter how many nations the President bombs, people still put Obama peace-sign stickers on their cars. No matter how many radical rightwing initiatives Google funds, people still think it's a "progressive corporation" -- How could it not be? It's making progress!
Google is funding Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union, and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation.
And there's more really bad news: Google is funding ALEC, the powerful, secretive, and destructive lobbying force from which many companies concerned with their public images are fleeing. ALEC is in the news this week, holding its 40th annual meeting. Together with allies, RootsAction.org is applying as much pressure as we can. And it might just be that the tide is turning. Google just might have to start worrying about whether its users favor plutocratic plundering or not.
Google is funding Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union, and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation.
And there's more really bad news: Google is funding ALEC, the powerful, secretive, and destructive lobbying force from which many companies concerned with their public images are fleeing. ALEC is in the news this week, holding its 40th annual meeting. Together with allies, RootsAction.org is applying as much pressure as we can. And it might just be that the tide is turning. Google just might have to start worrying about whether its users favor plutocratic plundering or not.
’Tis the season to feel rage and heartache about the economy.
I feel hope as well, praise the Lord, thanks to Pope Francis and the alley behind my house, where nothing of value goes to waste.
I’m the kind of person who can’t throw anything away, but sometimes I have to anyway — an old microwave, a sewing machine that hasn’t been used in 20 years, a threadbare easy chair, tangled computer wires and other excruciating miscellany — and when I do, it’s usually gone within a day, if not an hour. When I can no longer find value in what I possess, others see it as a gift from the universe.
The alley economy flows though my Chicago neighborhood 24/7, a sort of gift economy that continually revitalizes one’s material possessions, in unnoticed defiance of the official, throwaway, money-profit-growth economy that has its claws around our world and is squeezing us to death. The alley economy is, in fact, part of a rudimentary social ecosystem, where forces collude for the common good and nothing is wasted.
I feel hope as well, praise the Lord, thanks to Pope Francis and the alley behind my house, where nothing of value goes to waste.
I’m the kind of person who can’t throw anything away, but sometimes I have to anyway — an old microwave, a sewing machine that hasn’t been used in 20 years, a threadbare easy chair, tangled computer wires and other excruciating miscellany — and when I do, it’s usually gone within a day, if not an hour. When I can no longer find value in what I possess, others see it as a gift from the universe.
The alley economy flows though my Chicago neighborhood 24/7, a sort of gift economy that continually revitalizes one’s material possessions, in unnoticed defiance of the official, throwaway, money-profit-growth economy that has its claws around our world and is squeezing us to death. The alley economy is, in fact, part of a rudimentary social ecosystem, where forces collude for the common good and nothing is wasted.
Every new revelation about the global reach of the National Security Agency underscores that the extremism of the surveillance state has reached gargantuan proportions. The Washington Post just reported that the NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.” Documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden have forced top officials in Washington to admit the indefensible while defending it. One of the main obstacles to further expansion of their Orwellian empire is real journalism.
Real journalism is “subversive” of deception that can’t stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government storylines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.
Real journalism is “subversive” of deception that can’t stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government storylines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.
This week, Boehner helped aggressively spread the story of a New York man unable to cover his toddler on his new family insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act.
Turns out that, despite coverage in the New York Post, the man's appearance on Fox, and Boehner's posts on his website and Twitter account, the man was simply mistaken—he'd typed the wrong number when listing his family members. "100% false," as a spokesman for New York's Department of Health said. "Of course, everyone is covered in the family policy."
This is just one of many mistaken, falsified, or debunked stories being spread since the rollout of the new health care exchanges. The difference this time? Boehner has yet to apologize, edit the post on his website, or even delete the tweet he posted. He's apparently standing by this story.
But it's one thing for the media to settle for bad journalism—it's another for the nation's most powerful lawmaker to go around perpetuating lies. Can you join other MoveOn members in publicly calling on Boehner to apologize?
Turns out that, despite coverage in the New York Post, the man's appearance on Fox, and Boehner's posts on his website and Twitter account, the man was simply mistaken—he'd typed the wrong number when listing his family members. "100% false," as a spokesman for New York's Department of Health said. "Of course, everyone is covered in the family policy."
This is just one of many mistaken, falsified, or debunked stories being spread since the rollout of the new health care exchanges. The difference this time? Boehner has yet to apologize, edit the post on his website, or even delete the tweet he posted. He's apparently standing by this story.
