Wednesday December 1, 2010 year: 130 No. 160 the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern Alum speaks out against WikiLeaks
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AllY MAroTTi Lantern reporter marotti.5@osu.edu
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Making a difference
Former OSU linebacker James Laurinaitis has played a major part in the St. Louis Rams’ turnaround.
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An information leak can cause quite an uproar. WikiLeaks, an international media organization devoted to revealing classified information from anonymous sources, released a wave of U.S. diplomatic information Sunday that included comments U.S. officials privately made about other world leaders. Larry Sanger, Ohio State alumnus and cofounder of Wikipedia, said the recent leak could sour U.S. foreign relations. Many world leaders share Sanger’s concerns. According to news reports, Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, described the leaks as the “Sept. 11 of world diplomacy.” On Thursday and Friday, Sanger wrote a series of Tweets saying that WikiLeaks is an enemy of the U.S. and should be dealt with accordingly. “I always felt that if I’m in a position to have a positive impact on the world, I feel it’s my duty to do what I can,” Sanger said in a telephone interview with The Lantern Tuesday.
Besides the most recent leak, WikiLeaks released thousands of classified documents in the past year about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The very problem with WikiLeaks, in my opinion, is that it’s irresponsibly dangerous,” Sanger said. Officials at WikiLeaks were larry Sanger, not available for comment, Wikipedia cofounder and Sanger said he could not remember ever speaking with Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks. Assange is a former hacker. The governments of Sweden, Australia and now the United States are after Assange, Sanger said. “He’s an international outlaw,” Sanger said. “He keeps doing things that directly attack … perfectly legitimate government operations.” Sanger said Assange contends that absolute openness and transparency are necessary components in government.
Sanger does not agree. “There are certain things that, if revealed, would violate the privacy of individuals not associated with the government,” Sanger said. John Mueller, professor of political science and Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies at OSU, questioned the impact of the leaks. “There are laws being broken by some people releasing the material, but the question is, why was this a secret in the first place?” Mueller said. Some of the leaked information contained statements government officials made in private. Mueller said that although that might be embarrassing, there hasn’t been an awe-inspiring revelation to come out of the leaks. Still, Mueller said some criticism is justified. “I can see why people are concerned about it,” he said. “Secrecy is not all that compatible with democracy.” Some news organizations, including The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, did not
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Bernanke: We need confidence Fed chairman says low trust from consumers has hampered economy DYlAn TUSSel Lantern reporter tussel.2@osu.edu
Holiday gift guide
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Find out what gifts you should buy for that special someone this holiday season without breaking the bank.
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Alumnus an Ironman triathlete
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‘The Walking Dead’ free at Gateway weather
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Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a meeting on campus Tuesday that although the U.S. economy has been expanding for the past year, low consumer confidence has hampered progress toward solving nationwide unemployment issues. “At the pace of growth that we’re seeing, we’re not growing fast enough to materially reduce the unemployment rate,” Bernanke said Tuesday at a panel conversation on the economy at the Fisher College of Business. “In fact, the 9.6 percent unemployment rate we currently see is about the same as it was when the recession officially ended in June 2009.” Leaders from Ford Motor Co., IBM, Moody-Nolan Inc., Sophisticated Systems and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams participated in the discussion, which was meant to help Bernanke see the job market through the lens of employers. Bernanke received promising news from the co-owner of one Columbusbased company. Jeni Britton Bauer, president of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, said that despite the poor economic climate, many small businesses have been opening in Columbus. She said her company has weathered the storm, hiring more than 50 employees in the past two years and expanding its operations outside Ohio. Central Ohio’s unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in October, much lower than the state average of 9.9 percent, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The national unemployment rate was slightly lower than the state’s, at 9.6 percent. But the economic issues extend beyond the unemployment rate. More than 40 percent of those unemployed have been jobless for six months or longer, Bernanke said. After being unemployed for an extended period of time, it becomes more difficult for someone to find a job. “Particularly with young people — and the unemployment rate among young people is extremely high — this can have a very long-term effect on their employability, on their wages,” Bernanke said. “We may find that the implications for our unemployment rate go well beyond the recovery from this episode.” But employment will not increase substantially if Americans’ perception of the economy does not improve, he said. “Part of the barrier to faster growth and recovery is confidence of households that they will be financially secure, that they can make purchases,” Bernanke said. “With unemployment so high, that confidence is hard to come by.”
AnDY GoTTeSMAn / Multimedia editor
federal reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke met with business leaders Tuesday at Pfahl Hall in the fisher college of Business.
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Students spread smiles through clowning club JennY foGle Lantern reporter fogle.96@osu.edu Stethoscopes, pagers and clown noses. Those are some of the tools of the trade for medical students involved with Clowning in Columbus, a club at Ohio State inspired by national groups that use laughter as treatment for hospital patients. “It’s just fun (for patients) to be taken out of themselves for a moment,” said Eileen Mehl, the club’s adviser. “It sort of transports you to another time-space continuum. If you’re talking to someone wearing a red nose and purple hair, it takes you to another place and you can laugh and be silly and forget about your cares for a while.” The group’s members provide entertainment at medical fundraisers, such as the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America walk, hemophilia walks and health fairs in the area, said Allie Effron, a secondyear in medical school and assistant leader of the group. The medical students entertain children by making balloon animals, blowing bubbles, playing games, face painting and acting silly. “One little kid wanted a balloon of himself, he wanted a little person,” Effron said. “We did it and made it for him, and he was so happy when we were able to do it. Just the smile on his face was totally worth it.” The club is based on the work of Dr. Patch Adams — the man known for fusing clowning and medicine — and of the Gesundheit! Institute, the nonprofit group he founded to apply his idea that fun and play can help patients recover. Recently, the Columbus group attended a Halloween party at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
coDY coUSino / Lantern photographer
Maggie Germain (center) and Keith rosenberg (left), both second-year medical students, entertain a small child while dressed up as clowns for the group clowning in columbus, in the oSU Medical center on Tuesday. “It’s a good way to learn how to make a kid laugh and just interact with them,” said Maggie Germain, a second-year in medical school and president of Clowning in Columbus. “We find out what they think is funny so that some day, when we’re working with
patients, we can connect with them in that way and help make their time in the hospital or at the doctor’s office less scary.”
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