- Uncovering a stockade and dozens of personal artifacts belonging to Union prisoners is a good day, right? That find occurred in rural Georgia over the weekend, as the remains of the Confederacy's Camp Lawton, which replaced the infamous and overcrowded Andersonville prison in fall 1864. For nearly a century and a half, its exact location was not known. Now, that location has been discovered and it’s being hailed as one of the biggest archaeological Civil War finds in decades. Federal and Georgia officials confirmed the find Monday, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Southern University all in on the fun. The last of those three was involved because Georgia Southern students earlier this year began their search at a state park and federal fish hatchery for evidence of the camp’s wall timbers and interior buildings. "Archaeologists call it one of the most significant Civil War discoveries in decades," a joint statement read. However, that’s all officials would give up until the formal announcement Wednesday morning at Magnolia Springs State Park, five miles north of Millen in southeast Georgia. After the announcement, the public will be able to enjoy an open house. They can see what Lawton looks like now and perhaps try to imagine the "foul and fetid" atmosphere that once existed at the camp. Though it was only open for six weeks, between 725 and 1,330 men died at the prison camp. It occupied 42 acres and was home to 10,000 men before being hastily closed when Union forces approached. Speculation that the site had been found had increased rapidly over the past few weeks after a locked chain-linked fence went up around the hatchery adjoining the state park. While anxious history buffs await the official announcement, rumors about what items exist among the camp’s remains run wild, ranging from a chest with important papers, gold, a burial trench and even Union Gen. William Sherman's horse. No photos of the camp exist and the only known images of the facility come from a Union mapmaker who painted some watercolors of the prison and kept a 5,000-page journal that detailed the misery at Camp Lawton. "The weather has been rainy and cold at nights," Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden, who was previously imprisoned at Andersonville, wrote in his diary on Nov. 1, 1864. "Many prisoners have died from exposure, as not more than half of us have any shelter but a blanket propped upon sticks. . . . Our rations have grown smaller in bulk too, and we have the same hunger as of old." The camp was closed ahead of the encroaching Union forces led by Gen. Sherman as he began his flammable torment of the Confederacy. Prisoners were moved to places such as Florence, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. When Union troops found the remains of the prison, they angrily burned much of the stockade and the camp buildings, and a depot and a hotel in Millen, which was a transportation hub of the time. With the discovery of the camp’s original site, visitors will now have a chance to learn more about what life was like at the camp and hopefully grasp the truth that war is indeed hell a little bit more firmly………
- Brace yourself for some shocking news: A new study that says men are more likely to cheat on women who earn more money than them. Researchers found that men who are completely economically dependent on their female partners are five times more likely to cheat than men in relationships with women who earned similar amounts. Stunning news, I know. After all, who would expect that a guy who married a wealthier woman would be anything less than committed to his lady? No guy would ever marry a rich woman just for her money and not truly love her, right? Umm, wrong. Methinks that the study's author, Christin Munsch, a sociology Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, and her research team spent a whole lot of time and money “researching” something we already knew. Of course, celebrity couples like Jesse James and Sandra Bullock certainly inspired the research to some extent, but the trend isn’t exclusive to the über-wealthy. Munsch and her team found the trend applies across the board while taking into account several variables that may cause a man to cheat on a female partner who makes more money. "For example, it may be that men who make less money than their partners are more unhappy and cheat because they are unhappy, not necessarily because they make less money," Munsch said. However, she cautioned that reversing the roles doesn’t guarantee that men will be faithful, as a man who makes significantly more money than his girlfriend or wife is also more likely to cheat because the job or position he works may have to long work hours and travel, thus creating a more facilitating environment for cheating. Of course, my argument that people (men or women) who marry someone infinitely wealthier than they are can often be marrying for money over love would trump all of that, but never allow sound logic to triumph over scientific research. Another seemingly obvious conclusion to come out of this study was that women who depended on their male partners for money were half as likely to cheat as women who made the same amount as their male partner. "For women, making less money than a male partner is not threatening, it is the status quo," Munsch said. "More importantly, economically dependent women may encounter fewer opportunities to cheat, and they may make a calculated decision that cheating just isn't worth it. If they get caught, their livelihood is at risk." All of this begs the question of what financial situation would make men more likely to remain faithful to their spouse and the answer, in Munsch’s research, is for a woman to make about 75 percent of her man’s income. This study of seemingly obvious things was released at the nonstop kegger also known as the American Sociological Association's 105th annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Should you want to track down a copy of this study for yourself, it is officially "The Effect of Relative Income Disparity on Infidelity for Men and Women" and rest assured, it’s a page-turner…….
