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Abbey Gray had a season she thought she could never top last year. As a sophomore for the Otterbein University women’s track and field team, Gray set school indoor records in the 60 meter dash (8.01 seconds) and 60 meter hurdles (9.14).
However it took Gray all of five meets this winter to reset those records. The graduate of Waynesfield-Goshen High School topped her hurdle record by running a 9.02 in a preliminary heat of the SPIRE Indoor Track and Field Championships Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in Geneva, Ohio. She then reset the hurdle record (8.97) and the 60 dash record (7.98) at the All-Ohio meet Feb. 15 at Otterbein.
“When I came in as a freshman, I saw all the upper classmen and you think about being that good one day,” says Gray, who is ranked 11th nationally in the 60 hurdles in the Feb. 26 NCAA Division III Event Report. “To (have a school record) feels really incredible.”
This winter Gray has avoided the injuries that slowed her down her previous two seasons with Otterbein.
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Here’s something to make you feel old: It’s been 21 years since the movie Jurassic Park was released. It’s been 21 years since we learned that Velociraptors were truly the most terrifying of all dinosaurs, that Jeff Goldblum can only really play Jeff Goldblum, and that child endangerment is the most exciting plot hook of all. The special effects still hold up well today, even though paleontological research now suggests those terrifying raptors should have had some less terrifying feathery plumage.
There were two sequels made, both of which failed to live up to their predecessor in either quality or financial success. It’s been 13 years since the last sequel, Jurassic Park III, was released to lukewarm box office earnings and poor reviews.
Hollywood is all about taking advantage of nostalgia. Now that the nostalgia calendar is moving up into the 90s, home of Power Rangers, Pokémon and assorted oddball Nickelodeon cartoons, Universal has decided it’s time to take another shot at Jurassic Park.
Suddenly the crisis in Ukraine engulfs the US. As Russian troops move into Crimea, the White House goes into crisis management. Secretary of State Kerry takes off tyo the Ukrainian capital. Our media is barraged with 24/7 instant analyses. Republican Senators and retired generals call for moving American troops to the Polish-Russian border, placing missiles into the Czech Republic, dispatching a fleet to the black sea. Threats are issued and rhetoric escalates.
The Russian dispatch of armed forces to occupy Crimea is a direct and clear violation of basic international law. The moral force of America’s objection is weakened since we trampled international law ourselves in our unprovoked invasion of Iraq, but that does not justify the Russian invasion. The international community should speak clearly to condemn the invasion and to demand that the Putin regime remove Russian troops from the Crimea.
At the same time, the administration, increasingly bellicose Republican Senators and the legions of macho strategists should take a good look at reality.
The Russian dispatch of armed forces to occupy Crimea is a direct and clear violation of basic international law. The moral force of America’s objection is weakened since we trampled international law ourselves in our unprovoked invasion of Iraq, but that does not justify the Russian invasion. The international community should speak clearly to condemn the invasion and to demand that the Putin regime remove Russian troops from the Crimea.
At the same time, the administration, increasingly bellicose Republican Senators and the legions of macho strategists should take a good look at reality.
International law is suddenly very popular in Washington. President Obama responded to Russian military intervention in the Crimea by accusing Russia of a “breach of international law.” Secretary of State John Kerry followed up by declaring that Russia is “in direct, overt violation of international law.”
Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama. He treats it with rhetorical adulation and behavioral contempt, helping to further normalize a might-makes-right approach to global affairs that is the antithesis of international law.
Fifty years ago, another former law professor, Senator Wayne Morse, condemned such arrogance of power. “I don’t know why we think, just because we’re mighty, that we have the right to try to substitute might for right,” Morse said on national TV in 1964. “And that’s the American policy in Southeast Asia -- just as unsound when we do it as when Russia does it.”
Today, Uncle Sam continues to preen as the globe’s big sheriff on the side of international law even while functioning as the world’s biggest outlaw.
