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[The Fateful Lightning]

Those of us who are Civil War Buffs and started our education in Elk County schools, may recall that the city of was named after a Civil War General named Howard.  The extent of our knowledge was embodied in the Wikipedia Page for Howard, Kansas; where there is a this single statement that in 1877 Howard was incorporated and named after Oliver O. Howard, a Union Army general during the Civil War, ..... 

I have to admit to no curiosity beyond that minimal fact until I read Jeff Shaara's, latest book, on the Civil War in the West; The Fateful Lightning.  Howard was one of Sherman's two corps commanders on that famous March to the Sea and there are more than 200 references to General Howard.  After finishing Fateful Lightning I went back and checked that embedded Wikipedia link.  This one hell of guy!

To get feel of what I discovered go to Amazon.com and find the book.  Take advantage of the Look Inside and in the Search Inside This Book search box. Enter Howard and the first 13 hits on page 7 - 11 of the print edition sets the stage for the rest of the book.

To those of you who have no interest in history my apologies for wasting your time. 

Regards
-=crl=-
Carl Leonard
leonarcrl@gmail.com

Okay you techies, hunters, night people etc.  Thought you might be interested in this. 
It is from the Consumer Electronics Show.
     
  "Thermal Imager For Smart Phone."

Regards
-=crl=-

Dammit Waldo  I'm a Civil War buff & I've made a hobby of the Kansas Regiments.  Now you have irritated the itch again and I'll waste another weekend wandering around through my sources. 
For purposes of illumination, for those who have no interest, but might be bored here are some links that may be interesting.

• History of Colored Troops in American Civil War
• First Kansas Volunteer Infantry (Colored)

-=crl=-
San Antonio

It's never ceases to amaze me how old threads can suddenly come back to life.  I hope the originator (Audrey Thompson?) of this thread finds your response and gives us another update on her search for Ruth Smith.  It has been over 3 years since Waldo's last entry

-=crl=-
San Antonio TX

Angie:  If you are doing Master's program research and you want/need to get into the trivia of how the Executive and Legislative branches are supposed to work I suggest the historical offices of the House and Senate.  I would focus on the Rules Committees of both houses.  But then I have a morbid interest in politics at the National Level.    I've used both of these sources to dig up factoids to "why do they do it that way?" that have niggled at me.  I suggest the Senate as a point of departure.

But if you are really, really, really, serious go to the Library of Congress On-line and push the control "Ask a Librarian". Just be ready with some pretty focused questions to ask. 

Regards
-=crl=-

Larry:
With enough encouragement, and a lot of help, I might be able to re-create Mary Ellen's 1993 tour of Howard on a Google map.  I think I can find most of the locations listed. Since I didn't come on the scene until 34 and essentially left in 57 there are a few faded memories that might be useful.

Any interest?

Whoee - Lot of passion on this subject.  
I have a recommendation that you make take and or discard.  Like some people here I was curious about what was out there that would give this non-religious Geezer some view past the noise to the real historical facts. I had attended a luncheon where Ambassador Ryan Crocker was the speaker.  You may remember he was the US Ambassador to Iraq when Gen. Petraeous was the military commander there.  They testified together before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees back in April 2008.  

Ambassador Crocker made an assertion that any westerner who deals with Muslims at the diplomatic level should be required to read; The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf. It is available on Amazon but if you want to get a feeling of what it is about, just Google for it. It is not a pleasant read for most westerners.  

In the Q/A another book was suggested, and that is my recommendation to anybody who interested in obtaining a little familiarity with Islam in a less heated atmosphere.  That book is Destiny Disrupted - A history of the world through Islamic eyes by Tamim Ansary. I listened the audio version and can say it is well worth the read.  The big take away is that there is more than one Islamic sect/tradition/faith and they cannot agree among themselves.  They may be even worse than us westerners in that regard.

Warph:  I normally lurk in the shadows as you and the other active participants of this forum carry on your discussions.  
In the interests of stirring the pot I've decided to post a couple of links that should kick this garbage can full of rocks down the road  

• The original Rolling Stone Article
• The Gates/Mullen press conference. Watch the video.  It's lengthy but worth it.

My take away from the Rolling Stone story was focused late in the story (Web Page 8 ) where the description of the General's attempt to
convince some of his troops that the strategy was right. They weren't buying it.

Now I'll go back into the shade and watch the words fly.

[Broadband Initiatives Program]

From the Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) included this in their news alert.
I'm sure that somebody in the area is following all opportunities to grab as much tax payer $$ as possible for Elk County.  Thought I'd give you a heads up since most people don't follow this particular niche.


Broadband Initiatives Program
May 07, 2010 (FIND, Inc. via COMTEX) -- SUMMARY: The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced its general policy and application procedures for the second round of funding under the broadband initiatives (the Second Round NOFA), established pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) for the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), on January 22, 2010 at 74 FR 3820. In that Second Round NOFA, RUS announced the opening of a future window for specific grants for Satellite, Rural Library Broadband, and Technical Assistance, and that any requirements would be outlined in the Request for Proposals (RFP). This RFP outlines those requirements.


BTW:  TMCs audience are the various bandits, leeches, whatever; that want to get paid for writing the grant applications.

[Patch Work Nation]

Warning!!!
Unless you have hours to waste stay away from this link to Patch Work Nation.  You may have seen this map used on various news shows since it came on-line as part of the Christian Science Monitor's tracking of the 2008 Presidential Election. 
The serious explanation from the home page follows

Patchwork Nation:
    * Divides the U.S. by county into 12 community types using demographic, political and socioeconomic data.
    * Tracks 24 representative communities to see how economic trends play out at the local level.
    * Analyzes national data by community type to give the big picture more context.

I am a map lover so maybe I'm a special case, but;  If you have a curiosity about things like  counties that have a Crackle Barrel restaurant overlayed with voters for Barack Obama or John Mclain then this  time waster is for you.