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<p><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="The Novelist" title_caption="Don't let the simple graphics fool you: " The="" Novelist="" packs="" an="" emotional="" punch.="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/52bb7ab66bb3f77a7861a952-960/the-novelist-2.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><a href="http://www.thenovelistgame.com/">The Novelist</a></p><p class="caption">Don't let the simple graphics fool you: "<keyword id="2013895" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="The-Novelist">The Novelist</keyword>" packs an emotional punch.</p></div></div>While blockbuster titles like "Call of Duty" and "Grand Theft Auto" get all the press, the rise of relatively open software stores on PCs, consoles, tablets, and smartphones has allowed for a major increase in the viability of games made by smaller, independent developers.</p>
<p>Developers like <a href="https://twitter.com/KentInPublic" target="_blank">Kent Hudson.</a> Last month, Hudson released "<a href="http://www.thenovelistgame.com/" target="_blank">The Novelist,</a>" his first game as an indie game designer.<strong> </strong>Business Insider sat down with Hudson to discuss the game at length. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span></p>
<p>"The Novelist" doesn't have the big action set pieces or cinematic cutscenes used to tell stories in most games. Instead, the player drives the story directly through gameplay.</p>
<p>The game puts players in control of a nigh-invisible, "Paranormal Activity"-like entity (see: character above) haunting a house on the coast of Oregon. As the game begins, a novelist and his wife and son move into the home for the summer.</p>
<p>The novelist, Dan Kaplan, is struggling to complete his second book. Meanwhile, his marriage is going through a rough patch and his son is having trouble in school, both socially and with his work. Basically, it's not a good time for the Kaplan family.</p>
<p>Of course, none of this is told to the player outright. Instead, the player has to sneak up on the Kaplans to "uncover memories" via possession and find clues laid around the house. Letters to and from family, diary entries, and the son's crayon drawings slowly reveal what each of the family members are thinking about and what they want in life.</p>
<p><div class="image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="The Novelist" title_caption="" The="" Novelist="" asks:="" What="" do="" you="" think="" is="" important="" in="" life="" your="" career="" or="" family="" class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52bb9d656bb3f7e03d61a95c-960/the-novelist-game-haunting.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><a href="http://www.thenovelistgame.com/">The Novelist</a></p><p class="caption">"The Novelist" asks: What do you think is important in life, your career or your family?</p></div></div></p>
<p>Things get interesting when you know what each character really wants. That's because the player can influence the Kaplans' lives by telling Dan what do to while he sleeps. The only problem: you can't make everyone happy in every situation.</p>
<p>In fact, the game only lets players make one character happy in any given situation. Whether it's giving Dan time to work on his book, taking the Kaplans' son to an amusement park or going for a hike on a trail Dan's wife picked out, the options available to the player are almost all mutually exclusive. </p>
<p>If you're careful about finding out each character's wants, you can try to find ways to compromise between them. While you still can't make more than one person happy, compromises let you keep one of the others from being <em>unhappy</em>.</p>
<p>That's an important distinction to make. Each character has a "happiness score" based on the player's decisions. Fulfilling a want adds to that score, finding a compromise maintains it, and ignoring a character's wants lowers it.</p>
<p>That score affects the ending of the game. In my play through, I tried to give Dan time to work on his novel but kept worrying about the state of his marriage and the lack of attention his son was getting, so most of my suggestions focused on improving those aspects of his life. </p>
<p>In the end, his book was a failure (ending his career as an author) but his marriage became stronger than ever and his son grew up to become a famous graphic novelist. </p>
<p>Apparently, I care about family more than having a successful career. But others will have different priorities, and those priorities can play out through eight different endings that range from everyone being happy to the Kaplans falling into ruin.</p>
<p><div class="image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="The Novelist" title_caption="Many of the internal struggles faced by characters in " The="" Novelist="" were="" inspired="" by="" the="" developers="" own="" anxieties.="" class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52bc38566bb3f79169ab355a-960/the-novelist-game-decisions.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><a href="http://www.thenovelistgame.com/">The Novelist</a></p><p class="caption">Many of the internal struggles faced by characters in "The Novelist" were inspired by the developer's own anxieties.</p></div></div></p>
<p>After nearly two years in development, the game is receiving <a href="http://www.thenovelistgame.com/" target="_blank">praise from critics</a> and coverage from major gaming publications liking <a href="http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/11/5201512/the-novelist-review-compromise" target="_blank">Polygon</a>, <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_novelist/b/pc/archive/2013/12/13/the-novelist-review-game-informer.aspx" target="_blank">Game Informer</a>, and <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-novelist-review/1900-6415591/" target="_blank">GameSpot</a>.</p>
<p>While Hudson has spent more than a decade as a game designer - with big games like "Bioshock 2" and "Thief: Deadly Shadows" under his belt - making a game by himself still proved to be a challenge.</p>
<p>To make the game, Hudson employed <a href="http://unity3d.com/" target="_blank">Unity</a>, a game engine favored by a number of independent game developers for its ease of use and incredibly active and helpful community. He isn't a programmer, so to put together the game's logic he used <a href="http://www.detoxstudios.com/" target="_blank">uScript</a>, an add-on for Unity that lets game developers connect bits of logic visually rather than using thousands of lines of code.</p>
<p>According to Hudson, it took him about a week to become familiar with Unity. That's lucky, because figuring out what he was going to make in the first place took months.</p>
<p>When he first left his job at 2K Games after becoming fed-up with the avoidance of experimentation in traditional studio-based game development,<strong> </strong>Hudson thought he was going to start his indie career by making a simple game for the iPad. After a few false starts, he decided to tackle to problem of giving players "agency" in the stories they play through in <keyword id="25195" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="video-games">video games</keyword>.</p>
<p>Tired of games where the story happens around the player in cutscenes <a href="http://youtu.be/fK4OvaTWFTE?t=4m55s" target="_blank">instead of being driven</a> by their decisions during gameplay,<strong> </strong>Hudson came up with a concept a lot like "The Novelist" but with eight characters, each fitting a distinct stereotype - novelist, painter, old millionaire, etc. But that proved to be far too complex to tackle by himself.</p>
<p>"There would have been far too many permutations of the story to keep track of during writing," Hudson told me over coffee. "And with that many characters, it's hard to make the player care about the wants of any individual."</p>
<p>So he stripped it down to a far simpler group: the nuclear family, by many standards the building block of social interaction and community.</p>
<p>"That made the system behind the gameplay much easier to work with, because with only three characters it became a balanced equation: one character would be happy in any given situation, one character could remain neutral, and one character would become unhappy."</p>