Unfortunately, during the last five years, no world leader has done more to undermine international law than Barack Obama. He treats it with rhetorical adulation and behavioral contempt, helping to further normalize a might-makes-right approach to global affairs that is the antithesis of international law.
Fifty years ago, another former law professor, Senator Wayne Morse, condemned such arrogance of power. “I don’t know why we think, just because we’re mighty, that we have the right to try to substitute might for right,” Morse said on national TV in 1964. “And that’s the American policy in Southeast Asia -- just as unsound when we do it as when Russia does it.”
Today, Uncle Sam continues to preen as the globe’s big sheriff on the side of international law even while functioning as the world’s biggest outlaw.
Is “regime change” in Ukraine the bridge too far for the neoconservative “regime changers” of Official Washington and their sophomoric “responsibility-to-protect” (R2P) allies in the Obama administration? Have they dangerously over-reached by pushing the putsch that removed duly-elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given an unmistakable “yes” to those questions – in deeds, not words. His message is clear: “Back off our near-frontier!”
Moscow announced on Saturday that Russia’s parliament has approved Putin’s request for permission to use Russia’s armed forces “on the territory of the Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country.”
Putin described this move as necessary to protect ethnic Russians and military personnel stationed in Crimea in southern Ukraine, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet and other key military installations are located. But there is no indication that the Russian parliament has restricted the use of Russian armed forces to the Crimea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given an unmistakable “yes” to those questions – in deeds, not words. His message is clear: “Back off our near-frontier!”
Moscow announced on Saturday that Russia’s parliament has approved Putin’s request for permission to use Russia’s armed forces “on the territory of the Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country.”
Putin described this move as necessary to protect ethnic Russians and military personnel stationed in Crimea in southern Ukraine, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet and other key military installations are located. But there is no indication that the Russian parliament has restricted the use of Russian armed forces to the Crimea.
Twisted thoughts madden my soul while on my own
Sporadic in its approach spun in my head bursting with
Emotions, raging fire strikes at my heart in wreckage
I cannot escape being felt yet I wish, to which magnitude
Of earthly possessions enough to seek them for I plea
The myopic vanity splits me aside from a heroic being
Ascent to the top I wish to stamp on the weaker ones
Antagonistic as I am as invincibility Marlowe’s Faustus
Relished, abruptly a thought that crossed my cognizance
How come I be probable to oversee the demise of our
Life a pivotal verity? Far along will lay the cupidity low
Neighboring us, and cart off from the materialism
Squeezed Human beings like an Octopus to an infinite
Journey for a finite sanitized time, having the faux wall
Of inequity broken down will scale us as one, for well
Or for shoddier like it’d reach us in point that we should
Conquer self-seeking; succumb to the life across the death
The Fracking world of gas and oil production gets considerable attention on the internet and newspapers. Locally, the Athens News and Athens Messenger also offer regular coverage and the coverage is not always just on local developments and issues. Fracking and related issues are being reported all across the U.S. Some of the news is about the booming output of shale gas and shale (or tight) oil and the economic benefits. But a lot of the reports are about the harmful health and environmental impacts. Among the latter, the well-justified concern about water use in fracking is particularly salient. Why? Just one drilling operation for shale gas may require from 2 million 4 million or more gallons of water, along with an array of chemicals, some known to be toxic, and a large quantity of sand.
Still, to be balanced in its coverage, the Athens Messenger reprinted an upbeat editorial from Bloomberg.org (2-27-14) on how the shale gas industry is on the way to employing recycling methods to reduce the amount of water the industry uses in the fracking process. (Source)
Still, to be balanced in its coverage, the Athens Messenger reprinted an upbeat editorial from Bloomberg.org (2-27-14) on how the shale gas industry is on the way to employing recycling methods to reduce the amount of water the industry uses in the fracking process. (Source)
On Friday, Feb 14, 92 prisoners escaped from their prison in the Libyan town of Zliten. 19 of them were eventually recaptured, two of whom were wounded in clashes with the guards. It was just another daily episode highlighting the utter chaos which has engulfed Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Ghaddafi in 2011.
