On January 1

On this day in ...
... 1925, Texas' governor appointed a special Texas Supreme Court whose members all were women. A Dallas newspaper wrote:

It was a healthy New Year gift of recognition to the woman barrister of today. This is the first instance a woman has been appointed to sit on the supreme bench; it is the first time a higher court is to be composed entirely of women and it is the initial case where a majority of the judges will be women.

The case was the appeal of a land dispute, brought by the Woodmen of the World, an influential fraternal order to which nearly all male lawyers and officials in Texas belonged. By dint of a WOW insurance program, nearly all of them had a financial interest in the case, and so were disqualified from participation in the appeal -- opening the way for the all-woman bench. The 3 women Justices who sat on the case are depicted above; from left, Hattie Leah Henenberg, a legal aid lawyer who later would serve as a state and federal prosecutor; Hortense Sparks Ward, a women's suffragist and property rights activist who in 1915 had become the 1st woman ever admitted to the Texas bar; and Ruth Virginia Brazzil, a sometime real estate broker and businesswoman said to have opposed women's suffrage. (photo credit) After issuing its decision in the sole case within its jurisdiction, the special high court disbanded at the end of May 1925.

(Prior January 1 posts are here, here, and here.)

Happy 2011!

Hyvää uutta vuotta!

Samsung EX-1, 7,8 mm ( 36 mm ), f/2.7, 1/30 s. ja ISO 200

Vuosi vaihtuu jälleen, ja luulemme siirtyvämme johonkin toiseen aikaan, mutta päivä vaihtuu toiseen aivan kuin 365 kertaa vuodessa muutenkin.

Kodachrome filmi häipyy kokonaan planeetaltamme tämän päivän jälkeen, kun viimeinenkin tätä legendaarista filmiä kehittävä laboratorio on käyttänyt prosessiin vaadittavat kemiat loppuun. Ja uutta ei tule.

Minä en Kodachromea jää kaipaamaan, koska sen ovat jo ajat sitten syrjäyttäneet paremmat filmit. Monelle minua vanhemmalle kuvaajalle Kodachrome jäänee muistoihin, koska se oli ensimmäinen heidän käyttämänsä värifilmi.

Nikon P7000, 42,6 mm ( 200 mm ), f/5.6, 1/35 s. ja ISO 411

Sulantoblog jatkaa ensi vuonnakin hyvien valokuvausjuttujen julkaisemista. Pari filmiin liittyvää juttuakin on työn alla. Kävijämäärät todistavat, että kysyntää suomenkieliselle valokuvausasialle netissä on, joten mitäpä tässä sitten jarruttelemaan.

Ohessa pari kuvaa Nikon P7000 ja Samsung EX-1 kameroilla. Molemmat ovat erinomaisia pokkareita. Samsungista kirjoitan mielipiteeni ensi vuonna ja samoin Nikonin uuden firmiksen vaikutuksista.

Hyvää uutta vuotta!

On the Brink of Genocide?

On Wednesday, Youssoufou Bamba, the Ivory Coast's newly minted Ambassador to the United Nations, warned that his country was "on the brink of genocide." Bamba, who was appointed by Alassane Outtara, the internationally recognized victor in the country's recent elections, voiced concern over massive human rights violations in recent weeks. (The BBC offers an excellent summary of the post-election crisis here.)
Should Bamba's statement be taken at face value? The signs are certainly concerning. Last week, the UN deputy human rights commissioner reported the deaths of nearly 200 Outtara supporters in the post-election violence, as well as many cases of arrest, detention, and torture. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as the UN has been prevented from investigating many serious allegations of human rights abuses. In one example, the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire was blocked from investigating a possible mass execution site north of Abidjan.
Senior UN officials have expressed concern over "incitement to hatred and violence" through the national radio and television and some private newspapers. Bamba noted that some houses have been marked according to their residents' ethnic background, a claim echoed by UN officials. Gbagbo has told the UN to leave and his youth minister, Charles Blé Goudé, has warned ECOWAS not to intervene. In his chilling words:

'They should prepare themselves very well because we are thinking about totally liberating our country, and soon I will launch the final assault.'

The forced migration dimension of the story leaves little doubt about the gravity of the situation. On Tuesday, UNHCR reported that 19,000 Ivorians had fled to Liberia. The refugees, largely women and children, are primarily supporters of Outtara but also include some pro-Gbagbo; all sides fear the consequences of a civil war. Most come from western Ivory Coast, a region already known for lawlessness and severe sexual violence prior to the election. While UNHCR has provisions for just over 10,000 additional refugees, humanitarian needs may soon eclipse their capacity.
In the new year, the European Union will tighten sanctions against Gbagbo and his supporters. As indicated in Diane's post yesterday, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has warned that "leaders who are planning violence will end up in the Hague," a call welcomed by Outtara, who has invited an ICC investigation. More to the point, ECOWAS has given Gbagbo a deadline of January 3 to step down or face forcible removal. One can only hope that these international efforts will be sufficient to pull the Ivory Coast back from the brink.

'Nuff said

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

So should we, perhaps, be content with the virtual moratorium on nuclear testing?
No, because commitments that are not legally binding can easily be violated.

-- Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the Soviet Union and winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. These 2 sentences from Gorbachev's New York Times op-ed pithily point out the importance of treaties, on much the same reasoning as in a prior post by yours truly. Gorbachev's objective? He begins by welcoming the just-before-Christmas approval by the U.S. Senate of the New Start disarmament treaty (prior posts), which Russia's expected to ratify next month. Then he moves quickly to his main goal: secure U.S. ratification as well of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Russia and 34 others of the 44 "nuclear technology holder states" have ratified. The United States is among the holdouts, the Senate having refused to give its advice and consent in 1999. U.S. approval of CTBT would break the logjam, Gorbachev argues, and so make way for "the next step to a world free of nuclear weapons"-- a stated goal of the current American President and many who have preceded him.

On December 31

On this day in ...
... 1980 (30 years ago today), Radio Tehran threatened that 52 American hostages could face execution. As posted (and see here), the hostages had been seized during the takeover of the U.S. embassy on November 4, 1979. (credit for 2004 photo of defaced U.S. seal at the former embassy building) Earlier that same year, revolutionaries had ousted Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who'd been the Shah of Iran since 1941. On this same day 3 years earlier, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter had given a New Year's toast in Tehran, "reiterating American support" for the shah, "and calling him 'an island of stability' in the troubled region." The hostages would be released the following month, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as Carter's successor.

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

News---Digitized Photograph Gives Up 'Ghosts'

Unfit For Service, Licensed Gettysburg Battlefield Guides, Gettysburg.Daily December 30, 31, 2010.

Gettysburg Daily is offering some amazing work by the GLBG and their digitally inclined friends. An often reproduced photograph of a wrecked artillery caission at Gettysburg has been found to have to contain an wagon train in its bleached out background. Taken from the Library of Congress online collection, the digital historians have darkened the foreground and the background. Some of the detail in foreground is lost but the the bleached horizon now contains a wagon train with a forge wagon and a man with a head wound. The Guides have searched for the location from which the photograph was taken by Alexander Gardner. It appears that they have found several spots. One location is very dramatic. The wrecked artillery caisson possibly "belonged to Hugh Garden’s Palmetto (South Carolina) Artillery that was brought east of the Emmitsburg Road on July 3, 1863, to attempt to protect the right flank of Confederate infantry during Pickett’s Charge" and was wrecked by McGilvery's batteries.

Check out the process of the discovery and the competing notions of where the photograph were taken. Visit Gettysburg Daily's entries for December 30 and 31.

New Edition---Maps of Gettysburg 2007 vs. Maps of Gettysburg 2010

Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3-July 13, 1863, Bradley M. Gottfried, Savas-Beatie LLC, 363 pp., 149 maps, index, bibliography, 2010, $39.95.

Maps of Gettysburg, Revised Full Color [2010] Edition, is identical in all ways to the original [2007] edition, except on the final page is a brief description of the author. Both editions' list price are $39.95. So, the obvious choice for the first time buyer is choose the Revised Full Color Edition.

So how about those colors? Red (Confederate), purple (Federal), sky blue (streams), green (vegetation), black (labels) gray (fences) and brown-gold (roads at the time of the battle). Each look great on the glossy buff colored paper. The 2007 was gray-scale on white non-glossy paper. Vegetation includes trees, corn, orchards and grains, Fences include worm, post & rail, and stone. Elevations are generalized with hash marks. The maps are scaled for distance.

Maps of Gettysburg [2010] or Phil Laino's Gettysburg Campaign Atlas [2009]? If readers are shopping for an atlas, both are equally valuable. Gottfried's is a hard cover binding and Laino's is paperbound. Gottfried's has smaller dimensions than Laino's. Gottfried's has a sturdy 'perfect' [glued] binding and Laino's has a spiral binding with thick, sturdy wire. Those who are Gettysburg Magazine readers will recognize Laino's work.

Internet buyers should use caution. It appears that many Amazon.com 'second-sellers' do not generally differentiate between the 2007 and the 2010 editions.

News---Clara Barton's D.C. Office of Missing Soldiers To Be Curated By National Museuem of Civil War Medicine

Civil War Medical Museum To Manage Missing Soldiers Office, National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Press Release.

The National Museum of Civil War Medicine (NMCWM) will open the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum this year at 437 7th St. NW, Washington. The General Services Administration (GSA), which owns the building, chose the Frederick, Md., non-profit museum whose mission is preserving and researching the legacy of Civil War medicine, to operate the museum.

Barton lived in the third-floor rooms during and immediately after the war. Her living quarters and office were there until 1867. During the war supplies for her nursing work were stored in these rooms. In 1865 Barton hired staff and opened the Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army.

The office responded to more than 63,000 letters seeking information about soldiers and published lists of missing men. The fate of more than 22,000 soldiers had been learned by the time the office closed in 1867. The doors to the apartment were closed in 1875. The suite of rooms was discovered in 1997 as GSA workers were preparing the building for demolition.

In announcing the new site NMCWM Executive Director George Wunderlich said, “What she did in nursing is incredibly important and we don’t want to diminish that at all. But to say that Clara Barton is a nurse is a gross understatement of her importance. The fact is that she was a relief organizer at a time when women didn’t do that.”