<p>Many of the struggles faced by the game's titular character are reflections of Hudson's own problems and anxieties. After all, there isn't a huge gap between what goes into writing a book and writing the story for a game. In fact, at one point the player finds a bunch of inspirational and self-deprecating post-it notes in front of Dan's typewriter - Hudson says that those are actual notes he had at his desk that he wrote into the game when he was struck with a bout of writer's block.</p>
<p>Of course, not every scenario is inspired by Hudson's life. For instance, he's not a father. To create a realistic-feeling family dynamic, he surveyed friends who are parents and spoke to their kids about what it's like to be a parent and a six-year-old kid.</p>
<p>The result is a game that truly captures the emotional ups and downs of finding balance in one's life, whether it's between work and family or even between one's spouse and one's child.</p>
<p>While it's not heavy on action  - the primary game mode requires the player to find creative ways to keep out of the Kaplans' sight, though there's also a mode that lets non-gamers simply wander about the house freely to experience the story without worrying about hiding - the game offers satisfaction by showing that their decisions really matter, just as in real life.</p>
<p>For the price of a trip to the movies <strong>- </strong><a href="http://www.thenovelistgame.com/" target="_blank">$14.99 on Hudson's site</a>, available on PC and Mac - "The Novelist" provides 2-4 hours of gameplay per playthrough. While I'm not sure if I'm going to go through it again any time soon (simply because the choices I made were all gut reactions, making the story feel like my own), completionists will enjoy playing through the game to see the different endings.</p>
<p><strong>Bottom line: For gamers who enjoy piecing together an emotional story, "The Novelist" is one of 2013's must-buys.</strong></p>
<p>See a trailer for "The Novelist":</p>
<p></p>

This Indie Game Makes You Reconsider Putting Your Career Ahead Of Your Family

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Elisabeth Cote is a 39-year-old <keyword id="84233" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nurse">nurse</keyword> in the progressive care unit at Bayhealth Hospital's Kent Campus in Kent County, <keyword id="310769" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Delaware">Delaware</keyword>.</li><li>She was the first person in the state to receive the Pfizer <keyword id="8904563" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19-vaccine">COVID-19 vaccine</keyword> on December 15. </li><li>Tuesday marked 330 days since the first <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> case <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-pandemic-timeline-history-major-events-2020-3">was confirmed in the US</a>. In that time, the pandemic has led to more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-us-sets-record-for-hospitalizations-passes-300000-deaths-2020-12">300,000 deaths</a> across the country, recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/daily-us-covid-19-deaths-higher-than-911-death-toll-2020-12">surpassing 3,000 deaths per day.</a></li><li>Cote says she was initially nervous about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, but knew through her experience caring for COVID-19 patients, many of whom passed away, that she didn't want to be someone who contracted the virus and passed it to anyone else.</li><li>This is her story, as told to freelance writer Taylor Goebel.</li></ul><p>On Tuesday morning at 5:30 a.m., just hours after my shift in Bayhealth Hospital's progressive care unit, I headed back to work to receive the first COVID-19 vaccine in Delaware. </p><p>I walked into a nondescript room in the hospital's basement past a line of my colleagues, doctors and other frontline workers, waiting their turn. </p><h2><strong>I'd received a call from our hospital administration on Monday evening to ask if I would be the first COVID-19 vaccine recipient in Delaware. </strong></h2><p>Delaware had pre-ordered over 8,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, 975 of which arrived at our hospital on Kent Campus and were ready to be distributed to employees.</p><p>Our media coordinator, Danielle Pro-Hudson, said I'd been a great steward for Bayhealth, and that's why they wanted me to be first and help tell the story of why the COVID-19 vaccine is important. </p><p>I was nervous at first, but excited to represent Bayhealth - especially my unit, which was the hospital's original COVID-19 floor and has had coronavirus patients every day since the pandemic hit Delaware in March.</p><h2><strong>I was excited to join in the next phase of stopping the virus, beyond my job just trying to help people who have gotten sick. </strong></h2><p>After entering the vaccination room, I sat down in a grey chair, signed my name on a vaccine document and lifted the left sleeve of my "Progressive Care Unit" t-shirt. </p><p>Angeline Dewey, Bayhealth's education director, used a wipe to disinfect my skin as she prepared to administer the vaccine. We both took a deep breath as she readied the shot for my left arm. </p><p>Other than a few camera flashes, my experience was standard for a vaccine: There was the cold wet of the disinfecting wipe, and the slight sting of the shot in my deltoid muscle. </p><p>Dewey smoothed a bandage over my arm, and then I left the room as the next <keyword id="6354525" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="healthcare">healthcare</keyword> worker walked in. The long-awaited process took less than five minutes.</p><h2><strong>I didn't feel any immediate side effects, other than my arm feeling slightly sore throughout the day, like a flu shot. </strong></h2><p>Besides me, 84 other Bayhealth employees have also received the vaccine so far. </p><p>Nerves and excitement aside, I mostly felt relief after I received the vaccine. The virus isn't going away forever, but the prick in my arm feels like a big step forward. </p><p>With the distribution of the vaccine, I'm hoping that people will soon not only be protected from the virus, but that they'll also be able to go back to living their lives again. The pandemic has been challenging for everyone, especially with stay at home and isolation orders. My own three kids are eager to head back to school in person. </p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: </em><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/can-employers-make-workers-get-coronavirus-vaccination-lawyers-covid-mandatory-2020-11">Employers are flooding labor lawyers' inboxes to ask if they can make a coronavirus vaccine mandatory in the workplace. Here's the advice 6 lawyers are giving clients.</a></em></p><h2><strong>I know that getting a vaccine can feel like a really personal choice. It's something new, and new can be scary.</strong></h2><p>I can understand why some people are hesitant about getting the vaccine.  I've been a nurse for four and a half years, and in the beginning I also debated on whether or not to get vaccinated right away. I wasn't strong-willed in saying, 'Yes, I'm going to do it.' But then, I saw more and more patients who had contracted COVID-19 from family members, and passed away. </p><p>I held the hands of several COVID-19 patients this year, making sure they weren't alone when they died. The family member of one patient told me her greatest fear was that her loved one would die in distress. I promised her that wouldn't happen.</p><h2><strong>The patients we lose - that stays with us. I have all of their names in my mind.</strong></h2><p>I did not want to be that person who contracted the virus and gave it to my family, or colleagues, or anyone else, especially since I was given the opportunity to avoid it. </p><p>Back in the spring, I wasn't sure if the first COVID-19 patient who arrived at our progressive care unit was going to survive. She'd been at the hospital for several weeks, struggling to beat a new and deadly virus that doctors and scientists were all racing to understand. </p><p>But that first patient pushed through, and we nurses were able to hold a small celebration the day she left. We played music on our phones and applauded her as we took her out downstairs. </p><p>With the rollout of the vaccine, I'm looking forward to helping many more patients return home to their loved ones.</p>

I was the first person to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Delaware. I was nervous, but as a nurse I hope to set an example for why people should get vaccinated.

