What was Machu Picchu for? … Intricate revenge … Haiti’s new president … Al-Qaeda on the brink of collapse? … Alexander McQueen’s gift to his dogs.
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
2.Haiti’s new president lacks power base, disappoints voters Associated Press | July 26
“Haitian President Michel Martelly has styled himself as a man of the people, a showy former pop star who waded easily into adoring crowds. So the reception he received on his latest trip to his country’s north was a surprise: Protesters pelted his entourage with soft drink bottles and rocks.”
3.The ’27 Club’ — curse or myth? By Drew Grant | Salon.com | July 26
“Is Amy Winehouse the latest victim of the same force that killed Hendrix and Cobain? Experts weigh in.”
4.U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda on brink of collapse By Greg Miller | The Washington Post | July 26
“U.S. counterterrorism officials are increasingly convinced that the killing of Osama bin Laden and the toll of seven years of CIA drone strikes have pushed al-Qaeda to the brink of collapse.”
8.Alexander McQueen leaves $82,000 apiece to dogs Weird Wide Web :: GlobalPost | July 27
“Alexander McQueen, the fashion designer who committed suicide last year at the age of 40, willed $82,000 to each of his three English bull terriers, Juice, Minter, and Callum.”
9.14 Not-So-Fun Facts About Mosquitoes Surprising Science :: Smithsonian.com | July 27
“1 ) There are around 3,500 species of mosquitoes, but only a couple hundred feast on human blood.”
10.Elian Gonzalez Witness :: BBC News | June 28
“The little boy caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between Miami and Havana. When armed US agents stormed his relatives’ home in Miami a photographer, Alan Diaz, captured the fear on his face.”
A very wet universe … Celebrating Gordon Wood … A century of studying Machu Picchu … The sound of a paranoid Nixon … The unknown Rick Perry.
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
1.The High Road to Ruins By Andrew Berg | Intelligent Travel :: National Geographic | July 7
“[O]ne eco-minded outfitter is turning the Camino Salkantay, a backcountry route through unspoiled ecosystems and undisturbed hamlets, into the Next Inca Trail—and setting a new standard for sustainable tourism in the Andes.”
2.Machu Picchu, Before and After Excavation National Geographic Daily News | July 22
“The ruins of Machu Picchu are covered in jungle growth in this 1911 photograph taken when Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham first came to the site a century ago this week.”
3.Gordon S. Wood, Historian of the American Revolution By David Hackett Fischer | The New York Times Book Review | July 22
“More important than his productivity is the quality of his work, and its broad appeal to readers of the right, left and center — a rare and happy combination.”
4.New recordings a window into Nixon’s paranoia By Bill Plante | CBS News | July 21
“It’s no secret that Richard Nixon was obsessed with his enemies — but it turns out it started long before Watergate.”
6.More Fancy Words By Philip B. Corbett | Times Topics :: The New York Times | July 26
“The good news is that Times writers don’t feel the need to use the words panegyric, immiscible or Manichaean very often. That’s fortunate because the bad news is, when we do use them, a lot of readers don’t know what we’re talking about.”
7.Peru’s Garcia leaves conflicts unresolved By Carla Salazar | Associated Press | July 27
“Economic growth averaged 7 percent a year during his 2006-2011 administration, inflation held at less than 3 percent annually and the government amassed $47 billion in foreign reserves. The economic numbers only tell part the story, however.”
8.Black Hole Drinks 140 Trillion Earths’ Worth of Water By Michael D. Lemonick | Time | July 26
“We don’t think of the universe as a terribly wet place, but in fact, there’s water out in space pretty much everywhere you look.”
9.G.D. Spradlin, Prolific Character Actor, Dies at 90 By Douglas Martin | The New York Times | July 26
“In ‘The Godfather: Part II’ (1974) he played Pat Geary, the corrupt United States senator who defies the Mafia boss Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, telling Corleone he intends to ‘squeeze’ him.”
10.President Kennedy’s Visit to Ireland Witness :: BBC News | June 27
“The Irish author Colm Toibin remembers President Kennedy returning to the land of his forefathers and being taken to the nation’s heart as if he were one of its own.”
As the bodies from the Battle of Bull Run were buried and the fog of war dissipated, people in the North and the South stared ahead into uncertain, violent futures.
