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Battle of Brandy Station, Summary
Battle of Brandy Station
Civil War Cavalry History
Battle of Brandy Station
Other Names: Fleetwood Hill
Location: Culpeper County, Virginia
Campaign: Gettysburg Campaign (June-July 1863)
Other Names: Fleetwood Hill
Location: Culpeper County, Virginia
Campaign: Gettysburg Campaign (June-July 1863)
June 9, 1863
Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Pleasonton [US]; Maj. Gen. J.E.B.
Stuart [CS]
Forces Engaged: Corps (22,000 total)
Estimated Casualties: 1400 total (US 900; CS 500)
Description: At dawn June 9, the Union cavalry corps under Maj.
Gen. Alfred Pleasonton launched a surprise attack on Stuart's cavalry at Brandy Station. After an all-day fight in which
fortunes changed repeatedly, the Federals retired without discovering Lee's infantry camped near Culpeper. This battle
marked the apogee of the Confederate cavalry in the East. From this point in the war, the Federal cavalry gained strength
and confidence. Battle of Brandy Station was the largest cavalry battle of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign. The duel was also the largest
cavalry engagement ever conducted on American soil.
Result(s): Inconclusive
June 9, 1863
Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Pleasonton [US]; Maj. Gen. J.E.B.
Stuart [CS]
Forces Engaged: Corps (22,000 total)
Estimated Casualties: 1400 total (US 900; CS 500)
Description: At dawn June 9, the Union cavalry corps under Maj.
Gen. Alfred Pleasonton launched a surprise attack on Stuart's cavalry at Brandy Station. After an all-day fight in which
fortunes changed repeatedly, the Federals retired without discovering Lee's infantry camped near Culpeper. This battle
marked the apogee of the Confederate cavalry in the East. From this point in the war, the Federal cavalry gained strength
and confidence. Battle of Brandy Station was the largest cavalry battle of the war and the opening engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign. The duel was also the largest
cavalry engagement ever conducted on American soil.
Result(s): Inconclusive
Source: National Park Service
Source: National Park Service
Reading: Brandy Station, Virginia, June 9, 1863: The Largest
Cavalry Battle of the Civil War (Hardcover).
Description: The winter of 1862-1863 found Robert Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Ambrose Burnside's Army
of the Potomac at a standoff along the Rappahannock River
in Virginia. In December 1862, outnumbered Confederate forces
had dealt the Union army a handy defeat in the Battle of Fredericksburg. A demoralized Union army was waiting for spring and
revitalization. The latter came in late January 1863 in the form of Major General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Relieving
the disgraced and outmatched Burnside, Hooker reorganized his troops, establishing regular drills, procuring adequate rations
and instituting company colors, thereby giving his soldiers back their fighting spirit. Lee, also with his eye on the spring
campaign, concentrated on maintaining his strength and fortifications while struggling with the ever-increasing problem of
adequate supplies. Continued below…
As the spring
campaign--and Hooker's new fighting approach--began, cavalry units from both sides took on an increased importance.
This culminated in the largest cavalry battle of the war, fought near Brandy Station, Virginia on June 9, 1863. Compiled from various contemporary
sources, this volume details the contributions of cavalry units during the spring campaign of 1863. Although the work discusses
early encounters such as the Battle of Chancellorsville, the main focus is the Battle of Brandy Station, which marked the
opening of the Gettysburg campaign and Lee's last offensive
into the North. Here, forces commanded by J.E.B. Stuart and Alfred Pleasanton fought a battle which ranged over 70 square
miles but left no decisive victor. At the end of the day, Confederate troops were still in possession of the territory and
counted fewer casualties, yet Union forces had definitely taken the offensive. While historians still debate the significance
of the battle, many now view it as a harbinger of change, signifying the beginning of dominance of Union horse soldiers and
the corresponding decline of Stuart's Confederate command. Appendices contain information on individual units with recorded
casualties and a list of West Pointers who took part in the battle. Photographs and an index are also included.
Site search
Web search
Advance to:
Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863
American Civil War Cavalry Organization
Civil War Cavalry and Brandy Station: Union and Confederate Weapons,
Battles, Uniforms, Role, Tactics, and Organization
The Gettysburg Campaign: The Battle of Gettysburg
Reading: Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg (Hardcover). Description: In June 1863, the Gettysburg Campaign
is in its opening hours. Harness jingles and hoofs pound as Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart leads his
three brigades of veteran troopers on a ride that triggers one of the Civil War's most bitter and enduring controversies.
Instead of finding glory and victory-two objectives with which he was intimately familiar-Stuart reaped stinging criticism
and substantial blame for one of the Confederacy's most stunning and unexpected battlefield defeats. In Plenty of Blame to
Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg,
Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi objectively investigate the role Stuart's horsemen played in the disastrous campaign.
It is the first book ever written on this important and endlessly fascinating subject. Continued below…
Stuart left
under acting on General Robert E. Lee's discretionary orders to advance into Maryland and
Pennsylvania, where he was to screen Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell's
marching infantry corps and report on enemy activity. The mission jumped off its tracks from virtually the moment it began
when one unexpected event after another unfolded across Stuart's path. For days, neither Lee nor Stuart had any idea where
the other was, and the enemy blocked the horseman's direct route back to the Confederate army, which was advancing nearly
blind north into Pennsylvania. By the time Stuart reached
Lee on the afternoon of July 2, the armies had unexpectedly collided at Gettysburg,
the second day's fighting was underway, and one of the campaign's greatest controversies was born. Did the plumed cavalier
disobey Lee's orders by stripping the army of its "eyes and ears?" Was Stuart to blame for the unexpected combat the broke
out at Gettysburg on July 1? Authors Wittenberg and Petruzzi, widely recognized for their study and expertise of Civil War cavalry
operations, have drawn upon a massive array of primary sources, many heretofore untapped, to fully explore Stuart's ride,
its consequences, and the intense debate among participants shortly after the battle, through early post-war commentators,
and among modern scholars. The result is a richly detailed study jammed with incisive tactical commentary, new perspectives
on the strategic role of the Southern cavalry, and fresh insights on every horse engagement, large and small, fought during
the campaign. About the author: Eric J. Wittenberg has written widely on Civil War cavalry operations. His books include Glory
Enough for All (2002), The Union Cavalry Comes of Age (2003), and The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads and the Civil War's Final
Campaign (2005). He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Recommended Reading:
The Cavalry at Gettysburg:
A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations during the Civil War's Pivotal Campaign, 9 June-14 July 1863. Description: "For cavalry and/or Gettysburg
enthusiasts, this book is a must; for other Civil War buffs, it possesses the qualities sought by students of the conflict.
. . . [It] bristles with analysis, details, judgments, personality profiles, and evaluations and combat descriptions, even
down to the squadron and company levels. The mounted operations of the campaign from organizational, strategic, and tactical
viewpoints are examined thoroughly. The author's graphic recountings of the Virginia
fights at Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, the Pennsylvania encounters at Hanover, Hunterstown, Gettysburg,
and Fairfield, and finally the retreat to Virginia, are the finest this reviewer has read under a single cover.
Continued below...
For those who
enjoy the thunder of hoofbeats, the clang of sabers, and the crack of pistols and carbines, this book has all of it. Generals
and privates share the pages, as the mounted opponents parry and thrust across hundreds of miles of territory from June 9
to July 14, 1863."-Civil War Times Illustrated (Civil War Times Illustrated).
Reading: The Mutiny at Brandy Station: The Last Battle of the Hooker Brigade (Hardcover). Description: THE MUTINY AT BRANDY STATION presents, in microcosm, the character
and actions of men who served the United States Army of the Potomac in 1864. The story follows
key players through the reorganization, the courts martial, and into the Wilderness using direct quotes from their diaries,
memoirs, and reports as well as original transcripts of the trials. 78 black and white illustrations.
Recommended Reading: The Union Cavalry Comes of Age: Hartwood Church to Brandy Station, 1863.
Description: In The Union Cavalry Comes of Age, award-winning cavalry historian Eric J. Wittenberg provides a long-overdue
challenge to the persistent myths that have unfairly elevated the reputations of the Confederate cavalry's "cavaliers"
and sets the record straight regarding the evolution of the Union cavalry corps. He highlights the careers of renowned Federal
officers, including George Stoneman, William W. Averell, Alfred Pleasonton, John Buford, and Wesley Merritt, as well as such
lesser-known characters as Col. Alfred Duffie, a French expatriate who hid an ugly secret. Continued below…
Wittenberg writes a lively, detailed account of a saber-slashing era in which
men fought for duty, honor, and bragging rights. Indeed, a taunting note left behind by Confederate Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee
on a raid at Hartwood Church, Virginia,
in 1863 sparked Northern retaliation at the Battle of Kelly's Ford. The Federal cavalry then evolved during the trials
of Stoneman's Raid, with their hard work culminating in the Battle of Brandy Station, where they nearly broke the unsuspecting
Confederates in a fourteen-hour maelstrom that is considered the greatest cavalry battle ever fought in North
America. A skillfully woven overview, this unforgettable story also depicts the strategic and administrative tasks
that occupied officers and politicians as well as the day-to-day existence of the typical trooper in the field. The Union
Cavalry Comes of Age shows that Northern troopers began turning the tide of the war much earlier than is generally acknowledged
and became the largest, best-mounted, and best-equipped force of horse soldiers the world had ever seen.
Viewing: The Civil War - A Film
by Ken Burns. Review: The Civil War -
A Film by Ken Burns is the most successful public-television miniseries in American history. The 11-hour Civil War
didn't just captivate a nation, reteaching to us our history in narrative terms; it actually also invented a new film language
taken from its creator. When people describe documentaries using the "Ken Burns approach," its style is understood: voice-over
narrators reading letters and documents dramatically and stating the writer's name at their conclusion, fresh live footage
of places juxtaposed with still images (photographs, paintings, maps, prints), anecdotal interviews, and romantic musical
scores taken from the era he depicts. Continued below...
Reading: Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America)
(Hardcover). Description: In the study of field fortifications in the Civil War that began with Field Armies
and Fortifications in the Civil War, Hess turns to the 1864 Overland campaign to cover battles from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Drawing on meticulous research in primary sources and careful examination of trench remnants
at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and Bermuda Hundred, Hess describes Union
and Confederate earthworks and how Grant and Lee used them in this new era of field entrenchments.
Recommended Reading:
The Civil War: Strange & Fascinating Facts (Hardcover). Description: After a lifetime of reading, Burke Davis put together a book of
amazing and interesting pieces of information that don't usually show up in the historical accounts of the Civil War. ...Wonderfully
entertaining look at some intriguing oddities, unusual incidents, and colorful personalities connected with the Civil War.
It includes 25 names the war was known by, personal quirks of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Take a look at some interesting examples below…
Here are a
few examples of his research:
The Civil War
was known by more than twenty-five names. The most unusual include: The Brothers War; The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance;
The War for the Union;
and The War of the Rebellion.
Abraham Lincoln
had smallpox when he gave the Gettysburg Address and several members of his wife's family were soldiers in the Confederate
Army. Also, President Lincoln admitted that one of his favorite tunes was "Dixie."
General Nathan
Bedford Forrest, CSA, had twenty-nine horses shot from beneath him during the war. Belle Boyd started her career as a spy
for the South when, at the age of seventeen, she killed a Federal soldier. After the war, about 3,000 former Confederate officers
left the South and moved to foreign countries.
Recommended Reading: Civil War Curiosities:
Strange Stories, Oddities, Events, and Coincidences. Description: Civil War Curiosities uncovers those unusual persons, attitudes, and events that take you beyond a textbook understanding
of the Civil War. A collection of fascinating anecdotes and colorful stories, this book covers a wide variety of subjects,
including newfangled weapons that changed the nature of war, the outrageous media inaccuracy in covering the conflict, the
phenomenon of 'silent battles,' and various disguises, atrocities,
and mix-ups. Continued below...
Just one of
the accounts which I loved… It tells of when Sam and Keith Blalock joined the
Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment, they claimed to be old friends who were distantly related. It was months before anyone
discovered "Sam's" real name was Melinda. When Keith signed up to fight the Yankees, his wife put on a man's attire and went
with him to war. I found this book (research) to be the most interesting and fascinating read.
More Civil War Curiosities: Fascinating Tales, Infamous Characters, and Strange Coincidences.
Description: Garrison recounts numerous instances
of friendly fire casualties, the unperfected art of spying, banishments and deportations, grisly tales of missing limbs, disguises,
and much more. The unusual and the bizarre are the continual trademarks of this work. The stories are lively, interesting
and even thought provoking. The work takes you outside the realm of modern textbooks to give you the inside scoop of the Civil
War. A truly fascinating read! Continued below…
A Reader's
Review: "I have three of Garrison's books: The Amazing Civil War, Civil War Curiosities, and More Civil War Curiosities. I
would recommend each and every book to anyone! The facts that Garrison writes about are both interesting and captivating and
being a high school American History teacher, I plan on using the facts that I have found no where else to captivate my students
and give them a perspective on the war that they may have never found otherwise."
Recommended Reading: Civil War Trivia and Fact Book: Unusual and Often Overlooked Facts About America's
Civil War. Description: More than 1,600 interesting and little-known facts
are assembled in this unique volume that will tantalize Civil War buffs. Fascinating trivia and facts abound in this rich
collection about America's most brutal
and intriguing war. Continued below...
Return to American Civil War Homepage
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text:
Do you have South Africa on your bucket list? If so, this deal's for you! Qatar Airways has dropped the price of airfares from Dallas to Johannesburg for just $728 roundtrip, including tax. Flights to South Africa are usually over $1,400 roundtrip, so today's fares will save you up to $700 on the usual cost.
Travel is available Nov. 1-20 & Jan. 23 – March 29. Early in the year is generally the calving season, and is considered the best time to see the African bush.
Don't forget that South Africa's seasons are reversed from our seasons in the northern hemisphere. So they'll be experiencing summer from November to February and fall in March and April.
Qatar Airways is a 5-star airline according to Skytrax, the highest rating available (same rating as Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines).
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Featured Image: African Elephants in the Wild, South Africa (Shutterstock.com)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Deploying Cloudera Search
Cloudera Search is built on a SolrCloud deployment of Apache Solr (not standalone Solr). SolrCloud partitions your data set into multiple indexes and processes, and uses ZooKeeper to simplify management, which results in a distributed cluster of Solr servers.
Installing and Starting ZooKeeper Server
Cloudera Search uses Apache ZooKeeper as a highly available, central system for cluster management. For a small cluster, running ZooKeeper colocated with the NameNode is recommended. For larger clusters, use multiple ZooKeeper servers. For more information, see Initialize Multiple ZooKeeper Servers in a Production Environment.
If you do not already have a ZooKeeper service added to your cluster, add it using the instructions in Adding a Service for Cloudera Manager installations. For package-based unmanaged clusters, see Setting Up Apache ZooKeeper Using the Command Line.
Initializing Solr
For Cloudera Manager installations, if you have not yet added the Solr service to your cluster, do so now using the instructions in Adding a Service. The Add a Service wizard automatically configures and initializes the Solr service.
Generating Collection Configuration
To start using Solr and indexing data, you must configure a collection to hold the index. A collection requires the following configuration files:
- solrconfig.xml
- schema.xml
- Any additional files referenced in the xml files
The solrconfig.xml file contains all of the Solr settings for a given collection, and the schema.xml file specifies the schema that Solr uses when indexing documents. For more details on how to configure a collection, see http://wiki.apache.org/solr/SchemaXml.
solrctl instancedir --generate $HOME/solr_configs
You can customize a collection by directly editing the solrconfig.xml and schema.xml files created in $HOME/solr_configs/conf.
solrctl instancedir --create <collection_name> $HOME/solr_configs
solrctl instancedir --list
For example, if you used the --create command to create a collection named weblogs, the --list command should return weblogs.
Creating Collections
solrctl collection --create <collection_name> -s <shard_count>To use the configuration that you provided to Solr in previous steps, use the same collection name (weblogs in our example). The -s <shard_count> parameter specifies the number of SolrCloud shards you want to partition the collection across. The number of shards cannot exceed the total number of Solr servers in your SolrCloud cluster.
To verify that the collection is active, go to http://search01.example.com:8983/solr/<collection_name>/select?q=*%3A*&wt=json&indent=true in a browser. For example, for the collection weblogs, the URL is http://search01.example.com:8983/solr/weblogs/select?q=*%3A*&wt=json&indent=true. Replace search01.example.com with the hostname of one of the Solr server hosts.
You can also view the SolrCloud topology using the URL http://search01.example.com:8983/solr/#/~cloud.
For more information on completing additional collection management tasks, see Managing Cloudera Search.