<p>Using Census data, we've figured out that half of the United States population is clustered in just 146 counties.</p>
<p>Here's the map, with said counties shaded in and below it is the list of the counties.</p>
<p><div class="image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source">Census/Business Insider</p></div></div></p>
<p>And here's the whole list of counties that are shaded in.</p>
<p>Los Angeles County, CA <br />Cook County, IL <br />Harris County, TX <br />Maricopa County, AZ <br />San Diego County, CA <br />Orange County, CA <br />Miami-Dade County, FL <br />Kings County, NY <br />Dallas County, TX <br />Queens County, NY <br />Riverside County, CA <br />San Bernardino County, CA <br />King County, WA <br />Clark County, NV <br />Tarrant County, TX <br />Santa Clara County, CA <br />Broward County, FL <br />Wayne County, MI <br />Bexar County, TX <br />New York County, NY <br />Alameda County, CA <br />Philadelphia County, PA <br />Middlesex County, MA <br />Suffolk County, NY <br />Sacramento County, CA <br />Bronx County, NY <br />Palm Beach County, FL <br />Nassau County, NY <br />Hillsborough County, FL <br />Cuyahoga County, OH <br />Allegheny County, PA <br />Oakland County, MI <br />Orange County, FL <br />Franklin County, OH <br />Hennepin County, MN <br />Fairfax County, VA <br />Travis County, TX <br />Contra Costa County, CA <br />Salt Lake County, UT <br />Montgomery County, MD <br />St. Louis County, MO <br />Pima County, AZ <br />Fulton County, GA <br />Honolulu County, HI <br />Mecklenburg County, NC <br />Westchester County, NY <br />Milwaukee County, WI <br />Wake County, NC <br />Fresno County, CA<br /> Shelby County, TN <br />Fairfield County, CT<br /> DuPage County, IL <br />Pinellas County, FL <br />Erie County, NY <br />Marion County, IN <br />Bergen County, NJ <br />Hartford County, CT<br /> Prince George's County, MD <br />Duval County, FL <br />New Haven County, CT <br />Kern County, CA <br />Macomb County, MI <br />Gwinnett County, GA <br />Ventura County, CA <br />Collin County, TX <br />El Paso County, TX <br />San Francisco County, CA <br />Middlesex County, NJ<br /> Baltimore County, MD <br />Pierce County, WA <br />Montgomery County, PA <br />Hidalgo County, TX <br />Worcester County, MA <br />Hamilton County, OH <br />Essex County, NJ <br />Multnomah County, OR <br />Essex County, MA <br />Jefferson County, KY <br />Monroe County, NY <br />Suffolk County, MA <br />Oklahoma County, OK <br />San Mateo County, CA <br />Snohomish County, WA <br />Cobb County, GA <br />Denton County, TX <br />DeKalb County, GA <br />San Joaquin County, CA <br />Lake County, IL <br />Will County, IL <br />Norfolk County, MA <br />Jackson County, MO <br />Bernalillo County, NM <br />Jefferson County, AL <br />Hudson County, NJ <br />Davidson County, TN <br />Lee County, FL <br />El Paso County, CO <br />Denver County, CO <br />District of Columbia, DC <br />Monmouth County, NJ <br />Providence County, RI <br />Fort Bend County, TX <br />Bucks County, PA <br />Baltimore city, MD <br />Polk County, FL <br />Kent County, MI <br />Tulsa County, OK <br />Arapahoe County, CO <br />Ocean County, NJ <br />Delaware County, PA <br />Johnson County, KS<br /> Bristol County, MA <br />Anne Arundel County, MD <br />Washington County, OR <br />Brevard County, FL <br />New Castle County, DE <br />Jefferson County, CO <br />Union County, NJ <br />Summit County, OH <br />Utah County, UT <br />Montgomery County, OH <br />Douglas County, NE <br />Lancaster County, PA <br />Kane County, IL <br />Stanislaus County, CA <br />Ramsey County, MN <br />Camden County, NJ <br />Chester County, PA<br />Sedgwick County, KS <br />Dane County, WI <br />Passaic County, NJ <br />Guilford County, NC <br />Plymouth County, MA <br />Morris County, NJ <br />Volusia County, FL <br />Lake County, IN <br />Sonoma County, CA <br />Montgomery County, TX <br />Spokane County, WA<br />Richmond County, NY <br />Pasco County, FL<br />Greenville County, SC <br />Onondaga County, NY <br />Hampden County, MA <br />Adams County, CO <br />Williamson County, TX</p>

Half Of The United States Lives In These Counties

The Boeing 737 Max crashes have revived decades-old fears about what happens when airplane computers become more powerful than pilots

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>LeBron James <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lebron-james-signs-cavaliers-2014-7">is coming back to Cleveland</a> four years after leaving his home-state team the Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. </p>
<p>The famed basketball player <a href="http://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/11/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers">announced in a Sports Illustrated essay</a> that he has decided to come home to northeast Ohio, where he grew up and first played in the NBA.</p>
<p>He wrote: "My relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn't realize that four years ago. I do now."</p>
<p>He got it right. Northeast Ohio, and the state as a whole, certainly is bigger than basketball.</p>
<p>Check out these 11 reasons why Ohio is a shining example of U.S. geography.</p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/13727804744/in/photolist-7Uq8KN-drNwaE-7Uq8KW-n1oyik-n1oytk-mV5A5G-7UdRrv-7UdRrk-7UdRrg-7UmZRn-7UmZRi-7UmZRr-7Uq8Km-7Uq8KL-5Q7qDr-4CejPP-99C6ES-7ftLrd-n1oy9x-4CejPH">Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM</a></span></p></div><p></p></div>1. Ohioans become president.</h2>
<p>Ohio and Virginia like to bicker about which state can claim the most U.S. presidents. If you consider birthplace, Virginia wins with eight. But looking at primary residence, Ohio comes out on top. Childhood is what really counts anyway.</p>
<p>No fewer than seven presidents call Ohio their home state. In chronological order, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding all grew up or made their lives in the Buckeye State. </p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Moody's Analytics</span></p></div><p></p></div>2. And when they don't, Ohio picks the president. </h2>
<p>Not unrelated to the last point, Ohio, known as a major swing state, plays an important role in national elections every four years.</p>
<p>Democrats almost always take California and New York, with their 55 and 29 electoral votes, respectively. And, naturally, 38 from Texas go to the Republicans. That's why Florida, 29, and Ohio, 18, matter so much.</p>
<p>In 2012, many publications predicted <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/11/20121156413868971.html">Mitt Romney couldn't win without Ohio</a>. He didn't - so he lost. But the Obama campaign <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/109821/obama-campaign-made-2012-election-all-about-ohio-start-heres-how-they-won-it">made the election all about Ohio</a>, and it clearly paid off.</p>
<h2>3. Ohioans love to swear. </h2>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Mike Nudelman/Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></h2>
<p>According to <a href="http://blog.marchex.com/2013/05/15/marchex-data-reveals-ohioans-curse-the-most-in-the-country-washingtonians-the-least/">rigorous analysis of phone calls</a> (probably with cable companies), Ohioans swear more than any other states' residents. Conducted in 2013 by Marchex, the data examined 60,000 recorded phone conversations over 12 months. </p>
<p>So this might not seem like a positive - but it is. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/study-swearing-is-healthy-2014-5">Swearing is f---ing good for you</a>. It helps people express pain and frustration, making us healthier and less violent. Dropping an f-bomb here and there could also help you at work. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/seanstonefield/2011/06/10/does-swearing-at-work-get-the-job-done/">A 2007 study out of the U.K.</a> found that swearing creates solidarity and bonding among coworkers and can signal authenticity and leadership to higher-ups.</p>