As the bodies from the Battle of Bull Run were buried and the fog of war dissipated, people in the North and the South stared ahead into uncertain, violent futures. “It seemed,” E.B. Long writes, “that the battle in Virginia had ended one phase of the war or started another.”
MEMORANDA OF MILITARY POLICY SUGGESTED BY THE BULL RUN DEFEAT
JULY 23, 1861
1. Let the plan for making the blockade effective be pushed forward with all possible despatch.
2. Let the volunteer forces at Fort Monroe and vicinity under General Butler be constantly drilled, disciplined, and instructed without more for the present.
3. Let Baltimore be held as now, with a gentle but firm and certain hand.
4. Let the force now under Patterson or Banks be strengthened and made secure in its position.
5. Let the forces in Western Virginia act till further orders according to instructions or orders from General McClellan.
6. [Let] General Fremont push forward his organization and operations in the West as rapidly as possible, giving rather special attention to Missouri.
7. Let the forces late before Manassas, except the three-months men, be reorganized as rapidly as possible in their camps here and about Arlington.
8. Let the three-months forces who decline to enter the longer service be discharged as rapidly as circumstances will permit.
9. Let the new volunteer forces be brought forward as fast as possible, and especially into the camps on the two sides of the river here.
When the foregoing shall be substantially attended to:
1. Let Manassas Junction (or some point on one or other of the railroads near it) and Strasburg be seized, and permanently held, with an open line from Washington to Manassas, and an open line from Harper’s Ferry to Strasburg the military men to find the way of doing these.
2. This done, a joint movement from Cairo on Memphis; and from Cincinnati on East Tennessee.
With this memo, Long writes, Lincoln was “firmly standing and preparing for increased war.”
Works cited and consulted:
— Lincoln, Abraham. Speeches and Writings: 1859-1865. Ed. Don E. Fehrenbacher. Vol. 2. New York: The Library of America, 1989. 262-263. Print.
— Long, E.B. and Barbara Long. The Civil War: Day by Day. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971. 100. Print.
— McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York: Oxford UP. 1988. Print.
In the long run, Bull Run was merely a tactical victory for the South. More importantly, it was the psychological defeat the North needed for its people and its leaders to truly comprehend what was necessary to achieve true and complete victory over the Confederacy.
'Capture of Ricketts' Battery' by Sidney E. King
The brutal Texas heat has kept me indoors for most of the weekend, and there’s no better place to lounge away the summer hours than in the long, cool shadows of my Civil War library. Recollections and histories of the Civil War’s first major battle have dominated my recent reading.
This week in 1861, on July 21, the Battle of Bull Run — or the Battle of Manassas, as Confederates called it — was fought just southwest of Washington, D.C. (we add “First” to each version of the name because there was a second battle in the general area 13 months later). I won’t get into the actual play-by-play of the fight because one of my favorite Civil War historians, Gary W. Gallagher, has already taken care of that with a piece on the New York TimesDisunion blog. I strongly encourage all of you to check it out. It’s a great account of a fascinating battle.
A good companion piece to Gallagher’s introduction comes from the Civil War Trust, which put together a pretty good online package that includes narration, placing the fight in its historical context and animating the military manuveurs, recommending reading, slideshows showing the battlefield today and video chats with historians. Also check out the magnificent Bull Runnings, a blog and digital archive that has collected diaries, biographies, articles on the battle, slideshows of the battlefield, unit histories and much more.
On the news side, the Associated Press produced an interactive feature on the war and published some interesting pieces on the Manassas battle on its Facebook page. Finally, the Washington Post reported earlier today that re-enactors re-fought the battle in Virginia.
Tactically, as Gallagher explains, the battle was a mess, especially once the Confederates struck the Federal army for the last time. The Union’s front lines broke, and any sense of military cohesion collapsed. In “Battle Cry of Freedom,” James McPherson wrote that “the men on both sides fought surprisingly well. But lack of experience prevented northern officers from coordinating simultaneous assaults by different regiments.”
In “The Coming Fury,” Bruce Catton agreed, writing that [Union commander Irvin McDowell] and his officers did their best to reorganize the men and make a stand, but the effort was hopeless. These untrained regiments had simply been used beyond their capacity and they had fallen apart.” Wounded men, stragglers, and exhausted and frightened troops flowed northward, away from the battlefield, coursing through the lines of civilians that had come south to watch the battle. Wild rumors that the Confederates were about to pounce on the retreating masses for one final massacre spread panic like wildfire, turning the lurching and limping into a stampede.
