The Steve Lattimer Society
For the Advancement of All Things great
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Photoset reblogged from The Atlantic
In Focus: Lighting the 2012 Olympic Flame
Seven years after London was selected to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Flame is on its way to England. Earlier today in Greece, performers dressed as priests and priestesses gathered for a ceremony in Olympia, the ancient birthplace of the Olympic games, where they appealed to the sun god Apollo to light the flame with the help of a parabolic mirror. The Olympic flame was then passed to swimmer Spyros Gianniotis to begin a seven-day relay through Greece, followed by a flight to Great Britain, where it will begin a 70-day journey, changing hands 8,000 times on its way to London.
See more. [Images: AP, Reuters, Getty]
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Photoset reblogged from The Atlantic
huffpostcomedy: annamarie: While in Austin this past weekend John, Joe Mande and I found almost all the locations from Friday Night Lights. John did his Buddy Garrity impression for most of the tour, which may account for why Joe only joined us on the first day of sight seeing. Yes, we did spend two days doing this.
Texas forever.
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When I find out I’m having pizza for dinner.
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Photo reblogged from The Atlantic
![theatlantic:
Stonewall Jackson’s Arm Lies Here (And Has for 149 Years)
On this week in 1863, the celebrated Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was returning from a nighttime reconnaissance ride near Chancellorsville, Virginia, when he was mistakenly shot by his own camp’s picket guards. On May 2, Jackson’s wounded arm was amputated; Jackson’s chaplain, Beverley Tucker Lacy, buried it the next day in a nearby family graveyard. Seemingly on the mend, Stonewall Jackson was removed far behind the battle lines to recuperate at Fairfield Plantation, but his condition soon worsened. Stonewall Jackson died eight days later, on May 10, 1863, of pneumonia.
General Robert E. Lee assessed the gravity of the situation for himself and the army when he first heard of Jackson’s amputation. “William,” Lee declared to his cook, “I have lost my right arm. I’m bleeding at the heart.”
The spot where Jackson was shot is marked today by a large boulder, just behind the Chancellorsville battlefield visitor center, and the outbuilding at Fairfield plantation where Jackson died is known to this day as the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. His lost limb is buried in a graveyard off the main Chancellorsville battlefield, at what was then Ellwood Plantation. Among the unmarked graves of men and women, mothers and sons, there is one monument—to an arm.
Read more. [Image: U.S. Park Service]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3ertiymXf1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Stonewall Jackson’s Arm Lies Here (And Has for 149 Years)
On this week in 1863, the celebrated Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was returning from a nighttime reconnaissance ride near Chancellorsville, Virginia, when he was mistakenly shot by his own camp’s picket guards. On May 2, Jackson’s wounded arm was amputated; Jackson’s chaplain, Beverley Tucker Lacy, buried it the next day in a nearby family graveyard. Seemingly on the mend, Stonewall Jackson was removed far behind the battle lines to recuperate at Fairfield Plantation, but his condition soon worsened. Stonewall Jackson died eight days later, on May 10, 1863, of pneumonia.
General Robert E. Lee assessed the gravity of the situation for himself and the army when he first heard of Jackson’s amputation. “William,” Lee declared to his cook, “I have lost my right arm. I’m bleeding at the heart.”
The spot where Jackson was shot is marked today by a large boulder, just behind the Chancellorsville battlefield visitor center, and the outbuilding at Fairfield plantation where Jackson died is known to this day as the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. His lost limb is buried in a graveyard off the main Chancellorsville battlefield, at what was then Ellwood Plantation. Among the unmarked graves of men and women, mothers and sons, there is one monument—to an arm.
Read more. [Image: U.S. Park Service]
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Quote reblogged from Our PresidentsLet us never forget that we are the descendents of the greatest revolutionaries the world has ever known…
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
Law Day Ceremonies of the Virginia State Bar, 5/1/62It’s Law Day today.
(via ourpresidents)
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Photo reblogged from The Atlantic
![theatlantic:
This is the Memo That Killed Osama Bin Laden
If you can manage to decipher Leon Panetta’s chicken scratch, you too can read the final memo that launched the raid that killed America’s most hated enemy. The memo is part of Peter Bergen’s Time cover story on Osama bin Laden’s last days and Obama’s call to go ahead, despite Joe Biden and Robert Gates’ disapproval, with the Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden’s Abottabad complex. Here’s the transcription:
Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m33dl2kFGZ1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
This is the Memo That Killed Osama Bin Laden
If you can manage to decipher Leon Panetta’s chicken scratch, you too can read the final memo that launched the raid that killed America’s most hated enemy. The memo is part of Peter Bergen’s Time cover story on Osama bin Laden’s last days and Obama’s call to go ahead, despite Joe Biden and Robert Gates’ disapproval, with the Navy SEAL raid on bin Laden’s Abottabad complex. Here’s the transcription:
Received phone call from Tom Donilon who stated that the President made a decision with regard to AC1 [Abbottabad Compound 1]. The decision is to proceed with the assault. The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven’s hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out. Those instructions were conveyed to Admiral McRaven at approximately 10:45 am.
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Photoset reblogged from Lapham's Quarterly
Victor Hugo might have been running a bordello on the side…
Literary bedrooms…
1. Victor Hugo : Dark, rich and red - Hugo’s bedroom at his home on the Place de Vosges in Paris is all that you would expect from a writer heavily influenced by the Romanticism movement.
2. Ernest Hemingway: Light floods the Nobel Prize-winning author’s bedroom at his Key West home.
3. Flannery O’Connor: The author did most of her writing at the desk in her bedroom. The aluminum crutches were used to help her get around her parents’ dairy farm.
4. Sylvia Plath: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author stayed for several months at the Barbizon Hotel for Women. This image is taken from an advertisement for the hotel and suggests what Plath’s room may have looked like at that time.
5. Henry David Thoreau: Intent on simple living, Thoreau furnished his 10’x15’ home with only the necessary basics - a bed, a table, a desk, and three chairs.
6. Virginia Woolf : Full of details — the bookshelves house the author’s artful collection of books, many of which she recovered with colored paper.
7. Emily Dickinson: Most of the poet’s writing was done at a small writing table in her bedroom.
8. Marcel Proust: A victim of asthma and severe allergies, Proust’s bedroom was a masterwork in shelter and seclusion. All apertures were shielded or sealed, and the walls and ceiling were covered in cork to protect the author from the dust and noise of the outside world.
9. William Faulkner: More of an office with a bed — the Nobel prize-winning author outlined the plot of The Fable on the walls of the room and then shellacked his notes to preserve them.
10. Truman Capote: The author’s bedroom at his Hamptons beach house is simple, but elegant.
More here. -
Photo reblogged from awesome people hanging out together
awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:
Bill Nye the Science Guy and the Mythbusters