text: Each time you obtain a new cloud hosting account, your payment is inspected and processed, and then the account is created on the web servers of the hosting company. This process typically takes serious amounts of time and even though it is highly automated, there's usually a step, that is completed by a live man or woman - either the payment verification or the new account creation in the web server. A number of Internet hosting companies even wait up till there's some number of orders in their system queue before they perform them. With this, you end up waiting instead of handling your web sites and quite often it may take even a day or two to have your new hosting account activated and to acquire the login details for it.


text:
ON IT Recordings welcome Funk D'Void to the label with his new single 'Feels So Good'. A hypnotic journey into melodic techno, he uses a classic '90s vocal sample laid over synths and bass underpinned by driving percussion to work the floor. The package also includes remixes from Tuff London, who inject an arpeggiated synth line that builds with thick strings. Brett Gould's remix journeys between techno and progressive, armed with a rolling bassline, driving percussion and a melodic synth hook.
Label boss, Onyva's delivers a percussive, almost tribal tech groove led remix and for the deeper floors ON IT's Mark Holmes layers percussion with hooky, syncopated loops, building
into an atmospheric break, before jumping back into the groove.
Funk D'Void: "I made the track deliberately with a melodic, hooky feel with some of my favourite old vocal samples from a couple of '90s classic house/techno records. I love putting on my
rose-tinted, nostalgia shades when I'm in the studio!"
With a discography that spans over 20 years, Funk D'Void's productions have graced labels such as Bedrock, Cocoon, Electrik Soul, Missile, Octopus, Suruba, Tronic,
Tulipa and Urbantorque, as well releasing on his own label, Outpost Recordings. He's also crafted reworks for New Order, Underworld, Kevin Saunderson, Deetron, Laurent Garnier,
Paul van Dyk, Shlomi Aber, Stephan Bodzin, Ian Pooley and Technasia, to name a few. And, he's also also compiled and mixed for compilation serieses Balance and Cocoon. In between holding down a
tour schedule, he is always working in the studio and has new remixes for M.I.G., Ken Ishii and Weisses Licht forthcoming in the autumn.
ON IT Recordings is a new evolving forward-thinking UK-based record label owned by producer ONYVA. So far the label have featured release from Jey Kurmis, Hott Like Detroit and ONYVA himself, along with remixes from Funk Agenda, Vibe Killers and Barber.
It's out 22 September as Beatport exclusive.
© justaweemusicblog.com


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(Mile End's cured meat sandwich, lanced with pirate swords.)
Two days. Seventy-three food vendors. Twenty-seven breweries. More than 150 wines for the tasting. Guy Gourmet did its damndest to consume as much as possible at this year's first ever Great Googa Mooga Festival in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. And while the team didn't even put a dent in the vast banquet of eats and drinks the food and music festival had to offer, we did score some unbelievable bites—and we actually managed to snap photos of a few of them before chowing down.
Pork papusas with cabbage from El Olomega. Served up on the side: electronica from NYC's Holy Ghost!
More From Men's Health
Los Angeles' Umami Burger raised the burger game with truffles and housemade American cheese.
The Bee Sting Pizza from Roberta's. Pepperoni. Mozzarella. Chili oil. Honey. Bliss.
Chef Marc Vetri from Philadelphia's Alla Spina served up mortadella hot dogs with spicy pickled cukes and cabbage.


text:
Some good functionality improvements on the list. Stay tuned for more...
Free File Downloads - Premium level sellers can set any file in their file list to be downloaded free of charge.
Store Featured Listings Fix - There was a bug preventing certain featured items from being displayed as Featured Listings in the store, this has been fixed now.
Tell A Friend Captcha - The system for the Tell a Friend functionality now has a captcha on it to prevent abuse. Annoying, but needed.
Micropayments Bug - There was an issue where accounts were not being properly redirected to the PayPal Micropayment email address specified. This has been fixed now.
Browser Fixes - Safari and Firefox were getting some issues in the Send Download system as well as the product setup process. This has been resolved including a few other issues.
Store Search - The Query used for the store search had to be refined to provide more accurate results. This is an ongoing process to be sure.
Download Page Timeouts - There was an issue with the SQL database queries which did some heavy lifting that needed to be refined/optimized. The download page loads much faster now.
TrialPay Payment Method - The system is now enabled to use TrialPay accounts as a payment method for sales. More on this later.
Google Checkout Enabled in Store - Sellers who disable PayPal but have Google Checkout enabled will have their sales go right to GC for payment.
Store Sub-Category Menus - We have implemented fly-out menus for the Store category navigation to make it quicker/easier.
Description Field in Bulk Import - The description field was getting cut off when using the Bulk Product Import system. This is now fixed and longer descriptions can be added now.
New Pre Made Purchase Buttons - The Code Generator system now includes several new buttons to choose from in addition to using the standard PayPal and your own custom buttons.
Subscription Product Download Bug - An issue has been resolved in the recurring payment/subscription download system.
Amazon Flexible Payments Enabled - Sellers can now sell in their PayLoadz account using the new Amazon payment system. Very similar to PayPal in functionality. More on this later.
Video Clip Previews - We are now enabling sample video clips to be viewed for certain file types in the store so customers can sample the item before buying.
Music Clip Previews - We have re-enabled sample song/audio clips in the store so customers can listed to portions before buying.


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Go inside Cindy Crawford's closet as she gives viewers a personal tour in virtual reality on "Supermodel Closets," the new VR Series, available exclusively on Vogue's YouTube channel, from Condé Nast Entertainment and Google Daydream.
"Supermodel Closets" uses the immersive experience of VR to give viewers a firsthand look inside the closets of legendary supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Amber Valletta, as well as industry icons like Kendall Jenner.
Shot in partnership with Google's Daydream team with Jump cameras, the five-episode series is produced by Julina Tatock of 30 Ninjas, which also produced CNÉ's VR Series, "Invisible."
Watch the video below to get a taste of the experience and explore Cindy Crawford's closet – prepare to have all your childhood dreams come true.


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I haven't posted in a great while, if any of you out there still read this blog, I'd like to apologize. Any explanation would simply sound like an excuse but I still feel the need. I've felt pretty exhausted lately, this usually happens this time of the year. The school year ending and ministry responsibilities are relieved, leaving me to nurse exhaustion and general wear. Along with the tiredness I find I have less to say – no doubt corresponding to having less time and energy to process and tend the garden of thoughts growing behind my eyes. The next months should provide for more opportunity to think and write and develop some teachings for the summer and fall. I welcome these opportunities.
For now I leave you with this:
The newest Nooma 020 Shells is posted on the Nooma facebook page for your viewing for the next 24 hours. Especially in light of what I just wrote, I found this Nooma to be challenging – I'm thankful the academic calendar allows for forced reevaluation of what you've said "Yes" and "No" to.
Now playing: Spoon – Don't You Evah
via FoxyTunes