<h2>4. Ohio always denounced slavery.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/18378305@N00/7847966586/in/photolist-7hxqjP-4LU1oe-cXuT3J-7iwHXr-dajzrG-5D8Hpk-6i5Z7w">Flickr/Charlie Powell</a></span></p><p class="caption">Cleveland's St. John's Cathedral, the last stop on the Underground Railroad.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">In 1802, 63 years before the 13th Amendment, <a href="http://ww2.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/constitution/cnst1802.html">Ohio's Constitution</a> outlawed slavery. And even when including a clause to allow amendments, the creators specifically wrote Ohio would never, ever allow involuntarily servitude.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">On top of that, Ohio acted a crucial catalyst in the abolitionist movement in the North. John Brown, an abolitionist hanged for his radical beliefs, lived in Hudson, Ohio. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Cabin-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486440281">Uncle Tom's Cabin</a>," the quintessential novel decrying slavery, resided in Cincinnati. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">The state also contains many significant stops on the Underground Railroad, including St. John's Cathedral (shown above), also known as Station Hope, the last stop for fleeing slaves in Cleveland before reaching the ferry to Canada. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Many believe <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/OYTT-images/JMLangston.html">John Mercer Langston</a>, from Oberlin, to be the first publicly elected black official. </span></p>
<h2>5. Pro football was born in Ohio.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>WikiMedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div>Canton, Ohio, is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a reason - the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, <a href="http://www.profootballhof.com/hall/hof-history.aspx">was founded there</a> in 1920.</p>
<p>Before the NFL, <a href="http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/history/pdfs/History/2013/353-372-Chronology.pdf">pro football was a bit of a mess</a>. The teams weren't regulated enough and loyalty was lacking because players could jump from team to team based on whoever offered the highest salary. </p>
<p>So a few team representatives got together and held a meeting in a Canton auto showroom to establish the league. The NFL eventually grew to become <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/08/17/how-the-national-football-league-can-reach-25-billion-in-annual-revenues/">a multibillion-dollar powerhouse</a> and the most lucrative sports league in the world.</p>
<p>And the Pro Football Hall Of Fame will soon be even bigger and better than it is now. It's undergoing a two-year $27 million expansion and renovation as part of its 50th anniversary celebration.</p>
<h2>6. Ohio produces prominent athletes.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">We were all witnesses.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>LeBron James is far from the only famous athlete to get his talents from Ohio (even though he rudely took them somewhere else). Two-time World Series champion Roger Clemens was born in Ohio, and NFL quarterback Brady Quinn was one of the top high-school football players the country while he was a student in Dublin, Ohio.</p>
<p>Jack Nicklaus, one of the best golfers of all time, was born in a Columbus suburb and picked up the sport there.</p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div>7. Rock 'n' roll got its name there.</h2>
<p>Cleveland <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2010/08/rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame_and_4.html">is the rock 'n' roll capital of the world</a>, and it lobbied hard for the hall of fame when music-industry leaders were choosing a home for the museum.</p>
<p>And it makes sense that the Rock Hall would find a home in Cleveland. Without well-known Cleveland DJ Alan Freed, we might not have the term "rock 'n' roll" at all. <a href="http://rockhall.com/inductees/alan-freed/bio/">Freed first coined the phrase</a> as a way to describe the music he started playing on the radio in 1951. </p>
<p>On top of that, Cleveland radio station WMMS <a href="http://rockhall.com/pressroom/announcements/rock-hall-to-celebrate-wmms/">is credited with breaking major acts</a> such as David Bowie, Roxy Music, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen.</p>
<h2>8. Several famous musical acts hail from the Buckeye State.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/The_Black_Keys_at_MSG_3-22-12.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys call Nashville home.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>If you enjoy listening to the Black Keys, the Isley Brothers, Devo, Kid Cudi, John Legend, or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, you have Ohio to thank. All these artists either grew up in Ohio or got their starts there.</p>
<p>Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale <a href="http://www.kentwired.com/latest_updates/article_a8574f3c-990f-11e3-be05-001a4bcf6878.html">met at Kent State University</a>, where they were both art students, and formed Devo in 1976. John Legend grew up in Springfield, Ohio, and Kid Cudi <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2009/08/complexs-kid-cudi-cover-story-the-uncut-interview-outtakes">started rapping around his neighborhood</a> when he was 12.</p>
<h2>9. Ohioans made history in space.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Ohioans have contributed significantly to U.S. space missions - they've flown aboard most of NASA's major human space flight programs.</p>
<p>John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, were <a href="https://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/ProfileOhio/OhioAstronauts.aspx">both from Ohio</a>. The first American woman to walk in space, Kathryn D. Sullivan, is from Ohio.</p>
<p>On a related note, Ohio is called the Birthplace of Aviation (as our license plates show) because the Wright brothers grew up in Dayton. </p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr</span></p></div><p></p></div>10. Without Ohio, we wouldn't know the joy of hot dogs.</h2>
<p>Many historians credit Niles, Ohio, resident <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Hotdog?rec=2704">Harry Mosley Stevens</a> with inventing the hot dog, which he called "red hot dachshund sausages." Initially, they weren't even popular because people thought they contained real dog meat. But hot dogs soon became one of America's favorite snacks.</p>
<p>Minor technicality: Stevens may have moved to New York City before actually placing the dog in the bun. But we count him and his delicious creation as Ohio born-and-bred. </p>
<h2>11. Speaking of food - Swensons.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mandimaebe/5624442301/in/photolist-9z1JK8-dZbwtw-766Etj-762LHp-762Gga-762Nzk-7scLhn-dKmPxw-766H2S-8GiSmF-atmL8e-atmKZH-atppq5-766JPW-766Hbs-9uSiXN-7uHWRr-aw67vS-5pXTa7-aw3m7n-aw3pqR-8NzjMR-aw3jWH-aw3iMV-aw3qWz-762GZ4-aw3ojR-aw63ob-aw67Pd-aw3nLx-aw3mDT-aw3kvZ-aw5Yt3-aw66B3-aw3jpp-agg8ev-jXW7Q-jXW7S-dRLR36-52AVqT-dZ5P4z-dsDuyN-68MV8X-9S66s5-dCUZSc-766FWw-766Az3-766yZm-766P7N-762Sbg">Flickr/JEM</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>This drive-in burger joint, founded in 1934, has only seven locations across the state. Patrons just have to flash their headlights, and the waiters will run out with a menu, ready to take their order. </p>
<p>Voted as having the best burger in America in 1999 by Forbes, <a href="http://www.swensonsdriveins.com/">Swensons</a> is a northeast Ohio staple. If you've never had a Galley Boy, the signature menu item, we mourn for you. It's a double cheeseburger with mayo and barbecue sauce - for only $3.15. Potato teasers, essentially tater tots with cheese and jalapeno inside, are worthy of a trip themselves, too. </p>

LEBRON GOT IT RIGHT: Here Are 11 Reasons Ohio Is The Best State

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>The Republican National Committee <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-gop-is-hosting-its-big-2016-convention-in-cleveland-2014-7">announced Tuesday</a> that it will be hosting its 2016 convention in Cleveland, Ohio.</p>
<p>Cleveland beat out Dallas for the honor, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus noted that Cleveland is "representative of a city eager to show the country all the fantastic things they have to offer."</p>