William Howard Russell, writing for The Times of London, remembered that as he watched the northerners stagger from the battlefield he “felt an inclination to laugh, which was overcome by disgust, and by that vague sense of something extraordinary taking place which is experienced when a man sees a number of people acting as if driven by some unknown terror.” Mired in the chaotic traffic jams, Russell simply didn’t appreciate the totality of the Union military disaster on July 21.
Heavy rain drenched the region in the days after the fight but it did little to dampen Southern excitement. Confederate officer Lafayette McLaws wrote on the 23rd, “The news from Manassas is so very glorious that I cannot believe all that is told. It seems a dream only, to think of our army meeting with such extraordinary success.” Word of the Southern victory reached Louisiana a few days after the battle, and a pleased Kate Stone recorded the news in her diary: “[O]ur side victorious, of course. … It was gallantly fought and won.” And Mary Chesnut, writing from Richmond, remembered the extra little thrill, above and beyond the martial glee she already felt, when someone showed her letters a Union soldier left behind on the battlefield: “[W]hat a comfort the spelling was! We were willing to admit the Yankees’ universal free school education puts them ahead of us in a literary way of speaking, but these letters do not attest that fact. The spelling is comically bad. …”
In Shelby Foote’s first volume of “The Civil War: A Narrative,” he wrote that the Battle of Bull Run afforded Southerners the reassurance “that the Yankees had been shown for once and for all. The war was won. Independence was a fact beyond all doubt. Even the casualty lists, the source of their sorrow, reinforced their conviction of superiority to anything the North could bring against them.”
As quoted in McPherson’s “Battle Cry of Freedom,” the Richmond Whig newspaper had perhaps the most magnificently pompous reaction to the battle’s outcome: “The breakdown of the Yankee race, their unfitness for empire, forces dominion on the South. We are compelled to take the sceptre of power. We must adapt ourselves to our new destiny.”
David Herbert Donald, in “Lincoln,” wrote that the “next day, Lincoln began to assess the damage. He learned that many [Federal] troops had fought bravely and well. … [Most] of the volunteer Union regiments had retreated in good order, and the demoralized mob described by so many witnesses was largely composed of teamsters, onlookers and ninety-day troops whose terms of enlistment were about to expire. The army was defeated but not crushed. …”
The president, Donald wrote, visited soldiers stationed in forts protecting Washington D.C., publicly reassuring them they would be well-supplied while privately realizing that they were not well led. Irvin McDowell was not going to work out. Lincoln saw a flicker of fresh hope in a new commanding general: George B. McClellan.
In the days following the Union defeat, McPherson concludes, the psychological impact “on the North was not defeatism but renewed determination.” As northern newspapers published defiant editorials, Lincoln signed legislation authorizing the enlistment of one million men into the Federal armies. More men would be equipped, trained, armed and sent south.
In the long run, Bull Run was merely a tactical victory for the South. More importantly, it was the psychological defeat the North needed for its people and its leaders to comprehend what was necessary to achieve complete victory over the Confederacy.
A tropical Antarctica … Cuban gossip … A sunken island in the Atlantic … The generalship of U.S. Grant … Sex in a mosque.
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
1.Sex in mosque riles angry mob By Patrick Winn | The Rice Bowl :: GlobalPost | July 18
“Villagers swarm mosque after teen couple discovered undressed in bathroom”
2.A City Steeped in Picasso’s Lore By Raphael Minder | The New York Times | July 19
“Málaga hardly featured in Picasso’s adult life, but the city has still done its utmost to call attention to its claim to its most famous artist.”
3.An Asteroid So Big It Has Its Own Moon By Alexis Landis | SkyTalk :: WHYY Radio | July 18
“Four years into its mission The Dawn Space Craft is orbiting an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The craft is orbiting the 330 mile long asteroid to collect data.”
4.Rick Perry Says He Has No Interest In VP Slot By Jay Root | The Texas Tribune | July 19
“John Nance Garner, the colorful West Texas politician known as ‘Cactus Jack,’ used to say the office of vice-president ‘wasn’t worth a warm bucket of piss.’ ”
5.The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant and the American Civil War By Richard J. Sommers | U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center
The lecture “analyzes the generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, identifies his many strengths as a military commander, and yet also acknowledges limitations in his leadership.”
