Here is a brief history of the Wright Brothers' historic flight on December 17, 1903 at 10:35 at Kitty Hawk. This is brief, but it's creative and manages to get some facts in.

Jeff at Have Coffee Will Write posted an interesting story about a topic he discussed at his local Socrates Cafe this week.

No, the Cafe is not a place; it's a group of people. Under the guidance of the Society for Philosophical Inquiry, interested people set up discussion groups under this name all over the country to explore the big issues and ideas.

The Socrates Cafes are meant to support, in the words of the society, "philosophical inquirers of all ages and walks of life as they become more empathetic and autonomous thinkers who take active part in creating a more deliberative democracy." There are currently over 300 active groups in countries as far away as Afghanistan.

The meetings often take place in coffee houses, churches, and schools. Participants come from all walks of life, and share a couple of attributes; curiosity and a willingness to express themselves.

The questions they explore are rather open-ended, such as "What, to you, is courage?" or "What is happiness?" The Socratic dialectic theoretically allows the participants to move the discussion forward by laying a foundation of mutually-accepted assumptions that open up the key concept for conjecture.

To find a Socrates Cafe in your area, you can email the society at socratescafe@aol.com. Another site, socratescafe.meetup.com, brought up a couple near me, but I don't know how comprehensive their listings are.

Since I've written so many blogs about Christmas, I wanted to make sure I gave attention to Chanukah as well. With the first day of Chanukah on December 15, there is no time like now to pencil in an event or two. Lighting giant menorahs is happening across the state. To find more specifics about these events, check out the chabad.org calendar. These are events that would be fun for the whole family.

Dec. 16 – Columbus - Grand Chanukah Menorah Lighting Ceremony at Easton Town Center. 4004 Gramercy St.

Dec. 16 – Bexley. Grand Chanukah Menorah Lighting Ceremony- The lighting of a 13 ft. menorah, dancing, a raffle, doughnuts, etc. etc., etc.

Dec. 17- 5 p.m. Cleveland. Family Menorah Lighting for the whole family. This one involves a giant outdoor menorah. University Square Waterstone Medical Center on Cedar and Mirmar

Dec. 17- Toldedo. Chanukah in the Mall - menorah lighting, latkes, etc.

Dec. 18- Akron. Chanukah at the Mall - Giant menorah lighting ceremony
children's Choir, latkes, donuts, music and a juggler at the Summit Mall
West Market St.

Dec. 18- Dayton. Chanukah at Fairfield Commons

Dec. 20 – Mason.Chanukah Family Game Night N' Latkes by POPS The Jewish Discovery Center

Dec. 21 – Cincinnati. (Evendale) Chanukah-On-Ice at Sports Plus. Skating and more. There's Chanukah music, Chanukah Gelt and dreidels plus raffles and a kosher food stand. A giant ice menorah will also be lit and you can help build a giant 8-ft. Menorah out of Legos. 10765 Reading Rd.

Another outstanding Ohio music group video. Funkadelia never sounded so good as in the Ohio Players' "Fire." I love the early 70's 'fros and suits, but most of I all I love the energy of the music. The Ohio Players were originally from Dayton.

One of Governor Taft's most interesting initiatives is the Third Frontier Project, an attempt to kick-start high-tech research to build future industry in the state. The project was launched via legislation in 2003 and given 10 years and $1.3 billion to nurse Ohio into the digital revolution.

I recently reviewed their grants for 2006. The winners? Cleveland and Columbus. By far the largest awards came in the medical field, split between Case Western Reserve and OSU. Toledo, you were so screwed.

Fuel cell technology was also widely funded. There, the awards came out surprisingly balanced, with a number of firms receiving about a million bucks each. These awards were also spread around the state a little more.

Some of the big winners:
Medical –

• $8 million to Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, to expand the capabilities of their Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. They must figure the next president won't be so hard-ass about stem cell research.
• $4.7 million to ChanTest Inc. of Cleveland for drug research.
• Another $8 million to Case for neurostimulation research.
• $3.5 million to OSU for biomedical diagnosis and therapy device development.
• $7.9 million to OSU to develop new medical imaging technology.

Fuel cells --

• $1 million to HydroGen of Cleveland.
• $999,841 to SOFco-EFS Holdings in Alliance.
• $1 million to Edison Materials Technology Center in Dayton.
• $919,892 to OnPower, Inc. of Lebanon.
• $775,300 to Pemery Corp. of Painesville.
• $751,719 to Catacel Corp. of Garrettsville.
• $999,927 to NexTech Materials.