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Pre-Symposium II, 2019
Pre-Symposium for Doctoral Candidates and Art students
19–20 August 2019
The Earth – Planet Tellus, on which we live – is the centre of human life. For the Ancient Greeks, Gaia represented a personification of the Earth, the caring Mother who ended the primordial Chaos. Similar depictions of the Earth as a caring parent are found in numerous mythologies from around the world. Today our relationship to earth has renewed its relevance and urgence as exploitation, indifference and greed over past centuries have driven Gaia to the brink of collapse.
The element of Earth and human-earth interaction are dealt with in numerous scientific disciplines, e.g. biology, archaeology and geology and engaging fields such as eco-theology, environmental history, literature, geography and political sciences to illuminate the fundamental groundedness of humanity in soil and dust. Minerals, clay and soil are used as raw materials for artists in different fields, but the earth can also work as inspiration and a metaphor within the arts, a concrete evolutionary process – and as something that demands our care and indebtedness.
ABOAGORA invited doctoral candidates and art students to discuss and develop ideas about the earth – its past, present and future. What kinds of views are there in the history of the earth and between earth and humans? What are our hopes and dreams for the future of the earth – or our worst fears? How the Anthropocene – in which we live – has come to this and where is it going? How is climate change affecting the earth and us humans and animals? And how do humans, especially youth, deal with climate anxiety – the incapacity and unwillingness of older generations to make changes or the sorrow of lost species, nature and way of living?
ABOAGORA Pre-Symposium II, 2019
The Pre-Symposium event combined presentation training, a lecture and discussion on ethics for artists and scientists, and a visualization workshop. The aim was to explore connections between the arts, sciences, and academic thinking, and to learn engaging ways to present scientific and artistic work and knowledge.
The ABOAGORA Pre-Symposium comprised:
– "Ethics for Artists and Scientists," a lecture by Postdoctoral Researcher, PhD Hemmo Laiho (Philosophy, Turku Institute for Advanced Studies). Participants learned and examined ways in which ethical issues arise in science and art and how scientific and artistic work might differ and coincide in this respect.
– Presentation training by Rasmus Basilier (Boost Turku), where participants pitched their research or art project. Each participant crafted and delivered a pitch (a brief, persuasive talk) and received feedback from the trainer and other participants.
– A full day workshop on Visualizing Knowledge, by principal lecturer, PhD Pirita Juppi (Arts Academy, Turku University of Applied Sciences). Participants learned how to visualize their research or artistic work, data and research results. The primary focus of the workshop was on presenting information with infographics, but participants also learned about using videos to illustrate, explain and demonstrate scientific knowledge.
– Time and space for participants to share ideas, thoughts, problems and solutions.
Participants presented their work in the ABOAGORA: Earth Symposium on August 22.
The ABOAGORA Pre-Symposium 2019 was a joint effort of ABOAGORA organizing committee, Arts Academy of Turku University of Applied Sciences, University of Turku Graduate School (UTUGS), Åbo Akademi University and Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS).
Xinquan Wen: How to transform the potential conflict relationships between minor food production constitutions into collaborative ones?
Xinquan Wen is a master student of Collaborative and Industrial Design at Aalto University, where Xinquan creates service and interaction design plus material exploration regarding nature, including food storage, insect observation and photosynthesis. At the same time, Xinquan is working as a design consultant at a vertical farming startup in Helsinki. Xinquan has a background in vehicle design and has worked as an interaction designer for two years in the transportation field. Xinquan enjoys yoga and reading.
Sonja Salomäki: The affecting features of climate art activism
Sonja Salomäki works and lives in Helsinki, Finland. She has been doing her doctoral studies at the University of Lapland since autumn 2017 but she also works with textile, visual and performance art, when possible. Salomäki received her MA at the University of Arts and Design, Textile Art Department, in Helsinki in 2006. Currently, Salomäki is mainly working on the analysis of the climate art activism project "Climate channel", which is the practical part of her doctoral studies.
Alessa Brossmer: Polar stations – architecture and research in terrestrial climatic zones of the extreme as precursor model for populating space – Focus: Eden ISS.
Alessa Brossmer, born in 1988 in Germany, has focused on medial versatile works at the intersection of architecture and research. Currently, she is conducting research in the field of Space Architecture and writing her Ph.D. about the greenhouse polar station EDEN ISS in Antarctica. In art, photographs function as her notes for three-dimensional works as casts, models or sound. Alessa Brossmer studied sculpting (metal) at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle (Germany) and applied culture and media studies at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany). Lately, she has presented her artistic work at exhibitions at Bauhaus Dessau, Germany, Palais Thurn and Taxis Bregenz, Austria, and at Herðubreið, Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, among others.
Anna Lehtonen & Tanja Parantainen: Creative pathways through eco-anxiety to hope – Playback theatre and drama as methods
Anna Lehtonen is a teacher, drama educator, climate change education expert and a doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki. She is writing her doctoral thesis on drama as an interconnecting approach for climate change education.
Tanja Parantainen is working as an applied theatre and playback theatre artist and as a theatre teacher at Helsinki-based Teatteri ILMI Ö, a pioneer of Finnish applied drama and theatre.
Lehtonen and Parantainen's collaboration project, playback theatre as an arts-based approach for eco-anxiety research, is a part of Tanja's master's thesis for Turku University of Applied Sciences. Playback theatre groups Heräämö (Helsinki) and Raakku (Tampere) are also collaborating in this project.
Jimena Bigá: Collaborative efforts between audience and science. When the interpretation of the past can acquire signification through artistic expressions.
Jimena Bigá is an Argentinian archaeologist who recently completed her master´s degree in archaeology at the University of Helsinki. Her Master´s Thesis analysed the "community-based archaeology" and its possibilities of being developed and used in Finland. Her interest and research topic is about the democratisation of archaeology and the possibility of doing collaborative projects with indigenous and non-indigenous communities. At the moment, she is working on archaeological excavations as a research assistant and writing the research plan for her upcoming doctoral studies.
Kaisa Vaittinen: Personal and Conflicting Ideas on Vast Space – The Sahara in Two Finnish Travelogues
Kaisa Vaittinen's interest in the Middle East and North Africa began as a child. Vaittinen loved to read and listen stories about ancient cultures and travel stories of more recent times. This love grew into academic interest, and she studied at the University of Helsinki, graduating with an M.A. in Old Testament Studies. Wanting to widen her perspective and turning to more modern times, Vaittinen began her studies at the University of Turku, where her major is Cultural History and she is working with travel writings and the personal experience of space, nature and local culture.
Laura Wickström: Conceptual frameworks of Islamic perspectives on nature and the earth
Laura Wickström is a doctoral student at Åbo Akademi University. She holds a Master of Arts degree in comparative religion and currently specialises in Islam and ecology within the Department of Comparative Religion. She also has a master's degree in public international law with a specialisation in human rights law. She worked as a research-coordinator at the Finnish Institute in the Middle East in Lebanon in 2015–2016. Her main research focus is to present Islamic perspectives on ecology and to explore how widespread these movements are, to examine the work they conduct and to find out who the central actors are.
Teemu Lehmusruusu: Trophic Verses – Soil life and artistic research
Teemu Lehmusruusu (b. 1981, Helsinki) is a media and environmental artist whose works examine and test the basic conditions and causalities of life in our common environments. Lehmusruusu completed the Degree Programme in Photography at Aalto University and also studied at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) with Hito Steyerl. He is currently working on Trophic Verses, a four-year artistic exploration into and around the life of soil.
Soil, forming one fourth of Earth's biodiversity, is in key role in the age of climate change. Its biochemical reactions, microbes, fungi and animals determine how oxygen, water, nutrients and organic matter move and affect the life on the ground. It is also vulnerable, and human action poses many challenges to its vitality. In science, phenomena of the soil are still largely unrevealed and not directly perceivable to the senses, making it a fitting and intriguing field for artistic imagination and conceptualisation. The fundamental intention is to explore our emotional connections with soil as a medium of existence. Trophic Verses is done in collaboration with the Baltic Sea Action Group and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It is funded by Kone Foundation. The project manifests itself also as Lehmusruusu's D.A. in artistic research at Aalto Arts.
Kristiina Koskinen: Aesthetics of decay
Kristiina Koskinen is a PhD candidate at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Art and Design. In her dissertation, she studies ideas of nature in wildlife films. Having a relatively long working history in the television industry, her perspective strives to remain connected with practical audiovisual work. With plants, animals and other non-human elements, her main interest lies in their subjectivity.
Siiri Pyykkönen: Landscape as property: power, rights and relations in urban landscapes
Siiri Pyykkönen is a first-year doctoral candidate in geography at the University of Turku. In her PhD research, she examines political processes that shape urban landscapes. She is connecting different theoretical ideas with case studies to study how landscape as property is seen in different urban structures. Her research connects the theories of legal, urban and political geographies. Pyykkönen is interested in relationships that develop ownership networks between local governments, stakeholders, laws, practices and inhabitants.


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News broke Wednesday that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is giving a $10 million contribution to the Mitt Romney-backing super PAC Restore Our Future, bringing his contribution total for the 2012 cycle to $36.5 million.
Whether the check-writing ends there isn't clear. But it seems unlikely, as it took less than 24 hours for Forbes to report that Adelson's contributions to super PACs in 2012 would be closer to $100 million or, even, "limitless."
Limitless donations are the new reality of post-Citizens United politics. But it's still worth occasionally stepping back to consider just how much money is being spent on this election. What else could be purchased with Adelson's money?
For Adelson, the $10 million donation he just made to Romney is equivalent to $40 for an American family with a net worth of $100,000, according to Forbes. But that same $36.5 million would have bought Adelson 7,300 nights -- 20 years -- in the penthouse suite at his own Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino. Below, a roundup of what else he could have purchased instead.
A new Macbook Pro for 16,598 of his closest friends.
Four years at a public university for 608 students, or four years at a private university for 278 students.
Food for a month for 1,042,857 children, or enough food to raise 4,828 children to the age of 18.
Seventy-three million standard 12-ounce cans of Natural Light Beer.
Enough seats for the NBA Finals in Miami -- 73,000 -- to buy out the entire stadium for three games and still buy everyone in the stands six Pepsi and hotdog combos.
Three hundred ninety-four Starbucks lattes for each of the 28,500 employees at the Venetian.
About 17,381 Habitat for Humanity homes in Guatemala.
A digital subscription to The New York Times for 202,777 people.
Over 1,825,000 standard-size American flags -- enough for 35,784 flags for each state capitol building and the U.S. Capitol.
Enough Nike shoes to shod 5,214,286 people.
Sets of season tickets to the remaining 40 games in the Yankees season, in box seats, for 1,921 fans.
A new BMW M5 for 396 drivers.
The entire wedding party for 1,424 brides.
Movie tickets for 2,313,054 couples.
A Nintendo Wii for 243,349 families.
One hundred and fifty-eight weeks at the Isla de sa Ferradura, a 14-acre private island near Ibiza, Spain.
A well for 1,767 rural communities in Africa.
A year's worth of food for 5,665 average Americans.
A box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for each of America's 25.7 million children under 5.
Even in New York City, 3,173,913 packs of Marlboro Red cigarettes -- enough to smoke 8,695 packs a day or 362 packs an hour for a year.
A 14-night Disney Panama Canal Cruise for 37,056 people.
Full funding for public schools in the District of Columbia for 11 days.
Eighteen years worth of cat food for 17,633 cats.
Thirty-three campaigns for the House of Representatives, or five campaigns for the Senate.
Nate Willis, Cole Stangler and Gregory Rosalsky contributed to this report.
Below, more top super PAC donors seeking to make their mark on the 2012 elections:


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Man found guilty of stabbing Pittsburgh police K-9 officer Rocco gets long prison sentence
John Rush to spend up to 44 years in prison
A man who was found guilty of the fatal stabbing of a Pittsburgh police dog -- an incident that prompted state lawmakers to stiffen the penalty for harming police animals -- was sentenced to prison time Tuesday.
Judge Jill Rangos gave John Rush a total of 17-44 years of time for several counts that will run consecutively for his conviction in the K-9 Rocco case.
A jury in December found Rush guilty of charges that included torturing or harming a police animal, disarming a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and resisting arrest.
Rush, 22, of Stowe Township, stabbed Rocco and assaulted four officers trying to arrest him in Lawrenceville in January 2014 on warrants for violating probation and failing to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.
Rocco's handler, Officer John Lerza, was stabbed in the shoulder during the confrontation with Rush in the basement of a Lawrenceville apartment building.
At trial, defense attorney Aaron Sontz took issue with the police version of the incident, calling it "impossible." Rush testified he stabbed the dog in self-defense, fearing it was about to attack him, and said he didn't intend to kill it.
Prosecutors contended Rush fought off a sheriff's deputy who tried to arrest him on the warrants on Jan. 28, only to encounter Rocco, his handler and other officers about 40 minutes later while he was hiding in a home's basement.
Lerza, warned Rush to shout an answer to police or face the dog, an 8-year-old German shepherd, a criminal complaint said. Instead, Rush "lunged out from near a pillar and attacked K-9 Rocco" with a 6-inch folding knife, it said.
Rocco was stabbed in the back, damaging muscles and a spinal bone and lacerating a kidney. The dog survived surgery but developed pneumonia and died two days later.
Rush faced up to seven years in prison on the dog charge alone. The charge now carries up to 10 years in prison since the Pennsylvania Legislature passed Rocco's Law, which upped the crime of harming or torturing a police animal from a third-degree felony to second-degree felony.