<p>Cleveland is great, but Ohio as a whole has a lot to offer, too.</p>
<p>Check out these 11 reasons why Ohio is a shining example of U.S. geography.</p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/13727804744/in/photolist-7Uq8KN-drNwaE-7Uq8KW-n1oyik-n1oytk-mV5A5G-7UdRrv-7UdRrk-7UdRrg-7UmZRn-7UmZRi-7UmZRr-7Uq8Km-7Uq8KL-5Q7qDr-4CejPP-99C6ES-7ftLrd-n1oy9x-4CejPH">Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM</a></span></p></div><p></p></div>1. Ohioans become president.</h2>
<p>Ohio and Virginia like to bicker about which state can claim the most U.S. presidents. If you consider birthplace, Virginia wins with eight. But looking at primary residence, Ohio comes out on top. Childhood is what really counts anyway.</p>
<p>No fewer than seven presidents call Ohio their home state. In chronological order, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding all grew up or made their lives in the Buckeye State. </p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Moody's Analytics</span></p></div><p></p></div>2. And when they don't, Ohio picks the president. </h2>
<p>Not unrelated to the last point, Ohio, known as a major swing state, plays an important role in national elections every four years.</p>
<p>Democrats almost always take California and New York, with their 55 and 29 electoral votes, respectively. And, naturally, 38 from Texas go to the Republicans. That's why Florida, 29, and Ohio, 18, matter so much.</p>
<p>In 2012, many publications predicted <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/11/20121156413868971.html">Mitt Romney couldn't win without Ohio</a>. He didn't - so he lost. But the Obama campaign <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/109821/obama-campaign-made-2012-election-all-about-ohio-start-heres-how-they-won-it">made the election all about Ohio</a>, and it clearly paid off.</p>
<h2>3. Ohioans love to swear. </h2>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Mike Nudelman/Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></h2>
<p>According to <a href="http://blog.marchex.com/2013/05/15/marchex-data-reveals-ohioans-curse-the-most-in-the-country-washingtonians-the-least/">rigorous analysis of phone calls</a> (probably with cable companies), Ohioans swear more than any other states' residents. Conducted in 2013 by Marchex, the data examined 60,000 recorded phone conversations over 12 months. </p>
<p>So this might not seem like a positive - but it is. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/study-swearing-is-healthy-2014-5">Swearing is f---ing good for you</a>. It helps people express pain and frustration, making us healthier and less violent. Dropping an f-bomb here and there could also help you at work. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/seanstonefield/2011/06/10/does-swearing-at-work-get-the-job-done/">A 2007 study out of the U.K.</a> found that swearing creates solidarity and bonding among coworkers and can signal authenticity and leadership to higher-ups.</p>
<h2>4. Ohio always denounced slavery.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/18378305@N00/7847966586/in/photolist-7hxqjP-4LU1oe-cXuT3J-7iwHXr-dajzrG-5D8Hpk-6i5Z7w">Flickr/Charlie Powell</a></span></p><p class="caption">Cleveland's St. John's Cathedral, the last stop on the Underground Railroad.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">In 1802, 63 years before the 13th Amendment, <a href="http://ww2.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/constitution/cnst1802.html">Ohio's Constitution</a> outlawed slavery. And even when including a clause to allow amendments, the creators specifically wrote Ohio would never, ever allow involuntarily servitude.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">On top of that, Ohio acted a crucial catalyst in the abolitionist movement in the North. John Brown, an abolitionist hanged for his radical beliefs, lived in Hudson, Ohio. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Cabin-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486440281">Uncle Tom's Cabin</a>," the quintessential novel decrying slavery, resided in Cincinnati. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">The state also contains many significant stops on the Underground Railroad, including St. John's Cathedral (shown above), also known as Station Hope, the last stop for fleeing slaves in Cleveland before reaching the ferry to Canada. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Many believe <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/OYTT-images/JMLangston.html">John Mercer Langston</a>, from Oberlin, to be the first publicly elected black official. </span></p>
<h2>5. Pro football was born in Ohio.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>WikiMedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div>Canton, Ohio, is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a reason - the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, <a href="http://www.profootballhof.com/hall/hof-history.aspx">was founded there</a> in 1920.</p>
<p>Before the NFL, <a href="http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/history/pdfs/History/2013/353-372-Chronology.pdf">pro football was a bit of a mess</a>. The teams weren't regulated enough and loyalty was lacking because players could jump from team to team based on whoever offered the highest salary. </p>
<p>So a few team representatives got together and held a meeting in a Canton auto showroom to establish the league. The NFL eventually grew to become <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/08/17/how-the-national-football-league-can-reach-25-billion-in-annual-revenues/">a multibillion-dollar powerhouse</a> and the most lucrative sports league in the world.</p>
<p>And the Pro Football Hall Of Fame will soon be even bigger and better than it is now. It's undergoing a two-year $27 million expansion and renovation as part of its 50th anniversary celebration.</p>
<h2>6. Ohio produces prominent athletes.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">We were all witnesses.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>LeBron James is far from the only famous athlete to get his talents from Ohio (even though he rudely took them somewhere else). Two-time World Series champion Roger Clemens was born in Ohio, and NFL quarterback Brady Quinn was one of the top high-school football players the country while he was a student in Dublin, Ohio.</p>
<p>Jack Nicklaus, one of the best golfers of all time, was born in a Columbus suburb and picked up the sport there.</p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div>7. Rock 'n' roll got its name there.</h2>
<p>Cleveland <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2010/08/rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame_and_4.html">is the rock 'n' roll capital of the world</a>, and it lobbied hard for the hall of fame when music-industry leaders were choosing a home for the museum.</p>
<p>And it makes sense that the Rock Hall would find a home in Cleveland. Without well-known Cleveland DJ Alan Freed, we might not have the term "rock 'n' roll" at all. <a href="http://rockhall.com/inductees/alan-freed/bio/">Freed first coined the phrase</a> as a way to describe the music he started playing on the radio in 1951. </p>
<p>On top of that, Cleveland radio station WMMS <a href="http://rockhall.com/pressroom/announcements/rock-hall-to-celebrate-wmms/">is credited with breaking major acts</a> such as David Bowie, Roxy Music, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen.</p>
<h2>8. Several famous musical acts hail from the Buckeye State.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/The_Black_Keys_at_MSG_3-22-12.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys call Nashville home.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>If you enjoy listening to the Black Keys, the Isley Brothers, Devo, Kid Cudi, John Legend, or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, you have Ohio to thank. All these artists either grew up in Ohio or got their starts there.</p>