He said, “The story of the rediscovery of the building as well as the story of Barton’s life while she lived there will be the essence of the visitor experience at the museum.” Barton’s words will be used in audio scripts and exhibit labels. Artifacts, images and sounds will enhance the interpretation.

“The overarching theme for the visitor experience will be the sensation of discovering a place, and through the place a remarkable person, and through the person the values that shaped her life and work,” Wunderlich said. The National Museum of Civil War Medicine operates out of a downtown Frederick building with nearly 7,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Its Pry House Field Hospital Museum on the grounds of Antietam National Battlefield, where Dr. Jonathan Letterman devised his system of battlefield medicine, is interpreted as a house museum. Its large bank barn was a field hospital that treated more than 400 men after the battle.

For More Information on Clara Barton see Antietam National Battlefield Park.

For More Information on the National Museum of Civil War Medicine

CWL: The work of NMCWM is an essential resource for enthusiasts and scholars. Its work over the past 15 years has done much to broaden and deepen our understanding of the lives and experiences of American Civil War soldiers. CWL encourages your support of this extraordinary organization, its museums, and its educational efforts.

Look On, Read On: Can watching & reading stop a renewal of Sudan's other war?

Yesterday marked the launch of the Satellite Sentinel Project, which aims to use technology to provide early warnings and raise public awareness about violence in Africa's largest country (map credit), and so to try "to deter the resumption of war between North and South Sudan."
Satellite Sentinel's a partnership of Hollywood celebrities (George Clooney et al.), corporate America (Google et al.), nongovernmental organizations (the Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative), and intergovernmental organizations (agencies of the United Nations). It promises to provide corroborated information

in near real-time (within 24-36 hours), with the aim of heading off humanitarian disaster and human rights crimes before they occur.

A core objective -- to use this information to prod the public to pressure public officials -- is apparent in the Project's slogan: "The world is watching because you are watching."

Can it work?

At the least, it may make more difficult a full-scale return to Sudan's other war -- not Darfur, the western Sudan (green on the map) turmoil that continues to simmer even as Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir continues to evade an International Criminal Court warrant, but rather the civil war that ravaged the southerly regions of Sudan for 20 years before the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. The agreement granted the south some autonomy and provided for a future referendum on full independence from the government in Khartoum (in the orange region on the map). Voting is just around the corner: January 9, 2011, in Southern Sudan (blue) and Abyei (red). Backers of Satellite Sentinel hope that the Project's eyes in the sky -- commercial satellites -- and voices on the ground will help to avoid violence during or after the election.

(Unstated is another potential use of these data. Should proactive efforts fall short, surveillance footage and contemporaneous reports would create a trove of evidence for prosecution of perpetators. To name a possible forum, the International Criminal Court is keenly interested these days in election-related violence. (And see here.)

Missing from the Project mix?

In contrast with Darfur, the history of North-South troubles is largely unknown. This absence of background knowledge may make it harder to push the public to push their officials. But there is much background information available.

In addition to any number of weighty tomes, here are a few mass market treatments that provide contexts for what is to come:
► Emma's War: An Aid Worker, a Warlord, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil--A True Story of Love and Death in Sudan (2002) by Deborah Scroggins, formerly a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The title pretty much says it all: this is the biography of Emma McCune, a Briton whose art history studies led her to Southern Sudan, 1st as an aid worker, then as an independence advocate, and ultimately to marriage with a rebel leader and death, in a Nairobi car crash, at age 30. McCune's trajectory sweeps with it much about the war.

► Acts of Faith (2005) by Philip Caputo, a onetime Chicago Tribune reporter and Pulitzer Prizewinner. Readers of Emma's War will find in this novel a familiar charater -- a lost young woman, American rather than British, who arrives in Sudan as an aid worker and eventually marries a rebel warlord. She's easier to understand than McCune, perhaps because the fictional format allowed the author more free rein. Acts benefits too from other characters and other subplots, all woven around a large and complex story of Western involvement (charitable and otherwise) in the civil war and the warriors' practice of enslaving captives.
► What Is the What (2006) by Dave Eggers. In this book Eggers, the subject of a prior post, writes the autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, born in the midst of the civil war. Deng's tragic journeys include a short stint as a child soldier and a much longer one as a "Lost Boy," wandering with other unfortunates in a wilderness that leads 1st to a refugee camp in Kenya and ultimately to a new and strange life in the United States. This is the best written of the 3 books, but the reader will better understand it if informed as well by the other 2.

On December 30

On this day in ...
... 1990 (20 years ago today), outcry over a decision announced the day before prompted the Greek government to announce that "it would not go ahead with plans to pardon Greece's jailed former military dictators." who had seized power in the 1967 coup d'état commemorated in the poster at right (image credit), until 1974, when the 1st free elections in a decade were held. The dictators were in prison following conviction on charges including treason, torture, and murder of dissidents.

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

New Year, New Things for the CWN 150

As we are now in the final days before the sesquicentennial anniversary of the American Civil War, it would only be fitting to highlight some new ideas and activities surrounding the CWN 150 for our devoted readers.

One of the most celebrate activities during the New Year is the countdown of the ball in Times Square. Everybody gathers around the television (or if you are lucky enough to be there in Times Square) to count down the final 10 seconds of the previous year, celebrating the first seconds of the proceeding one in joyful applause and embrace.