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This Council involves the Bar of England and Wales coming together in one body, to represent the whole profession. As such, we owe a duty both to the profession and to the public interest at our core. We must honour that duty together. It is a heavy responsibility.
What will it ask of us in 2018? It will, as ever, require us to put all we can:
- Into being the voice of the Bar;
- Into representing, serving, and promoting the Bar; and
- Into engaging with those who regulate us, those who have the power to affect our professional lives, and those who seek to threaten the rule of law.
But what else will we need to achieve in 2018? What are the specifics?
Four aims / themes
Let me start with what I think are four aims, or perhaps themes:
- The first concerns turning points. It seems to me that in several areas we may have reached a turning point, creating an opportunity to be seized.
- The second is to take control – of our standards, our success, and our future – and to take more responsibility for them. In some respects, if you will forgive me borrowing a phrase with some currency in a different context, we need to "take back control".
- The third is to look ahead. We must focus on the trends and the longer term, looking carefully at where we have been going, getting ahead of what is happening to us and around us, and charting a course for ourselves.
- The fourth is communication; especially but not only with the Bar.
So what do I think these mean in practice?
Let me look first at regulation.
I have watched both the birth and growth of our regulators. There is much that I could say about them, and about how I see regulation; but before turning to our aims in this area, let me start with just a few observations on the story so far, particularly as regards the oversight of regulation.
It does not always seem to have been appreciated that regulation of the Bar involves regulation of a profession. We are not simply the providers of a service to customers, never mind in many cases a commercial service.
In business, it is no doubt good practice to have a customer focus, even if in rather too many cases this may need to be imposed from outside: but for us, it is the very essence of what we do. It is both our duty and our ethos to put the best interests of our clients above all others, except for our primary duty to the court. This runs deep in our professional psyche.
If our regulators want to speak to us effectively and persuasively, then they must recognise and appreciate our commitment to our clients and the court. Yet, over the years, this has rarely been mentioned.
The same applies, too, to the objectives of supporting the rule of law, and encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession.
I still see the absence of all this in the ideology and fixations that remain in some quarters to this day.
Not only do these errors and omissions miss a crucial point about the Bar, but they have led to a critical lack of understanding, and a gulf in perception. This is entirely unnecessary and thoroughly unhelpful.
So where is the possible turning point?
I see this in the announcement just last week of the demise of QASA – the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. In killing this off, the BSB has in no way taken its focus away from being assured that the Bar is providing the quality of service that the public expects, and the public interest demands, but it has shown us a direction of travel that we should welcome. That direction is identified in the BSB's press release, in which they laid down a challenge to us to take greater responsibility for our own learning and development, and to manage our own professionalism and standards in the quality of practice.
The language is theirs, not mine, but it represents a turning point in recognising openly and clearly that the standards in question are our standards, and the professionalism in question is our professionalism. And the opportunity is to take back control of them. If we want to avoid what we see as unnecessary regulatory burdens, we must play our part in making them unnecessary. If we want to avoid the sort of thing that is exemplified by accreditation schemes, some sort of offspring of QASA, or a multiplicity of kite marks, then we must avoid the need for them.
So how do we seize that opportunity? The BSB sees the new regime for Continuing Professional Development – CPD – as showing us the way. We must make it work for us.
We already have a firm base on which to build. The Inns have long delivered excellent training for those starting out in practice, and we have shown what we can do beyond that in the excellent, and internationally renowned, Advanced Advocacy Course, run by the South-Eastern Circuit.
But we are already going further. We now have new training materials from the College of Advocacy[1], on youth court advocacy, expert evidence and statistics. We also have the vulnerable witness training programme, which we are helping to coordinate, and which is being delivered through the Inns and the Circuits. There may be a useful role, too, for profession-led panels in criminal defence work.
We also have more opportunities now in ethics. Some Specialist Bar Associations have already been running their own ethics sessions; and our Ethics Committee, under the excellent leadership of Rachel Langdale QC, has been forging ahead, forming partnerships with others to take advantage of our expertise, gained through the work of her committee and our Ethical Enquiries Service.
All of this involves us taking responsibility for our own standards and ethics, and taking back control of how we keep ourselves up to date and performing at our best. I want to see us doing more of this; we need to be doing more of this; and our dreaded CPD plans will be that bit easier, and that much more worthwhile, if we do. This Council must lead the profession in making sure that we seize the opportunity, as well as contribute our expertise.
Turning to my other two aims, I would like to see regulation that is wise, mature, sophisticated and effective. For me, whatever else it might involve, it ought to involve the following:
- A proper understanding of the Bar.
- A proper dialogue, based on respect, understanding, discussion and persuasion; not diktat, coercion or constricted formality.
- An acknowledgement that the regulatory objectives in the Legal Services Act 2007 are not exclusive to regulation, or for our regulators alone – the responsibility is a shared one.
- A proper understanding that the public interest is at the heart of those objectives, and that this is why encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession is absolutely a part of what our regulators must be doing. A profession with those characteristics is quite simply essential to the public interest.
- A recognition that regulation neither requires nor benefits from the profession being distanced from it, artificially and illogically.
- Proper account being taken of what we are already doing; and a real focus on whether something more or different is really required and, if so, from whom.
We have already taken a first step towards greater understanding with the LSB. I want us to work on that further during 2018. I hope, too, that they will give us the space to work more effectively with the BSB, who I think do appreciate much of this, and with their new Chair, Baroness Blackstone, and that they will allow us to do this without unnecessary and resource-sapping distractions.
Other priorities
So much for regulation. Where else do I think we need to be putting my four aims or themes into practice? As a priority, I think there are eight areas, and I propose to give just a few minutes over to each of them.
1) Where and how we work
Technology has enabled us – and perhaps encouraged us – to work ever more from home. That may be a positive decision, but it may also be because it is now harder to find time for our families; or because we need to reduce our overheads. So we find ourselves in chambers less often. We see less of our colleagues, and spend more time on our own. Even in chambers, financial pressures have led to looser arrangements and 'leaner footprints'. Those with court-based practices still see each other in courts and robing rooms, but that is not quite the same.
When we do communicate, it is often in much less personal ways – by email or Twitter, rather than face-to-face or even by telephone. And streams of e-mails now follow us everywhere, demanding to be read and responded to at any time of day or night, while deadlines become ever shorter.
It seems to me that these changes have implications, particularly for our wellbeing but also for our shared culture, our ethos and our sense of identity as a profession, and of what it really means to be a barrister.
We have thrived through being able to share experiences; to seek and to offer informal advice to each other; to try out ideas, or to help us get things straight in our minds; and to work out the right, ethical response to a tricky situation. There is no better way to learn ethical principles than to see and hear them being put into action. Will this still be the case in future?
We ought to be encouraging the Bar to acknowledge these trends and implications, and to take responsibility for finding ways to address them. Support from the Inns and the Circuits is likely to be crucial: both already mix opportunities for training with social ones, and chambers and others may wish to follow suit.
In terms of action for ourselves, though, there are two steps to be taken:
- We must persuade our regulators to recognise the importance of this.
- We must keep up the impetus behind our wellbeing initiative. We all now appreciate the importance of wellbeing, and I am proud of the work that work that we have done, led by Rachel Spearing and Sam Mercer, in bring this about. Many of the measures being taken to address this might now be seen as having an added benefit in reinforcing our shared culture.
2) International reputation
In recent years, we have established a reputation for ourselves internationally that is widely envied. We have converted this into significant earnings, but this is not just a matter of earnings, nor has our reputation been earned only by providing an excellent quality of service and skills to clients across the globe. It is as much a matter, and the result, of how our legal system is perceived, and of the lead we have taken in upholding and encouraging the rule of law, both at home and overseas.
We already work hard to build and reinforce that reputation through work that can only be done, or facilitated, at Bar Council level. Much is not particularly glamourous. I know that there are those who question this work; but to them, I say three things:
- This has made a real difference to the practices of a significant number of barristers, not just in more commercial areas but also in a growing number of others, such as family law and especially crime.
- Just as importantly, I do not believe that we can put to one side our commitment to the rule of law by ignoring either its weakness or what is happening to it, or to our fellow lawyers and judges, abroad.
- There are already developments taking place internationally that have implications for the rule of law at home. We need to meet these in their international birthplace, alongside colleagues in foreign bars, for otherwise, it may be too late to avoid them.
We are uniquely well placed to perform those roles, and I believe that we must continue to do so.
But threats to our position and reputation are emerging. Competition is nothing new; but it is growing; and much of it is now being targeted directly at us. This brings further priorities for 2018:
- We must do all we can to salvage those parts of the EU justice arrangements that have brought real benefits to our citizens and the Bar.
- We must help the Bar to seek out new opportunities; and we must work with the Government to identify where they can help in opening up new markets after Brexit.
- We must take more control by working for court reforms that help us to stay ahead of the competition.
- We should join with a former Chair of this Council – the Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Vos – in encouraging the Bar to play its part in making the common law of England and Wales the law of choice for technological developments, just as we did in the past for international trade and banking.
3) Rule of law at home
I need hardly remind this audience of our duty to speak up in defence of the rule of law in our own nation too; and to that end, I see at least three further tasks next year:
- We must continue the work started by this year's Chair, Andrew Langdon QC, on indefinite detention and administrative decision-making. Both are scandals.
- We must stand up and be counted on other, specific challenges. Brexit gives rise to them, of course, but there are other examples too. To give just one, there are threats emerging that may encroach upon legal professional privilege in a number of areas. It will fall to us to take a stand in its defence.
- We must try to do more to educate the public about what the rule of law means, and how fundamental it is to a civilised society. Our work with the Citizenship Foundation to bring the rule of law into schools in the context of Article 50 was an excellent example of what we can achieve in partnership with others, and I should like to see us do more.
But the rule of law also depends, of course, on access to justice; and this inevitably raises the questions of legal aid and investment in our justice system.
More money would go a long way, but we are under no illusion about the prospect of this government – or any government – changing the habits of decades. There are three areas, though, in which we may yet make some headway.
First, we may be at a turning point in political will and mood, even if only a minor one, on some modest changes to LASPO[2]. We must give this a push in the right direction. This will require the injection of money; but as the Bach Commission has pointed out, £0.5 billion more was saved as a result of LASPO than was ever intended; and it is inexplicable that the Government has failed to take any account of both the evidence and the sheer logic that for every £1 spent on legal aid, far more is saved elsewhere.
