Newest woman head of state

Brazilians have just elected their 1st woman President.
An economist and former Cabinet minister, Dilma Rousseff (right), won a runoff election by a margin of 55.2% to 44.8%.
Key to the political newcomer's victory, according to Reuters: the endorsement of outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, known as "Lula," coupled with a promise to continue Lula's
policies that have lifted millions from poverty and made Brazil one of the world's hottest economies.
Rousseff replaces Slovakian Prime Minister Iveta Radičová as the newest woman national leader; as posted, in July Radičová seized that mantle from Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Taming My Email Inbox

A friend of mine recently asked me to send him the system I use to keep my inbox empty and manage the huge number of emails I get every day. I get asked to share this every once in a while, so I thought I'd just post it here for everyone.

First off, I can't take credit for the foundation of this system – I adapted it from a fantastic book called Getting Things Done. Over the years I found myself streamlining the suggestions in that book, and the end result below is what I use every day.

Second caveat: I also use a task management application called Things to manage all of my work todos by project. The tricky bit I always seem to run into is, a lot of my todos come through email, but not all of them. I either needed to get my other todos into the email system, or at least some of the email todos out into Things. I ended up opting for the latter.



So here's the system. This may sound complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy to use and can plow through a pile of email in not time at all.

Folders, Folders, Folders

First, I create some additional email folders:

Inbox
Now
Watch
Waiting
Archive

  • Project 1
  • Project2
  • ...
  • ProjectN
I also set up rules for automatically filing various AddThis related messages that I track separately, like translation submissions and product feedback. Check your favorite email application for more information.

Taming the Inbox

When it's time to sort through the messages in my inbox, here's how I use each folder:
  • If a message can be immediately acted on, do so now; my rule of thumb is 10 secs to a minute tops.
  • If it needs to be done today or very soon, move to Now. If it's something to be done much later on, I suggest moving it out of email and into your favorite todo application (mine is Things.) 
  • If it's event-related, or something occurring for which there's no action but helpful to have the information handy, move to Watch (party, company meeting, offsite, holiday event, etc.)
  • If the email is waiting on a response or an action from someone else, move to Waiting; I cc myself on messages so if I'm waiting for a response, I have a copy to put in this folder.
  • If the message is project related and there is no action to be taken or pending, I Archive it into the appropriate Project folder.
  • Otherwise, I delete it.
How often you sort through messages is up to you. You can do so frequently and keep your inbox empty most of the time, or set aside certain times of the day to plow through a longer list, avoiding the more frequent distractions.

Housekeeping

Here's the important part that keeps the system working:
  • Each day go through Now for things that need to get done that day. Archive or delete items that are completed or no longer need to be addressed. Waiting on a followup? Move to Waiting.
  • At least once a week go through Waiting. Done? Delete. Still waiting? Leave it. Should have heard by now? Send a followup email. Schedule time to do this, it doesn't take long.
  • Every couple of weeks, go through Watch and Later, and either delete things or promote them to Now or Waiting.
There you go. Even if you get hundreds of emails a day, this or a system like it can help keep things manageable. I also suggest unsubscribing to emails aggressively, but that's a different post.

I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me. By the way, I'd highly recommend the Getting Things Done book above for other great ideas for managing the huge amount of information that swirls around us every day. Cheers!

Kuvia Nikon D7000 kameralla

Tässä muutama kuva Nikon D7000 kameralla. Laitan myöhemmin joitakin kuvia myös täysikokoisina, mutta tässä kuitenkin jotakin.

Tein eilen yhden oikean kuvauksen asiakkaalleni Nikon D7000:lla ja laite pelasi hienosti. Töissä huomaan kyllä heti, jos jokin ominaisuus ei toimi niin kuin haluan. Tarkennus, kuvien katselu ja kaikki toimi jouheasti, eikä minun tarvinnut miettiä kameraa sen kummemmin, vaan saatoin keskittyä työntekoon.

18 - 105 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 s. ja ISO 400
18 - 105 mm, f/8, 1/250 s. ja ISO 400
18 - 105 mm, f/8, 1/50 s. ja ISO 100
18 - 105 mm, f/4, 1/20 s. ja ISO 800
18 - 105 mm, f/5, 1/20 s. ja ISO 800

In passing: ¢ for UNICEF founder

Often completing this 'Grrl's Halloween costume was the tote at left.
Many a year we Midwestern children would knock on doors to "Trick or Treat for UNICEF," seeking donations to help the United Nations help children in need. For many of us, it was an early raising of awareness -- an early invitation to consider how we might respond in our own small ways to the plight of others throughout the world.
Of great interest, therefore, was the news that the woman who founded the campaign has died at age 93, just a few days short of the 60th anniversary of her achievement.
As detailed in The New York Times' obituary, the idea came to Mary Emma Allison, a schoolteacher long concerned about social justice, while shopping in 1949 in Philadelphia. (credit for photo of Allison and her costume-clad children) Soon she and her husband had created a global movement, called "Pennies for UNICEF" in those days of less deflated economy. Enlisted in the effort have been cultural icons ranging from Casper, the Friendly Ghost (below), to Superman, the Man of Steel. Since its founding the campaign has raised more than $160 million.
No need for a collection box to contribute in Allison's honor; anyone can click here to donate to UNICEF this Halloween.