Some other awards:

• $1,152,400 to OSU in Columbus for superconductor research.
• $1,800,000 to the National Composite Center in Kettering for developing composite materials.
• $2.1 million to U. of Dayton for developing nanocomposite tooling. No, I don't what these are either.
• $1.1 million to the U. of Cincinnati for its "Southern Ohio Creates Companies Pre-seed Fund." As I understand it, they will then dole out this money to hi-tech startups that don't have the sexiness to attract venture capital.
• $1.5 million to TechColumbus for the same purpose.

It's hard to argue against funding research if we want to have jobs in developing industries. Certainly seems like a better place to put our money than a minor league baseball park.

I'm just surprised more interest isn't shown in just who we're depending on for this, and what they are going to do with these windfalls. Let's hope, they do a lot. I could use a nice nanocomposite tool or two.

The local bloggers have gleefully left the political season behind and are letting their attention wander near and far. Some interesting posts this week--

Cincinnati --
Red Reporter has his binoculars on baseball's winter meetings. He also has an opinion about the Red's new shortstop.

Speaking of the Cincinnati Reds, The Futon Report sat down with the Red's mascot, Mr. Redlegs.

Cleveland --
About Cleveland reminded us that John Heisman, whose name graces the trophy Troy Smith is about to receive, was an Ohio boy.

Writes Like She Talks ruminates on Judism's position on homosexuality.

Psychohillbilly covered the arrival of the basketball messiah Oden to the OSU squad.

Toledo --
Politics in Mudville takes on the School of the Americas, also known as Noriega High.

Toledo Tales continues to post hilarious satirical articles; I like this one about the man whose found BBQ sauce gave him a reason to live.

Daytonish --
Ohio author John Scalzi has been busy interviewing other authors this week. Here, Karen Traviss.

Cincinnati --

Cincinnati Blog wrote about a possible downtown living boom (see our Over-the-Rhine post).

Columbus --

In Re: draws our attention to the anti-appetizing name of a English restaurant, The Polonium Restaurant. Yum. Good weight-loss food.

Bet you never thought our state could be so instrumental in space research. However, we do house the huge Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. Last week, plans were announced that give Wright-Pat a major role in developing exciting new technology.

The Air Force is partnering with the Australian Department of Defense to research hypersonic technologies, which would permit vehicles to travel at Mach 5 or better. Also involved in the project are NASA and other public and private concerns.

The $54 million Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (Hi-FIRE) project may well lead to advancements in both military and space programs. The military is interested in hypersonic strike capability, while the ability to travel at such velocities my allow us to sling vehicles into space from ground-based launch facilities without the need to lift vast amounts of fuel against gravity.

Australia was the first country to successfully fly a hypersonic vehicle when the HyShot Scramjet exceeded Mach 7.6 in July of 2002. Part of Australia's contribution to the program is also access to the enormous Woomera Prohibited Test Range, 127,000 square kilometers set aside for weapons testing.

In the age of the blimp and the airplane, we've become pretty blasé about aerial views of our countryside, although I must admit I still get a kick when my plane makes a low approach over cities like San Diego. All those itty-bitty cars look like the Matchbook world of my childhood.

Before air travel, however, people went to extraordinary lengths to gain panoramic views. Why else the popularity of Lookout Mountain and the Eiffel Tower?

Clever artists spoke to this fascination by painting maps of projected overheads of Ohio communities. These panoramas give us a great macro view of city life before the turn of 19th century. Born in Massillon, I get a kick out of seeing how the town looked in the late 1800's. What a peaceful village it was before the steel mills hit town!

Lucky for us, many of these maps have been preserved, and now, put on line by the Smithsonian. From Akron to Youngstown, the main cities of the state are available at the click of a mouse.

Since I love maps, I only wish I had the real thing at hand to pour over. Check them out.

Thanks to Ron Starbuck for the link.

Here is another thing I did not know before. There are more than 100 community theater groups across Ohio affiliated with the Ohio Community Theatre Association. Actually, those are two things I didn't know. #1 --the number of community theaters. #2-- the existence of the Ohio Community Theatre Association. The association that was started in 1953 with just 16 theater memberships, provides resources and information for theater companies across Ohio. This info includes where to get costumes. Now, I wonder if these places rent out for Halloween? Hmm, something to put on a back burner... The association also has competitions where the different theater groups perform scenes of their best productions in order to win a prize. This February there will be a competition in Akron. A friend of mine, an actress, a very fine actress who has actually been in movies, told me about this competition. I'll find out more about it and let you know. The winners then compete on a national level-or is it regional? Again, I'll let you know. I do know that if you want to find out what plays are being performed or is it produced?--throughout the state, the Ohio Community Theatre website is a great place to start. All the theater companies are listed, as well as, their up-coming and past productions, and their contact information.