If you think that this is simply a domestic concern, think again. Our competitors are already seizing on our attitude to our justice system as another reason for litigants to go elsewhere. This is not just deeply embarrassing, but it undermines the Government's own campaign to tell the world that our "Legal Services are Great". "Great for some" is more difficult to be proud of.
Second, we will press the Government to bring forward a regime and funding so that those giving evidence of abuse or violence in family proceedings do not have to face being cross-examined by very people who are alleged to have abused them. We will press for this in the current parliamentary session.
Third, we must continue to argue for the court reform programme to deliver in a way that truly supports the rule of law. There are many concerns here which have yet to be resolved, and I will spare you a summary. Each will require our continued attention.
4) The junior Bar
The number of practising barristers is still rising, but the number of more junior barristers has fallen significantly in the last ten years. We have now reached the point at which the number up to five years' call is back to where it was when I was called, 26 years ago.
We cannot allow this to continue. We need the junior Bar. And I see at least four tasks for us here in the coming year:
- We must delve more deeply into the data to try to identify all of the factors that are driving these trends.
- We must focus on what more we can do to make a career at the junior Bar viable and sustainable.
- We must work with chambers, solicitors, and the Legal Aid Agency, to find ways to improve the cash flow of junior criminal barristers, particularly with respect to fees for defence work in the magistrates' court.
- We must help our self-employed juniors, in particular, to find their entrepreneurial side, and to use it to identify new markets, and to secure more work in existing markets, including where we have lost it to others. This may call for some new skills, but we are more than capable of learning them, and I hope that our employed colleagues will be willing and able to help.
With the whole of the Bar in mind, we need also to look harder at how the Bar can keep pace with technological developments, if not get ahead of them. The junior Bar may well be in the vanguard of this.
5) The publicly funded Bar
Whatever else may have caused the fall in numbers at the publicly funded Bar, it is difficult not to lay much of the blame at the door of successive governments, and those who have supported them in Parliament.
Why do I say that? Because of the appalling combination of shrinking fees, plummeting morale, and ever increasing burdens on practitioners, for all of which they are responsible.
New practitioners now come to us with higher debts than ever before, and facing higher housing costs than ever before. Yet the fixed fees on offer continue to fall in value. We have suffered cuts and erosion by inflation, year on year; and most scandalously, a cumulative reduction in criminal fixed fees amounting to some 40% in real terms from what were far from generous fees in the first place. Our solicitor colleagues have suffered similarly.
No-one else has been asked to swallow anything like this. Yet, it was taken for granted that the Bar would keep going in the face of it all, leading to the criminal Bar being pushed to the very limit.
It is not as if the work to be done has decreased in line with the fee rates. Quite the contrary. We are being asked to do more work than ever to prepare for hearings, and during hearings; and we must also bear the brunt of the added difficulties presented and experienced by litigants in person, often in very stressful circumstances, and – in family cases – by the added strains on local authority budgets. Across large swathes of the criminal and family bars, we do all this with a constant diet of cases involving sexual and emotional abuse.
It has been taken for granted that we will continue to absorb all this for those same, shrinking fees; and that we will continue to do so in working conditions that have been left to deteriorate to the point that, in some courts, they are a disgrace.
And in far too many cases, we are left bearing these burdens without any real payment at all. Barristers have given me many examples of criminal and family cases in which they have carried out even many days work, but ended up being paid for only a fraction of their time – or not paid at all – as a result of factors entirely outside their control. Some have even paid for extra child care to do a case, only to find themselves left without a fee to cover this.
This continues to take a heavy toll personally, and collectively. A knock on effect on recruitment and retention of junior practitioners is entirely unsurprising. It would be remarkable if it were otherwise.
So how should we be responding?
First and foremost, we must put the weight of the whole profession behind the publicly funded Bar, to all of whom I say this. The rest of the profession – employed and self-employed – is with you. We are with you because we care. Not just because you are our fellow barristers; and not just because we know that we are far stronger together. Not just, too, because we know that the public's attitude to the Bar is affected a very great deal by your position and reputation; you are, after all, those who deal most closely with the public in times of personal crisis. As much as all that, we care because we know that, without you, we could not secure proper access to justice in all of those times of crisis.
We still await the Government's announcement on the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) in crime; but wherever that takes us, there are two further priorities:
- We must continue to argue against any further erosion of fixed fees. There is simply no justification for singling us out, and excluding us from even a modest annual increase against inflation.
- Important as they are, barristers have told me consistently that this is not just about fees. It is also about those growing burdens that are being imposed on them. We need to take back control by finding and promoting some solutions to this.
6) The Court Reform Programme
In that last respect, one window of very real opportunity has presented itself: the £1.1 billion court reform programme. This holds out a possibility of a turning point.
I commend all those responsible for securing such a significant investment. It is a great achievement, even if long overdue. But is it being spent wisely, and is it being spent in all of the areas which need it most?
While the programme has many positive strands, which we welcome, we seem to have been forgotten about.
This has led to impractical, unrealistic, and even misguided, ideas being taken forward, such as the Flexible Operating Hours proposal. It is inexplicable that no-one bothered to ask us about them, and that no-one seems to have considered the consequences that were immediately plain to us.
These ideas have also drawn focus and funding away from what we would see as higher priorities, such as ensuring that existing court hours are used more effectively; and taking steps to combine greater efficiency with the best of our current system and a reduction in the unfair burdens placed on us, our clerks and our solicitors. If we could achieve that, then while the Bar would benefit, so too would everyone else involved in the justice system – clients, witnesses, judges, and the courts and tribunals administration.
We are already engaged with the programme on every front that is available and relevant to us, and HMCTS have in some areas been responding well to our input; but we must now take the initiative, and open up a new front, in which we must press for more focus on what we see the fault lines to be.
7) Communications
Our communications on all fronts have improved significantly in recent years, but I am sure we can keep on improving how, and how often, we communicate with the Bar.
But it has also been a priority for me on a personal level to talk and listen to the Bar, as often as possible, and preferably in person. This will continue to be a priority next year. I will again be crossing the country visiting every Circuit; but please tell me directly if there is something you think I need to know, or extend me an invitation to visit you. I am here to serve you all. Please help me to do so.
8) Who are we, and who do we want to be?
Finally, I should like to say something about an area that concerns me deeply: who we are, and who we want to be.
As a profession, we are committed to dignity, respect, fairness, and, as our motto says, "Justice for all". This is particularly true in relation to diversity and inclusion.
We have achieved a great deal on this since I joined this Council in 2005; and in many respects, we have been at the forefront of work by the professions; and we should be proud of that. But despite all our efforts, there is still a long way to go.
So we must continue to put two things at the centre of what we do:
- Recruitment of as diverse a group of the brightest and best new practitioners as we can achieve; and
- The retention of as many practitioners as we can, from the early years of practice through to the most senior levels, including into a pool of silks that reflects the full diversity of those who meet the necessary standards of excellence.
So far as the first is concerned, I see two particular tasks for 2018:
- We must delve deeply into the data, and analyse it carefully, so as to pinpoint as accurately as we can all of the reasons why the extension measures that we have already been taking have not yet made enough of a difference. Some of the reasons may be beyond our control, but we must, and we will, continue to work hard to overcome those that we can
- As we work to reinforce our shared culture, we must make sure that that culture is as open, inclusive and supportive as we can make it. I do not believe that this requires us to lose our traditions; but traditions are not static. We must develop them in the right ways so as to achieve this aim.
We must also keep our focus on retention. This is a very personal concern for me. I have seen close friends – female friends – build up excellent practices, with the talent and ambition to match, and on course no doubt for silk (and probably before me), make the difficult decision to leave their careers at the self-employed Bar. I have two in mind in particular. They will know who they are. Both have been highly successful in all else that they have done. Both were a huge loss to the self-employed Bar.
I recognise that for some – men and women – the decision to leave the Bar to focus on bringing up a family or caring for others is a choice that they make willingly, even happily. But for too many, the choice is still not one that is free form more than just social pressures. And I fear that the current generation of new practitioners, carrying debt and housing cost burdens far beyond those that we bore, will find it harder still.
We must continue not only to strive for ourselves to make it more feasible for all – and particularly women – to stay in practice, but we must also continue to ask the judges and HMCTS to help us in this endeavour.
In all of these respects, we must also ensure that nowhere do we tolerate any form of improper behaviour. Wherever and whenever it happens, you can be assured that we will continue to support anyone who has suffered, and anyone trying to deal with it.
And to go back finally to my fourth aim – communication – we must talk more about what we are doing. If we do, then we may also manage to take two more steps in the right direction:
- By encouraging potential recruits to see the profession as welcoming; and
- By making us a profession in which everyone knows where we stand on diversity and inclusion, and in which this is as much a part of what we believe and do as our professional standards and our skills in advocacy.
I make no apology if those aims sound ambitious. We must aim high. But please remember that we are not on our own.
We have the support, first of all, of the whole profession. Throughout my time on the Bar Council, I have been hugely impressed – proud, even – of how so many members of the Bar have been prepared to give us the benefit of their expertise, without hesitation, and without any reward other than our thanks.
But we have the support too of another dedicated, talented and enthusiastic group who labour away, largely unrecognised and unsung. They bring crucial skills, and they develop a deep understanding of the Bar and what we are about. Some are young hopefuls who are still on the path to a career at the Bar; but many are not. I am referring, of course, to the staff at the Bar Council who support us in everything we do. I suspect that few realise quite how much we depend on their commitment. It is they who enable us to keep on track from year to year, and it is they who respond with great skill and understanding to the vast majority of the ethical enquiries that we deal with. Without them, we could not coordinate and focus those thousands of hours given by the Bar as effectively as we do; nor would we be able to deliver on our aims, or to punch so consistently above our weight.
I hope, too, that we may count on those of you here who are not part of this Council, but who have a role in supporting the profession or in pursuing the public interest, and are able to help.
Finally, what can you expect from me in meeting those challenges?
I am a pragmatist; suspicious of ideology. I prefer to focus on our core values and core expertise; and to analyse before reaching conclusions. I want, too, to see results, even if they need sometimes to be incremental gains on the way to something bigger.
And as a former 'awkward squad' member of this Council, you can expect drive and passion, commitment and focus, as much energy as I can muster, and a willingness to speak up for what I believe is right.
So please join with me and with our dedicated staff in meeting all of those challenges, and let us all, in doing so, prove our value to the Bar and to the public interest, and show the Bar that their faith in us is not misplaced.
[1] The Inns of Court College of Advocacy.
[2] The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.