Here is our own "Top 10" list of new features and activities for CWN 150 readers to get involved with.

1. Featured Blog Tabs

The newest feature to the blog are the series of tabs at the top of the page. These allow you ease of access through the site, as well as provide some helpful links to other CWN 150-related pages. As you can see from the picture above, the tabs are as follows:

1. Home - takes you back to the CWN 150 Blog home page
   CWN 150 Bloggers - a list of all the current CWN 150 bloggers with their emails and info
2. Organizations - participating CWN 150 organizations
3. Publications - a list of all current CWN 150/NHHC publications
4. Links - Need another CWN 150-related link? Find it here
5. Facebook - directly links you to the official CWN 150 Facebook page
6. NHHC CWN - directly links you to information on the Civil War Navy, courtesy of NHHC
7. Boards - directly links you to the official CWN 150 Message Board (see below)
8. ORN - directly links you to a complete and free view of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies During the Rebellion. These records are also available for FREE on Google Books.
9. Questions? - Have a question about the Civil War navies? Click this tab to directly link to your email

2. Get Involved with Facebook

It is no surprise that Facebook is the #1 social networking tool in the world. Many (if not all) of you have Facebook accounts. Help us spread the word and awareness of the Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial by "liking" the Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial on Facebook. Simply search "Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial" to get to the page, or click the direct link HERE or on our tab on the CWN 150 blog home page. Stay connected and up to date!

3. Featured Polls

Over the past two months, we have asked readers about who they felt was the most influential Civil War naval officer. The results and comments thus far have been very positive. As the poll continues into its quarterfinal round, we will likely post other interactive this blog. Submit your vote today!

4. CWN 150 Message Board

As of today, the CWN 150 has its own message board. It is free to sign up and start contributing and interacting with fellow CWN 150 readers and enthusiasts. Forum topics include everything from general CWN discussion to the ships, sailors, and organization of the Union and Confederate navies. You can click the tab to link you there, or by clicking HERE to the forum index.

5. Updated Calendar of Events on CWN 150 Blog

Several 2011 events are now added to the calendar located at the top page of the blog. If you have an event that you would like to see on the CWN 150 blog calendar or Facebook page, please email Matthew Eng at matthew.t.eng@navy.mil.

6. CWN 150 Special Edition Daybook Available for Download

As stated before in previous blog entries (30 November 2010), the Civil War Navy Special Edition Daybook is now available for FREE download HERE. You can also access the page by clicking on the "Publications" tab.

7. Future Online Contests for Prizes

Future online contests for prize incentives will become an excellent way to foster growth and interest in the sesquicentennial in upcoming years. Stay posted.

8. Getting Involved with the CWN 150

Have an interest in the Civil War and its navies? Enjoy writing or researching? If you are, then click on the "Questions" tab to email about your interest in getting involved with the CWN 150. We are always looking for new people to help with the blog or Facebook page. If this is you, don't delay! If you are an undergrad currently in college or are a prospective college student email Sarah Adler at sa0374a@student.american.edu for more information.

9. Civil War Navy Card Game in Final Development Stages

We are nearing the final stage of development of The Fight at Sea: Anaconda trading card game. Please check back for details on how you can get involved and start playing today. If you would like info on current details, email Gordon Calhoun at gordon.b.calhoun@navy.mil.

10. Coming Soon: CWN 150 Podcasts and Youtube

One of the goals of the CWN 150 in the next year is to have not only a Civil War Navy Youtube video page, but a weekly or biweekly podcast devoted to any and everything Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial. Stay posted for more details.

I hope this is some exciting news for many of you. Have a safe and happy new year.

Full Speed Ahead,

Matthew T. Eng
Coordinator, Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial

Matthew F. Maury wins Week 8 Poll, Quarterfinal Poll Posted

Former U.S. Navy Commander turned Confederate Matthew F. Maury won the final Round 1 poll today. Over the last two months, we have asked our readers: "Who Was the Greatest Naval Officer During the Civil War?" Many of those included were not in fact "officers," but had ties or affiliations closely resembling that of distinguish. After 8 weeks of polls, the first round is over. Maury himself spent a long and distinguished career in the United States Navy before resigned his commission at the outset of war.

Indeed, Maury's influence from his naval career spanned his entire lifetime. He was the Civil War-era equivalent of a "Renaissance Man," as he was a well established explorer, author, historian, lecturer, cartographer, and geologist. You can see a brief biography of Matthew F. Maury HERE, courtesy of the Naval History and Heritage Command.

We will now begin the quarterfinal round of polls this week. The eight remaining officers chosen by you (the readers) are as follows: Union - David D. Porter, John Dahlgren, William Cushing, Andrew H. Foote; Confederate - Raphael Semmes, John M. Brooke, Thomas Lockwood, Matthew F. Maury. We will be posting the quarterfinal round of polls over the next month. This week's poll includes a matchup between Union naval officers of high mark and distinguish: David D. Porter and John Dahlgren. There were a lot of votes towards the end of the poll, so vote now, and encourage other enthusiasts to do so!