Today is World AIDS Day, a day to take stock of where we are in dealing with this epidemic, remember those who we have lost as a consequence of it, and examine what we can do to overcome it.

According to the Center for Disease Control statistics at the end of 2004, Ohio had recorded 13,521 cases of people diagnosed with the disease since it was first identified in 1981. In 2004, 660 new cases were reported, a rate of 6.9 per 100,000 Ohioans. Overall, Ohio is 17th among states in reported cases since '81, 37th for 2004 alone. CDC estimates there were 6,689 Ohioans battling AIDS at the end of 2004.

One in six new cases are female. About 40% are black males.

CDC estimates of residents with AIDS by major population areas-

Akron- 379, ranking 89th nationally
Cincinnati- 1171, ranking 50th
Cleveland- 1998, ranking 34th
Columbus- 1266, ranking 48th
Dayton- 588, ranking 79th
Toledo- 379, ranking 86th

Numbers, numbers, numbers. Given the social stigma surrounding the disease in the U.S., numbers such as these have to be viewed with a jaundiced eye.

What we can't afford to doubt is the cost of this problem. A recent report estimated the anticipated lifetime cost of treating each HIV-positive American at $618,900. For 6,689 Ohioans that would come to a little over $4 billion.


Much of the cost of treating AIDS and HIV-positive Ohioans over the past three years has been funded through the federal Ryan White Care Act. How important is this program? In 2003, Ohio spent a little over $36 million of federal funds in treating this disease. Of that, 92% came from via Ryan White Care Act.

Note the disparity between $4 billion and $36 million.

Now the Ryan White Care Act is up for renewal. It seems to me that the success of HIV treatments has caused AIDS to drop out of the forefront in many people's consciousness. Without the pressure of public attention, I wonder about the fate of this program, and what its demise would mean to our state. World AIDS Day might be a good day to contact your legislators and let them know your opinion.

Magazines always have city rating articles. Best city to live in, eat in, sleep in, build a house in, have a job in, and so on. Self just popped out their own list of the healthiest cities for women to live in, and once again Ohio has a number of low ratings levied against it. Self magazine used a panel of health experts to rate cities based on various facets of women's health to make the determinations.

Cincinnati is rated #99, Akron #89, Columbus #85, and Cleveland #70.

The top city? Honolulu.

Which city do you think is Ohio's healthiest city for women?

Back in 1997, I headed to Washington, D.C. to see the Names Project Foundation's AIDS Memorial Quilt. Today, I think, it's too big to attempt such a display. Honestly, when I stepped out of the Metro station onto the National Mall, its size took my breath away. There are reasons for clichés; I was stunned. In the sea of fabric panels were dozens of my brother's friends. I was unsure of where to begin. At the information booth, I found myself blurting out the name of someone I had forgotten, a first cousin-once-removed. My father's first cousin was a person I remembered as having died of AIDS years before, but he was much older than me and our paths rarely crossed. Sure enough, the woman showed me his name in the big book that listed all those who were memorialized by the quilt and the locations of their panels. Jerry's panel was made by friends of his. I felt bad I didn't know he had a panel in the first place. Still, on the last day of the display, when the sections of panels were to be folded for storage, my father's twin brother's son (my cousin), his wife, my mother, my daughter, and a friend of mine, folded up Jerry's section. It felt great to pay him tribute.

Because the AIDS Memorial Quilt continues to be displayed in sections through the efforts of the Names Project Foundation, there are plenty of opportunities this week in Ohio to view portions of it.

• Columbus: Columbus Health Department auditorium, 240 Parsons Ave. Nov. 29-Dec.1
• Cincinnati: Gallagher Student Center, 3800 Victory Parkway at Xavier University Dec.1-Dec. 8
• Cleveland: Thwing Student Center, 10900 Euclid Ave., Case Western Reserve University. Nov. 29-Dec.1
• Dayton: Rec Plex, 300 College Park. Nov. 29-Dec.1
and Victoria Theatre, 138 North Main St. Dec. 9
• Elyria: Patsie C. Campana Building, Lorain Community College, 1005 North Abbe Rd. Dec. 7- 9
• North Canton: Campus Center, 6000 Frank Ave. NW. Nov. 29- Dec.1
• Sylvania: Franciscan Center, Lourdes College, 6832 Convent Blvd. Nov.29-Dec.
• Toledo: Student Union, University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St. Nov.29-Dec. 1

The whole quilt has 44,000 panels. At the Names Project Foundation and Aids Memorial Quilt website you can get specific details of the quilt's displays, including contact numbers, how to become involved in the foundation's work-- including donating money, plus search for specific panels where you can view them on-line.