6.Inside Rebekah Brooks’ News of the World By Georgina Prodhan and Kate Holton | Reuters | July 16
“‘It was the kind of place you get out of and you never want to go back again.’ That’s how one former reporter describes the News of the World newsroom under editor Rebekah Brooks, the ferociously ambitious titian-haired executive who ran Britain’s top-selling Sunday tabloid from 2000 to 2003.”
7.Giant lost island found on Atlantic seafloor By Tim Wall | Discovery News | July 18
“The island was created when the Icelandic Plume, a bubble of magma beneath the Earth’s surface, forced the crust up and out of the water. The land was forced up in a series of three steps, each one pushing the land 200-400 meters higher. ”
8.The Cuban Grapevine By James Scudamore | More Intelligent Life | Summer 2011
“Today, in a nation where the only official media are state-controlled, Radio Bemba has become shorthand for the word-of-mouth information network, which is by far the quickest (and often the most reliable) way to find out about anything from baseball chat to celebrity gossip to news of the latest defection to the United States.”
9.When Antarctica was a tropical paradise By Robin McKie | The Observer | July 17
“Geological drilling under Antarctica suggests the polar region has seen global warming before”
10.Secret war in Yemen Witness :: BBC News | June 29
“In the 1960s British mercenaries joined the fighting in Yemen’s civil war. They trained local tribesmen to fight against Egyptian troops. Their activities were never officially sanctioned by the British government.”
One of my guiding principles is that we’re all capable of self-improvement at any age, particularly intellectual self-improvement. Sometimes that faith is the only thing that enables me to sleep through the night and get out of bed in the morning.
That’s Latin for “universal man” or “man of the world,” if Wikipedia can be relied on for a proper translation.
I glide through a small, comfortable life — trying not to bother anyone, trying to be pleasant and polite, non-judgmental and sympathetic, charming and humble, trying to be intellectually honest and self-aware of my limits and flaws, every day edging closer to fulfilling all my ambitions.
One of my guiding principles is that we’re all capable of self-improvement at any age, particularly intellectual self-improvement. Sometimes that faith is the only thing that enables me to sleep through the night and get out of bed in the morning. I’ve always been blessed with a hunger for knowledge, a curiosity that often flares into full-blown passion for new arenas of experience, a curiosity perhaps sparked by a bittersweet frustration that I don’t know as much about literature, science, mathematics, history and culture as I think I should.
Perhaps that’s why I’ve always embraced wholeheartedly people like Theodore Roosevelt and Michelangelo, those who lived their lives desperately hungry for more of the world to absorb into their hearts and minds, constantly reaching out to make more of it their own.
A friend once called me a polymath. Other friends have called me a Renaissance man. I politely laughed off both compliments. I’m certainly no genius. I’d hardly consider myself intelligent, compared to the accomplishments and capabilities of the other men and women in my life.
As I understand it, polymaths and Renaissance men and women possess an immensity of talent to complement that fiery passion to achieve great things in multiple fields, professions, etc. As my quiet life sadly illustrates — in which I’ve been not much more than a minor writer, historian, editor, painter and arts critic — I have very much of the latter and very little of the former.
Perhaps later life will prove otherwise, as I’m slowly exploring how to become a proper pianist, an amateur boxer, an effective apiarist and gardener, an expert numismatist and philatelist, a stellar professor of American Civil War and Roman and Spanish imperial history, a sympathetic and effective psychologist, an historical novelist, a decent speaker, writer and translator of Spanish and Latin, and a less-than-atrocious golfer, photographer, and salsa dancer. My mandate is to be more than a simple-minded, well-meaning hobbyist.
But if none of that works out, perhaps this particular man of the world will be content being someone who’s fun to spend time with, whose passion for history is inspiring, whose writing makes the heart soar, who’s always interesting, always relaxing, always enriching. Always happy.
I’d settle for that last one, above and beyond all the rest.
America’s eternal connection to France … Emmy’s snubbing of ‘Treme’ … The debt ceiling debate … Print out some solar panels … The Afghan power vacuum.