On October 31

On this day in ...
... 1860 (150 years ago today), in Savannah, Georgia, a daughter was born to a Chicago native and her husband, an officer in the Confederate Army. They named the girl Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon, but called her "Daisy." Following schooling in Virginia and New York, she traveled in the United States and Europe, eventually marrying an Englishman and thereafter was known as Juliette Gordon Low (right). She returned to the United States to serve as a nurse during the Spanish-American War; her husband died soon after. On March 12, 1912, at age 52, she brought together 18 girls in Savannah, and thus founded the Girl Scouts, an organization now numbering 3.7 million members. Gordon Low died in her birth city in 1927.

(Prior October 31 posts are here, here, and here.)

New---Into the Crater: The Mine Attack at Petersburg

Into the Crater: The Mine Attack at Petersburg, Earl J. Hess, University of South Carolina Press, 352 pages, $44.95.

From Publisher: The battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, was the defining event in the 292-day campaign around Petersburg, Virginia, in the Civil War and one of the most famous engagements in American military history. Although the bloody combat of that "horrid pit" has been recently revisited as the centerpiece of the novel and film versions of Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, the battle has yet to receive a definitive historical study. Distinguished Civil War historian Earl J. Hess fills that gap in the literature of the Civil War with Into the Crater.

The Crater was central in Ulysses S. Grant's third offensive at Petersburg and required digging of a five-hundred-foot mine shaft under enemy lines and detonating of four tons of gunpowder to destroy a Confederate battery emplacement. The resulting infantry attack through the breach in Robert E. Lee's line failed terribly, costing Grant nearly four thousand troops, among them many black soldiers fighting in their first battle. The outnumbered defenders of the breach saved Confederate Petersburg and inspired their comrades with renewed hope in the lengthening campaign to possess this important rail center.

In this narrative account of the Crater and its aftermath, Hess identifies the most reliable evidence to be found in hundreds of published and unpublished eyewitness accounts, official reports, and historic photographs. Archaeological studies and field research on the ground itself, now preserved within the Petersburg National Battlefield, complement the archival and published sources. Hess re-creates the battle in lively prose saturated with the sights and sounds of combat at the Crater in moment-by-moment descriptions that bring modern readers into the chaos of close range combat. Hess discusses field fortifications as well as the leadership of Union generals Grant, George Meade, and Ambrose Burnside, and of Confederate generals Lee, P. G. T. Beauregard, and A. P. Hill. He also chronicles the atrocities committed against captured black soldiers, both in the heat of battle and afterward, and the efforts of some Confederate officers to halt this vicious conduct.

The Blurbs
:

Hess has produced yet another Civil War classic--a compelling narrative and astute analysis of one of its most dramatic and most confusing battles. Using a vast array of unpublished and published accounts by combatants to craft a masterful moment-by-moment examination of the Battle of the Crater and its immediate aftermath, this is the clearest picture yet of how a Federal mine was built underneath the Confederate lines at Petersburg, how the assault against those lines was planned and executed, and why it ultimately failed. . . . Into The Crater is everything we have come to expect and appreciate from Hess's previous landmark studies: authoritative, persuasive, accessible, and simply indispensable.---J. Tracy Power, author of Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox

With impressive research and persuasive interpretation, Earl J. Hess paints a comprehensive picture of one of the most intriguing episodes of the Civil War. This book cuts through the confusion in the Crater with poignant clarity, surpassing all previous renditions of that fascinating story.---William Marvel, author of Lincoln's Darkest Year: The War in 1862

In this most detailed account ever produced of the unusual July, 1864, battle at Petersburg, Virginia, Hess challenges several traditional beliefs. This is a must-have book for anyone who studies Civil War military history in depth.---James I. Robertson, Jr., , biographer of Stonewall Jackson and Alumni Distinguished Professor in History, Virginia Tech

Hess applies his many gifts as a historian to one of the Civil War's remarkable military incidents. The battle of the Crater combined impressive engineering, inept leadership, the first appearance of black soldiers on a large scale in the Virginia theater, and bitter combat--all of which Hess handles beautifully. Both enjoyable and instructive, the narrative amply rewards a careful reading.---Gary W Gallagher, author of The Confederate War and well respected Civil War author, teacher and speaker.

"With his encyclopedic research and impressive narrative style, Earl J. Hess sets a new standard in modern studies of the Battle of the Crater, one of the most unique military actions of the American Civil War."—--William Glenn Robertson, director of the Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth.

CWL---Hess usually casts a wide net for primary sources and has done fine work on field fortifications and the rifled musket.
Yet it is difficult to imagine that Into the Crater exceeds Richard Slotkin's No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864. Slotkin's research and strong, even thrilling, narrative is probably be a notch above Hess' Into the Crater more mundane narrative approach. Sometime in 2011 CWL will pick up Into the Crater, read it an report back.

Nikon D7000 ja Nikon D90 vierekkäin

Osittain sattumalta tapasin tänään ystäväni, jolla on Nikon D90. Kuvasin siinä muutaman vertailukuvan uudesta Nikon D7000 ja Nikon D90 kamerasta vierekkäin. Pahoittelen kuvien teknistä toteutusta, mutta tämä sattui olemaan ainoa paikka, jossa oli edes siedettävän riittävästi valoa.
Kuvasin Pentax K-r kameralla, joka ei ole ollenkaan hassumpi kuvausverme sekään. Kuten kuvista näkyy, niin D7000 on ulkonaisesti hyvin samanlainen kuin D90. Muutama nappi on tullut lisää tai vaihtanut paikkaa. Koko on käytännössä sama.