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Background/Aims: Young men are under-represented in nutrition research, with a lack of understanding of how to reach and engage them in interventions. Therefore the aims were to explore young men's motivators and barriers to healthy eating, and their preferences for a healthy eating intervention.
Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was completed by young Australian men (18-25yrs) in July 2015.
Results: Preliminary results (n=220) show key motivators for healthy eating were to improve: health (28.1% ranked as top motivator); body image (18.1%) and sports performance (10.4%). Whilst key barriers to healthy eating included: perceived accessibility of unhealthy foods (22.7% ranked as top barrier), lack of time to cook/prepare healthy foods (19.5%), and high cost of healthy foods (16.4%). The preferred delivery methods were via website (36.1%) followed by mobile apps (25.0%), face-to-face in a group setting (21.7%) and face-to-face in a one-on-one setting (12.0%). Young men would prefer a median (IQR) of 4 face-to-face sessions per month (2-4) and an intervention length of 3 months (2-6) was favoured.
Conclusions: Early results have shown unique motivators and barriers for young men which have not been identified in other population groups i.e. to improve sport performance and restricted by perceived accessibility of unhealthy foods. Despite most young men choosing web-site as the preferred delivery mode, it was not unanimous and thus future research may look to explore preferences by different sub-groups of young men.
Funding Source: 3D Healing Walk grant provided by Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI).


