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In a display of solidarity with campus activists, the Penn State Board of Trustees voted unanimously to ban the making of snowmen on campus. "The snowman is the ultimate expression of white privilege," said a Black Lives Matter activist who refused to be identified. "It is a symbol of our hateful past and must be removed from our national consciousness. After all, every snowman is white. Can any rational person dispute this?" The vote culminated a months-long campaign of petition drives and public rallies. The goal was to get the ban in place before the first snowfall. With the vote,...

A Syrian man who was suspended from Penn State for violating the student code of conduct last week after a university investigation of sexual assault allegations against him is suing the school. The 21-year-old engineering student, identified in court filings as John Doe, says Penn State's new model for handling such complaints violated his right to due process. Doe says the university's decision to suspend him for two semesters has left him at risk of losing his student visa and being deported to his war-torn homeland. His complaint, filed in federal court in Harrisburg this week, asks for reinstatement as...

Time to move on. Too juvenile and too much name-calling. Not near the level of critical thinking that used to go on back in the day. I wish the best to all the good ones left out there.

In 2014, we reported on an exciting new discovery of two new exoplanets orbiting Kapteyn’s Star. The current number of exoplanet discoveries as of July 2015 sits at 1,932 and counting. An M-class red dwarf, Kapteyn’s Star is relatively nearby at only 13 light years distant. The planetary discovery consisted of a world five times the mass of the Earth in a 48 day orbit (Kapteyn b), and a world seven times the mass of the Earth in a 122 day orbit (Kapteyn c). The discovery was hailed as an example of an ancient—possibly over 11 billion years old—system with...

Despite the relatively new frenzy to find extraterrestrial life in the universe after astronomers discovered water to exist on a number of celestial bodies over the years, research shows that the only place aliens can be “found” are on bone-chilling late-night documentaries of UFO sightings.According to exhaustive analysis performed by a team of scientists at Penn State University (PSU), absolutely no sign of highly advanced extraterrestrial lifeforms exist in the known universe — at least 100,000 galaxies of it, that is. A lonely frontier In their latest virtual expedition through space, scientists have used all of their high-tech gadgetry...

Many of you probably saw the network news reports about the United Airlines flight yesterday that returned to Dulles International airport when a crazed passenger yelling something about Jihad was restrained by other passengers. What you might have seen only on local but not on national broadcasts was a crazed Pennsylvania State University professor who began ranting loony left slogans on a flight from Nicaragua to Miami last weekend.  The Washington Post published a story about professor Karen Halnon whose rantings sounded too embarrassingly close to an MSNBC host for NBC Nightly News or the other national broadcasts to cover. Even the...

Pennsylvania woman was arrested at Miami International Airport for allegedly being disorderly on a flight and not complying with the flight crew, according to a police report. Karen Halnon, 52, was on an American Airlines flight headed from Managua, Nicaragua to Miami on Saturday. Officials and passengers said Halnon, a Penn State University professor, started ranting about halfway through her two and a half hour flight. “The United States has declared war on Venezuela! The United States has declared war on Venezuela!” the woman repeatedly said, according to iPhone footage shot by a fellow passenger. “Venezuela has been declared an...

Penn State's president should cancel plans to have a co-founder of the violent anti-war group the Weather Underground speak on campus next week, the state Senate's presiding officer said Friday. cComments Got something to say? Start the conversation and be the first to comment. ADD A COMMENT 0 President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a Jefferson County Republican, told university president Eric Barron in a letter he wants to know how much it is costing the university to host Bill Ayers next week. "The decision to allow Mr. Ayers to address your students and faculty in light of his violent past...

video Keith Olbermann returned to ESPN tonight after a short suspension for a tweet last week that looked like he was being insensitive to Penn State students who raised millions to fight pediatric cancer.Olbermann likened Twitter to batting practice, where people are so eager to be “one of those screaming baseballs” flinging themselves at something outrageous without looking at the context.But he didn’t excuse himself in all this, saying, “I was not a victim here. I brought this on myself. This is my fault.”Olbermann saw a tweet from a Penn State fan, and didn’t know there was a link...

ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann will not anchor his show for the rest of the week after a series of tweets directed at Penn State students. Olbermann, who was most recently critical of Penn State on his ESPN show in January after Joe Paterno's vacated wins were restored, was told on Twitter by a user about the $13 million raised by Penn State students for pediatric cancer. He responded to the tweet with a response of "pitiful." "We are aware of the exchange Keith Olbermann had on Twitter last night regarding Penn State. It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect...

"“We are aware of the exchange Keith Olbermann had on Twitter last night regarding Penn State. It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the views of ESPN. We have discussed it with Keith, who recognizes he was wrong. ESPN and Keith have agreed that he will not host his show for the remainder of this week and will return on Monday.”" "I apologize for the PSU tweets. I was stupid and childish and way less mature than the students there who did such a great fundraising job."

ESPN on Tuesday suspended Keith Olbermann for the remainder of the week after he made insulting comments about Penn State students on Twitter.According to multiple reports, a Penn State alum tweeted to Olbermann the phrase "We Are!" and a link to an article about students raising more than $13 million to fight pediatric cancer. Olbermann replied "...Pitiful."Penn State students and alum rallied on Twitter and pressed Olbermann, who refused to back down, saying he was referring to Penn State students in general and not the fundraising.On Tuesday, ESPN said in a statement that "it was completely inappropriate and does...

The NCAA received another serious blow to its credibility today. In court documents filed Thursday in the Paterno lawsuit, Oregon State President and then-NCAA Executive Committee Chairman Ed Ray admitted to not actually reading the Freeh Report — the entire basis for the NCAA sanctions — prior to sanctioning Penn State in 2012. In his testimony in the Paterno Family’s ongoing case, Ray said he was unaware that he needed to prep for anything related to the Freeh Report before the organization’s executive board met to discuss possible sanctions on the University. Instead, Ray spent time in Hawaii where he...

But when the protest neared its conclusion, they were joined by university President Eric Barron, who held up his hands in the “don’t shoot” pose has become a gesture of solidarity with the movement.

Penn State Young America’s Foundation Chapter were told to take down their table from a designated “free speech zone” on campus. They were handing out Constitutions – on Constitution Day.

Due to Penn State University’s significant progress toward ensuring its athletics department functions with integrity, the NCAA Executive Committee on Monday eliminated the school’s postseason ban, effective immediately, and will return the full complement of football scholarships in 2015-16. The committee’s action endorses recommendations released Monday by George Mitchell, the university’s athletics oversight monitor, in his latest report. In addition to the scholarship and postseason participation changes, Mitchell also recommended that if Penn State continues to make impressive progress at the conclusion of the 2015 report, Mitchell’s oversight may conclude substantially earlier than 2017, the date set forth in the...

The Penn State Nittany Lions are eligible to play in a bowl game this season after the NCAA ruled they are satisfied with the athletic department’s progress in ensuring it functions with integrity. “Penn State’s commitment to the integrity of its athletics department and its progress toward meeting the requirements of the Consent Decree are clear,” said Northern Arizona President Rita Hartung Cheng via NCAA.org, who chaired Monday’s Executive Committee meeting. “We thank Senator Mitchell for his meticulous and exhaustive work over the past two years. Mitchell’s efforts and the dedication of Penn State officials made today’s decisions possible.” Penn...

youtube link here as well

bronze statue of Joe Paterno seated on a bench is planned for installation outside the Tavern Restaurant in November 2015. The statue, designed by sculptor Zenos Frudakis, is in response to Rodney Erickson’s decision to remove Joe Paterno’s statue from Porter Road in July 2012. “There’s been some level of frustration among Penn Staters with what happened with the statue at the stadium,” Ted Sebastianelli, one of the organizers of the project, said. “We wanted to come up with a way to honor Joe for all that he did for the State College community. It wasn’t just the university he...

It was a couple of weeks ago during that beautiful day of the Blue-White game and I was taking goofy videos of tailgaters consuming the sunshine and other things. The mood was festive. One of the young adults who I featured in a video asked me with enthusiasm how I felt about James Franklin. He was on a recruiting roll. I said levelly that I would've chosen deposed Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak instead but we'll see how it goes. The guy contorted his face as if I'd just offered him a bowl of Brussels sprouts. "Are you kidding?" he...