Päivän kuvat

Samsung EX-1, f/1.8, 1/15 s. ja ISO 240

Samsung EX-1, f/2.5, 1/45 s. ja ISO 120

Samsung EX-1, f/1.8, 1/30 s. ja ISO 200

Tässä kuvia Jyväskylästä, jonne lähdin kokeilemaan Samsung EX-1 kameraa. Näitä kuvia varten kiinnitin kameraan lisävarusteena saatavana laajakulmalisäkkeen, joka laajentaa kuvakulman vastaamaan n. 18 mm kinokameran objektiivia.

Nikon P7000, f/2.8, 1/7 s. ja ISO 800

2 tacks to combat piracy

Year's end finds 2 countries setting different courses to combat the recent spate of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.
In the United States, just before Thanksgiving, a federal jury in Virginia returned convictions for piracy and other offenses against 4 Somali defendants. (credit for detail from 2010 courtroom sketch by Alba Bragoli/AP) The verdict came one month after the judge in the case, United States v. Hasan, sustained a charge brought under 18 U.S.C. § 1651. The statute provides, in language dating to 1819:

Whoever, on the high seas, commits the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations, and is afterwards brought into or found in the United States, shall be imprisoned for life.

Yet in the same courthouse a few months earlier, a different federal judge, in the case of United States v. Said, had dismissed a piracy charge brought against 6 other Somali men. Tripping the latter judge up was Congress' reference in § 1651 to "the law of nations."

The opposite rulings reflect uncertainties about whether an old legal framework presents the proper way to proceed against 21st C. pirates. It's a puzzle addressed in this discussion by our OJ colleagues, and in many IntLawGrrls posts available here.

In the United States, the discrepancy next awaits consideration by the Virginia-based Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

France, meanwhile, has taken another tack.

France also has been involved in policing piracy in the Gulf of Aden. (credit for March 2010 of French naval vessel, with "Somali pirate skiffs" in foreground) France also has found that its old laws fell short -- and so it's opted for a legislative fix.

Shortly before Christmas, the Sénat voted unanimously in favor of the Loi de lutte contre la piraterie et d'exercice des pouvoirs de police de l'Etat en mer -- a bill to ease the pursuit and punishment of pirates that the legislature's lower house already had approved.

Key components:

► An 1825 French antipiracy law having been abrogated in 2007, the newly adopted law reintroduces into the penal code the crime of piracy -- a crime may be pursued via universal jurisdiction. The new law applies to acts of piracy "within the meaning of" the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, "committed ... on the high seas," "in maritime spaces outside any state's jurisdiction," and "when international law permits, in a state's territorial waters." That Convention is an artifact of the law of nations to which France has been a state party since 1996, but to which, as posted, the United States does not belong.

► The new statute further establishes a legal regime for detaining suspects onboard French naval vessels while they are being transported to judicial authorities. These Mesures prises à l'encontre des personnes à bord des navires respond to a March 2010 judgment, Affaire Medvedyev et Autres c. France, in which the European Court of Human Rights held that France had violated the guarantee of liberty and security of person in Article 5 of Europe's human rights convention by its high-seas detention in 2002 of members of a ship's crew who were suspected of trafficking in drugs.

(Deep thanks for invaluable assistance with this post to University of California-Davis LL.M. student Johann Morri, on leave this year from his post as a French administrative law judge.)

On December 29

On this day in ...
.... 1890 (120 years ago today), in South Dakota, U.S. cavalry troops entered an encampment of Lakota Sioux. A shot was fired and a gunfight ensued. When the Wounded Knee Massacre was over, more than 150 Lakota children, women, and men were dead -- indeed, the actual death toll may have been twice that; another 47 children and women, plus 4 men, were wounded. (credit for 2003 photo of tombstone marking mass grave, on Pine Ridge reservation) U.S.military casualties: 25 dead, 39 wounded. Eyewitness accounts may be found here.

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

Go On! IntLawGrrls at AALS

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

The Association of American Law Schools will be holding its 2011 annual meeting in San Francisco from January 5-8th. This year's theme is: Core Educational Values: Guideposts for the Pursuit of Excellence in Challenging Times.

If you are attending, be sure to check out IntLawGrrls and IntLawGrrl guests/alumnae in action. As detailed in the annual meeting program, they are:

Wednesday, Jan 5th

► At 2:00 pm, Afra Afsharipour will be speaking at the Law and South Asian Studies Section's panel: Lawyers as Social Change Agents in South Asia.

► Also at 2:00, Michele Bratcher Goodwin will speak on the Biolaw Section's panel: Synthetic Biology Meets the Law, and Penelope Andrews will moderate the Africa Section's panel: U.S. Africa Policy at the Midpoint of President Obama's First Term.

Thursday, Jan. 6th

► At 9:00 am, Stephanie Farrior, Hari M. Osofsky, Christiana Ochoa, Annecoos Wiersema, Leila Nadya Sadat, and Cindy Galway Buys will be participating in the International Law Section's panel: International Law Year in Review.

► At 2:00, Penelope Andrews will be speaking on the Constitutional Law Section's panel: American Constitutionalism in Comparative Perspective.

► At 2:30 pm, Lisa R. Pruitt will take part in a panel on Class, Socio-Economics, and Critical Analysis.

Friday, Jan. 7th

► At 8:30 am, Caroline Bettinger-López and Alexandra Huneeus will present at the
New Voices in Human Rights panel of the Section on International Human Rights.