- The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Darfur has become such a popular cause for celebrities to support and raise money for that the general public has almost become tired of hearing about it and tuned it out. That’s troubling because the situation isn’t getting any better and help is still very much needed. Perhaps nothing illustrates this point more clearly than the situation currently going on in a Darfur refugee camp that has been closed for nearly two weeks, limiting access to 80,000 displaced people. The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (try fitting that on a business card) John Holmes has been lobbying Sudan to allow aid workers into the camp, but to no avail thus far. Sudanese authorities prevented aid agencies from entering Kalma camp and its surrounding areas after violence broke out earlier this month, which might make sense on some level but is ultimately a bad decision. The closure came amidst conflicting messages that restrictions had not been imposed. "I am extremely concerned about the welfare of the IDPs at Kalma camp, to whom we have not been able to deliver relief for 13 days," Holmes said Friday. "Deliveries of food and fuel for water pumps have for example not been possible. Sanitation is also a major concern as it is the middle of the rainy season. Many thousands of IDPs from Kalma remain unaccounted for." Not allowing aid groups and agencies into the camp is incredibly bad for Darfuris who live at the camp, as they rely on aid groups for food, water, health, nutritional support and shelter. The camp was also the site of massive protests last week as thousands of displaced Darfuris took to the streets to protest what they deemed unrepresentation in the latest round of peace talks in Qatar. Sudanese official remain in a standoff with the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force, UNAMID, over demands to hand over six local leaders who sought protection with the peacekeepers. Without the promise of a fair trial for those leaders, UNAMID refuses to comply with that request. It’s not a great time for aid groups in Darfur, as 11 of them were expelled from the region last year and two staff members from the International Organization for Migration were also expelled last month. "The United Nations has been in close contact with the relevant Sudanese authorities to restore access to both Kalma and Eastern Jebel Marra, but until today progress has not been forthcoming," Holmes said. "If access is not urgently restored, the situation risks deteriorating rapidly." That’s the last thing the region needs, as it continues to be one of the most unlivable, unstable and dangerous places in the world, with some of the worst living conditions imaginable for people trying to survive in a war-torn region………
- Dorks, I hope you were in Orlando, Florida this past weekend, because if you weren’t, you missed out on something that your dork buddies will be talking about in reverent tones for years to come. For it was in Orlando, at the Star Wars Celebration V, that your demigod George Lucas and some of his pals, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, introduced a never-before-seen deleted scene from Return of the Jedi, the third installment in the original trilogy. Some of the scene has found its way online, but seeing it secondhand just isn’t going to give you as much dork cred as being one of the first to see it. In the scene, Luke Skywalker gets introduced into the movie differently than he did in the movie’s final cut. Instead of entering the story after Princess Leia’s failed attempt to rescue Han Solo from Jabba’s palace, Lucas concocted a scene in which Luke, his face partially obscured by his dark hood, finished work on his new lightsaber and placed it inside R2-D2′s domed head. That would have set up a lot of what happened in the move very differently, but the scene didn’t make the final cut. Also in the scene, Darth Vader retires to his meditation chamber and tries to psychically summon his son. “Luke, join me on the dark side of The Force. It is the only way. Luuuuuuuke… Luuuuuuuuke…” Sounds a bit cheesy, no? Of course, that’s examining the scene in hindsight and at the time, it could have been just unsettling and eerie enough to set a better tone for the movie. Given the less-than-dark vibe of the rest of the movie, perhaps the scene was ultimately cut because it didn’t fit with that vibe. For those who didn’t see the scene at the Gathering of Nerds in Orlando, it will be available on the Return of the Jedi Blu-ray disc, which will be released next year as part of the Blu-ray release of the entire franchise. Yet another day to circle on your extremely open social calendar, nerds……..
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