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
1.Did CIA’s Fake Vaccine Drive Undermine Global Health Efforts? The Takeaway | July 13
“Reports are emerging that the C.I.A. used a fake vaccination drive in Pakistan to gather intelligence on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, prior to the May 1 raid where the Al Qaida leader was killed.”
2.Where Would Hemingway Go? Room for Debate :: The New York Times | July 13
“Which city is the dynamic center in Europe?”
3.What It Means: the Debt Ceiling and You By Robert Ray | Associated Press | July 13
“If you think the last few days have been tumultuous for markets, just watch as August 2 approaches. The United States faces a trove of issues if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.”
4.Hit ‘Print’ for Solar Panels Egocentric :: Time | July 13
“According to a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, it’s now possible to print photovoltaic cells on paper almost as you would a document — and almost as cheaply too.”
5.The Navy’s Green Devices: Coming to a Store Near You? By Lucy Flood | The Atlantic | July 11
“As the military commits itself to going green, it’s supporting innovations that could ultimately help American consumers save energy”
6.‘Treme,’ a winning show, suffers Emmy neglect By Lynette Rice | Inside TV :: Entertainment Weekly | July 14
“‘Treme’ is easily among the best drama series on the air, and takes a backseat to no show for the breadth and excellence of its cast. One more thing that makes ‘Treme’ praiseworthy: its uniqueness.”
7.Egypt: How to build a camp in Tahrir Square By Jon Jensen | The Casbah :: GlobalPost | July 14
“A day in the life of Cairo’s Tahrir Square sit-in – which is now entering its seventh day.”
8.Vive la Similarité By David McCullough | The New York Times | July 13
“Though we will probably never see a Bastille Day when French flags fly along Main Street and strains of ‘La Marseillaise’ fill the airwaves, July 14 would not go so largely unobserved here were we better served by memory. For the ties that bind America and France are more important and infinitely more interesting than most of us know.”
9.Afghanistan’s dangerous power vacuum By Ben Brody | GlobalPost | July 14
“The most powerful man in Kandahar is gone. But Afghans say their real worry is the departure of US troops.”
10.Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the USA Witness :: BBC News | July 5
“In 1985 the Royal couple made their first joint visit to America. The highlight of the tour was a gala dinner at the White House where the young Princess danced with John Travolta.”
TUNES
Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.
1. Bluessmyth — Rosemary’s Blues 2. Michael K’s Rumble Pack — Black Cadillac 3. Los Lonely Boys — Dime Mi Amor 4. Delbert McClinton — Standing On Shaky Ground 5. Billy Joe Shaver & Son Eddy — Step On Up 6. Susan Tedeschi — Voodoo Woman 7. Delta Moon — Lap Dog 8. Too Slim & The Taildraggers — The Fortune Teller 9. Bleu Edmondson — 50 Dollars & A Flask Of Crown 10. Carolyn Wonderland — Misunderstood 11. Frank Gomez — In The Moon Light 12. Allan Haynes — Here In The Dark 13. Jewel — Sweet Home Alabama
A plan for a modern Army … E.B. White and ‘Charlotte’s Web’ … Tacitus and Germania … Lenny Kravitz answers questions … a Japanese super submarine.
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
1.Venezuelans ponder life without Chavez By Jack Chang | Associated Press | July 6
“Talk about [President Hugo] Chavez’s future is buzzing across [capital city Caracas], as newspapers, radio programs and conversations on the street weigh questions of succession and the fate of Chavez’s socialist-inspired Bolivarian Revolution.”
2.Women re-enact Civil War as men, quite accurately By David Dishneau | Associated Press | July 6
“A century and a half ago, women weren’t allowed into military service; masquerading as men was the only way in for those who weren’t satisfied with supporting the war effort from home or following their husbands’ military units around.”
3.An interview with Ollanta Humala, Peru’s president-elect By Lally Weymouth | The Washington Post | July 8
“Peru has changed. It is no longer the Peru of 2005. It is the Peru of 2011, and it is different from when I campaigned in 2005. Obviously, we politicians have to adapt to these changes.”
4.Japanese SuperSub Secrets of the Dead :: PBS
“With missions to attack U.S. cities and blow up the Panama Canal, the aircraft carrier submarine had the potential to change the course of the war in the Pacific.”