But it's one thing for the media to settle for bad journalism—it's another for the nation's most powerful lawmaker to go around perpetuating lies. Can you join other MoveOn members in publicly calling on Boehner to apologize?
While catching up with one another over the challenges facing ordinary Afghans and Egyptians, Sherif Sameer and I talked about how ‘opening our eyes’ could go a long way to building a better world. We decided to co-write this piece, from Ismailia, Egypt and Kabul, Afghanistan.
Open Our Eyes in Egypt
The truth is there, clear and burning like a sun. We only need to open our eyes and take a look. ‘Our eyes’ means ‘our minds’. The mind is that big thing on top of our necks inside of our heads, and it has a function called ‘thinking’. Just last year, I was taken from my village in Egypt to spend some time in Spain, because I wrote a short story and won a prize. There, I noticed that I was walking around with a belief in the cleanliness and accuracy of everything. I was drinking tap water believing it was so pure and clean, eating food as if it was coming from heaven, even after I got diarrhoea and had to take medicine. I believed that the medicine will cure me like magic. I had faith in absolutes and that meant that my mind was dysfunctional.
Open Our Eyes in Egypt
The truth is there, clear and burning like a sun. We only need to open our eyes and take a look. ‘Our eyes’ means ‘our minds’. The mind is that big thing on top of our necks inside of our heads, and it has a function called ‘thinking’. Just last year, I was taken from my village in Egypt to spend some time in Spain, because I wrote a short story and won a prize. There, I noticed that I was walking around with a belief in the cleanliness and accuracy of everything. I was drinking tap water believing it was so pure and clean, eating food as if it was coming from heaven, even after I got diarrhoea and had to take medicine. I believed that the medicine will cure me like magic. I had faith in absolutes and that meant that my mind was dysfunctional.
A headline in the Saturday, November 30 Columbus Dispatch screamed: “Family’s well not tainted by driller.” The lead asserts that, “Natural gas that caught fire after it bubbled from a faucet in a Portage County house did not come from a nearby shale well, state officials have concluded.” The question is, can we trust these state officials?
The investigation conducted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) needs to be closely examined. The ODNR is at best a “captured agency” which has been accused repeatedly of promoting the oil and gas industry and specifically fracking, the practice of horizontal drilling.
The freepress.org reported earlier this year that formal complaints were filed against ODNR employees for falsifying “production records on wells.” Reports were also made to the FBI that the ODNR was covering up 1200 gas wells that were on record without tax ID numbers in southern Ohio. By leaving out ID numbers, the wells’ ownership can often be hidden so public doesn’t know who is responsible for the pollution.
The investigation conducted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) needs to be closely examined. The ODNR is at best a “captured agency” which has been accused repeatedly of promoting the oil and gas industry and specifically fracking, the practice of horizontal drilling.
The freepress.org reported earlier this year that formal complaints were filed against ODNR employees for falsifying “production records on wells.” Reports were also made to the FBI that the ODNR was covering up 1200 gas wells that were on record without tax ID numbers in southern Ohio. By leaving out ID numbers, the wells’ ownership can often be hidden so public doesn’t know who is responsible for the pollution.
City officials and citizens of Mansfield Ohio continue to move forward in protecting communities against the inundation of hydraulic fracturing waste disposal. In a unanimous vote, Mansfield City Council passed resolution 13-343 which strongly supports the passage of Ohio House Bill 148. HB 148 proposes prohibiting the disposal of brine by deep well injection and land application in the state of Ohio.
Ohio is targeted as a toxic dumping ground by the oil and gas industry and Ohio residents are seeing an increasing amount of waste flowing into their communities. As local municipalities fight to prevent the influx of toxic waste, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources continues to permit Class II injection wells and welcome millions of gallons of hazardous waste from inside and outside the state. In 2012 almost six hundred million gallons of toxic fracking waste was dumped on Ohio communities via injection and almost sixty percent of that came from out of state.
Ohio is targeted as a toxic dumping ground by the oil and gas industry and Ohio residents are seeing an increasing amount of waste flowing into their communities. As local municipalities fight to prevent the influx of toxic waste, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources continues to permit Class II injection wells and welcome millions of gallons of hazardous waste from inside and outside the state. In 2012 almost six hundred million gallons of toxic fracking waste was dumped on Ohio communities via injection and almost sixty percent of that came from out of state.