I had absolutely no idea that the television show debuting on TBS Monday night was set in Ohio ! And then I scanned my little on-air guide telling me what's on what channel at what time, and saw this blurb: "A man returns to his hometown in Ohio to manage the family grocery after his father's death." Ohio hometown? I said. Well, we are watching that! And so I have. And here I am to report.

"10 Items or Less" is set "just outside of Dayton, Ohio ," and sadly, an interview with the show's creator (John Lehr) says that Dayton itself won't really be a character in the show. Poor Dayton! However, the show is hitching on to the idea of setting a show in the Midwest where people will feel like people you grew up with. The show feels like a reality show meets improv meets quasi-typical sitcom, and is actually filmed in a working grocery store! I like that part of it. The small-town goofiness was definitely there.

Lehr also plays the star, Leslie Pool, who comes back to Ohio from NYC. Amy Anderson, Leslie's high school crush, is also the opposing grocery store chain's manager (she's played in reality by Jennifer Elise Cox). She calls Leslie moronic a couple of times, and also points out that her chain, Super-Value Mart adds "value to Ohio"! (I sense Giant Eagle in her words...) The staff is hysterical - see the small-town goofiness mentioned above - and while I don't want to give away what happens, it was definitely a funny, quirky show. It's worth watching, even with Ohio being only peripheral.

Sometimes don't you just feel sped up? This time of year it's even harder to take a chill pill. Holidays can't get rescheduled. If that turkey doesn't get stuffed by a certain time, you may be feeding your family dinner a lot later in the day than expected--like the next day's breakfast. Santa doesn't say, "Let me know when you're ready for me to head on down the chimney."

I actually felt shocked a few days ago when it dawned on me, that yes, Thanksgiving is SOON, and the nightly news is starting to speed things up by talking about holiday sales. Even when I feel calm, I start to panic. If you get like I do, here is an interesting option for calming down for just a bit. In a few places in Ohio, maybe more, there are indoor labyrinths designed to help people find their centers again. There are outdoor labyrinths too, but I'm a wimp when it comes to nasty weather.

A labyrinth is a circular, continuous path that is designed for contemplation among other things. It's been around for centuries, like 4,000 years, and is part of many cultures, both in art and spiritual practice. St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Toledo is one church that has an indoor labyrinth. So does the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton. Both of these churches have information on their labyrinths and contact info. If you want to have a go at an outdoor labyrinth, try the Sisters of Charity Spirituality Center (look for the link in the main website) in Cincinnati; the Grailville Education Retreat and Conference Center in Grailville; the Unity Spiritual Center in Westlake; or The Lois B. Small & Gladys B. Hamilton Labyrinth Garden at Chadwick Arboretum on the OSU campus in Columbus. You don't need to be a member of any of these places to enjoy; they are simply a service to help folks CALM DOWN and remember what it's like to breathe. By, the way, I found these on the Labyrinth Coalition website that includes Ohio in its listings.

Not just anybody gets to lead a Macy's balloon past Times Square in the Thanksgiving Day parade. Sometimes you have to know somebody, who knows somebody, who works at Macy's. In the case of Kathy Michael, an OSU student majoring in agribusiness, she gets to be one of the 70 or so people who will guide Mr. Potato Head on Thursday because she comes from a family that knows potatoes. Her dad is a farmer in Champaign County who had the honor of being one of Mr. Potato Head's handlers last year. This year, the U.S. Potato Board chose Kathy to represent Ohio farmers. She's more than happy to fill her dad's shoes by walking the 3 miles of the parade route while wresting the 500-pounds, 42.3 feet tall replica of this friendly, childhood toy. And it's not the easiest thing. Skyscrapers aren't the problem as much as the spaces in between them. That's when the wind can really whoosh and push a balloon sideways. To know what to do, Kathy received balloon handler training with Macy's balloons that aren't used anymore.

Promoting the nutritious value of potatoes, the reason why the potato board sponsors the Mr. Potato Head balloon in the first place, is an interesting fit for an Ohioan since Ohio's claim to potato fame goes way back. I discovered by poking around on the Internet that Clevelander William Tappendon is the person we can thank for the mass production of potato chips. Up until 1895 potato chips were only restaurant fare. That year Tappendon took the lid off the business by starting the first potato chip factory in his barn. One might argue that potato chips aren't exactly made for the health conscious, but they sure are yummy, and they do promote potato growing. Besides that, there are many Ohio potato chip makers these days. The oldest potato chip factory in the United States is Mike-Sells based in Dayton. The company has been around since 1910. To find out more about Ohio and its potatoes, check out the Ohio Vegetable and Potato Growers website. There is a state map where you can click on the different counties to see if potatoes are grown there.

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