Synttäriarvonnan voittajat on arvottu!

Sun-Sniper Pro Steel & Bear kamerahihnan voitti Petri Juola.

Samsung ST550 kameran voitti Petri Nyyssölä.

Sony DSC-TX5 kameran voitti Mikko Honkanen.

Voittajille on ilmoitettu henkilökohtaisesti. Onnea vielä kerran voittajille!

Kiitän kaikkia osallistuneita, ja pysykää Sulantoblogissa, sillä hyvää valokuvaus- ja kamerasisältöä riittää.

Go On! University of California Human Rights Fellows conference

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

All day next Thursday, November 4, Berkeley's International House will host the annual University of California Human Rights Fellows Conference. Featured will be many human rights researchers and advocates -- student recipients of the universitywide summer fellowship program -- who will present their in-the-field fellowship projects.
Proud to say that 2 of the presenters received their awards through a competition sponsored by the California International Law Center at King Hall, University of California, Davis, School of Law. They are California-Davis law students Elica Vafaie and Daniel Marsh; their summer postings are described below.
Applications for 2011 fellowships, open to registered students at various University of California campus, are now being accepted; see here.
Panels planned for Thursday's conference, with names of the UC student fellows and the places where they worked this summer:
► "Shadows of Health, Justice and Citizenship," featuring: Andrew Lim (Karen Department of Health and Welfare/Global Health Access Program, Thailand); Lexa Grayner (Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, Thailand); Katie Dingeman (Central American Resource Center, Los Angeles); Keramet Reiter (National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Oakland); and Elica Vafaie (Center for Constitutional Rights, New York).
► "Rights: Tension and Interdependence," featuring: Rochelle Terman (Women Living Under Muslim Laws, London); Ugo Edu (A Cor da Bahia, Brazil); Sandra Alvarez (Asociación de Autoridades Tradicionales y Cabildos U’wa, Colombia); and Kony Kim (Bronx Defenders, New York).
► "Identity and Interpretation," featuring: Stephen Meyers (Handicap International, Nicaragua); Candler Hallman (Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, Northern Ireland); Patience Fielding (International Federation of Women Lawyers, Cameroon); and Daniel Marsh (Timap for Justice, Sierra Leone).
► "Media Politic: ‘Visibilizing’ Human Rights," Kate Trumbull (Center for Bridging Communities, San Diego); Michelle Dizon (Focus on the Global South, Philippines); Teo Ballvé (Verdad Abierta, Colombia): and Madeleine Bair(Jamaicans for Justice, Jamaica).
► "Development and the Environment," Anonymous (SOS Habitat, Angola); Lara Cushing (Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, Mexico); Cheryl Deutsch (National Hawkers’ Federation, India); and Henry Steinberg (Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense, Costa Rica).
Fellows' biographies are available here. Conference details here.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

I found it odd that Welner felt the need to emphasize repeatedly alleged crimes for which family members hadn’t been convicted and ones totally unrelated to terrorism. When you have a family with an al Qaeda connection, is it really necessary to list every black mark?
-- One of many trenchant queries by our colleague Michelle McCluer (prior IntLawGrrls posts), Executive Director of the National Institute of Military Justice, in her eyewitness posts on the plea hearing and subsequent sentencing proceedings against Omar Khadr, which she's been attending at a courthouse at Guantánamo (above right).
Well worth a read.

On October 30

On this day in ...
... 2005 (5 years ago today), thousands waited in line all day to pay their respect at the coffin of Rosa Parks as it lay in state at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. (photo credit) In the words of The New York Times:

A seamstress by trade, Mrs. Parks became the first woman ever accorded such a tribute and just the 31st person over all since 1852, a list that includes Abraham Lincoln and nine other presidents.
Parks had died at age 92 5 days earlier at her home in Detroit. In 1955, as is well known (and posted), Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, thus beginning the Montgomery bus boycott -- and a career as a civil rights pioneer, often allied with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(Prior October 30 posts are here, here, and here.)

Edelliseen teksti

Tuon kuvan kanssa piti olla tekstiä. Mobiilibloggaus ei olekaan niin helppoa.
Piti sanoa, jotta iso kiitos kaikille arvontaan osallistuneille.

Päivitys: Olin aamulla matkalla kuvaamaan ja pysähdyin Riihimäen ABC-asemalla, jonka pihasta näppäsin tuokiokuvan iPhonella. Yritin sitten lähettää kuvaa ja pientä teksin pätkää puhelimesta, mutta vain kuva tuli perille. No, nyt olen takaisin toimistolla ja bloggaaminenkin sujuu.

Synttäriarvonta on ohi

Synttäriarvonta auki vielä, osallistu!

Viime hetket osallistua synttäriarvontaan, jossa voi voittaa vaikka kameran.

Pistetään pieni jatkoaika arvontaan, eli huomiseen aamuun 30.10.2010 klo 7.00 asti voi osallistua.

Nikon D7000, lyhyt esittely ja ensikommentit videona

Nyt kokeillaan tässä blogissa ihan uutta, nimittäin videobloggausta. Tuossa lyhyet selostukset Nikon D7000 kamerasta. Jos tämä osoittautuu suosituksi, niin jatkan näitä. Kommentoi mitä mieltä olet tällaisesta.