5.Q&A: Lenny Kravitz By Matt Hendrickson | Details | August 2011
“After more than two decades, Lenny Kravitz, 47, hasn’t shed the trappings of rock stardom — even if it’s his daughter who’s wearing the boas now.”
6.The Idea of Germany, From Tacitus to Hitler By Cullen Murphy | New York Times Book Review | June 10
“As described by the Roman historian Tacitus, three Roman legions led by Quinctilius Varus had crossed the Rhine from Gaul, intent on incorporating the vast area known as Germania into the empire. They were ambushed and annihilated by German tribes under the command of a warrior named Arminius. It was one of the worst military disasters the Romans ever suffered.”
7.Army releases modernization plan By Brian Gebhart | Army.mil | July 7
“The goal of the Strategy to Equip the Army in the 21st century is to develop and provide an affordable and versatile mix of the best equipment available to Soldiers and units to succeed in current and future military operations.”
8.How E.B. White Wove Charlotte’s Webb By Chloe Schama | Smithsonian.com | June 3
“A new book explores how the author of the beloved children’s book was inspired by his love for nature and animals.”
9.Is Sex Dead? By Tom Matlack | The Good Men Project | July 10
“I keep hearing about the complex calculus of how and when these guys might get some action, when it will be withheld, and the rules of passionate engagement for married men in 2011.”
10.Ron Kovic – Ex US Marine and peace activist Witness :: BBC News | July 4
“Alan Johnston talks to the former US Marine and peace activist Ron Kovic about two moments that changed his life forever – one on the battlefield, and one at anti-war protest in Washington.”
Coverage of the Caylee case … Searching for Cleopatra … Diseases that plagued George Washington … A long Arab summer … Remembering the Piper Alpha explosion.
Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism. Read past recommendations from this series here.
1.Caylee & Brisenia: Why the Difference in Coverage? By Victor Landa | NewsTaco | July 6
“When was the last time you heard Nancy Grace rail obnoxiously from the television screen about the murder of Brisenia Flores?”
2.The Search for Cleopatra By Chip Brown | National Geographic | July 2011
“Archaeologists search for the true face — and the burial place — of the ‘world’s first celebrity.’ ”
3.Researcher IDs Remains Of Unknown Civil War Soldier By Edgar Treiguts | NPR | July 4
“Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died on Civil War battlefields. Many of the fallen were moved and buried in national cemeteries. But some lie in unmarked graves on the fields where they died. Edgar Treiguts of Georgia Public Broadcasting brings us this story on an effort to identify one soldier. ”
4.Divorce ceremonies pick up in Japan after disaster Reuters | July 4
“Ceremonies to celebrate divorces have gained momentum in Japan after the massive March earthquake and tsunami, followed by an ongoing nuclear crisis, caused unhappy couples to reassess their lives.”
5.The 9 Deadly Diseases That Plagued George Washington By Jason Kane | The Rundown :: PBS NewsHour | July 4
“Tuberculosis. Malaria. Smallpox. Dysentery. Some of the deadliest ailments of the 18th century attacked him early and often.”
6.Entrepreneur’s plan converts wind into jobs By Mike D. Smith | Corpus Christi Caller-Times | July 4
“Big. Loud. Unsightly. Those are some of the negatives hurled out about the turbines powering the wind energy industry. … Byron Loftin, chief executive officer of 3eWerks Inc. … not only thinks he’s found the product that quells all those worries, but he said in a few years he will have a local facility building them.”
7.The Arab Spring Has Given Way to a Long, Hot Summer By Richard Haass | Council on Foreign Relations | July 6
“Looked at more broadly, the stalling of the Arab spring has both revealed and widened the breach between the US and Saudi Arabia.”
8.Military Suicide Condolence Letters: White House Lifts Ban Associated Press and the Hiuffington Post | July 6
“The White House says that families of service members who commit suicide while deployed abroad are now getting condolence letters from the president just like families of troops who die in other ways.”
9.Platon and the many faces of world power By Emily Kasriel | The Guardian | July 6
“Photographer Platon’s new collection of images, ‘Power,’ published by Chronicle Books, provides glimpses of what lies behind world leaders’ carefully constructed auras”
10.Piper Alpha Witness :: BBC News | July 6
“We hear from a survivor from the 1988 Piper Alpha oil rig disaster that killed 167 people.”
Stillness of Heart 
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