<p>Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale <a href="http://www.kentwired.com/latest_updates/article_a8574f3c-990f-11e3-be05-001a4bcf6878.html">met at Kent State University</a>, where they were both art students, and formed Devo in 1976. John Legend grew up in Springfield, Ohio, and Kid Cudi <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2009/08/complexs-kid-cudi-cover-story-the-uncut-interview-outtakes">started rapping around his neighborhood</a> when he was 12.</p>
<h2>9. Ohioans made history in space.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Ohioans have contributed significantly to U.S. space missions - they've flown aboard most of NASA's major human space flight programs.</p>
<p>John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, were <a href="https://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/ProfileOhio/OhioAstronauts.aspx">both from Ohio</a>. The first American woman to walk in space, Kathryn D. Sullivan, is from Ohio.</p>
<p>On a related note, Ohio is called the Birthplace of Aviation (as our license plates show) because the Wright brothers grew up in Dayton. </p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr</span></p></div><p></p></div>10. Without Ohio, we wouldn't know the joy of hot dogs.</h2>
<p>Many historians credit Niles, Ohio, resident <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Hotdog?rec=2704">Harry Mosley Stevens</a> with inventing the hot dog, which he called "red hot dachshund sausages." Initially, they weren't even popular because people thought they contained real dog meat. But hot dogs soon became one of America's favorite snacks.</p>
<p>Minor technicality: Stevens may have moved to New York City before actually placing the dog in the bun. But we count him and his delicious creation as Ohio born-and-bred. </p>
<h2>11. Speaking of food - Swensons.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mandimaebe/5624442301/in/photolist-9z1JK8-dZbwtw-766Etj-762LHp-762Gga-762Nzk-7scLhn-dKmPxw-766H2S-8GiSmF-atmL8e-atmKZH-atppq5-766JPW-766Hbs-9uSiXN-7uHWRr-aw67vS-5pXTa7-aw3m7n-aw3pqR-8NzjMR-aw3jWH-aw3iMV-aw3qWz-762GZ4-aw3ojR-aw63ob-aw67Pd-aw3nLx-aw3mDT-aw3kvZ-aw5Yt3-aw66B3-aw3jpp-agg8ev-jXW7Q-jXW7S-dRLR36-52AVqT-dZ5P4z-dsDuyN-68MV8X-9S66s5-dCUZSc-766FWw-766Az3-766yZm-766P7N-762Sbg">Flickr/JEM</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>This drive-in burger joint, founded in 1934, has only seven locations across the state. Patrons just have to flash their headlights, and the waiters will run out with a menu, ready to take their order. </p>
<p>Voted as having the best burger in America in 1999 by Forbes, <a href="http://www.swensonsdriveins.com/">Swensons</a> is a northeast Ohio staple. If you've never had a Galley Boy, the signature menu item, we mourn for you. It's a double cheeseburger with mayo and barbecue sauce - for only $3.15. Potato teasers, essentially tater tots with cheese and jalapeno inside, are worthy of a trip themselves, too. </p>

The RNC Nailed It: Here Are 11 Reasons Why Ohio Is The Best State In The US

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Ever heard of the game, "<a href="http://deadspin.com/tag/ohio-or-florida">Ohio or Florida</a>?" </p>
<p>When a particularly ludicrous crime occurs, the internet likes to guess where it happened - Ohio or Florida. Needless to say, some states get bad raps. </p>
<p>Recently, The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-weeks-best-state-in-america-ohio-for-its-bureau-of-motor-vehicles/2014/05/16/c3f2f0ac-d9dd-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html">attempted to address this important misconception</a> about Ohio. The article claims Ohio wins the title of best state because 97% of DMV customers were satisfied with their experiences there. </p>
<p>Shenanigans.  </p>
<p>Highlighting one of the most hated government departments as Ohio's sole, redeeming quality ignores the state's cultural, economic, and historical importance.</p>
<p>Let's set the record straight. Read eleven <em>real</em> reasons why Ohio is a shining example of U.S. geography.</p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/auvet/13727804744/in/photolist-7Uq8KN-drNwaE-7Uq8KW-n1oyik-n1oytk-mV5A5G-7UdRrv-7UdRrk-7UdRrg-7UmZRn-7UmZRi-7UmZRr-7Uq8Km-7Uq8KL-5Q7qDr-4CejPP-99C6ES-7ftLrd-n1oy9x-4CejPH">Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM</a></span></p></div><p></p></div>1. Ohioans become President.</h2>
<p>Ohio and Virginia like to bicker about which state can claim the most U.S. presidents. If you consider birthplace, Virginia wins with eight. But looking at primary residence, Ohio comes out on top. Childhood is what really counts, anyway.</p>
<p>No less than seven presidents call Ohio their home state. In chronological order, William Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding all grew up or made their lives in the Buckeye State. </p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Moody's Analytics</span></p></div><p></p></div>2. And when they don't, Ohio picks the president. </h2>
<p>Not unrelated to the last point, Ohio, known as a major swing state, plays an important role in national elections every four years.</p>
<p>Democrats almost always take California and New York, with their 55 and 29 electoral votes, respectively. And naturally, 38 from Texas go to the Republicans. That's why Florida, 29, and Ohio, 18, matter so much: winning both essentially determines the next president.</p>
<p>In 2012, many publications predicted <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/11/20121156413868971.html">Mitt Romney couldn't win without Ohio</a>. He didn't - so he lost. But the Obama campaign <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/109821/obama-campaign-made-2012-election-all-about-ohio-start-heres-how-they-won-it">made the election all about Ohio</a>, and it clearly paid off.</p>
<h2>3. Ohioans love to swear. </h2>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Mike Nudelman/Business Insider</span></p></div><p></p></div></h2>
<p>According to <a href="http://blog.marchex.com/2013/05/15/marchex-data-reveals-ohioans-curse-the-most-in-the-country-washingtonians-the-least/">rigorous analysis of phone calls </a>(probably with cable companies), Ohioans swear more than any other states' residents. Conducted in 2013 by Marchex, the data examined 60,000 recorded phone conversations over the course of 12 months. </p>
<p>So this might not seem like a positive - but it is. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/study-swearing-is-healthy-2014-5">Swearing is f***ing good for you</a>. It helps people express pain and frustration, making us healthier and less violent. Dropping an f-bomb here and there could also help you at work. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/seanstonefield/2011/06/10/does-swearing-at-work-get-the-job-done/">A 2007 out of the UK</a> found that swearing creates solidarity and bonding among co-workers and can signal authenticity and leadership to higher-ups.</p>
<h2>4. Ohio always denounced slavery. </h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/18378305@N00/7847966586/in/photolist-7hxqjP-4LU1oe-cXuT3J-7iwHXr-dajzrG-5D8Hpk-6i5Z7w">Flickr/Charlie Powell</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">In 1802, 63 years before the 13th Amendment, <a href="http://ww2.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/ohgovernment/constitution/cnst1802.html">Ohio's Constitution</a> outlawed slavery. And even when including a clause to allow amendments, the creators specifically wrote Ohio would never, ever allow involuntarily servitude.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">On top of that, Ohio acted a crucial catalyst in the abolitionist movement in the North. John Brown, an abolitionist hanged for his radical beliefs, lived in Hudson, Ohio. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Cabin-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486440281">Uncle Tom's Cabin</a>," the quintessential novel decrying slavery, resided in Cincinnati. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">The state also contains many significant stops on the Underground Railroad, including St. John's Cathedral (shown above), also known as "Station Hope," the last stop for fleeing slaves Cleveland before reaching the ferry to Canada. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;"><a href="http://www.berea.edu/about/">Berea College</a> in Ohio was also the first interracial post-secondary establishment in the country. And many believe <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/OYTT-images/JMLangston.html">John Mercer Langston</a>, from Oberlin, to be the first publicly elected Black official. </span></p>