Nikon D7000 esittely from sulantoblog on Vimeo.

Questioning hierarchies of harm

Many IntLawGrrls have gathered this morning to honor Judge Patricia Wald at our roundtable on "Women and International Criminal Law." I'll be participating in the first panel, entitled The Limits of International Criminal Law, and look forward to receiving comments on my paper, "Questioning Hierarchies of Harm: Women, Forced Migration, and International Criminal Law." It's available in full here; here's a preview of some of the ideas therein:
From the Akayesu case to the Revolutionary United Front decision, international criminal law has made great strides in addressing harm perpetrated against women in wartime. Though these doctrinal developments are laudable, the gendered structure of international criminal law diverts attention away from other significant harms that women endure as a result of armed conflict. In particular, international criminal law’s hierarchy of harm is deeply problematic. This hierarchy elevates crimes committed as part of a plan or pattern across political groups – for example, by members of one group against members of a second group on the other side of a political conflict, whether during war or otherwise – over equally serious forms of harm perpetrated randomly, often within political groups – for example, by men against women on the same side of a conflict. This approach is problematic because female forced migrants suffer serious harms that do not fall clearly within the framework of international criminal law. These harms include rape, sexual assault, and other forms of physical violence that are not part of a master criminal plan but are rather private and opportunistic harms enabled by situations of displacement.
Refugees and internally displaced women suffer extensive violence at the hands of husbands, boyfriends, family members, neighbors, aid workers, peacekeepers, and strangers, none of whom is acting at the behest of a state or militia or fulfilling an organizational master plan. Is the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court applicable to these crimes? While the language of the statute does not provide an obvious basis for prosecuting opportunistic crimes against female forced migrants, international refugee law offers a potential avenue for interpreting international criminal law to cover such crimes. Even so, the fit is imperfect – perhaps unsurprisingly given that the law was created to address very different crimes. Beyond the limitations of international criminal law, a vacuum of accountability exists on several levels in situations of forced displacement. Female forced migrants cannot rely on their own governments, their host governments, and often even international humanitarian organizations to protect them against opportunistic violence.
Should international criminal law step into the void? One might argue that the purpose of international criminal law is to provide accountability for conflict-related harms that would not otherwise be addressed. From that perspective, redress for the myriad forms of violence suffered by female forced migrants – harms that usually fall outside of any legal accountability mechanisms – seems an important component of that goal. Similarly, if the central aim of international criminal law is to account for crimes of such severity that they can be considered to be harms against all humankind, violence against women in situations of displacement is so prevalent and destructive that its prosecution should be viewed as a significant component of this goal. Such a step would require quite serious reconstruction of international criminal law, namely expansion of its scope and restructuring of its focus.
It may be that a structure designed specifically to prevent and account for opportunistic violence against female forced migrants would be better equipped to perform that task. Criminal accountability might be better performed in national legal systems or informal justice systems created within camp environments. There are also solutions other than criminal accountability, such as human rights law, that might be more appropriate in addressing such harms. In the meantime, until a solution is found that places these “private” crimes on equal footing with “public” attacks currently prohibited by international criminal law, the serious and frequent harms suffered by forcibly displaced women will continue to be overlooked, relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy of harms.

Pentax K-r herkkyyttä

Tässä asetelma, jonka eilen kuvasin Nikoneilla, mutta nyt Pentax K-r + 18 - 55 mm yhdistelmällä kuvattuna vertailun vuoksi.

Kuvasin raakana DNG-kuvia, koska Pentaxilla ollaan sen verran järkeviä, että annetaan käyttäjälle mahdollisuus valita yleisen standardin mukainen kuvatiedostomuoto, jonka saa auki yleisen standardin mukaisilla ohjelmilla odottamatta muutamaa viikkoa sopivan ohjelmistopäivityksen saapumista. Avasin kuvat LR 3.2 ohjelmalla sen oletusasetuksilla. En tehnyt mitään muutoksia kuviin.

Täysikokoiset rajaukset kuvan keskeltä ovat ISO 6400, ISO 3200, ISO 1600 ja ISO 800. Valotus ja olosuhteet olivat samat kuin Nikoneilla, eli valotus aukolla f/5.6, 1/6 s. herkkyydellä ISO 6400. Muilla herkkyyksillä vastaavasti pidempi valotusaika.

Go On! U.S. refugee law

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

The 30th Anniversary of the Refugee Act is the topic of a symposium to be held 10:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m. on November 12, 2010, by the Center for Immigrants' Rights at the Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. (hat tip ImmigrationProf Blog)
Moderating the program will be Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia (below right), Clinical Professor and Center Director. Speakers who will consider the United States' Refugee Act of 1980 in contemporary context include:
Elizabeth Dallam, Senior Protection Officer at the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Regina Germain, Adjunct Professor at Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, and author of The Asylum Primer (6th ed., 2010)
Tara Magner, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Senior Counsel to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senator Patrick Leahy
Jeanne Smoot, Public Policy Director, Tahirih Justice Center, Washington, D.C.
Anne Sovcik, Advocacy Counsel for Human Rights First's Refugee Protection Program and Chair of the Asylum Working Group
Program here; other details and registration available here.