► At 10:30 am, yours truly, Rebecca M. Bratspies, and Hari M. Osofsky will be participating in the Hot Topics panel: The BP Blowout Oil Spill and Its Implications.

► Also at 10:30, Laurel S. Terry will be speaking on the Education Law Section's panel: Immigration and Higher Education.

► At 4:00, Michelle Oberman will be speaking on the Law, Medicine and Health Care Section's panel: Women's Choices, Women's Voices: Legal Regimes and Women's Health.

Saturday, Jan. 8th is an action-packed IntLawGrrls day:

► At 7:00 in the morning, Laurel S. Terry will be speaking at the AALS Workshop and Continental Breakfast for 2010 and 2011 Section Officers.

► At 8:30 am, yours truly, Rebecca M. Bratspies, will be speaking on the Animal Law Section's panel: Treatment and Impact of Farmed Animals.

► At 1:30 pm, Elizabeth L. Hillman will be speaking on the National Security Section's panel: The Relationship Between Military Justice, Civil/Military Relations and National Security Law.

► Also at 1:30 pm, Jenia Iontcheva Turner will be speaking on the Comparative Law Section's panel: Beyond the State: Comparative Approaches to Group Political Identity in the Age of the Transnational.

► At 3:30 pm, Christiana Ochoa, will be moderating the International Law Section's panel: Was Medellin Wrongly Decided?

► Also at 3:30 pm, Jennifer Kreder will speaker on the Section on Law and Anthropology panel entitled The Role of Cultural Property Across Cultures and Legal Regimes.

As always, I am struck by the wide range of interests that our fearless leader Diane Marie Amann has brought together under the IntLawGrrls umbrella.

FYI: Because the Hilton is embroiled in a labor dispute with UNITE HERE, Local 2 (the hotel's workers have been working without a contract for over a year), registration and most of the AALS events have been moved to other nearby hotels. There may be other last-minute changes, so be sure to go by the locations in the schedule you receive at check-in rather than the brochure that circulated last month. See you in San Francisco.

(credit for 2010 poster of San Francisco by Kevin Dart)

'Nuff said

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

'I'm most comfortable wearing slacks, and well, for a woman to come on the floor in trousers was viewed as a seismographic event.'

-- U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (right), recalling her 1st day in the chamber of the Senate, following her election in 1986. The Maryland Democrat's comment came in a CNN.com interview. The occasion?

When she is sworn in for a fifth term in January, Mikulski will become the longest serving woman in Senate history, breaking the 24-year record held by the late GOP Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine.

On December 28

On this day in ...
... 1894, Burnita Shelton Matthews (right) was born near Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Sent to a conservatory so that she could learn to be a music teacher, she soon switched to the law, enrolling in 1917 in what's now the George Washington University Law School. Though she passed the D.C. bar exam in 1920, the district's bar association refused her application for membership. She responded helped to founding the Woman's Bar Association of the District of Columbia and the National Association of Women Lawyers and helping to edit the Women Lawyers Journal. She taught several years at Washington College of Law, now affiliated with American University. Founder of an all-woman law firm in the 1930s, she was counsel to the pro-suffrage National Woman's Party, the property of which was condemned to build the U.S. Supreme Court. "Matthews successfully obtained the largest condemnation settlement awarded by the U.S. government at the time, $299,200." According to the website for her papers, Shelton Matthews

was active in drafting legislation to secure equal rights for women, including a law allowing women to serve on juries, laws eliminating preferences for males in inheritance, laws requiring equal pay for teachers regardless of sex, and, in 1931 and 1934, amendments to the nationality laws of the United States extending to women citizenship rights previously accorded only to men.

In 1950, having been appointed by President Harry S. Truman, Shelton Matthews became the 1st woman U.S. District Judge. (photo credit) She served in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Shelton Matthews took senior status in 1968, and served in that capacity till her death in 1988.

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

Paluu arkeen pikku hiljaa

Minun piti tänään julkaista arvioini Pentax K-r kamerasta, mutta minulle sattui eilen pieni tapaturma. Leikkasin A3 valokuvapaperille tulostamiani pikkukuvia mittoihinsa, mutta valokuvapaperin lisäksi leikkasin sormestani palan pois. Jään henkiin, mutta kirjoittaminen on yllättävän rasittavaa, kun toisen käden etusormi on paketissa. Pentax saa siis odottaa muutaman päivän, kunnes sormi toimii hieman paremmin.

Pentax K-r, 18 - 55 mm, f/8, 1/80 s. ja ISO 400. Oikealta salama varjosta
heijastettuna ja väläytettynä Pentaxin langattomalla järjestelmällä.
 Täytevalona kameran oma salama. 

Minulla on kokeilussa Samsung EX-1, joka on aito vaihtoehto Canonin ja Panasonicin kompakteille. Kokeilussa on myös Nikon P7000 uudella firmiksellä, jonka pitäisi nopeuttaa raakakuvien prosessointia. Tuon mainitun seikan hitaus oli mielestäni tämän kameran pahin epäkohta.

Syksy oli melkoista laitepornoa Photokinan ansiosta, mutta uutena vuotena käsitellään taas enemmän muitakin valokuvauksen alueita.