<h2>5. Pro football was born in Ohio.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>WikiMedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div>Canton, Ohio is home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a reason - the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, <a href="http://www.profootballhof.com/hall/hof-history.aspx">was founded there</a> in 1920.</p>
<p>Before the NFL, <a href="http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/history/pdfs/History/2013/353-372-Chronology.pdf">pro football was a bit of a mess</a>. The teams weren't regulated enough and loyalty was lacking because players could jump from team to team based on whoever offered the highest salary. </p>
<p>So a few team representatives got together and held a meeting in a Canton auto showroom to establish league. The NFL eventually grew to become <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/08/17/how-the-national-football-league-can-reach-25-billion-in-annual-revenues/">a multi-billion dollar powerhouse</a> and the most lucrative sports league in the world.</p>
<p>And the Pro Football Hall Of Fame will soon be even bigger and better than it is now. It's undergoing a two-year, $27 million dollar expansion and renovation as part of its 50th anniversary celebration.</p>
<h2>6. Ohio also produces prominent athletes.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">We were all witnesses.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>LeBron James is far from the only famous athlete to get his talents from Ohio (even though he rudely took them somewhere else).  Two-time World Series champion Roger Clemens was born in Ohio, and NFL quarterback Brady Quinn was one of the top high school football players the country while he was a student in Dublin, Ohio.</p>
<p>Jack Nicklaus, one of the best golfers of all time, was born in a Columbus suburb and picked up the sport there.</p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Wikimedia Commons</span></p></div><p></p></div>7. Rock 'n' Roll got its name here.</h2>
<p>Cleveland <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/popmusic/index.ssf/2010/08/rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame_and_4.html">is the rock 'n' roll capital of the world</a>, and it lobbied hard for the hall of fame when music industry leaders were choosing a home for the museum.</p>
<p>And it makes sense that the Rock Hall would find a home in Cleveland. Without well-known Cleveland DJ Alan Freed, we might not have the term "rock 'n' roll" at all. <a href="http://rockhall.com/inductees/alan-freed/bio/">Freed first coined the phrase</a> as a way to describe the music he started playing on the radio in 1951. </p>
<p>On top of that, Cleveland radio station WMMS <a href="http://rockhall.com/pressroom/announcements/rock-hall-to-celebrate-wmms/">is credited with breaking major acts</a> such as David Bowie, Roxy Music, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen.</p>
<h2>8. In fact, several famous musical acts hail from the Buckeye State.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/The_Black_Keys_at_MSG_3-22-12.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></p><p class="caption">Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys call Nashville home.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>If you enjoy listening to The Black Keys, The Isley Brothers, Devo, Kid Cudi, John Legend, or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, you have Ohio to thank. All of these artists either grew up in Ohio or got their starts there.</p>
<p>Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale <a href="http://www.kentwired.com/latest_updates/article_a8574f3c-990f-11e3-be05-001a4bcf6878.html">met at Kent State University</a>, where they were both art students, and formed Devo in 1976. John Legend grew up in Springfield, Ohio, and Kid Cudi <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2009/08/complexs-kid-cudi-cover-story-the-uncut-interview-outtakes">started rapping around his neighborhood</a> when he was 12.</p>
<h2>9. Ohioans made history in space.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>Ohioans have contributed significantly to U.S. space missions - they've flown aboard most of NASA's major human space flight programs.</p>
<p>John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, were <a href="https://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/ProfileOhio/OhioAstronauts.aspx">both from Ohio</a>. The first American woman to walk in space, Kathryn D. Sullivan, is also from Ohio.</p>
<p>On a related note, Ohio is called the "Birthplace of Aviation" (as our license plates show) because the Wright brothers grew up in Dayton. </p>
<h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr</span></p></div><p></p></div>10. Without Ohio, we wouldn't know the joy of hot dogs.</h2>
<p>Many historians credit Niles, Ohio resident <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Hotdog?rec=2704">Harry Mosley Stevens</a> with inventing the hot dog, which he called "red hot dachshund sausages." Initially, they weren't even popular because people thought they contained real dog meat. But hot dogs soon became one of America's favorite snacks.</p>
<p>Minor technicality - Stevens may have moved to New York City before actually placing the dog in the bun. But we count him and his delicious creation as Ohio born-and-bred. </p>
<h2>11. Speaking of food - Swensons.</h2>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mandimaebe/5624442301/in/photolist-9z1JK8-dZbwtw-766Etj-762LHp-762Gga-762Nzk-7scLhn-dKmPxw-766H2S-8GiSmF-atmL8e-atmKZH-atppq5-766JPW-766Hbs-9uSiXN-7uHWRr-aw67vS-5pXTa7-aw3m7n-aw3pqR-8NzjMR-aw3jWH-aw3iMV-aw3qWz-762GZ4-aw3ojR-aw63ob-aw67Pd-aw3nLx-aw3mDT-aw3kvZ-aw5Yt3-aw66B3-aw3jpp-agg8ev-jXW7Q-jXW7S-dRLR36-52AVqT-dZ5P4z-dsDuyN-68MV8X-9S66s5-dCUZSc-766FWw-766Az3-766yZm-766P7N-762Sbg">Flickr/JEM</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>This drive-in burger joint, founded in 1934, has only seven locations across the state. Patrons just have to flash their headlights, and the waiters will run out with a menu, ready to take your order. </p>
<p>Voted as having the best burger in America in 1999 by Forbes, <a href="http://www.swensonsdriveins.com/">Swensons</a> is a Northeast Ohio staple. If you've never had a Galley Boy, the signature menu item, we mourn for you. It's a double cheeseburger with mayo and barbecue sauce - for only $3.15. Potato teasers, essentially tater tots with cheese and jalapeno inside, are worthy of a trip themselves, too. </p>

11 Reasons Why Ohio Is The Best State In The Entire Country

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Snapchat website</p></div>SAN FRANCISCO, March 31 (Reuters) - Create personal profiles. Build networks of friends. Share photos, videos and music.</p>
<p>That might sound precisely like <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>, but hundreds of millions of tech-savvy young people have instead turned to a wave of smartphone-based messaging apps that are now sweeping across North America, Asia and Europe.</p>
<p>The hot apps include Kik and Whatsapp, both products of North American startups, as well as Kakao Inc's KakaoTalk, NHN Corp's LINE and Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat, which have blossomed in Asian markets.</p>
<p>Combining elements of text messaging and social networking, the apps provide a quick-fire way for smartphone users to trade everything from brief texts to flirtatious pictures to YouTube clips - bypassing both the SMS plans offered by wireless carriers and established social networks originally designed as websites.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc, with 1 billion users, remains by far the world's most popular website, and its stepped-up focus on mobile has made it the most-used smartphone app as well. Still, across Silicon Valley, investors and industry insiders say there is a possibility that the messaging apps could threaten Facebook's dominance over the next few years. The larger ones are even starting to emerge as full-blown "platforms" that can support third-party applications such as games.</p>