On October 29

On this day in ...
... 1940 (70 years ago today), even though it had not joined the conflict then raging in Europe, the United States began conscripting men into the armed forces via a lottery. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson chose the numbers, as illustrated in this cartoon, part of a super timeline of U.S. activities in this World War II year before the Pearl Harbor attack. Quoting church leaders who supported the move, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech defending the 1st-ever peacetime draft.


(Prior October 29 posts are here, here, and here.)

Nikon D7000 vastaan D700 herkkyysvertailu


Minulla siis on Nikon D7000 kokeiltavana, ja aloitan esittelemällä pienen vertailun Nikonin uuden 16 megapikselisen herkkupalan kuvanlaadusta isoilla ISOilla. Vertailukohtana käytin Nikon D700 kameraa, joka on tunnettu erinomaisesta kuvanlaadustaan korkeillakin herkkyyksillä.

Kuvasin molemmilla kameroilla yllä olevan asetelman, joka oli melkoisen hämärässä, sillä ISO 6400 herkkyydellä valotusaika oli 1/6 s. aukolla f/5.6. Kuvasta aukeaa keskeltä rajattu osa täydessä koossa seuraavasti: Nikon D7000, ISO6400, ISO3200, ISO1600 ja ISO800. Nikon D700, ISO6400, ISO3200, ISO1600 ja ISO800.

Kuvien rajaus on hieman erilainen kameroiden välillä, koska kuvasin eri polttoväleillä, mutta älä anna sen häiritä. Kuvasin raakana ja avasin kuvat Lightroom 3.3 ohjelmalla sen oletusarvoilla. En tehnyt mitään käsittelyä kuville, ainoastaan tallentin jpg-muotoon. Kuvissa on EXIFfit mukana.

Jokainen muodostakoon mielipiteensä ihan itse, mutta minusta tuo näyttää aika hyvältä tämän perusteella. Käytännön kuvaaminen toki varmistaa asian, mutta tässä jotakin tähysteltävää illan ratoksi.

Tämä on mielenkiintoista, pissataanko meidän silmille?

Pentax K-r + 18 - 55 mm, f/3.5, 1/40 s., ISO 400 ja 18 mm.

Tänään tulee vielä uusi postaus tänne Sulantoblogiin, mutta sitä odotellessa kannattaa lukea englanninkielellä mielenkiintoinen juttu Luminous Landscape saitilta. Tekevätkö kamerat paljonkin asioita kuvaajan tietämättä?

En tiedä onko tuo oikeasti vakavaa, mutta mielenkiintoista ainakin.

Äläkä unohda osallistua synttäriarvontaan, joka on avoinna vielä reilun vuorokauden.

News---Penn State University Launches A People's Contest, Civil War Weblog

Earlier this summer, CWL participated in a survey that considered the kinds of resources and content that might make a Civil War-era weblog useful. Responses to the survey guided Penn State's Richards Civil War Era Center which now offers a new blog, A People's Contest. The weblog covers a wide range of academic and popular culture issues relation to preservation, Southern heritage issues,

Great finds of the wwwsite include: a YouTube video of the Sons of Confederates' summer camp for youth that includes seven hours of classes a day, Pittsburgh's Soldiers and Sailors National Museum organizing of the Pennsylvania Grand Review Project that celebrates African-Americans' service to the Union during the Civil War, the discovery and preservation of Duffy's Cut that holds a mass grave of 57 Irish laborers, and the remarks of scholars visiting the Richard's Civil War Era Center.

CWL strongly recommends bookmarking A People's Conflict which can be found at http://www.psu.edu/dept/richardscenter/

Image Source: Wordpress

Week Three Poll Up!

Two weeks ago, we unveiled the beginning of a contest to decide (by you the reader) who was the greatest naval officer, North and South. In the final week, we will square the Union and Confederate winner face to face to see who wins. Last week's winner was Rear Admiral John Dahlgren. For week three, we have several important Union officers up for your vote. You can vote on the left panel of this blog. We have provided the following information about each officer courtesy of the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Samuel P. Lee

Samuel Phillips Lee was born in Fairfax County, Virginia, on 13 February 1812. He was appointed a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy in November 1825 and subsequently saw extensive service at sea, including combat action during the Mexican War and exploration, surveying and oceanographic duty. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he was captain of the sloop of war Vandalia in the East Indies, sailing her home on his own initiative to join the blockade of the Southern coast. Commander Lee commanded the new steam sloop USS Oneida during the New Orleans campaign and subsequent operations on the Mississippi River in the first half of 1862.
In September 1862, S.P. Lee was placed in command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron with the rank of Acting Rear Admiral. He led this force for over two years, during which it was responsible for the blockade of the North Carolina coast and operations on North Carolina and Virginia inland waters, all areas of very active combat between Union and Confederate forces. Acting Rear Admiral Lee transferred to the command of the Mississippi Squadron in October 1864 and led it to the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Reverting to his permanent rank of Captain after the Civil War, Lee had extensive service in the Washington, D.C., area. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1870 and retired from active service in February 1873. Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee died at Silver Spring, Maryland, on 7 June 1897.

