Map of mound

Almost everyone who visits the Octagon sites winds up asking: Why would anyone think of building a gigantic octagon? There is a logical answer, and it is rooted in traditions that were already thousands of years old. Shaman-midwives were building increasingly accurate calculators in order to more precisely understand the cosmic cycles of Grandmother Moon. This, in turn, would be expected to produce more accurate calendars for calculating the most fertile times of every woman’s monthly cycle, and for monitoring the stages of every pregnancy.

Among the ancient Ohio earthworks recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, the most befuddling are two very similar ones, both in the shape of gigantic irregular octagons. One, southeast of Chillicothe, is called the High Bank Octagon, probably built in the 1st century CE, and the other, probably built about two centuries later, is 58 miles to the northeast in Newark. The shapes of the two are completely congruent, but the Newark Octagon has dimensions exactly double those of High Bank.

Woody Hayes and Wexner

WOODY OR WEXNER? OHIO STATE MUST CHOOSE

WOODY OR WEXNER – Information Sharing Event
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
1:00 – 2:00 PM EST
Outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center
535 Irving Schottenstein Drive
Columbus, OH 43201

Ohio State University has never fully reckoned with its role in one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in college athletics history.

Thousands of athletes were sexually abused by Dr. Richard Strauss. Some were football players. Survivors have raised serious questions about how power, money, and silence protected abusers—and those connected to them.

Jeffrey Epstein donated $2.5 million to Ohio State, and shortly after, Les Wexner’s name was added to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

Survivors have also pointed to disturbing overlaps between Strauss, Epstein, and Abercrombie & Fitch—then owned by Wexner—including allegations involving photographed athletes and modeling connections.

Despite this, Les Wexner has refused to comply with a subpoena to testify in the OSU abuse case.

That is unacceptable.

Survivors are demanding accountability.

Details about event

This article first appeared on Substack.

Will Governor DeWine do the right thing? Or will he cower and cave to his party’s extremists?

He only has a few days left to decide.

Ohio Statehouse Republicans have sent the governor four bills that would cause immense harm to our state. He can choose to sign the bills into law or veto (reject) them.

Three of the bills (HB 129, HB 186, and HB 335) are fake property tax “relief” plans that will devastate Ohio communities while protecting politicians’ wealthy donors.

FIrst English Lutheran Church

You’re one of the thousands of homeless in Columbus. You own a tent and found the perfect isolated location, but it’s getting cold. Very cold.

Neither City Council nor the Mayor invest much time thinking about how to solve this problem. They talk about how much they care and post videos online, but have no long-term strategy. Or, maybe it’s that I started to think about it and noticed how little they (and Franklin County) actually do to help the homeless; especially compared to a Woman’s Volleyball Team.

I assumed that there were dozens of shelters and “warming centers” around Columbus to allow people to survive this level of cold. I was wrong.

During the day the homeless are encouraged to visit a public library to get warm (a completely different problem), but at night?

There’s only one “warming center” that operates 24 hours a day.

Read the previous sentence again.

At least 16 people are dead, including one of the gunmen, and 42 others are injured (among them two police officers) in a terrorist attack in Bondi, Australia that authorities say was designed to target the Jewish community.

The two gunmen, a father and son of Pakistani origin, opened fire on December 14, 2025, at the 'Chanukah by the Sea' event, killing at least 16, including two rabbis and a 10-year-old girl. New South Wales police labeled it a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community, with an ISIS flag found in the attackers' car; one gunman died at the scene, the other critically injured. Syrian-born Muslim immigrant Ahmed al-Ahmed's brave intervention likely saved lives, earning praise from NSW Premier Chris Minns as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the antisemitic 'act of pure evil' and called for unity amid rising tensions.

It’s back—the federal government’s push to expand offshore oil drilling. 

As the headline last month in the Long Island newspaper Newsday reported: “Plan for New Oil Drilling Off Fla. and Calif. Coasts.” The following day, November 22, Newsday ran a nationally-syndicated cartoon by Paul Dukinsky depicting President Trump declaring in front of a line of offshore wind turbines: “Wind Turbines Ruin the View!” Then there was Trump in front of a bunch of offshore oil drilling rigs saying: “…But Oil Rigs are Beautiful!”

The New York Times two days later ran a piece with more details headlined: “In One Week, President Makes Moves to Reshape U.S. Environmental Policy.” This involves, it noted,

Woman by a Xmas tree

If you feel as if you have no power to make a positive impact you might be right. The people that we’re electing to government don’t appear motivated to help people; other than themselves and the wealthy.

Honestly, most people in Columbus have silently given up on the future of the city. Only 11 percent voted in the previous November election. You should feel overwhelmed by the lack of power you have to make Columbus a better place to live. It’s frustrating and no one can blame you for wanting to “give up.”

Or… you could be like Peaches.

That’s her name. Peaches Anderson.

She’s a volunteer City Commissioner with the Greater Southeast Commission and mother of four who loves Columbus.

In 2024 one of her kids came home from school and asked why a classmate didn’t have a Christmas tree. Her child wanted to know what could be done to solve that problem.

That bothered Peaches – that some families couldn’t afford a Christmas tree. It had an affect on her and instead of doing nothing, she chose the exact opposite.

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