<p>To be sure, many of those who are using the new messaging apps remain on Facebook, indicating there is little immediate sign of the giant social media company losing its lock on the market. And at a press event this week, the company will unveil news relating to Android, the world's most popular smartphone operating system, which could include a new version of Android with deeper integration of Facebook messaging tools - or possibly even a Facebook-branded phone.</p>
<p>But the firms that can take over the messaging world should be able to make some big inroads, investors say.</p>
<p>"True interactions are conversational in nature," says Rich Miner, a partner at Google Ventures who invested in San Francisco-based MessageMe, a new entrant in the messaging market. "More people text and make phone calls than get on to social networks. If one company dominates the replacement of that traffic, then by definition that's very big."</p>
<p>Facebook spokespeople declined to comment for this article, citing this Thursday's planned announcement.</p>
<p>Facebook's big challenge is reeling back users like Jacob Robinson, a 15-year old high school student in Newcastle upon Tyne in the U.K., who said the Kik messaging app "blew up" among his friends about six months ago. It has remained the most-used app on his Android phone because it is the easiest way for him to send different kinds of multimedia for free, which he estimated he does about 200 times a day.</p>
<p>Robinson said he trades snapshots of his homework with friends while they stay up late studying for their exams - or not.</p>
<p>"We also stay up in bed with our phone all night, just on YouTube searching for funny videos, then you quickly share it with your friends," he added. "It's easy. You can flip in and out of Kik."</p>
<p>Facebook "has really started to lose its edge over here," said Robinson, who found his interactions on Facebook less interesting than his real-time chats.</p>
<p>Waterloo, Ontario-based Kik has racked up 40 million users since launching in 2010. Silicon Valley entrants in the race include Whatsapp, funded by Sequoia Capital, and MessageMe, launched earlier this month by a group of viral game makers. MessageMe has received seed-stage funding from True Ventures and First Round Capital, among others, and claimed 1 million downloads in its first week.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Asian companies are producing some of the fastest-growing apps in history. Tencent's WeChat boasts 400 million users - far more than Twitter, by way of comparison - while LINE and KakaoTalk claim 120 million and 80 million users, respectively. Both have laid the groundwork to expand into the U.S. market.</p>
<p>MOBILE WAVE</p>
<p>The growth in the messaging apps reflect the dramatic shift in Internet usage in recent years, as Web visits via desktop computers have stagnated while smartphone ownership and app downloads have skyrocketed.</p>
<p>Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has publicly called Facebook a "mobile company" to emphasize the company's priorities. Last year, he splashed $1 billion for photo-sharing app Instagram, which has remained red hot, while Facebook also launched its own Messenger app, offering a suite of smartphone communication tools.</p>
<p>Still, Facebook has also been forced to play defense. Earlier this year, the company cut off its data integration with a young startup called Snapchat and then mimicked its feature with a new messaging tool called Poke, which sends messages that self-destruct. It has also shut off its integration with messaging apps like MessageMe and Voxer.</p>
<p>At the same time, Facebook has also hired graphic artists to draw emoticons and graphics for Messenger that emulate features of the wildly popular Asian apps like LINE, according to people with knowledge of the matter.</p>
<p>Dave Morin, an early Facebook employee who left to found the "private" social network Path in 2010, said he recognized last summer the critical role of messaging functions in smartphone apps, and quickly began working to incorporate them.</p>
<p>Since Path released a new version of its app earlier this month, the number of Path's daily users has risen 15 percent, which Morin attributed to the new messaging features.</p>
<p>"What's the number one reason why people have this thing?" said Morin, holding up his iPhone. "It's to call, to text, to communicate."</p>
<p>Messaging, Morin added, is "the basis for the mobile social network."</p>
<p>PLATFORM THREAT</p>
<p>While established social networks move to incorporate messaging features, the new-wave messaging apps are looking to grow into social networking platforms that support a variety of features and enable innovations from outside developers.</p>
<p>"The tried and true approach for a social network is first you build a network, then you build apps on your own, then you open it up to third party developers," said Charles Hudson, a partner at early stage venture capital firm SoftTech VC.</p>
<p>The moves mirror Facebook's younger days, when its user growth and revenues were boosted by game publishers like Zynga Inc, which made popular games like FarmVille for the Facebook platform.</p>
<p>In the South Korean market, for instance, eight of the top ten highest grossing Android apps are games built on top of KakaoTalk. Tencent announced in November that it would introduce a mobile wallet feature enabling payment for goods with WeChat. And Tencent also makes money in China by using the app's location data to displaying nearby merchants' deals to potential customers.</p>
<p>If the messaging apps reach a certain scale, they could form networks that rival Facebook's "social graph," the network of user connections and activities that enable highly targeted delivery of content and advertising.</p>
<p>"The folks on your address book are very different from your Facebook friends and your LinkedIn contacts, and that's a natural place for a very powerful graph to be created," said Jim Goetz, a partner at Sequoia Capital.</p>
<p>Ted Livingston, the 25-year old chief executive of Kik, said he developed the capability for his service to support external features in November, and he plans to open the platform to outside developers in the near future.</p>
<p>Livingston said Kik and Whatsapp were "in a race to see who's the first to build a platform."</p>
<p>Whatsapp, which has been the most widely downloaded communication app for both iOS and Android in recent months, according to analysis firm App Annie, has been profitable by selling subscriptions to its service for $1 a year. Although it has remained mum about its platform plans, the company has been rumored to be in talks with Asian game publishers about hosting games, according to news reports in South Korea.</p>
<p>Goetz declined to address the reports, saying only that because it relied on a subscription business model, Whatsapp did not need to sell games or ads to make money.</p>
<p>Still, he said, the Whatsapp team "spends a lot of time thinking about the developer community."</p>
<p>DEAL POTENTIAL</p>
<p>Established social networking giants could also swoop in for the upstarts - and Facebook has demonstrated its appetite for acquisitions.</p>
<p>Indeed, investors are eyeing a round of potentially lucrative buyouts resembling the series of deals involving group messaging applications in 2011.</p>
<p>Facebook acquired group messaging app Beluga in March of that year, enlisting its founders to help build its own stand alone app, Messenger, which launched six months later.</p>
<p>In late 2010, First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, invested in GroupMe, a group messaging startup that was sold to Skype just fifteen months after it launched.</p>
<p>Kent Goldman, a First Round partner who has backed MessageMe, said it was unlikely that the market in the long term could support numerous independent messaging startups, which by their nature become more powerful as they grow larger.</p>
<p>"You don't want to be the smallest one when the music stops," he said.</p>
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