William Cushing
William Barker Cushing was born in Delafield, Wisconsin, on 4 November 1842, but spent most of his childhood in Fredonia, New York. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy from 1857 until March 1861, when his high-spirited behavior led to his resignation. The outbreak of the Civil War brought him back into the service, and he soon distinguished himself as an officer of extraordinary initiative and courage. Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in mid-1862, Cushing served as Executive Officer of the gunboat Commodore Perry, then was given command of the tug Ellis, which was lost under heroic circumstances on 25 November 1862. He subsequently commanded the gunboats Commodore Barney, Shokokon and Monticello. During this time, he led several daring reconnaissance and raiding excursions into Confederate territories.
On the night of 27-28 October 1864, Cushing and a small crew took the Navy steam launch Picket Boat Number One upriver to Plymouth, NC, where they attacked and sank the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Albemarle with a spar torpedo. This action made him a national celebrity, and he was quickly promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In January 1865, Cushing helped lead the Navy landing force in the conquest of Fort Fisher, NC, again distinguishing himself.

Following the Civil War, LCdr. Cushing was executive officer of USS Lancaster and commanding officer of USS Maumee. Promoted to Commander in 1872, he was captain of USS Wyoming in 1873-74. In November 1873, he boldly confronted Spanish authorities in Cuba to save the lives of many passengers and crew of the steamer Virginius, which had been captured bringing men and supplies to Cuban revolutionaries. While serving as Executive Officer of the Washington Navy Yard, DC, Commander Cushing's always delicate health gave way and he died on 17 December 1874.


Charles Wilkes
[abbreviated biography from history.navy.mil]

The outbreak of the Civil War, however, brought an interruption to his scientific work. On 19 April, he was detached from his duty with the expedition publication program in order to help destroy the Norfolk Navy Yard before Union forces abandoned it to the Confederacy. In May, Capt. Wilkes received orders to take command of the steam-powered frigate San Jacinto. He arrived on board his new command on 27 August, at Monrovia, Liberia, just before she set sail to return to the United States. During the voyage home, he took her to the West Indies in search of the Southern commerce raider, CSS Sumter, under the command of Capt. Raphael Semmes—later commanding officer of the famous Confederate cruiser CSS Alabama. During that mission, his ship stopped at Cienfuegos, Cuba, for coal, and Wilkes learned that the South's commissioners to England and France, James Mason and John Slidell, had escaped from Charleston on board the fast coastal packet Theodora and were then in Havana awaiting transportation to Europe. San Jacinto quickly headed for Havana, hoping to catch Theodora when she embarked upon her return trip but arrived a day late. He learned, however, that Mason and Slidell were still in Cuba and planned to board the British mail packet Trent at St. Thomas for the voyage to Europe.

Thereupon, he concocted a plan to intercept Trent in Old Bahama Channel, some 230 miles east of Havana, and capture the two Confederate diplomats. On 8 November, the British ship steamed into sight, and Wilkes coerced her into stopping with two shots across her bow. A boarding party seized Mason and Slidell and their secretaries and then allowed the neutral ship to continue her voyage. San Jacinto then headed home with her prisoners. Upon his arrival in Boston, Wilkes was loudly acclaimed for his action, but soon the clouds of war with Great Britain over the incident began to darken the horizon. Ultimately, the dubious legality of Wilkes' action and the threat of war with Britain and France brought a complete disavowal of Wilkes' act by the Federal Government and the release of the prisoners.

On 30 November, Capt. Wilkes was detached from San Jacinto and ordered to duty with the Board of Naval Examiners. That assignment lasted until the following summer. He commanded the James River Flotilla briefly in July and August of 1862 and received his promotion to commodore at that time. On 29 August, Wilkes left that post and took over the Potomac River Flotilla. That assignment proved to be of short duration. On 8 September, he received orders to command the West India Squadron. Promoted to acting rear admiral, Wilkes directed the West India Squandron— primarily concerned with hunting down Southern commerce raiders and blockade runners—until the summer of 1863. On 1 June, he was detached from the squadron and, on the 30th, set sail from Havana for the United States in Roanoke.

Conflicts with the Navy Department, probably stemming from his treatment during the Trent affair negotiations, culminated in Wilkes' court-martial early in 1864 over the publication of a letter he wrote to Gideon Welles castigating the Secretary for statements made against Wilkes in his annual report. On 26 April 1864, Acting Rear Admiral Wilkes was found guilty by court-martial of disobediance of orders, insubordination, and other specifications and was sentenced to receive a public reprimand and suspension from the service for three years. President Lincoln reduced the term of suspension to one year, at the conclusion of which Wilkes retired from the Navy. On 6 August 1866, he was promoted to rear admiral on the retired list and, for the remainder of his life, worked for the completion of publication of the results of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. He also took time out to do some writing, including an autobiography. On 8 February 1877, Rear Admiral Wilkes died at Washington, D.C. Initially interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, his body was moved to Arlington National Cemetery in August 1909.

John Winslow

John A. Winslow was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1811. He entered the Navy as a Midshipman in 1827, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1839 and to Commander in 1855. During the Mexican War, he was commended to gallantry for his activities at Tobasco. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, Commander Winslow was assigned as Executive Officer of the Western Gunboat Flotilla. He was injured while commanding the incomplete ironclad river gunboat Benton in the Fall of 1861 and spent several months recovering.
Promoted to Captain in July 1862, Winslow returned to the Mississippi area for further service, but was detached late in the year. He took command of USS Kearsarge in April 1863. Over the next year and a half, Captain Winslow patrolled European waters in search of Confederate raiders, keeping his ship and crew well-prepared for combat. On 19 June 1864, he led them to victory in one of the Civil War's most notable naval actions, the battle between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama.