Taidankin huomenna ostaa ihan oikean valokuvaleikkurin. Sormista loppuu tällä menolla kulutuspinta liian nopeasti.

Opinion---Glenn LaFantasie's Brazen List Of The Best Books

The Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written, Glenn W. Lafantasie, Salon.com, December 26, 2010.

Putting together such a list is, of course, a nearly impossible task, given the stacks and stacks of excellent books on the Civil War that have been published since 1865. Historians like to say that 60,000 books, give or take a few thousand, have been written about the war, but I'd wager that estimate is way too low. One needs only ponder the steady stream of books on nearly every aspect of the war that regularly roll off the presses to realize that Americans never seem to get enough of their favorite war.

Trying to name the top dozen Civil War books of all time is, admittedly, a brazen act on my part. Nevertheless, the books on this list are, indeed, my all-time favorites -- cherished works that have informed and inspired me, sometimes leaving me awestruck. In some cases, I've read these books more than once. Each time, I extract something new from them; never has my opinion of them lessened from reading them again. They are like old friends: They never wear you out and they don't ask much from you, other than that you think of them from time to time and recall what they mean to you.

All of these books occupy a special place in my own collection of Civil War works -- not only because I'm a Civil War historian, but also because these happen to be extraordinary books, every one of which has been written by exceptionally gifted authors. These are the sort of books you wish you hadn't read before, if only because you'd like to recapture the pure delight of reading them fresh for the first time. I hope you'll find my descriptions of them enticing enough to seek them out for yourself. No doubt you might disagree with my assessment of them. One of my wisest professors once said that books don't belong to their authors -- they belong to their readers. Every reader will have a different response to these books, but my hope is that you might enjoy them -- or any one of them -- as much as I do.

First, some arbitrary rules that have guided my selection of titles. I've only included books published after World War II, which means I'm leaving out a long shelf of good books issued before the second half of the 20th century, some of which still stand the test of time. Out of necessity, I've narrowly defined the universe from which I have picked my top dozen. For example, I've not included any biographies on this list -- an exclusion that some may find indefensible. No series or multivolume works are included here either, which means that Allan Nevins' majestic "The Ordeal of the Union" (eight volumes), Bruce Catton's "Centennial History of the Civil War" (three volumes), and Shelby Foote's very popular "The Civil War" (three volumes) are not to be found below, despite the fact that they all qualify as masterpieces. What's more, I've stuck to only nonfiction titles, so fans of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" or Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels" (both winners of the Pulitzer Prize) will be disappointed to see these novels missing from my list.

In any event, here are a dozen books that, for me, tell the story of the Civil War with literary elegance, intellectual gusto and enormous flair. Most of these books are in print (and in paper editions) and may be purchased at your local bookstore, from out-of-print book dealers, or from any of numerous book retailers.

12. "The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War":

11. "Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America":

10. "Lincoln's Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation":

9. "Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War":

8. "Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave":

7. "Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam":

6. "Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War":

5. "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory":

4. "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War":

3. "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era":

2. "The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans":

1. "A Stillness at Appomattox":

To read the entire essay and LaFantasie's rationale for each book go to Salon.com December 26, 2010.

CWL: Great list! Though Lafantasie creates a list of non-series books, he does put one of a trilogy on the list, A Stillness at Appomattox, part three of Catton's Army of the Potomac. But CWL agrees with them all, even Horwitz's Confederates In The Attic. A personal favorite, Confederates In The Attic appears to be scorned by neo-Confederates. In a Gettysburg bookstore CWL stood behind a Confederate reenactor, a colonel, who lectured a Confederate reenactor, a private, on what to read. The private picked up Confederates In The Attic and was rebuked by the colonel. "That book gets it wrong," the colonel said. The private put it back on the shelf. It seems that Horwitz's book may be a 'heritage violation' among the 2200 or so of the so-called Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Imagine if 2010 hadn't been the Year of Biodiversity

"Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is Our Life" That is the slogan of the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity, which draws to a close in just over a week. When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the opening of the Year of Biodiversity, he cautioned:

A failure to protect the world's natural resources is a wake-up call for people everywhere.

The U.N. General Assembly certainly ushered the International Year .of Biodiversity out with a bang-- voting on December 21 to establish the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
This new Intergovernmental Platform will be modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and is intended to be a mechanism for integrating scientific knowledge about biodiversity into policy-making.
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services was established just in time for the International Year of Forests which begins in January 2011, and the International Decade of Biodiversity, also beginning in January 2011. Let us hope it has more success in galvanizing global action targeted at stemming our losses of biodiversity than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has had in getting global agreement on actions to stem carbon emissions.
Establishment of the Intergovernmental Platform was a bright spots in a year otherwise riddled with bad news for biodiversity.
Biodiversity loss is rapid and ongoing. Over the last 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems faster and more extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history. We are losing tropical forests, wetlands, coral reefs and grasslands at a rapid clip. Species extinctions are orders of magnitude over expected rates. The causes are clear:
►over-exploitation
►habitat loss
►invasive species
►climate change
Unfortunately, these drivers of biodiversity loss show no signs of abating. As a result, we are losing species at rates three orders of magnitude greater than would otherwise be expected.
The IUCN Red List (prior IntLawGrrls posts here, here, and here) reported that 1/5 of vertebrate species, ranging from 13% of birds to 41% of amphibians, are threatened with extinction. A similar report by the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens suggests that one-fifth of plants are similarly threatened. This is terrifying! As the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment documented, biodiversity is the foundation on which human life depends.