Much of this is often reported with cliché explanations as in the country’s ‘security vacuum’, or Libya’s lack of a true national identity. Indeed, tribe and region seem to supersede any other affiliation, but it is hardly that simple.
On that same Friday, Feb 14, Maj. Gen. Khalifa Hifter announced a coup in Libya. “The national command of the Libyan Army is declaring a movement for a new road map” (to rescue the country), Hifter declared through a video post. Oddly enough, little followed by way of a major military deployment in any part of the country. The country’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan described the attempted coup as “ridiculous”.
Much of this is often reported with cliché explanations as in the country’s ‘security vacuum’, or Libya’s lack of a true national identity. Indeed, tribe and region seem to supersede any other affiliation, but it is hardly that simple.
On that same Friday, Feb 14, Maj. Gen. Khalifa Hifter announced a coup in Libya. “The national command of the Libyan Army is declaring a movement for a new road map” (to rescue the country), Hifter declared through a video post. Oddly enough, little followed by way of a major military deployment in any part of the country. The country’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan described the attempted coup as “ridiculous”.
Two Norwegian MPs have put forward the whistleblower's name for one of the world's highest honors for "[contributing] to a more stable and peaceful world order" and speaking out against abuses of power. If President Obama, a man responsible for mass drone killings, can win the Peace Prize, then there's nothing barring the man who helped expose his unconstitutional overreach and threat to international transparency.
Please, join us in calling on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to listen to these MPs and put Snowden on the shortlist in March, helping him secure asylum in sympathetic nations and showing Obama he deserves to be pardoned.
PETITION TO NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE: Put US whistleblower Edward Snowden on your shortlist for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Please, join us in calling on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to listen to these MPs and put Snowden on the shortlist in March, helping him secure asylum in sympathetic nations and showing Obama he deserves to be pardoned.
PETITION TO NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE: Put US whistleblower Edward Snowden on your shortlist for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.
Ohio Soil Recycling, LLC (OSR), a Columbus, Ohio based business that uses microbes, algae, and bacteria to remediate contaminated soil, will NOT be receiving shale gas solid waste as previously reported. Drill cuttings will instead be sent to Ohio landfills
As reported in The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Soil Recycling was authorized by the Ohio EPA to receive solid waste drill cuttings at the Alum Creek Integrity Drive facility. This was to be an alternate method of disposing of shale gas development waste (fracking). Shale gas drill cuttings would be processed, to rid them of drilling lubricants and used to cap the old Franklin County landfill along Alum Creek.
Radioactive Waste Alert, a Columbus area citizen action group, has concerns about the health risks associated with the processing and re-use of this soil. The OSR facility is located along the banks of Alum Creek, one of the Columbus area water supplies. Shale rock contains radioactive metals, including Radium 228, and 226. Carolyn Harding, organizer of RadioactiveWasteAlert.org warns, "These radioactive elements are water soluble and could contaminate our water supply."
As reported in The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Soil Recycling was authorized by the Ohio EPA to receive solid waste drill cuttings at the Alum Creek Integrity Drive facility. This was to be an alternate method of disposing of shale gas development waste (fracking). Shale gas drill cuttings would be processed, to rid them of drilling lubricants and used to cap the old Franklin County landfill along Alum Creek.
Radioactive Waste Alert, a Columbus area citizen action group, has concerns about the health risks associated with the processing and re-use of this soil. The OSR facility is located along the banks of Alum Creek, one of the Columbus area water supplies. Shale rock contains radioactive metals, including Radium 228, and 226. Carolyn Harding, organizer of RadioactiveWasteAlert.org warns, "These radioactive elements are water soluble and could contaminate our water supply."