Winslow was promoted to the rank of Commodore as a result of this action. He became a Rear Admiral in 1870 and commanded the Pacific Squadron from then until 1872. Rear Admiral John A. Winslow died on 29 September 1873, soon after retiring from active naval service.

The memory cascade in Cambodia

When I first began working in Cambodia almost fifteen years ago, I was shocked to learn that the history of the Khmer Rouge was not taught in the schools (prior post). The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) began pushing in 1999 to change this situation, publishing a high school textbook on the Khmer Rouge regime in 2007, the year after the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) began operating. The DC-Cam has subsequently held numerous teacher trainings to educate teachers in methods of presenting this history to their students.
Earlier this month, just two weeks after the indictments were filed in Case 002 at the ECCC, Indra Devi High School in Phnom Penh unveiled new anti-genocide slogans on their library building. The signs, pictured at left, say "Talking about experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime is to promote reconciliation and to educate children about forgiveness and tolerance," and "Learning about the history of Democratic Kampuchea is to prevent genocide."
Through these signs, the DC-Cam aims to raise awareness among teachers and students about genocide and genocide prevention, a task that is particularly important given that 70 percent of Cambodians were born after the end of the Khmer Rouge regime. By early next year, every high school in the country will display similar slogans.
The timing of these successful efforts to memorialize the crimes of the Khmer Rouge and the creation and operation of the ECCC are not coincidental. The ECCC has arguably served as a catalyst for this memory cascade, creating political space for non-governmental organizations to pursue creative transitional justice efforts. Other efforts have been more closely tied to the ECCC, such as the DC-Cam's Living Documents project through which victims of the Khmer Rouge visit to the tribunal to watch a trial and then facilitate public discussions about the proceedings in their home village.
But all of the numerous memory projects that have proliferated in recent years owe a debt to the tribunal. Though the ECCC's role in formal accountability has been limited to the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, the tribunal has played a crucial role in enabling a much broader range of activities, all of which will work in tandem to ensure that mass crimes are never again committed on Cambodian soil.

Go On! ASIL midyear in Miami

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia and other events of interest)

Next month the American Society of International Law will break from a long D.C. tradition and hold its 2010 Midyear Meeting in Miami, Florida. Of the plan to meet November 12 and 13 in that southernmost city, ASIL President David D. Caron explained:

Convening the international law community throughout the United States and the rest of the world is an important priority for the Society — to serve our far-flung members, and also to reach growing new constituencies of international law within the bar and the judiciary, among representatives of the media, and in the general public.
As they do every autumn, ASIL's Executive Council and the editors of the American Journal of International Law will gather. Additionally, those of us who are working on ASIL's Benchbook on International Law project look forward to the opportunity to vet drafts with a panel of federal judges.
Newly supplementing in camera sessions like these will be a day of events open to the public (many offering Continuing Legal Education credit). Examples of public events for Friday, November 12, at the University of Miami Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center:
► "Stop the Hand-Wringing and Do Something: Solutions on the Table to What is Perceived to be Wrong with International Arbitration," featuring: Catherine Amirfar (Debevoise & Plimpton LLP); Edward Mullins (Astigarraga Davis LLP); and Michael Reisman (Yale Law). Chaired by IntLawGrrl Lucy Reed (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP), ASIL's Immediate Past President.
► "The Top Six Recent Arbitrations Everyone Should Know," featuring: Mahnoush Arsanjani (International Law Associates), an ASIL Vice President; David Bederman (Emory Law); Ryan Reetz (Squire Sanders LLP). Chaired by Donald Francis Donovan (Debevoise & Plimpton LLP).
► Luncheon keynote, "Florida and the Globalization of the Legal Profession: Insights from the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20," by Carolyn Lamm (White & Case LLP) (above left), Immediate Past President of the American Bar Association.
► "Career Fair/Mentoring Session for Students"
► "Revisiting the Place of International Law in Domestic Law," featuring: Judge Rosemary Barkett (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit) (right); Judge Adalberto Jordan (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida); Curtis Bradley (Duke Law); and Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv Law); chaired by Laurence Helfer (Duke Law).
► "National, Regional, and International Perspectives on International Criminal Accountability," featuring: Olivia Swaak-Goldman (Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court); and Dinah Shelton (George Washington Law) (below left), a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Chaired by yours truly, IntLawGrrl Diane Marie Amann (University of California, Davis, Law), an ASIL Vice President.
All participants also are welcome to register for the conference dinner that evening at the Biltmore Hotel; featured will be "Justice and Leadership Dilemmas in Shakespeare," the keynote by Judge Theodor Meron, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and ASIL Honorary President.
Events are free for students, ASIL members, and affiliates of the meeting's cosponsoring law firms and law schools; for others, there is a fee. Details and registration here.

On October 28

On this day in ...
... 1830 (180 years ago today), the couple at right, Nancy and Josiah Henson, and their 4 children arrived in Canada, having escaped slavery in Maryland on the Underground Railroad. He would become pastor of a church in Dresden, Ontario, and start a technical school. He is said to have been the model for the lead character in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the antislavery novel published, as we've posted, by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

(Prior October 28 posts are here, here, and here.)