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I've wanted to try making cornmeal pancakes since being introduced to them as part of a really delicious brunch at Cookshop in New York a few years ago. After a morning walking the nearby High Line, I enjoyed a stack of drop scone-style pancakes, flecked with red chilli and sandwiched together with zingy lemon curd. When I recreated this dish, I wasn't quite brave enough to include the chilli, but kept the lemon curd and added blueberry compote.
The polenta in this recipe gives the pancakes a satisfying bite, while the zesty lemon, sweet blueberries and crunchy nuts all come together to make the perfect breakfast or brunch. This recipe yields around 6 pancakes (2 portions) so it's easy to increase the quantities as required.
If you were to omit the sugar in this recipe and add a couple of spoonfuls of chopped red chilli to the batter (as mentioned above), I think these pancakes would make a delicious savoury brunch, swapping the fruit for smashed avocado, fresh coriander and feta cheese – what do you reckon?!
This is my first ever submission for Jaclyn Ruth's baking club. The theme for March was pancakes, in honour of Shrove Tuesday (which was very late this year!). You can find out more about The Flaky Bakers Club here, and check out the hashtag on Instagram: #theflakybakersclub.
Recipe: Cornbread pancakes with lemon curd and blueberry compote
- 100g polenta
- 50g plain flour
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 200ml milk
- 50g melted butter
- Jar of lemon curd (I used this recipe)
- 200g blueberries
- 100g walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts, toasted in the oven until golden (5-10 minutes) and bashed up a bit so they form smaller pieces
- Combine the polenta, flour, caster sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- Mix the milk and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter together in a jug, and then whisk into the dry ingredients until just homogenised. Set the rest of the butter aside – you'll need it when you fry the pancakes.
- Let the mixture rest for ten minutes.
- When you're ready to cook the pancakes, warm a frying pan over a medium heat and brush with a bit of the melted butter.
- Pour a spoonful of batter (about 2 tablespoons) into the pan and cook for a couple of minutes before flipping and cooking the other side. Repeat until the batter has been used up, re-buttering the pan between each batch.
- Meanwhile, simmer the blueberries in a small pan with a splash of water (retaining some blueberries to garnish the finished article, if you like) until they have formed a lovely dark purple compote. Sieve the mixture before serving, or leave it as is for a chunkier sauce!
- To serve, stack up the pancakes with lemon curd in between each layer, then drizzle with the blueberry compote and scatter the toasted nuts and a few fresh blueberries over the top.


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Love. Courage. Gratitude. Joy:fully Lutheran.
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in the Over-the-Rhein neighborhood of Cincinnati feeds the hungry. Pastor John Suguitan nourishes souls with Scripture and gets to dispense the Means of Grace. The love of Christ overflows from this congregation into the community through a local organization dedicated to addressing the homeless situation.
Prince of Peace works with Welcome Home Collaborative to help transition struggling people from "homelessness to successfulness." Rachel Ziegler is an artist from Omaha. She's talented in tile art and loves symmetry in her work. Hot off the heels from a project in Nebraska, Ziegler partnered with Suguitan to create a mosaic on the side of the residential transitional home, Victoria's House of Hope.
16 year-old Victoria Stoltz died from brain cancer. In her last year of life, she volunteered at Prince of Peace. She served the poor at the church's Bridge Ministry. And before she died, she gave a Make-A-Wish donation to restore a transitional home. Welcome home honored the gift with the building's mural.
Ziegler hosted workshops where visitors and church members worked together in fellowship to form the art. It was a joyfully collaborative effort. Over the course of a month, the mural was affixed to the wall.
Reflecting the beauty given by our gracious Creator, this mural was shaped in love. Love flows first from God, then to all people through His Church.