In 2002, the Convention of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Strategic Plan set what's come to be known as the 2010 Biodiversity Target -- a commitment by the 191 parties to the Convention to

achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth.

This biodiversity target was subsequently endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United Nations General Assembly at the 2005 World Summit Meeting, and was incorporated into the Millennium Development Goals. These developments marked an official international recognition that biodiversity loss is closely associated with environmental degradation, poverty and ill-health. This prompted the General Assembly to declare 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity.
Unfortunately, the Convention of the Parties acknowledged earlier this year that it had failed to meet the 2010 Target for halting the losses of biodiversity. The European Union similarly missed its targets. The Global Biodiversity Outlook reports deforestation continues at an alarming rate, coral reefs show major declines, and abundance has plummeted for many species. This is not to say there have been no successes.
At the Cancun meeting earlier this month, delegates were cheered that Brazil announced it had reduced tropical rainforest destruction and CO2 emissions to record low levels, and that some species, mostly charismatic macrofauna, have shown signs of recovery. As the IUCN Red List reminds us, the news is not all grim. For the first time, scientists have documented that conservation can really make a difference in stemming biodiversity loss. There is still hope. But, the time for action is now!

On December 27

On this day in ...
... 1945 (65 years ago today), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Articles of Agreement, drafted the previous summer at the U.N. Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, took effect. The Articles established what's come to be known as the World Bank, an international organization that provides loans to developing countries. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. (left) (photo credit), it now has 187 states parties.

(Prior December 27 posts are here, here, and here.)

News---Underwater Archaeologists Raise USS Monitor's Engines; 15 Years of Work Ahead

Restoration Efforts On Civil War Steam Engine Progressing, Mark St. John Erickson, Newport News Daily Press, December 18, 2010

The warship Monitor was rescued from the Atlantic in 2001 after spending nearly 139 years underwater. Only now is the vessel regaining some of its original character.
When archaeologists and Navy divers recovered the warship Monitor's steam engine from the Atlantic in 2001, the pioneering Civil War propulsion unit was enshrouded in a thick layer of marine concretion. Sand, mud and corrosion combined with minerals in the deep waters off Cape Hatteras, N.C., to cloak every feature of Swedish American inventor John Ericsson's ingenious machine, and they continued to envelop the 30-ton artifact after nine years of desalination treatment.

This month, however, conservators at the Mariners' Museum here and its USS Monitor Center drained the 35,000-gallon solution in which the massive engine was submerged and began removing the 2- to 3-inch-thick layer of concretion with hammers, chisels and other hand tools. Working slowly and carefully to avoid harming the engine's original surface, they stripped off more than two tons of encrustation in their first week of work, gradually revealing the details of a naval milestone that had not been seen since the historic Union ironclad sank in a storm in December 1862.

"This is a technological marvel. It was cutting-edge in its day. But what's really neat is revealing all the wheels, oil cups, valves and other parts that the Monitor's crew used to operate the engine," said conservation project manager Dave Krop "If you consider that it spent nearly 139 years underwater, it's in outstanding shape — though some of the wrought iron has seen better days. And there are some copper alloy parts that look brand-new when they're first uncovered — like they just came off the shelf."

Smaller, more compact, yet just as capable as other steam engines of its day, the Monitor's vibrating side-lever engine was the ideal match for Ericsson's revolutionary warship. Its long, low, horizontal cylinder enabled the engineer to place it below the vessel's waterline as well as behind a thick armor belt — and that well-protected position virtually eliminated the vulnerability associated with the much larger and more easily targeted engines of the day, most of which towered above the deck of a ship. Ericsson was so confident in his engine's capabilities that he ignored orders to equip the vessel with masts and rigging.

And it astounded Union and Confederate observers with the way it performed in its historic clash with the rebel warship Virginia — also known as the Merrimac — in the March 8, 1862, Battle of Hampton Roads. "If the turret and the guns were the Monitor's muscle, this steam engine was its heart," said historian Jeff Johnston of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. "And it was the heart of the first naval vessel to be 100% machine," he added.

Once the concretion is gone, the engine will be submerged in a new solution of purified water and sodium hydroxide. It also will be exposed to a low-level electrical current that speeds up the release of potentially damaging chlorides through a process called electrolytic reduction. Sometime in the spring, conservators hope to begin a lengthy disassembly process involving thousands of parts. Each element will then be individually treated and documented — and the most seriously corroded ones replaced with carefully crafted replicas — before the giant artifact is reassembled and put on exhibit in the museum.

"The reason this disassembly is so important is that you have to gain access to each interior space and each part in order to conserve them and make them stable," Krop said. "Realistically, we're talking about another 15 years of work before all is said and done."

Text And Image Source: Los Angeles Times/Newport News Daily Press

Top Image Caption: Michael Saul and Elsa Sangouard of the Mariners' Museum are among conservators working to remove surface concretions on the USS Monitor steam engine. (Sangiib Min / Associated Press)