Radio-orjat ovat historiaa

Tänään, ensimmäisen kerran niin pitkän aikaan kuin muistan, jätin uskolliset Multiblitz radio-orjani kotiin, kun lähdin kuvauskeikalle. En ole radioita käyttänyt aikoihin, mutta olen pitänyt ne kameralaukussa mukana kaiken varalta. Radiot eivät vie paljon tilaa tai lisää laukun painoa, mutta turhan tavaran kantaminen on silti...turhaa.

Olen nyt, kuukausia kestäneen käyttötestin jälkeen varma siitä, että Nikonin langaton salama on luotettava niin ulkona kuin sisälläkin. Käytän radioita varmasti vielä jonakin päivänä, kun käytän valaisuun studiosalamoita, enkä aio Multiblitzeistä luopua, mutta en kuljeta niitä mukanani varmuuden vuoksi.

Salamavalot ovat niin ikään vaihtuneet, enkä kovin paljon enää käytä Elinchrom studiosalamoitakaan. Lähes kaikki kuvaukseni teen miljöössä, ulkona tai sisällä, joten verkkovirran käyttäminen aina on hankalaa tai mahdotonta. Kuten kuvasta näkyy, niin koko kolme Nikonin SB-900 salamaa vie vähemmän tilaa kuin kolme Elinchromea. Painosta puhumattakaan.

Nyt kamerat ja valot sekä valojen lisävarusteet mahtuvat yhteen pieneen reppuun. Ennen valot kulkivat isossa laukussa ja kamerat repussa. Jalustat pitää edelleenkin kuljettaa omassa pussissaan sateenvarjojen kera.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do (Unless It's Almost Christmas)

When are people most likely to break up? Mathias Mikkelsen discusses David McCandless' TED Talk, "The Beauty of Data Visualization", in which McCandless describes insights from analysis of over 10,000 Facebook status updates.

Check out the original TED Talk here:

John Dahlgren Wins Week 2 Contest!


A few weeks ago, the CWN 150 announced that it will begin a poll to decide who was the greatest naval officer of the Civil War. The polls will stretch over a few months, ultimately with a showdown between Union and Confederate officers. This past week, we highlighted our second poll with four Union officers: John Dahlgren, Samuel F. Du Pont, John Rodgers, and Charles Henry Davis (See previous post). After a week of voting, John Dahlgren won with 11 votes.We will be posting the third round of the poll tomorrow. Please vote, and encourage others to! Reproduced again is Rear Admiral John Dahlgren's brief biography from the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren (1809-1870) was a naval ordnance innovator and commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War. Dahlgren became a midshipman in 1826. Service on the U.S. Coast Survey (1834-37) distinguished his early career. In 1847, Lieutenant Dahlgren was assigned to ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard. Over the next fifteen years, he invented and developed bronze boat guns, heavy smoothbore shell guns, and rifled ordnance. He also created the first sustained weapons R&D program and organization in U.S. naval history. For these achievements, Dahlgren became known as the "father of American naval ordnance." His heavy smoothbores, characterized by their unusual bottle shape, were derived from scientific research in ballistics and metallurgy, manufactured and tested under the most comprehensive program of quality control in the Navy to that time, and were the Navy's standard shipboard armament during the Civil War. Promoted to commander in 1855, captain in 1862, and rear admiral in 1863, he became commandant of the Washington Navy Yard in 1861 and chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in 1862.

With help from his friend Abraham Lincoln, Dahlgren took command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in July 1863, and for the next two years led naval forces besieging Charleston in the Union navy's most frustrating campaign. Dahlgren cooperated magnificently with Army forces, but underhanded machinations by the ground force commander hindered the effort. Dahlgren's courage remained beyond question during naval attacks on enemy fortifications, but he never figured out how to counter the enemy's underwater defenses. As a leader, he took good care of his enlisted men, but failed to inspire his officers. After the war he commanded respectively the South Pacific Squadron, the Bureau of Ordnance, and the Washington Navy Yard.

For more information about these officers and our efforts for the Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial, please visit the Naval History and Heritage Command homepage and stay posted on the blog and facebook.

ICC-Kenya-Bashir continued

The International Criminal Court is stepping up pressure on Kenya.
Last month Kenya permitted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to attend a Constitution Day celebration in Nairobi -- notwithstanding that Bashir's been indicted by the ICC, nor that Kenya, as an ICC state party, is obliged to cooperate with the court's efforts to secure personal jurisdiction over Bashir.
The safe passage Kenya allowed Bashir in September drew rebuke from U.S. President Barack Obama, as we then posted.
The ICC had made its own complaints a number of times earlier, among them an August bid before the U.N. Security Council.
This past Monday, the ICC sent a new message, this one directly to Kenya.
In its Decision requesting observations from the Republic of Kenya, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I asked Kenya for information on

any problem which would impede or prevent the arrest and surrender of Omar Al Bashir in the event that he visits the country on 30 October, 2010.
Meanwhile, nearly 2 dozen nongovernmental organizations, representing Africa's civil society, also sent a letter urging Kenya to arrest Bashir.
Kenya's supposed to give its response to the ICC no later than this Friday, the day before the possible visit of the fugitive head of state, in connection with a summit session of IGAD (logo at left), the Djibouti-based Inter-Governmental Authority for Development. That group's expressed "dismay" regarding ICC charges against Bashir.
All this unfolds against the backdrop of Kenya's own problems with the ICC, which is investigating post-election violence in that country. Governmental resistance to inquiry (including that by the truth commission) is stiffening.
Stay tuned.

 
Bloggers Team