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Jump to navigation Jump to search
|This article is about an older version of DF.
Woodworker is a category profession for dwarves that work with wood, both harvesting and its subsequent processing into furniture or other items. Note that some wood-related skills, such as burning wood or crafting it, fall under the Farmer or Craftsdwarf category of professions instead.
An adult dwarf whose best skill is in this category, and who has accumulated ranks in one or more other woodworker skills (exactly how much is not clear) will be known as a "Woodworker".
Once he has achieved "grand master" skill in one of these skills, but not in the others, he will be known by this skill.
If a dwarf has experience in only one woodworker skill he will be known by his or her highest skill.
The woodworker skills are:


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Please take note of the following rules for Elmwood Cemetery. The City reserves the right to remove or trim any tree or shrub or unsightly flowers. This also includes removal of items that do not contribute to the beauty and dignity of the Cemetery.
The rules include:
- No fence or enclosure of any kind shall be placed on or around any burial unit.
- Glass containers, wire pins, shells, stones, tin cans, wooden crosses, balloons, solar lights and statues are prohibited.
- Digging holes in the sod is also prohibited.
- Urns or flower containers shall be placed on the side of the head stone. They should not encroach on other spaces.
- There is a limit of two decorations per space, of which one may be a Shepherd's Hook.
- Pots may not be larger than 24 inches in diameter.
- Any grave decorations left after November 1st will be removed.
- Wreaths and sprays are permitted after Thanksgiving for winter decoration.
- No grave blankets are allowed.
- Foundations for headstones must be installed by the City Department of Public Works.
- No permanent plantings of any kind are allowed.
- All winter decorations must be removed by March 1st.


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Broken Remote ControlThursday, March 11, 2010
Yesterday, while waiting for my turn to use the computer, I and Peachy watch Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief on DVD. I do enjoy watching the movie because the graphics and effects were really great although I have a little bit comment about it, would you believe that Zeus is already living at the Empire state building. Wow, that's a big imagination. While we were watching, i stand up to prepare a light snack because dinner will be served soon while I was busy preparing for my snacks, I did not notice that my daughter is already holding the remote control and all of a sudden it went up on the air and landed on the floor with its parts exposed. I could not get angry with her because I know that it was not really her fault because she is just trying to give me the remote control but then I cannot let her action pass and I reprimand her that instance.
But the sad part, we cannot use the remote control anymore and I really need a replacement for it. So, that evening, i tried to look in the internet to replace our broken remote control and found this site who offers a Direct TV replacement remote control. Yes, this product is not just for television but can also be used for other appliances and it was really affordable. A great find for a very reasonable price.


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Late Night Jean
$ 75.00 $ 125.00Olive Brown
Reconstructed late night jean with a new material. Crafted with chenille embroidery. Oversized fit but features adjustable waist fasteners to fit various waist sizes.
Chenille embroidery
Adjustable Waistband
Cotton Material
- High Rise Waist
- Kani Button Detail
- Oversized Fit
Size XS/S (1) fits 24-27 waist
Size M/L (2) fits 28-32 waist
Model is 5'9 and wears a size 1


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Physician colleagues coordinate donations for the family of Dr. Elana Fric
Dec 05, 2016, 19:07 ET
TORONTO, Dec. 5, 2016 /CNW/ - Members of the medical community have set up a crowdfunding page and trust fund to honour Dr. Elana Fric and assist her family over the coming weeks, months, and years.
On behalf of the Fric family, thank you for honouring the memory of Dr. Fric and supporting her children.
A You Caring crowdfunding page has been set up to help ensure that the immediate needs of Dr. Fric's children are met. All funds collected here will be directly available to the Fric family.
Trust Fund
A trust fund is being put in place to assist with the long-term financial needs of Dr. Fric's children. Donations to this trust fund will be managed by MD Private Trust and will be administered by the Fric family. More information about the trust fund will be available in the coming days.
Memorial Donations
For friends and colleagues looking for additional ways to honour Dr. Fric's memory, donations can be made to The Shelter Movers of Toronto and/or The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care.
Dr. Fric was passionate about global health and equitable care for vulnerable populations including women and refugees.
The Shelter Movers of Toronto (from its website)
The Shelter Movers of Toronto provides safe, respectful moving services at no cost to persons fleeing abusive households in Toronto, Canada. We envision a Toronto where fleeing abuse is easier, better supported and barrier-free for everyone.
The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care (from its website)
Our goal is to make sure that no one has to live without health care. While we treat approximately 60 patients every week at our Centre (that's more than 25,000 people since we opened in 1999) the sad fact is that there are still people living in our community without access to health care.
SOURCE Ontario Medical Association
For further information: Nadia Daniell-Colarossi, Manager Media Relations, Office: 416-340-2970 or 1-800-268-7215 ext. 2970, Mobile: 416-804-4600, Email: [email protected]


text: Home > About epa > Awards > Local Testimony 2011 - Singles Society and Community A local Israeli boy digs in the sandy front yard of a house in the southern Israeli community of Sde Avraham that is peppered in shrapnel marks on 26 March 2011 after a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip exploded earlier this morning, causing considerable damage, but injuring no one. The Kassam rocket landed in the sand where the boy digs looking for remnants of the rocket, which police earlier removed. EPA/JIM HOLLANDER Local Testimony (Edut Mekomit) 2011 Second Prize Society and Community, Singles Photographer: Jim Hollander


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Pink Himalayan Soaking Salts
PINK HIMALAYAN SOAKING SALTS is a recharging bath therapy with a delicate blend of Organic Essential Oils.
Direction: Pour a small amount into a warm bath or you can use it as an exfoliating experience by shaking a small amount on wet hands and gently massage over the entire body.
Dosage: 1-3 oz. to a tub of warm water
Texture: Cool and refreshing
• Suited for: All types of feet
• Skin feels: Refreshing, cool, and soothing.
• Key ingredients: Pink Himalayan Salts, Bergamot, and
Ylang Ylang Oils
Ingredients: Pink Himalayan Salts, Epson Salts Essential Oils of *Geranium, *Ylang Ylang, *Patchouli,*Bergamot, and *Orange
Modern Skyn Alchemy is committed to maintaining the accuracy of the ingredient lists on this website. However, because ingredients are subject to change, we cannot guarantee that these lists are complete, up-to-date, and error-free. For an accurate listing of elements in each product, please refer to your product packaging.
**Please research essential oils before purchase. Some essential oils should be avoided during pregnancy or while nursing. All ingredients used are listed here, as well as on product labels. Please avert elements you may have sensitivities or allergies. These products are not intended to diagnose treat cure or prevent any disease.


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Since 1995, our customers have trusted us to provide them with fast, reliable, and affordable internet services. Thank you for placing your trust in us. Serving you these past 25 years has been our privilege.
You don't become an industry leader by accepting the status quo. From developing pre-internet messaging systems to pioneering fibre internet in London, Start.ca has continually evolved to stay at the cutting edge of internet tech. 25 years ago, we set out to improve internet service across Ontario. By always looking forward, and constantly asking how we can make things better, we've done that.
Here are some of the ways we've kept you connected over 25 years:
When we support each other, everyone wins. This philosophy has led to us getting involved in several important causes and community events over the years, including:
Supporting CHF's efforts in our Community. The Start.ca Sports Celebrity Dinner raises vital funds for the Thames Valley Children's Centre year after year.
Working with HSLM to provide education, advocacy, and shelter for animals in need. Partnering with HSLM at various events around London is a staff favourite!
Partnering with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority to offer environmental sustainability education to youth across Middlesex County.
Proudly supporting the London Knights OHL hockey team and the House of Green! Go Knights, go!
Our Stage at the Budweiser Gardens is home to some of the best music, family entertainment, and theatre London has to offer.
Sponsoring London's biggest music festival since 2013. Year after year, we create a SEA OF GREEN for concert goers to enjoy. In 2019, we were proud to take on the role of title sponsor.
We're changing the way people feel about internet providers one customer at a time. Check out what some of our happy customers had to say about us.
"At that time, I had no experience whatsoever with the internet and I know that I would not have received that type of service from the larger providers. Since 1996, I have watched them grow into a remarkable organization. When you work for and care for your customers, you earn their loyalties, and after 24 years, I remain a committed customer to Start.ca."
Ron Lozon, Start.ca customer since 1996
Owner, One Source PPP
"I have had the best experience with this company. Their customer service is excellent, they do follow up to ensure the problem has been solved. I highly recommend Start.ca for all your TV and internet needs ❤."
Lee-Anne Kelly,
Facebook Fan and Start.ca customer
"We did our homework with a whole creative team of people in the community who knew what they were talking about, and we came up with Start.ca as our business of choice."
Michelle Baldwin
Innovation Works
A lot has changed in the world in 25 years. One thing that has remained the same is our commitment to staying true to our values.
So here's to 25 more years of friendly internet, TV, home phone service, and commitment to you. Cheers.
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After a sun-soaked vacation in Mexico with her gal pals, superstar Selena Gomez was spotted back in California, heading to a studio in Orange County. The 26 year old brunette was a stylish sight as she wore a tan wool coat over a black sweater and capri pants.
Adding silver hoop earrings to her style, Selena also wore chic white sneakers. Wearing her short hair in a natural wavy look, Selena topped off her style with just a hint of pink on the lips, and also carried a navy blue backpack.